Dominate the Country

A bright half moon hung in the sky. The cold moonlight sprinkled on several galloping horses in a corner of the earth, on the riders on horseback, and on the dark road.

This group of people was Chen Ming and Chen Erbao, as well as Liu Wu and the four followers brought back by Chen Erbao. The group met outside the county town. Chen Ming and Chen Erbao had a simple meal, changed horses, and then seven people and seven horses ran towards Tumen Market without stopping.

Chen Ming didn't know whether his whereabouts had been followed by Chang Rui, but he had done everything he should do in the county town. When he visited the prison in the afternoon, he also agreed on the time with his cheap father. Three days later at the latest!

Before leaving the city, Chen Ming also saw Chen Gang who returned disappointed again. In the past two days, Chen Gang looked for his classmates, classmates and predecessors in the county town, but was almost always served tea and sent away. The gift money of two hundred taels of silver was wasted in vain.

Of course, Chen Gang's two hundred taels of silver still leaked a little bit of information, and Chang Rui had already told these people. How dare they, a group of scholars and a few juren, not listen to the invitation of their parents and masters? You have to know that Chang Rui has Li Zhoutong behind him. The latter has been an official in Ruzhou for four years, and because of his superiors like Wang Jun, he has a profound influence in Ruzhou.

These two people joined forces to deal with a small and powerful soap household, isn't it like pinching a snail with three fingers - easy to catch?

Several classmates who are close to Chen Gang have already persuaded Chen Gang to accept his fate and bow his head to admit defeat, as long as he can save people. Money, you can't bring it when you are born, you can't take it when you die, and it will be scattered when it is scattered.

These people talk without any pain in their waists! ——This is Chen Ming's opinion. Money is not brought when you are born, and it can't be taken away when you die. Even the emperor would not say "it will be scattered when it is scattered". Do you think that the Chen family are all great monks who have seen through the world?

Without money, what to eat and drink? The entire Chen family clan, including the direct and collateral branches, has about 200 to 300 people. They are full of the entire Chen family industry, playing their own role, and also reaping the rewards of money. Even the poorest family in the entire family lives a well-off life under the current social conditions. It can even be said that all the families in Xiaonangou, where the Chen family made their fortune, including those who have the same surname but are not from the same family, or those who are out of the fifth mourning period, can now live a life without worries about food and drink; so many families in the entire Tumenji can also live a life with a full stomach under the "help" of the Chen family.

The Chen family fell, and the fields and real estate were confiscated. Can they still be so happy?

You read that right, happy! In Chen Ming's view, the lives of the people in Xiaonangou and Tumenji in this era are happy lives. They are all blessed people who have encountered a clan like the Chen family.

Chen Ming doesn't take the nonsense of those scholars and students seriously at all! Just like Chen Erbao who rushed back today, his face instantly became gloomy to death after hearing that Chang Rui and Li Zhao had joined forces to deal with the Chen family and there was almost no hope of rescuing Chen Hui by legitimate means. Once this kind of thing is done, it will be done completely, and the Chen family will never be able to turn over in one fell swoop. This is a big problem related to the lives and property of the core figures of the Chen family, not just money.

If Chang Rui and Li Zhao can clearly say now that your Chen family can take out 10,000 taels of silver, this matter will be over. Chen Ming will definitely respectfully offer this 10,000 taels of silver.

But the problem is that Chang Rui and Li Zhao have never thought of letting the Chen family go. In their cognition, the Chen family's fields, houses, stores, etc., are far more than the Chen family's floating wealth. This afternoon, the Chen family's pig iron shop has been sold, and the price has been suppressed very cheaply. The buyer only paid 200 taels of silver for the huge shop and the large yard behind it, as well as the objects and ironware of the pig iron shop.

The one who bought the shop was the newly-appointed gentry of Lushan County—Qi Jiyuan, the only candidate who passed the Yiyou County Provincial Examination in Lushan last year.

It has been less than a year, and Qi Jiyuan's family, originally a small landlord family, now has the capital to take out 200 taels of silver to purchase property in the county town.

Chen Gang only kept scolding the Qi family for taking advantage of the situation and looting. But Chen Ming felt that this seemed to be a statement of the gentry group in Lushan County. You can't just see Qi Jiyuan taking advantage of the situation and looting, you also have to see why he did so? Does this mean that the gentry of Lushan County—the gentry class that Chen Ming self-classified, specifically referring to the landlords and tyrants with meritorious service, not the gentry class in the traditional sense—no longer think that the Chen family has the possibility of reversal?

Anyway, Chen Erbao had a gloomy face, and he didn't hear him say a word all the way.

Chen Ming didn't answer him, and let him think about what his fate would be if the Chen family fell. This is not a martial arts novel. If a sect or gang collapses, you can still switch to another family and continue to be a thug. Now is the prosperous era of Qianlong. The powerful landlords do not value the existence of armed forces. If it were not for the Funiu in Lushan and the development strategy of the Chen family, how could Chen Erbao get into the core level of the family? The powerful landlords of each family have their own children, aren't they more reliable than you, an outsider? The Chen family collapsed, and he couldn't find a place to take him in even if he wanted to go abroad. If you want to save your life, you can only go far away.

There are still more than ten miles to Tumen Market, and the horses can't run anymore. Chen Ming, Chen Erbao and his group got off the horses and asked Liu Wu and others to take the horses to drink water and feed some concentrated feed. Chen Ming took Chen Erbao away to talk.

"Uncle Erbao, in your opinion, is there any way to solve the current predicament of my Chen family? Is there any way to preserve my Chen family's property?" Standing by the Yinma River, Chen Ming looked at the clear water on the river surface, which was illuminated by the moonlight like white phosphorus, and the breeze was blowing on his face, but his heart was calm, and he asked calmly.

Chen Erbao's gloomy face melted. His face was full of bitterness, and his voice was full of sorrow: "Then what is the solution? One of them is the governor of the state, and the other is the magistrate of the county. They are both high-ranking masters. If they want to discipline our Chen family, they can do whatever they want!" Comrade Chen Erbao's words fully expressed the admiration of the grassroots people in China, a society that values ​​officials, for the officials.

"Then Uncle Erbao, are you really willing to..., willing to let these two bastards take away everything you have worked hard for?"

"It's even unknown whether you can save your own life?"

"Are you really willing to let Aunt and the children be displaced, lonely, bullied, and live a life where they can't even get enough food?"

"And our entire Chen family. How many people will lose their lives in this storm? How many people will be squeezed dry by the government? Has our Chen family committed a heinous crime and committed endless evil? Just because of these two bastards, the foundation that our ancestors have built for hundreds of years, and the better life we ​​should have lived, are all gone?"

"Uncle Erbao, are you willing?"