Chapter 20 Point out ()

"Hmph, Tan Zong is so arrogant that he even wants us to go to Risheng Teahouse to find him." After looking at the courtyard gate that was closed again, Jiang Wu couldn't help but complain to Cao Qiaomu.

Cao Qiaomu smiled at him with a constant expression, and then comforted him, "I don't think he is too arrogant, but I'm afraid that he is too small. The more he is like this, it means that he is more confident and less afraid that you and I will settle the score for him later. Otherwise, even if he is given ten thousand courage, he wouldn't dare to play with you and me like this. Could it be that he doesn't want to go on this career?"

Cao Qiaomu's words were like a beacon, instantly lit up the fog in Jiang Wu's heart.

"According to your opinion, Tan Zong is obviously ready, so he will ask you and me to go to Risheng Teahouse?"

"I'm afraid that's it." Cao Qiaomu sneered, knowing that Jiang Wu had not made any progress for several months, so he has become more and more impatient recently, so he advised: "I want me to say that it's pretty good like him. But you don't know that when I investigated the case in the past, there were not many people I met who were easy to talk to. Maybe it would be fine if I was just trying to beat him up for ten days and half a month."

It’s a pity that someone said Cao Qiaomu’s words but no one listened to them, but Jiang Wu had already left urgently.

"This kid still lacks some experience. Fortunately, he didn't think about going to the chair, otherwise I really don't know how to help him. Alas, this uncle is really not easy to serve."

After riding in an inconspicuous carriage, the two of them quickly arrived at the Risheng Teahouse designated by Tan Zong. It was already bright and there were many guests in the teahouse. The lobby was almost full now, and there was no better table. However, the place that Tan Zong and the two agreed to was on the second floor, so they went directly to the second floor.

After going up the second floor, the two saw Tan Zongzheng sitting alone at a table next to the street by the window. Without thinking, they sat down on the side. Cao Qiaomu and Jiang Wu agreed on the way. When they talked with Tan Zong later, Cao Qiaomu was the main one, so Jiang Wu just stayed in his ears to listen and learned by the way.

Cao Qiaomu saw that the table was empty, except for a cup of tea, but there was nothing left. Although she felt strange, she was too lazy to ask more questions. She just teased: "I didn't expect it would be easy to see Tan Yayuan at this moment. It's all from the south of the city to the Taipei City."

Tan Zong squinted his eyes and did not look at him. He just played with the cup in his hand, making Jiang Wu, who was sitting beside him, feel angry - just such a broken kiln cup with a little white squid and a little color, look so beautiful.

Cao Qiaomu then realized why Jiang Wu said that Tan Zong was arrogant and was about to make excuses to speak again. Suddenly, he stretched out his opponent, holding a four-layer cage in his hand, and the smell of fresh meat buns spread out. After the buns were put, a child next to him placed four equally white porcelain bowls on the table, each of which was the size of a palm, about an inch deep. Then a child poured fresh and hot soy milk into three of the bowls, and then put the remaining soy milk on the table and stepped back.

At this moment, Tan Zong stopped his work, waved his hands at Jiang Wu and Cao Qiaomu, and sang, "Two masters, let's start enjoying it. If you don't eat it, I won't be polite to you. The buns in Risheng Teahouse are a unique place in Nanjing. Not only are they thin and beautiful, but they only sell a hundred cages every day. I will order these cages first." After that, he ignored the two of them and put one of them and the empty bowl on the side of the empty bowl, and then he started to eat on his own.

Regarding Tan Zong's style, Jiang Wu and Cao Qiaomu looked at each other and realized the strangeness in each other's eyes. But now Tan Zong had already started eating and couldn't say anything, so he started eating too - the two of them were really hungry.

Halfway through the meal, another fat man in a Confucian shirt came, but Jiang Wu didn't know him, but Cao Qiaomu had a two-faced relationship. It was Xu Jun, Xu Wenchang, the new science and technology master of Nanjing Prefecture this year.

Xu Jun didn't talk much to Jiang Wucao Qiaomu, but just started eating. There was a child in the middle who brought two oil cakes wrapped in coarse paper. Although this fat man came late, he ate the fastest. Not only was he a basket of buns but also oil cakes, but he also put all the soy milk into his stomach.

"I said, Menghua, you are such a thing. With a beautiful girl, I put all of us classmates aside. Only now do I remember me." Xu Jun seemed extremely dissatisfied with Tan Zong, but then changed his face and curled Tan Zong's neck and said, "I heard that even the two head courtesans in Qiuyue Tower were taken into the room by you, or did everyone Su go to do it personally. Is this serious?"

Tan Zong shook the fat man's oily hand away from the oil cake. He still remembered the incident on the day of the release: "Stop talking so much, I have something to call you today." As he said that, he pointed to Cao Qiaomu and Jiang Wu and said: "These two are my fellow villagers, and they have a batch of top-quality wolves in their hands. I thought your Xinglong shop was doing this business, so he called you here. If possible, why not just take it away, so that I and the two fellow villagers would not be able to wander around Nanjing City all day long, and there will be a month to be the Dragon Boat Festival."

On the other side, Cao Qiaomu and Jiang Wu saw that Tan Zong was talking strangely and knew that there must be deep meaning in this matter, so they endured the thoughts in their hearts and just watched them from the side without saying a word.

Unexpectedly, Xu Jun said, "You asked the wrong person for this matter. I don't care about the family matters, and my father is taking care of them." After that, the fat man looked at Tan Zong suspiciously and said, "You kid, you dared to let everyone in the past to pay for yourself to redeem yourself. Could it be that this time you dare to throw your Yayuan's face into someone's broker?"

"Stop slapping me like this, I'll be anxious with you again." Tan Zong slapped the fat man's agitated hand, and then tried to beat him. The fat man was so scared that he shrank his hand, and then said: "You can't make the decision, I don't blame you. But you always know the price, so I'll talk to me, the two fellow villagers."

Xu Jun saw that Tan Zong was catching this problem and did not know whether the so-called fellow villager was true or not. But seeing Tan Zong so serious, he was considering the friendship between classmates, he thought for a while and said, "This wolf hair is the best, and my family sold it in a normal manner is only one or five silver, so the price is usually only six cents of silver. Even if you, Mr. Ya Yuan, can only be seven cents of silver at the highest. However, I heard from my father that the prefect sent someone to Yuhang to collect a batch of wolf hairs? Why do you, a fellow villager, still have inventory on hand?"

Tan Zong really knew about this, but it was only seen from the account book of the Nanjing government office. And he was just showing off his skills in front of Jiang Wu and Cao Qiaomu today.

Seeing Xu Jun being suspicious, Tan Zong fooled the little fat man away. The little fat man had a cheap breakfast and was too lazy to get too much trouble, so naturally there was nothing to be left with. He hurriedly left. Before leaving, he didn't forget to joke with Tan Zong, saying that he would go to the inn to find him in two days, and listen to Su Jin sing a few words.

After Xu Jun walked away, Tan Zong returned to his head and said to Cao Qiaomu: "Did Mr. Cao hear the mystery here?"

There were so many people in the teahouse that Tan Zong naturally dared not call him Lord Cao Qiaomu. Cao Qiaomu was also an old accident there, so he naturally understood what Tan Zong meant, so he didn't say much.

Although Cao Qiaomu heard something strange, he still nodded and said, "The purple wolf hair is the best among wolf hairs, second only to the tribute gold wolf hairs that are dedicated to the Imperial Academy. Unexpectedly, the price is only five cents of silver, which is really unexpected."

"One in and out, the difference is the price difference of one or two taels of silver. If you can sell tens of thousands or two thousand a year, you may be able to earn tens of thousands of dollars a year by just this wolf pen." After Tan Zong finished speaking, he took out a pen from his sleeve and said, "Mr. Cao looked at this money again, do you know how much silver you deserve?"

This pen is a new pen, which has never even been put into water. It is obviously bought by Tan Zong.

Cao Qiaomu looked for a while and said, "This is just a pig's hair. I'm afraid it's not worth much. I'm afraid I can buy two for a penny."

Tan Zong nodded with a smile, and suddenly said to Jiang Wu: "Mr. Jiang, if I sell this money to you for one or two five, can you buy it?"

Jiang Wu quickly put aside his displeasure towards Xu Jun and curled his lips and said, "I'm not stupid, how could I buy such a bad pen at a high price?"

"Oh, you are not stupid and don't want to buy it, but I want to buy it." As he said that, Tan Zong put the pig hair into his sleeve and poured it down: "Not only do I want to buy it, but also the scholars in the entire Nanjing Prefecture, one prefecture and two prefectures have to buy it. Not many, but ten are needed every year."

Jiang Wu was suspicious at first when he heard this, but Ran Qi was furious, obviously understanding what Tan Zong meant. However, Cao Qiaomu was not angry at all, as if he had known about the situation, but just frowned and said to Tan Zong: "There is no need to say this again in Tan Yayuan."

Seeing Cao Qiaomu's calm look, Jiang Wu understood something instantly, and suddenly felt anger in his heart. He just poured four or five cups of tea for himself with a teapot, and then he calmed down a little.

Tan Zong was amused when he saw Jiang Wu trying hard to put out the fire. He knew that the prince had been staying in the capital for a long time and knew too little about the bends below, so he was like this. But he had no intention of this, so his face would not have collapsed because of Cao Qiaomu's reaction. He still looked leisurely and said, "What if I say this is not a pen, but a stone building for the river embankment?"

The word "river embankment" popped out from Tan Zong's mouth, and Jiang Wu and Cao Qiaomu sat upright at the same time, but after a while, the two bent again. Jiang Wu couldn't help but say disdain to Tan Zong: "I also told you that you have any insights, but that's it." As he said, he paused a little, as if he was afraid that Tan Zong would not accept it, he continued to talk again: "Not to mention Nanjing Prefecture, even the river embankment of Suzhou and Hangzhou, I have also personally investigated it. Although there are some problems, those stone-building materials are used for the best materials, but they are not as good as you, a fake wolf, as a bad wolf."

"What if I sell the river embankment of Nanjing Prefecture to Suzhou and then buy the river embankment of Suhang to Nanjing Prefecture?"

Seeing that Jiang Wu seemed to be refuting, Tan Zong did not give Jiang Wu a chance to speak again. He just said immediately: "The river embankment cannot be sold, but the stone building of the river embankment is OK. If I dig the stone building of Nanjing Prefecture and then transport it to the two states of Suzhou, wouldn't it be a huge deal? Anyway, just use a cloth to stop him, who knows whether he is building a river embankment or digging a river embankment. Even if no one in the people will care about these other people's business, as long as the river embankment is ready, it will be done."

Jiang Wu still wanted to refute, but Tan Zong still did not give him a chance, so he continued: "So, this river embankment should not be repaired too well. It is best to make some mistakes every year to find an excuse to start construction. If the repair is too good, there is no excuse to 'repair' the river embankment the next year."

Tan Zong said something quite shocking.

According to Jiang Wu and Cao Qiaomu's idea, the greedy river embankment was just a means of inferiority as good, and the less as much as others. They even took the imperial court's water conservancy bank not to repair it and repair it less. It was not uncommon for Hu Xiu to do this in various places. But the two of them had been in Nanjing for three or four months, but they only saw that the river embankment of one prefecture and two prefectures in Nanjing was not only neatly built, but also praised the people. There were only a few places with some shortcomings and they were also built more frequently on weekdays, but they were very little better than other places, so they didn't think of anything else.

If it weren't for the accurate information from the supervision, I'm afraid no one would have thought that the Guanghedi of Nanjing Prefecture would be able to greed for tens of thousands of taels of silver.

But after Jiang Wu and Cao Qiaomu heard Tan Zong's words, they had to admit that if they acted in this way, they could really save these special money for water conservancy repairs - they would only spend some shipping costs every year, but labor was labor service every year, so they didn't need to spend half a cent of silver on the government.

And how much money can this freight cost? Especially for water transportation, it is even more convenient and fast.

After understanding the tricks inside, Jiang Wu and Cao Qiaomu finally couldn't help but look at each other, knowing that what Tan Zong said must be the key to the two prefectures and the two prefectures being able to build river embankments but also greed for tens of thousands of dollars every year.

But they didn't know that such methods were used badly in later generations. People like Wang Ren were still a little worried and needed to trick themselves into transporting the stone building that built river embankments. But in later generations, they were not so careful. Some local governments were so brave that they simply dug up the paving boards and buried them on the spot. To put it bluntly, they asked the migrant workers to dig up the floor on the ground and then bury them back for a few days. This was equivalent to laying them again.

Tan Zong revealed the inside, but he was not anxious. He only watched Cao Qiaomu hurried away, knowing that he must have arranged for people to check on the river bank. Looking at Jiang Wu again, he saw an anxious look on his face, but he became extremely happy again. After a while, he became anxious again, obviously he was also unsure.

Tan Zong knew it. Yesterday he had arranged three maids at home to sneak past the river bank and knew that it must be the truth. However, the truth belongs to the truth, and it is another matter to try to become the ironclad evidence to solve the case. This is also the reason why Tan Zong dared to directly point out the key points.

After sitting like this for an hour, Cao Qiaomu finally came back with a serious look on his face.

Jiang Wu had been anxious for a long time. Seeing Cao Qiaomu come back, he hurriedly went up to ask about the result. After a while, he couldn't help but breathe a turbid breath, and then he showed a bright smile on his face.

Tan Zong had long been calculating in his heart. Seeing Jiang Wuyi's face was brilliant and he was determined to hit him, he said again: "What a pity, knowing, but how can you condemn that person with this? Could it be that you have to speak vernacularly and say it in front of your old man with just one mouth?"

Tan Zong's words were like a pot of river water pouring on Jiang Wu's head, making him feel cold and his lungs. Even the stick below was irritated and retracted into his abdominal cavity.

However, Cao Qiaomu raised his forehead and glanced at Tan Zong. Seeing that Tan Zong looked leisurely and arrogant, he swallowed the words he said.

In fact, Cao Qiaomu thought of this question on the road, otherwise how could he look serious? But now Jiang Wu went from being overjoyed to being sad, and he felt as if he had lost his soul, just standing there stupidly and muttering something. Cao Qiaomu couldn't hear it clearly, but couldn't help but sigh and pulled him into a seat and sat down.

Cao Qiaomu had already seen Tan Zong's way of manipulating people's hearts this time, and saw Tan Zong's leisurely look. Without any panic, he knew that Tan Zong must have had a scheming in his heart. He also weighed the pros and cons in his heart. Cao Qiaomu finally said, "Mr. Tan is so leisurely, but I don't know why he teaches me?"

Cao Qiaomu called Tan Zong the husband, which naturally expressed that he was convinced by Tan Zong, which was showing respect - after all, if it weren't for Tan Zong's point-out, I'm afraid that he and Jiang Wu would not have found the flaws in the river embankment if they stayed in Nanjing for another year.

Seeing that Cao Qiaomu seemed to have surrendered, Tan Zong naturally would not do such a pretentious thing. After all, he is just sitting in this way to enter the official career early and take the lead in taking charge. And all of these will fall on the two people in front of him. If he offended these two people because of his temporary complacency, he would be really stupid and not a wise man.

Tan Zong was too lazy to pretend to be a master after he had a scruple. He drank the tea in his cup and then said word by word: "That day, I left a large part of the tent of the Nanjing Prefecture Water Conservancy River Embankment and hid it in the treetops and caves in the yard. It must be still inside now." After that, Tan Zong got up from the bench and walked to the stairs and turned his head and said: "If you don't understand, come and look for me again, but I'm going to move today, so you should pay attention."

Seeing Tan Zong leave, Cao Qiaomu glanced at Jiang Wu who was gradually regaining his spirit, shook his head and sighed: "This person's talent and intelligence are indeed unsightly. I'm afraid that even if I take back the account book, it will be useless. I still have to ask him to leave, but I don't know what he asked for."

"Give him whatever he asks!" Jiang Wu suddenly spoke, but his words showed a bit of domineering spirit: "In life, there are only power, money, fame and fortune. As long as he can help me solve this case, even if I give it all this time, I will wait until he comes to ask me for it one day."

When Cao Qiaomu heard this, he sighed in his heart, knowing that this matter was not so easy to solve. What he feared most was that Tan Zong had already planned the whole thing.
Chapter completed!