Chapter 445 Murong’s Family Affairs!

After hearing what Gu Shouting said, Huo San understood Gu Shouting's motive. Although he had not yet inquired about the news to confirm it, considering Gu Shouting's scars all over his body, Huo San was willing to believe Gu Shouting. Just as he was considering what to say to Gu Shouting, Gu Shouting continued:
"I have been recuperating at home for the past two years. At the beginning, Zhao Fuqu was still worried about me and placed spies in our Gu family to keep an eye on me. Until recently, he probably felt that I was not in any danger, so he relaxed his vigilance. I also had the opportunity to come here and meet with you, Director Huo..."

"When General Ye of your army was still in Fengzhou, I started to pay attention to him in Yuyang. In my opinion, General Ye has the eyes of an eagle and the back of a wolf, and he is a man who can do great things. Liaoyang alone cannot satisfy his ambitions, and his next step must be to enter the pass!"

"As for your current weakness towards Youyan, selling firearms and their manufacturing technology to Youyan is nothing more than an attempt to paralyze Zhao Fuqu and let him boldly advance westward. If I'm not mistaken, when Zhao Fuqu's troops besiege Jinyang, it will be the day when Governor Ye enters the pass!"

Gu Shouting said this in a decisive and decisive manner without any hesitation, and it was obvious that he was very confident in his own judgment.

As the director of Liaoyang Coordination Office and the forerunner of Fengwu Army’s strategy to enter the Pass, Huo San naturally knew some general contents of Fengwu Army’s strategy to enter the Pass. Therefore, he was shocked when he heard Gu Shouting’s judgment. Fortunately, he had been in a high position for a long time and had learned some basic skills of nourishing Qi over the years. Although he was surprised, his face remained calm, which made Gu Shouting a little disappointed...

Under Gu Shouting's gaze, Huo San picked up the tea bowl and took a sip, then slowly said:

"Mr. Gu, are you representing yourself or the entire Yuyang Gu family?"

Gu Shouting was startled when he heard this, but he still said honestly:

"I still have my father and brother at home. It's not my turn to make decisions about family matters. I can only represent myself now!"

This answer did not surprise Huo San. He nodded and said:
"I understand. This is a serious matter and I have to think about it before making a decision. Mr. Gu, if you are not in a hurry, you can stay in Guangning Mansion for a few days and let me, Huo, do my best to be a good host!"

Gu Shouting shook his head upon hearing this and said with some regret:

"Although Zhao Fuqu has relaxed his vigilance against me, the spies he has planted in our Gu family have always been there. I was pretending to be sick to be able to come out this time. Coming to Guangning secretly to meet Lord Huo is also the limit. If I stay any longer..."

Huo San frowned upon seeing this, hesitated for a moment and decided:

"In that case, Mr. Gu, you should go back first. If I have any news, I will send someone to contact you immediately!"

Gu Shouting was a little disappointed about this. He thought that his active surrender would make Huo San flock to him, but the fact was that the Liaoyang party might not be particularly interested in him. Although he felt a little helpless, since the words had come to this point, Gu Shouting could only nod and say:

"Then I will stay in Yuyang, waiting for good news from you, Director Huo!"

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Dongning, Murong Mansion.

At nightfall, Murong Yuliang, exhausted, returned to his residence in a carriage. Since he succeeded the post of Liaoyang Censor, his life has not been peaceful, because Cui Shao had been the Censor for many years before him, and at least seven out of ten people in the Liaoyang Censor system were his followers...

In order to avoid being sidelined by Cui Shao and becoming a nominal Censor, Murong Yuliang spent several months, with the support of Ye Mingsheng, to clear out some people and support some newcomers to take over, so that his voice in the Censorate gradually became stronger. However, before Murong Yuliang could take a break, the wind and snow disaster in Liaoyang came.

Logically speaking, natural disasters such as snowstorms and windstorms are the responsibility of Cui Shao, the Governor, and Zhang Juning, the Finance Secretary. It is enough for the two of them to handle the work and approve the money at the same time. It has nothing to do with Murong Yuliang, who is in charge of punishment!
But the problem was that although the money was approved by the Finance Department and reached the local prefectures and counties through the Provincial Secretary, some greedy, corrupt and law-breaking people in the local prefectures and counties wanted to take advantage of the situation and colluded with unscrupulous businessmen to secretly put the money for disaster relief into their own pockets!
Their actions included falsifying the number of disaster victims and collecting empty salaries, and using the money approved by the Financial Secretary to buy quilts, cotton-padded clothes and food for the victims, they only gave the victims thin clothes, thin quilts and moldy food; some even did not even bother to pretend to do anything, and simply put the money in their pockets without buying anything, leaving the victims shivering in the cold wind...

After learning about these circumstances, Ye Mingsheng was extremely angry. He never expected that the money he saved through hard work and strict self-discipline would be used to raise these big rats. Therefore, he directly summoned Cui Shao and Murong Yuliang, and asked the governor and the provincial judge to work together to catch these rats one by one and punish them severely. No matter who is involved, they must be investigated thoroughly and no guilty person must be let off!
Murong Yuliang, who felt Ye Mingsheng's anger, naturally did not dare to neglect Ye Mingsheng's orders. He was very busy in the past few days. He arrested two county magistrates, five chief clerks, and the managers and proprietors of three businesses in various places in Liaoyang. As for the remaining runners, shop assistants and others, there were dozens of them.

Every day, he would not finish work until after dark and return to his residence from the government office. When he got home, Murong Yuliang was very tired. He had a simple meal and did not even bring his new concubine. He just prepared to have a good sleep and gather enough energy to face tomorrow's work...

Murong Yuliang had a good idea, but unfortunately things often don’t go as one wishes!

Just as Murong Yuliang was lying in bed and was about to tell the servants to blow out the candles, he heard the servants' voices outside the house.

"Miss, the master has gone to bed now, you should come and meet him tomorrow!"

"Going to bed so early? Is that woman also in the room?"

“I don’t know this little one either…”

"Humph! Get out of my way! I have something important to discuss with my father!"

Listening to Murong Qingwu's cold voice outside the house, Murong Yuliang shook his head helplessly. His daughter's character was good in every way, and the only shortcoming was that she was too idealistic. He had been in Liaoyang for more than a year, and except for Murong Qingwu who followed him secretly, he did not bring any family with him. So now he was in his prime and felt very lonely on weekdays, so he secretly took a concubine to serve him personally, but he did not expect that this would offend his precious daughter.

Murong Qingwu always felt that her father Murong Yuliang was an upright gentleman. He was always self-disciplined and never indulged in promiscuous things like other men. He and his mother were a model couple and they loved each other very much.

However, Murong Qingwu never expected that after only one year of separation, Murong Yuliang found another woman who was about the same age as herself as a concubine. Therefore, Murong Qingwu could never accept that her father's majestic image collapsed so quickly, and she even thought that Murong Yuliang was betraying the relationship between husband and wife.

Although she tried to stop it from happening, Murong Yuliang was quick and decisive enough. By the time Murong Qingwu found out what was happening, the concubine had already married into the family and the water was on Murong Yuliang's C couch.

Moreover, this concubine named Yiyun put on a pitiful look and begged Murong Qingwu, saying that she had nowhere to go and hoped to be taken in by Murong Yuliang. Murong Qingwu was very upset, but in the end, she softened her heart and chose to acquiesce in this matter...

However, as they lived together and spent such a long time in contact, Murong Qingwu realized that although this concubine named Yiyun appeared to be weak and pitiful and harmless on the surface, she was actually more scheming and cunning than anyone else. She kept retreating in order to advance, and was a complete green tea girl, who had Murong Yuliang under her control.

Seeing that this concubine named Yiyun was actually about to become the mistress of the mansion step by step, Murong Qingwu couldn't stand it anymore and stood up. At first, Yiyun wanted to use her old tricks and display her green tea skills to retreat in order to advance, but Murong Qingwu, who was known as the most talented woman in the world and had lived in a top family since childhood and had experienced countless intrigues, was no pushover. She used a little trick to make Yiyun suffer a lot.

After a few exchanges between the two, the atmosphere became very tense. The two were fighting fiercely, but Murong Yuliang, who was caught between the two, was very confused and had to endure the bullying. One was his concubine who was sensitive to his feelings and had a tacit understanding with him, and the other was his own flesh and blood, his precious daughter. Both of them were flesh and blood, and no one could give them up!

Seeing that Murong Qingwu was about to come in, Murong Yuliang had no choice but to put on his clothes and reluctantly told the servants outside:
"Let Qingwu come in!"

"Yes!"

With Murong Yuliang's order, the servants outside the house immediately opened the door respectfully and invited Murong Qingwu in. If it weren't for the strict rules of the Murong family, how could they, the servants, dare to stop the apple of the Murong family's eye...
Murong Qingwu walked into the room angrily, and saw that Yiyun was not in the room, only her old father was there. Seeing her father's tired face, Murong Qingwu felt that her behavior was a bit too much, and she immediately showed some apology on her face. Just when she was about to say something, Murong Yuliang asked:
"Qingwu, what can I do for you?"

Murong Yuliang was very clear about his daughter. If she didn't have something very important, she would never come to him so suddenly at this time.

Murong Qingwu heard this and then remembered the purpose of her original visit and asked:

"Father, has the Fengwu Army ended the war in Gongdu?"

Although he was a little surprised that his daughter actually cared about military affairs, Murong Yuliang nodded and said without hesitation:
"Well, the news just came in this morning said that Yuan Song's First Division wiped out more than 40,000 enemy Gongdu New Army in Ruishan County, and the bandit leader Wang Kangxin died in the battle. Gongdu has now been completely pacified!"

“Yuan Song is really a fierce general! It is said that He Jingyun of the General Staff originally planned that Yuan Song would hold on and wait for help, while Guo Zhiping would rush to support from the flank, and the two sides would work together to encircle and annihilate the Gongdu New Army. Unexpectedly, Yuan Song accomplished the task by himself…”

After expressing his feelings, Murong Yuliang asked Murong Qingwu curiously:
"Qingwu, why are you suddenly concerned about this? And how did you know this news?"

Murong Qingwu explained after hearing this:
"I learned this from the grain prices in Dongning today. Previously, in order to supply the army, the grain in the Changyuan granary was only supplied to the market in a limited amount. This also caused the grain prices in Dongning to rise to 1.8 taels of silver per stone."

“At noon today, the market price of grain had fallen back to 1.6 taels per stone, which is basically the level before the Fengwu Army marched to Gongdu. So it is obvious that the long-term granary should have sufficient supply to the market. So I infer that it is very likely that the battle in Gongdu is about to be over…”

After hearing what his daughter said, Murong Yuliang nodded with satisfaction and praised:
"Qingwu, you are so observant, you are worthy of being the daughter of the Murong family!"

Murong Qingwu didn't seem to care much about her father's praise. She hesitated for a moment and asked Murong Yuliang:

"Father, in less than a month, the Fengwu Army has taken over Gongdu. Their fighting power is much stronger than we expected!"

"Yes! Ye Mingsheng is really a character! He started from humble beginnings and in such a short time, he was able to bring out such a powerful army. It is really admirable!" Thinking back to what Ye Mingsheng had done, Murong Yuliang couldn't help but sigh from the bottom of his heart:

Listening to her father's sigh, Murong Qingwu knew that Ye Mingsheng had been completely convinced. This made her think highly of her father, and it reminded her of the time when she and Ye Mingsheng met in Fengzhou.

At that time, she didn’t think that it was wrong for her to use her own grain to open a porridge factory and give porridge to the common people. Besides, it was the first and only time in her life that she was bullied by power, and that was at the hands of Ye Mingsheng. Because of this incident, Murong Qingwu hated Ye Mingsheng for a long time, but the more she learned about Ye Mingsheng, the more she felt that this seemingly tyrannical, authoritarian and overbearing young warrior was full of an attractive and mysterious color...

What would it be like to see him again?

(End of this chapter)