Zhang Fei is good at everything, but he is too hasty.

Li Qi hurriedly tried to dissuade him: "Yide, please calm down. It is the obligation of each county to pay grain taxes on time. Moreover, the ancient city is under the jurisdiction of Cao Cao. If you kill the envoy rashly, you may get burned!"

The war in Guandu is currently intense, and Cao Cao's army is seriously short of food. If the food officer is killed in the ancient city, even if the ancient city is inconspicuous, it will attract Cao Cao's attention.

Li Qi's purpose is very simple. He wants to make friends with Liu Bei's people, but it does not mean that he will become an enemy of Cao Cao. Whether to join Cao Cao or Liu Bei depends on the situation. There is a high probability that he will become a small county magistrate under Boss Cao.

It's safer, Liu Bei just left a way out for himself.

Since Li Qi was a fake county magistrate, it was difficult to come forward with this kind of thing in person, so he asked the county magistrate to deal with it.

Unexpectedly, the other party asked for 600 hu of rice, which made the county magistrate very embarrassed.

If the warehouse had not been opened for grain relief, 600 hu of dendrobium would have been available, but where are the 600 hu of rice grain in the warehouse now?

After listening to the words of the county magistrate, Li Qi had no choice but to order his master to take some money and silk that he usually saved from the county government, bribe the envoy, and let the envoy go back and report to his superiors, saying that the ancient city suffered from insect infestation last year and the harvest was limited, so he could only go to the village.

Hand over three hundred dendrobium grains.

Lai Zhi got the benefit and lied for Li Qi in front of the grain officer.

Normally, this matter would be easy to get past.

But now the two families of Cao and Yuan were facing each other, and Cao's army was short of food and grass. Xun Yu, who was left behind in Xudu and was responsible for solving logistical problems for Boss Cao, wanted to break a grain of rice into two and eat it.

The grain collected from the ancient city did not achieve the expected results, which attracted Xun Yu's attention.

After an investigation, Xun Yu found that there was no abnormality in the harvest reported by the ancient city last autumn, so he sent an order to the grain officer to find out what happened.

In front of Xun Yu's majesty and account books, the grain official had no choice but to confess to accepting bribes.

Xun Yu was furious and had the grain official imprisoned for punishment.

Someone suggested: "The county magistrate of Gucheng should be guilty of the same crime for bribing the grain officials."

Xun Yu thought for a while and felt something was wrong.

In previous years, the county magistrates in the ancient city never had any trouble. Is there any difference this year?

Xun Yu thought that Runan had been captured by Liu Pi and Gong Du, the two remnants of the Yellow Turbans, and the ancient city was not very far from Runan. Could it be related to Liu and Gong?

Well, it can only be said that it is related, not that it has been occupied by Liu Pi and Gong Du, otherwise this kind of military information should have been reported long ago.

Since it was not a forced occupation, it was actually a bit strange to obey the imperial court and hand over 300 hu of grain.

Xun Yu believed that after Guandu, Cao Cao would definitely go back and wipe out Liu Pi and Gong Du, so before that, he should secretly send someone to find out the details of the ancient city and its relationship with Liu and Gong.

Understand the truth and falsehood, and don’t startle others.

Xun Yu looked around at the civil and military officials and asked, "Who is willing to sneak into the ancient city to inquire about the situation?"

A person from the tent came out and said: "Since I have followed Sikong, I have not made any achievements. Now I would like to go to the ancient city to find out the truth and repay Sikong for his kindness."

Xun Yu saw that he was from Jiujiang. His surname was Jiang, his given name was Qian, and his given name was Ziyi. He was now a guest in the tent.

Xun Yu said: "Zi Yi is here, what do you need?"

Jiang Qian smiled confidently and said, "Just a little boy will go with you."

Could it be that they are pretending to be father and son?

Xun Yu didn't think so and sent Jiang Qian to set off immediately to the ancient city...

In April of the fifth year of Jian'an, Cao's army killed Wen Chou and defeated Yuan's army. He ordered Xiahou Dun to guard the Guandu Pass and led his troops back to Xudu.

After hearing the news, Li Qi knew that Guan Yu was about to leave Cao Ying and start his journey to fame: passing five passes and killing six generals.

If we go by what the book says, because Guan Yu found Zhang Fei in the ancient city, he used the ancient city as a temporary stronghold to welcome Liu Bei and Zhao Yun, and then went to Runan to join Liu Pi and Gongdu.

However, Li Qi does not welcome Liu Bei and Guan Yu's arrival now.

Zhou Cang and Pei Yuanshao are now devoted to Li Qi, but Zhou Cang has been a fan of Guan Yu for many years. If he and Guan Yu were to meet, I wonder if they would fall in love with each other.

Liu Bei is also a hero. He wants money but has no money, and he wants people but no one. I wonder if he will miss Li Qi and the people in the ancient city when he arrives in the ancient city. If he follows Liu Bei now, it feels too early, and he may die in any minute.

On his wandering road, if he didn't follow Liu Bei, he would be afraid of offending him and cutting off his own way out. The second reason was;

Zhang Fei lived in the ancient city without making any publicity. If Liu, Guan, and Zhang met in the ancient city with great fanfare, and Cao Cao's people knew about it, he would not be able to hang out in Cao Cao's territory. The third reason is this;

Fourth, according to the trajectory in the book, Zhao Yun will come near Woniu Mountain.

Since Gongsun Zan's defeat and self-immolation, Zhao Yun has "traveled around to choose his master, but he is not as good as a king." In other words, what he is looking for is not necessarily Liu Bei, but he hopes to find someone like Liu Bei. This is similar to

There is a difference between Guan Yu and Zhang Fei.

Li Qi was bold and wanted to give it a try.

If the effect is not achieved, just let Zhao Yun go. Can you also tie him up by force?

Therefore, Li Qi is determined not to let Liu Bei and Guan Yu get close to the ancient city.

Li Qi prepared some money and food and handed it to Zhang Fei and said: "I got the news here. The emperor's uncle will go to Runan to join Liu Pi and Gongdu, and join forces with Yuan Shao to divide the south and north to attack Cao's army. If Yide wants to find the emperor's uncle,

We should go to Runan."

Zhang Fei was overjoyed when he heard this. He stretched out his hands with great emotion to take the money Li Qi had prepared for him, and suddenly said: "Why don't Zhenghong abandon the ancient city and go to Runan with me?"

Li Qi blinked his eyes and shed two tears: "I don't want to abandon Yide, but I think of the people in the city and I really can't bear to abandon them."

Zhang Fei said "Hey", took Li Qi's offer, turned around and left.

Before leaving, Zhang Fei temporarily entrusted Xia Houjuan to Li Qi and said: "We are going to Runan now. The war is chaotic. Let me settle down and then pick her up."

Li Qi had nothing to say and readily agreed.

Li Qi rode a horse to see Zhang Fei to the city gate. After saying goodbye again and again, he planned to return home.

At this time, Zhang San, who was guarding the city gate, ran over and grabbed the reins of Li Qi's horse, saying in a low voice: "I just found two people entering the city. I'm afraid it's a spy sent by the official."

Li Qi: "..."

In order not to dampen Zhang San's work enthusiasm and subjective initiative, Li Qi asked patiently: "How do you know it is a careful work?"

Zhang Sandao: "Those who come to and from the ancient city are all commoners, wearing coarse clothes and linen. But those two people are dressed in silk and satin, and their faces are full of bookishness. They have neither goods nor much money with them, so they don't look like they are coming to the ancient city."

Merchants doing business.”

Those who travel to remote small counties like the ancient city are either ordinary people from the surrounding areas or merchants attracted by new agricultural tools.

And because the currency used in the Han Dynasty was the copper five-tree coin, Dong Zhuo made small coins when he came to Beijing. Both the weight and quality were far inferior to the authentic five-tree coin, which led to inflation and rapid price increases.

Those who did business had to use carts to transport the copper coins they carried. Even in Yizhou and other places, there was a return to the ancient phenomenon of barter. Therefore, when Zhang San saw that the other party did not carry much money, he asserted that the other party was not a merchant.

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Chapter completed!