Reborn in Dunhuang, I am farming and doing business in the desert

The woman said softly, "I am the daughter-in-law of Grandma Wang in the kitchen. Grandma Wang is not feeling well today, so she asked me to do the work for her."

"Grandma Wang?" Mr. Dong looked at the woman suspiciously: "Why didn't she tell me in advance?"

The woman placed the rice dumplings on the kang table and said, "It's inconvenient in the heavy snow, so she asked me to tell you directly."

Mr. Dong frowned and pondered for a moment, then waved his hand at the woman: "Go out, stay in the kitchen and don't walk around."

The woman didn't move, her eyes looking around.

Mr. Dong was displeased. He closed the account book and shouted, "Get out! Don't come into my room casually anymore!"

This is his financial center, with many large boxes filled with money and account books piled up here. When business is good, Shen Zhao and his sister come to collect money every day. But in lean times like now, they only come to collect money once every few days.

However, his 100,000 yuan was kept in the box, so Mr. Dong did not want outsiders to enter his house.

The woman bowed awkwardly and walked out.

Mr. Dong glanced at the rice wine dumplings on the kang table and moved them aside.

Then he got off the kang and went to the kitchen.

There were three cooks in the kitchen, who were cooking.

The woman was one of the three people. She was busy and there was nothing unusual about her.

Mr. Dong felt relieved a little and checked the ingredients. Seeing that they were all cabbage, radish, potatoes and other things stored in the inn's cellar, he turned around and left.

Seeing that the snow was getting heavier, he walked around the warehouse again, pulled the lock on the door, and when he saw nothing unusual, he went back into the house.

Now that the department store business is getting better and better, Mr. Dong is also worried that someone may covet the property here, so he is extra cautious.

Especially recently, there have been fewer merchants traveling on the official roads, no more vendors setting up stalls outside, and the city officials and guards have become lazy, coming and going only occasionally.

So there were only a few young men left in the inn to look after the shop, and Mr. Dong always felt insecure.

Well, it would be nice to have two big dogs. If there are outsiders in the big yard, the dogs can give early warning.

Just as I was thinking, there was a sudden noise outside, and Ah Zhu came over and knocked on the door: "Sir, someone is coming to stay at the hotel, do you want to answer the door?"

Mr. Dong had no choice but to get off the kang again, holding an umbrella and leaving the house.

When we arrived outside the yard, we saw a large group of people standing in the wind and snow. The leaders had already walked into the shop and were talking to the teenagers.

"Let's stay in a hotel! Clean up a few rooms quickly!" someone shouted.

Mr. Dong looked at the man and saw that he was dressed neatly like a soldier, and his horse was also wearing a leather saddle. He couldn't help but feel nervous.

Court officials and soldiers would go to inns and post offices to rest and stay. Why would they go to merchants' shops to ask to stay?
He thought for a moment, then clasped his fists towards the leader and said, "Sir, this is a store that sells general merchandise, and we do not provide accommodation."

"How dare you! Do you know who we are? Hurry up and prepare the house!" a soldier shouted.

Mr. Dong took a look at the swords on these people's waists and had no choice but to take them to the inn next door.

Fortunately, there was no one in the inn these two days, and several rooms were empty, so more than a hundred officers and soldiers could barely fit in.

So Mr. Dong asked the cook to go to the kitchen in the inn to boil water and heat the kang so that those people could wash and keep warm.

However, the stables in the inn were not big enough to accommodate more than a hundred war horses.

A deputy general came over and shouted in an imperative tone: "Find two people to feed the horses! We have to set out tomorrow morning. You must take good care of the horses. If you delay General Li's important work, you will be held accountable!"

Mr. Dong frowned, said nothing more, and called two young men to feed the horses.

Fortunately, there was a lot of fodder piled up in the yard of the inn, enough for more than a hundred war horses to consume in one night.

The next step was to cook for them. The three cooks worked for several hours and finally fed more than a hundred people, but it consumed more than a hundred kilograms of millet and seventy to eighty kilograms of white flour, as well as a lot of vegetables and bacon. Mr. Dong felt distressed, so he asked the deputy general who was passing orders inside and outside: "Can you advance some of the food and lodging expenses?"

He was really afraid that these people would run away without paying him a penny tomorrow morning.

The deputy general glared at him and said, "What do you mean by board and lodging? I was sent by the court on official business. Why should I be paid?"

Mr. Dong immediately got angry: "You can stay at the Tingyi if you don't have to pay. This is the private property of the garrison soldiers. Anyone who comes here to eat and stay must pay!"

The deputy general narrowed his eyes and drew his sword from his waist: "How dare you, lowly person! How dare you blackmail me? Believe it or not, I will kill you right now!"

Seeing this, Ah Zhu and Dong Wufeng quickly pulled Mr. Dong away.

Afterwards, they discussed it together and ran to Tingyi to file a complaint.

Shen Ang was on duty at the post station, and he sensed something was wrong when he heard the young man's report.

He had seen this group of people before and learned that they came from the capital just to investigate the cause of death of Concubine Li's brother Li Yu.

The leader of the team was also Concubine Li's brother, about twenty-three or twenty-four years old, and was a newly appointed general of the escort flag.

Shen Ang was kind enough to show them the way and told them that there was a post station forty miles away where they could stay and rest in the evening.

Unexpectedly, they didn't leave, but went to their own department store inn.

The reason why Shen Ang didn't stop them was that he thought they would pay for their accommodation, but unexpectedly they came to eat and dine for free.

"Don't worry about them for now." Shen Ang said, "It's just a loss of rice. I will report this to the governor after they leave."

The boys agreed and left, and to be on the safe side, they simply closed the store.

But they thought too simply. After eating and drinking, General Li walked to the store in front and insisted that the boy open the door for him to see.

The boy had no choice but to open the store.

General Daoqi stood with his hands behind his back, looking around the display cabinets, and asked the young men to take out the goods inside for him to play with.

Finally, he took a fancy to the solar emergency lights and took away both lights in the display cabinet.

The small ornaments in the other display cabinets were not spared either, and were all looted by the deputy general.

The teenagers were angry but dared not say anything, and watched helplessly as all the items in the display cabinet were taken away by these people.

There are a lot of things in the ten display cabinets, enough to fill several large boxes.

The snow stopped early the next morning and these people finally left. Shen Zhao, who came to inspect, also learned about this.

"It's good that everyone is okay." Shen Zhao comforted everyone and said, "From today on, the store will not be open. You just need to guard the yard."

Now that the road is blocked by heavy snow, even if there are merchants coming, there will not be many. It is better to close the gate and not open it no matter who knocks, so as to prevent those people from coming to plunder again.

Fortunately, the team was heading to Dunhuang County. If they had gone to Jingyi, they would probably have taken away even the goods in the warehouse.

Humph! Your last name is Li, right? Concubine Li's brother?
Good, she remembered it!

Shen Zhao returned home and quickly wrote a piece of letter.

The main content is to criticize the Li brothers.

Many crimes were listed, such as General Li Yu killing thousands of soldiers for his own selfish reasons, and General Daoqi robbing people's property on his way west, which aroused public anger.

She didn't specify which family she had robbed, so let the emperor investigate it himself. (End of this chapter)