Watching Sun Tu glance at the granary entry and exit accounts for the past two years that the state government clerk spent four days compiling, Qi Kun's eyes flashed with a hint of contempt.
From the fact that Sun Tu hadn't come here even once in the past two days, he thought that the other party was just showing off. After all, he spent a lot of effort to prepare the accounts here. How could he be compared to just a few state officials? Can officials find out the problem? What's more, these people have already benefited from it early on, and they can't really help a new military attaché to investigate the grain warehouse's abuses.
Moreover, he did not believe that a young martial artist could see anything from these complicated accounts. At best, he was just pretending. Perhaps Sun Tuanlian did all this just to give an explanation in front of the soldiers. It happened, right
He had these random thoughts until Sun Tu put down the last account book and looked up, then threw it aside, and a humble smile appeared on his face again: "Sun Tuanlian, these accounts can already prove that the officials have never used their power for personal gain or embezzled military rations, right? ? As for why those rural soldiers behaved like this, is it because of the corruption of military discipline? They just used this excuse to excuse you... "
Sun Tu smiled and waved his hand, interrupting Qi Kun's endless talk. Then he patted the pile of newly entered account books and asked: "Qi Guan Gou, did you read these accounts before handing them over to me?" Have you read the contents? Can you confirm that what is written here is accurate?”
"Of course, the official has checked and confirmed that there are no problems before handing it over to the regiment." Qi Kun nodded quickly and said: "Not only that, now the regiment can even send people to check in each warehouse of my granary. The amount of grain inside is also the same as that of the regiment." There is no error in the final record." When he said this, he subconsciously patted his chest, as if he was willing to guarantee it.
In order to prevent Sun Tu from getting any clues, he put a lot of effort this time, and even used his connections over the years. Only in this way could the entire account be made so seamless that no one could find any mistakes.
Sun Tu nodded: "That being the case, I really have a few questions that I would like to ask you." As he spoke, he skillfully took out an account book and threw it to the other party: "This is last year's According to a detailed report, starting from March, half a warehouse with three hundred shi of grain was left in the warehouse, but it had not been dealt with. Until October, with the need to send 500 shi of military rations to the Xiang army, These grains of grain suddenly disappeared from the books, I wonder how you can explain this?"
Qi Kun was stunned and hurriedly looked through the account book. In just a moment, sweat appeared on his forehead, and he hesitated and didn't know how to explain it. He really didn't expect that Sun Tu would look at the accounts in such detail and pay special attention to such an inconspicuous batch of grain. You must know that most people will only pay attention to the amount of grain coming in and out, but will not pay attention to the whereabouts of a batch of dry grain stored in the granary, because it has almost no value. Even he himself has long forgotten this. Finally.
Sun Tu glanced at him and continued: "As far as I know, the grain is mostly used to feed the horses. Did you give all this grain to the Xiang army to feed the horses? But our Jiangzhou is not Beidi. Even in the Xiang military camp, there are only a hundred people.
It's just a war horse, so much horse material is not needed. "
"Xia...Xiaguan..." Qi Kun opened his mouth as if he wanted to explain something, but when he looked at Sun Tu's eyes that seemed to be able to penetrate people's hearts, he couldn't say anything.
Sun Tuze continued to take out another ledger and threw it to him, but this time Qi Kun couldn't react in time because of the panic in his heart. He could only watch the ledger fall down, and then he bent down to pick it up in embarrassment. , but his hands were already shaking a little.
"In February and March of this year, the record of how you sent food to the rural soldiers was marked on this account book. It even has the mark of your predecessor Xu Tuanlian. This should be the reason why you dare to say that you have never been greedy for military food. Right?" Sun Tu did not rush to ask the other party the previous question, but changed the topic.
Qi Kun no longer had the confidence he had just now. He didn't expect that there were such loopholes in the accounts that he thought were perfect. So when Sun Tu raised this matter now, did he also find a loophole? But after thinking about it carefully, I still didn't realize there was any problem, so I could only hesitate and say: "This official has indeed never been greedy for military rations. What is recorded above is proof..."
"Yes, according to what you said, even if the problem of those rural soldiers really not receiving the rations should be caused by Xu Tuanlian. Maybe he deceived his superiors and took the rations for himself." Sun Tu saw Qi Kun, who subconsciously nodded in recognition, suddenly darkened his face, slapped the table and said, "It's really ridiculous. Do you think a man who has died in battle can afford this hundred kilograms of food? There is one more thing. I wonder if you know that Xu Tuanlian died for his country as early as February this year while fighting bandits on the Xunyang River. Let me ask you how a man who died as early as February put his seal on Did this account come up? Did he give it to you in a dream?"
Sun Tu yelled out the last words, which scared Qi Kun to the point where his knees almost gave out and he knelt down. At the same time, his face turned pale and his whole body started to tremble: "Sun Tuanlian, this matter... This matter..." He really didn't expect that his momentary negligence would lead to such a big flaw being caught by Sun Tu.
In fact, this is also a method that people in the military granary have been accustomed to using over the years. They will ask the relevant officers to leave the vouchers for collecting food a few months in advance, so that they can be used for accounting. The result of this is naturally to allow these relevant profiteers, including military officers, to share the food and salary that should be distributed to ordinary soldiers, and when the court wants to investigate, they can use this as prevarication.
Anyway, nowadays the Song Dynasty turns a blind eye to corruption for the most part. As long as the army can't cause any trouble, who cares whether you actually send food and salary to the soldiers. Moreover, whether these rural soldiers or Xiang soldiers, they are actually no different from ordinary people. They have long been accustomed to submissiveness. Since the government does not provide them with food, they will only find their own way to work and make money in various places in the city. It's not about trying to reveal things.
But who would have thought that the new Sun Tuanlian in front of him would actually be determined to get to the bottom of this fraud, and that he could even understand such complicated accounts and quickly find out the flaws? This made Qi Kun extremely frightened. He stood there with a bloodless face, already not knowing how to reply.
"I can understand that you are short-changing your quota, but what I cannot accept is that you have become so greedy that you have not left any space for the rural soldiers to survive. Not only have you embezzled the food and wages that should belong to them, but you have even taken away the fields on which they depend for their livelihood. Everything has been deprived of you, do you really think that I can't find out anything?" Sun Tu stood up slowly while speaking, walked slowly to Qi Kun's side, and patted his shoulder: "You What did I do when I didn't come to your place or go to the military camp for the past two days? You think you've done some things cleverly, but you don't know that if you don't want others to know, you can't do anything except yourself.
"You tried to cut off the way out for the rural soldiers, and then when their families were in desperate need of food, you took the fields assigned to them by the imperial court from them at a very low price. It is really a good calculation. This is better than dealing with ordinary people. It’s easier for the people, they don’t even have to choose a natural disaster year before taking action, after all, the land they own is limited, and it’s impossible to feed their whole family.”
Every time he heard Sun Tu say a word or was tapped on the shoulder by him, Qi Kun's body would tremble and his legs would become weak. By the time Sun Tu finished speaking, the military granary manager's legs were weak and he knelt down on the ground with a pop.
The inside story that he thought was hidden in the dark was revealed by Sun Tu in just a few words. The shock to him was really great. And he knew better that once the matter was really exposed, those angry sergeants would eat his whole family alive without the court taking action.
"Do you know why I was convinced that there was something wrong with you before I checked? Just because you wanted to bribe me with one or two thousand guan in the past two days. If there really is no problem in this granary, how could you possibly Where to spend this much money?" Sun Tu sighed and said: "But it's a pity that I only want to train a usable army for our Song Dynasty, not to get the so-called benefits, but I have let you down. It’s all good intentions.”
"There must be more implications in this scandal, and I have no intention of catching you all, but you always have to make up for the mistakes you made. I'll give you three days to try to make up for the debt you owed. If the food is sent to the military camp, then I can pretend that I don’t know anything. By the way, the debt I am talking about is not the food for three months, but the food you have used to deduct from the rural soldiers in the past three years through various means. I think the specific figure is You should know better than me." Sun Tu said, ignoring Qi Kun, and strode out of the slightly small tent.
Qi Kun knelt on the ground and was stunned for a long time before finally slowly coming back to his senses. His expression slowly changed from the panic just now to something distorted. In the past three years, the food they had withheld from the soldiers was probably more than a thousand dan. This was a figure that he simply could not afford, otherwise he would have to The family was broken up and everyone died.
"Since you don't give me a way to survive, I have no choice but to fight you to the end. Do you think I, a miscellaneous official, dare not be your enemy? You are wrong. There are many Jiangzhou officials behind me. As long as I Drag them all into the water, and even the prefect will have to give in. This is what you forced me to do!" Qi Kun, who was already at the end of his rope, suddenly raised his head, gritted his teeth and said softly, for the sake of his own interests, he could only give it a go and Things are getting serious.