The emperor kept staring at Prince Jin without saying a word.
Prince Jin looked calm and let him stare at him.
After a long while, the emperor asked, "You have been negotiating with them for so long. Besides food, what other demands have they made?"
"As long as they have enough food to eat, they don't want to cause trouble. They were forced to this point by the Relief Department and Mr. Xiong. They arrested the Xiong family just to make Mr. Xiong have some scruples and stop firing recklessly and hurting innocent people."
His tone was calm, but there was a hint of sarcasm in his words.
The disaster victims who were causing trouble still cared about the common people, but General Xiong was unscrupulous.
Who is the bandit and who is the soldier
The Emperor stopped talking again, and Prince Jin also stopped talking.
The emperor and his ministers were silent for a while, and then the emperor said, "I can give them the food."
"I thank your majesty for your kindness on behalf of the victims." The King of Jin paused, "I wonder how much grain your majesty is willing to give them? Is it coarse grain or fine grain?"
"Prince Jin really cares about the people." The emperor sneered.
"Your Majesty, as a minister receiving a salary from the imperial court, I should share your worries and serve the people. Otherwise, I will just be sitting in office doing nothing." Prince Jin said seriously.
The emperor sneered twice, "One hundred dan of coarse grains and fifty dan of fine grains, do you think that's enough, Prince Jin?"
"I will convey your majesty's intention." Prince Jin pretended not to understand the testing meaning in the emperor's words.
"Then I'll have to trouble Prince Jin to make another trip." The emperor said with a smile.
"I'm leaving now." Prince Jin left the Qinzheng Hall.
The emperor narrowed his eyes and looked at the direction he left, and said coldly: "Helian Yu, you'd better not be behind this matter, otherwise, I will skin you alive."
Prince Jin did not rush to Xizhimen, but went to the Ministry of Revenue.
The Ministry of Revenue was in charge of the country's land, taxes, household registration, military supplies, salaries, and food.
He had to first ask the Ministry of Revenue for the 100 dan of coarse grain and 50 dan of fine grain promised by the emperor.
When the Minister of Revenue heard that he wanted so much food, he immediately complained, "Your Majesty, it's not that I don't want to give you food, it's just that we don't have that much food."
"I know how many dan of grain there are in reserve in the capital. The amount of grain used for disaster relief is also recorded in the accounts. Do you dare to say that you can't give me the grain I want?" The King of Jin was intimidating without even getting angry.
"Your Highness, this matter was all caused by the Relief Department." The Minister of Revenue did not hide the truth for Prince Ding.
"Prince Ding has been imprisoned, how dare the Relief Department make trouble?" Prince Jin asked knowingly.
"Your Highness, Prince Ding allocated disaster relief grain, but said it was not enough, so he used the disaster relief funds to buy another one million dan of grain." The Minister of Revenue said.
"As far as I know, there are only 700,000 dan of grain in the two warehouses of the Disaster Relief Department. The grain has only been there for a few days. Where did the grain go?"
The Minister of Revenue licked his lips and said, "I don't know."
"You are the Minister of Revenue, in charge of the Ministry of Revenue. How do you know about such a small matter? Ask the clerk in the Secretariat." Prince Jin gave sincere advice.
The Minister of Revenue looked bitter, "Your Highness, there is no need to ask the Secretary about this matter. This was all done by Prince Ding. Prince Ding sold the grain at a high price."
"Why didn't Lord Guan report this to the Emperor?" Prince Jin asked again, knowing the answer.
"Your subordinate, your subordinate."
"Master Guan, you don't have to explain to me. Things have come to this point. If you conceal it, it will only make the crime worse. You should go to the emperor and explain the matter clearly. Master Guan, don't be stupid and take the blame for others."
"Your Highness is right, Your Highness is right." The Minister of Revenue no longer hesitated.
Prince Jin looked at the Minister of Revenue walking away and smiled meaningfully.
Prince Ding is now in prison, so let's take advantage of his illness to kill him.
The emperor's minions must be eliminated one by one.
On the surface, he seemed to be unconcerned about how the emperor would deal with the Minister of Revenue, Prince Ding, and General Xiong, but in fact he asked other ministers to submit a petition, asking the emperor to severely punish the three.
The Minister of Revenue, who was in cahoots with Prince Ding and was corrupt and accepted bribes, was dismissed from office and his property was searched and confiscated.
Prince Ding's title was taken away from him and he was directly demoted to earl, and now he is Earl Dingping.
Three thousand mu of meritorious land was taken back, and only five hundred mu of the two thousand mu of land for maintaining integrity remained.
The once glorious Prince Ding's Mansion, no, the Marquis Dingping's Mansion, was reduced to a third-rate Marquis Ding's Mansion in the city overnight.
They were also not allowed to live in Prince Ding's Palace, and the emperor ordered them to move out within five days.
Inside Prince Ding's mansion, there were loud cries. Princess Ding refused to believe it and desperately shook Prince Ding, who had just been released from prison, "Prince, how could this happen? How could this happen?"
"Your Highness, can you think of a solution?" the concubine was also shouting.
Dingping Bo was dazed and distraught. What else could he do now
General Xiong was stripped of his military power and confined to his mansion.
It is also easy to reinstate a military general. If there is a war on the border, General Xiong can put on his armor again.
Moreover, he had a princess as his daughter-in-law, so General Xiong was not worried at all whether he could be reinstated. "Bring some wine. This general has been working so hard for so long, it's time to take a break."
At this time, he had forgotten that his old mother and wives and concubines were still imprisoned on the city wall of Xizhimen.
In the court, Prince De took the opportunity to say, "Your Majesty, the troops are leaderless and may cause trouble. Since Your Majesty has appointed Prince Jin to handle this matter, why not give the power to mobilize troops to Prince Jin, which will also make it easier for Prince Jin to act."
The Emperor had taken away the military power from Prince Jin with great difficulty. How could he return the power to mobilize troops to Prince Jin, even if it was only the power to command the city defense forces
But if the military power is not given to the King of Jin, who should it be given to
The emperor glanced at the generals, and everyone lowered their heads. No one wanted to take on this hot potato.
In desperation, the emperor could only give the power to mobilize the city defense forces to Prince Jin.
"Thank you, Your Majesty." Prince Jin had long expected that the power of the city defense army would fall into his hands.
The newly appointed Minister of the Ministry of Revenue handed over the grain in the Guangjisi granary to Prince Jin, and Prince Jin once again went up to the city wall of Xizhimen.
After the food was given to the victims, the leader immediately ordered to "build a stove and cook porridge" under the city wall.
"Brother, the soldiers are surrounding the tower, I'm afraid no one dares to serve the porridge."
The leader bowed to Prince Jin and said, "Thank you, Your Majesty."
"It's my job." King Jin said with a smile.
The King of Jin ordered all soldiers to retreat five feet, and sent people to tell the victims in the relief tents that they could come to Xizhimen to get porridge.
Just as Prince Jin was busy with these things, Fang Ju, who was sent by Jiang Changning to check the accounts, returned home exhausted.
"I pay my respects to the princess. May the princess live long and healthy." Fang Ju came in and knelt down to kowtow to Jiang Changning.
"Okay, no need to be so polite. Get up. You must have been tired on this trip. You look thinner. Xiulan, ask Madam Cui to cook some of her favorite dishes to nourish her."
"Thank you for the reward, Princess." Fangju said happily.
After Jiang Changning asked a few more questions out of concern, Fang Ju handed over the account book, "This time, I visited a total of 16 farms, and there are some unclear points in the accounts of each farm."
Fangju was very careful and she wrote down all the unclear points.
Jiang Changning took the list and said, "Well, the sixteen village heads have all embezzled at least one thousand taels of silver."
No matter how wealthy and powerful the Prince of Jin's Mansion is, it cannot withstand so many rats gnawing at it.