"Uncle Ji Wang?!" Li Hong stopped in an instant, and Bai Chun, who was walking behind him with his head down, failed to stop the car again, and his handsome nose hit someone's rock-hard back.
"Yes, over the years, King Ji has released grain from here to the northern and southern cities. This is the imperial court's decree. It is used to balance the price of grain in Luoyang and surrounding areas, and by the way, to recover some privately minted money." Lou Shidebian As he said this, he handed Li Hong a stick used to check grain.
Bai Chun looked at what looked like a huge embroidery needle in Li Hong's hand, and curiously took it from Li Hong's hand to watch.
"Do you know what it is for?" Li Hong handed it to her and asked.
"I don't know." Bai Chun said simply.
"I didn't know you were still holding it." Li Hong took the sample from her hand again, followed Lou Shide into a granary, looked at the neatly arranged sacks, and inserted the sample effortlessly. Got in.
"I understand." Li Hong slowly took out the skewer and nodded as he looked at the full grain inside.
The stock technology at this time has been extremely developed. Even in the previous life, after people excavated Hanjia Cang, they actually found full grains of grain from it. It is enough to imagine how important the current grain is to the Tang Dynasty. Otherwise, Nor would it take a huge amount of effort to build such a huge project.
Bai Chun disapproved, curled his lips disdainfully, snatched the skewer from Li Hong's hand, and stabbed it into another sack. Unfortunately, he was too weak and only got a small tip in. He tried this several times. , changed several sacks, but all without success.
Naturally, Bai Chun was ridiculed unceremoniously by Li Hong again, but it was obvious that Bai Chun, who was disguised as a man, had developed a thick skin, and followed Li Hong and others with no concern and complacency, holding the sample in his hand. I visited several more granaries.
Going back to Luocang was beyond Li Hong's expectation. Whether it was the grain in the warehouse or the account book that Lou Shide brought, every transaction had a clear record and whereabouts. With the current accounting method of going back to Luocang , Bai Chun could easily find problems in these account books without Li Hong looking at them.
But all the grain has a clear origin, and even grains as small as a few stones have been marked in detail. In addition, the grain in the granary is intact, so it can be ruled out that there is no problem in returning to Luocang.
When Li Hong, Li Sujie, and Bai Chun came in high spirits and were about to return disappointed, when they walked to the door of the granary and looked at the grains that were loaded into the cart to be pulled out, Li Hong suddenly asked: "By the way, what happened in the past?" There is nothing wrong with the account, but what about the 500,000 shi this time? Do you know the whereabouts of Uncle Ji Wang’s 500,000 shi
Lou Shide was stunned, Bai Chun was stunned, and even Li Sujie was stunned. Yes, he was busy checking the previous accounts, why did he forget the accounts that were going under his nose.
Lou Shide had no choice but to find the supervisor of Huiluocang again. As for the ins and outs of the 500,000 shi of grain being shipped out, the supervisor of Huiluocang only gave the whereabouts of 400,000 shi of grain. As for the other 100,000 shi, the supervisor of Huiluocang Said: "Lu Shaoyin said that after all the food is shipped out, he will provide clear evidence of whereabouts."
"Lu Shaoyin?" Li Hong looked at Lou Shide strangely.
Lou Shide had no choice but to give Li Hong a detailed explanation of the situation of Lu Shuang, who was in charge of food in Henan Prefecture. When Lou Shide said that Lu Shaoyin was the son of Lu Lisu, the chief official of the Yizhou Governor's Mansion, Li Hong and Li Sujie couldn't help but sigh. Looking at each other passionately, both of them realized that there must be some unknown secret.
After returning to Luocang, under the watch of Sima Lin and Lou Shide, Li Hong and the other three started to return the same way. Li Hong sighed along the way, but did not say why, which made Bai Chun and Li Sujie feel guilty all the way. He muttered, wondering what illness His Highness the Crown Prince had fallen into again.
When he finally entered the gate of Luoyang City, Bai Chun couldn't help but asked out of curiosity: "Sir, what's wrong? You kept sighing along the way. Is there something unpleasant?"
Li Hong led the horse listlessly and said lazily: "Fourth Brother, I guess we can't touch the granary problem now. What we fear most in this world is not those who pretend to be public servants for personal gain. Do you know what we fear most?"
Bai Chun and Li Sujie shook their heads in confusion, looking at Li Hong with curious eyes, waiting for his answer.
"In this world... the most terrifying thing is this kind of true public benefit for private gain. You see, Uncle Ji Wang is acting on orders and releases a batch of low-priced grain every year to stabilize the price of grain in Henan Prefecture, but these five Of the 100,000 shi of grain, only 400,000 have clear evidence, and the other 100,000 have no clear proof. If you ask Uncle Ji for proof, Uncle Ji will give us one, well... you can ask His Majesty, he will give you the answer, right! Right?" Li Hong said in an old-fashioned way, imitating King Ji Li Shen who always wanted to be a wise king, but his image always looked wretched.
The two of them looked at Li Hong's behavior of studying Ji Wang Li Shen. They didn't find it funny at all. They just nodded like pecking at rice and waited for Li Hong to continue.
"Then let's go out from Uncle Ji Wang's place and ask our father. I'm afraid that before he has finished listening to us, he will wave his hand and say in annoyance, 'Yes, I asked King Ji to lower the price. Why is the food dripping?”
"Sir, your Majesty won't say what's going on, right? It seems that only the people in Liaodong would say that." Bai Chun corrected Li Hong's saying.
"Then what do you think my father would say?"
"Father will say, 'What's wrong?'" Li Sujie said with a smile, imitating Li Zhi's pronunciation.
"Go back and sue you two for being disrespectful, and wait for a slap in the face!" Li Hong held the reins and continued to move forward. On the streets of Luoyang, where people were coming and going, there was water passing by, and there were several small streets branching out in the city. If not all the buildings in Xihe had a strong northern flavor, Li Hong would have suspected that he was in a water town in the south of the Yangtze River.
"Then what you mean is that if you want to check whether there is any deduction in this food, don't you have to check His Majesty? Is that what you mean?" Bai Chun spat out his lilac tongue, fearing that Li Hong would not come forward to complain. They were disrespectful and went back to take care of themselves.
"This is what it means in a nutshell. Uncle Ji Wang acts according to the decree, so whether it is the supervisory censor, Dali Temple, Sinong Temple, or the Ministry of Punishment, once there is a problem with the granary, even if it takes the greatest courage and huge pressure, The pressure is on, and the final conclusion will probably be made by finding Uncle Ji. None of them dare to go to His Majesty to verify what Uncle Ji said. "
"Why don't you dare to do this? Since there is a problem with the granary, we should discuss the matter based on the facts. My father is not a tyrant... My father is a wise king, and he still has a little bit of tolerance." Li Sujie almost said the word tyrant.
"The problem is, we haven't found out what went wrong now. Lu Shuang and Lu Lisu must have some ulterior secrets, but what did we find out? One hundred thousand shi of food that went missing? But after people tell us, Isn't it right to provide proof? We are not a censor, so what can we do to prove it to my father? With the one hundred thousand stones of food that are now missing, I am afraid that my father will say that you have a weak stomach." Li Hong stroked his chin. said thoughtfully.
"Then... How about we find a censor to make rumors in the court? Anyway, telling lies with open eyes is their specialty, and they don't care about telling lies just for you." Bai Chun naturally had a bad idea.
"Nonsense, this won't work. The Yushitai is about to be reformed. If the rumor continues, starting with me, then the court will be even more chaotic in the future? When the officials meet in the future... Haha, the first sentence is that "That's right, Mr. Bai has always been kind. Has he been impeached today?" Li Hong looked at Bai Chun and said half-jokingly.
"What should we do? Do we just give up like this?" Among the three, the most unwilling one is Li Sujie. He was the first to discover the problem. He informed Li Hong in a secret letter years ago, but now he doesn't know about the problem. What's the crux of it, and it seems that if it doesn't work, Li Hong will offend Uncle Ji Wang.
"It's not enough to give up. It seems that all the food distributed to the people last year has been used up. Didn't the waiter in the teahouse say today that he has never had a full meal since the Lantern Festival? This is true for the teahouse clerks' families, so those people who rely entirely on the weather may have a more difficult time than the teahouse clerks. So now, as long as the news of famine in Henan prefectures and counties reaches the court, or the emperor. Shi Erli, I think I can uncover a corner of this granary problem."
"Then if we are forced to suppress it by the government, wouldn't it mean that the people will starve to death? In this case, you will be no different from Lou Shide." Bai Chun immediately quit after hearing this, and watched the people starve without doing anything. , is this still the prince of the Tang Dynasty who was famous for his kindness and filial piety!
"What are you chirping about? Did I tell you to let the people starve to death?" Li Hong rolled his eyes at Bai Chun and took the reins of his horse instead of heading towards Bei City. Instead, he continued to wander around the southern part of Luoyang City.
"Then since you don't plan to report it to His Highness personally and wait for others to give you a discount, then you are just like Lou Shide." Bai Chun curled his lips and whispered unhappily.
"If I don't take the initiative to say it, can't I wait for my father to take the initiative to ask? Also, don't just complain about me. Xiaoxue and the others are in Yizhou to see what problems they find out. Also, let your They expanded the scope and rushed to Liyangcang overnight to find out if there was something wrong with Liyangcang." Li Hong took the reins thrown to him by Bai Chun, and then Bai Chun, who was dressed as a woman, twisted her waist and ran to the roadside to buy. The candied haws are gone!
Li Hong watched helplessly as Bai Chun slowly walked over with several bunches of candied haws, and sighed helplessly: "I'm making you laugh. The maids in the East Palace are all so undisciplined and unreasonable! Don't pay attention."
Li Sujie ignored his self-deprecation and asked thoughtfully: "Are you planning to wander around Luoyang South City until dark? Are you going to go back after the imperial city gate is closed?"
"Clever! In this case, my mother or my father may not remember me, but Li Lingyue will definitely come to me, so I can tell them about the problem of the granary?"
Li Suche nodded without saying anything. He couldn't understand it. With the harmonious relationship between Li Hong and his father, this kind of matter could be asked directly. Why did he have to go through so many twists and turns to expose the problem of the granary!
(End of chapter)