The moon is dark and the wind is high at night, killing people and setting fires.
In fact, this sentence is not unreasonable. Killing people will inevitably reveal traces, but if it is set on fire, it will be relatively simple.
Afterwards, it can be inferred that it was a leak, and there was no evidence for anyone.
It was late at night, but there were bursts of hurried footsteps outside the courtyard.
Although the lights were on in the courtyard, it was dead silent, and even the sound of these footsteps failed to awaken the people inside.
Wei Dayong personally led people into the courtyard.
"Master Xue?"
He first called twice outside, and when he saw that there was no movement inside, he made a gesture
Heaps and piles of wood were piled up in the corners, and people kept carrying firewood inside. At the same time, someone brought barrels of oil and poured them on the firewood, and on the front door and on the windows.
"Go down and be a wronged ghost, don't blame me, I did it as a last resort, who asked you to ask about those account books. It's also my fault that you didn't go directly to Fucheng, but came to Guangjicang, cleverness was mistaken by cleverness, probably It's a person like you. Six yuan and the first? It's a pity."
Someone handed a torch, Wei Dayong took it and threw it on the pile of wood.
The fire suddenly jumped a few people high, and then turned into a raging fire. Wei Dayong stood there and watched for a while, and then he left in a hurry until the thick smoke filled the air.
In the dark night, the orange-yellow firelight is particularly eye-catching.
After a while, someone found out that while shouting that the water was running away, they called for someone to put out the fire.
Everyone came to put out the fire with buckets, but unfortunately the fire was only controlled and no longer spread, but no one could get in at all, so they could only let it burn.
When Wei Dayong got the news, he came in a hurry, he just wanted to break in, and he kept the imperial consignment in his mouth. It was the officer next to him who held him tightly, so he didn't let him rush in.
"You let go, the imperial envoy is still inside. If such a thing happens, the sage will definitely take the head of this official..."
"You also know that your head can't be saved?"
In the dark, someone suddenly said that. Although the voice is not loud, it strangely penetrates into everyone's ears.
A gust of breeze blew away the dark clouds that shrouded the moon, which made people see that there seemed to be a few standing in the shadows over there.
"you… "
Wei Dayong's upper and lower teeth rattled, and he was so surprised that his eyes bulged out.
"What? I'm surprised that this official is not there?" Xue Tingxiang smiled softly and took a few steps forward, and his figure was exposed to the eyes.
Wearing a vermilion gold embroidered python robe, that is the expression of a supreme official,
"Actually, this official is also thinking of you. You said that you are good and alive. There is a way to heaven and you don't go, and there is no way to hell, but you just break in. Tsk tsk tsk, man, it's really easy to lose your mind. You say that what you do is bad, Why do you do such a shameful deed."
"Take him down for me!" As another male voice sounded, a dozen black figures jumped out of the darkness.
But it is Jin Yiwei's person.
But in a matter of seconds, Wei Dayong and a few people around him were all taken down. There were only some officers with buckets in their hands, and some of them couldn't help watching this scene.
"Wei Dayong intended to murder the imperial commissioner, and he has now been taken down. The accomplices quickly confessed their guilt, and those who didn't know it all stood by the wall."
With a few thuds, the officers all knelt down and shouted that they didn't know anything about it.
Tao Heiniu stepped forward and patted Wei Dayong's head: "Well, your surname is Wei, you are not small, and you murdered the court officials. Do you know what my grandfather did? Did you see it, it was a disaster relief commissioner sent by the Holy Supreme Qin, that was Jin Yiwei's pacifying envoy, grandpa, I am from Jingda Camp, I have eaten your bear heart and leopard gall, and dare to use such a low-level trick on us."
Wei Dayong's face was pale, his lips parted, but he didn't say anything, but his face was ashen.
Xue Tingxiang came to Guangji Cang ahead of schedule and brought more than 20 people with him.
However, taking down a group of people headed by Wei Dayong, the uninformed officers below do not pose any threat. Soon, they brought the entire Guangji warehouse under control.
In the hall, the lights were bright, Xue Tingxiang interrogated Wei Dayong.
This Wei Dayong was inconspicuous in appearance, but he was tough, and he kept his mouth tightly shut and said nothing.
However, his set is not easy in front of Jin Yiwei. Wei Yunjie winked, and someone from Jin Yiwei stepped forward and took him out, and after a while, there was a heart-piercing scream outside.
It was a scream that could only be made in extreme pain, and it was horrifying to hear.
Not long after, the man brought Wei Dayong in again.
I saw a person who was originally healthy, but his body seemed to be boneless, and his body was soaked, but it was caused by cold sweat.
"Go ahead."
Then Wei Dayong said.
…
Speaking of this, I still have to talk about the granary.
There are more than 800 granaries in Dachang, Beijing, and thirteen provinces, which are divided into Beijing warehouses, water warehouses, and local warehouses.
The Jingcang is dedicated to the army's rations, officials' rations, the royal court's enjoyment, and the regulation of the price of grain in the capital; the water warehouse is a temporary warehouse for the transportation of grain from various places in Beijing; as for the local warehouse, it is also called Changping warehouse. To accommodate tax grains, each local warehouse must also reserve a certain amount of grain every year, just to deal with and respond to various emergencies.
Such as relief, such as Ping Tiao.
Ping Tiao refers to a kind of regulation by the imperial court on the grain market. When the price of grain shortages in the market rises, the grain reserves are put into the market at a regular price, and the price of grain is lowered, so as to prevent the low price of grain from hurting farmers or the high price of grain. hurt people.
Different prefectures, prefectures, and counties have different reserves, and in addition, each province also has a grain supervisor.
The meaning of this food stewardship is somewhat broad, and it is not a standard thing.
Some provinces have it, some don't, such as the Jiangnan area and Huguang, because these areas are the major grain-producing provinces in Dachang. For some places that are prone to disasters, such as Henan, which is close to the Yellow River and has been flooded for nine years in ten years, there is also a food supervision channel, which is mainly to coordinate the food of the whole province in case of emergency.
Like Guangji Cang is to play such a role.
Every year when the prefectures and counties harvest, in addition to the local yamen withholding some grain to fill the Changping warehouse, the Guangji warehouse will also withhold a portion, and the remaining grain will be transferred to Beijing.
These grains stored in the granary are unmoved all year round, and new grains are replaced with old grains every year.
Grain is something that can't be put away, so there is a customary rule in various places, that is, when the price of grain is right, the old grain that has been put away for more than two years is sold and replaced with new grain of the same amount.
People in the world like gold and silver, and no one can avoid it. The white flowers are placed there, and the market price is immediately dropped by more than half. It is inevitable that people will be tempted.
Obviously, the new grain of the year can be bought at a very good price, why wait for it to be aged, and then sell it at a discount
So the grain in the granary was moved.
At first, I just took a profit from it, but then I forgot about it. The grain in the granary became less and less, so I had to tear down the east wall to make up for the west wall.
If it is changed to normal, it will be fine. Anyway, you are used to eating and drinking. If someone from the court comes down to check, they will get the news in advance, and it will be enough to make up for it, but who would have thought that there would be a drought this year.
In fact, there was a drought in Henan last year, but the situation was not serious, and it was not to the point where the imperial court sent people down to relieve the disaster. I thought that this year would be a good year, but who would have thought it would be dry again.
After the disaster was serious, the imperial court ordered to release food for disaster relief, but local orders were received, but few places were able to provide food for disaster relief.
I told the court that it was a relief, but unfortunately there was not enough food. In fact, there was no food at all in private. Even if some are released, the number is very small, which is the main reason why there are so many disaster victims this time, and even the capital city.
The local Changping warehouse will not be mentioned, and Guangji warehouse will not be able to escape in the first place, but the serious disaster is not bad. In such a chaotic situation, how to put grain and how much grain is put in, it is not the officials below who have the final say.
But these people never imagined that the imperial envoy would suddenly kill Guangji Cang.
It was obvious that they had received the news that the group was still in other prefectures.
Not to mention the local officials in Northern Zhili, they looked at the imperial envoy as if they saw the god of plague. But the local officials in Henan saw Xue Tingxiang, but they seemed to see the grandfather of the God of Wealth.
It's good to rob the big households. After robbing all the big households, once the disaster relief work is over, they can also make a fool of themselves in troubled waters.
Never thought that the Ming Xiu plank road would be dark in Chencang.
That's why Wei Dayong was ordered to commit murder in the dark night.
…
Under the means of Jin Yiwei, Wei Dayong shook everything clean.
Tao Heiniu gritted his teeth with hatred. Even Wei Yunjie, who had always been calm and calm, also flickered coldly in his eyes, but Xue Tingxiang was not surprised at all.
In that dream, as the top figure of a group of corrupt officials, although Xue Tingxiang is not greedy, it does not mean that he does not know that the people below are greedy.
He knew how greedy they were and what means they used to be greedy, but he just opened one eye and closed one eye.
Not deaf or dumb, not a family man.
If you want to be a superior man, there must be all kinds of vassals below. These people are good and bad, but there is no difference to the superiors. When the water is clear, there are no fish.
Besides, nowadays, there is probably no official who is not greedy, depending on the greed of more and less.
The person above Wei Dayong is Wu Xu, the councilor and the chief grain officer of the Henan Governor's grain road.
As for whether there is anyone on it who is in sympathy with it, or whether it is a conspiracy, even Wei Dayong can't tell. His official rank is too low, and he doesn't know the above things at all.
Dongfang has already exposed fish belly white, it is almost dawn, but things seem to have not passed.
Not only Xue Tingxiang and others, but also Senator Wu Xu, stayed up all night.
Just when Wei Dayong was acting, a lot of people gathered in his mansion.
It was hard to hide their anxiety, but they pretended to be relaxed. They couldn't stand it until it was late at night. These talents went home, only Wu Xu continued to guard.
Seeing that Dongfang was pale, Wu Xu couldn't help it, so he found his confidant and went to Guangji Cang to ask questions. At the same time, a large number of victims gradually approached Kaifeng City.
"Everyone keeps persevering. Lord Qinchao has already gone to find food for us. It won't take long before we have food to eat."
"It will be in Kaifeng soon, and the imperial envoy is in Kaifeng."
In the suburbs of Kaifeng, groups of victims, like a tide, slowly advanced.
It was confirmed that the Minister of Political Envoys, the Envoys of Prisons and Sentences, the Governor's Office, and even the Envoys of All Commanders were all located in Kaifeng Mansion. The officials in the disaster victims were informed by their proximity to nature, which caused waves of shock.
"Go, let someone stop these people." In the governor's yamen, gathered together, the chief envoy Wu Xu said angrily.
"My lord, who do you let so many people go?"
Wu Xu looked at Wei Yitao, the commander-in-chief, but Wei Yitao did not pick up.
"Commander guard."
Wei Yitao stood up and said, "You guys continue, there is still something to do in this commander's command post, so I won't stay any more."
"Commander Guard!"
"Okay, he doesn't want to go into this muddy water, why should you force others to be difficult?" said Lu Yanshou, the inspector.
"It's just a group of disaster victims. Let the yamen below stop them first, and those who can't use the guardhouse. The most important thing now is how the situation in Guangji Cang is going." Jiang Zhiyi said.
"Xiaguan will send someone to inquire now."
…
In the Guangji warehouse, Zhao'er arrived overnight, unable to catch his breath, so he took the two maids by his side to busy.
Now all the maids around her can check accounts, which is the most basic necessity.
Not only her and the two maids, but also Xue Tingxiang.
The four of them joined hands and took a look at the accounts of Guangji Cang in recent years.
I have to say that these officials are all good at greed for ink, but unfortunately they are not good at accounting, and the accounting is full of errors and omissions. Probably not afraid of people checking, or trying to save trouble, many accounts are unclear.
For this reason, a few people can only go back and forth to roughly calculate how much grain Guangji warehouse can earn in a year, how much grain is released, and how much grain has been donated this time.
On the other side, the officers and soldiers of Kaifeng Mansion had stopped those victims, but unfortunately things were completely out of their control.
"Why don't you let us go, the imperial envoy is right in front." A tall and burly peasant shouted while pulling his neck.
"that is."
"The imperial envoy said that he will go ahead and raise food, and we will arrive later. Do you people know what the imperial envoy does? The imperial envoy was sent by His Majesty to rescue us ordinary people. We followed the imperial envoy back from Beijing all the way. The imperial envoy The lord said that the court will distribute food, enough for us to pass this calamity year and not let one person starve to death, why don't you let us pass."
"Did they kill the imperial envoy? These corrupt officials hated and poisoned Mr. Xue. They closed the city gate and prevented us from entering the city. The grain distributed by the court was peeled off layer by layer. Here, they must have done something to Master Xue, that's why they didn't let us go."
The victims were excited.
The excitement of so many people is not a small scene. There are only a few dozen people in the yamen, and their opponents can only retreat step by step.
"What are you trying to do? Are you guys thinking the other way around?" The leading yamen grabbed the knife at his waist and threatened.
"Don't take the opposite and oppress us ordinary people. The imperial envoy said that although my majesty is in the palace, but he cares about the people, so he sent the imperial envoy to investigate the people's feelings, listen to the public opinions, and relieve the people's worries. You His mother is a bird, come and tell us whether it is against you? Can you represent the imperial envoy, the government, and the majesty?"
The yamen who took the lead was blocked and his face changed, and he couldn't help but take a step back and scolded: "You, you group of troublemakers!"
"Let's not talk nonsense with them. It must be these corrupt officials who are embarrassing Mr. Xue. Your Majesty finally sent a good official here, but you can't let them get hurt. Let's go to them and ask for someone!"
"Yes, ask them to ask for someone!"