Li Hailong was inwardly drafting a memorial impeaching Gu Shaoyu to death, but when he saw him, he remained extremely respectful on the surface.

“I remember you were a Jinshi in the fifteenth year of the imperial examination. Your ancestral home is Jinghe County, Chang’an. You have four brothers, two of whom serve in the Wei family army. You and Wei Anlu are brothers-in-law. You served in Zizhou for seven years, during which time the Zizhou treasury was in deficit for five years.”

Gu Shaoyu glanced at Li Hailong indifferently, "If it weren't for the solid foundation laid by the previous leader, you would probably have lost money for seven years out of the last. I'd like to ask you, where did all that grain and silver go?"

Despite the freezing weather, Li Hailong broke out in a sweat.

All the contempt they had shown towards Gu Shaoyu vanished.

"This humble official is incompetent. The fields of Zizhou are barren, and natural disasters are frequent. This humble official, this humble official..." Li Hailong could not continue speaking.

Xie Yu chuckled and said, "I have served in the Ministry of Revenue for several years and have some understanding of Zizhou. Zizhou has fertile land and is most suitable for cultivation. Before you, Zizhou was one of the granaries of Dagan. After you came, it has been in deficit every year."

Magistrate Qin raised his eyelids slightly a few times, secretly glancing at Li Hailong's pointed and monkey-like face, and then at Gu Shaoyu and Xie Yu's handsome and dignified faces, thinking to himself: Sure enough, good-looking men are not to be trifled with!

As soon as Li Hailong arrived, Gu Shaoyu pressed him relentlessly, and Li Hailong was so frightened that he knelt on the ground and kowtowed repeatedly.

Gu Shaoyu wasn't there to provide disaster relief; he was clearly sent by His Majesty to settle accounts with him.

"Think carefully, where has all the grain gone over the years? Write it down in detail, big or small. You can go home when I am satisfied!"

Gu Shaoyu didn't bother to talk to him anymore. He ordered Nanxing to take him to a separate cell and keep him under guard. No one was allowed to get close, and no one was allowed to leak any information.

All the people he brought were taken into custody and imprisoned as soon as they entered the government office.

Once Li Hailong entered the county government office, he severed all contact with the outside world.

Five days later, the news spread throughout the land: the price of grain in Zizhou had risen to over three hundred coins, and was heading straight for four hundred or five hundred coins.

Magistrate Qin was extremely anxious. He would walk around the streets every day, enduring the people's cries and curses, feeling as if he had lost his parents.

The streets suddenly became exceptionally lively, with large numbers of grain carts arriving in Baiyang County every day.

Carriages and horses entered through the city gates in an endless stream, and the grain merchants were all beaming with joy and excitement.

Looking at the local people, who were half-dead from hunger and didn't even have the strength to cry for their deceased relatives, Magistrate Qin was furious and his heart was about to explode.

At every intersection, there were people sent by Grand Secretary Gu. Grain carts were only allowed to enter, not leave. If they wanted to leave, they had to pay 300 cash per dou (a unit of dry measure) to leave.

Magistrate Qin was furious. If things continued like this, the people of Baiyang County would be the first to rebel!

He immediately wrote a memorial to the throne and submitted it to the imperial court.

"Grand Secretary Gu is truly a great villain..."

After he ordered the memorial to be sent out by express courier, he waited for the court's reply every day.

Gu Shaoyu knew he was submitting a memorial, so he didn't stop him.

He simply instructed Ling Xun and Xie Yu to go to the local garrison and request 500 troops from the Grand Commander. They then arrested a local strongman named Ding Fengqi, who was about 30 years old.

Ding Fengqi was originally just the son of a local gentry. After passing the imperial examination, he stopped progressing and met a nobleman from the capital a few years ago. He became increasingly wealthy and powerful afterward.

No one knows how he climbed up to the powerful and influential people in the capital. Anyway, he bought shops, opened a horse farm, built a mansion, and acted arrogantly. Even Li Hailong didn't dare to offend him.

Holding the imperial edict, Ling Xun and Xie Yu led men to suddenly arrest Ding Fengqi and ransack his house with lightning speed.

Ding Fengqi immediately sent someone to contact Li Hailong, but they couldn't reach him. The information sent to Li Hailong disappeared without a trace.

Hongying asked Xie Yu, "Lord Xie, should these people be imprisoned in the prefectural jail or the Baiyang County jail?"

Xie Yu: "This man has a bloody record; he should be executed immediately."

Without hesitation, Hongying carried out the order.

Before the general's soldiers could even hesitate, Hongying and her women had already killed Ding Fengqi's entire family.

"Load all the grain from the granary onto carts and take it to the county government office. Send the horses to the governor's office," Xie Yu instructed. "The grain must be brought into the county town in broad daylight, with shouts along the way that the imperial court has allocated disaster relief grain."

Ding Fengqi's granary did indeed have plenty of grain, but Ling Xun and Xie Yu still ordered their soldiers to fill hundreds of bags with sand and soil in the fields overnight.

Starting the next day, a large convoy of rice and grain trucks entered Baiyang County.

Along the way, large gongs clanged loudly, and people shouted as they struck them: "The imperial court has allocated enough rice and grain for the people to eat until the summer harvest."

The endless stream of rice carts was like a long-awaited rain after a drought, which was extremely exciting.

The grain carts started entering the city in the morning and continued transporting grain until sunset and nightfall, without stopping.

Magistrate Qin didn't know what Gu Shaoyu was planning, but he was extremely happy. The government had transferred so much grain; could they release it now?

He excitedly reached out to touch the rice sacks, but his heart sank: in every cartload of grain, the top layer of rice sacks contained grain, while the bottom layer of rice sacks were filled with sand and dirt!

Is this some kind of charlatan?

Gu Shaoyu said to him, "Go and post a notice first thing tomorrow morning. The government will open its granaries to sell rice tomorrow, and the price of rice is one hundred coins."

"What?" Magistrate Qin thought he had misheard.

"The Grand Secretary said that the government will sell rice tomorrow for one hundred coins," Ling Xun said with a smile. "You heard me right."

Oh, it's not four hundred coins, it's not three hundred coins, it's one hundred coins!

The next day, the county government posted a notice stating that the price of rice was one hundred coins.

The whole city was in an uproar!

The common people are overjoyed! The price has suddenly dropped to one hundred coins. It's all thanks to Grand Secretary Gu's resourcefulness!

The five major grain traders were also in an uproar and held an emergency meeting.

Bai Family: "What does this mean? Why is the government leading the way in lowering prices so drastically all at once?"

Liu family: "Is there even a need to ask? Yesterday, so much grain was allocated, they said it would last until the summer harvest!"

This chapter is not finished, please click the next page to continue reading!