The next morning, Yun Zheng led his men to patrol the Shuofang military camp.

Everything was normal in the military camp, and all the soldiers got up and trained at the prescribed time.

Yun Zheng went to see the training ground on purpose.

There was hardly a single blade of dead grass to be seen in the field.

Although this does not mean that the Shuofang garrison commander performed his duties completely, it does mean that the soldiers trained quite diligently and were not just doing temporary training to fool him.

After inspecting the military camp, Yun Zheng went to the Shuofang government office.

Upon learning of Yun Zheng's arrival, Shuofang County Magistrate Yao Xiangxun had already brought his men to wait outside the government office.

When Yun Zheng arrived, Yao Xiangxun immediately led people to greet him.

"Okay, let's go inside and talk!"

Yun Zheng waved his hand, quickly dismounted, and walked into the government office with the gait of a dragon or a tiger.

...

...

After entering the government office, Yun Zheng ordered Yao Xiangxun to bring Shuofang's account book.

Yao Xiangxun was well prepared and immediately ordered someone to bring all the account books.

"Find the account book of the official warehouse!"

Yun Zheng is simple and direct.

After Yao Xiangxun found the account book of the official warehouse, Yun Zheng pushed the rest of the account books to Jia Yao, "I will take a look at the account book in my hand first, and you can help me with the rest!"

"Um."

Jia Yao nodded slightly, then looked at Yun Zheng with a slight annoyance.

This bastard actually knows how to conscript men!

If it were just the two of them, she would definitely have scolded Yun Zheng.

But in front of all the officials from Shuofang, Jia Yao still straightened his attitude.

Yun Zheng smiled faintly and casually flipped through the account book in his hand.

The account book records in detail the grain inflow and outflow from the Shuofang official warehouse.

In the absence of disaster relief, the biggest consumption of grain in government warehouses was to supply the army.

Judging from the account books, more than half of Shuofang's government granaries were still full.

Yun Zheng just flipped through it casually for a while and then put the account book away.

"Let's go, take me to the official warehouse to have a look!"

Yun Zheng stood up and told Jia Yao, "Bring the account book with you and read it in the carriage!"

"good!"

Jia Yao also stood up.

Yao Xiangxun did not dare to delay and immediately arranged a carriage for them.

"How is it? Do you see any problem?"

In the carriage, Yun Zheng asked Jia Yao in a low voice.

"I haven't found any problems in the account book yet." Jia Yao shook his head and said, "But I feel that there is something wrong with this tax silver."

"What do you mean?"

Yun Zheng asked.

"The tax money is too little."

Jia Yao replied: "Shuofang has more than 200,000 people after all, and the war has not affected Shuofang. Logically speaking, Shuofang's tax silver should have a larger surplus..."

Shuofang is indeed not very big.

It is nominally a county town, but in fact it is just a county seat.

However, in order to guard against Beihuan, Dagan built Shuofang City according to the standards of a county city.

However, Shuofang had not engaged in large-scale construction before, so its expenditure should not be that large, and there would not be only this much tax silver.

The accounts are correct, but it doesn't make sense.

Listening to Jia Yao's words, Yun Zheng took the treasury account book from her.

But after looking at the account book for a long time, he couldn't find any problems.

But this is normal.

Accounting should be the basic skill of anti-corruption.

If you can't even do the accounts properly and still engage in corruption, you are simply seeking death.

"Why do you want to go to the official warehouse first?"

Jia Yao was curious, "Logically speaking, shouldn't you check the treasury first?"

"Because I deliberately raised the grain price in Shuobei!" Yun Zheng explained, "If I were corrupt, I would probably resell the grain in the government warehouse at a high price, and then buy grain at a low price to fill the government warehouse after the price of grain drops..."

No wonder!

Jia Yao suddenly realized.

As the two were talking, they had already arrived at the official warehouse.

Yun Zheng took the account book and followed Jia Yao out of the carriage.

After another round of welcoming, Yun Zheng and his party finally entered the official warehouse.

Yun Zheng called Shen Kuan over and whispered a few words to him.

Soon, Shen Kuan led the guards to inspect the government granary.

A group of people took wooden sticks and knocked here and there, checking the granaries one by one.

After a while, Shen Kuan came to report: "Your Highness, almost half of the granaries are full."

Is that so?

Am I overthinking it?

Yun Zheng pondered secretly and called the warehouse manager over again, "According to the current situation, how long can the existing grain in the official warehouse last?"

Si Cang bowed and replied: "It can only last until March at most."

"So much food can only last until March?"

Yun Zheng frowned.

Seeing that Yun Zheng looked a little strange, Si Cang hurriedly explained: "Your Highness, you may not know that I have also taken into account the consumption of the farmers at Langya Pass. If we don't count the consumption of the farmers, we can support it until July and August, but it will be difficult to support it until the new tax grain comes in..."

"I see."

Yun Zheng nodded slightly, and then asked Yao Xiangxun: "If I don't mobilize food to support Shuofang, how do you plan to get through the current predicament?"

"this……"

Yao Xiangxun obviously did not expect Yun Zheng to ask this question, and for a moment he didn't know how to answer.

After thinking hard for a while, Yao Xiangxun finally spoke: "I think that taxes can be increased appropriately, and the salaries of all officials can be temporarily reduced by half. I am also willing to donate my savings over the years to buy food."

"Also, distribute corvée labor to the people and tell the people of Shuofang that no matter what, even if they have to bring their own food, the road to Langya Mountain Pass must be opened. As long as this road is built, all the people of Shuofang will be able to live a good life in the future..."

As Yao Xiangxun spoke, he secretly paid attention to Yun Zheng's expression.

He knew that saying this might make Yun Zheng unhappy, but there was nothing he could do!

There is not enough silver in the treasury, not enough food, and Yun Zheng does not support them. What can they do?

Yun Zheng's face showed no joy or sadness, but he secretly approved in his heart.

Of course, this praise needs to be put in quotation marks.

It has to be said that Yao Xiangxun is well versed in the ways of being an official.

If it were Zhang Huai and Gao Shizhen, they would definitely persuade him to suspend the construction at Langya Pass and find ways to overcome the current crisis. It would not be too late to start the construction again when there was enough food and silver in the treasury.

But what Yao Xiangxun thought was that he must do everything he could to get things done as the leader wanted him to do.

Even if this method is not good, at least it shows that you are loyal to the leader and stand on the same line with the leader.

After Yao Xiangxun finished speaking, Yun Zheng smiled and said, "It's not a good idea to keep exploiting the people. You can think about it and see if there are other ways! You can also ask other people for advice!"

“Yes, yes…”

Yao Xiangxun nodded repeatedly and immediately discussed countermeasures with the officials.

Yun Zheng beckoned Shen Kuan to come closer and whispered something in his ear again.

Soon, Shen Kuan took his men away again.

This time, Chen Kuan directly led his men to open all the full granaries, and directly inserted the weapons in their hands from above to see if there were the partitions that Yun Zheng mentioned in the granaries.

Seeing what Shen Kuan and the others were doing, Si Cang felt his whole body go limp, and he sat on the ground with a look of despair on his face...