In 1037 AD, in March of the fourth year of Jingyou in the Song Dynasty, the Liao Dynasty appointed Qin Wang Xiao Xiaomu as the Privy Councilor of the Northern Court and moved him to the title of King of Wu.

The Liao, Song and Xia kingdoms all had spies working within them at the time.

For example, Xixia hired spies, and Li Yuanhao knew everything about Zhao Zhen's daily life habits and what he did every day.

The Song Dynasty once sent a spy to assassinate the Western Xia general Yeli Yuqi. After failing, the Song Dynasty used a counter-espionage strategy and had the spy steal the sword given to Yeli Yuqi by Li Yuanhao, and threatened that Yeli Yuqi wanted to rebel against Xia and join Song. In the end, Li Yuanhao executed Yeli's family.

Needless to say, both sides had spy agencies targeting each other, such as the Yanjing Garrison of the Liao Dynasty, the Jiyisi of the Song Dynasty, the Anfusi of the border states, the Huangchengsi of Bianliang, and the Bianpu in the border markets.

After the signing of the Treaty of Chanyuan, both sides sent a large number of spies into the enemy's territory to spy on military intelligence, enemy situation, food and troop deployment, etc. These spies achieved many victories.

For example, the Liao Kingdom captured the Song Dynasty general He Lingtu alive through spies. Emperor Xingzong of Liao wanted to go south, so he found the best route to the south through spies, the Guannan area, and intended to launch a surprise attack.

The Song Dynasty also learned of the Liao Kingdom's southward advance plan through spies and made preparations in advance, ultimately forcing Emperor Xingzong of Liao to withdraw his troops. Regarding the Chongxi currency increase, the Song Dynasty also learned of Emperor Xingzong of Liao's bottom line through spies, preparing sufficient countermeasures for the negotiations.

Judging from these examples, over the past hundred years, the spies of the three parties have been extremely active. The importance of intelligence work was fully demonstrated as early as a thousand years ago during the Liao, Song and Xia dynasties.

Therefore, Zhao Jun's appearance naturally came to the forefront of Liao Xingzong's mind. From last year to this year, he had also witnessed all the changes in the Song Dynasty court.

However, Liao Xingzong's situation has not been very good recently. He imprisoned his biological mother, Empress Dowager Xiao, two years ago and dealt with a group of ministers from Xiao Noujin's group, causing serious political turmoil.

In addition, the Liao Dynasty's borders were unstable, and the Jurchens, Ugu people, and Mengwu Shiwei (later the Mongols) could not bear the heavy oppression of the Liao people and often rebelled.

Therefore, Emperor Xingzong of Liao did not focus all his attention on the Song Dynasty, but instead focused on pacifying the internal situation of the Liao Kingdom.

For example, although he imprisoned his biological mother, he appointed his uncle Xiao Xiaomu as the Privy Councilor of the Northern Court, and conferred upon Xiao Xiaocheng the title of Prince of Lanling, Xiao Xiaozhong the title of King of Chu, and Xiao Xiaoyou the title of Prime Minister of the Northern Court, which was considered a reconciliation with the Xiao family.

Then he reduced taxes, appeased the ethnic minority tribes, and eased internal conflicts, which temporarily stabilized the unstable Liao Kingdom.

It was not until several years later, in the second year of the Qingli period, that the Liao Kingdom became stable. In addition, several years of war between the Song and Xia dynasties had made both the Western Xia and the Song Dynasty very exhausted, so he decided to send troops.

Moreover, they did not dare to send troops to the Song Dynasty, but chose to send troops to the Western Xia. It was very embarrassing before they even won the battle.

Therefore, in the fourth year of Jingyou, the Liao Kingdom was still in the midst of internal and external troubles. It was actually difficult for Emperor Xingzong of Liao to look south immediately. He just sent spies to the interior to keep an eye on the news within the Song Kingdom.

So when Li Yuanhao was actively preparing to become emperor, Yelu Zongzhen was incapable of causing trouble, and Zhao Zhen was addicted to games, what was Zhao Jun doing?

He is investigating a corruption case in Huainan.

In early March, Zhao Jun arrived in Shouzhou.

Two years ago, there was a severe drought in Huainan, and Shouzhou was one of the worst-hit areas.

The Huainan Road Transport Commissioner and the Jiangnan East Road Transport Commissioner, who was also in charge of Jianghuai Shipping, ordered the opening of the Changping Warehouse to provide relief to the victims.

At the same time, the imperial court also raised a wave of disaster relief grain and transported it to Huainan West Road.

In August of that year, the Huainan government "made porridge to help the hungry people" to temporarily alleviate the people's hunger.

In September, the imperial court "lent money to the poor people in the disaster-stricken states of Huainan to grow grain" to help them resume production.

But the famine continued, so the court increased its relief efforts and directly ordered "the Transportation Bureau to transfer 300,000 hu of rice for relief."

In the first month of the following year, he again "gifted one million hu of rice to the local people to relieve the starving people and sent envoys to supervise."

But even so, tens of thousands of people starved to death in Huainan, plague was rampant, and corpses were everywhere. Even now, in the fourth year of Jingyou, there has been no recovery.

After Zhao Jun arrived in Huainan, he immediately began to investigate the post-disaster situation. As a result, on the sixth day, the magistrate of Huoqiu County committed suicide out of fear of punishment.

Because the Imperial City Inspector sent by Zhao Jun to investigate the Huoqiu area concluded that when Huoqiu suffered a drought, the local government provided very little rice for disaster relief, and it was mixed with a lot of sand and bran.

It is tolerable to mix a little sand in the disaster relief rice. The people who suffer the most are the poor at the bottom of the society. Many rich farmers, middle class and wealthy people have strong ability to resist the disaster. In order to prevent some rich families from taking the opportunity to fleece the court, it is understandable to add some sand.

Even adding bran would be fine; after all, for the disaster victims, as long as they could fill their stomachs and avoid starvation, a bowl of porridge made up of more than 80% rice, 15% bran, and 5% sand was acceptable.

But a bowl of porridge only contains less than 20% rice, and most of the rest is bran and sand. That is too much.

When Zhao Jun learned about the situation, he was furious and immediately launched an investigation.

Since Shouzhou was Lu Yijian's hometown, Zhao Jun sent someone to hand Lu Yijian's letter to Lu Yijian's younger brother Lu Zongjian, and asked him to help investigate.

With the help of the local tyrants, the whole story was quickly found out.

It turned out that the former Huoqiu County magistrate colluded with local grain merchants to embezzle the disaster relief grain funds from the court. The grain in the Changping Warehouse plus the tens of thousands of hu of grain distributed by the court later added up to more than 100,000 hu.

In the eighth year of Tiansheng, Fan Zhongyan once said, "I think one mu of average-sized land can only produce one dou of millet. In a good autumn, one dou can be sold for no more than three hundred coins."

However, the price of grain in the disaster area skyrocketed. The most expensive grain price in Huainan could reach two to three thousand coins per hu. The profit suddenly increased by nearly ten times. This batch of grain could save tens of thousands of people in a county. If it was resold, it would be worth millions of strings of cash.

My dear, there is more to this chapter. Please click on the next page to continue reading. It will be even more exciting later!