While the three old eunuchs were sharpening their knives, Li Shouguo's two sons were so frightened that they wet themselves.

Even if they urinated, it was no use. Li Jue still ordered his men to tie them tightly to a bed board, then ordered them to take off their pants, and thoughtfully disinfected their private parts with alcohol.

"Li Shouguo, you can say whatever you want, but you'll be childless in no time!"

"Father, please tell me, waaaaah..."

"Father, your son doesn't want to be a eunuch, sob sob sob..."

Li Shouguo went through a fierce internal struggle before finally breaking down when the old eunuch raised his knife.

"I'll talk!"

Upon hearing this, Li Jue immediately waved his hand at the three old eunuchs, signaling them to halt the execution.

Then he ordered someone to bring over a small stool and sat down opposite Li Shouguo.

"Speak!"

"From this moment forward, every word you utter will be recorded and reported to His Majesty the Emperor!"

Li Shouguo smiled bitterly upon hearing this.

"Crown Prince, do you think I didn't say I was afraid of death? Actually, I just didn't want to cause trouble for His Majesty!"

Do you know who was involved in the grain-selling case?

Li Jue shook his head upon hearing this.

"have no idea!"

"However, it's not hard to guess; it must be some princes, as well as some meritorious officials and veteran ministers, who were involved..."

Li Shouguo snorted coldly upon hearing this.

"wrong!"

"Not some, but all!"

"all?"

"Including Li Jing, Yuchi Jingde, Cheng Yaojin, and others!"

"What?"

Li Jue was stunned when he heard this. He never expected that his two most respected masters would be involved.

"Crown Prince, the case of burning down the granary is bigger than you imagine!"

"I can say without exaggeration that almost all the officials in the court were involved, except... except for Chen Buqi, who committed suicide by poison..."

"hiss……"

Li Jue felt a chill run down his spine upon hearing these words.

"Go on!"

"promise!"

Li Shouguo quickly confessed everything he knew, and Li Jue felt a sinking feeling in his heart after reading his confession.

Does Li Er really have the guts to handle such a big case?

According to Li Shouguo's confession, there was never enough food in Guanzhong. Even in years of bumper harvest, there was still a significant shortage.

However, the imperial court needed to collect grain and build official granaries.

However, if all this grain were put into the official granary, there wouldn't be enough grain in the market.

Therefore, they have been openly buying and selling over the years.

This is not only for making money, but also for stabilizing prices in Chang'an.

Of course, they did make a lot of money.

As for the nobles involved in this case, they were divided into those who were heavily involved and those who were lightly involved.

The term "heavy involvement" refers to direct involvement in the buying and selling of grain, thus becoming a direct beneficiary of the resale of grain from official granaries.

For example, officials like Li Shouguo who were directly involved.

The so-called "light participation" means selling one's own grain to the official granary at the government's purchase price, and then buying cheaper grain from the official granary to eat.

For example, Yuchi Jingde and Li Jing.

According to Li Shouguo's confession, even Ma Zhou, the Vice Minister of the Secretariat, knew about their grain resale, and that their family even bought cheap grain from the official granary.

Li Jue refused to believe it and pried open the mouths of several other officials, who eventually came to the same conclusion.

That means all the officials in Chang'an were directly or indirectly involved in the case of reselling government grain...

Three days later, Li Jue handed all the prisoners' confessions to Li Shimin, who remained silent for a long time after reading them.

"Grandson, what do you think we should do about this?"

Li Shimin was completely at a loss, otherwise he wouldn't have asked Li Jue.

"Grandpa, I've never handled such a big case before, there's nothing I can do..."

"But if we don't crack down on them, they'll only get worse in the future!"

"well!"

Li Shimin sighed deeply.

"Unbelievable! Not a single one of the civil and military officials in the court has escaped..."

"I trusted them so much, even offering them food and clothing!"

"Someone, bring Ma Zhou and Li Jing here!"

Before long, Ma Zhou and Li Jing arrived at Ganlu Hall together.

Upon seeing Li Shimin's expression, the two men basically understood that the case of burning down the granary must have been solved.

But the two were not worried, because they had never been directly involved in the case; they had only purchased some low-priced grain from the official granary.

"Do you two know about the official granary?"

Li Jing hesitated slightly before speaking.

"yes!"

Ma Zhou glanced at Li Jing, then at Li Shimin, and lowered his head in shame.

"Your Majesty, I have failed to live up to your trust!"

Upon hearing this, Li Shimin slammed his hand heavily on the table.

"Ma Zhou, you have truly failed my trust!"

"You come from a humble background. I explained this to the nobles in the court many times in order to promote you, but you treat me like this!"

"Your humble servant... Your humble servant deserves to die, sob sob sob..."

When Li Shimin saw that Ma Zhou was acting like a child who had done something wrong, he immediately softened.

"Tell me, what exactly happened?"

Upon hearing this, Ma Zhou wiped away his tears and then raised his head.

"Your Majesty, in truth, Chang'an has never had enough food. I only turned a blind eye in order to stabilize prices in Chang'an..."

"Furthermore, I send people to inspect prices in Chang'an every day, which is why they haven't dared to go too far..."

Li Shimin sneered upon hearing this.

"So, you're saying you're still a meritorious contributor?"

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