Chapter 87 The Dilemma of Prince Sheng
Lin Changning pressed his curved blade down, his voice laced with threat: "Do you think you have the leverage to bargain? Speak!"
The centurion felt the chill on his neck and finally couldn't hold back for more than three seconds: "The Chongshan Guard robbed the grain because they received news that 5,000 shi of grain would be transported to Daxing by water. There were less than 300 people transporting it, and they were carrying so much grain. It would also pass through their territory. It would be unreasonable not to rob it. As for Daxing, we know that the Prince of Chu is not easy to mess with, but now that we have rebelled, how can we care about offending anyone?"
Upon hearing this, Qi Rong glanced coldly at the centurion on the ground and turned to leave. Lin Changning understood and killed the man with a single stroke, blood splattering out. Lin Changning calmly took out a handkerchief from his sleeve to wipe the curved knife in his hand.
After confirming that everyone had been wiped out, Lin Changning opened the grain sacks to check the grain. Seeing the golden wheat inside, Lin Changning excitedly ran to the cart, mounted the horse, and became the driver. As he drove, he hummed, "We common people are truly happy today, we've seized five thousand jin of grain, we'll have a good winter this year!"
The others who heard this couldn't help but laugh along, their faces beaming with joy. Qi Rong glanced at Lin Changning, who was playfully joking with the soldiers, and couldn't help but chuckle. Although he was usually very clever and composed, Changning still couldn't escape his youthful nature.
They arrived lightly equipped and quickly reached the ambush site, but the return trip was more troublesome because the grain carts could not travel on open roads and had to take mountain trails, which caused them to miss many opportunities along the way.
Qi Rong could not stay away from the garrison for too long, so he took a small cavalry unit and led about twenty brothers to leave and return to the garrison.
The grain convoy was handed over to Lin Changning, and they managed to travel unnoticed without incident.
With only two days' journey remaining to Daxing, the group felt a little relieved. Lin Changning was dozing off in the carriage when Wan Jin suddenly called for the carriage to stop, waking her up with a grim expression: "Commander, come and see."
Lin Changning was dazed as she was led to the back of the convoy. A soldier saw her and pointed to a pile of grain sacks on the ground: "Commander, when we were passing through the forest this morning, the sacks under this vehicle slipped and broke, and a lot of grain leaked out. So we stopped to check, and when we looked at the grain sacks, we found out that this was the situation."
Lin Changning picked up the grains from the ground and saw that half of the wheat in the handful was mixed with sand!
Lin Changning ordered the grain and fodder to be unloaded from the grain carts and began to inspect them one by one. As soon as he started to inspect them, his heart sank to the bottom.
A grain cart was loaded with more than fifty bags of grain. Apart from the top layer of a dozen or so bags which were grain and straw, the middle bags were filled with grain mixed with sand, and the bottom layer was completely empty, filled with sand.
Lin Changning was so angry that his veins were throbbing. He immediately ordered the troops to stop in the dense forest and inspect the grain cart by cart. As Lin Changning watched his men checking the grain bag by bag, he calmed down a little and helped them sort and inspect the grain.
Half a day later—
Lin Changning covered his face, his heart filled with worry.
"For the thousand households, the total grain supply is 1,400 dan (a unit of weight), of which 2,200 dan (another unit of weight) were mixed with sand and soil. The rest..."
The centurion who was reporting sighed and continued, "The remaining grain sacks are full of sand and soil."
Wan Jin's eyes turned red with rage, and he slammed the scimitar in his hand to the ground: "You scoundrel!! You're so wicked!"
Lin Changning sighed, his face also looking grim. Who could have imagined that the grain they had snatched back would be falsified? Five thousand shi of grain—that was something they had fought hard for to get back. Just when the court finally relented, it was stolen by the rebellious Prince Sheng. And now, after all that effort to get it back, it turned out to be mixed with sand!
Lin Changning pondered carefully and increasingly felt that the grain exchange might not have been done by Prince Sheng. If Prince Sheng were exchanging grain, there would be no need to leave them more than a thousand dan of grain and fodder; he would have exchanged it all for sand and soil. Moreover, the matter of robbing Prince Sheng had not leaked a word. Now that Prince Sheng had discovered that the grain had been stolen, he only thought it had been robbed by bandits. Along the way, Prince Sheng's Chongshan Guard had no time to exchange the grain and fodder and secretly transport the grain back to his territory.
Therefore, from the beginning, the imperial court did not intend to provide them with enough grain.
Lin Changning gritted his teeth, growing increasingly disgusted with the imperial court. The soldiers guarding the border were protecting the country and defending the frontier, yet the court even had to falsify the grain supplies, as if afraid they would eat too much.
We had no choice but to swallow this bitter pill. Fortunately, there were still more than a thousand dan of grain to eat. After sifting through the sand and soil, we should be able to get quite a few dan. But it was still a frustrating thing to talk about.
After Lin Changning finished his calculations, he said, "Throw all the sand into the river, and put the grain and the grain mixed with sand back in. Let's hurry back."
Wan Jin said bitterly, "Commander, are we just going to let this go like this?"
Lin Changning looked at Wan Jin: "Otherwise what? Expose ourselves? Lead a few hundred of us to rob grain in the territory of Prince Sheng? Or openly announce to the world that we disguised ourselves as bandits and robbed grain?"
Wan Jin choked, but still sat on the ground, indignant: "What can we do? Just swallow this loss? Let Prince Sheng take our grain for nothing?"
Looking at the unusually naive and innocent Wan Jin, Lin Changning explained, "This matter probably has little to do with Prince Sheng. They only seized the grain within seven or eight days, not enough time to move it around. We acted quickly, so it's likely not that they switched it, but rather that the grain they seized was already adulterated with water."
Finally realizing what was happening, Wan Jin shut his mouth and stopped talking, but his eyes were filled with sadness. He opened his mouth several times but couldn't say anything.
The other soldiers were also somewhat disheartened, but Lin Changning rallied them: "Alright, even if it's mixed with sand, it's still a thousand or two thousand dan of grain, enough to last us for a month or two. Cheer up, form ranks! March through the night and get back to the garrison within a day!!"
After he finished speaking, several hundred people lined up neatly, took their positions, and marched at a speed more than twice as fast as before.
One day later—
After rushing for a while, they finally entered the city before the gates closed. The first thing Lin Changning did was return to the garrison to report on the matter of sand being mixed into the grain.
Qi Rong was so angry upon hearing this that he was dizzy. No one expected that the imperial court would dare to falsify the grain supplies.
He summoned several commanders of a thousand and a hundred overnight. Qi Rong sat in the main seat and, after Lin Changning finished explaining, asked, "What do you think?"
Commander Ma suppressed his anger, cupped his hands in a fist and said, "Our current provisions are only enough to last us for a month. The Tartars have been coming down frequently lately. How can we fight and command without food? We can only continue to ask the court for more food. Otherwise, where will we conjure up provisions out of thin air?"
Commander Zheng shook his head: "That's not appropriate. Even if the imperial grain arrives, it will take a month. Right now, we need to find a way to get grain from elsewhere."
Commander Ma snorted coldly: "Where are we going to get it? This whole northern frontier is desperately poor. The people can't even feed themselves. Are we going to take food from them?"
Qi Rong glanced around, looked at Lin Changning who was deep in thought with his head down, and then at the noisy generals around him. He slammed his hand on the table and said, "Alright, quiet down. Changping, do you have any ideas?"
Lin Changping raised his eyes, and all the generals around him stared intently at him.
Lin Changning coughed lightly: "Yes, there is, but..."
Qi Rong looked at Lin Changning, relaxed his brows, and curled the corners of his mouth: "Just say it."
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