After discussing the action plan in detail with the escorts, Yu Zizhen left under the cover of night.
With this super plug-in system, Yu Zizhen doesn't have to worry about being unfamiliar with the route or bumping into the night watchman.
She took a few detours and finally returned to her temporary residence in Cangzhou safely.
The imperial envoys sent by the court for disaster relief will stay in Cangzhou for a while. Firstly, they like to enjoy themselves, and being entertained by local officials has become a must-do program for them wherever they go. Secondly, they and Liu Jinchang have the same bad idea. Both groups want to make a fortune from the disaster relief money and grain allocated to Cangzhou by the court.
While they were testing each other and arguing with each other, Yu Zizhen planned to transfer out some of the gold, silver and silver notes she had hidden in the system warehouse.
Although this money is not suitable for buying expensive grain in Cangzhou, it is very suitable for buying grain from poor refugees who can't survive and have to sell themselves or their families.
So while the relief team was staying in Cangzhou, Yu Zizhen, like a child giving away money, transferred more than 60% of the cash in her system warehouse to Lu Mingxuan.
Lu Mingxuan was the person in charge of her disaster relief operation. Once the money was in his hands, the caravan leaders under him would be able to get it soon.
As for Yu Zizhen, after handing over most of her cash, she turned her attention back to the escorts.
The escorts led by Chen Qing and Zheng Yuzhi had already received the silver and grain that they were required to escort. At the insistence of the owner of the escort agency, the escorts opened all the grain bags and cash boxes and carefully inspected them despite the vicious looks of the officials and yamen runners.
As expected, the actual types and amounts of money and grain were far different from the types and amounts of money and grain listed on the list they gave to the escort agency.
All the new grain was replaced with old grain from last year or even the year before, and the amount of gold and silver items also changed from a full box to half a box or even less than half a box.
The owner of Hengtai Escort Agency was no fool, and he immediately asked the government to provide a new list.
The government disagreed, claiming that the fewer people killed were normal losses caused by food and fodder for the imperial envoys on the road.
The owner of Hengtai Escort Agency did not mention the word "embezzlement". He pretended that he agreed with the government's statement about "normal wear and tear", but he refused to accept the mismatch between the goods and the description.
He refused with good reason, "It's not that I want to embarrass you gentlemen, but we escorts have always had our own set of rules."
He was not talking nonsense. Those who were escorting goods had always carefully inspected the goods before sending them out. Otherwise, if the goods were not as ordered, wouldn't their escort agency have to suffer the loss and pay compensation to the employer?
Not to mention intangible things like money and food, even if the other party asked them to escort a living person, they would have to write down all the personal characteristics of this living person, such as age, appearance, height, etc. on the list.
This is certainly a way for the bodyguards to protect themselves, but if the employer has no ulterior motives, this approach is actually ensuring the employer's vital interests.
Let’s take the example of transporting grain. If the employer and the escort do not clearly specify the types and quantities of grain at the beginning, can the escorts replace the new grain sent by the employer with old grain, or replace refined rice and flour with cheap coarse grains in the middle of the journey?
Anyway, it’s all food, and the number of sacks is not small. Who can say that the escorts didn’t deliver the things entrusted by their employers to the destination?
The owner of Hengtai Escort Agency pretended to be ignorant even though he knew the truth. He kept bowing and kowtowed with a humble attitude, and explained earnestly that this rule of their escort agency was actually for the good of their employers.
However, as mentioned earlier, the prerequisite for this rule to be beneficial to employers is that the employers have no ulterior motives and do not intend to take the opportunity to cheat the escorts in charge of the convoy.
But the current situation is that the government officials first made a lot of money for themselves, and then deliberately picked the escort agents of the escort agency to take the blame for themselves.
You Yu Zizhen used the name of Tan Lang to pass on information to the owner of Hengtai Escort Agency at any time. Not long after they agreed on the vicious plan, the owner of Hengtai Escort Agency knew that they were going to use their own escort agency to take the blame.
As mentioned earlier, Cangzhou magistrate Liu Jinchang was much more greedy and bold than other people who handled disaster relief money and grain.
Others would make a profit from the relief efforts, but he was determined to take all the relief money and grain for himself.
Before the relief money and grain arrived in Cangzhou, they were escorted by officers and soldiers of the Five Military Governor's Office. However, after arriving in Cangzhou, they were going to hand over the escort work to the local government and garrison.
However, the officials and generals in Cangzhou were not stupid. How could they be willing to accept the disaster relief money and grain whose value had shrunk by almost half?
It just so happened that the Cangzhou governor Liu Jinchang had his eyes on the remaining relief money and grain, so after some mutual testing and covert negotiations between the two sides, the task of transporting the relief money and grain suddenly fell on the unlucky escorts who had nothing to do with the matter.
In the original book, Liu Jinchang first used his power and righteousness to force Hengtai Escort Agency to take on the task of transporting relief money and grain, then had people drug and intercept the grain on the way, and finally framed the escorts for embezzlement.
All the escorts, including Chen Qing and Zheng Yuzhi, died in prison because of this case.
In order to quell public anger, their employer, Hengtai Escort Agency, offered all its money as compensation, but the Cangzhou magistrate Liu Jinchang refused to admit that he had received any compensation from Hengtai Escort Agency.
He secretly sent people to instigate and guide the disaster victims to attack the Hengtai Escort Agency. He never expected that he, a prefect, could be so shameless as to embezzle the compensation money they gave him. The escorts were caught off guard and were killed one after another by the angry mob who relied on their numbers while trying to explain.
The old, weak, women and children living in the escort agency, like the escort drivers who died tragically, were all killed by the rioters who broke into the escort agency.
Of course, the victims also suffered heavy casualties.
In the end, the culprit Liu Jinchang became the only beneficiary of this incident.
He first used this method to embezzle disaster relief grain funds, and then after successfully distorting the truth and shifting the blame, he privately sold all the disaster relief grain sent from the capital and made a fortune.
With the wishful thinking of getting benefits without being suspected, Liu Jinchang was certainly unwilling to give Hengtai Escort Agency a new escort list without any complications.
His trusted advisor's words were full of criticism and threats to Hengtai Escort Agency. In the end, he even said, "If you still don't know what's good for you, I will seal up Hengtai Escort Agency and put you in jail for a while."
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