Chapter 300 Imperial Order
Fei Kai's face suddenly turned pale, and he could no longer smile.
Zhou Boxu glanced at him leisurely, and continued: "I heard that Master Fei's master also came to the capital, I wonder how loyal he is to Master Fei?"
In the face of life and death, what's the point of talking about loyalty? Of course, saving your life is the most important thing.
"You..." Fei Kai's face turned red with anger, and he stared at Zhou Boxu fiercely, wishing he could rush out of the prison door and bite him to death.
Zhou Boxu has seen this kind of look many times, and he doesn't care at all. He looked down at Fei Kai, who was like a toothless vicious dog, with contempt, and said leisurely: "Master Fei is so bold, I guess he is also harder than ordinary people. I look forward to Master Fei visiting the Palace Front Office."
After Zhou Boxu finished speaking, he left with a playful smile and turned away.
Fei Kai's face was pale, and he fell to his knees.
It was already mid-July, when the scorching heat was at its peak.
The court received urgent news that the southern part of the country was hit by continuous plum rains, and the northern part of the country was hit by droughts. Many places were affected, and grain production was greatly reduced.
The emperor sat high on the dragon chair, his face dark.
Food is the foundation of people's livelihood. A large reduction in grain production will cause famine at the least, and shake the national system at the worst. It is not a small matter.
"What do you think?" The emperor asked solemnly, looking at the ministers below.
All the officials in the court bowed their heads and stood quietly, and no one answered.
The emperor snorted in displeasure: "You are all talkative on weekdays, but why are you all dumb today?"
Facing the emperor's question, the palace was silent for a long time. Finally, Prime Minister Xie spoke despite the emperor's anger.
"Food is the most important thing for the people. In the years of famine, the first thing to do is to ban alcohol to reduce food losses."
Almost everyone in Dazhao loves alcohol. Once the ban is issued, it will be opposed by the people. Therefore, it is not easy to issue a ban unless it is absolutely necessary.
"Prime Minister Xie is right. Brewing wine requires a lot of food. If this part of food can be saved, famine should be avoided." Taifu Zhou agreed.
The Minister of Revenue also said: "In addition, we should curb food waste, especially for the rich and powerful. The amount of food wasted every year should not be underestimated. It is enough to feed several people or even hundreds of people."
After hearing useful words, the emperor's face eased a little, and he asked all officials to continue to think about strategies.
With someone taking the lead, other court officials also became bolder and made suggestions.
"Last year's grain production was quite abundant, and there must be some reserves. We can ask the county governors and prefects in various places to store grain appropriately to prepare for emergencies and prevent profiteers from driving up grain prices."
This plan is very good, but if we want to store grain, we must transfer money to various places.
A few days ago, the treasury spent a lot of money to help Duanzhou. In addition, every April, the generals and local officials stationed in various places dispatched troops to respond. Now the national treasury is almost empty, and this year's taxes have not been paid yet, so there is no surplus money at all.
The incident was serious, and all the officials in the court discussed the best solution.
But in the end, it was nothing more than two things, money and food.
If you want to store food, you must have money first, but where does the money come from?
In the end, this difficult problem was solved by Yu Zheng.
"In the Jiangnan corruption case last year, the silver embezzled by Patrolman Lin has not been found. After a long and repeated search, we finally found Patrolman Lin's master, and followed the clues to find the whereabouts
of the stolen money." "This money should be able to solve the urgent problem of storing food." Yu Zheng spoke at the right time.
Yu Zheng was in charge of this case, but after a year, almost everyone had forgotten about it.
When Yu Zheng mentioned it, Cao Qian was shocked. Did
he find the stolen money that Lin Xun had embezzled? And that master...
I wonder what else Yu Zheng found out? Cao Qian was very uneasy.
"Since Your Highness Prince Jing has already found out about the stolen money, why did you report it today?" Cao Qian's courtiers questioned.
"How do you know that I have already found out?" Yu Zheng's dark eyes swept the man sharply.
The man choked and had no way to refute.
The matter was handled by Yu Zheng, and others had no way of knowing. He found out when he said he would.
Yu Zheng had indeed found out a long time ago and sent people to confirm it. But the amount of the stolen money was huge. Once it was used or reported, it would alert Cao Qian.
In order to avoid alarming the enemy, Yu Zheng put the matter aside for the time being.
Now the court was in urgent need of silver, and the evidence of Cao Qian's crime had been collected and there was no need to worry about it. The silver could be used.
The emperor trusted Yu Zheng and didn't care about these details. He was overjoyed to hear Yu Zheng say that the stolen money could solve the urgent problem.
So in the past few days, the court issued a series of imperial decrees, first a ban on alcohol, and then a grain restriction order, restricting each government and household to purchase grain according to demand and strictly prohibiting waste.
Once the ban on alcohol was issued, major wine merchants and wine shops complained, and even Wen Xiangzui had to close down.
In the Marquis of Jing'an's mansion, Shen Changze, his mother and others sat together in the Shouyong Hall, all with a look of worry on their faces.
"If we don't allow the sale of alcohol, how can the mansion support itself?" Shen's mother frowned in worry, feeling uneasy.
Shen Changze's salary was far from enough to cover the expenses of the mansion.
Old Madam Shen looked sick, and after coughing a few times, she asked, "Did the emperor say when the ban on alcohol will end?"
Shen Changze shook his head, "No, but it will be at least until next year."
The ban on alcohol was due to the reduction in grain production. If the ban is to be lifted, it will have to be after the grain production is abundant next year.
It will take a year in total.
"Such a long time, what about the drunken Wen Xiang?" Cheng Jinchu anxiously twisted his hands.
Wen Xiangzui had poured all her efforts and dowry into it. He was one of her supports for the stability of the Marquisate and was extremely important to her.
Shen Changze frowned and said, "Now that things have come to this, we can only wait until the prohibition on alcohol is lifted before reopening."
"Is there no other way?" Cheng Jinchu was unwilling.
Shen Changze looked at her and said, "This is an imperial order, which is more important than a military order."
Although Cheng Jinchu was the daughter of a general, she grew up in the border since she was a child and had never been influenced by the ladies of a noble family. She didn't understand many things and was despised.
Hearing the disgust in Shen Changze's words and seeing the impatience on his face, Cheng Jinchu felt as if she was stabbed by a needle. They
used to depend on each other for life and death, but now they hate each other.
Looking back on the past of the two, it was simply like a joke.
Seeing that the atmosphere between the two was not right, Shen's mother hurriedly said: "Okay, okay, it's useless to talk about this now, let's think about how to spend this period of time."
"The money earned by Wen Xiangzui in the past two years, plus Changze's salary, can barely support us for half a year if we are frugal."
"As for the future, we will take it one step at a time."
If it really doesn't work, we can only sell gold and jade objects.
"It's all up to mother." After leaving this sentence, Shen Changze got up and left.
As a man, he couldn't support the expenses of the house, Shen Changze felt very embarrassed.
Cheng Jinchu was humiliated and didn't want to stay any longer, so he also got up and left.
Watching her figure disappear at the door, Shen's mother sighed, "If only Shu'er were here."
If Jiang Shu were still here, the Marquis' Mansion wouldn't have to worry about anything, no matter what the prohibition order or the food restriction order was, and they could just live comfortably.
Unfortunately, the glory of the past can never be returned.
Suddenly hearing Shen's mother mention Jiang Shu, Old Lady Shen also sighed.
Since the birthday banquet the year before last, her serious illness has become more serious. No longer has rare and famous medicine to nourish her, her health is getting worse day by day, and I don't know how long she can last.
Thinking of Jiang Shu, Old Lady Shen sighed, "She is now the Princess of Jing, and we can't call her by her name anymore."
Hearing this, Shen's mother became more melancholy and regretted it so much that her intestines turned green.