Chapter 406 The Emperor's Fury
The fastest journey from Changjing to Yuzhou takes about twenty days.
The emperor has now arrived in Yuzhou and is outside the government office.
However, there was no news from Changjing about the emperor leaving the capital.
Xu Jin was caught off guard, and at the same time, with his intuition developed from years of experience in officialdom, he also keenly realized that something big was about to happen this time.
Otherwise, the emperor would never have arrived in such a quiet manner.
There is a teahouse on the street diagonally opposite the yamen.
Due to the flood, the teahouse was deserted.
Only one group of guests came today and booked a private room on the third floor. After the waiter brought the tea and snacks up, he returned to the lobby and continued to sigh with the shopkeeper.
On the third floor, Bai Yu and the three Su brothers were lying on the windowsill. They saw with their own eyes a man in the uniform of a fifth-rank official rushing out of the yamen over there, leading a group of yamen runners, and respectfully welcoming the big Buddha standing in front of the door into the yamen.
Su An raised his lip, "Next it will be a battle of wits and courage between the emperor and the prefect."
"There's no need for a battle of wits and courage. If we still need to fight after the account books have been handed in, wouldn't I have been writing for half a month in vain?" Su Wen turned around and sat back at the tea table, drinking tea leisurely.
Su Wu followed back, "Is our mission complete here? I've been exhausted for over a month and can finally take a good rest. I didn't even have to work so hard when I was competing in the arena!"
Xiao Maisui was still preoccupied with the total in the account book, counting on her fingers over and over again. "Sister, how much silver did we spend on buying grain this time? Eight hundred thousand taels? Nine hundred thousand taels? Why does the Bai Yu family seem to have endless money?"
Bing'er had no idea whether it was 800,000 or 900,000. She only knew one fact, "It's a lot! So much!"
"We've thrown out so much food to teach those people a lesson, and we'll take it back the next day." Bai Yu turned around and leaned back against the windowsill, a stern smile on his face. "The people of Yuzhou have been able to survive the floods until now, all thanks to the generous donations from the Yuzhou grain merchants. Their kindness is immeasurable."
Everyone, "...Puff!"
Tianbao also raised the corners of his lips. Although he didn't say much, it was obvious that he was in a good mood.
The group had been sitting in the teahouse for less than half an hour when they heard footsteps coming up the stairs outside. A moment later, there was a knock on the wooden door of the private room.
The man who came in was about forty years old, with a slender and handsome figure and stern facial features.
After entering the door and seeing the people sitting around the tea table, the coldness between the man's brows unconsciously disappeared and a smile appeared on his face.
"Uncle Zi Yi!" Su Wu stood up and flew over.
The man grabbed the boy's shoulders to help him absorb the force, turned half a circle and pushed him onto the chair, then patted his head and said, "Uncle is old and can't hold you anymore."
Su Wu pretended to be dissatisfied, "What weight? It sounds like you are scolding me."
Everyone laughed.
Although they hadn't seen each other for several years, they didn't feel strange at all when they met again. Just a greeting and a laugh brought them back to the closeness they had in Tubei Village.
Zi Yi sat down next to Su Wu, his eyes sweeping over each face in front of him one by one.
Men are not used to saying that they miss someone, but their eyes are full of longing.
After looking at all the children, he spoke with a smile on his face, "You have all grown up and become more mature in your work. You all played a great role in the Yuzhou flood relief."
Bai Yu grinned and winked at the man, "Uncle Zi Yi, it doesn't matter whether I show off my achievements or not, but you have to make Wei Li return the money I invested, otherwise I might not be able to enter my home when I return to the place of exile."
Little Mai Sui didn't believe it. "Impossible! Uncle Bai loves you like an ancestor. Even if you poke the sky down, he will stand up and support it with a smile. How can he not let you in after spending hundreds of thousands of silver?"
Bai Yu said, "You don't understand. My old man would rebel if he felt pained."
Everyone, "Bah!"
Zi Yi held his forehead and couldn't help laughing.
"How dare the Emperor withhold your silver? If he withholds it here, I'm afraid the entire treasury will be gone the next day." After teasing, Zi Yi Fang explained, "The matters at the government office will take some time to deal with. The Emperor can't leave for the time being. He's worried that you'll have to wait too long, so he asked me to come and tell you first. He will come to you later when he finishes the matters here."
Tian Bao nodded and handed over a package and a prescription. "The package contains a medicine that Grandpa Du prepared using rotten poison. Combined with the herbs listed in the prescription, it can cure the epidemic."
"A pillow for those who doze off! This recipe is exactly what we need." Zi Yi accepted the items without hesitation. "However, using poison to treat an epidemic? This is the first time I've heard of such a medical method."
Su An clapped his hands and boasted, "Uncle Ziyi, have you forgotten what Grandpa Du is best at? The plague is transmitted by corpse poison. In Grandpa Du's eyes, this is poison, so he uses the poison to cure it, which is to fight poison with poison!"
"..." After a moment, Zi Yi's shoulders shook again.
Du Lao's style is indeed like this, it has always been like this.
It's unexpected.
He is probably the only one in the world who can think of using poison to treat diseases.
After a short gathering in the teahouse, Ziyi returned to the yamen with her things, and Tianbao and others also rode their horses out of the city.
Now that Wei Li has arrived in Yuzhou, they don't have to worry about what happens next.
Naturally, there is no need to buy more food.
As for the goods that the local grain merchants had just purchased from other places at high prices... Wei Li would arrange their destinations.
On the last day of October, the temperature had dropped to the point where the morning dew formed white frost.
The news that the people had been waiting for for a long time finally arrived.
The Emperor personally visited Yuzhou and ordered all county and town governments to open their granaries and distribute grain to the people! He also allocated funds for reconstruction in the disaster-stricken areas!
This news had only been circulating for half a day, and before the people had even begun to get excited, another piece of news arrived: official granaries across the country were running low on food! There was no more food to store! The emperor was furious and ordered a thorough investigation into the whereabouts of the stored grain!
The people were not shocked when they heard about the distribution of grain, but when this news came out, they were in an uproar.
Official granaries in all dynasties must follow the laws of the country. Three years of farming must provide one year of food, nine years of farming must provide three years of food, and with thirty years of supply, even if there are severe droughts or floods, the people will have no food to eat.
That is to say, if we cultivate the land for three years, we must have one year of grain reserves; if we cultivate the land for nine years, we must have three years of grain reserves.
This is to provide relief to the people in times of natural disasters and protect them from suffering from lack of food.
It is now the third year of Xuanjing, and the reserves have been stored since the beginning of the new dynasty. The local government warehouses should have at least one year's worth of grain in stock!
Taking one-tenth of the tax grain paid by the people of Yuzhou over three years, the grain reserves in the entire Yuzhou government warehouse should be between 80,000 and 100,000 dan.
But when the emperor personally came to Yuzhou and ordered the government warehouses to be opened, there was no grain left! Where did all that huge amount of grain go?
Since Yuzhou was hit by the disaster, the people have not received any relief from the government!
In the following days, the people of Yuzhou were eagerly waiting for the result.
The emperor personally supervised the matter and ordered his confidants to lead a thorough investigation. As a result, the people in the county and town soon saw the imperial officers and soldiers entering the town, stripping off the officials' hats and uniforms one by one and throwing them into jail.
During this period, the emperor had been sitting in the government office in Yuzhou Prefecture, and the prefect Xu Jin accompanied him in investigating the case. He dared not say a word and was unable to leave.
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