A rice shop in the suburbs.
A group of robust young men, speaking with accents from other regions, were all smiles as they busily sold grain.
One group collects the money, another group weighs it, and both scales are very high, ensuring that the buyer doesn't lose out at all.
The word spread quickly, and people from all over the capital and its surrounding counties came here to buy grain. Even at nightfall, people were still queuing up.
Leng Luo and the others could see clearly that no matter whether the people who came to buy grain were wealthy or poor, they all used the high scales. They didn't even mind if someone was so poor that they could only buy half a jin (250 grams). They would weigh out half a jin and then give them an extra handful.
At the hour of Xu (7-9 PM), the gate was closed, and the foreman told the people, "Everyone, go home first. We'll open the gate promptly at the hour of Chen (7-9 AM) tomorrow morning."
"Will the price go up again?" The people are particularly worried. Today it's 150, will it become 400 tomorrow like other rice shops?
The waiter smiled and assured him, "Don't worry, if it's more than 150 coins, you can send me to the authorities!"
The people then left.
Leng Luo looked at the young man, who, without waiting for him to ask any questions, took out five hundred taels of silver and stuffed them into Leng Luo's hand: "Lord Leng, thank you for helping to guard this place. We still have a tough battle to fight tomorrow. Please go and have a drink first."
Leng Luo took the silver note and pointed out ten men: "You will guard the entire warehouse for ten nights. If anything happens, give a signal."
He looked at the young man: "Are you sure you won't raise the price tomorrow?"
The young man smiled and said, "Lord Leng, with you personally leading the team to guard this place, acting so for the sake of the country and its people, how could I dare to profit from this national crisis? Rest assured, we'll prepare this amount for tomorrow!"
He held up one finger and said with a smile, "One hundred coins."
Leng Luo's face was always gloomy. He looked at the young man and thought to himself, "Anyway, in the capital, this is the territory of my Imperial City Guard. If you want to fool me, you'd better check how many heads you have on your neck."
Late at night, good news came from Emperor Hui's palace: Emperor Hui had woken up and ordered all his ministers to return to their residences to rest.
The cabinet members stayed.
Emperor Hui sat in a round-backed chair, his face still showing signs of illness. Gu Shaoyu, Xie Anfeng, and Prime Minister Liu were all present.
Leng Luo reported all the information he had gathered that day.
"The Cheng'en Duke's Mansion, the Crown Prince's Mansion, and the Qi Prince's Mansion have all contacted their respective forces in the suburban camps of the capital."
"The three newly opened rice shops in the city are backed by the Cheng'en Duke's Mansion, the Crown Prince's Mansion, and the Wu family. The price of grain is set at four hundred wen per catty. As for the rice shops in the suburbs, I don't know who the owners are. The waiters and managers are all from out of town, and their accents come from all over the country, but the manager sounds like he's from the Citong Port area."
"The rice shops in the suburbs have about 100,000 shi of grain in stock. The manager said that they plan to open tomorrow and sell it for 100 wen per jin."
"The Duke of Chengen's Mansion, the Crown Prince's Mansion, and the Wu family are plotting together because the price of grain is far lower than theirs, and they plan to hold back for now."
...
Leng Luo reported a lot, stating only the facts and drawing no conclusions.
When Emperor Hui heard that he was ill, his sons were not concerned about his illness, but were instead preparing to ascend the throne and vying for the throne. His face turned very grim.
When Princess Roudan was mentioned, Leng Luo paused for a moment and said that the Empress and Consorts De and Xian would report to her separately later.
Emperor Hui's face looked even more sickly, and he frowned. He knew that the scoundrel must have done something shameless again.
Gu Shaoyu listened to the news that "the waiters are all from out of town, and the manager's accent is from the Citong Port area," and then fell silent, his face expressionless.
Xie Anfeng then said, "Your Majesty, I feel that the rice shops in the suburbs are not just ordinary merchants; they seem to be intentionally going against the Duke of Cheng'en's mansion."
Emperor Hui nodded; he had the same idea.
Whether these people are after money or something else, it's true that they're going against the Duke of Cheng'en's mansion.
The fact that they dared to ask government officials to protect them shows that they are not afraid of being investigated, will not inflate prices, and will not exploit the people.
Emperor Hui's illness has lessened somewhat.
"Commander Leng, you did the right thing. It's excellent that the Imperial City Guard has taken over this matter." Emperor Hui was just recovering a little, and his voice was still a bit hoarse.
Leng Luo immediately replied respectfully that it was all the duty he should do.
He was extremely grateful to Gu Shaoyu. If it weren't for Elder Gu, he wouldn't have thought of doing something like protecting the common people.
To be honest, they are like rats in the gutter, eagle claws in the dark. Their main job is to investigate privacy and collect intelligence. This is the first time they have done something like protecting people in the sunlight.
"Since this rice shop owner doesn't want to reveal his true identity and has made great contributions to the business, the Imperial City Guard can protect him openly or secretly, but don't try to find out about him."
The imperial court was naturally pleased and grateful that someone was willing to lower grain prices.
Leng Luo nodded and accepted the order.
The next day at court, Emperor Hui ordered Hua Zisheng to read out the imperial edict:
Wei Shining, a junior official in the Ministry of War, committed an improper act in the palace, which is a disgrace to the royal family. He is hereby ordered to be given one hundred strokes of the cane, dismissed from his post as a junior official in the Ministry of War, and never to be employed again.
The Duke of Cheng'en was punished for failing to manage his household properly, and was fined three years' salary.
Princess Yurong was confined to her residence and was not allowed to enter the palace without an imperial edict.
...
When the imperial edict was issued, the Duke of Cheng'en clenched his fists. Emperor Hui's move was ruthless enough to drive the Duke of Cheng'en's mansion out of the Ministry of War.
Originally, Wei Shining was young and had a bright future in the Ministry of War. His eldest son, Wei Anyuan, was the military governor of the western border army. The Wei family had dominated the northwest for many years and were the veritable kings of the northwest.
The second son, Wei Anlu, was not very successful; he only held a minor fifth-rank official position in the imperial court.
He himself was a Vice Minister of State Affairs, with countless disciples, and his army on the border echoed the court, with his cronies spread throughout every corner of the country.
The imperial court, the harem, border defenses, people's livelihoods... all belonged to the Wei family. Therefore, the crown prince relied entirely on his maternal grandfather. His surname was Zhou, which was no different from Wei.
Now that the court has removed Wei Shining, there are no more young officials of the Wei clan above the fourth rank in the court.
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