Jia Wensheng took a deep breath, then lit the torch on the wall with trembling hands.
He ignored the bright firelight that would sting his eyes and looked straight inside!
He slumped to the ground with a thud...
Hundreds of boxes of gold and silver ingots disappeared right under his nose?
Jia Wensheng laughed heartily, and everything was gone!
He has nothing left!
The people outside were actually waiting for him to fill the gap of one hundred thousand taels of silver?
Hahaha, how does he fill it out? What do you want him to use to fill it out?
Mr. Huang was waiting outside the door. Seeing that Jia Wensheng had not returned for a long time, he was about to go look for him when he saw Si Jinxing and the other two coming back.
He immediately bowed and waited until the three people entered the hall before he walked over to the maid and asked in a low voice:
"Did you see where they went?"
The maid answered truthfully:
"They just went to the toilet."
Master Huang was still worried after hearing this and asked, "You only went to this one place? Why did you take so long?"
The maid lowered her head and said:
"Yes, we only went to this one place. As for why we were gone for so long, maybe the county lady had a stomachache."
Upon seeing this, Master Huang didn't ask any more questions and waved his hand to let the maid leave.
He went back to the door and waited, but heard several people inside talking about the disaster victims in Xuzhou Prefecture.
He Wenqin sighed lightly and said:
"Now that winter is approaching, people everywhere are running low on food. What should we do?"
Qi Nancheng pondered for a moment and asked:
"Xuzhou Prefecture suffered a disaster this year. It's one thing to have no harvest, but why didn't they even save last year's grain?"
Si Jinxing glanced at He Wenqin and said, "Didn't your Excellency go to the government warehouse? Is there any food there?"
He Wenqin nodded, but with a look of regret, and said:
"There are grains in the government warehouses, but they are all damp and moldy. It's extremely bad. I'm afraid people can't eat them!"
Qi Nancheng couldn't help but say:
"Moldy? Although Xuzhou Prefecture was flooded, as far as I know, the Xuzhou official warehouse is located at a very high altitude!
The flood in Xuzhou City won't affect the warehouse at all, not to mention the four-foot-high rice vats storing the rice, so how could the rice inside get moldy?
After hearing this, Si Jinxing couldn't help but ask:
"I wonder if your Highness Prince An can tell by looking at the rice whether it is new or old?"
Qi Nancheng's cheeks turned slightly red when he saw her looking at him, but he said seriously:
"That's possible. I often walk in the fields and interact with the people. I can still tell the difference between new rice and old rice."
He Wenqin immediately took off a pouch from his waist and held it in front of Qi Nanyan, saying:
"Your Highness, please look! This is the grain from the government warehouse."
Qi Nancheng quickly reached out to take the purse and poured all the rice inside onto the table.
He reached out and picked up a few black grains of rice, put them under his nose and sniffed them gently, then squeezed them a few more times.
He frowned, looked at He Wenqin, and said:
"This...this isn't right! Lord Jia said this is last year's rice?"
He Wenqin nodded and said, "Exactly! Why? Your Highness, do you think this rice is not?"
Hearing the conversation between the people in the hall, Master Huang, who was standing outside the door, looked even uglier...
Why does it take so long for Lord Jia to get the silver?
If he doesn't come back, the three people in the hall will probably come to a conclusion from their discussion!
No, he has to quickly send someone to notify Lord Jia!
However, just as Master Huang waved to call a palace soldier, he saw a figure staggering towards him on the corridor!
He looked closely and saw that the man was none other than his own master, Lord Jia!
He didn't have time to think about it, and hurried forward a few steps to support the man, saying:
"My lord, you are finally back.
Prince An seems to have noticed that the rice in our government warehouse is old. Can you think of a way to deal with it?"
Jia Wensheng, who had forced himself to calm down, had a cold look in his eyes when he heard this!
His Royal Highness Prince An has come from the capital, so why doesn’t His Royal Highness Prince Rui help him?
He strode into the hall, then smiled and said, "Sorry to have kept you waiting!"
As he spoke, he took out the banknotes from his pocket and continued:
"Here is 80,000 taels of silver. Please give me two days.
Speaking of this matter, I have only my lowly wife to blame!
She didn't even ask me and used 20,000 taels of silver on her own, and just went to the backyard to beat and scold that woman!
This woman is so short on knowledge and wisdom! She is pushing me to my death!"
After Jia Wensheng finished speaking, he saw that no one in the room said anything.
He raised his head slightly and glanced at a few people, and saw that the Princess of Anping was staring at him.
Only then did he realize that he had said the wrong thing!
What Jia Wensheng meant by this was actually to shift the blame to the woman in his family who was ignorant and had misappropriated the public treasury silver, but he forgot that the Princess of Anping was also a woman.
He slapped himself in the face and said:
"Don't blame me, County Lady. I have never seen a woman as wise and capable as you.
This foolish perception has not been corrected yet, please forgive me, County Master!"
Si Jinxing glanced at the banknotes on the table and couldn't help thinking:
Could it be that Jia Wensheng just snatched this stack of banknotes of varying denominations from the woman in the backyard?
He Wenqin glanced at Si Jinxing, and seeing her nod slightly, he said:
"In that case, Lord Jia, please gather the remaining 20,000 taels within two days, and the matter will be over."
As soon as these words were spoken, Jia Wensheng's heart suddenly settled down!
As long as today's incident is over and he recovers, he will be able to catch the thief in the study!
Jia Wensheng hurriedly said:
"Yes! Thank you, Imperial Envoy, for your consideration!"
As soon as he finished speaking, Si Jinxing said, "Your Majesty and Lord He haven't eaten yet, right? I wonder..."
Seeing this, Jia Wensheng didn't dare to respond.
He just wanted to send the man away quickly so that he could investigate the thief!
But the more he doesn't want to do something, the more people suggest it!
Qi Nancheng said, "I have never dined at any lord's house before. I wonder if Lord Jia's house is convenient for me?"
How could Jia Wensheng dare to refuse?
He laughed and said:
“Of course it’s convenient!
It is my honor that Your Highness can dine at my humble abode! I am just afraid that the food may not suit Your Highness’ taste…”
Qi Nancheng didn't wait for him to finish his words and waved his hand, saying, "It's okay. I'm used to eating in the countryside!"
Si Jinxing also said, "Sir, why don't you take us around your mansion first?"
Jia Wensheng was unwilling, but he could not refuse, so he had to lead the way.
As they walked and strolled along the way, everyone had a great time chatting with each other until they arrived at a remote courtyard.
Si Jinxing suddenly stopped and said, "Sir, I want to go and take a look at this yard!"
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