Chapter 417 Food Crisis
I just finished half of my lunch.
Qin Chi saw Captain Chen striding in with an embroidered spring sword on his waist.
"Sir, have you just had lunch?"
Captain Chen asked in surprise.
Qin Chi put down the bowl and chopsticks, took out a handkerchief and wiped his lips, then wiped his hands and said, "Has Master Chen used it?"
"Yes."
Captain Chen glanced at Qin Ba who was standing beside him.
Qin Ba stood aside with his head lowered and his eyes submissive, showing no intention of leaving. Captain Chen said again: "I have been waiting outside for a long time, so I came to take a look."
"Thank you for your concern."
Qin Chi glanced at Qin Ba.
Qin Ba understood what he meant, bent down, cleaned up the table, put Qin Chi's unfinished meal into the food box, and took it to the tea room of the yamen. When he came out, he brought out a kettle of boiling water and took out tea sets from the cabinet.
There is no technical content.
After cleaning the tea set, he put a small amount of tea leaves into two celadon covered bowls, poured hot water over the tea, poured out the water, then refilled the bowls with water, covered them with lids, and brought them to Qin Chi and Chen Qianhu.
Qin Ba's technique of making tea is rough.
Qin Chi drank like this before and never said it was bad.
Chen Qianhu also had no knowledge of the tea ceremony, and a cup of tea was enough to quench his thirst. The most important thing was to brew the tea in public, so there was no need to worry about anyone tampering with it.
Qin Chi picked up the tea and blew away the hot steam.
Captain Chen said in a complicated tone: "Master Qin can sit still."
"I just talk, the real work is done by the people below." Qin Chi said it very frankly, leaving Chen Qianhu speechless for a moment.
This is the benefit of being in a high position.
Captain Chen looked around the room, then sat down next to Qin Chi and whispered, "Don't you care about the Wu family? I heard that you and the eldest daughter of the Wu family are discussing marriage?"
"Is this the time for romance?"
Qin Chi paused while drinking his tea and glanced at Captain Chen coldly, "Besides, I have nothing to do with the Wu family. The Wu family plotted against me in the past, and I don't believe that the Jinyiwei will not find out."
Captain Chen quickly apologized, "I have no ill intentions, I just wanted to tell you that the Wu family is gone."
"Gone?" Qin Chi looked surprised.
Captain Chen told the truth: "The rebels went to the Wu family when they fled. When the officers and soldiers searched the Wu family, the Wu family had already been wiped out."
The implication of this statement is self-evident.
According to the Jinyiwei's inference, the rebels had a great grudge against Qin Chi. And these rebels were all born as bandits, burning, killing and looting were common things, and if they encountered them, they could not defeat them and could only blame themselves for their bad luck.
In fact, it was the Wu family that was unlucky.
Helian Kai had suffered several serious losses at the hands of Qin Chi, and the resentment of the rebels towards Qin Chi was greater than outsiders knew.
Qin Chi’s wife and children were missing again.
The Wu family, which was rumored to be marrying Qin Chi, caught the eyes of some rebels, and when they fled, they all chose Wu Bohou's mansion. Otherwise, the Wu family, as a poor family, would not have been included in the rebels' kill list.
Captain Chen whispered again, "The rebels thought Miss Wu was your fiancée, and left some words in her room, which were all disgusting."
The general idea was that if you kill my brother, I will sleep with your woman, which was quite vindictive and Chen Qianhu did not say it out loud.
Qin Chi really didn't know these details.
Seeing that Qin Chi didn't say a word and seemed to be in a bad mood, Captain Chen comforted him, "The disaster in Wu Bohou's mansion is purely self-inflicted. It can't be blamed on you, sir. You don't need to blame yourself."
Qin Chi's heart was not shaken at all, but he sighed and said, "After all, I was implicated. I didn't expect that there were so many people who hated me among the rebels. Sir Chen, it would be better if you don't get too close to me in the future."
Wu Jingyao had planned it first.
It’s really not Qin Chi’s fault.
Captain Chen shook his head. "Master Qin, you worry too much. To be honest, when I get close to other officials, I have to worry about whether they are spies of the rebels. It's different when I'm with you. I don't have to worry about that at all. Sometimes I'm curious about what you did to make the rebels so resentful, as if you dug up their ancestral graves."
Qin Chi laughed dryly twice and quickly changed the subject.
Almost at the same time.
Outside the city, Zhang’s manor.
Helian Kai was so angry when he learned about the situation in the city last night that his face turned cold. "A thousand people couldn't kill him. He is really tough."
Yan Jiangnan nodded, "Qin Qi'an is indeed difficult to kill. How many people did we lose just to kill him? Looking back, it feels like it's not worth it."
Hearing this, Helian Kai did not refute for the first time.
There is no wrong version in the 1619 book forum!
Because it's a fact.
Yan Jiangnan advised again: "My lord, we should not stay here for long. We should go to Zhangjiawan to take charge of the situation."
Yan Jiangnan estimated the military strength here and found it was not as safe as in Zhangjiawan. He added, "We must take the capital before the reinforcements arrive. As long as we rush into the palace as soon as possible and kill Emperor Mingcheng, some problems can be solved."
No matter how you fight in this world.
After all, it is the Helian family's world.
Yan Jiangnan had already made secret arrangements in the city.
Normally it cannot be found.
At this time, Yan Jiangnan didn't know that normally no one would notice their secret plan. However, there was an abnormal Qin Chi who actually suggested to Emperor Ming Cheng to investigate the food reserve problem in the city at the first time.
And soon, the problem was discovered.
It's still a big problem.
Now Qin Chi was holding the results of the investigation with a very solemn expression. Chen Qianhu, the Jinyiwei who followed him, naturally knew about it. After all, whatever Qin Chi wanted to investigate or do, he had to give orders in front of others.
After reading the results of the investigation, Qin Chi said, "Master Chen, I have asked most of the grain shops in Beijing. 90% of their grain reserves have been bought at high prices. A few grain merchants noticed something was wrong and concealed some of the grain and did not sell it. Last night, the granary was burned down by the rebels. This is obviously a long-planned plot."
Chen Qianhu was surprised. "Such a big thing, how come there is no news?"
“Those grain traders were silenced by the buyers.”
A large deal was concluded, and the buyer requested that the sale of grain should not be disclosed to anyone within a month. This small request did not affect the interests of the grain merchants, so no one refused. Therefore, more than ten days passed and the news did not spread.
The grain merchants in the city have no grain in stock.
This is a big problem! Qin Chi said solemnly: "This situation should be reported to His Majesty immediately. According to the intention of the rebels, I am worried that there will be problems with the government's granary. Of course, I am not saying that there will definitely be problems. I just suggest sending someone to check it out. It would be best if there is no problem. If there is a problem, we can make preparations early."
"Minister Qin's words make sense."
Captain Chen knew that he was being subtle about this matter.
The government's granaries have never been safe, and if they investigate now, I'm afraid a group of officials will lose their heads afterwards. But now the situation is urgent, and they can't turn a deaf ear to it.
Emperor Mingcheng threw this question to Qin Chi.
It’s good that Qin Chi reports it now.
If things dragged on for too long, and one day the city ran out of food, the responsibility would fall on him.