Chapter 139 This King Looks Familiar
Xiao Zirui's expression changed and he said sarcastically:
"Is the Regent Princess jealous of the great achievements made by this prince? The two hundred thousand shi of grain are actually lying outside, you can't help but believe it!"
Yun Qingqing glanced at him with a cold smile and said to the emperor:
"Your Majesty, I suspect that there is something wrong with the Crown Prince's 200,000 dan of grain. You can ask me to pay for the grain, but I will never be taken advantage of. I must see with my own eyes that there is no problem with the grain!"
Xiao Zirui wanted to slap her and the Regent on the face, and immediately said:
"Father, the Princess Regent can examine me anytime she wants, but after the examination, please be my witness and ask the Princess Regent to apologize to me on the spot!"
Yun Qingqing said coldly:
"Your Highness, there is no need to use the Emperor to pressure others. If there is really no problem with the 200,000 shi of grain, it would not be difficult for me to apologize to you immediately."
The emperor nodded:
"In that case, please follow me and go outside to take a look!"
Led by the emperor, a large group of civil and military officials poured out of the hall and came to the square outside the hall.
I saw rows of grain carts neatly arranged, and each cart was filled with bags of grain.
Xiao Zirui glanced proudly at Xiao Changheng and Yun Qingqing, and said loudly:
"This is the 200,000 shi of grain and fodder that I have raised with great difficulty. I invite the emperor and all the civil and military officials to bear witness to this!"
The emperor finally smiled:
"Great, great! With so much food, we can finally solve the urgent needs of the Northwest Army. Your Highness has done a great job this time!"
"Wait."
Yun Qingqing strode to the grain carts, looked at them one by one, and said calmly:
"Your Majesty has not yet sent anyone to check whether there are any problems with the grain. It is better to wait until he has checked it."
Xiao Zirui sneered:
"The Princess Regent is too mean-spirited. These are all grains sold to the court by wealthy merchants from Jiangnan. Do they dare to pass off inferior goods as good ones? Aren't they afraid of losing their heads?"
When Yun Qingqing saw the untouched grain carts, she knew that Xiao Zirui had never checked the grain at all, and she found it even funnier to hear his words.
It seems that he is sure that the Regent has transported food from thousands of miles away and has already checked the quality of the food, which is why he is so confident!
She snorted coldly, passed the grain carts in front, and stopped.
She dragged the bags of grain one by one to the ground.
The emperor wondered:
"Princess Regent, what are you doing?"
Xiao Zirui said coldly:
"Don't waste your energy. There is no way the food I bought can be problematic!"
As soon as he finished speaking, Yun Qingqing sneered:
"Oh? If that's ok, then what's going on?"
As she spoke, another bag of grain fell to the ground with a bang.
Everyone was stunned.
Because the sound of this bag of grain falling to the ground was obviously different from the others!
Moreover, anyone with a discerning eye can notice that this bag is much heavier than the previous bags of grain!
While everyone was stunned, Yun Qingqing had already opened the bag and poured it out by the bottom.
With a "crash" sound, the sand and gravel in the bag scattered all over the ground.
"What!" Xiao Zirui's face changed drastically.
Everyone was also shocked.
"This grain bag is filled with sand!"
"Hiss... No wonder the princess didn't believe it. She actually found out the problem!"
"Don't those wealthy merchants want to live anymore? How dare they do this to the grain they sell to the court!"
"I don't know how many bags of sand were mixed in the grain..."
As everyone was talking, Yun Qingqing had already opened two more bags, and what came out was all sand!
Yun Qingqing patted the sand on her hands, looked at Xiao Zirui and said coldly:
"Except for the few bags of food on the top of the first few cars, the rest is all sand!"
"Your Highness, this is the food you spent three times the price to buy to feed the 100,000 troops in the northwest!"
“No, it’s impossible…”
Xiao Zirui's face turned pale and blue, and he could not say anything except "impossible".
The emperor's face darkened and he waved his hand:
"Check carefully for me to see how many bags of sand are there pretending to be grain!"
The commander of the imperial guards immediately rushed over with his men, unloaded the bags from each vehicle and opened them for inspection.
The more they investigated, the more shocked everyone was, and the worse the emperor's expression became.
Finally, the commander of the imperial guards returned to the emperor and reported:
"Your Majesty, except for a few bags of grain on the top of the first few carts, all the other bags are filled with sand!"
The emperor was furious!
"Xiao Zirui! Please explain to me what is going on!"
His face turned purple with anger and he started coughing immediately after he yelled. The chief eunuch quickly went over and patted his back to calm him down.
Xiao Zirui stumbled and fell to his knees:
"Father, I don't know what's going on! It should be food, how come it turned into sand?"
"No...someone must have deliberately harmed me!"
He gritted his teeth and glared at Yun Qingqing and Xiao Changheng, his eyes a little red.
How could he not understand it until now? No wonder Yun Qingqing insisted on checking the grain herself. She clearly knew the result a long time ago.
The food that I looted had been tampered with!
Yun Qingqing widened her eyes with an innocent look:
"No way? The Regent and I just came back from a long journey. His Royal Highness the Crown Prince had problems buying food. Do you want to put the blame on us?"
Xiao Zirui gritted his teeth, but there was nothing he could do.
Prime Minister Su recovered from his shock and glared at the prince with a look of disappointment, but he had to step out and speak for him:
"Your Majesty, please calm down. His Royal Highness may be inexperienced, which is why he was deceived by those unscrupulous businessmen, but he would never do such a thing on purpose! I hope Your Majesty can see clearly!"
Following his lead, several other ministers immediately came forward to plead for the prince.
The emperor's expression eased slightly, but he was still full of anger and said:
"Investigate them immediately! How dare those unscrupulous merchants tease the imperial court and use such despicable means to make money! I will chop them into pieces and kill all their clans!"
Xiao Zirui had no words to express his pain.
All the food was snatched from the Regent, there is no rich businessman at all!
This matter must not be known to anyone. If it really doesn't work... we can only find a few merchants to be scapegoats.
There was a hint of viciousness in his eyes.
But at this moment, Xiao Changheng suddenly spoke slowly:
"Brother, don't rush to blame the merchants. Maybe things are not as imagined."
The emperor frowned:
"What do you mean, my brother?"
"Why do these grain transport trucks look so familiar to me?" Xiao Changheng glanced at the kneeling Xiao Zirui.
Xiao Zirui trembled.
"Uncle, you're overthinking it. All grain transport trucks look pretty much the same, so of course they all look familiar."
He was sweating profusely and said this while suppressing his guilty conscience.
But Yun Qingqing sneered.
She walked to an empty grain truck, stroked her chin and said:
"You know what? This grain cart looks familiar to me. It's exactly the same as the cart we brought from Jing Country to transport grain here!"
Having said that, without waiting for Xiao Zirui to react, she stretched out her slender arm, grabbed the side of the grain cart and lifted it up.
To everyone's astonishment, the slim and slender young woman actually overturned the grain cart!
Yun Qingqing clapped her hands and grinned, pointing to the bottom of the car:
"Whether it's just that he looks familiar or there's some other reason, you'll know after taking a look at this!"
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