Chapter 606 News of the Emperor and Empress's Disaster Relief Efforts in Qingzhou Spread
At this moment, Lin Feng directly brought over the steward from Prefect Fan's residence and threw him in front of Xie Shang, saying, "His family has grain, but this dog servant has no official position and is still greedy. Tell me, how much did you embezzle under the guise of being a steward?"
Before the steward could react, he was arrested. In front of the imperial envoy, he hurriedly pleaded poverty, saying, "This year's grain has been eaten by locusts. There is no grain to store in the warehouse. How could I dare to embezzle? Besides, my family doesn't have much grain! If you take away my grain, my whole family will have nothing to eat. There are still two months until the New Year. My family won't survive the winter."
Upon hearing that it was Mayor Sun's same old story again, Lin Feng ordered his men to bring out a board and begin the torture. Only then did the steward cry out, "I'll give you some grain, please stop beating me! You'll kill me if you keep hitting me! I have elderly parents and young children to support!"
Lin Feng pretended not to hear and told his men not to stop until Butler Wu confessed everything.
Fan De suddenly ran away, leaving the entire Qingzhou government office in a complete mess.
Xie Shang, as the imperial envoy, sat in the head seat, while Situ Yu sat in the lower seat. They stared at the steward of the Fan family. If even a steward knew that the prefect was abusing his power to embezzle and accept bribes, then it was clear that the prefect's hands were not clean.
Soon, officials from Qingzhou arrived one after another, and the entire yamen (government office) became lively.
When they saw the steward of Prefect Fan's mansion being carried out, half-dead, they were all terrified, their faces turning pale. "What happened to Steward Wu?"
Lin Feng said coldly to the officials, "The Imperial Envoy is inside. When he questions you, as long as you tell the truth, you will be spared physical punishment. If you dare to deceive the Imperial Envoy, humph, I will let you go in standing and come out lying down."
Seeing his imposing presence, the officials, though unaware of his identity, dared not act recklessly as the Qingzhou government office was heavily guarded by soldiers, and obediently followed him inside.
Situ Sheng did not reveal the emperor's identity. Following the emperor's instructions, he directly transformed the Qingzhou government office into a military office, giving the officials no opportunity to exchange information or collude in private. When they saw the imperial envoy from Shengjing, everyone became terrified, looking at each other in bewilderment, wondering about Prefect Fan's whereabouts.
The interrogation revealed something puzzling: since the drought and locust plague began in Qingzhou, the government had not taken any action. This order was Fan De's doing. Because everyone usually had vested interests, when people came to ask questions, the government would respond by passing the buck, just like the mayor of Zhushan Town.
Xie Shang had already sent a message to Jiang Jinyan that the disaster relief funds for Qingzhou were distributed by him, and Qingzhou did not use the money to dig water for irrigation, nor did it use it to catch locusts.
Although 500,000 taels of disaster relief funds are not enough to help all the people of Qingzhou, if the officials had made every effort to use this money to save the situation at the beginning of the natural disaster, the whole of Qingzhou would not have become so severely affected.
What is worth pondering is that even the most corrupt officials would not do this. They would at least pretend to help the people, but the money disappeared without a trace once it reached the hands of the prefect of Qingzhou.
There is only one reason why Van der Leyen dared to do this: someone was behind him instructing him to do so.
The aim is to incite discontent among the people against the royal family. There haven't been many deaths yet, but if winter comes and everyone is suffering from hunger and cold, making life even harder, that will be the beginning of the disaster.
Jiang Fenghua stayed with Xie Shang until the afternoon of the next day, and they still hadn't finished their work. She was also busy helping him check and do the accounting. In the end, they reached an agreement with the merchants to sell grain to the government at a low price.
With food supplies available and an imperial envoy overseeing the situation, the displaced people who had flocked to Qingzhou City were appeased. They were given food to take home, and the court was promised to take care of them. The emperor was also doing his utmost to help Qingzhou get through this year's harsh winter.
They worked tirelessly for five days and finally received the first batch of relief grain. Situ Sheng assisted Xie Shang in handling the matter. In addition to checking the accounts in Qingzhou, they also spent a lot of time dealing with the people.
On the day he left Qingzhou City, Xie Shang handed over Qingzhou to Situ Sheng for temporary administration. The imperial court would immediately send someone to serve as the prefect of Qingzhou. This time, Xie Shang directly promoted the Cheng family. Whether Qingzhou could be governed well depended on whether the Cheng family had the ability. Of course, these are all things to be discussed later.
In the past few days, apart from the corrupt officials who have been investigated and imprisoned, other officials in Qingzhou have been demoted or given leeway to atone for their crimes through meritorious service.
As for Van der's whereabouts, Xie Shang had already guessed it. Killing him was not as good as making good use of him, which is why Van der "easily" escaped.
Looking in the direction the carriage had gone, Situ Sheng knelt down with his soldiers and shouted, "Your Majesty, I respectfully bid you farewell! Long live the Emperor!"
Everyone was stunned. The wealthy merchants of Qingzhou were also forced to sell their grain at low prices. Everyone was initially somewhat resentful, but they knew that the imperial envoy who had been working tirelessly in Qingzhou City to provide disaster relief in the past few days was none other than the current emperor.
Everyone turned to look at General Situ and asked in unison, "Who is the person the general is kneeling before?"
Situ Sheng and Xie Shang knew each other in the military camp when they were young. Although they were not friends, their relationship was closer than that of friends. He had been leading troops in Qingzhou for several years and rarely returned to the capital.
Listening to the slander and rumors spread by the people of Qingzhou about the emperor, he believed that time was not the cure for the people to stop spreading rumors about the emperor. Instead, the people should know that it was the emperor who personally came to Qingzhou to save them, punished corrupt officials, and even sent large quantities of grain to relieve them, which allowed them to survive.
He cupped his hands towards the sky and said, "Naturally, it is the Emperor and the Empress. You are both blessed to have the opportunity to see the Emperor and Empress in this lifetime."
At this point, the merchants were terrified. "The imperial envoy is actually the current emperor! We were unwilling to sell grain to him in the first place, and even argued with him on our behalf..."
One of the merchants said, "Who was it that said officials were protecting each other and refused to sell grain to the emperor? In the end, the emperor even awarded him a reward for his great righteousness."
"Did the Emperor copy down our names and business names and take them away? We were indignant at the time. Will the Emperor settle scores with us later...?"
Someone immediately retorted, "No, I heard from that woman... that the Empress said to take it back to Shengjing and give it to the Emperor. Once the disaster in Qingzhou is relieved, the Emperor will bestow titles upon us according to the amount of grain we sold, and he will also praise us as righteous merchants who did not take the opportunity to inflate rice prices."
Upon hearing this, everyone blushed even more. The Emperor himself wrote them IOUs, indicating that he would deliver the silver to their residences soon.
Actually, they also wanted to make a fortune this winter. Qingzhou will definitely be short of grain from this year to next autumn harvest. There won't be enough grain to sell, so who would donate?
At this time, news that the Emperor and Empress had personally gone to Qingzhou to provide disaster relief and rescue the people also spread among the people.
After receiving relief grain at the county government office, the people of Zhushan Town rushed to Qingzhou to see the imperial envoy sent by the imperial court.
Ran Shan was among them. When he learned that the imperial envoy's true identity was the emperor, he immediately wrote a poem praising his achievements for the emperor.
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