Li Banghua put his hands behind his back, stared into Wang Shi's eyes and asked, "Since you said you gave the money to the prefect, when did you give it to him? How much did you give?"
Wang Shi pretended to think about it for a moment, then said, "Your Excellency, I forgot."
"Forgot?"
"Yes, it's been too long, I forgot."
"That's not right. I remember that you have a good memory! Just now when I asked you why you collected more taxes, you said it was instructed by the prefect without even looking at the account book. How come you can't remember it now?" Li Banghua's eyes became colder and colder.
Wang Shi was speechless when asked.
He was so eager to put the blame on the prefect of Xuzhou that he forgot to look at the account books.
But it doesn't matter much.
He has plenty of ways to deal with it.
Thinking of this, Wang Shi kowtowed again and said: "I am only a ninth-rank official, and I obey the orders of the prefect. So there is no need to look at the account books. If more taxes are collected, it is because the prefect ordered them to be collected."
"Oh!" Li Banghua turned and looked at Chen Guidong, the governor of Xuzhou. "Chen Guidong, I give you one day to investigate this matter."
Why?
Chen Guidong and Wang Shi were both stunned.
What does this mean?
How can one investigate oneself?
Wang Shi was about to ask a question when he was punched on the back of the neck by the soldier behind him. His eyes went dark and he passed out.
Li Banghua said to Chen Guidong: "I am here to do only three things."
"First, disaster relief!"
"Second, refund the over-collected taxes and recover the overdue taxes."
"Third, rectify the administration of officials."
"The power has been given to you. I hope you won't let me down! Go ahead and do something great!"
Chen Guidong was completely confused.
He didn't expect that Li Banghua would actually let him investigate himself.
"Sir, I am humble..."
"I've already said it, don't say any more!" Li Banghua put his hands behind his back and walked slowly outside.
When he was about to drink tea after returning to the post station, the guard's voice rang out from outside the door: "Who is it? It turned out to be Li..."
"Hush, is the Lord here? I need to see you for something."
"Come in!" Li Banghua put down the tea bowl and looked towards the door.
With a creak, the door was opened from the outside.
Then a shadow flashed, and a soldier in poor armor walked in from outside.
After the door was closed, the soldier took off his helmet.
Sweat poured down.
Li Banghua smiled slightly, reached out and picked up a clean towel from the side and handed it to him, saying, "Commander Li, why did you come to the post station instead of hiding in the dark?"
"You should know that the post station is full of spies from Nanjing nobles and officials. Even His Royal Highness the Crown Prince has sent people. Once the news of your trip south is leaked, everyone in the Nanjing officialdom will be in danger."
Li Ruo Lian stared at the tea bowl on the table and swallowed his saliva: "Don't worry, Lord, no one can recognize me. Even if they do, it doesn't matter, they will know that I left Beijing sooner or later."
"Oh? What do you mean?" Li Banghua pushed the perfect tea bowl in front of Li Ruolian.
Li Ruo Lian was not polite either. He reached out, picked up the tea bowl and drank all the tea in it.
belch...
He burped and then said leisurely: "Your Excellency is a high-ranking official after all, you should drink tea from a teacup. Only rude people like us drink tea from tea bowls!"
Li Banghua rolled his eyes at him and said, "People like you are the ones who hit the cook after dinner."
Li Ruo Lian chuckled and looked at the plates on the table.
The plate is filled with Xuzhou’s famous local pastries: the Eight Weirdos of Xuzhou.
Honey three knife, Yangjiao honey, honey cake...
Li Banghua reached out and pushed the plate on the table forward: "Commander Li, please help yourself."
"Okay!" Li Ruolian stood beside the table and stuffed one piece into her mouth at a time.
Simply chew twice and swallow.
In the blink of an eye, Li Ruolian had swallowed half of the large plate of pastries.
Li Banghua was stunned: "Li... Li Ruo Lian, eat slowly."
"Duo...hiccup...Don't worry, Lord Duo, I'm fine." Li Ruolian answered while eating.
"No..." Li Banghua stretched out his hand to cover the plate, "I'm not concerned about you, but I'm afraid that you will choke to death in the house and I will be implicated, understand?"
"Hmm." Li Ruolian reluctantly retracted his right hand, stopped swallowing, and began to chew slowly.
Li Banghua finally breathed a sigh of relief after making sure that Li Ruolian would not choke to death.
If Li Ruolian really choked to death, I'm afraid everyone would think that he was killed by himself.
Because no one believed that the commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard would eat like this in private.
"Tell me, what's the matter?" Li Banghua asked.
"Oh, right," Li Ruo Lian slapped his head, "I almost forgot about the important matter!"
"I have three tasks when I go south with you," Li Ruolian paused, "One is to protect you and the other is to obey your orders."
"The third mission was assigned by His Majesty. I cannot tell you yet."
Li Banghua said angrily: "If you can't tell me, don't tell me. I hate people like you who only say half of what they say!"
"I just have something to ask you!" Li Ruolian picked up the teapot next to him, picked up a new tea bowl, and poured tea for Li Banghua himself.
"If you have something to say, just say it. Don't try to get close to me." Li Banghua had a look of disgust on his face.
Seeing that the time was ripe, Li Ruolian reached out and took out a document that had been written in advance from his arms. He spread the document flat on the table, covered the main text of the document with his right hand, leaving only the seal in the lower left corner exposed.
"Please put the imperial seal on it."
Li Banghua glared at him and said, "What do you mean? You asked me to stamp the imperial seal, but you don't let me read the contents of the document?"
"Yes," Li Ruo Lian nodded, "This letter says the third mission."
"You should find someone else. I can't build it." Li Banghua refused without hesitation.
Are you kidding? Asking him to stamp but not letting him read the content, there must be something fishy going on.
"Other people's seals won't work. Only the imperial seal will work."
"Read the content first, then stamp it," Li Banghua insisted.
After a while of stalemate, Li Ruolian saw that the other party would not give in, so he could only remind him: "You can read the contents of the document, but you must not leak it."
"That's better!" Li Banghua snorted coldly and took the document closer to check.
After reading it once, Li Banghua's eyebrows knitted together. He stared at Li Ruo Lian and asked, "Are you okay?"
"What are you talking about, Lord? I'm fine!"
"Why are you taking so much food to Huguang? Yuan Jixian in Huguang relies on farming to provide his own food, and Qin Liangyu's food comes from Sichuan. There is no shortage of food over there!"
"Don't ask me, sir. Even if I ask you, I can't tell you."
"Your Majesty asked you to do this?"
"I guess so!" Li Ruolian blinked.
"What do you mean by considered?"
"Your Majesty only gave us the mission, not the details. Sending grain and fodder to Huguang is a solution I came up with based on the current situation!"
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