On the night that Feng An, the Grand Commander of the Tiansu Protectorate, was appointed as the commander-in-chief of the imperial army to suppress the rebellion, fires broke out in two granaries of the Ministry of Revenue in the capital.
As a result, a large amount of grain that the Liang court had urgently collected from Qizhou, Songzhou, Yongzhou and Shunzhou was burned.
Both fires were set deliberately, killing and injuring many soldiers guarding the two Ministry of Revenue granaries.
Early the next morning, in a hall of the imperial palace, Emperor Chen Xun angrily shouted to the Minister of Revenue Niu Ruyue, "Why did the two granaries of the Ministry of Revenue catch fire at the same time?
How did you become the Minister of Revenue?
Did you know that those two granaries store a large amount of food and fodder for the rebel army?"
Minister of Revenue Niu Ruyue said with a sad face: "Your Majesty, those two granaries were set on fire, and many of the soldiers guarding the two granaries were killed or injured.
This was probably the work of spies sent into the capital by the rebels. I have already reinforced the guards at several other Ministry of Revenue granaries within the city."
At this time, the fourth prince Chen Bing, who controlled 30,000 imperial soldiers in the capital, took the initiative to apologize and said, "Father, it is all my fault for being negligent.
I never imagined that even with a thousand soldiers stationed at each granary, two of them would be burned down by the rebels. I beg Your Majesty to punish me."
The biological mother of the fourth prince Chen Bing was an ordinary concubine in the harem. Originally, the fourth prince Chen Bing was just a small and transparent existence. The previous struggle for the throne had almost nothing to do with the fourth prince Chen Bing.
But no one expected that Emperor Chen Xun would inexplicably hand over the military power of 30,000 palace soldiers in the capital to the insignificant fourth prince Chen Bing.
This also caused a slight change in the original struggle for the throne between the crown prince and the eldest prince.
Some ministers even speculated whether Emperor Chen Xun was planning to let the fourth prince Chen Bing take the throne. You know, neither the crown prince nor the eldest prince had control over the military power.
When Emperor Chen Xun heard that his fourth son, Chen Bing, had offered his apology, his anger subsided considerably. "Fourth Prince, we must strengthen the defenses of the remaining granaries. If another granary is burned, you will be held accountable!"
The fourth prince, Chen Bingcheng, said with deep fear, "Don't worry, Father. I promise that there will be no more mistakes in the other Ministry of Revenue granaries."
In fact, at this time, the fourth prince Chen Bing was secretly complaining in his heart: By burning these two Ministry of Revenue granaries, the left prime minister and the right prime minister have covered up the fact that the granaries of various state governments are short of money. Of course, the other Ministry of Revenue granaries will not be burned again.
Right Prime Minister Fan Ziyong sighed and said, "Your Majesty, after these two Ministry of Revenue granaries were burned, the grain raised by the Ministry of Revenue this time can only sustain the more than two million rebel army for two months.
I request Your Majesty's permission to open the imperial granaries in the capital to provide food and fodder for the various armies that are suppressing the rebellion."
As soon as the Right Prime Minister Fan Ziyong finished speaking, the Left Prime Minister Lu Zeng continued, "Your Majesty, if we requisition grain from Qizhou, Songzhou, Yongzhou, and Shunzhou now, we will not have enough time, and the government granaries in Qizhou, Songzhou, Yongzhou, and Shunzhou are running low.
I agree with the Right Prime Minister's suggestion to activate the imperial granaries in the capital to supply food to the court's over two million troops fighting to suppress the rebellion."
The Imperial Granary is the emperor's private granary. Generally speaking, it is not used easily. Every year, the Ministry of Revenue will use some new grain to replace some of the old grain in the Imperial Granary.
Emperor Chen Xun nodded and said, "Now we have no choice but to use the grain in the imperial warehouse.
But we must find the rebels' accomplices in the capital as soon as possible, or I won't even be able to sleep peacefully."
Upon hearing that the emperor agreed to use the grain in the imperial warehouse, the left prime minister Lu Zeng and the right prime minister Fan Ziyong exchanged glances, and both of them breathed a sigh of relief.
As for the two burned granaries of the Ministry of Revenue, they were of course the work of these two prime ministers.
When Feng An, the Grand Commander of the Tiansu Protectorate, learned that two Ministry of Revenue granaries in the capital had been burned, he immediately became furious and said, "It must be those two old guys who did this.
I don't believe the Jiang family of Fuzhou has the ability to burn down both of the Ministry of Revenue's granaries in the capital surrounded by a large army."
At this time, Feng An had already arrived at the Tiansu Army camp outside the capital, and the Grand General of Ganyang Protectorate Cao Tingjin, the Grand General of Huaide Protectorate Fan Cheng, the Grand General of Shaochang Protectorate Liang Zixing, the Grand General of Anfeng Protectorate Liu Xi, and the Grand General of Xingling Protectorate Yao Yi also followed Feng An to the Tiansu Army camp.
In addition, Minister of War Xia Shijun and Vice Minister of War Sun Zhe also came along.
Minister of War Xia Shijun then said in a cold voice: "As far as I know, most of the government granaries in Qizhou, Songzhou, Yongzhou, and Shunzhou are seriously short of money.
The burning of two Ministry of Revenue granaries was probably intended to conceal the fact that the Ministry of Revenue had not previously collected much grain from these four states.”
Cao Tingjin, the Grand Commander of the Ganyang Protectorate, sighed and said, "During my time at the Ministry of Revenue, I knew how serious the deficit was.
I didn't expect that they would come up with something like this at this time."
The commander-in-chief of these six frontier armies and the Minister of War Xia Shijun were all close confidants of the late Yong'an King Chen Su, so these people did not have too many reservations when speaking at this time.
As for Sun Zhe, he should have been on the side of the late King Yong'an Chen Su, but because of the existence of Sun Hao, Sun Zhe left this camp.
However, Sun Zhe was also very dissatisfied with the actions of the Left Prime Minister Lu Zeng and the Right Prime Minister Fan Ziyong, saying, "Before the troops move, the food and fodder must go first.
If it weren't for the large amount of food in the imperial warehouse, we wouldn't have to fight this battle. The two Prime Ministers really went too far in this matter."
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com