Chapter 134 Thunderous Measures!
The grain merchant was so angry that his face turned red and he objected!
"Your Highness! Do you know that the price of grain in Yingzhou has reached 700 wen per dou?
Even if we have some grain in our hands, it is to save our lives and prevent our family from starving to death.
Your Highness, you buy grain at 20 wen per dou, but I'm afraid you can't buy a grain in Yingzhou."
Qin Wang Zhao Defang glanced at him and asked lightly, "What's your name?"
The fat and big-eared grain merchant was startled!
Seeing that Liu Zhizhou winked at him, he straightened up courageously.
: "Reporting to the prince, I am a grain merchant in Yingzhou, named Kong Cheng."
: "You and Kong Ping, who manages the Changping Warehouse in Yingzhou, are cousins, right?"
The light voice of the King of Qin exploded in Kong Cheng's heart like thunder!
Kong Cheng was panicked and nodded, not daring to admit or deny it.
The face of the King of Qin Zhao Defang turned cold! An aura of the supremacy of the king emanated from him.
: "Come here! Take down this black-hearted profiteer Kong Cheng and the Changping Warehouse Supervisor Kong Ping, and take them out to be beheaded!"
Kong Cheng and Kong Ping were scared out of their wits!
They struggled desperately and shouted, "Prince! Spare my life! It's unjust!..."
"Prince! It's unjust! Do we have to lose our heads just because we are cousins? Prefect Liu, Magistrate Wang, we are unjust!..."
Liu Jingye and Wang Ren were terrified, but they could only bite the bullet and plead for the Kong brothers.
Liu Jingye gritted his teeth and stood up first, "Prince, you are known as the sage of the Eight Sages, how can you be so careless and take human lives?"
Wang Ren also bowed and saluted! : "Your Majesty, even if you want to punish Kong Cheng for his verbal offense, you should not execute him by beheading, let alone implicate an innocent person!
Please raise your hand and take back your order!"
They are all grasshoppers tied to the same rope. If the Kong brothers are eager to save their lives and confess, none of them can escape!
Other officials also spoke up to plead for the Kong brothers.
"Your Majesty, please raise your hand and take back your order!"
"Your Majesty, please raise your hand and take back your order!"
As the saying goes, the law does not punish the masses, and Liu Jingye's courage was even stronger.
But his attitude became more respectful: "Your Majesty, Kong Cheng dared to contradict you. Just beat him with dozens of sticks and let him learn his lesson!"
Qin Wang Zhao Defang swept his eyes across the faces of these officials one by one, and everyone who was swept by his eyes shuddered in their hearts!
Qin Wang stretched out his hand to Yun Yi beside him, and Yun Yi took out an account book from his arms.
Qin Wang took it and threw it to the officials!
"Does my king take human lives lightly?
You can see the account book of the Kong brothers colluding with each other to resell the life-saving grain in the Changping warehouse!"
Liu Jingye leaned over and picked up the account book at his feet. After flipping through a few pages, he was so scared that his face turned pale and his body was covered with cold sweat! How could the two brothers of the Kong family be so careless and leave evidence for such a confidential matter? Isn't this courting death?
More than 20 officials took turns to take the account book and took a look at it. Suddenly, they were all terrified and silent.
When Kong Cheng and Kong Ping were dragged out, they cried desperately, "Prince, spare my life! Spare my life!... I am willing to confess, I want to redeem myself and make meritorious contributions!..."
After hearing this, the officials of Yingzhou looked at the figures of the Kong brothers with hatred, wishing that the two dog heads would fall to the ground immediately.
After a while, two bloody heads were placed on a tray and sent in. The black and red blood dripped onto the ground. The Kong brothers both died with their eyes wide open.
Everyone in the hall was so scared that their faces turned pale and their clothes were soaked with cold sweat. The timid county magistrate trembled with both buttocks, and a smell of urine emanated from him.
The King of Qin gave another indifferent order, "Yun Yi, send people to confiscate the property of the Kong brothers, and take out the blood of the people they drank and return it to the people to save their lives."
Yun Yi bowed and accepted the order, and assigned two shadow guards to lead the search.
The King of Qin Zhao Defang smiled at everyone gently, "I will give you another chance. Is there anyone who pleads guilty to the corruption case of disaster relief silver and grain, and wants to be given a lighter sentence, or expose it to gain merit?"
Those who had a guilty conscience were all trembling with fear, as if they were facing the abyss, and they all glanced at the governor Liu Jingye.
Liu Jingye was terrified, but he gritted his teeth and straightened his back, hinting to his accomplices with his fearless momentum, grit your teeth and refuse to confess!
The hall was so quiet that you could hear a pin drop. After waiting for about a cup of tea, Liu Jingye and others gradually felt relieved.
The King of Qin has no evidence in his hands, so what can he do to us court officials?
King Qin Zhao Defang looked at these corrupt officials who were resisting and snorted coldly!
He reached out to Yun Yi beside him again, and Yun Yi took out a stack of account books from his arms and handed them to the prince.
The King of Qin looked at the name marked on the account book, shouted and threw a book at the man!
: "Liu Jingye!"
: "Meng Xiaotu!
" :
"Wang Ren!"
: "Chen Hong!" : "Liu Qimei!"
...
The officials who were hit by the account books picked up the account books with their own names in fear. After flipping through two pages, they were scared to death!
"Plop!" "Plop!" ... One after another, they knelt on the ground trembling.
Yun Yi sneered in his heart!
What kind of person is my prince? How could he fight an unprepared battle?
As soon as they left the capital, twenty shadow guards were sent to the disaster area in advance. None of the dirty things you conspired could escape the eyes and ears of my brothers.
Qin Wang Zhao Defang glanced at the kneeling officials indifferently, and they were all terrified at the moment! Everyone's face was pale, shivering, and the room was filled with the smell of urine.
"Yun Yi, take off the official hats and official uniforms of these corrupt officials, and parade them on the streets!
Confiscate all their property!"
There was no fierceness on the handsome face of His Royal Highness the Prince of Qin, and his voice was calm and gentle, but it was like a thunder bomb exploding in the hearts of all the officials!
The prefect Liu Jingye was terrified and fell to the ground, his mind was in a mess as if struck by lightning, and it was still spinning desperately.
Resist? How dare the several thousand troops of this prefecture dare to confront the two thousand elite Moyun cavalry brought by the Prince of Qin?
The Prince of Qin did not behead us all immediately, so there is still room for maneuver.
The powerful mentor in the court will not watch and do nothing. After all, I have used my embezzled money to honor him and to take care of those powerful people in the Ministry of Personnel and Ministry of Revenue.
Just surrender for the time being! As long as he could keep his life in the hands of the King of Qin, the Emperor who ruled the world together with the literati would be lenient to him in the court, and at most he would be dismissed from office. What
made him most distressed was that all the property he had accumulated over the years of corruption was confiscated and used for disaster relief. After enjoying all the glory and wealth, would hundreds of people in the family be starved to death?
Yun Yi sent out a team of elite Mo Yun cavalry to confiscate the property.
He also ordered people to remove the official uniforms and hats of the corrupt officials who had been executed, string them together with ropes, and march them on the streets.
The local tyrants and wealthy businessmen in the hall of the government office were so frightened that their faces turned pale, and they were trembling as if they were on the edge of the abyss, waiting for the decision of His Royal Highness the King of Qin.
At this time, the face of Qin Wang Zhao Defang turned cold! He scanned the crowd with a stern look.
"I know all of you who colluded with these corrupt officials to resell the disaster relief grain.
If you spit out three times the amount you resold, I will give you a lighter sentence.
If anyone dares to lose a pound, his fate will be to immediately lose his head and his property will be confiscated and used for disaster relief!"
Those powerful people and big businessmen were terrified, but they knelt on the ground and said they would obey your orders as if they had been pardoned.
The uninvited merchants at the scene were not terrified or panicked from beginning to end.
At this moment, the white-bearded old man among them was pushed out and
bowed to His Royal Highness the King of Qin!
: "Your Highness, the five of us are merchants and landlords in Yingzhou. We
heard that it was Your Highness the Prince of Qin who came here in person to provide disaster relief and investigate the case, so we came here specially to do our best to help.
We have some grain stored at home, and we are thinking of selling it to you at the fair price of twenty wen a bushel that Your Highness has offered, so that the grain can be used to help the people in Yingzhou who have been affected by the disaster. I ,
Cheng Mu, am willing to give out 20,000 dan of grain to sell at the fair price." :
"Your Highness, I am Zhao Wu,
and I am willing to give out 10,000 dan of grain."
: "Your Highness, I am Geng Chunwan, and I am willing to give out 10,000 dan of grain." : "Your Highness, I am Liu Dahai, and I am willing to give out 8,000 dan of grain."
The last middle-aged businessman bowed deeply to His Highness the Prince of Qin! He said generously: "Your Majesty, Yingzhou Sihai Cloth Shop is willing to take out all the 26,000 dan of grain in stock."
Qin Wang Zhao Defang stood up and walked over to the people, bowed and saluted!
"Little King Zhao Defang thanks you for your generosity on behalf of the people affected by the disaster!"
Those people hurriedly moved aside, saying they dared not, and bowed to salute.
The generous middle-aged cloth merchant was even more panicked and knelt on the ground.
Yun Yi, who was standing next to him, understood in his heart. This man was the shopkeeper of the Yingzhou branch of the cloth shop under the Qin Wang Mansion. The grain in his hands was purchased by order. How dare he accept the gift from your Majesty?
After thanking several merchants who donated generously, the King of Qin turned around and looked at those black-hearted profiteers and powerful landlords.
"I have said that the 200,000 taels of silver I brought must all be used to buy affordable grain.
These chivalrous and kind-hearted shopkeepers have already taken on part of it. Now there is still a shortage of more than 100,000 shi of affordable grain, and it falls on you."
Two bloody heads were placed in front of him, and the officials of Yingzhou were stripped of their official uniforms and strung together with ropes to parade outside. Who dared to risk their lives to object?
These profiteers and powerful people who were fined three times the disaster relief grain they bought from corrupt officials were already heartbroken. They could only discuss with each other in a low voice and each subscribed to the amount of affordable grain that was missing.
Qin Wang Zhao Defang sneered secretly!
Although Yingzhou had no harvest after the disaster, there would never be a real shortage of food to the point where tens of thousands of people starved to death.
These landlords and black-hearted profiteers would have stored a lot of food in previous years.
After the natural disaster, they would buy food from other states as soon as possible. They just hoarded food and drove up the price of food to make a fortune from the national disaster! What's
even more black-hearted and vicious is that these powerful landlords will let the disaster get worse and worse, taking this opportunity to annex the fields of the victims at low prices and buy the children of the victims as slaves.
It's just that the corrupt officials and black-hearted profiteers and landlords in this world are endless.
All I can do is to bear the huge pressure and punish them severely!