The ruthless emperor in the late Ming Dynasty forced Chongzhen to abdicate at the beginning

Chapter 123 Where did the grain money go?

Seeing King Fu being dragged out, no one in the hall felt surprised. It would be an accident if the emperor didn't get King Fu to the capital.

He just yelled in his heart that the King of Fortune was too stupid, he hurriedly lived in the palace and sat on the dragon chair before he had even written his horoscope. Now that he was caught with such a big handle, the throne might have to be abolished.

But everyone also breathed a sigh of relief.

It turns out that the imperial concubine is going to do everything possible to find an excuse to take down King Fu, which means that she really won't mention rumors anymore, and the matter of setting up a new king.

Otherwise, there is no need to find such an excuse, just take down King Fu for the crime of treason.

"Where is the Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs in Nanjing?"

"Chen is here!"

Gao Hongtu, Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs of Nanjing, hurried out to answer.

"How much money and food are there in the warehouse of the household department?" The red lady looked at him and asked straightforwardly.

"Mother, there is no money in the warehouse." Gao Hongtu replied cautiously.

The red lady suddenly laughed back angrily, tightened her hand holding the hilt of the sword, and said sharply: "From October last year to the present, the provinces in the south of the Yangtze River have escorted a penny of food into Beijing. Where did the tax money go? have you eaten?"

"My lady, please calm down. The summer tax and autumn tax of the provinces last year were indeed more than six million taels in total. However, in May, His Majesty sent someone to raise grain, so I used it to buy grain. The total amount was two million taels." Gao said. Hongtu hastily explained again.

"The provinces in the south of the Yangtze River are so rich, why did they only collect 600 million taels of silver in one year?"

The red lady said in a deep voice.

Zhang Yan also looked straight at the officials in the palace, and she also wanted to know why the fifth younger brother raised taxes every year, but Jiangnan collected less and less tax.

"Hey, Empress Dowager, I don't know. In the past few years, rebels have been raging, and Huguang and Sichuan have been unable to collect taxes. Last year, there was a large-scale civil unrest in Zhejiang. Although it subsided in the end, it was still riddled with holes.

Therefore, those who can really collect taxes are the counties and counties in Nanzhili and some counties in Zhejiang, as well as Jiangxi, Guangdong, Guangxi, and Fujian.

And 300% of them came from Nanzhili. Now His Majesty has exempted Sanxiang and corvee. From now on, it will be good if all places can collect [-] million taels of silver. "

Seeing that Zhang Yan was looking over, Qian Qianyi had no choice but to stand up and sigh, and then slowly explained that what he said was not fake at all.

In the past few years, Chongzhen has indeed been relying on Nanzhili, Jiangxi, and Zhejiang to support it.

"I don't care how much we can collect in the future. Let's talk about last year and this year first. So for 600 million taels of silver, I only bought 200 million stone grains?" The red lady waved her hand, obviously not wanting to hear Qian Qianyi's nonsense. , but looked at Gao Hongtu again.

"Hui Niangniang, it's mainly due to the war in Huguang, the sharp drop in grain production, coupled with the civil strife in Zhejiang last year, and the floods in Jiangxi, so the price of grain has been rising steadily since the beginning of spring this year. In May, it even reached three or two yuan per stone. Concerned about the safety of the imperial court, the grain merchants took the initiative to reduce the price, otherwise they might not be able to buy 200 million shi."

"Yes!"

"Right now there is a shortage of food everywhere."

After Gao Hongtu explained, everyone nodded frequently.

In May of this year, after the imperial court announced to buy grain with tax money, the price of grain in the city did rise to three taels, but after the purchase was over, it dropped to around two taels.

"Okay, the war in Huguang has reduced production, Jiangxi has flooded again, Zhejiang has rebellious people, and only bought 200 million shi of grain, so where is the grain now?"

Hong Niangzi suppressed the urge to kill and asked.

Now that there is an urgent shortage of food in the north, it is better to get the 200 million shi first and transport it there immediately.

"At that time, there was a reason. All the grain was temporarily sealed in the warehouse at the dock. Unexpectedly, the sky was dry and the food was dry, and the water was gone. The 200 million stone grain was burned. Come down!"

After Gao Hongtu finished speaking, the old man knelt down in tears, obviously worried about this matter.

"Going around, that is to say, the warehouse in Nanjing doesn't have a tael of silver and a stone of grain, right?"

Hong Niangzi said calmly.

Zhang Yan's face was very ugly.

"Reporting to the Empress Dowager, empress, this time is too strange. I suspect that someone enriched his own pocket, corrupted all the taxes and food at the dock, and then deliberately set fire to it to deceive others. I beg your empress to thoroughly investigate this matter."

Ma Shiying rolled his eyes and immediately stood up.

"Queen Mother, Your Majesty, it was very strange that the pier suddenly caught fire at that time. At first, there was nothing wrong with it for more than a month, but he and Fu Wang had just crossed the river and came to Nanjing with their troops. Two days later, the pier caught fire. If this matter has nothing to do with Ma Shiying It has nothing to do with it, I will never believe it."

"Hou Xun, don't spit blood. I'm afraid the granary at the wharf will be empty before the old man and Fu Wang arrive in Nanjing. As for who enriched their own pockets and who set fire to cover their eyes, you know very well!"

"Fuck, old man, you are clearly a thief shouting "Stop a thief..."

For a while, there was a pot of porridge in the hall, but Ma Shiying was obviously weak. In the end, Hou Xun, Shi Kefa, Gao Hongtu and others scolded him for being only capable of parrying, but unable to fight back.

Qian Qianyi and a group of nobles watched with cold eyes, secretly looking at the expressions of Hong Niangzi and Zhang Yan from time to time.

But the two of them were expressionless, and the other looked like they were watching the show, and they sat back on the small stool beside Zhang Yan.

"Mother... queen mother, mother... empress... this matter has absolutely nothing to do with the old minister, it is clearly..." Ma Shiying argued to the red lady and Zhang Yan out of breath.

But only in the middle of the conversation, Hou Xun interrupted again: "I report to the Empress Dowager, the imperial concubine, I impeach Ma Shiying for enriching his own pockets and embezzling taxes and food!"

"The minister seconded the proposal..."

For a moment, most of the civil servants in the palace knelt down to impeach Ma Shiying, and Ma Shiying knelt on the ground, angry and anxious, tremblingly pointing at Hou Xun and others, cursing: "Shameless..."

"enough."

Seeing Ma Shiying kneeling on the ground and propping herself up, Zhang Yan finally couldn't take it anymore, got up and gave a low shout, then walked away.

"Respectfully send off the queen mother." Although the crowd was a little disappointed that the queen mother did not deal with Ma Shiying, they had to kneel down and pay respects.

Ma Shiying even collapsed directly in the hall, obviously exhausting all his energy and mind just now in the verbal battle with the Confucians.

Everyone got up and was about to leave, but found that the imperial concubine was still sitting motionless on the stool, with a faint smile on her mouth, so they had to stand up again.

"Why is it not noisy anymore? This is much better than singing on stage."

Seeing that everyone was silent, the red lady got up and came to the hall, and kicked Ma Shiying who was like a dead dog.

The latter hurriedly got up, knelt down again, and shouted: "Your Majesty, I have been wronged. Hou Xun and the others clearly want to frame you, so I ask you to learn from me!"

This time Hou Xun and the others didn't refute again, they obviously felt that the red lady was more difficult to deal with than Zhang Yan.

The red lady just glanced at Ma Shiying and ignored him. Instead, she looked at Qian Qianyi and said, "Qian Qianyi, you are the second assistant that His Majesty has just appointed. You are in charge of investigating this matter. Hou Xun, Gao Hongtu, the two of you assist me. I only give you three days. I don’t want to know who pocketed the money and who set it on fire. After three days, I only need to see 200 million shi of grain, and if there is one shi less, I will put it away first. The three of you will ransack your home and kill your head, and then choose someone to investigate!"

After the red lady finished speaking, she also turned and left.

Everyone looked at me and I looked at you, kneeling down and sending them off again, Ma Shiying sneered gloatingly, and strode away.

But Qian Qianyi, Hou Xun, Shi Kefa and others breathed a sigh of relief, just now everyone just wanted to test the temperament of this imperial concubine and empress.

Now that the north is short of food, without the support of money and food from the south, it will definitely not work. His majesty even pardoned them, and restored many people to their original posts, and added more officials. Anyway, he must find a way to collect some money and food, and transport them to the north as soon as possible.

As for the food on the pier, it was indeed pocketed by someone, and they all knew who it was. At that time, they were worried that the food would be swallowed up by Ma Shiying and King Fu, so they turned a blind eye.

"Mr. Qian Ge, this imperial concubine is completely unruly and has such a murderous intention, what should I do in the future?"

Gao Hongtu whispered worriedly, everyone understood the look in the eyes of the red lady when she left just now.

If two million shi of grain cannot be produced after three days, there will definitely be a massacre.

"Isn't there still a queen mother here? Everyone, be more careful in the future. The reward of eating the king is the worry of being loyal to the king. Let's hurry up and raise food!"

Qian Qianyi narrowed his eyes and waved his hands.

Everyone didn't say anything, and left the hall in a hurry.

But the nobles at the side hadn't left yet, they were all discussing quietly around Wei Guogong.

"My lord, why don't I go to see the queen mother and imperial concubine again?"

Obviously, no matter whether they were in Jiangbei or just now, they didn't see His Majesty's attitude towards them, so they really didn't know what to do and wanted to take the initiative to test it out.

After all, it is normal for the emperor to pardon the civil servants in order to buy people's hearts, but it is hard to say about them.

"Wait a little longer and see if the queen mother and empress will take the initiative to summon me!" Wei Guogong pondered for a moment and waved his hands.

He estimated that the queen mother and the imperial concubine should summon them first, beat them up, even punish them, and then appease them.

But everyone waited for half an hour, and there was still no movement, and they panicked even more.

Wei Guogong gritted his teeth and had no choice but to ask to see him.

"Everyone, the empress dowager and the imperial concubine have been exhausted all the way, and they have already rested. I will tell you to go back first, and we will talk about things tomorrow."

Xu Lan went and returned, and then said in front of the nobles.

"Let's go!"

Wei Guogong sighed, then waved and left the hall.

He knew that His Majesty would punish them severely this time.

In fact, he didn't want to get involved in the matter of setting up a new king at the beginning, but King Fu forced him to make a choice. In order to preserve the glory and wealth of Wei Guogong's lineage, he also had to choose to support King Fu.

Because if you don't choose to support him, once King Fu ascends the throne, he will definitely clean up Wei Guogong's lineage.

Although the other nobles were also worried, they were not as worried as Wei Guogong. After all, Wei Guogong led them at the beginning, and they had to follow him.

(End of this chapter)