The Red Mansion: From a Small Pawn to a Leader

Shui Rong didn't know that the emperor was so angry that he was about to vomit blood.

Emperor Yongchang sat on the dragon throne, his chest heaving, his eyes full of shock and anger. After a long while, he evened his breathing and said, "This is the royal family who will perish with the country! They drink, gamble, act, fight crickets, sell private salt, and even steal and sell grain from the government warehouse. At this rate, they will sell the Forbidden City tomorrow!" At this point, he got angry again and slammed the imperial desk!
The two cabinet ministers, the Minister of Revenue, Jia Lian, and the top three candidates in the imperial examination who were kneeling there shuddered and bowed their heads even lower.

Dai Quan, who was standing aside, smiled bitterly. As Henan needed more and more grain, Jia Lian began to transfer grain from Liangjiang, Huguang and other places. Only then did he discover that the official warehouses in these places were almost empty. All the grain was stolen and sold outside the Great Wall by the princes of the royal family in collusion with local officials.

There is still more than a month before the summer harvest. During this period, the food that Henan urgently needs can only be transferred from the military grain depot in Tongzhou. However, that is the military rations for hundreds of thousands of border troops and cannot be moved easily.

At this moment, the eunuch on duty outside the palace said, "The Crown Prince is here."

Before he could finish his words, the prince came in holding a piece of ink paper.

Emperor Yongchang: "Why did you come at this time?"

The prince walked to his seat and stopped, then replied, "Father, I have sent people to Tongzhou to check the actual amount of grain in the military grain depot."

Everyone raised their heads when they heard this.

Emperor Yongchang's eyes flashed: "Then tell me the figures you found."

Prince: "Yes. Since the imperial court continued to use troops outside the Great Wall in the second half of last year, the grain in the military grain depot was consumed a lot. The food rations for the first batch of refugees migrating outside the Great Wall were also urgently transferred from the military grain depot. The remaining grain reserves were not enough to supply hundreds of thousands of border troops for three months, and there was no grain to be transferred to Henan at all."

Emperor Yongchang suddenly stood up from the dragon throne: "What?!"

Everyone was shocked when they heard this.

The Crown Prince: "There is still more than a month before the summer harvest. Even if the grain is transported directly to the border, the border troops will have to eat sparingly to ensure a continuous supply of food! Here is the list, please take a look, father."

Dai Quan quickly took the list from the prince and presented it to Emperor Yongchang.

Emperor Yongchang's hand holding the list was shaking slightly, and his tone changed: "I handed over the six ministries to you princes for joint management, and the deficit is so high." He was stunned when he said this. The grass on the grave of the fourth prince who was ordered to supervise the Ministry of Revenue had been replaced. He turned his eyes to the Minister of Revenue: "You are the Minister of Revenue, what do you say?!"

The Minister of Revenue had sweat on his forehead: "This, your servant, your servant"

Jia Lian helped to speak up: "Your Majesty, whenever there is grain coming in and out of the military grain depot, the Ministry of Revenue will submit a list to the study."

The Minister of Revenue responded: "Yes, yes, last month, 100,000 shi of grain was allocated to the outside of the Great Wall. This is the list I personally submitted. The top scholar was on duty at that time!"

The top scholar broke out in a cold sweat upon hearing this!

Emperor Yongchang looked at him.

The top scholar kowtowed heavily and replied, "I have failed in my duty. Please punish me, Your Majesty."

Emperor Yongchang did not answer, but slowly turned his gaze to the Crown Prince and asked, "Crown Prince, it seems that you have figured out what to do. Tell me, how do we resolve this crisis?"

The Crown Prince: "In my humble opinion, we should immediately transfer grain from the military granary to relieve the emergency in Henan. Then we should allocate silver from the national treasury to buy grain from the rich families in Zhili. We should also send imperial envoys to Jiangnan to buy grain to fill the shortfall in the military granary."

As soon as he finished speaking, the two university scholars said in unison: "Your Highness, your analysis is very detailed and to the point!"

The Minister of Revenue and Jia Lian followed closely: "We second the motion!"

The top scholar, the second scholar, and the third scholar looked at each other and said in unison, "We second this motion."

Emperor Yongchang's eyes slowly scanned the crowd and then fell on the crown prince: "Who do you think is suitable to send?"

The Crown Prince: "Father is wise and intelligent, and has his own ideas."

Emperor Yongchang asked again: "How to deal with those princes of the royal family?"

The prince: "Well, I think, after all, they are royal relatives, so it's okay to fine them."

Emperor Yongchang hesitated for a moment and said "hmm". The two ministers in the cabinet exchanged anxious glances. If this precedent is set, there will be endless troubles!
Emperor Yongchang thought about it again and said to Jia Lian, "The matter of buying grain from the rich families in Zhili is now in your hands."

Shit! Jia Lian responded with a “yes”.

The top three candidates who were kneeling next to each other quickly exchanged gloating glances.

Emperor Yongchang turned his gaze to the champion and said, "You go to Jiangnan to buy grain."

The top scholar's face immediately changed: "This, I, I have never done such an assignment before."

Emperor Yongchang: "I will select officials from the Ministry of Revenue to accompany you. You must work hard and win honor for me."

The champion had nothing else to say, so he could only answer, "Yes."

Emperor Yongchang: "Okay, everyone go down."

Everyone retreated in response.

"Alas!" Emperor Yongchang sighed, "This child is too soft-hearted!"

Dai Quan was speechless. With so many royal princes, you dare to order them all to be killed?!

Suddenly, the eunuch on duty spoke from outside: "Your Majesty, Lin Ruhai's urgent delivery has arrived!"

Dai Quan hurried to the door: "Quick! Express delivery!"

The eunuch on duty hurriedly handed the express to Dai Quan.

Dai Quan walked quickly to the imperial desk with the urgent letter in his hand and handed it to Emperor Yongchang who had already stood up.

Emperor Yongchang snatched the express delivery, tore open the seal and read it. As he read it, a smile appeared on his face: "Lin Ruhai, you really didn't let me down!" He immediately said to Dai Quan: "Send someone to Shandong to transport grain immediately!"

Dai Quan: “Yes.”

Emperor Yongchang placed Lin Ruhai's urgent letter in his palm and patted it twice, then said: "With Shandong's grain reserves, the court can breathe a sigh of relief. As long as the grain purchased from Jiangnan arrives in Beijing, the food crisis will be completely solved. Lin Ruhai is great! When the time is right, I will transfer him to Beijing." At this point, he suddenly remembered, "This year is the third year, right?"

Dai Quan was slightly stunned, and replied: "It will be three years in half a year."

Emperor Yongchang nodded: "Are they getting married this year?"

Dai Quan was stunned. I am not Li Hu's father, how would I know these things?

Emperor Yongchang also reacted, thought for a moment, and said, "Ask Li Hu and tell him that I can make arrangements for Lin Ruhai."

Li Hu didn't know that someone was worrying about his marriage. At this time, he was on the way to eat melons.

There were more than ten thousand cavalrymen, each man had three horses. The dust raised by more than a hundred thousand horse hooves rolled up a yellow dragon several miles long on the prairie, rolling and majestic, with an astonishing momentum!

Wherever he passed, the herdsmen knelt down to salute him.

The sun slowly sank, and Li Hu also arrived at the border between Dashun and Xilingol League. He would spend the night here, waiting for Liu Xianglian's five thousand elite cavalry.

He went there to eat melons and take advantage of the situation, but he couldn't become the object of the melons.

With a cry of panting, the cavalrymen pulled the reins and slowly stopped.

Li Hu looked up at the sky: "Set up camp and rest!" (End of this chapter)