Guangzong Yaoming

Chapter 137 Who will take the blame and who will bear the consequences?
The emperor's newly formed Yongwei Battalion has already started guarding the capital's gates and transporting grain in Beijing.

Another group of white-flag soldiers that were to be incorporated into the Yongwei Camp had already been camped on a small hillside west of Zhenjiang City for more than ten days.

"There are rumors in the capital that there may be more floods in the south of the Yangtze River this year. How can this governor not inspect the various prefectures to prevent floods? Please tell Lord Hao that I have already sent a letter to the Jiangnan Office regarding the personal soldiers of the Yongwei Camp crossing the river. Are the warships still not ready?"

Niu Yingyuan was on the shore of Taihu Lake, carefully inspecting flood control, water conservancy, and spring plowing in the dense water network area near the mouth of the Yangtze River.

The newly appointed Admiral Caojiang faced Geng Dingli's question, but said awkwardly: "Sir Geng, I just took office and have not sorted out everything yet. On the way, His Majesty has sent a handwritten letter, Sir Geng, please take a look."

He frowned and said, "I heard that Japanese pirates entered the Yangtze River and robbed the grain. Your Majesty was furious and worried. He was really worried that the Japanese pirates would wreak havoc in Jiangnan again like they did in the past. He ordered me to send more elite soldiers to intensify the inspection and help Inspector Wang to hunt down the Japanese pirates."

After Geng Dingli had finished reading the imperial edict, Chen Lin said helplessly, "The Yongwei Battalion, Baigan Zuoye Battalion are all landlubbers, and they are all your Majesty's personal soldiers. It should be safe to cross the river. I will go to the various water forts to see if they can mobilize enough ships. Otherwise, wouldn't it be disrespectful to the direct guards?"

Geng Dingli was helpless.

If they say it was the Japanese pirates who robbed our grain, we have to admit it.

The emperor did not seem to be in a hurry to send the White Spear Soldiers to Beijing. Instead, he was serious about confirming that there would be no large-scale Japanese invasion in Jiangnan.

The newly-appointed Pingyi Earl Chen Lin, on the contrary, secretly complained to Cao Jiangdu Yushi, saying that the warships of the Yangtze River Navy were poorly maintained and the number did not match the book.

He insisted on using only very imposing large ships as the flagship, and also dispatched enough escort warships to deliver the emperor's guards to the Yangzhou area on the north bank in a dignified manner. How could Geng Dingli accuse him of being wrong?
Or should we conscript corvée labor and organize civilian ships to transport them?
The Jinyiwei Northern Pacification Envoy even bought their food and rations from the local area with real money!

A group of elite soldiers with their eyes on Nanjing are stuck between the five prefectures of Suzhou, Songjiang, Changzhou, Jiaxing and Lake Suzhou. Although they are not guarding the pass, who knows how many more people the Northern Pacification Office has brought in disguised in plain clothes and where they are scattered?

Wang Dewan, the world-famous inspector of Yingtian, was ordered to investigate the case of Japanese pirates robbing grain. He was determined to find the trace of that group of arrogant Japanese pirates, which was naturally impossible.

Maybe he ran away.

But Wang Dewan reminded everyone in every place he inspected to be prepared for the Japanese pirates and to inquire whether any trace of the Japanese pirates had been seen. You can't say that he shouldn't have done so.

In Nanjing City, Ye Xianggao had been promoted to the Minister of Rites of Nanjing in the previous appointment of officials from the two capitals.

In the capital, the battle between Changming and other grain merchants had spread to the south, and the situation had progressed to the point where the emperor said at a court meeting that he wanted to see whether the fortune tellers from the grain merchants in the capital were accurate.

"... Confused!" Zhang Yi was shaking a letter, "How can they close the store and say that the new grain is sold out? What are the families in Jiangyou going to do?"

"Lord Geng still can't invite those barbarian soldiers to go north." Nanjing Minister of War Hao Jie looked grim, "Niu Yingyuan only pushed it to Caojiang Yamen!"

"...What is Li Caotai doing?" Ye Xianggao asked.

"What to do? Strictly follow the imperial decree, supervise and inspect all banknotes, and increase revenue!" Zhang Yi's face turned pale. "How can we eliminate floods every year? If the Dragon Boat Festival flood season comes, if something goes wrong, Beijing may be waiting for the news! Then a major investigation will be carried out. What should we do?"

"Your Majesty, what exactly do you want us to do?" Hao Jie said indignantly, "In less than a month, all the grain will arrive in Beijing!"

Zhang Yi walked back and forth in this secluded courtyard pavilion, and finally said: "Jiangnan has no intention of rebelling!"

Everyone looked at him and silently added another sentence in their hearts: Why force me?
But in fact, it was not the emperor forcing them. Even if the emperor was stationed here with a personal army to express some distrust, how could it be considered as forcing them?
"Master! Master! There's a letter from the Changzhou Shen family."

"Bring it here quickly!" Zhang Yi walked out of the pavilion quickly and stood in the drizzle.

Is Shen Shixing finally willing to speak plainly to them?
I returned to the pavilion, opened the envelope, and took out the paper inside. There was only one word on it.

"...What do you mean, Lord?" Hao Jie asked.

They all recognized that this was not Shen Shixing's handwriting.

But what was sent from the Wang family of Changzhou was naturally Shen Shixing's response to their previous "earnest inquiries" through a family letter.

Zhang Yi looked at the character "哇" above and found that there was an extra stroke on the radical of the character.

Like crossing out, crossing out “people”.

Zhang Yi didn't say anything, but Ye Xianggao's eyes flashed and he said, "If Geng Cao and Jiang were here..."

All three of them shut up.

Shen Shixing obviously didn't care whether they would all see it first, but his attitude had already been subtly conveyed.

If you remove the people, it becomes a committee.

"Wei" originally means "grain", and it also has many meanings such as accumulation, entrustment, appointment, shirking, listlessness, obedience, reality, etc.

The city of Beijing was in turmoil due to the undercurrent of grain prices. Jiangnan was a major land tax area. The emperor entrusted the foundation of Jiangnan to Nanjing and appointed Chen Lin, Niu Yingyuan, Wang Dewan and others to investigate the whole story of the grain tax issues caused by the exemption.

Wozi wanted to leave, and the three of them looked at each other.

Who should he go to? Where should he go? How could he convince the emperor that Jiangnan was obedient and could shirk all suspicion and blame?
On his way here, Geng Dingli suddenly said to his servant who was following the sedan chair: "Send a message to Cheng Bosong, and tell him to stay in Shaanxi and come back next year!"

"Yes."

His servant left the team and turned into an alley in the rain. Wang Dewan, who was investigating the Japanese pirates' grain robbery along the way and visited Wang Xijue's family, received a letter from Wang Xijue's younger brother Wang Dingjue.

After he finished reading it, he bowed solemnly to Wang Dingjue: "Your Excellency is so righteous, and I pay my respects to you."

"Brother, how can I not obey?" Wang Dingjue smiled bitterly and replied, "Wang Fu'an, this is not an easy task."

Wang Dewan nodded solemnly and then hurriedly said goodbye.

But after thinking it over, he did not return immediately, but continued to investigate everywhere and give instructions to prepare for the Japanese invasion.

However, he also arranged for his staff to deliver the letter to Zhenjiang.

Late at night, ten riders hurriedly left the White Spear Army camp west of Zhenjiang.

"You two, hurry up and wear your Feiyu suits and move forward quickly!" Luo Sigong ordered on horseback, "When we get to Wuchang, if there are any clues, one of you will continue to chase and the other will wait for us!"

He regretted not being more careful when he was in Wuchang Prefecture, but now he has figured it out.

They went south because of the Japanese pirates' food robbery, and there is a high possibility that they were fake Japanese pirates.

They robbed the grain, so could it be that it really sank into the river, or it could be that it hid in the south of the Yangtze River leaving behind some clues, or it could be that it went north on the canal that the emperor was keeping an eye on.

Of course, the big merchants who are already doing business outside and have ships traveling by water are the easiest to change their appearance.

When it comes to waterborne trade, apart from canals and the sea, the next best option is naturally the Yangtze River.

How could it be cost-effective to take the sea route for just five ships of grain?
It was three days later that we arrived at Wuchang Prefecture after traveling day and night.

Everyone was very tired, but when they saw the person who stayed there, Luo Sigong was still refreshed: "Got a clue?"

"Sir, please show your identity and interrogate us. Wuchang Prefecture will not be lazy. Judging from the time, the Cheng family in Jiangyou has the largest fleet. They bought three ships of new grain totaling 5,000 dan in Wuchang Prefecture and sailed up the Han River with the salt ships. I heard they are going to Shaanxi."

"It must be them, just in time to pass themselves off as the real ones! Chase them!"

In the letter that Wang Dewan sent to him, he only mentioned that some big salt merchants were secretly bandits.

After the first month of the lunar year, who were the first batch of big salt merchants who had salt ships from the Lianghuai Salt Fields? According to the Wang family, which salt merchants had close relationships with which officials in Nanjing? After Xiangcheng Bo went north, which big salt merchants gave the most tribute to the Yangtze River Navy? Who was the naval commander who was patrolling the Yangtze River east of the Grand Canal estuary at odds with on the night of the incident?

The Wang family of Taicang was the local tyrant of Suzhou Prefecture. It was said that among the people with the surname Wang in Taicang County, most of them were from the clan of Wang Xijue.

His younger brother Wang Dingjue even resigned from his post as deputy censor of Henan and returned home in order not to delay Wang Xijue.

Ranked ninth in the second class of Jinshi, Wang Dingjue originally had a great chance of becoming an official in the imperial court.

He had been back in his hometown for nearly twenty years, and he could provide a lot of secrets with just one word from Wang Xijue.

Now, over in Nanjing City, Hao Jie, the Minister of War and Counselor of Nanjing Garrison Maintenance, was also cooperating with Chen Lin in the inventory of the Yangtze River Navy.

Then, on the seventh day of May, the third day after the Dragon Boat Festival, even though everyone had been warned to be careful, Jingxi River in Yixing County, Changzhou Prefecture, still suffered a flood due to a mountain torrent from Zhanggong Mountain in the south.

Since then, there have indeed been many minor floods.

In the past, this was normal. Jiangnan is rainy, and the area where Jiangxi, Zhejiang, and Nanzhili meet is mountainous and has many rivers, so such a small flood is really nothing.

However, Niu Yingyuan arrived upon hearing the news.

In the distant capital city, some shops "finally received" new grain and reopened.

Some stores are still "short of food".

On this day, the quality of the new grain released by Changming Grain Store was astonishingly good.

"The Caohe River is stable, and the people from the five prefectures of Suzhou, Songjiang, Changzhou, Jiaxing and Huzhou are transporting tribute rice and white grain without any loss! Our store is lucky enough to have purchased a lot of white grain, but the quantity is limited. One tael of silver is one stone. Hurry up if you want to buy it!"

Now they no longer had to carry the responsibility of supplying the entire capital city. After all, some grain had been released earlier and many families had not eaten it all.

Since the Yongwei Camp began to register the grain entering the city outside the nine gates of the capital, escort it into the government office, and guard the grain route between the capital and Tongzhou, many grain merchants' grain was "smoothly transported" and began to be sold at a fair price.

Now there is even white grain on the market that is specially supplied to the inner treasury and officials in Beijing!
Cheng Zhongzhang had been staying in the palace in the capital for more than half a month, and his face turned pale when he heard the news.

There were no problems with the white grain transported by ordinary people, so why did the grain transporting troops who were fed with the emperor's grain encounter problems?

Ordinary people could send a lot of extra grain to the capital. How much grain did the Cao River actually transport to the north every year?

Is there really a food shortage in the capital city?

(End of this chapter)