Red Mansion: Seizing Jiangdong, starting with pirates

Chapter 257, The Major Case in Taicang

In the time that followed, Tian Yuquan made a living by begging, while secretly using his former network of connections to investigate Magistrate Liu Congli, as he wanted to take revenge on him!
But reality is harsh. After he became disabled, few of his former classmates were willing to associate with him anymore. Let alone investigating Liu Congli, even getting food became a problem.

Liu Congli even offered him dog food several times, deliberately humiliating him.

Things finally took a turn for the better this year.

Fang Yong went to Beijing and soon after carried out land reform.

Liu Congli was taken away by the Huaiyin Army for investigation because he outwardly complied but inwardly defied them.

Then some time passed.

For some reason, one of his former classmates suddenly contacted him.

His classmate told him that the Spring Sprout Donation initiated by Liu Congli was because someone had misappropriated grain from the Taicang granary, causing a shortage of grain in the granary. At that time, it was wartime, and the donation of 17,000 taels of silver was allocated to make up for the shortage.

Tian Yuquan was furious when he learned the truth.

He was asked to cover the deficits embezzled by others.

He was just a minor scholar, and he would hesitate even when buying a wolf-hair brush, wondering whether to buy the one for 500 or 800 coins, and whether the one for 500 coins would be a fox-hair brush in disguise.

He lived such a poor life, yet he had to fill the deficits of those lavish gentlemen who spent their days indulging in pleasure, which led him to this predicament.

He hates it!
This classmate seemed to know what Tian Yuquan was thinking. He gave Tian Yuquan twenty taels of silver and told him to go to the capital to file a complaint.

They even added Fang Yong's travel time and location as a bonus, worried that Tian Yuquan might be looking for the wrong person.

If Tian Yuquan successfully completes the task, he will receive another 100 taels of silver and will also be given a respectable teaching position in the county.

No one could resist such a offer, especially Tian Yuquan, who was desperate and had nowhere else to turn.

He knew, of course, that going to the capital to file a complaint was extremely dangerous, but what else could he do? Should he continue begging and eating other people's dog food?
Thus, Tian Yuquan went to the capital to file a complaint, blocking Fang Yong's carriage and suing Liu Congli, the former magistrate of Wanping County.

And then what happened next occurred.

Liu Congli had been arrested for outwardly complying with but inwardly opposing the land reclamation policy and was currently imprisoned. Jia She immediately sent someone to interrogate him.

At that time, Cheng Fan also received this news.

However, he was unaware that this matter was related to him.

Because of his position, he had his subordinates handle most things, and minor figures like Liu Congli were simply not worth Cheng Fan's attention.

Only Cheng Fan's nephew, Cheng Dun, was terrified when he learned of this.

Liu Congli was one of his men.

Cheng Fan had only one son, who died young, and had no other descendants.

The Cheng family then adopted Cheng Fan's nephew, Cheng Dun, to Cheng Fan.

This is a common practice in large families and is nothing unusual.

However, Cheng Dun was illiterate and unlearned; at nearly forty years old, he was still a student without any real knowledge, and it was embarrassing to even mention it.

Cheng Fan could only spend money to donate a nominal fifth-rank official position to Cheng Dun, and then let Cheng Dun manage the family business.

Cheng Dun lived up to expectations. With Cheng Fan as his backer, he colluded with the Ministry of Revenue to smuggle grain from the capital's granaries and embezzle disaster relief funds.

The Cheng family's shops experienced unprecedented growth, and even took advantage of the grain shortages in various regions due to the new policies in recent years to sell grain from the capital all the way to Hubei and Hunan.

When Duke Shan Guogong rebelled and Dong Chen provided disaster relief, Cheng Dun secretly helped them consume the excess grain.

Cheng Fan was aware of some of the things Cheng Dun had done, but he didn't care.

Because reselling grain is a perfectly normal thing to do.

The rice in those granaries is just sitting there anyway; good new rice has turned into stale rice. It's better to resell it and make a lot of money from the price difference.

When Zhang Tingzheng was alive, he also led the way in reselling grain, yet he still managed the court very well, and even provided the retired emperor with an extra million taels of silver every year for his travels to the south. Now that he is in power, what wrong is it to resell a little grain?

What Cheng Fan didn't know was that Zhang Ting was reselling grain, but the key was the word "reselling." Once the grain was sold, he could still find a way to plug the hole (i.e., cover his losses).

At least it won't look too bad.

The lion's share of the money from selling grain was also given to the retired emperor, who turned a blind eye to the situation even though he knew about it.

Cheng Dun wasn't reselling grain; he was selling grain directly.

He directly treated the grain in Daxi Grain Depot as his own and sold it all, pocketing the money. Fang Yong even bought grain from the Cheng family at the beginning of his uprising!

At first, Cheng Dun was more restrained, replacing the rice in the granary with rice mixed with stones and sand. Later, he gradually started replacing the rice in the granary with sandbags. Eventually, he stopped using sandbags altogether, since using sandbags would cost money, so he simply moved the grain directly.

The lower-level officials all received a share of the profits, so naturally no one reported it.

Emperor Longqing abolished the Embroidered Uniform Guard, and without his eyes, he was completely unaware of what was happening outside the palace.

Until the outbreak of war, Shanxi was in chaos, and food was needed everywhere.

In order to plug the hole, the only option was to impose the burden at each level, which led to the tragedy that befell Tian Yuquan.

This is just one example among countless others who were forced to accept such assignments; the number of families torn apart by separation is simply too great to list.

They also had no chance to go to the capital to file a complaint.

Cheng Dun knew about Liu Congli's situation.

Once Liu Congli implicates him, everything that happened before will be exposed.

At this point, the best option is to tell Cheng Fan what happened.

Given Cheng Fan's alertness and adaptable nature, he would have immediately guessed that Fang Yong was behind this after learning about it.

He will definitely go to Fang Yong in person to apologize, and then offer up his family's wealth to save his life.

Unfortunately, people are not machines.

Human nature is complex and doesn't always lead to the right decision.

Even though Cheng Dun himself knew that telling Cheng Fan the truth at this time was the right choice, he still kept it a secret.

Because Cheng Dun had his own thoughts.

He knew he was ignorant and incompetent, and was very disliked by Cheng Fan.

If it weren't for the fact that he had managed the family business so well over the years, Cheng Fan would have replaced him long ago.

If this matter were to be exposed, he would inevitably be discarded as a pawn.

He was merely adopted by Cheng Fan's son; Cheng Fan could easily have adopted another son to take his place.

How could Cheng Dun accept this situation?

So Cheng Dun kept the matter a secret.

He decided to try to solve the problem himself first.

The matter hasn't escalated yet, and there's still a chance for things to turn around (in his opinion).

As long as someone is sent to get rid of Tian Yuquan in time, this matter can be suppressed.

As for Jia She, let's try sending someone to put pressure on him with Cheng Fan's letter first.

If all else fails, resort to lavish bribes.

He simply couldn't believe that anyone in the world would pass up a good deal of money.

Even if Marquis Jia En, a nobleman, brought down the Cheng family, what benefits would he gain?

After Cheng Dun had figured out a solution, the tension in his heart gradually subsided.

(End of this chapter)