Red Mansion: Seizing Jiangdong, starting with pirates

Chapter 65: Fire Dragon Burns the Warehouse

"Search the whole city! Someone saw Zhang Yuan's son listening to a story in Xinyue Tower this morning, but he disappeared in the afternoon? He must have hidden himself and hasn't left the city yet!"

Soon, the imperial guards launched a city-wide search.

Of course, to say that it was a city-wide manhunt is not entirely true.

For example, no one dared to touch the houses of officials and nobles even if they were asked to search them.

The officials in the capital are complicated and intricate. Even if you are just a seventh-rank official, who knows which big tree's vines are tied to you. If you offend someone, maybe you will be fine now, but in a few years, you will be bitten by the wind and your family will be destroyed. You will not even know who did it until you die.

After the search, the whole city was in chaos, but naturally, nothing was found.

Ning Mansion.

Li Ni and his men hid in a side courtyard.

Zhang Yuan's family members were a little scared when they looked at Li Ni.

Li Ni explained that Zhang Yuan had defected to General Fang of the Huaiyin military, and that he was General Fang's subordinate, and was now preparing to take them back to Huaizhou.

Zhang Yuan's family members were somewhat skeptical about this.

Only Zhang Yuan's son Zhang Wen is different from the others.

He was just sixteen or seventeen years old, at the age when a newborn calf is not afraid of a tiger. He liked listening to books and admired the spirit of chivalry. Therefore, he was not afraid of Li Ni's identity at all. Instead, he chased Li Ni to ask about the situation in Huaizhou.

For example, it was widely rumored in the capital that the Huaiyin bandit leader Fang Yong was eight feet tall, with a green face and fangs, and that he was the reincarnation of Tai Sui, who could kick down a tree with one kick.

Zhang Wen was very curious about this and asked Li Ni whether it was true or not.

In addition, there were rumors in the capital that Duke Shanguo had colluded with the Huaiyin bandits and handed over the two Huai areas to them, which caused the price of salt in the capital to increase by nearly 40%.

Zhang Wen asked Li Ni whether this was true.

As they were talking, Jia Rong came in and gave them some daily necessities.

The imperial guards outside are still under martial law and are not allowed to leave the city at will, so everyone needs to stay in Ning Mansion for a while longer.

Li Ni thanked Jia Rong repeatedly and took out a banknote as a thank you gift.

Jia Rong couldn't stop laughing.

Afterwards, Jia Rong left and walked back.

But I met a strong old man on the way.

Jiao Da.

"That group of people are not good people. They have a strong murderous aura and must be criminals who have been around for many years!"

Jiao Dashen was talking in a mysterious way.

Jia Rong's face changed when he heard this.

"Someone, Jiao Da is crazy, lock him up!"

The servants went forward to take Jiao Da.

Jiao Da struggled hard, shouting that the group of people were bandits.

An old man in his seventies was so excited that even three or four young and strong servants couldn't beat him.

Jia Rong said anxiously:
"Quick, get another person and stuff horse manure into his mouth!"

Then two more people came in and finally subdued Jiao Da and locked him up.

A few days later, the city ban was lifted, and Li Ni arranged for people to send Zhang Yuan's family out.

A few days later, the heads of the bandits killed by Wang Ziteng were brought into the city.

Nearly five thousand heads piled together could be called a small mountain.

Emperor Longqing took a look from a distance through a telescope.

A pile of skeletons and rotten flesh, with maggots wriggling in the eye sockets.

The shocking scene frightened Emperor Longqing so much that his face turned pale and he vomited on the spot.

Afterwards, the imperial physician prescribed three consecutive prescriptions for calming the nerves and replenishing qi before Emperor Longqing recovered.

This experience also made Emperor Longqing no longer doubt Wang Ziteng's military achievements.

After all, that real head can't be faked.

But despite this, he could not meet the requirements of the warships Wang Ziteng requested in his memorial: 50 large ships and 300 small ships.

Not to mention how much silver is needed to build these warships, just talking about the time, it would take at least a year and a half just to build a large warship, just the processes and materials.

The key point is that the Ministry of Industry now mainly studies weapons and artillery, and does not pay much attention to the manufacture of ships. Therefore, Emperor Longqing simply has the will but lacks the ability to build the warships mentioned in Wang Ziteng's letter.

After thinking for a long time, Emperor Longqing had no good solution and could only inconvenience Wang Ziteng.

I have to say that in some ways Emperor Longqing was really a good emperor.

He even wrote a letter to Wang Ziteng specifically about this matter, explaining his difficulties and hoping that Wang Ziteng could overcome them.

At the same time, Emperor Longqing also sent his favorite general Mao Cheng to support Wang Ziteng in the battle.

He was the man who had fought bloody battles among an army of hundreds of thousands, and remained tenacious despite suffering hundreds of wounds!

Emperor Longqing attached great importance to Mao Cheng and ordered him to serve as Wang Ziteng's deputy.

At the same time, for the sake of the overall situation, Emperor Longqing listened to the advice of the Minister of Revenue Cui Shu and did not recall Dong Chen. Instead, he agreed to give Dong Chen 3 million shi of disaster relief grain.

In order to achieve results quickly, Emperor Longqing ordered the transfer of grain from nearby Zhili to provide disaster relief to Dong Chen.

But at the same time, Emperor Longqing also sent people to keep a close eye on Dong Chen's family, waiting for Dong Chen to finish his disaster relief work and then force him to vomit out everything he had eaten!

And just like that, everything runs smoothly.

Zhili official warehouse.

The grain officer Wang Ganju was leisurely sipping wine and eating side dishes.

"After eating pickled vegetables and rolling tofu..."

Suddenly, there was a loud roar.

"Go to the water!"

The raging fire turned into a fire dragon, as if someone had poured kerosene on it. It roamed wildly in the government warehouses of Zhili and burned. It could not be suppressed by earth or extinguished by water.

Under the grain bag, the things that were unknown whether they were grain or not were all turned into ashes with the fire and could no longer be found.

The blood and tears shed by the people of Zhili for a year were ruthlessly swallowed up by the roar of the fire dragon.

However, Xue Dacui has a say on this point.

He could ensure that the food of the Zhili people was not wasted, because the food was being used as military rations for the Huaiyin Army and the imperial court's wars.

"Bastard, bastard!"

Emperor Longqing was so angry that he broke two incense burners and an inkstone.

Wang Ganju and many officials in charge of guarding the place were naturally dismissed from office and beheaded.

However, Shanxi still needed grain relief, so Emperor Longqing had no choice but to mobilize grain from the capital to send to Dong Chen.

Fortunately, there is still food in the capital.

Cui Shu claimed to be a good official.

After being promoted to the position of Minister of Revenue, he actually no longer needed that little bit of money.

But if he doesn’t take it, how can he get it next?
If the lower levels don’t take it, how can the grassroots get it?
If the grassroots don’t take it, who will work for the emperor?

So he took some insignificant profits from it, which, in a sense, was also to ensure that the emperor's decrees could be implemented smoothly!

In this way, two million shi of grain were sent to Shanxi.

Cui Shu had a conscience. Since the grain was disaster relief, he took less, which could be considered as accumulating merit for himself.

Dong Chen is a practical man. He calculated the loss of food on the road clearly.

Just as he calculated, when the grain was transported from the capital to Shanxi and reached his hands, only 1.06 million shi were left, which was 60,000 shi more than he calculated, which surprised him a little.

Who is so kind-hearted?
Dong Chen shook his head and ordered people to find nearby grain merchants to exchange the grain for three times the weight of bran.

For the disaster victims in Shanxi, bran was enough to save them.

Dong Chen also asked people to capture some carpenters from nearby.

After the carpenter was captured, Dong Chen ordered him to make sawdust, grind it into powder and mix it into the grain...

(End of this chapter)