Ming Dynasty: Tanks blocked the door and you said to me, "Long live Ming Dynasty"

The Thousand Household Officials in charge of the Eastern Depot were actually transferred from the Embroidered Uniform Guard, so they were also called the Associated Criminal Officers.

Therefore, given his status, it was not considered an act of transgression to mobilize the Dongchang personnel and Jinyiwei who were stationed outside.

Although those Jinyiwei captains were at the same level as him, local officials were always inferior to Beijing officials. Moreover, he came here to do things under the imperial decree, so he naturally had the power to do so.

Li Chaoqin waited for Zheng Zhilong here for more than a month, and naturally had some understanding of Zheng Zhilong's power.

If I could successfully recruit such a large fleet at sea, it would be a great achievement for me.

From this point of view, he would never allow anyone to destroy the image of the court in Zheng Zhilong's mind!

So, after sending out a team of guards, he asked Zheng Zhilong for pen, ink, paper and inkstone, quickly wrote a memorial, and handed it to the guards beside him.

"Send a fast horse to the capital immediately to report to His Majesty!"

"If you make a big mistake, I'll kill you!"

Chapter 93 How courageous! Their hearts are darker than mine!

Li Chaoqin's attitude was firm, and the men under his command did not dare to make any mistakes.

Three days later, he brought back a group of mine supervisors and tax supervisors from southern Fujian, together with a thousand households of the Fujian Jinyiwei, a total of more than seventy people.

Li Chaoqin leaned back in his chair, looking at the people in front of him, not hiding the murderous intent on his face at all.

"The imperial court allocated 800,000 dan of disaster relief grain to southern Fujian, but I heard that only 100,000 dan were left when it reached the people of southern Fujian!"

"You bunch of idiots, tell me where the 700,000 dan of grain went!"

A captain of the Fujian Jinyiwei came out and said, "I am Mu Yongyuan, but I know some of the inside story!"

"The relief grain was allocated in July. It sailed south from Tianjin via the Grand Canal. I heard that it encountered a storm off the coast of Ningbo Prefecture, and more than a dozen ships were damaged, causing 200,000 dan of grain to sink into the sea."

"As for the rest, I don't know."

Another mine supervisor came out and said, "Your Excellency, I heard that the brother-in-law of Fujian Provincial Education Commissioner Fan Shiying colluded with local wealthy merchants to drive up grain prices. In just one month or so, he made no less than 50,000 taels of silver!"

"grown ups........."

They are all people who have lived in southern Fujian for many years. They know something about the goings on. These guys told me everything they heard or saw.

Li Chaoqin was so angry that his nose almost turned crooked after hearing this.

A total of 700,000 shi of grain was lost by collusion among officials of all ranks in southern Fujian, using various reasons!

"Okay! That's great!"

"This guy is even braver than me!"

"With so much food, aren't you afraid that these sons of bitches will die of starvation?"

"Go back immediately and find out the evidence. I will severely sue them in front of His Majesty!"

He pointed in the direction of southern Fujian and was furious.

When he was in the capital, he was also greedy, and he was greedy a lot.

But compared with these local officials in southern Fujian, he felt that he was not even as good as a beggar!

Damn, it’s true that people should be punished if compared to others. There is nothing wrong with this statement!

"Wait!"

But at this moment, Zheng Zhilong stood up.

From Li Chaoqin's attitude, he could see that the imperial court had indeed allocated grain. As for where the grain went, he could guess without even thinking.

He had just been listening nearby, something about a ship colliding and sinking 200,000 tons of tonnes of stone. This kind of excuse might be used to fool others, but it was impossible to fool Zheng Zhilong!

"Captain Li, I have something to say but I don't know if I should say it or not!"

Li Chaoqin rolled his eyes when he heard this, and quickly bowed and said, "Mr. Zheng, just speak frankly. There's no need to be polite with us."

Zheng Zhilong said: "It has been so long since the incident happened. It would be extremely difficult to verify it."

"But in my opinion, these people took away the food just to make money from the natural disaster."

"When it comes to the officialdom, I don't understand, but when it comes to business, I believe I'm not much worse than those guys."

"If Captain Li trusts me, how about letting me handle this matter?"

Li Chaoqin paused when he heard this: "What do you want to do?"

Zheng Zhilong smiled mysteriously: "The secret cannot be revealed. We just need to go to southern Fujian. Within ten days, I will find a way to make those corrupt officials and wealthy businessmen show their true colors!"

Li Chaoqin had no idea what Zheng Zhilong was up to, but since he had not received a reply to the report he had sent to the capital, he decided to follow Zheng Zhilong's wishes and go to southern Fujian.

Two days later, in an inn in Zhangzhou Prefecture, Fujian.

Mu Yongyuan, a captain of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, took his small flags to find out the identities of all grain merchants in the market and put the list in front of Li Chaoqin and Zheng Zhilong.

"What a courage!"

"One stone of brown rice is sold for four ounces of silver. Their hearts are darker than mine!"

Looking at the situation on the list and account, Li Chaoqin even wanted to kill someone.

But Zheng Zhilong seemed to be confident. Not only was he not anxious, he even smiled at him.

"Captain Li, I heard that there is a caravan from the capital that has been spending a fortune buying grain in Guangxi. Do you know anything about this caravan?"

"What do you want to do?" Li Chaoqin immediately became alert.

What Zheng Zhilong was talking about were the people sent by Wei Zhongxian to buy grain. The person in charge of this matter, Li Chaoqin, was no stranger to them. He was Wei Zhongxian's nephew, Wei Liangqing!

Zheng Zhilong smiled and said, "I have already thought of a way to deal with these grain shops. I just need a large amount of grain to make ends meet."

"That's why I asked Captain Li if he knew the leader of the caravan."

"If you know them, it will be easy. You just need to contact them and borrow their food for emergency. It will take no more than half a month, and I will return it in full. I can even earn some interest for them!"

"I'm afraid you've disappointed Lord Zheng. Although I know the leader of the grain-buying caravan, I'm afraid it will be difficult to borrow the grain!"

Li Chaoqin frowned.

The grain was wanted by the emperor, and it was also used to atone Wei Zhongxian's sins. How dare he take it without authorization?

Even if he dared, how could Wei Liangqing listen to him?

Xiong Wencan noticed something from the side and whispered in Li Chaoqin's ear.

"Captain Li, with your status, it shouldn't be difficult to borrow some food from them, right?"

Li Chaoqin smiled bitterly and shook his head: "Do you really think that I, the chief criminal officer of the East Factory, can do anything?"

"I do know the guy who is in charge of purchasing grain, but I really can't borrow this grain!"

Seeing that he was in such an awkward situation, Zheng Zhilong called his butler from outside.

"Uncle Li, how much food do we have left?"

Steward Li folded his hands and said, "In reply to the master's words, the grain stored here is less than a thousand stones, which is used to call for the immigration of villagers."

"There are still 2,000 shi of grain in our ancestral home in Xiangshan'ao. Moreover, even on Taiwan Island, if we add together the harvests of our neighbors this year, we can probably get 3,000 to 5,000 shi of grain."

Zheng Zhilong frowned and kept stroking his mustache.

"Hurry up and send someone to get all the food we can from the ancestral home and the island!"

After giving instructions to the housekeeper, he looked at Li Chaoqin.

"Captain Li, these grains are Zheng's capital. You have to testify for Zheng later!"

Li Chaoqin was a little confused, but he didn't ask any further questions and just nodded in agreement.

Over the next few days, things were a bit dull.

Every day, Zheng Zhilong wandered around the streets of Zhangzhou Prefecture with a group of his men, seemingly doing nothing.

His butler took another team of people to Quanzhou Prefecture.

In addition, another group of people, led by Zheng Zhilong's confidant, went to Tingzhou Prefecture.

Chapter 94 I want to see if there is anything that the East Factory can't do in this small Zhangzhou Prefecture

Li Chaoqin had no idea what Zheng Zhilong was planning.

But waiting day after day made him a little anxious.

I heard that His Majesty had purged a large number of officials from the court, including many of Wei Zhongxian's men.

A few days ago, a subordinate brought a report from the imperial court, which clearly stated that even the commander of the Imperial Guard, Tian Ergeng, was dealt with.

This made him feel an urge to complete the task immediately and return to report.

There are so many vacancies. If I do a good job on this job, I will definitely be able to make further progress when I return!

Even if you can't get any real power, getting a title like Wei Liangqing would bring honor to your ancestors, right?

So, while Zheng Zhilong was busy, he was not idle either.

After resting in the inn for only one day, he took his lackeys to the streets.

The beggars freezing to death on the streets of Zhangzhou Prefecture could not move him, nor did the disaster victims in rags catch his eye.

He is just an emotionless, violent messenger who wants to confiscate people's property.

He didn't walk far before he stopped and looked up at the shop signs on the side of the street.

Zhouji Grain Store.

At the door of the shop, there is a black painted wooden board with a few lines of words written on it in lime.

Brown rice 4 taels of silver/stone

Wheat 5 taels of silver/stone

4 liang 5 qian silver/stone

........

This price has more than doubled compared to previous years!

One by one, the pale and skinny common people came to the grain store. Those who could not read asked the people next to them, and those who could read read out the prices on the paper to everyone.

Someone took out some silver, gritted his teeth, bought a small bag of food and went home.

But more of them were poor people who could only cry and beg the shopkeepers for alms, but they were ruthlessly beaten and kicked out of the grain store by the shop assistants with sticks.

Li Chaoqin became furious upon seeing this, and pushed aside the people gathered at the door and squeezed in.

When the grain store owner saw him wearing the Feiyu suit, he immediately came up to him in a flattering manner.

"Sir, please come in!"

After saying that, he shouted to the other guys.

"Hurry up, drive these untouchables out, don't disturb the official's interest!"

Li Chaoqin stopped, looked at the shopkeeper with a cold face, and slapped him without warning.

"Pia!"

The crisp sound stunned everyone.

The shopkeeper was knocked unconscious on the spot, a trickle of blood oozing from the corner of his mouth, and he staggered and fell two steps away. If a waiter had not quickly caught him, he would have almost fallen to the ground.

"Sir, why is this happening?"

After the shopkeeper stood firm, he looked at Li Chaoqin with a confused look on his face and asked.

"If I have done anything wrong, you should just tell me. Why did you hurt someone?!"

There was a hint of questioning in these words!

Li Chaoqin stretched out his hand and pulled him in front of him, glaring at him: "Who allowed you to sell grain at such a high price!"

"I am a captain of the Imperial Guards!"

"I've been ordered to go south to investigate a case!"

"If you know what's best for you, lower the price of grain immediately!"

"We'll sell it at the same price as in previous years!"