Feng Xing - Chapter 132
It has to be said that it is not unreasonable for Zhou Hui to be the chief grain officer of Shanxi Governor’s Grain Road. Usually he is low-key and small, and his words are inarticulate, which makes people relax their vigilance. Once the matter is important, he will instantly change his face and speak eloquently, making people speechless.
After he finished speaking, it didn’t count, and he also asked Hu Demao, Zhu Qi, Qi Bihe and others to comment.
Hu Demao and others have official positions here, and even one or two seemingly inclined words are enough for King Wei to eat a pot.
King Wei’s eyes darkened, and he said: “You said that someone accused me of embezzlement of money for disaster relief. Who reported me? What is the identity of this person, and where is he now?”
Zhou Hui sneered and said, “The other party reported in a secret letter, how do we know where the other party is, and what is his identity?”
“Then according to Lord Zhou’s intention, anyone can report on the disaster relief imperial envoy of the imperial court with a random letter, so that you can come to question him with open flames. Then if someone writes a secret letter to report on Lord Zhou, can this king do the same?” treat?”
This clearly means that Zhou Hui will take private revenge.
Zhou will be suffocated.
But at this moment, he will not be afraid of the imperial envoys. He still has eyes and ears in the Guangfeng warehouse. From the time he received the news at the third watch to the present, no one has touched the food after it has been transported into the warehouse. As long as he can expose the imperial envoy’s actions in public, the imperial envoy will be gone, and who will be afraid of a defeated general at that time.
He sneered even more: “Master Imperial Envoy is obviously messing around. I didn’t receive this secret letter alone, other adults also received it. Mr. Zhongcheng, Mr. Zhu…”
According to the inspector Zhu Qi, he stood up and smiled dryly to smooth things over: “Since Mr. Zhou has doubts, Mr. Imperial Envoy ordered someone to open the warehouse to see if it is right or not in order to clear himself up. There is no need to hurt the peace. Everyone is Colleagues, why make it so ugly now…”
Zhou Hui was very angry. Master Zhou was suspicious, as if he was taking the lead in provoking trouble. In fact, he was indeed the one who took the lead in provoking trouble, but who dared to say who had no selfish intentions among so many people present, and now it was all pushed on him.
It’s just that he doesn’t care about these things now, and looks at King Wei with piercing eyes, trying to make himself look upright and fearless, and want the opponent to be defeated without a fight.
As for the others, they all stood some distance away from Zhouhui, with an attitude of watching from the sidelines, but their flashing eyes and small words before were enough to prove their position.
If you didn’t have a heart, how could you come here? !
All eyes were on King Wei. King Wei’s eyes turned cold, but he didn’t struggle, and beckoned to order people to open the warehouse.
So far, although the goal has been achieved, no one feels at ease.
Because all of this was so simple, although King Wei resisted, but the resistance was not strong, as if he was putting on a show, and changed his previous defensive attitude.
Zhu Qi thumped in his heart, seeing that Zhou Hui had already rushed into the barn with his head on his shoulders, he slowed a step and stopped in front of King Wei, smiling awkwardly.
“Sigh, Mr. Zhou is too stubborn, and he is a little bit of a dead man. If he has committed a crime, I will accompany you here for him. Please don’t blame him, Mr. Imperial Envoy.”
Is this putting all the responsibility on the weekly meeting?
King Wei sneered and said nothing.
At this time, there was a high-pitched scream from the warehouse.
“how is this possible?!”
The phrase “how is it possible” was repeated by Zhou Hui non-stop afterwards.
Until the doors of several warehouses are all opened, and they check whether there is grain in the grain bag and what kind of grain it is. Because there were too many grains, it was impossible to open them all, so Zhou Hui randomly selected them for inspection.
Zhouhui is not an idiot either. His position as the chief grain officer of the grain superintendent cannot be separated from others, but he actually climbed up on his own. Clearly.
He not only checked the rice grain on the upper layer of the grain bag, but also asked people to find special utensils for grain inspection, and sampled from the lower layer of the grain bag.
But no matter how he checked it, it was indeed grain, and it was still white rice.
Nowadays, food like this is only available on the two lakes. The mystery of where the imperial envoy borrowed food from, which has troubled everyone for a long time, is finally revealed.
The food comes from Suhu Lake.
Even if the imperial envoy’s “empty city plan” is not exposed this time, it can be regarded as a harvest.
King Wei’s eyes flickered, and he scanned the faces of everyone, taking a panoramic view of everyone’s expressions.
Only Zhou Hui sat slumped on the ground as if his mother had died, still mumbling how it was possible.
But being able to sit in his position, how could it be possible without a little mind, he quickly got up from the ground, and came to ask the king of Wei with a gloomy face, the truth was that he was deceived by the traitor.
In fact, everyone present knows the truth. Zhou Hui urged everyone to expose the imperial envoy’s tricks, but he wanted everyone who was already vacillating to give up King Wei.
Those present were all the local local snakes in Shanxi. Without the help of these people, King Wei could only move an inch even if he had the ability to reach the sky.
In the same way, why these people sway left and right is just to leave a way out for themselves. The battle for crown prince is extraordinary. If King Wei really got that position, everyone present would be unable to escape, even their families.
After all, thunder, rain and dew are all the favor of the emperor, and they have provoked the emperor’s disgust. At least for a few decades, they don’t have to think about their own future.
And talented people come out from generation to generation. If you go down, you come up, and I go up. If you sink for too long, you will be unable to climb up by then.
So it’s not a matter of interest, who will stand in line easily, and who dares to stand in line easily?
It’s a pity that when Emperor Jianping ordered Wei Wang to come to Shanxi for disaster relief, it was doomed that they couldn’t escape, and everything they had done before was just delay.
Put off a time when they can breathe, think, and consider, and during this time, anything that happens is enough to shake their minds.
The king of Wei ignored the Zhou meeting.
It was too late to say anything now, Zhou Hui and him were already torn apart, so there was no need to pretend nothing happened. Others, on the other hand, came up to explain to King Wei one by one.
They have been in the officialdom for a long time, and they are too familiar with what it means to be self-reliant. With this kind of ability, even if King Wei’s face is as black as carbon, they can still make the scene harmonious and happy.
Seeing that it was almost done, Hu Demao and others bid farewell to King Wei, but King Wei stopped them instead.
“Lord Hu, I have something to discuss with you. Now that the weather is getting colder and the insects are getting less and less, I am afraid that the exchange of insects for food will not last long. But the victims have no food. Instead of letting them get together to make trouble, it is better to find them something to do.”
Hu Demao stopped in his tracks: “What does the imperial envoy mean?”
“Those who have fields plow the land deeply to prepare for spring plowing in the coming year. For those who have no land to reclaim wasteland, the government can provide grain seeds and exempt from tax. This matter needs to be discussed carefully. As for those who have no land and do not want to reclaim wasteland, they can dig ditches and ponds to store water , in case there will be another drought in the coming year. If you don’t want to do anything, the relief food will be stopped.”
Hu Demao stroked his beard and pondered: “The imperial envoy’s idea is good, but the lord didn’t sleep last night, or should he rest and recharge his spirits first, and we will discuss this matter together tomorrow?”
The king of Wei had no objection, and the matter was settled.
Zhou Hui went out and sat in the sedan chair, and left in a hurry. The others looked at his back and shook their heads and sighed.
Qi Bihe sent Hu Demao to the sedan chair.
After Hu Demao sat down in the sedan chair, he suddenly said, “What do you think of this matter?”
Qi Bihe was stunned for a moment, then laughed again: “No matter how you look at it, the imperial envoy must be able to get food.”
This was a bit vague, but Hu Demao understood the meaning.
Now there is a shortage of food everywhere, and everyone’s eyes are on the food at Suhu Lake, but there are so many people staring at it, and few can borrow food. Since King Wei can borrow food, he should not be underestimated.
You must know that when the king of Wei borrowed the first batch of grain, they each inquired in private, and they didn’t know where the grain came from. Now based on the food they saw, they can tell that it came from Suhu, but it can be expected that even if they know, it will be difficult to find out who lent it from.
However, it is conceivable that those who can lend so much food at this time are not ordinary people.
Jiangnan has always been valued by the imperial court. After all, the world’s taxes come from Jiangnan. This sentence is not a lie. Anyone who can be a great official in the frontier here is in the heart of the emperor.
So even if there is someone behind them, I am afraid they will be afraid.
Extending further down, who can guarantee that the person who lent the food was secretly approved by the Holy One? Even if not, if King Wei can borrow one batch of grain and then a second batch, who dares to say that he can’t borrow a third or fourth batch?
If the food borrowed this time is used urgently, it will be enough to survive this winter. By next spring, everything will recover and everything can be eaten. As long as no one dies from starvation, there will be no chaos down here.
As long as there is no chaos, the king of Wei will be half successful. If he persists until the summer and autumn, it will be cheaper to borrow grain.
In such a difficult situation, King Wei was able to complete his errands and return to Beijing, so it goes without saying the credit. By that time, presumably the prestige in the court will be beyond the reach of others.
After all, the Holy Majesty is not a fool. Facing this situation, King Wei, if he said that no one was behind the scenes, no one would believe him.
Is there no grain left in the whole of Shanxi?
Shanxi merchants are the most wealthy in the world, which is well known all over the world.
It’s not that there is no food, it’s just that no one wants to take out food.
Why not?
Going down, neither of them dared to think about it, because once they thought about it, they would tremble uncontrollably. One of them is the governor of Shanxi, and the other is the chief envoy of Shanxi. If they say that this matter has nothing to do with them, who would believe it?
Even they themselves don’t believe it.
It seems that it’s time to change your mind. You can’t be an official, cheat yourself, and implicate your tribe.
The next day, Hu Demao and others gathered in Guangfeng warehouse.
Originally, it is reasonable to go to the governor’s yamen to discuss matters, but King Wei stayed here, and Hu Demao and Qi Bihe intended to curry favor. The people below are all looking at the meaning of the people above. The governor and chief executive suddenly changed their attitudes. They are all human beings who can’t tell.
The king of Wei always acted quickly, and ordinary people could hardly change his decisions. After finalizing the details, he issued decrees to all prefectures and counties.
So in the cold weather, the victims were all gathered together, or plowed the land deeply, or reclaimed wasteland, or dug ditches and ponds to store water.
Busy is in full swing.
Some people must be unwilling to do it, which will inevitably arouse public resentment. But now that the food is limited, the government said again that if they don’t work, they will stop the relief food. Those who can live are unwilling to live. Compared with starving, they will naturally go to work.
There are also some victims who are hardworking and sincere. Seeing that the famine policy promulgated by the government is well-founded, it does not waste the people and money, and is very tolerant to the people. Even if it is for the livelihood of the family in the coming year, they are willing to do it.
Seeing that this place is on the right track, King Wei once again mentioned the matter of finding local wealthy households to donate. Although all the officials acted very reluctantly and complained repeatedly, they did not shirk their excuses.
This can be regarded as a good phenomenon.
On the other side, after Feng Sheng met Chen Hao, she realized that she really underestimated these businessmen.