First Prince of Ming Dynasty

Chapter 198 Kaifeng Mansion
Zhu Biao took a deep look at them, then turned around and went back to the house. He will set off tomorrow morning, and there is no time to delay. This matter is also Zhu Yuanzhang's final test for him. If the answer is perfect, he can go back to the court to govern , officially set out to change Daming.

After another night, the army set off in the morning. Under the torrential rain in the past two days, nearly a hundred people still had symptoms of illness, most of them were women and children, and there were more than [-] soldiers sleeping on the outermost perimeter. Fortunately, they didn't have to follow The troops set off, and the imperial physician stayed here to take care of them.

The road after the heavy rain is muddy and difficult, but there is no way, the marching speed is a bit slower, but it can be overcome after all without the burden of women and children. Now that we have passed the Runing Mansion, we must first get supplies from Kaifeng Mansion, otherwise the food will be supplied no more.

Zhu Xun and Zhu Di who were walking ahead to inspect the granary, and Zhu Xun and Xu Yungong who were out to sweep up the bandits also sent people to contact each other, and the communication between them was restored.

Good news came from Zhu Yan and Xu Yungong. During this period of time, they wiped out more than ten bandit nests. After killing the chief culprit, they captured more than [-] bandits. Taken, now ask what to do with the captive.

Zhu Biao looked at the messenger and said: "Let them escort all the captives to Kaifeng Mansion first, and I will deal with them at that time."

It seems that there will be more than a thousand captives in the end. Although they may be forced by the world to become bandits, this is not a reason to forgive them. It is ordinary people who they kill as bandits.

The strong swing their knives at the weak, and the weak swing their knives at the weaker. This is how the world is. How many dare to swing their knives at the stronger?
Bad news came from Zhu Xi and Zhu Di. They inspected the nine granaries in Runing Mansion and Kaifeng Mansion. They were supposed to be full of grain, but two were accidentally burned down before the inspection, and two of them were missing. Tens of thousands of stones of grain,

Although the remaining five had enough grain, most of them were shoddy and replaced the newly harvested grain with old grain. Zhu Xi and Zhu Di had taken down all the officials in charge and started Purchased food in Kaifeng Prefecture.

Although Zhu Biao was prepared in his heart after hearing this, he was still a little angry. These grains and grasses are very important. If a natural disaster breaks out suddenly, what should the court do if they urgently allocate grains and grasses?

But no matter how urgent it is, we must find a way to solve the problem. It is definitely not enough to buy food from Kaifeng. The people have no surplus food to sell, so they have to send people to other places to buy and allocate.

Fortunately, he had guessed that such a situation would happen before he came out. He asked for a few more documents from the Ministry of Households to allocate and use grain and grass, and sent several people from Changmao to collect them with a thousand riders each, and transport them to Kaifeng Mansion.

Zhu Biao led the army in a hurry for another three days. It took a whole day to cross the river before arriving near Kaifeng Mansion. The sky became dark again. Zhu Biao ordered to bury the pot for cooking and enter Kaifeng Mansion tomorrow.

At this moment, Zhu Di led a hundred riders over, got off his horse and went to meet Zhu Biao. Zhu Biao waved him off, "Fourth, why are you here?"

Zhu Di was quite confused, stood up and said, "Just passing by here, seeing the movement of the army, I guessed that it was the elder brother."

Zhu Di went on to say: "Before the autumn harvest, the grain stores in Kaifeng Mansion didn't have much grain left, so I went to the surrounding towns to see if I could buy some."

The people around saw that Zhu Di also came to pay a visit. After some politeness, Zhu Biao's tent was also set up. After leading Zhu Di into the tent, Zhu Biao asked, "Have all those officials been taken down?"

Zhu Di nodded and said, "All of them have been taken down. Those involved in everything are now locked in the prison of Kaifeng Mansion. There are five people above the fifth rank and two marquises."

Zhu Biao nodded and asked, "Is there any intercessor?"

Zhu Di hesitated for a moment, but still said: "There are quite a few, and there are also several intercession letters from the capital. They hope to be lenient and promise to make up for the shortfall when the prince leads the immigrants back. Make it difficult for the prince."

Zhu Biao chuckled: "What do they use to make up for it? The grain has been embezzled and sold. Could it be that they bought it back at a high price? It's nothing more than using their connections to move over from granaries in other places, tearing down the east wall to make up for the west wall." "

Zhu Di nodded and said, "Second brother and I also thought about recovering the grain, but we couldn't find out where it was sold. We only know that it was shipped to the north."

Zhu Biao was not surprised either. The weather in the south has been good in the past two years, and the price of grain has dropped a lot. It must be shipped to the north to sell at a high price. If it is sold to the Mongolian Ministry, it will be a very profitable business.

While the two brothers were discussing, Liu Jin came in with the food, and the two chatted while eating, and there were not so many rules in the march. Zhu Di was relieved when he learned that Zhu Biao had ordered grain adjustment from other places. He ran away to several villages and towns, but he couldn't collect much food.

The common people are willing to stockpile grain now, and they are unwilling to sell any grain until they can't make it through. Even if they buy it at a high price, they don't feel at ease. After all, they have just experienced war and chaos, and the common people are still in a state of fear.

The two brothers discussed for an hour, and then rested. Everything will be dealt with in Kaifeng mansion tomorrow. They set off early the next morning and arrived at the gate of the city before noon. Zhu Xi and the prefect of Kaifeng led the officials to wait here long ago. , Zhu Biao rode his horse to the front, and everyone knelt together: "The ministers and others will see His Royal Highness, Your Highness Qianqiu."

Zhu Biao's face was cold, coupled with the elite soldiers behind him, it was like a black cloud pressing down on the city, and it weighed heavily on the hearts of Kaifeng government officials. After Zhu Biao got off his horse, he walked in front of the Kaifeng prefect, and waved Zhu Xing to get up: " King Jin has done a good job and has lived up to my trust."

Zhu Xing stood up and bowed his head, saying: "To serve the emperor, you should do your best."

Zhu Biao looked at the magistrate of Kaifeng who was kneeling on the ground and said: "There is such a big mistake in Kaifeng government, I don't know how you can explain it?"

The magistrate of Kaifeng kowtowed and said: "I have committed the crime of negligence, please punish me, Your Highness."

Zhu Biao narrowed his eyes and said, "I hope you are only guilty of negligence, so get up."

The rest stood up tremblingly, and Zhu Biao told Fei Ju who was behind him: "Take over the Kaifeng mansion with my palace warrant."

Fei Ju bowed to his promise, and the rest of them had ulterior motives, so naturally they didn't dare to resist. Several granaries just disappeared under their noses. It would be a joke to say that they didn't get any benefits. "

Kaifeng Mansion was the capital of the Song Dynasty, and it was also an important place for the Ming Dynasty to garrison troops. The army of Kaifeng Mansion probably had nearly 10 people. Although the combat power was not very high, Zhu Biao naturally would not be negligent.

Zhu Biao is now a raptor crossing the river, and it would be ugly if he was bitten by a poisonous snake.

This time, it is inevitable to kill some people who are corrupt and perverting the law. If there are bold people among them, it is not impossible to summon cronies to assassinate Zhu Biao.

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(End of this chapter)