marquis of jingan

Chapter 49 Betrayed?
Hearing Chen Yu's words, Master Lu raised his eyebrows, but did not speak.

And Shen Yi, who was standing behind Master Lu, couldn't help but look up at Prefect Chen.

Judging from the information that Shen Yi has come into contact with now, this seemingly upright magistrate Chen must have profited from it in the process of buying grain by the imperial court. fight with him.

If not, when the price of food rose and the incident became serious, the first reaction of Chen Zhifu would not be to keep the matter in Jiangdu, but to simply report it to the imperial court and let the imperial court copy the homes of these grain merchants.

Now it is only half a month before the price of grain rises. In such a short period of time, the accounts of the imperial court and the accounts recorded by the grain merchants can be checked. It is also impossible to completely reverse black and white, and just erase the matter of Chen Yu's greed for money.

According to Shen Yi's original guess, the prefect Chen may have the upper hand in this matter, but it is unlikely that he will retreat unscathed, and he will probably be blamed. If he is unlucky, he may even be removed from the position of the prefect of Jiangdu and be marginalized .

But now, looking at Chen Zhifu's confident expression, it seemed that he had already won.

Just when Shen Yi was puzzled, Supervisor Zhang Lu took a few steps forward, stood in the middle of this side hall, coughed, and said, "Everyone."

He looked around, and then said in a deep voice: "Now several major grain merchants in Jiangdu, Chen Fuzun, and officials from the prefect's yamen are all here, let's take their seats."

After saying this, Zhang Yushi looked at Master Lu and several local "celebrities" in Jiangdu next to Master Lu, and continued: "Mr. Lu and the gentlemen of Jiangdu, please take your seats."

After Zhang Yushi finished speaking, everyone present looked at each other, and then found their own seats and sat down.

Today's "gathering" was attended by high-class people in Jiangdu, even decision-makers. Naturally, there was no seat for Shen Yi in this kind of occasion, and Shen Qilang didn't expect to have a seat for himself. Behind Master Lu, he looked around from time to time.

After everyone present had almost sat down, Shen Yi, who was standing behind Lu Anshi, was bumped by someone accidentally, staggered and couldn't stand still, and took several steps forward to stabilize his figure, almost fell to the ground.

After finally gaining a firm footing, Shen Qilang apologized to the people he touched around him, ran back behind Lu Anshi in a small step, lowered his head in embarrassment and whispered: "Sir, I am ashamed of you."

At this moment, Lu Anshi had already sat down, without raising his eyelids, he said flatly, "On purpose?"

Shen Qilang blinked his eyes, his face full of innocence: "Sir, the student was hit by someone just now."

Master Lu smiled faintly, and did not speak again.

Although he is obsessed with learning, he can still see Shen Yi's careful thinking. The people in this side hall of the yamen are all the top figures in Jiangdu, but Shen Yi is too inconspicuous among these people, no one will notice at all he.

He deliberately fell down and returned to Lu Anshi's side, so that almost everyone saw him and let everyone know that he was Master Lu's "boy".

This little gesture is smart and not annoying.

In fact, Shen Yi deliberately made it more obvious, just to let Lu Anshi find out.

While Shen Yi was chatting with Mrs. Lu, everyone had already sat down, and the censor Zhang Lu stood on the main seat in the side hall, glanced at the crowd, and said in a deep voice: "This official and Yue Pingshi came here by the king's order." , to investigate the soaring food price in Jiangdu, after two days of investigation, the matter has been investigated almost, and now I invite you to come here, just to ask you one last time."

Yue Zheng, the judge of Dali Temple, also stood up, and said slowly: "Every word you say today will be recorded by us and sent to the imperial court. I hope you will answer truthfully. Don't deceive the imperial court or Your Majesty."

After Yue Pingshi said this, he looked at Lu Anshi again, and said, "Mr. Lu is invited to come here to be a witness. In the future, I will wait for the official record of the imperial court. If there is any deviation from what I recorded today, Lu Anshi Master, you can write a letter to Yushitai and Dali Temple to report us."

Lu Anshi got up silently, looked at the two imperial envoys, lowered his eyebrows and said, "I hope the two imperial envoys can see clearly."

"it is good."

Zhang Yushi took out a document from his sleeve, held it in front of him and slowly unfolded it, and said, "Everyone, this is a document issued by the Ministry of Household Affairs two months ago. Some of the chiefs of the Ministry went to various places to buy grain and rice, and dispatched them to Beijing."

"In this document, the price standard for purchasing grain and rice is stipulated, and all purchases are made at market prices."

"At that time, it was Mr. Zhao Yu who came to Jiangdu to buy grain with the documents from the Ministry of Household Affairs. When I came to Jiangdu from the capital, I met Mr. Zhao on the road and asked Mr. Zhao the price of grain and rice purchased by the Ministry of Household. "

Zhang Yushi paused for a moment, then continued: "It's two coins per catty."

As soon as he said these words, the grain merchants, horsemen and others on the other side were all happy.

As for Chen Yu and Chen Zhifu, he was still calm and expressionless.

Speaking of this, the supervisor Zhang Lu looked at the grain merchant Master Ma who was sitting on the side, and asked: "Mr. Is the master in charge?"

The horseman stood up, shaking his head resolutely, he bowed his head and said: "Back to Master Yushi, from the beginning to the end, it was Jiangdu prefect's yamen who bought grain from us, and we didn't even see the face of the household department lord." arrive."

Zhang Yushi nodded, and said: "Master Zhao of the Household Department just came to Jiangdu to supervise the grain, not directly to Jiangdu to buy grain, the purchase of grain is the business of Jiangdu prefect's yamen, it is not surprising that Jiangdu prefect's yamen buys grain with you. "

Speaking of this, Zhang Yushi asked again: "What was the price of rice in Jiangdu half a month ago?"

The horseman showed a happy expression: "Back to Master Yushi, half a month ago, when the grain price in Jiangdu was normal, ordinary rice cost three renminbi a catty, polished rice was two renminbi a catty, and some grain shops sold polished rice for five renminbi catty."

Zhang Yushi nodded: "That is to say, the price of two cents per catty given by the household department is very reasonable."

"The price of two cents per catty is naturally reasonable!"

The horseman was trembling with excitement. He looked at Zhang Yushi with bright eyes: "Master Yushi, the price given to us by the Yamen of the prefect of Jiangdu is not two pennies per catty at all, but one penny per catty!"

"On this point, our major grain stores have accounts to check. For some grain stores, the magistrate's yamen pays less than a penny a catty of old rice. Eight cents!"

Ma Yuanwai's voice trembled when he said this, and he couldn't stop bowing to Zhang Yushi: "Master Yushi, the prefect Chen's government exploited us and other people, please master Yushi to be the master!"

Zhang Yushi glanced at Ma Yuanwai with a smile, and said with a smile: "Master Ma, don't worry, if the magistrate's yamen is really greedy for the court's money, I will definitely report it to the court and let the court convict him."

Hearing this, the expressions of many people present were a little surprised.

Even Master Lu, who was calm and breezy, frowned slightly, turned his head slightly and said in a low voice: "It's weird, these two imperial envoys have friendship with Chen Yu, they should be sent by Yang Xiang, why now, instead, they turned against each other taste?"

Lu Anshi whispered: "Could it be... Ma Jin and the others used money?"

Shen Yi stood right behind Lu Anshi, and after hearing Master Lu's words, he turned his head to see that the old god was still there, closed his eyes and meditated, and frowned at first, then suddenly figured out something...

He lowered his head slightly, approached Lu Anshi, and said in a low voice: "Sir, if there is no accident, these grain merchants have already entered the trap."

(End of this chapter)