People in the early Tang Dynasty: I compete with Wu Zhao for the throne

Chapter 328 Liang Cao Conspired, Locking the Future

With a "bang", a palm-sized stone inkstone was slammed on the ground.

The ink flew around and splashed directly on the black clothes.

Li Xuan glanced at the ink spots on her clothes, then raised her head coldly, and looked at the two chief and deputy warehouse managers who were kneeling on the ground.

On the side, Li Yuanyi, who joined the army of Kucao, smashed the stone inkstone into the air, and then without hesitation, pulled out a long knife from his waist, and put the sharp blade directly on the necks of the two Kuguan.

With just a light stroke, a bloodstain has been drawn out.

It was obvious that he was in severe pain from being scratched, and his cheeks were twitching non-stop, but the warehouse manager still knelt there straight, bowing his head deeply.

"Say, what's going on?" Li Yuanyi looked at the two men viciously, and now he wished he could just swallow them alive.

Under the cold edge, the two couldn't help shivering, but they refused to utter a single word.

Li Xuan looked away from them and landed on the straw sack behind them.

A bamboo tube was thrown on the ground, a small pile of old rice was piled up in a row, and in the deepest part of the grain depot, sand and gravel flowed out of the straw bags.

"In the entire grain depot, there are now 27 full granaries, only nine of which are one-year new grain, nine of which are mixed with half of three-year old grain, and nine of which are a mixture of three-year old grain and six-year old grain. Half of it is gravel."

Li Xuan turned her head casually, looked at Zhang Yi, who also had a livid face, and asked blankly: "Zhang Canjun, it is your duty to play good and evil, you come and tell this king, such things, the state How should the government punish it?"

Du Bixing and Yu Ze are currently working in the prefectural office, only Wang Bo, Zhang Yi, Han Jiang and Yan Tao came here with Li Xuan.

"Returning to the prince, according to the law of Yonghui, he should be sentenced to the crime of self-stealing by guards. One of the six stolen goods, the sentence is different according to the severity of the case. If it is more serious, behead it!" Zhang Yi said beheading, and the trembling of the two treasury officers became even more severe.

The grain in the grain depot should be all new grain less than a year old, but now, according to the statistics of the whole depot, the amount of new grain only accounts for half of it.

Three-year old grain accounts for [-]% of the grain, [-]% of the grain accounts for [-]% of the grain, and half of the grain is completely sand and gravel.

In particular, in the last nine grain depots, old grain mixed with sand and gravel was not eaten even by refugees, let alone soldiers who went to battle to kill the enemy.

Perhaps the three-year-old grain in the last nine granaries can be salvaged, but if it cannot be made up for, it will definitely affect the morale of the frontline troops.

These two people may not be clear about the reason, but they don't know the reason. These two people just kept their mouths stubborn and didn't say a word.

In fact, looking at the delicate skin and tender flesh of these two people, I also know that they are not people who can withstand such a severe punishment.

But insisting on this, it seems that there are still people behind them!

At this time, a flash of inspiration suddenly flashed in Li Xuan's mind, it seemed that he could...

Li Xuan smiled lightly, leaned forward slightly, looked at the two treasury officers, but asked Zhang Yi: "Zhang Canjun, what about in wartime? If it is in wartime, the guards steal from themselves, resulting in insufficient food and salaries, and the morale of the army is shaken." ..."

"Rebellion, beheading, ransacking the family, and killing the family." Zhang Yi said the cruel decree very coldly.

In a word, the two warehouse managers who had been trembling suddenly raised their heads and looked at Zhang Yi and Li Xuan in disbelief.

"Then let's do it like this." Li Xuan stood up, walked out with his hands behind his back, and said, "Let the brothers in the state prison greet these two well, and do our best to respect these two and theirs." Squeeze the stolen food back from the family members, they, their family members, clansmen, relatives and friends, all find someone..."

"My lord, please forgive me..." A loud begging sound came from behind, Li Xuan stopped in her tracks, and amidst the sound of kowtows, more begging came: "My lord, please forgive me, I will wait... I will explain. "

Li Xuan turned around and sat back in the middle of the grain depot.

The blade on the neck was still there, but the two still struggled and crawled to Li Xuan's feet on their knees.

"What time is it now, I believe this king will not tell you, you should also know in your heart, whether this king has bluffed you, you should also understand in your heart, so, tell me, what is going on, this king Come and hear about the bad habits of the treasury officials." A hint of sarcasm appeared on the corner of Li Xuan's mouth.

Standing aside, Li Yuanyi, who joined the army, immediately cupped his hands, bowed his head and said, "My lord, I'm guilty of a crime."

Before, no matter whether he was at the pier or in the state office, Li Yuanyi always swore that there was nothing wrong with Kucao.

But now, under his eyes, only [-]% of the stored grain recovered last autumn was left, and the other [-]% was either replaced with old grain from other years, or directly replaced with gravel. Without knowing it, a crime of dereliction of duty cannot escape anyway.

Thinking of this, Li Yuanyi's face couldn't help turning blue and white.

Li Xuan shook her head slightly, looked up at Li Yuanyi, and said: "My uncle said that nine and a half out of ten treasury officials in the world will guard and steal themselves, and the remaining half are just unfamiliar with the methods. They are new hands, so the treasury staff has to be replaced every three years. Now these two people are only in the first year, and their hands are still fresh. Otherwise, the problem of the granary could not be discovered so easily. "

Li Xuan is not a generalist, and he only knew about the means of stealing grain from Yu Ze and the others, and even they had only a half-knowledge of such details, and Li Xuan could easily find out today because of their incompetence. familiar reason.

"They don't know each other well, but the officials were still deceived." Li Yuanyi looked embarrassed.

He had inspected the warehouse countless times before, but he never found anything tricky inside, but when Li Xuan came, he just poked under the straw bag with a sharp bamboo tube, and immediately exposed the little tricks of these storekeepers.

"It doesn't matter, as long as the food can be found." Li Xuan shook her head calmly, looked at the two treasury officials, with a hint of coldness on the corner of her mouth: "Okay, you two, explain to Li Canjun, what is going on here? How did you do it, you'd better think about a way to make up for it, if you can't think of a good way, then don't blame me for ransacking your family and exterminating your family."

That is to say, it is very close to Xia Harvest, and it is also very close to the Tianyin Sect uprising. If it wasn't for the fear that once the news of the grain depot being exchanged for food spread, it would have too much impact, Li Xuan might have killed these two people a long time ago. Cut to pieces, ransacked the family and exterminated the family.

"Reporting to my lord, the Wuzhou grain warehouse has a total of [-] warehouses. After the grain is stored in the warehouse every year, in addition to being transferred to Taicang as tax grain, paying the salaries of officers and soldiers, and preparing for famine and disaster relief, there is still about half of the grain left every year... This batch of grain will be replaced with new grain in that year, and then the expired old grain will be sold at a low price, which can be regarded as a relief to the people.”

"...before the new grain is put into storage, replace the one-year-old grain with three-year-old grain or even older grain, and then sell it at a lower price when the new grain is in storage , when the time comes, there will be all new grain left in the warehouse, and we can make a fortune."

After finishing speaking, the two storekeepers lowered their heads heavily.

"Why, why don't you sell the grain at a lower price when replacing the new grain, and then earn a lot of kickbacks, but do it yourself, and if it's troublesome, you have to use the older grain in advance, which is not more risky Is it big?" Li Yuan was puzzled by this kind of operation.

"Because you can make more money that way." The words of the two warehouse managers made Li Yuanyi at a loss as to what to say.

"Eating kickbacks is indeed relatively safer, but in addition to making less money, it is also easy to be caught by others, but if you operate by yourself, it is not easy to be caught by others, and you can also earn more. Those grain merchants who collect old grain Once you know what's tricky here, you won't make random decisions.

Not to mention, they didn't secretly replace so much food at one time, but slowly replaced it little by little over a long period of time. "

Li Xuan sneered: "They won't endure until today. What we see today is the result of a long time."

Li Yuan turned around and looked at the two of them again, gritted his teeth and said, "Damn you!"

"Join the army and spare your life. We also have wives and children." The two warehouse managers lay on the ground, clutching Li Yuanyi's trouser legs with panicked faces, begging bitterly.

"My lord, how do you think this matter should be handled?" Li Yuanyi turned around and looked at Li Xuan.

Li Xuan stood up, walked up to the two warehouse managers, and looked at them with a cold expression: "This king is not a person who is unreasonable. You want to live, but this king wants someone to fill in the food." There is a shortage, so, as long as you can do two things about this matter, this king will expel you from the treasury, and I will not pursue it after that."

"My lord, please show me!" The two treasury officers immediately bowed to the ground.

Li Xuan raised her head, looked at the grain depots around and said: "First, no matter what method you use, I will see all the main warehouses filled with a year's worth of grain within three days; Two, after this king leaves, you have to act as if nothing had happened. If someone asks, you can say that this king didn’t find anything. If someone from the Tianyin Sect contacts you, you have to give this king a hard time. If they sneak in here..."

"My lord wants to catch the thieves of the Tianyin Sect." Before Li Xuan finished speaking, the two treasury managers immediately realized it.

Now at this time, the rebels of the Tianyin Sect are about to revolt, and Li Xuan and the others' biggest enemies are the people of the Tianyin Sect. If they can help Li Xuan and the others catch the thieves of the Tianyin Sect After that, even if he is dismissed, he will be safe in the end.

What's more, the money these people made from Kucao was enough for them to make up for the lack of food.

"The next official is willing to follow the order." The two storekeepers bowed again.

Li Xuan didn't look at them anymore, but looked at Li Yuanyi: "Li Canjun, I will leave this matter to you."

"A lowly official takes orders." Li Yuanyi immediately bowed his hands.

……

On the wide street, Li Xuan was riding on a horse, with her head lowered as if she was thinking about something.

At this time, Yan Tao couldn't help urging his horse forward, and asked with concern: "My lord, can this matter really attract people from Tianyin Sect?"

"This is inevitable." Li Xuan nodded casually, and said: "If this king's prediction is correct, these two bastards may have been targeted by others, but as long as they grit their teeth and refuse to admit it, the sky is overcast. Those who teach will become suspicious..."

Speaking of this, a cruel smile suddenly appeared on the corner of Li Xuan's mouth: "If the people of Tianyin Sect are smart enough, then they will immediately find out that these two bastards are secretly raising food in private."

"My lord is deliberately trying to let the people of Tianyin Sect find out that there is a problem with the grain depot, and I don't want them to find out that we are secretly raising grain, and then let them catch them all when they come here to destroy?" Yan Tao was in a daze, already I saw the Tianyin rebels who were wiped out under Li Xuan's scheme.

"You're thinking too much." Li Xuan glanced at Yan Tao, shook her head and said, "The Tianyin Sect doesn't have many people in Wucheng, and after being hit by this king again and again, they can use even fewer people. Poor, so even if they come this time, it will only be one or two people, or set fire, or poison, in short, they want us to have no food available, once the city is besieged, the food will be exhausted and the city will be destroyed."

"My lord!" Hearing what Li Xuan said, Yan Tao couldn't help shivering, and he hurriedly asked: "Since it's so dangerous, why did your lord..."

"Why do you have to take such a risk again, right?" Li Xuan smiled lightly and said, "It looks like a lot of risk, but there is a premise in it, that is, the summer grain cannot be put into the warehouse... Once the summer grain is put into the warehouse, the sky will be cloudy." No matter how many plots there are to teach, it will not help."

"Xia Liang?" Yan Tao seemed to grasp something faintly, and asked subconsciously: "If Xia Liang is intercepted by Tianyin Sect..."

"Look, isn't there another reason why they have to attack us now?" Li Xuan had a sneer on his face, looked to the northwest, and said softly: "In this way, when will the war start? When the war starts, the dominance will all fall into the hands of this king."

"Just in case, if there is an eventuality, there will be a shortage of food in the city." Yan Tao's face showed infinite worry.

The spring grain is exhausted, and before the summer grain is put into storage, it is the time when the world's food is scarce, but no one is willing to buy it.

"So we need to transfer the grain in advance and let them destroy a fake warehouse, and didn't you hear him say that every year when the time comes, warehouses everywhere will sell grain at a low price." Li Xuan chuckled, and the next moment, he turned to look at Han Jiang on the side said coldly: "These two guys can't do such a thing on their own. There are people behind them, dig them out."

"Here!" Han Jiang immediately bowed his hands. In these aspects, it is most suitable for him, Cao Canjun, to do it.

"Let's go to the armory. I hope there will be no problems there." Li Xuan said coldly, and with a wave of the horsewhip in his hand, he rushed forward like lightning.

The other people behind hurriedly raised their whips and chased after him, feeling a little uneasy in their hearts at the same time.

(End of this chapter)