serious man in the red chamber

Chapter 354 Heavy Rain 3
Cabinet value
The rain outside was getting heavier and heavier. Wang Hetang was really tired. He put down his pen, took off his glasses, leaned on the back of the chair, slowly closed his eyes, and fell asleep after a while. There was already thunderous snoring.

Suddenly, Wang Hetang trembled all over and woke up from his dream. He stood up suddenly, his forehead covered with beads of sweat.

His eyes were distracted and he stood there in a daze.

A bolt of lightning illuminated the inside and outside of the cabinet duty room, and then a frightening thunder rolled across the roof, making the duty room tremble and making Wang Hetang tremble all over.

With a click, the door opened by itself.

A man slowly walked in from outside the door.

Wang Hetang looked at it and couldn't help being surprised. The person who came seemed to be Song Chengliang?

It's Song Chengliang!

He walked in slowly with a smile, and spoke: "Chief Assistant. Chief Assistant."

Only then did Wang Hetang come to his senses. Where was Song Chengliang? The person coming was Song Chengliang’s eldest son, Song Jing.

As the old saying goes, there is someone in the court who is easy to be an official, not to mention that the emperor is behind him.

Every time the emperor thought of Song Chengliang, he would ask about Song Jing. At the end of April, he was transferred to the position of Wailang, a member of the Ministry of Revenue, and was then recommended by Wang Hetang to serve as a cabinet official, responsible for official affairs between the Ministry of Revenue and the cabinet.

"It is you!"

Wang Hetang sat down slowly, took out his handkerchief and wiped the sweat on his forehead, then looked at Song Jing: "Is something wrong?"

Song Jing: "Yes. The officials from the Ministry of Household Affairs and I have been counting the numbers for several days and nights. We have verified that in addition to the Tongzhou military grain depot, several grain stocks outside the capital have been transported out, and the grain depots in the city are also empty. More than [-]%. In another ten days and a half, the food from Nanyang will not be transported to Beijing, and there will be no way to squeeze out the food to be transferred outside the customs. It is fine on the grassland, but it will be difficult in Liaodong."

Wang Hetang suddenly stood up from his seat: "Oh?!"

Song Jing: "According to the investigation, because Jin Shuqing transferred the 10 shi of grain to Yunnan, the Ministry of Household Affairs could only transport the grain from the grain depot outside the city to outside the customs. When the Beijing camp departed, he took away [-] shi, and at the beginning of the month he transferred another [-] shi. Wanshi is short of water in the northern part of Zhili this year, the rice seedlings have not been planted, there will be no harvest in autumn, and hundreds of thousands of people need help from the imperial court!"

Wang Hetang was startled, then calmed down and said, "Immediately transfer grain from northern Jiangsu."

Song Jing was speechless.

Wang Hetang: "What's wrong?"

Song Jing: "The grain reserves in northern Jiangsu were also transferred to Huguang by Jin Shuqing."

Wang Hetang's face suddenly darkened.

Song Jing swallowed and continued: "In another half a month at most, it will be time for the Ministry of Revenue to go to Gansu to adjust grains."

Wang Hetang started pacing back and forth, suddenly stopped when he reached the door, and shouted loudly: "Here comes someone!"

A clerk on duty walked in.

Wang Hetang: "Go and invite Mr. Shige here."

Clerk: "Yes." He answered and walked out quickly.

Wang Hetang turned to Song Jing again and asked, "Do you have any good ideas?"

Song Jing: "The solution is so good that I don't have it yet. I heard that Baoding and other places have a good summer grain harvest. Almost all the fields there are in the hands of large households. They can buy them at market prices and solve the immediate problem first."

Wang Hetang nodded.

At this time, Shi Guangzhu hurried in and asked, "What happened?"

Wang Hetang sighed, and then told him what happened.

Shi Guangzhu was also shocked when he heard this. Jin Shuqing was able to squander most of the wealth that Zhao Zixun had accumulated for several years in less than a month!

Wang Hetang took an oil coat from the hanger and put it on while saying: "I'm going to the Ministry of Finance to first find a way to purchase a batch of grain from large households and merchants to plug this hole. In addition, I'm going to the treasury to check." Check." After saying that, he walked out directly.

Song Jing saluted Shi Guangzhu and hurriedly chased him out.

Looking at their figures disappearing into the rain, Shi Guangzhu shook his head with a wry smile, turned around and walked to sit in front of the big case. He picked up an official document and opened the document while picking up his pen.

An earth-shattering thunder rolled across the roof, and the rain started to fall even harder!

Amidst the rain, Niu Jizong came in wearing an oil coat. He took off his oil coat and threw it on a chair under the window. He wiped the rain off his face with his sleeves and stepped forward and said: "There is news from the Wei Mansion. Your Majesty has issued a decree to reward you." Wei Ruolan, a first-class son, also served as Yunqi Lieutenant, and was awarded the rank of Wailang, a member of the Ministry of War, so that he could study in the Ministry of War."

Shi Guangzhu put down his pen: "This is a good thing."

Niu Jizong: "It's a good thing for the Wei family, but it's not good news for the Nan'an County Prince's Palace."

Shi Guangzhu stared at him: "Is this true?"

Niu Jizong nodded.At this moment, there was a series of lightning, and soon, a burst of thunder rolled over from far away in the sky.

Shi Guangzhu's face flashed on and off in the lightning, motionless as if made of iron. After a long time, he asked: "Who knows about this? Jia Hu? Who else?"

Niu Jizong: "The Marquis of Baoning, the Prince of Lin'an, and the Prince of Nan'an County also wrote a letter to the old Duke of Jinling."

Shi Guangzhu asked again: "Then what's going on?"

Niu Jizong shook his head: "I don't know. It probably wasn't leaked from our side."

Shi Guangzhu nodded.

"There have just been rumors here, and His Majesty issued such an edict. It is obvious that he wants the Prince of Nan'an County to submit a memorial himself!"

Niu Jizong sighed, "Nan'an County Prince will take back his military power if he attacks Jue again."

Shi Guangzhu looked at Niu Jizong and sighed.

The heavy rain rumbled outside the house, but there was a deathly silence inside the house, and both of them remained silent.

At this time, a report from the clerk on duty came from outside the door: "Li Yushi from the Metropolitan Procuratorate is here."

Shi Guangzhu raised his head and saw Li Hao standing by the door with his hands down.

"come in."

"Yes."

Li Hao walked in quickly, bowed to Shi Guangzhu and Niu Jizong, and then took out a letter from his arms: "This is a letter from the prince. The person who sent the letter said that it is of great importance, so please open it immediately." "As he said that, he handed over the letter.

Shi Guangzhu took the letter, opened the seal and read it, his face became solemn as he looked at it.

Niu Jizong looked at him in surprise.

After reading it, Shi Guangzhu handed him the letter, "What a troubled time it has been!"

Niu Jizong took the letter and read it quickly. He only read a few lines and his expression became serious.

In the heavy rain, there were heart-stopping bursts of thunder from deep in the sky, making the earth tremble.

Jia Huan had already left, and Jia Hu was sitting on a chair at the top, eating melon seeds. There was a letter on the table beside him.

From time to time, bursts of girlish laughter could be heard inside, sometimes mixed with one or two screams.

After spitting out the melon seed rinds in his mouth, Jia Hu picked up the letter and read it again. He read it very carefully, reading every word, and even drew on the key points with his fingernails.

After reading the last word, Jia Hu raised his head and thought silently. This was a letter written by Princess Nan'an. In the letter, she implicitly admitted that Jin Shuqing's death was related to her, but also said that she was just following the trend.

This surprised Jia Hu. It seemed that it was probably related to the emperor.

No wonder the thunder was loud and the raindrops were light. It turned out to be a thief shouting "Catch the thief!"

Thinking of this, Jia Hu's heart moved. Isn't this an excellent opportunity to win over the deputy general manager of Qianqing Palace?

The Princess of Nan'an also posed a difficult problem to Jia Hu in the letter. She asked if Jia Hu would unswervingly support them if the Nan'an County Prince's Palace insisted on redeeming the Nan'an County Prince.

This made it impossible for Jia Hu to reply to the letter. It was definitely impossible to support him, but he couldn't refuse him outright either.
At this time, there was only a sound of footsteps inside, and the excited Xichun ran like a bird and shouted: "Brother! Brother!"

Jia Hu wiped the letter into his sleeve and looked up, only to see that Xichun had also changed into his clothes. He was wearing a silk shirt with double-sided embroidery of auspicious clouds on the outside, and a plain white cicada-wing blouse underneath. The clothes are also tied with a plain white silk ribbon. The hairpin ring on the bun is gone, and only a hairband with a few light plum blossoms embroidered on a white background is worn.

Xichun smiled and said, "Brother, does it look good?" While saying this, he turned around twice.

Jia Hu smiled. Since Xichun was young, his silk shirt and long coat were dragged on the ground, but it was quite interesting.

Suddenly, Jia Hu's eyes lit up, and Lin Daiyu, Yingchun, Tanchun, Xiangyun, Xing Xiuyan, Baochai, and Baoqin walked out surrounded by Hu Hue, Zicuckoo and others.

Except for Xing Xiuyan and Xue Baochai, everyone else put on Jia Hu's clothes. However, only the clothes on Lin Daiyu were worn by Jia Hu. The clothes on Yingchun and others were all made up of suitcases.

If this scene were to be seen by Jia Mu, Mrs. Xing and Mrs. Wang, there would be an uproar.

Even though they had a doting attitude towards Xiangyun wearing men's clothing, and even praised him with a smile, it was another matter when it came to Yingchun, Tanchun and Xichun.

Only here in Jia Hu can they dare to do whatever they want.

After folding Xichun's sleeves, Jia Hu turned to Hu Hu and said, "Go tell the kitchen to prepare wine and food. Tonight I will accompany a few talented people and beauties to drink and talk to the bright moon."

Everyone laughed and said, "The moon comes on a rainy day!"

(End of this chapter)