Pingyang Fu of the Red Chamber

Chapter 453 The fire dragon in the capital burns down the warehouse
Jingcheng Jingcang,

Guard the station,

in the attic,
Cui Dehai thought it was something, but he didn't expect that Shen Zhongxin, the Minister of Household Affairs, was here. This person was his stumbling block, and he was always against him. He couldn't wait to...
"Your Excellency, just talk about this. What's the problem?"

The man in black looked at Mr. Cui strangely. It wasn't obvious enough. People have come to check you, and you are still so leisurely. He asked,

"Master Cui doesn't understand, right? This place is an official warehouse in the capital, and what is stored in it, doesn't Master Cui know clearly?"

"What it is, you don't know. The Jingcang is naturally filled with food, what else is there."

Speaking of food, Cui Dehai's heart skipped a beat. Could it be that he came here just for this matter? It was impossible. He was doing things so secretly that everyone in Jingcang was bribed.

"Master Cui, since you are riddled like this, a certain family is leaving. Before leaving, I made it clear that Minister Shen is here to inspect the grain warehouse. The person who inspected the grain must have received a tip. Therefore, how to prepare Master Cui, I am afraid I don't need a tutor. How do you do it, Mr. Cui, take care, see you later."

As soon as he finished speaking, before anyone could react, the man in black quickly jumped up to the attic window, and then jumped down. After a few leaps, he disappeared.

The soldiers guarding outside saw it and had no way of chasing them. They turned back into the attic and shouted,

"My lord, are you still chasing after?"

Cui Dehai was shocked. He was still thinking about what went wrong and why he was still thinking about this matter. He shouted angrily,
"Chase, no, no more, no more, lock the Jingcang gate immediately. If anyone comes, you must report it."

"Yes, my lord."

After waiting for the soldiers to leave, Tian Fangzheng and Zhou Ji turned pale and were so frightened that they could not speak incoherently. Could it be that the matter was exposed? Master Tian trembled and said,

"Sir, what should I do? If Master Shen finds out, I'm afraid our heads will fall to the ground."

"Yes, my lord, I have an old mother at the lower level and women and children at the lower level. I have a large family to support. Sir, please think of a way."

Zhou Ji also complained with a grimace. After listening to the two people's pleas, Cui Dehai held back his anger and cursed,

"Are you done? Time is running out. I don't want to make amends. I thought you could run away. You are all in the same boat. Now I just want to cover up the shortcomings. Shen Zhongxin is not easy to fool."

"Who says it's not the case? Mr. Shen is extremely shrewd. I'm afraid he can't hide it. Otherwise, Sir, let's kill him and give him to him!"

Cui Dehai saw Zhou Ji saying this and cursed directly,

"Don't you think you're going to die fast enough? If something happens to him, we're going to kill people from several tribes. His teacher is Gu Shangshu,"

"This, isn't this anxious?"

Seeing that Zhou Ji was still quibbling, Cui Dehai was about to hit him with something, but Tian Fangzheng hurriedly stopped him.

"My lord, my lord, Lord Zhou also has good intentions. This matter must not be known to Shilang Shen. Since it may not be possible to hide it, it is better to burn all the capital warehouses that are in short supply and deal with them all at once. If we are guilty of dereliction of duty, we will be dismissed from office. But I’ve already made enough money.”

Cui Dehai was stunned when he was caught. It was a good idea. Since ancient times, water and fire were merciless. Once the fire burned, everything would be gone. As long as the bite was caused by a fire, everything would be solved.

"Okay, this is a great plan, let's do it like this."

"Sir, who should set this fire, and who should set it off quickly?"

Tian Fangzheng then asked, although the plan is good, who will execute it.

Cui Dehai looked at Zhou Ji with a gloomy face and ordered,

"Of course it was Mr. Zhou who set the fire. As the inspector and supervisor of Jingcang, Mr. Zhou knew very well. Go quickly. I'm blocking you here. Mr. Tian, ​​you personally led the people to put out the fire. You did it more decently, but You can’t put out a fire too early, and you can’t put it out too late, but you understand.”

"My lord, I know what to do."

Master Tian nodded in agreement. Only Zhou Ji did not reply. Cui Dehai asked sharply,

"Master Zhou, did you hear that?"

Zhou Ji then responded aggrievedly,
"Yes, sir, I understand."

"I understand but I won't go yet."

The two of them were helpless. The house was in a mess, meat and vegetables were scattered, and the food was not finished yet. They did not clean it up, so they took their confidants to the grain storage place in Jingcang.

Although Jingcang is within the capital, it is on a hill in the deserted northeast corner. Although the hill is not high, it is a hill after all. It is much higher than where he is. Except for the top and bottom of the mountain, the entire mountainside is covered. Like the plain land, wood was used to set up high platforms to build dome-shaped wooden warehouses. When craftsmen built the granary, they dried and hardened the soil in the granary, which not only ensured a dry environment in the granary, but also prevented external moisture. Isolated from the outside world.

In addition, a large amount of plant ash is stored inside to neutralize the moisture in the air. Each large warehouse can store nearly 1 stones of grain. Each granary is in a separate place, and there is a dug pool in front of each warehouse. The inside is full of water, thus avoiding a chain reaction caused by a fire. There are a total of [-] large warehouses built in Jingcang on the mountain, which is also a guarantee of backup food for the entire capital.

But today,

Zhou Ji was sweating coldly. He took his close men with them, holding torches, kerosene and other items, and looked at the large warehouses. His heart was pounding. This was a beheading business, but now that it had happened, he had to do it if he didn't want to.He gritted his teeth and led people to search over it, trying to find the empty granaries, and it was like setting fire to them.

Who knows,

It was surprisingly quiet tonight, and it was so dark that Zhou Ji and others had no choice but to light torches for illumination. The crescent moon was obscured by dark clouds from time to time, and the sky seemed to be covered by a thick layer of fog. The cries of nightingales occasionally came from the woods at the foot of the mountain, which was very frightening. There was a sense of depression in the air, and several of his men were sweating profusely, as if they had been fished out of the water, which made people feel suffocated.

As he groped forward, Zhou Ji saw a flat land with 11 large warehouses, where several Shangguan officials resold grain. Except for the outermost layer, which was grain, the inside was filled with grain bags filled with straw and sand. At first glance, there were eleven large warehouses. In fact, there were five thousand shi of grain that reached the sky. Seeing that there was no one around, Zhou Ji ordered,

"Everyone, this is a beheading business. The money you shared before was enough for you to spend in two lifetimes. Now that the matter is coming, you can't retreat. Therefore, you have to do it or not. If something goes wrong, you will be wiped out. disaster."

The people under my command responded in unison,

"Sir, tell me what to do. Brothers, I will listen to you. We have sent the money to our hometown a long time ago. Thanks to you for asking for rewards for the brothers."

"Yes, sir, our brothers will not allow anyone to cheat on you."

"Yes, no."

Everyone also started shouting, and when Zhou Ji saw it, he felt reassured.

"Okay, brothers, have you seen the Okura in the row in front? Now we split up and start lighting the fire from the inside. Pay attention to the burning evenly when lighting. Light them all, and do it quickly. Then come out and put the Okura's on fire. The door is also locked, remember, here is the key, take it and go."

"Yes, my lord."

A group of men hunkered down, opened the lock with torches, and entered the big warehouse. Zhou Ji was alone outside and stared at it. After all, they were all veterans of the official warehouse. Experts would know if there were any as soon as they made a move. Everyone quickly opened the lock. , ducked in, then started from the center of the big warehouse, poured kerosene, then poured it around, and then put straw and other flammable materials. When he saw that he was almost ready, he put the fire head close to the fire and ignited it. The inside of the warehouse was dry, and then They are all made of wood and have flammable food and other materials.

When you meet an open flame, you puff and it quickly ignites. It burns bigger and bigger. The flames rush straight to the heights and soon ignite. All the smoke rushes straight to the top of the warehouse, and the top of the warehouse changes color. .

The person who lit the fire knew that the fire was about to start, and was about to run out, but suddenly found that the barn door could not be opened. It turned out that after entering, Zhou Ji locked the barn doors one by one, and Zhou Ji was the only one left outside. Here, the men in the warehouse all begged for mercy and begged Mr. Zhou to give them a way to survive. However, there was only one way in and out of the warehouse, and if it was locked, there would be no exit.

After a while,
The people in the warehouse were shouting and yelling vicious curses. The wails were terrible and disappeared for a moment. The fire started and the roof of the warehouse was red-hot. Suddenly, the roof of the warehouse collapsed and the fire shot straight into the sky. On November [-], The flames of the big warehouse were intertwined like a fire dragon, reflecting the entire sky red. Since this place was still high up and the sky was so dark, almost the light of the fire could be seen in the entire capital.

Then, the panicked shouts of guards rang out from all over Jingcang,

"It's gone, it's gone, there's a fire in Okura District C."

"Quick, put out the fire."

"What the hell are you doing standing still? Go quickly."

"When, when!"

There are also people on night patrol beating gongs and shouting to put out the fire.

When Zhou Ji saw that the people were about to arrive, he immediately set out to hide. He walked down the mountainside from another path and disappeared from sight, leaving only a raging fire in the granary behind him, which lit up the entire sky. .

The soldiers and warehouse officials who arrived late took the buckets, vehicle frames, etc. that had been prepared, and began to carry water to put out the fire. However, with such a big fire, this little water was just a drop in the bucket, and the temperature was frighteningly high, and everyone couldn't help it. He was close, so he could only stay far away and watch the raging flames. Suddenly someone shouted,
"Look, there is a fire dragon in the sky. The fire dragon is burning the barn."

"Oh, really, my God."

"Look, the dragon is flying."

The officers and soldiers around them looked horrified and backed away in fear. The timid ones had already knelt down and begged for mercy, let alone those officials who had ulterior motives.

Even Cui Dehai, the doctor from the household department, and Tian Fangzheng, the commander of the grain warehouse in Jingcang, who came over, were stunned when they saw it. What was going on? How could it be such a big fire? Looking at the granaries in this area, they were not spared. They couldn't care about each other for a while. Word.

And with the fierceness of the fire and the strong wind on the mountain, the flames shot straight into the sky.

On the street, Shen Zhongxin, who was in a hurry, was still a little confused when he saw such a bright sky in front of him. However, Imperial City Deputy Qianhu Liu Chen was shocked and shouted,

"Master Shen, there's a fire in Jingcang, there's a fire."

"Oh my God, that's such a big fire."

Mei Yizheng, deputy commander of the Imperial Guard, was so frightened that he lost his voice. The fire in the granary would definitely cause shock in the capital, and even lead to bloodshed. Who did it?

Shen Zhongxin was horrified. Who leaked the news? This person hadn't arrived yet, and the fire came so quickly.

"Liu Qianhu, blow the emergency horn and mobilize the people from the imperial army to Jingcang. We will go there first."

"Yes, my lord,"

(End of this chapter)