Pingyang Fu of the Red Chamber

Chapter 459 Is the granary full?
It's night, Beijing.

The moon and stars are scarce,

The cold wind is still blowing everywhere,

However, the courtyard of the Hou Mansion was already full of soldiers, waiting here with torches. When Ning Bian saw the Marquis coming over, he immediately stepped forward to say hello.
"Master Marquis, be safe. The brothers have gathered together. The people around He Baihu and Eunuch Dai are also waiting outside the door."

Zhang Jinyu saw so many people here and asked,
"What happened? I was so anxious that I summoned the brothers from the Pioneer Battalion, but there was trouble in the capital."

"Master Marquis, there is no chaos in the capital, but there is a fire in the capital warehouse. The fire started strangely, so the emperor issued an imperial order and asked the Marquis to lead troops to wait at the palace gate."

Ning Bian's short and concise answer reminded Zhang Jinyu of the horn sound before. Wasn't it the fire over there that he saw in the attic? Isn't the Jingcang the palace's granary? It could be burned down.

There must be a ghost, or there must be a lightning strike and a fire. But tonight, Zhang Jinyu raised her head and looked at the night. There were no clouds in the sky. Where was the lightning? Looking at everyone in the courtyard, she immediately ordered,
"Listen to the order, mount your horse, go straight to the palace gate and wait."

"Yes, Lord Hou."

Immediately everyone got on their horses and opened the gate of the Hou Mansion. Zhang Jinyu led the people out of the mansion. When they saw He Baihu and Eunuch Gui, they immediately ordered two horses to be led out and asked them to follow.

"drive!"

"drive!"

The heavy sound of horse hoofbeats was extremely harsh in the silent night. On the road, He Baihu shouted,

"Master Marquis, Ji Qianhu has sent an order to the Royal City Guards to dispatch thousands of people to wait at the palace gate and listen to orders at any time."

"Understood, drive!"

After galloping all the way, we arrived at the palace gate. There were already many soldiers of the Forbidden Army and guards from the Imperial City Department waiting here.

Before he could get off his horse, he saw a chamberlain eunuch walking over anxiously.

"But Marquis Luo Yun is here."

"This is me, father-in-law. Is there something wrong?"

He got off his horse and walked over. Unexpectedly, as soon as he reached the palace gate, he was grabbed by the old eunuch's hand.

"Master Marquis, please hurry up and enter the palace. Your Majesty is waiting for you in the Yangxin Palace. You have been waiting for a long time. The Za family is worried."

Zhang Jinyu felt a chill, and you were still anxious, so you couldn't withdraw your hand.

"I understand, father-in-law, you don't have to be like this, just lead the way."

"Oh, the Za family is a little anxious, please forgive me, Lord Marquis!"

The father-in-law quickly let go of his hand, and then walked anxiously into the palace, with Zhang Jinyu helplessly following closely behind him.

Hall of Mental Cultivation,
Gu Yichen, the Minister of Household Affairs, and Shen Zhongxin, the minister, had already knelt in the center of the hall to plead guilty.

"Your Majesty, it was the veteran minister's negligence that caused this catastrophe. Please punish him."

"Your Majesty, it was my mishandling that allowed others to take advantage of the situation. It has nothing to do with the elder. I am willing to be punished. It is all due to my dereliction of duty."

After the two of them finished speaking, they knelt down and worshiped one after another.

Emperor Wu also had a headache when he saw this.

"Get up and answer the question. What's going on?"

"Thank you, Your Majesty,"

Shen Ziyu got up first, while Gu Yichen was trembling on the ground. He failed to get up several times, and Shen Ziyu hurriedly stepped forward to help him.

Emperor Wu saw him and knew that Mr. Gu Ge was in poor health.
"Dai Quan, find a chair, ask Mr. Ge to sit down and say, hurry up."

"Yes, Your Majesty,"

Dai Quan hurriedly brought a chair from behind and placed it in the center of the hall. Then he and Shen Shilang helped Mr. Gu Ge to sit on it. Gu Yichen sat down slowly holding on to the chair. He breathed a sigh of relief and replied,

"I would like to thank Your Majesty. What happened today was something I did not expect. In the past few days, the Ministry of Household Affairs has received reports from various counties and cities, saying that the official warehouses have been filled and closed. I am thinking in my heart that the big warehouse in the capital will be closed. It is also stocked with food.
Your Majesty, this is a total of [-] granaries, but there are several million stones of grain. I really couldn't worry about it, so I asked Ziyu to come to my house to discuss how to check the reserves of the Beijing granary and prepare to raid the granary to check the actual situation. Who knew? That something like this happened is really a crime of negligence on the part of the minister. "

By the time I finished speaking, I was already in tears and sobbing.

Emperor Wu Zhou Shihong, who was sitting in the upper position, stood up and walked down the hall. He walked back and forth repeatedly in the hall. After thinking for a while, he asked,

"Shen Aiqing, tell me what happened?"

"Back to Your Majesty, after receiving the teacher's assignment, I immediately returned to the ministry hall and ordered people. I was afraid of an accident, so I specially asked the Imperial City Division guard Liu Qianhu to escort me. I took the ministry's token and invited the Imperial Army to escort me. , not daring to delay for a moment, went straight to Jingcang. When he arrived at Qinghu, he saw Jingcang suddenly burst into flames, and the fire was raging on the mountainside, so I asked Liu Qianhu to blow the horn to call for help. When he got there, I asked the Forbidden Army to control everyone, including Tian Fangzheng, the commander of the grain station, and Cui Dehai, the foreign minister of Jingcang!"

Emperor Wu stopped and looked at Shen Zhongxin. He saw that Shen Aiqing's eyes were clear and there was no dodge. He must not have lied. Then the news could only have come before or when Shen Zhongxin left Gu Ge Lao's mansion and went to Jingcang. It leaked.

Just as I was thinking about this, a chamberlain suddenly came to report.

"Report, Your Majesty, Marquis Luo Yun wants to see you." "Let him in quickly."

Emperor Wu Zhou Shihong was shocked, then returned to his seat and sat down.

"Yes, Your Majesty."

The little eunuch took the order and hurried out of the hall.

After a while,
Zhang Jinyu, who was waiting outside the hall, saw the little eunuch coming out, yawned and asked,
"How are you, little father-in-law?"

"Master Marquis, the emperor calls you to come in,"

"Oh, I see."

Zhang Jinyu nodded and took a step forward. Unexpectedly, she felt a little sleepy and the threshold was high. She stumbled and almost fell. The little eunuch hurriedly supported her.

"Master Hou, please slow down."

"Ahem, I just didn't see clearly."

Zhang Jinyu's face turned red, then she said something perfunctory, and walked straight in. Sure enough, there was a knife on the head, and she didn't bother much. Her whole body ached, and she felt like she had been hollowed out. She didn't know what to eat to make up for it. .

With random thoughts, he entered the imperial study room and saw someone waiting there. There was also an old man sitting there. He took a look and saw that these were Gu Yichen, the Secretary of the Ministry of Revenue, and Shen Zhongxin, the minister. Why were they still crying?

He was not slow on his feet. When he reached the desk, he knelt down and bowed. Before he could kneel down, Emperor Wu waved his hand.

"Okay, don't bow. Just stand aside. I want to ask Aiqing something."

Zhang Jinyu's knees that were about to kneel down were bent there, so she had to stand up again and replied,

"I thank you, Lord, for your kindness. Your Majesty, please ask me. I will tell you everything you know, and I will tell you everything you want to know!"

Seeing how energetic Marquis Luo Yun was, Emperor Wu became interested and felt much better. However, why did Marquis Luo Yun look tired and sweaty, so he asked casually,
"Hey, Marquis Luo Yun, didn't you rest when you got back? Why do you feel a little tired? What's the reason?"

After saying this, the people in the palace looked over curiously, especially Dai Quan. After taking a look, the corners of his mouth trembled, which was too obvious.

Zhang Jinyu was quite energetic, but she was embarrassed to see him. Could it be that he was tired after playing with his two wives all night? How could it be possible?

"Back to Your Majesty, today, I have been running around for a day and I am a little tired. Therefore, I have not had a good rest before. But your Majesty, don't worry. As long as it is given by Your Majesty, I will do my best to complete it for Your Majesty."

"Okay, I just need Aiqing's promise, but you have to be more careful in the future and don't waste your body relying on young disciples."

Emperor Wu glanced at Marquis Luo Yun in front of him, and spoke a few words. He didn't know that young people didn't know how to exercise restraint, and then continued,

"Does Aiqing know what happened today?"

Zhang Jinyu was only slightly embarrassed. When he heard the emperor talking about business, he thought it was the sound of trumpets and the fire in the north tonight. Isn't it just a fire? What's the fuss? He replied seriously,

"Your Majesty, I'm not sure. I heard the sound of a trumpet in my sleep. I put on my clothes. I got up and looked outside. I saw a fire burning in the northeast of the capital. Later I heard that the young father-in-law who passed on the oral message said it was an official. The warehouse was burned down. I don’t believe it. In such an important place, why did the fire start so big? It was either man-made or God was unfavorable. It was struck by lightning and caught fire. But tonight, when I came to the palace from home, the weather Although it was a bit cold, the moon was sparse, the sky was cloudless, and there were no thunderstorms."

"Okay, Marquis Luo Yun said it well!"

Emperor Wu suddenly stood up and cheered loudly. These words reached the emperor's heart. He had just made a guess. Now that he heard Marquis Luo Yun's words, he could prove that what he thought was right. He turned around and asked,

"Shen Aiqing, you just said that all the officials in the capital were detained. Have you interrogated them? What did they say? How did the fire start?"

Shen Zhongxin raised his fists and saluted everyone, especially bowed to Zhang Jinyu. Zhang Jinyu quickly returned the salute.
"Back to Your Majesty and the Marquis, I went to interrogate them at that time. They all seemed to have agreed upon it. They all said that tonight, a fire dragon flew from the sky and landed in the Bingzi area of ​​​​Jingcang. Eleven official warehouses immediately caught fire and could not be extinguished. Even the water in the fire-fighting pool was boiling. I also specifically asked Cui Dehai and Tian Fangzheng. They both swore that they saw the fire dragon rising into the sky and that no one could do anything about it."

"I really can't believe it. I can't wait to do it. I can't wait to do it."

Shen Zhongxin's face turned red with anger and excitement.

Emperor Wu Zhou Shihong was even more furious. In a fit of rage, he swept everything off the table. His beloved tea bowl also flew to the ground and broke into pieces.
Everyone around them lowered their heads and said in unison,

"Your Majesty, rest your anger."

Zhang Jinyu lowered her head and couldn't believe it. Those officials were so fierce and courageous, and even a fire dragon came out. Just say it was a fire. Suddenly, she felt something familiar, and the words "Fire Dragon Burning the Cang" came to her mind unconsciously. .

"What's the use of calming down? These people are already lawless. I am so merciful. Dai Quan immediately escorted everyone to prison."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

He glanced at Luo Yunhou and Shen Zhongxin again. As for Mr. Gu Ge, he was old and frail, so he should go back to rest.

"Marquis Luo Yun and Shen Aiqing, you two can interrogate them at any time. Shen Aiqing, you will take the lead in investigating this matter. Marquis Luo Yun will assist you. Anyone who dares to block it will be killed!"

"Yes, Your Majesty."

Shen Zhongxin responded with a fighting spirit. Only Zhang Jinyu was reluctant. What's going on? It looks like a big hole, a sinkhole. In the past dynasties, there were no granaries with a lot of food. Fires seemed to be a common practice. As long as someone checked, Even if it catches fire, it will be fucked up.

Looking at Emperor Wu's earnest eyes, he had no choice but to bow with both hands.
"Yes, Your Majesty, I have received the decree and will investigate him together with Shilang Shen to find out who is deceiving the emperor. I will definitely sentence his entire family to be executed and be executed in Lingchi."

(End of this chapter)