Corrupt official in the Red Chamber

Chapter 83 Fraud

Jia Rui returned to the posthouse, frowning in his room.

The drought this time is too serious. If measures are not taken immediately and the drought continues, I am afraid that a big disaster will befall.

He suddenly understood why the emperor recommended him to come to Shandong for disaster relief. It was digging a hole for him to jump down.

The Supreme Emperor also understood the difficulty of this disaster relief, so not only did he have three thousand elite troops from the capital to follow him, but he also allowed himself to mobilize all the officers and soldiers in Shandong.

This is the Taishanghuang, his old man, who has long known that the disaster in Shandong is out of control, and is going to use strong measures to suppress the disaster forcibly.

Where is the 30 dan of grain used for disaster relief?This is rations for the ministries!

But in this way, countless ordinary people in Shandong will suffer. After this disaster, the population on the ground in Shandong will probably be less than one in ten.

Jia Rui walked around the room a few times. What suddenly occurred to him?
Don’t you still have 30 dans of grain?This is fine white rice.

Simply do nothing, and replace all these white rice with floating bran.

In this way, the food that can be eaten has nearly doubled, and it can barely survive this winter.

When the winter wheat matures next spring, they may be able to overcome this difficulty.

Thinking of this, Jia Rui let out a sigh of relief.

The next day, as soon as Jia Rui came up, he ordered the servant to invite Wu Zhishan, the governor of Shandong.

Wu Zhishan felt a little uneasy after the banquet yesterday.

He was afraid of this imperial envoy, who was young and vigorous, and forced all the officials to contribute to the family, so that the local gentry would bleed and contribute.

In this way, Shandong, which was originally chaotic, may really have to use swords.

So he didn't sleep well all night, and before he got up in the morning, people outside came to report that the imperial envoy had ordered him to meet at the post.

Wu Zhishan stopped eating, quickly put on his official uniform, sat in a sedan, and hurried to Guanyi.

As soon as he got off the sedan chair, he saw the imperial envoy's personal servant waiting for him there.

"Master Wu, you are here, we adults are waiting impatiently."

Although the other party is just a servant, but the seventh-rank official in front of the prime minister, you must know that this guy is serving the imperial envoy, if you say something casually in front of the imperial envoy, you will be ruined in front of the emperor and the emperor in the future .

Therefore, Wu Zhishan not only didn't get angry at the other party's rudeness, but instead smiled and apologized, and finally took out a bank note from his bosom and stuffed it into Wangcai's hand.

Holding the bank note in Wangcai's hand, his face immediately changed, and he was full of smiles, "Master Wu, you can go in at ease, my master is in a good mood today."

Wu Zhishan nodded lightly, then cupped his hands slightly.Then he followed Wangcai into the posthouse, and finally came to Jia Rui's room.

Wang Cai went in to make an announcement, and soon word came out from inside, and Wu Zhishan was asked to go in for a conversation.

Wu Zhishan walked into the room carefully, looked up quietly, and saw Jia Rui sitting in the middle, with a calm face and no look of anger, so he breathed a sigh of relief.

"My next officer, Wu Zhishan, the governor of Shandong Province, has met the imperial envoy."

"Retire without courtesy."

Jia Rui asked Wu Zhishan to get up, and then ordered Wangcai who was standing beside him to prepare a chair for Wu Zhishan.

Wu Zhishan carefully sat on Jia Rui's side.

"Master Wu, I have seen that the disaster situation in Shandong is very serious during this trip. If the court's hundreds of thousands of dans of grain are scattered, it may not be enough."

"What your Excellency is saying is that the disaster situation in Shandong has reached a point where there is no need to delay. If it continues to develop, I am afraid it will trigger a civil uprising."

"Then what can Mr. Wu do?"

Wu Zhishan quietly raised his head to look at Jia Rui, and then said cautiously: "Can I ask the court for more money and food?"

"Then tell me, how much food is needed to get through this difficulty?"

Wu Zhishan thought for a while, and then said: "If Shandong is to be safe and sound, at least 200 million dans of grain are needed."

After hearing this, Jia Rui frowned a little. If so much grain was really needed, then even if all the 30 bags of grain in his hand were replaced with chaff, it might not be able to cope.

"It's impossible for the court to take out so much food, so you should come up with another way."

"Sir, if the imperial court does not supply food and grass, there will be nothing the lower officials can do about Shandong."

"Don't those wealthy gentry in Shandong have enough food to supply?"

"My lord, let them give food for free, isn't that cutting their flesh? Can these people be willing?"

Jerry was silent.

But if we don't produce a batch of grain, Shandong will really be a river of blood.

It seems that this time I have to adopt a two-pronged approach, replacing the food with chaff, and on the other hand, squeezing the food from these people to survive this disaster.

"The drought in Shandong is so severe, is there anyone hoarding it?"

As soon as Jia Rui finished speaking, Wu Zhishan's expression changed.

"Absolutely not, my lord. Our Shandong is the hometown of Confucius and Mencius, everyone knows the etiquette, how can we do such a shameless thing."

Jia Rui didn't believe a word of this nonsense.

If they really followed the law of etiquette, then Shandong would not have caused such a big disaster.

In Jia Rui's view, this disaster was both a natural disaster and a man-made disaster.

This governor of Shandong is not honest, it seems that he has to cheat him.

Jia Rui's face was still very calm, as if he had a winning ticket in his hands, "You have to think about it, if the imperial envoy finds out that someone is hoarding, I am afraid that the imperial envoy will use Shang Fang's sword."

Wu Zhishan couldn't sit still in the chair, and he suddenly collapsed on the ground.

Wu Zhishan thought that Jia Rui had seen through his tricks and got the evidence, so he was already weak and sifting through the chaff.

It turned out that before the drought started, Wu Zhishan had secretly hoarded food with important officials in Shandong, and waited for the drought to break out before sending out a large sum of money.

For this god-given opportunity to make a fortune, Wu Zhishan even secretly dumped all the grain in the Shandong treasury.

To say that this guy really has a bit of vision, as the drought in Shandong becomes more and more serious, if the grain he hoards is really sold, it can be worth several 10 taels of silver.

Except for him, all the officials in Shandong are doing this kind of thing. The food in the hands of these guys can add up to at least feed the victims in Shandong for more than a month.

"What is the current grain price in Shandong?"

Jia Rui looked at Wu Zhishan who was kneeling there, and asked calmly.

Wu Zhishan said tremblingly, "A load of grain is five taels of silver."

"What was the food price before the disaster?"

"About a tael of silver."

"That means the price of food has increased by five times. This is a good opportunity to make a fortune."

Jia Rui stood up and walked to Wu Zhishan's side, patted his shoulder gently, and then said: "Master Wu, you are going to make a fortune this time."

"The lower officials dare not, the lower officials dare not."

"Tell me, what good deeds have you done this time Shandong was hit by the disaster?"

Jia Rui starts to cheat Wu Zhishan.

"My... my lord, this was not done by the lower officials alone. All the officials from all over Shandong participated in it. You should learn from it."

"Stop talking nonsense and talk about your problems."

"My lord, if I answer truthfully, can I be punished lightly?"

"That depends on how far you have talked. Is there anything I haven't found out?"

Wu Zhishan was stunned for a while, a trace of despair rose in his heart.

You must know that you have studied hard for more than ten years in a poor window, and finally became a Jinshi in the second list, and then started as a small county magistrate, and worked hard for decades to get to where you are today.

I didn't expect that I couldn't stand the temptation this time, and I did such a head-losing thing. Now I regret it, and it's too late.

(End of this chapter)