Red Mansion Taoist

Chapter 306 Major Case
The matter of borrowing money from the national treasury has been going on for a long time and has always been a difficult problem to solve.

These people who can lend money from the treasury are all of high status, and it is not easy for them to pay back the money.

The household department didn't dare to come to ask for money, and there were too many people borrowing money, so the matter was further complicated by mutual pushback.

However, Li Qiang found a breakthrough. Just as the royal clan elders appeared, he found these five royal clan elders.

"You have found the right time. The treasury money must be taken back!" The Supreme Emperor laughed and nodded.

As for the elders of the royal family, the Supreme Emperor would treat them politely just for the sake of their fellow clan members.

When it comes to Da Gan's interests and they need to be sacrificed, the Supreme Emperor will never have any scruples.

The most important thing is that the Supreme Emperor knows where Li Qiang's confidence lies. As long as Li Qiang doesn't do anything too extreme, he won't openly object to it.

"The matter of the treasury money will be discussed after the martial arts performance. After the martial arts performance, I want to see if they still have the courage!" Li Qiang said with a smile.

"I also want to see this martial arts performance!" the Supreme Emperor said with shining eyes.

Although Li Qiang told him that he had trained 20,000 warriors, he still wanted to see the difference of Sergeant Daqian with his own eyes.

"Please invite Grandpa Huang to watch the martial arts performance at Chengtianmen!" Li Qiang invited.

"Okay, I haven't worn armor for many years!" the Supreme Emperor said with a smile.

Nearly three months have passed since Li Qiang went to Datong Bank to exchange money without success. Talkers from the six major merchants gathered together again.

At this gathering, the six speakers all looked unhappy.

They also did not expect that neither the court nor the royal family could do anything to the crown prince Li Qiang.

If an ordinary prince became the crown prince not long ago, there is a high chance that what they did would make the crown prince abdicate.

The prince of Daqian must stand upright without any stain.

This is the standard expected by officials for the prince. Under normal circumstances, even if the prince has slight flaws, they will not point them out directly, but if he is really going to be impeached, the prince will be under great pressure.

In history, many princes abdicated because of this. Officials have their own methods for this kind of thing, which is based on their long-term experience in dealing with the royal family.

But these had no effect on Li Qiang. Li Qiang did not make excuses with the officials at all. He counterattacked more directly without any regard for the rules of the officialdom.

"My family has suffered a great loss. Deng Zhongtang's resignation has left the Wu family without a pillar in the capital!" the Wu family's talker said bitterly.

"This matter was caused by your Wu family. Now that it's a time like this, you don't have to complain anymore!" The Ning family's talker waved his hand.

"What should we do now?" The Wu family talker looked helplessly at everyone and asked.

In the past three months, the six companies have pretended to do so, but in fact, the money transported to the capital from various places was less than 10 million taels.

Even if they wanted to exchange it for Li Qiang now, they would not be able to send the silver to the capital within four months.

Besides, if 90 million taels of cash are taken out at once, the six families will have to pay a lot of money, which is not what they want.

"We'd better send someone to discuss with the prince. There must be a solution!" the Luo family's spokesperson suggested.

He was afraid. Li Qiang's response was completely different from what they expected. Li Qiang was too strong.

"Implement that plan first, let the prices in Beijing fluctuate, and let the prince know how much energy I have, and then I can discuss it with the prince!" The Ning family spokesperson put forward another opinion.

"Yes, let the prince know how powerful we are first before we talk, otherwise the prince may ask for an exorbitant price!" The manager of the Shu family also agreed.

"The prince is so powerful, I'm afraid he won't be willing to accept threats!" The Luo family's talker shook his head.

"No matter how powerful the prince is, he must consider the people in the capital!" The person in charge of the Wu family supported this and retorted.

"Why don't we vote by a show of hands!" said the Feng family's talker.

He raised his hand and looked at the others. One by one, the speakers raised their hands.

Only the speaker from the Luo family was a little hesitant, but when he saw the others raising their hands in agreement, he felt that whether he raised his hands or not had no impact on the overall situation, so he could only raise his hands to show support.

"Since everyone agrees, then we will establish a written agreement to advance and retreat together!" The person in charge of the Wu family said happily.

He took out his pen and ink and started writing, then made six copies, each signed by the six speakers.

We are all businessmen, and credibility is the most important thing.

This document can ensure that the six families work together and no one falls behind.

The next day, every grain store in the capital had signs saying they were out of stock, but at first no one cared about this.

This is the capital city of Daqian. Countless goods flow in from the Grand Canal every day, so there is no shortage of food.

But there are many families in the capital who buy a small amount of rice and noodles to keep at home. They have never thought about the problem of not being able to buy food.

On the first day, the price of food in Beijing doubled, and only a few stores sold it. Long queues formed in front of these stores.

On the third day after the six major merchants raised grain prices, grain prices in Beijing tripled.

Then rumors spread that the prince threatened Datong Bank, which made it impossible for Datong Bank to allocate food in time, which caused the lack of food in Beijing.

"The granary of the Ministry of Hubu will be opened immediately to release grain, and the yamen will sell the grain according to the population quota!" After Li Qiang heard about the shortage of food in Beijing, he immediately summoned the Minister of Hubu to issue an order.

This kind of thing is not complicated to deal with. Although large merchants control the grain, the Ministry of Household Affairs has always stored a huge amount of grain to prevent natural and man-made disasters.

So Li Qiang asked the Ministry of Revenue to release grain. As long as the Ministry of Revenue releases grain, the price of grain in the capital can be stabilized.

The Secretary of the Ministry of Finance was ordered to retreat, and he was not surprised. This kind of thing is usually handled in this way.

"Jin Dong, let someone investigate where the grain depots of these grain merchants are?" Li Qiang ordered Jin Dong.

"Master, don't worry, I'll get a reply within an hour at most!" Jin Dong said very confidently.

The capital city is at the feet of the Emperor, and it is also the place where the Supreme Emperor's intelligence organization has the tightest control. No news here can escape the attention of the intelligence organization.

Li Qiang waved her hand and asked Jin Dong to do things first.

He sat on the chair, his gaze getting sharper and sharper.

He has also encountered trouble in the past two days. The DPRK has written a lot of articles to impeach him because of the lack of food. Because there are too many officials, even if he wanted to retaliate, he would not be able to do so.

These officials also learned to be smart and would not raise the issue in the court, but would submit a letter using a folding paper.

Of course, the excuse to impeach him would not have much effect. The Supreme Emperor would not dare to change the Crown Prince. The world was 100% sure to belong to him.

If you want to change the prince, you must consider whether the troops from the north and south of Daqian, as well as the Beijing camp in Beijing, agree.

In addition, Li Qiang's force is also important. With 500 soldiers, he can kill 100,000 Tatar troops. What kind of force is needed to restrain him? After a stick of incense, Jin Dong quickly entered the palace.

Li Qiang wondered how she could find the information so quickly. She might have just run to Daming Palace and come back.

"Master, something happened!" Jin Dong said urgently.

"What's wrong?" Li Qiang asked.

"Most of the major granaries in the Ministry of Finance are empty!" Jin Dong replied.

"What?" Li Qiang was really shocked. The Ministry of Revenue had set up several large granaries in the capital. Each granary stored a huge amount of grain. These grain reserves were related to the stability of Daqian.

Once there is a war in Daqian, these stored grains will be military rations.

In addition, food is usually drawn from them. If several large granaries are empty, it will affect several military camps in Beijing.

"What a ruthless method!" Li Qiang understood that this was done by the six major merchants.

As long as you have enough money, you can bribe the guards of the granary and secretly transport the grain away from the granary.

Just to transport these large granaries, the energy of the six major merchants was beyond Li Qiang's imagination.

You must know that the consequences of doing so will cause many officials to lose their heads.

None of the officials who were in charge of the food, as well as the government servants and even the common people could escape.

But the six major merchants still did it and emptied several major granaries in the capital.

"Can you find out where the grain merchants put the grain?" Li Qiang asked in a deep voice.

"The Interior Minister is collecting information and said it would be sent over soon!" Jin Dong also knew that the matter was serious and hurriedly replied.

"Pass a secret order to prepare armies everywhere to take action!" Li Qiang said coldly.

As early as after he could not exchange money from Datong Bank, he ordered the army from all over the country to keep an eye on all the properties of the six major merchants, including their ancestral residences and so on.

If this order is sent to the local magistrate, it may not be fully implemented.

Because with the power of the six major merchants, the local officials may have been bribed long ago. Let alone letting the local officials deal with the six major merchants, they may have notified the six major merchants before taking action.

But what is keeping an eye on the six major merchant industries is the army. Among them are a large number of 100% loyal generals. With the secret orders given by Li Qiang, even if higher military attachés want to stop them, they will be captured immediately.

"I have seen His Highness the Crown Prince!" Dai Quan entered the palace at this time, knelt down and saluted.

"Pingshen, is there any news?" Li Qiang waved her hand and asked.

"There are a total of 106 grain merchants in Beijing, of which 83 belong to the Wu, Luo, Feng, Mu, Ning, and Shu families. The rest of the grain merchants also obey the commands of these six families and jointly participate in controlling the capital. The matter of COFCO prices.

In order to keep it secret, they stored the food in eight granaries in the city and twelve granaries outside the city. Here is the map! Dai Quan said and presented a map.

Li Qiang glanced at the map and then at the sky. She was so busy that it was already dark now.

As his mind moved slightly, Jia Gong's figure flashed in the darkness and left the palace.

Jia Gong left the palace from the wall of the East Palace and was not discovered by the palace guards.

After he left the palace, he summoned a divine war horse, kept the speed at a level that would not cause a sonic boom, and followed the map to a granary in the city.

His speed was too fast, and the person guarding the granary was not a sergeant and did not have such good discipline. He easily sneaked into it.

There was so much grain in this granary that the stone granary could not hold it, and stacks of grain were built outside.

Jia Gong rolled over to the window of the grain warehouse. With a little force, the buckle inside broke. He turned over and entered the grain warehouse.

He put his hand on the grain, and the grain in the granary disappeared instantly, and was put into the Qiankun Bag by him.

Although there is a lot of food, this Qiankun Bag was obtained from an immortal, and the space inside is not small, almost as big as a valley.

He went into other grain depots and put all the grain into the Qiankun bag using the same method.

Finally, he also put away the grains in the grain stacks. The whole process took only a hundred breaths to empty out all the huge grain warehouses.

Then Jia Gong went to the second granary and the third granary. All the eight granaries in the city were put into the Qiankun bag, almost filling the Qiankun bag.

Li Qiang had already planned, and Jia Gong came to the military camp next to the palace. This was a guard camp in the Beijing camp. All the sergeants inside had left, leaving only an empty camp.

Jia Gong took out the grain and put it into the warehouse of the military camp. The warehouse here was not very big compared to this batch of grain, and it was filled quickly.

The remaining food was piled directly on the teaching ground. The weather was sunny these days, so there was no need to worry about getting caught in the rain.

After emptying the Qiankun bag, Jia Gong ran to the granary outside the city and moved all the food from eight granaries in the city and twelve granaries outside the city to the military camp before dawn.

In the morning, the sergeants of the Fourth Guards of the Beijing Camp followed orders and came to the camp next to the palace with a large amount of supplies. When they saw the tall mountains of grain piled in the training ground, all the sergeants were stunned.

Under the command of the military attache, the sergeants began to build temporary grain stacks with the materials they brought.

It wasn't until the morning that someone from twenty granaries discovered that the food was missing, and immediately reported the matter in panic.

In the morning, the yamen began to sell grain in large quantities at the original price. No matter how much you bought, you would sell it. There was no need to sell it in rations.

In the main hall of the East Palace, the Minister of Hubu was kneeling in front of Li Qiang, sweating profusely.

Several large granaries in the Ministry of Household Affairs were stolen. This was a major case that opened up the world.

Regardless of the outcome of the matter, Shangshu of the Ministry of Finance has finally reached the end.

"I am surprised that under the supervision of the Ministry of Revenue, several large granaries were all stolen. With so many government servants and so many officials, are all of them blind?" Li Qiang was also extremely angry, and he asked angrily.

The six major merchants have great means, but only if someone is willing to take risks for money.

Li Qiang didn't believe that the granary officials alone could do this. Without the intervention of senior officials from the Ministry of Revenue, it would be impossible to do it.

"The Ministry of Household Affairs is conducting a self-examination!" the Minister of Household Affairs replied with his head bowed.

"If we don't conduct a self-examination by the User Ministry and let the Criminal Ministry, Dali Temple and the Metropolitan Procuratorate jointly investigate, I won't believe that we can't find out whose hand it was!" Li Qiang waved her hand.

The Minister of Hubu felt a chill in his body. This was a joint trial of three chambers. The Hubu had always been in charge of Daqian's finances, and he knew how dirty it was.

If the Ministry of Punishment, Dali Temple and the Metropolitan Procuratorate were to enter the Ministry of Household Affairs to conduct an investigation, most of the officials in the Ministry of Household Affairs would be killed.

But even if he wanted to ask for mercy, he didn't dare to ask for mercy. Now he couldn't protect himself, and his body collapsed to the ground.

(End of this chapter)