Listening to the commotion on the other end, Princess Cheng did not panic at all, but was slightly surprised, "Is this stone record a business of the Shi family?"
Among the crowd gathered behind her, a beautiful woman smiled and said: "Yes, Guangling Prefecture is close to the sea. Shi Shangshu once served as the prefect of Guangling Prefecture for many years. The Records of the Stone was established from that time. Later, Shi Shangshu entered the capital. , Shi Shiji also followed him to the capital. His younger brother is now also serving as the governor of Guangling Prefecture. Nowadays, as long as the jewelry in the capital comes from the southeast, it is said that it is the way of the Shi family. These two brothers work together , but I have earned enough gold and silver from the pockets of the nobles in the capital!"
Princess Cheng suddenly nodded and smiled slightly, "You know a lot."
The beautiful woman hurriedly said: "My son is now working as an errand in the household department and is the head of the warehouse. He knows a little bit about these things. It just so happens that he can clear up the princess's confusion today."
Princess Cheng smiled and nodded to her, "He is a young and talented person. He will come to the house to walk around with my Sheng'er some other time."
The beautiful woman was overjoyed and praised her profusely.
On the other hand, the shopkeeper was worthy of being in charge of such a big business. He directly gave him two thousand taels first. On the pretext that he didn't have that much cash in his account, he made an agreement with the other party to pick up the remaining money tomorrow and transfer it to the other party. After calming down, he immediately ordered his men to follow him, and then he immediately ran over and diligently served this group of gold owners.
Some people are strolling around leisurely, while others are already on their way home.
At the dock in the east of the city, Shi Zijun looked at his cousin reluctantly, "Brother Xian, don't worry, I will find a way to kill that Xia Jingyun and avenge you!"
The once high-spirited Shi Zixian now had an unshaven beard and a depressed look. When he heard this, there was no hatred in his eyes. He just patted his cousin's hand and silently turned around and walked towards the merchant ship that had been waiting on the shore.
Shi Zijun looked at his cousin's depressed back. The once high-spirited hope that the brothers would work together to create a glorious dream seemed like a joke now.
He gritted his teeth quietly, "Xia Jingyun, now that my family's troubles are over, it's time to settle the accounts with you!"
Just as he was thinking about it, two more men dressed as wealthy businessmen came over and bowed their hands respectfully towards Shi Zijun, "Master Shi, I'll take my leave."
Shi Zijun calmed down his anger and nodded slowly, "I'll trouble you two on the way back."
The two saluted again, and then, escorted by four guards, they also boarded the merchant ship and embarked on their way home.
The anchors are furled, the sails are drummed, and the spring water is rippling back to their homeland.
Standing on the deck, the two of them looked at Zhongjing City, which was gradually getting smaller. The grandeur and depression that had involuntarily risen in their hearts when they came to Zhongjing City all disappeared. Next, what they had to face was their original life.
"Master Shi still doesn't want to see people?"
"Hey, I don't even want to go back the way I came. I have to take a long detour by water. How can I still talk and laugh as before?"
"He came with great ambitions, and now it ends dismally in this way. No one can be calm, let alone the young man's temperament. Let him take it easy."
"Brother Shihong, speaking of it, we must have failed in this trip!"
"The Minister of Finance has finally accepted our money, as well as the other ministers in the court. The winter disaster relief money has not arrived, but there are still various projects such as summer floods and bandit suppression. The Minister of Gold will take care of it. Okay. It’s been like this several times in the past!”
"That's right. I spent tens of thousands on this trip, so I have to double it several times to earn it back."
"It's windy on the deck. Can we go inside and have a drink?"
"Okay. I'm going to change clothes first."
"Well, I'll ask the boat to prepare food and drinks."
After a while, as soon as one of them arranged the food and drinks, the other person hurried over.
"We have a long time on the boat, so why be in such a hurry."
"Brother Shihong, the account book is missing!"
"What! Don't you keep the account book close to you all the time?"
"Yes, I checked it the day before yesterday! We didn't do much yesterday, we just went to Liuyun Tianxiang Pavilion."
"Is it possible that someone stole it from the oiran's room?"
"Why did the oiran steal this thing?"
"Don't worry about what she did. What should we do now? Turn around and go back to find her?"
"It's too late. If the other party really had any conspiracy, they would have finished copying it by now."
"What about us?"
The two looked at each other in silence, their eyes full of despair, but soon some thoughts were slowly brewing.
——
If we were to choose a place in Zhongjing City that everyone most wanted to visit, the Imperial City, Mingyu Tower, Liuyun Tianxiang Pavilion, Xilin Garden and even the White Horse Temple might all have their own supporters, and it would be difficult to distinguish them.
But if we were to choose a place in Beijing that no one wanted to go to, the Heibingtai Yamen located in an alley in the east city would probably win the overwhelming majority of votes without any dispute.
In the eyes of everyone, this was like a hell in a devil's cave, waiting for no one to approach Heibingtai Yamen. At this moment, a figure was passing by on a flying horse, and suddenly threw a cloth bag into the courtyard wall.
The spies in the Black Ice Terrace were immediately startled, but when they ran out the door, there was no one there.
After picking up the cloth bag and taking a look at it, the spy's expression suddenly changed and he hurriedly reported it with the cloth bag.
Half an hour later, the first black fox on the Black Ice Platform took the cloth bag and rushed towards the palace.
In the palace, in another side hall of Wanbao Tower, Emperor Chongning looked at the furnishings in front of him with satisfaction, and talked about the origins and allusions of each treasure with great interest.
After he finished speaking, he stood by the window with his hands behind his hands, looking at the main building of Wanbao Building, which was under emergency construction, and began to make calculations.
"It was said before that there is still a shortfall of 200,000 taels. This time Shi Dingzhong's incident can be regarded as an income of 60,000 taels. Oh no, apparently the 10,000 taels need to be left to the center, so that is 50,000 taels. There is still a shortfall. One hundred and fifty thousand taels. I don’t know how long it will take for Xia Jingyun to see the results. I hope to see the completion of the Wanbao Building before my birthday this year."
The great eunuch Gao Yi stood aside, with a respectful and flattering smile that remained unchanged for thousands of years, but he was silently sighing in his heart:
Your Majesty is rich all over the world, and now he seems to be no different from the poor people in the countryside who are struggling to live a tight life. It's just that others are counting a few copper coins, but he is counting hundreds of thousands of taels of silver.
Emperor Chongning naturally didn't know what his personal eunuch was thinking, and was still sighing, "Fifty thousand taels. Speaking of which, although Shi Dingzhong is a bit of a bastard, he has done a good thing and shared my worries."
He turned to look at Gao Yi, who was smiling and echoing, "Do you think I spared him too lightly?"
Gao Yi hurriedly said: "Your Majesty, the Holy Ming Zhuzhao, has his own considerations. This old servant has limited knowledge, how can he judge."
"Although you are flattering, you accidentally hit the point."
Emperor Chongning nodded, "With this incident involving Shi Dingzhong, many people in the government and the public will say that I am stupid and immoral for being so tolerant to the Shi family."
Gao Yi quickly leaned over, and Emperor Chongning waved his hand to signal him not to panic, "This is inevitable, you don't need to panic. But these people can barely be moral teachers who hate evil, but they don't know how to govern a country."
"The territory of our country is vast and everything is complicated. How can I manage it with my own strength? I must rely on the strength of the central government and the ministers. But ministers are also human beings, and they are inevitably bound to have emotions and desires, and are unavoidable for selfishness. If I do things As those moral gentlemen said, the prince who broke the law was treated as the same as the common people, and these officials who had worked hard to climb up were treated like the lowest slaves. They were easily blamed, and if they were not careful, they would be killed. Who is still willing to be this official, who is still willing to contribute to me?"
He couldn't help but think of the quarrel with those two people more than ten years ago, and the ending where they finally parted ways and even separated forever.
"To manage the wise men of the world, we must imprison them through imperial examinations, lure them with benefits and salaries, and control them with the power of God, so that they can spend their whole life learning on state affairs like oxen plowing the fields. Under this, we must arrest them. Let go of the big and the small, and don't care about it. As long as he can be used by me and can benefit me and the country, I can tolerate his small mistakes. As the saying goes, if you are not deaf or blind, you can't be a family. This is a folk saying, but it is also the king's most important thing. reason."
"Just like this Shi Dingzhong, he is considered a capable person. He has never made any mistakes in the Ministry of Rites over the years. I feel relieved when I entrust the Ministry of Rites to him. What's more, in his self-defense above, he was able to speak frankly about himself. He made a mistake, yet he knows how to show his loyalty, and he can still think of my worries and offer to share my worries. If I don’t use such people, is it possible that I should use the snarky and rotten scholar who only knows how to recite the words of sages and sages in books?”
After hearing this, Gao Yi had a look of surprise and admiration, and said with emotion: "Your Majesty's wisdom is like the sea, and his structure is like the abyss. The world is ignorant, and it is not worth mentioning. Although the old slave is extremely convinced of your Majesty's decision, he had previously felt that There are also some doubts, but now when I hear His Majesty’s words, it’s like seeing the sun after clearing the clouds!”
Emperor Chongning nodded slightly and was about to leave when a small yellow doorman came over in a hurry and said, "Your Majesty, Lord Xuanhu wants to see you."
Emperor Chongning was slightly startled and said, "Let him come in."
Soon, Xuan Hu, dressed in black, came to Emperor Chongning.
"What's the matter?"
"Your Majesty, I accidentally found an account book today. After flipping through it for a while, I realized that the matter was serious and I had to go to the palace immediately to ask for your Majesty's instructions."
As he said that, he handed over the account book with both hands and continued to explain: "Wei Chen opened it and looked at it. It turned out that in the past two years, Guangling Prefecture bribed powerful people in the capital, totaling 140,000 taels, among which the main target was Jin Youwen, the minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs, monopolized 80% of it. Guangling Prefecture is rich in products and quite wealthy. However, I found out from the records of Heibingtai that in recent years, the Ministry of Household Affairs has repeatedly allocated disaster relief silver to Guangling Prefecture. The amount is quite large, and I suspect that this is part of the transaction. However, in order not to alert others, I have not yet gone to the Ministry of Household Affairs to verify the specific amount, but it must be no less than five hundred thousand taels of silver."
Emperor Chongning was stunned when he heard this, and immediately opened the account book, his face suddenly as gloomy as water.
(End of chapter)
