"The Taicang Bank is impregnable and has extremely strict entry and exit management. Moreover, it contains millions of taels of silver. How could it be stolen by someone subcontracting it?"
After Zhu Yuanzhang was surprised, he looked at Zhu Cixiang suspiciously.
Upon hearing this, Zhu Cihong kowtowed and explained: "Father, the money was not transferred in Taicang, but in the Changying Treasury of Taipu Temple!"
"What? Chang Yingku?"
Zhu Yuanzhang looked at Zhu Cihong with an unkind expression and said, "In order to ensure the safety of the warehouse, we asked Li Jing to reinforce the warehouse. Why don't you put the silver in the warehouse, but transport it to the Changying warehouse of the Ministry of War?"
Zhu Cixi looked at Zhu Yuanzhang in surprise and said, "Father, I have told you the whole story in my son's letter... You didn't receive the letter?"
Zhu Yuanzhang frowned and said, "Who did you send to deliver the letter?"
Zhu Cixiang was stunned for a moment and said: "After I finished writing the letter, I gave it to Mr. Shen. According to Mr. Shen's intention, I should send the dead tiger to deliver the letter..."
When Zhu Yuanzhang heard this, his brows couldn't help but frown deeper.
After Zhu Cihong finished speaking, he said in a deep voice: "What exactly is going on in this matter? Tell me from the beginning to my father."
Zhu Cihong collected his thoughts and said slowly: "Since the Nanliang was robbed in the Beiyun Canal, I felt that it was not safe to store the food in the warehouse in Tongzhou..."
It turned out that after the second batch of southern grain was robbed near Xianghe, Zhu Cihong felt that Tongzhou and Xianghe were too close. In order to avoid another accident, he and Shen Zhanran decided to transport the grain from Taicang, Tongzhou to the capital for safekeeping.
Originally, Taicang in the capital had a large storage capacity, so it was not difficult to put down these grains.
However, during the transportation process, the warehouse accidentally caught fire.
Although the fire was not big and was extinguished in time, it accidentally burned down the passage where the silver was stored and a warehouse.
Although there was no loss of money under the guard's care, Zhu Cixiang sensed a hint of danger.
Zhu Cixiang originally wanted to report to Zhu Yuanzhang before taking action, but Zhu Yuanzhang was no longer in Yu County at that time.
In order to avoid trouble caused by long nights and many dreams, he summoned Shen Zhanran and Ni Yuanlu to discuss the matter.
Zhu Cixiang originally wanted to move the money in Taicang to the internal transportation warehouse for safekeeping, but Ni Yuanlu firmly disagreed on the grounds of mixing public and private matters.
Later, it was Shen Zhanran who proposed to transfer the silver to Chang Yingku in Taipu Temple, and the matter was finally solved.
However, although the place has been found, it is still troublesome to exchange millions of taels of silver without attracting the attention of people with ulterior motives.
Although nighttime is the best option, it can easily arouse suspicion without a valid reason.
At this time, Zhu Yuanzhang sent a message and agreed to allocate 500,000 taels of silver to Liu Wenbing.
So they used this as an excuse to open the warehouse late at night and asked Zhao Erhu to transfer the silver with three hundred tiger soldiers.
In order to deceive others, they only transported 5 million taels of silver, and pretended to transport Nanliang into Taicang the next day. After being told that Taicang was full, they transported it to Changying stock for storage.
Zhu Cixiang knew that this matter was important and there must be no mistakes, so he participated in the whole process, and the money almost never left his sight.
After the money was deposited in Chang Ying's treasury, he even sent his personal bodyguard to take care of it.
Zhu Cihong then wrote the details into a letter, and Shen Zhanran arranged for someone to send it to Zhu Yuanzhang to ask for his opinion.
Because Zhu Yuanzhang did not mention this matter when he returned, and Zhu Cihong thought that the money would be allocated to the Ministry of War soon, he did not pay much attention to it.
But when he received a letter from Shen Zhanran today and went to check whether the silver in the warehouse was sufficient, he accidentally discovered that the silver in stock was nearly one million taels different from the data in the account book, and he couldn't help but be shocked.
So he used the excuse that there was a problem with the bank's access, and after secretly controlling the relevant personnel, he hurried to Chang Ying's bank.
When he went to Chang Yingku to check, he saw that the numbers were right, so he relaxed a little.
However, when he accidentally opened a box to check, he found that except for the top layer of the box, which was made of silver, the rest was actually some fake silver made of gravel or aluminum. His face instantly turned pale.
Fortunately, he had been through a lot these days and didn't show any abnormality on the spot.
He used the excuse that the quantity of food was wrong and asked the guards to control Chang Yingku's people, and then hurried over to report to Zhu Yuanzhang.
When Zhu Yuanzhang listened to Zhu Cixiang's story, he kept his eyes fixed on him.
Until Zhu Cixiang finished telling everything, he still looked at Zhu Cixiang for a while, then looked away, and at the same time he felt inexplicably relaxed in his heart.
It turned out that Zhu Yuanzhang was suspicious of Zhu Cixiang when he first heard about it.
However, after thinking about it again and again, he felt that Zhu Cixiang had no reason to do this.
Because Zhu Cihong is the prince, sooner or later the world will belong to him.
Although there were many princes in history who were eager to ascend the throne, Zhu Cihong was not one of them.
First of all, Zhu Cixi was kind and filial by nature, and was by no means a treacherous or evil person.
Secondly, the rebellion has not yet been put down. With Zhu Cihong's intelligence, it is simply impossible to put down the world.
Therefore, even if Zhu Cihong had evil intentions, he should wait until he eliminated the rebellion before taking any action. It is absolutely impossible to compete with him now for the seemingly glorious, but actually fatal, supreme position.
Moreover, Zhu Yuanzhang had carefully observed Zhu Cixiang's words and deeds just now and found that his words were sincere and his story was described perfectly without any flaws, so he was relieved.
As for the stolen silver, Zhu Yuanzhang didn't take it too seriously.
You must know that he has experienced too many storms in his life, and has also dealt with more dangerous things than now.
Like when he first woke up, not only did he have no money, but he also had no soldiers. The situation was much more dangerous than it is now, and he resolved it one by one.
Although he has no money now, he has soldiers in his hands, so why worry about not having money?
Therefore, his initial panic was largely due to Zhu Cixiang.
He was worried that Zhu Cihong would be instigated by others and betray him.
Because Zhu Yuanzhang worked hard in his previous life and left a great reputation.
But in his heart, there are still two regrets, one of which is family happiness.
Perhaps when he was born into an emperor's family, the so-called family happiness was just a luxury wish, but his past life experience made him yearn for it.
Moreover, through hard work in his previous life, he almost succeeded, but God is too cruel, so he cherishes it very much in this life.
Therefore, when he confirmed that Zhu Cixiang had not betrayed him, his heart slowly calmed down.
But as he calmed down, a faint sadness surged in his heart.
The person who aroused this emotion in him was Shen Zhanran, whom he valued very much.
In fact, Zhu Yuanzhang didn't think much of Shen Zhanran at first, but as his understanding deepened, he appreciated him more and more.
But while admiring it, he was actually a little worried.
His worry is that Shen Zhanran is too smart, so smart that it scares him.
So his departure from Beijing this time was actually a test for Shen Zhanran.
He wanted to see whether Shen Zhanran could remain loyal to him when faced with difficulties.
If Shen Zhanran can't be consistent, nipping things in the bud is the best option.
However, after he returned to Beijing this time, he found that Shen Zhanran was different from usual, but not too different, so he did not go into details, but gave Shen Zhanran a chance.
Because he knew that the water in the capital was too deep before.
Even if he were in Shen Zhanran's position, he might not be able to survive alone.
And Shen Zhanran did not disappoint him, and made his attitude clear to Xu Yunzhen by not trying him.
Zhu Yuanzhang was quite satisfied when he saw Shen Zhanran openly expressing his feelings.
In order to avoid Shen Zhanran being in trouble, Zhu Yuanzhang transferred him to Shanxi with an excuse. He just didn't want him to be implicated, but he didn't expect that he would hide such a big surprise.
You must know that Zhu Yuanzhang finally opened up the situation. If there is no money now, it will be difficult to implement his previous ideas.
Don't talk about reassuring the people at that time, as long as you are not careful, the capital and other places may start fighting again.
But even though he had seen this clearly, he still had some doubts in his heart.
Because based on his understanding of Shen Zhanran these days, the other party is definitely not a treacherous person, so how could he do such a thing at this time?
Furthermore, with Shen Zhanran's intelligence, even if it was going to be detrimental to him, he shouldn't have exposed himself so quickly?
There is also Li Jing’s disappearance. Is there any connection between the two?
Thinking of this, Zhu Yuanzhang frowned even more tightly.
