Tongzhou is the end point of the Grand Canal, and grain transported from the south is concentrated and stored here.
After arriving here, Li Yunze immediately ordered Wen Tiren and Luo Yangxing to inspect the grain stored in Taicang.
Those accompanying this trip were the personal soldiers of Cao Wenzhao and others, plus a battalion of selected warriors.
Not to mention the palace maids, there are only a few eunuchs who are ready to follow Wang Chengen to Pi Island to deliver the goods.
Instead of entering the city, the army simply set up camp outside the city.
Not long after the meeting, Wang Chengen came in and announced, "Wang Wenhua, the magistrate of Tongzhou, requests an audience with your Majesty."
"No." Li Yunze, who was having dinner roasting a leg of lamb, refused without raising his head. "I didn't see you in all the prefectures and counties along the way."
"Wait."
He stopped Wang Chengen who was about to go out, "Let Qin Tianjian go and see if it will rain here tomorrow."
"According to the order."
Wen Tiren and Luo Yangxing returned soon and reported, "I have checked the account books of various granaries and there is nothing suspicious."
In response, a half-eaten leg of lamb flew over.
Li Yunze slapped his hand on the table, "Are you brainless or do you accept your filial piety? You can find out the devil by checking the account books. We need to open the warehouse for inspection! Carefully count and check whether the grain in the granary is the same as what is in the account books. Also, Open the grain bag to check whether it is fake sediment
, is it old food, rotten food? Check the books? Think I am a fool, go back and check again! "
Wen Tiren and Luo Yangxing were sweating on their foreheads, and they left in apology.
After leaving the tent, Luo Yang was still frightened: "Our prince knows everything."
Wen Tiren of Lao Yinbi smiled and said nothing, and would never accept such remarks.
However, he still said, "Someone is going to be in trouble here in Taicang, Tongzhou."
After Li Yunze had finished his meal, Wang Chengen came over and reported, "Qin Tian Jiancheng said that there will be clouds and wind tomorrow, but the clouds are not thick enough and it may not rain."
"That's just right."
Li Yunze stood up and called Wang Chengen, "Find a few people to wait outside."
Li Yunze, who returned to the modern world, appeared directly in the warehouse he rented.
No matter which world he is in, wherever he was when he left before, he will still be in the same place when he comes back again.
Li Yunze drove a forklift to transport the box containing the artificial rainfall system to the Ming Dynasty time and space.
Summon Wang Chengen and others to come in, "Good job guarding it. If it is lost or damaged, then you can work as river workers to dig the Tonghui River."
After arranging things, Li Yunze returned to the back tent to rest.
After getting up and washing up the next morning, Li Yunze asked Wang Chengen and others who had not slept all night to push the box to the open space outside.
After that, I unpacked the box and started assembling it according to the instructions.
Looking at the clouds passing by in the sky, Li Yunze adjusted his angle and clapped his hands and said, "Wang Banban, do you want to make a bet? I can control the wind and rain."
"Your Majesty is the Son of Heaven, so it is normal for you to call for wind and rain." Wang Chengen, who is well-versed in flattery, immediately offered him the favor, "How can I be so virtuous and talented as a servant? I dare to make a bet with the Emperor."
"It's boring."
Li Yunze waved his hand to make the people around him move away, and then hit the cylinder containing the catalyst into the clouds in the sky.
Several muffled sounds were like thunder, making the whole camp a little commotion.
Cao Wenzhao and others immediately patrolled the camp to scold him, and soon calmed him down.
Fortunately, it's daylight now. This would never be so easy at night.
After waiting for a while, it hadn't rained yet, and Li Yunze, who looked a little worried, fired two more rounds.
This time the raindrops finally fell.
Wang Chengen, who witnessed this scene with his own eyes, thought it was like a miracle, and immediately prostrated himself and shouted, "Holy Emperor~~~"
Li Yunze was in a good mood and asked Wang Chengen to put everything into the tent.
While he was having breakfast, Wen Tiren and Luo Yangxing, who had also stayed up all night, came to report on the inspection of the granary.
"Long live the grain storage in various granaries in Tongzhou. The total amount should be more than 1.5 million dan."
"Long live, I am waiting to open the bags for inspection. Most of the grain in the granaries everywhere is old grain, and what's worse, the bags are filled with straw and mud!"
"Hey."
Li Yunze picked up the bowl and drank the porridge.
"What are you waiting for? Go and seal the city to arrest people for interrogation! Ask me where my food went!"
Grain storage in Tongzhou is related to the food problem of the entire north, but at least half of the grain is currently in question.
Li Yunze knew that Daming was already in bad shape at this time, but he never expected that it would be so bad.
He was in a bad mood and had not looked good all morning.
During lunch, I was even too angry to eat.
At this time, the pounding rain gradually stopped, and Li Yunze simply called Wang Chengen to summon Cao Wenzhao and others, as well as the noble disciples, mounted his horse and headed straight for Tongzhou City.
Li Yunze's riding skills are so impressive that it's hard to describe in words.
That is to say, there is a docile horse under the crotch, and the senior eunuch of the horse supervisor is holding the horse so that it can move forward smoothly.
Tongzhou City had been sealed off at this time, and the Jin Yiwei who was guarding the gate immediately opened the door to greet him when he saw that Li Yunze was coming in person.
After entering the city, Li Yunze did not rush straight to the granary. Instead, he pointed at several houses on both sides of the road and said, "Go and ask the people of these houses to come out and speak."
The imperial guards accompanying him immediately stepped forward and knocked on the door.
For the Jin Yiwei, they usually break down the door.
Only because of Li Yunze's request, smashing was changed to knocking.
More than a dozen people from several families stood together in horror.
Wang Chengen stepped forward to scold them and salute, but Li Yunze waved directly, "No need, I just want to ask you a few words and respond truthfully."
These Tongzhou people were well-dressed. The adults' clothes had few patches and were very clean. A few women even had copper hairpins.
The adult men are all over 1.6 meters tall by visual inspection, and they appear to be in good spirits.
This is completely different from the images Li Yunze had seen on the Internet, those dark-skinned, short, skeleton-like images in the late Manchu Qing Dynasty.
"What's your family's income?"
Faced with Li Yunze's inquiry, a strong man in the crowd responded respectfully, "This little guy works on the canal to fight for food packages. When he is alive, he can earn more than twenty coins a day."
Then the man motioned to the men around him, "Is this He Laosan? He works in Fulinlou and earns more than ten coins a day?"
Then He Laosan nodded repeatedly, "Yes."
"This is Chen Liuzi. He is a carpenter at home. How much is it specifically..."
Chen Liuzi hurriedly responded, "Young man sells wooden utensils, and you can get more than a hundred cash. When you were young, you could get seven or eight cash."
"This neighbor is Zhao Dayou. He works in Yuantai Grain Store and earns more than ten dollars a day."
Zhao Dayou nodded repeatedly.
Li Yunze nodded, "How much is the price of grain in Tongzhou? How much does it cost to buy a pound of meat?"
"Tongzhou costs ninety cents for rice and sixty cents for a catty of mutton."
Upon hearing the price, Li Yunze immediately took out his mobile phone and started calculating.
One stone is worth ten buckets, which means one stone is worth nine hundred coins.
The weight of one stone in the Ming Dynasty was 153 and a half kilograms, which was only a kilogram in the Ming Dynasty. One kilogram in the Ming Dynasty was 594.6 grams. When converted, it is 188 city kilograms?
In other words, you can buy a pound of grain for less than five cents.
If they eat meat, these people can buy a pound of it every once in a while to make a tooth sacrifice.
Of course, to be specific, we also need to divide into brown rice and polished rice. In addition to meals, there are also expenses such as diesel, salt, sauce, vinegar, tea, cloth, etc.
Moreover, this is Tongzhou, and the grain transported by water is stored here, so it is normal for the grain price to be cheaper.
Generally speaking, life can be managed.
Compared with those people who lived on sweet potatoes in the late Manchu Dynasty, their lives were already happy and perfect.
Unfortunately, with years of natural disasters and wars, everything will collapse due to skyrocketing prices.
Li Yunze nodded and motioned to Wang Chengen, "Give them two taels of silver per household."
The group went straight to the official warehouse in Tongzhou City. Here, Li Yunze saw with his own eyes most of the empty granaries, grain bags filled with straw and soil, and old grain that had been difficult to feed livestock for who knows how many years. .
Without saying a word, he immediately turned his horse around after checking and went straight to the Tongzhou government office.
Among the noble disciples who were accompanying him, many of them had expressions of fear and uneasiness.
The grain business in Tongzhou City is so big, and there are many noble people involved in it.
When he arrived at the Tongzhou government office, Li Yunze got off his horse and rubbed the painful inner thighs, then walked in directly with his riding crop.
At this time, the trial was being held in the lobby, Wen Tiren was held high in the middle, with Luo Yangxing and Tongzhou Zhizhou Wang Wenhua on both sides.
Those being interrogated were the stewards of more than forty granaries in Tongzhou.
Seeing Li Yunze walk in directly, Wen Tiren, who looked majestic, hurriedly ran down to salute.
"Long live~~~"
Tongzhou had not received the slightest news before. It was only last night that there were rumors that the emperor had arrived outside the city.
At this time, seeing the emperor appear here with their own eyes, many of the granary stewards could no longer control their sphincters.
Li Yunze stared at Wen Tiren with an expressionless face and asked, "How are you doing?"
"Long live, I will conduct a rigorous interrogation to get some clues, but there are too many people who committed the crime, and it will take some time..."
'Snapped! '
Li Yunze suddenly swung his riding crop and made a crisp sound.
"Tell me the result!"
Wen Tiren's scalp was numb, and he gritted his teeth and said, "This matter is caused by the collusion between the granary managers in various places and many grain shops in the city."
Li Yunze looked around at the people lying on the ground, "Who is from the grain store?"
No one answered.
"Um?"
Wen Tiren buried his head deeply and said, "Long live, the grain merchants haven't been caught yet..."
"Wen Tiren." Li Yunze walked straight to the hanging plaque of Mingjing and sat down. "Do you not want to do it anymore?"
At this time, Wen Tiren felt so miserable in his heart.
He knew the secrets here very well, but there were too many senior officials and dignitaries from the DPRK and Central Government who were engaged in the grain business in Tongzhou, and he did not dare to offend them.
I originally thought of minimizing the big issue and taking the blame from these supervisors, but I didn't expect that the emperor would pay such close attention!
Wen Tiren has only one creed in life, and that is to be an official and a high official.
Now that I have finally achieved the position of Second Assistant to the Cabinet, I am absolutely reluctant to lose it.
He kowtowed again, "I know my mistake, so I will arrest all those grain merchants now."
Li Yunze hummed noncommittally.
Wen Tiren winked at Luo Yangxing, and a large number of Jinyi guards were dispatched immediately.
After a short while, there was a loud noise outside.
"I am the steward of Duke Chengguo's mansion! Who dares to arrest me?!"
When these arrogant words came, the whole hall fell into silence.
Trouble comes from the mouth, this unlucky boy has tricked the Chengguo Palace!
Li Yunze tapped the table in front of him with his riding crop, "Break the legs first, and then bring them in."
