Several confidants summoned by the prince in the room looked at each other after hearing the prince's request, but they shook their heads in unison. One of the men with a rather deep appearance said: "Your Highness, Mr. Zhang was dismissed from his post due to a conflict with the King of England, and the King of England died suddenly over there. I'm afraid it will be difficult for you and Mr. Zhang to break away from each other."
"Do you think you are waiting for a while, at least until this period of limelight has passed? The King of England has no masters around him now, and he has no support in the court or the palace. As long as the limelight is over, when will you want to get rid of him? Isn’t it just a matter of His Highness’s words? As for now, I think it’s better to wait.”
"I've said it before, I don't have the patience to wait anymore. The King of England is just a clown. What do you have to worry about? Do you really think that just because your father made an exception and went to the Prince's Mansion? Will my father make a fundamental change in his attitude towards that remnant of Huaiyang?"
"Back then, the king of Huaiyang County killed the clan members with blood flowing like rivers, and all the clans in the world hated him to the bone. There were not a few people in the clan who wanted to kill this remnant of Huaiyang, and who could be sure that it was Gu who did it? ? As long as my father doesn’t catch the actual evidence, my father won’t do anything to Gu.”
"Although the prince Gu is not as good as before in the eyes of his father, he is not comparable to the remnants of Huaiyang. As long as Gu is still on the throne, there are some things that no one can resist. But then again Having said that, if there is evidence that someone can get hold of me, what else will Gu want you to do? Gu has made up his mind, so don’t say any more."
Several of his confidants disapproved of the prince, and now they took action against the King of England. But seeing that the prince was determined to have his own way, he didn't dare to say anything. Otherwise, once the prince has doubts in his heart, given the master's character, the unlucky one may not be the only one who is the King of England. As confidants who have followed the prince for many years, these people know the prince's character very well.
If the prince really doubts himself, it may be difficult for the rest of him to have a good death. Wasn’t that Mr. Zhang just a lesson learned from the past? In name, he is the person sent to protect him, but in reality he is responsible for monitoring, and may become his reminder at any time.
Seeing that none of his confidants objected, the prince nodded with satisfaction. But they didn't expect that their conversation would have fallen into the ears of a caring person. After the prince issued the kill order, a person eavesdropping outside showed a strange smile.
Naturally, Huang Qiong would not know about everything that happened in the Prince's Courtyard. After learning that Zhang Qian had been demoted, Jia Quan once again asked Huang Qiong to increase his bodyguards, but this time Huang Qiong listened. However, the cards in his hand were really limited, so Huang Qiong couldn't think of many solutions at the moment.
Worried about Huang Qiong's safety and unable to find any solution for the moment. Jia Quan did not hesitate to detain Dr. Li, who had treated Liu Hu's injuries and was now ready to leave, as a precaution. While Dr. Li was treating Liu Hu, people could see his superb medical skills.
The person who was already dying was forced to be snatched back from the God of Death. Although he has not fully recovered, he is basically fine and will just need some time to recover. Except for some injuries that even gods couldn't cure, even his kung fu was not affected much.
It was precisely because of seeing this guy's superb medical skills that Huang Qiong acquiesced to Jia Quan's action of detaining the person. At this time, if you have more people in your hands, you will have more paths. Although I may not really use it, it is better than panicking when the time comes. Anyway, his current British palace is not enough to support such a few people.
But as expected, the old man's title was not Bai Jin's. What happened next made Huang Qiong no longer think about his own safety. Half a month after Zhang Qian left the capital, an imperial edict summoned Huang Qiong into the palace again. Although the errand the old man gave him this time was not a cause for trouble, it was definitely not a good thing.
The errand this time was actually quite simple. It was for Huang Qiong to meet several clan members who came to Beijing to meet the emperor. In addition to meeting these clan members, he was asked to get some money and food from the hands of these wealthy clan clansmen. To put it bluntly, it means letting those clans bleed.
As for the reason why the old man summoned these clans to Beijing, it was very simple, just to raise a batch of money and food for the currently empty household department. The purpose is to provide relief to the victims of Longyou and Shaanxi No. 2 Roads where there has been no rain since the beginning of spring. Although autumn has not really entered yet, the food harvest is almost certain to be cut off, and drought has become a foregone conclusion.
Since the beginning of spring, most areas in Longyou and Shaanxi 2nd Road have experienced severe drought. The flow of water in most rivers and mountains was cut off. Even the 800-mile Qinchuan River, which is known as the eight rivers surrounding Chang'an, also suffered from a large area of drought. The Bashui River, which used to have a large amount of water, now has some water flow in the Wei River and Jing River, and the other six rivers have basically stopped flowing.
The disaster was serious. Although the autumn harvest had not yet arrived, the court had to prepare in advance. Longyou is originally located in an area where Han and Hu people live together, and the folk customs are extremely tough. Once there is no harvest in Shang Qiuzhen, if the court is not prepared in advance, it may lead to chaos. Especially now that a large number of disaster victims have appeared and are moving outward.
The Qi Dynasty, which was supposed to rule the world, could not provide food to prepare for disasters. No one would believe it. But the current fact is exactly like this. After receiving the memorial from the second route of pacification envoys and transfer envoys, the emperor faced the severe drought and knew that failure to deal with the situation would very likely lead to chaos, and he did not hesitate at all.
In addition to ordering the officials of the Second Route to find out the drought situation, they immediately sent people from the Warehousing Department of the Ministry of Household Affairs to the capital Chang'an Prefecture, Shaanxi Road Hanzhong Prefecture, Longyou Qingzhou and Suzhou Granary to Longyou, and Shaanxi Prefectures to adjust grain. . The granary owned by the Erlu Warehousing Ambassador will provide relief to the victims who have already appeared.
What only made the emperor feel embarrassed was that according to the imperial court's customization, not counting the Suzhou granary that only supplied the border troops, the three major granaries set up by the household department in Chang'an, Hanzhong, and Qingzhou alone should have at least more than 2 million grains in stock. stone. The granary belonging to the Second Road Warehousing Ambassador should also store grains worth millions of stones.
But whether it is the granary owned by the Ministry of Revenue or the granary owned by the Second Road, the total amount of grain stored at the moment is only more than one million dan. Among them, the largest one in the entire northwest is also responsible for the entire northwest military food supply. The Chang'an Granary, which was supposed to store 600,000 dan of grain, now has less than 50,000 dan of grain.
Especially in the entire Longyou area, which was the hardest hit area, the grain reserves were less than 200,000 dan, only 30% of the amount customized by the imperial court. Unless the rations of the border troops and local guards are reduced, all the granaries can only collect 100,000 shi of food for disaster preparation and relief. There is absolutely no shortage of supplies for the border troops. There is no doubt about this.
This is a top priority related to the safety of the imperial court. You must know that even the emperor cannot send hungry soldiers. But one hundred thousand shi of food, although it cannot be said to be a drop in the bucket, is still far from what is needed. As for where the other grain went, I'm afraid only the Warehousing Department of the Ministry of Household Affairs and officials at all levels of the Second Road know.
What embarrassed the emperor was not just the granary. Most of the food that was supposed to be there had disappeared without a trace, and only 100,000 shi of food could be used for disaster preparation and relief. What made him even more embarrassed was that the Ministry of Household Affairs could only allocate 150,000 yuan for disaster relief before the autumn tax was collected. This number is comparable to that of several large granaries that can only produce 100,000 shi of grain.
What's even more serious is that the second route officials have been concealing the disaster situation. It wasn't until the severe drought became a foregone conclusion, and a large number of victims began to appear in the Second Road, and some victims even began to starve to death, and some victims had already appeared in Jingzhao Mansion, that they thought of reporting to the court, hoping that the court would allocate relief food.
After receiving the report from Zhongshu Province and the Ministry of Household Affairs, the emperor was extremely angry. Immediately, the minister of household affairs, the left minister of household affairs, and all the officials of the storage department of household division were withdrawn, and handed over to Yushitai and Dali temple for strict interrogation. He also dispatched eight hundred miles to rush to bring the second route pacification envoys, transfer envoys, and all grain road officials into Beijing under lock and key.
It is easy to just evacuate these officials, but the disaster in front of us waits for no one. It will take at least two months for grain from Huguang, Zhejiang and Jiangnan to be available on the market. And even if it is on the market, it will take thousands of miles to be transported from Huguang and Zhejiang to the disaster area, let alone when it will be, but the victims of the two roads can no longer wait for that time.
Some victims have already appeared, but the number is not too large, and the court can still have some time for relief. In the fall, if the harvest area is indeed larger, the number of victims will only be even greater. By then, if enough food cannot be raised, the chaos will be even greater.
Although the old man issued the decree, the second route has been exempted from money and food. But the problem is that imperial edicts cannot be eaten as food. Now, no matter how much tax reduction or exemption is given, it cannot satisfy the victims. But the problem now is that the court has no food to adjust. Even if we want to plug the holes in the northwest granary to prepare for the possibility of large-scale disasters in the fall, there is no way to do it.
There is food in several granaries around the capital, but the problem is that this food is not only enough to satisfy the people of the capital, but also the numerous civil and military officials in the capital, as well as the hundreds of thousands of troops stationed in the four major battalions. It is also very difficult to allocate a certain amount of food.
The situation was grim. Although the emperor allocated 300,000 yuan from his own treasury. From the 150,000 guan collected by the Ministry of Household Affairs, 400,000 guan were collected first. Although it cannot solve all the problems, Haolai can be regarded as solving part of the problem. But we have money, but the question is where will the food come from?
In desperation, the emperor could only find a few of the richest clans to attack the local tyrants, hoping that they would use some of their grain and sell it at the official price set by the court to solve their urgent needs first. He thought that when these clans heard that the imperial court asked them to sell grain at official prices, they almost wanted to kill them.
If on weekdays, the court asked them to sell grain at the official price, these people would naturally not care. But in this calamity year, they still hope that the food they have hoarded will make a big fortune for the country. Who will agree to sell the food at a fair price? Wouldn't that be like cutting out their flesh?
Especially the Prince of Linfen County whose fiefdom is in Linfen, close to the disaster area. Now he is preparing to sell the mountains of grain in his name at high prices in order to make huge profits. Although the Prince of Yuancheng County, who is known as the richest man in the clan, is far away from the disaster area. But the prince, who had a very keen sense of business, began to transport and hoard food to the border area between Shanxi and Shaanxi.
These people are all counting on making a fortune from this severe drought in the northwest. Who will care about other people, even the life and death of the imperial court? Right now, these grains are equivalent to a large amount of wealth in the eyes of these people. When they heard that the imperial court asked them to provide grain at a fair price, they all shouted louder than anyone else.
