The fire was shining brightly, and Chen Xia was pushed out of the huge courtyard.
His hair was disheveled and he was dressed in white. He seemed to have been grabbed from the bed.
Looking up, Chen Xia saw at a glance Li Xian, who was covered in red clothes and golden armor, guarded by many Qianniu Guards.
"The King of England?" Chen Xia's face was full of surprise. He never expected that at this moment, it would be the King of England, Li Xian, who showed up at his house and ransacked his house.
Chen Xia subconsciously looked around, but there was no trace of King Nanchang under the bright firelight.
They were wrong, and the news coming from all directions was wrong.
Their biggest enemy was never Li Xuan, the king of Nanchang, but Li Xian, the king of England.
The King of England has been pretending to be a pig and eating the tiger, secretly planning everything in Taozhou, and they have always only stared at the King of Nanchang, while ignoring the King of England Li Xian.
Seeing Chen Xia's face filled with regret, Li Xian was quite interested. He waved his hands to the Qianniu Guards around him, who immediately pushed Chen Xia to Li Xian's side.
"Your Majesty, Chen Xia, has met His Highness the King of England. I wonder what crime this official has committed to bother Your Highness the King of England to go into such a big fight?" Chen Xia handed over his hand in a very disrespectful manner.
Li Xian glanced sideways, and then Li Ming had already flashed out.
Seeing Li Ming, Chen Xia's expression suddenly changed.
"I won't say much about your crime. Later, Dali Temple, Yushitai, and the Ministry of Punishment will jointly review it. I have only one purpose in coming to you today, and that is to copy enough food from your Chen family. Make up for the shortfall in the treasury.”
Li Xian raised his head and looked at the entire Chen residence, and then said softly: "You'd better hope that the grain storage in your home's warehouse is enough, otherwise, I'm afraid you will have to use your servants and women to support it."
Servants and women are also a kind of wealth. Chen Xia's face suddenly turned ugly.
Li Ming's appearance here is enough to prove that the things they did before have been completely exposed.
"There is not much food stored in this house. If your highness wants to find out where the Chen family secretly stores food, you can go to the Chen family warehouse in the west of the city. All the Chen family's food is piled there and can be sold as needed. Take it." Chen Xia looked calm and directly explained the true location of the Chen family's grain storage for many years.
Li Xian nodded lightly, and then said: "It's rare, but I won't bother Colonel Chen to worry about this. I have already sent people to the place where Colonel Chen just mentioned, and the things at home should have been assessed." All over again.
If the food needed is sufficient, use grain; if the food needed is not enough, use gold and silver treasures; if the gold and silver treasures are not enough, use women and servants. "
Chen Xia couldn't help but pause, and his expression turned terrifyingly ugly for a moment.
After a while, Chen Xia said dejectedly: "His Highness is indeed shrewd and capable, and I admire him deeply."
A trace of pride flashed across Li Xian's lips, and then his expression suddenly became solemn: "But now, I just want to know one thing. This time Tubo sent people to come to Tao. How many people did they send?"
Chen Xia was stunned, and her breathing became heavy instantly.
Li Xian's eyes were filled with solemnity. Although this was the question Li Xuan asked him to ask, it was also what Li Xian wanted to know.
Li Xian stared straight at Chen Xia, as if he wanted to see through what he was thinking at a glance.
Chen Xia suddenly laughed, and finally said with some relief: "Actually, I don't know. I just resell some grain secretly, and take advantage of the situation to hoard some, and make a profit from it. As for what His Highness said about the Tibetan people, I don’t know much about this.”
I don’t know much about it, but I still understand it.
After a slight pause, Chen Xia continued: "Tibet has sent people to Taozhou to cause trouble in the past, but now that a war is imminent, they may send more people to destroy it.
However, the plateau terrain is steep and the mountain roads are rugged. The journey from Qinghai Lake to Taozhou is long, not to mention having to cross many mountains without being discovered, which is even more difficult.
If you really want to do it by force, it will take a lot of time, and even if you barely get there, you will inevitably experience various discomforts.
It takes a long period of rest and recuperation to regain sufficient combat power, so even if there are people coming, there won't be too many people coming, probably about a hundred people. "
"That's it. Thank you. Someone, please take Captain Chen down." Li Xian waved his hand to the side, and two Qianniu Guards immediately stepped forward to take Chen Xia away.
"Wait, please stay." Zhang Yungong, dressed in a crimson official robe, led a team of Taozhou policemen and hurried over from the other side.
Li Xian turned around and looked at Zhang Yungong. His eyes became serious, and a hint of danger flashed deep in his eyes.
Being a local governor is definitely not as simple as it seems.
Li Xian suddenly smiled, and he smiled politely: "Did you come here to save people?"
"Don't dare!" Zhang Yungong immediately became nervous. He looked at Li Xian with infinite vigilance in his eyes. He couldn't help but cup his hands and said, "Your Highness, Si Lang has had a past, so naturally he should act in accordance with the law. I ask you to Chen Silang, about the state prison."
Li Xianwei was slightly stunned. At this moment, a voice came from the mountain road on the other side: "No, the prisoners in the state prison are too many-eyed, and it is really not suitable for a prisoner with a special situation to live in. In my opinion, it is not as good as How about putting him under house arrest in the state government?"
Li Xuan, who was wearing a black robe with gold silk, came out from the other side and walked closer. He nodded slightly to Zhang Yungong, then looked at Li Xian and said in a deep voice: "I have been ordered to seize the property of Ma Zhi and Chen's family in Taozhou. All the properties are listed here."
Li Xuan took out a long piece of paper from his sleeve and handed it to Li Xian. Li Xian scanned it briefly and was extremely surprised: "There are two thousand five hundred stones of ready food. This..."
"This is just what I found in the warehouse in the city. There are other places outside the city, and maybe there are more..."
"Search, search all night, and find all the grain." Li Xian finished speaking with a cold face, looked at Zhang Yungong, and said coldly: "Your Majesty, today I will search Taozhou and Lintao, as well as the granary in Lintan. , I want to know how much food your Taozhou is really short of."
Previously, Li Xuan also sent people to check Taozhou's granary reserves. However, although there were some deficiencies in the granaries, the numbers were not large and were within a reasonable range.
But now, the governor's brother-in-law's house actually found 2,500 shi of grain. You know, during the normal autumn harvest, the tax grain of a lower county is this amount.
Could it be that he had emptied all the grain stores in a certain county in Lintao or Lintan.
And this is just a warehouse here. How much food does Chen Xia have hidden in the entire Taozhou and several other states?
"I obey the order." Zhang Yungong, without any hesitation at this moment, directly accepted.
Li Xuan on the side immediately knew that after several big families had replenished their positions, Taozhou's warehouses had now been fully replenished.
Although some problems can still be seen, it is already difficult to hold him accountable when there is not much food shortage.
"Please also ask His Highness to issue an order to inspect the treasury of all nearby states and counties, and at the same time dispatch Qianniu Guards and Jinwu Guards to monitor nearby." At this point, Li Xuan paused for a moment, and then continued: "Please dispatch Di Renjie, the Prime Minister of Dali Temple, and the Attendant. Lu Yuanfang, the imperial censor, went to Taozhou to collect and investigate all cases of stealing and selling grain from the warehouse. Once found, he would be imprisoned immediately."
"Your Majesty." Zhang Yungong couldn't help but said, "The war is about to begin, so it's better not to make a big show of it."
"But we must find out our family background. If there is insufficient support during the war, the heads that should be chopped off are the heads of this king and the king of Nanchang." Li Xian's voice was not serious, but this sentence made Zhang Yungong endure it. Unable to keep his body cold, he quickly lowered his head and said, "It's my fault."
"What's your crime? It's just that you didn't keep strict supervision. Before the war, you allowed your brother-in-law and the Tubo secretly to steal food from the storehouse." Li Xuan added from the side, and everyone present bowed their heads silently. .
With a sound of "Bibi", the flame jumped.
Li Xian's voice immediately sounded: "Send Chen Xia to the Governor's Mansion and leave it to the custody of Commander Zhang. If there is any mistake, he will be punished together with the Commander."
"I obey the order." Li Xuan took the lead and handed over his hands. Zhang Yungong on the side lowered his head at the same time, and a trace of relief flashed in his solemn eyes.
"Inspecting the affairs of the treasury in each county, please trouble Uncle Wang to accompany the envoy. I have to go back to draft official documents and send them to other places. Also, this matter also needs to be reported to the Duke of Yan and the Duke of Wenxi County. In addition, there is also Chang'an, where the father and the emperor and the mother have to write memorials and reports. Hey, we all have something to do tonight. "
After Li Xian finished speaking, Li Xuan and Zhang Yungong handed over their hands at the same time: "Your Highness, thank you for your hard work."
"Go and get busy." After Li Xian finished speaking, he turned around directly, but Zhang Yungong looked at his back with a solemn expression.
At this time, Li Xuan on the side raised his hands and said: "Your Majesty, please check the state and county treasury tonight and please send someone to help."
Zhang Yungong raised his eyebrows, then smiled angrily and said, "Okay, okay, then Bing Cao and Ku Cao will go with the prince."
"There are also Chang Shi and Chief Secretary." Li Xuan stood up straight and stabbed him coldly.
"Okay!" Zhang Yungong gritted his teeth and nodded.
Li Xuan smiled, and then he turned his head, looked to the side, and said, "Send an order to send the guilty minister Chen Xia and everyone in the mansion to the Governor's Mansion."
"Here!" Qian Niuwei at the side immediately handed over his hands and turned away.
Li Xuan turned to look at Zhang Yungong, nodded, and said: "Your Majesty, I have something else to do, so I will leave first."
Li Xuan handed over his hand, then turned and left.
Zhang Yungong watched Li Xuan leave with an ugly look on his face.
In just a few words, he checked the affairs of Yingzhou County Treasury in Taozhou and excluded him.
The King of Nanchang is so clever!
Zhang Yungong raised his head and glanced at the Qianniu Guards who were still searching Chen Xia's mansion, then waved his hand back and took them away.
Turning around, Zhang Yungong had already taken the lead back to the Governor's Mansion.
Zhang Luer waited until the backyard and looked at her father anxiously: "Ah, they started too fast."
"It was expected to take action." Zhang Yungong said calmly without any trace of anxiety on his face at this moment: "There are no problems with the treasury at all levels. They can investigate as they please. But I didn't expect that the King of England would be so decisive to investigate." Check the grain depots in nearby states..."
"Is this a good thing or a bad thing?"
"I don't know." Zhang Yungong shook his head and said, "It stands to reason that this would easily cause local unrest, but it will still be some time before the army marches to the plateau. Now that the food shortage is found, it can be made up for soon. The problem It’s not that big.”
"Then all our previous methods are useless?"
"Yes!" Zhang Yungong sighed softly and said, "His Royal Highness is too decisive."
Looking up, Zhang Yungong looked at his daughter and said, "Your uncle is going to be placed in the mansion. You go and keep an eye on it."
"Here!" Zhang Luer smiled slightly, and then said with some surprise: "Aren't they afraid that father and uncle will communicate with each other?"
"Don't be afraid, they are waiting for Aye and your uncle to do something." Zhang Yungong raised his head and said softly: "If your uncle dies in the mansion and the news reaches Chang'an, I'm afraid even the saint and the Queen will doubt me. ”
Zhang Luer's breathing suddenly became heavy.
Zhang Yungong waved his hand and said: "Let your uncle and the others live in a better place, and watch them carefully so as not to cause any trouble."
"Don't worry, Aye, my daughter will take care of it. My uncle doesn't know much about it anyway..." Zhang Luer paused, swallowed the rest of his words, and then turned to ask: "But as for the King of England and the King of Nanchang..."
"Go to His Royal Highness the King of England to plead for mercy." Zhang Yungong raised his head, his eyes twinkling.
…
In the dark night, three fast horses had already left the west gate of Taozhou and headed towards Hezhou.
(End of chapter)
