If the previous Operation Jingxi uncovered the pests in the Ministry of War and indirectly kicked off the Jing Dynasty’s war against the barbarians forty years later, then Ling Wang Yang Shu accepted the emperor’s commissioned “National Money and Food Tightening Strategy” The implementation of the power means that the "big test" of the royal family has officially begun.
It was the first time in the history of the Jing Dynasty that two major plays were staged at the same time.
Those who felt that the atmosphere and direction were beginning to change were the third-rank officials in the imperial city, followed by the various ministries and centers in the imperial city, and then the relevant local systems.
Everyone has to spend money to eat, right? No matter whether you are high up in the world or living in the market, money and food cannot be avoided. This is the same even for those sects that claim to be noble.
Yang Shu acted quickly. In two days, with the cooperation of Bai Changqing, the Minister of Household Affairs, he refined the strategy of tightening money and grain. The austerity plan proposed by Bai Changqing was divided into three stages. Each contraction stage corresponds to three processes of the war situation in the south: smooth, anxious, and declining.
Yang Shu even directly went to the Yamen of the Ministry of War in a grand manner, and found Yang Yansi, the left minister of the Ministry of War, and several veteran generals with idle posts in the Ministry of War, and brought the strategy that he and Bai Changqing had refined together to discuss with each other.
This move shocked many people's jaws. Because the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Household Affairs have been in an almost antagonistic position for how many years? Can we also engage in such cross-departmental discussions?
Surprised, even if the Ministry of Household Affairs and the Ministry of War no longer deal with each other, with Yang Shu as the intermediary, and the refinement of the money and grain strategy, it is indeed necessary for the Ministry of War to make corrections from people who are familiar with military strategy, so things seem to be going wrong. Many people in the outside world were in disbelief, exclaiming that the Hubu and the Ministry of War actually got together and did not start a fight, but in fact it went very smoothly.
Whether it was Wen Mingju, the current head of the Ministry of War, Zuo Shilang, or Bai Changqing, the Minister of Household Affairs, at least they would not do anything wrong for Yang Shu's sake.
After a careful evaluation, the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of War came up with their opinions, and finally it was Yang Shu who made the final decision, characterizing the current state of the Jingji Dynasty as "smooth and anxious", which means that it is neither smooth nor anxious. As for the status of , it can be regarded as taking an intermediate value.
In fact, the conclusion given by the Ministry of War was that "the war situation is going smoothly", and the Ministry of Revenue lowered it by half a level in order to create some room to deal with possible emergencies.
Following this process, Yang Shu began to inspect various places, and at the same time, the detailed layout of the money and grain tightening strategy for this process was first announced to the whole country. All yamen, government-run shops, and warehouses involved in the strategy must not be postponed and must be implemented immediately. . Yang Shu will conduct inspections and supervision in major hub cities one by one. If things go wrong, Yang Shu is ready to set up a few children to act as a warning.
Yang Shu left the imperial city on November 21st, and starting from this day, the entire imperial city became increasingly unstable.
First, on the night of November 21, a fire broke out in the Song Mansion Courtyard in the south of the city. The Yamen's water animal team came with five large water trucks, and nearly a hundred people came one after another. It took more than half an hour to put out the fire. This is because there happens to be a monk in the water beast team who is good at the five elements of water magic, which strengthens the power of the water wheel, otherwise the Song family's large courtyard will be burned down.
The cause of the fire was investigated by the water animal team, while the Song family arranged for people to clean up the burned courtyard.
There is nothing much to say about this matter, but the strange thing is that even the Song family themselves did not take it too seriously and just thought it was an accident. The people from the Water Beast Team who were investigating the cause of the fire burned down a person in the Song family's annex. A secret room was discovered at the foundation of the woodshed, with dozens of huge boxes half as tall as a man clearly placed inside. Due to the intensity of the fire, many of the boxes were damaged, causing the contents to leak out. As a result, the members of the Water Beast Team were stunned.
They are all pan spiritual stones!
Because there were too many people present, including people from the local government, the Water Beast Team, the Song family's own servants, and even some people who lived nearby and came to help put out the fire. In addition, the incident happened suddenly, and there were no prominent figures in the Song family present. For a moment, the reaction was slow, and he did not cover the mouths of others. The incident was immediately reported to "There are so many pan-spiritual stones!" go out.
What is an animist stone? Ordinary people can sometimes come into contact with it. They have seen it in some workshops or when they went to the city wall to do corvee work. They know that it is a high-end product used to replace the infuriating energy to promote the magic circle. It is very expensive. As expected of the Song family, they are really rich. There must be tens of thousands of pan-spiritual stones, right?
Honest people just watch the fun, and among the hundreds of people there are not just honest people, there are many people with sharp minds.
So in less than a meal, the local government and Xuanqing Guards received news that a large amount of prohibited materials were hidden in the Song Family Courtyard.
A year ago, even though it was against the rules to keep a spiritual stone in the family, it would not have been brought to the forefront. What's more, it was a wealthy family like the Song family, and their relationships were so intricate that it was difficult for anyone to get along with them easily. But now...
At this time, the Song family members came to their senses and hurriedly came from the main house, but their own courtyard could not be entered because it was sealed. The person who was sealed was a yamen servant of the imperial city yamen, and Xuanqingwei, who also came, only made a call and left after saying that they would not participate in local affairs.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Song. This is the place where the crime occurred. You can't go in for the time being."
"A crime? What crime happened?"
The person who hurried over was Song Zhisong, the second master of the Song family. With a straight face, I already felt that something bad was going on.
The yamen servant did not bow down to this prominent member of the Song family as before. Instead, he looked very tough and replied with a half-smile: "Of course it is a case of concealing prohibited materials. And the amount seems to be very large at the moment."
Without waiting for Song Zhisong to say anything else, the yamen officer turned around and left, and told his subordinates to keep a close eye on this courtyard and not allow anyone else to enter.
There's big trouble. Song Zhisong didn't bother much, turned around and went back to report, but as soon as he returned to the door of the mansion, he was shocked by the scene in front of him. Because a large group of government officials dressed in the attire of the Major Case Department of the Ministry of Criminal Justice had already guarded the door of the big room. They didn't ask when he came over and just sent someone to follow him.
On that night, Song Wenqiao, the head of the Song family, and several major direct members of the Song family were all taken away by people from the Major Cases Department of the Ministry of Punishment.
This kind of news was not simple, and it spread throughout the entire imperial city immediately.
Panling Stone itself is a strictly controlled material, and it was classified as a prohibited material during wartime. Private individuals are not allowed to hold, sell, or transfer large quantities. Any violation will be punished by the local government according to the law. However, if you just possess a large amount of pan spiritual stones, this is not a serious crime.
However, just two days ago, because the first step details of the national money and food austerity strategy had been announced and advertised nationwide, it was mentioned that pan spiritual stones and other materials would also be included in the "austerity strategy", and all behaviors that violated the austerity strategy would be punished. He will be punished in this special period.
Therefore, the Song family seemed a little unlucky.
