Tianliangyuan

Chapter 247 Burned

Fu Pei had been to Baiguoyuan before, and this time he went to Yunqi Mountain Villa. At the same time, he also took some time to walk around and see various places in Yunlantian County, and had many feelings about it.

Fu Pei was a talented man. After returning home, he wrote furiously and produced a long and eloquent policy essay.

This naturally attracted the attention of Emperor Yong'an.

A quarter of an hour later, the Minister of Revenue was summoned again, and half an hour later, Fu Pei returned home with the reward.

Emperor Yong'an was overjoyed after reading the policy proposal, and was even more pleased to hear that Minister Gu's policy was very promising.

He was a wise ruler, and naturally he also wanted the country to be prosperous and the people strong.

Although there was a war in the north, the national treasury received income every day, and his private treasury also received tribute from Xu Zhaozhao, so he was naturally not stingy.

Fu Pei was rewarded with two silver ingots, five bolts of silk, two boxes of tea, and a handful of gold melon seeds.

This reward can be described as very generous.

After all, Fu Pei is only offering suggestions now; the real reward will come after the actual results are seen.

"I feel guilty accepting this reward! If it weren't for the county princess giving me this opportunity, I'm afraid I wouldn't have been able to come up with such a brilliant plan. Oh well, we'll all be family from now on, so I should focus on strengthening myself first."

Jiang Wenhe's death is not enough to throw the Jiang family into chaos, after all, he was just a junior. It is only Deng Shi who will be more genuinely saddened.

Xu Zhaozhao drew a circle on the map, then slightly curled her lips.

"The Jiang family is not a monolithic entity either."

After Jiang Taifu recovered his health, he returned to the court.

On his very first day in court, he heard that one of his cousins, who was serving in another post, had been impeached again.

The reason is quite reasonable: his wife and children abused their power and bullied others. In order to forcibly take a woman, they beat her fiancé to death, and now the victim has come to the capital to file a complaint.

If a case can drive a victim to flee and force them to file a lawsuit with the emperor, it's practically a no-brainer; there's a 90% chance it's true.

The emperor was furious and ordered the Court of Judicial Review to conduct a thorough investigation.

The censor added, "Your Majesty, the aggrieved family has been on the run, repeatedly pursued and killed. We heard that when they were searching for the government office in the capital, they were even driven away. Under the Emperor's nose, these people dare not openly kill, but they can blatantly drive them away. We beg Your Majesty to uphold justice for the people."

"This matter certainly deserves severe punishment, Zhao Changqing!"

"Wei Chen is here."

"You will be in charge of arranging things for that family of victims, and you must ensure their safety."

"Wei Chen accepts the order."

Jiang Taifu's body, which had just recovered, began to tremble again.

It's not from being scared, but because of my age and the possibility of some age-related illnesses. Now, with this kind of shock, some symptoms have appeared.

That evening, Xu Zhaozhao called Jian Jiu and Mai Dong over.

"I'll have to trouble you tonight. My men are already waiting nearby. All you need to do is take control of the people, then we'll quickly move the grain away, and then we can burn it all down in one big fire."

"What about the people in the manor?" Jian Jiu still needed to clarify the details of the mission to avoid being questioned again.

"This is medicine. You can try to put it directly into the well water, and they will all fall into a deep sleep. The effect will last for about two hours, which should be about right after our people have finished transporting the grain. Then you can light the fire. Remember to set the empty granaries on fire first."

"Yes, I understand."

"Also, you two remember to remind everyone on site that, apart from the grain, you must not touch anything on the estate, whether it be silver or jewelry."

Mai Dong asked, puzzled, "Why is that?"

"This place is too close to the capital. If we alert Zhao Changqing, do you think he'll be able to find you through the slightest clues, given his investigative abilities?"

Zhao Changqing's abilities are genuine, and he is also very fair; he is not easily fooled.

Xu Zhaozhao now just needs to wait for news.

There are access restrictions at the city gates, but not outside the city.

Therefore, they transported large quantities of grain directly away at night, since there were no government officials patrolling the countryside.

After daybreak, before Xu Zhaozhao had breakfast, Maidong and Jianjiu came to report.

If the city gates hadn't been closed, they could have returned by midnight.

"Miss, everything is taken care of."

"Very good, all the related traces have been removed?"

"Don't worry, Miss, the carriage tracks have all been cleaned up. In addition, we later arranged for some oxcarts and donkey carts to travel back and forth, so you can rest assured."

"Well done. How much did you earn in total?"

After exchanging a glance, Mai Dong reported, "We prepared twelve horse-drawn carriages in advance, and made two trips in total. For the last trip, we also arranged for two donkey carts to come."

"That's not bad. Were there any casualties?"

"No. But one of them woke up midway through, and I chopped him down with a knife and threw him into the empty granary. The others also woke up one after another after the fire started, but the fire was too big for them to put out, and a few of them even managed to escape."

"well done!"

The place they raided last night was a farm owned by Jiang Ning, which was part of her dowry.

Although it was said to be her estate, in reality, shortly after she entered the Prince Zhong's manor, it was taken over by the Prince Zhong and used to procure food for his private army.

More than twenty cartloads of grain—that's no small amount.

Xu Zhaozhao mentally calculated that one cart could carry about 1,000 jin of grain, so twenty carts would carry 20,000 jin.

Because the wheat stored there was all unhulled.

So one person's monthly consumption is about 100 jin, and 20,000 jin is enough to feed 200 people for a month.

Taking these away is not enough.

As far as she knew, the Prince of Zhong had at least five thousand private soldiers under his command.

Therefore, such a small amount of food is really just a drop in the ocean.

If we can't find a large granary this time, we'll try again next time.

Xu Zhaozhao chose this place because it was registered under Jiang Ning's name and was tied to the Prince Zhong's mansion as part of her dowry.

From this alone, it is not hard to see that the one who was really using the money to support those private soldiers was Princess Zhao Yue, the wife of Prince Zhong!

Xu Zhaozhao doesn't want to confront Zhao Yue for the time being, after all, that person is not someone to be trifled with.

The fact that he could tame a woman like Jiang Ning so completely shows how skillful he was.

More than 20,000 catties of grain was a considerable amount for the Prince of Zhong.

Is the news accurate?

"Your Highness, it should be correct. However, the wind started blowing early this morning, so the scene is quite messy. It's also difficult to determine from the ashes whether it's an empty granary. But according to the descriptions from my men, the time was too short. It's impossible for more than twenty carts of grain to be transported away in such a short time. So the most likely scenario is that they were all burned together."

King Zhong slammed his fist on the table in anger: "Outrageous! Who on earth is deliberately opposing me!"