Pang Prefecture was taken over by the regimental troops and all grain imports and exports were stopped.
Pei Jun Ma was truly ruthless. Every day, he personally went to the Pang Prefecture granaries and personally supervised the grain count. All the signs showed that the number of officials involved in the grain storage embezzlement was not small. However, under Pei Jun Ma's direct supervision, no one could do anything. At most, they could hint to their people to slack off and stall for time.
The accounts of the Pang Prefecture granaries were very messy. Even an expert auditor would have to spend a lot of effort. As for how many people were involved in the Pang Prefecture region, Pei Jun Ma was not clear. Thus, he did not dare to give the accounts to the local government's accountant. He only sealed the copied accounts and handed them to his trusted aide from the capital for safekeeping. He also sent someone home to urgently transfer his own accountant to assist in the audit.
Now, what Pei Jun Ma did every day was to personally go to the Pang Prefecture granaries to supervise the grain count. At night, he would seal the granaries and leave behind a few servants to guard the granaries. Once all the grain was accounted for, if there was any discrepancy, then he would make trouble.
During this period of time, Pei Jun Ma also took the time to interrogate the granaries. These people naturally insisted that there was no mistake in the grain storage and that it was an accidental fire. These people all had the status of officials. Pei Jun Ma did not have the imperial edict. Even if he brazenly detained them, it would be somewhat excessive and he could not use torture to extort a confession.
The next day, Governor Li pretended to be muddle-headed and came to the provincial governor's residence to hand over the grain. Pei Jun Ma's temper flared up and he did not give him a good expression. Now, even an idiot would understand that this matter most likely had something to do with him. Otherwise, under his watch, no one in the Pang Prefecture granaries would be able to commit such a big crime. The prefectural officials had full authority over the local granaries.
If Pei Jun Ma did not sign, Governor Li could not leave and could only resentfully return to his residence. However, although he pretended to be angry and humiliated, he was actually extremely frightened. That night, Steward Liu had already retrieved the account books. Even if the four granaries that had been burned were counted as full, there would still be a difference of one hundred thousand dans.
Such a large sum could not be made up by falsifying the accounts or using the reason that the storage records were lagging behind. Governor Li was shocked and afraid. He secretly dispersed his relatives, hid his property, and even began to prepare for his funeral. Who would have thought that the demon in his heart would suddenly turn into a Bodhisattva and descend from the sky!
The Shen grain merchant from Guanzhong had sent someone to bring him a piece of great news: the owed grain would be returned immediately.
However, Shen Mu could return the grain to him. Right now, Peng Zhou's warehouse was under Pei Junma's watch. It was unreasonable for the grain to be placed outside. How could he transport it into the warehouse under the watchful eyes of everyone? This was something that Governor Li had to think about.
However, Governor Li was not worried about this. What he was most worried about was not being able to produce a hundred thousand dans of grain out of thin air. As for entering the warehouse … there would always be a way.
These days, more and more Peng Zhou officials came and went from Governor Li's residence. Some came under the guise of seeing off the old governor, others came to complain on behalf of the old governor, and there were also those who felt that they were not trusted by the new assassination envoy and came to complain to their old superiors. Pei Junma saw all of this but did not pay any attention to them.
He simply did not consider that he had offended so many people. If the case could not be solved, he would lose the cooperation of his subordinates as Peng Zhou's Provincial Governor. Once a decree left the residence, it would be like a piece of waste paper. How could he continue doing this? There was no place for idiots in officialdom, but there would occasionally be an idiot with a backer who would cause others to worry about him before he left.
During these days, Hu Yuanli did not wait for the mysterious wandering hero to send him a warning letter. As a result, he took the initiative to search for clues related to the Peng Zhou granary case.
If there really was a problem with the Peng Zhou granary, the officials involved would not just be the direct supervisor of the Peng Zhou granary. If he mistakenly found an official related to the case to cooperate with the investigation, it would be tantamount to asking a tiger for its skin. Thus, like Pei Junma, he cast aside the Peng Zhou officials and worked alone.
Pei Junma sealed the accounts of the Peng Zhou granary and counted the grain. He then traveled to the four villages to find the local evidence.
In this era, the main form of tax paid by the commoners was grain. The taxes of the villages were collected by the Li Zheng, and the commoners handed the grain to the Li Zheng. The Li Zheng would then gather the grain in the counties. The counties would then be counted by the County Clerk and County Lieutenant and then sent to the state granary. The state granary would then, according to the amount approved by the Ministry of Revenue, be kept in the prefecture, transported to the capital, or stored in the warehouse.
Although there were many prefectures and counties in the world, they all used this method. As of now, Pei Junma was investigating in the prefecture to verify the accounts. The Imperial Censor Hu was investigating from the prefecture capital downwards, following the prefecture, the county, the village and the people who paid in grain. If the prefectural granary had done a flawless job on the accounting books, he would be able to find clues through the layers of detailed accounts below.
In the past few days, Gu Zhuting and her brothers were also using their own methods to investigate this case.
They were Jianghu people who came and went from high places to high places. Their martial arts skills were naturally extraordinary, but when it came to investigating cases and finding clues, they were far inferior to Imperial Censor Hu, who was an expert. What they could do was to use their expertise to monitor the mansions of some local officials who had a bad reputation. They also had to send people to monitor the Peng Zhou granary to prevent anyone from tampering.
After a few days of secret surveillance, Gu Zhuting and her three brothers actually managed to eavesdrop on a few officials who were involved in the case. Unfortunately, the conversations they eavesdropped on could not be used as evidence in court. They were also not naive enough to think that they could use it as evidence.
It was simply impossible for the court to arrest an official just by randomly popping out a few 'righteous men' or 'wanderers' and saying that they had overheard someone say something. If they revealed their true identity and said that they were sent by Yang Fan, then the first person to fall into trouble would definitely be Yang Fan.
Greed for grain reserves, no matter how vile, would not be more serious than a court official secretly sending people to spy on other court officials. But at least with this clue, they could focus on these officials who were involved in the case. At this critical juncture, how could they not think of a way to save themselves?
With this stare, they really found a problem.
…
Wu Zetian stubbornly believed that the flood could not destroy the Palace. Even if the civil and military officials, the members of the Imperial Family repeatedly urged them to leave, and Princess Taiping and the Crown Prince knelt on the ground and begged, they were still unwilling to leave Luoyang.
The civil and military officials in the court complained incessantly, but if the Emperor did not leave, they naturally could not leave either. However, there were countless people like Yang Fan who first sent their wives, concubines, children, and grandchildren out of the city.
The Emperor did not leave, and the officials responsible for controlling the flood upstream and in the Luoyang area were even more worried and stressed. These days, it was no longer a problem for the prices of goods to rise. Every day, the news the Palace received was about where there were landslides, where there were mudslides, where bridges had been washed away, and where soldiers and civilians had been drowned …
Every day, there was no good news. A temple by the Luoshui River had been washed away, the water transport channels had completely lost their function, and the boats that operated were completely useless in the surging flood. Fortunately, the Tianjin Bridge had just been rebuilt the year before, and the stone bridge frame and bridge were very sturdy. Otherwise, the bridge would probably have been washed away.
In Luoyang, although the officials reported to the Imperial Palace every day, in reality, the Imperial Court and the various government offices were all paralyzed. It was impossible to carry out official business under these circumstances. Every day, the officials came to the Palace on small boats or in the water. Their wretched state was hard to describe. They had come to persuade the Emperor to leave the capital, but the Emperor continued to do as he pleased.
This situation only began to change when the Chongqing Gate collapsed and the Women's Hospital became a dangerous building. The imminent danger finally made the stubborn Emperor realize that the flood was like a ferocious beast that could not be caged and was right next to her. Thus, under the urging of the civil and military officials, Wu Zetian finally agreed to move to the Three Yang Palace.
The Three Yang Palace had been built for Wu Zetian at the foot of Mount Song when Wu Sansi and Wu Chengsi were fighting for favor. It was within the borders of Songyang County. The Emperor agreed to move, and all the civil and military officials of the Imperial Court breathed a sigh of relief. Thus, the Emperor, the Crown Prince, the court officials, the imperial family, and several thousand people, under the escort of tens of thousands of soldiers and horses, majestically headed straight for Songyang.
The Three Yang Palace was built on the banks of the Shicong River. It had a circumference of twenty li, and its walls were eight zhang high. Inside, there were halls, pavilions, palaces, and corridors. There were strange rocks, clear springs, and flowing water. It was a secret garden of the Li Palace, a paradise of its own.
With the Emperor moving to the Three Yang Palace, the Featherwood Guard was the main force of the retinue, and all one thousand cavalry were dispatched. Within the circumference of twenty li of the Three Yang Palace, the one thousand cavalry was the only armed force stationed there. Wu Youyi's Featherwood Guard was stationed outside the palace.
Yang Fan trudged all the way, shouldering the most arduous task of surrounding and protecting the Emperor.
The arrangement of living quarters was Wan'er's responsibility. The Emperor, the Crown Prince, the princes, and the princesses lived in the Three Yang Palace. The Prime Ministers, Ministers, and Assistant Ministers also had their own living quarters. Many of the attendants and ordinary officials could only settle in the residences, monasteries, and temporary tents outside the Three Yang Palace.
Wan'er very easily arranged for Yang Fan to live near her residence. This was not the palace, so there was not much to avoid in a temporary residence. Furthermore, Yang Fan was responsible for the defense of the Three Yang Palace, while she was responsible for the internal affairs of the Three Yang Palace. Living closer would also make it easier for them to communicate and arrange various matters, so that no one would suspect anything.
In such an elegant and beautiful place, there were trees and strange rocks between the palaces, flying springs, and flowing waterfalls. It should have been the perfect place for lovers to meet, but Yang Fan had just arrived in a muddy haze, and he had to continuously arrange the defense. He felt unbearably tired, so even though he knew that Wan'er was nearby, he first returned to his own residence.
At this time, the Emperor probably did not have time to boil hot water, so Yang Fan did not have a supply of hot water. However, the weather in early autumn was not cold. Yang Fan carried a few buckets of clear spring water from the back of the house. He took a bath and freshened up, changed into clean clothes, and lay down on the bed to rest for half an hour. Only then did his energy recover.
Only now did Yang Fan remember that Wan'er's residence was on the slope behind his house, very close to him. His heart couldn't help but move. He quickly got up from the bed, tied his hat, and tidied up his clothes. He stepped out of the room and walked along a grassy path along the mountain wall toward the slope.
Yang Fan walked up the slope and saw a red flying eave in the thick green shade. He was about to walk over when a shout suddenly came from behind him, "General!"
Yang Fan turned around. Ren Wei hurried to his side and quietly handed over a wax-sealed bamboo tube. In an urgent voice, he said, "General, urgent news from Feng Zhou!"
…
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