Ma Cheng still didn't know that an anti-revolutionary alliance was forming in the city against him, and now Ma Cheng was standing in front of the military storage warehouse in Beicheng and was angry.

The granaries of the Ming Dynasty are divided into many kinds, including the two Beijing warehouses as the central reserve grain depot, the military storage warehouse as the army grain depot, and the water sub-warehouse as the guarantee of water transportation, all of which are directly under the central grain depot. In addition to these places, there are also government-run permanent positions, as well as private community warehouses, also known as righteous warehouses, as well as royal warehouses that ensure the use of local palaces, private granaries of large grain merchants, and so on.

Nanjing, as the capital of the Ming Dynasty, ordered the establishment of four large granaries in Chang'an, Dong'an, Xi'an, and Bei'an in the Hongwu period, and each grain storage was between 300,000 stone and 400,000 stone. In addition to the four large state-owned grain depots, in order to ensure the supply of more than 200,000 troops in and out of Nanjing, Zhu Yuanzhang also set up more than 60 military storage warehouses outside the city, which can store 2.7 million stone of grain.

Now Ma Cheng is standing in front of the military storage warehouse of Jinwu avant-garde on the edge of Zhengyang Gate in Dongcheng, this large granary in order to guarantee the food and drink of 5,600 people of our avant-garde, there should have been a large granary with 20,000 stones of grain, but now it is empty.

Seeing the grain hoard running all over the ground in front of him, Ma Cheng asked with an unkind expression: "What about the ambassador in charge of the granary?" ”

As soon as Ma Cheng finished speaking, a short and fat man on the side said on the side: "Go back to the town to guard the lord, the little official is the ambassador of Jinwu's avant-garde granary!" ”

Ma Cheng stepped forward and grabbed him by the collar and scolded, "Where's the grain? Did you sell it? ”

The ambassador saw Ma Cheng's hideous face, and hurriedly replied: "My lord misunderstood, the villain is a warehouse head that does not enter the stream, and he dares to sell all the grain there!" Since Chongzhen three years, the granary has not entered the grain, please see, this is the grain account! ”

After the ambassador finished speaking, he took out an account book from his arms, Ma Cheng grabbed it and looked through it carefully, although Ma Cheng couldn't understand the ancient flow account, but it was true that there was no food in the account since the third year of Chongzhen.

Ma Cheng rolled his eyes twice and asked, "Why is this?" After this governor's understanding, don't all the prefectures and counties in Nanzhili have to pay grain to Taicang, the southern capital, every year? Why don't you have anything here? ”

The ambassador heard Ma Cheng say this and said with a wry smile: "My lord, since the Wanli period, the Jinwu guards began to be short, and during the Tianqi Chongzhen period, there was not even half of the full quota, and the Jinwu guards were like this, and the granary responsible for supplying them naturally did not need to be full, so the grain transported from Dong'an Cang decreased year by year, and there was no more at all during the Chongzhen period!" ”

Ma Cheng didn't know the specific situation of the granary, and after listening to the ambassador, he looked at Wang Xian beside him, and this time the lack of grain in the granary was also discovered by Wang Xian. Originally, Wang Xian wanted to take stock of the situation of the military storage warehouse in the city, but he knew that he had walked through several granaries and found that this was the case, so he didn't dare to make up his mind before reporting it to Ma Cheng.

Wang Xian looked at Ma Cheng and hurriedly said: "My lord, according to the understanding of the lower officials, the situation of the forty-one granaries in the city is almost the same, but I don't know what the situation of the four Taicangs is!" ”

Nanjing's Taicang is also the four major granaries, which are located in the four gates of the imperial city, and it is the Dong'an warehouse in front of the Dong'an Gate that is responsible for the supply of Jinwu's avant-garde granary.

Ma Cheng didn't care about it when he heard Wang Xian say this, so he took his own soldiers and Wang Xian and went to Dong'an Cang in Dong'an Gate.

Dong'ancang is located in the imperial city of Dong'anmen, which has been

It belongs to the boundary of the imperial palace, so to enter Dong'ancang, you have to pass through Dong'anmen. Ma Cheng has no problem with the waist card to enter the palace, but his personal soldiers can't, so Ma Cheng has no choice but to take Wang Xian and the others into Dong'an Gate on foot.

Between Dong'anmen and Donghuamen is a large open space, which is home to various royal warehouses, and Dong'ancang, one of the four Taicangs in Nanjing, is located here. Dong'ancang already belongs to the national grain depot, the ambassador here is graded, I learned that Nanjing town guard Ma Cheng is coming, Dong'ancang ambassador and deputy envoy, as well as what more than 40 people, such as the classics, military fights, warehouse service, etc., have come out to meet Ma Chengma.

Ma Cheng saw the middle-aged ambassador kneeling in the front, wearing a green official robe, and the complement on his chest was a quail, and knew that this ambassador was a Jiupin official.

"You're the ambassador of Dongancang?"

The ambassador hurriedly replied: "Ambassador Wanquan of the villain Toyakura, meet the town guard!" ”

Ma Cheng didn't want to say anything to him, so he asked directly: "This governor was ordered to inspect the granary, how much grain do you say is left in this Dong'an warehouse?" ”

The ambassador had received news from the household department a few days ago, so he had already prepared, and when he heard Ma Cheng's question, he hurriedly said unhurriedly: "Go back to the town guard, Dong'ancang now has 56,000 stone of rice, 62,000 stone of three-year-old rice, 40,000 stone of wheat, and 58,000 stone of other grains such as millet and black beans!" ”

Ma Cheng felt good when he heard this guy say this, according to Wang Xian's news, each of the four major granaries has a storage capacity of between 300,000 and 400,000 stones, and now there are more than 200,000 stones of grain in Dong'an warehouse, which is already very good.

However, Ma Cheng couldn't just listen to this guy's family, so after listening to this, Ma Cheng continued: "Okay, the governor wants to check, you take the governor to take a look!" ”

Wanquan heard Ma Cheng say this, and hurriedly got up, leading the way in front: "Then please enter the warehouse!" After speaking, he and the deputy envoy led the way in front and led Ma Cheng and Wang Xian into Dong'ancang.

Entering the gate is a grain hoard, each grain hoard is ten meters high, about five meters in diameter, the whole body is made of reed mats, and the top is topped with cattails to avoid moisture.

Wan Quan led Ma Cheng to a grain hoard and said: "Lord Zhenshou, our Dong'an Cang is responsible for receiving the grain from Lishui and Liyang counties, Lishui sent 722 stones this year, and Liyang sent 1,579 stones, all here!" ”

Ma Cheng climbed the long ladder brought by the warehouse servant, climbed up the grain hoard and looked at it, it was indeed full of grain, and at the same time grabbed the rice with his hand and looked at it, the moisture content was good, it was this year's new rice.

Next, Ma Cheng randomly picked a few grain hoards, and found that they were all about the same, except that the first one was not as good as the first one in terms of fineness, but the quantity was sufficient.

Seeing this Ma Cheng, I couldn't help but be a little suspicious, didn't the ambassador of Jinwu's avant-garde just now say that there was no food, why is there so much food here in Dong'ancang, could it be that the ambassador didn't tell the truth?

"Wanquan, this governor has just come from Jinwu avant-garde, how can that ambassador say that Dong'ancang has not allocated food to them since the third year of Chongzhen, why is this?"

Wan Quan heard Ma Cheng say this, and quickly knelt down and replied: "My lord, the Jinwu avant-garde has not had enough soldiers since the Wanli period, and there are not even half of the soldiers in recent years

Wei and a few other undernumbered guards were changed to this branch, that is, let them come here to receive food! ”

Ma Cheng has no interest in how the granary operates, what he is worried about is whether the grain storage capacity is enough, and now seeing that there is so much grain in a Dong'an warehouse, and the other three should be about the same, Ma Cheng can't help but feel relieved.

Ma Cheng didn't know the virtues of the officials of the Ming Dynasty, but Wang Xian knew that Wang Xian had a lot of intersections with the officials of the household department and the military department for more than a year, and knew what level these officials were.

"My lord, these grain rats are very good, and eighty percent of these grain hoards have flowers!"

Ma Cheng also frowned when he heard Wang Xian say this, although he didn't believe that Wanquan dared to lie to himself, but it was better to be safe at this time.

Ma Cheng listened to Wang Xian and said to Wan Quan beside him: "You have heard what Wang Xian said, do you dare to guarantee that there is no problem with your grain hoard?" ”

Wang Xian is a third-grade military attaché, and civil officials have never looked down on military attachés, so the ambassador said contemptuously: "My lord, can you believe what Qiu Ba said?" Please rest assured, if there is one grain missing from Dong'ancang, please cut off the head of the official! ”

Although Wang Xian is a military attaché, he is a talent, and when he heard Wanquan scolding himself, Wang Xian, who was angry, sneered at each other: "Oh, Wanquan, do you dare to bet with this official?" ”

Wan didn't know the details of Wang Xian, thinking that he was a military attaché, even if it was a third-grade general. So Wan Quan stubbornly said: "Okay, this official will make a bet with the adults!" If an adult loses, are you willing to vouch for it with your head? ”

Wang Xian sneered: "Okay! After Wang Xian finished speaking, he walked in front of a grain hoard, this grain hoard is a medium-sized grain hoard, three meters high and two meters in diameter.

Wang Xian came to the grain hoard, grabbed the straw mat on the side of the grain hoard with both hands, and pulled it fiercely. Wang Xian's actions frightened Wanquan, Wanquan hurriedly ran to Ma Cheng's side and shouted: "My lord, there are a thousand stones of rice in this grain hoard, and it is in disrepair, if it collapses, it will be a disaster, if the adults want to inspect it, please go outside, and the junior official can choose a few safe grain hoards for the adults!" ”

Seeing Wanquan's demeanor, Ma Cheng knew that he was tired, and he didn't care about Wanquan, looking at Wang Xian picking up the straw mat.

The straw mats of this kind of grain hoard are all made of pampas grass, and they have already passed through the wind and sun, and Wang Xian opened a hole in a few clicks. However, there was no outflow of grain when the mouth came out, and Ma Cheng saw through this mouth that the grain hoard was empty.

The lack of food in it is a big deal, and Ma Cheng also helped Wang Xian at this time, and quickly dismantled a straw mat about one meter long. It turned out that there was only one layer of grain on top of this grain hoard, and under the grain was a layer of wooden planks, which were supported by dozens of brackets. In this way, it looks like a hoard of grain on it, but in fact, it is only a thin layer on top.

Seeing Ma Cheng angry like this, he said to Wang Xian: "Wang Xian, you go to Dong'anmen, use the token of the governor to transfer a hundred brocade guards, and dismantle all these grain hoards!" ”

Wang Xian took Ma Cheng's token, and soon transferred Jinyi Guards from Dong'anmen, with the help of these Jinyi Guards, Ma Cheng opened all the three hundred grain hoards in the entire Dong'an Cang, and less than one-tenth of the original grain hoards, and the rest were all this kind of half-empty grain hoards.