The warehouse is not in the palace, not even in Lanzhou City, but in the Gaolan Mountain in the south of the city, when Li Zicheng rushed to Gaolan Mountain, Ma Youshui had already arrived with the soldiers first.

Seeing that Li Zicheng rushed over so quickly, Ma Youshui knew that Li Zicheng was very concerned about this matter, so he hurriedly shook off the soldiers and greeted him, "Governor! ”

Li Zicheng waved his hand and asked Ma Youshui to be polite, and said, "There is water, how about it, has the warehouse been found?" How's the catch? ”

"Governor Dadu, the location of the warehouse has been found, but it has not been opened yet," Ma Youshui approached Li Zicheng and whispered: "According to the chief steward, there are 200,000 stone of grain in the warehouse, and 100,000 taels of silver. ”

"So much?" Li Zicheng was also taken aback, although Zhu Zhihong is the prince of Su, but Lanzhou is only a state city after all, and there is still a large distance from the wealthy mansion, and Longyou was once a place where thieves were rampant, even if there is grain and silver, it is not easy to save it, "Does the prince know?" ”

"This is the chief butler's private confession, and even the prince never knows."

"Don't tell the prince just yet." Li Zicheng said in his heart, if the prince knew that his family had been turned upside down, and then let him cooperate with the Heavenly Mandate Army, I am afraid it would be difficult.

"Yes, the subordinates understand," Ma Youshui arched his hand, "The Grand Governor, in the palace, the chief butler also provided a dark room, which contained 50,000 taels of silver, and thousands of taels of daily expenses!" ”

Horses, no wonder thieves like to rob, this time to raid the palace, money and food are too easy, more efficient than glass, perfume and other luxuries, if you don't consider the possession of Longyou, Li Zicheng also wants to be a thief, but, for the long term, looting is "dry and fishing, burning forests and hunting", must not be.

Of course, the wealth of the palace is relatively special, and it is all obtained for nothing, Li Zicheng has no intention of letting it go at all, "Don't spread the information for the time being, especially the amount of money and grain, so as not to make the eyes of the small." ”

"Yes, Metropolitan Governor, subordinates understand" Ma Youshui whispered again: "Metropolitan Governor, do you want to take a look at all this money and grain?" ”

"Naturally, if the words of the great butler are not true, won't we rejoice in vain?" Li Zicheng raised his eyes and saw that the soldiers were all gathered in the middle of the mountainside, so he said: "Let the brothers withdraw, leaving only the chief housekeeper, the fewer people who know about this matter, the better." ”

"Yes, Grand Duke!" Ma Youshui immediately dispersed all the soldiers and guarded the periphery of the valley, leaving only the chief butler, and Li Zicheng only took He Mi and several personal soldiers who had followed him earlier, and a group of seven or eight people went up the mountain again.

Under the guidance of the chief butler, Li Zicheng finally came to the halfway up the mountain, checked left and right, but there was no trace, and he had some doubts in his heart: "Could it be that the big butler is playing with me?" If it's so bold, it's too long. ”

"The Governor of the Metropolis, Ma Qianhu, if someone pulls away the grass on the outside, the scattered stones will be exposed, and if you remove the stones, you can see the grain inside!" The chief butler pointed to the waist-deep grass with his hand, his eyes were a little reluctant, he shook his head and sighed, his lips trembled with something, and finally said: "Dadu Governor, Ma Qianhu, do you want to open it and take a look?" If you open it, it is difficult to restore it! ”

No matter how difficult it is, you have to open it up and take a look, what if you are fooled? Li Zicheng smiled faintly and said: "There is a big housekeeper Lao, my brothers, all of them have given the big housekeeper a hand, the grain is placed in the mountains, if it is a long time, it may be mildew, if you can't see it with your own eyes, I really don't worry!" ”

"The grain is on the sunny side of the mountainside, and the water release measure is used, so it will not mildew for at least ten years...... Since the Governor wanted to see it, the villain obeyed the Governor's orders. ”

The chief steward first asked the soldiers to carefully remove the grass on the surface, and the grass was mixed with rattan sticks hanging down, which was quite strong, and the soldiers did not cut the grass and rattan.

Li Zicheng found that these grasses were not directly covered on the mud and rocks below, but gave birth to many knotted roots, obviously for some time, and his heart became more and more confused.

The chief steward also commanded the soldiers to dig up the floating soil on the surface, and the stones originally seemed to grow halfway up the mountainside, but once the floating soil was gone, it was easy to be removed.

When the eighteen hundred-ten-pound boulders were removed, a hole was finally revealed inside, and the sunlight shone obliquely, and it was vaguely visible that there was something hidden in the cave.

The chief butler asked the soldiers to stop carrying the boulder, and said a few words to them, and the two soldiers carefully touched into the cave, and then laboriously carried out a bag of 100 catties, and the two soldiers outside the cave took it hand in hand and moved out of the cave.

Li Zicheng and Ma Youshui glanced at each other, and unconsciously walked towards the entrance of the cave, and they saw with their own eyes that the outside of the bag was wrapped in kraft paper and tightly wound with cotton thread.

Ma Youshui said: "Governor, open it up?" ”

"Naturally, it has come to this point," Li Zicheng said to his own soldier Nunu, "open it and see if the grain is mildewed!" At this point, he had already believed the words of the great butler, but he had made so much effort to get the grain out, how could he be willing if he didn't take a look?

"Yes, Grand Duke!" The soldier agreed, carefully picked up an angular stone, cut the cotton thread, and then opened the kraft paper, and the innermost layer of white cotton cloth was inside.

Li Zicheng squatted down, touched the cotton bag with his hand, and did not feel wet, nodded unconsciously, and motioned for his soldiers to continue.

The soldiers picked up the stones again, cut the cotton cloth, and the yellow wheat was suddenly revealed inside!

Li Zicheng grabbed a handful of wheat in his hand, put it in front of his eyes, and saw that there was no sign of mildew, rubbed it with both hands, and then unfolded it, the wheat did not change color, it was obviously dry.

At Li Zicheng's signal, the soldiers changed their angle and dragged out another bag of grain, but the result was the same as just now, and the wheat did not deteriorate.

The chief butler leaned over and arched his hand: "Don't worry, the bottom layer of the grain is lined with logs, and it does not come into contact with the ground, and there are gaps on all sides, and within ten years, it will definitely not be mildew." ”

"I see!" Li Zicheng had a smile on his face and said, "How long has this batch of grain been stored?" ”

"Back to Dadudu, the grain is divided into two batches of 100,000 stone each, and half of it will be replaced every five years, and half of the grain will be replaced next year!"

Li Zicheng stood up and looked around at this unknown valley, the cave where the grain was stored was located halfway up the mountain, and there was a height difference of at least fifty steps from the bottom of the valley, even if it was the rainy season, the water in the valley would not affect the grain in the cave.

The cave faces south, belongs to the sunny side, there is no spring water flow left on the mountain, there is obviously not much spring water on this side, the moisture has little impact on the grain, coupled with the waterproof measures outside the cotton bag, no wonder the grain can be kept for ten years!

For the sake of food, the palace has taken great pains, I don't know what it is like to store so much food, is there so much population in the palace? 200,000 stone of grain, enough for 40,000 or 50,000 strong men to eat for a year.

With this food, the Heavenly Mandate Army no longer has to worry about the food problem, knowing that the palace has so much food, and there is no need to bother to transport a large amount of grain from Xining, it seems that Xining has to be notified that there is no need to transport grain for the time being.

Li Zicheng suddenly thought of a question, "Great steward, since the grain will be replaced by half next year, then the palace must have enough grain of 100,000 stones, what about these grains, why haven't you seen them in the palace?" Is it stored elsewhere? ”

"The governor of the capital doesn't know," the chief butler hesitated a little, but finally let it go, "The palace doesn't need to prepare 100,000 stone grain, and when it needs to replace the grain, it will greet the county government in advance, and replace the tax grain to be paid by the county government, and we will use the 100,000 stone grain to go up." ”

"This ......" Li Zicheng was speechless for a moment, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty took good care of the clans that were divided into feuds, not only kicked to grain, silver, fertile land, silk cloth, etc., they were in their own fiefdoms, they could also encroach on the people's fertile land, and even bully men and women, the court clearly did not allow the palace to do business, and the people competed for profits, but they were hidden behind the scenes, using various means to seek personal interests.

In a word, as long as the clan that is sealed outside does not participate in the rebellion, all the other charges will not be established.

But what they give back to the court and the country is to exchange the stored grain for new grain!

Li Zicheng sneered, seeing that the big butler was frightened, he hurriedly waved his hand at him, saying that this matter had nothing to do with him, he was just an executor, however, the palace exchanged grain for new grain, such a large number, it is impossible for Lanzhou Zhizhou not to know, even if the people below fool him, such a large number, there is still a lot of transportation manpower...... It seems that this retained Zhizhou should not be too trusted.

Taking advantage of the fact that the sky was not dark, Li Zicheng asked his soldiers to seal the entrance to the cave where the grain was stored, covered it with firewood and grass, and tried to restore it to its original state, before he said to the chief butler: "What about the hidden silver, is it also in this cave?" ”

The chief butler pointed to the opposite side with his hand and said, "It's in this valley, but the silver is hidden on the opposite mountain, and it's getting late now, do you still want to see it?" ”

It's late, just right to move back to Lanzhou City, the silver is not as heavy as the grain, 100,000 taels is less than 10,000 catties, and since the silver is hidden in the mountains, it must be packed in the whole box, and it will not be too troublesome to move.

Li Zicheng pointed to the opposite mountainside, "Let's go, go over and have a look!" ”

The big housekeeper had no choice but to lead the way in front, leading Li Zicheng and the others over the valley to the opposite mountain, and stopped halfway up the mountain, looked around for a moment, and stopped in front of an old tree with a thick hug, "Governor, the silver is here!" ”

Li Zicheng nodded, asked the soldiers to pick up the mud and stones, first took out the two cages, opened them, and sure enough, they were all silver, although the light was not very bright, but no one would be wrong about the silver with white flowers.

Fifty taels of ingots, each layer has twenty ingots, each box has five layers, a total of one hundred ingots, that is, five thousand taels.

Li Zicheng asked his soldiers to summon the soldiers outside the valley, and the two of them carried them to the palace in Lanzhou City.

Except for the personal soldiers who have been following Li Zicheng, the soldiers outside don't know that the cage is full of silver, but some sensitive soldiers should be able to guess that the cage is so heavy, it should be jewelry and other utensils.

It was busy until the end of the unitary period, and all the 100,000 taels of silver were transported back to the palace, and Li Zicheng could finally sleep well.