The time has come to December, and the New Year is getting closer and closer, and there is still a month to go, which is also the busiest time for the people of Yongjing, every household is purchasing New Year's goods, and large and small households are equally immersed in the joy of the upcoming New Year, and there are not many people who care about the government, even the empress dowager Shen's ban is obviously loose, the most typical thing is that there are many fewer embroidered clothes and guards on the street, and they can no longer see their cold figures in teahouses and restaurants.

Approaching the New Year, the business of Pingkangfang Chufeng Tea House is particularly hot, most of the guests of Chufeng Tea House are large families, and there is an endless stream of carriages to buy tea orders every day.

Yu Yongqing has been just as busy these days, the civil strife in the Yongjing court has greatly increased his intelligence, and in the afternoon, Yu Yongqing rushed back from outside, and he had something urgent to discuss with Mr. Tan.

Mr. Tan is a staff member just sent by Huangfu Wujin, he is Yu Yongqing's military advisor, his full name is Tan Ju, and he is also the intelligence head of Huangfu of Qi in Chuzhou, after Qizhou was captured, he knew that the king of Qi was gone, so he defected to Huangfu Wujin.

Huangfu Wujin made the best use of the people and sent him to assist Yu Yongqing and increase his intelligence analysis ability, Tan Ju has been in Yongjing for a month, and has done a lot of meticulous things, which has greatly improved the effectiveness of Yongjing's intelligence agency.

Upstairs in a warehouse behind the tea house, Tan Ju was busy sorting out information, when he was attracted by a piece of information sent from Hanzhong, and they set up an intelligence point in Hanzhong with two intelligence officers.

According to this information, in the past, the grain convoy from Shuzhou to Yongjing could be seen every day, but now a small convoy is only seen once in four or five days on average, and the number has been significantly reduced.

This information aroused Tan Ju's great attention, because Guanzhong, Guannai and Jinzhou have a total of 400,000 troops, and the population is large, and the grain output close to Jinzhou is absolutely unable to feed 400,000 troops, almost half of the military food is from Shuzhou, if Shuzhou's grain is cut off, then it will pose a serious threat to the army of Yongjing and Guannai.

This is definitely an extremely important piece of information, but I don't know how big its impact will be, Tan Ju pondered for a moment, and immediately decided to visit Bai Mingkai and ask about the specific situation.

At this moment, Yu Yongqing walked in quickly, "Sir, I have important information!" ”

"General Yu came just in time, and I also found an important piece of information here, which is very strange."

The two sat down, and Yu Yongqing said first: "I just got the news that Zhou Qilun, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, was sent to Yan'an County to inspect the imperial examination, and the scholar Xu Yun was appointed as the assassin of Ziyang, both of whom were the little emperor's most trusted henchmen, and the two of them were actually transferred away at the same time." ”

Tan Ju nodded, "This is obvious, the contradiction between the Queen Mother and the Little Emperor has also begun to appear, this is just a warning, I estimate that the Queen Mother will still make moves, and the Little Emperor will not give up, hum!" There is also an uncle Shen Guo eyeing him from the sidelines, and the power struggle in Yongjing is already intensifying. ”

Tan Ju handed him the information in his hand again, "You take a look at this information again, I believe you are also interested." ”

Yu Yongqing took the note and looked at it, he was stunned for a moment, "Shuzhou has cut off grain, what about the Yongzhou army?" ”

Tan Ju smiled slightly, "If I guessed correctly, the food shortage in Shuzhou is related to the entry of Uncle Shen's army into Shu, and the timing is very cooperative." ”

"Could it be that the military rations were intercepted by Uncle Shen's army?" Yu Yongqing wondered.

"General Yu, things are not so simple, the Guanzhong area has always been less land and more people, and a large amount of grain needs to be transferred from outside, and now it has to feed 400,000 troops, and the grain of Longyou no longer belongs to them, only Shuzhou is left, and the grain transferred from Shuzhou accounts for half of their consumption, which is obviously that Uncle Shen is using grain as a weapon to put pressure on the queen mother and force her to delegate power, coupled with the influence of the little emperor, the power struggle in Yongjing will intensify."

"What does Mr. Tan mean, how should we deal with it?"

Tan Ju smiled and said: "In this way, the two of us will act separately, I will find Bai Mingkai, and then inquire about the news, you go to inquire about the grain inventory situation in Yongjing, and strive to send the information out at night." ”

The two of them deliberated for a moment, and then went their separate ways.

．．．．．．．． The official grain storage of the Yongjing Dynasty generally has three places, a Taicang, which is the granary of the central court, and it is also the largest granary, followed by the local official warehouse, although each official warehouse is not large, but the number gathered together is considerable, and the third is Changping, which is mainly the official granary used to calm the market grain price, the number is not large, there was a righteous warehouse before, but it has been abolished more than a hundred years ago.

Whether it is Taicang, local government warehouses or Changping warehouses, the decision-making power of grain is in the hands of the household department, but the specific management of these warehouses has nothing to do with the household department.

The local granary is under the management of the local government, and the Taicang and Changping are under the management of the Taifu Temple, from the highest from the Sanpin Taifu Temple to the lowest from the ninth Taicang Department Deputy Cheng, all of which have the same grasp of the real situation of the grain.

It was impossible for Yu Yongqing to go to Taifu Siqing to understand the situation, but he found the deputy of the Taicang Department from Jiupin with the lowest official position.

Opposite Pingkangfang is Xuanyang Fang, in a remote alley in the northeast corner of Xuanyangfang, there are five or six families, the innermost of which is the home of Duan Mingyi, Duan Mingyi, who is in his early Chinese New Year's Eve, a native of Yongjing, born in the Ming Jing Branch, and has no background at home, because he is not plated with the gold of the Jinshi Branch, it is difficult for him to come out, he was admitted to the Ming Jing Department at the age of twenty, and has been working as a clerk in Wannian County, at the age of twenty-three, by chance, he was promoted to become the deputy of the Taicang Department from the ninth product, that is, the deputy of the Taicang Department, This is the lowest-ranking official of the Daning Dynasty, and he has been working for seven years, and there is no chance of promotion, and the whole family of seven people is crowded in this ancestral mansion that is three points large.

The reason why Yu Yongqing knew him was because Duan Mingyi's father had his 50th birthday half a year ago, and Duan Mingyi came to the tea house to buy tea once, and there were customer records in the tea house and delivered it to him.

Yu Yongqing took one of his men to this remote alley and found Duan Mingyi's home, which was already dusk and he should be at home.

Yu Yongqing knocked on the door, "Who?" A woman's voice came from the courtyard.

"I'm a friend of Duan Mingyi, and I'm here to visit him."

After a while, the door opened, and a young woman in a cloth skirt looked at Yu Yongqing, hesitated and asked, "Are you my husband's friend?" ”

She is Duan Mingyi's wife, generally speaking, the housewife's clothes are the façade of a family, and she wears a cloth skirt, and the hairpin on her head is also made of red copper, which shows that Duan Mingyi's family is not well-off, and even poor.

Yu Yongqing smiled slightly, "I'm your husband's friend, my surname is Yu, I came to visit him, is he there?" ”

Duan Mingyi's wife saw Yu Yongqing carrying a basket in his hand, which contained large bags of things, as if there were also good tea leaves from Chufeng Tea House, she had seen it, but their family couldn't afford it, she liked such guests, although she hadn't seen them, but she still warmly invited them into the courtyard, "He's here, please come in!" ”

Yu Yongqing walked into the yard and saw at a glance that there were seven or eight bags of rice piled up in the snow in the yard, each bag of rice weighed a hundred catties, and the bag also had the mark of Tang Ji Rice Xing.

Yu Yongqing's mind turned, he understood a little, he followed Mrs. Duan to the guest hall to sit down, and handed her the big basket in his hand, "This is a little heart, please Mrs. smile." ”

"How is this.... You just come and bring your things, what's so embarrassing? ”

"Yes, it's going to be the New Year, it's just a little heart, madam, please accept it!"

Politeness is needed, of course, the gift must be accepted, people are sophisticated, how can there be a guest to go out with things again, Duan Mingyi's family is also very rare, very few people come to give gifts, Mrs. Duan is very happy, she hurriedly took the big basket, only to feel a sinking in her hand, the basket almost fell to the ground, she was secretly surprised in her heart, what could this be, it's going to be the New Year, it won't be bacon and rice cakes and the like!

"Qianniang, who is it!"

At this time, a sweaty young man walked into the house, he was Duan Mingyi, deputy of the Taicang Administration, he knew that the price of food was going to rise, so he asked his relatives to borrow a little money, bought ten bags of rice and came back to hoard to prevent the price from rising, he had no business acumen, but he did not know that this news could make him rich.

Duan Mingyi saw Yu Yongqing, he was stunned for a moment, he didn't know this person, "You are ....."

"Brother Duan, have you forgotten? My surname is Yu, and I was here at the beginning of the year when Lingzun was 50th birthday. ”

"Surname Yu?" Duan Mingyi still couldn't remember, his wife next to him was not happy, people specially sent things for the New Year, and they were so snub to the guests.

"Husband!" She complained in a low voice and pushed him again, Duan Mingyi came to his senses, he scratched his head and said with a dry smile: "Look at my nerd surname, Brother Yu, please take a seat, this brother also asks." ”

He hurriedly greeted, and Mrs. Duan also smiled and said, "I'll pour you tea!" ”

She carried the basket to the next door.

The two sat down, Yu Yongqing said with a smile: "I am in the grain business, often run between Chengdu and Yongjing, now the price of rice in Chengdu has risen to 80 Wen 1 bucket, and Yongjing is still 60 Wen 1 bucket, I think it's a little strange, it stands to reason, Yongjing rice price should be more expensive, why is it cheaper than Chengdu?" In addition, I heard that Taicang processes a batch of aged rice every year, I wonder if there is a chance this year?"

Duan Mingyi realized that the other party was a rice merchant, and he came here to set the news, and he didn't want to reveal the news that the price of rice was going to skyrocket, so he had to laugh dryly and said: "Selling old rice was last year, and now the military food consumption is too great, and the food is tight, and there is no old rice to sell, I'm really sorry." ”

"It's okay! It's okay! I'm just asking, and if not, forget it. ”

Yu Yongqing said in a low voice: "Now the road is very tight, and the grain in Shuzhou is no longer allowed to be transported to Jingshi, why is this?" Does Duan Zhicheng know? ”

"This.... I really don't know. ”

Duan Mingyi scratched his head, "It's really strange, in the past, Shuzhou grain was sent every day, but now it hasn't been shipped for ten days, and I don't know why." ”

At this time, his wife whispered at the door: "Husband, come here!" ”

(To be continued)