It is said that in this era, the income from embezzling grain stored in the official warehouse can be called huge, grain and silver are equal materials, the word money and grain are familiar to three-year-old children, and tens of thousands of stones are sold for tens of thousands of taels.

However, stealing the official warehouse is much more risky than embezzling grain, and there is no flexible amount of loss that can fool people. If the number of official warehouses is small, it is not worth it, and it is easy to be found out that there is a deficit in the warehouse. All kinds of wind magistrates don't eat dry food, the magic is one foot high, the road is one foot high, what is mixed with stones, what is the outside of the warehouse wall and the inside is hollow, and other tricks are not very effective after people have precautions. That's why Li You suspects that the gang of people in the government will not be stupid enough to collectively embezzle the grain in the warehouse, waiting to be easily discovered and then kill the head and fill the army to raid the house?

It's a sigh that it's one foot higher, and the devil will try his best to be two feet taller, and there are contradictions to develop. After the prefect Mao took office, he made a big show and carried out a political achievement project, and built a huge granary in the convenient place for water transportation, which was named Gusu Warehouse. Later, Fucang, the two county warehouses attached to Guo County, and Jinongcang were all merged into Gusu Cangli. In this way, there was still a surplus of space, so it was rented to a large merchant in the city who was engaged in the rice and grain business to store grain.

The prefect has built this Gusu warehouse for centralized grain storage, and there are still many benefits, such as saving land, reducing redundant officials, generating revenue and silver, and strengthening the ability to regulate and control the grain market, so it can be called a political achievement project.

But there is no hole in the Gusu warehouse, if there is a royal history or the like to check the account book of the house, and enter the Gusu warehouse for auditing, it must be that the number is enough and the seal is intact; If other people take the county warehouse account books of Wu County and Changzhou County to check and enter the Gusu warehouse for auditing, the number is definitely enough, and there are definitely seals; Check the account book of Jinongcang, and the results are no exception. What's more, the grain taxes in the two counties have to be continuously raised to the Beijing division, and the rice and grain in the warehouses often flow in and out, so it is understandable that there are some "errors".

Speaking of which, is there really no problem in Gusu Cangli? The mystery lies in the fact that if a well-fed person enters the Gusu warehouse with a bunch of ledgers from Suzhou Fucang, Wuxian Cang, Changzhou County Cang, Jinong Cang, and grain storage merchants at the same time, he will find that the grain stored in the warehouse is much less than the total number of accounts of several different yamen combined...... However, after so many years, I have really never met a person who is well fed, and the rules of officialdom do not encourage such a practice of eating enough to support the boundary, maybe it may be that the person who has the ability to eat and support is really full.

Wang Lao Tongzhi probably talked about the matter of Gusu Cang, and asked Governor Li to suddenly open up his knowledge. He couldn't help but sigh with emotion, Mao Zhifu is really a talent, and this method has a bit of the flavor of the virtual economy in the 21st century... Whether it's really valuable or not, as long as you can show it to make others feel valuable.

And Li You suddenly understood why, under the recent soaring price of rice, the Mao Governor's Mansion could not survive the rice to calm the turmoil.

Now the market is just expensive rice, and some poor people can't afford it, and if it doesn't make a good deal next spring, there will be no rice left. There are hundreds of thousands of people in the capital city who are known as the first metropolis in the world outside the two capitals, and if there is a riot because of the lack of food, everything will be over for the Mao prefect. With the strict law of this dynasty that is extremely sensitive to provoking civil unrest, if the corruption of grain storage cannot be relieved and provokes a civil uprising, you can thank God for not being beheaded all over the house. So even if there is still some rice in the warehouse, the Mao Governor's Mansion will have to hold on until next year's spring famine for disaster relief, how can it be sent out now.

Having said that, in fact, this Mao prefect is very unlucky, and the luck is very back. In the past few years, the year in the Jiangnan region was good, and the rice and grain in the warehouse were about to overflow, so after the Mao prefect took office, he felt that this was a great opportunity. He colluded with the people in the government to swallow tens of thousands of Shicang rice, and at the same time, he also had to take advantage of the opportunity to dispose of the old rice every year, and do something imperceptible in the accounts, so that after a few years, he could digest the greedy rice and grain from the books, and then he would just step down and leave.

The rice left in the warehouse can barely cope with the famine year, so the idea of Mao Zhifu is very viable, and if everything goes well, maybe he will really hide it from him. However, Suzhou Mansion, which had a bumper harvest for several years, had a flood last year, and the Mao Prefecture took great pains to move and move and provide disaster relief, so it was easy to maintain the situation. This year, God continued to be unable to get along with Mao's prefect, and there was a drought again... In the summer, Governor Mao angrily smashed the Buddha statues, Guanyin statues, Guan Gong statues, and Dongyue Emperor statues at home. The bubble economy is facing the crisis of bursting, and the prefect of Mao, who does not want to be exposed, desperately finances to buy rice, so a few months ago he inexplicably asked the counties for silver, but it was a little late, not only the silver was far from enough, but the more this rice was bought, the more expensive it became.

To say that the luck of the prefect of Mao is indeed really bad, it also needs to be mentioned that in recent years, a large area of fertile land in the south of the Yangtze River has been changed from rice to mulberry trees for the profit of the silk weaving industry, and this year it has just reached a critical point of change. As a result, although it is now the time for the autumn grain to go on the market, the price of rice can also rise abnormally, which can be called an even worse situation for Mao Zhifu. If you want to calm the crisis, where did the prefect of Mao get so much grain that should have been stored in theory, and the virtual rice on the ledger can't be eaten.

The difference in the luck of Prefect Mao is that there is a deputy who seems to be pretending to be stupid and harmless and is looking at him in the shadows... After figuring out the cause and effect, Li You sighed: "The way of heaven is always changing, and the number of fortunes is hard to find. ”

Wang Tong knew that he had relatives in his heart, "You can still live if you do evil in heaven, but you can't live if you do evil in yourself." ”

The two of them sympathized with this lord of the mansion, and his luck caught up with the former emperor who died in the coal mountain, and all kinds of bad luck happened. But sympathy is sympathy, and it is still necessary to play when it is time to do it. Both of them can see that it is a good time, after all, the situation has developed to this point, it is definitely the most difficult time to hide, and it is not impossible to wait until next spring, but don't dream too much at night.

But after all, it is a dignified official who can wear a crimson official robe, and it is better to let the other party come out.

Li You's face suddenly turned straight, and he bowed and said: "Lord Wang is really the mainstay, and the dry city of my county is also. At present, the evil is in charge, and the boss should ascend and shout to clarify the house! The lower officials are not talented, and they are willing to attach to the tail! ”

Wang Tongzhi also praised Li You with admiration on his face: "The old man is already old and incompetent, but Master Li is young and talented, and he should work hard to calm the beetle." For the sake of the country's annihilation, you can be the one to do it, who will you be! The old man is willing to help you! ”

The young subordinate is very modest, "The old man is old and virtuous, the leader of the righteous path, how can the kid dare to go ahead!" ”

It's a pity that Bole-style Shangguan must be promoted backward, "The old man has more than enough heart but not enough strength, and he has been sinking and turbid for many years, and it is a great luck to be able to clear himself." As the saying goes, reorganize the mountains and rivers for future generations, and when you see Lord Li, you feel that there are people in the house who are righteous and have follow-up! ”

Governor Li was so moved that he almost cried: "The boy dares to be praised by the boss!" The last newcomer, lucky as an official, is already a frightened life, looking at the old man like a mountain. Now the people in the city are struggling to make a living, and their grievances are boiling, and the boss can't bear to abandon my mansion and live in disregard? ”

Wang Tongzhi said helplessly, this Xiao Li is still so difficult, he can't hold him with words that go around and around, and he can't continue to go around, if he can't say it well, he has to wrap himself in, and he has to force the old man to make a killer move. "That's it for the old man's life, and he spends the rest of his life eating and drinking. As for what happened to Governor Mao's mansion, the old man was not interested, so Master Li left it to himself. ”

Old man Wang put on a posture of being rigid without desire, and immediately pressed down Li You's death hole. Wang Lao Tongzhi is sixty years old, and he may not live for a few days, but he has already boiled into the fifth grade anyway, so it doesn't matter if he doesn't toss and keep the status quo.

But Governor Li is still young, how can he spend a good time drinking tea and playing chess with the old man every day? Today's Li You doesn't have the indifferent mentality of staying up for ten or eight years and waiting for his future, look at the present, before he loses power for a few days, someone in his hometown wants to copy his industry! is still the same sentence, the husband can't be said to be without power!

Li You smiled bitterly and said: "Why should the boss be embarrassed to be a subordinate official, what is the ability of the ninth rank governor of the lower official." ”

"Mao Fuzun's situation is already in danger, like window paper, it is almost a stab, the time has come, you don't have to be presumptuous." Wang Tongzhi encouraged.

"In that case, why does the boss have to fake others, just report to Shangguan directly."

Wang Tongzhi replied: "It's easy to say, the old man has already done it." Who can the old man poke to? How does the old man know who is not a raccoon dog in the house? The slightest mistake will get into trouble. ”

Li You said angrily: "Then you still want the lower officials to wade into troubled waters?" Boss, you are still a high-ranking official of the fifth grade, and the size of the lower official is even more unbearable than you. ”

Wang Tongzhi pointed out: "Otherwise, the old man said that you went back to Xujiang County to find Jiang this time to inspect Jiang not as an opportunity, I heard that your old benefactor Chen Zhixian can directly go to the sky... This is much tougher than the old man. There is another reason, you have a good relationship with Zhao Daguanren, and Nafuzun is a student of Zhao Daguanren's grandfather after all, and you can turn around if there is a problem in the middle. ”

It turned out that the old man had this idea, Li You thought. Can you say that Chen Zhixian participated? He thought about it carefully in his heart and felt that it was really very possible. First, Chen Zhixian and Mao Zhifu have no personal relationship, so there is no need to scruple about friendship. Second, Chen Zhixian has a big background, and he is a top-ranked Qingliu Jinshi, so he is not afraid of retaliation at all. Third, Chen Zhixian is most enthusiastic about the thing is to raise hope for promotion, after this incident is leaked, a large number of people will inevitably be implicated, there will be a lot of vacant positions in Suzhou Mansion and even Jiangnan officialdom, and it is not a matter of taking the opportunity to be promoted to an official with the background of the Ministry of Officials.

This is also my chance, sir, maybe I can go up a liter, and I'll do it! Li You made up his mind fiercely.

The only thing that makes Li You hesitate is, what is the relationship between Zhao Daguan and Mao Zhifu? Do you want to explain this matter to Zhao Daguan?

said that he was afraid that the Zhao family would come forward in advance to settle the matter, and Li You would not be able to fish in troubled waters to reap the benefits, so he could only continue to be a passer-by in this mansion. There is no doubt that the Zhao family, which has three generations of four jinshi, must have this ability. If you don't say it, if Zhao Daguan has a grudge afterwards, then his loss is also very large, is it easy to befriend such an upper-class person? It's hard to repair the relationship.

(To be continued)