"Someone is coming, the heirloom Cao Jushu will come to see Gu immediately!" After the initial anger, Li Qi quickly calmed down, and said in a deep voice to the main hall on the side, he decided to find out what was going on.

The main hall raised Shang Gong to know that it was very important, so he didn't dare to slack off, and bowed to Li Qi and left quickly.

Seeing this situation, Li Yao and Huang Xi secretly glanced at each other, and the corners of their mouths revealed a hint of schadenfreude, Hu Cao's judgment is the person who leads the political Li Ji, and this time he is the person in charge of buying military rations for Daming, it seems that this time it is difficult to escape, and the military rations case will definitely have a heavy blow to Li Ji's family.

At the same time, the leader of the government Li Ji's house.

"Leader save me!" In the living room, Cui Shikang, the secretary of Hucao, knelt in front of Li Ji, said with a frightened expression, and put a box in his hand on the ground, which was filled with precious gold and silver jewelry.

As soon as Chen Ming had an accident in the Seoul workshop, Cui Shikang got the news, which made Cui Shikang immediately feel that a catastrophe was coming, and he hurriedly brought a gift to meet Li Ji.

"Cui Jushu, what's wrong?" Li Ji didn't know about the Seoul Sect now, and looked at Cui Shikang who was kneeling there in surprise.

Cui Shikang hurriedly told Chen Ming about being imprisoned by Li Yuntian because of military rations, and then touched the ground with his head and begged bitterly, "Please save me!" ”

"Say, how did those rations come from?" Li Ji couldn't help but be taken aback when he heard this, he never expected such a bizarre thing to happen, and couldn't help but ask.

"Leader, those military rations were indeed bought by the subordinate officials from various local counties and counties." Cui Shikang's face showed an embarrassed look, and he said curtly, "As for whether the food they gave to the lower officials was bought from the people's families or requisitioned, the lower officials don't know. ”

"I don't know?" Li Ji's brows suddenly frowned, he already understood what was going on at this time, it seemed that those local officials saw the money, and greedily bought grain, and then forcibly requisitioned grain from the people under the guise of raising military rations for the Ming Dynasty, and as a result, the Songdu businessman was cornered, so he asked Li Yuntian to come to complain.

"Prime minister, two days ago, the lower official sent someone to send five thousand taels of silver to the envoy Lord Zhao and Lord Liu, but Lord Liu didn't accept it, is it because he thinks the money is too small, and deliberately made such a scene to ask for money?" Cui Shikang hesitated for a moment and asked tentatively.

Since Li Yuntian checked the accounts of buying and selling military rations last time, Cui Shikang tried to raise 10,000 taels of silver to send to Li Yuntian and Zhao De.

"Stupid, do you think Lord Liu will imprison Lord Chen for money?"

Li Ji's face sank, and he couldn't help but reprimand Cui Shikang, didn't Cui Shikang realize that Li Yuntian didn't come for the money to buy grain, but for the local officials of the Korean State to raise grain and grass for the Ming army, and he was very annoyed by the fact that he was collecting grain from the people in the people, otherwise he would not have suddenly made trouble.

"Prime Minister, what is the intention of Lord Liu's move, isn't he afraid that he will be punished by the Emperor Ming after returning to Beijing?" Cui Shikang smiled stupidly, and then asked suspiciously, after all, Li Yuntian and Chen Ming are both deputy envoys, Li Yuntian not only imprisoned Chen Ming but also made people pour cold water on Chen Ming in public, his behavior can be called crazy.

"Sure enough, he is worthy of being a noble son of the Ming Dynasty, and he acts rampantly!" Li Ji's brows furrowed tightly, and he became more and more convinced in his heart that Li Yuntian was a noble son, otherwise how could he dare to treat Chen Ming like this?

"Leader, what should I do if I am small, please give me advice." Cui Shikang reached out and wiped the cold sweat on his forehead, and asked cautiously.

"Abandon the car and protect the handsome!" Li Ji groaned for a moment when he heard this, looked at Cui Shikang with an indifferent expression and said, "You can't have an accident, let the judge take this matter down and sue him, Benxiang will take care of his family." ”

The judge of the Korean state Hu Cao is equivalent to the squire of the Ming household department, and he is the second-in-command of Hu Cao, from the official position of the second grade.

Obviously, Cui Shikang's role in the council hall is far greater than that of Hu Cao's judge, and if something happens to him, the two classes of nobles of Huang Xi's faction will definitely take the opportunity to win the post of Hu Cao's judge, which is a heavy blow to Li Ji's faction.

"Xiaguan will talk to him about it." Cui Shikang breathed a sigh of relief when he heard this, he didn't dare to slack off, bowed to Li Ji, and hurriedly got up and left quickly, preparing to let Hu Cao be sentenced to shoulder the responsibility for the military rations.

After Cui Shikang left, Li Ji paced back and forth in the room a few times, and then changed into court clothes and rushed to Gyeongbokgung Palace with an expressionless face, and went to meet the king of Joseon to discuss how to deal with this sudden military ration incident.

Taipingguan, a house in the backyard.

Li Yuntian was leisurely peeling peanut shells there, slowly throwing peanut kernels into his mouth, after tonight's incident in the Seoul Workshop, the officialdom in Seoul will definitely be in chaos, I don't know how many people will be panicked and unable to sleep.

"Xianggong, Li Ji has already entered the palace." The door opened, Lei Ting walked in with a smile, not only Li Ji, but also the left and right counselors of the council and the left and right counselors, as well as the judgment of the six Cao, all rushed to the Kangning Hall of Gyeongbokgung Palace to discuss the matter.

"It's just right now, let's wait to see a good show." Li Yuntian smiled when he heard this, and threw the peeled peanut kernels into his mouth, he just took advantage of this matter to see how capable the King of Joseon and Li Ji and the others were, and what kind of way they would take to deal with this emergency.

Not long after, just as Li Yuntian and Lei Ting were eating peanuts and discussing how to challenge the king of Joseon about military rations tomorrow, Wei Yi walked in breathlessly.

"Hou ...... Hou Ye, Xiao ...... The little one is guilty, please be gracious and spare the little one's life, and the little one is willing to hand over the 30,000 taels of silver that Director Chen gave to the little one. After Wei Yi entered the door, he knelt in front of Li Yuntian with a plop, kowtowing and begging for mercy.

Wei Yi was drinking at his cousin's house in the city when he heard about the Seoul Jiaofang, his cousin was originally a farmer in the countryside, but now he was stained with his light, not only bought a big mansion and some slaves in Seoul, but also obtained an official position, became a two-class official eunuch, and lived a life of fine clothes and food.

Knowing that Chen Ming was locked up by Li Yuntian because of the military rations, Wei Yi was so frightened that his face turned green, but he accepted the benefits of Chen Ming's 30,000 taels of silver, so he was so frightened that he crawled to the ground to ask Li Yuntian for his guilt.

"Knowing that mistakes can be corrected, and good is great." Li Yuntian smiled slightly when he heard this, and said to Wei Yi, "Get up, Benhou has something for you to do." ”

"Master Hou, please speak." Wei Yi couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief when he saw that Li Yuntian didn't look like he wanted to blame him, wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, and then bowed down and stood there, anxiously waiting for Li Yuntian's instructions.

"Don't return the 30,000 taels of silver, after all, you will have a lot of expenses after you return to Beijing. You go to see Chen Ming, ask him to spit out all the money that is greedy for ink, and then insist on handing over all the money for the purchase of military rations to Hu Cao, so that Ben Hou can save his life. ”

Li Yuntian pondered for a moment, and instructed Wei Yi with a stern expression, "Ben Hou heard that you have a cousin who entered the robbery hall and gave him all the money that Chen Ming spit out. ”

"The little one understands." Wei Yi was slightly stunned when he heard this, but he didn't expect Li Yuntian to understand that he would have to work up and down in the palace after returning to Beijing, and then he was suddenly overjoyed in his heart, and hurriedly bowed to Li Yuntian and said, looking excited to go to Chen Ming, he knew the meaning of what Li Yuntian said before, and wanted to let his cousin buy people's hearts in the robbery hall.

The Arrest and Robbery Department is an agency responsible for the security of the Seoul government and the surrounding areas, and is subordinate to the criminal Cao, which is an important military force in Seoul and has great authority.

Speaking of which, Wei Yi's cousin was able to get an errand from the Arrest and Theft Hall because of Li Yuntian's blessing, if it wasn't for Li Yuntian's previous let Wei Yi fight for his relatives, he would not have been able to get this position anyway.

Wei Yi went to the room where Chen Ming was imprisoned and left soon after, and Chen Ming immediately confessed to the guards who were guarding him that he had been derelict in his duty and had not properly supervised the flow of funds for the purchase of military rations, so that there was a serious negligence in the purchase of grain by the local officials of the Joseon State.

At the same time, Wei Yi summoned the members of the mission and told them the Yan zhòng of the military rations case in a loud voice, causing those people to obediently spit out the silver they had taken from it.

Coupled with Chen Ming's greedy silver, Wei Yi recovered a total of 50,000 taels from the mission, which means that the 350,000 taels of grain purchase money had not been given to the Korean state Hu Cao, and 80,000 taels of silver were withheld, and only 270,000 taels entered Hu Cao's treasury.

Judging from the report of Park Yongji, a Songdu businessman, the 270,000 taels of silver in the Hucho treasury were withheld by the officials of the Joseon State at various levels, so that they had no money to buy grain and had to forcibly collect grain from the people.

At the same time that Wei Yi was collecting the money for military rations from the mission personnel in the Taiping Pavilion, the soldiers of the Yiban Mansion under the direct jurisdiction of the Korean king poured out of the nest and arrested Hu Cao overnight and the officials involved in the Ming military grain procurement case went to the Yiban Mansion for interrogation, which made the chickens and dogs in Seoul jump and panic, and the people secretly hid at the door and looked out, not knowing what was happening.

Not only that, the forbidden army in Seoul went to the Gyeonggi Province overnight to arrest the magistrates who forcibly requisitioned grain, and the central government, which was in charge of the royal order and military affairs, had issued military orders to the Metropolitan Protectorates of Gangwon-do, Chungcheong-do, and Hwanghae-do, which had raised grain and grass for the Ming army, to take all the magistrates who had posted announcements to collect grain back to Seoul to punish them.

The four provinces of Gyeonggi-do, Gangwon-do, Chungcheong-do, and Hwanghae-do were mainly responsible for providing military rations to the Ming Dynasty, and these four places were distributed around Seoul, which was not only convenient for transporting grain, but also the grain production area of the Korean state.

In fact, not all local officials dared to brazenly change the purchase of grain to requisition of grain; in addition to requisitioning grain in the name of raising military rations for the Ming Dynasty, some localities vigorously lowered grain prices to earn the difference, and only a few local officials were quite kind and gave a relatively fair price when buying grain.

Li Yuntian smiled slightly after learning that the Yi Ban Mansion had arrested Hu Cao's officials overnight, it seems that the king of Joseon has made the most correct choice, rather than letting himself try the case, it is better for him to find out the facts of the case first, so as to avoid too much interference in the affairs of the DPRK State, and at the same time have a positive attitude to deal with it, it is really killing two birds with one stone.