This is a granary set up by the ancient dynasty to regulate grain prices and store grain for shortages to supply government needs and people's food.

The main reason for the regular closing of the position was to appropriately raise the price of grain and make a large number of purchases when the market price of grain was low, so that not only the official warehouse, Taicang and Taifu Temple where the imperial court stored grain were full of grain, but also the border counties were also full of warehouses.

When the price of grain in the market is high, the price should be appropriately lowered and sold.

This measure not only prevented "grain cheapness hurting the peasants" but also prevented "grain and expensive grain from hurting the people," and played a positive role in calming down the grain market and consolidating the feudal political power.

Therefore, if you want to see whether Huaibei Da Hunger is real, you must first look at the regular closing and official positions.

The official position cannot be easily moved, but the position can be closed often.

Therefore, when Zuo Guangdou took the officials of the Metropolitan Procuratorate and the officials of the official section into the Chang Ping Position, the officials of the Metropolitan Procuratorate began to accept the Chang Ping Position.

The Changping position of Pizhou City is 420 steps long and 420 steps wide, with a total of 50 warehouses, the warehouses are eight steps wide and eight steps long, and each house places 2,700 stones of grain, and the maximum storage of grain is 135,000 stones.

However, under the search of the officials of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, only 34 grain houses in the grain storage silos that were often closed were full, and one was only 1,200 stones, that is, it fully met the standard of 93,000 stones in Liu Bian's mouth.

"Is there anything wrong with the food?" Zuo Guangdou frowned and asked, and the little official of the Metropolitan Procuratorate was not a stupid person, so he said directly:

"These grains have been moved, and the grain gas in the warehouse is not strong, obviously they have only been moved in the past few days."

"Then I see." Zuo Guangdou frowned slightly, such a thing was not enough as evidence.

Thinking of this, he was about to turn around and go to Yang Lian, and at the same time, Yang Lian also led people to picket the official warehouse.

Compared with Changping, the official warehouse is three times its size, and can hold nearly 400,000 stone of grain at most.

Yang Lian led people to inspect it, and after opening a barn, Yang Lian directly snatched the nail rake from the hands of the little official next to him, hooked the grain and pulled it down.

The "boom" grain fell, but there was no dust splashed, and Yang Lian snorted coldly.

Most of the grain dust-free people are stored grain that the gentry and merchants take to buy and sell, and most of the official grain is collected from the hands of the people, and the people have a lot of dust on the grain before the husks are eaten by the people.

If it is a normal official grain, there will inevitably be a lot of dust in such a hook, and if there is no such grain, it means that it is not official food.

"Lord Yang......"

At this time, Lu Xiu vaguely handed over the thick paper, and after Yang Lian saw this, he glanced at Lu Xiu's clothes on the brocade guard, and then frowned and opened the thick paper.

The events recorded above gave him a full understanding of what happened in Pizhou.

After knowing that the grain in the official warehouse and the Changping warehouse were all from the gentry and merchants, Yang Lian immediately gritted his teeth and formed an idea in his mind.

"You don't need to check, let's get out!"

As soon as Yang Lian spoke, all the officials withdrew from the official warehouse, and Yang Lian also saw Zuo Guangdou at the gate of the official warehouse.

"The grain is very new and is a ...... to be carried," Zuo Guangdou was the first to speak.

"Look at this." Yang Lian handed out the thick paper, and Zuo Guangdou also took it with doubts, and then after seeing the contents inside, he instantly put away the thick paper.

"Whatever is planned!" Yang Lian frowned and spoke directly, and then walked to Liu Bian with Zuo Guangdou, and said to Liu Bian:

"There is nothing wrong with the official warehouse and the regular closing position, may I ask how much money is left in the treasury of Huai'an Mansion."

"In the matter of returning to Yangdu, Huai'an Mansion still has 113,467 taels of silver and 8 cents and 6 cents." Liu Biankankan replied:

"Among them, the autumn tax is thirty-nine thousand three hundred and forty-five twenty-seven dollars and eight cents, and an additional fifty-three thousand six hundred and twenty-seven taels will be paid."

Demon Museum

"The remaining twenty-thousand, four hundred and ninety-four, twenty-eight and six cents are retained silver."

"Then how much is the autumn tax grain in the official warehouse?" Zuo Guangdou also understood Yang Lian's thoughts, and followed up with a question.

At this time, Liu Bian already felt that something was wrong, but he still thought that he could control the situation, so he replied:

"Of the grain in the official warehouse, 40,000 stone were kept, and 224,637 stone of grain was kept."

"Good!" Hearing this, Yang Lian suddenly spoke, and the uneasiness in Liu Bian's heart also rose.

"Take down the criminal Liu Bian for me!" Yang Lian snorted angrily, and in the next second, Lu Xiu took out the knife and put it on Liu Bian's shoulder, making him sweat coldly.

"Yang Du is in the middle of the matter! What did this official do?! ”

"You know what you have committed!" Facing Liu Bian's hard mouth, Zuo Guangdou snorted angrily, took out the thick paper from his arms, and pulled out the one that marked the map of the corpse.

He turned to Lu Wenzhao and said, "Please ask Lu Tongzhi to send someone to escort the officials of the Metropolitan Procuratorate and the Officials Department to these places on the map to check!" In addition, people were sent to take care of the official warehouse, the regular closing position, and the official treasury. ”

"Zuo Du Yushi, please rest assured......" Lu Wenzhao already knew everything, and seeing that the situation in front of him happened according to what he thought, he immediately prepared to send someone to escort the officials of the Metropolitan Procuratorate and the official department out of the city.

Liu Bian was caught off guard and was shackled, and a series of officials from Huai'an Prefecture were also imprisoned in Pizhou County.

However, when doing these things, Lu Wenzhao gave Yang Lian a preventive shot:

"Yang Du gave the matter, after doing this, have you ever thought about how to respond to the gentry in Huai'an Mansion?"

"Response?" Yang Lian snorted coldly and said, "There is a court behind the old man!" And long live! What needs to be done in response to them?! ”

Yang Lian's words made Lu Wenzhao admire him very much, but he also knew the impact of this matter once it spread.

Sure enough, as he expected, the news spread quickly, and all the gentry and merchants in Pizhou also knew about the official warehouse and Chang Ping, as well as the news that the silver treasury was guarded by Jinyiwei.

They didn't expect that Lu Wenzhao, who only brought 600 people with him on the surface, actually mobilized the Jinyi guards of the North Town Fu Division and the South Town Fu Division to arrive at Huai'an Mansion in advance.

At present, more than ten counties such as Huai'an Mansion and Xuzhou have been taken over by Jinyiwei, and there are more than 4,000 Jinyiwei participating in the eucalyptus......

All of them went to the mansion of the gentry known as Li Juren, and what they constituted was a huge interest group that occupied more than 50% of the land and more than 80% of the business in Huai'an, Xuzhou and other places.

Li Juren sat in the main seat, and in the main hall, there were twelve heads of each family on the left and right.

At this moment, their faces are showing anxiety and uneasiness, and the reason is not only that Liu Bian was arrested, but more importantly, their money and food.

At present, more than 3,276,000 stone of grain belonging to them are seized in the official warehouses and Changping warehouses in Pizhou, Shanyang, Qinghe, Andong, Taoyuan, Shuyang, Haizhou, Xuzhou and other places.

Not only that, but they also borrowed more than 300,000 taels of silver from the treasury of the Yamen.

I thought things were foolproof, but now it seems that things have changed.

More than 3 million stone of grain and more than 300,000 taels of silver......

When the limelight passes, this grain will be sold slowly in the future, and it can be sold for at least tens of millions of taels of silver......

Not to mention being detained like this now, looking at the posture of the imperial court, it is to use all the silver and food for disaster relief, or transport them all.

If the amount was smaller, they would admit it, but they had already spent hundreds of thousands of taels to help pacify the victims, and if the food was all taken away, they would have worked in vain.

"Li Juren, you speak, as long as you open your mouth, we will shoot!"

"Yes, all the net worth is pressed on these more than 3 million stone grain, and the 300,000 taels of silver, if the court takes it, it will be forgotten, but at the moment, the grain must not be transported away!"

Everyone was shouting, but they weren't to blame for shouting, because the food was so important to them.

Most of them have a family property of only 70,000 or 80,000 taels, and after hoarding it to buy grain, although they have earned a lot of silver, they have spent a lot of silver on dotting up and down.

But the opportunity to multiply his worth tenfold is right in front of him, who wants to let it go?

Li Juren listened to their words, but he also felt a little powerless.

At this time, a person suddenly spoke: "When Nan Zhili was in charge of the first time, those people in Nanzhili took hundreds of thousands of taels of silver, and now they are afraid when they see the imperial court sending people." ”

"If you want me to say, just learn from Suzhou and directly instigate the people!"

"That's right! That's right! Hearing this, Li Juren's eyes lit up, and after he responded, he said to everyone:

"Then Liu Bian asked us to dig out food and money to stabilize the situation, but he himself broke the basket."

"But since he gave disaster relief and gave those mud-legged people a way to live, I think those mud-legged people must be grateful to him."

"We don't need to do it now, as long as we send someone to change things, we can ask Yang Lian to release him!"

Hearing this, everyone else became curious, and Li Juren sneered:

"There are so many tenants under each family, as long as you do what I say, you will be able to get things done in no time......

Immediately afterwards, Li Juren began to tell everyone what he thought, and they also felt that their eyes were shining after hearing it.

After the matter was negotiated, they retired one after another, and then went to do things according to Li Juren's words.

So early the next morning, there were many rumors in Pizhou City.

These rumors naturally couldn't escape the ears and eyes of Jin Yiwei, and the content of the rumors was quickly sent to Lu Wenzhao.

Bang!

"What a fool!"

In the 100 households of Pizhou Jinyiwei, Lu Wenzhao slapped the table heavily, and what he was angry about was the content of the message.

In that message, Liu Bian and many Huai'an officials became parents for the good of the people.

At the beginning of the Huaibei famine, Liu Bian wanted to provide disaster relief, but because the official warehouse could not be opened, the number of regular closed positions was not large, and the grain price that had only stabilized for three days after entering the market was exhausted.

Hence the successive famines that followed for several months.

As for Shandong, Fengyang and other places did not accept refugees, it was because they had received them early, and the grain from the official warehouse needed to be transported to the capital, so they did not dare to move.

In such a situation, it took Liu Bian two months to sell all the land in his hometown in Sichuan and buy enough grain from Sichuan for disaster relief.

But there was too late, so six days ago, Liu Bian privately opened an official warehouse for disaster relief, wanting to wait for the grain bought in Sichuan to arrive, and then subsidize the grain himself.

But I didn't want Yang Lian and them to come yesterday, so they started to take people without saying a word, so Liu Bian was wronged......

This seemingly flawed lie is like a little story casually made up by a street storyteller for Lu Wenzhao and others, who have all the information.

But for those hungry people who have not seen Liu Bian, Yang Lian and others, let alone know the truth of the matter, they are closer to the truth they saw.

The grain and copper coins they had saved in the past six days were all sent by Liu Bian.

How could Liu Bian, who gave them food and money like this, be a corrupt official?

The general public is the most likely to be deceived, and under the bewitchment of Li Juren and others, they began to believe in Liu Bian's character, and this flawed lie will become a civil unrest that ignites at any time.

Thinking of this, Lu Wenzhao turned his head to Shen Lian next to him and asked:

"Is this news only spreading in Pizhou City, or is it also available elsewhere?"

"Lord Hui and other places also have it, but the object is not Liu Bian, but the county orders and county officials of each county." Shen Lian responded honestly.

"What did the people do?" Lu Wenzhao continued to ask, but Shen Lian hesitated again and again, and then said:

"At the gate of Pizhou Yamen today, there have been many people shouting for Liu Bian."

"What a fool! What a fool! Lu Wenzhao stood up angrily, walked back and forth, scolded the foolish people in his mouth, and then reacted and said:

"Now that the evidence is conclusive, the gentry and businessmen from all over the country dare to spread rumors, then the matter must be related to them."

"We must seize their evidence and take this opportunity to completely wipe out Huai'an Mansion."

"Huaibei hunger should not only involve Huai'an Mansion, but also Nanzhili."

"Relying on us alone, it is estimated that we will not be able to do this well, if we want to calm this matter, we must ask His Highness and Banzai to nod, and it is best to send Zhejiang Qi Yuanfu, who is recruiting troops, to hurry north!"

"Yes! Let's do it! After Shen Lian understood the seriousness of the matter, he immediately took someone to the flying pigeon to pass the book.

After releasing the carrier pigeon, he was afraid that the letter would not be clear, so Shen Lian sent a small banner of Jinyi Guard to write down the affairs of Huaibei and bring them back to the capital.

According to their pace and continuous change of horses, they can return to the capital in three days at most, and the pigeons should arrive in the evening.

"Let's hope it's in time......"

Last night, Shen Lian returned to the Baihu Office, and at the same time, Lu Wenzhao led people to the Yamen of Pizhou County.

The group walked towards the Pizhou County Ya, and the people on the road looked at them as if they were enemies, but Lu Wenzhao only frowned when he saw this, avoiding conflicts with the people.

Crossing the two streets, they soon heard the shouts of "Release Lord Liu, release Lord Liu".

Lu Wenzhao raised his hand and motioned for everyone to stop: "Detour!" ”

Hearing this, everyone knew that it was Lu Wenzhao who was avoiding conflicts, so he deliberately took a detour, and when he finally arrived at the back door of the Yamen, he still saw hundreds of people blocking the back door of the Yamen.

There were more than 30 people in their group, and everyone was armed with swords, so after seeing them appear, the people who were still shouting for release immediately showed their timidity.

Lu Wenzhao looked at them, and the hateful look in their eyes seemed to be that it was not Liu Bian and others who created the hunger in Huaibei, but he Lu Wenzhao.

Facing this kind of look, Lu Wenzhao knew that it was useless to explain, and at the moment, this group of people couldn't listen to it at all.

He asked someone to open the back door of the county office, and then led people into the county office.

However, after they all entered the county office, the people who were silent just now began to shout loudly again.

The five words "let go of Lord Liu" kept ringing around, and people were upset when they heard it.

Yang Lian and Zuo Guangdou sat in the main hall in the backyard of the yamen, only to feel that their breath was very hot, as if the anger in their hearts was about to gush out.

"Yang Du gave the ...... of the imperial history of the middle and left "

"Lu Tongzhi, please take a seat."

Lu Wenzhao brought people to come, so he saluted at the door first, and seeing this, Zuo Guangdou also signaled Lu Wenzhao to take a seat first.

Lu Wenzhao was not polite, he simply brought people into the seats, and then told the information he had, and mentioned at the end:

"Right now, I can only ask Long Live to nod, and then Qi Yuanfu, who was training in Zhejiang, went north."

"Qi Yuanfu?" Yang Lian frowned slightly and said:

"If the old man is not mistaken, Qi Yuanfu went south to recruit soldiers and horses, but only twenty days have passed."

"Twenty-six days, to be exact." Lu Wenzhao nodded, and then sighed:

"But there is not so much time for them to train their troops right now, the Huaibei matter is very important, maybe the guards in the Huai'an Mansion realm are also in the same stream."

"At the moment, no matter how many soldiers and horses Qi Yuanfu has recruited, as long as the soldiers and horses can ensure the maintenance of order in Huai'an Mansion and find out all the situation."

"Hmm...... What Lu Tongzhi said is good. Zuo Guangdou was not so pedantic, nodded and agreed, then turned his head to Yang Lian and said:

"Wenru, the most important thing at the moment is to deal with eucalyptus."

"Huaibei is definitely not only involved in the local officialdom in Huaibei, but even the entire Jiangnan."

"What we need to do now is to stabilize Huai'an Mansion, and then lead people to track down Jiangnan, and then transport Jiangnan's autumn tax and additional silver to the north."

"At present, the treasury is empty, and the treasury of Banzai has transferred millions of taels of silver in a year, and there is not much left."

"Without autumn taxes and additional silver, how can we pay the salaries?"

"If this matter is done well, maybe we can pull down some corrupt officials and corrupt officials involved in the capital one after another."

"As long as they dismount, won't we be able to succeed in reducing the fields we expect and going to the checkpoint?"

Yes, subtract the field......

Yang Lian thought of what he had always wanted to achieve, although the Tian Fu of the Ming Dynasty was not much, thirty Fu one, plus the Liao salary plus nine cents, only a dozen catties of grain were collected on paper.

However, in the Ming Dynasty, because of the quota set by Zhu Yuanzhang, the change in taxes was not very large, and it was enough to pay what needed to be paid every year.

In this way, the gentry and officials were able to pass on their taxes to the common people, and in the end, the gentry and officials who occupied a lot of land did not pay taxes, and all taxes were borne on the yeoman farmers and small and medium-sized landlords.

Yang Lian was born in a small landlord family, and the average family member was only six or seven acres of land, so he knew very well that this kind of deformed land endowment must be reduced.

Reducing land endowments and increasing miscellaneous income is the right way.

As for why they didn't directly collect taxes from the gentry and big landlords and big businessmen, it was because it was too difficult.

Even Zhang Juzheng didn't do this......

Thinking of this, Yang Lian sighed and said:

"At the moment, the most important thing is to calm the anger of the people and let them know whether the officials they are interceding for are clean or corrupt."

"It's easier said than done."

It is the beginning of the seventeenth century, not the twenty-first century, and the people's trust in the government and the court is pitifully low.

They believe more in what they have come into contact with, and even think that what they have come into contact with is the truth, which is what later generations called the information cocoon.

If Yang Lian wants to break this information cocoon, he must come up with a truth that can be clear and understandable to the people.

Thinking of this, Yang Lian gritted his teeth and said directly: "Disaster relief!" ”

"Disaster relief?! Wen Ru, are you crazy? Zuo Guangdou stood up suddenly.

In terms of their official position and status, they are not qualified to directly provide disaster relief, and only the prefects and counties of the local government are qualified to provide disaster relief, and they can only use the regular liquidation, and the grain in the official warehouse is taxed.

Zuo Guangdou's questioning is that even Lu Wenzhao can understand it, let alone Yang Lian.

But in the face of Zuo Guangdou's words, Yang Lian said directly:

"Use the regular closing position for disaster relief, and then use the treasury silver retained in Huai'an Mansion to go south directly to buy grain, and then play long live, please borrow Jiangnan Cao grain for disaster relief."

"As long as more than 3 million stone grains in Xuzhou, Huai'an and other places are put down, the people will definitely be able to survive until the beginning of spring."

"As long as it can last until the beginning of spring, then when the time comes, you will continue to investigate, and I will stay here for disaster relief."

"You transfer the Zhejiang soldiers under Qi Yuanfu to transport the silver and grain to the north, leaving the grain that is allowed for disaster relief, and you can support the people of Huai'an Mansion to survive the autumn harvest next year!"

"You're thinking too simply, Wenru!" Zuo Guangdou frowned and said:

"If there are 300,000 people, then for now, support until the beginning of spring next year, it is one pound of grain per person a day, and at least 400,000 stone of grain is needed."

"The food eaten is for the imperial court, which is to maintain the military salary of Liaodong!"

"You don't know how much silver the imperial court will need for military pay in the coming year."

"I know!" Yang Lian and Zuo Guangdou quarreled in front of Lu Wenzhao, and Yang Lian said stubbornly:

"The court needs silver and land, but the people also need to live, and if they can't survive, they will rebel!"

"Left! Do you want to see the wolf smoke in Jiangnan?! ”

"......" Yang Lian's words made Zuo Guangdou have nothing to say, but he still stubbornly said:

"I don't recommend the way you do......"

"The ......"

"Wait, wait!" Lu Wenzhao hurriedly stopped them who wanted to continue arguing, and then asked suspiciously:

"Can't we borrow food first?"

"Borrowed food?" Yang Lian and Zuo Guangdou were stunned for a moment, but Yang Lian hesitated:

"Even if it is borrowed grain, whether the elderly Huaibei can have a bumper harvest or whether they can repay the grain is not necessarily."

"How much interest will the people charge for borrowing grain?" Zuo Guangdou asked this question.

In ancient times, the people and the government borrowed grain, and then they needed to repay two or even three percent of the grain, Zuo Guangdou wanted to know what Lu Wenzhao meant.

However, for the question of the two of them, Lu Wenzhao smiled and said:

"It's very simple, first lend grain to the people, and no matter how much the field harvests in the coming year, only 30% of the grain will be harvested."