Chapter 630: The Rat Shows

What Li Qing'an values ​​most is Anxi, which is his foundation. All his motivation for his upward growth comes from this. Anxi is like his son. He struggles on that rich land and throws his blood. He dedicates his most brilliant youth to that land. In his mind, it is a piece of flawless white jade, and he will never tolerate anyone defiling it.

Perhaps he could tolerate Cui Ping's corruption, perhaps he could be Pei Zunqing's greed for power, but he could not tolerate corruption on Anxi's land and a dominant power.

In order to maintain the balance of power, he made military and political independence and set up the Anxi Political Affairs Hall. Even in the Political Affairs Hall, he also implemented the independence of three powers. Wang Changling's administrative power, Pei Min's supervisory power, Cen Shen's rebuttal power, and he did not ask about daily military and political affairs, but all military and political affairs need to be approved by Li Qing'an.

Although others left Anxi, Anxi's military power and supreme administrative power were still in his hands. He is still the governor of Anxi and the great captain of Anxi, controlling Anxi from afar.

In order to control Anxi, he spent a lot of manpower and material resources to build the Tang Road, and set up an inn every hundred miles, equipped with the best horses. The important Anxi documents start from Beiting as the starting point and send letters to Chang'an in an emergency of 800 miles. In half a month, the documents can be delivered to his desk. Not only that, he also trained eagles to deliver letters between Beiting, Kucha and Shuye to ensure the speed of intelligence.

All efforts were not in vain. Even though he was not in Anxi, Anxi could still maintain a good and efficient way of operating.

However, Li Qing'an never expected that corruption would also appear in some dark place in Anxi. A young regime would never tolerate this corruption. If you let it go, this corruption would spread rapidly like cancer cells, and eventually destroy Anxi.

Li Qing'an paced back and forth in the room with his hands behind his back. He was considering where the loopholes in Anxi's grain were? He not only wanted to cut off this ball of carrion, but also to prevent the regeneration of corruption in the system.

The grain in Anxi comes from three pieces, one is military camp, the second is civil camp, and the third is Xinde and Tianzhu's grain. As the permanent troops of the Anxi army decreased to 100,000, the grain in Xinde and Tianzhu was no longer supplied to Anxi, but was transported directly to Guangzhou or Yangzhou by sea ships.

Then the problem should occur on the military camps and civil camps. The food in the military camps is directly supplied to the army. Li Qing'an did not believe that Feng Changqing would be corrupt. Even if there were, the officers below would report him that the military discipline of the Anxi army was as good as an iron barrel.

What worried him the most was Mintun. Mintun is actually a land tax of 20 taxes. It is quite complicated. If the account book is tight, it will be difficult to make trouble. At this time, Li Qing'an suddenly remembered something. Since the year before yesterday, the Anxi Political Affairs Hall began to purchase farmers' grain storage from the market. The old grain was replaced every three years. The old grains were usually transported to Hexi to exchange horses with local herders. The number of them was quite large. Is it the problem here?

"General, General Hu is here, waiting to see him outside the door."

The personal soldiers heard a report from the door, and Li Qingan was excited. This must have been Hu Peiyun found something. He immediately ordered: "Let him in!"

After a moment, Hu Peiyun hurried in, knelt down on one knee and said, "I am in charge of the general!"

"Get up!"

Li Qing'an sat down, stared at him with bright eyes, waiting for Hu Peiyun to tell him the answer.

"The general, Bei Zhi seized the Huhang rice shop. After interrogation of the rice shopkeeper, the shopkeeper had already told that the owner of the rice shop was Pei Jiangtian, the Hexi Transportation Branch envoy."

"So it's him!"

Li Qing'an's pupils slowly contracted. Pei Jiangtian was just a small person. The key was Pei Jiangtian's father, Pei Mian, the Censor of Anxi.

“Is this rice shop operating normally?”

This is the focus of Li Qing'an's concern. If the rice shop is operating normally and has a normal purchase price cost, even if the rice is transported from Anxi, Pei Mian will only violate the rules of private shops and warn at most to dismiss his son from his public office. However, if it involves embezzlement of Anxi grain, it is a serious crime.

Hu Peiyun replied: "We have not found specific evidence yet, but according to the shopkeeper's explanation, their boss even allowed them to sell at a price of fifty cents per bucket."

"Fifty-month!"

Li Qing'an couldn't help but sneer. The price of grain in the Anxi market costs 80 cents per bucket. If it is transported from Anxi to Chang'an, it will cost at least 20 cents. He can actually sell it for fifty cents. You can imagine how low their purchase price is.

Hu Peiyun said again: "General, Bei Zhi also got information. Pei Jiangtian is now in Chang'an. He went to the rice shop the day before yesterday, but now he doesn't know where?"

This news came beyond Li Qing'an's expectations. He walked a few steps behind his back and immediately ordered: "Immediately use all my strength to capture Pei Jiangtian. No matter what, he will not be allowed to escape back to Anxi."

"As for the order!"

Pei Peiyun turned around and Li Qing'an felt a pain in his heart. He had a vague premonition that since the shopkeeper said that it was a business that was not a business to transport the food to Chang'an, it was very likely that Pei Jiangtian was using the official camel team. If that was the case, he would have to get the approval from the Anxi Political Affairs Hall, and Pei Mian was probably involved in the case.

If Pei Mian is involved in the case, it will be the biggest scandal since Li Qing'an took over the leadership of Anxi, surpassing the official sale case of Pu Gu Huai'en. Anxi's second-ranked executive officer involved corruption, which made him Li Qing'an a little crazy.

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Pei Mian's ancestral home is Wenxi County, Hedong. Although he is considered a member of the Pei family, he is only a branch and has little to do with the Pei family. At first, Pei Mian was a marching marching Sima of Hexi and belonged to Geshuhan's subordinate. A few years ago, he served as the governor of Liangzhou for thousands of miles and became a feud with Pei Mian and others. Pei Mian, Du Hongjian and others went west to Anxi and defected to Li Qing'an.

At that time, Li Qing'an was thirsty for seeking talents. The arrival of Pei Mian and others undoubtedly greatly encouraged Li Qing'an. He immediately reused these senior officials in Hexi. Du Hongjian became the chief minister of the prefect of the prefect, and Pei Mian even became the high position of the Anxi Inspectorate. Later, he was promoted to the Anxi Supervisory Censor and entered the Anxi Political Affairs Hall, becoming the second highest official in Anxi Government Affairs, second only to the Chief Secretary Wang Changling.

Pei Mian has two sons, the eldest son Pei Jiangshan, the current governor of Hui, and the second son Pei Jiangtian. He has always followed Pei Mian. Because of his father's relationship, he is currently the Hexi Transportation Branch. He is responsible for the transportation of materials between Anxi and Hexi. He has a small official position, but he is only a small official from the eighth rank. However, this position is recognized as a shortage of fat. He is fully responsible for transporting the grain to Hexi to exchange horses with herdsmen.

Therefore, he was the owner of the old Huhang store, which made him suspected of transporting Anxi Chen Mi to Chang'an for sale and profit.

According to the confession of the shopkeeper of the old Huhang store, Pei Jiangtian also owns a jewelry site in the East City, called Qianhu Jewelry Store, which sells various jewelry from Anxi and Xinde Tianzhu.

In the afternoon, when Dongcheng City was coming and going, nearly a thousand inner guard soldiers suddenly appeared on the streets of Dongcheng City. The gates of Dongcheng City were temporarily closed. A group of soldiers rushed to the location of the jewelry store. On the street and in the shops, merchants and customers were all frightened, wondering what happened?

More than 300 cavalrymen rushed to Qianhu Jewelry Store and surrounded the store with murderous aura. The shop's staff and customers were so scared that they looked like earth. They all took the store and fled, but were stopped by the cavalry and were not allowed to leave.

"We are just arresting one person, it has nothing to do with others. Please be calm!"

A cavalry general shouted loudly, and the shopkeeper came forward tremblingly and asked, "Who is the one in the shop who commits crime? We are willing to assist the officers and soldiers."

General Lang pointed at the horse whip and asked, "Are you the shopkeeper?"

"Yes! The villain is exactly."

"Where is your boss?"

"The owner...is not in the store."

"Fart! Someone just saw him enter the store."

More than two hundred soldiers arrived, General Lang waved his horse whip and "finished search!"

More than 200 fully armed soldiers rushed into the store. At this time, Hu Peiyun also rode a horse to the store and asked, "What's the situation?"

General Lang immediately bowed his fists and said, "Report to the general, the spy we sent has confirmed that the suspect entered the store a quarter of an hour ago and did not come out. The soldiers have entered the store and started a full search."

Hu Peiyun nodded. He looked at the store. It was of medium size in Dongshi. There were more than 20 customers in the store, which indicated that the business was good. It is said that the jewelry sold in this store was cheaper than other companies, and the owner of the store was a senior official in Anxi, which made people doubt whether there was a possibility of tax evasion in Anxi.

Suddenly there was a commotion in the shop, and someone shouted: "You can let me go!"

Dozens of soldiers caught a man out of the shop. The man looked about twenty-five or six years old and looked quite handsome. Hu Peiyun had seen Pei Mian. When he saw this man, he immediately judged that this person must be Pei Mian's son and looked very similar to his father.

The man was pushed to Hu Peiyun, and he gradually stopped struggling. This person was Pei Jiangtian, the son of Pei Mian. He obviously knew Hu Peiyun. At that time, Hu Peiyun was a general of the Anxi Military Discipline Inspection and Supervision Office. He was strict, tough, cruel and ruthless. He was called the cold-faced general. Now he actually appeared outside the store, which shows that the matter is serious.

Pei Jiangtian lowered his head guiltily. No matter whether he had done anything illegal or not, he should not appear in the capital at this time. He is a working official and went to Beijing without official duties. In Anxi, this is a serious crime of being expelled from public office.

Now Pei Jiangtian is counting on his father's face to escape this disaster. He still doesn't know that the old Huhang store in Xicheng City has been sealed off.

Hu Peiyun asked coldly: "Are you doing business when you come to Chang'an?"

Pei Jiangtian slowly raised his head and replied calmly: "You can go and ask my father."

"Your father?"

Hu Peiyun sneered and said, "I'm afraid your father only hates you, his son."

He waved his hand and said, "Take him away!"

The soldiers tied him up, put his head on a black cloth bag, and pushed a carriage, and hundreds of cavalry followed him and left.

With the Qianhu Jewelry Store being sealed, the short-term martial law in Dongshi was over, and Dongshi returned to normal order. Everyone was talking about it, wondering what was wrong?

Two hours later, it was getting darker. Li Qing'an came to the Inner Guard in the Imperial City. The Inner Guard was the original Left Supervisor Guard. It covers a vast area and can station 20,000 troops. Currently, 10,000 Inner Guards are stationed here. The Inner Guard Information Hall is next to the Inner Guard, and is the original Left Wu Guard.

As soon as Li Qing'an walked into the yamen, Hu Peiyun came up and said, "Report to the general, he has already recruited them all."

"Um!"

Li Qing'an responded and entered the Inner Guard Intelligence Hall. If he didn't confess, Hu Peiyun would be incompetent. Hu Peiyun led him into the innermost prison, which was the place where prisoners were detained and interrogated by the intelligence hall. When he walked to a stone house, Li Qing'an looked inside through the small window on the door. The stone house was full of various torture instruments. Pei Jiangtian was naked and tied to an iron pillar with his backhand. His head was drooping. It was obvious that he had been tortured.

Li Qingan sneered and walked into the room next to him. There was a large table filled with various documents and books. These were all records copied from the old Huhang store and Qianhu Jewelry Store. Several civil servants were busy sorting it out.

Li Qing'an sat down in a ring chair next to him, and a guard gave him a cup of tea, and he slowly took a sip of tea.

“Are you gained anything?”

"have!"

Hu Peiyun held a wooden box and placed it in front of Li Qing'an, "This was found in Pei Jiangtian's carry-on luggage. It was three approvals and a account."

Li Qing'an put down his cup and picked up a copy of the approval documents. The Anxi Zhengshitang Yingtiansi issued the letter: "I will transfer three thousand stones of rice to the Dunhuang Warehouse."

"What does this mean?" Li Qingan asked with a frown, he couldn't understand it.

"General, this is to exchange the new rice and Chen Mi. According to Pei Jiangtian's account, he nominally sold 50,000 stones of Chen Mi to Hexi herders every year for horses, but in fact he would only sell 42,000 stones, and the remaining 8,000 stones would be intercepted by him. Moreover, Pei Mian would transfer the new rice to Dunhuang warehouse and replace it with his Chen Mi. In the end, the eight thousand stones of grain would only be recorded and 5,000 stones would be stored in the warehouse. The rest would be used as a road loss. In fact, the loss on the road was only 1,000 stones. In this way, he would have 10,000 stones of grain in his hand and transported it to the capital every year to sell it. One stone would be calculated as earning two stagnants of money. He would have to make a net profit of 20,000 tons of money for just one grain."

"Food only? What else?" Li Qingan could no longer control his anger.

"And jewelry!"

Hu Peiyun took out the account book in the wooden box again, turned over a few pages and said, "Please look here, General."

Li Qing'an looked at it and found a list above, saying: 'A batch of Huren jewelry was shipped in June, totaling 438 pieces, the details are as follows.

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To be continued...