Chapter 80 How difficult the people's livelihood is
Although Ji Yaohua's word choice was inappropriate, Yang Qingyuan still nodded awkwardly, and there was no problem with Ji Yaohua's semantic expression.
Politics has been a profound knowledge since ancient times. Ji Yaohua did not understand it, nor did An Shigeng. Yang Qingyuan himself only learned a little bit.
An Shigeng thought that his identity as a grain merchant could be the best cover for stealing grain from the warehouse. Of course, it did have an excellent cover effect in the early days.
The Anjia is the largest grain merchant in the capital, so no one will suspect that the Anjia transports a large amount of grain outside the capital. In addition, the Anjia bribed the Water Transport Department, so even in the first few months of the Anjia, the amount of grain shipped out increased significantly.
, and no one doubted it.
No, someone must have suspected it. Qian Liangping, the supervisory censor, discovered the problem during his inspection of water transportation and kept investigating. However, before the results could be found out, he was silenced by the An family.
If the identity of Anjia Grain Merchant was the best cover before the Granary Case was committed, then after the Granary Case was committed, the counter-effects would be greater than the previous benefits.
Emperor Zhou was a wise king, diligent in government, caring for the people, and applying benevolent policies. But all of this needed to be based on the solid foundation of the Zhou Dynasty.
On normal days, Emperor Zhou might not have used extraordinary measures, but the blizzard in Jizhou was like the straw that broke the camel's back.
Today's Great Zhou Dynasty seems to be peaceful at home, but in fact it is already on the verge of crisis. As long as Jizhou does not have enough food for disaster relief and a civil uprising occurs, there will be chaos in the north.
In this case, Anjia's identity as the largest grain merchant has become Anjia's biggest crime.
Yang Qingyuan believed that if he randomly threw a few grain bags from the official warehouse into the An family's warehouse, and then took the grain bags and the 170,000 shi of grain to report to Emperor Zhou, calling the An family the mastermind behind the grain warehouse case, Emperor Zhou would be pleased.
accept.
In this way, Emperor Zhou could inspect An's house openly and obtain An's food and grass to fill the vacancy in Jizhou.
At this time, it no longer mattered whether Anjia was the real murderer or not. All Emperor Zhou needed was a legitimate reason to confiscate Anjia's grain. This was politics.
Yang Qingyuan can do this, but he doesn't want to do it yet.
Although he was certain that the people behind the granary case must be An Shigeng and his son, Yang Qingyuan did not have enough evidence.
Convicting someone without evidence is the same as grievance. Yang Qingyuan does not want to do this unless it is a last resort.
By handling the case in this way, Yang Qingyuan was worried that it would become a stain on himself, which would not only affect his future career, but more importantly, the long history would not tolerate him!
After reviewing the next steps again, Yang Qingyuan took Ji Yaohua out of the Anjia warehouse.
In order to avoid being suspected by An Shigeng, Yang Qingyuan continued to seal several warehouses, making the sealing of Anjia's warehouse less abrupt.
Just after Yang Qingyuan sealed the three warehouses, a team from the Royal Forest Army's Beijing Camp was rushing all the way to report.
"My lord is not good?!"
"Don't panic, speak slowly!"
The team member was taking a breath, and then said, "Sir, a group of porters surrounded the water transport terminal and asked us to open the terminal!"
"What?!"
Yang Qingyuan's eyes suddenly became serious. It seemed that there was a master behind the scenes. He reacted so quickly and brought trouble to himself.
"Let's go! Let's go see it together!"
The group of people walked to the entrance of the water transport terminal, and a group of porters were already standing at the door.
But there was no pushing or making noise as expected. A group of people just stood there quietly, waiting for the person in charge at the shipping terminal.
Yang Qingyuan walked to the door and asked the captain beside him, "What's going on?!"
The lieutenant spread his hands helplessly, "I don't know what I mean. These people just gathered here and claimed that they wanted to see the person in charge. When I asked, they didn't want to talk to me."
The captain paused for a moment and continued, "Sir, a lot of people have gathered here! If this continues, there may be a civil unrest. Do you need to humble yourself and lead people to disperse these people!?"
Yang Qingyuan waved his hand, "Don't act rashly without my order!"
After finishing speaking, Yang Qingyuan stepped forward and said, "I am the new water transportation envoy of the school. I have been ordered by the emperor to take charge of water transportation. What is the matter with all the elders gathered here?"
After everyone heard Yang Qingyuan's words, there was a commotion, and then a middle-aged man came out with several young people.
"The ninth brother of the king of the small people comes to see you, sir!" After saying this, he led everyone to kneel down and salute.
Yang Qingyuan's figure suddenly appeared in front of Wang Jiudi. With a slight hold of his true energy, he helped several people get up.
However, Yang Qingyuan's power was limited after all. Although he could help Wang Jiudi up, he could not stop so many people from kneeling down.
In desperation, Yang Qingyuan could only shout with his true energy: "Everyone, please get up quickly!"
After everyone saluted, they slowly stood up.
"How dare you, a humble citizen, to ask your lord your surname!"
"I am Yang Qingyuan, the water transport envoy!"
"Master Yang! I really want to ask for Master Yang when I come here!" Wang Jiudi saluted Yang Qingyuan and continued, "Please also ask Master Yang to unblock the water transport terminal and leave us a way out!"
Yang Qingyuan's expression changed slightly, he had already thought of something.
Seeing that Yang Qingyuan was silent, Wang Jiudi continued, "The common people don't know why the court banned the water transport terminal, but if the water transport terminal is not unsealed, our lives will really be difficult to live by!"
Yang Qingyuan asked expressionlessly, "The imperial court has just banned the water transport terminal? Why do you say that?!"
"Sir, I don't know. We haven't received a penny of wages since the officials from Liumen came to inspect the dock three days ago! The people in Caogang used this as an excuse not to pay us wages."
"Sir! We are all poor people here, and we don't have much food left at home. The people who work as porters here only have a handful of hard work, and they can't make a living elsewhere. If they don't have any more wages, it will be really difficult.
There is no food for cooking! We people can survive a few hungry meals, but many of us have women and children at home..."
Yang Qingyuan looked around and saw thousands of people gathered here.
Almost all of them were sallow and thin. It was obviously the twelfth lunar month of winter, but the clothes on many of them were extremely thin. With Yang Qingyuan's eyesight, he could see that they were trembling slightly.
Yang Qingyuan remembered a saying that to measure the civilization of a country is not to look at how brilliant the top is, but how humble the bottom is. The so-called civilization is to strive to improve the bottom line.
The Great Zhou Dynasty could be called a glorious and prosperous age. It was a vast and far-reaching dynasty, and all the small countries from all over the world came to dynasty. Yang Qingyuan once thought that this was a prosperous age.
But at this moment, looking at these people who were struggling to make ends meet, with disheveled faces and half-clothed clothes, Yang Qingyuan was shaken in his heart. Is this the prosperous age he wants to pursue?!
Looking around, the common people were panic-stricken. Their hearts were lonely and they were sighing, lamenting the loss of people's livelihood.
