Tongzhou is the terminus of the Grand Canal, and grain transported from the south is concentrated and stored here.
After arriving here, Li Yunze immediately ordered Wen Tiren and Luo Yangxing to inspect the grain stored in Taicang.
Those accompanying him this time were the personal soldiers of Cao Wenzhao and others, plus a battalion of selected warriors.
Not to mention the palace maids, there are only a few eunuchs who are ready to follow Wang Chengen to Pi Island to deliver the goods.
Instead of entering the city, the army simply set up camp outside the city.
Not long after the meeting, Wang Chengen came in and announced, "Wang Wenhua, the magistrate of Tongzhou, requests an audience with your Majesty."
"No." Li Yunze, who was having a roast leg of lamb for dinner, refused without raising his head. "I didn't see you in all the prefectures and counties along the way."
"Wait."
He stopped Wang Chengen who was about to go out, "Let Qin Tianjian go and see if it will rain here tomorrow."
"According to the decree."
Wen Tiren and Luo Yangxing returned soon and reported, "I have checked the account books of various granaries and there is nothing suspicious."
In response, a half-eaten leg of lamb flew over.
Li Yunze slapped his hand on the table, "Are you brainless, or do you accept your filial piety? You can find a ghost by checking the account books. Open the warehouse for inspection! Carefully count and check whether the grain in the granary is the same as what is in the account books, and also
Open the grain bag to check whether it is fake sediment
, is it old food, rotten food? Check the account books? You think I am a fool, go back and check again!"
Wen Tiren and Luo Yangxing were sweating on their foreheads, and they left with excuses repeatedly.
After leaving the tent, Luo Yang was still frightened: "Our prince knows everything."
Lao Yinbi's Wen Tiren smiled and said nothing. He would never accept such remarks.
However, he still said, "Someone is going to be in trouble here in Taicang, Tongzhou."
After Li Yunze had finished his meal, Wang Chengen came over and reported, "Qin Tian Jiancheng said that there will be clouds and wind tomorrow, but the clouds are not thick enough and it may not rain."
"That's just right."
Li Yunze stood up and called Wang Chengen, "Find a few people to wait outside."
Li Yunze, who returned to the modern world, appeared directly in the warehouse he rented.
No matter which world he is in, wherever he was when he left before, he will still be in the same place when he comes back again.
Li Yunze drove a forklift to transport the box containing the artificial rainfall system to the time and space of the Ming Dynasty.
Summon Wang Chengen and others to come in, "Have a good time guarding it. If it is lost or damaged, then you can work as river workers to dig the Tonghui River."
After arranging things, Li Yunze returned to the back tent to rest.
After getting up and washing up the next morning, Li Yunze asked Wang Chengen and others who had not slept all night to push the box to the open space outside.
After that, I unpacked the box and started assembling it according to the instructions.
Looking at the clouds floating in the sky, Li Yunze adjusted his angle and clapped his hands and said, "Wang Banban, do you want to make a bet? I can control the wind and rain."
"Your Majesty is the Son of Heaven, so it is normal for you to call for wind and rain." Wang Chengen, who is well versed in the art of flattery, immediately offered him a piece of fragrant fart: "How virtuous and capable are you, I dare to make a bet with your Majesty?"
"It's boring."
Li Yunze waved his hand to tell the people around him to move away, and then hit the cylinder containing the catalyst into the clouds in the sky.
Several muffled sounds were like thunder, making the whole camp a little commotion.
Cao Wenzhao and others immediately patrolled the camp to scold him, and soon calmed him down.
Fortunately, it's daylight now. This would never be so easy at night.
After waiting for a while, it hadn't rained yet, and Li Yunze, who looked a little worried, fired two more rounds.
This time the raindrops finally fell.
Wang Chengen, who witnessed this scene with his own eyes, thought it was like a miracle, and immediately prostrated himself and shouted, "Holy Emperor~~~"
Li Yunze was in a good mood and asked Wang Chengen to put everything into the tent.
While he was having breakfast, Wen Tiren and Luo Yangxing, who had also stayed up all night, came to report on the inspection of the granary.
"Long live the grain storage in various granaries in Tongzhou. The total amount should be more than 1.5 million dan."
"Long live, I am waiting to open the bags for inspection. Most of the grain in the granaries everywhere is old grain. What's worse, the bags are filled with straw and mud!"
"Hey."
Li Yunze picked up the bowl and drank the porridge.
"What are you waiting for? Go and seal the city and arrest people for interrogation! Ask me where my food went!"
Grain storage in Tongzhou is related to the food problem of the entire north, but at least half of the grain is currently in question.
Li Yunze knew that Daming was already in bad shape at this time, but he never expected that it would be so bad.
He was in a bad mood and had not looked good all morning.
During lunch, I was even too angry to eat.
At this time, the pounding rain gradually stopped, and Li Yunze simply called Wang Chengen to summon Cao Wenzhao and others, as well as the noble disciples, mounted his horse and headed straight for Tongzhou City.
Li Yunze's riding skills are so impressive that it's hard to describe in words.
That is to say, there is a docile horse under the crotch, and the senior eunuch of the horse guard can lead the horse smoothly.
Tongzhou City had been sealed off at this time, and when the Jin Yiwei who guarded the gate saw that Li Yunze was coming in person, he immediately opened the door to welcome him.
After entering the city, Li Yunze did not rush straight to the granary. Instead, he pointed at several households on both sides of the road, "Go and ask the people from these households to come out and speak."
The imperial guards accompanying him immediately came forward and knocked on the door.
For the Jin Yiwei, they usually break down the door.
Only because of Li Yunze's request, smashing was changed to knocking.
More than a dozen people from several families stood together in horror.
Wang Chengen stepped forward to scold them and salute, but Li Yunze waved his hand directly, "No need, I just want to ask you a few words and respond truthfully."
These Tongzhou people were well-dressed. The adults' clothes had few patches and were very clean. A few women even had copper hairpins.
The adult men are all over 1.6 meters tall by visual inspection, and they appear to be in good spirits.
This is completely different from the images that Li Yunze had seen on the Internet, those dark-skinned, short, skeleton-like images in the late Manchu Qing Dynasty.
"What is your family's income?"
Faced with Li Yunze's inquiry, a strong man in the crowd responded respectfully, "This little guy works on the canal to fight for food parcels. When he is alive, he can earn more than 20 coins a day."
Then the man motioned to the men around him, "This is He Laosan. He works in Fulinlou and earns more than ten coins a day?"
Then He Laosan nodded "Yes."
"This is Chen Liuzi. He is a carpenter at home. How much is it specific?"
Then Chen Liuzi hurriedly responded, "Young man sells wooden utensils, and you get more than a hundred cash. When you were young, you could get seven or eight cash."
"This neighbor is Zhao Dayou. He works in Yuantai Grain Store and earns more than ten dollars a day."
Zhao Dayou nodded repeatedly.
Li Yunze nodded, "How much is the price of grain in Tongzhou? How much does it cost to buy a pound of meat?"
"It costs ninety cents for rice in Tongzhou and sixty cents for a catty of mutton."
Upon hearing the price, Li Yunze immediately took out his mobile phone and started calculating.
One stone costs ten buckets, which means one stone of food costs nine hundred coins.
The weight of one stone in the Ming Dynasty was 153 and a half kilograms, which was just a kilogram in the Ming Dynasty. One kilogram in the Ming Dynasty was 594.6 grams. When converted, it is 188 city kilograms?
In other words, you can buy a pound of grain for less than five cents.
If they eat meat, these people can buy a kilogram of it every once in a while to make a tooth sacrifice.
Of course, to be specific, we also need to divide into brown rice and polished rice. In addition to meals, there are also expenses such as diesel, salt, sauce, vinegar, tea, cloth, etc.
Moreover, this is Tongzhou, and the grain transported by water is stored here, so it is normal for the grain price to be cheaper.
Overall, I can barely get by.
Compared with those people who lived on sweet potatoes in the late Manchu Dynasty, their lives were already happy and perfect.
Unfortunately, with years of natural disasters and wars, everything will collapse due to skyrocketing prices.
Li Yunze nodded and motioned to Wang Chengen, "Give them two taels of silver per household."
The group went straight to the official warehouse in Tongzhou City. Here, Li Yunze saw with his own eyes most of the empty granaries, grain bags filled with straw and soil, and old grain that had been difficult to feed livestock for who knows how many years.
.
Without saying a word, he immediately turned his horse around after checking and went straight to the Tongzhou government office.
Among the noble disciples accompanying him, many of them looked fearful and uneasy.
The grain business in Tongzhou City is so big, and there are many noble people involved in it.
When he arrived at the Tongzhou government office, Li Yunze got off his horse and rubbed his sore inner thighs, then walked in directly with his riding crop.
At this time, the trial was underway in the lobby, with Wen Tiren raised high in the middle, and on both sides were Luo Yangxing and Tongzhou Zhizhou Wang Wenhua.
Those being interrogated were the stewards of more than forty granaries in Tongzhou.
Seeing Li Yunze walk in directly, Wen Tiren, with a majestic look on his face, hurriedly ran down to salute.
"Long live~~~"
Tongzhou had not received any news before. Only last night there were rumors that the emperor had arrived outside the city.
At this time, seeing the emperor appear here with their own eyes, many of the granary stewards could no longer control their sphincters.
Li Yunze stared at Wen Tiren with an expressionless face and asked, "How are you doing?"
"Long live, I will conduct a rigorous interrogation to get some clues, but there are too many people who committed the crime, so it will take some time."
'Snapped!'
Li Yunze suddenly swung his riding crop and made a crisp sound.
"Tell me the result!"
Wen Tiren's scalp was numb, and he gritted his teeth and said, "This matter is caused by collusion between the granary managers in various places and many grain shops in the city."
Li Yunze looked around at the people lying on the ground, "Who is from the grain store?"
No one answered.
"Um?"
Wen Tiren buried his head deeply and said, "Long live, the grain merchants haven't been caught yet."
"Wen Tiren." Li Yunze walked straight to the hanging plaque on the mirror and sat down. "Do you not want to do it anymore?"
At this time, Wen Tiren felt so miserable in his heart.
He knew the secrets here very well, but there were too many big shots and senior dignitaries from the DPRK and China who were involved in Tongzhou's grain business, and he didn't dare to offend them.
I originally thought of minimizing the big issue and taking the blame from these supervisors, but I didn't expect that the emperor would pay such close attention!
Wen Tiren has only one creed in life, and that is to be an official and a high official.
Now that I have finally achieved the position of Second Assistant to the Cabinet, I am absolutely reluctant to lose it.
He kowtowed again, "I know my mistake, so I will arrest all those grain merchants now."
Li Yunze hummed noncommittally.
Wen Tiren winked at Luo Yangxing, and a large number of Jinyi guards were dispatched immediately.
After a while, there was a loud noise outside.
"I am the steward of Duke Chengguo's mansion! Who dares to arrest me?!"
When these arrogant words came, the entire lobby fell into silence.
Trouble comes from the mouth, this unlucky boy has tricked the Chengguo Palace!
Li Yunze tapped the table in front of him with his riding crop, "Break the legs first, and then bring them in."