Xu Yanbin breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that the civilian husband was comforted. He asked someone to bring a stool, stood on it, and said loudly: "Everyone, the imperial court is considerate of the people. Not only did it not collect corvee this time, but it also paid wages. If someone makes trouble, not only the wages will be paid, but also the wages will be paid."
No, there is still jail time, so please don’t be provoked."
"Sir Xu, the imperial court does not recruit corvees, but hires us. We are naturally grateful, but we cannot feed us moldy food."
"Yes, moldy food can kill people if you don't handle it well."
"Please, sir, let us see if the food is moldy."
Although Xu Yanbin is not a famous person, he has been in the officialdom for so many years and is not without merit.
From the words of these people, he sensed a conspiracy.
Let’s not talk about whether it was moldy food or not. These civilians were obviously provoked by others.
"Everyone, there must be a misunderstanding about this matter. Don't believe the rumors. Someone must have deliberately instigated this matter." Xu Yanbin said loudly.
"Sir, how can you explain why so many people suddenly have diarrhea?"
"yes."
"It's okay if you want to see the food, but you can't go with so many people, right? How about everyone standing in their respective teams, choosing one person from each team, and I will take them to see it?" Xu Yanbin said.
What Xu Yanbin said makes sense, and since no one is provoking it now, the civilian husband is willing to accept the arrangement.
Xu Yanbin said to the various foremen: "You should immediately count the number of people under your command and find those who are spreading rumors."
"yes."
After sending the little foreman away, Xu Yanbin called an official to give some instructions.
The officer took the order, turned around and left.
After a cup of tea, the various foremen came back.
"Sir, one of the civilian men under my command is missing."
"Sir, I'm missing one too."
Xu Yanbin made some statistics and found that basically every small foreman had a small number of civilian workers.
Xu Yanbin has now determined that someone secretly exchanged the grain and spread rumors.
It is possible that some of the civilian workers who cooked were also hired.
At this moment, the previous official came back and said: "Your Majesty, part of the grain has indeed been replaced with moldy grain, and some of the people who cooked the food can't be found. I have followed your instructions and removed the moldy grain."
The food was disposed of.”
"I understand, go down."
Xu Yanbin sent the officials away and said to the small foremen: "Now each of you choose a representative and then take them to see the grain."
The moldy grains have been disposed of, so the people naturally cannot find the moldy grains.
Without seeing any moldy food, the people did not dare to cause trouble.
Just at this time, the people Xu Yanbin sent to ask for the doctor also came back.
The doctor mentioned that he had been given an explanation and found an excuse to deal with it.
Xu Yanbin finally felt relieved when he saw that the civilian workers had finally started building roads normally again.
…
Chang'an
"Your Highness, something serious has happened."
Li Chengqian was listening to Fang Xuanling's lecture when suddenly Yao Yuanwen rushed in.
"What's the decency of being so presumptuous and flustered?" Li Chengqian scolded.
Yao Yuanwen knelt down with a plop and said, "Your Highness, please forgive me."
Fang Xuanling smiled and said: "Your Highness, since he is so anxious, he must have something important, so why don't you listen to it first before talking about it."
"The room master is right."
Li Chengqian looked at Yao Yuanwen and said, "Tell me, what happened?"
"Your Highness, there was an urgent message from the people in charge of road construction in Luoyang. Some people replaced the food of the people with moldy food, causing many people to have diarrhea. Some people also spread rumors and almost caused a civil uprising." Yao Yuanwen said.
"What!" Li Chengqian's expression changed and he asked, "How is it now?"
"Back to Your Highness, fortunately the official in charge, Xu Yanbin, stayed calm in the face of the crisis. While appeasing the people, he sent people to get rid of the moldy grain. This prevented a big disaster." Yao Yuanwen said.
Li Chengqian breathed a sigh of relief and asked, "Have you caught any suspicious people?"
He is the supervisor of road construction, and he is not to blame for any problems.
"I'm afraid those people have already run away." Fang Xuanling said.
Yao Yuanwen was stunned and said: "What the prime minister said is that those people ran away long ago and none of them were caught."
Li Chengqian bowed respectfully to Fang Xuanling and said, "Please give me some advice from Master Fang."
Fang Xuanling shook his head and said: "Your Highness, I also guessed it from the words of Chamberlain Yao. I can't guess who did it."
"Fortunately, there was no chaos." Li Chengqian was a little disappointed, but he was still very glad that there was no chaos.
"No, His Royal Highness, don't be too happy too early. Those people's goal has been achieved." Fang Xuanling said.
"Achieved?" Li Chengqian asked in confusion: "Master Fang, why do you say this?"
The civilian husband was calmed down and no big chaos was caused. How can it be said that the other party's goal was achieved.
Fang Xuanling said calmly: "Those people carefully arranged this situation, how could they be so easily appeased? If someone had continued to incite the emotions of the people at that time, the people would have been so angry that they would not have had time to deal with the moldy food.
"
"Then what is their purpose?" Li Chengqian asked puzzledly.
Fang Xuanling smiled slightly but said nothing.
Li Chengqian understood that Fang Xuanling was letting him think for himself, so he didn't continue to ask, and frowned and thought hard.
"Gu knows, their target is Gu." Li Chengqian exclaimed.
Fang Xuanling looked at Li Chengqian with approval. Just as Li Chengqian said, the purpose of those people was Li Chengqian.
"No, if their target is orphans, why wouldn't it be better to take them away in advance and continue to incite and cause riots?" Li Chengqian asked doubtfully.
"What difference does it make between a riot and a riot? What they want is an excuse to attack His Highness. Your Majesty is probably aware of this matter now, and tomorrow morning, there will be many officials to impeach His Highness." Fang Xuanling said.
If you continue to incite, you may be exposed. Once someone is caught, you can even follow the clues and catch the person behind it.
For the person in the dark, all he wants is a reason to attack Li Chengqian.
Don't let Li Chengqian finish building the road safely and win over people's hearts.
"There are records of the recruitment of civilians. As long as we find out the disappeared civilians and catch them, we will definitely find out the people behind it." Li Chengqian said bitterly.
Fang Xuanling shook his head and said: "Your Highness has forgotten that this time we are hiring civilian laborers, not collecting corvee labor. The information on those civilian laborers is most likely false, and nothing can be found."
If corvées were imposed, records would be kept of who served in each village.
But the hired laborers did not waste time registering one by one.
"Then what should we do now?" Li Chengqian said a little discouraged.
Fang Xuanling said: "Your Highness is going to plead guilty to His Majesty now. He must be sincere and there should be no shirk."
No matter what, Li Chengqian is the main person in charge of road construction. If anything happens, he has unshirkable responsibility.
In this way, when Li Shimin is impeached tomorrow, he won't be too angry when he mentions that he has a buffer.
"Thank you, Master Fang. I'll go right now."
There was a trace of hatred in Li Chengqian's eyes, and he felt that Li Tai might have done this.
When he is impeached, Li Shimin will probably put Li Tailai in charge of building roads.
Whoever profits the most will be the most suspect.