Chapter 759: Rotten Grain Incident
Chapter 759: Rotten Grain Incident
An hour later, Xiao Xia received the news that his son was in danger in Nanshi.
He walked a few steps with his hands behind his back and said to Li Luming, "First, this has nothing to do with the guards. Don't punish them. I asked the prince to go to Nanshi to investigate the grain prices. Second, don't make things worse. Withdraw all the guards from Nanshi. Third, let Shi Xiaozhen investigate the madman who caused the trouble and find out why he caused the trouble."
Li Luming bowed and said, "I will arrange it right away!"
Li Luming left in a hurry, and Xiao Xia ordered his attendant, "Go and bring the prince to see me!"
Soon, Crown Prince Yang Chu hurried to his father's study, knelt down and saluted, "Your son pays respect to your father!"
"The emperor is not injured!"
"Reporting to the Emperor, I am fine. I was not frightened at all. They are exaggerating."
Xiao Xia nodded, "This incident was just an accident. The emperor will continue to investigate the grain prices, but you can stay in the carriage and let the guards copy the grain prices for you."
"My son, I remember it!"
Yang Chu hesitated for a moment and said, "I feel that the big man seems to have been wronged. I want to investigate the matter."
Xiao Xia smiled and said, "I have asked the Internal Guard General Shi Dutong to investigate. You can follow up and see how they interrogate you. After you have found out, please report to me!"
"Your son obeys your order!"
Yang Chu came to the Internal Guard Office excitedly and happened to see Shi Xiaozhen interrogating the big man. He simply decided to listen in on the interrogation.
"What's your name? Where is your home?"
The big man knelt on the ground with his hands tied behind his back and said, "I am Wang Qilang, a native of Luoyang. My home is in Huijiefang, and I run a small grain and oil shop in the square to make a living."
"Then what grudge do you have against Liu's grain store that requires you to use an axe to kill someone?"
The big man shed tears and said, "I bought 200 dan of rice from Liu's rice shop three months ago. I bought it at the market price of new rice, but later when I opened the package to sell it, I found that it was rotten rice. I went to them to argue, but they refused to admit it, saying that I bought rotten rice from somewhere else to blackmail them. I couldn't produce any evidence when I sued the officials. What's hateful is that those guys are so sharp-tongued and said they had never seen me. I had no choice but to sell it at half price, but this rotten rice has a rotten smell. When I sold it, the residents returned it and ruined my reputation. No one is willing to come to my shop to sell rice. Unfortunately, my 200 dan of rice has all rotted, and I lost 80 strings of money. My business has also plummeted. I can't support my family. My youngest son died yesterday because he had no money to see a doctor!"
At this point, the man knelt down and cried. Yang Chu was extremely angry and asked, "Are the two hundred dan of rice still there?"
"Still in the store!"
Yang Chu said to Shi Xiaozhen, "General Shi, when I saw people buying rice at the rice shop, there was a record of more than 50 dan. There must have been a record of Wang Qilang buying 200 dan. They must have hidden the account book. Even if they destroyed it this time, there were records before. Send the inner guards to search the grain shop thoroughly. The county government may not dare to search, but the inner guards should be able to do so. If they find any records, not only will they have to pay compensation, but they will also be severely punished!"
Shi Xiaozhen did not dare to disobey the prince's order, and bowed and said, "I will send someone to search right away!"
Yang Chu said to Wang Qilang again: "I will handle this matter fairly. If I find that it is the other party's fault, I will punish them severely and ask them to compensate for your losses. But it is also wrong for you to break into the store with an axe. Fortunately, no one was injured, so I can give you a lighter punishment of twenty sticks!"
The big man shed tears and said, "If you can redress my injustice, I'm willing to kill me!"
When the Inner Guards take action, they will not fail. Dozens of Inner Guards searched Liu's Rice Shop for a quarter of an hour and found a hidden account book in the shopkeeper's room. The difference between this account book and the current account book is that there is an extra line of record of Wang Qillang purchasing 200 dan of grain, and the price. The evidence is irrefutable. The Inner Guards immediately sealed the grain shop and brought the owner Liu Zhen, the shopkeeper and several shop assistants back to the Inner Guard office.
The proprietor, the shopkeeper and several of their employees looked as dejected and depressed as leaves hit by frost.
Shi Xiaozhen had them interrogated separately. The employees all knew that there was irrefutable evidence, so they rushed to expose the fact that the shopkeeper and the owner were selling stale rice. The shopkeeper and the owner also pleaded guilty and accepted the punishment.
Shi Xiaozhen immediately made a judgment that Liu's grain shop should return Wang Qilang's 80 strings of cash and pay double compensation of 160 strings of cash. The owner and the shopkeeper should each be caned with 50 sticks, the clerks should each be caned with 30 sticks, and the grain shop should be fined 1,000 strings of cash. Wang Qilang was compensated and felt happy, sad and upset. He was happy because he got justice, got his money back, and his losses were compensated. He was sad because his young son died of illness, and he was upset because his reputation was ruined. What should he do in the future?
At this time, Yang Chu walked up to Wang Qilang and handed him a sign, "This is the license for selling honeycomb coal. Take this sign to the municipal office tomorrow to apply for an account number! You can sell honeycomb coal in your own workshop in the future."
There are currently five commodities that are under official monopoly in the Sui Dynasty: salt, iron, wine, sugar, coal, and honeycomb coal is also a government monopoly. Honeycomb coal is not sold for profit, but because the gunpowder involved is strictly controlled by the military and is not available to the public, so it must be sold by the government.
There are one or two shops in each block. Because the prices are fixed, they can't make much money. Fortunately, the income is stable and can last for a long time. As long as they are diligent and take the initiative to deliver goods to people's homes, they can earn seven or eight strings of cash a month.
Wang Qillang already knew that the young man was the Crown Prince, who was in the grain shop at the time. His recklessness almost caused a disaster.
Wang Qilang kowtowed and cried in gratitude: "Your Highness's kindness is as heavy as a mountain. My descendants will remember it in their hearts for generations to come!"
"Go!"
Yang Chu waved his hand and went back to Hongwenguan to write a report.
But Shi Xiaozhen found that things were not that simple. Where did the two hundred stones of rotten rice come from, how many were there in total, and who were they sold to in the end?
During the search, he found a secret account book, and it turned out that this batch of rotten rice was related to Luokou Warehouse.
Shi Xiaozhen rushed to report the in-depth investigation results to the emperor.
Shi Xiaozhen bowed and said to Emperor Xiao Xia, "Your Majesty, the Crown Prince's problem has been resolved. According to your instructions, Wang Qilang was compensated and given a honeycomb coal approval card. The Crown Prince's case has been successfully resolved."
Xiao Xia nodded, "Let's talk about it in the depths!"
"Reporting to your Majesty, the inner guards found a secret account book during the search, which recorded the source, price and destination of this batch of rotten rice. There were 20,000 dan in total, which came from Luokou Warehouse. At that time, the Wagang Army occupied Luokou Warehouse and transported away 1 million dan of grain.
After the Wagang Army left, the officials of Luokou Granary took over again. They secretly transported 20,000 shi of grain away and included it in the account book as stolen by the Wagang Army. Later, this batch of grain was not processed for a long time and began to rot. They sold it cheaply to several large grain merchants at the price of ten coins per dou.
"It's only two thousand strings of cash!"
"Yes! Then the grain merchants sold it to restaurants at the price of 20 wen per bushel. The restaurants cooked it and sold it to the customers. It was not seriously rotten at the time and you couldn't tell it was rotten. It just felt that the taste was not very good. In the end, the Liu family grain store only had the last 200 dan of seriously rotten grain left."
"Why would you sell it to Wang Qilang?"
Shi Xiaozhen smiled and said, "The grains bought by the small shops in each neighborhood are loaded onto the carts by the grain shop assistants. Wang Qilang was the first to come, but he didn't please the assistants, so the assistants were reluctant to bring him grains. Wang Qilang had a bad temper, so he couldn't help but scold the assistants. In anger, several assistants loaded 200 dan of rotten grains onto his cart.
If it was normal grain, Liu's grain shop would admit it, but this batch of rotten grain involved a serious matter, so Liu's grain shop resolutely refused to admit that they sold it. "
Xiao Xia nodded, "Does it involve current officials?"
"Reporting to Your Highness, there is one person involved, the current Luokou Warehouse Officer Xiao Wensheng, he was the mastermind at the time!"
"Surname Xiao?"
Xiao Xia was slightly startled and asked, "Does this Xiao Wensheng have any background?"
Shi Xiaozhen smiled bitterly and said, "He is a descendant of the Xiao family in Jiangdu!"
(End of this chapter)