Thirty thousand Stones of Grain 02

As Wu Qi Academy had predicted.

The imperial court officials did not care about the life and death of the common people in Hanwu Commandery, but they were extremely concerned about the 200,000 most elite garrison troops in the north.

Therefore, the imperial court began to quickly assemble grain and fodder in the south, but as soon as they started assembling, problems appeared.

Many granaries in the south, after receiving the order to assemble, the large amount of grain and fodder that had been hoarded over the years was found missing.

After a quick investigation, it was discovered that a large number of southern granary officials had been embezzling grain from the granaries for years, trading with the southeastern countries, because there were countless small and large battles in the southeastern countries.

Plus the military rations for the war, it was far greater than what was needed for the livelihood of the common people.

When grain became military provisions, it became invaluable.

And starting with the Yazhou incident ten years ago, where they got the "inspiration to get rich", over the past decade, countless southern officials had embezzled who knows how much grain from granaries and exchanged it for money and wealth in the southeastern countries.

This was probably also why, when Hanwu Commandery lost its grain reserves, there were always people at court suppressing the matter of “replenishing grain”.

After all, if the people behind the grain theft cases were just those southern officials, they probably wouldn’t have dared to completely empty several large granaries.

However, even with such a huge grain theft case, the current Dawu Country's court simply did not have the power to repeatedly interrogate those corrupt officials and confiscate their families’ properties.

Because Hanwu Commandery was still lacking grain.

Once riots break out in Hanwu Commandery, it would be too late!

Where should they go to find food?

In the end, the right minister of Dawu Country, Tang Li, took on this task. Unlike the left minister Song YanShi, Tang Li was born in a scholarly family and was known as the leader of scholarly families, especially in the south where he had great prestige. Within just three days, he had raised 30,000 stones of grain and fodder.

Although 30,000 stones was not much, it could relieve the emergency.

Moreover, the scholarly families promised that they would continue to do their utmost to assemble grain and fodder afterwards, with an expected 200,000 stones, which would be delivered to Hanwu Commandery in batches after the first batch of 30,000 stones of relief food.

Things seemed to be moving in a good direction.

However, Wu Qixue, who was leading a group of warriors straight to Tian Ge Commandery, and Lu Gaosheng, the prefect of Tian Ruo Prefecture, both knew that things were not that simple.

......

......

At the end of winter, snowflakes fell sparsely.

In the magnificent garden of the Lu Mansion, winter plum blossoms were in full bloom. Lu Gaosheng sat quietly in the courtyard, with a pot of hundred-year-old vintage famous wine, which was extremely rare.

Enjoying the snow leisurely and contentedly.

Lu Gaosheng gently tapped the armrests of the sandalwood chair, thinking that a letter had already been sent from Dafu, the Grand Sacrificial Wine Official in Capital City, and now with the endless wealth from Jin Wange's bottomless pit to assist him, and the secret support of the Qingliu Party.

And his cooperation with Lord Bai Junhou of the Bai family was also deepening day by day.

The position of Prefect would definitely be easily obtained as soon as the chaos in the north subsided slightly!

"Hahaha..." Even Lu Gaosheng couldn't help but chuckle softly, starting from a small county magistrate, in just six years as an official, he would be able to become the prefect of a commandery. In Dawu Country's history, I'm afraid not many people could achieve this!

Just as he was complacent, Li Xing entered from the side door.

Hearing the footsteps, Lu Gaosheng quickly hid his smile. By the time Li Xing came over, he just heard Li Xing respectfully say, "Sir, the lady has suddenly sent a letter."

Lu Gaosheng frowned slightly. His wife, who was far away in Capital City, was also the only daughter of the current Left Minister Song YanShi. They had already exchanged letters at the end of the year, so why did she send another letter just a few days later?

"She's not a clingy woman, this matter is a bit strange." Recalling Miss Song, Lu Gaosheng muttered to himself.

After taking the letter from Li Xing's hand, Lu Gaosheng read it carefully...

After reading it, Lu Gaosheng stood up abruptly!

Li Xing was shocked by Lu Gaosheng's appearance, and wondered secretly, what kind of thing could make the usually calm sir show a look of astonishment?

Li Xing asked, "Sir, what is this..."

Lu Gaosheng turned his head and said, "This is not a letter she sent, this is a letter from Song YanShi! He just borrowed her name."

Li Xing exclaimed in shock, "What? Song YanShi's letter!"

Lu Gaosheng muttered to himself, "Although Song YanShi was euphemistic in the letter, his true meaning was that he hoped I would pay attention to the movements of the grain transporting army from the south and report to him at any time! But as the Left Minister managing tens of thousands of affairs, when the Right Minister has already taken on this matter, what else does he need to manage?"

I'm afraid Left Minister Song YanShi was eyeing the 30,000 stones of food that temporarily eased the emergency in Hanwu Commandery!

Lu Gaosheng looked back and saw that there was no one around. He immediately said, "Let's talk inside!"

He turned around, and the two hurried away.

A winter plum blossom was blown off by the wind.

......

The study inside the room had a burning stove, making it much warmer than outside.

Song YanShi's letter was left on the desk. With Lu Gaosheng’s consent, Li Xing also read it carefully and offered some of his own views.

Li Xing believed that this should be another power struggle between Left Minister Song YanShi and Right Minister Tang Li at court.

Because from the current situation, since Right Minister Tang Li had taken on this matter, if something went wrong halfway, I'm afraid the forces of Left Minister would take the opportunity to suppress him a bit on the court.

It must be said that Li Xing's thinking was not entirely unreasonable.

However, after thinking it over, Lu Gaosheng shook his head in denial: "No, I don't think you are right."

Li Xing frowned and said, "What does sir think is wrong?"

Lu Gaosheng said, "You don't understand this person Song YanShi. He is the kind of fox that can hide and endure, just like the conflict between Song YanShi and Bai ShiXuan back then. Back then, Song YanShi was not yet the Left Minister with power over the whole court like today. On the surface, Bai ShiXuan, the number one figure in the military at that time, had him firmly under control. But in the end?"

Speaking of this, even Lu Gaosheng had to sigh, "Song YanShi endured for years and only made a move once, but that one move took Bai ShiXuan's life! It's just 30,000 stones of grain, it’s not like Tang Li is personally transporting it, and where did the grain come from in the first place? Was it not collected from the major families in the south with a wave of his hand? Even if something really happened to the grain and Tang Li was condemned, could he still fail to overturn him?"

With Song YanShi's sinister means, manipulating such a trivial grain affair was simply not his vicious and ruthless style.

Sitting in a chair, fiddling with the white jade ring on his finger, looking at the letter on the table.

As various thoughts flashed through the mind of Lu Gaosheng in black robe, he gradually began to sort out, piece by piece, everything that happened since the chaos in the north.

Among these things, the two most bizarre ones were:

Wang Jue's battle formation completely ignored the retreat route, which was strange.

Song YanShi eyed the grain, but the purpose was not to overthrow Tang Li, which was also strange.

Battle formation, grain, battle formation, grain...

That's it!

Suddenly, Lu Gaosheng revealed a cold smile and said, "I think I have figured it out completely. The whole thing, from the chaos in the north, no, from the time Wang Jue sent troops to attack Shuangxue Country, until now, everything was a plot, a game between Wang Jue and Song YanShi!"

Hearing this, Li Xing was stunned in place. How could he imagine the sinister plots behind this? He could only wait for Lu Gaosheng to explain.