books44 Chapter 134 Thunderous Means!
Chapter 134 Thunderous Means!
The grain merchant was so angry that his face turned red and he started to object!
"Your Highness! Do you know that the price of grain in Yingzhou has reached 700 coins per bushel?
Even if we have some food stored, it is to save our lives and prevent our families from starving to death.
"Your Majesty, you spend twenty wencai to buy food for one dou of grain, but I'm afraid you can't even buy a grain of food in Yingzhou."
Qin Wang Zhao Defang glanced at him and asked calmly, "What's your name?"
The fat and big-eared grain merchant was immediately startled!
Seeing Liu Zhizhou winking at him, he mustered up the courage to straighten his back.
"Reporting to the prince, I am a grain merchant from Yingzhou, my name is Kong Cheng."
"You and Kong Ping, who manages Changping Warehouse in Yingzhou, are cousins, right?"
The King of Qin's indifferent voice exploded in Kong Cheng's heart like thunder!
Kong Cheng was panic-stricken and kept nodding his head, not daring to admit or deny it.
Qin Wang Zhao Defang's face turned cold! An aura of the supremacy of the king emanated from him.
"Come here! Take down this evil-hearted merchant Kong Cheng and the Changping Warehouse Supervisor Kong Ping, and take them out to be beheaded!"
Kong Cheng and Kong Ping were frightened out of their wits!
She struggled desperately and shouted, "Prince! Spare my life! This is unfair!..."
"Your Highness! It's unfair! Do we have to lose our heads just because we are cousins? Liu Zhizhou, Wang Tongpan, we are innocent! ..."
Liu Jingye and Wang Ren were terrified, but they had no choice but to plead for the Kong brothers.
Liu Jingye gritted his teeth and stepped forward first, "My Lord, you are known as the Eighth Sage King. How can you be so careless and take human life?"
Wang Ren also bowed and saluted! "Your Majesty, even if you want to punish Kong Cheng for his verbal offense, you shouldn't behead him, and you shouldn't implicate innocent people!
Please, Your Majesty, please be merciful and revoke your order!"
They are all grasshoppers tied to the same rope. If the Kong brothers are eager to save their lives and confess, none of them can escape!
Other officials also spoke up and pleaded for the Kong brothers.
"Please, Your Majesty, please show mercy and take back your order!"
"Please, Your Majesty, please be merciful and take back your order!"
As the saying goes, the law does not hold everyone responsible, Liu Jingye became even bolder.
But his attitude became more respectful, "Your Majesty, Kong Cheng dared to contradict you, so I'll beat him up with dozens of sticks to teach him a lesson!"
King Qin Zhao Defang swept his eyes across the faces of these officials one by one, frightening everyone whose eyes were swept over.
King Qin extended his hand to Yun Yi beside him, and Yun Yi took out an account book from his arms.
After taking it, the King of Qin threw it to the officials!
"This king takes human life lightly?
Look at the account book showing the Kong brothers colluding with each other to resell the life-saving grain in the Changping Warehouse!"
Liu Jingye leaned over and picked up the account book at his feet. After flipping through a few pages, he turned pale with fear and was covered in cold sweat! How could the two brothers of the Kong family leave evidence of such a confidential matter so carelessly and contemptuously? Isn't this courting death?
More than 20 officials took turns taking the account book and took a look at it, and suddenly they were all silent with fear.
When Kong Cheng and Kong Ping were dragged out, they cried desperately, "Your Majesty, please spare my lives! Spare my lives!... I am willing to confess, I want to redeem myself and make meritorious contributions!..."
After hearing this, the officials of Yingzhou looked at the figures of the Kong brothers with hatred, wishing that the two dog heads would fall to the ground immediately.
After a moment, two bloody heads were brought in on a tray. Dark red blood dripped onto the ground. The Kong brothers both died with their eyes wide open.
Everyone in the hall was so frightened that their faces turned pale, and their clothes were soaked with cold sweat. A timid county magistrate was trembling with his thighs, and a smell of urine emanated from him.
The King of Qin gave another indifferent order, "Yun Yi, send someone to confiscate the property of the Kong brothers, and take out the blood of the people they drank, and return it to the people to save their lives."
Yun Yi bowed and accepted the order, then assigned two shadow guards to lead the search of the house.
Qin Wang Zhao Defang smiled at everyone again, as gentle as jade, "I will give everyone another chance. Is there anyone who pleads guilty to the corruption case of disaster relief silver and grain, and wants to receive a lighter sentence, or exposes the case and wins merit?"
Those who had something to hide were all trembling with fear, as if they were on the edge of an abyss, and they all glanced at the prefect Liu Jingye.
Liu Jingye was terrified, but he gritted his teeth and straightened his back, signaling to his accomplices with his fearless aura to grit his teeth and refuse to confess even if he died!
The hall was so quiet that you could hear a pin drop. After waiting for about a cup of tea, Liu Jingye and the others gradually felt relieved.
The King of Qin has no evidence in his hands, so what can he do to us, the officials appointed by the court?
King Qin Zhao Defang looked at these corrupt officials who were resisting stubbornly and snorted coldly!
He reached out to Yun Yi beside him again, and Yun Yi took out a stack of account books from his arms and handed them to the prince.
The King of Qin looked at the name marked on the account book and shouted, throwing one at the man!
: "Liu Jingye!"
: "Meng Xiaotu!"
: "Wang Ren!"
: "Chen Hong!"
: "Liu Qimei!"
……
The officials who were hit by the account books picked up the account books with their names on them with trepidation. After flipping through two pages, they were frightened out of their wits!
"Plop!" "Plop!"... One after another, they knelt down on the ground, trembling.
Yun Yi sneered in his heart!
What kind of person is my prince? How could he fight an unprepared battle?
Twenty shadow guards were dispatched to the disaster area right after we left the capital. None of the dirty deeds you plotted could escape the eyes and ears of my brothers.
Qin Wang Zhao Defang glanced at the officials who were kneeling down. They were all so scared! Their faces were pale and they were trembling all over. The room was filled with the smell of urine.
“Yun Yi, take off the official hats and uniforms of these corrupt officials, and parade them on the streets!
All their property was confiscated!"
There was no harsh expression on the handsome face of His Royal Highness the Prince of Qin, and his voice was calm and gentle, but it was like thunderclaps that struck the hearts of the officials!
The prefect Liu Jingye fell to the ground in fear, his mind was in a turmoil as if struck by lightning, and was still spinning furiously.
Resist? How could the several thousand troops of this prefecture dare to confront the two thousand elite Moyun cavalry brought by the King of Qin?
The King of Qin didn't go so crazy as to behead us all immediately, so there is still room for maneuver.
My mentor, who is so powerful and respected in the court, will not just sit there and watch. After all, I have used a lot of the money I embezzled over the years to honor him and to bribe those powerful figures in the Ministry of Personnel and the Ministry of Revenue.
Just surrender to the law for now! As long as you can keep your life in the hands of the King of Qin, when you go to the court, the emperor who rules the world together with the literati will also let you go lightly, and at most you will be dismissed from office.
What made him most distressed was that the property he had embezzled over the years was confiscated and used for disaster relief. After enjoying all the splendor and wealth, hundreds of people in his family were going to starve to death?
Yun Yi sent out teams of elite Mo Yun cavalry to confiscate property.
He also ordered his men to strip off the official uniforms and hats of all the corrupt officials who had been brought to justice, string them together with ropes, and parade them through the streets.
The local tyrants and wealthy businessmen in the hall of the government office were so frightened that their faces turned pale. They trembled as if they were on the edge of an abyss, waiting for the decision of His Royal Highness the Prince of Qin.
At this time, Qin Wang Zhao Defang's face turned cold! He scanned the crowd with a sharp gaze.
"I know all of you who colluded with these corrupt officials to resell the disaster relief grain.
If you return three times the amount you resold, I will show you a lighter sentence.
If anyone dares to lose even a pound, his death will be immediate and his property will be confiscated for disaster relief!"
Those powerful men and wealthy businessmen were all terrified, but they felt as if they had been pardoned. They all knelt on the ground and said they would obey your orders.
The uninvited businessmen at the scene were not frightened or anxious at all from beginning to end.
At this moment, the old man with white beard among them was pushed forward.
Bow to His Royal Highness the Prince of Qin!
“Your Majesty, the five of us are merchants and landlords from Yingzhou.
I heard that Your Highness the Prince of Qin came here in person to provide disaster relief and investigate the case, so I came here specially to try to do my best to help.
We have some grain stored at home, and we were thinking of selling it to you at the fair price of twenty wen a dou that Your Highness offered, so that we can use it to help the people in Yingzhou who have been affected by the disaster.
I, Cheng Mu, am willing to sell 20,000 dan of grain at a fair price."
"Your Majesty, I am Zhao Wu, and I am willing to give you 10,000 dan of grain."
"Your Majesty, I am Geng Chunwan, and I am willing to give you 10,000 dan of grain."
"Your Majesty, I am Liu Dahai, and I am willing to give you 8,000 dan of grain."
The last middle-aged businessman bowed deeply to His Royal Highness the King of Qin and said generously: "Your Highness, Yingzhou Sihai Buhang is willing to take out all the 26,000 shi of grain in stock."
King Qin Zhao Defang stood up and walked over to these people, bowed and saluted!
"On behalf of the people affected by the disaster, I, Zhao Defang, would like to thank you all for your generosity and understanding!"
Those people hurriedly dodged to the side in panic, saying they dared not and bowed to salute.
The generous middle-aged cloth merchant was so frightened that he knelt on the ground.
Yun Yi, who was standing next to him, understood. This man was the shopkeeper of the Yingzhou branch of the cloth shop under the Qin Palace. He bought all the grains on orders. How could he dare to accept the gift from the prince?
After thanking several merchants who donated generously, the King of Qin turned around and looked at those black-hearted profiteers and powerful landlords.
"This prince has said that all the two hundred thousand taels of silver he brought must be used to buy grain at a fair price.
These chivalrous and kind-hearted shopkeepers have already taken the initiative to bear part of the burden. Now there is still a shortage of more than 100,000 shi of affordable grain, and it falls on you to take care of it."
Two bloody heads were placed before them, and the officials of Yingzhou were stripped of their official uniforms and strung together with ropes to parade through the streets. Who would dare to risk their lives to raise a voice of objection?
These unscrupulous merchants and powerful people, who were already heartbroken because they had bought relief grain from corrupt officials at three times the price of the grain they had confiscated, could only discuss among themselves in a low voice and each subscribe to the amount of the shortfall in the affordable grain.
King Qin Zhao Defang sneered secretly!
Although Yingzhou suffered a total loss of harvest after the disaster, it would never be so short of food that tens of thousands of people would starve to death.
These landlords, tyrants and unscrupulous businessmen must have stored a lot of grain in previous years.
After a natural disaster, they would buy food from other states as soon as possible. They were just hoarding food and driving up the price of food to make a fortune from the national disaster!
What is even more evil and vicious is that these powerful landlords will let the disaster worsen, taking advantage of the opportunity to annex the land from the victims at low prices, and buy the victims' children who were sold at low prices as slaves.
However, the corrupt officials, black-hearted businessmen and powerful landlords in this world are endless and cannot be eliminated.
All I can do is to bear the enormous pressure and punish them severely!