I embezzled 100,000 taels at the beginning, and the empress begged me to be more greedy

The roads in Yecheng have been in disrepair for many years and have been hit by heavy rains in recent days, resulting in potholes all over the streets.

The carriage passed through the street, splashing dirty water all over the passers-by.

Jiang Zuo rode on his horse and slowly headed towards the South City.

"It seems like there's a big problem here."

Jiang Zuo murmured.

Ma Hengwei followed behind him, looked around, and said, "Sir, I always feel something is wrong."

Qianqisi's intuition is always right.

An inexplicably dangerous atmosphere permeated the depressing Ye City.

"I think so too." Jiang Zuo said, "By the way, has Liu Qi been locked up?"

"My Lord, the Thousand Cavalry Division has taken over the prison in Yecheng."

Ma Hengwei replied.

"Always pay attention to the small movements of that group of people." Jiang Zuo looked alert and glanced slightly to the side.

Behind them, someone seemed to be following them.

After walking for a while, Jiang Zuo and his group finally arrived at the so-called Nancheng disaster victims.

But the scene before him made Jiang Zuo feel angry.

Many dirty victims gathered together and lay on piles of straw.

They looked dazed, and some of them kept muttering, "My Lords, is there any work to do? Just give me something to eat..."

“Is this called resettlement?”

Jiang Zuo frowned, feeling quite unhappy.

They clearly found a vacant lot in the city and threw the victims in, leaving them to fend for themselves.

The living environment of these disaster victims in the city is just as bad as that outside the city. It is a blessing in disguise that no plague has broken out despite such a large gathering.

Coupled with the rainy season, the environment here becomes even worse.

Originally there were more than 30,000 disaster victims in Yecheng area, but now there are only more than 10,000 left.

Die or die, run or run.

Jizhou is in great unrest today. The number of refugees has increased due to the great disaster, and sporadic peasant uprisings have left the imperial court with no time to deal with them.

"My lord, this place is full of mixed people, please be careful."

Ma Hengwei had some concerns.

"Don't worry."

Jiang Zuo dismounted and looked at the victims in front of him.

He had just taken two steps when a skinny old man appeared in front of him. He knelt in front of Jiang Zuo and begged, "Sir, can you give me some food? I haven't eaten for two days."

The old man looked weak and his voice was feeble.

Jiang Zuo couldn't bear it and gave him a few taels of silver.

Seeing this, the disaster victims nearby also gathered around and offered money to Jiang Zuo and his group.

Ma Hengwei refused sternly, but Jiang Zuo waved his hand to indicate that it was okay.

Jiang Zuo had already ordered his advisor to prepare some food and distribute it to the disaster victims in South City.

It is impossible for Jiangzuo to accommodate so many disaster victims all at once.

It seems that this journey is a long and arduous journey...

The relief grain allocated by the imperial court is already on the way to Jizhou.

However, the mountains are high and the roads are long, and most of the food is transported from Guanzhong or Jiangnan. The journey is long and takes at least ten days.

Jiangzuo can't wait.

If we wait any longer, I don’t know how many more people will starve to death.

So after inspecting the current situation in Yecheng, he immediately arranged for Master Guo to count the number of people and transport a batch of grain from Anding area of ​​Daizhou to Jizhou first.

Only after solving the current troubles can Jiangzuo govern the problems of Jizhou.

A moment later, Master Guo and several of his followers arrived at the disaster relief center with several baskets of steamed buns.

The disaster victims here knelt down to express their gratitude when they received the food, and then wolfed down the food ravenously.

After a while, Jiang Zuo asked the old man: "Old man, how long have you been here?"

The old man's face was full of wrinkles and his eyes were filled with tears. He said, "My hometown in the village was washed away by the flood. My family and I have been in Yecheng for ten days. We have spent all our money to enter the city. My grandson didn't make it. I don't know how long I can hold on with my old bones..."

They even extort money from disaster victims. The corrupt officials and profiteers in Yecheng are simply not human beings!

Where did the hundreds of thousands of taels of disaster relief silver go?

Jiang Zuo didn't even need to guess, the money must have gone into the pockets of corrupt officials.

"My lord, you don't know that the things here are shockingly expensive."

At this time, Master Guo stepped forward and said, then took out his notebook and calculated the expenses for Jiang Zuo.

The prices in Yecheng made Jiang Zuo deeply suspicious.

In Anding County, a steamed bun cost three coins, and a stone of rice cost one tael of silver. Even in the capital, the price of rice was one stone, one tael of silver, and five hundred coins.

But now in Yecheng, even a steamed bun costs fifty coins, and a stone of grain sells for twenty taels.

These unscrupulous businessmen who made a fortune from the national crisis have already made a fortune.

"Come with me."

Jiang Zuo said, and then left South City and went to various shops in the city to find out the prices.

Food prices are related to people’s livelihood.

The high prices in Yecheng have long made the people feel suffocated.

Arriving at a rice shop, Jiang Zuo went up to it and asked, "Excuse me, how much is a bushel of rice?"

The rice shop clerk just sat on a reclining chair, not even looking at him, and said, "Two taels of silver."

"Two taels, that's a bit too expensive." Jiang Zuo picked up the rice measure.

"Don't touch it if you don't want to buy it. Go away." The waiter put on a sour face.

"There are so many disasters nowadays. It is really heartless of you to raise the prices so high."

"Conscience? There are disasters everywhere these days. If it weren't for my boss' kindness in selling his stored grain, the people would have nothing to eat."

"Who is your boss?" Jiang Zuo asked.

"You don't even know this?" the waiter asked impatiently.

“It’s a new arrival and I’m not familiar with the place.”

"Tsk, you stinky outsider, why are you meddling in other people's business? Let me tell you, our boss is the master of the Liu family. If you don't want to cause trouble, just get out of here."

As the guy said this, he started to chase the man away.

"Liu family?"

Jiang Zuo suddenly remembered a name, then immediately turned around and left, returning to the Yecheng government office.

At this moment, Zheng Shouye, the prefect of Yecheng, was sleeping soundly and had no idea that Jiang Zuo would return again.

After being pushed and shoved by his subordinates many times, Zheng Shouye woke up and hurried to greet them.

"Master Jiang, is there anything else?"

Zheng Shouye said with narrowed eyes.

"How much grain does the Yecheng government have left?" Jiang Zuo asked.

Zheng Shouye was still sleepy, and said slowly: "Your Excellency, I am not sure about this."

"In your position, you must do your job and fulfill your responsibilities. As the prefect of Yecheng, you don't know these important things?"

Jiang Zuo's voice and expression were both stern.

Zheng Shouye's body shook violently, and he stammered, "Sir... these are not under my jurisdiction..."

"Take me to the granary for a look."

"As ordered..."

When we arrived at the Yecheng granary and opened the door, we smelled a musty odor.

Such a huge granary only had a few dozen stones of grain stored.

"It seems that hundreds of thousands or even millions of taels of silver from the imperial court for disaster relief have all fallen into the hands of corrupt officials and profiteers."

Jiang Zuo said angrily.

"Sir, wait for my humble order to have the Thousand Cavalry Division capture all these parasites!"

Ma Hengwei was furious. He hated corrupt officials the most in his life and wanted to tie up the prefect of Yecheng and punish him right away.

"it's useless."

Jiang Zuo said helplessly.

"If we catch ten, there will be twenty more. We can never kill all these corrupt officials."