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

Liu Mansion.

Zheng Shouye, the prefect of Yecheng, was walking towards the backyard with heavy steps.

His office as prefect was temporarily removed a few days ago, and the yamen was taken over by Jiang Zuo and his entourage.

At this moment, Zheng Shouye couldn't help feeling dissatisfied.

When they arrived at the backyard, Liu Sheng had already prepared a sumptuous lunch to entertain Zheng Shouye.

"Oh, Boss Liu, you are so polite."

Zheng Shouye sat down slowly.

"You're welcome. Lord Zheng, you have helped me so much. I am very grateful." Liu Sheng smiled and took out a large silver note from his arms and stuffed it into Zheng Shouye's hand.

Zheng Shouye opened the banknotes and took a look. He was immediately overjoyed. He raised his glass and said, "Come on, I'll toast to Boss Liu."

"No, no, no." Liu Sheng extended his hand and said politely, "I should be the one to toast you. If it weren't for Lord Zheng, my son Riren would still be suffering in prison right now."

"Boss Liu, you are too kind. The Thousand Cavalry Division is just so-so. They didn't even find the secret passage in the prison. I just used a trick to get you out of the prison. Boss Liu, you can rest assured. I have sent people to escort you out of Jizhou overnight. I don't believe that the Thousand Cavalry Division can catch up."

Zheng Shouye was quite proud.

Liu Sheng laughed out loud and toasted, "Thank you for your hard work, Lord Zheng. You are the father and mother of our Yecheng. That so-called Chief Governor is nothing more than that..."

Speaking of the Chief Governor, Zheng Shouye could not help but groan and said, "That guy thought he could show off his power with the Thousand Cavalry Division. He dismissed me right away. Haha, I wonder how long he can hold out."

Boss Liu laughed and said, "He's just a young man who's still wet behind the ears."

As he was speaking, a servant from Liu's residence stepped forward and said to Liu Sheng, "My lord, we have bought all the grain on the market. Now the people in Yecheng can only buy grain from us. I believe the government can no longer provide any grain."

After hearing this, Liu Sheng burst into laughter and said, "Haha, I want to see how capable this Jiang Zuo is. He wants to sell grain to the market and take the opportunity to lower the price. Haha, I will buy as much as he sells."

"I heard that he has been in a state of panic for a long time. I think he will leave in disgrace in a few days. Haha, an official appointed by the imperial court must follow the rules of Jizhou when he comes to Jizhou. This is the fate of offending our boss Liu."

"Here, cheers."

……

Beijing.

In the palace.

Chen Qingyun stood under the pavilion, followed by the chief palace maid Qiuyue.

The tedious government affairs in recent days have made Chen Qingyun almost breathless.

She gently stroked her proud breasts, trying to relax her tense mind, and her beautiful face showed a little more sadness.

The Jizhou disaster relief issue was Chen Qingyun's biggest headache.

Especially after reading the memorial sent back by Jiang Zuo, she became furious and could not control her emotions. She cursed the officials for their incompetence in the court for a full half hour.

After hearing about the incident, the officials returned home and were so frightened that they fell seriously ill for unknown reasons.

Everyone knows the empress's ruthless methods.

Now, the Yuzhou case has implicated a large number of corrupt officials in Jizhou.

Even the corruption in Jizhou was even more shocking.

The memorials from Jiangzuo clearly described the current situation in Jizhou Prefecture.

"Jiangnan family!"

In a rage, Chen Qingyun secretly dispatched a large number of Thousand Cavalry to thoroughly investigate all officials who had connections with the Jiangnan families.

She could kill so many officials, but she had no way to deal with the Jiangnan families.

It is said that the emperor’s decrees do not reach the counties.

Places below the county level were mostly controlled by the gentry. These wealthy landlords often found ways to evade taxes from the imperial court. They pretended to obey the court but actually disobeyed it and exploited the people in various ways. They were truly a cancer to the Great Yan State.

Most of these aristocratic families and gentry were affiliated with the powerful Jiangnan families...

How to eradicate these deep-rooted forces has become the empress's concern since she ascended the throne.

At this time, Jiang Zuo, who was in Jizhou Prefecture, must have encountered the same trouble.

I heard yesterday that the disaster situation in Jizhou Prefecture has improved a lot.

Fortunately, she did not trust the wrong person, Jiang Zuo was indeed very efficient.

After just one day in Jizhou, he carried out reforms in the Jizhou government and properly resettled the victims.

Although that guy kept crying poor and asking for more disaster relief funds.

But now the imperial treasury is empty, and Chen Qingyun suddenly feels powerless.

"Are there any memorials from Jizhou today?"

Chen Qingyun asked. Although he didn't want to be bothered by political affairs at the moment, he was always thinking about the affairs of Jizhou Prefecture.

Qiuyue said, "There is a letter, but I don't want to bother Your Majesty, so I want to wait until Your Majesty is dealing with government affairs before reminding you."

"Bring it here now."

Chen Qingyun ordered and sighed softly.

A moment later, Qiuyue brought the memorial submitted by Jiang Zuo.

When Chen Qingyun opened it, his brows immediately furrowed and he could hardly smile.

"The Liu family in Jiangnan is still hoarding grain and is bound to monopolize all the grain in Jizhou Prefecture. The grain price in Jizhou has not fluctuated. I need your majesty's assistance..."

Asking for help again?

Chen Qingyun sighed in his heart.

Unexpectedly, Jiang Zuo, who had many unique strategies, also suffered a loss in Jizhou Prefecture.

In the past few days, Chen Qingyun sent many grassroots officials to Jizhou Prefecture to assist Jiang Zuo. Chen Qingyun has tried his best to satisfy Jiang Zuo.

If Jiang Zuo fails to deal with the disaster in Jizhou Prefecture within a month, Chen Qingyun will have to reconsider his selection.

If Jiangzuo cannot complete the task as scheduled, we will go to Beijing and be punished!

Jizhou Prefecture.

Suddenly, there were 30,000 dan of grain in Yecheng, but each dan was sold for only three taels of silver.

As expected, they were sold out in less than a moment.

Things are rare.

There is a food shortage in Yecheng now. In order to survive, ordinary people can only buy food at high prices or queue up to receive disaster relief food.

Liu Sheng's wealth is enough to buy all the grain sold by the government. If they continue like this, Jiangzuo will definitely lose.

Jiang Zuo at this moment naturally understood this truth.

But he is not panicking now.

The next day.

Suddenly, a large number of notices appeared in the city, which read: "There is a large amount of poisoned grain in Yecheng. Some people have died of poisoning in the past two days. I hope that the people will not buy local grain in Yecheng for the time being. Please go to the government office to buy official grain. The price is only one dou for one hundred coins."

Looking at these notices, the people were in panic and were skeptical.

"No wonder there are so many low-priced foods recently. It turns out they are all poisonous."

"What should we do? We ordinary people can't just not eat!"

"Either starve to death or be poisoned to death."

"How can the food be poisonous? Are the government trying to deceive us?"

"No matter if he is a liar or not, I will definitely buy this one hundred coins of government grain."

Compared with other shops in Yecheng, this price is really reasonable.

At this moment, the Liu family members who passed by hurriedly tore off these panic-inducing notices and shouted loudly: "They are all lies, don't believe them."

After a while, a man echoed, "Yes, I ate rice from Yecheng yesterday, and I'm fine now... Ugh!"

As he spoke, he suddenly vomited a large amount of green, turbid substance, and then fell to the ground and twitched continuously.

"This is obviously poisoned!"