Quick Wear: Crazy Fox Calm Tree

If the court wanted to prepare those things again, it would take at least half a month, and it would take another half a month to transport these things and silver to the south. With less than a month left for reconstruction, how could it be possible to make it in time?

If the Mu family wanted to help, it would still be in time, but if he asked now, no one would believe him except Qin Yu.

"Is there something wrong with that minister?" Qin Yu frowned, secretly alert in his heart. If the other party was really corrupt and accepted bribes, it would not be a trivial matter.

"Anyway, the family of that master has good food and drink. You also know that the Mu family's business is all over the capital, so I know which officials in the capital will use what grade of things and how much they will buy.

The gentleman had always been quite generous in the past, and in the past few months he had been even more generous, not only buying two pieces of cloth but also buying a few sets of clothes.

She also bought some jewelry, rouge, and some daily necessities. Although those things are ordinary and look ordinary,

But in fact, it is not a rare thing, but a fine product made with great effort. The fabrics on it are all fine silk. It is the snow-light brocade woven by the embroiderer after a year of hard work. It looks very ordinary, but in fact it looks like stars under the sun.

In order to cover up the snow-like brocade, they also sewed a layer of ordinary cloth on the outside.

The hairpins on her body look like they are made of ordinary wood, but they are actually made of golden nanmu, South China rosewood, etc. The silver hairpins are also made of gold and jade, and are priceless.

Incense, rouge, etc. are all tributes from foreign countries, and the concubines in the palace may not be able to use them." Mu Qing said while counting on his fingers. In fact, there are far more than what he said, there are also utensils used in daily life.

In the past, they only had ordinary writing brushes, inkstones, paper, and inkstones, teapots, and teacups. But two months ago, they bought some antique teapots, ancient paintings, rice paper, and Duan inkstones from the Mu family's shop...

Even the stones used for the rockery were replaced with high-quality granite.

Mu Qing didn't need to calculate carefully. With a rough estimate, he knew that the total price of these items was at least hundreds of thousands of taels!

After hearing what Mu Qing said, Qin Yu frowned tightly and his eyes became colder.

He never thought that a small inspector would be so bold. The funds allocated by the court for flood control totaled only 200,000 taels, but now they have all been misappropriated by the other party to buy these extravagant and useless things.

If this matter reaches the ears of the emperor, immediate execution will be the lightest punishment. The people's resentment cannot be appeased unless their clansmen are killed.

Qin Yu's face became uglier when he thought of the possible consequences of this incident. It would be good if this matter could be resolved peacefully. It is not too late to mend the fold.

But if this really caused a flood that left the people homeless and starving them to death, then even if their entire family was executed, it would probably not be enough to offset the lives of tens of thousands of people on both sides of the Yangtze River.

"Mu Qing, can you calculate how much silver his family spent?" Qin Yu asked with a frown. Officials are bound to collude with each other, so not all of them are innocent. As a Jinyiwei who monitors all officials, he is very clear about this.

Generally speaking, they will turn a blind eye. After all, if the water is too clear, there will be no fish.

Tasks like this one, such as building dams for disaster relief, have always been lucrative jobs. It is inevitable that there will be some damage on the way from the capital to the destination. This is unavoidable.

Therefore, as long as the remaining things are acceptable, the court will not conduct a strict investigation. After all, the officials did not travel this far on empty-handed, and it is impossible to ask the officials to provide their own food and fodder for their carriages and horses.

But it was rare for them to be so greedy. Out of a total of 20 taels of silver, I wonder if only 1/10 of it was sent to the south due to their greed.

"I don't know about other places, but in the Mu family's shop, nearly 18 taels of silver were spent. I don't know much about other people's shops, but I have heard of them. It is estimated that they spent more than taels of silver, not including house deeds and the like." Mu Qing made a rough estimate in his mind. His side was not so bad. They only sold some daily necessities, and the more expensive ones were the four treasures of the study, flowers, trees and rare stones.

Although some things are more expensive, they are also more valuable, such as cloth, gold and silver jewelry. If they are sold again, they can still be worth 80,000 or 90,000 taels.

But in addition to these things in his house, the corrupt official also collected stones, calligraphy and paintings, and they were not ordinary stones and calligraphy and paintings, but those rare but not valuable stones, and the calligraphy and paintings were also painted by unknown people.

However, these things, which were originally worthless, were bought by him at huge sums of money, so that the prices are now extremely inflated. Putting aside his own love for them, if those things were sold again, they would be worthless.

“If the house is confiscated, I can take back the things I sold, and they should be worth about 9 taels.

But it’s hard to say about other things. The stone calligraphy and paintings he played with are all things that we have never heard of. Those things are fine for fun, but if you really pawn them, I’m afraid they are not as valuable as your paintings. "Mu Qing said, shaking his head.

"Paintings and calligraphy, stones?" There was a hint of doubt in Qin Yu's eyes. He knew best what the corrupt official was like. It was okay for him to pretend to be cultured, but he was not a person who liked these things. Why would he spend a lot of money to buy paintings and calligraphy on stones?

"Well, originally we all thought he was confused or had a weird personality, but after what happened during this period of time, I guess he should be related to the Western Regions." Mu Qing nodded seriously. He just figured it out.

A light bulb went off in Qin Yu's head, and the two looked at each other, seeing the answer in each other's eyes.

"So he gave all that silver to the Western Regions?" Qin Yu said to himself.

“The stones he bought are rarely seen in the Great Zhou, but there are many in the Western Regions. Although the calligraphy and paintings were painted by people from the Great Zhou, judging from the scenery and poems above, the painters should also be on the border or in the Western Regions.” Mu Qing nodded.

"It seems to be correct." Qin Yu said calmly, and even showed a smile on his face, but there was no warmth in the smile, which was scary to look at.

"Zi Jin, it seems you will have a lot of things to do in the future!" Mu Qing looked at Qin Yu who had regained his spirits, and a helpless smile appeared on his face.

"Well, the most important thing now is to tell the emperor about this matter as soon as possible. The dam in the south can't wait any longer." If there is no flood this year, it will be fine. Once there is a heavy rain this year, the dam in the south will burst. Now there are less than two months left until the rainy season.

"If you need anything, tell me. Although the Mu family has relatively little business in the south, they still have some connections." Mu Qing instructed.

"Well, Qingqing, I'm going to be busy now. You should go back early! Don't go out recently. Something big might happen." Qin Yu instructed, and then left in a hurry.

Watching his departing back, Mu Qing walked out slowly, wondering as he walked whether there was anything he could do to help.

Zijin and the others didn't know if it would rain heavily this year, but Muqing knew it would definitely rain. And it was a heavy rainstorm that directly destroyed the dam, causing countless villages on both sides to be flooded, with corpses floating everywhere and countless refugees.

It was precisely because the scene was too tragic, and all the relief money had been taken away by corrupt officials, that the Great Zhou was unable to come up with another sum of money to appease the refugees, that Zijin took the initiative to take out some money from other sources.

But who would have thought that Da Zhou, which had not experienced a snowstorm for ten years, would be hit by a snowstorm again, and it just so happened that the silver that Qin Yu withdrew was the disaster relief money.

This is such a coincidence, really.

Mu Qing stopped and looked up at the sky, his eyes full of sharpness and anger. Although Zi Jin was not a good person, he had not done anything bad, so why torture him like this?

Last time he was suffering from a serious illness, this time he is burdened with a bad reputation, so what about next time?

……

After Qin Yu reported everything to the emperor, the emperor was very angry. Not only did he order the corrupt official's house to be raided immediately, he also immediately summoned officials from six ministries to discuss what to do.

Now that silver has flowed to the Western Regions, it is a small matter. The most important thing is what to do in the South? Now it is almost the rainy season. Even if we gather enough silver, there is no time to run back and forth to repair the dam.

"Your Majesty, it would be better to move all the people on both sides of the strait away and then move them back to their original places after a period of time." One of the officials said after thinking for a while.

If all the people on both sides of the strait were moved away, there would be no need to worry about any casualties. As for the damaged crops, fields, houses, etc., they could be repaired slowly later.

"No, let's not talk about what to do with the fields, just the people are not possible. There are at least hundreds of thousands of people living on both sides of the river, if not millions. It's impossible to accommodate so many people, not to mention that they may not be willing to move away.

For example, for those older centenarians, asking them to travel long distances would be a death sentence for them.” Another official said, shaking his head.

"Yes, and we can't convince them at all. They are absolutely unwilling to let the people leave their homes. If they know what happened on the river bank, I'm afraid they will revolt."

"If construction is not possible, why not take this opportunity to dig a river channel? There is still more than a month left, which is more than enough time. Then we can just divert the water to other places and there will be nothing to worry about."

“That won’t work either. Although we have time, the river banks are not suitable for digging canals, and there is no place to dig a canal.

There are dense crowds on both sides of the river, so no matter which direction we dig, there will definitely be flooding."

"Then why not..." Several ministers discussed the matter one after another, and the emperor sitting on the top lowered his head in thought. After a long time, the emperor looked at Qin Yu and said.

"Qin Yu, do you have any ideas? Or which of their ideas do you think is better?"

"Your Majesty, what the gentlemen said makes sense, but I think it is more important to dredge the river and build a dam." Qin Yu said respectfully.

"Well..." If possible, the emperor would naturally be willing to build a dam and dredge the river. In this way, the south would be safer and there would be no need to worry about hearing news of floods again.

But the problem now is that there is no time to build this dam.

"Your Majesty, instead of the ministers worrying about it here, it is better to distribute this matter. Maybe the people will find some solutions."

The emperor thought for a moment and finally nodded. Now one team of people is rushing to the south to try to build a dam, and another team is ready. If there is no way in the end, they will find a way to get the people out.

As for the capital, don't just sit there, maybe there are experts who can do it!

After all, there are many masters among the people. The late emperor had met several masters among the people. Unfortunately, the masters had different personalities. Compared with wealth and glory, they preferred traveling around the mountains and rivers, so the emperor failed to bring them back successfully.

Otherwise, he should have been granted a title of nobility and appointed as prime minister by now.

……

When Qin Yu brought the news back, the brothers of Jinyiwei were very surprised. They didn't expect that things had become so serious in just half a day.

"Sir, what should we do now?" An older Jinyiwei asked, touching the knife hanging on his waist.

"Hang up the notice and continue interrogating them." Qin Yu looked fiercely at the corrupt officials who were being held not far away. He originally thought that all the spies from the Western Regions had been caught, but he didn't expect to catch another traitor. He didn't know what kind of love potion the Western Regions had given them.

"Yes." Seventeen nodded, glanced at the detained corrupt official, then pointed to a few brothers and walked towards the torture room together.

Soon, painful howls were heard again, but this sound was too familiar to the Jinyiwei and did not arouse any reaction from them at all.

Time passed quickly, and Seventeen and the others walked out of the torture room with the information obtained from the interrogation.

"Sir, that kid is pretty tight-lipped. This is all he has said. But I feel like it's still not enough. Let's try him again later!" Seventeen said as he handed over the paper in his hand. Qin Yu casually glanced at the paper and nodded, knowing what was going on.

"Okay, don't be in a hurry. It's getting late today, so let's just disperse first! You can come back to interrogate him tomorrow, otherwise he may not be able to hold out for one night." Qin Yu nodded and said after thinking for a moment.

"Okay. I'm pretty tired after sitting all day, so I'll go back and rest." Seventeen nodded with a hint of anticipation on his face.

"Okay, then you should have a good rest." Qin Yu nodded.

Looking at Seventeen's departing back, Qin Yu lowered his head and looked at the blank paper in his hand, with a hint of ruthlessness and worry in his eyes.

I hope things won’t turn out as he guessed, otherwise, don’t blame him for being ruthless.