Southern Ming Rebel Army

Before leaving the Military Equipment Bureau, Meng Jun instructed Zhu Tu to find craftsmen who could make cannons and then hurried back to the yamen. The grain price in Suzhou City was already too high, and the granaries had to be opened as soon as possible to release grain to stabilize the grain price. As soon as he returned to the yamen, Meng Jun found Yang En to discuss with him.

"Sir, I have known about the high grain prices for a long time. However, grain has to be supplied to military needs now. If we release more grain in large quantities, I'm afraid the treasury will not be able to hold out for long," Yang En said with a worried look on his face. After returning to Suzhou, Yang En was in charge of the dispatch of materials in the city. Yang En had been counting the grain and silver warehouses in Suzhou city these days and found that there was something fishy going on.

According to the records, there should be 1.2 million shi of grain and 900,000 taels of silver left in Suzhou City. However, after several days of inventory by Yang En and Zhang Bo, there were only 800,000 shi of grain, of which 400,000 shi disappeared, and there were only 580,000 taels of silver, leaving a shortfall of 320,000 taels. After questioning Zhong Kuan, they learned that the lack of money and grain in the treasury was due to bad debts over the years. When he took office, there was already such a huge deficit. A chain of interests had long been formed from top to bottom, but it was forcibly interrupted by force after the rebel army occupied Suzhou. Of course, Meng Jun didn't know all this at all.

"Now the granary and silver vaults are guarded by our people. No one can leave the warehouse without orders. I have sent people to count them."

Meng Jun didn't expect the scam was so big. When he first saw the amount of money and grain in the book, he was so happy that he couldn't sleep. He didn't expect there were rats everywhere.

Meng Jun shook his head and said, "Can these lost money and grain be recovered?"

"It's impossible. Many of them were already in deficit before Zhong Kuan. Even if we arrest all the people who handled the warehouses, we won't be able to make up for the shortfall. It will also cause instability in the hearts of the people in the city."

Meng Jun said helplessly, "Forget about the investigation, but we still need to release the grain at a fair price as soon as possible."

Yang En bowed and said, "Of course, I will deal with it as soon as possible."

It was the third day of the battle outside Suzhou when Meng Jun received Han Xiong's messenger. Li Chengdong and dozens of his subordinates fled back to Songjiang Prefecture. Meng Jun originally intended to let Han Xiong serve as a surprise force outside, but who knew that plans could not keep up with changes. Li Chengdong's army directly collapsed outside the city, and Han Xiong was no longer of much use outside, so Meng Jun prepared to let Han Xiong withdraw to Suzhou.

Meng Jun asked the messenger to rush back and inform Han Xiong to let Han Ying lead his troops back to Suzhou as soon as possible. Ever since the Battle of Suzhou, Meng Jun deeply felt the importance of reporting. Now the rebel army was trapped in Suzhou, surrounded by the Qing army's sphere of influence. Unfortunately, the Zhejiang Ming army looked down on him. Without any source of intelligence, he was like a blind man. He had to rely on the little intelligence provided by some rebellious gentry in the south of the Yangtze River. This intelligence was too scarce to know the main movements of the Qing army.

In view of this, Meng Jun decided to start setting up an investigative department and let Meng Bian take the lead, as he still had too few people he could trust.

Meng Bian said with a bitter face, "Master, I don't know how to do this. I have never done this before."

"It's okay, it's simple. First, find some people. It's best if they have families in Suzhou. Don't be single. Then you can take a notebook and write it down. If I say too much later, you won't be able to remember it."

Meng Bian nodded, took a piece of paper, sat on a chair and started taking notes.

"Go and hire some people, good family girls, slaves, thugs are all fine. You can decide the exact amount of money, not too high or too low. Send these people secretly to Hangzhou and Nanjing to gather information. You can also send people to surrounding cities."

"How do the people who are sent out report the news? They can't just come back, right?" Meng Bian questioned, blinking his eyes.

Meng Jun touched his chin and said, "You can arrange for someone to open a shop in the city as a contact point. Then you can go to Suzhou to find someone who can train pigeons. Get some pigeons and a horse..."

Originally it was just a simple plan to arrange some people to go to Nanjing and Hangzhou to gather information, but the two of them ended up discussing it for a whole morning, and Meng Jun even transferred a flag of 100 people from the army to Meng Bian as a spy team.

After coming out of the lobby, Meng Bian looked at the bright sun outside, holding the transfer order given by Meng Jun in his arms. He scratched his head and went to ask Yang En for money.

On Shiquan Street in Suzhou Prefecture, shops in Suzhou Prefecture opened one after another. After all, ordinary people always have to eat and make money no matter when. Liu Guquan staggered out of a wine shop. Liu Guquan was originally a clerk in the Suzhou prefectural government. Since Meng Jun occupied Suzhou, the prefect Zhong Kuan surrendered, and basically everyone else surrendered. Only Liu Guquan felt that this group of people would not be able to occupy Suzhou for long. Can a group of peasants beat the wolves and tigers of the Qing army? Liu Guquan felt that he definitely couldn't. He had to stay away from these people quickly, so as not to be implicated at that time. That would be a disaster, so he didn't go to the government office directly. Later, when his colleagues came to call him, he also said that he was unwell and couldn't go. Of course, the subsidy from the government office was naturally gone.

Who knew that Li Chengdong came to Suzhou City with a large army with great momentum, and then dispersed after making trouble for a few days? It was heard that a lot of prisoners were captured, and a lot of heads were chopped off by the river outside the city. He had given up the high salary of three, two or four o'clock a month in the yamen, and his family had several people, and they were living off the fat of the land. Recently, the price of grain in the city has skyrocketed again. Seeing that his former colleagues were still as greasy as before, Liu Guquan was so worried that he couldn't sleep. Liu Guquan came to the yamen as usual, but he had nothing to do when he arrived at the door, so he simply turned to the tavern near the yamen, drank to drown his sorrows, spent more than two hundred coins, and wasted half a day. He was thinking about how to go back to deal with the woman at home, but he found himself even more worried. Liu Guquan left the tavern with a little drunkenness.

Meng Bian had just come out of the yamen, holding a transfer order and an approval document of 12,000 taels of silver from Yang En in his arms. It was rare for him to be walking on the road with a huge sum of 12,000 taels of silver, and he was also highly trusted by the young master. Although he didn't know where to start or who to recruit, he was so nervous that he kept his hand in his arms touching the approval document of 12,000 taels of silver. Meng Bian was walking on the street with excitement and confusion in his mind. As a result, he bumped into Liu Guquan who was shaking a little.

"Ouch, who is that?" Liu Guquan, who was a little drunk, fell to the ground after being hit like that. The bluestone slab on the ground was scorching hot under the scorching sun. Liu Guquan's palm pressed on the slab and was burned and cried out "Ouch, oh, hot, hot!"

When Meng Bian saw that he had bumped into someone, he hurried over to help Liu Guquan up, saying sorry, sorry.

Liu Guquan was not someone who wanted to blackmail. He stood up, waved his hand and said, "Forget it," and was about to turn around and leave. After taking two steps, Liu Guquan bent down and picked up two pieces of paper on the ground. These were the two approval documents in Meng Bian's arms. It turned out that after Meng Bian bumped into someone, he was so nervous that the two approval documents were pulled out of his hand and fell to the ground, which were picked up by Liu Guquan.

Liu Guquan took a quick glance and saw a piece of paper with an approval of 10,000 taels of silver written on it, and there were several seals on it. When he saw the words 10,000 taels, Liu Guquan's eyes rolled around and he sobered up immediately from the alcohol.

Liu Guquan turned around and said with a flattering smile, "Sir, your ten thousand taels... oh no, these two pieces of paper fell, take a look"

...