Qin Emperor Ziying

Chapter 227
However, Jiang Lu once heard people mention that these Qiang tribes are extremely barbaric and rude today, they can't even farm, and they are extremely hostile to outsiders. This person is able to trade with the Qiang people, and it must not be a simple role.

"The Qiang people don't do farming, so the price of grain in the Qiang land is extremely high. The villain does some small business of selling grain and grass with the Qiang land." The middle-aged merchant said with a rather low eyebrow: "Xianyang is the center of the world. The price is low. Every month, two batches of grain and grass are transported from Xianyang to Qiang.

However, it is inconvenient to store grain in Xianyang, so I want to borrow the son's treasure land for temporary storage. "

Hearing this, Jiang Lu suddenly hesitated. The Qin State implemented a farming war policy, and the control of grain trade was extremely strict. Even domestic sales were extremely restricted, let alone secretly sold to the Qiang people.

However, it is true that the price of grain in Xianyang is lower and it is easier to collect it, but the risk that needs to be taken is relatively greater.

However, he understood what the merchant meant. He just wanted to use his identity to evade the government's inspection and hoard food in his own house. The Neishi government would not have the guts to search it.

And even if Nei Shi knew that he had hoarded a large amount of food here, he might think that it was a transaction he participated in, and pretending to turn a blind eye would even provide some convenience.

However, if this matter is revealed and it reaches the ears of my father, I am afraid that a dignified prince and merchants will be mixed together, and he will also smuggle food to the Qiang people. I am afraid that he will be punished.

Seeing the hesitation in Jiang Lu's eyes, the middle-aged merchant continued to seduce, "Naturally, the villain will not occupy the reputation of the young master for nothing. The villain is willing to give half of the proceeds to the young master."

Upon hearing this, Jiang Lu asked very interestedly: "How many?"

"Fifty gold!"

……

Under the temptation of fifty gold, Jiang Lu still agreed to cooperate with this businessman. If fifty gold is a lot in normal times, he would not take the risk of being punished for doing such a thing. Knowing that his general Lu is really poor.

No matter how much money there is, the whole family can't drink the northwest wind, and Ziying also saw this clearly, so he sent someone to lure the general with a lot of money.

That's right, this middle-aged businessman was found by Yan Meng sent by Ziying. He is the person in charge of the Mo Sect in the East and West Pavilion in Xianyang. His name is Tao Ming. It is said that he is a descendant of Tao Zhugong. Doing some food smuggling business.

At the same time, Ziying sent people to quietly buy a large courtyard in the corner of Xianyang City that had been abandoned for many years.

That night, Tao Ming hoarded more than a dozen carts of grain and grass to Jiang Lu's mansion, and at Jiang Lu's request, delivered the first year's profit in advance to Jiang Lu.

With this money, the "March of Misery" at the Lu's mansion finally came to an end, and the previous living conditions were restored.

It is not without doubt that this batch of grain generals have no doubts, and they have specially sent someone to open the sacks to verify that it is indeed grain.

At this point, the general can only sigh with emotion that doing business with the Qiang people is really profitable.

Tao Ming, who lived for more than a month, pulled out the grain, and then continued to hoard it slowly until a certain amount was reached before pulling it away again.

After inspecting the first batch of grain, Jiang Lu felt relieved and did not continue to send people to inspect.

This Tao Ming will send a batch of grains every now and then, and naturally he will not follow him again and again, so he will leave these matters to the servants of the mansion.
However, the servants in Jianglu's mansion knew that the business was related to the young master, so naturally they dared not make things difficult, but deliberately tried to please him.

"Come here...Brother Li, please drink this cup to the brim." One of the two parties in this banquet was the merchant Tao Ming, and the other was Li Fang, the steward of Jianglu's mansion.

Speaking of this, Li Fang is also a flattering person, flattering and talking non-stop for a quarter of an hour, because he is good at showing loyalty to the general, so he has always achieved the position of steward in the mansion.

This is the case with the general, but when facing the other servants in the house, Li Fang is notoriously bitter and mean.

However, he was very polite to Tao Ming. After all, he had followed Jianglu for many years, and he could clearly see that Young Master Jianglu valued this merchant very much.

In addition to Tao Ming's deliberate friendship, he gave some money from time to time, and after a few days, the two became brothers, and they looked as good as wearing a pair of trousers.

"These days, I have bothered brother Xian, Tao Ming has no respect for repaying and doing first."

Jiang Lu, as Prince Qin's parent and son, naturally would not personally accompany Tao Ming to load and unload grain, but left this matter to Li Fang, so Li Fang accompanied Tao Ming every time he delivered grain. granary.

Food smuggling, naturally, has to look like smuggling, and most of the time it is carried out at night. It is not an exaggeration to say that Li Fang has worked hard.

After the two drank the cup, Tao Ming quietly pushed a wooden plate towards Li Fang, and the drunk-eyed Li Fang took it and saw that it was a deed of land in a courtyard in Xianyang City.

He looked up at Tao Ming with some doubts. "Brother Tao, this is it?"

"This is the courtyard where I used to hoard food. Now that the food is stored in the prince's mansion, it is useless here. As soon as you and I hit it off, I gave this yard to brother Li. You and I will go to the government to exchange for new dishes tomorrow. This yard belongs to you, Brother Li." Tao Ming waved his hand, pretending to be generous.

Upon hearing this, Li Fang's eyes lit up immediately, and he kept rubbing his hands back and forth, not knowing where to put them.

"This is wrong!"

Although Li Fang said so, his eyes never moved away from the wooden plate.

Although Li Fang is the steward of the general's mansion, he is just a better servant. If he wants to buy a yard in Xianyang, a place where every inch of land is expensive, it may be difficult to achieve it in a lifetime.

His dream all along is to have his own property in Xianyang.

"Hey..., you and I fell in love with each other at first sight, what is a courtyard, and you also know that with my wealth, a courtyard is not worth mentioning. Could it be that brother Li looks down on younger brother." Tao Ming's face was serious, and he looked a little angry and said: " Besides, Mr. Jiang Lu still hopes that brother Li will have a few good words on weekdays."

"If that's the case, then it's better to be respectful than obedient." He took the wooden plate over with his eyes full of light, thought for a while and then wanted to take out a bunch of keys from his arms, and said, "This is the key to the warehouse in the mansion. The young masters of the left and right have already handed over the warehouse to you." I gave it to the virtuous brother, and when the virtuous brother needs to load and unload food and grass, he can go there by himself."

"Thank you, Brother Li." Tao Ming cupped his hands and said, "However, I still have a lot of things that I haven't evacuated from that house, and I'm afraid it will take two months for Brother Li to repair it after I remove all the things. Live in."

"It's okay...it's okay..."

Early the next morning, Tao Ming and Li Fang went to change all the property in this house to Li Fang's name.With Nei Shi'an's special care, all procedures are naturally seamless.

Two months passed like this, and Tao Ming would go in and out of the son general's mansion only once every one or two days during the two months.

Even Jiang Lu couldn't help feeling: "This merchant's business is really good."

"Juzi, what you asked for has been delivered." Yan Meng reported.

Ziying walked lightly for a few steps, looked at the sky with his hands behind his back, sighed and said calmly, "Let's add it to him tonight."

Some debts have to be collected after all.

At the same time, many palace treasures suddenly appeared on the market in Xianyang through pawnshops and other places, which aroused the great attention of the nobles and rich merchants in the city, who were curious about which king and grandson such a prodigal.

These are naturally obtained from various treasures in Jiang Lu's mansion.

And the general, who is still in the confinement period, really doesn't know about these things.

Immediately afterwards, a shocking news came, which instantly attracted the attention of everyone in Xianyang. The Neishi Mansion received a report that a large number of semi-finished weapons and casting artifacts were seized in a house in a corner of the city that was rarely visited by people on weekdays. The large number is shocking.

Along with these weapons were found a large amount of money and some treasures that seemed to come from the inner court.

It's just that the people in the courtyard seemed to have gotten the wind and fled away, so what Neishian seized was only an empty courtyard.

It's not bad to find so many uncontrolled weapons at the feet of the Son of Heaven.Nei Shi'an immediately found out the owner of the mansion through the house registration information, and it was Li Fang, the steward of the son Jianglu's mansion.

Some of the precious utensils that were seized were also confirmed by some nobles that they had seen them in the son Jianglu’s mansion, especially the treasured sword bestowed to the general by King Qin was also found in it, further proving that Jianglu was separated from this weapon den. Do not open the relationship.

Under Ziying's order, Nei Shi'an immediately had an audience with the King of Qin overnight, and explained the "facts" he had mastered to the King of Qin.

Hearing Nei Shi'an's report, Zhao Zheng was the first to not believe it. Hiding such a large amount of weapons in the royal capital was clearly out of intention, but Jiang Lu was his own son.

However, when he thought about Jiang Lu's impulsive personality, he could do such unethical things as robbing his brothers and wives. It is not impossible to do some outrageous things.

Especially his own punishment a few days ago obviously took away the chance of Jiang Lu's succession to the throne, and it is not impossible to do some impulsive things out of resentment.

However, Zhao Zheng did not fully trust Nei Shi'an's report, but ordered his favorite minister Meng Yi, his confidant Zhao Gao and Nei Shi'an to search the general's mansion together with his orders.

Leaving Nei Shi'an and Zhao Gao aside, Meng Yi is famous for his uprightness and is quite trusted by Zhao Zheng. With him around, he will definitely report the most truthful situation to himself.

Nei Shi'an and Meng Yi and Zhao Gao, who were recruited overnight, led the group of wandering soldiers to the general's mansion after receiving the king's order.

"The three of you are so brave, you dare to charge into my mansion!" Seeing the three of them rushing into their mansion with so many soldiers, armed with weapons and open fire, the general who was awakened immediately pointed at the three of them. Nose asked.

"Your Majesty is here, please forgive me, search!" Among the three, Meng Yi and Zhao Gao are far from the level they were later on, and now among the three, An, who is an internal historian, is the most respected.

The biggest role played by the two of them was to report the most real situation to King Qin.

Therefore, it is Neishi An who is in charge.

Although I don't know what happened, but my mansion was searched for no reason, Jiang Lu naturally didn't have a good face.Just as he was about to move, he was blocked by a group of soldiers drawing their swords.Just stay where you are.

"Could it be to help merchants smuggle grain and grass for myself?" Jiang Lu thought to himself.

It shouldn't be. Although it's embarrassing to say such things, but at most it's enough to be reprimanded, and you won't come to search the house if you say anything.

After a while, a soldier came over in a hurry: "Reporting to the internal history, a large amount of grain was found in the back warehouse, which roughly looks like tens of thousands of stones."

"Ten thousand stones?"

Hearing this, Nei Shi'an, Meng Yi, and Zhao Gao looked at each other unconsciously. Tens of thousands of shi's worth of grain is not a small amount. Converted to today's mass unit, it is hundreds of thousands of catties.

How could a normal person put so much food in his mansion when he was free.

Glancing at the young master who was still yelling at him, Nei Shi'an said, "You two might as well go check it out with me."

Meng Yi and Zhao Gao naturally nodded their heads, after all, it is unreasonable to keep so much food in the mansion.

When the three of them came to the granary, they were stunned by the scene in front of them. Bags of grain piled up like a hill.

"Tell me, what is the purpose of the young master to pile up so much food?" Zhao Gao saw two soldiers escorting a servant who looked like a steward standing aside, so he asked him.

The person who was suppressed was Li Fang, the steward of Jianglu's mansion.

He never dreamed that the general's mansion, who is the son of King Qin, would one day be ransacked by soldiers.

He who is timid and afraid of getting into trouble has already been petrified for a while.

Li Fang panicked and said: "This is the food that the young master has temporarily stockpiled here in a deal with the Qiang people."

Zhao Gao was a little stunned when he heard it.It's ridiculous that the general, who is the prince's own son, actually did such a thing as a merchant.

"Since it was hoarded by Mr. Lu's business, let's go and look at other places." Zhao Gao suggested.

Zhao Gao said this.Neishan was a little anxious for a while, because according to Ziying's instructions, the key to the success of tonight's dinner was in the pile of grain, but he couldn't show it too clearly, and was worrying about how to keep the two of them here.

Suddenly, Meng Yi who came together raised his thick eyebrows and said, "Wait a minute!"

As he spoke, he walked to the side of the pile of grain and grass, bent down and looked at the ground carefully.

Seeing this, Shi An and Zhao Gao also followed the past and lowered their heads to look carefully at the place Meng Yi was looking at.

I saw a few extremely small scratches on the brick-paved ground.

Meng Yi looked up at Nei Shi'an and Zhao Gao with a solemn face, and said, "This is the mark made by a weapon."

Although Meng Yi is a civil servant, the three generations of Meng family servants are all military commanders on the battlefield. His father is the veteran Meng Wu who followed Ziying to defeat Chu, and his elder brother Meng Tian is now serving under Wang Ben's command.

So Meng Yi has been very familiar with all kinds of weapons since he was a child, and he recognized at a glance that this must be the trace drawn by a weapon.

(End of this chapter)