The Ming Dynasty: Reshaping the Land

Chapter 19 Clues

The next morning, Li Jinglong awoke from his hangover. At the service of Li Er, Li Jinglong, dressed in a white brocade robe, with a jade pendant at his waist and a square turban on his head, appeared in the main hall of the post station.

At this moment, Zheng Ci and Li Gui were already waiting there. When they saw Li Jinglong coming over, they both stood up to greet him.

"No need for such formalities, Your Excellencies!" Li Jinglong waved his hand, politely stopping them.

After the three of them sat down, Zheng Ci inquired about the day's arrangements.

Li Jinglong remained calm and instructed, "My lords, you may arrange your own investigations. I also have my own plans. Let's split up!"

Zheng Ci and Li Gui exchanged a glance, recalling the Crown Prince's request before their departure. They then stood up, bowed, and said, "Your humble servant obeys!"

Li Jinglong nodded slightly, adding, "When you two gentlemen go out, remember not to get into conflicts with anyone. If you encounter any obstruction, report it to me, and I will take care of it for you!"

"We, your humble servants, thank Duke Cao!"

Seeing Zheng Ci and Li Gui's figures disappear at the entrance of the main hall, Li Jinglong also came to his senses and pondered how he should make a move against Huang Bin.

Just as Li Jinglong was about to pick up the tea beside him and take a sip, his personal servant, Li Er, entered and reported to Li Jinglong, "My lord, two people have arrived at the door. They say they are stewards from the Duke of Wei's household!"

"Huh?" Li Jinglong was taken aback. He had just talked to Zhu Di about it yesterday, but he didn't expect that the caravan manager from the Xu family would come to his door this morning.

"Let them in!" Li Jinglong took a sip of tea, put down his teacup, and gave the order.

A short while later, Li Er led two men in their thirties into the main hall of the post station.

"Your humble servants pay their respects to Duke Cao!" After entering the main hall and standing at attention, the two men immediately bowed in greeting.

"No need for formalities!" Li Jinglong gestured for them to stand on their own two feet. "Was it the Princess Consort of Yan who told you?"

Upon hearing Li Jinglong's words, one of the men immediately replied, "Yes, Duke Cao!"

Li Jinglong nodded, sighing inwardly: It seems that the Xu family's anger towards Huang Bin is probably no less than his own!

Huang Bin, Huang Bin, who gave you the courage to offend two Duke's mansions at the same time?

"What business do you have with me?" Li Jinglong pretended to be unaware of the matter.

"Your Honor, I, Xu Yuan, have come to report that the granary officials are colluding with local bullies and committing illegal acts!" Xu Yuan said, bowing his head.

"Oh?" Li Jinglong's eyes crinkled with amusement. "Tell me about it!"

"Since the sixth year of Hongwu, I have been in charge of reporting matters for the Beiping granary and Tongzhou granary, and have always paid grain and received salt permits normally."

However, since the beginning of this year, grain transported by the government to the Beiping and Tongzhou granaries has been either refused acceptance or had its quota halved, with the border warehouses citing reasons such as "the granaries are currently saturated and grain purchases are temporarily suspended."

"I was puzzled at the time, so I went to the border warehouse to inquire. I learned that the refusal and halving of quotas did not apply to everyone, but were targeted at specific groups, including not only the merchant caravans of my Duke of Wei's mansion, but also..."

Xu Yuan paused, looked up at Li Jinglong, and continued, "There are also your merchant caravans, Your Excellency, and some ordinary merchants' caravans!"

"Targeted? Then tell me, which caravans are paying their taxes normally?" Li Jinglong glanced at the manager and frowned.

"This..." Xu Yuan hesitated for a moment, recalling the young lady's words, and said, "My lord, apart from the Huang family, the merchant caravans of the Yongchang Marquis's Mansion and the Song State Duke's Mansion are all paying their taxes as usual. Moreover, the Yichun Marquis's Mansion is also buying grain at low prices near the border granary and then sending it to the border granary!"

"Hehe!" Li Jinglong sneered. This Huang Bin really knew how to treat people differently based on their status. Feng Sheng and Lan Yu, especially the latter, were notoriously arrogant and domineering, so Huang Bin naturally dared not provoke them.

"What evidence do you have to prove this?" Li Jinglong continued to press.

"My lord, all I have are the documents for each passage through customs, the documents for entering the warehouse, and the account books for the disbursement of salt permits. In addition... there are also account books for the collusion between the warehouse official Liu Chun and the steward of the Huang family, Huang Biao, and the division of bribes each time." Xu Yuan's voice became noticeably softer at the end.

A glint flashed in Li Jinglong's eyes. An account book? That's a powerful tool!

According to the "Great Ming Code", the bribe-taker and the bribe-giver are guilty of the same crime and are jointly punished. Even the bribe-giver usually dares not leave any evidence, let alone account books!

Li Jinglong glanced at Xu Yuan, his suspicions growing. Since your Xu family dared to leave the account book, why didn't you take action and instead sent it to me?

"Where are the ledgers?" Li Jinglong suppressed his doubts and asked.

As soon as he finished speaking, Xu Yuan took a package from his attendant, opened it, and handed it to Li Jinglong.

After Li Jinglong took it, he casually flipped through it. Inside, he found records of how Liu Chun and Huang Biao used their power to solicit bribes, and when and where they received how much money and silver.

"Where is the person who recorded this?" Li Jinglong continued to ask. This was a witness, and it had to be verified.

Xu Yuan's face immediately tightened, and he said embarrassedly, "My lord, I obtained this ledger by chance, and I do not know who wrote it."

Li Jinglong raised his eyes, his scrutinizing gaze sweeping over Xu Yuan, who forced a dry smile and cautiously stayed by his side.

Seeing Xu Yuan's reaction, Li Jinglong immediately thought of the Xu brothers, Xu Yungong and Xu Zengshou. They were handing him bullets because they saw him standing up for himself!

Li Jinglong realized what was happening and started to think to himself that the Xu brothers were all grown up together, so how could they not know each other?

Take Xu Yungong for example. Despite his stubbornness and blind loyalty, if you actually believed him, you'd probably be betrayed by him and still be counting the money for him. As for Xu Zengshou, he's a man with one ulterior motive after another.

During the Jingnan Rebellion, the Xu family took advantage of their unique position to hedge their bets on both sides, and the two brothers gained both fame and merit.

The Xu family thus became the most prestigious noble family in the Ming Dynasty.

However, man proposes, God disposes, and in the end, they still paid the price.

It's estimated that this ledger was collected by the two men after the Xu family's caravan was kicked out.

"Leave the ledger here! You can go back now!" Li Jinglong waved his hand, starting to shoo people away.

"Then I shall take my leave. If you need anything, please feel free to call me anytime!" Xu Yuan bowed and left with his entourage.

"These two brothers are both cunning!" Li Jinglong handed the account book to Li Er and snorted coldly.

When Li Er saw off the steward of the Xu family, he returned with another person by his side. Li Jinglong guessed that it was probably the steward of his own merchant caravan.

"This humble servant, Li Dashan, greets Your Excellency!" Li Dashan stood before Li Jinglong and bowed respectfully.

"No need for formalities!" Li Jinglong waved his hand. "How many years have you been here?"

"Your Excellency, I have been here ever since your household started paying taxes here!"

Li Jinglong recalled that although his family started organizing caravans relatively late, it had been ten years since then.

"Yes!" Li Jinglong nodded and said with a smile, "Living in the north for so long must be tough!"

"You're too kind, Your Excellency!" Li Dashan bowed deeply, expressing his gratitude. "My life belongs to you, sir. Serving the Duke's mansion is my honor, and all the hardship is worthwhile!"

"Haha!" Li Jinglong smiled approvingly, then asked, "Tell me, how much do you know about the Huang family? Huang Bin alone wouldn't dare offend us or the Duke of Wei's mansion, would he?"

"Your Excellency is wise!" A hint of surprise flashed in Li Dashan's eyes as he sincerely expressed his admiration.

"My lord, after receiving Steward Li's letter, I began to inquire from various sources, and only then did I learn that the Huang family only received a small portion of the profits!"

After finishing his sentence, Li Dashan hesitated for a moment and said, "However, I learned by chance from a merchant I know that some time ago, Huang Bin entertained a distinguished guest from the capital at Yuexianglou Restaurant, and addressed him as Manager Li."

"How did that merchant know that the manager was from the capital?" Li Jinglong asked suspiciously.

"My lord, it's because the merchant heard Huang Bin say, 'There's no such humor in the capital,' that's my guess," Li Dashan replied.

"The capital? Manager Li?" Li Jinglong looked at Li Dashan with a puzzled expression.

In the capital, a steward who commands such deference from a noble marquis like Huang Bin must hold a very high position and great power; even his own family has never received such an honor...

Suddenly, a name flashed through Li Jinglong's mind, and he felt it was increasingly likely.

Li Jinglong lowered his head, his face grave, and murmured, "It couldn't be him!"