Chapter 438 Buying and selling are the same crime!
"This! Your Highness the Third Prince, we admit that we bought the food here, but we bought it with real money and silver, and we didn't spend a tael of silver less!"
Zhang Shifeng said in a deep voice.
"That's right, we bought it with money. As food, don't we even have the right to buy and sell food freely?"
Li Dekai also said.
"Your Highness, the Third Prince, our Ming Dynasty is free to buy and sell. We spend money to buy food, which is consistent with this. Your Highness, the Third Prince, please be careful!"
Wang Shiming also said.
After hearing what the three of them said, Zhu Cijiong sneered and said, "You three are sharp-tongued, but you have forgotten one thing. The granary here is the granary of the imperial court!"
"The food here can only be obtained with the approval of His Majesty from the Ministry of Revenue. Have you seen the approval from the Ministry of Revenue?
Have you seen His Majesty’s will?”
this!
The three of them were stunned, they really hadn't seen him.
"How dare you three buy the food here without seeing this?
Do you dare to spend money to buy other people's things, knowing that they are stolen?"
"Hmph! To put it bluntly, you are greedy. Even if you spent money to buy it, the money should be handed over to the Ministry of Accounts!"
"The Ministry of Household Affairs has never seen your money, so you have to give back as much grain as you take away. Over the years, this granary has lost 300 tons of grain!"
Zhu Cijiong said coldly.
What!
Three hundred tons!
"How come there are so many!"
"This food is enough to feed the people of Chizhou Prefecture for half a year! These people really deserve to die, they have sold so much food!"
"No! All these grains have been sold to us! These are our grains, and in the end, we have to spend money to buy them back!"
"Damn it! Your Highness, the Third Prince, must not spare these people lightly. They are just worms and deserve to die!"
The people are excited!
Zhang Shifeng and the three of them were all stupid. They thought that spending money would make them feel confident, but they didn't expect that it would now become their biggest sin.
"This! Your Highness, Third Prince, you can't just say that all these grains were bought by us!"
"That's right! Your Highness, the third prince, you should ask for the account books from this pool early to see who the food is sold to. You can go to them and ask for the food!"
The three of them cried out for injustice.
Zhu Cijiong said coldly: "Hmph! If you have evidence, just bring it out. If you don't have evidence, it means you three bought the food!"
"Buying and selling food from the national treasury is the same crime! This pool has long been destined to be confiscated and exterminated. The three of you still have a chance to survive. Should you collect food immediately, or directly confiscate your family and exterminate your clan?"
hiss!
After Zhu Cijiong said this, the three of them were frightened. However, they were not fools. Even the Jinyi Guards could not kill people without reason.
They were confident that they had not committed a capital crime. Although they bought food from the granary, it could not be used as a reason to confiscate their homes and exterminate their families.
"Your Highness, Third Prince, if you talk to us nicely, we might be able to take part of the food. If you say so, we won't have a single grain of food!"
Zhang Shifeng said coldly.
"Your Highness the Third Prince, even if you are a member of the Imperial Guard, you can't kill people for no reason! Besides, so many people are watching. If you kill us, what will other grain merchants think?"
Wang Shiming said coldly.
"We are not the only three grain merchants in Chizhou Prefecture. Moreover, without us, if these people will eat grain in the future, who will sell it to them?"
Li Dekai also said.
When these three people said this, they were threatening Zhu Cijiong, telling him that if they killed themselves, the people would have no food to eat.
When Zhu Cijiong heard this, he sneered and said, "Do you three really think you can threaten me like this?
Don’t you think that if you kill you, the people will really not be able to eat food?”
"Do you understand the meaning of confiscating a family and exterminating a clan?"
"Common people, these three people colluded with the government, bought up the grain in the granary, and then sold it to you at a higher price. Should such people be killed or not?"
After Zhu Cijiong said this, the people shouted: "He deserves to be killed!"
Listening to the people's shouts, the expressions of these three people changed drastically. Just when they were about to change their words, Zhu Cijiong said: "My brother didn't give me much time this time, so I don't have time to wait for you to collect food!"
"Come here! Behead these three people in the street and show them to the public. The Zhang family, the Li family, and the Wang family will all be demoted to slaves and exiled to the frontier. They will never come back!"
"All the properties of the three families were confiscated!"
What!
"Your Highness, Third Prince, you can't do this!"
The three of them immediately shouted, but Jin Yiwei didn't talk nonsense to them. He went up and chopped them. Their heads fell to the ground, and the servants in their house were also frightened.
Some people wanted to run away, but the Jin Yiwei caught them and chopped them down directly. The remaining people stood aside honestly, never daring to think about running away.
Then, a team of royal guards went to these three houses and began to search their property. Chi Zaozao was so frightened that he peeed all over the floor.
Zhu Cijiong walked to Ni Yuanlu and said in a deep voice: "Master Ni, after the property of these three families has been confiscated, we have to ensure the circulation of food in Chizhou Prefecture. I, the Jin Yiwei, cannot do that!"
Ni Yuanlu said hurriedly: "Your Highness, don't worry, our people in the Household Department are good at this, I will lead them to take over the business here!"
"Then, integrate the business as quickly as possible, and then transfer some people from the capital to run it here. We will never let the people here starve!"
"Well! That's good, Chi Zaozao, do you have anything else to say?"
Zhu Cijiong looked at Chi Zaozao and asked.
"Your Highness! I deserve to die. I know I was wrong. Please give me another chance!"
Chi Zaozao begged bitterly.
"Hmph! Give you a chance?
When you sell the food here, why don't you think about giving the people here a chance?"
Zhu Cijiong said coldly.
Then he added: "Take this pool out and chop it down early, and chop down his wife and daughter too. If such an official is left alive, it will be a disaster!"
"Your Highness! Spare your life!"
Chi Zaozao shouted for mercy, but he was still taken down by the Jin Yiwei.
After dealing with Chi Zaozao, Zhu Cijiong got on his horse and left here directly. After the Jinyiwei exiled the Zhang family, Li family, and Wang family to the border, they left directly without staying in the city at all.
However, Ni Yuanlu and others did not dare to neglect at all. They immediately took over the businesses of the three families and started running them. As for the properties confiscated by the three families, they collected them and prepared to send people back to the capital.
"Master Ni, do we still need to replenish the food in this granary?"
Everything is almost done, an official said solemnly.