SFS Chapter 170 The Incident of the Marquis of Cheng'en
Chapter 170 The Incident of the Marquis of Cheng'en
After reading the entire letter, Prince Yu's eyes were filled with gloom.
Hongyun Shipping Company was run secretly by his uncle. His uncle was always an unreliable person. Relying on his mother being a noble consort and his nephew being a prince with real power, he acted recklessly and did not know how to restrain himself.
In the past few years, he has been in the shipping business and has had several accidents. Each time, they wrote to him asking him to resolve the issues.
After one or two times, he couldn't be bothered to care anymore.
The uncle then went to his mother to complain.
His mother then advised him, "Jing'er, your mother only has one younger brother, your uncle. I can't just stand by and watch him suffer. If you don't take care of him and he gets punished, how will we, mother and son, have a good life?"
He compromised and continued to clean up his uncle's mess.
Now is a critical time, and his shipping business has run into trouble again.
He stared gloomily at a sentence in the letter: "The shipping company rented out dozens of large ships to carry goods from Qingzhou, but they were hit by a storm. The river was turbulent and broke through the dikes, causing all the large ships to sink to the bottom of the river."
Prince Yu was so angry that veins bulged on his forehead, and his anger was raging in his heart. He was almost ready to get rid of the fool who had been holding him back.
The Gu family's shipping company's large ships sank, and at this critical juncture, all of Hongyun Shipping Company's large ships also sank.
More importantly, the goods were loaded in Qingzhou.
Prince Yu had to be cautious and instructed his guards: "Go to the Ling residence and find Ling Zhongshi. Question him carefully to find out who Hongyun Shipping Company rented the large ship to."
The guard was stunned, never expecting the letter to be from Ling Zhongshi, but then felt it was expected.
Ling Zhongshi committed many misdeeds outside, and once he got into trouble, he would seek help from Prince Yu to settle things.
Prince Yu was not a good-tempered person, and he secretly punished Ling Zhongshi once.
Ling Zhongshi behaved himself for a while, but then reverted to his old ways.
From then on, however, he was afraid of Prince Yu.
From now on, if there are any issues that require Prince Yu to clean up, he will only dare to write a letter to inform him. If Prince Yu ignores him, he will go to Consort Ling. After going through all this trouble, Prince Yu will have no choice but to deal with it for him.
After the guards left to carry out their orders, Prince Yu instructed the Grand Tutor again: "Send someone to deliver a message to Marquis Chengen. The situation has changed. Tell him to go to the palace to apologize after receiving my order."
"Yes."
The Grand Chamberlain responded and arranged for guards to go to the Marquis of Chengen's residence to deliver the message.
An hour later, the guards who had been sent returned and reported: "Your Highness, when I went to the Marquis's residence, the Marquis of Chengen had already entered the palace. I rushed to the palace gate, but I was unable to catch up with him."
Prince Yu's eyes were filled with a chilling light; he sensed that things were going badly and had spiraled out of his control.
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Imperial Palace, Imperial Study Room.
"Your Majesty, I have failed in my duties. I did not consult the heavens before ordering the grain transport officials to load the grain onto large ships and transport it to Guanzhou. However, a storm struck, and all the grain ships sank to the bottom of the river."
Marquis Chengen knelt on the ground and begged for forgiveness: "This matter was truly a dereliction of duty by your humble servant, and I am willing to accept Your Majesty's judgment."
Emperor Jing'an looked at the memorial in his hand, which was a report from the River Conservancy Office on the flood situation, the breach of the river embankment, and the sinking of a large number of merchant ships to the bottom of the river.
He closed the memorial, tossed it aside, and glared at the Marquis of Chengen: "Dozens of large ships, all sank at once?"
He paused, then said, "In previous years, even if the ships of the Maritime Trade Office encountered strong winds and waves, some of them would return safely. How come all the large grain transport ships that passed through the canal sank without a single one being intact?"
The Marquis of Chengen trembled and said nervously, "Your Majesty, this time there were not enough grain transport ships, so I recruited merchant ships from the shipping company. Originally, when the contract was signed, I had already reached an agreement with the Gu family's trading company."
"Firstly, all the large ships must be maintained before setting sail. Secondly, large ships with a carrying capacity of 2000 shi must be rented."
"Something happened today. My men reported that the Gu family shipping company used a large ship with a carrying capacity of 1500 shi (a unit of dry measure) to carry 2000 shi of grain. That's why it all sank to the bottom of the river when it encountered a storm."
After saying this, the Marquis of Chengen trembled as he took out a contract from his sleeve and held it above his head.
Seeing this, a young eunuch took the contract and presented it to Emperor Jing'an.
Emperor Jing'an glanced at the contract and was about to speak when...
At this moment, Eunuch Cao said from outside the palace, "Your Majesty, this servant has something important to report."
Emperor Jing'an summoned someone to report.
Eunuch Cao rushed in, glanced at the Marquis of Chengen kneeling on the ground, and reported: "Your Majesty, the censor of Qingzhou has sent a secret letter. The grain that Qingzhou is transporting to Guanzhou this time is not grain donated by merchants to the government in exchange for salt permits. It is all sandbags."
He presented the secret letter to Emperor Jing'an: "The sandbags on the ship were soaked with rainwater, which increased the ship's load. Then, a storm hit, which is why the ship sank."
Emperor Jing'an took the secret letter and looked at it with a deep gaze.
Marquis Chengen was shocked and never expected that this matter would be revealed.
The censor of Qingzhou was clearly a man of Prince Yu, so why would he make a accusation?
"Your Majesty, I am innocent!" Marquis Chengen, sweating profusely, pleaded his innocence: "Even if I had the greatest courage, I would not dare to use sandbags to replace grain. Dozens of ships carrying 100,000 shi of grain would be exposed once they reach Guanzhou. I cannot explain this with my head alone."
Emperor Jing'an said cryptically, "These ships have all sunk, so how could you possibly cover it up?"
"Your Majesty, I intend to use a clever trick, but how can we possibly keep such a large commotion—dozens of boats full of sandbags—from the eyes of the people of Qingzhou?"
Marquis Chengen was terrified: "Moreover, the grain in Qingzhou is not under my control. If I may speak disrespectfully... even if I had the guts, I couldn't have extended my reach that far."
"Your reach can't go that far..." Emperor Jing'an slowly stood up and stepped down the stairs: "Minister Shen, the person who bought you a private residence in the capital might not be unable to reach that far."
Marquis Chengen's face turned ashen. Of all the private residences in the capital, he had only ever been to one place: the private residence of Prince Yu.
When Emperor Jing'an brought this up at this time, he was subtly revealing that he knew they had close ties in private.
"Your Majesty... Your Majesty, I once served as the Vice Minister of the Ministry of War. The Ministry of War was under the control of Prince Yu, so it was inevitable that there would be some official business to report."
Marquis Chengen trembled even more violently and explained, "That mansion belongs to Prince Yu, not to me."
"Oh?" Emperor Jing'an said unhurriedly, "You are now in charge of the Grand Canal and Prince Yu is in charge of the Ministry of War. How come I was unaware of any official dealings between you?"
Then, he abruptly changed the subject: "Is Prince Yu involved in the Grand Canal transport?"
"No...no, Prince Yu didn't inquire about the Grand Canal transport with me." Beads of cold sweat rolled down his forehead. Marquis Chengen opened his mouth, his voice trembling, "This humble subject...it was this humble subject..."
Emperor Jing'an looked at Marquis Chengen, whose head was covered in cold sweat and whose body was trembling, and it seemed that he could no longer withstand the pressure.
He gave Marquis Chengen a reason: "You used to be Prince Yu's subordinate, and now you hold an important position. Considering our past relationship, he will inevitably give you some pointers."
In his haste, Marquis Chengen chimed in, "That's exactly right."
As soon as he finished speaking, his expression changed drastically, realizing he had said the wrong thing.