Chapter 1274 Untitled
Listening to what Nanny Cao relayed, An Miaoyi felt conflicted. Ever since her family encountered misfortune, she liked to take control of her own destiny rather than leaving the outcome of things in the hands of others.

So when facing Murong Yuliang's comeback this time, An Miaoyi had already made up her mind to use some tricks behind the scenes to bring down Murong Yuliang and make sure that Murong Yuliang and the Murong family would never be able to recover.

However, Cui Shao's words now shook An Miaoyi's thoughts. After careful consideration, An Miaoyi felt that Cui Shao's idea was correct. Ye Mingsheng letting Murong Yuliang serve as the governor of Jianghuai was just the beginning! There were still many difficulties in front of Murong Yuliang!
But the question is, what if Murong Yuliang hadn’t failed in Jianghuai?
What if Murong Yuliang developed the economy of Jianghuai like he did in Hebei and Henan?

More news has been sent to Yijing these days. An Miaoyi already knows that Ye Mingsheng made a promise to Murong Yuliang. Although An Miaoyi doesn't know the specific content of the promise, she can guess what Ye Mingsheng promised to Murong Yuliang. It's nothing more than becoming the prime minister of the cabinet and so on!

So even though she knew that Murong Yuliang might not be able to develop the Jianghuai economy smoothly, An Miaoyi still didn't want to take the gamble!

After all, Murong Yuliang had done a great job in developing the economy of Hebei and Henan before, so he has experience in this area!
Even though he and the Murong family are political rivals, An Miaoyi also admits that Murong Yuliang is really good at managing the economy. So even if there are many difficulties waiting for Murong Yuliang, in An Miaoyi's opinion, Murong Yuliang still has a good chance of completing the task assigned to him by Ye Mingsheng·····················
Thinking of this, An Miaoyi's eyes flashed with helplessness. Although Cui Shao did not say it directly, An Miaoyi could clearly realize that Cui Shao did not want to join her in dealing with Murong Yuliang at this time.
An Miaoyi was naturally disappointed with Cui Shao's attitude, but when she put herself in Cui Shao's position and thought about it, she could understand it to some extent. Although Cui's people were numerous and powerful, they were also easy to attract suspicion from Ye Mingsheng. Moreover, Cui Shao now had a subtle difference with Ye Mingsheng in political philosophy!

Therefore, if Cui Shao were to target Murong Yuliang at this time, once the news leaked out, he would certainly be even more unacceptable to Ye Mingsheng, and might even be regarded as a thorn in his side!
An Miaoyi understood the truth, but she still found it hard to accept the thought of letting Murong Yuliang stay in the position of Governor of Jianghuai!

Although it was difficult to tolerate Murong Yuliang continuing to serve as the governor of Jianghuai, An Miaoyi knew even more clearly that without Cui Shao's help, it would be difficult for her to take down Murong Yuliang with her current political energy and political resources. It could even be said that she could not shake Murong Yuliang!
Looking at An Miaoyi's expression, Qi Qige beside her also spoke:
"Madam, I have something to say but I don't know whether I should say it or not!"

Listening to Qiqige's words, An Miaoyi said without hesitation:
“Qiqige, you can say whatever you want…”

"Madam, I think you should listen to Master Cui. The last time you wanted to attack Murong Zhengshan, it was Master Cui who persuaded you to stop. And the facts have proved that Master Cui's idea was correct. Otherwise, if you had killed Murong Zhengshan last time, you would have been in big trouble!"

Hearing Qiqige mention Murong Zhengshan's name, An Miaoyi fell into deep thought. Qiqige was right. If she had insisted on her own way last time and really sent people to kill that bastard Murong Zhengshan, she would have fallen into the trap of the Murong family!
How similar is the situation this time to the last time?
He did not send anyone to take action last time, so the Murong family was forced to resort to the self-torture tactic. However, in the end, the plan was exposed and they suffered the consequences, resulting in Murong Yuliang's failure to successfully enter the cabinet and Murong Hui being demoted to Anqing!

So if I still don't take action this time, will the terrible situation happen again?
Thinking of this question, An Miaoyi's eyes couldn't help but flash a gleam of light, and then he opened his mouth and decided:

"Tell Wang Rui not to go to Jiangnan, but to stay in Yijing and wait for orders!"

"Yes!"

After making the decision, An Miaoyi continued to ask:

"Qiqige, has there been any major incident in the court recently?"

Qiqige hesitated for a moment and said:
"My lady, there has been no major incident in the imperial court recently, and there has been no news leaked from the Imperial Guards. If anything really happened, it is that Chu Zhiyi has arrived in Yijing from the clouds and has gone to the Censorate to take up the post of Left Censor-in-Chief!"

Hearing Chu Zhiyi's name, An Miaoyi also asked with interest:
"Chu Zhiyi is here?"

"What did he do in the Censorate?"

“Chu Zhiyi took back many files and memorials from the Censorate, saying that he would look through them all at home. For this reason, some people in the court were very worried…”

An Miaoyi smiled and said:

"Then what did Chu Zhiyi do?"

Qiqige said with some disdain:

"He didn't do anything! I think Chu Zhiyi is just a lot of noise but little action. It's nothing serious. I don't know why those people are so worried about him!"

Hearing Qiqige say this, An Miaoyi seemed a little surprised. After a pause, she asked again:

"Who has Chu Zhiyi met since he came to Yijing?"

Qiqige thought for a moment and said:
"In addition to going to the Censorate, we also went to Gu Sansi's house to have a welcoming banquet!"

An Miaoyi also became thoughtful after hearing this. After thinking for a moment, An Miaoyi changed the subject and asked:
"Do you know where my husband is?"

"There is no news about the Lord's whereabouts yet, but according to the previous schedule, the Lord should have arrived in Jingchu by now!"

"I remember someone in Jingchu sent his son to give me a gift before?"

"Madam, it is true that it was sent by Yang Qinghe, the prefect of Hanyang, but it was only 20,000 taels of silver, and some gold, silver and jewelry. Because he was a stranger, you rejected him!"

An Miaoyi nodded slightly when she heard this, and Qiqige continued:

"After Sun Xiuquan committed suicide, the position of Jingchu Governor became vacant. I heard that the Deputy Governor of Jingchu Dai Ping and Yang Qinghe are now considered the favorites. Both of them are actively vying for the position of Governor. Your Excellency's inspection in Jingchu this time is likely to decide on the candidate for Jingchu Governor!"

“Qiqige, you keep a close eye on Jingchu’s situation and tell me immediately if there is any news…”

"Yes! Madam!"

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September 10th, Jingchu Hengde, Daguan County under its jurisdiction
In a porridge distribution site, Ye Mingsheng, surrounded by dozens of G members, looked at the thousands of disaster victims waiting for rice porridge with a serious expression. Hengde is located in the west of Jingchu, not on Ye Mingsheng's route to Hanyang, but because it had just been hit by an earthquake more than three months ago, and a series of administrative problems had also occurred here, so Ye Mingsheng decided to come here to take a look.

When Ye Mingsheng received the news of the Hengde earthquake in Qilu a few months ago, he thought that an earthquake had occurred in Hengde City. However, after arriving at the local area today, Ye Mingsheng learned that Hengde City had only suffered the aftermath of the earthquake and did not suffer much damage, with only more than a dozen people killed or injured.

The epicenter of the Hengde earthquake was Daguan County and Xiaoguan County. Especially Daguan County, the entire county town was basically in ruins. The county town had a total population of more than 10,000, and 80% of them were unfortunately buried underground. The population of Xiaoguan County was similar to that of Daguan County, and the situation was slightly better, but nearly 50% of the people were also buried underground.

Ye Mingsheng looked at Song Hui, the magistrate of Daguan County, and asked in a deep voice:
"I remember your report to the court. At the beginning, you only said that only 2,000 people died in Hengde. How come there are more than 8,000 deaths in Daguan County alone?"

Facing Ye Mingsheng's question, Song Hui answered respectfully:

"Your Excellency, this is what happened. According to the rule of the Governor's Office, the deceased must be seen in person. If the deceased is not seen, there is no need to report it for the time being. When we first started counting, we didn't find so many people, so we only reported more than a thousand deaths in Daguan County..."

"We later searched for survivors under the rubble and gradually found some dead people, so the death toll increased!"

Ye Mingsheng didn't say anything on this issue. He glanced at the disaster victims queuing at the porridge place and asked:

"Are you having any difficulties at the moment?"

"Reporting to the commander, the governor has allocated us a thousand tents and 50,000 shi of grain. Together with some temporary houses we have built, the food and housing problems of the disaster victims in Daguan County and Xiaoguan County have been solved!"

"The biggest problem now is the follow-up resettlement of these disaster victims. According to the idea of ​​the Chief Secretary, the remaining 7,000 people in Daguan County and Xiaoguan County should be transported to Hengde, Hanyang and other places. However, many people find it hard to leave their hometown and are unwilling to leave for other places!"

Hearing this, Ye Mingsheng couldn't help but frown. After inspecting such a large area, he had a better understanding of the grassroots situation. He knew that the reason why these people were reluctant to leave was not because they were reluctant to leave their hometown, but because many people in these two counties owned their own land and became self-employed farmers after the reforms that had just been implemented!

Therefore, if they leave here and go to other places, it means giving up the land here, and land is the greatest asset for the people now. Giving up the land here and going to other places is equivalent to being a beggar or a tenant. Therefore, the people here are unwilling to leave here······················
Seeing Ye Mingsheng frowning, Song Haibo on the side also reminded:
"Sir, I know a little about this matter. At the beginning, the idea of ​​the governor was not to evacuate, but to gather the two counties of Daguan County and Xiaoguan County together, and then rebuild a city here for them to live in!"

"But the cost of rebuilding a city is too high, and now the Chief Secretary can't come up with the money, so we can only evacuate them to other places!"

Ye Mingsheng hesitated for a moment and said:
"How much silver does it cost to rebuild a city?"

"The Governor's Office will probably need at least 50,000 taels of silver. Although the Governor's Office has this amount of silver, if it takes it out, it won't be able to pay salaries in the second half of the year!"

"How is your investigation into the corruption of disaster relief funds going?"

Seeing Ye Mingsheng asking this, Ye Pengchao said without hesitation:
"Sir, the case has been handled. The masterminds are Ma Yuan, the governor of the provincial government, and Wang Guangdi, the prefect of Hengde. In addition, thirteen minor officials were involved in the case. All the suspects have been arrested!"

Ye Mingsheng said without further ado:

"How much silver was seized during the confiscation of the house?"

"Reporting to the commander, the total amount of cash and various valuables seized is 27,000 taels of silver!"

After hearing this answer, Ye Mingsheng asked again:

"Was this Ma Yuan promoted by Liang Xin?"

Seeing Ye Mingsheng mentioned Liang Xin's name, a hint of surprise flashed across his face, but under Ye Mingsheng's gaze he still nodded and said:
"Marshal, yes, this Ma Yuan was promoted by Liang Xin!"

After getting a definite answer, Ye Mingsheng directly ordered:
"Ye Pengchao, go find Liang Xin and ask him to pay 10,000 taels of silver!"

Ye Pengchao hesitated for a moment and said:
"General, according to our investigation by the Censorate, this matter has nothing to do with Lord Liang. It's all due to the greed of Ma Yuan and others!"

"I know! Otherwise I wouldn't have let him go just like that!"

"This Liang Xin is not stupid enough to covet this silver, but Liu Yuan was promoted by him after all, so he must bear joint responsibility. He has worked for so many years, don't tell me that he can't come up with 10,000 taels of silver, don't say I'm making things difficult for him, I'll give him a month, if he can't come up with it, he will bear the consequences!"

Hearing Ye Mingsheng's swift and decisive actions, Ye Pengchao couldn't help but secretly smack his lips but immediately accepted the order and said:
"My lord, I understand. I will inform Lord Liang of your intention!"

After solving the shortfall of 37,000 taels of silver, Ye Mingsheng asked again:

"I heard that the situation in Xiaoguan County is better than that in Daguan County?"

Ye Pengchao said without hesitation:
"Your Excellency, the situation in Xiaoguan County is better than here, but most of the houses that have survived the disaster have become dangerous. If you continue to live in them, there will be considerable safety risks!"

Ye Mingsheng couldn't help but frown when he heard this. His original idea was to use the dirty silver obtained from the house raiding and Liang Xin's ten thousand taels to rebuild a Xiaoguan County on the basis of the original Xiaoguan County for these people to live in!
But now it seems that this plan is not feasible·················
(End of this chapter)