Chapter 40

Sigh! This Zhao Gao, after following me for so many years, still does not understand my thoughts!

Ying Zheng shook his head repeatedly, yet still took that piece of silk to read.

At this very moment, he simply wanted to see how the common people of Dang Commandery would curse Ying Su, that unfilial son!

He smiled.

However... after reading only the first few characters of this silk, his expression turned wrong.

When he saw the middle section, Ying Zheng's eyebrows twisted into a knot!

After finishing the entire silk, Ying Zheng flew into a rage; he directly hurled the silk to the ground with a fierce throw, grabbed Zhao Gao's collar by the neck, and roared with sky-high anger:

"You... dare deceive me?"

His anger was boundless!

Zhao Gao was terrified into a stupor, kowtowing fiercely before Ying Zheng: "Your Majesty, Your Majesty, this slave would never dare! These... these are the most truthful situations collected by the Wang network spies in Dang Commandery!"

"This slave can immediately summon Zhen Gang and Duan Shui to let them explain the true situation of Dang Commandery to the Emperor!"

Zhao Gao shouted again and again, kowtowed again and again!

Ying Zheng inhaled again and again, suppressing the rage in his chest again and again!

For a long time... he finally calmed down!

In that moment, his gaze was like lightning, staring fixedly at Zhao Gao, and he asked: "This memorial says the people are overjoyed, cheering and leaping, because... the disaster relief grain was distributed in full quota?"

"What does this mean? Could it be... that in past years, the disaster relief grain our Great Qin sent to the local areas was never distributed in full quota?"

Ying Zheng asked in an angry voice.

Yes, this was the reason his face looked so bad!

Originally, he wanted to see the scene of Dang Commandery's common people cursing Ying Su.

But... at the first glance upon opening the memorial, he saw praise!

Not just the first sentence of praise!

But... this memorial was almost entirely praise from beginning to end!

Praising the new Emperor's extraordinary wisdom, for actually thinking to mix sand into the disaster relief grain to ensure the full quota of disaster relief grain was distributed.

Of course, this level of praise, although making Ying Su uncomfortable, was still far from the point of making him furious!

What truly made him furious was the people's evaluation afterwards: "The new Emperor far surpasses the First Emperor!"

"The new Emperor far surpasses the First Emperor?"

Just this one sentence directly made Ying Zheng explode!

What does "the new Emperor far surpasses the First Emperor" mean?

This made him angry, but at the same time, he also felt deeply puzzled; what is there to cheer and leap about regarding merely the full quota distribution of disaster relief grain?

On what basis do the people, based solely on the full quota distribution of disaster relief grain, say the new Emperor far surpasses the First Emperor?

He was angry, but at the same time, he could not help but feel puzzled in his heart!

Zhao Gao knelt on the ground and kowtowed, saying: "Replying to Your Majesty, according to the intelligence gathered by the Wang network, since the First Emperor unified the world, Dang Commandery has suffered disasters three times, yet every single time, the imperial court's disaster relief grain was never distributed in full quota!"

"The first time, the imperial court sent twenty thousand shi of grain for disaster relief, but the result was that after the disaster relief grain arrived, there were only fifteen thousand shi!"

"The second time, the imperial court sent thirty-five thousand shi of grain for disaster relief, but the result was that after the disaster relief grain arrived, there were only twenty-eight thousand shi!"

"The third time was the most outrageous; the imperial court sent four hundred thousand shi of grain for disaster relief, but the result was that after the disaster relief grain arrived, there were only fifteen thousand shi of grain!"

"This... this is why?"

Ying Zheng was shocked; he had not known even a tiny bit about this situation before!

Zhao Gao knelt on the ground and kowtowed, saying: "Dang Commandery was formerly Wei territory, far from our Qin State, and on the road from Xianyang to Dang Commandery, there are many mountains and rivers; these places are full of mountain bandits and robbers. Every time disaster relief grain passes through these places, they carry out plundering!"

"But because this is the imperial court's disaster relief grain, they do not dare to plunder it all; every group of bandits only dares to plunder a little. With this happening, by the time it reaches Dang Commandery, the disaster relief grain has become less!"

"At first, it was only bandits; later, some nobles, merchants, and officials saw profit in this, so they also began to join in!"

"They either impersonated bandits or used their official power to deduct portions!"

"Thus, the disaster relief grain became even less!"

"And every time the disaster relief grain distributed by the imperial court passed through these layers of exploitation, by the time it reached the hands of the disaster victims, almost nothing remained!"

"Thus, causing the disaster victims to wail in sorrow!"

In that moment, Zhao Gao bowed down and began to recount!

And Ying Zheng was horrified!

Because, what Zhao Gao said, he actually did not know at all!

Let alone knowing it, he had not even heard of it!

At this very moment, he could not help but suspect Zhao Gao was deceiving him!

But... looking at Zhao Gao before him, how could he possibly believe Zhao Gao was deceiving him?

Zhao Gao, he followed me when I was thirteen and had just become Qin Wang.

Later, when suppressing Lao Ai and toppling Lu Buwei, on which occasion was Zhao Gao not by my side?

This is the eunuch and temple servant I trusted the most!

Moreover, regarding these matters, I had not received absolutely no wind of it!

I remember many years ago, the Governor of Dang Commandery submitted a memorial to me, saying that the disaster relief grain in Dang Commandery was severely short, but because he did not specify exactly how much was short, and moreover, the disaster situation had already passed long ago, I did not take it seriously.

Looking at it now, there is something fishy in this!

Someone must have detained this memorial, waiting until the disaster situation had completely ended and seeing that I no longer cared about the matter, before daring to place this memorial before me!

"Good!"

"So good!"

In this moment, Ying Zheng erupted in fury!

He was so furious that his whole body trembled!

He never expected that in this Great Qin, someone would still dare to deceive him so brazenly!

Ying Zheng was filled with boundless rage.

Yet at the same time, he could not help but wonder: how could mixing sand into the disaster-relief grain ensure it was distributed in full quantity?

Would those bandits, officials, nobles, and treacherous merchants really let the disaster-relief grain go simply because it was mixed with sand?

How could that be possible!

They were all treacherous people greedy for profit; how could they possibly let the disaster-relief grain go just because of sand?

PS: Begging for flowers, begging for evaluation votes!!!

034. Li Si Betrays, Ying Zheng Vomits Blood!

At this moment, Ying Zheng pondered; he could not quite understand why this was so.

He asked Zhao Gao, yet Zhao Gao also could not explain clearly, but he suggested they could summon Li Si to ask him; if that truly failed, they could even call Ying Su directly!

"Summon whom?"

The moment those words left his lips, Ying Zheng exploded on the spot, his eyes beginning to glare furiously at Zhao Gao!

Zhao Gao trembled all over in fear, yet he still suggested that if that failed, they should summon Li Si!

However, Ying Zheng said nothing.

At this very moment, he felt only rage!

Likewise, his mind kept spinning, endlessly wondering why all this was happening.

Indeed!

As the First Emperor, he possessed his own pride and dignity!

If Ying Su could devise this idea and put it into practice, yet he himself could not see through why it worked, could it truly be that the new emperor far surpasses the First Emperor?

Impossible!

This matter... he must figure it out clearly!

Ying Zheng, still furious, closed his eyes and thought for a while; then he smiled and said to Zhao Gao:

"Whether merchants, bandits, or treacherous traders, they intercept disaster-relief grain not because they need it, but to gain profit!"

"But what if the cost of obtaining the disaster-relief grain exceeds the profit it brings?"

"Mixing sand into the disaster-relief grain means that to sift the sand out of three hundred thousand shi of grain would require enormous manpower; thus, the time and effort expended would far outweigh the profit gained from the disaster-relief grain!"

"In this way, no one would covet the disaster-relief grain anymore!"

"As for those disaster-stricken common people, they would not care; starving mad, even if sand were mixed in, or even other things, they would pick them out and eat the grain!"