Chapter 59 fifty eight

Li Shimin looked at his daughter standing in the porch with his little hands behind his back, as if he suddenly saw the former concubine Shu, he couldn't help but blinked hard, only to realize that it was just a hallucination, so he smiled wryly at his daughter and said: "Daughter, don't blame me. I have no choice but to ride a horse. When my legs get better, I will have a good kick with you!" After finishing speaking, he beat the horse and left. Ankang asked what happened to Wang De on the side, Wang De sighed, told Ankang about the mutiny of the Zuo Tunwei Army, and told her to go back to the bedroom and stay well, not to run around.Ankang's shock was no small matter. After Concubine Shu's death, she had been raised by the eldest grandson empress. She had a better relationship with Prince Li Chengqian than her compatriots, and she was very familiar with Chang Sheng. She promised Wang De to go back to the bedroom, but turned around as soon as she left the courtyard. But hurried to the East Palace.

The crown prince Li Chengqian in the East Palace was in a state of desperation. He sat on a chair with his face propped up, his face full of exhaustion.Heng Lian reported to him from the side with a bitter face: "Your Highness, the people sent by the minister searched all the grain shops, and after a whole day of tossing around, they only bought one or two thousand shi of good rice. There will be several people from important border towns tomorrow." I'm coming to Taicang to pick up rice, what should I do?" Li Chengqian said weakly, "If you ask me, who should I ask?"

At this time, Ankang came in three steps at a time, shouting all the way: "Brother Prince, something happened to Chang Sheng!" Li Chengqian hurriedly stood up and asked, "What happened to him?" Ankang gasped and said: "The soldiers of the Zuo Tunwei army rebelled because they ate some moldy rice, and the emperor personally suppressed it." Li Chengqian's face changed drastically, and he was almost knocked down. Heng hurriedly helped him up. Ankang asked with concern: "Brother, what's wrong with you?" Li Chengqian said with cold sweat on his face, "This time the sky is really going to fall." Let me tell you about the process of storing grain in Taicang.After finishing speaking, Li Chengqian held his head and said in pain: "There are 400,000 shi of grain, and hundreds of thousands of frontier soldiers are waiting to eat. If the grain cannot be picked up by tomorrow morning, the world will be in chaos! I really have nowhere to go!"

Ankang stomped his feet angrily: "Brother Prince, let me tell you what you want, and Heng Lian, you dog slaves, why are you so confused!" Li Chengqian scolded himself repeatedly: "I'm sorry father, I'm sorry. I'm sorry Father." As he said that, he reached out and pulled out the sword hanging on the wall to kill himself, but Heng Lian quickly stopped him.Ankang's face turned pale with fright.Seeing that the prince's brother was so desperate, Ankang was also very anxious. Suddenly, she thought of a person, and this person was her new playmate Mu Yikuan.In recent days, Ankang has been sneaking out of the palace, learning piano with Mu Yikuan, and heard him and his family talking about food several times.His family is a big grain merchant, if he could borrow some grain from Dou's family to fill up the hole, wouldn't the prince's elder brother escape the disaster?She expressed her thoughts to Li Chengqian, Li Chengqian seemed to have met a savior, but Henglian poured cold water on the side, 400,000 shi of grain, how could a merchant provide so much at once?

Ankang said: "That's not necessarily true. I heard that a while ago, this Mr. Mu transported 100,000 shi of grain to Suizhou for sale. On the day Huqi City was destroyed, in order to prevent the grain from falling into the hands of the enemy, he actually ordered to let the grain fall into the hands of the enemy." The family burned all the grain. His family was able to transport so much grain to Suizhou, so what’s so strange about stockpiling four or five million shi of grain in Chang’an City?” Youdao was in a hurry Going to the doctor, the matter has reached this point, Li Chengqian can't take care of it anymore, and urgently ordered Henglian to escort his sister to the Dou Mansion to borrow food.

Arriving at the Dou Mansion, Ankang found Mu Yikuan for the first time, and asked him for help, and quickly raised 400,000 shi of grain to block the hole in Nandacang for the prince. Mu Yikuan was quite surprised by Ankang's identity. In the past, she claimed to be the daughter of a wealthy family in Chang'an, but he always felt that she was not like the daughter of an ordinary wealthy family.Mu Yikuan is a very casual person, and he doesn't ask if people don't tell him.He had guessed that she was the daughter of a noble family, but he never thought that she was actually the current princess.People in the Tang Dynasty were more open-minded, and the communication between men and women was much more casual than later generations, but it was not a trivial matter for ordinary people to have such close contact with a princess, let alone the Dou family was a businessman.In a society where merchants are less important than scholars, a merchant's son stands in front of the princess, like a weed facing a towering giant tree, his inferiority complex and fear are like the tree's shadow, and Mu Yikuan's heart is suddenly moved. The little bit of self-esteem was tightly covered, and he didn't speak for a long time.

Ankang was anxious, and shouted loudly: "Hey, what's the matter with you, is this grain borrowed or not?" Mu Yikuan came to his senses at this moment, and hurriedly called Dou Fu to ask how much grain was left on the cabinet.Seeing the people in official uniforms standing behind Ankang, Dou Fu was too frightened to tell the truth, and faltered: "Master, how many can there be, at most a few thousand stones? Didn't you see it too, there is no way , the shop is already selling soaked rice." Mu Yikuan sneered and reprimanded Dou Fu: "Bold! You dare to lie in front of me. I went to inspect the warehouse in person a few days ago, and there is no more than 600,000. Is the stone good for rice? Besides, our granary is so high, there is no way there will be rice that has been soaked in water."

Dou Fu looked at Henglian who was behind Ankang and said: "Your official, don't trust our young master, he has misremembered, how can there be any 600,000 shi of grain, it's all fodder, feed the animals Yes, our young master is a scholar and doesn’t know farming.” He winked at Mu Yikuan, and said in his heart, hoarding is not a small crime, if the officials find out, it will cost you your head, my lord How can you say it outside! Mu Yikuan looked at the official uniforms of Henglian's guards, understood Dou Fu's thoughts, and said, "Don't worry, they are my friends, they won't harm us, tell me how much food we still have in the warehouse, hurry up!" Say it!" Dou Fu looked at Mu Yikuan's sharp eyes, hesitated for a long time, and gritted his teeth and said a few words: "There are about five hundred thousand stones left." Ankang's face suddenly showed a gleam of joy.

Mu Yikuan said to Dou Fu: "The Zhuangzi where we stockpile grain is not far from Nandacang, you can call more people, and immediately go and pick up 400,000 shi of grain from this general, and transport it quickly." Heng Lian hurriedly handed over a The note said: "This is an IOU. I will bring the food first, and send the money to the house in a few days." Dou Fu was hesitating whether to accept it or not, but a hand stretched out from the side and slapped Dou Fu on the face with a "slap".Everyone looked up, and an old man appeared in front of him. He snatched the IOU from Dou Fu, glanced at it, then looked at Ankang, and slowly tore it into pieces.Mu Yikuan yelled: "Father!" Dou Fu covered his face and said, "Master, this is what the young master forced the younger one to pick up."

The person who came was Mu Yikuan's adoptive father, Dou Ai. Dou gave Dou Fu a look, and scolded: "I blame you for not accepting this kind of job? I blame you for not listening to the young master's order. In the future, you will give me a lot of money." I remember, the young master is the same as me in this family, his words are mine!" Dou Fu hurriedly nodded and said: "Damn the young ones, damn the young ones!" Then, Dou Yi turned to Ankang and said: "Since the prince wants to use this thing, what kind of IOU is needed, please send a message to His Royal Highness, the food will be returned if you have it, and if you don't have it, forget it."