Forcing Him

It was clear they had worked hard on it; the account books had been compiled no more than two days ago.

Yu Qian skimmed through them at a glance, then closed the books and asked, "Wasn't it said that the prefectural treasury had been completely looted? Where did this grain come from?"

Cai Sheng's body stiffened. Sensing Yu Qian's gaze upon him, sharp as blades set into steel, he hurriedly said, "It was donated by the county's gentry, wealthy merchants, Daoist temples, and Buddhist monasteries."

Yu Qian said, "That is rather rare. You actually managed to get Daoist temples and monasteries to donate money and grain."

Whenever famine struck, Daoist temples and monasteries were always the ones holding out their hands to solicit donations before distributing relief grain. To pry money and grain out of them showed just what kind of standing their County Magistrate Cai had.

Cai Sheng lowered his head and said, "It is because the Daoist temples and monasteries trust the county yamen and this subordinate official that they were willing to..."

With a slap, Yu Qian threw down the account books. "We can discuss those matters later. Let us talk about Yushan County's increased corvée labor and the additional two qian in silver tax collected this year..."

Cai Sheng's knees gave way, and he crumpled to the floor.

Yu Qian was not even willing to give him three days?

Yu Qian did give him three days. He did not arrest Cai Sheng, but the matters that needed investigating were still being investigated.

For instance, the missing account books were gradually being recovered.

Yushan County was quite interesting. The county yamen claimed it had been burned down, yet as soon as they began searching, account books kept turning up one after another.

More interesting still, most of