The Wild Daoist, Wen Xunpeng, and the others entered and merely bowed.
Su Ziji returned to his seat, swept his gaze over them, and said, "Please sit. Let us first discuss His Majesty's matter."
He meant the message they had just received from the Empress in the palace: the Emperor intended to assign the investigation into the granaries to Su Ziji, the Imperial Grandson.
Wen Xunpeng cupped his hands and spoke first. "My lord, the granary matter may indeed need rectification, but it is a great trap. Throughout history, every investigation into granaries has buried deep roots of disaster."
"My lord, do you remember the case of Li Jinhuai from the previous dynasty?"
Su Ziji's brows drew together. With his vast knowledge and prodigious memory, he immediately recalled it. During the Wei Dynasty, disaster-relief grain had vanished without a trace, and the Emperor had ordered a thorough investigation.
At the time, Li Jinhuai was merely in his thirties and held Subordinate Third Rank. He came from an official family, possessed ability of his own, and had backing as well, so when he accepted the assignment, he truly carried it out in earnest.
He had also believed it was a grave matter. Should famine or rebel armies arise, without grain, how could the court deploy troops and relieve the people? Determined to investigate to the end, he ultimately implicated fifty-six officials, whose heads fell to the ground. At the time, he even won the Emperor's praise.
Yet three years later, Li Jinhuai was charged with some pretext, impeached by eleven officials, and finally drank poison to end his life.
"...Not only in the previous dynasty. Thirteen years ago, there was another such case, also involving granaries. The person in charge was a scion of the noble clans. Refusing to believe in