The rising price of grain in Yunzhou City had reached such a point that everyone in the courtyard could see it was not just the work of unscrupulous merchants, but the handiwork of local officials as well.
To convert Dasheng’s treasury funds into grain to fill the bellies of the disaster victims, one first had to satisfy the greed of those local officials. Wei Xian held the purse strings of Dasheng, but these funds belonged to the entire empire, and the portion that could be allocated to the victims in Yunzhou was limited. Greed, however, was infinite; Wei Xian could not possibly satisfy the merchants and officials first and then expect to have enough left to provide disaster relief!
Pei Hengyu, however, could not execute Prefect Wang at this critical juncture. This was not a problem that could be solved simply by killing a local official and opening the granaries. With the Sishui River open to navigation once more, he had to bring Yunzhou back to life.
Chapter 193