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It turned out that a big businessman came from Anzhong County a month ago, and he was buying grain along the way. The price he bought was [-]% higher than that of ordinary businessmen.

Such a price instantly attracted the greedy Ma Mao.

There was a bumper harvest of grain last year, and hundreds of shi of grain were stored in the treasury. He had long wanted to be greedy.

But grain is a big thing with a low unit price, so it is really not convenient to carry and store it.

So Ma Mao immediately reached a cooperation with the big businessman, and even sold all the inventory to the other party directly.

In fact, Ma Mao's thoughts at that time were also well thought out.

Seeing that this year's grain harvest is about to be bumper, last year's old grain will definitely depreciate, and then I only need to fill the treasury with new grain.

Then he explained that if he sold the old grain that was exchanged, he only needed to pay half of the money he earned to fool him.

In this way, I directly earn half of the tax, which is not a small sum.

However, man is not as good as God. Ma Mao took everything into consideration, but he didn't expect that the war broke out not long after the grain was sold.

At the beginning, Sun Ce took the initiative to attack, but when the enemy invaded Jingzhou later, the situation became worse and worse.

Ma Mao was even ready to take the money and run away immediately if the situation was wrong.

Unexpectedly, before he had time to leave, Sun Ce's soldiers and horses arrived suddenly, just in time to catch him.

After hearing the confessions of Ma Mao and the treasurer, Zhou Yu immediately ordered people to search Ma Mao's residence.

Sure enough, a large number of gold, silver and jewelry were found there, and the matter was completely confirmed.

The first thousand and 630 chapter two commercial espionage

Under the real money, Ma Mao can no longer quibble, in fact, he has accepted his fate now.

Zhou Yu said angrily, "Ma Mao sold the government treasury privately, greedy for food and grass, an unforgivable crime, beheaded to show the public, as a warning to others.

Although the treasurer was not greedy for ink, he mismanaged it and was punished with fifty sticks for confiscation of property. "

After punishing the two of them, Zhou Yu's complexion still didn't improve.

Facing the gold, silver and jewelry in front of him, it is indeed not a small sum. In normal times, if you can sell this money, not only will you not be punished, but you will even be rewarded.

However, it is still the age of war, gold, silver and jewelry are precious, but they cannot be eaten or drunk.

It is far less valuable than the food and grass that can live countless people.

The most important thing is that with the chaos of war, the original agriculture will be affected instantly, and there may be no harvest at all this year.

The food stored in the treasury could have become the living rations of the people in the county.

So the more Zhou Yu thought about it, the more angry he became, and he was also very curious about which merchant actually paid a high price for the purchase.

At this moment, movement came from outside the city. It turned out that the magistrate of Nieyang County, who was only twenty miles away from Anzhong, had arrived.

This person didn't have many entourages, but he was followed by a convoy.

After entering the city, the county magistrate of Nieyang immediately said: "Tang Gu, magistrate of Nieyang county, pays homage to the king, the governor, and all the superior officials."

Sun Ce had just finished dealing with Ma Mao's matter, and he was still a little unhappy, so he said, "Zizheng, you are very well informed."

Tang Gu didn't care what the other party meant, and directly stated his intentions.

"Your Majesty, in fact, this time I am here to deliver food and grass. Nieyang under my jurisdiction is poor and can only contribute two hundred shi of grain. Please don't blame me, Your Majesty!"

As soon as these words came out, Sun Ce's face finally eased.

"Ma Mao governs Anzhong, and the government treasury is short of money. You govern Nieyang, which is only a few dozen miles away. How can you have so much food?"

"Reporting to the king, I don't know about Anzhong, but although Nieyang is small, there is still some surplus every year. The accumulated amount is not small."

At this time, Zhou Yu stepped forward and said, "Then do you know that Ma Mao has sold all the grain?"

Tang Gu's face changed when he heard the words: "Could it be, could it be that big businessman from a few months ago?"

"You also know about this?" Zhou Yu's eyes lit up instantly.

"Back to the governor, this person also came to my Nieyang. It's just that the lower official's family didn't have private food to sell to him, but several big families in the city made a lot of money.

It's just that Xiaguan was very puzzled by such a high price, and once sent someone to inquire secretly.

Although his true identity has not been ascertained, but he heard that the other party mentioned Yangzhou occasionally.

It's just that there was no war between us and Yangzhou at that time, and the lower officials didn't dare to act rashly, so they let those people get away. "

When Zhou Yu heard this, his face was cloudy and uncertain at first, but finally everything became clear.

If his prediction is correct, these people are probably all Liu Ke's people.

Arrange these people to travel around as merchants, buy grain and grass in peacetime, and send them back to Yangzhou.

Just like Ma Mao, who was greedy for high prices and sold out the treasury. When it came to the war, his side immediately faced the embarrassment of insufficient food and grass.

Moreover, during the war, those businessmen transformed into spies who took the opportunity to spy on the military situation, which can be said to kill two birds with one stone.

To understand this, even Zhou Yu had to admire Liu Ke's arrangement.

In fact, this conjecture is infinitely close to the truth.

Liu Ke has a gold mine in Yangzhou, where precious gold can be mined at any time.