Chapter 213 Death Shock

The atmosphere in the court had been extremely depressing for the past few days. Information leaked from the Imperial Medical Bureau indicated that the health of Emperor Zhao Ji was deteriorating, and the situation was not optimistic.

The emperor was terrifying, and an emperor nearing the end of his life was even more terrifying. This terrifying state of affairs was directly reflected in several recent draconian measures taken by the Imperial City Administration.

In the case of corruption by Mei Zhili, the assistant minister of the Ministry of Justice, the amount of silver involved reached 400,000 taels, which was a rare major corruption case in recent years.

Mei Zhili, the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice, is still imprisoned in the Kaifeng prison. In recent days, he has confessed to many people, even two third-rank officials were involved, and they were all arrested one by one by the Imperial City Division. For a time, everyone in the court was in danger.

Of course, there are different degrees of self-insecurity.

The most terrified among them, of course, is Zhao Kai's group.

Mei Zhili, the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice, has always had close ties with Zhao Kai, and the cliques he made were naturally officials from Zhao Kai's faction.

But after he was caught for corruption this time, His Majesty issued an imperial decree that if he confessed to a crime, his sentence would be reduced.

It is said that the punishment that Lord Mei deserves has been changed from beheading to 530 years in prison. If he works harder and confesses a few more national parasites, he may have a chance to see the light of day again in his lifetime.

As a result, some officials of Zhao Kai's faction had their property confiscated or imprisoned, and all their property was transferred to the national treasury. A rough estimate shows that within a few months, at least several million taels of silver were added to the national treasury.

However, His Majesty was obviously not satisfied with this. This time, he seemed determined to investigate the corrupt officials in the capital. The Censorate was ordered to check the account books of various government offices and departments in order to pull out the corrupt officials one by one. When this order came out, countless officials in the capital were panicked.

"Honey, it seems there aren't any holidays lately, right?"

Looking at the valuable gifts that almost filled up the entire room, Zhu Lian thought for a moment and asked in surprise.

This is not the most surprising thing. On weekdays, my family has no contact with the officials and dignitaries in Kaifeng City. Even if it is a festival, it is impossible to receive so many gifts.

The people who brought gifts were all officials from Kaifeng Prefecture. Some of them sent their servants, while others came in person. They were very polite and even refused when the housekeeper invited them into the mansion for a cup of tea. They just left after leaving the gifts. It was really strange.

Zhao Huan waved his hand casually and said, "My lady, don't worry about these things. In short, if someone gives you gifts these days, just accept them boldly. Don't worry about anything else. Just accept the money according to the order."

I received this gift with a clear conscience and without any psychological pressure.

The officials in Kyoto were still polite and presented expensive gifts. Judging from this situation, they should have kept some of the silver they donated in the court that day.

I just wonder if they would take back these gifts if they knew that the retired emperor had originally only intended to deal with a few corrupt officials, and for the sake of stability in the court, decided to burn the account records and let the others go.

However, these gifts should be accepted.

After all, he had spent a lot of time and effort to persuade the emperor to change his mind, and he didn't get any great benefits from it. Come to think of it, it was really a waste of time...

After dealing with several corrupt officials, the turmoil in the court finally calmed down.

Zhao Huan never attended court again after that, but it was heard that there had been frequent personnel transfers in the court in recent days, with officials being promoted or demoted. Departments like the Ministry of Revenue were even purged from top to bottom.

Everyone chose to remain silent regarding this big move by the retired emperor. The turmoil from the last corruption investigation had just passed and had not been completely settled.

If anyone dares to speak too much at this time and remind His Majesty of something bad and bring up old things, most of the officials in the court will not let him go.

The person who made the most money in the world was indeed the emperor. Just by talking, he immediately earned millions of taels of silver and established his prestige in the court again.

It intimidated a large number of people, gathered a large number of people, and took the opportunity to purge a large number of people. This is killing several birds with one stone - this deal couldn't be more profitable.

It is easy to make money, but it is harder than climbing to the sky to get money from him.

However, three hundred thousand taels of silver is more than enough to build a lake. Labor is worthless in this era, not to mention that this money should be kept for more important things and used as scientific research funds in the future. How can it be spent on such a trivial matter as building a lake?

The class schedule at the Institute of Science has changed these days.

From morning to night, the sequence is digging the lake, attending class, digging the lake, and resting.

Digging a lake is not just about digging a lake. How deep to dig, how to dig, and how to design the waterway all require careful calculations. If any of these is not done well, you will fail the course.

Xiongzhou reported that over 500 patrol cavalrymen from the northern border had entered the two territories. The emperor said, "The northerners seem to be causing trouble. The weapons along the Hebei route are all worn out and unusable, and the generals and soldiers are incompetent. How can we resist the enemy?"

Wang Anshi and others said, "If Your Majesty would pay more attention to border defense, it would not be difficult. The militia we have enlisted will be trained daily, and the rest will involve preparing materials, repairing the fortifications, and selecting generals. These are just a few things."

In the spring of the thirteenth year, on the first month of the year Renzi, he visited Yanfangdian. On the Jiayin day, Guangling County was established. On the Dingsi day, the tax revenue of Taizhou, Suicheng and other counties was increased.

On March 12, the fourth year, Wang Cun, the Imperial Edict Director, said, "The Liao people have been quite thorough in their investigations of the Central Court, while the border officials' reports on Liao affairs are quite different. This is because the border officials are not proficient in their duties. I have observed that Liu Shunqing, the governor of Xiongzhou, is adept at discussing strategic matters and is a suitable candidate for this position. We should provide him with some money and allow him to use his intelligence outside the strict rules."

During the period of confrontation between the Song, Liao and Jin dynasties, the Han people in the entire Youyun region seemed to have been more or less suspected and treated unequally by both sides.

On June 1st, the Privy Council reported: "On the 23rd of last month, troops from the northern border invaded Xiongzhou and shot and injured officers and soldiers. Xiongzhou is instructed to surrender to Xin and Rongcheng. If the northerners again invade the south of Juma, we should hide our elite troops in the woods and wait for the government troops to seize advantage. Then we should suddenly attack and surround them. We should conduct scouts at a distance, assess the situation, and defend ourselves. We should not pursue them too far, as this would only lead to our own mistakes. We should also select elite troops to provide support."

On the 18th day of the intercalary second month of the first year of Emperor Zhezong's Yuanyou reign, the Hedong Road General Administration Office reported that the Huoshan Army, following imperial orders, had demolished the stacked stone bridges. Over 200 northerners, on horseback, attacked and shot civilians including Zhao Li. The Hedong General Administration Office was ordered to secretly prepare dikes and use reasoning to persuade the enemy. If anyone else built a stone wall and intruded beyond the border, they would immediately demolish it as before.

On February 13, the fifth year, the Hedong Border Pacification Office reported: "The bottle-shaped Baoxing military camp is connected to the northern camp of Zhending Prefecture. Many northerners have been invading here, robbing people and households. Furthermore, logging in the Wutai Mountain area has always been prohibited to curb the invasion of Hu people. Recently, illegal logging has increased significantly, seriously affecting border defense." The request is for the commander to be allowed to inspect the camps under Daizhou's jurisdiction and the Wutai area bordering Hebei. He should return once a year and place personnel in dangerous areas to detect and apprehend culprits.