He humbly apologized:

"Please punish him, Your Excellency. That Liu Qi is exceptionally cunning, like an eel, and has repeatedly escaped."

He paused, then shifted the blame, saying, "In addition, those officials deliberately shielded and obstructed us, causing the project to fail at the last minute."

Liu Jin narrowed his eyes and clenched his fists tightly.

He knew that Ma Yongcheng had not completely submitted to him.

The Emperor bestowed official titles upon Ma Yongcheng's parents and appointed his nephew as a centurion in the Embroidered Uniform Guard, leaving Liu Jin with little room for manipulation.

He quickly smiled and said, "If you follow our family, you'll have all the riches and honors you deserve."

"Forget about the punishment, go and find out which officials deliberately covered it up."

Ma Yongcheng secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

He went back and compiled a list, also pointing out the forces behind these lists, such as Xu Jin, the Minister of Personnel who had just retired, and Liu Daxia, the Minister of War who had been retired for several years.

Liu Jin, worthy of being called the "Standing Emperor," directly demoted all fifty-six officials, whether retired or not, to commoners and demanded that they pay three hundred shi of rice to the border towns as atonement.

For a time, Liu Jin's arrogance was overwhelming.

A few days later, hundreds of officials were fined for transporting rice to the border under various pretexts. If they refused, they were arrested and imprisoned.

To avoid jeopardizing their future careers, the officials had no choice but to bribe Liu Jin.

Liu Ming was overjoyed.

He was worried that he didn't have enough leverage to win people's hearts, and this was like a pillow falling on his head.

He immediately discussed with a group of confidants how to quickly amass wealth for his own use, and for the time being, he couldn't care less about anything else.

The empress has lost her child and is now disliked by the emperor; she can no longer amount to anything.

So what if the Emperor is cracking down on the Imperial Hospital? It's just that he still has lingering feelings for the Empress.

Once the emperor takes a fancy to a new beauty, the empress will be forgotten.