Lu Renjia was quickly dragged away.

No matter how much he shouted that he was innocent, no one paid any attention to him. He was dragged away and imprisoned in the Heavenly Prison, waiting for the Dali Temple to gather all the evidence and conduct a trial.

Lu Renjia was extremely anxious. He had already gone through all the civil and military officials he had tried to curry favor with over the years in his mind, hoping that his son would bring money to bail him out.

However, he was unaware that the moment he was thrown into prison, the Lu residence was completely surrounded by the imperial guards.

There are a great many officials in the capital, but not all of them need to attend court. For example, some minor officials who are not in the official ranks only need to show up at the place where they are supposed to work.

Lu Renjia's two sons were minor officials who, by all accounts, should have been required to report to the Ministry of Revenue early every morning.

But as the saying goes, dragons beget dragons and phoenixes beget phoenixes. Lu Renjia's two sons were just as shameless and lewd as him, and the concubines and maids they kept at home were no less numerous than Lu Renjia's.

How can I possibly get up so early in the morning?

Especially in such a cold winter, they would naturally lie in warm quilts, holding soft and fragrant young girls in their arms.

However, just as they were sleeping soundly, the Lu family's door was kicked open.

"Who are you? What are you doing? You're robbing a private residence!" The eldest son of the Lu family, holding his beautiful concubine in his arms, panicked when he saw the guards suddenly barging in. He wrapped himself in a blanket and shouted.

These guards had already received orders and knew that the Lu family had lost the emperor's favor, and even Lu Renjia had been imprisoned. Naturally, they didn't take the eldest young master of the Lu family seriously.

"You guys come here and drag them both away!" The lead guard wrote down Young Master Lu's name, turned around and left, completely ignoring him.

The eldest son of the Lu family struggled desperately, but was tied up naked with ropes.

He wasn't even as sensible as his teenage concubine, who managed to get dressed quickly.

When the eldest son of the Lu family was escorted to the courtyard, he saw that all the women in his family had also been imprisoned.

"Mother, what's going on?" The eldest young master of the Lu family was shivering from the cold, but he still didn't understand what was happening.

Pan Shi, her face cold, said through gritted teeth, "What else could it be? Of course, it's because of your father, that scourge!"

Although Madam Pan was a woman, her ability to gather information was far superior to that of the two young masters of the Lu family. However, despite spending so much gold and silver, she could only glean some information from the guards and could not escape their clutches.

After a flurry of activity, all of the Lu family's hundred-plus members were imprisoned.

Those concubines, maids, and servants were imprisoned in ordinary cells, while close relatives like Madam Pan and the eldest and youngest sons of the Lu family were "mercifully" imprisoned in the Heavenly Prison along with Lu Renjia by the Ministry of Justice.

The night should have been quiet, but the prison was unusually lively, like a New Year's celebration.

Several jailers guarding the prison were eating melon seeds and listening intently as Madam Pan and the two young masters of the Lu family launched a scathing attack on Lu Renjia, using extremely offensive language.

The Lu family's tax evasion amounted to over a million taels of silver, a sum that shocked the entire court and the public.

It should be noted that the entire treasury of the Great Yan Dynasty only earns ten million taels of silver a year. The Lu family alone stole several million taels of silver. How could this not enrage people!

All the officials hated the Lu family with a passion, thinking that the silver they had stolen should have been part of their annual allowance.

Every year towards the end of the year, a lot of things pile up, and the speed of getting things done is always a bit slow.

But when it came to the Lu family, the Ministry of Revenue, the Ministry of Justice, and the Court of Judicial Review joined forces to solve the case, and the speed was surprisingly fast.

In just a few days, the files from previous years were sorted out, and the evil deeds committed by the Lu family over the years were confirmed, especially the tax evasion, which was investigated bit by bit.

Qi Sichen personally supervised the case, and after they presented the evidence, he immediately began a thorough interrogation of Lu Renjia.

After being imprisoned in the imperial jail for several days, Lu Renjia had completely lost his previous radiant appearance, looking quite listless. His clothes were wrinkled and stained, and his once well-maintained face seemed to have suddenly developed many wrinkles. His eyes were bloodshot, and even his lips were cracked and bleeding.

Upon seeing Qi Sichen, Lu Renjia immediately kowtowed and cried out his innocence: "Your Highness, I have been wronged! Please don't believe this scoundrel! I have truly been wronged. For so many years, I have worked diligently and have sent countless military funds and provisions to the army. I have truly been devoted to serving my country. Please don't believe that man surnamed Lin..."

"Your Highness, I've thought about this carefully while I was in the prison these past few days. The reason that the man surnamed Lin came out is really suspicious, especially since he shares the same surname as the Prime Minister. There must be more to this than meets the eye!"

Qi Sichen never expected that Lu Renjia would be able to find such an excuse to try to incite conflict between him and the Prime Minister.

A cold smile appeared on Qi Sichen's handsome face. Lu Renjia felt a chill run down his spine. However, if he couldn't find a suitable reason, he might have his head chopped off by this smiling tiger in front of him at any moment.

So no matter who it is, even if it's just fabrication or wild guessing, he'll definitely try to come up with a reason that will make Qi Sichen interested in him.

"Your Highness, it's true! I found it very strange before and sent people to investigate. Although we haven't found anything yet, I am that little princess, and don't you think it's strange that Lord Lin Weiming appeared?" Lu Renjia spoke very seriously. If others didn't know his background and character, they would probably be deceived by his sweet words.

Qi Sichen looked at him, his smile widening, and said in a surprisingly gentle tone, "I really didn't know about this matter. I only heard from your son Lu Ji that you've been sending money, grain, and supplies to the border for so many years, just to smuggle and trade with the Xiongnu, right?"

"..." Lu Renjia was struck dumb as if by lightning.

He knelt on the ground, motionless, staring blankly ahead, completely unable to believe that his own son would betray him!

He revealed all his most important secrets.

The Xiongnu people lived on the northern grasslands, where the soil was barren and they could not grow much wheat or rice. They were so poor that they were struggling to survive.

Therefore, generation after generation of Xiongnu people always liked to raid southwards, killing people, robbing grain, and stealing gold and silver treasures, making them the enemies of the people of the Great Yan Dynasty for generations.