The governor's expression changed. "Bring him here."
The attendant next to him received the order and dragged the servant to the prefect.
"What's going on?"
The prefect glanced sideways at the King of Jin, and seeing that his attention was not on him, he asked in a low voice.
The servant over there bit his lip and was about to respond when his peripheral vision met the cold gaze of King Jin. He shuddered all over and knelt on the ground.
The King of Jin curled his lips and smiled, "Grandmaster, I have recently encountered a great thing."
"Since the governor is here, I might as well tell you all about it so you can share in the joy."
"My men discovered an ownerless villa in the suburbs yesterday."
"Guess what? We found a large amount of food and several animals inside. I asked people to find out for a long time, but no one claimed to own it. This must be a gift from heaven. God couldn't bear to see the people of Youzhou starving and freezing, so he sent down a granary and asked me to help the people of Youzhou."
When the prefect heard this, his face fell and his eyes widened.
With a "bang", he collapsed to the ground.
It’s over…it’s over!
"Prefect, what are you doing?"
The King of Jin asked knowingly, looking down at the prefect on the ground.
"If you feel unwell, I have a doctor here who can help you."
The prefect met the unfathomable eyes of the King of Jin and was so frightened that his heart almost jumped out of his chest. He groped his way to the ground and knelt before the King of Jin.
"Your Majesty, I really don't know!"
He was anxious to distance himself from the relationship between himself and the villa, and said
"Then how do you explain that the prefectural government takes food from other villages every day?"
Prince Jin narrowed his eyes and his smile was even scarier than his frown.
"Push the man up."
The person in charge of the villa was brought up by the personal guards of Prince Jin's Mansion.
The man knelt on the ground, lowered his head, and did not dare to look at the prefect beside him.
"I am the manager of the other village. The prefect has been sending me there to look after the food and livestock for three months."
"Every day, the lord's house sends food and fresh meat, and these are all recorded."
"You're talking nonsense! When did I ever send anyone to go to the other village to get something?"
The prefect jumped up from the ground and rushed over excitedly.
The King of Jin's men quickly stepped forward and pushed the prefect back to his original position.
"Don't be anxious, Governor. This matter is not over yet." King Jin curled his lips and said.
"Your humble servant, the Youzhou County Magistrate, greets Your Highness."
At this moment, a man wearing an official uniform with several patches on it, with gray hair, a face like a dead tree, and pale lips walked over.
He spoke weakly, as if all his strength was used up in this one sentence.
King Jin glanced at him but said nothing.
The Youzhou County Magistrate knelt down before the King of Jin, his figure so thin that it seemed as if he could be blown away by a gust of wind.
"I am suing the governor of Youzhou for corruption. He has embezzled relief grain from the imperial court and Youzhou's granaries, and even deceiving his superiors and subordinates, increasing taxes without regard for the lives of the people of Youzhou and plundering their winter food."
He knelt in the wind, his clothes ragged and his face covered with stubble, but his words were sonorous and powerful.
"I have visited several counties under Youzhou. The people are living in dire straits. Only a dozen households out of a hundred remain. Some even resort to eating corpses and cooking food to survive. I have petitioned the county officials many times, but the governor has not responded. I implore Your Majesty to punish the governor and bring justice to the people of Youzhou!"
"This is a petition written by the people of the county. Please review it, Your Highness."
He took out the book and documents from his sleeves and held them in both hands.
"There are also documents from the governor ordering increased taxes on the various counties in Youzhou, as well as records of the governor's extortion of the people's wealth over the past few months. Your Highness, please review them."
The prefect suddenly raised his eyes to look at the thing in the county magistrate's hand, his eyes instantly lost their focus and his pupils also lost their focus.
The King of Jin took the petition, booklet and document from his hand and flipped through a few pages. His eyes, which had been calm at first, gradually accumulated anger.
"How dare you, Governor! You dare to commit corruption and abuse of power in Youzhou City!"
The prefect's hands that were supporting the ground became limp, and he fell to the ground as if he had lost his fighting spirit.
"Yingyi, take this king's token and search the governor's mansion!"
He pulled the token from his waist and threw it to Yingyi.
A moment later, Ying Yi hurried over with his men.
He stepped forward and presented the land deed to King Jin, as well as the account book hidden in the prefect's study, which recorded the grain and silver collected from each county.
"Your Highness, I have led my men to search the prefectural governor's residence thoroughly."
"Finally, I found the deed to the villa in the wife's room. She said the prefect had asked her for a villa three months ago..."
During the search, Yingyi found a lot of evidence against the prefect, which, together with the evidence submitted by the Youzhou County Magistrate, was enough to convict the prefect.
"You are so brave, sir."
When King Jin looked at the records in the account, he was even angrier than when he saw the record books of other manors.
"You've embezzled all three million catties of grain, eighteen million in tax silver, and twenty thousand beasts!"
The number of small details that followed was far more than this. King Jin was so angry that he wanted to chop people on the spot!
"You know how to enjoy yourself, squandering the money you've plundered from the people while watching them starve to death or freeze to death!"
"How much food is left in other villages now? There's not even half of it here!"
King Jin pinched the project, threw it in his face, and slapped him hard several times.
The prefect knelt there, not daring to speak, his face swollen.
"The imperial court asked you to take charge of Youzhou, but you came here to act like a local tyrant?"
When Prince Jin got angry, he dared to say anything. People like Ying Yi beside him seemed to have gotten used to it and their expressions remained normal.
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