Seeing how Lord Wang acted, Emperor Yongxing felt that the matter must be very complicated, so he hurriedly asked, "Lord Wang, what do you want to report? Stand up and speak."
Lord Wang was still crawling on the ground, his voice was heavy with sorrow: "Your Majesty, this time when I went to Changning County in Ding'an Prefecture, I met several disabled veterans of the Shenwu Army. These veterans who were missing limbs had a hard life...
Those old soldiers had fought with the late emperor and they were discharged due to injuries.
In order to thank them for sacrificing their lives for the country, the late emperor and the emperor ordered the court to pay pensions to retired disabled soldiers every year to ensure their basic living security.
But the old ministers learned that they had never received any pension from the court.
More than a decade ago, the imperial court did give them pensions every year, but they refused; they said that the imperial court was in a difficult time and they could no longer serve the country and did not want to add to the burden of the imperial court, so they asked that all the money be used to buy food and military equipment for the imperial court..."
Emperor Yongxing's expression became uglier and uglier as he listened. Old Marquis Wang continued, "In the first ten years, the court distributed silver every year, but then it stopped for more than ten years. However, the court still allocated silver every year..."
"These bastards..."
With a "bang", Emperor Yongxing slammed his palm heavily on the dragon table. All the eunuchs in the study knelt down and shouted: "Your Majesty, calm down..."
Emperor Yongxing stood up, walked to Old Marquis Wang, personally helped Old Marquis Wang up, and said, "Lord Wang, tell me the story again in detail."
Lord Wang told the story of how Zhang Hulan's family met Dong Jianyong and his friends in detail, including what Xiong Zhubu of Changning County said. Emperor Yongxing said with a gloomy face, "Good... Very good..."
Emperor Yongxing did not doubt whether what Marquis Wang said was true. He believed in the Wang family's loyalty to the court and the royal family.
Emperor Yongxing was very angry. It started more than ten years ago, when he ascended the throne. Were those people bullying him because he was young?
Lord Wang spoke again: “I hope the emperor will thoroughly investigate this matter and not let the loyal and brave men shed blood, sweat and tears.
These old soldiers have fought for the court and risked their lives, but now they are treated like this. If they are not properly dealt with, I am afraid that no one will be willing to work for the court in the future.
These people are putting the emperor in an unjust position and destroying his reputation.
But Your Majesty should not be too hasty, this matter has been going on for a long time, and there must be many officials involved."
Emperor Yongxing said in a cold voice: "I will investigate in detail. These bastards are greedy for money. Have their mothers' hearts been eaten by dogs?
I don't care how many people are involved or who they are, as long as the facts are verified, I will never let them off easily."
"Let Minister Wu come to see me." Emperor Yongxing ordered.
The young eunuch immediately went to deliver the message.
Minister Wu came over quickly, and when he saw Lord Wang was there, he understood why Emperor Yongxing wanted to see him.
Minister Wu only glanced at Lord Wang from the corner of his eye, lowered his head and walked into the hall to kowtow, "Your Majesty, I pay my respects to you!"
"Stand up."
When Wu Shangshu stood up, Emperor Yongxing asked, "My dear Wu Aiqing, has the court been paying out pensions to disabled veterans every year?"
Minister Wu immediately replied: "Your Majesty, we give it every year. The Ministry of War compiles a list every year, and then the Ministry of Revenue allocates the funds to the Ministry of War according to the list."
Minister Wu cleared his department of responsibility and said, "I allocated funds according to the list given by the Ministry of War. As for how the money was later distributed to the disabled veterans, that was the Ministry of War's own business and had nothing to do with my Ministry of Revenue."
Emperor Yongxing then asked: "How much silver does the Ministry of Revenue allocate to the Ministry of War every year?"
“Your Majesty, the Ministry of War has not yet submitted this year’s list to the Ministry of Revenue. Last year, I remember that the Ministry of War submitted a list of more than 350,000 disabled people to the Ministry of Revenue. Each person received two taels of silver in pension, and a total of more than 700,000 taels of silver were allocated to the Ministry of War.
There are also more than 600,000 veterans who retired due to normal age. These veterans receive one tael of silver in pension every year. The total amount is more than 1.3 million taels of silver. "
Emperor Yongxing then asked, "Are the lists submitted by the Ministry of War to the Ministry of Revenue in recent years archived?"
"some."
Emperor Yongxing said: "Go back immediately and seal all the archives, then send them to me. Don't let anyone else know."
Wu Shangshu said, "Your Majesty, if you want to retrieve the archives, the Minister of Revenue, Lord Wang, must know about it, so it must go through Lord Wang's hands."
"You ask him to personally deliver the archive to me, and I will make the arrangements myself."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
"You should leave now."
"I'll take my leave."
Minister Wu bowed and left the Yangxin Palace.
Emperor Yongxing then said to Lord Wang, "Lord Wang, you should go back and rest first. I will investigate this matter and give an explanation to those old soldiers."
"Thank you, Your Majesty! I will take my leave."
Old Marquis Wang left the Yangxin Palace. Minister Wu walked very slowly in front of him. When Old Marquis Wang caught up with him, he said, "Old Marquis, you are too impatient. I was thinking of waiting for you to come back and look for you."
Lord Wang asked, "Did your boy write you a letter?"
"How could you not tell me about such a big thing?" Shangshu Wu then said, "Old Marquis, you better be careful. I don't know how many hornets' nests you will stir up if you do this..."
Lord Wang said, "I am not afraid of anything. No matter what, just come to me if you have the guts. I said in Changning County that at worst I will go to the palace with my head on my shoulders."
Minister Wu sighed and said, "I am the old marquis, you are so old, why are you still so stubborn?
You've lived for decades and it's enough. It doesn't matter if you die, but you also have to think about your descendants, right?
You only have one son, but luckily you have two grandsons. Now your eldest grandson has just got engaged. If they don't take action against you, what will you do with your two grandsons?"
Lord Wang sighed in his heart and said, "Alas... I can't watch the country I conquered with great difficulty being ruined by those people.
Have they forgotten that the borders were built with corpses and heads?
No matter whether it is the late emperor or the current emperor, they are both good emperors who work diligently and love their people, but there are always some people who hold the emperor back.
How many years of peace and stability will this last? If the grassland people attack the south again, how many men will be willing to risk their lives for the court like they did back then?
Some things can be turned a blind eye to, but some things are the bottom line, the bottom line that cannot be touched..."
The conversation between Lord Wang and Minister Wu soon reached Emperor Yongxing. Emperor Yongxing was silent for a long time, then opened his eyes and said, "Announce Marquis Jing'an to come to the palace to see me..."
"Yes, Your Majesty!"
Emperor Yongxing then ordered, "Summon Hong Jinhai, the assistant minister of the Ministry of Justice."
"Yes, Your Majesty!"
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