Surprise! The man crawled forward on the ground, calling his brother affectionately, "Why?"
Someone touched the official rations.
The old emperor stared at all the officials of the Ministry of Revenue with his dark eyes. He did not show any anger, but looked very calm.
However, the officials standing in the front row who could notice the emperor's emotions felt a chill passing through the thick official robes, which was piercing and cold.
They knew the emperor very well, and sometimes they were not so angry when they shouted in anger.
The old emperor spoke: "Xu Yanmiao, stand back."
Although Xu Yanmiao sometimes did not quite understand the meaning of the words, he always obeyed orders, and did not ask much when he heard it. He stood back to the end of the line, where a ninth-rank official should be.
[It seems that the old emperor is very angry, so the matter of embezzlement of official rations has been exposed, right? 】
【Be careful, don't step on the landmine! You must not let yourself be the innocent victim! 】
Xu Yanmiao retreated into the team, no longer like before, sometimes carefully sticking her head out to peek at the situation in the front row.
【However, that Minister of Revenue...】
The Ministry of Revenue has left and right ministers, and the two ministers felt the old emperor's gaze, which was like a nightmare. They
kept complaining in their hearts.
"Which minister is it! Explain it clearly!" The left minister's forehead was covered with beads of sweat, but his face was pale.
The air was filled with heavy low pressure, as if it was going to crush the hall into powder.
The right assistant minister was shaking with fear, as if he was very afraid of being dragged into it, and his face was full of panic.
[One hundred thousand official fields, the old emperor specifically ordered that the official fields after the disaster be levied at half the amount, tsk tsk, I didn't expect that the right assistant minister Yang Cheng would levy the full amount, and even remembered to leave you 40%! ]
The court was silent. The right
assistant minister, who was originally still feeling lucky, rushed out and kowtowed several times: "Your Majesty! I... I am guilty... I..."
He kept saying it for a long time, but couldn't say it.
The left assistant minister was so exhausted that he almost fell down and sweated heavily.
He was scared to death. He knew that he was not corrupt, but he didn't know if someone was corrupt by using his name. In the officialdom, when one person committed a crime, his master and apprentices were punished together, and the party was punished together.
The right assistant minister finally came up with a sentence: "Your Majesty!" He knelt forward a few steps, crying bitterly: "I was just confused for a moment!"
The old emperor: "..."
The old emperor: "Hehe."
I think you were quite sober at that time, but now you are scared and confused.
*
Xu Yanmiao heard a commotion in front of him, and he wanted to look in.
No! Xu Yanmiao! You have to restrain yourself! You can't touch the old emperor's mold!
After Xu Yanmiao admonished himself, he continued to shrink his head and turned over the previous corruption cases to pass the time.
He also expressed his feelings: [Hey, at least I squeezed out 40% for you——]
[What do you mean by begging on your knees!]
The tone was ups and downs, full of emotion.
If they didn't know that Xu Yanmiao didn't know that they could hear his thoughts, they would have thought that he was going to kill the Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue.
The Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue was flustered: "Your Majesty! No! I didn't! I have no such intention!"
I just wanted to be greedy!
The Minister of Revenue glared at him with hatred.
In this officialdom, except for a few individuals, everyone is greedy and takes a little, but I didn't let you take that much!
60%!
Are you afraid that the emperor won't find out?
The old emperor looked at the minister solemnly, tapping the faucet of the armrest with his fingers, and each tap echoed in the Yanluo Palace.
[And there is the commander of the Mokan! ]
- The Mokansi is a department that has the job of verifying the money and grain accounts of the whole country, and its chief is the commander of the Mokan.
When the commander of the Mokan heard Xu Yanmo call his name, every hair on his head was about to explode, and he knelt down in the queue: "Your Majesty!"
He knelt down and didn't dare to say anything more. He just fell to the ground with his forehead, which was numb and his waist and back ached.
[Hiss——]
[He received a lot of bribes for helping others settle accounts! Let me see... Wow! Two hundred pieces of fine silk! Thirty pieces of satin! One million taels of silver! ]
[What a lot of money! I have never seen so much money! 】
Commander Mokan: "..."
Xu Yanmiao! Can you shut up! If you say I took bribes, then I took bribes! Why are you sighing about so much money!
Didn't you notice that the more you sigh, the heavier the murderous aura on the golden stage?
After a moment of silence, he began to kowtow.
"Your Majesty! I am guilty! Your Majesty! I am guilty!"
He kowtowed and gritted his teeth.
Why can't Xu Yanmiao shut up!
[Wow!!!] Not only did he not shut up, his heart was even more excited: [It turns out that you can make up such a pretext, and you can actually play like this! You really deserve to be caught and beheaded! Commander Mokan is really tired of helping to settle these accounts.]
The old emperor suddenly sneered.
Only the commander of the Jinyiwei could hear his words——
"Making up excuses? I want to see how they can play."
[The water freight is one hundred coins, and the land freight is another three hundred coins. The people also have to pay for the food and accommodation of the people and horses in charge of transportation. A full one hundred coins! What are they eating that is so expensive! ]
[Huh? Warehouse management fees also have to be paid? One hundred coins? The cattail baskets and bamboo baskets responsible for carrying money also have to be paid by the people? One hundred coins each? Do you need two baskets to carry money at home? This is too much! ]
[Fuck! There are even more outrageous things! ]
[In case the ship encounters strong winds and waves on the river, it is necessary to worship Buddha and burn incense. The people have to pay for the incense money too? ! It also costs one hundred coins? ! The college
student who had never been corrupt or thought of making money by making up excuses was shocked. He stared at the system screen and didn't notice the officials around him. He was shocked.
They all felt what it meant to be a storm.
They were almost begging Xu Yanmiao in their hearts not to reveal more information, as this involved a lot of things!
Xu Yanmiao calculated the number.
[No way! The old emperor only collected 1,800 coins for taxes! These people added 900 coins to the 1,800 coins after making up all the money! ]
[The tax has soared to 2,700 coins for one dan of rice! ]
What is a coin tax? It means that originally one dan of rice was collected directly from the farmers, but now it is changed to collecting money directly from the farmers, and the grain chief will use this money to buy rice from other places, and then transport the rice to the designated locations in each region for tax payment.
Xu Yanmiao was amazed.
[This is what it means when the Buddha passes by here, they all have to scrape the gold powder off the Buddha statue, right?]
Commander Mokan wanted to turn around and kowtow to Xu Yanmiao!
The Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue knew that he shouldn't do this, and that the phrase "kneeling to beg for food" was particularly deceptive, but at this moment, seeing that his fellow sufferer Commander Mokan was forced to sweat profusely by Xu Yanmiao's repeated complaints, he suddenly couldn't help but: "Puff--"
I'm sorry, but seeing that someone is more unlucky than me, my heart suddenly balanced.
[Hey, what did the 18 guards who were sent to Henan to supervise the relief the year before last do? The local warehouse officials mixed water into the grain and soybeans to increase the weight. When the weather got hot, the grain was directly steamed by the moisture and heat! ]
[All seven million shi of grain rotted! The local officials were afraid of being discovered, so they all buried themselves underground! 】
【Seven million grains were all wasted! 】
The eighteen inspectors who were in charge of relief immediately knelt down in sweat.
【Ah! This Xue Yuanji! The old emperor asked him to comfort the disaster victims, but he, a deputy minister of the Ministry of Justice, actually asked a death row prisoner to do his work for him while he was lazy! 】
The deputy minister of the Ministry of Justice turned pale.
【And this assistant minister of the Ministry of Works, whose surname is Chen! He is amazing! After taking the money, he told the old emperor that in addition to the drought in Henan, locusts also appeared, and cheated a lot of disaster relief money. 】
The assistant minister of the Ministry of Works staggered a step, and his blood ran cold and he trembled.
【Ah! ...】
【Wow! ……】
Xu Yanmiao was standing too far back. Without deliberately eavesdropping, he could not see or hear what was happening in front of him. At this time, he made up his mind to be a quail, and buried his head in gossiping. He
was having a great time gossiping. When the 1,188 officials in Beijing who came to attend the court heard him sighing, they broke out in cold sweats. After hearing the names read out, they found that it was not their own, and their legs immediately became weak and they could hardly stand. But when the next person sighed, they were worried and terrified. Everyone
changed color at the sound.
It was like King Yan calling out their names.
[Hey! The Minister of Justice! ]
The other ministers looked at the Minister of Justice in unison, and their eyes were like a group of serious candidates who suddenly found that someone was cheating.
No way? You kid actually mixed in? What are you trying to do!
The Minister of Justice was stunned.
Wait, did he do that? He
racked his brains but couldn't figure out what he had done... This was even more terrifying! Could it be that he had done something unintentionally, or that his relatives and children had done something in his name and kept it a secret from him? !
The Minister of Justice shuddered suddenly, and under the murderous gaze of the old emperor, "Even you are involved," he knelt down hurriedly: "Your Majesty!" His voice choked, he lowered his head, his face full of shame: "Your Majesty, your minister has failed to show His Majesty's grace."
[Hahahahaha, he read in ancient books that wheat is poisonous, but he especially likes to eat noodles. Every time he cooks noodles, he puts them in a bag, puts them in a vent to dry, and then rinses them with cold water three or four times before eating! Hahahaha, why are there still people who eat noodles like this! 】
The old emperor: “…”
The Minister of Punishments: “…”
The other ministers: “…” The civil and military officials of the whole court
: “…”
Why! How can someone be doing one thing and then be distracted by another thing!
The Minister of Punishments was soaked with cold sweat.
He swallowed his dry saliva, and sat down on the ground with a "bang". The sweat dripping from his forehead made a sound of falling to the ground, and his breathing made big mouthfuls.
It was almost, almost, and the nine clans would be gone.
*
The Palace of Prince Jin.
Prince Jin is the half-brother of the current emperor. He blocked an arrow for the emperor and became paralyzed on one side of his body.
The emperor took pity on his poor health and could not stand the hard work of traveling, so he made an exception. Now he is over 30 years old, but he has not gone to his fiefdom, and only stays in the capital.
Yesterday, it was the wedding of Prince Jin and his wife.
"Why is there so much noise outside?" He sat up from the bed and asked the housekeeper.
The housekeeper said, "Your Majesty, it's the Jinyiwei who are arresting people everywhere. It seems that these people have embezzled official grain. I heard that many people were arrested in the court, including Yang Cheng, the right assistant minister of the Ministry of Revenue, Wu Shenming, the commander of the Ministry of Inspection, Xue Yuanji, the deputy minister of the Ministry of Justice..."
Prince Jin's face sank: "Go and get my wheelchair quickly, I want to see my brother."
"Your Majesty?"
"Go quickly."
The housekeeper pushed out the wheelchair in the corner and put a half-mask on Prince Jin - Prince Jin had disfigured his face, saying that he was afraid of scaring people, so he always wore a mask when he went out - and called three or five guards to push him to the Yumen.
The Yumen was holding a court meeting.
After the prince left, the princess asked the housekeeper: "Where is the king in such a hurry to go so early in the morning?"
The housekeeper said: "The king is in a hurry to attend court."
"That's strange, the king never attends court." The princess was surprised, but she didn't care about it anymore. She just ordered: "Go and get the gift list. All the officials came to congratulate yesterday. I want to see how to return the gifts tomorrow."
...
King Jin came to the outside of the gate with a solemn face.
My royal brother, I know that you are jealous of me. That's why I am thirty years old, but you still don't want to let me go to the fiefdom.
I didn't dare to marry for many years... But now I am old, I must continue the family line. In order to avoid your suspicion, I specially chose a concubine's daughter from a powerless family to be my wife, but you still...
I understand that you exposed this matter on the second day of my wedding just to warn me.
The Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, the Commander of the Ministry of Inspection, and the Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Justice were all the people who came to congratulate yesterday. Fortunately, I have a good memory and remember this matter - you are worried that I am colluding with these court officials.
He closed his eyes in pain: How far are you going to push me? !
The King of Jin glanced at the Jinyi Guards standing solemnly outside the gate, turned to the guards beside him and said: "Just leave me here, you go down first."
After the people left, the King of Jin hardened his heart, propped up his hands, threw himself on the ground, and pushed away the wheelchair.
He endured the humiliation, supported himself on the ground with his hands, and tried to crawl inside. As he crawled, he shouted: "Royal brother! Royal brother! The corruption of the right assistant minister of the Ministry of Revenue has nothing to do with me! I have never had any private contact with him! My heart is clear to all! Royal brother! Do you believe me——"