Chapter 287: Being tricked and becoming the target of public criticism
The Censorate is responsible for supervision, impeachment and advice.
Together with the Ministry of Justice and the Dali Temple, it is known as the Three Judicial Departments.
On the day Qin Chi won the first place in the imperial examination, he sued the Yuan family, which involved evidence of corruption by Yuan Shangshu of the Ministry of Works. The officials in charge of checking the accounts were from the Metropolitan Censorate. When Emperor Ming Cheng mentioned the Metropolitan Censorate at this time, it seemed like he was settling scores.
The Ministry of Works’ bad debts naturally had nothing to do with the Censorate.
But the fact is that they knew about it but did not report it.
Emperor Mingcheng sneered, "Are you dumb? Answer me."
"Your Majesty, the accounts of the Ministry of Works have always been like this. No one has embezzled the money." The Left Censor-in-Chief answered stiffly.
Emperor Mingcheng asked gloomily, "Historically? I just realized today that the pillars of the court that I promoted have always been people who deceive the emperor."
"Someone come!"
Emperor Mingcheng suddenly stood up and said sternly.
Suddenly, a team of Jinyiwei came in from outside the palace.
Seeing this, the faces of the Jinyiwei officials all changed. Last time, Mao Shaojie only used the imperial guards to take action.
If the Jinyiwei are dispatched, things will get serious!
Emperor Mingcheng pointed at the left and right censors, and the left and right assistant ministers of the Ministry of Works, and said, "Drag these four away and beat them with 20 sticks in the court. If they survive, continue what we were talking about just now."
"yes!"
The Jinyiwei quickly detained the four people.
Just when he was about to be dragged out by force.
"Your Majesty, you can't!"
The Minister of Rites didn't care about anything else and quickly stood up and said, "The four gentlemen are important officials of the court and are old. I'm afraid twenty strokes of the cane will cost them their lives."
"Um?"
Emperor Mingcheng turned his stern eyes to the Minister of Rites, "Does the Ministry of Rites have the same bad debt?"
The Minister of Rites' face suddenly froze.
The next moment he knelt down and remained silent.
The other four ministers were about to step forward to plead for mercy, but when they heard what Emperor Mingcheng said, they shrank back abruptly.
They knelt down one after another.
All the civil and military officials in the hall were in deathly silence.
Qin Chi suddenly understood something.
He was tricked and offended almost half of the civil servants in the court today.
As soon as he entered the court, he became the target of public criticism.
It’s really too tender!
This may be the calculation of Emperor Mingcheng, or it may be the conspiracy of Minister Yuan. If Qin Chi does not expose this matter in time, the bad debt will be put on him in the future.
Embezzling such a large sum of money.
It's enough for him to chop off his head several times! If Qin Chi were to choose again, he would still choose to submit a memorial and expose the matter.
Just walk upright and sit straight.
Why should he be afraid of anyone?
"His Majesty!"
When the tension was so high that one could hear a pin drop, Qin Chi suddenly broke the silence, "I have something to say."
"Okay."
Emperor Mingcheng sat down again.
Qin Chi said, "You are indeed old. You can't even bear ten strokes, let alone twenty. If four court officials are killed at once, who will do the work they are responsible for? Therefore, I beg Your Majesty to revoke your order."
After saying that, Qin Chi knelt down.
Emperor Ming Cheng gave him an ambiguous look.
The officials in the court began to become active in their thinking.
Qin Chi seemed to be begging for mercy, but in fact he was also reminding certain people that if anything happened to the four adults, the vacancies would be vacant and the people below could compete for promotion.
But officials who don’t think so.
Those who are more simple-minded think that Qin Chi is a good person.
In this situation, he still dared to plead for mercy.
Obviously, it was an unintentional mistake that he made when he participated in this book today. It was a mistake he made because he was young and hot-tempered and had no one to guide him. It is still forgivable. The most obvious example is the four ministers who were being held by the Jinyiwei.
Qin Chi's plea is a favor.
They have no choice but to accept the favor.
The situation of being isolated, excluded, and even the target of public criticism was suddenly changed by Qin Chi.
The old foxes in the officialdom are no more than this.
"I beg Your Majesty to revoke your order."
The officials below stood up and knelt down to beg for mercy.
Everyone looked and saw that it was Censor Zheng.
This man has a stubborn temper and is upright and incorruptible. No one would think that he has been bribed.
Then more civil servants came forward.
Each and every one of them was begging for mercy.
"I beg Your Majesty to revoke your order!"
"Your Majesty, please take back your order!"
“…”
But after a while, a large number of civil servants knelt down, and the remaining few who did not kneel followed suit.
There is no wrong version in the 1619 book forum!
The military officer standing in the hall was particularly conspicuous.
The Duke, who was standing at the head of the generals, bowed and saluted, "Your Majesty, since these are all old and dirty accounts, let them sort them out on their own. There is no need to cause loss of life."
"Who will be responsible for that mess?" Emperor Mingcheng looked at Duke Ningguo and asked.
Duke Ningguo gathered his sleeves.
As a military general, he did not read as much as the civil servants, nor was he good at government affairs. He had a straightforward mind and did not have those roundabout ways like the civil servants.
When Emperor Mingcheng asked about it, Duke Ningguo cleared his throat and immediately came up with a bad idea, "Your Majesty, according to me, we should do our job and let whoever is responsible be responsible. No matter what method they use, we just need to make sure the accounts are balanced. We cannot let Your Majesty suffer any loss."
Only a simple-minded general would dare to come up with such a harmful idea.
Let the civil servants fill this mess.
You are worthy of being called Duke Ningguo.
The civil servants understood what was said immediately and wanted to jump up immediately, cover Duke Ningguo's mouth and beg him not to give any bad advice.
Yang Ge Lao on the side said seriously: "Duke Ningguo doesn't understand, so don't talk nonsense, and don't try to relate everything to His Majesty."
"Old fox Yang, stop talking nonsense to me. This world belongs to your Majesty, and the money in the court is naturally your Majesty's money. You assist your Majesty in governing the country, and you are in charge of the accounts for your Majesty. Look, you have already made a mess of the accounts. If you have the ability to fix the bad accounts, you must also have the ability to settle them, so you don't have to always dig into the military pay."
"You, you are shameless..."
Elder Yang seemed angry when he was pointed at and called an old fox.
Duke Ningguo disagreed and remained calm.
Well done, Duke!
Qin Chi secretly admired.
This is a ridiculous logic, but it sounds reasonable.
But Qin Chi didn't want to. He had only been a doctor at the Yuheng Division for a few days. If it was really as Ningguo Gong said, they would have to settle the accounts. The Yuheng Division alone would cost at least 50,000 or 60,000 taels.
He could take out the money and also find a way to settle the account.
But he doesn't want to be a sucker!
If we really do what Duke Ningguo said, there will definitely be chaos.
It is often said that military officers are not good at managing government affairs, and there is some truth to this.
However, the tense and serious atmosphere in the hall was somewhat eased by Duke Ningguo's interruption.
No matter what the civil and military officials say.
The person who really made the decision was Emperor Cheng of Ming.
Emperor Mingcheng glanced at the kneeling official as if he were looking at a dead man, then looked at the Jinyiwei and said, "The caning will be halved, and the execution will be immediate."
"As you wish."
The Imperial Guards dragged the Chief Censor and the Vice Minister of Works away.
After a while, the people in the hall heard screams outside.
Who was in so much pain that he couldn't help but cry out?
It just sounds so embarrassing.
Another half moment passed.
When the caning was over, the four men wanted to cover their buttocks in pain but had to hold it back.
This is really indecent!
They could only limp back to the hall and go to their seats. When he was able to walk after ten strokes of the cane, everyone knew that the Jinyiwei had shown mercy.
The four people passed by Qin Chi and all glared at him secretly.
The look in his eyes was extremely complicated, filled with gratitude and hatred.
(End of this chapter)