Chapter 209 Collapse
Pei Xuan was silent for a moment, his eyes falling on a file on the desk, which contained documents from various provinces impeaching the Ministry of Revenue.
This thing had not yet fallen into the hands of the Ministry of Revenue. The royal family was afraid of alerting the enemy, so they handed it over to the Household Department, which was responsible for inspecting the affairs of the Ministry of Revenue.
As the Chief Secretary of the Ministry of Revenue, Pei Xuan had previously reviewed the Ministry of Revenue's account books and found no discrepancies. However, other provinces always said that the disaster relief funds from the court were delayed.
The higher-ups also checked with officials in various places and found that the disaster relief money was indeed missing.
Pei Xuan was worried. How could someone with such a huge sum of money swallow it quietly without leaving any trace in the account book?
This account is too clean, too clean to be normal...
Unless the account is fake from beginning to end.
Pei Xuan had been an official when he was young. He was smart and capable, so the royal family handed the household tax matter over to him. He had some progress in just a few days.
However, Pei Xuan did not dare to investigate further because he found that the Minister of Revenue and Pei Yuanzhong were close. He had been going in and out of Pei's mansion frequently in recent days, and always avoided the eyes and ears of people in the court.
At this time, everyone was avoiding the Ministry of Revenue, so how could Pei Yuanzhong be so eager to meet them?
It was not until Pei Xuan discovered the account book hidden by Pei Yuanzhong in Pei Yuanzhong's study that he found it was almost identical to the one in the Ministry of Revenue. The items all matched, but the numbers did not.
The disaster relief grain that the provinces did not receive was actually in Pei Yuanzhong's pocket.
Pei Xuan stared at the real account book and found it incredible. His father had been an official in the court for many years and was promoted to the chief minister of the cabinet. Although he and his son were not good, he still regarded his father as a role model.
Who would have thought Pei Yuanzhong would do such a thing.
He felt conflicted because the household department's investigation actually led him to his father.
Pei Xuan was extremely conflicted. When he returned to his yard, he smelled the scent of medicine. He had disliked these smells since he was a child, and he never thought that one day he would feel a sense of security because of this smell of medicine.
He smiled silently, raised his eyes and saw Yang Jiyu's figure through the window. She was not tall and thin. Standing in front of the medicine jar, she looked like someone's child.
Pei Xuan said nothing and went back to his room.
The next morning, news of Pei Yuanzhong's embezzlement of disaster relief funds spread throughout the capital. Although Xie Zhaohe was still on his sickbed, he was still able to use this opportunity to get rid of Pei Yuanzhong.
Pei Yuanzhong is confused. He has been an official for his entire life. How could he not know that embezzling public funds is a capital crime? Besides, the imperial court has never treated the Pei family unfairly. How could it have fallen to this point?
Later, Xie Zhaohe realized that although the cabinet had some power, it was not enough for him to control such a big game, and there must be someone else behind it.
The Dali Temple reported that Pei Xuan had just been released on bail a while ago, and it was said that the Empress Dowager had intervened to mediate.
Xie Zhaohe suddenly realized that Pei Yuanzhong had chosen to help the Xu family in order to bail out his son who was still in prison, and that was why he had falsified the accounts. He had thought that his second son, the Deputy Secretary of the Household Department, would turn a blind eye to the audit of the accounts, but he had not expected that his second son, who seemed to be unruly every day, would be so righteous when handling the case.
The Pei Mansion was punished, and all the men in the mansion were beheaded, and all the women were exiled to the border.
Pei Yuanzhong was imprisoned and beheaded outside the Meridian Gate three days later.
Pei Xuan should have been rewarded for his official position and for being the whistleblower, but because he was Pei Yuanzhong's son, he was fined five years' salary, but he kept his official position and his life.
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