"The fates of these people are really very different. A girl who used to sell herself to someone for good fortune has now become the daughter of a high and mighty minister. A poor scholar from the countryside has become a fourth-rank official in the imperial court. Poor sister, I followed my brother to the capital from afar, but I found the wrong person and was deceived by Prince Qin. Now I still can't find a good match for me." Chen Rou was sour and didn't notice the strange look on Yang Jiyan's face at all.
Yang Jiyan was trying hard to recall. She remembered that in her previous life, Yu Qizhe's promotion was not so fast. He was a disciple of Liu Yu and remained silent in the Hanlin Academy for a whole year. Then, for some reason, he started to get close to the Shen Party. Later, he hooked up with Cheng Ying and worked for the Siliu Jian and the Shen Party, which made the Qingliu despise him. Gradually, he became estranged from Liu Yu, who was a pillar of the Qingliu.
However, she remembered that the Yang family case in her previous life was also handled by Yu Qizhe. Later, Yu Qizhe became the Shaoqing of the Dali Temple. He gradually acted ruthlessly and moved closer to corrupt officials like Cheng Ying. Yang Xu and his son were just the beginning. After that, the Dali Temple had continuous cases. The most famous one was the case of embezzlement of salt tax in Jiangnan, which implicated many court officials and imprisoned them. Even His Royal Highness the Crown Prince was involved. Everyone in the court was in danger for a while.
Even several upright officials were executed, so my father cursed Yu Qizhe at home for being cruel and treacherous. In order to rise to the top, he framed his colleagues and used vicious means. He was unworthy of being a scholar!
Zhou Yun's father Zhou Li was the Shaoqing of Taipu Temple, in charge of the orders of chariots, stables, and horse herding. Although he had no real power, there was a lot of money to be made. You should know that Taipu Temple was actually richer than the Ministry of Revenue. Zhou Li was not clean and used his power to embezzle a lot of money.
During the reign of the previous emperor, the law of raising horses in the south was established. In the north of the Yangtze River, every five men raised one horse, and in the south of the Yangtze River, every ten men raised one horse. If any stallion died or failed to reproduce, compensation should be paid. In case of famine, one-third of the herd's wealth could be paid as a cash payment, and the money would be taken by the government. This was the beginning of the practice of reducing the value of horses.
Therefore, the Taipu Temple had an annual income of more than 400,000 taels of silver from horse breeding, corvee labor, and taxes and labor service. The silver in the Taipu Temple's treasury was also called horse price silver, which was only used on horse affairs. Over the years, the Taipu Temple had accumulated considerable wealth. The Taicang Warehouse of the Ministry of Revenue had an annual income of about 4 million taels of silver, but the money on deposit in the treasury was only 3 million taels. However, the Taipu Temple's Changying Treasury had a silver reserve of up to 10 million taels.
But all of it was secretly embezzled by several officials of the Imperial Household Department. Zhou Li, the Shaoqing of the Imperial Household Department, embezzled an even greater amount.
Yang Jiyan only found out about these things after something happened to the Zhou family in her previous life.
In the previous life, Emperor Mingzheng ordered Yu Qizhe, the Shaoqing of Dali Temple, to preside over the case. Zhou Li fled out of the capital secretly. Emperor Mingzheng was furious and directly ordered that all male members of the Zhou family be executed on the spot and that the money embezzled by the Zhou family must be recovered.
Then she witnessed the scene where Zhou Yun was beheaded by Yu Qizhe with his own eyes.
It’s a pity that she was defiled by Zhou Yun and had to marry into the Zhou family again. Now it’s time for her to think of a way out.
Yang Jiyan made up her mind that she must get away before the Zhou family goes bankrupt. For some reason in her previous life, Yu Qizhe did not stop his father from taking her back home. But it was different in this life. Because of Liu Yujiao, Yu Qizhe had already fallen in love with her and it was very likely that she would become a military prostitute like other women in the Zhou family.
Yang Jiyan's eyes swirled around Chen Rou, and she immediately came up with a plan, "Sister Rou, you are so beautiful, why worry about not finding a good match? But I was defiled by Zhou Yun, and had to marry him, a playboy. After we got married, he went around and had several affairs. He stayed in his cousin's room every night, leaving me alone in the empty room. I watched that bitch get pregnant, and Madam Zhou favored her niece, letting that bitch get the first pick of all the delicious and useful things."
Chen Rou hurriedly comforted her, "Sister Yan is the legitimate wife of the Zhou family. Even if that person is related to Madam Zhou, he cannot surpass you in status. As long as those girls outside are not brought into the mansion, Sister will just treat them as jokes."
Yang Jiyan held her hand and said affectionately, "Sister, you came to Beijing with your brother, and you are like a floating duckweed, without a branch to rely on. Why don't you stay in this mansion and keep me company? Didn't Zhou Yun flirt with you when he saw you in the mansion last time? Later, he even came to me in a roundabout way to ask about you, which shows that he was moved by your beauty."
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