Song Hongshen's words were so powerful that the auxiliary general Zheng Jin was shocked.
Marquis Jingyuan was kneeling on the ground, his eyes lowered and filled with fear.
Most of the civil and military officials didn't know what was going on, but when they heard the words "eating empty salaries," they subconsciously shuddered.
The chief minister of the cabinet, Xu Yixiang, was ousted by Shen Zhixiu because he was drawing a salary without doing any work.
It's only been a few years, how could anyone still dare to do such a thing?
Emperor Xuande's face darkened at this point, and he looked at Song Hongshen, "You said General Zheng was drawing salary without doing anything. Do you have any evidence?"
Song Hongshen said, "The Fuguo General is a second-rank general who has made great contributions to the Great Zhou. If there were no irrefutable evidence, I would not have rashly mentioned it."
Song Hongshen then added, "As for the evidence, Lord Shen and I have already compiled it. We haven't had time to present it to your Majesty yet, and it's currently in the cabinet duty room."
Zheng Jin thought for a moment, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince said this, doesn't it mean that there is no evidence at the moment?
Could it be that he was just lying to the rumors he heard?
Zheng Jin immediately raised his head, looking aggrieved as if he had been wronged.
"Your Majesty, I am wronged. Your Highness the Crown Prince has openly slandered me in the palace without any evidence. I beg Your Majesty to help me. The Zheng family is full of loyal and brave people, and we will not tolerate your Highness the Crown Prince humiliating us like this."
As he spoke, he looked at Song Hongshen again.
"Your Highness, I am impeaching you only for the sake of my daughter."
"If Your Highness truly only has deep feelings for the Crown Princess, you can simply send Nan Qing back to the Zheng family. I will never force Your Highness again, and I ask Your Highness to give me a chance to live."
Zheng Jin was crying and looked like he was going to die in Ganyang Palace if he had a disagreement.
Song Hongshen looked at Zheng Jin's behavior and laughed out loud.
"General Zheng is really a man who won't cry until he sees the coffin. It's a waste of your talent to be a general. In my opinion, you'd better join a theater troupe and act."
After thinking for a while, Song Hongshen looked at Shen Zhixiu and said, "Sir Shen, since we have come to this point, why not send someone to bring the evidence?"
Shen Zhixiu nodded and said, "Alright." He went straight to the Dragon Guard leader, Puyi, and whispered a few words in his ear. Puyi consulted Emperor Xuande and went there in person.
While waiting for Puyi to collect the evidence, Song Hongshen said, "When the Second Prince was in charge of the Western Frontier, the number of soldiers reported to the Ministry of War was 105,820."
"Last spring, the Second Prince was beheaded, and General Zheng fled to the Western Frontier."
"General Zheng rushed to the Western Frontier and submitted a petition requesting the suppression of the bandits along the border, fearing that the Western Vietnamese army would unite with these bandits to cause trouble."
"The cabinet believes that the Second Prince's close relationship with Western Yue in the past is why there has been no major war in Western Xinjiang. Since the Second Prince has already left, we must make every effort to prepare for it. Therefore, we have approved General Zheng's request."
"Two months later, General Zheng submitted a report, and the bandits were annihilated. However, the area where the bandits were located was easy to defend but difficult to attack, so our side suffered heavy losses, with over 20,000 killed in action."
"Afterwards, General Zheng petitioned the court for reinforcements, citing the need for Western Yue to increase troops to the border towns. He requested a total of 130,000 troops, and the court approved the request."
"According to the specific casualties reported by General Zheng, the Western Frontier should have an additional 47,000 troops."
"But in reality, General Zheng only added 27,000 more troops. The remaining 20,000 were just empty names."
Zheng Jin was already sweating profusely. Song Hongshen hadn't made a single mistake in his words. Even the specific numbers he had mentioned were extremely accurate.
Zheng Jin believed it, he really had evidence in his hands.
Emperor Xuande was also shocked. 20,000 soldiers' salaries for nothing? Zheng Jin was truly audacious.
However, among the court officials present, there were also some who did not know what the meaning of 20,000 soldiers without any salary meant.
Then Song Hongshen continued, "A soldier's monthly salary, plus food, fodder, clothing, etc., requires three taels of silver."
"Twenty thousand soldiers will give us an extra sixty thousand taels of silver every month."
"That's over 700,000 taels a year."
"Is this what General Zheng meant by loyalty to the emperor and patriotism? Didn't General Zheng feel guilty when he cried out for justice?"
Emperor Xuande sat in the main hall, looking at Zheng Jin coldly. From his expression, he knew that what Song Hongshen said was true.
"What are the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Revenue doing? How could they not know about such a big thing?" When Emperor Xuande spoke, he looked at the Minister of War Yang Wenshi and the newly appointed Minister of Revenue Yan Ting.
According to the rules, the Ministry of Revenue was responsible for checking the number of people when escorting military pay and the Ministry of War was responsible for transporting food and fodder.
Ensure that the actual number of troops is consistent with the number reported to the court.
The Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of War failed to detect the omission of 20,000 people. This is no longer just dereliction of duty.
Upon hearing this, Yang Wenshi and Yan Ting hurried to the center of the hall, knelt down and apologized, but they could not say a word.
Song Hongshen spoke again, "Father, I have thoroughly investigated this matter. Although the two ministers were responsible for their negligence, they were also deceived by their subordinates."
"Minister Jiang Rang of the Ministry of Revenue and Minister Shi Chengyin of the Ministry of War are General Zheng's accomplices."
As soon as he finished speaking, Puyi took back the file that Shen Zhixiu had placed in the cabinet duty room and presented it directly to Emperor Xuande.
Emperor Xuande took it and read it with a serious face.
After reading it, he slammed the file in his hand onto the table and said, "You are so brave."
Shen Zhixiu stepped forward and said, "Your Majesty, the Crown Prince and I have been investigating this matter for several months, and the evidence is conclusive."
Emperor Xuande said in a cold voice: "General Zheng Jin, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue Jiang Rang, Vice Minister of the Ministry of War Shi Chengyin, behead them in public."
"My family is exiled to Mobei and will never be allowed to return to Beijing."
"For the remaining accomplices, the Cabinet will draft an order."
Song Hongshen said, "Father, I request your permission to send Concubine Zheng, Concubine Jiang, and Concubine Shi back."
Everyone was shocked to realize that this matter of empty salary involved the three concubines of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince.
Is it a coincidence, or did His Royal Highness the Crown Prince do it on purpose?
Shi Chengyin knelt aside, regretting his decision. He shouldn't have listened to Jiang Rang. Sure enough, his suspicions were correct. How could such a coincidence be possible?
Emperor Xuande pondered for a moment and said, "As you say."
The concubines in the Eastern Palace are supposed to give birth to children. It is impossible that the mother of the little emperor's grandson will be the descendant of a criminal.
I thought today's morning court would end with this case of drawing a salary without working.
But no one expected that Song Hongshen would impeach Li Zhiyong, the governor of Shuntian Prefecture, right after that.
During his four years as prefect of Shuntian Prefecture, Li Zhiyong engaged in corruption, abused his power, and perverted the law. He used his power to force a decent woman into becoming his concubine and even beat her fiancé to death.
The evidence is still conclusive, with both human and material evidence.
The Shuntian Prefecture Governor was the father and mother official of the people in the capital. Upon hearing this, Emperor Xuande became furious again and directly sentenced Li Zhiyong to beheading and his family to exile.
Song Hongshen proposed again that Li Liangdi be sent back to the Li family.
At this point, the four concubines and duchesses in the Eastern Palace were completely wiped out.
When he returned to the Eastern Palace after court, the imperial guards were escorting several concubines away.
Zheng Nanqing stopped and looked at Song Hongshen with hatred. "Your Highness didn't actually plan to choose a concubine, did he? This is all just a trick. Wasn't this the fate we were destined to have when the four of us entered the Eastern Palace?"
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