Li Ruolian reached out and took out a book and a stack of letters. The words "Analects of Confucius" were written on the book. At Chongzhen's signal, he handed the Analects to Li Banghua.
Li Banghua took the Analects with a bewildered look on his face and flipped through the pages.
After a quick glance, Li Banghua frowned and said, "Commander Li, this...is not the Analects, it's an account book?"
"Yes, Lord Li, please look back."
Li Banghua flipped through the pages quickly. The more he read, the more frightened he became.
I gasped when I turned to the last page!
"How...how is this possible?"
Seeing Li Banghua's shocked expression, Cabinet Deputy Minister Fan Jingwen hurriedly reached out to take the Analects and began to read it carefully.
After a moment, Fan Jingwen showed the same expression as Li Banghua.
Shocked, scared, unbelievable...
The other court officials were confused by the performance of the two men, and under the leadership of Qiu Yu, they all stepped forward to check.
A quarter of an hour later, the copy of the Analects was circulated among the ministers.
Li Ruo Lian saw that the time was right and said, "My Lords, the Jinyiwei has been ordered to investigate the murder of Chen Yan and Guang Shiheng's entire family."
"The crime scene was a mess. On the surface, it looked like the murderer was trying to kill people for money, but in fact, many valuable items were overlooked. For example, there was a priceless painting called "Smoke Temple and Pine Wind" in Chen Yan's mansion, but it was left on the ground and no one cared about it."
"Based on this, we believe that the murderer was not looking for money, but something else. So dozens of people dug deep into the ground all night long, and finally found this Analects and these letters in Chen Yan's house!" Li Ruolian said, pointing to the book that turned around and returned to Li Banghua's hand.
"The account book records all the records of the Ministry of Revenue hiring merchants to transport food and equipment for the Nine Frontiers Army from the 15th year of Chongzhen to the first month of the 17th year of Chongzhen, when Chen Yan was the Minister of Revenue."
"There are 28 companies in total, including three in Shaanxi, ten in Shanxi, five in Zhejiang, three in Shandong, four in Nanzhili and Huizhou, and three in Huguang."
"According to the account books, every time a shipment was made, some of the merchants would offer varying amounts of silver to Chen Yan. Some were hundreds of thousands, some were thousands, and the total added up to millions."
"After receiving the silver, Chen Yan did not keep it all by himself, but divided it into several portions and gave them to the ministers in the court. Most of these ministers served in the Ministry of Personnel, the Ministry of War, the Ministry of Works, and the Ministry of Revenue."
"Following this clue, I arrested all the people from the relevant businesses and detained them in the imperial prison last night. I also found the stolen property in these businesses. After an overnight interrogation, the real culprit has confessed."
"Who is the real murderer?" Li Banghua asked hurriedly.
"There are more than a hundred murderers, belonging to eight different businesses. They know that the murderers who pretend to rob and kill people are actually looking for this account book and these letters."
Eight businesses?
The leader of the Jin Party, Dang Chongya, had a bad feeling.
Before everyone could recover, Li Ruo Lian held up the letters in his hand and said, "These are the letters between Chen Yan and the ministers in the court, and there is also irrefutable evidence that Chen Yan was secretly communicating with the bandits and the Jian Nu."
"These businesses are Chen Yan's accomplices in colluding with the bandits. They want to kill people and destroy the evidence."
When these words were spoken, everyone in the court was shocked!
They were not surprised that Chen Yan was corrupt, but they were surprised that the former prime minister of the cabinet actually had secret dealings with the bandits and the Qing army!
Corruption is one thing, and collusion with bandits and the Qing army is another.
The former involves beheading and confiscating the property as the upper limit, while the latter involves beheading and confiscating the property as the lower limit!
"One of the letters was written by Liu Zongmin, a general under Li Zicheng, to Shen Weibing, the left vice minister of the Ministry of Revenue of the current dynasty. Somehow it fell into Chen Yan's hands!" Li Ruolian held up a letter and handed it to Li Banghua.
Li Banghua's face was extremely ugly. Although he knew that Shen Weibing was corrupt, he was never careless when doing things for the court.
As long as the Ministry of Revenue has money, the military salaries and food wages at the front line will not be delayed.
This is also one of the important reasons why he continues to use Shen Weibing.
I never expected that he would collude with the bandits!
Li Banghua opened the letter with trembling hands, and the contents were clearly visible on the paper.
After reading it, Li Banghua swallowed his saliva and said, "Hai Ke... is what Commander Li said true?"
Although Shen Weibing was very shocked, he denied it immediately: "Your Majesty, Lord Li, I am innocent!"
"I am a citizen of the Ming Dynasty, I am the one who eats the emperor's food and relieves his worries. Now that the bandits are coming, it is time to use people. The contents of the account book are all fabricated. It is a sowing of dissent by the bandits. You must not believe it."
"I beg Your Majesty to find out the truth and clear my name!"
Chongzhen had no expression on his face: "What do you think?"
Seeing that Shen Weibing of the Donglin Party was in trouble, seven or eight Donglin Party members knelt down and pleaded for mercy. Shen Weibing was the highest-ranking official in the Donglin Party. If he was in trouble, the Donglin Party would be powerless to compete with other parties.
Except for these dozen or so Donglin Party members, the other court officials stood there in silence.
Mind your own business.
They were hoping something would happen to the Donglin Party, and now not adding fuel to the fire was already a good deed.
"I think this is a sowing of dissension, the purpose is to alienate us from the emperor and his subjects, Your Majesty, please do not be fooled!"
Everyone turned around and was stunned when they saw that the person who spoke was Dang Chongya, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue.
Dang Chongya is from the Jin Party, so why would he speak for the Donglin Party?
After a moment, everyone understood.
Dang Chongya's name was on the account book, so helping Shen Weibing at this time was helping himself.
Dang Chongya was the leader of the Jin Party. Under his leadership, more than a dozen ministers knelt down and expressed the same view.
Dang Chongya must respond with caution.
Once this matter is confirmed, the power of the Jin Party in the court will suffer a devastating blow, and the chain reaction it will bring will be that Shanxi merchants will be unable to recover at best, or even die and lose their wealth at worst.
How does a business make money?
On the one hand, it relied on the court's tax exemption policy, and on the other hand, it relied on smuggling.
Taking advantage of the opportunity of transporting goods for the imperial court, they stuffed a large amount of smuggled goods into the caravan. When they encountered inspection, they showed the imperial court's pass, which had two words on it: no inspection!
The smuggled items included firearms, gunpowder, and iron ore.
You can make huge profits as long as you transport it to the border!
Once they lose power in the court, the privileges of the businesses affiliated with them will disappear.
Without privileges, there would be no smuggling, let alone making huge profits!
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