Chapter 70 It's all business, really.
Shen Qingyue's analysis made a lot of sense, and Shangguan Jin nodded in agreement.
“Mother, it is only natural that the Duke of Anguo would do everything in his power to save Lady Mei’s life.”
First of all, Lord Mei must have taken on things that he shouldn't have had to take on.
Over the years, as Vice Minister of Revenue, Lord Mei has received not only funds for disaster relief and river repair, but also from many other sources of income.
Lord Mei would never dare to do so many things on his own.
Therefore, the bulk of the embezzled funds should have gone to the Duke of Anguo and the King of Qin.
Now that Lord Mei has been exposed, if he were to give in, he would definitely reveal a whole host of secrets.
If the imperial family hadn't paid attention to this matter before, the Duke of Anguo could have simply silenced Lord Mei.
However, the imperial family noticed that if Lord Mei were to die before the verdict, everyone's attention would be focused on Duke Anguo.
What was originally just a case of official embezzlement has turned into a murder case to cover it up, and the imperial court will definitely investigate it thoroughly.
Therefore, whether he wanted to or not, Duke Anguo had to protect Lord Mei's life.
Similarly, Duke Anguo's actions were also a signal to others who sided with the King of Qin.
If you follow him, no matter what you do, he can save your life.
As for Lord Mei's fate...
"Exiled three thousand miles away, if anything unexpected happens, it won't be the responsibility of the Duke of Anguo," Shen Qingyue said slowly.
Shangguan Jin was full of praise.
As expected of a young lady from a prestigious family, her analysis was thorough, logical, and well-founded.
“That’s right. Then tell me, Sister Yue, why did Prime Minister Xu and the Crown Prince allow Duke Anguo to protect Lord Mei’s life?”
"Shouldn't we take this opportunity to dig deeper and drag a few more people down with us?" Shangguan Jin continued to ask.
Seeing that Shangguan Jin agreed with her analysis, Shen Qingyue gained confidence to continue her analysis.
"Everyone would think that Prime Minister Xu would do this."
But it is precisely because everyone else thinks that Prime Minister Xu will not do so.
Perhaps Prime Minister Xu can use every means at his disposal to drag Duke Anguo and the Prince of Qin into this mess.
But can they really bring down Duke Anguo and King Qin?
Even if Prime Minister Xu collects all the evidence and submits the memorial, will the imperial court act according to his wishes?
A duke, from the Empress Dowager's maternal family, controlled the military forces of three parts of the Great Yu.
One was the King of Qin, the son of the Imperial Concubine.
If these two people were to be harmed, the imperial court would be thrown into chaos.
Putting everything else aside, the turmoil among the court officials is something the imperial family does not want to see.
The imperial family excels at the art of balance and the art of using people.
He would never reduce the power of Duke Anguo and King Qin at this time.
Because the imperial family was at its peak, the most taboo thing at this time was for the court to be in chaos.
What he wants is stability.
Therefore, the imperial court would never punish the Duke of Anguo and the King of Qin.
The imperial court would only reprimand Duke Anguo, but would not impose any major punishments.
If Prime Minister Xu were to submit a memorial demanding severe punishment for Duke Anguo and Prince Qin at this time, it would only cause the imperial family to become wary.
Prime Minister Xu is a veteran prime minister of two dynasties, and his understanding of the imperial family is certainly deeper than anyone else's.
Therefore, he won't make that mistake.
The fact that the imperial family assigned Prime Minister Xu to lead the investigation into Lord Mei's case must mean they had a good grasp of Prime Minister Xu's intentions and knew what he would do.
And the most important point.
Isn't this also a move by Prime Minister Xu to win over the hearts of the people for the Crown Prince?
The Crown Prince's people taking over the Ministry of Revenue will certainly face considerable resistance.
Or rather, when Lord Mei did those things, there was more than one person in the Ministry of Revenue who cooperated.
If those people were to unite, they would be a considerable force.
Prime Minister Xu stopped there, only punishing Lord Mei.
This was to show those people that he would only investigate Lord Chamei, and would not pursue matters concerning others.
However, he will certainly keep this evidence in his possession at the same time.
Those people, whether they wanted to or not, had no choice but to cooperate with the Crown Prince's men.
In this way, the Ministry of Revenue would be completely under the control of the Crown Prince.
In this way, the imperial family was both warned against the faction of Duke Anguo.
"This also increases our own strength, which is a win-win situation for Prime Minister Xu," Shen Qingyue continued to analyze.
Shangguan Jin was filled with amazement.
The eldest daughter of the Shen family looks delicate and frail; she's just an ordinary young lady from a prominent family.
But he was a man of great wisdom.
“What Sister Yao said is right. Both Duke Anguo and Prime Minister Xu are satisfied with the handling of this case.”
To put it bluntly, this case looks like just a business deal.
Since it's business, there will be losses and gains.
Duke Anguo thought that since he had already suffered a loss, he should try to minimize the loss and preserve as much as possible.
As for Prime Minister Xu, he figured that since he was already involved, he might as well earn as much as possible.
In fact, what in this world isn't business?
In any business, who isn't thinking about profit?
On a larger scale, it benefits the people, the nation, and the imperial court.
On a smaller scale, there's also the selfishness of officials and the petty gains of certain individuals.
Only when there are benefits can people flock to it.
"So when considering something, once you see who the beneficiaries are, many things become much easier to understand," Shangguan Jin said with a smile.
Shen Qingyue carefully considered Shangguan Jin's words.
Everything in the world is business; it's the pursuit of profit that leads to all sorts of problems...
The situation with Lord Mei this time is like this: wasn't my own father forced to disappear because of those things?
So, whoever has no interests in mind is the real winner!
Could this be the real reason my mother said she wanted to close the door and live her own life?
Shen Qingyue felt as if she suddenly understood.
“Mother, Yao’er understands.”
"Please rest assured, Mother, I will definitely help you stay away from those sordid things," Shen Qingyue suddenly said.
Shangguan Jin...
It seems this clever eldest daughter is overthinking things again!
But this is good too, it will give me more help in the future.
"Sister Yao is smart, so her mother is very relieved."
"By the way, how come there's a new income entry in this ledger you brought?" Shangguan Jin asked, pointing to the newly added income of 1,800 taels in the ledger.
Shen Qingyue peeked out and immediately smiled.
"Mother, have you forgotten?"
This income was the rent from a shop that my cousin gave me half a month ago.
The shop was in a good location, facing the street on two sides. As soon as Manager Chen put it out, someone came to rent it.
I was originally thinking that I would be lucky to get eight hundred taels of silver for this.
Who knew someone would actually pay the exorbitant price of 1,800 taels of silver to rent it?
Shangguan Jin also realized what was happening.
Yes, about two weeks ago, the Seventh Prince suddenly came to me with a land deed and a house deed.
It is said to have been a gift from Emperor Xiao Jing.
After asking around for a while, I finally learned that when the Imperial Household Department was confiscating the Mei family's property, they found four shops on Qianmen Street alone.
At that time, the Seventh Prince happened to be paying his respects to Emperor Xiao Jing, and then he mentioned it briefly.
They say that if she hadn't gone to the palace to complain and demand money, they would never have discovered that big rat, Lord Mei!
Emperor Xiao Jing thought it made sense and said he wanted to reward him with something.
Then the Seventh Prince immediately selected the largest and best-located shop among those that had been confiscated and sent it to Shangguan Jin.
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