"I'll give you two hundred slaps, do you want it?" Gong Shouli said angrily, "How can we spend half a million taels of silver on this case so quickly!"
"You see you are anxious again. Let me do the math for you. Buying a Jinshi costs hundreds of thousands taels of silver. Zhao Yu and I sent a total of twenty undercover agents. What is the total? The deposit now is only twenty. After spending more than 10,000 taels of silver, plus taking care of everything, what is half a million taels enough for?" Xiao Chen counted the accounts for him with his fingers.
"We are just investigating, and we don't need to tell the truth about the money!" Gong Shouli said.
"How can you confirm the evidence if you don't spend money? In the end, if they don't admit it, they are just joking with us. What will you do? Don't worry, it doesn't matter if the money is spent. Anyway, there is a whereabouts. When the time comes, the house will be searched and it won't be found. What's going on? I'm afraid I can copy more!" Xiao Chen said.
"You're so damn good at ransacking my house!" Gong Shouli said, "I don't have that much money anyway, so you can ask the emperor for it."
"Then you are not afraid that the emperor will raid your home?" Xiao Chen said with a smile.
"Hmph, then I have to steal what's yours. Your kid has embezzled more than me. Ang, I heard that you bought more than a dozen houses in Fengyang City. Good guy, how many millions of taels is that? How much does your kid earn as governor of Yanyun per year? Where did you get all this money? Let me ask you!" Gong Shouli said.
"It was seized during the last attack on Yizhou." Xiao Chen said, "I helped the emperor fight, and the emperor didn't give him any money. Is it okay for me to get some trophies?"
It's really no problem.
"You said that the emperor wants you to be an academic administrator, and you are asked to investigate the case with us. Then if there is a war with the British, you will not go?" Gong Shouli asked.
"There's no need for me, there's Prince Zhongcheng and...you kid is just telling me what I'm saying!" Xiao Chen said something else.
"Haha, it turns out that Prince Zhongcheng is in command?" Gong Shouli smiled proudly, "That's because you are better than me, but are your soldiers willing to obey the prince's orders?"
"Tsk, tsk, tsk, if I hadn't just met the emperor, I would have thought that this was what the emperor sent you to ask me. How come you, Old Gong, a eunuch who is the chief ceremonial officer and the chief eunuch, want to interfere in the war?" Xiao Chen sneered.
"It's getting dark today. It's time to eat. Get out of here. Do you still want me to treat you if you don't leave?" Gong Shouli rolled his eyes and walked away with his hands behind his back. His steps were very steady. No more shaking.
"I don't need you to treat me to dinner, but when are you going to give me your money? Hey, don't run away, your legs and feet are not good, don't fall into a dog's turd... Damn, your old boy's legs and feet are really neat now. You!" Gong Shouli ran so fast that Xiao Chen couldn't catch up with him.
Fortunately, Gong Shouli refused to invite him to dinner, but Zhu Xiaochuan agreed. When he saw Xiao Chen coming and said that he had just met the emperor, he knew that he had something to say, so he immediately ordered someone to serve wine and let him eat.
"The emperor's will, brother, what else can I say? No matter who you want, just pick it yourself. Anyway, you are familiar with the Jinyiwei brothers." Zhu Xiaochuan heard that Xiao Chen wanted someone and readily agreed.
"Your brother won't ask me what case I'm working on?" Xiao Chen said with a smile.
"The case your brother is personally supervising is probably not a trivial matter." Zhu Xiaochuan said, "It is better to have one less thing than one more thing. I'd better not inquire about it."
"Haha, I expected it right. It's really a huge case. The weight on my shoulders is heavy as hell. You, brother, can't hide away for a while. You have to help me share some of the pressure. You can't do it even if you don't ask. I have to tell you!" Xiao Chen said with a smile.
After listening to Xiao Chen's story, Zhu Xiaochuan fell into silence...
"It's really a big case." After a long time, he finally sighed, "This kind of thing has never been seen or heard of before, let alone us, Dazhou!"
"Is your brother really unaware of this all along?" Xiao Chen said, "Or have you heard some rumors and pretended not to know?"
"Fengyang City is too big, the water is too deep, fish and dragons are mixed together, and there are all kinds of strange things... You can't even see clearly with your eyes wide open. It's better to turn a blind eye." Zhu Xiaochuan said, "Do you think our Jinyi Guards are... It is omnipresent and omniscient, but this is not the case. In some places, the water is too deep and we cannot dive down."
"It's no good if I don't go down now." Xiao Chen said, "I don't even know why the emperor would entrust me with this difficult task? Haha, I'm probably willing to go out, but I feel sorry for you guys!"
"Stop complaining, the emperor is in trouble too." Zhu Xiaochuan said, "You have never been in Fengyang. You don't know much about some things, or you know them well, but you can stay out of them. Like the rest of us, we can hide even if we want to. There’s no place to hide, isn’t this happening again?”
"You're still talking about me, aren't you just complaining?" Xiao Chen said with a smile, "It's useless to think about it now. Whatever the emperor asks us to do, we will do it. Anyway, the sky won't fall, and the emperor will be there if it does. His old man is carrying it."
"Well, this is how we ministers should be..." Zhu Xiaochuan wiped his face with some distress, "Does the Emperor have any other instructions?"
"Also." Xiao Chen said, "One dare not say, and the other can. Brother, which one do you want to know?"
"You don't have to say what you don't dare to say, just say what you can say." Zhu Xiaochuan's expression also became very strange, and the way he looked at Xiao Chen was even weirder.
"The emperor wants me to be an academic administrator!" Xiao Chen said, "I reluctantly accepted it shamelessly. When the time comes, brother, you will have to support me!"
"Oh, this is a great thing!" Zhu Xiaochuan was stunned for a moment, then became happy, "Brother, I congratulate you first."
"It's not busy at all." Xiao Chen said, "To be honest, brother, I'm pretty good at reciting poems and writing essays, but I'm really not that good at writing essays. When the time comes to mark the papers, if I can't tell whether I'm good or bad, Come here, I’m just afraid of being laughed at, forget it if others laugh at me, and the most afraid of losing our emperor’s face.”
"Hahaha, if you Xiao Chen can't see what's good, no one in the world can!" Zhu Xiaochuan laughed, "If you didn't tell me about it, I would have forgotten about it. It just so happens that I have a distant nephew who also came to Beijing. I'm here to take the exam, and I'm confused when it comes to discussing the article with me... and I want you to give me some pointers on the text, but you can't push it away!"
"Then I'll just let you and your brother take care of each other?" Xiao Chen said with a smile, "Brother, no matter how bad my writing is, am I expected to be even a little bit better than your brother?"
"That's not just a little bit! It's just a huge difference. You are the most talented person in the world." Zhu Xiaochuan was overjoyed, "Then I won't be polite to you. I will ask my nephew to write two essays and send them to you. , you have to criticize well."
"Okay, little brother, I'm not talented, but I'm quite good at being a teacher. If my nephew is a talented young man, wouldn't it be a happy life if I could teach him?" Xiao Chen happily agreed.
Before Xiao Chen, the academic administrator, took office, he promised Zhu Xiaochuan a big favor.
