The more unable to find out anything, the more uneasy people became. The door of the Ancestral Temple was open, and the tablets of the Qing emperors of the past dynasties could be faintly seen in the gloomy hall.
At this moment, it was as if all the deceased kings in the Qing Dynasty were staring at these people, and all the high-ranking nobles present were like rays on their backs!
At this moment, the eunuch's voice suddenly sounded in the hall, "Your Majesty has arrived...kneel down!"
Emperor Tongzhi, who had just knelt down and prayed in the Ancestral Temple, came out and looked at the more than 60 top nobles within the Eight Banners with a livid face.
The chairs were placed on the edge of the white marble steps, sweeping down the three-story high platform. A group of royal nobles knelt on the ground and did not dare to move!
Zai Chun sneered and wrapped the cloak around him, staring at them without saying a word. Time passed by, and the huge pressure made the people below unable to breathe. There was something wrong in their hearts. There were even beads of sweat falling out.
For a full quarter of an hour, Emperor Tongzhi oppressed them for a full quarter of an hour. Their knees were numb and they would not let them get up!
At this moment, a group of new imperial soldiers came over carrying several huge wooden boxes. Following the boxes came a pungent smell of blood.
There was a clang, and the box was propped on the ground. When the lid was opened, it was full of fresh human heads!
The soldiers overturned the box, and the heads were rolling around these princes and nobles. They were so frightened that they almost wet their pants. The timid ones almost kissed them when they saw a head rolling in front of them!
With a sound, the grandson fainted!
"Pour cold water on him... Let him wake up... Then show me! You all know each other, don't these heads look familiar?"
"They are all slaves who gave birth to children in your family. Those from whose family will be placed in front of the other!"
Zai Chun gave the order, and the new Yulin Army would carry it out. They started looking for people with their heads in braids, and their identities were identified in advance. Tong Jia's head was placed directly in front of Prince Lao Li.
In the Thirteenth Warehouse of the capital, all the corrupt treasury managers, treasury clerks, and cronies of the treasury soldiers were beheaded, and those who survived were ordinary soldiers with no connections.
Hundreds of heads were densely packed. Last night, the Yulin New Army killed more than fifty people in the city. The Xishan Battalion also killed more than sixty people outside the city. There were more than a hundred heads. On average, each person could put two in front of them!
Big eyes and small eyes, it’s just one death in life!
By this time everyone knew what had happened. Prince Li was shaking like chaff. One look at Tong Jia's head and he knew that everything about the granary had been leaked.
People looked at each other. Baojun checked the library last night. Everyone thought it was just a show. Who knew it would be real? This is a real spoonful of stew!
Zai Chun shouted suddenly, "Have you seen everything clearly? Do you need me to tell you what you have done... In front of the ancestors of the Qing Dynasty, do you swear that you have never done anything?"
"Swear! Everyone swears... I am about to find out why the capital suddenly lacked three million shi of food!"
"What a huge appetite, what a big rat! You are so loyal!"
"A slave shall be punished by death..." They all bowed their heads and dared not raise their heads. At this time, they could no longer tell lies. The lid had been lifted on everything, and sophistry was useless.
Their only hope at this moment is that Emperor Tongzhi can express his love for his family. Fortunately, there are no foreign ministers present today, and none of the Han ministers are studying.
Maybe this is the chance to survive!
"Speak! Are you mute? Speak...Prince Li, your slave Tong Jia is the first mouse to be exposed. Tell yourself what is going on?"
Prince Lao Li looked at the rifles with bayonets around him and the cavalry formation in the distance. He didn't have the courage to argue, so he could only bow his head and admit his guilt.
"Your Majesty...Old slave, I am guilty of death. I am confused...I let this slave be fooled..."
"Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu."
"Steal the grain from the granary and sell it. Anyway, the court won't need so much for the time being... Then when the summer grain is harvested, we will buy it back at a low price and save it, and eat the difference over and over again!"
"Your Majesty, please have mercy... Wuwuwu... Please have mercy, Your Majesty..."
Prince Lao Li is indeed experienced. Although he is scared, he can still find life-saving prescriptions at critical moments. At this time, if you say you stole the warehouse to store food, it is really a capital crime, and no one can save you.
But if you put it another way, you are just greedy for the price difference, which is a small crime!
If I really steal food, I won't pay it back. I keep all the money I paid for it in my own pocket. It's none of my business how the warehouse reaches its peak in the future.
Generally, this kind of thing is delayed by time and made up bit by bit with losses.
If it was really a theft, then Zai Chunke would not be able to spare them. He stole three million stones of food in one breath, and was this at the worst time of the disaster?
At this time, you have to change your statement: I didn’t steal the food, I will pay it back later!
I just earn a price difference. When the price of food is high, I 'borrow' the food and sell it. When the price of food is low, I buy the food and return it to the warehouse. In this way, the total amount of food in the warehouse remains unchanged.
It's really magical. The same thing, said in different ways, has different results.
Borrowing food and paying it back is a much smaller crime!
Prince Lao Li set the tone in this way, and the other nobles in the palace suddenly realized, and they all said, "Your Majesty, please forgive me. I just want to make a profit, and I don't want to steal food..."
"I originally thought that after harvesting the summer grain, I would return it to the library, but I didn't expect that the situation would turn out like this..."
The square in front of the Imperial Ancestral Temple was full of crying. If someone had just come in at this time and saw them crying over the severed heads, they would have thought that some kind of funeral had happened!
What can Zai Chun do when faced with this group of candies? Even though he knew they were lying, he really couldn't do anything serious. Did he really kill all these sixty people?
That would be to stew the nobles of the Eight Banners in one spoonful and kill them all. How many people would be left in the court?
"That's enough! I don't want to hear your sophistry... No matter you want to steal or borrow, you have violated the national law!"
"Don't think that I'm easy to bully, don't think that I'm easy to deceive...if you eat something from me, spit it out for me, and if you take something from me, give it back to me!"
"Chengzhi! Get the hell out of here!"
Prince Zheng was so frightened that he rolled out and kowtowed. Zai Chun pointed at him and sneered, "You are very smart! Yesterday you said you would donate 500,000 taels, but in the end you played tricks on Fu Qing?"
"You don't let Fu Qing get the money, do you think you can get away with it? Tell you, you are dreaming!"
"Here comes someone! According to my instructions, go directly to Chengzhi's palace to collect the money! The silver you promised to donate yesterday was five hundred thousand, and the value of the food you stole is five hundred thousand!"
"Give me one million taels of silver, otherwise you, Chengzhi, will lose your head!"
"The rest of these bastards, give me the same amount of money as they donated yesterday!"
"Damn it! I see that you are relatives, and I don't want your lives! I've given you face, and you have to know what to do next!"
"Does it have to be that the ship of the Qing Dynasty was scuttled? You smashed all the pots. How can you live without the Qing Dynasty? Don't you understand such a simple truth?"
Amidst Emperor Tongzhi's roar, these royal nobles only dared to kowtow and did not dare to refute even a word!
