Facing Lu Chen's questioning, a petty official's heart sank.
"Master Lu."
He raised his head, glanced at Lu Chen, and then replied as calmly as possible: "You may not know much about the spiritual stones produced by the Duke of Yan State. Their spiritual stones are abundant in the Longquan Secret Realm, and the spiritual stones mined from it are , in addition to the pure spiritual power that a high-grade spiritual stone should have, it also has a trace of the aura of a true dragon. It is an extremely noble treasure that cannot be possessed by an emperor..."
"A spiritual stone is a spiritual stone."
Lu Chen interrupted expressionlessly:
"I have a friend who is very proficient in formations. She told me that the only role of spiritual stones in formations is to provide massive spiritual power to start and maintain the operation of the formation. The only criterion for judging the formation is the original spiritual power. The purity and magnitude of the original spiritual power are due to the need to quickly absorb the original spiritual power when the large array is operating. The higher the quality of the spiritual stone, the higher the purity and magnitude of the original spiritual power under the same volume, and the efficiency of supplying the original spiritual power is higher. The faster, this top-grade spiritual stone from Duke Yan's Mansion, even if it is said to be shocking, its essential function is still the same as other spiritual stones?"
After the words fell, the shoulders of several minor officials suddenly trembled slightly.
Lu Chen asked again in a cold voice: "The effect is the same, but the price is twice as expensive. In this case, why not buy ordinary high-grade spiritual stones? Could it be that the Imperial Dao Formation can only use the spiritual stones from the Duke of Yan's Palace? Without their high-grade spiritual stones, the formation cannot be activated, right?"
Hearing this, a minor official hesitated for a moment, and then responded humbly: "Sir, since the Duke of Yan opened the space passage to Longquan Secret Realm in the third year of Xuanping to now, for more than fifty years, the imperial court has been They purchased high-quality spirit stones from the Duke of Yan. Before them, in the years after the Duke of Sui who originally supplied spirit stones was executed for treason, the spirit stones purchased by the imperial court always had problems from time to time, so that the formations occasionally failed. It malfunctioned, and one time it even caused the formation to be destroyed. It cost hundreds of thousands of taels of silver just to repair the formation, but after using the spirit stones from the Duke of Yan's Palace, there were no more problems."
After a pause, the clerk continued: "The spirit stones in Duke Yan's Mansion are a bit expensive, but you get what you pay for. At least you get peace of mind. This alone is worth a lot of money. Moreover, Your Majesty is the supreme being in the world, and Ziji City is the pinnacle of Central Continent. How can the imperial formation use ordinary spiritual stones? Only supreme treasures can be used by the emperor. This is the supreme respect for your majesty!"
At this time, another petty official took over the conversation and said: "Master Lu, our Daxia Dynasty has a vast territory and rich resources, and your majesty is rich all over the world. How can you care about this little money? You are so careful in your calculations, it seems that the court is a bit petty, and may even attract people." Your Majesty is not happy, and it may be detrimental to your future."
Lu Chen glanced at them and didn't bother to pay attention to the last little official's seemingly good reminder. Instead, he narrowed his eyes and said pointedly:
"Oh? In the past few decades, the imperial court's spiritual stone expenses have always come from the Duke of Yan?"
Several people nodded.
"Exactly, the spiritual stones produced in the Longquan Secret Realm are famous all over the world and are hard to find. Thanks to the Duke of Yan State, who is loyal to the country and thinks of the court first for any good thing, we can use the Longquan Spirit Stones that can make people feel completely at ease. "
"Regardless of how expensive the Longquan spiritual stone is, in fact, the Duke of Yan's government didn't make much money. After all, the secret realm of Longquan is extremely dangerous and difficult to mine. Its mining and transportation costs are huge. I don't know how much it has to pay out just for the pension. .”
"So……"
The corners of Chen's mouth raised slightly, revealing a cold smile.
"In other words, the spirit stone veins in Longquan Secret Realm have been mined for more than fifty years. Despite the great consumption of many heaven-level formations such as Ziji City and Luojing City Protection Formation, they have still not been exhausted. They are still full of energy until now. Continuously supply high-grade spiritual stones to the imperial court, right?"
As soon as these words came out, the expressions of several people changed again.
As we all know, high-grade spiritual stones are extremely rare. Generally speaking, if there are only 1% of high-grade spiritual stones in ordinary spiritual stone veins, it is already a very good rich ore, and spiritual stones are still non-renewable, at least It took hundreds of thousands of years to slowly form, but the spirit stone veins in Longquan Secret Realm took more than fifty years to be dug...
"This...this...Longquan Secret Realm is unique, and the spirit stone veins are naturally unique."
In response to these remarks, Lu Chen shook his head with a cold expression.
"If there are too many things, they naturally become less valuable. It's such a simple truth. I don't need to remind you, right?"
Hearing this, several people didn't know what to say for a moment.
Lu Chen continued: "Moreover, who can be sure that the Duke of Yan State did not purchase spiritual stones from other places, then put them in the Longquan Secret Realm, took them out, and then resold them to the court?"
Click…
A clerk didn't stand firm at all, staggered and almost fell to the ground.
Lu Chen didn't bother to look at them anymore. He walked around the warehouse carefully and asked about the origin, function, price and origin of each material.
As expected, the price difference is not even close to what he learned when he was the governor of two states.
The quality is not much of a problem, but the price is at least double the difference.
Moreover, nearly 20% of the materials come from the Duke of Yan State, or in other words, from the secret realm of Longquan that is "rich in treasures"...
Soon, Lu Chen had a general understanding of the situation in the warehouse.
When he left the warehouse, Wang Qi happened to come over with three sweaty officials wearing sixth-grade court uniforms.
As soon as they saw Lu Chen, the three of them bowed to Lu Chen nervously without waiting for Wang Qi to speak.
"Xiaoguan Xu Sanping..."
"Your Majesty Li Quan..."
"Your Majesty Cui Hao..."
"Meet Mr. Lu!"
Lu Chen clasped his hands, nodded indifferently, and then said calmly: "Where have you been? Why weren't you in the camp when you were on duty?"
A gust of cold wind blew by, but the three of them were sweating profusely.
"Returning to Mr. Lu, I don't know what my father ate wrong today. He suddenly had vomiting and diarrhea..."
"My wife has a cold..."
"Xiaguan suddenly had abdominal distension..."
Hearing this, Lu Chen's expression did not change at all, he just said meaningfully: "You three are really destined to be together."
Three people: "..."
"snort!"
Lu Chen suddenly snorted, then took steps, passed the three of them directly, and walked towards the tent not far away.
"If you neglect your duties, the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the Metropolitan Procuratorate will settle the accounts with you later. For now, follow me here."
Seeing Lu Chen being so merciless, the three people's pupils shrank slightly, but they didn't dare to say anything and quickly followed Lu Chen.
"Wang Qi."
Lu Chen called softly.
"My subordinate is here."
Wang Qi moved closer to Lu Chen.
Lu Chen asked casually: "Are all the account books ready?"
Wang Qi nodded.
"Everything is ready, Mr. Lu."
"Well, thank you for your hard work."
"My lord, you're welcome."
After listening to the conversation between the two, Xu Sanping and the other three suddenly felt nervous.
Soon, Lu Chen walked into the camp.
As soon as he came in, he felt a comfortable warm breeze. With the blessing of the warm spring array, the inside was as warm as spring, which was in sharp contrast to the cold wind outside.
"Isn't this quite comfortable?"
Lu Chen walked directly to the main seat and sat down, then raised his head and stared at Xu Sanping and others who were sitting in front of him, raising his brows slightly.
"Why is this world so weird? The laborers outside can work on the construction site in the cold wind without pay, but if some people are allowed to work in a place where the warm wind blows, they can't stay. You say, Isn’t that hard to understand?”
Hearing what he meant, Xu Sanping, who was being watched by Lu Chen, once again had a lot of sweat on his face, and even his official uniform was almost soaked.
"Master Lu...this..."
"I'm a humble official. I don't know what your Majesty said. Please forgive me."
Lu Chen smiled.
"Are you stupid?"
As he spoke, he shook his head slightly.
"It's better to be blunt. In this way, even if you are unlucky in the future, it probably won't be too uncomfortable."
Bang…
The tea cup in Xu Sanping's hand fell to the ground for no reason.
The crisp sound made Lu Chen couldn't help but glance at him.
What, breaking a cup as a sign?
But this was obviously overthinking.
Seeing that the tea cup was accidentally knocked over, Xu Sanping quickly stood up and apologized, but did not make any other move.
Lu Chen shrugged and did not look at them again, but focused on the account book in front of him.
Originally, he didn't really want to deal with the dirty work of the Ministry of Industry. After all, how could he be promoted to an official? But now, for him, being an official is not just for the sake of being an official, there are some things that he has to care about.
The Ministry of Industry is in charge of all the fortifications in the world, including key royal projects, local water conservancy projects, road projects, ordnance manufacturing and other matters. It is the Ministry of Industry's responsibility. Simply put, it is a department that spends money.
Since it is engineering manufacturing, it will inevitably involve the purchase and expenditure of materials. Everyone understands this aspect.
Therefore, the Ministry of Industry has always been a piece of fat.
It's just that this piece of fat does not necessarily belong to the official of the Ministry of Industry. After all, anyone who dares to target this piece of fat has a strong background. Although the official of the Ministry of Industry has the authority to control the world's fortifications, can he Try your best, if you dare to take a bite of this piece of fat, it depends on whether your body is hard or not.
Therefore, not everyone dares to touch this account book, otherwise who knows if there is a powerful person standing behind these people who do the accounting, or it represents the will of some people.
But this was not a problem at all for Lu Chen.
At the same time, if he wants to make a difference, he must hold on to the Ministry of Industry.
As for the entry point, it's simple.
Without any hesitation, Lu Chen took out an account book, opened it and looked through it.
Seeing Lu Chen's decisiveness, Xu Sanping and others couldn't help but swallow their saliva.
I don't know if Lu Chen didn't know the power of it, and those who don't know are fearless, or if he deliberately wanted to cause trouble and threw a huge stone into the stagnant water of the Ministry of Industry in an attempt to stir up a storm.
If the wind and waves come together, only God knows what will happen to these miscellaneous fishes.
At this moment, they almost felt something unusual in their hearts at the same time, and there was a hint of complexity in their eyes when they looked at Lu Chen.
Lu Chen kept flipping through the account books in front of him, while using the charcoal pens he had prepared in advance to write and draw on the white paper next to him.
Wang Qi assisted at the side.
When he saw what Lu Chen wrote on the white paper, there would always be a trace of doubt in his eyes.
can't read.
I can't understand it at all.
Even if he carefully recalled all the classics he had read so far, he could not find any characters that could correspond to what Lu Chen wrote, and looking at Lu Chen's focused look, it didn't look like he was scribbling.
Obviously, it was just what Lu Chen wrote that others couldn't understand.
Let alone him, looking at the entire Central Continent, even including the world of swords and magic in Xizhou Continent, apart from the empress and Luo Xiaoyu, who was trained by Lu Chen as a little housekeeper, there is absolutely no fourth person who can People who understand this content.
Click click click…
The charcoal pen kept scratching across the white paper, and when it was put down, it made a crisp sound, which continued to sound deep in the extremely nervous hearts of Xu Sanping and others, making them feel an indescribable feeling of discomfort.
Days are like years.
Although the account details recorded in the account books and so much data are difficult for one person to check in a single time, even if they are submitted to the Accounts Department and let the "magic fortune tellers" in the Accounts Department do the calculations, they will not be able to come up with the results in half a day. Logically speaking, , even if there is any problem inside, Lu Chen should not be able to see it.
But... Lu Chen always gave them a very evil feeling, making them instinctively feel a little weird and subconsciously afraid to use common sense to judge.
Time passed by minute by minute, and before you knew it, most of the day had passed.
When Lu Chen closed the last account book, the three of them looked stern at the same time.
"interesting."
Pushing the account book aside, a hint of ridicule gradually appeared on Lu Chen's face.
"It's just an account book for two mere projects, but it contains so many mysteries. It's really eye-opening."
Hearing this, Xu Sanping and others' eyes suddenly trembled.
"What do you mean, sir...the accounts cannot be reconciled?"
Lu Chen shook his head and did not answer the question directly. Instead, he glanced at Cui Hao next to Xu Sanping and spoke slowly.
"Mr. Cui, I remember that you are responsible for setting up the formation, right?"
Being named by Lu Chen, Cui Hao couldn't help but feel his heart skip a beat.
"Yes...the lower official is responsible."
He looked at Lu Chen quite uneasily and asked in a low voice:
"But what went wrong here, Xia Guan?"
"Hard to say."
Lu Chen responded calmly, then leaned back towards the chair very relaxedly, and continued expressionlessly:
"I would like to ask you first, why did the magic arrangement of the Zhenyuan Formation produce a loss of 30% of the spiritual talismans, cinnabar, mithril and other materials?"
After the words fell, Xu Sanping and Li Quan immediately turned to look at Cui Hao, with a glimmer of light in their eyes.
"This... Mr. Lu doesn't know something."
Under everyone's gaze, Cui Hao's long horse face showed a hint of bitterness.
"Although the Zhenyuan Formation is an earth-level formation, its spell composition is extremely exquisite. Every spell and seal script is extremely exquisite. It is extremely difficult to burn and arrange. In addition, the auxiliary array is too complicated and difficult to arrange, so..."
Lu Chen was noncommittal about this.
"What about the Lingyun Formation, Guiyuan Formation and other profound formations? Even these formations cause so much material loss. Is this what the formation masters and spiritual seal craftsmen of our Ministry of Industry are capable of?"
Cui Hao looked bitter.
"Well...the Ministry of Household Affairs is quite critical of our expenditure here, and these array masters and spiritual seal craftsmen are already the highest-level group in the Ministry of Works..."
Upon hearing this, Lu Chen immediately sneered.
"You are willing to spend a lot of money to buy those sky-high-priced materials, but you are not willing to pay to hire people. Your work style is really eye-opening to me."
As soon as these words came out, the three of them immediately trembled.
At this time, Lu Chen suddenly narrowed his eyes, and a dangerous cold light flashed quietly.
"I have another question for you."
Xu Sanping responded subconsciously: "Sir, if you ask, we will definitely tell you everything we know."
This frank response was ignored by Lu Chen.
Tell everything you know?
I believe you!
"I'm asking you."
Lu Chen stared into their eyes and said word by word: "Where did you put those waste materials and residues that were consumed due to mistakes when setting up the magic circle?"
Hearing this, the three people's pupils shrank almost at the same time.
"My lord, why do you ask this..."
"I am asking you now. Answer my question immediately!"
Lu Chen didn't want to hear their nonsense and scolded them angrily.
"Before I figure out the cause and effect, if you dare to ask a question again, do you believe that I asked you to come here standing up and go back lying down?!"
The three of them suddenly shrank their necks.
Then Xu Sanping hesitated for a moment, and then said cautiously: "Returning to Mr. Lu, those scraps... we will naturally have them disposed of."
"How to deal with it?"
Xu Sanping gritted his teeth inexplicably and said: "Throw it to Mengjiang."
"oh?"
Lu Chen looked at him with interest.
"According to Daxia law, spiritual material waste must be properly collected and disposed of, but you actually threw it into Mengjiang privately?"
Xu Sanping sighed and looked helpless: "We have no choice. The waste warehouse is full, and the efficiency of the incinerator is low. These wastes are very harmful and cannot be left alone. Otherwise, the consequences will be unpredictable. We have no choice but to do this." It’s a bad idea, and the Mengjiang River is vast and should be able to purify these waste materials. If the blame comes from above, we will have to accept the punishment.”
Upon hearing this explanation, Lu Chen suddenly said meaningfully: "Master Xu is quite knowledgeable."
Hearing this, Xu Sanping secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
"Your Excellency, you are so complimentary."
However, it seems too early for him to relax now.
"Who gave the order? Who was responsible for the dumping? Where was it dumped?"
Lu Chen suddenly asked.
Hearing this, Xu Sanping felt nervous again.
"My lord, you ask this."
"answer!"
Lu Chen said coldly without hesitation.
Xu Sanping immediately did not dare to ask any more questions, and then after thinking for a moment, he replied: "Mr. Xue Yi, the former right minister of the Ministry of Industry, Mr. , instead of registering it, they paid their own money to hire people from outside to pull down the waste and dump it by the river."
"My predecessor, Mr. Xue, who just became a scholar not long ago?"
Lu Chen said calmly.
"Exactly."
"When will he leave Beijing?"
Xu Sanping answered honestly: "Five days ago."
"In that case."
Lu Chen slowly stood up.
"I will go and ask Your Majesty to issue an order to summon him back to the capital."
Seeing this, a flash of eagerness suddenly flashed in the eyes of the three of them.
"Master Lu, Master Xue has already retired from office, what else do you want to do with him? Besides, it wouldn't be good for His Majesty to know about this, right?"
Lu Chen shrugged.
"Every wrongdoer has his own debtor. Since he gave the order, I will naturally ask him to find out. Otherwise, who will bear the responsibility?"
After saying that, he stepped forward directly.
Xu Sanping and the other three hurriedly chased after him.
"Master Lu, please listen to my words."
Li Quan walked to Lu Chen's side, looking sincere and sincere.
Lu Chen stopped and looked at him coldly.
"explain."
Li Quan cupped his hands towards him, then came up to him and said in a rather hoarse voice: "Master Lu, the water under the roof is passed down from generation to generation. The new official does not count the old official's account! Your Excellency, you will also have to hand over your post in the future."
"Master Lu listened to the advice of my subordinate, let's forget about this matter. If the court pursues the case, I can help Master Xue take it. It can also be regarded as the end of our friendship with Master Xue."
(End of chapter)
