Zhu Biao's pace seemed slow but fast. After turning around a palace gate, he felt the vague gaze behind him dissipated. He originally planned to chat with his mother about the arrangement of the Wu clan relatives.
Yesterday he received the news that when approaching the capital, Empress Ma arranged for people to send the young and old of the Wu family back to their hometown. They only gave them food, clothing, poetry, books and classics, and they only gave more to Wu Congzhen, the only remaining uncle with long eyebrows. A set of robes sewn by one's own hands.
Deep love means long-term thinking. Empress Ma was afraid that the Wu family would rely on favor and bully her fellow villagers, and eventually be reduced to the point of being punished. She would rather be known as unkind than lead them to go astray.
Sudden wealth may not necessarily be a good thing for ordinary people.
On the way to Wuying Hall, Zhu Biao bumped into Chen Mingjie, the Minister of Punishment, and Zhang Guanglie, the Minister of Dali Temple, who were coming towards him. Both of them looked a little solemn.
"I will pay my respects to His Highness the Crown Prince."
"Have you reported it to your father first?"
When Lao Zhu was not in the capital, there was nothing wrong with reporting everything to Zhu Biao first. However, after the emperor returned to the capital, he still went over the emperor to report to the prince. That would be a big problem.
"Going back to Your Highness, there is a lot of noise in Wuying Hall. After hearing the general information, the Holy One ordered the ministers to report to Your Highness first."
"Oh, it seems that the matter in Liyang is indeed true. Let's go to the Wenhua Hall to talk about it."
"promise."
The group of people turned to the Wenhua Hall, where the two officials stopped and stood in awe. Zhu Biao continued to step forward and sit on the throne. After sitting down, he waved and ordered Liu Jin to move a brocade stool for the two of them.
After the two thanked them, they sat down carefully. Chen Mingjie, the Minister of Punishment, handed Liu Jin the thick stack of paper he had been carrying: "This is a blood letter written by the people of Liyang. In it, the names of those who know the text are written by themselves, and those who do not know the text have their fingerprints." , now clearly identifiable are the marks of more than 2,000 people, please take a look at them, Your Highness."
Zhu Biao waved, but Liu Jin was reluctant. The blood was unknown, so how could he present it to the prince for observation? What if there was a fright and evil spirit?
It was indeed a thick stack, and the handwriting and fingerprints on it were all scattered and disorderly. The dense marks were all over every corner. Zhu Biao looked through it expressionlessly, and finally threw it on the eucalyptus.
The Minister of Dali Temple presented the interrogation record, which recorded in detail the questions and answers during the interrogation. It turned out that Liyang was not only rich in grain and minerals, but also a well-known hometown of trafficking, and the people were wealthy.
Pan Fu, the magistrate of Liyang County and the government official, saw great benefits and forced every household in Liyang County to hand over a sufficient number of crutches every month on the pretext of making offerings to the court. If the quality was not good, they would be fined and deprived of food. It is called Ke Lianjing Zang.
According to Huang Lu, the quality is almost certainly not up to standard. That is to say, the people in Liyang County not only have to hand in crutches every month, but they also have to hand in money and food, causing their originally relatively prosperous life to plummet.
Nowadays, the people of Liyang not only have to pay crutches, but also have to pay money to cross roads and bridges in the county. They even have to pay taxes when sleeping. Excessive levies and miscellaneous taxes are numerous. The people sell their sons and daughters, and the officials in Liyang make a lot of money.
After Zhu Biao read it, he exhaled and said: "In recent years, the officials sent to Liyang for evaluation and the supervisory censors at the Yushitai have all committed negligence. As for whether there is still corruption and bribery, the Dali Temple of the Ministry of Punishment must strictly enforce check!"
"promise."
Compared with the county magistrate's officer, Zhu Biao hated the supervisor even more for failing in his duty. Whose fault was it that the tiger's cock came out of the tree and the tortoise and jade were destroyed?
Those who keep the code cannot absolve themselves of the blame!
The Ministry of Personnel evaluates local officials every year, and the Yushitai often has supervisory censors patrolling the places. Even if they are negligent and careless, they should not be deceived for so long.
Of course, the mistakes of the Ministry of Personnel and the Procuratorate cannot be ignored, but the chief culprits are Liyang officials, who must be severely punished to set an example, otherwise it will not be enough to deter local officials.
"Your Highness, although there is a blood letter, it is nothing more than the scholar's words. It is unknown whether the people are stupid or misled. It is better to summon the Liyang County Magistrate to the capital for a confrontation."
"Wei Chen also thinks that the prisoner should be detained immediately and returned to Beijing. The loyal, traitor and evil will be tried again."
Zhu Biao nodded and said: "The Ministry of Punishment will arrange for people to go there immediately, and we must not let anyone escape."
"promise."
The capital city in Liyang is not far away, just over two hundred miles away. He can bring them back tomorrow by hurrying up. There is no need to send any imperial envoys, just to target a few unworthy officials.
After the Minister of Punishment and the Minister of Dali Temple retreated, they both ordered their colleague Shang Honghai to go inside and kneel down. Zhu Biao did not give him any trouble. After all, he had only taken over the Imperial Guard's Mansion for a few months.
However, he still reprimanded him a few times and asked him to conduct a thorough internal investigation and severely punish the spies in Liyang. Failure to report the information was a serious crime, and no punishment was excessive.
If killing a county magistrate requires an interrogation, after all, he is also an official at a lower level, and the Imperial Guards' Mansion is filled with the emperor's own troops, eagles, dogs, minions, and punishments of life and death can be dealt with in a single thought without any procedures.
Shang Honghai retreated sweating profusely, determined to scare the monkeys when he went back. In a place like Liyang, they dared to hide it and not report it. What about other places?
This time it was an old matter, and His Highness the Crown Prince did not hold him accountable, but he may not be so lenient next time. He enjoys his rights and accepts his responsibilities, that's all.
As expected, the pro-military captain's mansion began to rot. Zhu Biao lightly tapped the armrest with his finger. This was within his expectation. The pro-military captain's mansion was planned too hastily, and the hidden dangers were great. It would collapse during the war. It still needs to be used, but now it becomes even more useless.
Fortunately, it was prepared in advance. Quan Xu's side was very effective and could be used at any time. Once the old sword of the Imperial Guard's Mansion had finished beheading Hu Weiyong and other Huaixi nobles, it could be discarded.
Zhu Biao's idea was very good, otherwise he would not have invested so much money over the years. He was not sure what the future of Jinyiwei would be, but in his hands, it would definitely be a magic weapon that could conquer the world.
At this time, a pretty palace maid came forward with cakes in her hands. Suddenly her body tilted and she fell to the ground with a cry, as if she had practiced it thousands of times, her posture was graceful and moving.
Zhu Biao's attention was naturally attracted by it, and he tilted his head slightly to glance at her. It happened that the palace maid also raised her head, her eyes were close to her almond-shaped eyes with affection, like a river of spring water.
Liu Jin frowned but did not immediately scold her. Regardless of whether this woman did it on purpose or not, she had to look at her father's attitude first. If he was interested, it would be no fault of course. He would have to support her in the future. .
If not, then it would be embarrassing. It is easy to say that it is disrespectful in front of the palace, it is nothing more than simple corporal punishment. If you have the reputation of being a charming and charming master, it will be difficult to die.
Seeing that His Highness the Crown Prince remained motionless and showed no sign of pity or sympathy, the woman couldn't help but sweat on her palms. She hurriedly lay on the ground to plead guilty and wanted to make amends.
Zhu Biao sighed and stood up, walked past the kneeling palace maid, and finally muttered casually in front of the palace door: "Forget it."
Liu Jin bowed slightly, then turned around and scolded the palace maid: "How can you serve His Highness with thick hands and feet, and then serve him outside? I will fine you another month's salary so that you can remember."
"Yes, I know my mistake."
"snort."
After Liu Jin settled the matter, he quickly chased after His Highness. All his thoughts were unimportant. Everything must go according to His wishes first.
The maid slowly got up and wiped her tears, and was about to clean up the scattered cakes on the floor. Several other maids stepped forward and stopped her: "You don't need to clean up here anymore, get out."
"Sister, I..."
"go out!"
We are all women, and you don’t need to express your thoughts. If you become a noble person, everyone will call you a noble person, and hope that you will support you more in the future. If you fail, you have to swallow the bitter pill yourself. Don’t blame others for being ruthless.
After she left in despair, a few people knelt down and started to pack it up carefully. One of them whispered: "She is lucky. Your Highness is kind, otherwise she will be able to reap the benefits."
"Silence, you can guess His Highness's thoughts. Do you also want to be kicked out?"
The slightly older man raised his head slightly and glanced at the place where Zhu Biao had been sitting just now, with deep admiration and love in his eyes. Who in his dream had never thought about being taken into the room by His Highness the Crown Prince, but who could? Is this really such a blessing?
………………
