Throughout the ages, greed has ruined many situations: on the day when Chongzhen ran out of ammunition and food, he fully thought that all the officials in the court would know the meaning of death, and he abandoned the dignity of the emperor and did not ask the officials to pay for the army to resist the enemy, but instead He only received an almost humiliating two hundred thousand taels.
Those hard-working officials finally allowed Li Zicheng to enter the capital, but he was forced to pay a total of 70 million yuan. Countless officials' families were ruined... Saving a small amount of money and losing a big one, there is nothing better than this.
By the time of the Southern Ming Dynasty, the northern barbarians were not in peace, and only half of the country was left. However, the ministers in the court were still fighting for power and profit for three melons and two dates...Are they stupid? Not necessarily. Who among those who can be an official is not a child prodigy who crossed the single-plank bridge with thousands of troops and fought out from among millions of scholars?
But to say they are not stupid...
They are obviously elites among people, but they never see the word "profit" and always act in ways that make small gains at the expense of big gains. It can only be said that the more people make decisions, the more short-sighted the judgments made...
Li Shanchang's mistake was that he did not directly apportion the exact amount. As a result, no one wanted to make big money, and everyone wanted others to pay big money.
In the end, only one hundred thousand taels was summed up, which made Lao Zhu furious.
But if you think about it carefully, this is doomed. After all, most of these court officials were from Qingliu in eastern Zhejiang. They came together with Li Shanchang because they thought it was profitable. Li Shanchang, who had worked his way up from the bottom, wanted to win over them. Naturally, he knew that if he was assigned to the task from a high position, the East Zhejiang faction who was assigned to it would definitely feel resentful. To put it bluntly, the two parties are actually just a cooperative relationship.
Just like now, many of the officials who were scolded by Li Shanchang had turned ugly. An old minister from the Ministry of Revenue said: "Why did Prime Minister Li scold him so harshly?"
"We also have our own considerations. We thought we could save as much as we could by helping everyone. Even if His Majesty gets angry and scolds Yan Xizhe, it will be over."
"Who would have thought that His Majesty would ask King Qin and King Yan to investigate the case..."
Li Shanchang heard his strange anger, and his whole body was trembling with anger.
The old servant still didn't realize it and just thought about himself:
"The King of Qin didn't know the importance of it. After receiving the order, he took the imperial censor and sealed the Household Department directly. He made a mess in the file room of the Household Department. He brought many major events to a halt...and King Yan led him. The guards in royal robes support him, and no one dares to say anything."
"If this continues, our Ministry of Revenue will cease to exist in name only! It was you, Prime Minister Li, who came up with the solution before, but now it's like this. You have to think of a way to help us tide over the difficulties!"
His words were implicitly threatening, and Li Shan was even more angry with veins bulging on his forehead. The Ministry of Finance controlled the most lucrative area in the court, and how many people above and below were clean? If King Qin were to look through the files, he might find a flaw one day. This is a subtle threat to Li Shanchang. If something happens to the Ministry of Household Affairs, Li Shanchang will be dragged into the water, and Li Shanchang will not have an easy time.
Li Shanchang felt depressed for a while. He never expected that these officials from eastern Zhejiang would actually dare to threaten him, Li Shanchang. But to be fair, he really felt guilty. Although he was just making plans behind the scenes, if it was known that he had instigated these people to fool Lao Zhu, with Lao Zhu's temper that does not rub sand in his eyes...
Now that things have come to this point, we have no choice but to go to the dark side. Li Shanchang seemed to have aged many years in an instant, and his hand on crutches trembled slightly: "Come on, come on, I will come up with another plan for you."
"It's just that this time, you must follow it properly and don't make random decisions."
The officials were overjoyed, and the waiter said, "In that case, it's time to help Prime Minister Li."
"After this incident, we will only look forward to it, Prime Minister Li!"
…
"It's strange that these officials really can't find any clues about them."
In the Hubu Yamen, Qin King Zhu Ping and his horse were sitting in front of the hall with a golden sword. There were a lot of Hubu records in front of him.
These days, he led the censors in the Yushitai to conduct thorough checks at the Ministry of Household Records day and night. Among the many store contracts in Yingtian Mansion, few of them were actually under the names of officials from the central government. Zhu Fang angrily threw an account book on the ground, turned to Zhu Di and said: "Fourth brother, tell me, is it possible that my censor also played with those officials and deliberately fooled our two brothers? people?"
"Lao Wu held an auction before, and many of the housekeepers and servants of these officials' families appeared at the auction. How is it possible that these people's families only have these insignificant properties?"
Zhu Di had an embroidered spring knife on his waist and glanced at the group of censors who were still checking the accounts. The censors were so frightened that they all lowered their heads and did not dare to look at the King of Yan. Seeing this situation, Zhu Di said to Zhu Xi: "Probably not. Even if these people are brave enough, they would not dare to fake it under the eyes of Jin Yiwei."
"Aren't you afraid of killing the nine tribes?"
"Perhaps, these people's tails are so perfect that we can't catch their fox tails." Zhu Di touched his chin where stubble was beginning to grow. "But even if it is sold, there is no reason why it can be done so quickly."
"Hmph, in order to avoid taxes, these officials are more powerful than the others..."
"I have a good idea." Zhu Xi rolled his eyes and laughed shamelessly, making Zhu Di laugh so hard that he was as confused as a monk.
Zhu Xi motioned to Zhu Di to come over and tell him his thoughts. Zhu Di frowned deeply: "Isn't this... somewhat inappropriate..."
"Hey, what kind of decency can help dad? That's decency!" Zhu Xi said, with a rare and upright temperament. Zhu Di was speechless for a while, and Zhu Xi was furious when he saw it: "Fourth, just tell me whether you want to do it or not. If you don't do it, I will take someone to do it myself!"
"What are you going to do with your people? Let your helpless censors put sacks and sap on them?" Zhu Di rolled his eyes. "That's all, we are all brothers, let's do it together."
"If Dad blames you, the worst I can do is get scolded with you."
If he hadn't been watching, this second brother would have done something shocking. If you go there by yourself, you can just throw the person into jail for any crime you want.
Anyway, this is what Jin Yiwei was doing, and Mao Xiang often poured dirty water on innocent people when something happened to Hu Weiyong.
"Okay! Be loyal!" Zhu Xi was overjoyed, but he didn't know that Zhu Di was just afraid that he would disturb the situation and delay the important event. "This is my good brother!"
As the most inconspicuous person among the brothers, Zhu Fang naturally couldn't think of any serious solution. His so-called "good idea" was to kidnap an official's family and drag them to a dark place to scare them, lest they not tell the truth.
Because I heard Zhu Su say before that Li Shanchang was very likely to be involved, therefore, Zhu Fang and Zhu Di targeted Li Shanchang's mansion as their first target. At five o'clock in the morning, the two men led a team of plainclothes guards to squat outside the Korean government palace.
He was going to rob the housekeeper who was out shopping in the morning for the Korean government, so he wanted to interrogate him first.
"Fourth brother, wake up, someone is coming out of the corner door!" Zhu Xi poked Zhu Di beside him.
Zhu Di was leaning against the wall to catch up on his sleep. He was woken up by Zhu Xi. He took a closer look and said, "Hey, isn't that the Korean prince Li Qi? Why is he so sneaky..."
"It's so early, and he wants to leave the house? Is there something important?"
"Is this man the heir apparent to the Korean prince?" When Zhu Xi heard this, he immediately started gearing up. "Hold on, Fourth Brother! Get ready quickly, let's catch him!"
"Capture Li Qi?" Zhu Di was a little stunned. "Second brother, isn't this bad?"
"Li Qi is also the eldest son of the Korean prince after all... If he tortures himself without permission, I'm afraid it will cause a big trouble... Besides, didn't you originally just want to capture the housekeeper?"
"What do you know!" Zhu Xi acted like an elder brother and educated Zhu Di. "A mere housekeeper may not know anything important. Li Qi has a distinguished status. If there is really something going on under Li Shanchang's ass, how could he hide it from his biological son?"
"Besides, this kind of second-generation ancestor has very soft bones, and all he needs to do is scare him. Where do you need to torture or question him?"
"Hurry up, he is about to turn to the main road... Where is my sack? Hurry up and take care of daddy's worries, right now!"
(End of chapter)
