Youshi, Anrenfang, the residence of Wang Gui, the servant
As the last ray of sunshine disappeared, in the alley with few pedestrians, several sedan chairs slowly stopped at Anrenfang, the back door of Wang Gui's residence.
After the sedan stopped, several people in cloaks got off the sedan and walked to the door of the mansion together. One of them reached out and took out a jade plaque from his arms and handed it to the guard at the door.
The guard guarding the door took the jade token, glanced at it, and then returned it. Then he bowed respectfully to several people, without saying a word, turned around and knocked on the door a few times.
Then the courtyard door opened and the guard stepped aside to get out of the way. Several people got off the sedan, nodded to each other, and walked into the courtyard in silence.
The maid in the yard had been waiting there for a long time. When she saw a few people coming in, she bowed to everyone and led them to the reception room in the front yard.
As soon as a few people entered the hall, a servant closed the door outside.
Seeing this, the visitors opened the hoods of their cloaks one by one, revealing their respective faces.
If Li Shimin or other ministers of the DPRK were present, they would find that these people are all people with five surnames and seven hopes in Chang'an.
Zheng Wen of the Zheng family in Xingyang,
Cui Cheng of the Cui family in Qinghe,
Lu Hong of Fanyang Lu family,
Cui Xiu of Boling Cui family,
In addition, Wang Gui of the Wang family of Taiyuan was sitting on the main seat.
In addition to the Longyou Li family and the Zhaojun Li family, the five surnames Qiwang and several other big families have arrived.
The last time they came to Wang Gui's residence, they all discussed the matter of donating disaster relief funds to the court.
This time everyone gathered here again, mainly because in the past few days, Li Shimin had arranged for a doctor of mathematics to secretly check the accounts of the household department.
As a result, officials from the Shandong gentry faction were arrested and imprisoned by Dali Temple every day.
As more and more officials have been arrested in the past few days, although those arrested so far are only minor officials.
However, the Shandong gentry family in Chang'an felt that if this continued, important members of the family might be involved, so after discussion during the day, these people decided to discuss countermeasures together.
Wang Gui, who was sitting at the main seat in the hall, nodded when he saw that everyone was here, pointed to the empty seats in the hall and said:
"Everyone, please take a seat."
When everyone heard this, they didn't say much and each found a seat to sit down.
When Wang Gui saw everyone sitting down, he didn't hesitate and went straight to the point:
"I think you all know why I invite you to come to the house, so I won't say more here. We Shandong nobles have always been in the same spirit. We are all prosperous, and we are all hurt. Let's first talk about the situation we each have. Talk, and then we’ll talk about countermeasures.”
Seeing everyone nodding, Wang Gui continued:
"I'll tell you first. According to the information that our Taiyuan Wang family has found out, the people responsible for auditing this time were personally arranged by Li Shimin, and they also mastered a new auditing method and technique. They can quickly find out the accounts. loopholes in it."
When Cui Cheng heard this, he frowned and said:
"A new accounting method? Does Wang Shizhong know where Li Shimin got this method from? Why has he never heard of it?"
Hearing this, others also turned their attention to Wang Gui.
"I learned from a doctor of arithmetic that Li Shimin recently obtained an arithmetic book from somewhere. It is said that it contains not only new accounting methods, but also new calculation methods. It is very powerful."
"Li Shimin also arranged for them two palace maids who knew arithmetic to teach them the knowledge in the books. But I guessed (actually it was Wang Gui's spy in the palace who told him, but whether he could do this kind of thing), the books and these two palace maids, they should have appeared in the palace recently. As for where the book and the two palace maids came from, it has not been found out yet. "
Everyone fell into deep thought after hearing this.
Lu Hong has been interested in arithmetic since he was a child. When he heard that there were new arithmetic books, he asked eagerly:
"Is there any way to take a copy of that arithmetic book out of the palace?"
When Zheng Wen heard this, he glanced at Lu Hong angrily and said:
"When are you still thinking about copying books? We are here to discuss countermeasures, not to study how to copy books from the palace."
When Lu Hong heard this, he glanced at everyone sheepishly and whispered:
"Then let's discuss the countermeasures, and then let's talk about copying the books."
Cui Xiu sighed inwardly. His best friend was always like this and was extremely obsessed with arithmetic.
Even in such an important meeting, when it comes to arithmetic, the topic can go astray. He pretended to cough, and after seeing that everyone's eyes were on him, he said with a serious expression:
"Let's talk about business first. I got the news that Li Shimin has arranged for officials from Dali Temple to raid and interrogate the arrested officials overnight. Let them reveal their accomplices or instigators. We have to find a way to silence these people. Otherwise, more people may be involved in the future.”
Everyone's hearts tightened when they heard this, and their backs felt a little chilly, because many of the officials who were arrested were under the orders of their families, and most of the greedy money went into the family's treasury.
Wang Gui looked at the others and said:
"Have you received any other information?"
When Cui Cheng heard this, he hesitated and said:
"I heard that this year's accounts of the Ministry of Accounts have almost been checked, but these people got the order today and have already started to check the accounts of previous years."
Lu Hong also realized the gaffe he had just made. In order to restore his image, as soon as Cui Cheng finished speaking, he followed up and said:
"Zhang Cheng, the left minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, studied in our Lu clan in his early years. Today he passed on a piece of news to me. Changsun Wuji seems to have been instructed by Li Shimin to suppress our Shandong clan in the official assessment at the end of the year. officials."
Everyone felt even heavier after hearing this and were silent for a while.
Zheng Wen from the Zheng family in Xingyang frowned and said:
"Li Shimin, are you planning to start a war with the Aristocratic Family? If this is the case, should we..."
Zheng Wen didn't say what he said next, but everyone understood what he meant.
Wang Gui, who had been sitting in the main seat, thought for a while and said:
"Things haven't reached that point yet. The most important thing now is to discuss together how to deal with the problems at hand."
"I would like to sum up,
One, we need to silence those in prison;
Second, we must prevent Li Shimin from continuing to check previous years’ accounts;
Third, how to deal with the end-of-year assessment of the Ministry of Personnel.
Everyone, these are important matters concerning our Shandong nobles. If you have any ideas, feel free to tell us, as long as these problems can be solved. "
