At this time.
Among the Ministry of Penalty.
Xu Qingnian’s figure appeared.
The officials who had been tortured by Xu Qingnian had all been sent for medical treatment, but most of the officials of the Ministry of Punishment were still handling official business.
Looking at Xu Qingnian, the eyes of all the people showed awe.
Xu Qingnian knew that what he had done today had shocked the six ministries and that no one would dare to hinder him in his future cases.
But Xu Qingnian understood one thing even better.
They are afraid of themselves because they are afraid of their power and are afraid of being beaten by themselves.
They are not really afraid of their own power or their own methods, so this kind of awe has no effect.
The time comes when they can find themselves in trouble, they will still find them, and as long as both sides are justified, the other side will still not be afraid of themselves.
After all, it’s okay to do something like this once or twice, and you have to be reasonable, more is definitely not okay.
For one thing, people are not stupid, having fallen for it once, how can they fall for it a second time?
If they have suffered once and eaten a second time, then these officials of the Great Wei can all be martyred.
So one must do the job at hand as soon as possible.
Whether it is difficult or not, it must be done well to come, and once it is done, the rest will just be left to the emperor.
Back inside the main office.
Before he could even sit down himself, a roll official immediately walked in.
“Xu …… Xu! Lord Xu, this is the dossier related to the Pingqiu Province disaster relief case, take a look.”
The file clerk was trembling a little and looked slightly scared, not daring to look directly at Xu Qingnian.
“Put it here, thanks for your hard work.”
Xu Qingnian smiled gently and let it rest in front of the table.
“Oh, good, Lord Xu, take your time to read it, if there is something wrong, you greet me, my subordinate will wait outside the door.”
The scrolling official nodded, and after slowly putting the things down, he quickly retreated.
It could not be helped, what Xu Qingnian had done before was still fresh in his mind, so who dared to be rude?
Watching the latter leave, Xu Qingnian didn’t think much more about it.
He picked up the dossier that had been sent to him, and then began to seriously
[The Pingqiu Province Disaster Relief Case]
The case was about the drought that struck Pingqiu Prefecture, and the court allocated 30 million taels of silver, but the ruler of the Prefecture, Zhang Nantian, embezzled 20 million taels of silver, leaving 10 million taels of silver to be distributed to the refugees, leaving very little in the hands of the refugees.
Later on, the court sent people to inspect the area and found that there were still countless deaths and injuries in Pingqiu, and there were even cases of people changing their sons into food, which was reported to the court and caused a shock to the court and the public.
The suspect, Zhang Nantian, killed his entire family before the court could punish him, and hung himself from a beam.
But it is not known where the dirty silver is.
So the main nature of this dossier is to find the stolen money.
Once the account money is found, the case can be sealed.
Twenty million taels of silver.
Xu Qingnian felt a little emotional, if he solved this case, he would not be promoted to the rank of officer, right?
The annual tax revenue of Great Wei should be around 20,000,000 taels of silver.
It sounds like a lot, but how much is the actual population of Wei? According to limited statistics, it is at least 300,000.
This is not even counting the black households.
With such a huge population base, the tax revenue was only 10,000,000 taels of silver.
In Xu Qingnian’s previous life, there was a dynasty called the Daming Dynasty, with a population of 30 million people, not counting the declining years, which normally had 15 million to 22 million taels of silver.
The population of Great Wei was ten times that of the Daming Dynasty, but the tax revenue did not reach ten times, and the larger the population, the more qualitative and quantitative changes were generated, and at the very least, the land clearing was a little easier.
At the very least, there was the transcendental system in place, and as long as the conditions allowed, it was possible to move mountains and reclaim land.
So the revenue of the Great Wei treasury is complete rubbish, and then there is another point, and that is the issue of expenditure.
Last year’s expenditure was 95 million taels of silver, and the treasury had a balance of 5 million taels of silver.
It was barely enough to carry the load, but the problem was that the rate of growth was not proportional to the rate of expenditure.
We still have to make a fuss about the Northern Expedition and go to war.
How?
By taking lives?
So if he solves this case and recovers 20 million taels of dirty silver, there will be no pressure at all to promote him to the rank of officer, and it will not be too much to ask for a lieutenant in the twenty-seventh official division.
Twenty million taels of silver.
It was the equivalent of picking it up for nothing, and with this money, the court could do something about it.
However, the fact that the tax revenue of Great Wei was so low also remained to be proven, after all, one did not enter the Ministry of the Household, and one certainly did not know what the exact figures were; the only way to know what the current situation of Great Wei was was to enter the Ministry of the Household.
Xu Qingnian felt that it was somewhat demeaning, with a population of 300,000,000 and a tax revenue of only 10,000,000 taels of silver a year, and it was on a downward trend every year.
The Northern Expedition could be used as an excuse, but this figure was outrageous and somewhat odd.
It was just that at the moment Xu Qingnian didn’t think much about anything, he had to get his affairs in order first, and such matters were for later.
The new dossier information was fetched.
Xu Qingnian began to work on the case in earnest.
—
[The Pingqiu Province Disaster Relief Case File I]
Wu Yuan 45th year.
The seventh day of the third month.
I, Li Jianquan, the head constable of the Pingqiu Official Department of the Ministry of Justice, was ordered to investigate the Zhang Nantian disaster relief case thoroughly.
I found that Zhang Nantian’s entire family died from a single blow, and although there were many sword wounds on his body, they were suspected to be post-mortem wounds.
The official believes that even if Zhang Nantian was worried about the court’s condemnation and his whole family being implicated, he must not be so decisive, especially since Zhang Nantian’s three sons and one daughter also died in a single blow.
April 15th.
I am Li Jianquan, the head constable of the Ministry of Justice’s Pingqiu Official Division.
After a thorough investigation, I am certain that Zhang Nantian was secretly practising a different art, and that his mind was not right, and that he was therefore possessed, and that is why he acted ruthlessly against his children.
In my opinion, this case lies in the fact that Zhang Nantian has gone mad because of his cultivation of supernatural arts.
[Wu Yuan 45, April 15]
[Record: Li Jianquan, head constable of the official’s office in Pingqiu Prefecture]
—
This was the first dossier. Xu Qingnian didn’t think much of it and unfolded the second dossier.
[The second dossier of the Pingqiu Prefecture disaster relief case]
Wu Yuan 45th year.
The eighth day of the ninth month.
I, Zhang Wang, the head constable of the Lin Lan Prefecture, was ordered to investigate the Ping Qiu Prefecture disaster relief case.
After months of investigation, I discovered that Zhang Nantian, the ruler of Pingqiu Prefecture, was practising a foreign art.
This technique comes from the Heavenly Kingdom of the Sea, and in order to practice this technique, one needs a strong qi pulse, otherwise it is difficult to control.
It was as if it had been forcibly opened, making it difficult for him to practise the Da Luo Heavenly Art.
On the 20th of September.
I am Zhang Wang, the head constable of the Lin Lan Prefecture.
After examining the matter, I found that Zhang Nantian had swallowed an evil fruit that could open up his Qi veins instantly, thus creating the illusion that he had been forcibly opened up.
After Zhang Nantian practised this magic, his mind was confused and he had his whole family killed.
In my opinion, this case is a scourge of the supernatural arts.
—The second dossier was taken by Xu Qingnian.
The second dossier was slowly put down by Xu Qingnian.
Xu Qingnian took out the third dossier and read it.
In the blink of an eye, an hour had pa*sed.
There were a total of nineteen scrolls in front of them.
From the fifth one onwards, they were all about tracing the whereabouts of the ‘dirty silver’.
It was all kinds of deduction, without any actual evidence or clues.
It was purely one’s own speculation.
After reading through all the nineteen dossiers, Xu Qingnian could not help but frown.
He always felt that something was wrong, but it was difficult to think of it for a while.
At that moment, Xu Qingnian continued to look carefully from the first dossier.
After Zhang Nantian’s death, the first person who took over the case after the Ministry of Justice tentatively decided the case was called Li Jianquan, a constable from the Pingqiu official’s office who had decades of experience in reconnaissance.
From the beginning, he thought that there was something odd about the case, as he examined the bodies of Zhang Nantian’s entire family and found through the autopsies that all of them had been killed with a single blow, and that the wounds on their bodies had been added later.
The reason why he thought it was odd was because even if Zhang Nantian was desperate, he could not have done this to his own children, even if he was so determined to strike out mercilessly at his own children, but why did he add new wounds?
Have you got nothing better to do? This is clearly impossible.
And if one is so determined because one does not want one’s sons and daughters to suffer or be tortured a second time, why not choose to run away?
A person with such a mind would never have committed suicide by embezzling dirty silver, would he? The first thing he should have done was to think of running away, and if he really couldn’t get away, he would have killed his whole family, which would not have been a problem.
One hit and a new wound.
This is a doubtful point, Xu Qingnian believed the contents of the dossier.
It was only Li Jianquan’s later addition that explained it all.
He had practised a different art and his mind was not right, so that after killing his whole family, he went completely insane and only then added new wounds.
This reason can be justified. The foreign arts, well, evil things, if a person goes mad, then all the irrationality is quite normal.
And the second scroll.
It is a continuation of the first scroll to continue the investigation.
Starting with the supernatural arts, he investigated that the supernatural arts were called ‘Da Luo Heavenly Arts’, which came from the Heavenly Kingdom of the Sea, that is, the place by the north.
It was not a big problem that the supernatural arts had been pa*sed on, after all, it was not particularly difficult for a ruler of a province to really get a copy of the supernatural arts.
The only thing is that the prerequisite for the cultivation of this supernatural art is that the qi veins are several times stronger than normal people, but Zhang Nan’s weather veins are so ordinary that it is like forcing them through.
But later on, there is a supplement and an explanation that he ate some kind of foreign fruit, forcibly opened his qi veins, and then cultivated the foreign art.
The logic of the book stands up.
And the third scroll.
The search for the source of the foreign fruit reveals that this kind of foreign fruit, although it can forcibly open up the qi veins, has a very high lethality rate, and normally even if someone wants to cultivate the Da Luo Heavenly Art, they would not dare to take the risk.
In itself, it was already a very dangerous thing to cultivate the supernatural arts, and eating this fruit again would have almost zero chance of survival, so why would Zhang Nantian want to eat this supernatural fruit?
Moreover, why did Zhang Nantian want to cultivate the supernatural arts? He’s a good government ruler, what’s he doing practicing this stuff?
This was a good idea to solve the case, except that there was soon a new explanation.
The reason why Zhang Nantian took such a risk was that he had embezzled 20 million taels of silver and was being blackmailed, but he was unable to eradicate the scourge, so he took the risk of swallowing the foreign fruit as well as practising the foreign arts.
As a result, he did not expect his mind to sink and killed his whole family. Finally, with the only shred of sanity left, he hanged himself so as not to scourge the people again.
This is the information in the third volume.
And the content information of the fourth volume is.
Why did Zhang Nantian commit suicide? His whole family was dead, and even if he had regained a shred of sanity, he should have fought the court to the death, or at least to eradicate the man who had control over him, right?
He would not have killed himself in any case, and he would not have done anything to corrupt the people.
So this logic doesn’t hold water, and there must be more to this than meets the eye.
Only soon, new elements reappeared.
The case officer found out that Zhang Nantian knew that he had committed a grave sin and was unable to take action against the person he was blackmailing, and that he had an heir who had escaped and was suspected to have gone to the Kingdom of Heaven on the Sea. He did not want to harm the people and was afraid that the court would eliminate the root of the problem, so he killed himself and hoped that the court would forgive his descendants for this reason.
This is the content of the fourth volume.
The content of the fifth volume, however, continues the investigation of the fourth volume.
The investigators of the fifth volume believe that the matter could not have been so simple. It is obviously unreasonable to swallow the dirty silver and not take the whole family away, but only let one of his sons escape.
The investigation revealed that this was not Zhang Nantian’s son, but the butler’s only son, and that he had died in the wilderness, starved to death and eventually split up by jackals, but with his veins shattered.
But the second piece of content gives a new explanation.
The son of the housekeeper appeared and told him to run away and tell him where the dirty silver was, but what he didn’t expect was that Zhang Nantian’s demon would appear and give him a slap.
So the boy died in the wilderness and the whereabouts of the dirty silver was never found.
These are the five volumes of the investigation, and the fourteen volumes that follow are all speculations on the location of the dirty silver.
They even implicated the White Clothes Clan, suggesting that Zhang Nantian was a member of the White Clothes Clan who had embezzled 20 million taels of silver and provided it to the White Clan.
In this way, it also confirms why Zhang Nantian was able to possess the supernatural arts.
But when all is said and done, there are currently three possibilities for the dirty silver.
First, it was taken by the White Clothes Sect.
Secondly, it was hidden by Zhang Nantian, who wanted to go through the steward’s son to inform him, but unexpectedly his mind went into turmoil and he injured the steward’s son, causing the other party to die in the wilderness, and the White-Clothed Sect did not know where it was.
Thirdly, Zhang Nantian had already transferred the silver to the Sea Kingdom in advance, but unfortunately he ran too late and so killed himself at home.
The Ministry of Justice generally agrees with the first possibility, and some people agree with the second possibility, but the third is unlikely.
It is unlikely that he would remain in Pingqiu, and what would he do there? What would he do? Continue to cheat? The civil and military officials are not fools, and the Household Ministry is the most astute.
So the third possibility was not very likely.
Xu Qingnian’s thoughts were somewhat confused.
He took a deep breath and closed his eyes.
A few moments later, Xu Qingnian took out a piece of white paper and recorded on it.
A good memory was better than a bad pen.
If you write anything out, your thoughts will be a little clearer.
[A. Li Jianquan, the first case manager, noticed that Zhang Nantian’s whole family died from a single blow, but there were many new injuries on his body and raised the point: for a parent, it is impossible to be so determined, if so determined, the first time should be to flee, even if he is so determined, why add new injuries?
[Giving an explanatory answer: cultivated a foreign art]
The second case was handled by Zhang Wang. Zhang Nantian was practicing a foreign art called Da Luo Tian Technique, and his qi veins were not strong enough to practice it.
[Giving an explanatory answer: devouring some kind of spiritual fruit]
[Third, Chen Kang was the third case officer. The spirit fruit that Zhang Nantian swallowed had a high lethality rate, and it was also very dangerous to cultivate the Da Luo Heavenly Art, so why did he take such a big risk? This is very unreasonable]
[Giving an explanatory answer: Someone knew his handle and he wanted to eradicate the scourge, so he risked a fight]
The fourth case was handled by Li Jun. If Zhang Nantian really wanted to eradicate the scourge, he would have been less likely to commit suicide and should have waited for the other side to come to his door and kill him, and since he had become possessed and his whole family was dead, wouldn’t it be logical to make a last stand against the court? This is the normal reaction of ordinary people, it is difficult to come to your senses when you are dying? It doesn’t make sense.]
He had an heir and was unable to eradicate the scourge, so he hoped that by killing himself, the court would spare his only heir and even tell him where the heir was by giving him the dirty silver to atone for his crime.
[Five, Zhou Bo is the fifth investigator. Zhang Nantian’s son has died in the wilderness and his tendons are broken. It could have been a homicide.]
He wanted to spare the other man, but his mind sank and he struck out, but at the critical moment, he regained his senses and withdrew his hand, shattering only the other man’s veins, and he died anyway].
The final result of the five dossiers for Xu Qingnian was.
Zhang Nantian embezzled 20 million taels of silver and was discovered and blackmailed with it. In order to eradicate the scourge, he took the risk of practising a foreign art and swallowed a spiritual fruit, which resulted in his mind sinking and killing his entire family.
Case closed.
To be more precise, Zhang Nantian knew that he had committed a grave sin and repented before he died. When he regained his senses, he told the son of the housekeeper the whereabouts of the dirty silver, so that he could inform the court, but he was not expecting the other party to die.
So the whereabouts of the dirty silver is unknown.
Everything seems to make sense.
But the more Xu Qingnian looked at it, the more he felt that something was wrong.
The more she read, the more she felt that something was wrong.
The details in many places were completely flawed.
Xu Qingnian wrote out the corresponding questions on the rice paper.
First, was the embezzlement of 20 million taels of silver really for the sake of wealth and prosperity? What does a ruler of a government need silver for? Why do you need 20 million taels of silver? Two million taels would have been enough.
Possibility: The White Clan!
Secondly, if someone knew what he had and threatened Zhang Nantian, why didn’t Zhang Nantian run away at the first opportunity? He had to go and practise a different art? To eradicate the other side? If that was the case, then it would disprove the possibility that Zhang Nantian was a member of the White-Clothed Sect.
All of them are from the White Cloth Sect, wouldn’t it be enough to just let the White Cloth Sect deal with such people?
Possibility: The other party is very strong and is from the court, and his status is no less than his.
Thirdly, why did Zhang Nantian not run? The other party, even if his identity is not weaker than his own and his strength is stronger than his own, then share the spoils together, the big deal is that he has less, as long as his life is preserved, everything is fine, the big deal is that one person is half, thirty-seven is not unacceptable, it is just a little bit harder, but at least you are dragged down and can hold each other back in the future.
Possibility: the other party wants all, or 90%, otherwise Zhang Nantian has no need to fish to death and take such a big risk to cultivate the foreign arts.
But even a person with a big appetite wouldn’t be so big, right? To ask for 90% directly? The silver was greedily taken down by others, and if you openly ask for 90%, who will agree?
If you really want to cooperate, it is understandable to ask for 50/50, 40/60, or 30/70. 30/70 is the limit, because you have the leverage, but the consequence of 30/70 is that people will come after you later.
The most appropriate method is to share the money 50-50, one half for each of us, 10 million taels for you and 10 million taels for me, so that if something happens, we can run away together and take care of each other.
But according to Zhang Nantian’s script, there should be no negotiation, the price the other side demanded was too high.
Of course, there is also a possibility that Zhang Nantian pretended to agree to the deal and actually went to cultivate foreign arts secretly.
But it was still the same question.
Why would he take such a big risk? You said that cultivating the supernatural arts was already deadly, let alone adding a spirit fruit to it.
It’s almost certain death.
There is a famous investment idea that can be applied to it.
You are given a button, press it and you might get a hundred million, but there is a one in ten thousand chance that you will simply die.
Most people will choose to press it, after all, in their eyes, one in ten thousand is considered a very small probability and it is almost impossible to die, but to win would be to win a hundred million.
Ninety-nine percent of the rich, however, they would not press this button because they would not dare to deal with even a one in ten thousand risk of fatalities.
It could be argued that a hundred million is not very attractive to them.
Twenty million taels of dirty silver, for Zhang Nantian, even if it was 30%, would still be more than he could spend in this lifetime. As long as one is sensible, 30% would be willing to bite the bullet and agree to it, and if it was 50%, it would simply be a windfall.
Retaliation is a matter for later, but at least you won’t be in such a hurry to cultivate a different art, right?
If the other party demanded 90%, or even all of it, then why was this person so greedy? Isn’t this forcing others to tear their faces off?
So there is something else going on here.
No, it was not a hidden agenda, but a paper full of doubts.
Xu Qingnian carefully looked at the dossier, over and over again, to find the details he had overlooked.
Once, three times, five times, ten times, twenty times.
One hour, two hours.
Xu Qingnian had looked at it for two hours when he finally found a detail that he had overlooked.
“All five case handlers, when they first started investigating the case, made the appropriate points and instantly found a break in the case, but each of the case handlers was able to explain to themselves what they were hiding.”
In an instant, Xu Qingnian’s gaze was fixed dead on these five dossiers.
The case handlers of the first five dossiers all spoke in a logical and clear manner, but immediately began to explain themselves.
The first one was like this, Xu Qingnian did not feel anything.
The second one was like this, Xu Qingnian didn’t feel anything.
But the third, fourth, and fifth copies were all exactly the same script, and they were all ten days apart.
“Someone is threatening them!”
Suddenly, Xu Qingnian thought of the possibility that these five case workers had indeed found out something in the course of the case, but when they continued with the investigation, they had encountered obstacles and changed their tune.
“Someone!”
Xu Qingnian spoke.
Immediately, the roll official outside the door walked in.
“Lord Xu, what is it?”
The roll official said with some trepidation.
“Summon these five people to the Ministry of Punishment.”
Xu Qingnian took out the dossier and handed it to the other party.
The latter immediately took the dossier and, without giving it much thought, went straight to the case file library to get their information first, before summoning them to the Ministry of Punishment.
A quarter of an hour later, the roll official came back.
Holding five copies of the roll officials, an embarra*sed look appeared on their faces at the same time.
“Your Excellency, the rolls of these five people have been fetched by my subordinates.”
“It’s just that these five people are probably not going to be summoned.”
The other party said with a bitter smile.
“Can’t be summoned? Why?”
Xu Qingnian asked.
“The last four are dead, and the first one is crazy.”
The roll official laughed bitterly.
“Dead? Crazy?”
Xu Qingnian smacked his lips a little, he hadn’t really expected this result.
It wasn’t that Xu Qingnian didn’t expect this result, but rather that Xu Qingnian didn’t believe it would be this result.
This was not clearly telling others that there was a ghost in this matter, that all five people who handled the case were dead, almost pointing to the Ministry of Justice’s nose and saying, “You better not investigate this matter.
The first thing you need to do is to get the information from the Ministry of Justice.
Xu Qingnian unfolded the five people’s files, and he instantly became 12 times more enthusiastic about this case.
Li Jianquan, Zhang Wang, Chen Kang, Li Jun and Zhou Bo.
The five people’s files were unfolded and Xu Qingnian looked at them carefully.
[Li Jianquan]
In the forty-seventh year of the Wu Yuan era, on the third day of the third month, he was a*sa*sinated by the enemy for being too aggressive in handling the case, and was struck by a palm strike to the sky, fainting for several months.
Zhang Wang]
He died in a drunken fight with a hundred bottles of wine at the Red Fragrance House on the seventh day of the tenth month in the forty-ninth year of the Wu Yuan era.
Chen Kang
On the second day of the first month in the fifty-first year of the Wu Yuan period, he contracted lung disease and died at home with no cure.
Li Jun]
In order to repay his gambling debts, he kidnapped a rich local merchant and was caught red-handed.
Zhou Bo]
He was caught in flagrante delicto and killed another man.
—
Five dossiers appear before us, and the cause of death is straightforward.
One was wounded in the head and became insane, the remaining four died of drunkenness, contracted lung disease, kidnapped a wealthy merchant, and committed adultery and murder.
There is nothing fishy about the way they died, they were almost ruined even if they didn’t die.
It is not unlikely that he contracted lung disease.
As for the latter two, they were executed by the Ministry of Justice in an open and fair manner.
But Xu Qingnian was not stupid.
“Fetch the dossiers of these people.”
Xu Qingnian opened his mouth, he wanted to see the remaining fourteen people’s dossiers.
The latter did not dare to delay and immediately went to the case file library.
Another quarter of an hour later, the other party fetched them and laid out the dossiers in front of Xu Qingnian.
Xu Qingnian looked at them one by one.
As expected, none of the fourteen people were really alive and well.
The last one died, attacking Emperor Wu’s fault in the Northern Expedition, and was then beheaded for public display.
This was a normal death, as many people died in Emperor Wu’s later years, and many people were involved.
The reign of Emperor Wu was 53 years long.
This means that Zhou Bo was beheaded five months before the empress ascended the throne.
Something is wrong.
Something is wrong.
There were big problems.
“Twenty million taels of silver.”
“Prefect Zhang Nantian.”
“The five men who handled the case will be both mad and dead.”
“This is a warning and an attitude.”
“Some people want this case file to be stored and sealed forever, and don’t want anyone to continue the investigation.”
The clues have all been cut off and it’s been ten years since the incident, so it’s hard to go back and review the case now, and if another ten or twenty years pa*s, it will be even more impossible to get to the bottom of this case.
“You want to find out about the dirty silver.”
“It’s necessary to uncover the person behind it.”
“Otherwise it will never be possible to find out where the dirty silver is.”
Xu Qingnian understood this.
He sat in the master’s room and pondered.
But after a while, Xu Qingnian’s eyes fiercely revealed a flash of brilliant light.
“It’s not right!”
“It’s not right!”
“This dossier, His Majesty has read it, the Ministry of Punishment has read it up and down, and there are even people among the six ministries who have read it.”
“If I can think of this, there is no way this group of people can’t think of it.”
“Especially the people in the Ministry of Penalty, even they have been able to guess a few suspects.”
“But why didn’t they continue to investigate?”
“They don’t dare to continue investigating, the person involved in this case must be very, very big, so big that the six ministries don’t dare to move.”
“It’s even said that the late Emperor Wu, who was in his later years, didn’t dare to continue the investigation, or that he couldn’t in order to secure the general situation!”
“The Six Ministries don’t dare to investigate! The Wudi is unwilling to investigate!”
“Why should this matter be handed over to me now?”
Xu Qingnian frowned as a single thought flashed through his mind.
“The Ministry of Punishment gave this matter to me in order to make me sit on the bench, in order to deliberately disgust me.”
“And because I made a fuss about the Ministry of Punishment, so much so that His Majesty asked me to check this matter out, thus giving me credit for it.”
Xu Qingnian began to run through his thoughts.
This dossier was no longer a hot potato, it involved something big, big, and definitely beyond one’s imagination.
One shouldn’t take it, and one couldn’t go for it.
How could one possibly move someone that the Sixth Ministry didn’t even dare to move?
Are you really not afraid of death?
It’s true that there is reason to go everywhere, but the question is, before you find reason, wouldn’t it be okay to take you out?
“Wait!”
Xu Qingnian completely thought about it at this moment.
“I came to the Ministry of Penalty, it was arranged by His Majesty.”
“Theoretically it should be to go to the Ministry of Rites, or the Ministry of Works, the Qing Shui Yamen, to mix with seniority or to simmer.”
“It is impossible for me to come to the Ministry of Punishment. If I really wanted to make use of my talents, I should have been allowed to go to the Ministry of the Household, to develop the economy of Great Wei.”
“Everyone in the world misunderstands my articles to be articles of intention, but Her Majesty knows best.”
“She first arranged for me to go to the Ministry of Officials, which naturally the ministers of the court would not agree to, so His Majesty retreated and arranged for me to join the Ministry of Punishment, but His Majesty understood one thing even better, the Minister of Punishment would definitely give me small shoes.”
“So Her Majesty already expected that the Minister of Justice would hand over this dossier to me.”
“Even she also expected that I would make a fuss about the Ministry of Punishment, so that’s why I fought against all the officials in the Ministry of Punishment, but only when I fought against the Minister of Punishment did she announce my entry into the palace.”
“Make a fuss about the Ministry of Punishment, let me take a breath and balance my anger.”
“The key moment to stop it, to save the face of the Minister of Punishment, not to make a scene, belong to the point.”
“The Minister of Punishment is full of anger and is bound to come after me, while His Majesty has asked me to investigate the case to calm public anger.”
“It looks like she’s taking sides, but in reality Her Majesty wants me to take over the case.”
“She wants to uncover the person behind the curtain.”
Xu Qingnian had thought it through thoroughly.
From the moment she went to court, or even rather from the moment Her Majesty had declared herself into the capital, she had already thought of this step.
Bravo!
It was really good when it happened.
The sincerity of the ancients does not deceive me.
Accompanying a king is like accompanying a tiger.
A simple arrangement of positions, taking into account the six ministries, taking into account all of them, every single person doing every single thing, the empress had already thought of it, and all of them were following her ideas, step by step.
What kind of demon is this?
Thinking about this moment, Xu Qingnian was silent.
Completely and utterly silent.
After a long time, Xu Qingnian exhaled a long breath.
This case was about to come to light once and for all.
And he would not be in any danger, to be precise, he was not afraid of any danger.
Because this case is the one that the empress wants to investigate, then she can’t let anyone get in the way.
Any obstruction, in front of this emperor, was no big deal.
“As well as investigating the case, Her Majesty is also testing me, ah.”
At the same time, Xu Qingnian also understood another thing.
If he himself really took over this case, he would definitely encounter something, bullying, power, money and beauty, if he was also like these five people, being bribed or being intimidated into staying, then his own fate, I guess, would not be any better.
Half a step earlier.
Xu Qingnian was somewhat glad that he had gained insight into everything half a step early.
If he had waited for himself to think of it during his silly investigation, he might have been in trouble.
The empress was testing herself, firstly, on her ability to do the job, and secondly, on whether she could serve her.
If you are good at what you do, but not at her service, you are in danger.
If they are not good enough to work for her, they will probably be in the Qing Dynasty for the rest of their lives.
“The court.”
“It’s really fascinating and heart-wrenching.”
Xu Qingnian murmured in her heart, but her gaze was filled with determination.
Although half a step late in guessing the empress’ thoughts.
After all, she had just joined the imperial court, so it was already very good to think half a step ahead.
To put it bluntly, I’m afraid the six ministers might have only just reacted, right?
Thinking of this, Xu Qingnian got up and left, walking towards the outside of the Ministry of Penalty.
It was time to go for a walk after work.
And at the same time.
In the Great Wei Palace of Literature.
The Left Prime Minister, Chen Zhengru, was sitting on the left, and in descending order was the Minister of Rites, Wang Xinzhi.
Gu Yan, the Minister of Household, sits on the right, and Zhang Jing, the Minister of Penalty, goes down in order.
Inside the Palace of Literature, it was incomparably quiet.
Chen Zhengru had called them here, but was slow to speak, making the crowd a little curious.
But the three of them were all Shang Shu, so they still had a sense of style.
It was at this moment that Chen Zhengru’s voice rang out.
Chen Zhengru’s voice rang out.
“Gentlemen, something is going to happen to Great Wei.”
Chen Zhengru spoke out and said in a calm tone.
In an instant, the three people’s faces changed slightly.
“Is it Xu Qingnian?”
Zhang Jing asked, frowning.
“Not also.”
Chen Zhengru shook his head and gave a reply.
“Then what is it?”
Gu Yan frowned and said.
“The Pingqiu Province disaster relief case.”
Chen Zhengru slowly opened his mouth and said six words.
In an instant, the crowd’s faces changed again.
“Xu Qingnian can’t find out.” But the Minister of Penalty, Zhang Jing, shook his head, his first reaction was this.
However Gu Yan’s voice rang out.
“Fooled.”
A stunned look appeared in his eyes, and almost as soon as Chen Zhengru said those words, he instantly figured out everything.
“Fooled?”
“Fooled into what?”
Zhang Jing frowned even more, he was so dizzy with anger today that his mind was really not too flexible.
“His Majesty made Xu Qingnian serve in the Ministry of Officials, retreating to the Ministry of Penalties and eventually arranging it.”
“We thought that His Majesty only valued Xu Qingnian, but we didn’t expect His Majesty’s calculations to be so great.”
Gu Yan opened his mouth, and with a single sentence he uttered, suddenly between them Zhang Jing and Wang Xinzhi came to a sudden realization.
The two sat aside, shocked into silence.
They had been somewhat confused before, but Gu Yan, the Minister of Household Affairs, had even said the words to this extent.
There was no way they could not have thought of it.
“Your Majesty, you are really as wise as a demon.”
Wang Xinzhi lamented bitterly, using such a small matter to trick the six ministries not to mention, but even reaching out to plot this matter.
“Three birds with one stone!”
However Chen Zhengru continued to speak, his voice somewhat emotional.
“Examine the talent of Xu Qingnian, uncover the black hand behind the curtain, and suppress the power of the Ministry of Penalty, your Majesty’s move, using a small to control a large, three birds with one stone, is really an extreme strategy, Gu I am ashamed of myself.”
Gu Yan instantly understood the meaning of Chen Zhengru’s four words.
Using such a small matter to achieve three purposes, and moving in and out freely, it could be said that he had used power and strategy to the extreme.
If Xu Qingnian investigates the case, if he really uncovers the black hand behind the curtain, if it leads to great trouble, he can make Xu Qingnian stop the investigation and exchange benefits with the other party.
The government is also examining Xu Qingnian’s talents. If Xu Qingnian takes bribes and harbours criminals, he can be outright dismissed, but if Xu Qingnian is upright and works for His Majesty, he can be reappointed.
This is the only thing that makes it a win for the empress.
“The person behind this case is so involved that the previous emperor had some regard for it. Your Majesty will investigate this case thoroughly, will it lead to some …… The case has been investigated by the former emperor.
Wang Xinzhi, the Minister of Rites, spoke up, his tone full of worry.
“Not necessarily, the person behind this, we are only guessing who it is, do not see it must be him, as long as it is not which one, any other person, will not lead to anything big.”
Zhang Jing immediately spoke.
This dossier, they did not know how many times they had read it, many things they knew better than Xu Qingnian.
It was even clear as to which three suspects it was.
“Whether or not, preparations must be made in case anything changes.”
Chen Zhengru spoke, he didn’t care who it was, there was always nothing wrong with guarding against the future.
“En!”
The three men nodded.
While Chen Zhengru muttered somewhat.
“I hope it’s not too soon.”
He muttered to himself, while the three Shang Shu looked somewhat silent.
They understood the meaning of Chen Zhengru’s words.
And at this moment.
In the middle of the capital.
After Xu Qingnian walked out of the Ministry of Punishment, he roamed around the capital, sort of taking a break and thinking about some things.
The events of today had to be digested and digested properly.
It was just when Xu Qingnian was casually strolling around.
An object instantly caught Xu Qingnian’s eye.
A peach flower.
To be more precise, it was a huge peach blossom, cast from stone and painted with pink lacquer.
It was the same as the peach blossom on the letter from the white-clothed door …… Exactly the same.
