Daming Town Haiwang

Chapter 431, very involved

The entire capital city became turbulent because of this incident, and at the same time, as the incident spread to the entire Ming Dynasty, there were extremely angry people in Daming on one side, and frightened officials from all over the place on the other.

The involvement in this case is too great, involving all aspects of the Ming army.

Not only the civil official group, but also many generals, nobles, etc. in the Ming army were also implicated, and they were also involved in eating empty pay and drinking blood.

And many people are even worried that once this case continues to develop, various guards will be involved here at that time. You must know that many hundreds of households, thousands of households, etc. in the guards have made their fortunes by enslaving military households.

It can be said that the people involved in this case were trembling secretly, while they kept cleaning their tails and buttocks, while waiting anxiously all day long.

Jinyiwei and Dongchang worked very efficiently. In just a few days, a large number of officials were arrested.

Almost all the officials from the household department who were in charge of making armor and allocating military supplies fell, especially the officials who were in charge of making weapons and armor.

Emperor Hongzhi took out [-] million taels of silver from the internal funds, and it was in the hands of the Ministry of Households, and the Ministry of Households withheld almost [-] taels of silver.

This matter was decided by Zhou Jing, the Minister of the Ministry of Households, because in Zhou Jing's view, the big battle would not cost [-] million taels of silver at all, especially since His Royal Highness organized a fundraiser, and raised a few dollars. In the case of tens of millions of taels of silver, it would not take much money.

So Zhou Jing also withheld [-] taels of silver privately, planning to use it to fill the treasury so that it could be used elsewhere.

He is holding back, not taking it into his own pocket, the treasury is empty, he is hard to be a housekeeper, and he can't bear to have a large sum of money, he also wants to hold back a little for emergencies.

Of the remaining one million taels of silver, [-] taels of silver were allocated to the various armies below as mobilization silver, and the other [-] taels of silver were used to make weapons and armor and so on.

As a result, the [-] taels of silver used to make weapons and armor, after layers of embezzlement and corruption, turned out to be only [-] taels of silver in the hands of craftsmen, but these craftsmen had to follow the requirements of the Ministry of Households. After forging the specified number of weapons and armor, one can imagine the final result.

So after checking this line, dozens of officials were eventually arrested, including ministers like Zuo Shilang from the household department.

As soon as these people were arrested, after an interrogation by the factory guards, a bigger hole was revealed immediately. It turned out that not only this time, but the money allocated by the imperial court to build weapons and armor in the past was so embezzled and deducted layer by layer. layers of corruption.

This time, enough money was allocated, so armor and weapons can still be seen. In the past, when there was no war and Emperor Hongzhi didn't pay attention to this aspect, even the weapons and armor could not be seen.

Nine out of ten funds allocated every year end up in the mouths of these people.

The hole got bigger and bigger. The officials who had done things in the household department in the past and were in charge of related things were also quickly arrested. After some interrogation, they all admitted this time.

With this arrest, dozens of officials were brought in.

The factory guards found boxes of silver from the homes of these officials. A small seventh-rank official of the household department embezzled tens of thousands of taels of silver, and some of the silver even had the mark of Emperor Hongzhi's internal funds on it.

There is also Kaibayin, the Kaibayin of [-] taels of silver, the three-way army distributed it, and in the end only a very small amount of silver was distributed to the soldiers below as Kaibayin.

Most of the starting money was embezzled layer by layer, embezzled layer by layer, and embezzled layer by layer, starting from the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Households, passing through layer by layer, and finally did not even rain to the hands of the soldiers below.

If it weren't for the reward of one hundred taels of silver for killing the Tartars, and two hundred taels of silver for death in battle, no one would have bravely killed the enemy this time.

After checking here, dozens of officials have entered the Ministry of War, and they are all big fish.

The commander-in-chief of the East Road Army, Liu Yu, who had just been named Uncle Jingbian not long ago, was the first to go in. He has too many things to do.

Not only embezzlement and embezzlement of Kaiba silver, but also privately set up horse markets, privately set up slave markets, privately selling ironware, salt, tea, grain, etc. to grassland people, colluding with government and businessmen, reselling military food, and so on.

If any one comes out, the head can be moved, and now all of them have been found out at once.

Li Gao, the commander-in-chief of the South Road Army, and Ren Liang, the eunuch of the supervising army, Li Gao had just been named Bo Lan Tianbo, and now he was also arrested. The two of them not only embezzled Kaiba silver, but also colluded with officials and businessmen to resell military supplies. The serious thing is that in this war, they actually killed the good and pretended to be meritorious.

Deliberately arrange domestic slaves to act as military households, kill good men and pretend to be meritorious, and receive rewards.

As soon as the news came out, the government and the public were also shocked that there was such a bold person who dared to kill good people and cheat for rewards.

The three-way army, and only Wang Yue of the West-way army, that is, Dingbianhou, is still upright, and the problem is relatively small, so Emperor Hongzhi reads that he has made great achievements in defending the land for many years, and this time he has made great achievements again, so there is no move him.

The commander-in-chief of the three-way army directly entered two, and besides the two of them, other senior generals and so on also entered a large number, and hundreds of thousands of taels of silver were copied from the homes of Liu Yu and Li Gao. A huge amount of stolen money.

Because it's not just about raising money, the matter of eating empty salary, drinking soldiers' blood, and withholding military salary has a long history. If you check it casually, some ministers in the past have also been found out and implicated.

All of a sudden, more people went in. From the central government to the local area, thousands of officials and generals were investigated in an instant, and were imprisoned by the factory guards, so that the prisons of the factory guards were not enough.

In addition to checking the officials of the court, the government and the public, the factory guards also did not let go of the merchants who resell military supplies. Soon, the merchants who resold military rations and military supplies were also found out.

Shanxi merchants and Huizhou merchants here in Shanxi, dozens of people were arrested at once.

The Shanxi merchants in Shanxi not only resold military supplies, but even colluded with the frontier army to go to the grassland to do business, and sold ironware, tea, grain, etc. that were strictly prohibited by the imperial court to the grassland to make huge profits.

Too many people were found out. In just a few days, thousands of officials have been arrested, ranging from the ministers of the six ministers, local officials, down to some small officials, and more and more people are involved. .

(End of this chapter)