Daming: I can’t kill such a greedy prince-in-law?

Chapter 488: Eliminate the newspaper and thoroughly investigate the Ministry of Revenue! (Subscribe please!!)
The Hall of Supreme Harmony was quiet again.

"Li Shanchang."

Zhu Yuanzhang's voice sounded.

"The minister is here."

"I just heard so much from you, why do I feel like you know more than I do?" Zhu Yuanzhang said with a half-smile, "It seems that I was right to let you return to the court. With you in charge of the court, I can rest assured!"

"The prince and I can have a good rest now!"

Zhu Yuanzhang's words frightened Li Shanchang.

Zhu Yuanzhang obviously had something else in his words!

According to the intelligence he had obtained, Liu Deli embezzled nearly 20 million taels, which was completely a fact, and all the evidence showed that Liu Deli was Ouyang Lun's subordinate. So no matter whether Ouyang Lun was really involved in this corruption, as long as enough dirty water was thrown on Ouyang Lun so that he could not explain, given Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang's disgust for corrupt officials, Ouyang Lun would at least be dismissed from all official positions this time, just like Li Shanchang was last time!
As long as Ouyang Lun withdraws from the court, with the strength of the Huaixi Party, it would be an easy task to deal with the other members of the Prince Consort Party. After Ouyang Lun's wings are almost eliminated, they will completely get rid of Ouyang Lun and make sure he will never have the chance to return to the court again!
This is Li Shanchang’s entire plan this time.

The previous steps were all within the plan, but Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang's words just now made Li Shanchang keenly aware that something was wrong.

what happened?

They have already built up the atmosphere to this point. At this time, Zhu Yuanzhang should be furious and completely disappointed with Ouyang Lun, and then call the Jinyiwei to throw Ouyang Lun into jail?

Why did you suddenly give him a cold sarcasm?
Isn’t the purpose of summoning all officials today to try Ouyang Lun?

Not only Li Shanchang was confused, but other officials were also confused. The development of things had exceeded their expectations.

"Ouyang Lun."

"My son-in-law is here."

"You are the Minister of Revenue, and Li Deli was once your subordinate. More importantly, the money that Li Deli embezzled was the demolition compensation issued by your Ministry of Revenue!" Zhu Yuanzhang looked at Ouyang Lun and continued, "How to deal with this matter, you have the most say!"

"Don't play dumb for me, just tell me how you plan to deal with this matter."

Um! ?

Zhu Yuanzhang's words made Li Shanchang, Lan Yu and others stunned again.

what's the situation?
His Majesty the Emperor did not blame Ouyang Lun at all. On the contrary, he directly asked for Ouyang Lun's opinion.

This... Does this mean that you don't want to deal with Ouyang Lun at all?

impossible!

Didn’t the intelligence say that after learning about the corruption, Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang was extremely angry and said, “We will investigate it thoroughly and will not tolerate anyone who commits it!”

Was it that the intelligence was wrong, or did Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang change his mind temporarily?
Huaixi Party officials, including Lan Yu, quickly looked at Li Shanchang, because the development of things had now exceeded their previous expectations. Every next step was no longer in their plan, and now they could only wait for Li Shanchang's order.

Li Shanchang's face lost some of its calmness, and he felt a little panicked.

Could it be that their suppression of Ouyang Lun was too obvious, causing Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang's dissatisfaction and thus changing his mind?

Probably!

Li Shanchang was well aware of the emperor's balancing act. The reason why he, Li Shanchang, was able to return to the court was mostly because Ouyang Lun's power was growing stronger and stronger, and the Huaixi Party led by him, Li Shanchang, was needed to balance the Prince Consort's Party.

No!

Li Shanchang had waited for so long just for such a good opportunity!
If we fail to defeat Ouyang Lun this time, it will be difficult to find such an opportunity again.

Moreover, once Ouyang Lun is on guard, it will become increasingly difficult to deal with him in the future.

Just when Li Shanchang was thinking about how to fight against Ouyang Lun, Ouyang Lun spoke.

"Your Majesty, a country has its own laws, and a family has its own rules. This case of Li Deli's corruption is just an ordinary case of corruption, except that the amount is a bit large and it has some connection with the minister's son-in-law. Deal with it as it should be dealt with!"

"But this matter makes us think. First of all, why can Li Deli, the county magistrate, embezzle so much money without being discovered? The reason is very simple. The county magistrate has too much power. The county magistrate is known as Baili Hou. This is not a rumor!"

"So we have to find a way to weaken the county magistrate's full power, such as appointing an executive deputy county magistrate or something, so that the county magistrate's full power is not so concentrated. In addition, this incident must be reported in major newspapers, so that people all over the world know that my Ming Dynasty will never tolerate corruption!"

"Another point, which is also very important, is to gather the officials of the Ming Dynasty in turn to review various corruption cases. We can also let those corrupt officials come forward to tell their stories, so that all officials know what the consequences of corruption are!"

"All the money embezzled by Li Deli must be recovered, and the demolition funds embezzled by the people must be compensated to the people in full, and the resettlement houses that should be built for them must be built in place!"

Ouyang Lun's words were recognized by many officials, but some officials sneered, obviously dissatisfied with Ouyang Lun's method.

Li Shanchang gave Lan Yu a look, and the latter instantly understood what he was talking about. He immediately said, "Your Majesty, I think there is something wrong with Ouyang Lun!"

"Oh!" Zhu Yuanzhang smiled, "Lan Yu, you are usually not interested in state affairs, but today you are so active!"

"Then tell me what you think."

"Your Majesty, I think what Ouyang Lun said is just a temporary solution, not a fundamental solution. Li Deli is guilty of corruption and bribery, so we should punish him. It seems that there is nothing wrong with this statement, but corrupt officials continue to do so despite repeated prohibitions. We need to investigate thoroughly and solve the problem from the root, otherwise the corruption problem cannot be solved at all!"

"Duke Liang, did you listen carefully? The Prince Consort has just said that the county magistrate is corrupt and accepts bribes mainly because the county magistrate has too much power, and he has also given corresponding solutions!" Guo Zi immediately stood up and refuted.

"Is that what Ouyang Lun called a solution? Appointing an executive deputy county chief and holding a confession meeting, will it work? If he is really a corrupt person, he will continue to be corrupt!" Lan Yu shouted back, and then bowed to Zhu Yuanzhang, "Your Majesty, whether there is someone behind Li Deli's back, it is definitely not something that Ouyang Lun can explain away just because he has some connections. So many people have given Ouyang Lun money over the years, and it is said that Ouyang Lun has registered every payment. Let Ouyang Lun take out the list and we will know at a glance!"

Wow, this idiot Lan Yu speaks so fluently today, it seems he has made sufficient preparations!
Ouyang Lun glanced at Lan Yu indifferently and thought to himself.

However, Ouyang Lun was not in a hurry to respond, because the enemy's methods were not limited to this. He would wait until the enemy had played all his cards.

Seeing that Ouyang Lun did not respond, Li Shanchang immediately decided to press on and said, "Your Majesty, I think there is nothing wrong with what the Duke of Liang said. In my opinion, the most serious point of this incident is not Li Deli's corruption and bribery, but the newspapers!"

"This newspaper is simply a tool to manipulate people's hearts and minds. As far as I know, if the newspaper is wrong, the people will be wrong too. With the advent of the newspaper, there are many articles praising Ouyang Lun. The words are so explicit that even I can't stand them, but the people just believe them. They think Ouyang Lun is the savior of the Ming Dynasty!"

"If this continues, the people of this world will only know Ouyang Lun and not Your Majesty!"

"It's all the court's fault, but Ouyang Lun has taken all the credit. That doesn't make sense!" "Your Majesty, this matter concerns the dignity of the court and your Majesty's authority. Please make a wise decision and don't believe Ouyang Lun's excuses and sophistry!"

When Li Shanchang spoke, his pattern and language were more advanced than Lan Yu's, and the threat was naturally greater as well.

Li Shanchang had just thought it through. Judging from the fact that Zhu Yuanzhang did not directly arrest Ouyang Lun, excluding other reasons, it can be inferred that Ouyang Lun and Li Deli's corruption may really have nothing to do with each other. So if they have been struggling to use Li Deli to implicate Ouyang Lun, this method is obviously unlikely.

Therefore, Li Shanchang quickly changed the direction of his attack, from holding Ouyang Lun responsible for Li Deli's corruption to threatening Ouyang Lun and the newspaper!
When Lan Yu heard what Li Shanchang said, he immediately reacted and said, "Your Majesty, this time it's fortunate that the newspaper reported it wrongly, and it's not really wrong. If the newspaper was really wrong and the people believed it, then they could really confuse right and wrong and control public opinion!"

Other Huaixi officials also spoke up.

"Your Majesty, Lord Li and Duke Liang are right!"

"Li Deli shirks responsibility for the corruption case, and if the newspapers continue to make excuses, the people will only think that it is the court's fault, your Majesty's fault!"

"This trend cannot grow!"

"Think twice, Your Majesty!"

Hearing these remarks, even Zhu Yuanzhang, who had always been calm, couldn't help but frown.

At this moment, there was already a ripple in Zhu Yuanzhang's heart.

Li Shanchang was right. Li Deli’s corruption case was just a prelude. The real problem lay with the newspapers.

Zhu Yuanzhang had fully understood the power of newspapers as early as when he was dealing with Confucianism, and the advertising auction that took place some time ago made Zhu Yuanzhang have a deeper understanding of the power of newspapers.

Newspapers have penetrated into the homes of ordinary people in the Ming Dynasty and have become the mouthpiece of the imperial court. The imperial court relies on newspapers to unify thoughts and control public opinion.

As the founder of the newspaper, Ouyang Lun's prestige among the people naturally increased significantly. Ouyang Lun's prestige was already high, and this time his prestige increased so much that he was far ahead of all the officials in the Ming Dynasty!
Zhu Yuanzhang knew all this.

If this had happened in the past, Zhu Yuanzhang would never have tolerated this situation. He would have chosen to get rid of Ouyang Lun when Li Shanchang led the Huaixi Party to launch the strongest attack on Ouyang Lun, but Zhu Biao told him about that incident.

This made Zhu Yuanzhang completely change his mind.

Become!

Li Shanchang was delighted to see Zhu Yuanzhang fall silent.

Based on his understanding of Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhu Yuanzhang would never tolerate any outsiders threatening the Ming Dynasty. Such people would generally be squeezed out of their usefulness and then killed. This was the case with Yang Xian, Liu Bowen, and Hu Weiyong!

If it weren't for the fact that Li Shanchang had a good understanding of the overall situation and knew when to advance and retreat, and was not the first of the founding civil officials, he would probably have been killed by Zhu Yuanzhang long ago, instead of having to go in and out of the court several times!

Ouyang Lun developed Northern Zhili and saved the four southern provinces from disaster. He single-handedly created the Five-Year Plan and many other reforms, including education reform and imperial examination reform, and also introduced new things of great use, such as newspapers.

Ouyang Lun himself is also the Minister of Revenue. Although he is not yet a member of the cabinet, his power is greater than that of a cabinet member. It can be said that except for not becoming the prime minister, Ouyang Lun is almost the same as Yang Xian and Hu Weiyong at their peak in other aspects.

It is time for Your Majesty to take action.

Ouyang Lun, ah Ouyang Lun, you are indeed extremely smart, but the person who killed you was not me, Li Shanchang, but Your Majesty. I, Li Shanchang, was just the one who handed you the knife!
"Your Majesty, newspapers were originally a temporary measure used by the court to deal with Confucianism. When Confucianism was completely eliminated, it should have been abolished. However, some people took it for their own use to satisfy their own selfish desires!"

"I think that although newspapers do have many advantages, they are also a double-edged sword. If this continues, I'm afraid it will breed more corruption. When the time comes, officials will protect each other and newspapers will whitewash the situation. Then our Ming Dynasty will be doomed!"

"I am willing to die for this remonstrance! Close down all newspapers immediately, no matter if they are major or minor!" Li Shanchang knelt on the ground, kowtowed heavily, and continued: "At the same time, thoroughly investigate the Ministry of Revenue, and do not miss any clues, and catch the corrupt officials hidden in the court!"

After saying this, Li Shanchang turned around and looked at Ouyang Lun again, the meaning of which was self-evident.

"We, the ministers, implore Your Majesty to abolish the newspapers and thoroughly investigate the Ministry of Revenue!!"

"We, the ministers, implore Your Majesty to abolish the newspapers and thoroughly investigate the Ministry of Revenue!!"

Inside the Hall of Supreme Harmony, most officials knelt down in unison and shouted along with Li Shanchang, Lan Yu and others.

Seeing such a scene, even Ouyang Lun, who was as steady as an old dog, couldn't help but show a look of surprise.

Damn Li Shanchang, I thought you were just arguing with me today and going through the motions in front of the emperor, but you really are serious!

And what kind of bullshit are you hearing?
Eliminate newspapers?

Thoroughly investigate the Ministry of Revenue?

What kind of vicious words are you talking about?

When I went to the Ministry of Revenue to collect the money, why didn’t you say you would conduct a thorough investigation of the Ministry of Revenue?
When newspapers reported your political achievements, why didn't you say to close down the newspapers?
You've had it, you've enjoyed it, and now you're showing off to me, right?

I can't stand your faces.

"Oh shit!"

"You are just a bunch of idiots! Big idiots!"

"Fuck @￥%&*"

Forehead.
As Ouyang Lun cursed in the Hall of Supreme Harmony, everyone present was stunned by his scolding.

"Ouyang Lun, you... you are so disgraceful!"

"Your Majesty, Ouyang Lun actually used foul language in front of you! This is extremely disrespectful!"

"Your Majesty, Ouyang Lun must be angry and humiliated. It seems we are right!"

"I'm talking to you, you idiot!" Ouyang Lun rolled his eyes. "You stubborn, evil-minded fellows, you come here to point fingers whether you understand or not!!"

"Come, today grandpa will teach you a lesson!"

(End of this chapter)