Eagle-eyed and wolf-watching

Chapter 1720 Walking on Thin Ice
If that's really the case, then it seems reasonable for Ye Qiuming and Cui Qing'er to break off their engagement!

After all, although Cui Qing'er was Cui Shao's grandniece with a powerful background, Ye Qiuming was also a rising star in the Ye clan, and his background and status were no worse than Cui Qing'er's. Therefore, if Cui Qing'er really did something that disgraced the family, Ye Qiuming would naturally not want to marry Cui Qing'er again.

So it turns out that the annulment of their engagement wasn't Ye Qiuming's fault at all!

Thinking about this, Zhang Mang was slightly tempted. He actually admired Ye Qiuming quite a bit, thinking that this kid was talented and had a good manner in the entertainment industry. In addition, he also had the identity of a member of the Ye clan. Zhang Mang felt that Ye Qiuming's future was limitless!
Therefore, Zhang Mang truly believed that it would be a good match for his daughter to marry Ye Qiuming as his legal wife, and a good outcome for her!
The only drawback is that Ye Qiuming's second uncle is Ye Zaiyuan!

Thinking of this, Zhang Mang asked again:

"Is there any connection between what Ye Qiuming and Ye Zaiyuan did?"

Faced with this question, Song Jie hesitated for two seconds before answering very cautiously:
"My lord, there is currently no evidence to suggest that Ye Qiuming was involved in Ye Qiuming's affairs, but the uncle and nephew have a very good relationship!"

Hearing this, Zhang Mang seemed somewhat conflicted. If it weren't for Ye Zaiyuan, he would have chosen to marry his daughter to Ye Qiuming without hesitation.

Unfortunately, there are no "what ifs" in this world. As the Vice Minister of Justice, Zhang Mang knew very well what would happen to Ye Zaiyuan if His Majesty found out about his deeds. Ye Zaiyuan himself was also well aware of this, which is why he proactively sought a marriage alliance with Zhang Mang, trying to make him his BHS (a euphemism for a mistress/mistress)...
Zhang Mang knew that if he agreed to the marriage, he would have to cover for Ye Zaiyuan, which would also drag him down with him!
Zhang Mang was quite resistant to this in his heart. To be honest, although he was not a high-ranking official and had some things that couldn't be brought to the table, he still had a bottom line, so he didn't want to associate with someone like Ye Zaiyuan.

Thinking about this, Zhang Mang made a decision. It wasn't that his daughter was unwanted; although Ye Qiuming was a good man, she didn't necessarily have to marry him.

Having made his decision, Zhang Mang immediately changed the subject, saying:
Has Minister Liu returned?

"He's back, he should be in jail now!"

"Okay! Song Jie, you can go ahead and get busy!"

"Yes!"

After Song Jie left, Zhang Mang picked up the dossier he had brought and began to read it. After finishing reading it, Zhang Mang nodded slightly. Song Jie had been working as his clerk for some time now and had indeed made a lot of progress. This dossier was very well prepared!
After seeing that there were no problems with the case file, Zhang Mang took it towards Liu Ning's cell, intending to hand over the memorial to Liu Ning. However, just as Zhang Mang arrived at the door of Liu Ning's cell, Liu Ning's clerk, Sun Fei, came to greet him and asked:
"Lord Zhang, is there anything I can help you with?"

"Hmm! There are some things I need to report to the Minister. Is the Minister in his room?"

"The Minister is in his room, but he is currently handling an urgent official matter..."

Hearing Sun Fei say this, Zhang Mang glanced at the tightly closed door with some surprise, pondered for a moment, and then handed over the file, saying:

"In that case, hand the file over to the Minister, and I will come back to report to him later!"

"Yes, thank you for your help, Lord Zhang!"

After returning to his cell, Zhang Mang resumed his work. The case file that Song Jie had just given him was about the murder case from a few days ago. Because the Yijing Prefecture was conducting a joint investigation with the Ministry of Justice, the Yijing Prefecture reported the situation to the Ministry of Justice after they found out that the deceased was Chen Dahai and that Sun Wenheng was a prime suspect.

The Ministry of Justice's original investigation had run into difficulties, which put Zhang Mang, the Vice Minister of Justice who was originally in charge of the case investigation, under tremendous pressure.

The original organizational structure of the Ministry of Justice was that Li Jian was the Minister of Justice, Sun Hao, the former Grand Marshal of Fengwu Army, was the Left Vice Minister of Justice, and Zhang Mang, who succeeded Cui Zibo, was the Right Vice Minister!

At that time, although Gongsun Hao and Zhang Mang were both Vice Ministers of the Ministry of Justice, in terms of seniority, they were not on the same level. This difference resulted in Gongsun Hao being in charge of more important work, while Zhang Mang was in charge of some relatively less important work.

However, this situation did not last long. Gongsun Hao was implicated in some family matters, and since Gongsun Hao himself also had some issues, Ye Mingsheng was prepared to punish the Gongsun family. However, considering that Gongsun Hao was a veteran of the Fengwu Army who had made great contributions to the establishment of the Fengwu Army and even the Daqian Dynasty, and that he was over sixty years old and in poor health, especially suffering from rheumatism in his legs and needing a cane to walk in winter, and that he was also a close friend of Cui Shao... Therefore, taking all these factors into consideration, Ye Mingsheng ultimately showed leniency, only dismissing Gongsun Hao from his position as Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice and sending him back to his hometown of Liaoyang to retire. Although Ye Mingsheng let Gongsun Hao off the hook out of personal favor, he showed no mercy to the other members of the Gongsun family involved in the case, making them all pay the price they deserved.

After Gongsun Hao left, Zhang Mang was left as the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice. The newly appointed Minister of Justice, Liu Ning, was transferred from the Yijing Prefecture. Therefore, it would take Liu Ning some time to become familiar with the work of the Ministry of Justice. So at this time, he did not rely on Zhang Mang much. Some important cases and matters were entrusted to Zhang Mang. In this way, Zhang Meng, the Right Vice Minister with little say, was promoted to Left Vice Minister on Liu Ning's recommendation.

Some time ago, Tan Guangqing, the prefect of Yecheng, clashed with Zhao Wanxian, the provincial governor of Hebei and Henan, over disaster relief work. In a fit of anger, Zhao Wanxian imprisoned Tan Guangqing, the prefect of Yecheng, even though Tan Guangqing had done nothing wrong. This incident caused a great uproar in the court. Although Tan Guangqing was Zhao Wanxian's subordinate, as the prefect of Yecheng, he was still a high-ranking official and not a minor official that Zhao Wanxian could deal with at will!

Therefore, even if Tan Guangqing made a mistake, Zhao Wanxian should have petitioned the court to impeach Tan Guangqing, and then the court would make a decision on the matter.

Now, Zhao Wanxian has arbitrarily arrested and imprisoned Tan Guangqing on the grounds of disrespect and disrespecting his superior. This can be described as arbitrary and capricious, a highly taboo act that violates court rules…

Therefore, the Censorate also strongly impeached Zhao Wanxian. The Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Personnel also agreed to deal with Zhao Wanxian. They all believed that Zhao Wanxian should not be the first to be impeached. Otherwise, if the provincial governors in various places were as autocratic as Zhao Wanxian, where would the authority of the court be?

Although Zhao Wanxian was Ye Mingsheng's favorite general, Ye Mingsheng himself knew that Zhao Wanxian had indeed made a mistake and caused a very bad influence. The Censorate, the Ministry of Justice, and the Ministry of Personnel were all right and Zhao Wanxian should definitely be punished.

If anyone else had done such a thing, they would certainly have been severely punished, dismissed, and sent back to Beijing to await further investigation. But since it involved Zhao Wanxian, Ye Mingsheng felt somewhat reluctant to do it. He was very satisfied with Zhao Wanxian's work in Hebei and Henan. Ye Mingsheng felt it would be a great pity to take Zhao Wanxian down like this.

Therefore, after careful consideration, Ye Mingsheng chose to remove Zhao Wanxian from his post as the Provincial Governor of Hebei and Henan, but to allow him to remain in office temporarily to try to atone for his crimes through meritorious service.

Ye Mingsheng knew that this arrangement was somewhat unfair to Tan Guangqing, so in order to appease him, Ye Mingsheng transferred him to the Ministry of Justice to serve as the vacant Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice.

Under such circumstances, when Murong Qingwu sent a message a few days ago requesting that Zhang Mang obtain the right to investigate the case, Zhang Mang did not refuse.

After all, Liu Ning, the Minister of Justice, is skilled in economic development, while Tan Guangqing, the Right Vice Minister of Justice, was only recently transferred here and is not yet very familiar with some aspects of the Ministry of Justice.

Therefore, under such circumstances, even if Zhang Mang doesn't fight for it, the investigative power in this case will most likely still fall into his hands...
Although Zhang Mang did not refuse Murong Qingwu's request, it did not mean that he agreed to Murong Qingwu's request!
He, Zhang, is no longer the lowly official in the Ministry of Justice who had to obey Murong Qingwu's every word; he is now the powerful Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice!
Although Murong Qingwu had done him a great favor, he had also done many things for her over the years, both openly and secretly. So even if he hadn't fully repaid the debt of gratitude from back then, Zhang Mang felt that he had already repaid it to a great extent. Therefore, Zhang Mang did not want to be completely tied to the Murong family's cause.

Therefore, Zhang Mang felt that he should not rush into action in this matter, especially since the situation was still unclear. If he acted hastily at this time, he could easily drag himself into the mess!
He, Zhang, has always lived a life of extreme caution and absolutely cannot afford to make a mistake in such a matter!

Zhang Mang had already decided that he would wait and see how the investigation went before deciding on his next move.

Currently, the investigation by the Yijing Prefectural Government is focused on Sun Wenheng, the general manager of Wanfu Piaohao. All of his Dadechang Trading Company's stores in Yijing have been searched by the Yijing Prefectural Government. The constables of the Prefectural Government found some problems such as selling inferior goods as superior ones and shortchanging customers in Dadechang stores. However, the killer has not yet been found. The Yijing Prefectural Government's solution is to use torture on the managers and employees of Dadechang in Yijing, attempting to extract the facts they want through severe interrogation.

If Zhang Mang hadn't received any news about Murong Qingwu, he felt that the Yijing Prefecture government's actions were understandable. After all, given the current situation, Sun Wenheng was the prime suspect, and using some methods for interrogation was normal; anyone handling the case would likely have done the same...
But now that he has received news from Murong Qingwu, Zhang Mang feels that the managers and staff of Dadechang may really have been wronged. The person who killed Zhao Dahai should not be Sun Wenheng, but very likely Murong Qingwu!

Having been in contact with Murong Qingwu for so long, Zhang Mang knew that Murong Qingwu had several highly skilled and extremely secretive assassins under her command. If he was not mistaken, it was one of these assassins who killed Zhao Dahai!
As for why Murong Qingwu wanted to kill Zhao Dahai, it's actually quite simple if you think about it carefully. It's said that the Wanfu Bank had a deficit of one million taels of silver in that tael letter. What does one million taels of silver mean? The imperial court's annual revenue was only a little over three million taels of silver, less than four million taels of silver!
One million taels of silver is almost 30% of the imperial court's annual revenue. This figure is simply outrageous!
Therefore, Zhang Mang thought that the one million taels of silver was likely an exaggeration by Zhao Dahai in order to completely bring down Sun Wenheng. However, given the scale of Wanfu Bank, Zhang Mang felt that the actual deficit should be reduced by half!
A 50% discount on one million is five hundred thousand taels of silver, which exceeds ten percent of the imperial court's annual revenue. Zhang Mang felt that Sun Wenheng should not have such audacity or such a large appetite to swallow a deficit of five hundred thousand!
Therefore, knowing that the assassin who killed Zhao Dahai was most likely sent by Murong Qingwu, and that Sun Wenheng was recommended by Murong Qingwu, Zhang Mang felt he could reasonably deduce that the bulk of the 500,000 taels of silver was probably not embezzled by Sun Wenheng, but rather taken by Murong Yuliang. Murong Qingwu knew this, which is why she intervened to eliminate Zhao Dahai for her father…

Although he had no evidence to prove his idea, Zhang Mang felt that his idea was very likely true based on his years of experience in the gambling industry.

Zhang Mang felt that this case was far too big. If His Majesty was furious and decided to investigate it thoroughly, the entire Murong family would be implicated and suffer the consequences!
At that time, Murong Yuliang, the governor of Jianghuai, will definitely not be able to continue in his post!
If this is the case, it means that Murong Yuliang will no longer be able to become the Grand Secretary, the entire Murong family will decline, and they may even face political persecution by the Liaoyang Gang!

In recent years, Zhang Mang has attached himself to Murong Qingwu for two reasons. Firstly, he had received a great favor from Murong Qingwu in his early years. Secondly, Zhang Mang was optimistic that Murong Yuliang could enter the cabinet and become the Grand Secretary after Cui Shaoyin's retirement. Zhang Mang was hoping that Murong Yuliang could help him and make him the Minister of Justice and enter the cabinet as well.

Therefore, if Murong Yuliang were to fall, Zhang Mang would no longer be able to rely on the Murong family. If that were the case, Zhang Mang felt it was necessary to seriously consider whether he should continue his relationship with Murong Qingwu...

(End of this chapter)