Thief Emperor

Chapter 1019: Patrol on Behalf of the Heaven
There are more than fifty people directly involved in this case, and the number of people actually questioned by the three judicial departments will only be more, not less.

Currently, there are nearly 200 confessions kept on file in the Ministry of Justice and the Dali Temple. These 200 confessions, added up to tens of thousands of words, took even a child prodigy like Du Qian, who could read ten lines at a glance, half a day to read them all.

So many people, so many words, but not one of them said a word that involved the Du family or the Minister of Revenue Du He.

This is very telling.

Because Du He must have been involved, and Zhuo Guangrui has already confirmed this. In this case, unless the 200 people keep their mouths shut and say nothing, Du He's name will definitely appear on the confession.

But it is not mentioned in the confession, which is very strange.

With the means of the Three Judicial Departments, it is not surprising that one tenth of the two hundred people could survive and insisted on not speaking out, but it does not make sense that none of them spoke out.

As soon as Lord Du said this, Lord Zhuo looked at him silently.

The two gentlemen looked at each other, Zhuo Guangrui lowered his head to drink tea, and said silently: "Let Minister Du take a rest."

Du Qian nodded and said, "I think so too."

He looked at Prime Minister Zhuo and sighed, "Our Majesty is becoming more and more unfathomable."

Hearing this, Prime Minister Zhuo was startled at first, then he smiled bitterly and said, "Prime Minister Du, I am timid and cannot bear to hear such words."

"It's out of the way."

Du Qian waved his hand and said, "No matter what, your Majesty will not hear what we have said in the secret room. Besides, even if it does reach your Majesty's ears, your Majesty is a man who values ​​friendship and will not take it to heart."

"We didn't say anything outrageous."

At this point, Du Qian stood up silently, bowed to Zhuo Guangrui and said, "Although I am not guilty of Brother Zhuo's matter, I have tried my best to intercede. I still have a lot of things to deal with at home, so I won't bother Brother Zhuo anymore."

Zhuo Guangrui stood up to return the greeting, and sighed, "The fact that Prime Minister Du can come to my house today is already a great help to my family. The Zhuo family will all remember this in their hearts."

Lord Du is undoubtedly the head of all officials. Even Su Sheng, the head of the military generals, is half a head shorter than him. As soon as the court meeting was over today, Lord Du went to Zhuo's house with Zhuo Zhong, which fully demonstrated his attitude.

From now on, even if Prime Minister Zhuo is dismissed from his post and sits at home, as long as Prime Minister Du is still in charge of the government, no one in the court will dare to bully the Zhuo family.

Even Zhuo Zhong, the doctor of the Ministry of Works, would benefit from Du Qian's arrival in officialdom.

Apart from anything else, the fact that he came here alone shows that Mr. Du is responsible.

Zhuo Guangrui escorted him all the way to the front door of the Zhuo family. The two of them bowed and said goodbye. Zhuo Xianggong watched Du Qian's sedan chair go away, then he turned around and sighed to his eldest son Zhuo Zhong behind him: "We have passed this hurdle."

"Tomorrow you..."

Zhuo Xianggong looked up at the plaque hanging on his own front door and said silently, "Remember to have someone take down the plaque of the Duke's Mansion."

Zhuo Zhong nodded first, then helped his old father walk home. As he walked, he sighed and said, "Your Majesty is too serious."

"shut up!"

Zhuo Guangrui turned around and glared at him.

"I am not dead yet, the Zhuo family has not disbanded, and His Majesty is no longer serious with our family."

Mr. Zhuo broke away from his son's support and left in anger.

"I don't know what to do!"

…………

In the afternoon, in Ganlu Temple.

For the entire morning, His Majesty the Emperor was discussing the Youyan war with Su and Zhao, but in the end, the matter was still not settled.

After all, the matter is of great importance. Li Yun still needs some time to consider whether or not to send Zhao Cheng north.

At this time, the two military leaders were no longer in the Ganlu Palace. A tall and thin young man was kneeling in front of the emperor and bowing to him: "Your Majesty, I am Cao Yu, and I pay my respects to you."

His Majesty the Emperor looked at the young man kneeling before him, put down the red brush in his hand, and smiled: "Get up, get up."

Cao Yu stood up and said respectfully, "Thank you, Your Majesty."

His Majesty the Emperor looked at him and asked, "Isn't it hard to endure the past six months since I was away from Luoyang?"

Cao Yu lowered his head, his eyes slightly red.

"Your Majesty, minister, minister..."

His voice was choked with sobs and he couldn't say any more.

After a long while, the Cao Yushi finally recovered and choked up, saying, "My old friends and relatives, even my fellow students, all said that I was... not in line with the times."

His Majesty the Emperor looked at him silently and said, "It is not a bad thing to be an official out of place."

Emperor Li knocked on the table and continued, "At this moment, the court is not clean. If I keep you in Luoyang, even if I give you a promotion, I'm afraid you will be in trouble everywhere. Therefore, I have an assignment for you." Cao Yu knelt on the ground and kowtowed, saying, "I respectfully listen to your instructions."

His Majesty the Emperor looked at him and continued, "This time, I toured the Jiangnan Circuit and arrested many corrupt officials, which greatly pleased the local people. However, the time was too short. Of the three circuits in Jiangnan, I only had time to visit Jiangdong Circuit and Qingyang Prefecture, my hometown in Jiangnan West Circuit."

"I don't have time to go to the other two. Please go for me."

Emperor Li looked at him and continued, "I order you to be the inspector of Huainan Road and Jiangnan West Road. With my orders, you can coordinate with the nine departments and report directly to the emperor. You go to the local areas on my behalf and see how the people in these two roads are doing."

"If there is corruption, at the prefecture or county level, if there is irrefutable evidence, you can arrest them first and then deal with them."

"Local three-division level."

His Majesty the Emperor looked at him and continued, "Report this to the court."

"You will travel incognito this time. You can choose a few followers from the Yulin Army to accompany you, so as to avoid any problems on the road."

"Three years."

The Emperor looked at Cao Yu and said solemnly, "In three years, you will travel through all the prefectures and counties in Huainan Road and Jiangnan West Road for me. After three years, you will return to Luoyang and I will promote you to be the Chief Censor."

The Chief Censor was of the fifth rank.

Although his rank was not particularly high, he was already an assistant official of the Censorate. For a Jinshi like Cao Yu who had passed the imperial examination in the fourth year of Zhangwu, his career could no longer be described as rising step by step, but could only be described as rising straight to the top.

Cao Yu first knelt down to thank him, then bowed his head and kowtowed, saying: "Your Majesty, within three years, I will travel to all the counties in Jiangnan West Road and Huainan Road!"

Traveling through all states and counties is not the same thing as traveling through all states and counties. The latter requires much more work.

Emperor Li was about to praise him when Cao Yu bowed his head and continued, "Your Majesty, I am too inexperienced. Even if Your Majesty promotes me, I dare not be the Chief Censor in three years. I ask Your Majesty to transfer me to another place for inspection after three years."

Cao Yu bowed his head and said, "I am willing to travel the world on behalf of Your Majesty."

Emperor Li looked at him, somewhat speechless: "You are so arrogant even though you are traveling around the world."

"OK OK."

The emperor raised his hand and said, "Anyway, it will be three years from now. If you do a good job in these three years, I will definitely transfer you to the Censorate and appoint you as the Chief Censor."

Emperor Li thought for a moment, then smiled and said, "Mr. Xu is currently also in charge of the Imperial Censorate. He will not be able to take care of everything in a few years. If you can accomplish something, you will take over Mr. Xu's job in the future."

As a leader, making promises is one of the basic skills.

Li Yun had been the emperor for many years and had mastered this skill to perfection. Just a few words from him were enough to make Cao Yu's eyes widen.

Mr. Xu!
Who is Mr. Xu?

He was one of the earliest founding heroes to follow the Emperor, and one of the Emperor's most trusted direct descendants. Even in today's Secretariat, Prime Minister Xu's status is vaguely similar to that of Prime Minister Yao Zhongyao!

Second only to Mr. Du.

This can be said to be the highest position for a high official!

As for him, Cao Yu, was just a newcomer who had just been working for a few years. With just a few words from the Emperor, his career path had become a smooth one!
And it’s such a smooth path that you can open a single page of your family tree!
If he goes well on this path, Cao Yu may become Prime Minister Cao in the future!
Thinking of this, Cao Yu's breathing became a little rapid. He quickly knelt on the ground, bowed deeply to the emperor and said: "Your Majesty, Your Majesty..."

"Your Majesty's grace is like heaven's. I don't know how to repay Your Majesty!"

"Do your job well, and that will be your way of repaying me."

His Majesty the Emperor looked at him and said with a smile, "Well, I have been busy with many things in the past few months, so I won't chat with you any more. You go back and wait for orders. When the imperial edict is issued, you will inspect the places on my behalf."

At this point, His Majesty the Emperor paused and continued, "Before you leave Beijing, remember to come see me again."

Cao Yu bowed his head respectfully and said, "I obey your command, I obey your command..."

He retreated cautiously.

Emperor Li raised his head, glanced at his leaving back, was stunned for a moment, then smiled and shook his head. His eyes fell on the document in front of him again, and he whispered to himself.

"This gives people the feeling of painting a pie in the sky, which is really good."

He sighed, then flipped through the document that Meng Hai had handed to him. After reading it for a long time, he rubbed his brows and sighed slightly.

"It's so huge."

His Majesty the Emperor muttered, “It requires the cooperation of the three judicial departments and the Ministry of Personnel to extract the silk bit by bit and then replace it with new silk.”

Having said that, the emperor looked outside the door, couldn't help rubbing his eyebrows, and began to feel worried.

"Where can I find a young official from the Ministry of Personnel..."

(End of this chapter)