Uncle from a poor family

Chapter 390 What goes before takes effect
After listening to Zhang Luan's impassioned speech, Zhu Youtang seemed to understand it, but also seemed not to understand it.

Even Qin Ji was thinking, if you, Zhang Luan, had said this half a year ago, wouldn't you be talking to a cow?

But if it were the current prince...his psychological endurance has improved a bit, he is not so fragile anymore, maybe he can still listen a little bit.

Zhang Luan said, "Prince, since I met you, I have been telling you about this matter. You must take it to heart. This concerns your safety and your future. You must be careful."

Speaking of this, Zhang Luan was thinking in his heart.

Why does this sound so much like what my son usually says to me?
My son likes to explain his values ​​and reasons to me whenever he has nothing to do. Now I am using his rhetoric to fool the prince!

Zhu Youtang nodded, his eyes reddened, and he seemed very touched: "Fortunately, my father-in-law is here to help me plan everything. After what you said, if Lord Wan steps down, will no one mention the issue of changing the crown prince anymore?"

"Don't be too happy too soon."

Zhang Luan said seriously, "The key to the problem lies in the palace, not outside it."

"Father-in-law, what you want to say is that the decision-making power of this matter lies with the emperor, not with the ministers, right?" Zhu Youtang asked.

Zhang Luan smiled and nodded: "That's about right, but the prince should know, if you are replaced, who will take over?"

"Yes... Yuuki."

Zhu Youtang lowered his head and said.

"It's good that the prince knows."

Zhang Luan seemed to have let go of a heavy burden and said, "Your Highness, don't worry too much about the Tongzhou warehouse deficit case. His Majesty will put some people in prison and interrogate them strictly. Maybe there will be progress soon. But as for the real results... I'm afraid that only the prince can send people to investigate in detail in the future."

Zhu Youtang said: "Oh."

……

……

Zhu Youtang left.

Although he still only had a partial understanding of it, he seemed to be relieved and his face showed a bit of ease.

Tan Ji asked, "Prince, do you want to go to the Ministry of Revenue again?"

"no need."

Zhu Youtang waved his hand and said with a smile, "Didn't my father-in-law say that? This matter cannot be investigated in a short time, and with my ability, I can't find out anything... Now no one in the court takes me seriously, and they won't follow my orders at all. Only when my father sends people to investigate, there will be progress."

Qin Ji thought, the words of his father-in-law are always effective. The prince was so persistent before, but now he has calmly accepted the reality that he is incompetent?
"Then what are we doing now...?"

Tan Ji asked for instructions.

"Go back to the palace."

Zhu Youtang had a happy look on his face, and said expectantly, "I miss Yu'er a little bit when I can't see her for a while, especially when I'm outside the palace, I miss her even more."

Qin Ji frowned and said, "But Your Highness, when you were studying before, you often didn't see the Crown Princess for a whole day. Why do you miss her so much now?"

Zhu Youtang shook his head and said, "I don't know why either... Just like Yu'er told me once, the highest level of love is to miss someone even when you are face to face, and to think of them as you look at them day and night."

When Qin Ji heard this, he couldn't help but smile bitterly.

Damn it, doesn't the Crown Princess have too many tricks?

Look, our little prince has been turned into a wife-waiting cliff. He misses her as soon as he leaves the palace. How... crazy is this?
……

……

Jinyiwei, Fusi, Beizhen.

Commander Zhu Ji had just received a group of prisoners. After interrogating them, he looked a little nervous, but didn't know how to deal with it next.

But at this moment, Mou Bin, the captain of the Jinyiwei who was in charge of the interrogation, came forward and asked in a low voice: "Commander-in-chief, I have just interrogated a few people strictly. I didn't use any severe torture. They all confessed. The target is directly some powerful people in the court."

Zhu Ji asked, "Who is involved?"

"There are... some officials from the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Works, as well as some local officials. It also involves the late Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue Sun Ren, and... Minister Li of the Ministry of Revenue. And... cabinet ministers may also be involved..."

Mou Bin naturally knew that the more involved the people were, the more difficult it would be for the Jinyiwei to carry out the investigation.

Even though the Jinyiwei was considered a privileged agency in the court, in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, its authority was far from enough to cover the sky with one hand.

Zhu Ji asked coldly: "Don't make it public yet, and then think about it. I have to think about how to report it."

Mou Bin asked: "Governor, I wonder if the eunuch who will be in charge of the East Factory has been decided?"

"Not yet, why?" Zhu Ji frowned.

Although the Imperial Guard was not under the jurisdiction of the East Factory, the East Factory directly connected with the emperor, and many matters were supervised by the East Factory, which resulted in the Imperial Guard being greatly controlled by the East Factory. When handling cases, the East Factory could often dictate to the Imperial Guard. Mou Bin replied: "If there was an East Factory supervisor, maybe we could ask for instructions and ask him to come up with a specific solution."

"You mean, this governor can't make the decision?"

Zhu Ji was a little angry.

Although Mou Bin was one of the most capable officials in the Jinyiwei, he was still only a captain and was not yet in charge of the overall situation. No matter how much Zhu Ji admired this man, he still felt that Mou Bin was overreaching.

Zhu Ji warned, "Remember this. You are not required to report everything you find out about the court affairs. If the case is really that simple, why should we just hand it over to the Ministry of Justice or the Dali Temple for trial?
"Your Majesty, since you have asked us to come forward, if something goes wrong, we will have to bear the responsibility. You should withdraw first and make sure that nothing goes wrong in the cell. Wait for instructions for the rest."

After saying this, Zhu Ji hurried out, as if he had some important person to meet.

……

……

Liu Ji's residence.

Zhu Ji came overnight.

It was precisely because Zhu Ji felt that the people in the factory guards were basically under his control and no one could monitor them that he dared to come overnight.

"Lord Liu, the case is becoming clearer now, and some people are pointing the finger at you." Zhu Ji roughly told Liu Ji what Mou Bin had said.

Liu Ji waved his hand and said, "Commander Zhu, please stop accusing me. I have never been involved in any case, let alone the connections involved. Could it be that you have made a mistake in something? For example, you are blaming me for some crimes that should have belonged to the deceased Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, Sun Ren?"

Zhu Ji said, "Lord Liu, I understand what you mean. But you also need to know that this is an investigation ordered by His Majesty. If we really want to report, no one dares to deceive the emperor."

Liu Ji waved his hand impatiently: "You are such a blockhead, how can you not understand what I am saying? If you are afraid of getting yourself involved, why bother me so much as to blame the dead?"

Liu Ji is also very depressed now.

It was obvious that everyone had joined forces to deal with Zhang Luan, and wanted to overthrow Li Zisheng at the same time, to restore the cabinet's control over state affairs, and then affect the position of the crown prince, and ask the emperor to replace the crown prince.

Unexpectedly, something went wrong in the first step. They sent a doctor into the palace, but failed to fool the emperor. Instead, they caused the emperor's wrath. As a result, Wan'an now submitted a letter of resignation and planned to flee, while Liu Ji was at a loss like a headless fly. Then Zhu Ji came to scare him again.

As Liu Mianhua, Liu Ji is not a person who can accomplish great things. He does not even have the most basic political struggle skills.

If the cabinet was truly capable, it would not have been so easy for people like Li Zisheng to steal part of the government power.

Zhu Ji said: "Your Majesty may ask for the results in the next two days."

"Could there be any unpredictable consequences? Your Majesty is ill now, do you really want to do that? Can't you just deal with it casually?" Liu Ji said impatiently, "Commander Zhu, you obey the orders of Your Majesty, not me. Don't discuss everything with me. If you think this case is not going to end well, you can just take all the people involved back for questioning."

Zhu Ji frowned and looked at Liu Ji.

I thought to myself, what kind of backer have I found?
Want me to bring back all the people involved in the case for trial?
Then the first thing I should do is to pull you back, because many people have accused you of secretly colluding with Sun Ren, which led to a large-scale deficit in Tongzhou Warehouse.

Liu Ji said, "Commander Zhu, let me be frank with you. The Tongzhou warehouse deficit case was brought up by someone to target me and Wan Zhongtang... If you think they can succeed, just report it to the higher-ups, but the result will definitely not be what those people want."

"I'd like to hear the details." Zhu Ji said.

Liu Ji sneered and said, "The people who got the most out of the Tongzhou warehouse deficit are actually the guys in the inner court, led by Liang Fang and Wei Xing. They are all big borers. You can't think that the matter has nothing to do with them just because one of them was exiled to Nanjing and the other was sent to the northwest as a soldier... They are not in the capital anymore, but the silver will not disappear out of thin air, right?"

Zhu Ji asked cautiously, "Do you mean that most of the silver is in the palace?"

"It's fine in the palace."

Liu Ji shook his head and said, "In recent years, the deficit of the inner court has been very large. The Ministry of Revenue cannot transfer money and grain to supply the inner court openly, so it can only be supplemented through this private transfer. Otherwise, why do you think Your Majesty has employed Liang Fang, such a parasite, for so many years? Doesn't Your Majesty know what kind of person he is?"

"he……"

"Hehe, Liang Fang's greatest ability is that he can turn money belonging to the court into the inner court. Do you think he can conjure up money out of thin air? The bribes he received were basically the money allocated to him when he was working for the court and then returned to him..." Liu Ji said sarcastically.

Zhu Ji frowned and asked, "Are you saying that the silver he coveted was also taken out by others from the silver allocated from the inner court to bribe him?"

Liu Ji said, "What else? This man's greatest power is actually managing money. If he doesn't give money to others, how can others give him kickbacks? The money he spends nominally belongs to the inner court. Guess where the inner court's money comes from?"

"I……"

Zhu Ji hesitated for a moment, and after a while he said, "I am not unaware of the tricks behind this. If this is the case, why does Your Majesty want to investigate it so strictly? Does Your Majesty not know about it?"

Liu Ji said: "The problem is that the money and grain in Tongzhou warehouse did not only go to the inner court."

After hearing this, Zhu Ji understood everything at once.

I thought that you bigwigs in the court really know how to play games. You took out part of the money and grain to bribe the emperor, and then put most of the money and grain into your own pockets, thinking that you could shut the emperor's mouth. But the emperor found out that he had been taken advantage of, and he refused to do it anymore. He wanted to investigate you strictly.

Doesn’t this coincide with what Liang Fang did before?
Liang Fang also put some of the benefits into her own pocket, but most of them were still earned by people outside.

Zhu Ji thought to himself that it turned out that what Eunuch Liang used was all learned from the emperor, and this was a case of the upper class following the lower class.

(End of this chapter)