Damn it, I'm in the garbage book I wrote

Chapter 200: The Court is Shocked
"Your Majesty, please make the decision for me! Your Majesty!"

In the court, Commander Chen Qichen told the story again with tears in his eyes. When people heard about the investigation of the river channel office, their hearts began to beat fast. But when they heard about the assassination of the imperial envoy, nearly 80% of them felt a chill from their necks to their tailbones.

There is no essential difference between assassinating the imperial envoy and assassinating the king. It is a severe slap in the face to the imperial power. No wonder a high-ranking official like Chen Qi would cry like this. Who would not be afraid if this happened to them?

"The imperial envoy was seriously injured after being stabbed and is now recovering in Yanmen Pass. Your Majesty, please help me. I am truly wronged!"

Although Emperor Hongbao had known about this news for a long time, and also knew that Xia Lin was pretending, he still pretended to be furious. He slapped the dragon chair and stood up: "Ministry of Justice, Dali Temple, Censorate, come out!"

The three chiefs came out in response, and at this moment they were all trembling with fear, fearing that they would be affected by His Majesty's wrath.

"I'll leave this matter to you three ministries to investigate. If you can't figure it out, I'll hold you accountable!"

The leaders of the three departments were secretly shocked after hearing this, but they still accepted the order and stepped aside. Then Emperor Hongbao pointed at Chen Qi and said, "Chen Qi, you are also to blame for this incident under your rule, but considering that you are unaware of it and you have spent a lot of energy in cooperating with the investigation of the rebellion in Henan Province these days, I will not make it difficult for you and will only fine you for three years as a minor punishment and a major warning."

"I thank your majesty for his grace. Long live the emperor..."

Chen Qi kowtowed, and wiped his tears after he stood up. At this moment, Emperor Hongbao sat back on the dragon throne, and seemed to be a little calmer. He glanced at the ministers and took a deep breath: "I will not speculate who did it, but if the truth comes out later, don't blame me for being merciless."

At this moment, Gao Shilian stepped forward, bowed and said, "Your Majesty, I heard that the injured imperial envoy was Xia Lin, a fifth-rank inspector. Commander Chen just said that he was injured in a rather indecent position and may not be able to survive. As for the marriage on the grassland..."

Emperor Hongbao sighed and said, "I can only go and explain the whole story to the grassland envoy."

Gao Shilian's eyes rolled at this moment, and he spoke again: "I heard that Xia Lin had made some contributions when he was stationed in Luoyang, and now he is seriously injured on duty. Your Majesty, I think you can transfer him back to the capital and give him a good resettlement."

Emperor Hongbao glanced at Gao Shilian, and then did not refute: "Then let's do as Mr. Gao says."

But at this moment, the Minister of Personnel suddenly stood up and said with a straight face: "Your Majesty, this is not allowed. The Ministry of Personnel has always been forbidden to have people with chronic diseases or injuries, let alone those who are going to Beijing to serve as officials. I hope Your Majesty will think twice."

These two people are obviously one playing the good cop and the other playing the bad cop. Everyone knows it very well. Does Gao Shilian really want Xia Lin to come to the capital? Are you kidding? Zeng Ming will light firecrackers at night when he comes to the capital? If he encounters such a reckless thing, and he is also a new minister of the crown prince, if such a person is allowed to report directly to the emperor, it won't be long before he is transferred to the capital and the whole court will be messed up by him.

But he was a meritorious official after all, and he was assassinated while investigating a case outside. If he was not properly appeased, the court would lose its prestige. So two people had to cooperate to reward him and make him go away.

Gao Shilian had thought it through. The best outcome would be to have this jerk reinstated as soon as possible, go back to his one and a half acre of land in Fuliang County and slowly cultivate it, and not have to appear in memorials all the time.

It's not that he was afraid of Xia Lin, but this man was obviously a steel gun in the hands of his political enemies, who could stab Gao Shilian in the butt unexpectedly, which was not a comfortable thing.

"So what does Lord Yihe mean?"

"I think it is true that this man was injured in the line of duty, but the court's laws cannot be broken. It would be better to reward him with a hundred households and keep his salary for future use."

Emperor Hongbao frowned after hearing this. The Minister of Personnel's intention was very simple, which was to abandon Xia Lin. The country was supporting him and letting him "retire and return home" early, which was tantamount to directly destroying his future path.

How could this be done? It would be fine to wait for him to recover and use him for other purposes, but how could it be considered as dismissing him directly?

As expected, as soon as the King of Ideas opened his mouth, everyone else in the court became chaotic. Some people with explosive tempers, like Zeng Ming, started to scold him directly.

"Lord He made a great move. It can let the world see how the court of Wei treats loyal and righteous people, and it can also let the world see how Your Majesty is unkind and unjust. Let me ask Lord He, if the people do not sacrifice their lives and the officials are not loyal to their duties, what will happen to Wei in the future? What will happen to the world in the future? Abandoning the injured and sick will chill the hearts of millions of loyal people. It seems that Lord He is really loyal and righteous and is anxious for the Wei Dynasty."

Zeng Ming's face turned red from scolding, and the Minister of Personnel lowered his head and said nothing. The officials around him were also discussing it, and they all felt that this method was too cruel and did not treat people as human beings at all. If it was really implemented, the Wei Dynasty would basically be finished.

Emperor Hongbao also took a deep breath at this moment, but everyone could see that he was very dissatisfied with this bad idea and was on the verge of exploding.

Fortunately, Gao Shilian intervened at this moment. He cupped his hands and said, "Your Majesty, I think Zeng Pushe's words make sense, and He Shangshu's proposal is a bit unreasonable. But He Shangshu is not without reason. I have a compromise."

"explain."

"Xia Lin was originally the county magistrate of Jiangnan, but was later affected by the case of grain storage caused by locust plague. Now the case has been investigated and Xia Lin is not only innocent but also meritorious. I think it would be better to take this opportunity to reinstate him and reward him with 10,000 taels of silver to show his merit." Gao Shilian said seriously, "If Your Majesty appreciates his merit in protecting the country, you can increase his fiefdom by 1,000 households to show that the Wei Dynasty is benevolent to scholars." Emperor Hongbao looked a little tired at this moment, and waved his hand and said, "Then do as you said, Mr. Gao. Mr. Gao, you can take care of the things. I am a little tired, so let's go today."

"I obey your command." Gao Shilian bowed and accepted the order.

After the court was dismissed, Zeng Ming and the two heads of the Ministry of Justice and the Dali Temple walked out of the hall quickly. The three of them covered their sleeves and kept their heads down. At this moment, the Dali Temple Minister said with a worried look on his face: "Zeng Pushe, how should we investigate this matter? Should we investigate the Hedao Yamen? Or investigate the assassination of the imperial envoy?"

Zeng Ming frowned: "If we investigate the assassination of the imperial envoy, we can find the river yamen, and if we investigate the river yamen, we can find the assassination of the imperial envoy."

“Oh, this…”

At this moment they suddenly saw Gao Shilian pacing in front of them. Although Zeng Ming and Gao Shilian had different political views and were old rivals for many years, they had served in the same court for decades after all. No one in the world knew Gao Shilian better than Zeng Ming. When he saw his expression, he knew that he had something to say.

"Prime Minister Gao, we are the ones who should be anxious, why are you so anxious?" Zeng Ming went up and teased Gao Shilian: "Could it be that Prime Minister Gao is involved in this?"

Prime Minister Gao glanced at him and lowered his voice to say, "Who among the officials in the court is not involved? Last year, your Censorate burned down and it cost 70,000 taels to rebuild. Who paid for it? The Hedao Yamen. The Ministry of Justice and the Dali Temple. Who didn't get involved in the Hedao Yamen?"

Zeng Ming pursed his lips and said nothing. At this moment, Gao Shilian reached out and slipped a note into Zeng Ming's hand through his sleeve: "Prime Minister Zeng, please check this clearly."

After saying that, he turned around and left. Zeng Ming took out the note and took a look at it. On it was a list of thirteen officials from the Ministry of Revenue, including two vice ministers, the main one being the left vice minister whose surname was Shi. Even the production line of his hired killers was marked out by Gao Shilian.

Zeng Ming glanced at Gao Shilian's back and muttered quietly, "Old Gao is really cruel."

The people from the Ministry of Justice and the Dali Temple nearby remained silent, and everyone pretended that they had seen and heard nothing.

In the following days, the case of the assassination of the imperial envoy was solved extremely quickly. This difficult case that had been a headache for everyone was solved in just three days. It was first tried by the Jingzhao Prefecture, and then reviewed by the Dali Temple. After that, the case was basically determined. Then it was reviewed by the Ministry of Justice and submitted to the central government for approval by the two prime ministers. After the two prime ministers approved it, the emperor made the final review and stamped the case with the imperial seal, and the matter was over.

This seal was the coffin for a bunch of people in the Ministry of Revenue. When the seal was pressed, the first person who was sentenced to death was Shi Shi, who had been sick, and his property was confiscated and beheaded. Then a bunch of people in the Ministry of Revenue were also sentenced to death. In the end, the winner was the Beijing Jiaosifang, which sold hundreds of goods overnight...

At this moment, almost all the people in the Ministry of Revenue were killed, leaving only the Shangshu who was outside dealing with the problems left over from last year's locust plague and the You Shilang who followed him out.

"King Bin."

Gao Shilian was walking along the Yangtze River at the moment, accompanied by Ma Zhou. The reason why the matter was handled so quickly this time was that Ma Zhou had devised a plan for Gao Shilian, which could both save the river office and calm the emperor's anger. After the matter was done, it turned out to be just as Ma Zhou had planned. Everything was done with a quick and decisive move, which was beyond people's control.

"High phase."

Gao Shilian turned his head to look at Ma Zhou, his face full of admiration: "You are indeed a ruthless person, but that's how a ruler should be. Now the Ministry of Revenue is empty, and I see that you are so capable, so I plan to recommend you to the Ministry of Revenue as the Left Vice Minister, are you willing?"

Upon hearing this, Ma Zhou bowed his head and said, "Thank you very much, Prime Minister Gao, for your promotion. Ma Zhou is willing to serve you at your utmost."

"Alas, your service will be left to His Majesty. I just like to promote young people like you."

On the same day that Xia Lin arrived in Luoyang, Ma Zhou was promoted to the position of Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue as he wished. This was a higher rank than Xia Lin's. It took twenty to thirty years for a fourth-rank vice minister to get promoted, but Ma Zhou got promoted in two years. People in the court were naturally extremely envious of him, as his promotion was faster than his mother's rebellion.

But it's not to blame for anything else. The main reason is that the entire Wei Dynasty has been very turbulent in the past few years. The officials in the court have been replaced like flowing water, and the replacement speed has become somewhat abnormal. They really don't have any good ministers to use.

As for the River Administration Office, since so many officials of the Ministry of Revenue had been investigated, the River Administration Office was naturally lifted up and then put down lightly. They just dealt with whatever they found, and the way they dealt with it was also very interesting, that is, the chief officials of the River Administration Office and the Salt Administration Office in Yanmen Pass were suspended from their posts, fined, and confined. It can be said that it was the same whether they were punished or not, and everyone knew it in their hearts, even the emperor knew it in his heart.

On the contrary, Xia Lin, after an imperial decree was issued, not only was he reinstated and awarded ten thousand taels of gold, but he was also given a fief of a thousand households. Although he did not receive a promotion, he had already fully achieved his goal.

But Xia Lin didn't know it yet, because he had just returned to Luoyang and was planning with Tang Baoer how to deal with the clan power of his Tang family.

(End of this chapter)