The prince is more stable

Chapter 108 Huge Gains

Zhao Xu had a great outburst at the court meeting and felt very refreshed.

He had wanted to do this for a long time.

When he came of age, according to the rules, the Empress Dowager should have handed over power to the Emperor, but all the civil and military officials in the court kept silent and pretended to be deaf and dumb.

Most of these people who pretended to be deaf and dumb were from the old party, so Zhao Xu had always harbored resentment towards the old party. Today, by taking advantage of the river management and anti-corruption case, he could not only point at the noses of the old party officials and curse them, but he could also kill a group of them. It felt so damn good.

Anything that the emperor and his ministers reach a consensus on at the court must be implemented; this is the will of the imperial power.

When all the ministers agreed unanimously, many of them turned pale and trembled like sieves. They stood in the courtroom trying to remain calm and hold on until the end of the meeting.

After the court was dismissed, Zeng Bu and Zhang Dun entered the government hall and summoned the Chief Censor, the Minister of the Supreme Court and others to discuss matters.

Zhao Xiaoqian was supposed to attend this meeting, but he was absent.

Zeng Bu sent people to the Chu Palace to urge Zhao Xiaoqian to come, but he still did not come.

How could a normal human being lose sleep for a trivial matter? This is extremely irresponsible to life.

In the end, Wei Jie attended the meeting instead of Zhao Xiaoqian. An hour later, the Political Affairs Hall had determined the charter for investigating and combating corruption.

Let’s start with the Ministry of Works and the Water Resources Department.

At the same time, the Imperial City Office and the Dali Temple sent people to the Ministry of Revenue to seal up the account books and files of the Ministry of Revenue's Duzhi Division regarding river management, and identified the relevant officials and clerks who participated in the event.

A big net is spread silently, and the fate of many people is about to change.

Two days later, the Imperial City Office arrested two chief clerks from the Ministry of Revenue and, after being tortured by Bingjingwu, they followed the clues and arrested one assistant minister each from the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Works.

With the evidence secured, the Censorate, the Dali Temple and the Imperial City Administration dispatched personnel to break into the residences of the criminal officials to collect evidence and seize their property.

There were only four officials, but the wealth discovered shocked both the emperor and his ministers.

There were a total of 30,000 mu of farmland in the capital area, and more than 1.2 million strings of silver, money, pearls, jade and other precious treasures.

Zhao Xu was stunned when he got the results. He hadn't expected that the harvest would be so huge after only investigating and confiscating four officials.

The corruption in the officialdom of the Song Dynasty was so huge that a glimpse of it can reveal the whole picture.

At this point, Zhao Xu felt more and more sincerely how correct the idea Zhao Xiaoqian gave him was.

The imperial treasury inexplicably made a fortune, and if the investigation continues, the situation will definitely take off.

Continue checking?

Of course you have to check!

There were 50,000 refugees outside the city crying out for food, and the court wanted to resettle them, but the confiscated land and silver were far from enough.

Zhao Xu immediately issued an order to continue the investigation, to conduct a strict, prompt and severe trial, to arrest one, sentence one, and confiscate one, as I am in a hurry.

…………

While you are sitting at home, bad news comes out of nowhere.

Zhao Xiaoqian lived a boring yet extremely enjoyable leisurely life in the palace. He was still hesitating whether to invent an ancient version of the bicycle, and then find an Odebiao to ride a bicycle to transport bananas every day to help him relieve his boredom.

Then Zhao Xiaoqian heard the bad news.

After the four officials were arrested and questioned, someone in the court spread the word that the current emperor had decided to investigate the river management corruption case strictly because the Prince of Chu had advised him.

It didn't matter who had spread the news, but it wasn't Wei Jie, after all, he'd sworn an oath on his ancestors. It was more likely that Prime Ministers Zeng Bu and Zhang Dun had spread the news. To have reached such a position, they couldn't be foolish. It wouldn't be easy for two old foxes to take the blame.

No matter who spread the news, Zhao Xiaoqian became the target of public criticism overnight.

Too many people have been offended this time. In this corruption case, there are quite a few court officials involved. If we really want to investigate it thoroughly, I don’t know how many people will be involved.

Who among the court officials involved in the case and who had not yet been questioned did not hate Zhao Xiaoqian? He could not help but feel the constant presence of countless green eyes fixed on him as he walked down the street.

When Zhao Xiaoqian heard the news, he was indeed a little angry and wanted to go to the doors of Zeng Bu and Zhang Dun, two old men, in the middle of the night and throw red paint on them.

But Zhao Xiaoqian soon calmed down.

What is done is done, and there is no regret.

Not to mention such lofty topics as justice and evil, when Zhao Xiaoqian gave Zhao Xu advice, he himself did not have any righteous intentions. It is enough to say that Zhao Xiaoqian's advice did solve the problem.

So, the Prince of Chu, who was hated by countless people, felt guilty for a short time, but soon felt relieved and continued his boring and luxurious life.

When the Censorate and the Imperial City Administration were interrogating corrupt officials with murderous intent, Zhao Xiaoqian was forcibly dragged out of the door by Di Ying, whom he had not seen for many days.

Yes, "forced", the eldest daughter of the Di family suddenly felt interested today and decided to go out for a trip.

It was too lonely to travel alone, so Di Ying went straight to the Prince of Chu's mansion without saying a word and forcibly dragged Zhao Xiaoqian, who was taking a nap in the mansion, out of the door.

Zhao Xiaoqian was in a daze and didn't come to his senses until he stepped out of the palace gate. His body was already outside the gate, but his soul was still on the comfortable bed.

It wasn't until someone twisted his arm hard that Zhao Xiaoqian suddenly woke up. He looked around in shock and asked, "Where is this?"

Di Ying was so angry that she pinched him again: "You are absent-minded when you are with me, but you smile sweetly when you are with other girls, right?"

Zhao Xiaoqian turned his head and looked at her with a serious expression: "I'm not well-educated, so don't lie to me. Is this how the word 'smile charmingly' is used?"

Di Ying was even more furious. Didn't this bastard know what the point of chatting was? Was he talking about wording and sentence structure?
"We haven't seen each other for several days since we returned to Bian Jing. Why did you ignore me?" Di Ying asked angrily.

Zhao Xiaoqian's eyes widened. "I saved your life. Logically, you should have taken the initiative to come to my house and thank me. If you have any sense, you should have kowtowed to me three times. Now you blame me for ignoring you. Have you lost your conscience?"

"Bah! What generation are you? You want me to kowtow to you? Are you crazy?" Di Ying said angrily.

After a pause, Di Ying continued, "This morning, I went to Yaohua Palace and delivered some gifts to my aunt and...Aunt Feng. After your last disturbance, Yaohua Palace has been much nicer to Aunt Feng. They even have a dedicated female Taoist priest to take care of her. Aunt Feng asked me to tell you not to worry about her."

Zhao Xiaoqian stared at her face curiously: "Just speak nicely, why are you blushing?"

Di Ying's pretty face flushed red. She didn't know what private words Feng had said to her that made her so shy.

Only at this moment did Zhao Xiaoqian notice that Di Ying was dressed as a man again today. Not only that, Di Ying was followed by a little girl, who was also dressed as a man.

Hmm, she looks very familiar. When I first met Di Ying in the brothel, she was accompanied by this little girl. Both of them were dressed in men's clothes in a very crude way, which was unbearable to look at.

The two girls' outfits today... aren't much better. I don't know where they got the confidence from, but they thought that no one would recognize them if they wore men's clothes.

Seeing Zhao Xiaoqian's gaze shift, Di Ying pulled the timid little girl behind her to her side.

"She is my personal maid, Yuan'er, who grew up with me."

Yuan'er shyly stepped forward and bowed gracefully: "Your servant greets you...Miss, may I call him uncle?"

Di Ying was horrified and hurriedly covered the little girl's mouth, shouting angrily, "You want to die!"

(End of this chapter)