I support the army through farming and business.

Chapter 102 New Silver
Manager Lin was knocked to the ground after being beaten.

Lin continued, "You have to think carefully. Suing your master as a slave is a serious crime! Not only you, but your entire family will be punished by being forced to work in the mines!"

The wife of the Marquis of Loyalty and Bravery was furious, "Lin, you are threatening me."

Madam Meng ignored Zhao's words and glared at Manager Lin who was kneeling on the ground.

Manager Lin thought of his family and struggled to get up from the ground. "This old slave deserves death. I was blinded by greed and was bribed by Princess Zhaoshan to frame Madam!"

Tang Zhao:?
Uncle, listen to what you said, does it make sense?

Lin was overjoyed. "Master, you heard it, it wasn't my order," she pointed at Tang Zhao, who looked speechless. "It was Princess Zhaoshan. It was Princess Zhaoshan who bribed Steward Lin."

Master Meng naturally saw that Lin was guilty, but in order to get rid of the Meng family, he had to make the best of it. "What a treacherous servant! Come, drag Manager Lin out and beat him to death on the spot!"

Manager Lin:!

The guards standing by stood still.

Master Meng was used to being bossy, and when he saw this, he became furious, "Third sister!"

"Don't worry, big brother. Manager Lin can't die yet." Princess Xuan looked at the man kneeling on the ground with a look of despair. "You said Zhao Shan bribed you. How did she bribe you? Do you have anything that can prove Zhao Shan's identity as Princess Zhao Shan?"

Manager Lin was speechless for a long time. He just followed his wife's words and suddenly decided to accuse Princess Zhaoshan. Where was the evidence?
"No, Princess Zhaoshan only gave three hundred taels of silver."

"Who gave it to you?"

"I don't know."

"Maybe you can recognize it?"

"He's masked. I haven't seen him in person, so I'm afraid I can't recognize him."

Princess Xuan nodded and looked at her son and daughter-in-law beside her.

Tang Zhao made a gesture of invitation.

Gu Ci asked, "When did I give you the three hundred taels of silver?"

Manager Lin rolled his eyes and said, "Seven days ago."

"Is it silver ingots or small change?"

"Silver ingot."

"Are they all silver ingots?"

Manager Lin's forehead was covered with sweat. "No, not all of it. There's also some loose change."

"But the official silver?"

"Yes, all the silver ingots are official silver."

Gu Ci raised his chin slightly, and Chao Yi came in with a bag of silver. "I was ordered to search Manager Lin's residence and found three hundred taels of silver ingot hidden in the floor tiles under the bed."

Master Meng slammed the table and stood up, "How dare you! Who gave you the guts to raid my Meng family?"

King Xuan lazily said, "This king gave it to me."

Master Meng's breathing stopped.

Gu Ci: "Look, is this the silver ingot that Princess Zhaoshan bribed you with?"

Chaoyi presented the silver to Manager Lin.

Manager Lin's eyes went dark, and he mumbled, "Yes."

Gu Ci picked up a silver ingot and held the bottom, engraved with the seal of the first year of Sheng'an, towards Manager Lin. "This official silver was newly issued by the Ministry of Revenue when the new emperor ascended the throne last year. It arrived in the northwest in October of last year. The Lanzhou prefect calculated it and sent 50,000 taels of silver to the silver shop." "The silver shop's exchange and use of new silver are all recorded in the book," Gu Ci said, looking at the silver shop owner who came in. "Please check the records to see if there is any record of the princess exchanging it."

The silver shop owner flipped through the account book from beginning to end. "There is no record of Princess Zhaoshan exchanging silver." He turned to the first page and said, "However, before the Lunar New Year, the Meng family exchanged old silver for 5,000 taels of new silver."

"There are many children in the mansion, and the old lady wanted to use the new silver to give them New Year's money, so she sent someone to exchange it," Lin clutched her handkerchief. "Princess Zhaoshan didn't exchange the new silver, but she can get it from other people who exchanged it."

"The soybean oil and tofu shops owned by the princess have such a huge daily turnover. Have they never received any new silver?"

"Of course I can accept it, but Manager Lin keeps saying that the princess spent three hundred taels of silver to bribe him." Chao Yi placed the cloth bag containing the silver on the table between Prince Xuan and his wife, "But this bag actually contains five hundred taels of new silver."

"What?" Lin was shocked. She went forward to take a look and saw ten silver ingots lying on a pile of broken silver and gold leaves.

Lin said with certainty, "You must have inserted the silver ingots to frame us!"

"Madam Meng, please understand. When Steward Lin's room was searched, all the stewards and servants of the Meng residence were present," Chao Yi said. "If Madam Meng doesn't believe it, you can summon the chief steward of the Meng residence to testify."

Lin was surprised and asked, "Where did the extra two hundred taels come from?"

It was over, it was over. Manager Lin's eyes were completely dark. He thought the palace guards only searched the floor tiles under the bed, but he didn't expect that they even searched under the trees in the outer courtyard.

As expected, Chao Yi said, "I found it under the roots of a large tree outside Manager Lin's yard."

"Manager Lin," Gu Ci said in a deep voice, "I'll ask you again, was it the princess who bribed you?"

The man's authority was like the sea, coming from all directions, and it was so overwhelming that Manager Lin couldn't breathe. "Slave, slave..."

"If a slave sues his master, according to the law, his entire family will be sentenced to mining. However, if a slave falsely accuses a princess of a country, he should be sentenced to death, his entire family will be executed, and his entire clan will be exiled!"

Gu Ci reminded, "Think it over carefully."

Execution, exile, execution, exile. Manager Lin broke down and burst into tears. He crawled forward on his knees and hugged Gu Ci's legs. "General, if I tell the truth, can you spare my family?"

Gu Ci looked at King Xuan, who nodded and said, "As long as you tell the truth, I will ensure that your family will not die or start mining."

Princess Xuan added, "I can also take your family into the palace."

Steward Lin kowtowed loudly, "Thank you, Your Highness, and thank you, Princess! I swear that everything I say from now on will be the truth, otherwise I will go to hell and never be reborn!"

"It was Madam Meng. It was Lin who gave me three hundred taels of silver and asked me to go find killer bees. I was reluctant to spend the new silver, so I used the money I had saved to hire a local bee catcher in the Qilian Mountains. I caught dozens of killer bees, and we have been hiding outside Lanzhou since then."

"It's just that during the past few days of beekeeping, I was accidentally stung by a killer bee. That's why I risked being discovered and went into the city to see a doctor."

"Early this morning, this old servant led these bee catchers to wait on Lanzhou Street. As soon as the sedan chair passed by, they threw out the wooden box containing the killer bees along with the package."

"After throwing it, we mixed in with the crowd and planned to sneak out of the city to avoid being noticed. But before we even left the city gate, we were caught by the palace guards."

"You're talking nonsense!" Lin rushed forward with his teeth bared, ready to hit someone.

Master Meng stood up and slapped Lin hard in the face. "Bitch! Do you still want to argue at this point?"

Lin fell to the ground and looked at Master Meng, crying out in injustice, "Master, I didn't do it. I really didn't do it!"

Manager Lin pointed to the silver ingots in the cloth bag and continued to confess, "The four new silver ingots buried under the tree roots were given to me by the eldest lady as a reward."

Lin's eyes widened in disbelief, "Shu'er?"

"Yes, the eldest lady came to me privately and asked me to cause trouble on the wedding day of the daughter of the Loyal and Brave Marquis. I thought I had received the order from the lady, so I agreed."

Greed and luck, the two most fatal flaws in human nature, confirmed the guilt of Manager Lin and the Lin mother and daughter.

Zhaozhao stepped forward and hugged Meng Shuer, thank you so much.

Meng Shuer: Go away!