Kowloon wins

Chapter 248 Joining forces to dig a pit ([-])

Time flies, and in a blink of an eye, it is April of the 44th year of Kangxi. Compared with the turmoil of last year, the court situation in the past few months has been extraordinarily stable, and all affairs have been carried out in an orderly manner-the official department finally took out the The final plan of the return of fire consumption to the public was reported to the inner court. After reading it, the old man thought it was a good idea and approved it; and the Ministry of Households also sorted out all the repayment contracts signed by the clearing of debts, and attached the implementation status for more than a year, and reported it to the inner court. It was submitted to the imperial court, and the old man issued an edict to proceed, and issued an order to reward the fourth master and many officials of the household department. The rewards were poor; Rong Zhu, the governor of Henan Province, also wrote a book, asking for the pre-sale strategy of the fertile land obtained by the river. He rushed to Henan with a silver bill in his arms, but within a few days, the governor's office in Henan became the most lively place in the world, and Rong Zhu, who was caught off guard, was devastated.

A stable court situation is naturally a good thing, at least for Hongqing. After all, although there were a lot of harvest last year, it took time to digest it, whether it was the placement of manpower in various ministries, or other matters such as river management and shipbuilding. , all need a relatively peaceful transition period, besides, after several big competitions last year, the third master is now firmly in the leading position, and there is really no need to act rashly and ignorantly, Hong Qing is naturally happy This kind of harmonious scene can continue like this. Every day, I go to the school to take pictures, and go to the Ministry of Works to take pictures. Occasionally, I am free, and I can still have fun with the old fifteen brothers. This little life is really very pleasant.

As the saying goes, the tree wants to be quiet but the wind doesn't stop, Hong Qing wants to be safe, but others may not be willing to let him be safe like this. No, this morning the court has just started, and the inspector censor Liang Chengyi has already jumped in first It came out that the previous article impeached the 260 million catties of salt used by the third master during the disaster relief last year for fraudulent use, and the approval of the salt was wrong, requesting a thorough investigation.As soon as this book was published, without waiting for the old man to ask, I saw that there were many people who came forward to agree with him. Inside, the crown prince, eldest elder brother, and eighth master's disciples all complained and accused the third master of abusing the court's grace and being a debtor of the emperor's favor. The situation of the imperial court changed suddenly, and all civil and military officials in the Manchu Dynasty were worried about it.

What are these bastards trying to do?
The dogs barked wildly, and everyone was astonished, but Hong Qing was puzzled—it was true that Yan Yin was hired by San Ye, but the actual person who handled it was Hong Qing. Of course, Hong Qing was just It’s just a name, Hong Qing’s energy was already absorbed by the river regulation back then, so he didn’t have the time to care who the salt was sold to. Generally speaking, the “Kirin Company” came forward to communicate with the Lianghuai ground. Hongqing only took care of collecting the money, and never even met those salt merchants. It was only after the case of Mu Ning that he met those salt merchants. Since it is impossible to have anything to do with fraud, the problem is that these salts flowed out of the hands of the third master. If something goes wrong in using it, it will be difficult for the third master to stay out of the matter, but it is not possible to talk about it It's not too much trouble, at most it's just a weakness in supervision, even if you have to be implicated, it's nothing more than admonishing the matter, and it's impossible to really hurt the prestige of the third master. This point, Hong Qing knew very well, the only thing she didn't know was what the elder brothers were trying to do by working so hard to create this impeachment drama.

"Yinzhen."

Not to mention that Hongqing was full of doubts about such a sudden joint impeachment, the old man was also a little ignorant, frowning slightly, and after patiently listening to the suggestions of Shangben's ministers, he did not ask for the details, but frowned. With a raise, he calmly called fourth master's name.

"My son is here!"

As the elder brother of the management department, the fourth master was already at the front of the line when the imperial gate was in charge of the government, so he had already noticed the change in the old man's expression, and he had long been concerned about it. When the roll call was called, the spirit was lifted immediately, and he hurriedly stepped forward, and promised loudly.

"Let's talk about it, did the Ministry of Household Affairs find any inappropriateness when writing it off?"

The benefit of salt and iron is the country's most important weapon. The court has always controlled it very strictly. The old man does not believe that the third master will mess up on such important matters. The reason is very simple. Didn't see " The business of "Kirin Company" is so hot, how can the third master be short of silver taels, and why should he take the risk of ruining his reputation by tampering with the salt quotations whose total price is only 80 taels of silver? This is obviously unreasonable. , how could he really be blindfolded by the ferocious bullets of the courtiers, but this is the period of the great court after all, so many courtiers are playing bullets together, it is not a trivial matter, but it is really impossible not to express, It is precisely because of this that the old man named fourth master, that is, he wanted to know how serious the problem was from the verification results of the Ministry of Household Affairs.

"Returning to Huang Ama, the verification and write-off of this batch of salt quotations was done by the household department that reported at the end of last year. After several months of verification, it was found that some of the salt quotations were actually loaded with doubts about the actual number. My son has ordered Fan Shijie to review them in detail. The details have not been reported to Erchen, you have to ask Fan Langzhong to know the details."

The fourth master is a shrewd person, so he knew the intention of the old man's question as soon as he heard it. But he didn't intend to personally detonate a big disturbance, but kicked the problem to Fan Shijie who was in charge of it with a few light words.

"Well, where is Fan Shijie?"

Fan Shijie was considered an influential figure in last year's debt settlement, and the old man still had a good impression of him. Hearing what fourth master said at the moment, he didn't think much of it, and then named Fan Shijie.

"Fan Shijie, the minister of Qing officials in the south of the Yangtze River, kowtows to His Majesty!"

Fan Shijie is only a fifth-rank official, barely qualified to go to court, so he is naturally at the bottom of the ranking. Hearing His Majesty's roll call at this moment, he dared not delay the slightest, and hurriedly squeezed out from the queue of officials of the household department , quickly rushed to the front of the imperial court, knelt down on the ground, and respectfully reported his family.

"Well, since Aiqing is in charge of the write-off of the salt quotation, do you know where the specially designed salt quotation last year went? Is there anything that does not match the number?"

Although the old man didn't shout, the tone of the question was very kind.

"Returning to Your Majesty, I received the write-off document and various bills sent by Qing Baylor on November 260 last year. Because of the seriousness of the matter, I dare not be negligent. This spring It was reported early in the morning that the two Huaihe salt transport envoys had their own divisions along the way. After careful study of the details, it was found that this batch of 40 million catties of salt was purchased by five companies, all of which were transporters (one of the classifications of salt merchants). It is the Xu family in Huainan, Sun, Wang, Dong, and Liu in Yangzhou. According to investigations, among them, the Xu family in Huainan transported 50 catties of salt to central Sichuan, and the verification was correct; the Sun family transported 60 catties of salt to Hubei. The approved amount was [-] catties more; the Wang family originally got [-] catties of salt and transported it to the capital. According to investigations, it was [-] catties more than the approved amount and was unloaded in Baoding; the rest of the families also had their own differences. However, the amount is not large, and it is basically equal to the approved amount, and I dare not conceal it, and all the values ​​are based on evidence."

Fan Shijie obviously came prepared, and after a long speech with detailed data, he opened his mouth, which immediately caused all the civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty to discuss in disorder.

"Yinzhi, do you have anything to say?"

Although the difference between the data obtained after verification and the amount of salt cited originally approved is not too great, the two interests of salt and iron are related to the revenue of the imperial court, so they must be ignored. The old man is obviously very dissatisfied with this mistake, Without waiting for the chattering voices of the officials to stop for a while, they directly called the name of the third master.

"Returning to Huang Ama, I really don't know about it. If Fan Langzhong's words are true, I have indeed neglected to observe. I dare not shirk, and I will leave everything to Huang Ama."

The third master didn't expect such a big show to be staged this morning. Seeing that the situation was wrong, he was inevitably panicked, but he didn't know anything about Yan Yin's write-off. But how can I find a very reasonable reasoning, instead of making random sophistry and being held up by everyone, I should not admit my guilt incomparably. Therefore, as soon as the third master stood up, he immediately admitted his negligence and put on a posture of allowing the old man to deal with him.

"Huang Mafa, my grandson has something to say."

The third master can admit his mistakes, but Hong Qing can't just sit back and watch the third master's reputation be damaged. Seeing the old man's face darken, Hong Qing couldn't bear it any longer, so she walked out of the queue quickly and headed towards the end. The old man sitting in front of Qianqing Gate bowed deeply, and said in a high voice.

"Om..."

Seeing that Hong Qing was about to come out at such a time, all the ministers lined up neatly below suddenly had a chatter for a while, and although the eldest elder brother and others who were in the front line had never participated in it, they all wanted to They all kept their mouths tightly shut, but there was obviously a strange heat in their eyes looking at Hong Qing.

"Hmm, if you have something to say, let's say it. I'm listening."

The old man is actually very satisfied with the performances of the third master last year. Whether it is the quick relief of disasters, the decisiveness in paying off debts, or the modest retreat after success, they all suit the old man's appetite. They besieged, but the old man had no intention of punishing the third master in his heart. He thought that if the third master resisted for a while, he would take advantage of the situation to pull the third master, but he didn't expect the third master to give up so easily. It really made the old man a little difficult to deal with - the punishment was heavy, the old man couldn't bear it, the punishment was light, and he was worried that the officials would fight endlessly. When he was struggling, he saw Hong Qing's head popping up. The old man was naturally happy to let Hong Qing play a good role, so he suppressed his hand, stopped the chaotic voices of the officials, and very kindly gave Hong Qing a chance to speak.

(End of this chapter)