A family of loyal martyrs, starting with nine wives to continue the family line.

As Wei Zhao mounted his horse, Li Huai had already smashed the first account book in the Hall of Supreme Harmony.

"Liu Chong, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, embezzled 40% of the disaster relief funds allocated to Qingzhou. He also had 210,000 taels of silver, three boxes of goldware, and 760 mu of land deeds in his private collection."

Li Huai stood below the imperial steps, his marquis's robes not yet properly on, but his voice was already booming. He slammed the account books on the ground and pointed at Liu Chong, who was kneeling in the hall.

"You're telling me your family is poor?"

Liu Chong's face was as white as paper, and his forehead was covered with blue bricks.

"Injustice! I'm innocent! That silver wasn't mine; it was the clan's savings, ancestral property!"

Li Huai smiled.

His smile sent a chill down the spines of several former officials.

"Ancestral property?"

Li Huai squatted down and slapped a yellowed disaster relief silver note next to Liu Chong's face:

"Your ancestors were quite good at picking the right time. The year people starved to death in Qingzhou, your ancestral property happened to increase by 170,000 taels?"

"Confiscating property."

Li Huai stood up, flicked his sleeve, and said, "Liu Chong is dismissed from his post and imprisoned. The Liu family's gates are sealed, and their silver and grain are stored away. Anyone who helped him hide silver and grain will be punished as an accomplice."

Liu Chong suddenly looked up.

"Li Huai! You, a bandit of humble origins, dare to judge court officials?"

The eyelids of several former officials in the hall twitched wildly.

It’s over.

Saying those words isn't asking for life, it's courting death.

Li Huai, however, was not angry; he looked down at him.

"I came from a bandit background, so I know what it's like for ordinary people to go hungry."

His voice suddenly turned cold: "You were dressed impeccably, so when people were starving to death in Qingzhou, you were still able to bring silver home."

He turned to look outside the hall.

"Drag it down."

Two imperial guards stepped forward and lifted Liu Chong up.

Liu Chong was still cursing.

"The new Wu dynasty has appointed a bandit as its prime minister! The country is doomed! The country is doomed!"

Li Huai picked up the account book from the ground and dusted it off.

"Next up is Tao Ming, the Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Works."

Tao Ming's legs went weak, and he collapsed to the ground.

Li Huai looked up at Tao Ming.

"You also have ancestral property?"

Tao Ming's lips trembled, and after a long while, he managed to squeeze out a sentence.

"Your Majesty... Your Majesty was unaware that the private merchant would sell to the rebel king..."

Did you know that when you were receiving the money?

"minister……"

That's enough.

Li Huai waved his hand: "Seal off the Tao family, confiscate their workshops, and investigate their clansmen. Those who sold military equipment and iron to the rebel king will be treated as traitors."

Tao Ming shuddered.

"To betray the country? Prime Minister Li, Prime Minister Li, spare my life! I am willing to donate silver, I am willing to donate grain!"

When Li Huai heard the words "Prime Minister Li," his face twitched.

He wasn't used to being addressed that way yet.

But he knew even better that he couldn't afford to show weakness now.

Wei Zhao handed this knife to him not so that he would act like a former official, bowing and scraping politely in court.

His Majesty is fighting the Holy Fire Cult outside.

He had to clean up all the insects in the capital for His Majesty.

"It's too late," Li Huai said. "Drag it out."

Five businesses were sealed off in one morning.

The Liu family, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue; the Tao family, the Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Works; two officials in the Ministry of War who were receiving salaries without working; and a court official in the Ministry of Justice who was selling prison positions.

As the silver chests were carried out of the grand mansion, and the seals were affixed, the people of the capital lined half the street.

Some people dared not shout, out of fear.

I'm afraid this is just a show put on by the new dynasty.

They were also afraid that those powerful clans would retaliate.

But when the Liu family's secret cellar was dug up and chests of silver were exposed, an old woman on the street suddenly knelt down.

"My son died on the way to escape famine in Qingzhou..."

She cried until her voice was hoarse.

"So the silver was here! So the grain and silver were here!"

The crowd erupted as soon as those words were spoken.

"Well done!"

"Kill them!"

"You corrupt official! So many people died in Qingzhou, and they're still hiding silver!"

The imperial guards, their hands on their sword hilts, were initially worried about unrest among the common people. But the shouts grew louder and louder, all directed at the officials whose homes had been ransacked.

Li Huai stood at the Liu family's door, watching the old woman cry so hard she couldn't stand up, her fingers clutching the account book, her knuckles white.

He used to be poor too.

It's not like I've never seen a dead person before.

But at this moment, he truly understood why Wei Zhao wanted to confiscate property, recruit talented individuals, and award land to those who had rendered meritorious service.

Because the common people are not unaware of who is bad.

They just had nowhere to talk about it before.

Now that the new Wu Dynasty dares to kick open the door and bring out the silver chest for them to see, they know that this court is different from the old Wei Dynasty.

At least things are different now.

But as the cursing continued, some people looked up towards the direction outside the city.

"Can Your Majesty truly stop the Holy Fire Cult?"

"I heard there are more than 300,000 people; there are millions more refugees behind them."

"Even the Ten Great Rebel Kings weren't subdued."

"It's good to confiscate the money from corrupt officials, but if the capital is flooded, what use will this money be?"

The sound wasn't loud, but it pierced the crowd like a needle.

Li Huai heard it.

He didn't retaliate.

Because these statements are correct.

The people applauded because they hated corrupt officials.

The people are worried because they still want to live.

If the new Wu Dynasty truly cannot withstand Han Dashan, Zhou Laodao, and the Holy Fire Sect, then even if the confiscation of property is gratifying today, it will become a joke tomorrow.

Li Huai clutched the account books tightly, then turned to the imperial guards beside him and said, "Take the silver to the new treasury of the Ministry of Revenue. Anyone who dares to steal it on the way will be chopped off."

The Imperial Guards clasped their hands in a fist salute.

"As the Prime Minister commands!"

Meanwhile, in the Wang family's inner quarters.

The clan leaders of the Wang, Zheng, Cui, and Lu families sat in a small hall. Tea was laid out on the table, but no one drank it.

Zheng Liang, the head of the Zheng family, spoke first, his voice very low.

"That ruthless Li Huai has his eyes on us."

Cui Heng, the head of the Cui family, sneered.

"He came here specifically to target us. The Wang family controls Chenqiao, the Zheng family controls the grain transport ships, my Cui family hoards grain, and the Lu family is so indebted they're almost bankrupt. His Majesty knows the accounts very well."

Lu Wenshan, the head of the Lu family, turned pale.

"What do you mean 'almost broke'? My Lu family was ruined by Lu Song!"

After these words were spoken, all four of them fell silent for a moment.

Lu Song.

No one can resist the urge to hate those two words.

Wang Huaili gritted his teeth.

"If it weren't for Lu Song, how could my Wang family have lost 70% of our salt permits? He took the money without even giving us an IOU, all under the pretense of military supplies or national expenses. Now that he's dead, the Xinwu Dynasty is coming to us for grain and silver again."

Zheng Liang slammed his hand on the table.

"The same goes for the grain transport ships! Lu Song requisitioned more than two hundred ships from my Zheng family, and less than half of them returned. How many boatmen died? Now Li Huai is even saying that my Zheng family is blocking the grain route."

"You don't have a card?" Cui Heng glanced at him.

Zheng Liang choked for a moment.

"I was protecting myself!"

"Was the Wang family sending gold to Chenqiao also a way to protect themselves?" Lu Wenshan added insult to injury.

Wang Huaili's face darkened further.

"Brother Lu, stop with your sarcastic remarks. Your Lu family is dirt poor right now, so of course you don't need to pledge both. If you still had 300,000 taels, would you pledge it or not?"

Lu Wenshan opened his mouth, but didn't say anything.

押。

Of course I'll bet.

The reason why these aristocratic families have survived to this day is not because of loyalty and righteousness, but because of the prevailing winds.

But now the wind has changed.

Wei Zhao was neither Emperor Yuanxi nor Lu Song.

Emperor Yuanxi was suspicious, and Lu Song was greedy and ruthless, but they were both inseparable from their aristocratic families and from the old dynasty's system of recommendation and prestige.

Wei Zhao was different.

He dared to appoint Li Huai, a commoner, as prime minister; dared to appoint Fang Fuyao as national advisor; and dared to have Nie Yinniang detain the gold-delivering man from the Wang family.

This guy really knows how to flip tables.

Wang Huaili held the teacup, the veins on the back of his hand showing.

"Tell me, how much do you want?"

Zheng Liang frowned.

"How much has the Wang family prepared?"

"Fifty thousand taels of silver and thirty thousand bushels of grain."

Cui Heng laughed out loud.

"Are you trying to appease a beggar?"

Wang Huaili was furious.

"Your Cui family's granaries are full, so of course you can talk big without understanding the situation! Don't you know how badly Lu Song plundered my Wang family?"

"My Cui family doesn't run grain mines."

Cui Heng's face darkened: "Last year's famine caused 30% of the tenants to flee. Lu Song has already levied grain twice, and the Xinwu Dynasty is going to levy it again. If we keep levying more, the estate will be empty."

Zheng Liang gritted his teeth.

"The Zheng family provided ships. One hundred and twenty cargo ships, with the boatmen paid as usual, to transport grain from Jiangnan for the imperial court. The silver... twenty thousand taels."

Cui Heng closed his eyes.

"The Cui family contributed 100,000 shi of grain."

Wang Huaili's eyelids twitched.

"Are you crazy?"

Cui Heng looked at him.

"What can we do if we don't go crazy? Wait for Li Huai to bring his men to dig up the temple's hidden storage?"

Wang Huaili fell silent.

Wang Huaili put down his teacup.

"The Wang family has 80,000 taels of silver and 20,000 shi of grain. No more than that."

Zheng Liang looked at him.

"What about Chenqiao?"

Wang Huaili's eyes darkened.

"It's broken."

He paused, then added.

"From today onwards, anyone who dares to send even a single tael of silver to the rebel king will be expelled from the family register without Li Huai even needing to come."

No one laughed.

It's because Wei Zhao's blade is too fast.

It got so fast that they dared not gamble anymore.

Inside the palace, Tuoba Yue held the Tiger Tally Deputy Commander in his hand, sitting very uncomfortably.

Xie Daoning went with the army, and Liu Jingshuang and Huo Qingluan also went on the expedition with Wei Zhao.

Only a few of them remained in the palace. From the outside, everything seemed peaceful, but Tuoba Yue felt as if she were being roasted by fire.

Why can't she go?

She can ride horses, launch night raids, and lead Qiang cavalry.

Even though the mountain roads in Xiqiang were so difficult before, she was able to lead people through them.

Now, things are really messed up. With Wei Zhao going on an expedition, she can only stay in the palace with her other sisters.