Doctor Amnesiac, but not completely amnesiac

Zhu Ronghui had gone through so many ups and downs that his brain almost stopped thinking. At this moment, he held Qiao Yelan's hand and no longer had the cold and arrogant expression he had before.

"Thank you, Your Majesty - Thank you, Shaofu Supervisor. I will do my best to serve Your Majesty outside of Dayan!"

"Okay, Your Excellency Zhu Rong, get up quickly. His Majesty said that in order to avoid suspicion from the outside world, you should not come to the palace to thank him. You must pretend that you know nothing and start preparing to take up your post immediately."

"I understand! I will do it right away!"

Finally, after paying his respects to Qiao Yelan, Zhu Ronghui forced himself to suppress the expression on his face, pretending that he had just received an imperial edict, and returned to his home.

"Let's go, Ace."

"Yes, doctor."

Qiao Yelan's wheelchair wobbled as he moved towards the Shaofu.

Wang Zhi, who had been in charge of this matter, was still waiting in the Shaofu because of Qiao Yelan's order.

The emperor had no old feelings for Zhu Rong Hui. He was just a palace commander and a small family. It didn't matter if he was destroyed. He issued this imperial decree just to draw other people's attention to him.

It’s just that Qiao Yelan needs the head of the Zhurong family as another trump card for counterattack, so he made up such a story so that Zhurong Hui can stay in the Tower of Babel wholeheartedly and will not have the idea of ​​"going back to Dayan to have a look".

So he sent Wang Zhi away and asked Ace to push him to Zhu Rong's house to read the imperial edict.

Besides this, there was another purpose for replacing his wheelchair with someone other than the Shaofu.

He glanced at a man who was covering his face with a hat at the corner of the street. When the other person saw Qiao Yelan turning his head, he immediately pretended to be just a passerby.

It seems that the Dali Temple is really short of manpower, so when it comes to keeping an eye on people like me who are less suspicious, they send out these newbies.

Chapter 86: Startled Snake

"Master Cai."

"Yunshan is here, sit down and have some tea."

The Minister of Personnel Gao Cheng bowed respectfully to his teacher before sitting on the chair.

Cai Yan was still flipping through the documents in his hand. He put down what he was holding only after the waiter who served tea left and they were the only two left in the study.

"The Ministry of Revenue is in a real mess right now. After Minister Wang died, people's hearts are all in chaos. Now most of the government affairs of the Ministry of Revenue are piled up in my hands."

Cai Yan hit his forehead tiredly.

Originally, he was supposed to integrate the six ministries and had to participate in all the work. Now that the year is coming to an end, there are even more and more complicated things to do. The Ministry of Revenue is now overwhelmed by two consecutive family annihilation cases, and all the officials who have "business dealings" with Minister Wang are a little panicked, so naturally no one is handling the matter.

"Where is Minister Chen?"

"Chen Fan was found. It was said that before Minister Wang's family was exterminated, he had entered his residence and was tortured by the Dali Temple."

Gao Cheng frowned. The Heavenly Master only looked at evidence when doing things, regardless of official positions. It was obvious that Chen Fan was caught and investigated by the Dali Temple because of his own uncleanness.

"It seems that Minister Chen is also having a bad year. He just wanted to change the cage for his white gloves, but he ran into the emperor at the critical moment when he wanted to use the Shaofu to turn the tide. This is really a disaster."

"He was blinded by greed. He made a fortune from smuggling during the civil unrest in Longmen in recent years, but he never thought that Wei Yanwu would take a cut of his profits in proportion. In just three months, the situation went from a stalemate to a complete victory. The methods of our [Deposed Crown Prince] are still as sophisticated as ever."

Cai Yan was very dissatisfied with Chen Fan's behavior. It was obviously a big business that could last for a long time, but this guy exploited it to the fullest and the situation changed drastically in just a few years. Next, Longmen's business would have to return to being a "legal business" under the supervision of the Dayan royal family.

Prime Minister Cai was able to have absolute power in the court. Apart from the imperial examinations, he also needed money, huge sums of money. Now Chen Fan had fallen from grace, leading to the end of the Dali Temple. Not only had a large amount of gray income disappeared, but even the Ministry of Revenue might be controlled by the emperor.

"What a fool!"

He still couldn't help but curse.

Cai Yan can still control his mouth now, which shows that he is well-mannered enough - God knows how lucky he is to have the power he has now.

Originally, he had never had such an idea at all. Both the late emperor and the crown prince were extremely outstanding political animals. After the handover between two generations, Cai Yan had never thought of connecting with court officials and controlling the government.

But the accident came so suddenly - His Majesty the Crown Prince was suddenly seduced by a princess from the East Country and lost his mind. He even threw away the position of the Eastern Palace and ran to Longmen, saying that he was going to guard the border for Dayan.

The late emperor, who was already in poor health, was almost suffocated by anger. He could only hurriedly pick the tallest one among the short ones and promote the prince to the throne. However, before he could repave the road for him, he passed away.

This caused the ministers in the court to be confused - we were all pulled by your majesty before. We have already paid homage to Wei Yanwu, and now you have suddenly replaced someone to sit on the throne, what should we do?

The original rules of the game in Dayan were that the crown prince would slowly cultivate his own people in the court while governing the country. Then, after the emperor changed, the old ministers would gradually begin to retire, and the people would be replaced by those trained by the new emperor.

Generation after generation of emperors and courtiers played the game of sitting in a row and eating fruit tacitly. Except for those who were particularly outstanding and those who were particularly good at hiding, this was basically the rule.

Now, after the emperor came to power, the new ministers entering the court were all cronies of the previous prince. They are naturally wary of and distrustful of the new emperor. The old generation of ministers are all shrewd people, and the new emperor, who was poorly educated, has no means to control them.

So when Cai Yan discovered this problem, he immediately realized that this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

He used the promise of guaranteed power to win over the old ministers of the previous dynasty who were still in office, used the real distribution of benefits to stabilize the core ministers, and threatened the new ministers with the fear of being suppressed and excluded by the new emperor - thus setting up a whole big net covering the court and locking the emperor out of the court.

As the new court became more and more proficient in its operations, everyone soon discovered that it made no difference whether there was an emperor or not. The work was still done the same, and Dayan was still as strong - but they were earning more and more.

As a result, this network became stronger and stronger, and Cai Yan's power became increasingly consolidated.

But recent events seem to have caused cracks in this network.

First, Longmen was pacified in a short period of time, and the smuggling route came to an abrupt end. After Wei Yanwu completely took over Longmen, his attitude towards them immediately became ambiguous.

Then the emperor suddenly decided to expand the Shaofu - there was no doubt that this was aimed at the Longmen trade circulation that was about to be formalized.

The emperor was also very clear that even if the amount of commercial tax in Dayan returned to normal, the Ministry of Revenue was able to do its accounting perfectly and spend all the extra money without leaving a penny.

So in order to get the money, he mobilized the Shaofu, the commercial department directly managed by the royal family, and even promoted a white-clothed official to the third rank, just to get a piece of the pie.

Actually, there is nothing wrong with this. Cai Yan can certainly see that the reason why the emperor made such an exceptional promotion was to skip the imperial examination for selecting officials - it's just that this kind of thing was suppressed once and there was no follow-up.

Therefore, Cai Yan was not in a hurry at all. It was very easy to control a young man, who had risen from a commoner to a high-ranking official, whether in the business world or in the officialdom - as long as he was pinned down and unable to bring money back from Longmen, the anxious emperor would definitely kill this "favorite of the emperor" with his own hands.

As a result, when Minister Wang was washing his gloves, he killed a family while washing them, and accidentally involved Qiao Yelan - and Qiao Yelan also showed political wisdom that was not in line with his age. In order to shirk the responsibility, he directly brought the matter to the table.

No matter how inexperienced the emperor was, he knew that this was an opportunity - so he directly concluded that this was a deliberate slap in the face of the royal family, and that it must be investigated, and it must be investigated thoroughly. Not only did he take advantage of the issue in the court to defeat the Jingzhao prefect who was in his own camp, but he also directly implicated the Dali Temple.

That's why Cai Yan gave Minister Wang a chance to commit suicide when Chen Fan brought people to find him.

The meaning of Chen Fan bringing people here is very clear. He can't protect Minister Wang alone. Either everyone comes together to protect him, or he just does it.

Cai Yan was still thinking about maintaining the rules of the game at the time, meaning to throw Minister Wang out as a scapegoat and place another minister in the Ministry of Revenue for the emperor. This way both sides would be able to get out of this, the emperor would not pursue the matter, and the court officials would not resist, so they could continue to play the officialdom game.

As a result, Chen Fan probably didn't believe in Minister Wang's integrity at all. He thought that if this guy went to the Dali Temple, he would confess everything, so he just killed him.

That's fine. After all, if it's like the case of Shopkeeper Wang, it's just an unsolved case. Once the New Year is over, the 15-day holiday comes, and there's a heavy snow, all the evidence will be gone.

The worst move this guy made was to deliberately leave a person alive, and then he fucking tried to put the blame on the Emperor's Imperial Guards.

The emperor originally just wanted to investigate a minister, because he only knew that this man had a dirty trick - now that this man has been killed and the blame has been put on someone else, the emperor will surely realize that it turns out that Minister Wang was not a dirty trick, but a complete brute of coal.

Therefore, the emperor would definitely continue to investigate, to find out where the coal ball marks were, and then follow the clues all the way to the source, and the entire Ministry of Revenue would be implicated.

"Master Cai, what should we do?"

"Be constant in the face of change. Chen Fan has created this mess himself, so he should clean it up himself!"

Cai Yan snorted coldly.

"We just watch?"

"Of course I'll just watch. He's made a lot of money in Longmen in the past few years. With this favorable wind, he has run the Ministry of Revenue in a very tight manner. He even has the intention of competing with me. He has pretended to obey my requests several times but actually disobeyed them. Now let him have a taste of the consequences of creating division."

Gao Cheng nodded.

"Then I have to stay away from Minister Chen. He has approached me several times in private. This time I came to ask about your attitude, my dear teacher. Since you said so, I know what to do."

"Unless the Dali Temple has really found something and the emperor wants to take the opportunity to replace him with a new minister of the Ministry of Revenue, we will work together to protect him. Before that, let this guy suffer a hard time."

Cai Yan made the final statement.

For the disobedient "subordinates", they must be beaten painfully before they can be rescued.

------------------------------------------------------------

Chen Fan sat in his study, his face haggard and gloomy.

Minister Wang's case has been under investigation by the Dali Temple for seven days. During these seven days, the emperor has held court meetings every day. He has never seen the other party so diligent.

The reason why the other party was so diligent was that the Dali Temple really dug out a lot of things.

First, it was reported that Minister Wang bribed the Jingzhao Yinfu and secretly took away Manager Wang's property. Then, as the investigation continued, it was discovered that the wealth of Minister Wang's family could not be explained at all - even if it was earned through traveling business, it did not match the accounts of Wang's business.

So they continued to investigate and found other officials in the Ministry of Revenue.

Now, the entire Ministry of Revenue is in a panic. I used to be very proud of myself, thinking that I had run the Ministry of Revenue into an iron plate. But now, this iron plate has been soaked in acid and is rotting completely.

Originally, things would not have come to this point. No matter how sharp the sword of the Dali Temple was, it was impossible for the emperor to wield it so unscrupulously. Otherwise, the court would have been taken back long ago.

The problem was that, apart from himself, there was no one to hold the emperor's hand.

Cai Yan just pretended to be deaf and dumb at the court meeting, and Gao Cheng from the Ministry of Personnel looked for him many times, but he always spoke in official language, saying that it had not come to that stage yet, and that they would certainly help him when it came.

"It's all bullshit!"

Chen Fan pushed hard, sweeping everything on the desk to the ground.

dong dong dong.

"master--"

"roll!"

It quickly became quiet outside.

Chen Fan was panting heavily. How could he not know what Cai Yan was planning?

It's just that his eyes are red with joy when he sees himself making money, and he is dissatisfied that he is not his pawn like Gao Cheng, so he wants to use the emperor's hand to give himself a severe beating.

Yes, maybe they will really stand up and keep themselves as the Minister of Revenue when the emperor wants to remove them - but this is to ensure that the court is still in their hands, and to show others!

If all the assistant ministers and doctors under him were wiped out by the Dali Temple, then all his hard work over the years would be in vain and would be just an empty shell.

When these official positions are vacated, the people who fill them will definitely be Cai Yan's people - wouldn't that mean he would also be sidelined and just be a puppet minister?

"How cruel! Prime Minister Cai!"

He muttered through gritted teeth.

This was another open conspiracy - Cai Yan certainly knew that Chen Fan knew his intention, but Chen Fan had no choice. Either Chen Fan would surrender now and lose half, kneel in front of Cai Yan and beg for forgiveness, and become a servant, or he would wait for Cai Yan to use the Dali Temple to chop him into a lonely man, and finally leave him a puppet position of Shangshu.

But Chen Fan had no intention of admitting defeat. His Cai family was a prominent family with many students and old friends. Could it be that his Chen family was so bad that they didn't even have the qualifications to fight back?

If he is really pushed into a corner, the Cai family will have no chance of escaping the situation!

Chen Fan calmed down again and sat in a chair to think.

Now no one in the court will speak for the Ministry of Revenue, but his position as the Shangshu is not so easy to change, and the little evidence is not enough to do anything to the Chen family. If the emperor really wants to make a fuss, not to mention Cai Yan, all other ministers will stop the emperor.

Therefore, the most important thing now is to stop the loss in time. The official positions in the Ministry of Revenue are vacant, but the important thing is that the people who fill these vacancies cannot be all Cai Yan or the emperor's people. We must have our own talents.

He began to count the people he could still use, those who could re-enter the Ministry of Households with the support of the Chen family. These talents would be the most important part for him to continue to be in charge of the Ministry of Households.

dong dong dong.

There were three more knocks on the door.

Chen Fan's expression froze.

Given his attitude just now, if someone still dared to knock on the door of his study, it must be something big.

"Come in."

The person who ran in was the legal advisor with a nervous look on his face.

"My Lord—something happened again! Something serious!"

Chen Fan's heart skipped a beat and he immediately stood up from his chair, staring at the master in front of him.

When the advisor told him the news that Minister Wang's family had been exterminated, his expression was serious and he said to him, "Something happened."

Now this sentence [something big happened]...

"Zhu Ronghui, the junior minister of the Honglu Temple sent by His Majesty to Victoria, was slaughtered along with his family. It was discovered by a passing caravan and reported to Leitania, who then reported it back!"

The master trembled as he told this earth-shattering news.

Chapter 87 The truth is deceiving

"Shaoqing Yu, it's been a long time since we last met. You came to the Shaofu in person this time. Is there anything you need the Shaofu to cooperate with the Dali Temple?"

"Indeed, there is something wrong. It's just a few questions. I hope to verify it with the Minister of the Imperial Household."

Yu Cheng's fatigue was hard to conceal, but his expression was still extremely serious.

"Please take a seat. I will tell you everything I know."