Yan Zheng stood up blankly and looked in Zhu Yunxi's direction tremblingly, his eyes full of shock.
The next second, he knelt down with a bang and shouted, "Your Majesty!"
~~
Xu Ping'an raised his head in confusion, first looked at Zhu Yunxi, and then at the officials kneeling in the lobby.
"He is the emperor?"
"Aren't all emperors old men with white beards?"
In an instant, his mind was as confused as mud.
Then bite your tongue fiercely!
"Ouch!"
pain!
Not a dream!
He is truly an emperor!
Immediately, Xu Pingan's body began to tremble violently...
Then, tears welled up in his eyes.
~
At the same time that Zhang Qian knelt down in front of Zhu Yunxi, several guards around him formed a human wall in front of him almost simultaneously.
Under the lobby, all the people watching the excitement were stunned.
They looked at the young man in front of them as if they had lost their souls.
After seeing the humble kowtows of those officials, in an instant, the eyes of these common people burst out with a hot and bright light.
There was even an old man who stretched out his hand tremblingly and timidly touched the air in front of him, as if it was Zhu Yunxi's body.
"Your Majesty! I actually saw the Emperor?"
"Long live my emperor, long live, long live..."
A deafening cry rang out, and the sound spread farther and farther.
The news reached directly outside the Chief Secretary's office, causing more and more people to rush over.
At this moment, they seemed like devout believers.
No, they are devout believers!
But then, the roar of countless combat boots sounded, and Chang Sen's soldiers unsheathed their swords and directly built a human wall.
The people swarming in were like the waves of a flood crashing on the shore. Although they were surging, they could not move forward.
At the same time, the sharp blades of the Chang family soldiers and bodyguards made these people wake up from their excitement in an instant and became awe-inspiring.
~
"The guilty minister Zhang Qian, long live my emperor!"
The crowd fell silent, and Zhang Qian knelt down and continued to kowtow.
Zhu Yunxi walked slowly into the lobby with his hands behind his back. When he passed by Zhang Qian, he didn't even look at him.
Instead, he said as he walked, "You can guess that I am here, which proves that you are a very smart person!"
As he said that, he slowly turned around and stared at Zhang Qian, "You just said so many words! Are you talking to me?"
"I dare not!" Zhang Qian continued to kowtow.
"When you say how you are, what you are saying is that in fact, you can't help yourself to get to where you are today, right?"
Zhu Yunxi smiled and said, "Do you think what you said makes sense?"
"I dare not say that I am justified, but... I can only go with the flow!"
"Ha!" Zhu Yunxi raised his head and laughed, "What a follower! Who is the wave and who is the stream? You mean, the officialdom is a big dye vat, and you can't be alone!"
"Ha!" Zhu Yunxi laughed again, "Do you know what I felt when I heard it?"
As he spoke, he continued, "Strong words... No, no, using the word strong words is a compliment to you. It should be, nonsense!"
Having said this, Zhu Yunxi walked slowly to the hall and looked at the plaque hanging high in the mirror.
He suddenly remembered the Taoist named Jun Bao and said, "The atmosphere of the officialdom is like the mountains and rivers that cannot be changed. And your personal integrity is the rugged mountain road!"
"You have gone astray on your own, so why should you blame the mountains and rivers? If you can't control yourself, do you still blame the sun, moon and stars?"
Then, Zhu Yunxi sighed slightly, "You have said so much, and the only one you can probably convince is yourself! But in the ears of others, it is just sophistry!"
Immediately, Zhu Yunxi turned around and pointed at the kneeling Xu Ping'an and the neighbors who had lost their loved ones.
"I'm not angry that you are greedy for ink! Human beings, greed comes first!" Zhu Yunxi sneered, "But I won't tolerate the remnants of the people!" As he said, he pointed at the prisoners who were still unconscious and said loudly, "You guys
You have killed someone's relative and yet you are not allowed to complain. You have to make excuses, so what do you think of them?"
"They are human beings! They are human beings just like you, but they have no rights. Are they going to be bullied by you at will?"
Having said this, Zhu Yunxi gritted his teeth, slowly sat down on the official chair, and sneered, "Do you think they can oppress them at will? Do you think you can trample on the national laws at will? And then you can explain it with a light and easy word of going with the flow?"
"Ha! What a big joke! If you were just greedy, the people would be the one to scold you. But for you remnant people, the people would be scolding the Ming Dynasty and me, the emperor!"
boom!
Zhu Yunxi slapped the table, and the iron coupon of Chang Sen's Alchemy Book on it was shaken and stood up.
"Long live Lord, calm down!"
Chang Sen quickly advised him, and with a flick of his wrist, he put the iron coupon of the alchemy book into his sleeve.
"And you!"
Zhu Yunxi pointed to the side, and said with a lost look, "As a provincial inspector, in charge of the prosecution and punishment of a province, you think about the golden mean and live in peace, how stupid you are!"
"And the Chief Secretary of Huguang!" Zhu Yunxi said angrily again, "Remind me of a word, officials protect each other!"
"If... if you have a little bit of conscience, why are the people unable to ask for help? But if you and others have a little bit of integrity, how can the officialdom be corrupted?"
"Zhang Qian, tell me!" Zhu Yunxi said loudly, "What crime do you deserve?"
"The guilty minister..." Zhang Qian looked up with a wry smile, "The guilty one should be stripped of his skin and disguised as grass, and hung on this official office to alert future generations!"
"But I...I have something to say!"
"Okay! I'll just listen to your dying words and see if they are good or not?"
~
"Your Majesty, you probably know that Wuchang is not the only one that is corrupt in officialdom in the world!"
Zhang Qian was kneeling. He seemed to be relaxed at this moment. He was no longer so scared or nervous. There was no sign of trembling on his body.
"But Your Majesty, have you ever thought about the source of the corruption in officialdom?"
Zhu Yunxi sneered and continued to listen to the rest.
"As early as the time of Emperor Taizu and Emperor Gao, there were corrupt officials in the world, but that was just personal corruption, not like now, where they are caught one after another!"
"Is it just because of the harsh punishments imposed by Emperor Taizu Gao?" Zhang Qian shook his head, "I'm afraid not!"
Speaking of this, he sighed, "During the time of Emperor Taizu Gao, the taxes of all states in the world were fixed. Where there were many people and rich areas, they paid more! Where there were few people, they paid less!"
"Even if the population increases in the future, with this foundation in place, places with a large population will still have a large population, so there is nothing wrong with a fixed tax!"
"The fixed tax is a land tax and a Ding tax. Even if a commercial tax is collected occasionally, it is still a thirty tax! Moreover, state governments are not allowed to create arbitrary names and increase taxes without authorization."
"At that time, the Ming Dynasty would not charge an annual fixed tax exceeding 32 million taels. At that time, a top-class county's annual public expenditure could not exceed 90 taels!"
"You remember clearly!" Zhu Yunxi sneered.
"The guilty minister was once a county magistrate!" Zhang Qian smiled bitterly, "At that time, the emperor was still the grandson of the Eastern Palace."
As he spoke, he raised his head again, "A county's public expenditure is said to be ninety taels, but in fact it often doesn't even reach fifty taels. It's not that you don't want to spend it, or that you don't have room to spend it."
"It costs money to receive Mr. Shangfeng, to greet and send him off. It also costs money to entertain the squires and elders, and to support poor students! The reason why you can't even reach ninety taels every year is because you really have no money!"
"And now, in Wuchang alone, the cost of delivering goods last year was as high as 2,700 silver dollars! Why? Because today's government is rich!"
Zhu Yunxi already knew what Zhang Qian was going to say.
Chang Sen was still confused, but Li Jinglong was furious, "Stop! Do you still have your father in your eyes?"
"Let him say it!" Zhu Yunxi said with a sneer, "I have dealt with so many corrupt officials, but I have never seen anyone accuse me of wrongdoing in front of me!"