After the Long Case, Emperor Ning raised his head slightly, and stared at Li Qin kneeling in the hall with his deep black eyes under his thick eyebrows, wanting to see what drama he was going to sing today, and said in a deep voice: "Oh? Please punish me.
?Then tell me what crime you committed?"
Li Qin's eyes flashed with a cunning that was not noticed by others, and then he showed a sad expression, and replied: "To inform my father, I have found out that Sun Tian, the left minister of the Ministry of Revenue, has repeatedly abused his power for personal gain, tampered with the accounts of the Ministry of Revenue, and embezzled stolen goods during his tenure in office.
It is a violation of the law, this is the evidence collected by my ministers during this period, and I hope my father will take a look at it."
After speaking, he took out a memorial and two yellow-brown-covered account books from his sleeve and handed them over with both hands.
Seeing this, Emperor Ning frowned slightly and glanced at Bai Chang beside him.
Bai Chang nodded slightly, walked quickly to Li Qin, took a few things, and presented them to Emperor Ning.
Emperor Ning opened the memorial above and found that it listed the crimes committed by Sun Tian in the past six months. The content was almost the same as the evidence investigated by the Star Guards two days ago. He glanced at the account book a few more times and continued:
"Since Sun Tian embezzled money, what does it have to do with you?"
"To inform my father, I did not know who Sun Tian was before. I was confused by him and accepted his gift in a moment of confusion. I did not know that the gift I received came from the treasury. I am guilty and willing to accept any punishment." Li Qin's
His tone was full of regret, and his head was knocked tightly against the cold floor tiles.
Hearing this, Emperor Ning narrowed his eyes slightly. He had a fairly clear idea of the distribution of forces in the court. Sun Tian had joined King Xun's camp last year. The left minister of the household department had evil intentions, but he wanted to reach into the treasury.
It is impossible that he has nothing to do with Li Qin. I never thought that Li Qin would choose to abandon this chess piece directly. But if you think about it carefully, the Star Guards have almost completed the investigation of the household department. Even if the other party does not come to apologize to you,
He would also settle accounts with Li Qin in a few days. His face looked unhappy and he said in a deep voice: "Now that you have found out Sun Tian's guilt, haven't you thought about how I will punish you?"
Li Qin swallowed his saliva. He knew that the implication of his father's words was that he was blaming himself for putting all the responsibilities on Sun Tian. But at this time, he could only pretend to be confused and kowtowed: "My son, I
I know that my sins are serious and I beg my father to punish me."
"Okay, then I will satisfy you. I will ask you to return the stolen silver you got from Sun Tian within three days, and pay an additional 20% of the silver. You will be fined for one year, and you will sit in the palace of Prince Xun and meditate for a month." Emperor Ning said.
He slapped the table hard and replied slightly angrily.
Logically speaking, he should have demoted Li Qin to a fief for daring to put his hand into the treasury. However, considering that the circumstances were not serious, coupled with Li Qin's contribution to the court and his willingness to plead guilty, he had no choice but to be lenient.
punishment.
"My son, I obey." Li Qin kowtowed again and thanked him, but the corners of his mouth were slightly raised.
Emperor Ning sighed, waved his hand and said, "Okay, please step back first."
However, Li Qin still did not move. He took out a memorial from his sleeve again and said: "To inform my father, in addition to Sun Tian, during the investigation, I also found some information about Zhao Yili, the right minister of the Ministry of Revenue.
Please also ask Father to take a look at it."
Hearing this, Emperor Ning frowned again and ordered Bai Chang to hand over the memorial. After scanning it for a few times, he slowly raised his head, stared at Li Qin, and said in a deep voice: "I understand, please step back."
This time, Li Qin had no ink marks. He got up from the ground and saluted, "Yes, I will take my leave."
Emperor Ning stared at Li Qin's back until he was gone, then he shook his head and sighed: "What a preemptive move. He was the first to plead guilty, clear up his relationship with Sun Tian, and provide me with information about Xian'er's contacts with Zhao Yili."
evidence."
Bai Chang bowed and whispered: "His Royal Highness King Xun conspired in front of His Majesty. I don't know why."
"What else can I do? It's just the position of the examiner in this provincial examination. Qin'er is good at everything, but he is too scheming." Emperor Ning replied casually, browsed through the memorial in his hand, and said in a deep voice: "Summon Li Xian to the palace!"
"Yes!" Bai Chang responded, and was about to leave when he found the little eunuch outside the hall walking in.
"Your Majesty, this is the memorial handed over by Chen Zehan, the Tuntian Division Chief." After the young eunuch explained, he handed the thick stack of rice paper in his hand to Bai Chang's hand, and bowed again before exiting the palace.
When Huang Huang saw Bai Chang put the paper on the table, he took the lead to put the memorial aside. He looked through the construction drawings of the Quyuan Plow and the Tube Cart, and combined with the accompanying annotations, his eyes quickly lit up. Not long after, he
I opened the memorial again and saw the production methods and principles of the two things, etc., and finally a smile appeared on my stiff cheeks: "I really saw that boy right."
Then, he touched his chin and thought for a while, and said: "It is all because of Song Kui's inaction that the Hubu became so chaotic. He summoned him to the palace. I want to ask him carefully, what does he want to do about the position of the Hubu Shangshu?"
I don’t want to sit anymore!”
Bai Chang raised his eyebrows lightly. Your Majesty originally wanted to rectify the Ministry of Revenue. Now King Xun has sent Sun Tian to prison, and Tang Ji has brought out the plow and barrel cart. It seems that things are going to change in the Ministry of Revenue. Without thinking more, he turned to
He walked outside the palace, preparing to send his eunuchs to deliver the order.
...
East Market.
At this time, the sun hanging in the west was no longer able to hold up, and it felt like it would fall at any time. The sunset glow in the sky merged into one, making people unable to help but take a second look.
In a small building of medium size and ordinary appearance, a young man in green clothes was walking and chatting with a man in brown clothes.
Tang Ji originally thought that he had just arrived in Kyoto, and he didn't have much money, so he planned to run a small shop in the market. However, the Yang family came out halfway and brought 20,000 taels of silver. Then he was too lazy to pretend to be low-key.
He directly bought a small building to build a bookstore, and bought a shop across the street to open a pastry shop together with Huang Anzhi.
Now that the bookstore has begun to be renovated, he put forward some opinions on the decoration and furnishings in the building. He stood at the gate and looked around, then glanced at the sky, and then said to the man beside him: "Wu
Steward, I have said everything that needs to be said. I will come back later to check and accept the results. If you have anything you don’t understand, you can come to the palace to see me. It’s already getting late, so I’ll leave first.”
"Okay, okay, shopkeeper, don't worry. I will definitely do what you say, and I guarantee your satisfaction." Wu Zhengye nodded with a smile, then bowed and sent him out of the door, waiting until Tang Ji got on the carriage.
, and added: "Shopkeeper, please pay attention to safety on the road."
"Well, don't be too busy too late. Take a rest when you need it." Tang Ji replied politely and then ordered Cheng Tie to set off.
The carriage moved slowly and headed towards the street ahead.
At this moment, in the small building not far away, several people looked at each other, and one person said in a deep voice: "Do it!"