Emperor Qian's beautiful eyebrows frowned slightly, and when she heard these two words, she subconsciously felt disgusted.
Any courtier who is associated with these two words will basically do something treasonous.
After hearing this, Lin Yiqiu continued to raise his hands and said: "Your Majesty, all of this needs to start from one place, Xiangyue Tower!"
"Xiangyue Tower?"
Emperor Qian's frown deepened.
"Isn't that the land of brothels? How does it have anything to do with this trial?"
Hearing this, Lin Yiqiu smiled and said: "It's good that it's a brothel, but it does have something to do with this examination."
"The source of all this is actually because of a woman, one of the top stars of Xiangyue Tower, Miss Cai Die!"
After Lin Yiqiu finished speaking, he calmed down his thoughts a little.
Seeing that Emperor Qian was getting more and more confused, he stopped twisting and came out completely.
"The Cai Die girl from Xiangyue Tower is one of the most beautiful ones in Xiangyue Tower."
"As the Minister of Rites, Zhou Han often goes to Xiangyue Tower for recreation, and he also has a lot of interactions with this Cai Die girl!"
Before he finished speaking, Emperor Qian had already taken the lead in snorting coldly.
"A minister of rites is deeply involved with the brothel girls. This Zhou Han really gives face to the minister of rites and to me, the Great Qianguo!"
There was already a lot of dissatisfaction in his tone.
Lin Yiqiu looked extremely embarrassed.
He thought that he was also a minister of the Ministry of Etiquette, a eunuch, and had a lot of involvement with brothels.
Who can I ask to explain this? He also takes advantage of money and sex...
But at this time, he naturally did not ask for trouble, but instead agreed.
"Your Majesty is right. This is related to a brothel girl. It is indeed not the style of a minister of etiquette. I also hate this kind of behavior very much!"
"This Zhou Han simply has no regard for ethics and has lost his morality! He is so despised that even I, the eunuch, look down on him!"
"Okay! Stop talking! Keep going!"
Emperor Qian rolled his eyes.
Lin Yiqiu smiled and scratched his head, and continued: "Your Majesty does not know that Zhou Han has already taken Miss Cai Die as his concubine."
"Although this matter is extremely secretive, after Jin Yiwei's investigation, everything came to light."
"Not only that, Zhou Han will also send this girl Cai Die a lot of money every month for her to spend! Just last month alone, he gave five thousand taels!"
As soon as he finished speaking, Emperor Qian suddenly looked a little shocked!
"What did you say? Five thousand taels per month?"
"Well... to be precise, it's at least five thousand taels, because in the past two months, I even gave eight thousand taels and ten thousand taels!"
Lin Yiqiu continued to respond truthfully.
Emperor Qian's face looked extremely strange at this time. Anger, confusion, and coldness were all intertwined together.
After a while, she spoke coldly.
"The annual salary of the Minister of Rites is six hundred and eighty taels. It will take decades to save so much money!"
"Where did Zhou Han get so much money this time? Where did he get it from?"
It is impossible to obtain such a huge sum of money by normal means. For Emperor Qian, it can be directly concluded that it must be corruption!
Lin Yiqiu's answer also supported her conjecture.
"Your Majesty, the Ministry of Rites can earn a lot of money through various ceremonies every year, as well as ministers purchasing their own private properties.
"Private property ownership is quite normal, but the kickbacks they get from the national treasury are even greater. This is the key!"
"Okay! That's great! My minister in the Ministry of Etiquette is really promising. He will make money from the treasury!"
Emperor Qian clenched his fists.
"How did you get it specifically? Have you found out?"
"Reporting to your Majesty, I have also found out. To put it simply, it is actually one word, borrow!"
Lin Yiqiu raised a finger.
"borrow?"
Emperor Qian didn't understand.
Lin Yiqiu continued: "In various names, either individuals or entire departments, borrow money from the treasury!"
"The household department can still refuse when they meet one or two people, but when they meet a group of people, they have no choice, so they can only write an IOU to borrow money."
"In the end, even the officials of the Ministry of Revenue would borrow money from the treasury. This kind of thing has almost become a kind of custom in my country."
This matter was only known because of Jin Yiwei's investigation.
When Lin Yiqiu first heard about it, he couldn't help but be surprised.
These guys can really think of anything for money.
Borrowing money does not mean not to repay it, nor does it mean corruption or robbery. It is compliant, reasonable and legal!
But Emperor Qian's face was as dark as ink at this moment.
In fact, she had also heard of ministers borrowing money from the treasury, but in her opinion, it was just a small amount of money, and no one would dare to borrow a lot of money.
But after hearing what Lin Yiqiu said, she suddenly realized what a huge loophole she had overlooked before!
There are probably countless morons in this court who are just like Zhou Han, taking money back from the treasury!
"Go on! Keep talking!"
Gritting his teeth, Emperor Qian's beautiful face was already extremely cold.
Lin Yiqiu continued: "Zhou Han's net worth is therefore very rich, it can be said that he is sitting on a million taels!"
"After that, Miss Cai Die used this to ask Zhou Han to do her a favor!"
"Your Majesty, Qian Yuanli, the examinee who cheated this time, is Miss Cai Die's cousin. I think you should know what I am helping even if I don't tell you."
After the words fell, there was a silence.
Emperor Qian's face flashed with gloom, and then he quickly said: "Will you try to cheat? Really?"
"That's right, Your Majesty, Miss Cadie asked Zhou Han to help her cousin cheat in the examination.
"But although Zhou Han is the Minister of Rites, he is not the person responsible for setting the questions, and he has no access to the original test papers, so he thought of Shen Meng!"
Shen Meng was the Minister of Rites who hanged himself before, and the initial investigation was started from him.
"Why did Chen Meng agree? Was he promised money or sex?"
Emperor Qian asked coldly.
Lin Yiqiu bent down and replied: "Both, Shen Meng also likes to go to Xiangyue Tower, and that's why Zhou Han targets him!"
"Before, I was in the backyard of Xiangyue Tower and found a somewhat abandoned yard, but someone had lived in it. It was very strange. Even the old bustard didn't know what it was like."
"Now it seems that this is the residence that his cousin Miss Cai Die secretly arranged for Qian Yuanli after he came to Beijing. Shen Meng also met Qian Yuanli many times there!"
Having said this, Lin Yiqiu paused for a long time and sorted out his thoughts.
Later, he explained the secret letter.
"As for the secret letter, it was written by Qian Yuanli when he first contacted Shen Meng, and it was also given to Shen Meng by Zhou Han as the middleman!"
"At this point, all this has formed a closed loop. Zhou Han intends to help his cousin cheat in the examination for the sake of the brothel girl he likes."
"As the examiner and question maker of the joint examination, Shen Meng became the target of Zhou Han's wooing. Through money and sex, Shen Meng was quickly dragged into the water!"