System, help me be an empress

Chapter 35 Irony Emperor
Even though the cold winter hadn't passed, the two of them could only be chased up wearing thin prison uniforms and their hands and feet in shackles. It's not hard to imagine what the two of them had experienced.

Seeing Li Shangyun's distressed appearance, Xu Youxi frowned unconsciously: "Remove all the shackles from the two of you, and give you thick coats."

Su Huaihe was in worse condition than Li Shangyun, his complexion was pale, and he described it as plain, as if he was about to fall down at any time.When he came to the front of the hall, he saw Fu Youxing kneeling on the ground, and immediately understood what was going on.

【Su Huaihe, former official doctor】

Integrity: 76%; Efficiency: 66%; Loyalty: 76%; Policy: 88%
[Li Shangyun, the imperial censor of the former capital of the right]

Integrity: 89%; Efficiency: 92%; Loyalty: 76%; Policy: 86%
It wasn't until the eunuch brought thick jackets for the two officials to put them on that Xu Youxi ordered Dali Temple Secretary Lin Hong to continue to explain the crimes of the two officials in detail.

Although Su Huaihe's official position was not high, he was assigned to the Wenxuan Department of the Ministry of Officials, who was responsible for the selection, distribution, appointment and dismissal of civil servants. He was an official with real power.

However, the crime he committed was: discussing the words and deeds of the saint in private, with the intention of treason.

"What has he been talking about?" Xu Youxi asked.

Dali Temple Minister Lin Hongdao: "According to the witnesses, Su Huaihe has been dissatisfied with the saint for a long time, and he has repeatedly uttered wild words, such as, fatuous and immoral, and he even praised the actions of the rebel army many times. It's an act of condemning the country. Your Majesty, Su Huaihe himself has pleaded guilty to the above acts."

Lin Hong spoke impassionedly for a long time, but Xu Youxi didn't realize that there was any major problem: "Is he just calling me stupid? It seems that he didn't make a mistake, so let it go. But it's really wrong to praise the rebels' behavior so much." If you are kind, then punish him to go home and reflect for three months, and his salary will be halved."

Originally, Su Huaihe was a capital crime for violating the majesty of a saint, but in the blink of an eye it became three months of paid sick leave?

"Zhou is ashamed to learn, and asked someone to carry Mr. Su home in a sedan chair to reflect, and then find an imperial doctor to follow him."

"Thank you Lord Ron."

As soon as Xu Youxi finished doing this, he saw that Su Huaihe's loyalty value suddenly rose to 99%, and along with that, his efficiency value and integrity value also increased by 5% respectively.

"Okay, can Lin Siqing tell me what crime Li Shangyun committed?"

Lin Hong didn't even have a hunch at this time, but when this happened, he could only bite the bullet and continue: "Your Majesty, Li Shangyun has been an official for several years, and he has embezzled and accepted bribes of as much as 100 taels of silver. The evidence is convincing! According to the law of Daqian , but officials who embezzle more than 60 taels of bribes are enough to be sentenced to death! What's more, Li Shangyun knows the law and broke the law, and his behavior is extremely heinous."

"Say it again? How many taels?"

"A total of 100 taels!" Dali Temple Secretary Lin Hong said decisively, but when he reacted, the expressions of almost all the officials in the court changed slightly.

"Li Shangyun, can you plead guilty?" Xu Youxi asked.

"Your Majesty, I was wronged. I don't know why the money appeared at home. How can I plead guilty? If Mr. Siqing insists that the money was embezzled by Mr. Li, then may I ask when did Mr. Li embezzle the money? For what reason it was corrupted, and who gave the money, if you can’t answer, please return Li’s innocence!”

Lin Hong nodded and mocked, "How did this money come from, Li Shangyun, you should know very well! When you were the governor of Jiangnan a few years ago, didn't the local magistrate and county magistrate give you any favors? You go back to the Metropolitan Procuratorate Finally, your subordinates have never given you filial piety? When the Metropolitan Procuratorate inspects the New Year in Beijing, don’t any subordinate officials give you a gift? Why are you pretending to be stupid!"

After these unspoken rules that the imperial court had tacitly accepted for many years were blatantly stated by Lin Hong, the entire Hall of Supreme Harmony unexpectedly fell into a strange silence.

The sound of Xu Youxi's applause broke the dead silence: "Master Siqing really hates evil, and knows all about these internal dirty things like the back of his hand."

"I have heard about it a little bit, and it's just that I have gained some knowledge after working in Dali Temple these years." Lin Hong broke out in a cold sweat. He seemed to have talked too much.

"Then since there are so many channels of corruption and bribery, Dali Temple must have arrested corrupt officials in recent years, and reporting a few names to me will also increase my knowledge?"

Xu Youxi wrote lightly, don't think I don't know, Dali Temple has arrested many "felony" people in recent years, but few of them were arrested because of corruption.

"This..." Lin Hong stammered.

"I didn't expect that I would be so clean and honest in the imperial court. In a few years, there was only one official who was arrested for corruption, and a huge amount of 100 taels was corrupted." Her chance, "Then this matter has to be investigated even more. If Li Shangyun is also slandered, wouldn't the court I worked on become more and more innocent, and there will be no corrupt officials! Dear friends What do you think?"

"Why don't all the loves speak?"

The atmosphere above the court had dropped to freezing point, no one dared to make a sound at this time, it was tantamount to courting death.

"Since Li Shangyun was arrested for corruption, let Li Shangyun investigate. Every time an official whose corruption exceeds 100 taels is found, I will spare you five years in prison. Forgive you for your innocence, if you have checked fifty, how about I promise you a Dali Temple official?"

"My lovers all have mournful expressions. I understand. You must think that Li Shangyun has embezzled a huge amount. It is too unconvinced to let him go so easily. Let's make it more difficult. Increase it to [-] corrupt officials. ? He can't finish it, right?"

"Li Shangyun, do you want to accept this order?" Xu Youxi was in a strange mood, not to mention five hundred corrupt officials, if he really investigated, there would be five thousand.

Li Shangyun's eyes were full of astonishment, and then tears welled up in his eyes.

"Your Majesty, I have known Li Shangyun for decades, and I can guarantee Li Shangyun's character with my life, and I will definitely not commit corruption!" An official who appeared out of nowhere suddenly knelt down and sincerely petitioned.

"Your minister can also guarantee the innocence of Mr. Li with his life. Mr. Li has always lived in poverty. His wife and children in his family are all made of coarse linen, and he even farms in the mansion himself. It can be said that he is extremely innocent."

"The minister is also willing to guarantee with his life..."

More and more civil servants took the initiative to stand up, and each of them could use their lives to plead for Li Shangyun's innocence.

Xu Youxi looked at this scene coldly, instead of being angry, he smiled: "Bao Shoufu, you see this is all kneeling down, how will this end for me, tell me, should this matter be investigated or not?"

Bao Changnian calmly said: "Returning to Your Majesty, I see that since the Minister of Dali Temple can't produce specific evidence of Li Shangyun's corruption, then the 100 years of silver alone can't be used to punish Li Shangyun. Naturally, Li Shangyun is innocent. I feel that after confiscating 100 taels, release him." Li Shangyun will be reinstated as an official."

"Then do as Bao Shoufu said. Master Li was wronged, but if I hadn't experienced this, I would not have realized that Master Li's prestige among the officials is so high. Books often say that the tree falls and the monkeys scatter." But when it came to Mr. Li, he did the opposite, which shows that Mr. Li is indeed clean and honest. What does Lin Siqing think?"

　Today is the New Year's Eve reunion dinner!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)