After five years of teaching support, Daming became an empire on which the sun never sets.

Chapter 258
"It's not good for you to seduce any man. Why do you seduce Mr. Qin?" Langzhong Lu Dajiang said angrily, "If it was another man, we might let you go. After all, Mr. taught us to respect you guys. woman."

"And you are pregnant with his child, this is something we cannot tolerate." Lu Dali said, "If there is no child, everyone can still turn a blind eye and pretend that they don't know."

"But your belly is growing day by day, and you can't hide it. After being found out by other villagers, especially those women who like to gossip, they will definitely point and point behind your husband, which will damage your reputation."

"You don't even look at who you are, are you worthy of Mr. Qin?" Lu Jinyan, the elder of the third room, looked disdainful.

"Widows are born to kill their husbands. It's not enough to kill your own man, and you want to kill Mr., what kind of heart do you have?" Lu Erqi angrily reprimanded.

"After we sank Xiaoxiao into the pond, we went down the mountain and told the villagers that she drowned herself." The old patriarch thought deeply.

"Mmm, yes." The crowd nodded in agreement.

"Xiaoxiao, let me ask you one last question, whether the child in your belly belongs to Mr. Qin." The patriarch snapped, "This will be the last sentence you leave in this world."

"Although we all know that this is the truth, you still need to confess your crime with your own mouth." The elder of the second room said.

When villagers deal with women's infidelity, they generally need to let the women confess their crimes in person, and then sink into the pond.

Xiaoxiao's face was pale at this time, and she didn't say a word.

Extreme fear and unwillingness filled her heart.

"Who is Mr.? I am a widow, how can I be worthy to seduce Mr.?" After a long time, Xiaoxiao shed tears and finally spoke, "Mr. is like a fairy in Xiaoxiao's eyes. Xiaoxiao has self-knowledge and will never do this shameful thing."

"If the child really belonged to Mr., I would die with peace in my eyes, but it's a pity, it's not."

"I can't die now, because once I die, my husband's reputation will be ruined, and there will never be a chance to argue."

"You said you never seduced Mr. Qin, how would you explain it to the child in your stomach?" Lu Dajiang said.

"You also know that this will ruin your reputation?" Lu Dali said, "What did you do earlier? You just can't control yourself. We used to think that you are a slut now."

"We've already conducted a secret investigation. You haven't been in contact with any man during this time, you've only been alone with your husband. If it's not his, who else could it be?" Lu Daqing said.

"Death is imminent, and you still don't admit it!?" The patriarch was angry, and ordered several strong men, "Stop talking nonsense with her, and put her in a pig cage sinking pond! To avoid being discovered after a long delay."

Hearing the words, several strong men couldn't help but put Xiaoxiao in it, then lifted it up, and were about to throw it into the pond.

Xiaoxiao heard the words, closed her eyes and waited for death.

"Stop me all!"

At this time, Qin Yu arrived with his student Huang Biao.

……

Ying Tianfu.

In the Forbidden City, in the Royal Study Room.

After Zhu Yuanzhang restructured the six ministries, he did not immediately let the officials leave.

He planned to take advantage of the presence of a group of important ministers to deal with the empty seal case.

With a big wave of his hand: "Call Zheng Shili to see him!"

"Follow the order." Erhu said and walked out.

Not long after, a sixth-rank official walked into the imperial study.

This person's name is Zheng Shili, and he is a member of Hu Guangxing Province. His rank is very low, several ranks lower than the senior officials standing at the scene.Because he is more upright and can't see some fraud in the officialdom, he secretly wrote a letter to the emperor, stating the "empty seal".

After Zhu Yuanzhang found out, he was furious.

However, because the time to deal with it was not enough, he suppressed his anger and forbearance did not attack.

Arrange Zheng Shili to live in Yingtian and prepare to be summoned at any time.

"Zheng Shili, tell us what you know about official fraud in front of all the officials present," Zhu Yuanzhang said.

"I obey the order," Zheng Shili said.

He took out a document from his pocket and handed it to Zhu Yuanzhang silently.

It was a tax account document, which had already been stamped with the seal of the Huguang government office, but the paper was blank.That is to say, when local officials and household officials hand over the accounts, they can fill in as much as they want.

The normal process is that local officials first report the income and expenditure of this year's money and grain to the Ministry of Households, and then deliver them on time and in quantity.If the figures on the account do not match the real thing, they will be sent back and re-reported.

With blank printed account documents, they can fill in the numbers they want when they arrive at the place, and there will be no more cases of being sent back.

This is a typical case of officials protecting each other and deceiving the superior and the inferior.

The set of strict procedures for handing over accounts is useless.

"What is this? Take a look!" Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes narrowed to the point of a needle, it was a murderous look.

Feeling the emperor's wrath, the officials silently picked it up from the ground and looked at it. After seeing it, all of them looked very ugly and didn't say a word.Trembling with trepidation, I thought to myself that many more heads would fall to the ground.

"This is just an empty seal in a certain area of ​​Huguang. I don't know how many other things like this exist in other parts of the country!" Zhu Yuanzhang said, "As far as we know, empty seals are generally popular among local officials. example."

"Are they collectively united to deceive others and treat us as fools?"

"With this thing, it's hard to imagine that there will be no corrupt officials. Those who should have paid 10 taels of tax, they can fill in 1 taels on it, and the remaining 9 taels will all fall into their pockets."

"This is a bad habit left by the decadent Ni Yuan, and it actually continued into my Ming Dynasty!?"

"Lu Chang, didn't you say that you are an old man? Didn't you say that you manage the household department well? However, all the handover officials in your household department are using blank seals! Say it yourself, what should you do!"

"Your Majesty, the old minister has been convicted. Please punish me." Lu Chang was so frightened that he fell to his knees when he heard the words, trembling all over and pleading guilty.

"Your crime, I'll talk about it later." Zhu Yuanzhang said coldly, without telling him to flatten himself, and said to Zheng Shili, "Zheng Shili, tell me your opinion on the matter of Kongyin."

"Report to the emperor." Zheng Shili knelt on the ground, talking eloquently, "First, the blank account book is stamped with the seam seal, which is not complete on each piece of paper. Even if it is scattered, nothing can be done."

"Secondly, the accounts of money and food, the government must be connected with the province, and the province must be connected with the department. In the end, the household department has the final say. The distance between the department and the province is six or seven thousand miles, and the distance is three or four thousand miles. Once there is a mistake, it will take about a year to go back and forth. Print first and then book, this is a stopgap measure, and it has been around for a long time."

(End of this chapter)