Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 994 0989 [Minister Qin, please go to the Dali Temple for tea]

Official residences and dormitories in Luoyang are concentrated in the central and northern part of the southwestern urban area.

It was close to the imperial city, the land was relatively cheap, and there were not many residents. Further south, there were even cemeteries in the city, which had now been demolished and turned into residential buildings.

The official residences of important ministers of the cabinet and the government are all in that area.

Their area is neither too big nor too small, and they use architectural decoration to show their status, but avoid being so luxurious that outgoing officials would refuse to leave.

Bai Chongyan had been transferred to become the Minister of Personnel, and Qin Hui's official residence was next door to his house.

At 6pm, the office was dismissed.

Bai Chongyan walked to the side of the road, chatting and laughing with officials from the Ministry of Personnel.

Many carriages were parked outside the six ministries. Everyone gave way to each other, and naturally the ministers got on the carriages first, usually sharing the carriages according to their work units.

Free imperial shuttle buses took officials from the six ministries to Dongkou City.

You will encounter other vehicles along the way, coming from other government offices, and they will all stop in Dongkou City.

Officials of all ranks, as long as they worked in the imperial city, could easily run into each other here when they were off work. The officials bowed to each other and walked out of Donghua Gate, where their private cars were waiting.

Some people also chose to ride horses, especially military officers.

Bai Chongyan had already seen his own vehicle. He turned around and bowed to the other officials, then walked a dozen steps and stepped onto the carriage.

Qin Hui also got on the car.

Suddenly, many officials were seen coming back in the opposite direction, blocking the road outside Donghua Gate.

Bai Chongyan lifted the curtain of the car to take a look, but found that they were all officials from the Inspectorate. He was immediately shocked and thought to himself, "What big case is this?"

The Inspectorate's headquarters is located in Dongkou City, which is the most convenient place for them to get off work. They can walk out of Donghuamen quickly without taking a car.

In the current situation, the Inspectorate had already finished get off work but was called back on the way or from home to do some work.

The road is not clear yet and there are abnormal situations.

Teams of imperial guards came running from Beikuo City, and some soldiers even rode on horseback.

Then, the Left Censor-in-Chief Wei Liangchen, along with several officials from the Inspectorate, walked quickly to the outside of Donghua Gate and asked, "Where is the Minister of Revenue Qin Hui?"

Qin Hui was sitting in the carriage and his face changed drastically when he heard this.

He quickly got out of the car and said, "Here."

Wei Liangchen said, "You don't have to go home. Go to the Dali Temple and have a cup of tea."

Qin Hui was terrified, but he remained calm: "My old wife is waiting for me at home. I will send my attendants back to tell her."

Wei Liangchen said, "No need. Your wife and concubine will go to the Dali Temple to drink tea tonight."

The officials from the cabinet and the government who were waiting for a ride home all looked horrified.

The whole family of the Minister of Revenue was invited to the Dali Temple for tea, and it was the Left Censor-in-Chief who invited them personally? Qin Hui had committed a serious crime!

"Let's go, Minister Qin." Wei Liangchen urged.

Qin Hui's legs seemed to be filled with lead. Every step he took was extremely difficult and he was almost dragged into the carriage by two imperial censors.

The curtains were drawn, and only Qin Hui and Wei Liangchen were left in the carriage.

Qin Hui wanted to play the emotional card and tried to test him: "Dao Bi, you and I are old friends from childhood. Back then, we were classmates and roommates in Jiankang County School. Today..."

Wei Liangchen interrupted: "Don't mention the past."

"May I ask, who is falsely accusing me?" Qin Hui asked.

Wei Liangchen had already entered the case-handling state, and he also tried to test: "Do you know Yang Yuan?"

Qin Hui suddenly realized: "So it was this person. I don't have much personal relationship with him. When I was the principal of the Imperial College, he happened to be a student of the Imperial College. This person has no ability, but he regards himself as my student, and he is everywhere pretending to be powerful and cheating people. Did he commit a crime?"

Wei Liangchen said: "He colluded with the civil and military officials of Xuanzhou to embezzle money and grain, forced the tribes to rebel, and burned down the government warehouse to put the blame on the rebels."

"Burn...burn the government warehouse?" Qin Hui couldn't believe it.

He really couldn't understand why Yang Yuan, whose family was so rich and who had always been timid, had been a corrupt official for more than a decade and had not even recovered the cost of bribes, so how could he dare to commit a capital crime this time?

Qin Hui has always been very confident in Yang Yuan, and he didn't even pay attention to the news in Xuanzhou.

Because the riot in Xuanzhou was small, the rebels were defeated in one day and the remnants were cleared in half a month. The attention of the court officials was focused on Linzhou. After all, the rebels who fled from there directly swept across the three northern prefectures of Ningxia.

Except for the emperor himself, no central official paid attention to Xuanzhou!

Wei Liangchen smiled and said, "Yang Yuan was afraid of death, so he gave out many corrupt officials. One of them was Minister Qin. I heard from Your Majesty that he even gave out the small house you secretly bought."

"What kind of small house is this? He is slandering me!" Qin Hui denied it flatly, but he was completely panicked and could no longer keep a straight face.

He had thought that his crime would be exposed, but he never expected that it would be Yang Yuan who was the culprit. Yang Yuan was timid and had a rich family. He did not embezzle money on a large scale. He was just eager to climb up the social ladder and loved to brag. Such a guy should be very safe, so how could he dare to burn the government warehouse?

Moreover, his little house was extremely secretive, how could Yang Yuan know about it?

Wei Liangchen warned, "When you get to the Dali Temple, officials from the three judicial departments will all be there. You and I are classmates after all, so I advise you to confess honestly. Without solid evidence, His Majesty will certainly not make such a big fuss. You can't argue, and even if you are sentenced to death, it's better to die with dignity."

Qin Hui was still denying: "I am innocent... not completely innocent, I just accepted some calligraphy and painting gifts, I dare not have any other faults."

"Let's talk about it when we get to the Dali Temple." Wei Liangchen was too lazy to say more.

……

Bai Chongyan and three other ministers waited until the streets were clear before they took a car back home - the Minister of Justice was not there, as he was called back to work overtime.

The official residences of the six ministers were next to each other.

When they returned to their residence, they found that there were also guards there. So they did not go home, but walked to crowded places out of curiosity, and found that Qin Hui's residence had been surrounded.

Some time ago, Li Gang took over Qin Hui's position and was promoted to Minister of Works.

According to the original timeline, Li Gang would have died of depression by now, but he is still alive and well in this time and space.

"Minister Qin has committed a shocking crime," Li Gang said in shock, "Does Minister Bai know the truth?"

Bai Chongyan shook his head and said, "I haven't received any news."

Minister of Rites Hu Anguo said: "Officials from the Inspectorate and the Ministry of Justice have all been recalled to their offices. If it was Qin Hui alone who committed the crime, there would be no need to mobilize so many troops. I'm afraid his students and former officials would also be investigated."

Li Gang speculated, "The Ming Dynasty was just established and there was a lot of work to be done. In recent years, the whole country has been engaged in large-scale construction projects, especially the repair of official roads and water conservancy projects, which are all related to the Ministry of Works and are very profitable. It is possible that officials from Qin Hui's faction embezzled a lot of project funds, and now their crimes have been exposed and they have been ordered to be thoroughly investigated."

Bai Chongyan and Hu Anguo nodded at the same time, thinking that Li Gang's guess made sense.

The three of them watched from afar as more and more officials arrived.

Especially the ministers of various ministries, whose official residences were near the Shangshu's residence. Knowing that many palace guards had come, they all came to watch the fun, and at this moment, they started to discuss with each other.

Some people took a few secret glances and were so scared that they wanted to hide back home, but they were afraid of exposing their guilt, so they could only stand there and pretend nothing happened.

For example, Wanqi Xie.

When Qin Hui was the principal of the Imperial College, Wanqi Xie was the recorder of the Imperial College, and the two were in a direct superior-subordinate relationship.

Qin Hui originally wanted to get rid of the Wang family and build up a power completely of his own.

Wanqi Xie also wanted to get in touch with Qin Hui, and with the help of his relationship in the former Song Dynasty, the two of them hit it off immediately.

Unlike the uneducated Yang Yuan, Wanqi Xie was extremely capable and was therefore regarded by Qin Hui as one of his absolute confidants.

Many people know about the relationship between Qin Hui and Wanqi Xie.

The officials who came to watch the excitement automatically distanced themselves from Wanqi Xie. This resulted in a gap of several meters around Wanqi Xie, which was an eyesore in the busy streets.

Wan Qixie said quickly: "I only have a slight friendship with Qin...Qin Hui. He was the principal of the Imperial College in the former Song Dynasty, and I was the recorder of the Imperial College in the former Song Dynasty. It is inevitable that we are closer in the new Ming Dynasty. But I don't know anything about his corruption and abuse of power. I can swear to heaven that I am definitely not an accomplice of Qin Hui!"

Even a fool wouldn't believe this nonsense.

"I really have nothing to do with him," Wanqi Xie couldn't stand the strange looks anymore, and pretended to stamp his feet angrily, "If you don't believe me, I have nothing to say. I'll go home and wait. The Holy Emperor will not wrongly accuse a good official in the court!"

After saying that, the guy turned around and went home.

He also had a set of account books, which he had to go back and burn.

He exchanged all the money he embezzled for Ming Dynasty banknotes and regularly sent his confidants back to Yangwu (Yuanyang, Henan). It was directly under the jurisdiction of Kaifeng Prefecture and very close to Luoyang, so it was very convenient to hide it there.

As for Luoyang, there are still some banknotes that have not been sent away. Burn them together with the account books!
The authority and convenience of the Ming Baochao made it an excellent tool for officials to embezzle and abuse their power. They did not dare to exchange the notes at the official Baoquan institution, but often sent their confidants to exchange the notes at private silver shops, and they did not care about being charged higher fees.

When an official left office or retired, a small box could hold hundreds of thousands of coins, unlike in the past when gold, silver and copper coins had to be transported in carts.

Ming Dynasty treasure notes, a powerful tool for corruption!
……

Wang had separated from Qin Hui a long time ago.

Qin Hui lived in the Shangshu official residence, and Wang lived in the private residence awarded to Qin Hui by the court.

Gu San and his troops surrounded this place and blocked all exits, so no one was allowed to enter or leave at will.

When Wang heard the noise, she was furious, but when she found out it was the palace guards, she immediately became dispirited.

When Gu San led his troops into the inner courtyard to search, Wang fell to her knees and cried, "My life is so miserable... I knew that Qin Hui must have done something illegal, but I had no real evidence to report him. He has not returned home for many years and only lives in the official residence. He doesn't even allow me to set foot in the official residence..."

"I was the descendant of the former prime minister of Song Dynasty. I married a poor scholar and thought I had found my ideal husband...but I didn't expect that Qin Hui was an ungrateful person. After the dynasty changed and my Wang family lost its power, Qin Hui turned his back on me."

"He takes concubines every year and no longer sleeps with me, or even lives in the same house with me. Although we are husband and wife, we have long been strangers... Your Majesty, I have nothing to do with Qin Hui anymore. I didn't file for divorce because I was afraid that the family scandal would be exposed..."

Gu San was annoyed by the noise and ordered, "Come here, cover her mouth and take her to the Dali Temple for trial!"

(End of this chapter)