serious man in the red chamber

Chapter 411 Weakening the Royal Family
After a while, Wang Hetang came back to his senses and turned his attention to Liu Yong again: "Let's talk."

Liu Yong: "I don't dare to deceive the chief minister. These were given to the lower officials by officials from the Jia family. I heard that the Metropolitan Procuratorate is preparing to inspect the officials returning to Beijing for business."

"Go on."

"In special times, thunderous means should be used to kill a group of people, arrest and remove a group of people, and confiscate their property to relieve the national treasury deficit. It can not only rectify the officialdom and clean up the administration, but also restore the people's hearts. As for the losses of the common people, it can be alleviated. "

Wang Hetang was stunned and didn't say anything for a long time.

Liu Yong: "The common people will rebel if they don't have food to eat, and the soldiers will rebel if they don't have military pay!"

Wang Hetang snorted, turned around and strode away.

Liu Yong was startled, and Wang Hetang's voice came to his ears again: "What are you doing standing there!"

After hearing this, Liu Yong secretly breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that Wang Hetang accepted the suggestion. At the same time, his heart trembled. He didn't know how many officials would be sucked into the whirlpool rolled up by the Jia family, but he didn't feel guilty at all. , as the saying goes, a dead Taoist friend will never die a poor Taoist.

Thinking of this, Liu Yong quickly followed.
It's early May in the lunar calendar, and the weather is surprisingly hot.

When Song Jing arrived at Wenyuan Pavilion from the Ministry of Justice, he was already sweating profusely. As soon as he walked outside the cabinet duty room, he heard Wang Hetang's loud and angry voice in the room, and he stopped for a moment.

"What are Jia's newspaper offices going to do! What are Jia She and Jia Hu going to do!"

As soon as Wang Hetang's voice fell, the sound of tea bowls breaking was heard again.

At this time, the voice of Ma Ruifang, Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, came from the room: "Officials sent by the Cabinet and the Ministry of Revenue to Beijing on missions are already waiting to be beheaded at the execution ground. The Ministry of Revenue, the Ministry of Personnel, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs are better Everyone is investigating, but they still want to drag the matter into the palace and throw dirty water on the emperor and the entire royal family. This is chaos in government and has ulterior motives!"

"There is a war on the front line, and Jiangxi is in chaos again. The national situation is so difficult. I really don't understand why they want to build a prison at this time." This was Li Shouzhong's voice.

Hearing this, Song Jing's heart surged.At the imperial meeting in February, Wang Hetang ordered the Metropolitan Procuratorate, Dali Temple and the Ministry of Punishment to interrogate the case of corruption by Beijing officials. It was really good at first. Not only did they get nearly a million stolen money, but they also restored the people's support for the imperial court.But as truckload after truckload of money was sent into the treasury, more and more officials were implicated. By the time Wang Hetang and others realized something was wrong, it was already too late. Nearly a hundred officials in various ministries and yamen in Beijing were dragged into the trap, and several provinces in Henan were also implicated. More local officials were involved. There were not only 900 officials involved in this turmoil, but [-].

The most surprising thing is that the Ministry of Internal Affairs was also involved. Officials of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, together with officials who purchased military rations from various provinces, purchased the people's food at extremely low prices. The money purchased from the court was doubled or even tripled. They handed over the grain in accordance with regulations, and the rest of the grain was embezzled by them.In less than four months, these people embezzled more than 200 million shi of grain. The grain supply from Jiangnan and other places to the capital was only 400 million shi a year!
The reason why Wang Hetang and Li Shouzhong were so angry was because the Jia Family Newspaper had been fanning the flames among the people. It was an exaggeration to say that they were fanning the flames, but some of the news they wrote misled the people and made them think that these things were related to the palace. It was related inside and out, and eventually the little emperor was involved.

Coupled with the fact that the palace refused to lend money to the Ministry of Revenue before, people now have a lot of complaints against the royal family.

Thinking of this, Song Jing sighed softly.

Wang Hetang scolded: "Who is outside!"

"Returning to the first assistant, my subordinates have returned from being ordered to accompany Li Jin, the minister of the Ministry of Justice, to interrogate the steward of the Ministry of Internal Affairs."

"come in."

Song Jing walked in holding a tray, and a thin case record was placed on the tray.

At this time, there was a large basin of ice cubes in the duty room, but sweat was dripping from the faces of Wang Hetang, Li Shouzhong and Ma Ruifang.

Wang Hetang picked up the trial record and read it. After reading it, he breathed a sigh of relief and looked at Li Shouzhong.

Li Shouzhong was also looking at him at this time and felt relieved when he saw this.

Wang Hetang spoke: "Those stewards of the Ministry of Internal Affairs have pleaded guilty. The corruption has nothing to do with the palace."

Ma Ruifang rolled her eyes and said, "I'm just afraid that people won't approve of me!"

After hearing this, Wang Hetang's face immediately showed displeasure: "Then take it to them and print it in a newspaper for everyone to see."

Song Jing: "Yes."

Ma Ruifang: "There is another thing, that is, newspapers. We must break the Jia family's control of public opinion!"

Wang Hetang and Li Shouzhong looked at each other knowingly.

Song Jing was about to exit at this time.

Ma Ruifang's eyes flashed: "Don't leave!" Song Jing had no choice but to stop.

Ma Ruifang: "It is better to ask for others than to ask for yourself. The imperial court immediately established a newspaper belonging to the imperial court, and we published it in our own newspaper."

Wang Hetang: "Okay. I'll leave this matter to you." He looked at Ma Ruifang, then turned to Li Shouzhong, "Don't worry about Li Ge!"

"Alas." Li Shouzhong sighed and stood up, "The national situation is difficult, let's just make do with it." After saying that, he led Song Jing out.

Wang Hetang looked at Ma Ruifang again: "This time all the royalist officials who left Beijing on business were sent to the execution platform. You should also reflect on it!"

Ma Ruifang blushed.

Wang Hetang looked at Ma Ruifang deeply, and then said: "Let me ask you something, tell me the truth, have you accepted Hong Zhou's money again?"

Ma Ruifang was surprised: "Who did you listen to?"

Wang Hetang: "You're confused! Many people have known about this for a long time. Mr. Jia Ge and the others have been pretending not to know, just thinking of hitting you out at the critical moment and killing you!"

Ma Ruifang was indeed shocked and sat there speechless.

Wang Hetang: "To tell you the truth, the late emperor and the military had already formulated a strategy to destroy North Korea. As long as the military calmed down, North Korea would be destroyed immediately. The imperial court needs North Korea's gold and iron mines! Use it! The quality of firearms made from North Korean iron ore is better."

"Not many people know about this, so don't tell it." Wang Hetang added.

Ma Ruifang nodded numbly.

Wang Hetang: "You go back and sort out those things now. After I report it to the old concubine, someone from the palace will go to your house to deal with it."

Ma Ruifang stood up quickly: "Yes." She answered and walked out in a hurry.

Wang Hetang stood up, walked lightly to the window, looked at Ma Ruifang's retreating figure outside the window, and let out a long breath.
At noon, the sun was shining brightly again.

The execution ground at Caishikou was crowded with spectators, all of whom stared at the execution platform with wide eyes.

On the execution platform, twenty or thirty condemned prisoners were tied and kneeling in a row.

Hundreds of officials from the Sixth Ministry stood in the open space in front of the execution platform with gloomy faces, watching the execution under orders!

Li Hao, the censor of the right capital of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, the minister of Dali Temple, and the right minister of the Ministry of Punishment, as execution officials, sat high in the execution shed and waited for the sound of a cannon to order the execution.

The timekeeper's eyes were fixed on the corona.

The shadow on the corona gradually points towards noon.

The time officer shouted: "Set off the cannon!"

There was a cannon blast, and then the execution bugle sounded.

The executioner stepped forward and pulled out the death penalty symbol.

The three of them, Li Mao and Li, who were sitting in the execution shed, took out their pocket watches at the same time.

The hands quickly pointed to three quarters to noon!
Li Hao and three others stood up at the same time.

Li Hao shouted: "It's three quarters past noon, the execution will be carried out!"

A flash of sword light flashed, and heads rolled down one by one.
The people watching the execution let out thunderous cries!

In the crowd, Mei Changwen, who was wearing plain clothes, flashed his eyes and slashed with the knife, once again weakening the power of the royal family.
　If you jump too much, you won’t be able to connect.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)