Listening to politics behind a curtain?Kill the Queen Mother at the beginning!

Chapter 14: This is to be slaughtered
"Rumble..."

It was raining heavily, but the Feng Mansion was still ablaze from a few miles away, they were all wooden attics, if the fire started, how could it be easily extinguished?
Before the rain in midair had time to fall to the ground, it was swallowed by the flames and evaporated at an extremely fast speed. Looking down from the sky, several rooms were shrouded in a mist of water and thick smoke.

"Go away..."

"Go away..."

The widower at night hid anxiously at the corner of the street, and waited until the gang of court hawks and dogs, who were not to be trifled with at first sight, were far away, then hurriedly beat the gong in his hand, and shouted at the top of his voice.

"Why are you standing still, hurry up and put out the fire!"

The old widower jumped up and down anxiously seeing the growing fire. If the fire continued to burn regardless, it would probably burn most of the street.

But looking around, more and more people gathered, and indeed none of them put out the fire. They all stood on the long street in a daze and watched the monstrous fireworks.

If the officials in the court were here, it would not be difficult to find that there were not many ordinary people watching the excitement here. Most of the people standing on the long street were officials from the Ministry of War, and more than half of them were from the servants to the petty officials. All gathered here.

"boom……"

With a deafening roar,
The last attic of Feng's mansion also collapsed due to the fire, and everyone on the long street thumped in their hearts, as if some kind of pillar in their brains also collapsed, and even a few elderly people with weaker bones fainted directly.

Changning Street,
In front of an equally prominent civil official's mansion, an old man in a purple robe was frowning and walking anxiously back and forth on the steps.

"My lord, Feng Shangshu has been killed by that thief."

A dusty dish leader knelt beside the old man and reported that the Jin Yiwei had surrounded the entire long street and dared not look closer, so the news of his death has not been confirmed until now.

"Really dead?"

Looking at the billowing smoke and dust already in the distance,
I already had a guess in my heart, but I still didn't want to believe it.

"Exactly!"

The head of the dish said truthfully.

The old man almost fell to the ground when he heard the sound.
"Have any heirs escaped while taking advantage of the chaos?"

After staggering up, he asked persistently.

"No……"

"The thief absolutely did not leave a single life alive. When his subordinates arrived, the mansion covering an area of ​​more than ten acres did not even hear the sound of chickens and dogs..."

Looking back on that dish now, I still have lingering fears.

"The big fire that the thief added before he left probably burned all the snakes, insects, rats and ants in the mansion..."

"It looks like this is going to kill them all."

Xie Wenyuan's face was as gloomy as water, and the last illusion in his heart was shattered. He had been too closely entangled with the Ministry of War these years, how could he stay out of it now?

Over the years that I have been in charge of the Ministry of Industry, I have governed the system of civil engineering construction, the method of using utensils, and the method of dredging weirs; all government-run industries such as civil engineering, water conservancy, ordnance, mining and metallurgy, and textiles have been comprehensively managed.

Logically speaking, there is no shortage of silver.

But the imperial court in the hinterland of the Central Plains checked too closely, but I don’t know how many pairs of eyes stared at the place where there was oil and water. Even if there was some meaty smell in the hands, it was still necessary to moisten it layer by layer, and few of them actually fell into their pockets.

Only the borderlands are beyond the reach of the imperial court.

It is true that the borderlands are bitterly cold, coupled with years of endless wars, often dozens of miles outside the city are uninhabited, and it is not an exaggeration to say that it is a place where birds don't shit.

But as far as I am concerned, there are white flowers everywhere!

After all, wars, wars,

It is the money in the treasury that is being hit!

Whenever there was a slight disturbance, before the enemy bandits crossed the border, the papers asking for money and food from Shangzuo had already been sent to Shangjing City like snowflakes.

Once there is a real war, just eating horse chews is an astronomical sum, not to mention the several times the military pay during the war, the pensions for soldiers who died in battle, and various losses...

There is too much money that can be moved in various names. This is how those officials in the frontiers and officials of the Ministry of War colluded to fish for money.

For myself, there are similar methods.

Whether it is the loss of weapons, or the construction of civil engineering, the construction of cities and gates, the Ministry of Industry has to take the lead in handling them. As mentioned above, you can't spend a lot of money, otherwise why would you save money in just a few years? Under that ten thousand family fortune?

This is also the root cause of the endless wars in the northern border!

"When the thief returned to the mansion..."

"Aren't there many people around, are you on guard?"

Xie Wenyuan frowned and asked.

"When we were besieging the mansion, it looked like there were thousands of cavalry from a distance. As for returning to the mansion, the lord didn't give orders, and the subordinates didn't dare to act rashly."

"Is there any news from the commander?"

After thinking for a moment, Xie Wenyuan asked, this is a secret that he had planted in Jinyiwei long ago.

"No news came back. The thief had already excluded those old people in Jinyiwei earlier, and now most of the people around him are at the first level of a hundred households, and there are no people from us."

The man said truthfully.

"Are there any other eyeliners in the Jinyiwei?"

Xie Wenyuan continued to ask.

"A few years ago, my subordinates also bought a general banner, but the official position of that person was too humble, so I didn't inform you."

"General flag?"

"That's it, that's it..."

"He can't touch the extra things, but how many people are around Luo's mansion, he can still find out how many people are around, so you go and find that person."

Xie Wenyuan waved his sleeves and said.

"My lord, what do you mean?"

The man hesitated to speak.

"Since there is no possibility of a good thing."

"Then don't blame the old man for being unruly!"

Xie Wenyuan flicked his long sleeves and said cruelly,

"Remember, in addition to this, you must personally investigate the situation around the Luo Mansion!"

"Subordinates take orders!"

Wait until the spy is gone,
"Go and invite the adults from all the prefectures!"

"The old man is waiting in the lobby!"

Xie Wenyuan waved again,

He spoke to the butler behind him.

when the child is reached,

Xie Fu,

The mansion is still brightly lit, cars and sedan chairs are parked all around the mansion, and the sound of horseshoes can still be heard from time to time.

Now the officials who are qualified to be invited here are either the mainstays of various ministries like doctors, and the rest are all in important positions even though their grades are not high.

To put it bluntly, it was just a narrow strip of water. The Ministry of War has been able to do so covertly over the years, and officials of all sizes from the six ministries had to help cover it up.

If it weren't for the imperial court to be too tight on the money bag, maybe they would drag the minister of the household department into the water together, and dump all the silver from the imperial treasury into their own treasury, wouldn't it be beautiful?
After half an hour,
The main hall of Xie Mansion was already full of seats, looking at the huge heads, there were at least three to 40 people, in addition to officials from the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of War directly under it, there were also several heads of the Ministry of Households and the Ministry of Officials.

"I think everyone already knows about Feng Shangshu, so I won't say more."

Xie Wenyuan saw people straight to the point.

"I have pity on me, old Shangshu Feng, who was slaughtered all over his family,"

"Not even a piece of incense left..."

A servant of the Ministry of War sighed,
"That daring thing, relying on His Majesty's will, is now unscrupulous in Shangjing City!"

"Old Shangshu treats each other with courtesy, and he has indeed ended up like this. That boy is a horse and cow with a collar and a skirt, and he is dressed like a dog!"

After someone took the lead, all the people below were filled with righteous indignation, reprimanded and cursed, and the hall was as chaotic as the entrance of a vegetable market for a while.

"I see that thief is going to drive us all to death!"

"Everyone, don't try to stay out of it."

Xie Wenyuan glanced over the crowd,

His complexion became more and more gloomy.

"If you can curse the dead with just a few words of swearing, I'm afraid that thief would have been sprayed to death thousands of times by those sharp-mouthed censors who were caught. How can it be your turn?" Xie Wenyuan looked at The cursing crowd sneered.

(End of this chapter)