"Enemy attack!"

"Protect the prince!"

The generals of the Yanping County Wang family quickly surrounded the King of Yanping County, protected the house, and at the same time scattered to search for the enemy's traces, Wang Xun was stunned like a wooden chicken, Tang Ke was about to run, and when he saw that Yan Zhi was still standing there, he hurriedly turned around and pulled Yan Zhi into the house.

After a while, the searching royal family will come back and report that the enemy has fled.

"Pingding kiln, all kiln players and officials are all detained, Tang Ke, you lead a team of people to guard the Pingding kiln, there is a problem, only you ask!"

"Liu Jie, you hurry up immediately, remember, after you go back, keep the old file library closely. ”

The king of Yanping came back to his senses and immediately ordered, Tang Ke and Liu Jie, the general of the royal family, immediately took the order, and then the king of Yanping sat down, he didn't expect those to move so quickly and decisively.

Obviously, the assassination was not directed at himself, Ku Shou was dead, a key witness was dead, and the opponent was clearly destroying the evidence, and this could also be seen as a warning to himself.

"Escort Yuan Kai over. "The king of Yanping County ordered, this Yuan Kai is the fake kiln keeper of the Pingding kiln, and simply put, the deputy kiln guard.

Yuan Kai was over fifty years old, short and thin, and was brought in by the royal generals, and when he looked up and saw the king of Yanping County, he cried bitterly.

"Lord Wang, save me!"

"You are more shrewd than him, and you know that death is imminent," said the king of Yanping coldly, the assassination just now angered him, and he decided to make the case bigger.

"Say, Yan Zhi, you come to record. The King of Yanping quickly turned the room into a small inquiry room, for Yan Zhi to record and Wang Xun to observe.

"Yes, Wang, Wangye," Yuan Kai stabilized his mind before continuing: "There are only 30,000 stone of grain in the kiln, and in the past five or six years, no new grain has been brought in, and these grains were brought in last year. ”

"Nonsense!" Wang Xun scolded sharply: "Every year, the Pingding kiln has to exchange 50,000 stones of old grain. ”

"My lord, the little one is not talking nonsense, before last year, the grain depot only had 20,000 stones, and last year it was transferred to 50,000 grains, so there were 30,000 stones!" Yuan Kai replied hurriedly.

"The Pingding kiln is an important grain depot in the imperial capital, let me ask you, since there were only 20,000 stones before, but there are 200,000 stones recorded in the account book, why is this?" asked the king of Yanping County.

"Back to the prince, what is the specific, the small one doesn't know, I have been to this Pingding kiln for more than 30 years, more than 10 years ago, the kiln has not entered the new grain, on the contrary, every year to transport 30,000 stone of grain, the largest time, is three years ago, a time to transport away 60,000 stone of grain. ”

"Where is the account book that goes in and out of the warehouse?" asked Wang Xun with a cold face.

"Lord Hui, this account book is in the possession of the treasury guard. Yuan Kai replied.

"Prevarication!" King Yanping coldly threatened: "You can't hold back this matter, look at it, people have already begun to kill people, if you don't speak, it will be your turn next." ”

Yuan Kai's forehead was sweating, and the big ones fell down, he didn't know it, but he didn't know much about it.

"Lord Wang, that's all the little one knows, in the past, every time he did this, Shen Jian personally operated it, and after each time, he rewarded everyone with five or six taels of silver. ”

"How much did you take?" Wang Xun was a little anxious, and his expression became more and more stern.

"Back to my lord, I have taken a total of three hundred taels of silver over the years. ”

"Three hundred taels of silver, this Pingding kiln feeds 50,000 stones of grain every year, the price of grain in the imperial capital has never been cheap, one stone of grain is four taels of silver, even if it is brown rice and wheat, one stone is more than two taels, this year is 100,000 taels of silver, more than ten years down, I am afraid that there are millions of taels of silver. The king of Yanping County sneered again and again, but he was secretly frightened in his heart, out of this Pingding kiln, what about the other three grain depots in the city? In addition to grain, there is also salt, which is also stored in the city.

"Damn!" King Yanping couldn't help but scold, Tang Ke came over to report and found the account books and records in and out of the warehouse, King Yanping looked at it and couldn't help sneering.

In order not to let people be killed, all the kilns and officials were sent back to Duzhicao, and the generals of the family were transferred from the palace to keep the old account of Duzhicao under close control.

The case of the theft of the Pingding kiln was reported to the imperial court in the shortest possible time, the imperial court was shocked, the emperor was furious, and ordered all the officials of Cao Yiying to be detained, and all the officials were put in flail to work, and they were screened and hired by the king of Yanping County.

The emperor's thunderous anger, the officials who were ordered to investigate the case did not dare to slack off, and quickly took office, although the king of Yanping County did not wear a flail to do things, he was actually a guilty person, and the other one who did not wear a flail was Yan Zhi, he had only been in Duzhi Cao for a few months, and the previous things naturally could not be held accountable to him.

The king of Yanping County and Yan Zhi organized forces to continue to check the other three grain depots in the city, and as a result, the three grain depots should have stored 500,000 stone of grain, but in fact there were only 320,000 stones, a shortage of 180,000 stones, and there was only one grain depot in the east of the city, and the number of grain was correct, and the other two grain depots were less than half.

The king of Yanping County roughly estimated that this was several million taels of silver, and he and Yan Zhi couldn't help but smile bitterly, such a large-scale theft of grain is definitely not a matter of one or two days or a year or two, and the predecessor of Cao Shangshu Tian Ning is absolutely inseparable.

The report was sent to Shang Shutai, Shang Shutai collectively lost his voice, and Pan Lian took the lead in playing, requesting that Tian Ning's family wealth be seized and Tian Rong, Tian Ning's son, arrested.

The courtiers impeached Tian Ning and flew to Shangshutai like snowflakes, but only one day later, the object of impeachment became Prime Minister Gan Tang, Du Zhicao is one of the six Cao who belongs to the Prime Minister, Gan Tang has been the prime minister for five or six years, and has the responsibility of neglecting to check this matter.

Duzhi Cao is naturally the hardest hit area, almost everyone is wearing a flail on officials, almost every day there are officials called to the Tingwei Mansion to inquire, the entire Duzhi Cao everyone is in danger, within two days, four Duzhi Cao Lang officials hanged themselves, and terror permeated the sky over Du Zhicao.

The emperor issued an order to let Du Zhicao check the account books of the past twelve years, and at the same time check all the treasury, and let Xue Mi and Mai Xiaonian assist.

The king of Yanping County and Xue Mi organized more than 50 accounting masters, checked and checked the account books one by one, and the dusty account books were moved out of the warehouse.

The abacus in the tank rang non-stop all day long, and finally gathered in front of the king of Yanping and Xue Yu.

"Shocking! shocking!" Xue Yu shook his head and sighed: "But after checking forty percent, there are 1.2 million taels of silver if you don't match." ”

The king of Yanping County's face was pale, he only knew Gu Wei's shrewdness now, and when he arrived at Duzhicao, he sealed the previous account books and ignored them at all, he probably knew that these accounts could not be checked, and a check would be a huge turmoil.

Xue Mi disappeared with a smile, this is a true portrayal of his heart, judging from the results found so far, if the emperor really wants to chase after him, from Prime Minister Gantang down, hundreds of court officials are involved, in addition to Du Zhi Cao, there are also officials Cao, Min Cao, and even Pan Lian's third brother Pan Yan are involved.

In more than ten years, the treasury grain was stolen and sold by Tian Ning and several courtiers, and the treasury silver was taken out by several Lang officials for usury.

Lang officials exposed each other, more and more people were involved, and even Shaofu Ding Xuan was also implicated, according to Lang Guan's revelations, it was Ding Xuan who initially instigated Tian Ning to take silver from Duzhi Cao to lend usury.

"The grain of Taiding for three years was sent to Jizhou before it arrived in the imperial capital, and it was sold directly in Jizhou, hmph, this Tian Ning is really bold!"

Tian Ning and others were really bold, they just started stealing and selling grain from the grain depot, and they thought about making up for it afterwards and making a little difference, but after seeing that no one cared, they became more and more bold, so they simply stole and sold the grain directly, and they didn't bother to make up for it afterwards.

"I said that Tian Ning's brain is broken, why don't you want to make up for it after Zhishi?" Xue Yu was a little puzzled, Tian Ning Zhishi, knowing that these things would be discovered sooner or later, why didn't he hurry up and make up for it?

"It's not that he doesn't want to make it up," Grandpa Mai sighed leisurely: "First, the number is too big to make up, and secondly, he still has a fluke, whether it is the prince or the previous Gu Wei, he has not touched the people below, so he can still make up for it slowly." ”

"In other words, if I hadn't asked Donk to suddenly go to the grain depot this time, this matter would still be buried. ”

Xue Mi smiled at him, and the king of Yanping couldn't help but smile bitterly, isn't this stupid, it's a clear thing, when he asked Tang Ke to investigate, it was also a sudden whim, and it was decided temporarily, Tang Ke acted quickly, and the most important thing was to work seriously, and all the grain in the warehouse was weighed, which revealed this shocking case.

The case is not complicated, but there are too many officials involved, and what makes people wonder is that most of these officials are from families.

The Tingwei Mansion was overcrowded for a while.

The emperor looked at the dense list, and the look of resentment was difficult to suppress.

"Shameless!"

Shang Shutai took Pan Chain as the capital in the imperial study, and several people lowered their eyebrows and were silent.

"No wonder the imperial treasury is empty, there are so many moths, it is difficult for the imperial treasury to be empty!"

After the emperor scolded bitterly, he turned his head to look at Pan Lian and asked, "Who else are involved in your family?"

Pan Lian was taken aback, his third brother Pan Yan participated in the theft of grain, involving 80,000 stones of grain, and a total of 100,000 taels of silver.

No wonder he took out 100,000 taels of silver back then. Pan Lian sighed deeply in his heart, Pan Yan also took this risk for the Pan family.

"Your Majesty, the courtiers are not strict in discipline, please ask Your Majesty to surrender. Pan Lian knelt down and pleaded guilty.

The emperor ignored him and looked up at Gan Tang, who sighed softly, knelt down, and said in a deep voice: "The minister is responsible for negligence, and please ask Your Majesty to confess." ”

Peng Zhu said: "The case has been clarified, Your Majesty, these people should be held accountable." ”

Without waiting for the emperor to speak, Gan Tang took out a piece of music from his arms and held it with both hands: "The crime of the minister has caused the court to suffer huge losses, and the minister does not dare to shirk his responsibility. ”

Huang Gonggong came over quietly, took the song, and put it in front of the emperor, the emperor opened it to see, this is Gan Tang's request to Shishu, he looked at it at a glance.

"Gan Aiqing has been a prime minister for many years, and has worked hard in the imperial court, alas," the emperor sighed deeply, changed his tone and said: "This time, I don't blame you entirely, but you are indeed old, more than ten years, I haven't found out, this crime of negligence, can't run, I think you have worked hard for the court for many years, you go home to retire." ”

The emperor accepted Gan Tang's resignation unceremoniously, but Gan Tang breathed a sigh of relief, kowtowed to the emperor in a proper manner, took off his official hat, put it on the ground, kowtowed again, got up and exited the door.

Pan Lian knelt on the ground, watching Gan Tang leave, anxious, but he couldn't find a reason to stay, recently, the impeachment of the courtiers was surging, most of them were focused on Gan Tang, and there was a great tendency to not impeach Gan Tang without giving up.

"Your Majesty, how to deal with a crime, please ask the emperor to show me. Pengzhu stepped forward and said.

Pan Lian looked nervous, and when he saw that the emperor was about to speak, he hurriedly kowtowed and said: "Your Majesty, the minister is confused, the minister is willing to return it for him, and the emperor will forgive him for the sake of the queen mother!"

The emperor sneered: "Forgive !! Pan Lian, you are confused! So many people, up and down, embezzled millions of taels of silver from the imperial court! Forgive him, what about the others! Where is the law of the imperial court!"

Pan Lian didn't know what to say, so he couldn't stop kowtowing, Zhang Meng gave the emperor a look, the emperor didn't see it, and was about to open his mouth to make an order, Zhang Meng had to take a step forward: "Your Majesty, now these people are all locked up in the Tingwei Mansion, and the most important thing now is who will be the prime minister?"

Peng Zhu nodded: "Yes, Mr. Zhang is right, the troops outside the Saiwai are imminent, Prime Minister Gan Cheng is responsible for logistics scheduling, Your Majesty, this matter must not be delayed." ”

The emperor thought about it, suddenly saw Zhang Meng's expression, understood, thought about it, and said: "Gan Tang Zhishi, Shangshutai should also be adjusted," said with a slight pause: "The king of Yanping County can expose the cheating case this time, rectify the governance of the degree of support Cao, and contribute to the society. ”

Pan Lian's mouth squirmed, he didn't refute, he hated Zhang Meng in his heart, knowing that the emperor had seized the opportunity, at this time to adjust Shangshutai, the government and the opposition had nothing to say, there was such a big case, it was impossible for no one to be responsible above, Gan Tang Zhishi, even if he let him come out as a scapegoat, and further adjust Shangshutai, it is understandable.

"Xue Mi, who is in charge of affairs in the middle book, is loyal and diligent, has many suggestions, I know his talent very well, and I ordered him to enter Shangshutai for business. ”

The emperor transferred the two people to Shangshutai, the Pan family is now extremely prosperous, Pan Chain has almost no power to resist, although Pan Yan is a Zhonglang general, the prince Taibao, but this is an idle position, there is not much real power, the Pan family is three, Pan Chain is Shang Shuling, the power is tilted towards the government and the opposition, Pan Ji is the captain, controlling the military power, Pan Yan saw that the two brothers were in power, and he was quite unwilling, and went to Pan Ji all day long to be an official, but Pan Ji resolutely refused to give him a real job, but instead warned him to rest assured, don't talk nonsense.

In addition to Pan Yan, the Pan family also has several sons and nephews, who are also in the court, scattered among the six Cao and the forbidden army, all of whom are powerful figures.

After the emperor finished his order, Zhang Meng had already drafted the holy decree and handed it to the emperor for sealing, Zuo Chen frowned, raised his head and asked, "Your Majesty, who is this prime minister?"

The emperor personally stamped the seal, and then handed it to Zhang Meng, Zhang Meng sent it to Pan Lian, Pan Lian hesitated, kowtowed and said: "The minister obeys the order!"

These three words are very difficult, Pan Lian was extremely depressed in his heart, Shang Shutai entered two people at once, Xue Yu Yanping County King, a relative, and a clan, obviously, he could no longer control Shang Shutai as before.

(End of chapter)