[R18] Will drink wine – “About Wine” Chapter 279 [English]

Chapter 267: Gongju

The capital of Qudu wanted to enjoy chrysanthemum appreciation in September, but due to the drought in Yongcheng, the imperial court was still in arrears with part of the capital official’s monthly salary. Both inside and outside the palace followed Li Jianting’s orders and did not hold a grand chrysanthemum appreciation banquet.Fuman originally found someone to cultivate hundreds of pots of valuable anus in his farm, but now he doesn’t dare to give them away.

Fuman woke up at three o’clock in the morning, rinsed his mouth and changed clothes under the service of the young eunuch.Eunuchs must serve their masters closely and must not have any smell on their bodies.Their collars are all fake collars, which can be changed immediately if they are stained by sweat, and their socks and boots are made of hard-to-wipe velvet socks that make no sound when walking.

Fuman cleaned up properly, dressed neatly, put his waistband in front, and stepped out of the door.He saw that there were still stars in the sky, so he went to the duty room in front of Mingli Hall and asked the eunuch who was serving in the dormitory last night: “How did your Majesty sleep last night?”

The eunuch was having tea and breakfast, but the watchmen didn’t dare to eat casually, for fear of having to go out at night, and for fear of leaving a taste in their mouths, so they only dared to eat some snacks before going in. At this moment, they were so hungry that their hearts were pressed against their backs.He Hearing Fuman’s question, he quickly lowered his hands and stood respectfully, and replied: “To tell you what my ancestors said, the emperor slept well last night. He turned around four times and didn’t call you maid.”

Fuman calculated the time and estimated that Li Jianting should wake up, so he went under the eaves to wait for the summons.He waited for a moment and saw Fengquan coming out, but he just smiled and nodded as a salute.Fengquan seemed unaware and saluted him according to the etiquette.

“The Emperor wanted to call our ancestors to serve him last night,” Fengquan bowed and said slowly to Fuman, “Old ancestors, double happiness is coming to our door.”

Fuman couldn’t figure out what kind of medicine was sold in Fengquan Gourd, and he became suspicious. He didn’t dare to answer casually, and said vaguely: “I’d like to lend you some good advice.”

After saying that, without waiting for Fengquan to continue, he took the lead in lifting his robe and entered the Mingli Hall.

The curtains in the bedroom had just been tied up, the windows on all sides were wide open, frost had fallen early in the morning, and Fuman felt the chill.He walked slowly to the bronze mirror and saw that Li Jianting had finished dressing up.Normally, he would have praised me at this moment, but today he was cautious and only said: “Your Majesty, breakfast is ready.”

Li Jianting’s expression was as usual, and the flower on his forehead was dazzling. She held up the gold hairpin and said, “Just something light will do.”

“I dare not forget the emperor’s instructions, so I specifically asked Guanglu Temple to choose something simple to make,” Fuman bowed and supported Li Jianting, “It’s gold and silver rolls and jade white tofu.”

Li Jianting came out of the bedroom. The memorials on the imperial desk were all newly approved last night. She read the ones she specially picked out again.

“Go back and tell Yuan Fu,” Li Jianting opened the small gold and silver scroll. “You can save the invitation to the cabinet and don’t need to hand it over again. People like You Tan from Liuzhou in the west write the envelope in a complicated and long-winded way. They just use flattery words over and over again, which is a waste of time.”

Fuman was serving Li Jianting’s meal. Hearing this, he smiled and said, “My servants have also heard about this Mr. You. It is said that he’s always like this. In the early years, Mr. Haige couldn’t bear to read it.”

Li Jianting didn’t answer. He finished his breakfast and hurried to the morning court.

In the morning, we discussed the matter of moving eastward from the north. Dancheng sentry sentry reported that more troops had been added to the Beiyuan campus.Before the military situation was reported to the Ministry of War, the Ministry of Personnel started quarreling with the Ministry of Household Affairs over there, demanding that the Ministry of Household Affairs pay the arrears of monthly salary as soon as possible.The household department had no choice but to blame Li Jianting for having no money, so he could only be scolded in silence.In the middle of the scolding, the prosecutor of the Metropolitan Procuratorate impeached the local magistrate for neglecting control. Less than half a month after taking office in the new state capital of Huaizhou, riots broke out in Huaizhou.

“The reason for deducting the monthly salary is to provide relief to Yongcheng,” said an official from the Ministry of Revenue. “We are facing a national crisis, so we should work together. Your monthly salary has not been paid, and our monthly salary from the Ministry of Revenue has not been paid. Everyone is hungry, why are you scolding us!”

“You have been checking the accounts. You have checked Dancheng and Wucheng. The Pan and Han families have copied it. The Fei family in Trent City took the lead. Now the other cities are filling in the land tax,” the official retorted, “According to the budget at the beginning of the year, the monthly salary is enough at this time. What about the money? Where has the money gone? There must be an explanation!”

“The Queen Mother rides the crane, the Emperor ascends the throne, ask the Ministry of Rites, where did the money go? All the money was spent on the blade! There are also renovations of the Ancestral Temple, reconstruction of residential areas, the Ministry of Industry…”

“You are talking about monthly salary,” an official from the Ministry of Industry said anxiously, “Why are you talking about other things?”

“Our integrity is not afraid of shadows. All the accounts we check are reviewed by the Ministry of Justice and Dali Temple, and then the cabinet audits and submits them to the emperor. There is nothing hidden.” Liang Dishan saluted Li Jianting, “Your Majesty, the accounts of the Ministry of Revenue are submitted to the cabinet every month. Yuan Fu gave the ticket, and the emperor approved it. Every step is strictly abiding by the law and following the rules…”

“Strictly abide by the law? Lord Chongshen, I don’t think so.” The censor of the Metropolitan Procuratorate raised his hand in salute, “Your Majesty, I am about to intervene in the bribery incident of Xue Xiuyi, the former household minister!”

This shout made the whole hall fall into silence, and the few people who had made the noise turned their heads.

Xue Xiuzhuo stood silently among the ministers without moving his eyes.

Li Jianting glanced at Xue Xiuzhuo, paused for a moment, and said: “Isn’t Xue Xiuyi now the Nori Shou of Neicang?”

“Back to the emperor, that’s right. This person was acting stupidly in the Ministry of Household Affairs and repeatedly slandered the imperial court. He has never been re-employed.” The censor lifted up his robe, knelt on the ground, and continued, “Until a few months ago, Xue Xiuyi colluded with businessmen, used the emperor’s amnesty, bribed the eunuchs in the palace with large sums of money, and obtained the post of Neicang Dianshou.”

The golden butterfly on Li Jianting’s temples swayed slightly, and she sat up straight.

“Xue Xiuyi made a lot of money in this position and earned three properties in the courtyard of Donglong Street. This person has no shame and even collaborated with his eunuchs to make false accounts and resold the stolen treasures in the inner warehouse for a total price of two hundred thousand taels!”

The whole hall immediately became excited. The Yongcheng relief fund was only one hundred thousand taels, and the Quancheng silk involved in the Xiao Chiye bribery case in the Xiande year was only 8,000 taels. Unexpectedly, Xue Xiuyi embezzled two hundred thousand taels less than three months after taking office!

“Shuo, Shuo Shu…” The veteran cabinet minister felt dizzy.

Li Jianting’s face darkened, and Xue Xiuyi resold the rare treasures in the inner warehouse for 200,000 taels, but asked Fuman to report 80,000 taels to him, and they all pocketed the remaining 120,000 taels.

“We still want to visit Xue Xiuzhuo, the young minister of Dali Temple!” The censor turned his gun and pointed directly at Xue Xiuzhuo, “Xue Xiuzhuo is tyrannical and powerful, pretending to be a public servant for personal gain! He is in a high position but does not care about self-examination, he is so generous but does not understand the sacred heart, he allows a big rat to enter the warehouse and colludes with Xue Xiuyi. It is really abominable, hateful, and extremely disgusting!”

“You are so presumptuous!” Li Jianting suddenly shouted.

The whole hall fell to their knees with a crash, and you could hear a needle drop.

Li Jianting stood up, turned sideways in front of the throne, pointed at the censor and said: “As a public official, I am responsible for supervising the impeachment of hundreds of officials. I should check and verify the truth! You know very well that you influence the court’s opinions, but you use it to exclude dissidents. I think you are hateful!”

Yan Guan’s rank is not high, but his intimidation power can penetrate from top to bottom.In the early years, Emperor Guangcheng did not dare to rebuke Yan Guan, only to be reprimanded by Yan Guan. In the Tianchen year, the bastard Li Jianheng appeared, and Fu Linye broke out in a bribery case to stabilize the situation. Apart from this, no emperor in the Great Zhou Dynasty dared to offend Yan Guan in court.

Sure enough, the censor immediately said: “The evidence for the weak minister is solid, but the emperor wants to favor the guilty minister. Isn’t it that he doesn’t know right from wrong, and doesn’t distinguish between right and wrong?”

“Xue Xiuzhuo is the emperor’s master!” Li Jianting said coldly, “How can I allow you to frame my teacher like this?”

Kong Qiu’s heart sank, and while kneeling down, he exchanged glances with Cen Yu.

“Xue Xiuyi was corrupt and perverted the law. I will immediately order people from the Criminal Department to investigate and investigate. We must try and find out as soon as possible. As for Xue Xiuzhuo,” Li Jianting walked away with a flick of his sleeves, “what you said is all nonsense!”

“Your Majesty,” the censor said sadly, “if the Xue family is not eliminated, he will become a party member! He Xue Xiuzhuo is clearly the next Hua Siqian…”

Xue Xiuzhuo buried his head on the ground and did not speak from the beginning to the end.

* * *

It started to rain towards evening in Qudu.

Fengquan was waiting outside Mingli Hall, and could vaguely hear Kong Qiu’s voice admonishing him inside.

“Although Xue Xiuzhuo is the emperor’s teacher, he is involved in Xue Xiuyi’s bribery and has to be suspended pending investigation according to the law,” Kong Qiu said. “The emperor reprimanded Yan Guan in court today, which is against Taizong’s holy teachings and should not be done.”

Li Jianting remained silent after going down to court. No matter how eager Kong Qiu was, she didn’t answer.Kong Qiu stood up and bowed down. Seeing that Li Jianting didn’t want to answer, he raised his body and bowed down again.

“I have made up my mind,” Li Jianting said, “Yuan Fu does not need to persuade him any more. Feng Quan, help Yuan Fu down!”

There was a continuous drizzle in Qudu, and Fengquan supported Kong Qiu and held an umbrella for him personally.Kong Qiu stepped out of Mingli Hall, and the strong wind picked up a few fallen leaves. He turned hundreds of advices into a sigh, gently pushed away the wind spring, and went into the rain alone without an umbrella.Feng Quan quickly picked up his robe and chased after him, holding his umbrella high, and sent Kong Qiu all the way out.

Fuman on the other side heard the news and hurried to Mingli Hall. He knelt down before entering the door.As soon as he knelt down, he wiped his tears with his sleeves and wanted to cry out his injustice through the curtain. Before he could open his mouth, the tea cup was violently smashed out and fell to pieces in front of he.

“You are greedy for fame and collude with the court officials to steal the treasures in the inner warehouse.” Li Jianting scolded from across the curtain, “Someone, drag this bastard out of here!”

In the duty room, Fuman listened to the report of the morning dispute in detail. He knelt down on the broken porcelain piece, supported the ground, and kowtowed hastily: “Your Majesty! Your Majesty, listen to what I say again. The transfer of Xue Xiuyi was recommended by the Ministry of Personnel. What does it have to do with this slave and such lowly people? Your Majesty,” heHe shouted miserably, “How could I be so virtuous as a slave to suffer such injustice!”

Li Jianting waved his sleeves and remained silent, as if he was still angry.

Fuman then kowtowed his head loudly and cried: “I don’t care about the life of a slave. Although the emperor is humble, the masters in the hall are all people who have read poetry and books, how can they abuse this slave like this!”

Xue Xiuyi paid filial piety to Fuman, but Fuman had already packed it away.He is usually cautious and does not send good goods to the palace. He hides them all in the house in Qandu and is taken care of by his godsons.Now that something has happened, the Ministry of Punishment will definitely investigate He, and he will be informed immediately in the duty room.

When Li Jianting heard Fuman’s miserable cry, he seemed to feel truly moved by compassion.

Fuman seized the opportunity and was about to sue the Metropolitan Procuratorate to use his name to remonstrate, but he saw Fengquan returning quickly.

Fengquan closed his umbrella under the eaves, as if he hadn’t seen Fuman Chenqing, and reported to Li Jianting inside: “Your Majesty, I saw a few young eunuchs walking quickly on the road holding flowers. After asking, I found out that they were sent to Mingli Hall.”

Fuman looked familiar to those eunuchs, all of them holding expensive anus. He also saw Fengquan standing proudly, and suddenly felt bad.Li Jianting raised the curtain and came out, frowning, and asked: “I have already told you not to spend time and effort planting these anus. Who sent it? The duty room did not report it.”

The eunuch knelt down and kowtowed, and replied: “Report to the emperor, this is Eunuch Fu’s order.”

Full of happiness, his whole body was burning, and he retorted: “The emperor is here, you still dare to talk nonsense! I am on duty today, how often have I told you such things?”

The outer dynasty still owed monthly salary, and Li Jianting continued the order of Yongcheng. The palace still followed frugality, and there were strong signs of abandoning extravagance.Fuman was at odds with theft in the inner warehouse today. It was the time when he was afraid of getting into trouble. Here, he made a sad statement that he wanted to abandon Xue Xiuyi and become the scapegoat. He wanted to make a fuss about his daily income of soybeans and not eating delicacies. However, he did not want to be trapped in a desperate situation due to sudden changes.

“Shut up, you eunuch!” Li Jianting’s expression became increasingly ugly, and he said coldly to the eunuch, “Tell the truth.”

The eunuch said in fear: “Last night, Eunuch Fu sent someone to tell the slaves that the anus from Zhuangzi was brought to the palace along with the purchase from Guanglu Temple. Flowers are precious and must be taken good care of. When the emperor comes to court today, he will be sent to Mingli Hall to relieve the emperor’s boredom——”

Fuman’s hands and feet were cold, and he said sharply in an instant: “You framed me with your empty words! Since I sent people there, where is the ticket? Where is the brand?”

The eunuch raised his arms to wipe away the rain, but was so frightened that he almost collapsed to the ground when Fuman shouted.He said: “…The person who comes here looks familiar. He is the godson of our ancestors. How dare I ask for the brand?”

Fuman held the porcelain piece, and his palms were bloody. When he heard that he said there was no sign, he immediately said: “It’s really nonsense! I have served the nobles in the palace for nearly twenty years. Although I am stupid, I know the rules. I always show the sign to others when I do errands. Your Majesty, Your Majesty!” He held up his waist badge, walked forward on his knees, and watched Li Jianting’s crying getting louder, “Even if I die today, I will die in peace!”

“Your Majesty, this servant also thinks this is strange,” Feng Quan lifted his robe and knelt in front of Li Jianting, “Eunuch Fu is in charge of internal affairs and is the emperor’s confidant. We must not let others frame him. We must find out.” He looked at Fuman, “Why don’t we call the ‘godson’ who passed on the message from the father-in-law to the emperor and let the emperor see what’s going on?”

Fuman’s handsome face showed sarcasm. Li Jianting, without waiting for Fuman’s reply, said to Konoe: “Go and find the ancestor’s son.”

She pronounced the word “ancestor” so strongly that Fuman felt chills to his bones.

In less than a moment, the guard brought the person to the front of the hall.The rain washed away the steps, and the godson hid his head in the rain, trembling all over.

Li Jianting couldn’t see clearly and said, “Put your face up.”

He sobbed in his throat, as if he was frightened, and shook his head crazily against the ground.The guard next to him pressed his shoulders and lifted his head up.

Li Jianting didn’t recognize him, but the little eunuch in the rain said: “It’s he, Your Majesty, it’s Eunuch Yingxi!”

“Welcome to the eunuchs of the Tianchen Nian Supervisory Army,” Feng Quan whispered to Li Jianting, “Since he was imprisoned by King Donglie in the capital, he has already been imprisoned in the Ministry of Punishment Prison.”

Fuman looked at Yingxi in astonishment, and suddenly woke up when the guards approached, he shouted: “This slave has been wronged… Your Majesty… this person is definitely not…”

Yingxi rubbed the ground and howled.he scratched the ground, choking and crying: “Ancestor, ancestor, save your son!”

Li Jianting pulled off the hem of Fuman’s skirt, looked at him, and said: “You are so capable. You can also fish out eunuchs who have been convicted by the Ministry of Punishment. You are worthy of being the ‘ancestor’ that thousands of people rely on.”

Full of happiness and coldness all over his body, knowing that this is the end of the road, he said: “Your Majesty, Your Majesty, please remember your old love…”

“You and I are just the lord and servant of a deep palace,” Li Jianting said, “Where did the old relationship come from? I have promoted you, but you are ungrateful. You have made such a big mistake, and it will not be a loss for me to kill you.”

The guard dragged Fuman, and Fuman’s round collar strangled his neck. He panicked, kicked his legs and struggled, saying: “Your Majesty! Your Majesty——”

Fengquan winked at Konoe, who immediately blocked Fuman’s mouth and dragged him out as quickly as possible.

* * *

“No attack?” Shen Zechuan looked back and glanced at Fei Sheng.

Fei Sheng nodded and said: “It is said that the empress angrily rebuked the censor in the court, which caused a storm in the city. Master, wasn’t it just to challenge Xue Xiuzhuo when she rewarded Jiang Qingshan? This is such a good opportunity, why has the master-disciple relationship become so close again?”

Shen Zechuan looked into the mirror, the jade bead in his right ear was dim and unclear.he thought for a moment and said: “I still underestimated the empress.”

Yao Wenyu was watching the raindrops dripping under the eaves, and suddenly waved his arm to remove the chess pieces on the board.The black and white chess pieces immediately splashed into the rain, and were quickly covered by ripples.With a sweet taste in his throat, he coughed a few times and said: “If the trees are beautiful in the forest, the wind will blow them up; if they are piled up on the shore, the current will be turbulent. What the empress said in court means that Xue Xiuzhuo must be used and Xue Xiuzhuo must be abolished.”

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1: Selected from Li Kang’s “The Theory of Destiny”