Ma Yun still went to the Ministry of Industry in person, and the director of the Ministry of Industry and Lang Zhong opened the E-word library with all hands and feet, and spent a day to count, and found that it was indeed not quite right in terms of the total number. For example, there are twenty or thirty less strings of bows and arrows, more than a dozen pieces of armor, and finally a dozen less firearms.

The officials of the Ministry of Industry were embarrassed and cramped, and when Ma Yun asked, he explained: "There have been thefts before, but after Huang Butang came, he was strict and personally handled a case of self-theft. ”

Ma Yun said "um" and said, "No, then why can't these things match the amount?"

"Have you ever heard of a word called 'fire consumption'?" the Ministry of Industry explained: "This word is often on the lips of the Baoyuan Bureau, saying that when broken silver is melted and recast into silver ingots, it will be depleted, not the original weight, and the same is true for copper." How many raw materials are given, refining is not a good amount, there will always be some loss, so the number is not right, it is normal. If there is less than ten or twenty, it will be within the loss, which is also clearly written in the accounts, please check it by your father-in-law. ”

Ma Yun hadn't opened his mouth yet, but Zhuang Jinghe on the side sneered: "How do I think this is using copper consumption as an excuse to cover up the truth of the theft?"

The people in the Ministry of Industry all looked at each other angrily when they heard this, and Ma Yun thought it was very interesting, because he could see that these people from the Ministry of Industry seemed to have a very bad impression of Jinyiwei, and the two parties had obviously had contact before.

In fact, there is indeed a case, the Ministry of Industry Shangshu Huang Fu built the Beijing Palace, and there were many contradictions with Ji Gang, because the wood picked from the deep mountains was not sent to Beijing in full, because Ji Gang intercepted it privately and repaired his mansion.

Huang Fu knew that Ji Gang was a celebrity in front of the emperor, and endured it once or twice, but he didn't expect Ji Gang to become more violent, and continued to intercept the wood, so that Huang Fu couldn't bear it anymore, and wrote to impeach Ji Gangdao, "Spread the purchase of utensils and the construction of altars and temple instruments, and more self-levy, and spend a huge amount of money." The factory retains large trees and cuts them at will. The minister's blessing cannot be argued, and he begs to give it early. ”

The emperor reprimanded Ji Gang for this, of course, Ji Gang had a reason to confuse the past, but because of this, he was jealous of Huang Fu and a person from the Ministry of Works, and there were some cases before, which specifically implicated several Lang Zhong of the Ministry of Industry who were not guilty at all, so the people in the Ministry of Industry were deeply disgusted with Jinyiwei.

Ma Yun seemed to feel like he was being led by the nose - it seemed that the case always came according to Ji Gang's intentions, who did he have a grudge with, and that person could be very skillfully involved in the case, he looked coldly at Zhuang Jing and Li Chun, who were holding on proudly, and suddenly said: "Is Master Ji still interrogating Zhang Sheng?"

got a positive answer, Ma Yun said: "Master Ji is so concerned about this case, he is really loyal to his duties, in comparison, I am a lot more neglectful, a few days have passed, and there is no result, I am afraid that the emperor will know about it, and he will scold me again." ”

Zhuang Jing Li Chun was relieved, but Ma Yun said: "There must be something to do, I see that Master Ji has been locked up by the craftsman and has not been interrogated, I think because of the large number of people, it is not easy to start, then let me ask and reduce the burden on Lord Ji." ”

Li Chun was stunned for a moment, and several people looked at each other, but Ma Yun's speed was very fast, and a group of craftsmen from the Ordnance Bureau were quickly gathered in the courtyard, panicking and trembling, but there was no shortage of people with eyes that met and looked playful.

These people already knew what the case was investigated by Jinyiwei, and if the number of firearms could not be handed over, it would be fine, but there was still the crime of "collusion", and they immediately kowtowed like garlic, and begged for mercy in a wail: "We have been wronged! It has nothing to do with us......

Ma Yun said: "I believe that most of you are innocent, but there are also guilty people. I don't dare to exonerate the guilty, and I can't exculpate it, if you admit it earlier, you won't implicate anyone else, someone will always pay the heaviest price, you always know the means of Jinyiwei, if no one admits it, then everyone will be unlucky together - think about it, it's not worth it!"

Speaking of Jinyiwei's methods, sure enough, many people's mental defenses have collapsed, but Ma Yun squinted his eyes and took a closer look, and found that most of the craftsmen were relatively calm and did not have a particularly fearful look, and among the husbands, the older ones did not seem to be afraid, while the younger ones were trembling and very afraid. After a while, a servant in his twenties suddenly stood up, pointed to a craftsman in his forties in front of him, and said, "He, he made firearms privately! What he does has nothing to do with us!"

"Shut up!" the designated craftsman was furious, jumped up and shouted, "You're going to kill us!"

However, this person was quickly dragged out, Ma Yun waved his hand, and wanted to ask someone to take him down for interrogation, but the brocade guard standing on the side did not move at all, Ma Yun raised his eyebrows, turned his head to look at Yuan Jiang and Li Chun behind him, the latter came slowly, and said: "Father-in-law, this Weapons Bureau is not a place for interrogation, the lower official proposes to take people to the Imperial Prison, what about the father-in-law?"

As soon as Ma Yun saw that this place really looked like a smelter and was not suitable for interrogation, he agreed to take the craftsman named Zhao Xiang and the five servants under him, including the person who had identified him just now, to the Jinyi Guard's prison.

However, Ma Yun was soon invited by Ji Gang and said that his interrogation had some results.

"Zhang Sheng and Tan Guang of the Shenji Camp sold firearms privately," Ji Gang showed him Zhang Sheng's confession: "The officials of the Municipal Department of Maritime Affairs have neglected their duties and embezzled and accepted bribes, all of which are conclusive evidence. ”

The duties of the Municipal Shipping Department are to issue certificates (notarization, public certificates) of seagoing trade according to the application of the merchants, to inspect the ships that are allowed to go to sea, and to check whether there are any prohibited items such as gold, silver, copper coins, weapons, horses, and people; After arriving at the shore, the officer supervised the loading of all the goods into the warehouse and searched all the crew members to prevent the entrainment of foreign goods without permission. At the same time, the foreign goods will be divided, and the fine color (precious goods) will be taken out of ten, and the coarse color (general goods) will be divided into fifteen. At the same time, a foreign tax will be levied, and one out of thirty will be levied.

However, after Ma Yun read these confessions, he said slowly: "Master Ji, there are four places in the city, Guangzhou Huaiyuanyi, Quanzhou Laiyuanyi, and Ningbo Anyuanyi. In the sixth year of Yongle, in order to receive the tribute envoys of the southwest countries, he set up a city ship promotion department in Yuntun. Master Ji can't generalize, after all, only Quanzhou comes to Yuanyi to govern Zhang Shengyue Port. And—"

Ma Yun smiled and said: "That Zhangzhou Yuegang, the emperor gave him Zhang Sheng, the officials who came to Yuanyi, they always have to give him some face, the emperor's relatives and relatives, can't just say that they are all corrupt and bribe-taking, dereliction of duty, for example, he Zhang Sheng is greedy for convenience and speed, and he brought the population on the ship, and the officials just saw it, and they couldn't pull people down to record him." ”

"Father-in-law, it's not such a simple matter as entrainment of the population now," Ji Gang said with a smile: "It's a matter of carrying firearms and trading with the Japanese invaders." ”

"I know, I know," Ma Yun nodded again and again, "But how do I remember that Chen Xuan said in the recital that the Qingyuan merchant ship was cruising near the nest of the Japanese Invaders - he fought with the Japanese Invaders, and the Wolves were beaten to the point that they were powerless, and these Wolves did not seem to use firearms." ”

This is the biggest rebellion in the whole case -- since the Zhang family has already made a deal with the Japanese Invaders, why did Chen Xuan's navy not encounter the attack of the Japanese Guns? And Chen Xuan did not find the hoarding of the Fire Guns on the Japanese Island.