Qin Xiao's expression was also extremely cold, and he said softly: "Big brother thinks why there is such a batch of weapons in the warehouse that cannot be used at all? ”

"Have these weapons never been allocated to the outside world?" Gu Baiyi asked.

Qin Xiao nodded and said: "According to the secretary of the order, these weapons were stored by the former Qiu Ling, Qiu Linglang and the previous right attendant of the military department have a relationship with each other, but also have a very good relationship with Han Day, the director of the Treasury Department, this time the Fang Servant was also escorted to the vegetable market and cut down, although Qiu Linglang was also implicated, but was not removed from his official position, but transferred to the state to serve, and Han Sun should have been kept behind it." ”

"I heard that in addition to the dozen or so officials who were beheaded together with Fan Wenzheng, most of the officials who were cleaned up by the Ministry of War were either dismissed from their posts and no longer hired, and most of them were transferred to a place of hardship." Gu Baiyi said slowly: "Although Bingzhou is not as rich as Gyeonggi and the Central Plains, it is also an important place in the north, and it is not a grievance to be an official there." ”

Qin Xiao put down his chopsticks and said, "Qiu Lingzhi stacked these useless weapons in the corner of the warehouse, and someone received the weapons, and these weapons would not be allocated to the outside world. ”

Gu Baiyi smiled faintly: "In this way, things will be clear." Looking at Qin Xiao and asking, "Do you know how much silver the official needs for a Mo knife?" ”

Qin Xiao shook his head, Gu Baiyi stretched out two hands, and spread his ten fingers: "To achieve the quality stipulated by the imperial court, from collecting ore and other materials, to forging, until packing and transporting them to Wudefang, it will take about ten taels of silver." ”

Qin Xiao was stunned and said, "So expensive? ”

Buying a house in this Kushui Lane, although it is simple, but after all, it is in Kyoto, and ten taels of silver is about the same, Qin Xiao couldn't imagine that the price of a war knife would be so expensive.

"And that's just the normal price." Gu Baiyi said: "In addition, we have to count the loss, for example, the Ministry of War gave the Ministry of Industry 10,000 pieces of silver for war knives, which requires 100,000 taels, but in the end, if they are forged and delivered to the Ministry of War, it is already good to have seven or eight thousand, so if it is damaged, a war knife is far more than ten taels of silver." ”

Qin Xiao frowned and said, "So the pile of useless weapons stored in the armory cost at least about 100,000 taels of silver?" ”

"You are now an officer of the Ministry of War, a seventh-rank official, do you know how much you have in a year?" Gu Baiyi asked.

Qin Xiao was stunned, he really hadn't thought about this problem, after all, he had a huge amount of money, and he never worried about having no money.

"The system of the imperial court, the seven-grade officials, a year's silver is twenty-five taels of silver, and another two hundred and thirty stones of grain, in the early years, one tael of silver could buy twenty stone rice, but the rice family is now much more expensive, but one tael of silver can also buy twelve stone of rice, so add up, your seven-grade official price, you can get less than fifty taels of silver a year." Gu Baiyi chuckled and said, "I, an eight-grade clerk, can get more than thirty taels of silver a year, and with our year's income, we can buy eight battle knives together." ”

When Qin Xiao heard Gu Baiyi say this, he knew that he had 300,000 taels of silver on his body, which was really an astronomical amount.

He knew that Gu Baiyi suddenly mentioned the official's fortune, so he naturally had great intentions, and looked at Gu Baiyi and didn't say much.

"The head of the sixth grade, in fact, it is about ten taels of silver more than you a year." Gu Baiyi said calmly: "Brother Qin, do you know those nothings

What will happen to the weapons used? ”

Qin Xiao nodded and said, "Xu Lang...... The scribe who was in charge of the storehouse told me that if the weapons had accumulated too much, they would be sent to the forge to be recast. ”

Gu Baiyi also nodded: "That's it." A batch of weapons that could not be used at all was created from the forge, but sent to the warehouse with normal weapons, and there was no problem with the number, and in the paperwork, there were indeed 10,000 weapons stored in the warehouse. Then these weapons were piled up there, and no one could get close to them except for you, the Treasury Division, and after some time, they were sent back to the forge on the grounds that they were damaged, and during this time, they were only stored in the warehouse, and no one knew the true value of these weapons. ”

Qin Xiao bowed slightly, already understood, and lowered his voice and said, "Brother Gu, do you think that someone is corrupting the law with these weapons?" ”

"Obviously." Gu Baiyi pointed to the fragment and said, "I also have a little study of Tang Dao. If a real war knife needs ten taels of silver, such inferior materials and craftsmanship to create a war knife does not need two taels of silver, in other words, they only need to use two thousand war knives of silver to create ten thousand such war knives, and the difference between the silver of eight thousand war knives will disappear quietly. ”

Qin Xiao clenched his fists and sneered: "Don't hide it from Big Brother Gu, in fact, I think the same way." They didn't dare to give such inferior swords to the soldiers, after all, once these inferior swords were distributed to the soldiers, they could immediately see the flaws. Looking at Gu Baiyi, he said in a low voice: "There is serious corruption in the Ministry of War, even if it is not the high-level participation of the Ministry of War, at least the Department of the Treasury Department is completely involved." ”

"After the saint ascended the throne, the seven counties of Sanzhou rebelled, the imperial court used soldiers, and countless money and food were consumed." Gu Baiyi's expression was solemn: "There are many taxes in various places, and in recent years, natural disasters have continued, droughts and floods in various places have made the people miserable, and the four towns in the north have fallen, in order to prevent the southern Xinjiang army from rebelling again, the imperial court has deployed sixty or seventy thousand soldiers and horses on the southern front, and when the first emperor, this army actually did not exist, so the military expenditure of this army is still maintained in this dynasty, which is twice as much as the military expenditure during the first emperor's period." ”

Qin Xiao only knew that the Xiling family was extremely capable of looting the people, and he didn't want to pay heavy taxes in the Guannai.

"Every knife in the warehouse is the people's fat and the people's ointment." Gu Baiyi sighed: "In order to resist foreign enemies and even bandits within the empire, it is naturally indispensable to maintain armaments, but those people dare to be greedy even for such silver, they are really mad." ”

Qin Xiao groaned slightly, and then said: "Brother Gu, this matter is not a day or two, if my estimate is correct, it has already started." But the imperial court knew nothing about this, otherwise it would never have connived at these people in the military department to embezzle military funds in this way. ”

"Naturally, the imperial court doesn't know." Gu Baiyi said: "Otherwise, these people would have already fallen to the ground." ”

"Do you need to make a break to the court and explain this matter to the court?" Qin Xiao asked softly: "The soldiers in front are using their lives, and the people in the rear are in distress, since I know that they are doing such dirty things in private, I must not turn a blind eye." ”

Gu Baiyi groaned slightly, shook his head and said, "Don't act rashly." With a solemn expression, he said softly: "The former Qiu Lingyi must be involved in this matter, but a small commander will definitely not be able to do this matter, at least the Han director of the Treasury Department must also be involved in this matter." In the case of Fan Wenzheng, Qiu Lingzhi was not dismissed from office, Han Day

Keeping him transferred to Bingzhou, this is naturally because the two had entanglements of interests before, whether Han Tian really wanted to pull this subordinate of the same wealth and nobility in times of crisis, or Qiu Lingguan threatened Han Tian with this matter, so that Han Tian had to protect him, it can be concluded that these two people must be involved. ”

"Hell if they're not involved." Qin Xiao sneered.

"But even if Han Tian is involved, it is absolutely impossible for a director of the Treasury Department and a Treasury Commander to cover up such a major event." Gu Baiyi said slowly: "The forging of these weapons is not the responsibility of the Ministry of War, but the Ordnance Department of the Ministry of Industry, so the people of the Ministry of Industry must also be involved in this matter, otherwise these weapons will not be able to be cast at all." In addition, after the weapon is cast, when it is delivered to the military department, not only the people of the military department will check the number, but the household department will also send someone to check the number, and the silver is allocated from the household department, although it is handed over to the military department for use, but of course they must understand where the silver is used, so it is also essential to check the number and enter the account. ”

Gu Baiyi explained like this, Qin Xiao's face was shocked, and he said in surprise: "Brother Gu, in this way, this matter is not only related to the Ministry of War, but also related to the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Households?" ”

"Nearly 10,000 pieces of inferior knives are put into storage, and the procedures from beginning to end are not handled by three or five people." Gu Baiyi's eyebrows locked slightly: "Now we only know that at least these three yamen are involved, but we can't be sure which layer is involved." In addition, who is the leader of this corruption case, and who planned it in detail, we don't know anything, and you are a seventh-grade official, I am an eighth-grade official, we have no qualifications to present an excerpt to Zhongshu Province or even a saint. ”

Qin Xiao also frowned, and suddenly understood that even if he discovered such a major corruption case, it was not easy to let the imperial court know about it.

"Although I know a few Shangguan, but there is no real evidence for such a thing, how can I tell them?" Gu Baiyi sat up straight and said calmly: "And even if there are upright people among them, they don't dare to go up for this fold if they don't see the inferior war knives in the armory with their own eyes." The armory of Wudefang, only the people from the Treasury Department of your military department can enter, and the officials of the other yamen cannot have the opportunity to enter the inspection, even if they can go in to check, there are many people involved in this case, these people are bright-eyed, once they find something wrong, they will soon be ready to deal with it, and it is not easy to catch their evidence. ”

"Brother Gu is right." Qin Xiao already felt the trickiness of this matter: "The matter is not clear, and there is no real evidence, and no one dares to easily fall on this fold." ”

Gu Baiyi said: "Also, this matter must not startle the snake." In the past, it was Qiu Lingzhi who was in charge of the Jiazi library, and Qiu Lingzhi was a group of them, and they made a fortune together, so they naturally didn't have to worry about problems on Qiu Lingyi's side. But when you are a new official, you are not one of their own, and once they know that you have noticed the clues, they will not only cover it up immediately, but they will probably kill you and kill you. ”

"Han Tian sent me to take care of the armory, probably didn't expect that I would go to the armory on the first day, so I would enter the warehouse to check, and I didn't expect that I would open the box." Qin Xiao sneered: "But this time, I was arranged by Dou Wei to be assigned to the Treasury Department, and I succeeded Qiu Lingyi as the Jiazi Treasury Commander, this matter proves that Dou Wei is probably ignorant of this matter, otherwise he would not have sent an outsider to take charge of such a sensitive place." ”