After Sun Chuanting left, Zhu Youzhen spent nearly an hour alone in the study, and finally made up his mind to instruct Lu Qi: "Pack the stack of files collected by Han Yiliang for me, and I will write a few more words, and you can take them and send them to Qian Shoufu." ”

Just when Qian Qianyi repeatedly asked Liu Ru about various details after she entered the palace, trying to find out what the emperor's inclination was, he heard the news that a messenger from the palace had come to the door. He looked up at the sky that had already darkened, and immediately reacted, which was about the emperor's reaction to Liu Ru's entry into the palace today.

Although it is not clear whether the emperor's reaction was good or bad, he finally showed an attitude, which is a step forward from the previous no reaction. Therefore, when Qian Qianyi hurried to the front yard to receive the palace envoy, although he still had some ups and downs in his heart, his steps were much brisker.

After Lu Qi, who was standing in the front yard, saw Qian Qianyi appear, he took a one-foot-square brocade box from the little eunuch behind him and handed it to Qian Qianyi, and said with a word of regret in his mouth: "On the orders of Your Majesty, give this box to Shoufu, Your Majesty's will is in this box." Once the things have been conveyed, the miscellaneous family will return first. ”

After Lu Qi finished speaking, he arched his hand to Qian Qianyi, turned around and walked away quickly, without saying a few words to Qian Qianyi. Seeing Lu Qi's deliberate gesture, Qian Qianyi understood, the other party was deliberately avoiding suspicion, obviously the emperor was unhappy with his decision to let Liu Ru enter the palace for verification, although he gave a reaction, but he didn't intend to be known to the outside world.

Qian Qianyi also guessed that there must be some things in this brocade box that cannot be used by outsiders. After he sent Lu Qi out of the house, he personally returned to his study with this brocade box. And Liu Ru, who lived in the back house, seemed to hear the wind, and personally lit a candlestick into the study and lit the lamps in the study.

The originally groggy study suddenly became brighter, and Liu Ru stood on the side of the desk, with no intention of leaving. Qian Qianyi originally wanted to send her away, but he thought that since Liu Ru entered the palace, she had been in the game, and it seemed that there was no need to avoid her at this time.

What's more, although the emperor hinted that he could not let outsiders know the things in the brocade box, he alone may not be able to guess all the emperor's intentions, it is better to let Liu Ru be by the side to give him a counselor or two, and His Majesty will not hold on to this.

Qian Qianyi thought about it and swallowed back the original words, and turned to Liu Rushi and said, "Move the lamp and candle out, be careful not to let my sleeve belt turn over." ”

Liu Ru didn't say much, so he cleaned up the desktop of the desk according to Qian Qianyi's request, asked him to place the brocade box in his arms on the table, and then carefully opened the box. In addition to stacks of dossier documents, only the top fold of a white page was placed in the brocade box.

Qian Qianyi took out this blank paper and opened it, and found that there was only such a line of ink on it, "Do you know, what is the five-day Jing Zhaoyin?" ”

Looking at this Chongzhen handwriting, Qian Qianyi suddenly fell into contemplation, and although Liu Ruyi, who was standing beside him, also saw this line of words, he didn't know where the allusion was, and saw that Qian Qianyi was a little delirious, so he couldn't help but deliberately interrupt and said: "Your Majesty's handwriting is really ordinary enough, no wonder Your Majesty rarely uses a brush to write instructions." ”

Qian Qianyi turned his head to look at her, knowing that although Liu Ru had worked hard in poetry and songs, he was only getting started with the history of governance, and she probably didn't understand the allusion used by the emperor.

"Five days Jing Zhaoyin, this is an allusion about Zhang Chang in the Han Dynasty, from the "Book of Han" volume seventy-six..."Qian Qianyi simply introduced this allusion to Liu Ru, and then sighed and said: "Today on the fifth day Jing Zhao'er, An can resume the case?" Your Majesty, this is to blame me for seeing that I am about to step down as the first assistant, have you been too lazy these days? It seems that His Majesty did intend for me to protect Wang Hanru. ”

Liu Ru didn't pick up Qian Qianyi's words, she thought quietly for a moment, then reached out and took out the file in the brocade box and looked through it. It's just that Liu Ru looked more carefully, while Qian Qianyi looked at it faster.

In a short time, all the files in the brocade box were taken out and piled on one side of the desk. Seeing that the brocade box had bottomed out and found no other suspicious things, Qian Qianyi couldn't help but say disappointedly: "It seems that Your Majesty did only put such a handwritten letter, and there was no other hint for me." ”

Liu Ruyi put down the dossier in his hand, then gently stroked the dossier documents stacked next to the brocade box, and thoughtfully mentioned to Qian Qianyi: "Your Majesty's other meanings are probably in these dossiers. ”

Qian Qianyi was suddenly startled and said: "You're not joking, these files and cases all record the corruption of officials discovered during last year's disaster relief, and there are cases of local officials colluding inside and outside to steal and sell Changping grain; There are also cases of replacing disaster relief food with shoddy quality to fill local shortages; There are also cases of fraudulently receiving food and materials in the name of the victims...

These cases involved officials from at least 100 counties in 29 prefectures in the three provinces, and at least 3 or 400 high-ranking officials were involved, and the number of other low-level officials and local gentry involved was as high as thousands. If you really think about it, this is a big case equivalent to the empty seal case at the beginning of the country.

Your Majesty has already stated at the cabinet meeting that he is now concerned about disaster relief, and these things will be talked about later, how can I be allowed to deal with these people now..."

Liu Ru glanced at Qian Qianyi and said, "Isn't what Your Majesty said about the future today?" The reason why Wang Hanru's case has not been decided for a long time is that there were clans complaining about their grievances in the past, and then there were local gentry who coerced the public opinion to blackmail the imperial court, which gave some officials in the court and the central government an opportunity to get their hands on it, and made you in a dilemma?

Compared with Wang Hanru's forcible expropriation of the property of large clan households, aren't these officials resentful of the people for stealing, selling, embezzling, and fraudulently taking food and funds from the treasury for disaster relief? The concubine thought that if the lord threw out these cases and made a tough deal, the voices of the North Korean people against Wang Hanru's case and the voices attacking the lord would soon be replaced.

I'm afraid this is the true intention of His Majesty to give this handwritten letter to the master. ”

Qian Qianyi is not a stupid person, Liu Ru can see Chongzhen's intentions clearly than him first, not only because of her intelligence, but because of her boldness. Qian Qianyi, who had always avoided thinking about the connection between these files and Chongzhen's handwriting, had to think seriously after being broken by Liu Ruyi.

After a while, he said with some bitterness: "But if you really want to do what Your Majesty wants, the consequences are not much better than being driven out of the position of the first assistant."

Even if I can calm down the turmoil of Wang Hanru's case, it will be tantamount to offending these thousands of officials and families related to them, and these people can't say that they still have such and such relationships with my relatives in my township. ”

Unlike Qian Qianyi's view of worrying about his relatives in the township, Liu Rushi, who was sold by his family since he was a child, is still relatively indifferent to family affection. After hearing Qian Qianyi's worries, she replied unceremoniously: "The master has been the first assistant for two terms, can't you still see the current situation in the Ming Dynasty clearly?"

The current Ming Dynasty is that His Majesty is strong and the gentry is weak, otherwise Wang Hanru is just a newly appointed governor of Henan, what ability does he have to forcibly expropriate property from the Zhou King and other clans, and the big clans in Kaifeng only dare to complain to the court afterwards, but they did not dare to resist the officers and soldiers sent by Wang Hanru at that time.

It can be seen from this that sir, you are on Your Majesty's side, and if you step on these officials and gentry, you will step on them. But if he runs to the opposite side of His Majesty, not to mention whether there is a chance to re-take charge of the cabinet in the future, even if the lord is attacked by these gentry officials this time, His Majesty may not be able to help.

If the lord asks for resignation, this capital will naturally not be able to live, and I am afraid that he will only be able to be a rich man in the countryside in the future. Is this what the old man wants? ”

Qian Qianyi was silent, but after all, he didn't immediately draw any conclusions in front of Liu Ruyi. Although he did not dare to show the emperor's handwritten letters to others, he was still able to discuss with others whether to thoroughly investigate the cases recorded in these files sent by the emperor.

Of course, the object of this consultation is naturally his protégé and thinker Qu Shiyun. Although Qu Shiyun didn't know that these files were sent to Qian Qianyi by the palace, he obviously disapproved of Qian Qianyi's turning over these cases at this time.

After Qu Shiyun looked through the file slightly, he said directly to Qian Qianyi: "Teacher, it is certainly hateful that these local officials are corrupt, but the current situation between the DPRK and China is complicated and difficult to distinguish, and some people use the case of Wang Hanru to directly target the teacher. At this time, we are going to offend a group of local officials, is it a bit of a mistake?

As far as the students know, Wen Tiren and Cui Chengxiu are eyeing the seats under the teacher, and they are quite imperative. And some people in the party also seem to have other ideas, and the teacher should still be quiet and not move at this time. ”

Hearing that there were people in the party who had opinions about themselves, Qian Qianyi suddenly asked with some surprise: "Who in the party is dissatisfied with me?" ”

Qu Shiyun didn't shirk it, so he replied so straightforwardly: "It's mainly Ni Yuanlu and Huang Daozhou, the students think that they may not all come to the teacher, but they are dissatisfied with the teacher's desire to elect me as the party's first and auxiliary candidate, and it seems that the teacher is suspected of giving and receiving the state's public instruments privately..."

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