Liu Fan's words successfully aroused the anger of everyone, and not only the students present were excited. Pen, Fun, Pavilion www.biquge.info Even Liu Ru, who has always been "quite neutral", frowned slightly, and couldn't help but retort, "Lord Hou Sui is an honest official, has outstanding prestige, and his character is also excellent. General Liu, is it unfair to slander him so much? ”

"Hehe..."Liu Fan shook his head and smiled, "Originally, the governor disdained to mention this person, but since everyone Liu asked, the governor reluctantly made it difficult and said it for you." Before the recall, Hou Sui was the head of the household, right? The household department is in charge of my Ming tax burden, and the household department is still a high authority, and the safety of the people in the world is at stake, and the responsibility is not heavy. That's right, right? ”

"Indeed!" Including Liu Ru, everyone nodded in approval.

Seeing everyone's reaction, Liu Fan nodded with satisfaction and continued: "Daming has an annual tax of nearly four million taels of silver, and in addition to the special Liaoxiang, there is also a huge amount of tax grain in the summer and autumn every year. Every year, the money and grain will be deposited in the household department and handed over to the household department Shangshu to take charge of it. Responsible for annual civil and military expenditures. However, since the end of the fifth year of Chongzhen, Hou Sui served as the head of the household department, the finances of the Ming Dynasty have been in deficit year after year. Not only did the officials not receive the full amount of their salaries, but even the military salaries of the soldiers at the border gates were often in arrears. The nine frontier areas in the north, which were responsible for defending against the Tartars, had generally not been paid for more than half a year, and in some places it was as high as two years or more. Without pay, the soldiers could not even eat, so they could only fight with the fierce and brutal Tartars on a hungry stomach, and they could not even eat a full meal before the temporary period. ”

"The imperial court collects so many taxes every year, and it does not pay the officials or the soldiers, where does all the money go?" After listening to Liu Fan's words, Liu Ru asked the doubts in his heart

"I don't know!" Liu Fan shook his head and said, "Maybe it's to build water conservancy to benefit the people?" Or is it for disaster relief? I can only ask Lord Hou Suihou, who is the head of the household! ”

Speaking of this, Liu Fan paused and continued: "But this governor has been fighting in the Central Plains and other places for more than half a year, but he has never heard of the Central Plains provinces digging a well under the auspices of the imperial court, nor have I seen a new canal added in various places!" Since the first year of Chongzhen, the provinces of the Central Plains have been plagued by natural disasters, especially in recent years, drought and locust plagues have been everywhere. The Central Plains has not harvested for many years, and the people are starving everywhere. Without food, they can only dig grass roots to satisfy their hunger, and when the grass roots are eaten, they will eat the bark, and even the bark will be eaten to eat Guanyin soil to satisfy their hunger. In the end, I didn't even have to eat Guanyin soil, so I could only wait to die. The originally rich land of the Central Plains is now uninhabited for hundreds of miles, without roosters for thousands of miles, and the white bones are exposed in the wild! ”

After talking about these tragic situations, Liu Fan suddenly turned around, glared at Hou Fangyu and said, "Then Hou Gongzi, I want to ask you, is this how your father Hou Sui is in charge of the household department?" In the past three years, more than 10 million taels of silver and countless grains have been taken by him, where did he go? ”

Hou Fangyu was suddenly a little dumbfounded, how could he know these things, he was silent for a long time before he said, "I don't know either!" Then he glared at Liu Fan unwillingly and argued: "But these responsibilities can't all be blamed on my father!" He is just a household secretary who is only responsible for safekeeping, and it is the emperor who makes the final decision! ”

"Hey!" Seeing that Hou Fangyu was still trying his best to quibble, Liu Fan couldn't help but be angry. After thinking about it, Liu Fan said directly to Hou Fangyu, "What you said is right, it was Your Majesty who made the final decision, and it was not false at all." But the money and food that is handed over to the household department every year has disappeared without a trace in just one month, how do you let Your Majesty make a decision? When the household department ran out of money, His Majesty could only take money out of the treasury to pay the officials and pay the soldiers at the border gates. Hou Sui has been a household secretary for several years, and he has not done any good things for the benefit of the country and the people, but he has successfully hollowed out the wealth accumulated by the emperors of the Ming Dynasty for more than 200 years. In order to be able to save more money, His Majesty only eats two meals a day, only drinks 10,000 gruel in the morning, and only brown rice and some green vegetables and tofu in the evening. Ben Dou had the pleasure of tasting these meals, and they really didn't taste very good. Not only His Majesty, but the queen even personally took the palace maids to weave cloth in exchange for money to maintain the palace expenses. In order to scrape together more money, His Majesty also asked Tian Guifei, who was good at female popularity, to remove the gems and gold threads on her clothes and hats, and let the eunuchs take them out of the palace to exchange for money. The main reason for this result is the Hou Sui, who is known as "an honest and conscientious official". Shouldn't such a deceitful and rebellious person be cut with a thousand cuts? ”

"Nonsense! You're slandering! Nonsense! Hou Fangyu's body began to tremble, pointing at Liu Fan and scolding, his face turned red and he almost wanted to choose someone to eat!

Liu Fan ignored Hou Fangyu's loud scolding, and said with a calm face, "All this I said is based on facts, if you don't believe it, you will know it when you check it." All the situation will only be worse than I say, if it were not for the fact that the Governor is willing to judge himself and thank the world! ”

Hearing Liu Fan swear such a poisonous oath, and everything is well documented, no one dares to doubt the authenticity of the matter anymore. Liu Fan didn't lie, he just changed his concept and splashed dirty water on Hou Sui. In the face of Liu Fan's explanation, even a few students in Donglin did not dare to continue to excuse Hou Sui, and their eyes when they looked at Hou Fangyu were no longer admiration, but with a trace of contempt.

Hou Fangyu was furious, but Liu Fan didn't want to let him go like this. After looking Hou Fangyu up and down, Liu Fan suddenly had an idea, pretending to be surprised and said loudly, "Oh, this gemstone ring on Hou Gongzi's hand is so beautiful!" It must be very precious, right? If it is exchanged for money, I am afraid it will be enough for His Majesty and his old man to eat brown rice for a year! ”

When everyone heard the prestige, their eyes locked on Hou Fangyu's right hand pointing at Liu Fan, and sure enough, they saw an extremely precious and rare gemstone ring, and then thought of Liu Fan's metaphor of "eating for a year" just now, and suddenly, their gaze towards Hou Fangyu became a little weird.

Liu Fan still refused to give up, and continued to add fuel to the fire and said, "Well, Hou Gongzi's outfit is not bad!" At the very least, it will be a few hundred taels, if it is exchanged for food, I am afraid that it will be enough for those victims to eat for half a year, right? ”

"Yes, the best Nanjing Yunjin, rich and elegant, the pattern is rich and beautiful, the color is bright and solemn, plus the use of gold line stroke, inch brocade inch gold, not to mention five hundred taels to start!" After Xu Wenjue's arguments, he said with a sneer