Yang Shidao, the young eunuch in the palace, stepped forward and said loudly: "The first item of the court discussion is to ask Lu Chu, the secretary of the Ministry of Works, by the Imperial Shi Taiting. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ”

The Imperial Historical Observatory is a very special institution, which is independent of the three provinces and six ministries, supervises the imperial court and local officials, and is directly responsible to the Son of Heaven, with great power.

The Imperial Historical Observatory of the Northern Sui Dynasty was directly responsible to the regent Zhang Xuan, and Zhang Xuan granted them a lot of supervision power, such as officials below the fifth rank They can directly issue a supervision order to suspend them pending trial, and officials above the fifth rank can also request the officials under trial to be suspended pending trial after Zhang Xuan signs the regent edict, without the consent of the Ziwei Pavilion Xiangguo.

If the Ziwei Pavilion Xiangguo thinks that there is a problem with the supervision of the Imperial Historical Observatory, he can also propose a joint discussion to the regent, and after the regent agrees, the three halls can be tried, and at that time, the Criminal Department and Dali Temple will also join in and interrogate the officials together with the Imperial Historical Observatory.

Another power of the Imperial Historical Observatory is that it can directly make requests to court officials at court meetings, and the palace supervisor must arrange it, unless it is a court court, it does not need to be approved by the regent.

However, there are also restrictions on the rank of the court question, and the officials who are questioned by the court must be above the fifth rank, and the imperial historian must make a request to the palace supervisor.

This ensures the seriousness and seriousness of the court questioning, and the small mistakes and crimes of officials will not be questioned on such a major occasion as the court meeting, so if the court questioning is conducted, it must be a major crime of a high-ranking official.

Shangshu is a high-ranking official from the third grade, which is not trivial, and Yu Shinan, the imperial historian, walked out of the courtiers, bowed to Zhang Xuan and said: "Your Highness, please agree to the court!" ”

This is when Jang Hyun implements the veto, if Jang Hyun thinks it is inappropriate, he can directly veto it, then the court question will be cancelled, and the Yushitai will directly suspend and supervise.

The reason why Zhang Xuan did not design the veto power to be implemented as a behind-the-scenes link is because he consolidated the supervisory power of the Yushitai, and while expanding the power of the prime minister, he also wanted to strengthen the supervisory power.

Of course, the power of supervision will not get out of control, and if the Imperial Historical Observatory wants to supervise Xiangguo, it must be approved by Zhang Xuan, and at the same time, Xiangguo also has the right to impeach Yushi Zhongcheng and Yushi Dafu to Zhang Xuan, so that Yushitai and Ziwei Pavilion can check and balance each other, which is conducive to the stability of the regime.

Although Zhang Xuan had the right to terminate the court question at this time, he did not veto, but nodded, "Quasi!" ”

Yu Shinan turned around and said, "Please invite Lu Chu, the secretary of the Ministry of Industry!" ”

Lu Chu walked out of the courtiers and saluted Zhang Xuan, "Weichen is willing to accept the court's question." ”

Although the court question is very serious, it is still a public questioning to a certain extent, and it has not yet reached the level of conviction, but it only requires a reasonable explanation, and if the questioned party can explain it, then the Yushitai can directly withdraw the case, which is somewhat equivalent to a hearing in later generations, giving the other party a chance to explain.

If the official is really innocent, then public questioning is a kind of reputational protection for the official, allowing the official to publicly explain the reasons for his or her actions, without making people think of a covert operation.

However, once the minister fails to pass the court question, it not only means that the case is officially filed and he faces impeachment, but also the loss of reputation, and the power of the court question lies in this.

Lu Chu received a notice from the court of the court yesterday afternoon, asking him to make relevant preparations, and at the same time, the court had already done a lot of investigation before, and only after mastering the relevant evidence did he make the request for the court question.

At this time, everyone sweated for Lu Chu, Zheng Shanguo looked at Lu Chu with complicated eyes, with a trace of expectation in his eyes, but there was an indescribable fear, Zhang Xuan's unfathomable attitude made him seem to be unable to find his way in the dark.

Yu Shinan said unhurriedly: "Let's calculate carefully, before Lu Shangshu was transferred to Zhongdu as an official, the cumulative income of Lu Lu totaled more than 6,400 yuan, and the statutory Yongye field and office field rent income totaled more than 5,600 yuan, of which half of the various expenses can be used, and there are 6,000 yuan left, and only 300 yuan was less than 300 yuan in Wang Shichong's list of homes last year, my question is, can my calculation of Lu Shangshu's income be correct?" Did the rest of the money go to buy land? ”

A whisper suddenly sounded in the main hall, and everyone realized that Yushitai was not only pursuing the issue of Lu Chu's annexation of land, but also investigating whether he was corrupt and perverted the law, and where did the money for his annexation of land come from? The problem has become serious.

Zheng Shanguo couldn't help but sneak a glance at Zhang Xuan, the king of Qi, only to see that his face was expressionless, still so unfathomable, Zheng Shanguo's heart was even more uneasy, he looked at Pei Ju again, he could see that although Pei Ju was trying his best to hide his expression, his eyes still showed a trace of imperceptible excitement, as if a tiger was peeking at its prey from a distance.

Zheng Shanguo suddenly realized that Pei Ju was not just helping himself, he seemed to be hiding a deeper intention, and Zheng Shanguo began to doubt Pei Ju in his heart.

Lu Chu still struggled to speak, but he spoke very slowly, which made up for his congenital defect of difficulty in expression to a certain extent.

"I have the habit of keeping accounts, since I joined the office, there are records of income and expenditure, if the Imperial Observatory needs, I can provide it."

After a pause, Lu Chu said again: "The Sui system stipulates that I should have twenty hectares of Yongye land and six hectares of office field, but in fact, I have to grant six hectares of land, all of which are in Zhuo County, to support my parents and nursing mothers. ”

Yu Shinan was stunned for a moment, and then asked: "In addition to Yulu, can you have any other income?" ”

Lu Chu shook his head, "No! ”

"Alright! Please ask Lu Shangshu to provide the income and expenditure account statement, we will check afterwards, in addition, there are two hundred and eighty yuan in the Luoyang family records, two pairs of white jade, and one pair of gold pens, in addition, are there any other unrecorded property in the records? ”

"A pair of white jade is given by Emperor Tai, a pair of gold pens is given by the first emperor, there should be a precious inkstone, which is left by my father, and a few silver jewelry, which is my wife's thing, the amount of money is correct, and it is all my savings over the years."

A whisper sounded again among the courtiers, if you don't consider the five thousand hectares of land, this Lu Chu is really poor, in Luoyang, he is an internal history order, and he is not even as good as ordinary people, but because the five thousand hectares of land has not yet been clarified, everyone suppressed their admiration.

Yu Shinan nodded and said: "Our army occupied Xingyang County last year, and took a batch of documents with us when we evacuated, including the Xingyang County Field Deed, as well as the Xingyang County Field Mu Meter over the years, Yu Shitai carefully checked, we found a total of 5,000 hectares of Shangtian recorded in the name of Ling Lang, distributed in twelve manors, I want to confirm first, Lu Youling on this land deed is Ling Lang?" ”

Lu Chu hesitated for a moment and said, "Exactly! ”

"Ling Lang is only fourteen years old this year, these five thousand hectares of Ueda should have nothing to do with him!"

"It's really irrelevant!"

The discussion in the main hall is getting louder and louder, and it is obvious that the court question is becoming more and more unfavorable to Lu Chu, and now it has been confirmed that the five thousand hectares of Shangtian are used by Lu Chu, so where do these lands come from? If it is a merger and purchase, where did Lu Chu get the huge amount of money?

At this time, Yang Shidao, the young eunuch in the hall, knocked on the cloud board again, and the hall gradually quieted down.

Yu Shinan was not in a hurry to draw conclusions, and continued to ask unhurriedly: "These five thousand hectares of land were purchased by your clansmen, or was it rewarded by the Son of Heaven?" ”

Lu Chu still shook his head, "Land has nothing to do with the family, and it is not a reward from the Son of Heaven. ”

Yu Shinan's gaze suddenly became stern, "Then Lu Shangshu needs to answer me clearly three questions, first, where did you get the money to buy the land?" Second, if you don't spend money, then do you forcibly occupy people's land? Third, do you derive a benefit from the land? ”

Beads of sweat finally appeared on Lu Chu's forehead, and he said in a trembling voice for a while: "I, Lu Chu, have never been corrupt or bribe-taking, all my savings are only two hundred and eighty yuan, and I have never purchased land, let alone forcibly occupy people's land. ”

"Then how do you explain these 5,000 hectares of Ueda?" Yu Shinan's eyes also showed a trace of confusion, not only him, but everyone was puzzled.

At this time, Yu Shinan said slowly: "We really didn't find the purchase records, not even the former owners of these manors, so I made a request from the court, if Lu Shangshu is innocent, please explain clearly, and the Yushitai will return Shangshu to an innocence." ”

Lu Chu sighed and said, "These manors are not actually owned by me, I just keep them for others. ”

The discussion in the hall started again, everyone was very surprised, and the final conclusion was unbelievable, it was actually for someone to keep it, it seems that the real owner of these manors trusted Lu Chu very much, and directly changed the name on the deed to his son.

"May I ask Lu Shangshu, who are you keeping these manors for?"

Lu Chu remained silent and did not answer Yu Shinan's question.

At this time, Pei Ju walked out of the court and said, "Your Highness, can the old minister say a few words." ”

Zhang Xuan nodded, "Quasi-Yan!" ”

Pei Ju said unhurriedly: "Who is the original owner of this batch of manors, this is the key to this case, why didn't Dr. Yu investigate who handled this matter?" There will inevitably be a third person in the land transfer, and there are also recorders in the government, so he shouldn't just ask Lu Shangshu, which is unfair to him. ”

Although Pei Ju seemed to be speaking for Lu Chu, he was actually hinting to Yu Shinan that he couldn't just listen to Lu Chu's words, and should look for witnesses.

Yu Shinan pondered and said: "Pei Xiangguo is indeed reasonable, there should be a need for witnesses, but this is the strangeness of this case, there is no record of purchase and transfer, we also asked several officials who had served in Xingyang County, they did not know, the only person who left his name on the deed was the former Xingyang Taishou Yang Qing, he seemed to be the manager, but Yang Qing had died of illness three months ago, and we could not find any witnesses, so we asked for court questioning." ”

At this time, Lu Chu bowed to Zhang Xuan, "Your Highness, Weichen earnestly asks to resign from the post of Shangshu, and is willing to suffer the crime of annexing the land!" (To be continued.) )