Chapter Twenty-Nine: The Sinner

Xu Wei kowtowed and said: "The minister is guilty, but the minister also hopes to help Marshal Dai strengthen the military strength of my Wu Yue Kingdom, so he will be like this, and he is absolutely selfless." The household department allocated an additional two pieces of silver to the military department, each of which has the tiger talisman seal of Marshal Dai as a cashier voucher, and the saint has verified the accounts, and it should be known that Weichen is by no means a lie. ”

Qian Hongzuo said: "Lord Xu, the Tiger Fu Soldier Seal is a letter seal for the transfer of troops, not a voucher for the allocation of silver taels by the household department, in vain you have been the head of the household department for so many years, don't you even understand this rule?" ”

Xu Wei didn't dare to say more, and prayed: "The minister is incompetent and stupid, I am willing to resign and go into hiding, and hope that the saint will grant permission." ”

Dai Yun stood up from the Taishi chair again and said, "I, Wu Yueguo, am surrounded by strong enemies, and the military expenditure is indeed huge. In recent years, it has been difficult to collect taxes, and many people have refused to pay them. There are also peasant households and merchants, and many of them are powerful and backered, and the households that collect taxes will inevitably offend people. Although there has been no surplus in the treasury in recent years, fortunately, military spending has finally been guaranteed; Your lordship's money can also be distributed as usual; Many expenses of the royal family are also supported. This Xu Wei, although he is at fault, still hopes that the Queen Mother and the Holy Lord will read that he has no merit and forgive him. ”

Qian Hongzuo seemed to have expected Dai Yu to say this, and said calmly: "Since Marshal Dai said so, King Gu should have forgiven. But let's wait for Wen Minghui to go to the palace, he is raiding the house in Lord Xu's mansion, if he really doesn't fill his pockets, King Gu is willing to give Marshal Dai this favor. Queen Mother, you can discuss other things, if the lonely king wants to ask Lord Xu, he has already finished asking. ”

Empress Dowager Xu said: "Everyone, Xu Wei has already said that he wants to resign. The mourning family also thinks that it is inappropriate to let him be the head of the household department again. But things happened in a hurry, and there was no suitable candidate for the head of the household department for the time being, so I think the big Si Nong Zhen Fu Zhen will manage the household department on his behalf. ”

Zhen Fu bowed and saluted: "Back to the Queen Mother, the household officials are all Xu Wei's old people, and they have no merit, if the Queen Mother and the Holy Lord can allow me to no longer use some of them, Weichen is willing to receive the decree." ”

Empress Dowager Xu said: "There are so many mistakes in the household department, and the officials under them are to blame. Lord Zhen can check and screen them, and if anyone is found to be corrupt and bent the law, they should be handed over to the Criminal Department for investigation. ”

Zhen Fu said: "The minister has another request. ”

Empress Dowager Xu said: "Aiqing, please speak." ”

Zhen Fu said: "The Holy Heaven is wise and discerning, if the minister is in charge of the household department, I want to ask the Holy Lord to audit the accounts once a year to prevent the minister's negligence." ”

Empress Dowager Xu said: "Aiqing's words are serious. The mourning family and the saint both trust Aiqing very much. ”

Zhen Fu knelt down and said: "Now the treasury is in distress, the minister is not good at taking care of the accounts, if the saint refuses to agree to check the accounts, the minister is afraid of repeating Xu Wei's mistakes, misleading the country and the people, and asking the Queen Mother for permission." ”

Empress Dowager Xu bowed and said: "Aiqing, please get up, just as Aiqing said." ”

Wen Minghui walked quickly to the court at this time, bowed to Empress Dowager Xu and Qian Hongzuo, and said, "Empress Dowager Qi, Qiqi Sheng, Xu Wei's house has been searched. There were more than 100 boxes of silver hidden in the cellar, and there were many jewels, because there was too much silver, and Weichen sent someone to count them. ”

Qian Hongzuo said: "After the inventory is completed, the officials will write a proclamation on the results of the household department's audit and Xu Wei's income from the house, and post it everywhere in Hangzhou." At the same time, he sent someone to take Xu Wei to parade on the streets with a shackle and lock for three days, and then sent him back to his hometown to parade on the streets for three days as a light punishment. Xu Wei's crime was extremely evil, and he should be beheaded according to the law, and the lonely king remembered that Marshal Dai had merit in the country, and pleaded for him, so he was lenient. ”

After the end of the day, the Empress Dowager Xu set up a banquet to comfort Qian Hongzuo and the attendants and female officials who assisted him in checking the accounts in Yangyuan Water Pavilion. specially ordered to invite Concubine Tian and the princes and princesses she raised to participate, and invited the hoopoe man to participate in the banquet. The invitation to Concubine Tian was not unexpected, because she was in charge of spending money in the palace, and most of the people who assisted Qian Hongzuo in checking the accounts this time were her subordinates. The invitation to hoopoe men is obviously unrelated to this audit, so it is particularly eye-catching.

During the banquet, Qian Hongzuo toasted the hoopoe man with a glass of wine, thanking her for preparing wine and food during the audit period and offering it to the Qinzheng Palace. Empress Dowager Xu and Concubine Tian even praised the hoopoe man many times, as if she was the hero of the audit. Concubine Tian only gave birth to a princess, and there was only one prince under her name, and that was Qian Hongliang, the son of the abolished queen. Before the Ma family was abolished, the first king was afraid that the two princes she gave birth to, so he passed on the queen of the horse's own son, Qian Hongxu, and another son, Qian Hongliang, to the original Tian family. Queen Ma once murdered Tian many times because of her competition for favor. But Tian did not miss the old evils, and at the critical moment preserved the status of her two children in the court and the royal family. Later, the prince Qian Hongyu was poisoned, and the prince under the name of the Tian family was left alone.

Qian Hongliang was frivolous, and the banquet was very frolicking that day, and he saluted the hoopoe man cup after cup. It was as if the protagonists of this feast were the two of them. Many of the chamberlains and female officials who participated in the banquet were all sideways.

When the hoopoe man returned to his palace drunk, he learned that his father Dai Yun had sent someone to pick her up and immediately returned to the marshal's mansion. said that Mrs. Dai suddenly felt unwell and wanted to see the hoopoe man. Mrs. Dai is not the biological mother of the hoopoe man, but Dai Yun's house. has always had a cold relationship with the hoopoe man, even in the past, when the hoopoe man was still living in the marshal's mansion, Mrs. Dai was sick, and the hoopoe man never visited. But seeing that his father specially sent someone to pick him up, he had to change into men's clothes and leave the palace.

The hoopoe man only came to the inner court to accompany the Empress Dowager Xu and assist Concubine Tian in handling the affairs of the inner court. is not yet the queen, she has a lot of freedom to enter and leave the palace, and she does not need to tell the Empress Dowager Xu and Qian Hongzuo. And she has an active personality, likes to hunt, often goes out of the palace with Qian Hongqi and other princes, and guards the palace gate, she has long been accustomed to her coming and going willfully, and no one stops her that day.

When the drunken hoopoe man returned to the marshal's mansion, he found that the atmosphere in the mansion was strange. Father Dai Yun's face was gloomy, and many cronies surrounded him, as if he was discussing something important.

The hoopoe man didn't know what to do, which was quite strange.

Dai Yun withdrew his cronies and asked if the male saint treated her closely? The hoopoe man was drunk and complained that Qian Hongzuo was busy with everything, and Qian Hongliang often played with her, but because Qian Hongzuo respected her glass of wine, the hoopoe man felt quite faced, and he still showed a few words to his father. Dai Yun saw that his daughter was drunk, and it was inconvenient to say anything, so he only told his daughter that if he heard that 'there was something unfavorable to the Dai family' in the palace, he should go home immediately and tell him, and let the hoopoe man return to the palace.

In this way, the hoopoe man returned to the queen / palace in a daze. The struggle for power is too difficult for the hoopoe man to understand. Fortunately, she was already drunk, and soon after returning to the palace, she fell asleep soundly on the soft bed. It was much later that she realized how important it was for her father to ask her and what he had told her that day!

Dai Yun is not a natural thief, he is the founder of Wu Yueguo. He was once loyal to the former king Qian Chuanjun, fought bravely for the country, fought bloody battles, and made great achievements. But since intervening in Qian Chuanjun's back/palace battle, his fate has been fundamentally reversed.

The original queen of the first king Qian Chuanqian Ma clan, relying on the military power of his father General Ma, dominated the queen/palace. Almost all the concubines have been persecuted by her, including the original Tian family (now Tian Taifei) and Xu (now the Empress Dowager Xu). But what really angered the former king Qian Chuanqian was that Ma killed a low-born Lian who was deeply favored by Qian Chuanjun, and the little prince born to her. Qian Chuanqian was determined to depose the queen, but he was afraid of angering the queen's father, General Ma, and triggering a mutiny, so he consulted with his closest and most trusted minister, Dai Yun, on the matter. In the end, it was decided to weaken the power of the Ma family, and then depose the title of Queen Ma.

Under the joint efforts of the monarch and the ministers, the military power under General Ma's jurisdiction gradually returned to Dai Yun; Dai Yun killed the minions of the Ma family inside and outside the palace, and finally drove the Ma family out of the queen's throne. But what Dai Yun didn't expect was that Qian Chuanqian had no intention of exterminating the Ma family at all. For General Ma, he did not completely abandon it, and still handed over the military power of Yuezhou to him. What made Dai Yun even more angry was that although the queen was deposed, Qian Chuanqian passed her biological sons Qian Hongxuan and Qian Hongliang to the original Tian family, among which Qian Hongxuan's status as the son of Wu Yueguo was retained.

Dai Yun suddenly felt that he and the entire Dai family were thrown above the coals. No matter how much he is used right now, it is a fleeting cloud. Once Qian Hongxu ascends the throne, all of this will not only come to naught, but the Dai family will also suffer a catastrophe.