Xingzhen gasped and said: "The household treasury is heavily supervised, if there is no Shangguan involved, who can embezzle so much cash?" Which ticket number is so bold and dares to grant cash to the Ministry of Households? ”

Prince Gong hesitated slightly, and said with some embarrassment on his face: "The ticket number has never asked where the silver comes from, and there are also many silver exchanges such as disaster relief and river embankment construction of the Ministry of Industry and Households. ”

Xingzhen groaned, the name of the Rishengchang ticket number she had heard, due to the needs of the circulation of goods and currency turnover at the end of the Qing Dynasty, there was a kind of institution specializing in the exchange of money and banknotes, called the "ticket number", also known as the "ticket village", or "exchange village", this industry is covered by Shanxi people, also known as "Shanxi ticket village", it monopolized the country's exchange industry, at that time the country's largest ticket number was 17, Pingyao people accounted for 7, of which the largest ticket number is "Rishengchang", the owner is Pingyao West Dapu Village Li Daquan, The manager is Lei Lutai of Xiyao Village. It has many semicolons throughout the country, and has the reputation of 'Kyoto Sunrise Changhui Connects the World'.

Sunrise Chang was originally a pigment bank, but in the fourth year of Daoguang, it became the first private financial institution in China specializing in the exchange and deposit of silver money. Rishengchang was once known as "the first in the world" and "the world", and its semicolons spread all over the country's major cities, including foreign exchange business.

After the ticket number business became popular, the Manchu court also had a lot of money with these ticket numbers, mainly because some of the disaster relief and river control funds of the household department would be deposited into the ticket number for easy exchange. Thinking that these household officials must be connected into a line, the user treasury bank deposit ticket number to obtain short-term interest, now the war is frequent, the ticket number interest rate is high, five million taels roughly calculated, the monthly interest is more than 20,000 taels. As long as the timing is accurate, it is not easy to be discovered, and he secretly sighed that it was really a man who died for money, and there was no unnatural look on his face, and said: "Su Shun went to see Xianfeng first, you should go over quickly, the pool of the Hubu Treasury is very deep, there is no need to force it out in this matter, everything is Su Shun." You are not a household official, and you should not get involved. ”

Prince Gong replied and said, "So I let Su Shun go first, and I will rush over later." I left first, so it would be bad for people to see me talking to my sister-in-law. Then he bowed and hurried away

Back in Chuxiu Palace, Xingzhen frowned and thought about it, it seems that this Qing court is really difficult to return, and there will be such a ridiculous thing in the treasury of the dignified country. The current Manchu ministers of the Hubu Shangshu are Wenqing and Fei Moshi. Word hole repair. Manchuria, the Red Flag Manchurian, the Minister of Military Aircraft of the Daoguang and Xianfeng Dynasties, is also honest and honest as an official, and he should not do these things that damage the public and private interests. The minister of the household department Shangshu Han is Weng Xincun, a jinshi during the Daoguang period, and an old minister of the two dynasties. It should not be done these things, who is instructing the household to embezzle the treasury money and deposit the ticket number for profit? After thinking about it, I don't have a clue. I think Xianfeng should come over or summon himself in the evening, and only after listening to the details can I see the clues.

After dinner, Xingzhen picked up the lamp and took out a book to write, the title of the book is called "Zaichun Growth Record", I saw that it was like a diary written every time Xingzhen saw the child's growth, from when to open her eyes, when to stand upright, to when to teeth, when to speak, all of them were written down in detail. Between the lines, the feelings she poured into this child are revealed everywhere.

was writing, someone walked in, Xingzhen looked back, but it was Xianfeng with a tired face, and asked slightly stunned: "Why did the emperor come here now?" ”

Xianfeng shook his head and didn't answer, walked forward and stretched out his head to look, and asked, "Lan'er, what are you writing?" ”

Xingzhen hurriedly hid the book behind her, and said with a smile: "It's nothing, the slave scribbled nonsense." ”

People are like this, the more things they can't know, the more they want to know, Xianfeng said curiously: "What is written?" Show me. ”

"There's nothing to see, the emperor will sit down for a while, and the slave will pour you a cup of tea." Xingzhen smiled and wanted to slip away, but was pulled by Xianfeng: "Hurry up and show me, isn't it lonely, and I wrote some glamorous words that I can't see?" ”

Xingzhen said angrily: "The emperor is lonely, let me go, it's really nothing to look at." Xianfeng didn't give up, one hand hugged her slender waist, and the other hand reached behind her back, wanting to grab the book, and said with a smile: "Is it the spring palace?" Lan'er, you're not good, look at these. ”

Xingzhen looked at his naïve appearance, and in desperation, she simply handed the book over, anyway, there was nothing unsightly, just wrote about the child.

Xianfeng took it, looked at the title of the book, looked at Xingzhen, a warm smile appeared on his face, and sat down under the candlelight to read. Xingzhen sat to the side, her hands propped up, and watched Xianfeng's expression change.

I saw him read page by page, the smile on his face became thicker and thicker, the tiredness on his face faded a lot, and his eyebrows stretched out, and he no longer looked like a bitter face with a frown, and he secretly smiled in his heart.

After a while, Xianfeng saw that she had only written it today, slowly closed the book, held Xingzhen's hand and smiled slightly: "You still have a mind, and when the child grows up and sees this, then it will be interesting." ”

Xingzhen put the book away and said with a smile: "Yes, when I think about it, time flies so fast, and he is almost a year old." ”

Xianfeng nodded and sighed lightly, and said, "I have already ordered the Minister of Internal Affairs Lin Kui and Cunyou to prepare for the celebration of the week when the child turns his first birthday. ”

Xingzhen said in a low voice: "When the child was full moon, the emperor celebrated a lot, and now that he is one year old, he wants to celebrate again, will it be too extravagant?" ”

Xianfeng shook his head and said, "Lan'er, do you know? Since I became an adult, when I was still an elder brother, I have had a fortune, and since I ascended the throne, I have never had an heir, and there were rumors in the palace at that time that I could not have children, which made me very distressed. Later, after you had it, I was really ecstatic, so it was natural to love Jae-chun, a child. ”

Xingzhen sighed, although Xianfeng said the word distress lightly, but thinking that the emperor could not have children, this distress is not ordinary, it seems that Xianfeng's love for the two children is from the heart, and he said softly at the moment: "The slave understands, then let the emperor like it, the emperor's mother is not in good health, hold a celebration, and make her happy is also haode." Just don't be too extravagant. Now there is still a war, and there are many places to make silver, and some can be saved. ”

When Xianfeng heard the word silver, he was furious and said: "I just want to use more silver, so as not to let those heartless dog slaves be greedy for ink!" ”

Seeing that Xianfeng's forehead was bruised, Xingzhen was startled, it seemed that Xianfeng was really angry to the extreme, just now he had been holding back, gently holding his hand and asking, "What's wrong?" Tell me something, feel comfortable saying it. ”

Xianfeng snorted heavily. Standing up and walking back and forth, he said angrily as he walked: "Recently, I appointed Su Shun as the head of the household department, and asked him to check the treasury silver of the household department together with the sixth child who had just returned to Beijing. ”

Xingzhen asked softly, "Has the emperor summoned Wenqing and Weng Xincun to ask?" ”

Xianfeng said angrily: "It's better not to ask." It's just that they don't know, and when they ask, it's even more angry. The two of them knew about it. ”

Xingzhen was taken aback. He asked, "What do the two adults know?" ”

Xianfeng said hatefully: "The two said that there is a custom in the household department, but whenever there is a difference in silver to the local place, it will be deposited in the Beijing ticket number, one is to have a profit on the interest rate, to increase the treasury and silver income for the household, and the other is to solve the convenience, and the official bank draft can be withdrawn from the place." Steady and secure. ”

Xingzhen said: "It's reasonable to listen to what the two adults say. ”

Xianfeng said angrily: "Two fools, every time the subordinate staff handles this matter, they will tamper with their approval slips and unravel some more treasury silver. Zhonglin and Wang Xizhen were bold, and they handled a lot of silver transactions in the household department, and after a long time, there was a huge gap of five million taels. ”

Xingzhen was slightly surprised and asked, "The two of them are just small priests, how can they have this courage, and who is behind the two of them?" Can you provide for it? ”

Xianfeng gritted his teeth and said: "I was just about to start a thorough investigation, but these rebel ministers, after receiving the news, Zhonglin and Wang Xizhen actually committed suicide by taking poison in the prison of the Criminal Department. ”

Xingzhen nodded and said: "It seems that it is really not the work of one or two people, I think it is the work of people with great backgrounds." Can the treasury silver be recovered?"

Xianfeng sighed and said: "The more than four million taels of the Rishengchang ticket number have not been cashed away, Su Shun personally checked the accounts of the ticket number, and the treasury bank solved the time and day of the bill of exchange deposits, no one has come to take it away, but the other ticket numbers have been checked down and taken away." ”

Xingzhen frowned and said, "I think these people don't dare to redeem it again with the exchange pass number, do you plan to investigate this matter?" ”

Xianfeng clenched his fists and said, "Check, why don't you check?" I have ordered Su Shun, Zaiyuan, and Duanhua to handle this case, starting from the investigation of the prison of the Criminal Department, I want to see who dares to kill people in the prison of the Criminal Department. I also have to check the other ticket numbers, and those people go to deposit and withdraw money, there should always be clues left. Let me find out who is related to this matter, and I will definitely be punished! ”

Xingzhen sighed and asked, "What about Wen Qing and Weng Xincun?" The official reputation of the two has always been very good, and there will never be a greedy heart for ink. ”

Xianfeng said hatefully: "I naturally know, but the two of them are confused and derelict in their duties, so I demoted the two of them to three levels and kept them for the time being." ”

"I have demoted the two adults, and the second position of the Manchu Han Shangshu in the household department, who will succeed him?" Xingzhen asked.

"Su Shun and Zhu Fengbiao go up and let the two of them clean up the mess of the household." Xianfeng said.

After hearing this, Xingzhen was shocked, Zhu Fengbiao was the master of the seventh son of the emperor, Yixuan, and Prince Gong was affectionate, but Han Shangshu generally had to obey Manshangshu. So far in this matter, in fact, the biggest benefit is Su Shun, who was ordered to handle the case, which official of the household department wants to get rid of, is it not Su Shun who has the final say? And he was promoted to the head of the household, this official position was promoted very quickly, and he said softly at the moment: "So far, Su Shun has benefited the most, will it be his ......?"

Before she finished speaking, Xianfeng interrupted her and said, "Don't guess, Su Shun is still trustworthy." Remember, it's my great grace to let you participate in political affairs, and stop thinking about attacking my cronies! ”

Xianfeng's words were a little cold, Xingzhen was stunned for a while, held back the words in her heart, and said: "It's the slave who is wrong, there is no evidence to guess wildly." ”

Xianfeng saw that she admitted her mistake, so he stopped dwelling on the topic just now, sighed and said: "It's an eventful time now, but I didn't expect that there are still these heartless people who are greedy for ink and silver in the middle, and what they do is outrageous." Thinking that when the emperor was alive, there was such a big case in the household department, which made me shudder. Who else can I trust? ”

Xingzhen heard him talk about the big household case in the Daoguang period, and she had heard about it. It was the twenty-third year of Daoguang, when the nephew of Zhang Chengbao, a treasurer in the treasury of the household department, donated an official, and the money was donated to the household department, and his uncle Zhang Chengbao was responsible for collecting the money on the scales, and the zuihou money was confiscated, but a receipt was issued. This matter was concealed from the top and bottom, and because it involved complicated personnel relations and the distribution of benefits, it was stabbed out. As a result, the shady curtain is getting bigger and bigger. In the end, the huge shady curtain of the household treasury was exposed. History said that "for twenty-three years, the treasury officials divided the silver unevenly, and they attacked themselves internally, and their affairs could not be concealed, reaching the heavenly court." ”

Emperor Daoguang was shocked when he heard the news. The Ministry of Punishment went to inspect it, and this investigation was not trivial. It was found that there was a discrepancy of more than 9 million taels between the figures on the books and the actual silver in stock. Emperor Daoguang was frugal by nature. When the minister went to Beijing to report on his work, he was reluctant to leave the minister for a meal when it was time to eat, and this time he lost more than 9 million taels of silver at once, which naturally made Long Yan furious.

Emperor Daoguang bitterly rebuked his ministers and said: "It is unprecedented to lose more than 9,252,000 taels of silver. Watching the song is victorious and resentful. With the country's correct money and food, dare to cheat, and grab it arbitrarily, it seems to be unscrupulous. The same line? Thieves of the ...... The previous treasurers and the ministers who sent the kings of Chaku were all cronies, and they also followed the same rate, and they were unaware, and none of them could commit adultery, and they were even delegated, I don't know if the kings and ministers were ashamed! I blame myself for being ignorant! Emperor Daoguang was furious and determined to investigate to the end.

A large number of treasury soldiers were arrested and imprisoned, a large number of officials were suspended for examination, and officials of the criminal department were busy day and night. Zuihou found out that more than 9 million taels of silver were not stolen by one person, nor was it a short-term crime; As for the culprit, it can basically be concluded that he is a treasury soldier of the bank.

At that time, there were ten large warehouses in the capital, some of which were loaded with grain, money, and cloth and satin. Among them, there are three treasury for money: the first is the inner treasury of the Forbidden City. This inventory of more than 100,000 taels of silver, is for the emperor to spare the "river money", that is, the emperor is desperate to use the passage money for exile, so far has not been used, and it is a large silver ingot of fifty taels, not easy to be stolen, so a seal, the superior officials basically do not check the library.

The second is the Treasury of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Although the name is called the silver warehouse, it does not hide silver, and specializes in gold and jade jewelry, and the treasury is not large, and the management is also very convenient.

The third is the Household Treasury, which is also known as the National Treasury. The treasury is full of white silver, and it is almost every day that it is worth collecting and disbursing. Kubing is moving in and out every day, and he is very busy.

In order to ensure the safety of the treasury of the Qing Dynasty, the Qing Dynasty silver treasury formulated a strict management system, set up a member of the treasury minister, concurrently served by the household servant, set up a middle position of Lang, and then there were several people in the treasury, these people did not have the right to enter the treasury, only the treasury soldiers could enter the treasury.

If the treasury soldiers want to enter the treasury, even in the harsh winter, they must take off their clothes and pants, and then change into the clothes and pants in the treasury after entering the warehouse; When you finish your work and leave the warehouse, you will take off your clothes again, there is a bench at the door of the warehouse, and the warehouse soldiers will step over the bench naked, slap their hands up, shout "come out", and then you can go home with the clothes you put on. Straddle the bench, raise your hands, clap your hands, and shout to show that you don't have any silver in your body, under your armpits, in your mouth, or in your hands.

From this point of view, the supervision of the household bank and treasury is very strict, and the treasury soldiers seem to have no chance to take advantage of it, but in fact it is not. There are two ways for the treasury soldiers to steal silver, the first is to "hide silver in the valley road". The second option is to use a teapot to bring silver out in the dead of winter. There is water in the pot, put the silver in the teapot, open the lid of the teapot when you leave the warehouse, and pour the teapot down. In fact, the silver is frozen in the teapot and naturally cannot be poured out.

These are the two main ones, and there are a number of others. In this way, as time went by, little things piled up, and a lot of silver was stolen from the treasury before you knew it. Since it wasn't done in a day, and it wasn't stolen by one person, Weishenme didn't find out until now?

It turned out that since the fifth year of Jiaqing had thoroughly checked the treasury, it was just a routine inspection of the treasury every year, and the minister of the treasury had turned over the accounts, looked at the doors and windows, hastily checked it, and told the treasury soldiers a few words in a matter-of-fact manner, and then gave up after going through the motions. To say that they didn't notice the slightest bit of self-theft from the guards of the treasury, no one believed it, but, in a word, they couldn't afford to provoke it.

This not only involves the interests of important members of the imperial court and the complex officialdom game, but even those treasury soldiers are not simple, the water is very deep, and some even eat both black and white. On the day of the opening of the warehouse, groups of heavily armed bodyguards outside the door of the bank of the household department gathered under the tree to enjoy the shade, and the majesty of the general officials of the household department could not be compared. These are the personal bodyguards of the Kubing, but in fact, they are not the Kubing soldiers, and they often face the danger of being kidnapped and robbed, because the huge profits can easily make the gangsters want to get rich. In addition, it costs six or seven thousand taels of silver to make up for the shortage of a treasury soldier, in this case, who smashes his job, and who does he not fight with is strange?

After hearing the incident, some of the soldiers quickly fled. The furious Daoguang Emperor strictly ordered the infantry army to lead the yamen and the Shuntian Mansion to take the security seriously. Zuihou, most of the soldiers were controlled, and many soldiers were arrested, but how to deal with it is also a big problem, not only because of the large number of people, but also because of the wide range of people, and it is also difficult to collect evidence. In addition, this is a crime committed over the past several decades, and officials at all levels bear unshirkable responsibility, and if they had been a little more responsible, they would not have caused such a strange case. Therefore, Emperor Daoguang is also at a loss, and he really doesn't know who to settle accounts with.

After the minister's persuasion and enlightenment, Emperor Daoguang gradually calmed down from his anger. Emperor Daoguang said angrily, "It should have been set up to enforce the law and discipline, but after many years of reading, the officials are not one term, that is, there are many scribes and servants", and it is impossible to find out. Except for a few cases where the evidence is conclusive and the circumstances are heinous, the treasury soldiers were sentenced to death, exile, and imprisonment, basically the officials were not held accountable, this is not a lenient treatment for them, but the Daoguang Emperor's move has ulterior motives, the country is in urgent need of money, for the officials who should be responsible, in addition to giving demotion points, the key is to order them to compensate for the losses of the treasury and recover the losses as much as possible, but the results of the recovery are very unsatisfactory.

The big case of the silver treasury dealt a great blow to Daoguang, not only did more than 9 million taels of snowflakes of silver disappear, which made Daoguang, who advocated frugality, feel distressed, but what was even more breathtaking was that such a major case could not find out why, and several of the treasury soldiers who had committed crimes for many years have been at large so far.

Emperor Daoguang angrily reprimanded: "It has been taken by order for many years, and it has fallen on deaf ears, and it has not been obtained so far. What is the Yamen and others doing, it has been extremely fun! He is still under the command of the infantry army, and the yamen of the five cities of Shuntianfu are strictly taken into account, and the case will be investigated, and there will be no further delay! Despite Daoguang's furiousness, there was still no news of the fugitive soldiers.

Emperor Daoguang has ruled the world for more than 20 years, although he has made great efforts, but he has done little; He tried several times, but in the end he could not turn the tide. In the past, there was the defeat of the Opium War, and then there was the vertical attack of the silver treasury case, and the setbacks were one after another, and the political affairs were even worse; Emperor Daoguang, whose ambition had worn out, showed obvious slackness and fatigue, and he began to avoid the contradictory reality, slowly becoming discouraged.

Later, in view of the major case of the household department in the Daoguang period, the Qing court began to deposit part of the silver money in the ticket number to reduce the number of people, but I did not expect such a big case to occur. Now Xianfeng is also facing the same problem as Emperor Daoguang, the ministers have not deceived the upper and lower for a day or two, and now it is the autumn of many is, and there are still people who dare to hit the idea of Kuyin, the ancients said: "Mourning is greater than heart death", as Xianfeng said, who else can he trust? (To be continued......)