After three days, the spring rain continued, and the entire Changle Palace was shrouded in mist.

At the end of the day, all the ministers were waiting for the prince and the king of Qin in the regency hall.

It wasn't until a moment in the middle of the day that King Qin's car slowly stopped in front of the Regent Hall, but the prince just ordered his personal attendant to come over and pass the word, only saying that the day before yesterday he occasionally felt cold, and the imperial doctor ordered not to go out to see the wind, and the matter of the Regent Hall today was handled by King Qin alone.

The six Shangshu and Prime Minister Jiang Chengze and Yin Chen Yifan of Yunyang Mansion all had a straight face, and leaned over to bow to the King of Qin on the main throne.

"Ministers, see His Royal Highness King Qin! His Royal Highness Chitose Chitose Chitose! ”

Xuanyuan Che's face was as cold as ice, and he let the ministers salute without even raising his eyes, but just slapped the fold in his hand on the desk, and muttered for a long time before he angrily reprimanded: "Prime Minister! Who will be sent to Pingzhou for disaster relief? ”

Although King Qin's cold temperament is well known to everyone, they have never seen him so angry in the court, not to mention that this was said to Prime Minister Jiang Cheng, all the ministers were shocked by his angry reprimand, and their already bowed bodies bowed down by three points, and they didn't dare to look up at King Qin directly.

It's just that others may be able to do this, but Jiang Chengze had to force his composure, tremble his head, respectfully act, and answer King Qin's question: "Back to His Royal Highness, the old minister is not talented, he is the head of Pingzhou disaster relief!" ”

When Xuanyuan Che heard this, he no longer paid attention to him, but raised his sword eyebrows, his phoenix eyes coldly glanced at the ministers, picked up the fold on the desk and said: "This is the excerpt that Shen Can, the guard of the South Gate, just sent, said that he was ordered to investigate and deal with the siege of the city by the displaced people three days ago, and the result has been achieved, do you know what the result is?" ”

His voice sounded low and cold, and all the ministers unconsciously trembled, and they all said: "The ministers are stupid, please make it clear to Your Highness!" ”

Xuanyuan Che's face sank, he opened the fold in his hand, and said, "Hmph! Dull?! In the king's view, you are not just stupid! According to Shen Can's report, 80 percent of the displaced people at the South Gate came from the Pingzhou area, and due to the freezing rain that lasted for several months last winter, their homes were destroyed and displaced, and there was nowhere to live. It stands to reason that nearly 100,000 people in the Pingzhou area were affected by the disaster a few years ago, and the imperial court had already known about it, and allocated nearly one million taels of silver from the treasury for disaster relief. However, according to the words of those displaced people, since the disaster, nearly 20,000 people have frozen to death, but the Pingzhou government has never come forward to help the victims. Since the prime minister said that he was the main person in charge of this disaster relief, this king would like to ask the prime minister, how did this chief minister deserve it? Why did a million taels of silver go out of the treasury, but it didn't reach the victims? ”

As soon as his words fell, there was a sudden silence in the room, and everyone held their breath, looking at King Qin in disbelief, and in just a moment, they had already moved their eyes to Prime Minister Jiang Chengze.

Jiang Chengze, who was seventy years old at the time, had been the prime minister of Southern Chu for nearly 20 years, and was a rare all-rounder in civil and military affairs at that time, and he was well versed in the way of being an official, so he won the trust and love of Emperor Fuxuan. But now, because of the disaster relief in Pingzhou, he was scolded by King Xuanyuan of Qin in the court, and he lost face.

"Your Highness is angry! And listen to the old minister's words, on the second day of the first winter month last year, Yin Li Cheng of Pingzhou Mansion ordered someone to enter Beijing quickly to report the ice disaster. On the order of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, the old minister allocated one million taels of silver from the treasury, and Rong Qi, the commander of Yu Linwei, led three hundred Yu Lin Wei to personally escort him to Pingzhou for disaster relief. According to General Rong, the day after the disaster relief money arrived in Pingzhou, it was personally handed over to Li Chengru for distribution. Later, according to Li Chengru's report, no one froze to death in the ice disaster in Pingzhou, only forty or fifty people suffered frostbite. ”

Jiang Chengze unhurriedly handed over the letter he had been holding in his hand to Xuanyuan Che, his face was already pale, although he had ordered Zhuying to secretly visit at the beginning of the appearance of the homeless people, he had not found anything, until he received a secret letter from the prince last night, only to know that those people were actually victims of the Pingzhou disaster, I don't know who was bewitched, and the siege of the city at the south gate was not dispersed.

No, Xuanyuan Che took those letters, but with a slight glance, he threw them on the desk, and his tone was more indifferent than Fang Cai: "Chen Yifan, what is the situation at the South Gate now?" ”

"Returning to His Royal Highness, Weichen opened a warehouse at the south gate to put grain for three days, and at first except for some beggars in the city, there were no displaced people to receive grain. It's just that yesterday, some homeless people gradually went, and later someone handed a joint letter to Weichen. ”

"Oh?! Jointly? Who is being sued? What is being told? Xuanyuan Che asked.

Chen Yifan handed the paper in his hand to King Qin and said: "Two thousand displaced people in Pingzhou outside the south gate jointly sued Yin Li Chengru, the Pingzhou Governor, that the disaster relief was ineffective, the disaster relief funds were embezzled, and the lives of people were disregarded, resulting in nearly 20,000 people in the three counties and eleven counties of Pingzhou Mansion being frozen to death, and tens of thousands of people were hungry and cold, displaced, and homeless. ”

"Prime Minister Jiang! If you think this matter is what to do? King Qin handed over the paper in his hand, Jiang Chengze hurriedly stepped forward to take it, and when he looked down carefully, his ten fingers were already trembling, he was very close to the prince, but now that such a big thing happened, the prince said that he was not sick, and he was the only one who faced the questions of the ministers and the angry reprimand of the king of Qin.

"The old minister is guilty! As the head of the hundred officials, the old minister was in charge of the household department and the main person in charge of disaster relief, but he failed to go to Pingzhou to check the disaster situation and arrange disaster relief, so that the local officials' dereliction of duty led to the tragic death of tens of thousands of victims, which is really an unforgivable crime! It's just that Li Chengru embezzled disaster relief funds, and the old minister really didn't know about it, and asked His Highness to investigate! Jiang Chengze knelt on the ground and bowed, with old tears.

When the ministers heard this, they all sighed secretly, natural disasters and man-made disasters caused by natural disasters, but they hurt Prime Minister Jiang.

King Qin saw him leaning over and kowtowing, and when he raised his head again, his forehead was already red and swollen, and his originally black and sharp eyes suddenly aged a lot, and his dim eyes made him suddenly stunned, and he actually remembered that Yumo was coming. Since the prince's wedding dinner on the Shangyuan Festival, she has not been seen again.

After Xuanyuan Che's expression paused slightly, he said in a deep voice: "Li Chengru is free to investigate the corruption of the Ministry of Justice, as for the prime minister's dereliction of duty this time, it is not trivial. If it is not punished severely, it will be difficult for the people. It's just that Prime Minister Jiang Cheng has always been a minister who his father relied on, and when he was young, he made outstanding military exploits for my Nanchu, and if this king punishes you heavily, I am afraid that I will lose the heart of the ministers. Tell me what to do with it, Furu? ”

What he said was particularly reasonable, Jiang Chengze's past achievements were indeed very comparable, but today's mistakes are also very, and the ministers naturally know the difficulties of King Qin.

Jiang Chengze knew that he could not escape this catastrophe, so he had to lean over and bow again: "The old minister was not abandoned by the emperor and was reused, although he had some merit, he would never dare to replace it with merit." The ice disaster involved the lives of tens of thousands of people, although it was not the intention of the old minister, but the old minister could not escape the blame. Let His Highness be dropped, there will be no objections! ”