Jiangning Imperial City, Qianqing Palace.

"Father, this is the result of the battle from the front line of Europa, the Marquis of Anxi reported that the soldiers from Korea, Japan, Cochin, Burma and other places performed well, although they are not as good as the Han soldiers, but their loyalty and reliability can be expanded to enlist in the army, so as not to bury my Han family in a foreign land."

The crown prince Su Weize held the note sent back by Fu Xinghua from the front line in his hand, stood beside Su Yan, and said.

Until the last drop of blood of the Koreans, Japanese, Vietnamese, and Burmese is shed, there will be no truce in Bactria ?

When Su Yan heard this, the first thought in his heart was this, the expression on his face remained unchanged, he only murmured for a moment, and said, "Okay, the military department will deal with it."

The prince replied, and said: "Anxihou reported again, the Parker machine gun can be used, but the performance still needs to be improved, please improve the Ministry of Industry, if it can increase the rate of fire and loading speed of the Parker machine gun, it will be a big killer."

Hearing what the prince said, Su Yan remembered that he still had a Parker machine gun in his army, this kind of machine gun did not perform well on the battlefield in Liaodong, and the generals who led the army to fight used it once, and then put it in the warehouse to eat ashes.

Compared with this machine gun, which had a slow rate of fire and a long reload time, the generals of the Xia Dynasty preferred reliable line infantry and artillery, and only Fu Xinghua saw the potential and value of this weapon.

Not bad.

Thinking of this, Su Yan nodded in agreement, and he said, "The prince will write it down, and the Ministry of Works will deal with it."

After the father and son dealt with it for a few more hours, they finally finished dealing with the mountain of government affairs, and looking at the hill-like government affairs, the prince secretly breathed a sigh of relief and showed a relieved smile.

At this moment, Su Yan, who was seated, asked as if unintentionally, "Prince, what rumors have been rumored by Jingshi recently?"

"Rumors?" The prince was stunned for a moment, and he didn't understand why his father suddenly asked this, he thought to himself, aren't there brocade guards around you, and you can know the wind and grass around the capital division at the first time, why did you suddenly ask yourself.

He was slandered in his heart, but he still replied honestly: "Back to my father, if you want to talk about rumors, there must be rumors, but it is a matter of honor, and the child is hesitant to report to you."

"Oh?" Su Yan looked at him, adjusted his sitting posture, and said, "Which noble?"

"Jiading Bo Yang Chengzu."

"Tell me." Su Yan said with interest.

"Hmm...... A few days ago, a few ordinary people entered Beijing from Baoding Mansion in Hebei Province and complained to Yin of Jiangning Mansion that Yang Chengzu of Jiading Bo bullied men and women, abducted good people into slavery in the mansion, and forcibly accepted women as concubines, which caused the local people to dare not speak out. The prince lowered his head and said.

After he finished speaking, he secretly raised his head and glanced at Su Yan, and found that Su Yan's face was gloomy, so he was so shocked that he hurriedly withdrew his gaze, and continued to lower his head and dare not move.

A few seconds later, he heard his father let out a few sneers, and Su Yan sneered, "It's really good, it's only been how many years since Great Xia was founded, and some people have already begun to sit on the heads of the people and make a fortune."

After speaking, his eyes narrowed slightly, and he said, "However, why didn't Jiangning Mansion Yin report this matter to me?"

"The child doesn't know." The crown prince said truthfully, and then he asked again, "Do you want to summon the Yin of Jiangning Mansion to meet you?"

Su Yan squinted his eyes and thought for a moment, and said, "For the time being, there is no need for the time being, Jiangning Mansion Yin Buxuan has reported it, indicating that he is very likely to have received a bribe from Yang Chengzu, and then investigate deeply and make a decision."

……

At the same time, Hebei Chengxuan Political Envoy Division, Beiping Mansion, Jiading Bo Mansion.

"Master, the person you sent to Jingshi has returned."

Yang Chengzu, who was lying on the Taishi chair and reading the book leisurely, listened to the words of the old housekeeper, put down the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" in his hand, and said indifferently, "Let them come in to see me."

The old butler answered, turned and left, and not long after, a man dressed in cloth and looking like a flat-headed man strode in, although he was dressed ordinarily, but from his tall and strong figure and his brisk stride, it could be seen that this man must be a man of the army.

The man strode in front of Yang Chengzu and stopped a few steps, clasped his fists and saluted, and said in a deep voice: "My lord, the humble duty does not live up to the mission, then Yin Ruanmei of Jiangning Mansion accepted your gold and silver, and promised to suppress this matter, he personally said to the humble position, the lord has made great contributions to the southern and northern wars of Great Xia, but it is a small matter, it does not have to be sent to His Majesty, but please keep a low profile recently."

"I'll save it." Yang Chengzu waved his hand and didn't take his words to heart.

The staff around him didn't care as much as Yang Chengzu, he interjected, "Let me ask you, is there any rumor in the capital that the untouchables have sued the adults?"

"Hmm......" The man thought for a moment, and said with some uncertainty, "When I came back from leaving the Jingshi, there seemed to be a little rumor, but it didn't attract the attention of many people."

Hearing the rumor, the staff's face changed, and he clapped his palms and said, "It's broken!"

"Why do you say that?" Yang Chengzu looked at his staff in confusion and asked.

"Your Excellency." The staff said anxiously: "The Son of Heaven can hold the brocade guards left over from the previous dynasty in his hands, and any disturbances within the Jingshi will be reported to the Son of Heaven.

Hearing him say this, Yang Chengzu no longer had the indifference just now, he stood up from the Taishi's chair and said, "Then what should we do?"

"At this point, we have only two paths to take." The staff frowned and said, "First, dismiss the slaves and concubines looted from the palace, give them a sum of money to gag their mouths, as long as they don't testify, if the court really investigates, at most it will only be a verbal reprimand, and it will not be a big deal."

"Second?" Yang Chengzu asked, he was reluctant to choose one, not to mention that if he let them all out, he would be busy for nothing, and the silver taels that would cost them hush money was not a small amount of money.

"Second, that is to kill the untouchables before the Son of Heaven summons the untouchables who have entered the capital to complain, but it is very difficult to kill people at the feet of the Son of Heaven." After the staff finished speaking, they spread their hands helplessly.

Although Yang Chengzu is a martial artist, it doesn't mean that he has no brains, the second choice was immediately vetoed by him, and doing it at the feet of the Son of Heaven is not just as simple as being reprimanded, it is directly a matter of losing his head.

Although he was reluctant to give money, he still understood the priority of the situation, and in desperation, he had no choice but to agree to the first option, ordering the dismissal of the forcibly plundered slaves in the house, giving them a generous hush money, and keeping a low profile for a while.

Yang Chengzu hurriedly wiped his buttocks, what they didn't know was that after the emperor's order was issued, the investigation of Yin Ruanmei in Jiangning Mansion began.

After a few days of investigation, the powerful Jinyi Wei even investigated Ruan Mei's several times in the toilet at night, and wrote it into a booklet and handed it over to Li Yuanyin, the commander of the Jinyi Guard.

After Li Yuanyin read the booklet, his face changed greatly, and he hurriedly entered the palace to ask to see the emperor, and soon, he hurriedly entered the imperial garden and saw Su Yan who was admiring the flowers with his concubine.

As soon as the concubine saw Li Yuanyin coming in a hurry, she took the initiative to retire with a very eye-catching look, and after no one else left, Li Yuanyin handed the pamphlet to the close eunuch next to Su Yan, and after the latter handed it over to Su Yan and checked it, he said in a deep voice:

"Your Majesty, since this Ruan Mei was transferred back to Beijing from Liaodong in the seventeenth year of Wu'an (1670) to serve as the governor of Jiangning Mansion, she has been in contact with the local lawless gentry.

Su Yan only took a cursory look at the booklet, and only felt that the words that were eye-catching were shocking, Ruan Mei had taken a lot of bribes, and the amount of bribes in the past three years was more than one million taels of silver, as well as many precious jewelry, paintings, porcelain and beauties.

"Humph! How can that be?" Su Yan slammed the pamphlet on the ground and said hatefully, "I saw that his Ruan family had made great contributions to the country, and transferred him back to Beijing from Liaodong to serve as an official, and he repaid me like this, he really deserved death!"

What shocked him even more was that the number of nobles and squires who bribed Ruan Mei was so large that most of the Zhoushan Party had interests with him.

The so-called Zhoushan Party,

It is the official who joined Su Yan under Su Yan in the country of the former Lu Wangjian and still served as usual, before the death of Zhang Kentang, an auxiliary minister of the cabinet, they took Zhang Kentang as the ***, and after the death of Zhang Kentang, they were headed by Wu Zhongluan, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites.

There are many members of the party, and there are members from all ministries of the imperial court, although for so many years, Su Yan has consciously selected new people to replace them, but the influence of the Zhoushan party should not be underestimated.

In addition to the Zhoushan Party, there were two other regionally named parties within the imperial court, one of which was the Min Party, which followed Su Yan from Quanzhou, and they were headed by Su Dingyuan, the king of Rongchang County, and many of the officials who followed Su Yan before he was canonized as the king of Chu were involved.

Although the Min Party appears to be a regional party, it can actually be regarded as an imperial party, and their loyalty to Su Yan is beyond doubt.

In addition, there is a slightly weaker Gan Party, which is headed by Jiezhongxi, the secretary of the Criminal Department, and Fu Dingquan, the secretary of the Ministry of Officials, which was developed from the righteous army that once raised troops to resist the Qing Dynasty in Jiangxi, because Jiezhongxi and Fu Dingquan were deeply relied on by the emperor, and their natural and inevitable forces began to develop.

Although the dynasty established by Su Yan has a stable loyalty system, where can people's hearts be forcibly controlled by the system, they will plan for their own family and their own interests under the premise of loyalty to Su Yan, and party disputes between them are inevitable.

Moreover, in recent years, Su Yan has also begun to perceive that as the sphere of influence of the vast empire he ruled grows, the function of the system has gradually been weakened, and although the system can still ensure the loyalty of the army and the people, if he turns a blind eye to the oppression of the people by the bureaucracy, then rebellion will still occur.

Far from it.

Seeing Su Yan's brows tightened, Li Yuanyin asked softly, "Your Majesty, do you want Jinyiwei to arrest Ruan Mei?" If it is not removed, it will be a curse to the people."

Su Yan didn't answer immediately, he thought about it, and after a while, he said in a deep voice: "First arrest Ruan Mei and take it to prison, lock it in the edict prison and interrogate it strictly."

"Obey."

……

Pedal Pedal –

After Li Yuanyin returned to the Fusi Yamen in Beizhen, a team of brocade-clothed guards rode out on horseback and headed towards the Jiangning Mansion.

On the street, Ti rode his horse past a sedan chair, and the violent sound of horses' hooves attracted the attention of the officials in the sedan chair, who did not move, and asked outside, "Who dares to ride a horse in the city?"

"Grandpa Guoguo, it's the cavalry of the Fusi of Beizhen, and they seem to be handling the case." The subordinate outside replied.

"Oh? It's rare for this brocade guard to be so flamboyant, it seems that someone is going to be unlucky, in which direction are they going?" Ruan Jin, the Duke of Liao, who had been promoted to the left attendant of the military department, asked with interest.

"Ugh...... They, they seem to be heading in the direction of the Jiangning Mansion." The man stammered a little.

"Jiangning Mansion Office?!" Ruan Jin's eyes widened suddenly, the Jiangning Mansion is now his younger brother Ruan Mei in charge, where is Jin Yiwei suddenly going to do?

Don't...... What happened to his brother's bribery?

Thinking of this, Ruan Jin couldn't calm down anymore, he hurriedly opened the curtain of the sedan chair, and ordered his subordinates: "Don't go back to the house, transfer to the mansion of Wu Shangshu of the Ministry of Rites."

And no matter how Ruan Jin reacted, the Jinyi Wei Ti rode all the way to the fast horse, and soon came to the gate of the Jiangning Mansion in the city, they turned over and dismounted directly, and the Jinyi Wei Baihu, who led the team, climbed the steps in a few steps, and the guarding catcher saw that the plague god wearing a flying fish suit was coming, where did he dare to stop it, and he hid far away one by one, and let the Jinyi Wei enter the yamen.

"Oh no, no, my lord, the people from Beizhen Fuji are here!"

In the backyard of the yamen, Ruan Mei, who was working at the office, listened to the noise outside, and frowned with a few wrinkles, and just wanted to reprimand, she saw a subordinate hurriedly break in, and the person didn't care about saluting, and repeated the shouting he had just said outside.

North Town Fuji?

Ruan Mei was shocked, and subconsciously stood up, quickly thinking of the bribe she had accepted in private not long ago, and before he left the table, she saw several Jinyi guards dressed in flying fish suits break in, headed by Jinyi Guards

Embroidering the spring knife on the shoulder, he glanced around the room with cold eyes, and finally his eyes stayed on Ruan Mei.

Then, he symbolically clasped his fists and saluted, "Lord Ruan, at the edict of the Son of Heaven, please go to Beizhen Fusi to discuss in detail."

Edict of the Son of Heaven.

Finished!

Ruan Mei's face turned pale, where could he not see his own affairs, he recalled the account book he had placed at home, and knew that he would put it in the secret room before going out today, but he was so openly placed in the study, as long as Jin Yiwei was not blind, he could find it quickly.

"Lord Ruan, please."

Jinyi Wei Baihu urged.

"Good...... Good...... I will go with you."

Thinking of his future fate, Ruan Mei's bones all over his body seemed to have been pulled out, his legs were weak, and he almost fell down after taking only one step.

Looking at Ruan Mei's appearance, a touch of pity flashed in Baihu's eyes, and with a wave of his big hand, the two subordinates on his side stepped forward to support Ruan Mei on the left and right, and openly took him away from the Jiangning Mansion.

(Note: Only the battle for hegemony is very monotonous, and this book is also in the late stage, so I want to try to add a little bit of party content, cultural governance and other content, which can also be regarded as practicing hands, paving the way for the next book, and you can also give a little advice.) ）