"Your Majesty, we greet you!"
"All my ministers, rise!"
"Thank you, Your Majesty!"
The tri-daily court session was held today. Chu Chen, after inspecting with Princess Xin Yue, rushed back to attend.
Not only civil and military officials participated in this court session, but Princess Xin Yue also sat beside the Empress to observe.
Seeing this, the officials below felt a sense of foreboding, sensing that something was about to happen. They could only report the accumulated administrative affairs with trepidation.
An hour later, all matters were concluded. The Empress exchanged a look with Chu Chen, who understood immediately and stepped forward.
Seeing the Emperor and minister in this manner, the officials' unease intensified.
"Reporting to Your Majesty, your humble servant Chu Chen has a memorial to present!"
"Granted!"
The Empress replied calmly.
Chu Chen organized his thoughts and said loudly, "Your Majesty, smokeless coal and hand warmers are now being sold among the populace. Coupled with the recent autumn harvest, every household has ample grain reserves. This winter should be worry-free. However, while the people are temporarily free from worry, the court suffers from a grave illness! Does Your Majesty know?"
"Indeed, let me hear what grave illness it is."
The Emperor and minister, in their exchange, set the stage.
"Your Majesty, the case of Zhang Guojin, the Censor of the Imperial Censorate, from last year has concluded its trial by the Three Judicial Offices. The list of those involved in corruption, bribery, and illegal activities is all here."
As Chu Chen spoke, he took out a memorial from his embrace.
"Present it!" the Empress commanded calmly.
The female official beside her hurried down to receive the memorial and hand it to the Empress.
This is bad. Does Your Majesty intend to settle accounts now? Wasn't it stated last year that those involved in this case would not be pursued?
A collective gasp of horror swept through the civil and military officials, their faces breaking out in a cold sweat.
After reading the memorial, the Empress closed it, held it in her hand, and shook it towards the officials below, saying coldly, "I will not mention the names Zhang Guojin revealed here, for my word is my bond. I promised not to pursue the responsibility of those involved, and I shall not."
"But when I truly see this list, I am filled with disbelief and anger. Many of you standing here are on this list. Is this how you receive your sustenance from the Emperor and worry for him?"
"Are these my good subjects, my beloved ministers?"
The Empress shouted in fury, banging the table with her other hand.
The Empress had not seen this memorial beforehand; it was her first time seeing it, and she was genuinely enraged.
Qian Jieren, the Minister of Revenue; Wu Sheng, the Minister of Rites; the former Minister of Works, former Minister of War, former Minister of Personnel, and former Prime Minister Chen Yuanliang.
The names of these six alone were enough to make the Empress furious. These six individuals represented almost the entire court of the past. That such individuals were all involved in corruption and collusion, each protecting the other, explained why the Yun Yue Kingdom's national strength was weakening, and why the common people's lives were becoming increasingly difficult.
If the highest echelon of the Yun Yue Kingdom's civil officialdom was rotten, what about the military? Was General Wei Zi, the Protector of the State, also involved in military corruption? Were the nobles and marquises also engaged in corruption and collusion?
If not for Chu Chen's tribute of the Yun Yue plow and waterwheel last year, which doubled the grain production, and if Chen Yuanliang had not rebelled, would the Yun Yue Kingdom have fallen? Would I, the Emperor, have become a ruler of a fallen nation?
These people truly deserve to die! To be torn apart by five horses, to be flayed alive!
The Empress roared with anger in her heart, but she could not. For she was the Son of Heaven, and she had promised not to pursue this matter.
But this did not mean the Empress would allow these people to continue their unrestrained actions, recklessly undermining the Yun Yue Kingdom's national strength!
"Your Majesty, please calm yourself!"
All the civil and military officials, except for Chu Chen, knelt down, trembling and not daring to look up.
Princess Xin Yue, who was seated below the Empress, took the opportunity to stand up and snatched the memorial from the Empress's hand. She looked at it and was instantly dumbfounded and disbelieving.
"Mother, how can the court be so corrupt and decadent?"
"Hmph!"
The Empress did not know how to answer. She also did not understand why, despite her diligent governance daily, the court officials remained so corrupt.
But that was no longer important!
The Empress took a deep breath and reprimanded, "Calm down, calm down! You scoundrels only tell me to calm down when something makes me angry! Does calming down solve the problem? Does my calming down stop you scoundrels from embezzling and undermining the nation's foundation!"
"No, you won't! You will only appear contrite on the surface, and then return to your corrupt ways as usual!"
"Do not think I do not know that you scoundrels are all living in wealth! Qian Jieren!"
"Your humble servant is here!"
Qian Jieren crawled forward on all fours, not daring to look up, and replied.
The Empress said angrily, "Raise your head and look at me!"
Qian Jieren had no choice but to look up cautiously at the Empress above and Princess Xin Yue standing beside her. He hated Chu Chen and Zhang Guojin with all his might!
That damned Zhang Guojin had betrayed them, and this Chu Chen was even more damnable. Not only had he stirred up trouble, but he had also dispatched experts to protect Zhang Guojin twenty-four hours a day, making it impossible for them to assassinate him.
"Qian Jieren, although your mansion is an official residence granted by the court, the decorations in your courtyard are excessively luxurious! You sit on a full set of furniture made of golden silk wood! You use exquisite and luxurious special-order bowls and plates produced in the Chen Kingdom, and use chopsticks made of Southern Yue ivory. Your inner garments and waist sashes are woven with gold threads!"
"Look at your official hat now; the hairpins beneath are made of the finest jade from the Hundred Barbarians! As for your food and drink, it's a feast of delicacies from all corners of the land! You even dare to privately brew wines that I have repeatedly forbidden!"
"I will not even mention the sordid affairs of your household, such as bullying the weak and seizing wives and concubines. With such enjoyment, it is no wonder you do not serve me diligently!"
"It's fine that the Ministry of Revenue has no money! Why does it have no money? Huh!"
"Your humble servant, your humble servant~"
Qian Jieren was so frightened he almost fainted. How could His Majesty know so clearly!
"The Ministry of Revenue has no money, but where did the millions of taels of silver in your household come from? The Ministry of Revenue has no money, but where did the court's official lands go? Where did the one hundred thousand mu of land in your household come from? As the Emperor, I only have one million mu, yet you, a second-rank minister, have one hundred thousand mu!"
"You have taken away all the court's official lands, so how can the Ministry of Revenue still have money? And you have the audacity to cry about the Ministry of Revenue having no money every quarter, begging me to subsidize it from the imperial treasury!"
The Empress was almost bursting with rage. Pointing at him, she scolded, "A few years ago, my imperial treasury didn't have much money either, but I gritted my teeth and scraped together twenty thousand taels to subsidize the Ministry of Revenue before the autumn harvest. What did you do with it? You immediately embezzled the funds I allocated to you!"
"You were so audacious that you even dared to embezzle funds allocated from my imperial treasury! If it weren't for Prime Minister Chu's suggestion not to pursue past matters, I would have had your entire family chopped up and fed to the dogs!"
The Empress grew more furious as she spoke, turning to Chu Chen and snapping, "Chu Chen, what kind of terrible advice did you give? If it weren't for your words about not pursuing past matters, this dog would still be crawling there!"
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