Demoness, where are you Fleeing to?
Chapter 724 - 599: Official of the Central Government in the Ministry of Works (requesting for monthly pass)_1

Chapter 724: Chapter 599: Official of the Central Government in the Ministry of Works (requesting for monthly pass)_1

After coming out of the Zhenyao Tower, Li Xuan stood still with a solemn look on his face. After a considerable time had passed, he sought out Uncle Wei Zhen, the left Qiandu Yushi in the Inspectorate.

"Uncle Wei, find someone to initiate a lawsuit tomorrow, accusing the officials of the Guangji Granary of the Ministry of Revenue and ’Neiguan Bureau’ of collusion in the joint venture trade, who have been systematically taking advantage, selling assets below price, damaging public interest and fattening their own pockets."

Wei Zhen was taken aback and then asked with a bitter smile, "Are you trying to stop this joint venture trade? Is this for the Fusou delegation?"

Capital City is just so big, and Li Xuan is a figure of public attention. News of his quarrel with the Fusou delegation has already spread throughout the Court and the common folk.

But Wei Zhen is unaware of the matter of Si Zhengliang and the Black Deer King, so he feels that Li Xuan is being a bit petty this time. The joint venture trade involves foreign affairs and state policy, interfering with it could have unforeseen consequences.

And in that clash, it’s not as if Li Xuan was the one disadvantaged. Afterwards, the people at the Fusou Pavilion swallowed their anger and didn’t dare to disclose the matter to the Court and the Ministry of Rites.

Yet, Li Xuan nodded, "Indeed, it is about the joint venture trade. I have a few matters that require the cooperation of the Fusou people."

And to get the Fusou people to cooperate, he needs to hold their vulnerabilities–

At this point he hesitated slightly, and still said with a serious expression: "Uncle Wei, this matter is not only about our state, it is also inextricably linked to your and my life and property, and it must not be treated lightly."

Wei Zhen was initially intending to dissuade him, but upon hearing these words, his face became grave.

He knows that Li Xuan is not someone who speaks idly, so he believed his words immediately.

"I’ll go find someone to file a petition now. However, the Neiguan Bureau and the joint venture trade involve multiple parties, you’re going to offend many people this way. Furthermore, we don’t have any evidence at hand right now."

The Neiguan Bureau controls wood, stone, tiles, soil, construction materials, eastern routes, western routes, paint, weddings, gunpowder, magical instruments, and weapons of twelve types, along with rice and salt warehouses, construction warehouses, imperial altars, and all imperial manors. It handles the matters of the construction of palaces and tombs, bronze and tin decorations, tools and the like, as well as the procurement of all necessary tools for the palace.

This is equivalent to the duties of the ’Shaofu’ in the past, managing royal assets.

The joint venture trade conducted by the Court and various major vassal countries is mainly through the Neiguan Bureau.

But this matter also involves various influential people. For example, the chief butler and Bingbi from the Sili Bureau, and many important figures from the outer court. Many people have their eyes set on the joint venture trade with the Fusou people.

The island of Fusou is not only rich in gold and silver, weapons, but also various heavenly materials and earthly treasures unique to the far east. One joint venture trade can generate wealth of up to twenty or thirty million teal.

Li Xuan said with a smile, "Let’s just offend them, we were never on the same path to begin with. As for evidence, is it that important? I don’t even need you to find anything."

Wei Zhen understood immediately, as long as the dissenters in the Court retained an attitude of doubt towards the joint venture trade, the trade couldn’t proceed smoothly.

And given that this matter involves large amounts of gold and silver, could there really not be any underhanded dealings?

How many clean individuals could be in the Ministry of Revenue’s Guangji Granary and the Neiguan Bureau? Nine out of ten should be beheaded.

※※※※

The petition from the Inspectorate arrived at the desk of Princess Hongshang on the following day.

Wei Zhen stirred up quite a commotion, rallying more than thirty Imperial Historians and Jishizhong from the six ministries to jointly submit a lawsuit accusing officials of the Guangji Granary and the Neiguan Bureau of embezzlement, causing a huge uproar in the Court.

With regard to this, both the Court and common folk unanimously thought it was Li Xuan’s revenge against the Fusou delegation, and then lamented at the Marquis of Guanjun’s grudge-holding.

More people, however, took pleasure in the misfortunes of Guangji Granary and Neiguan Bureau.

The two major institutions in the Court are so fat from corruption that they are naturally the subject of envy.

Therefore, many officials held the suspicion in their hearts that this was Li Xuan’s personal retaliation, yet they still participated in it without hesitation.

They believed the Guangji Granary and Neiguan Bureau have long been hiding corruption and embezzlement, it was time for a thorough purge.

This matter even momentarily overshadowed the royal succession issue, especially high-ranking officials in the cabinet like Gao Gu, Xiao Ci, and Shang Hong seized this chance, grabbing onto the situation and caused a great stir.

Using this opportunity, the three not only resisted the numerous accusations from literary officials led by Wang Wen, but also momentarily cooled down the issue of Prince Xiang taking the throne.

At this time, almost no one noticed that Li Xuan, who was in charge of the Central Army’s adjudication office, had consecutively taken down twenty-seven military generals of the 4th-rank and above within ten days. Notably, the high-ranking military officers from Henan Zhihuishi Division and Shandong Zhihuishi Division were virtually swept clean by him.

The case was from thirteen years ago. At that time, some of the Weisuo Institutes in Henan and Shandong had empty garrisons due to their army farmlands being encroached upon. Yet, the two major Zhihuishi divisions concealed this matter, the Court’s yearly allocation of reward money, salt, and oil supplies were all embezzled by local military officials, living very comfortably.

Then came the thirty-ninth year of the Zhengtong era, when the Zhengtong Emperor decided to lead a northern expedition against Mongo, mobilizing troops from Henan and Shandong, both were predetermined to provide fifty thousand soldiers, five thousand of which were cavalries.

At that time, the Henan and Shandong Divisions became panicked and could only forcibly enlist civilians to fill the quota.

But they didn’t dare to go too far, fearing offending local literary officials. In the end, they could only pass off ten thousand Weisuo soldiers and ten thousand civilians as an army of fifty thousand.

What happened next, their luck could be considered good or bad.

In the battle of Tumu Fort, nearly eight hundred thousand Jin Dynasty troops were annihilated. This included the one hundred thousand troops from the Henan and Shandong divisions, who were ’killed in action’ by Meng Wu’s attacks, nearly ninety percent of them ’perished’.

This made Li Xuan feel very emotional, thinking to himself, it must not have been easy for the True Emperor Zhengtong in the past to rule as Emperor.

The Emperor, full of ambition, wanted to follow the example of the Great Ancestor and Emperor Taizong and invade Mongo, but his civil and military officials were all creating obstacles for him.

After the incident, the generals who survived the ordeal from the two major commands were afraid of being held accountable by the court and sought help from Huangfu Xuanji.

Huangfu Xuanji was very righteous and covered up the entire matter.

The person in charge of this at the time was none other than Si Zhengliang, who handled it perfectly without leaving a trace.

When Si Zhengliang betrayed Huangfu Xuanji, Li Xuan had almost all the evidence. None of the culprits from the two major commands in Henan and Shandong got away.

Unfortunately, Huangfu Xuanji acted promptly. He hid in the ancestral temple of the Huangfu family that day, holding the ’certificate of immunity’ given by Emperor Taizong and cried bitterly in front of his father, Prince Yi Huangfu Yu and his older brother Prince Dingxing Huangfu Shenji.

For the time being, Li Xuan could only select trusted people to monitor Fuguogong’s mansion.

As soon as Huangfu Xuanji appeared, he would be immediately arrested. He didn’t believe that this guy could hide in the temple of Fuguogong’s mansion for a lifetime.

Time flew quickly, it was the end of October already. The Jingtai Emperor remained in the palace without showing his face. As a result, the succession dispute in the court heated up again. What puzzled Li Xuan was that after mid-October, Yu Hongchang changed her style of dressing.

She used to like wearing clothes that made her look slim and showed her waist, but now she liked loose clothes.

Moreover, Yu Hongshang’s taste also changed a little.

The delicious food that Li Xuan secretly brought to Yu Hongshang was disliked by her, but she started liking sour things instead.

Li Xuan suspected that Yu Hongchang was pregnant, because all her symptoms were similar to those of a pregnant woman, and the timing was just right.

But when Li Xuan took Yu Hongchang’s pulse, he didn’t feel anything.

In the early part of November, Xue Bai finally completely recovered under the joint treatment of Li Xuan and Jiang Yunqi.

On that day, heavy snow fell in the capital city. Xue Bai constantly roared in the backyard of the Jiangnan medical hall, causing a snowstorm within several meters radius.

At the same time, the seven buildings in the backyard collapsed, and a large rock used as a faux mountain disappeared without a trace.

The buildings were collapsed by the vast Qi of Xue Bai, and the rock was ’erased’ by Xue Bai’s Void Yi, turning it into dust.

Before Xue Bai was seriously injured, his cultivation had reached the eighth house level.

After his recovery, he integrated the Void Yi, directly leaping to the fourth gate of the Confucianist path, the ’Long-lasting Vast Qi’ realm. The purity of Vast Qi was close to ’Purple Air’.

According to the standards of the current world, this was a renowned scholar.

As for Quan Dingtian, he is only at the Twelfth Layer Stage realm now.

There is a gap between Xue Bai and Quan Dingtian, but the gap is not big.

If it were Jiang Yunqi and Jiang Hanyun, Lady Jiang would definitely be so angry that she would be pissed off.

But Lady Jiang was worried about her nephew. His mother’s family only had him as a single seedling, and he had been lying on the sickbed for several years. How could she not feel compassion for him?

So she didn’t chastise him at all, but was smiling happily, and even personally prepared a big feast for Li Xuan and Xue Bai afterwards.

Madam Xue and Xue Yunrou were crying with joy on that day, both of them were holding back their tears and sat down to accompany them.

Xue Bai kept toasting to Li Xuan, saying that he owed him and would definitely return the favor in the future.

Li Xuan was not vague at all, the next day after Xue Bai’s recovery, he arranged a prestigious position ’Jishizhong of the Ministry of Works’ for Xue Bai in the court.

Xue Bai’s Jingti’s 7th year Jinshi, ranked eighth in the second class, and he was appointed as an editor of Hanlin Academy.

Although he had been recuperating at home for many years, his position was hanging in the Hanlin Academy, so it was appropriate for him to be transferred to the position of ’Jishizhong of the Ministry of Works’ that was equivalent to the 7th-rank official.

This was a position that had been vacant since Wang Wen had vigorously struck down the Empress Dowager’s party. Bak Wang originally had a replacement in mind to fill this position. But when Li Xuan reached out, Deputy Auxiliary of the Cabinet Gao Gu and Yu Hongshang responded positively, giving this ’Jishizhong of the Ministry of Works’ position to Xue Bai.

Although this was the weakest of the six ministries, the Departments of Matters have been doing multiple things for a long time.

This position was not only honorable, influential, and full of prospect but if Xue Bai could hold this position for five to six years, he could be promoted several ranks and jump directly to the high position of the 3rd and 4th rank, just like Wei Zhen.

It was also at this time that Li Xuan received an official decree signed by the Jingtai Emperor.

After Prince Yi, Yu Jianshen, had been running around for more than a month, the Jingtai Emperor finally loosened his lips, ordering Li Xuan to preside over the Golden Knife Case.