First Appearance

Author: Feng Si Niang

First Appearance

On the second day, Zhou Yan arrived quickly and read the files carefully throughout the night.

Facing a room full of court officials kneeling in front of the punishment department, I first asked all the gentlemen if they had used breakfast. After receiving all affirmative replies, all the gentlemen were asked to sit down one by one.

Zhou Yan took out the files from last night and asked preemptively: "Where are the doctors and Yuanwai Lang who are in charge of the Qing Li Department in Guizhou?"

"The official is here."

Two people, one tall and one short, came out and tried to kneel down, but Zhou Yan stopped him and said, "Just sit down and answer."

The doctor and the foreigner looked at each other and it seemed that the tenth prince was indeed a talkative as rumored.

Zhou Yan rummaged around and quickly found the file he wanted. He pulled out one:

"On the 13th day of the winter lunar month in the 45th year of Longqing's reign, in a remote town in Sansui, a wealthy gentry recruited many children as apprentices. According to local sources, when recruiting only boys between the ages of six and thirteen, the final

Fortunately, if you are under ten years old, it is better if you are handsome and handsome;

The local magistrate convicted the gentry of "treason" and fined the gentry to give each of the parents of those boys a hundred cents, right or wrong?"

"Back to His Royal Highness, yes."

"This file outlines the ages of the children in quite detail, but there is no subsequent word about whether those children have returned home, or even how many children the gentleman bought.

One hundred cents is not even enough. Is this hundred cents used to compensate for the crime of "treason" or is it used to buy the life or death of a child?"

"..."

Zhou Yan seemed to know that the people in the Guizhou Qing Li Department couldn't answer, so he didn't continue to ask questions. He smiled like a spring breeze and turned to rain, and looked for the next file.

"On the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month of the same year, it was a bad day. Liping came to report that a bandit shooting case had occurred:

Someone kidnapped forty or fifty boys and disappeared in Liping. It was said that the gang later appeared near Wuling Mountain in Tongren. Liping County Magistrate suggested that the imperial court send personnel to suppress bandits in the Wuling Mountain area to calm people's hearts."

Speaking of this, it seemed to play into the hands of the foreign minister. He said that this official had already submitted a letter to the Admiral of Guizhou;

Moreover, he has already reported it to the Lord Shangshu, hoping that the Lord Shangshu will advise the Holy One and join forces with the Sichuan admiral to suppress the bandits.

The foreigner didn't think there was anything wrong with it, especially when he saw the tenth prince smiling with satisfaction later.

The old minister on the other side really felt that something was wrong. At that time, he could only let the matter sit on the record. I wonder if this notoriously idle prince could figure out the reason.

Before Lao Shangshu could figure out the reason, Zhou Yan continued to speak in his clear and childish voice:

"In the spring of the 46th year of Longqing's reign, a vicious case occurred in Anshun where bandits disguised themselves as officers and soldiers and robbed more than a hundred boys. So the suppression of bandits was put on the agenda again, right?"

At this moment, the people from the Guizhou Qing Li Department, as well as a minister and two ministers, knelt down completely. The minister, headed by him, began to kowtow and apologize:

"I hope His Highness, the Tenth Highness, will explain the cause and effect to Your Majesty on behalf of the ministers, and I will plead guilty!

If I had not been busy with documents all day long and submitted letters to suppress the bandits as soon as possible, there would never have been many such shocking and heartbreaking cases in Guizhou, and there would never have been..."

"That's enough! Stop putting gold on the faces of you dead silverfish!"

Zhou Yanhuo stood up suddenly, and the chair made a tooth-breaking sound.

The officials were shocked and looked up at Zhou Yan without knowing why.

At this time, Zhou Yan was so majestic and inviolable that the people kneeling below couldn't help but think:

When did the tenth prince become more noble than his eighth brother?

Judging from his appearance, the man at the top is like a jade mountain rising up, and the light shines on people. With his frown, he looks majestic and unapproachable.

The people kneeling on the ground exchanged glances with each other. Their expressions were respectful, but their limbs were very relaxed.

Zhou Yan sneered in his heart, "You don't take me seriously!"

"The subordinates really don't understand the meaning behind Master Shi's words. They are indeed guilty of negligence and don't want to tell.

But after all, we are all dedicated to eating the emperor's salary and being loyal to the emperor. Although I dare not say that we work hard and work hard at night, we can still be regarded as trembling..."

"Haha~"

The person who had been talking endlessly just now couldn't say a single word when he heard the soft laughter for some reason.

“What a person who works hard and sleeps well at night, what a person who stays up until the day is full!

Let me ask you, Wuling Mountain is located in northern Guizhou, and the mountainous area is very large. It is distributed in Hunan, Sichuan, Hubei and other places. What do you want to do to bring the children from eastern Guizhou to the mountainous area in northern Guizhou?

Did a large team go straight to Tongren Wuling Mountain without anyone noticing along the way?

What’s even more interesting is that it’s still behind. Even if it’s to suppress the bandits, you don’t write a letter first, suggesting that the Holy Emperor go to the admiral of Lianghu to order the suppression of the bandits. What are you doing with the officers and soldiers of Sichuan instead of looking far away?

I think I can only interpret this behavior of quenching thirst far away as stupidity, or simply evil!

It’s the New Year after Laba, but I pity those children who were kidnapped from their parents near the end of the New Year. I don’t know if they survived that winter!”

The cold sweat on Lao Shangshu's head was almost like a spring.

The evil was done by the Guizhou Officials Department, but turning a blind eye could not avoid the crime of oversight! If not, it might lead to the end of the festival!

Such aggressiveness, although not directed at oneself, is enough to make one speechless.

Lao Shangshu did not expect that the next question asked by the Tenth Prince Zhou Yan would make him even more ashamed to death.

"Anshun is known as the 'belly of Guizhou, the throat of Yunnan, and the lips and teeth of Sichuan and Guangdong'. It has the flattest and most open terrain, a large population, and the people live and work in peace and contentment. In a state capital with such terrain and location, will there be grand robbers pretending to be officers and soldiers to rob it?"

Something?

Even if there were, where would those gangsters escape with a hundred or so children? Crossing half of Guizhou and then going to Wuling Mountain?

In these cases, there are more and more children each time, and the nature of these cases becomes more and more bad. You just turn a blind eye time and time again.

It’s time for you to apologize to your father and redeem yourself with your life!”

After saying that, Zhou Yan dropped the dossier he had just picked out from Wenshan Huihai with an indifferent expression.

The kneeling doctors and outside doctors intuitively felt that the handwriting on the files in front of them began to blur, and their minds became confused.

"Your Highness, I am not convinced! Even if the low-level officials are guilty of negligence, the first ones to bear the brunt of this case are Eunuch Fei Lufei and Guizhou's Provincial Envoy, Zhensi Yamen and Fansi Yamen!

Don't you think it's unfair for you to evade the important and humiliate us, officials from the capital who are thousands of miles away?

And what does this matter have to do with Lao Shangshu? He is already very old and has inconvenient legs and feet. He is kneeling with the humble ministers. The humble ministers really can’t bear it;

Even though the eighth master felt sorry for his subordinates in Guizhou and wanted to let him go gently, the humble ministers also felt sorry for the old minister!

If His Majesty the Tenth Prince wants to investigate the crime, all he needs to do is bring in everyone from the Guizhou Qing Li Department! Don’t implicate innocent people!"

The doctor of Guizhou's Qing Li Department was impassioned in speech, but in his heart he was constantly calculating.
Chapter completed!