Chapter One Thousand Five Hundred and Seventy-seven
"A fair verdict?" Han Du slowly leaned back in his chair, shook his head and sighed, "Even if the emperor believes you, do you have to push this trouble to the emperor? As ministers, they help the emperor solve problems, and
It’s not about finding trouble and letting the emperor solve it, do you understand?”
Wang Yuanji was shocked, his eyes gradually became solemn, and he bowed respectfully to Handu, "Thank you, sir, for your enlightenment. The student understands."
Zhao Yu was greatly shocked as he listened. Even though he was also a second-rank Minister of Household Affairs, on the surface he seemed to be not much different from a second-rank official like Shangshu, but in fact the difference between the two was as big as heaven and earth. The butt determines the head.
It is difficult for people who have not sat in that position to understand what kind of mentality it should be, but if you want to sit in such a position, such a mentality is indispensable. This forms a deadlock. Basically, except for those who are extremely intelligent,
Apart from being able to understand it by chance, many people cannot figure it out even after serving as officials all their lives.
Even Qi Tai and Zhang Yan were like this. They were officials more for their own power and interests. As for the emperor, they had long put them aside.
And Han Du was able to teach Wang Yuanji without any concealment in front of Zhao Yu, and he obviously did not treat him as an outsider.
"Sir, what should we do?" Zhao Yu asked proactively. He also wanted to learn from Han Du how to deal with such a thing.
Being able to figure it out is important, but how to deal with it is even more important.
Han Du took a sip of tea, smiled and said, "The officials want to use the power of officials to take merit tests to suppress me. I will let them know what it means to be a rich man, and to be nothing if you don't have money!"
When Wang Yuanji heard this, his eyes suddenly lit up. Although he still didn't know what his husband had planned, he had full confidence in him because he had never let him down.
"Wang Yuanji." Han Du looked up at him and asked.
"I'm here." Wang Yuanji knew that his husband was finally going to take action, and he was very excited.
"Go and get all the applications for this year's funding from the Ministry of Civil Affairs." Han Du said calmly.
"Yes." After Wang Yuanji bowed his hands, he left and turned around to get this year's application from the Ministry of Civil Affairs.
"I'm going to help you, too." Zhao Yu volunteered.
"Yeah~" Han Du nodded.
Not long after, the two came back, followed by several scribes.
The scribe placed all the documents on the table and then left.
"Sir, here are all the applications from the Ministry of Civil Affairs this year. Please take a look."
Han Du casually picked up a document and opened it, and at a glance he saw that it was an application for food money from the Ministry of Personnel.
After looking at it for a few times, Han Du suddenly laughed and said, "There is something wrong with the number of this item."
Wang Yuanji suddenly became curious, "Sir, what's the problem? The official has checked this number one by one. There should be no errors or omissions."
Wang Yuanji is not bad at mathematics, so he can certainly not go wrong when calculating the amount of money for food.
Han Du smiled, looked up at him and said, "The number you calculated is indeed correct. The sum of each of these items is indeed the total number. But the number of these items is very unreasonable."
Early morning.
After Wang Yue finished shouting, Han Du took a step forward and stood in the middle.
"Your Majesty, I have this memorial." "Oh?" Zhu Biao was very surprised when he saw Han Du standing up.
In the past, although Han Du stood at the forefront of the court meetings, he always acted like a transparent person and rarely came forward. What happened today? Han Du was so active. Could it be that the sun was rising in the west?
"Sure." Zhu Biao replied directly without even thinking about it.
Han Du straightened up and said with a serious face, "I want to impeach the officials. The food and meat consumed are very large. It seems to be a waste of public funds and corruption."
The crime of wasting public funds can be big or small. Once Han Du is determined to make the matter bigger, Zhang Yan will not be able to bear the consequences.
Zhang Yan stood up hastily, bowed his hands and said, "Your Majesty, these are the daily food needs of the officials in the Ministry of Civil Affairs. There is no waste of public funds. Please see it carefully."
Han Du took out a document from his arms with a smile, opened it and pointed to the amount of money and food on it and said, "Your Ministry of Civil Affairs needs 43,000 guan to feed and drink the officials in the department a year. This is not a waste of public funds. What is this?"
It was written in black and white on the document. This was irrefutable evidence, and Zhang Yan was not allowed to deny it. However, he had no way to deny it, but he could also remain silent and not answer Han Du's questions.
Han Du looked at Zhang Yan with a smile, thinking that there would be nothing I could do against you? Haha, how naive!
"How many officials do you have in total?" Han Du suddenly asked.
Zhang Yan didn't know what kind of medicine was sold in Handu Gourd, but he had to answer this question. If he didn't answer, it would be easy for others to think that he, the Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, did not know the Ministry of Personnel well, which would make people suspicious.
Is he able to take on this important task?
But in order to avoid being given by Han Du
Seizing the topic, Zhang Yan cleverly did not give the exact number, but said vaguely, "Nearly two hundred people."
"Nearly two hundred people means there are not two hundred people." Han Du said meaningfully.
Zhang Yan continued to remain silent. Han Du said that there was nothing wrong. The official department did not have two hundred people.
Han Du glanced sideways at Zhang Yan, held up the document, turned around and said to everyone, "Even if I have two hundred people in the official department, two hundred people will eat 43,000 guan a year, and each person will eat 215 guan."
, this is higher than the salary of many officials! How do you eat!"
Zhu Biao had been watching the show in front of him with a smile just now, but now he suddenly realized after hearing Han Du's words, the horror of food and expenses!
"Hi~ It's even higher than the salary. Why didn't I notice it before?"
Such extravagance and waste made Zhu Biao's expression change.
"Moreover!" Han Du had no intention of letting Zhang Yan go. Even though his face was extremely embarrassed, Han Du continued, "According to the way you eat, one person will eat six hundred coins a day."
.How much is six hundred Wen? You have to buy six chickens! Can each of your officials eat six chickens every day?"
Zhang Yan's expression changed instantly. Only at this moment did he realize that Han Du was not suing the Ministry of Personnel for wasting public funds, but was insinuating that someone in the Ministry of Personnel was embezzling public funds.
Spending sixty ounces of ink and peeling day lilies is a much bigger crime than wasting it!
"Your Majesty, there may be a misunderstanding. The officials below may have written the number incorrectly." Zhang Yan tried his best to explain.
Zhu Biao's face was ashen and he looked at him coldly.
Han Du added fuel to the fire again, opened one page of the document, pointed to the bright red seal on it, and said, "This is the seal of the Ministry of Personnel. You will never say that it was without your consent."
Who dares to put the big seal on it?"
Zhang Yan's face turned pale instantly, and even if he wanted to shirk it once the big seal came out, he couldn't. He wanted to explain, but he opened his mouth but no words came out.
He knows better than anyone what is going on with the food expenses of the official department. The food provided by the imperial court for each department only has grains, oils, noodles, meat and vegetables, and no wine. But the more alcohol is prohibited, the more the officials want to drink. In fact, this food
Most of the money was used to buy wine, but the wine could not be written on the paper, so the money for the wine could only be converted into food and meat. The amount was so huge that Han Du gave it to him.
Got the handle.
Just think about it, as far as the immortal drunkenness is concerned, one pot is ten strings. These ten
You can buy a hundred chickens, but if you have a good drinker, you can drink up the whole bottle of wine in one go. In this way, can the consumption not be huge?
Zhu Biao suddenly slapped the imperial case and said sternly, "Zhang Yan, do you have anything else to say?"
"My lord, I admit my guilt." Zhang Yan's face turned pale, his legs gave way and he knelt on the ground with a dejected look on his face. He knew very well that his life was over.
Whether it was waste or greed, he couldn't tell at all. The most important thing was that he actually put his hand into the food money. Originally, he discovered by chance that some of the people ate too much, and some ate too much.
He eats very little, and some people like to drink, while some people don’t drink at all. There is no accurate estimate of how much each official in the Ministry of Civil Affairs eats. If this is the case, who can find out if he takes a little?
At first, Zhang Ming was also worried that he would be discovered, but after many times, the matter was always very stable, which made Zhang Ming feel relieved and naturally became more bold.
Zhu Biao was very disappointed with Zhang Zhen. Originally, he valued Zhang Zhen's maturity and prudentness, but he did not expect that he would be so unbearable.
"Hando."
"I'm here." Faced with Zhu Biao's call, Han Du immediately replied seriously.
Zhu Biao paused and said, "Since you discovered this matter, I'll leave it to you to investigate thoroughly. You have to give me a reply within three days."
"I obey the decree!" Han Du replied without hesitation.
"Quit the court!" Zhu Biao, filled with anger, waved his hand suddenly, turned directly behind the dragon throne and left.
The ministers looked at each other, not expecting that today's morning meeting would end so hastily. Someone turned their attention to Zhang Zhen, who was still kneeling in the middle, and saw that he had his head lowered, with a few gray hairs scattered on his temples, looking like he was about to die.
With such a look, I couldn't help but secretly shake my head and sigh. You have been an official for so many years. Don't you still know what kind of temper Han Du is? You said you had nothing to do to provoke him. Aren't you asking for trouble? It's better now. If Han Du turns back, I'm afraid he will
It's going to kill you.
Some officials' eyes met Han Du's and they hurriedly avoided it, not daring to take another look at Han Du for fear of ending up in the same fate as Zhang Yan.
In fact, in the eyes of most officials, it is a good thing for them that Han Du serves as the first assistant bachelor. Because Han Du is not obsessed with power, and he can distinguish between public and private affairs. As long as they do their own thing well,
Han Du will not embarrass them.
But some people just don't believe in evil, thinking that Han Du is a soft persimmon and they can try to pinch it. Now it's better, the persimmon was not pinched, but the hedgehog was pinched.