When the emperor heard these truths, he stared at the queen in disappointment.
He can cover her up for other things, but not for this kind of thing!
He approached the queen step by step, his face was livid, and he gritted his teeth and said: "Queen, didn't you say that you pity the people and sympathize with them?
Why are the disaster relief funds at Mrs. Wei's villa?"
The queen was very panicked in her heart, but she said calmly on the surface, "Your Majesty, please calm down and I will raise money for disaster relief.
My concubine had already told her sister that she would have all this money transported to Jiangnan for disaster relief.
I don’t know how this money got to her villa, sister, what is going on?”
Saying that, she quickly winked at Mrs. Wei Guo.
Mrs. Wei was a little nervous at this time.
She suddenly stood up, walked towards Gao Yang, slapped him in the face, and said angrily: "You are a rip-off! It is in vain that I trust you so much and let you lead the team to transport the disaster relief funds to Jiangnan."
As a result, you actually transferred the disaster relief funds to my wife's villa! Gao Yang, I treat you well, why would you do such a thing?
Are you worthy of the emperor and queen, and the people of the world?"
Gao Yang was stunned by this slap.
He glared at Mrs. Wei angrily, "Madam, weren't you the one who asked me to transfer?
We all followed your orders, and now you actually want to blame me?"
Chu Xuanchen also spoke out at the wrong time, "That's right, Madam Wei, if Gao Yang really coveted your money, why would he move to your villa?
Why didn't he just take advantage of the scheme, transport it to Jiangnan, and then embezzle the money on the way?"
Mrs. Wei's eyes flashed and she said in a panic: "Who knows about him?
Maybe he hasn't had time to move yet.
In short, my wife ordered him to transport all the disaster relief funds to Jiangnan, but he transferred them privately and gave the people this porridge.
Your Majesty, the Queen and I have both been wronged, please tell me clearly!"
Chu Xuanchen smiled coldly, "Mrs. Wei Guo, if the testimony of Gao Yang alone is not trustworthy, what about your thugs and the accountant?"
Having said this, he raised his hand to Emperor Hongyuan and said, "Your Majesty, I would like to know whether this money was embezzled by Mrs. Wei or Gao Yang.
We can imprison all these servants and torture them to extract confessions. I believe the truth will soon come to light."
When Mrs. Wei Guo heard this, her body suddenly softened.
Her thugs are all a mob. They all listen to Gao Yang and will only do things for her if they have money.
Once she falls, they will quickly turn against her.
Sure enough, the thugs were afraid of being tortured and wanted to protect Gao Yang, so they all said: "Your Majesty, this is all because Mrs. Wei wants to embezzle this money, and the young men are all following her orders.
Even if you give them a thousand courages, they won't dare to embezzle so much money."
The accountant's body was shaking like chaff, and his forehead was dripping with cold sweat.
He trembled and said: "Your Majesty, this account book was also written by Mrs. Wei Guo.
She asked the younger one to keep a real account book and a fake account book for her.
I'll show it to the queen if it's true, and I'll show it to you if it's fake, just to embezzle money for disaster relief.
This is not only true this year, but also in previous years.”
Gao Yang also responded promptly, "Yes, Your Majesty, Mrs. Wei used this fund-raising method to embezzle a lot of money in the past.
Last year, she embezzled 500,000 taels of silver using the same method.
She asked the young men to transfer the money to her villa for her first. When the limelight passed and no one paid attention to her, she then asked the young men to transfer the money to her Duke's mansion and let her squander it.
The little ones just worked for her and got only food and clothing, but did not gain any benefits.
All this benefit was obtained by her alone, and it really has nothing to do with the little ones."