Ouyang Bufan said sinisterly: "Master Mu, the corrupt officials you arrested at that time were mainly from Chang'an City. Why don't you look further ahead?"
"Could it be referring to other places in Gyeonggi Province?"
"That's right! I know a big corrupt official!"
The chief executive of "Yongzhou" under Gyeonggi Province is Zhao Nanfeng, the governor, who was a military officer, tall, strong, and greedy.
At the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, he was named the governor of Yongzhou because he followed Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty to conquer the city and achieve military exploits.
Although Zhao Nanfeng appears to be diligent and loyal on the surface, that is only superficial. Behind the scenes, he has committed many corrupt and unconscionable things.
For example, they robbed women in the street, forcibly confiscated property from landlords, and raised taxes without permission, etc.
After hearing this, Muchuan was particularly stunned: "Is it so outrageous?
It’s impossible, this is Yongzhou!”
Yongzhou is under Gyeonggi Province, and its administrative seat is Chang'an City, which is very close to the imperial city.
Under normal circumstances, local governors who are closer to the imperial city will be more cautious, because the emperor may come to inspect them at any time, and they will be executed if they are found guilty of corruption or bending the law.
Ouyang Bufan shook his head: "It's okay even if he's close to the imperial city. Zhao Nanfeng is very courageous. Someone should be protecting him."
"Do you know who it is?"
"I'm not sure about this, but I guess he should be from Yushitai."
The Yushitai was an agency responsible for "supervision" in the bureaucracy of the Tang Dynasty, specializing in supervising officials to see whether they knew or violated the law.
Since Zhao Nanfeng's corruption and perversion of the law has not been discovered, it means that Yushitai has failed in its duty.
Looking at it this way, this is a big case!
Zhao Nanfeng's official position is not small, and he is protected by someone higher up. He may not be able to deal with Muchuan, a third-grade official, and even if he does, it will not be that easy.
"Let's put this aside for now."
Muchuan finally made the decision.
Ouyang Bufan was obviously stunned after hearing this: "Master Mu, isn't this about ransacking homes to collect money?
Just copy Zhao Nanfeng!"
"Are you stupid?
This Zhao Nanfeng obviously didn’t mean to confiscate a house just because he wanted to do so!”
If it were a minor local official, such as a county magistrate, Muchuan could just bring people to search the house.
Many small towns in Gyeonggi Province were copied by Muchuan in this way, which made the imperial court feel full and burped.
The key point is that the governor of Yongzhou is obviously not a minor official. If he comes to investigate without solid evidence, he is afraid that he will be accused of "false accusation"! Muchuan was originally a popular figure in the court, and he was very popular. Although all the officials were fawning over him, but
Secretly, there are people who are jealous of him. If he is accused of "false accusation" by Zhao Nanfeng, someone will probably add insult to injury.
Muchuan expressed his thoughts logically and said: "Zhao Nanfeng has to ransack his house. A governor-level official like this may have plundered a lot of wealth, but before he can do it, he must collect evidence first! It must be foolproof.
Take action under certain conditions!”
"It turns out that if we really want to do it, it won't be completed in a month... That's why Mr. Mu is not in a hurry to confiscate the house, right?"
"Exactly."
Muchuan needed money very much now, but he couldn't collect enough money until he ransacked Zhao Nanfeng's house. I'm afraid he wouldn't be able to do it in a few months, and the money he collected wouldn't be used by then, so he could only use it.
The house raid was postponed.
"Although the matter has been postponed, I leave it to you to collect evidence."
Muchuan smiled heartily and patted Ouyang Bufan on the shoulder.
This made Ouyang Bufan stunned for a moment: "Why is it me again! Hey, Master Mu, it's not fair for you to do this. I'm not the only one, Minister of Household Affairs, so why don't you ask Mo Zhu to go!"
"Then you will do Mo Zhu's copywriting work?"
"Then let me go..." Ouyang Bufan gave in.
Among the six departments of the Tang Dynasty, each department had a chief, known as "Shang Shu".
There are two deputy chiefs under Shangshu, who are officials of the fourth rank. They are Shangshu Shilang, who can also be called Shangshu Zuocheng and Shangshu Youcheng.
In ancient times, the right was respected. Although they were all fourth-rank officials, the rank of Shangshu Youcheng was slightly higher than that of Shangshu Zuocheng. Among them, Mo Zhu was Shangshu Youcheng.
Unlike Ouyang Bufan, Mo Zhu was good at work such as literary cases, and would often stay at the Ministry of Revenue's official residence to work and not show up often.
When Mo Zhu was mentioned at this time, Muchuan remembered that he had not seen the other party for a long time, so he ordered someone to go to the Hubu official residence to call Mo Zhu.
Half an hour later, the servants of the mansion drove a carriage and picked up Mo Zhu.
Mo Zhu seemed to have just come out of the official residence. He was still wearing a green official uniform. He had delicate features, elegant manners, and a scholarly atmosphere. At a glance, he knew that he was a scholar cultivated by the imperial examination system.
"Greetings to Master Mu."
"No need to be polite, Mo Zhu, come and sit down, we just happened to have dinner too."
Muchuan made a gesture of invitation.
Various dishes are displayed on the table, all freshly cooked by Temujin Dali.
Ouyang Bufan said with a smile: "Mo Zhu, you are so lucky. Master Mu's food is the most delicious! I'm afraid you can't find such delicious food in the whole Chang'an City!"
"It's true. These dishes are very rare. After tasting them, you will never forget them and have endless nostalgia."
Mo Zhu seems to have memories, which means he has obviously eaten these dishes.
This shocked Ouyang Bufan. When he came to Muchuan Mansion every day to eat, he didn't see black bamboo. How come he had eaten black bamboo?
After asking later, it became clear that Muchuan had delivered food to Mo Zhu!
After hearing this, Ouyang Bufan complained: "Why is Mo Zhu treated like this?
Master Mu, are you too partial?"
Ouyang Bufan had to come over to eat every time he ate, but someone from Mo Zhu brought food to him.
Muchuan laughed and said: "What's unfair? You don't want to think about who completed the work between us?"
Almost all clerical work in the Ministry of Revenue is completed by Mo Zhu and his subordinate civil servants, such as population registration, treasury financial accounting, financial account records, and budget applications for various ministries.
It can be said that Mo Zhu completed the workload of nearly three people by himself. Otherwise, how could Muchuan and Ouyang Bufan be allowed to wander around like this?
It was precisely because he sympathized with Mo Zhu's difficulties that Muchuan treated him specially.
What else could Ouyang Bufan say now? He could only silently stuff a chopstick of green pepper meat into his mouth without saying anything.
But now when everyone started to eat, Mo Zhu asked Muchuan why he called him here. There was still a lot of work in the household department that he had to go back to deal with.
It seems that Mo Zhu is a workaholic! But this is the best. It is precisely because Muchuan liked Mo Zhu's meticulous and conscientious character that he promoted him to be the Minister of Household Affairs.
