Chapter 938: Thousands of people point the finger at each other
Early the next morning, the sun shone warmly on Chang'an Imperial City.
In the Jinluan Palace, all civil and military officials gathered together.
At this time, the emperor has not yet gone to court, and you can see the civil and military officials talking among themselves and discussing things.
"I heard that Muchuan will also go to court today?
Humph! If he goes to court, he will definitely be criticized by everyone. Let’s see what he will do!”
"Yesterday we wrote so many memorials to impeach him. I'm afraid the Secretary of the Ministry of Revenue is also having a headache, right?
We should let this young man know how deep the officialdom is. Does he think that he can be arrogant because of his talent?"
"I heard that the imperial censor personally went to impeach the emperor yesterday! Hehe, if it is not handled well, I am afraid that Muchuan will step down from the high position of Minister of Household Affairs!"
The officials gathered together to chat, laughing and gloating.
At this moment, everyone turned their eyes and noticed a tall and thin figure walking outside the hall. Isn't it none other than Zhang Zicheng, the imperial censor? Seeing him in person, the officials gathered around and wanted to learn something from the imperial censor.
After all, everyone still doesn't know how His Majesty plans to deal with Muchuan.
The imperial censor walked to the center of the hall, flicked his sleeves and robe, and made an upright expression: "Your Majesty, your Majesty, it is your Majesty's decision regarding the actions of the Minister of Hubu!"
Hearing this, everyone was very puzzled. They wanted to see what Zhang Zicheng knew, but what Zhang Zicheng said was a bit pretentious.
"Censor, should the emperor receive our impeachment, right?
Will the Minister of Household Affairs be removed from his post?"
"This Minister of the Ministry of Finance has been misbehaving in the court all day long. Can't you check to see if he has committed corruption and perverted the law?"
"I heard that the Minister of Household Affairs is very close to the wealthy businessmen of Chang'an City. If we investigate thoroughly, we may be able to find clues."
The officials' words of advice seemed to put Muchuan to death.
After all, Muchuan was like Qing Shui and did not want to mix with these officials, so he was naturally rejected by others.
However, when everyone wanted to target Muchuan, Zhang Zicheng found it difficult to deal with Muchuan, because he had been entrusted by several "adults" to investigate Muchuan thoroughly these days, but after a thorough investigation, he could not find him at all.
There is a suspicion of corruption and perversion of the law. Even the salary increase was approved by His Majesty and was not done by Muchuan through dirty means in private.
It was precisely because of this that Zhang Zicheng looked very ugly. It had been a long time since he had encountered such a troublesome person as Muchuan.
While everyone was having a lively discussion, they suddenly became quiet at some point. It seemed that they were affected by something, and everyone fell silent and looked at the threshold of the main hall.
"It's Muchuan..." an official shouted, and everyone looked over.
A man wearing a black official robe walked in, with an elegant figure and a smile on his face. He was undoubtedly Muchuan.
Muchuan could naturally notice the unpleasant atmosphere in the court at this time, and there were so many eyes staring at him, but he didn't care, and waved to say hello to everyone with a smile.
Most of the people in the court were "little people". When Muchuan became a powerful official due to his meritorious service, everyone came to congratulate and flatter him.
Now that the limelight has changed and Muchuan provoked public anger and decided to attack his target, everyone was afraid of him and avoided talking to him.
Mo Zhu and Ouyang Bufan followed Muchuan, and upon noticing this situation, they both became wary.
Ouyang Bufan said: "Sir, are we in trouble this time?
Why do everyone look at our household as if we are looking at monsters?"
Mo Zhu: "Isn't this strange... Everyone feels that our household department abuses its power and only seeks our own interests. Everyone must regard us as aliens."
Muchuan didn't care about this. He had been in ups and downs all year round. He had been praised and ridiculed by others. How could such a small scene shake him?
Muchuan kept walking forward with his head held high, and then stood on the right side, waiting quietly for the emperor to start the meeting.
Not long after, Li Shimin appeared, wearing a golden uniform and a majestic face.
After everyone saluted, Li Shimin did not mince words and started talking about the impeachment of Muchuan by nearly fifty officials yesterday.
After the matter was revealed, officials all came forward to express their opinions.
Although Muchuan was not obviously corrupt and perverting the law, he was guilty of deceiving the emperor!
As if they had colluded, the officials one by one accused Muchuan of deliberately exaggerating the achievements of the Ministry of Revenue in order to deceive the emperor into agreeing to increase the salary of the Ministry of Revenue.
Fortunately, Muchuan had already anticipated everyone's verbal criticism.
After everyone had finished talking, Muchuan came out and explained the whole story. It was easy to solve the problem. The first thing to do was to prove the rationality of the increase in the salary of the Ministry of Household Affairs.
One of the important arguments is why the salary of the Ministry of Household Affairs was raised but not others?
"Everyone, we must have evidence before we can speak, so I have to ask you to see something."
Muchuan raised his hand and shouted, "Come in."
Immediately afterwards, two burly guards could be seen pulling a wooden cart in. There was a pile of tall books on the cart, which was one meter thick and as heavy as a mountain.
Seeing these things, the officials pointed, lowered their heads and discussed, but they all had no idea what these things were for.
Li Shimin asked at this time: "Shang Shu of the Ministry of Revenue, what is your purpose of dragging these things into the court?"
"These account books record the daily work of the Account Department. Compared with before I took over, the workload of the Account Department has been five times that of the past three years!"
Aren’t other departments in the Shangshu Province always criticizing the Ministry of Household Affairs for employing too many people?
Its number of personnel is between two and three times that of other departments.
But the problem is that the Ministry of Household Affairs has to deal with a lot of things, such as land taxation, water conservancy projects, population statistics, and approval of expenditures! You must know that as a country’s economic strength increases, the content of its economic activities will also increase rapidly. At this time
The workload is no longer comparable to what it was during the founding of the People's Republic of China.
For this reason, Muchuan wanted to prove the hard work of the officials of the Ministry of Household Affairs. Since everyone has worked so hard, it is natural for them to increase their salaries.
What's more, the salary adjustment by the Ministry of Revenue is not for no reason, it is based on real evidence! In recent years, under the intervention of the Ministry of Revenue, with Gyeonggi Province as the core, the four treasury granaries have been greatly enriched.
Among them, the amount of grain collected has doubled compared to the past, the stock of gold and silver has tripled, the number of civilians affected by the disaster and starved to death has decreased by 5 million, and the number of soldiers has increased by 1 million.
After finishing speaking, Muchuan looked around with disdain and said condescendingly: "This is what our household department does. If anyone doesn't believe it, he can go to the household department to check the accounts or even go deep into the people to inquire!"
