Zhou Weizhao was somewhat wronged. He had indeed analyzed the intricacies of the matter for Song Chuyi—though naturally, despite being clever, he didn’t actually have the ability to construct such things. After all, having been raised at Longhu Mountain in his youth, he truly had no concept of money. How much silver was needed to build a dike was calculated for him by his advisors Huang Yuanhou and Lin Zhenxing—and Huang Yuanhou’s father just happened to be the current Minister of Works, Huang Ding. Who knows what Huang Ding would think if he knew his son had learned his skills only to turn around and sell out his father and the Ministry of Works. Regardless, these two had pointed out the Ministry of Works’ functions and all the shady dealings within. Excitedly, they helped their Crown Prince curry favor with Sixth Miss Song—if nothing unexpected happened, Sixth Miss Song would undoubtedly become the Crown Prince’s consort. Establishing good relations with the future mistress now was quite necessary. Besides, this was also conveniently creating trouble and digging a pit for Prince Dongping. For them, this was completely legitimate work—after all, they’d nearly been killed by Prince Dongping and Consort Fan at Tianshui Town. If not for their luck and the Crown Prince’s good fortune, they’d have lost their lives long ago. Since they couldn’t do anything openly, couldn’t they take revenge secretly?
Although Song Chuyi similarly had no understanding of such matters, this wasn’t something she needed to manage. In any case, the Minister of Works should surely know how much silver was needed for the entire series of procedures, and she had already found people to record exactly how much silver was spent on procurement. She’d also located all the procurement personnel—her incredibly resourceful grandfather had found every single one, with none missing, and they’d all been escorted to the capital.
The Chen family case had finally come to an end. Old Master Chen was sentenced to immediate execution, to be beheaded at the vegetable market in three days. Adult males were exiled to Lingnan, while the women fortunately didn’t need to be sold—they were all sent back to their ancestral home.
Emperor Jianzhang’s current handling was understandable. After all, too many had been killed at Huangjue Temple. Even now, no one dared pass by the vegetable market area at night—the atmosphere was oppressively gloomy. To continue with excessive killing would be inappropriate.
The Song family didn’t take this matter to heart. Once Old Master Chen died, Emperor Jianzhang himself had personally ordered that the male members of the Chen clan were forbidden from taking office for ten years. After ten years… the Chen family’s descendants had no prospects to begin with, and after wasting ten years, they’d be even less of a threat. The Chen family was finished. Their main focus now was on the progress of Cui Yingshu’s case.
Speaking of which, when Meng Jiming interrogated Cui Yingshu on the first day, he was so startled that he strained his back. The Prince Consort’s very first words were to proclaim his innocence—this was only natural. After all, whose first words before him weren’t to proclaim innocence? Even Old Master Chen had first cried out about being wronged.
But then the Prince Consort very straightforwardly produced the blueprints he’d drawn and the petitions he’d approved for requesting silver from the Ministry of Revenue, saying he’d only requested one hundred and fifty thousand taels of silver because that was sufficient. However, the Jiujiang Prefect and his two deputies had concealed this from him when reporting upward, inflating the amount by a full eighty thousand taels. The Ministry of Revenue had approved a total of two hundred and thirty thousand taels.
He then produced procurement orders approved by his deputies for stone, timber, and labor. All these expenses added up to one hundred and ten thousand taels according to what the Ministry of Works deputies reported to him. This one hundred and ten thousand taels didn’t differ much from his budget for building the dike. But the problem was, he produced another account book. This account book also recorded the procurement costs for dike-building materials, but it was a full seventy thousand taels less than the previous one.
The meaning was clear: the substandard construction project was real. The Jiujiang dike had problems from the start, which was why it couldn’t withstand testing and failed as soon as the flood waters came.
Actually, none of this was the main point. The main point was that this latter account book was the one truly used for building the Jiujiang dike. What was fatal was that it also recorded where the excess silver went—twenty thousand taels to curry favor with the Prefect, eight thousand taels to the Qingyuan County magistrate, thirty thousand taels to the Governor-General (a big fish), ten thousand taels to the Censorate inspector, and the rest divided among the two Vice Ministers from the Ministry of Works and the various contractors below them.
Holding these items, Meng Jiming felt his hands trembling—Emperor Jianzhang had just spoken about cracking down on corruption, and Old Master Chen, who had just fallen and would soon lose his head, had corruption among his crimes. Now they were going after the entire Jiangxi officialdom! Once this broke open, it would be no smaller than the previous Yangzhou corruption case! The Ministry of Revenue had approved a total of two hundred and forty thousand taels to be sent down. By the time it reached their hands, only one hundred and ten thousand taels remained. And even with these one hundred and ten thousand taels, the Jiangxi officials still had to skim layer by layer!
Even Meng Jiming couldn’t help wanting to roar at these parasites!
He didn’t dare make the decision himself. Drenched in cold sweat, he couldn’t continue the interrogation. The next day at court, he truthfully submitted Cui Yingshu’s testimony and the evidence he’d presented.
The atmosphere in the Supreme Hall instantly turned so cold it made people shiver involuntarily. Though it was clearly August weather, everyone felt as if snow was already falling. Even Chief Minister Chang and Elder Du, who were usually immovable as mountains, couldn’t help but twitch their eyebrows.
Emperor Jianzhang flew into a towering rage. That day when he returned to the rear palace, he was so angry he couldn’t even eat. The more he thought about it, the angrier he became. That very night, he summoned several old foxes from the Cabinet and asked their opinions.
Chief Minister Chang, who typically didn’t speak much, unusually said just two concise words: “Should investigate.”
Emperor Jianzhang’s face, already cold as ice, softened somewhat upon hearing this. Yes, they should investigate—investigate thoroughly! He understood the principle that when water is too clear, there are no fish. But if things had truly reached the point described in Cui Yingshu’s memorial, forget about raising fish—even grass couldn’t survive in there. These people were hollowing out his empire.
Elder Du followed closely: “Indeed, we should investigate! This minister went back and calculated the number of times Jiujiang has reported dike repairs over these years. It’s almost as frequent as once every two or three years. Each time the court allocates such large sums of silver, yet problems still occur every year. This isn’t unique to this year. I’m afraid the Prince Consort simply suffered an undeserved calamity.”
Elder Du didn’t actually care whether Cui Yingshu had suffered an undeserved calamity or not. He only knew that the Jiangxi Governor was an Eastern Palace person, and his corruption was so vicious that once exposed, the Eastern Palace would inevitably be disgraced along with him. And Cui Yingshu also happened to be an Eastern Palace person. Now that the Eastern Palace was in chaos with itself, he was happy to watch the spectacle.
Song Chengru couldn’t help but sigh in admiration that both his granddaughter and the Crown Prince had thought very correctly. As expected, Elder Du, usually of the moderate faction, was particularly enthusiastic about this matter. With him and Zheng Sansi pushing it forward, investigating the Jiujiang dike case was essentially a foregone conclusion.
Now only one problem remained. Emperor Jianzhang glanced at the people below, all with varying expressions, and slowly spoke: “Who will investigate?”
This case was different from the Yangzhou corruption case. Since it involved Cui Yingshu, Song Chengru, as a relation by marriage, naturally needed to avoid suspicion. That left Elder Du, Zheng Sansi, Chief Minister Chang, and Meng Jiming.