The imperial envoy issued an order that other prefectures and counties could go back except for the officials under Kaifeng Prefecture. The prefects breathed a sigh of relief and quickly took their magistrates to leave the schoolyard of Kaifeng Prefecture, and at the same time gave a sympathetic look to Xue Tian, ​​the prefect of Kaifeng Prefecture who was standing in the front.

Xue Tian knew what those colleagues meant, and they could go back and use this time to complete the accounts. As for him, he could only stand here and wait for the prince's summons.

The prefect was left behind, so naturally the magistrates of the four prefectures and thirty counties under the jurisdiction of Kaifeng Prefecture could not leave, so they had to stand on the school ground to wait.

But the imperial envoy went in and changed his clothes and didn't come out. The officials of Kaifeng Prefecture waited for more than an hour. These officials had eaten little food in the morning, and were afraid of being disrespectful to the imperial envoy. In addition, the fight just now had no food in their stomachs, and they were all hungry and roaring.

The other magistrates were afraid of Xue Tian's authority and dared not speak, but the magistrate's deputy, Tongzhi Zhou Qi, whispered: "Sir, why did the imperial envoy leave us here?"

Xue Tian hadn't drunk water and had no meal for a long time, and he was very resentful, but there was no way. Who said he was a lieutenant?

"Wan Qing, I don't know, but I guessed it, it's just a trick! By the way, how are you preparing for the accounts? Nothing is wrong?"

This is the top priority. If something happens, everyone will lose their heads together. Zhou Qi heard Xue Tian’s question and quickly said, “Please rest assured, the officials have already prepared, and even the tents of many years cannot be seen!”

Xue Tian felt relieved when he heard Zhou Qi say this. The imperial court allocated tens of millions of silver dollars to Henan, and most of the land in Kaifeng was used, so nothing could happen.

The weather in August in Henan is the clear and cool autumn season. Although the weather turns a little cold, the sun is very strong. It took more than an hour to make Xue Tian shine.

At noon, the gate of Kaifeng Prefecture's yamen opened, and several large trucks came in outside the door, which were the accounts of Kaifeng Prefecture, and some clerks of all sizes followed.

These people are all small officials of the eighth or nine rank, all wearing green official robes. When they saw the prefect Xue standing in the middle, they quickly stepped forward and kowtowed and bowed, shouting: "The Lord of the Mansion, the Emperor's Office, called the Xiaguan and others, saying that they had something to ask!"

When Xue Tian saw that these people were the officials of the official Guan Yin in his mansion, the leader was the third in command. There were more than a hundred other people, including the history, professors, the prefecture judges, the official officials of the sixth wing, the Jingcheng, etc.

The highest official positions of these people are the sixth-rank magistrates, and the others are eighth- and ninth-rank magistrates. What are they doing? They are not qualified to meet the imperial envoy? A bad premonition suddenly appeared in Xue Tian's heart.

At this moment, Zhu Yuan, wearing the red prince's uniform, walked out of the back hall, looked at so many people standing in front of the hall and smiled: "All are here, okay! Master Xue, come in first!"

Xue Tian knew that the important moment had finally come, so he quickly cheered up and walked into the lobby of the prefect who originally belonged to him.

Now the lobby of the prefect has been transformed into the imperial envoy's hall by Zhu Yuan. The plaque hanging high on the top of the mirror has been removed. The table wrapped in a blue and black curtain cloth of the prefect has been replaced by a bright yellow curtain cloth to show the identity of the imperial envoy. Zhu Yuan sat behind the table, looking at Xue Tian entering the room with expressionless expression.

Although Xue Tian had already sat down for homework, it was his turn to be nervous. He walked into the house and quickly saluted: "I am Xue Tian, ​​Kaifeng Prefecture, pay homage to the imperial envoy!"

Zhu Yuan looked through Xue Tian's resume and asked, "Xue Tian, ​​are you a native of Zhong Xiang, Hubei?" (After Zhu Hongsan established the country, divided the provinces of Huguang into Hunan and Hubei, but the people still used to calling it Huguang.)"

"Yes, the Xiaguan is from Xuejiazhuang, five miles outside Zhongxiang City, Hubei Province. In the ninth year of Chongzhen, Zhang Xianzhong occupied Wuchang in the 15th year of Chongzhen. Hubei officials were vacant, so I was appointed as the magistrate of Tongcheng by He Tengjiao, the governor of Huguang at that time. After Your Majesty succeeded in the Northern Expedition of the Central Plains, the Xiaguan was promoted to the magistrate of Kaifeng by Your Majesty because of his contribution to defending the territory!"

Zhu Yuan heard Xue Tian tell his resume, and nodded after hearing it, saying, "Okay, Lord Xue, you also know that you are the official of your father Jianba. Since that's the case, you can tell Wu Peichang's illegal affairs!"

Xue Tian knew that it would be fine for the imperial envoy to find him today, but it would be too direct to make him betray Wu Peichang so directly! However, Zhu Yuan represented the emperor after all. After weighing the pros and cons in his heart, Xue Tian decided to stand on Wu Peichang's side. There was no way he had already fallen into it too deep.

"Sir, I don't understand what you said. Lord Wu came to Henan to work diligently. In the past few years, I lost several pounds to settle refugees. The Lord Wu really doesn't know what illegal things are there for Lord Wu!"

"Haha, Lord Xue, it seems that you will never repent! OK! I promise you that as long as you tell me a few things about Wu Peichang, I will guarantee you that you are fine in front of my father!"

Xue Tian was indeed a little shaken when he heard Zhu Yuan say this, but after thinking about it, the price of betraying Wu Peichang was too high, so he had to grit his teeth and say, "I don't understand what the imperial envoy said!"

When Zhu Yuan saw Xue Tian being so stubborn, he sneered: "Okay, since Lord Xue said that, the king must handle it impartially! Come on, call the Kaifeng Prefecture House Jingcheng in!"

The ancient Chinese bureaucracy was similar to that of later generations, but not as detailed as those of later generations. The prefectures and prefectures and counties were established at the three levels of prefectures and prefectures and counties, and the prefectures and prefectures were called Tongzhi, which was the executive vice mayor. Tongzhi was in charge of money, grain, taxes, disaster relief, etc. Six houses were established below the prefectures and the six departments of the central government, and their functions were similar to those of the various bureaus in later generations.

This household house is equivalent to the later generations of Finance Bureau, Tax Bureau and Civil Affairs Bureau. The supervisor was inherited from the eighth rank. Although his official position was not very large, his power was not small.

Fang Jingcheng, a Kaifeng Prefecture House, was surnamed Wu. He was also a minister who followed Zhu Hongsan south to the south. However, Wu Jingcheng had no fame and reputation and only recognized some words, so he could not become a high-ranking official, so he had to be a small official.

Wu Jingcheng held the financial power of Kaifeng Prefecture. Except for the prefect and the Tongzhi, even the third-in-command judge did not take it seriously. However, today he knew it was not a time to show off. He heard the summons from the imperial envoy in the lobby and quickly walked into the lobby with a down-eyed brow.

When he entered the lobby, he didn't dare to look up at what the imperial envoy looked like. He knelt on the spot and shouted loudly: "The villain Kaifeng Mansion inherits Wu Chaocui, pay homage to the imperial envoy!"

Zhu Yuan looked at the old man in his forties and asked, "Are you the Kaifeng Mansion Fang Jingcheng?"

"Go back to the imperial envoy, he is a villain!" Wu Chaocui answered quickly.

"Okay, let me tell you about the use of funds allocated by the imperial court in Kaifeng Prefecture in the past few years!"

Wu Chaocui had already done his homework, and he heard the imperial envoy's question and quickly said: "Yes, since the seventh year of Shenwu, the household houses have withdrawn a total of more than 6.3 million silver dollars from the governor's yamen. The specific numbers need to be checked before they can be known!"

Wu Chaocui paused for a moment and heard that the imperial envoy said nothing, and continued: "There are 1.8 million yuan used to renovate the city wall, 230,000 yuan for each yamen in the city, 600,000 yuan for the river, and the remaining silver is used to resettle refugees!"

Zhu Yuan picked up the accounts of Kaifeng Prefecture and looked at it. Wu Chaocui said the same thing, but the remaining 3.67 million yuan of silver dollars were all used to resettle refugees. In recent years, Henan has only resettled more than 2 million yuan of refugees. This is the whole province. How much can you resettle in Kaifeng Prefecture? It took more than 3.6 million yuan?

"How many refugees have you placed in Kaifeng Prefecture in the past few years?"

When Wu Chaocui heard the imperial envoy ask the key point, he had no choice but to answer: "Since the seventh year of Shenwu, a total of 460,000 people have been resettled!"

Zhu Yuan slapped the table and asked, "What? Forty-six thousand people used more than 3.6 million silver dollars? On average, each person needs eight or nine silver dollars? How did you settle it?" The price of silver in the Ming Dynasty was extremely expensive, and a good ox was only five taels of silver. Now the price comparison of silver dollars is one silver dollar for one tael and five coins of silver, and nine silver dollars is nearly fourteen taels of silver. There is no need to think that there must be something tricky about it.

When Wu Chaocui saw Zhu Yuan getting angry, she was so scared that she kowtowed and said, "I don't know that these refugees came to Henan, they were extremely poor and had nothing. They had to prepare everything. At the same time, the government also had to provide food, seeds, and agricultural tools for the first year. These were a considerable amount of capital!"

Although what Wu Chaocui said was a bit exaggerated, it was basically true. But today Zhu Yuan wanted to establish his authority. Where can he let this unlucky Wu Chaocui go?

Zhu Yuan stood up and cursed, "Do you clerks think I don't know? In order to resettle refugees from northern China, the imperial court transported a large amount of food from Guangdong. These are all free of money. Are you considered these in your budget?"

"Sir, the grains that were shipped are dropping off the bucket, and the ones that were shipped were sweet potatoes and wheat. The quantity seemed quite large, but it was not as hungry as corn, so..."

Wu Chaocui also wanted to explain, but Zhu Yuan listened to him. Zhu Yuan said to the Jinyiwei on both sides: "Come on, please drag me down the clerk's not telling the truth and beat him twenty boards, see if he tells the truth!"

The Jinyiwei standing on both sides, regardless of Wu Chaocui's wailing, raised him to the door of the lobby, took off his outer pants, leaked out his middle clothes, and started fighting in front of all the officials of Kaifeng Prefecture.

Although Wu Chaocui was only in the eighth rank, he held the financial power of the entire government. Just like the later Kaifeng Municipal Finance Director, those seventh rank magistrates would respectfully call him Lord Wu when they saw Wu Chaocui. Now this majestic Lord Wu has been stripped naked and spanked. The officials of Kaifeng Prefecture standing in the school are really feeling sad.

Zhu Yuan walked out at this time and pointed at Wu Chaocui who was wailing and said, "You all saw it. This is a typical example of not telling the truth. You clerks are all paying attention to it. To be honest, I will never blame you for the past. If you don't tell the truth, this is your end!"

Zhu Yuan's words were still somewhat intimidating with Wu Chaocui's wail, but as the board became more and more fierce, Wu Chaocui slowly disappeared. The executioner's Jinyiwei Xiaoqi stepped forward and looked at it, quickly came to Zhu Yuan and whispered: "Prince, this guy is dead!"
Chapter completed!