Zhou Jing stood in front of the dressing mirror of more than one person and sorted out his clothes again. Looking at the purple-robed jade-belt goldfish bag on his body, he showed a satisfied expression on his face.

He was a Jinshi in the 41st year of Wanli, and was the first to be a second-class student. He was in the same subject as Zhou Yanru, who was the chief assistant twice in the previous dynasty. Zhou Yanru and him were both from Jiangnan. On that list, Zhou Yanru was the first to be a first and the top scorer. He was the first to be a second-class student, and the first to be a fourth, but his life experience was far from being a different one.

Zhou Yanru served as the chief minister twice, and was once a glorious one. However, Zhou Jing's career was not outstanding. He followed the steps and passed the Jinshi, then passed the imperial examination and passed the Shujishi, entered the Hanlin, and then entered the imperial examination. He then sent the local government to the magistrate, and was promoted step by step, as a prefect, participated in politics, and returned to the capital.

During the Chongzhen Dynasty for more than ten years, he had been a minister in the Ministry of Works. He stayed for more than ten years and had never moved. Seeing that his hair was covered with white hair, he was ready to retire and return home.

With the new dynasty and new atmosphere, he finally left the Ministry of Works not long ago and became the minister of the newly established Transportation Department appointed by the emperor. He jumped over that threshold and officially entered the third-rank high-ranking official sequence and was awarded a purple robe and goldfish bag.

When I opened the door, there were already followers waiting outside.

After being promoted to the third rank, especially the newly established Transportation Department chief, Zhou Jing also enjoyed the eight guards assigned to him by the court, as well as full-time coachman, and even the carriages were distributed by the court.

"Sir, the carriage is ready."

Zhou Jing took out the pocket watch from the pocket of the shirt lining. When he pressed the spring, he cleverly bounced the gold watch cover, revealing the crystal-embedded mirror inside. Through the crystal mirror, the needle inside was constantly moving.

It was just eight o'clock in the morning.

"It's still early, there's no hurry." Zhou Jing asked the housekeeper to prepare breakfast for him and brought today's newspaper.

After decades of being an official in the Ming Dynasty, Zhou Jing disliked the most was that he had to attend court early every day when he was an official in the Ming Dynasty. Although Emperor Wanli did not like to attend court early, the emperor did not attend court, but all the officials still had to go to bed early every day, rushing outside the Meridian Gate to wait for the palace gate to open.

The emperor did not attend court. They worshipped the empty chair under the leadership of the chief minister. Then the chief minister presided over the morning court meeting that day, which was a very troublesome thing. It didn't matter when he was younger, but after Chongzhen ascended the throne, he began to resume morning court again. The emperor even often followed the government's government affairs, regardless of spring, summer, autumn and winter, often met outside the hall.

When it comes to winter, it is so cold that it is trembling.

It’s better to have a new dynasty. At least there is no need to get up early every day to go and go for the court meeting.

The emperor only held a court meeting on the first and fifteenth day of the lunar month, and occasionally held a major court meeting on the fifth and tenth day of the day, but generally, there is no need to hold an early court. Everyone has long been accustomed to the habit of the new dynasty and knows that the emperor's major affairs are held small meetings, and the emperor usually holds a meeting of the Prime Minister's Office. If it is related to military affairs, a military opportunity meeting will be held. If it is related to finance and taxation, a financial and taxation meeting will be held.

In short, they are all dedicated to finding special people, and they will not gather all officials to discuss matters.

Even the New Year and New Years of the Dynasty were actually just a formality. Basically, the matters to be discussed at the court meeting were all agreed by the emperor, a group of cabinet ministers and nine ministers. It was better to say that it was a notification meeting than a court meeting.

Zhou Jing is old and becomes a Jinshi in his thirties. He has been in his career for more than 20 years, and he is almost sixty years old.

This is great now, from 9 to 5. Everyone can finally sleep until they wake up naturally. They can even sleep until the sun is shining. This kind of comfort is something they imagined before. There are still two days of rest in a week, and their salary has increased, and they have not yet been discounted. All the silver coupons are given on time.

After Zhou Jing was transferred from the Ministry of Industry to the Transportation Department, his salary increased a lot, especially as the head of the department, he also had a 10,000 yuan yuan in the maintenance of the integrity. Not to mention, there were many subsidies, including the court's guards, coachman, etc. Zhou Jing was very satisfied with his current life.

He no longer thought about retiring and returning home, but was ready to work for another ten or eight years. Maybe when he retired, he could still become a minister or a minister.

"Dad, have you read today's newspaper?"

The eldest son rushed over with a look of eagerness, holding a new newspaper delivered this morning. The son's face was not very good, "Dad, something happened, please read it."

Zhou looked at his son with some dissatisfaction, "You were so nervous early in the morning. You are now a seventh-rank Beijing official, so why can't you change this problem?"

"What happened really? The King of the Transportation Department asked for bribes yesterday and asked His Majesty for the head. Look, the newspapers have published this matter in detail."

"What?" Zhou Jing couldn't help but feel nervous when he heard something happened to the Transportation Department. He quickly grabbed the newspaper from his son and began to look at it in a glance.

Zhou Jing's face turned gray.

"Dad, this matter has nothing to do with you, right?" the son asked in a low voice.

"Of course this matter has something to do with me. I am at least a ruthless subordinate. The head of the king is a subordinate of the Transportation Department. Now that something happened to him, how can I get rid of it?"

"This king is so brave. He openly asked for bribes, but he still had a blind eye to the emperor's head." Zhou Jing's eldest son felt that the sky had collapsed. His father had just been appointed as the Minister of Transportation, which was a great good thing for Zhou Jing. But who knew that this happened immediately after his father's Minister of Transportation was just a few days ago.

Zhou Jing had no appetite to eat breakfast anymore. He ignored his new habit of eating breakfast every morning and read newspapers while eating breakfast. He put down the newspaper and rushed out in a hurry.

If such a big thing happened, he must explain it to His Majesty.

Although Zhou Jing was panicked, he was quickly sorting out the matter in his heart while walking out. The current situation is that the subordinates of the Transportation Department openly solicited bribes and were arrested by the emperor. Fortunately, Zhou Jing was very concerned about his career and was also from a great family in Jiangnan, so he did not pay much attention to money.

In addition to some gifts of favor and some customary and unspoken rules, Zhou Jing did not take bribes. This is a very important thing. As long as the matter of the king is a personal behavior, this matter can still be controlled.

Along the way, he kept urging the coachman to speed up the journey.

But when he rushed to the front of the Transportation Department, he was shocked to find that the Transportation Department, which was extremely busy these days at the end of the year, was actually surrounded by soldiers.

And that was not an ordinary soldier, but a factory guard.

The Jinyiwei and the East Factory jointly guard the Transportation Department.

When he saw the factory guards, Zhou Jing, who was calm in his heart, was completely panicked and his legs were a little weak. The court had three courts, Dali Temple, Censorate and the Ministry of Justice. But outside the three courts, there were also internal courts, which were the factory guards of the emperor's hawks.

If the Three Laws were dispatched, it would be considered normal procedures, but once the factory guards were dispatched, it would mean that the case was heard directly. The emperor even personally asked about it.

"I am the Minister of Transportation Zhou Jing."

Zhou Jing stepped forward, but several Jinyiwei stopped him.

A Jinyiwei Baihu looked at him and said, "I have met Master Zhou. Jinyiwei and Dongchang are in charge of the order of Your Majesty. We will conduct an investigation into the Transportation Department. Please cooperate with our work. Please here."

Zhou Jing was stunned, and he wanted to be investigated. But seeing the hundred households with serious expressions on their faces, Zhou Jing had to keep his shock and anger in his heart, and cooperated with the Jinyiwei to enter the surrounding transportation department.

As soon as he entered the yamen, Zhou Jing discovered that the entire yamen of the Transportation Department had been completely controlled by the factory guards, and there were people from the factory guards everywhere. It was rare that the two yamen jointly handled the case.

The officials of the Transportation Department, the files, official documents, various reports, etc. of the Transportation Department have all been taken over by the factory guards.

All accounts of the Transportation Department must undergo detailed review, and each official must undergo a separate inquiry and review. During this period, no one is allowed to leave the Transportation Department's Office or contact the outside world.

A third-rank high-ranking official was regarded as a suspect, but Zhou Jing didn't even dare to say a word.

After all, the sixth-rank chief of their Transportation Department openly solicited bribes to the emperor. Such a thing happened. The emperor must review them.

Yesterday, Liu Jun directly injected the brave King Master into the Jinyiwei Prison and interrogated it strictly. Then he sealed the accounts of the Transportation Department's yamen in the middle of the night. This morning, one official from the Transportation Department came and tried one, and there were no exits.

What happened in the Transportation Department spread throughout the capital like a newspaper wind this morning.

At the beginning, the officials in other departments were a little excited, but others were the ones who had the trouble.

"This Wang San is so bold."

"I think they are blind. Can't even recognize His Majesty?"

"I have too much appetite, and I dare to ask for 10,000 yuan directly. That's just a small project approval. If they do this, how much will it cost to be charged at the end of the year?"

"There are more than one million. The Transportation Department is now a wealthy yamen. It has both money and power. It is in charge of the world's roads, bridges, canals, and transportation. They are all taking care of it."

Although the Transportation Department is not an old six department, it is also a new yamen in the court. It holds road traffic in the left hand and transportation in the right hand, holding both the power to review and approval of road construction and the funds for road construction.

Speaking of which, it is a hot yamen set up by the new dynasties such as the Post Office and other new dynasties. Everyone is envious of it many times on weekdays. Now that something has happened to them, everyone is secretly happy.

In fact, they are not much better than the Transportation Department.

This time, local officials went to Beijing to celebrate the dynasty, which was a good opportunity to make a fortune. With the power of review and withdrawal of funds in their hands, many officials wanted to use this as capital to make a good fortune and have a good New Year in advance.

In the past, during the Ming Dynasty, the tax revenue on the ground was disconnected from the central government, but the local governments collected additional surcharges and fire consumption, so the local government solved the problem by itself, not by the imperial court. However, when it was necessary to rely on the imperial court to collect the money, the central government's office would deduct it as usual, and at least 30% would be deducted before leaving the capital.

When you get to the place, there will be some floating or not. In short, you have to pay a penalty if you pass it.

In the past, the Beijing officials in the Ming Dynasty liked the most was the Beijing Procuratorate. The three-year plan for Beijing Procuratorate was both assessed. The parties in the court took advantage of the opportunity of Beijing Procuratorate and the plan, and the party opposed the same party. On the other hand, they took this opportunity to accept gifts and bribes on a large scale.

Now many officials regard the local officials from the Han Dynasty entering Beijing and dynasty as an opportunity to make a fortune.

The King of the Transportation Department was the first to be caught, but neither the first nor the last one.

Liu Jun had already mastered these signs through the factory guards. At this time, he saw that there was a tendency to become more and more intense, so he simply borrowed the matter of the King of Kings and began to set off a storm.

Not long after the various departments were scammers, they couldn't laugh.

Because at noon that day, the factory guards began to send soldiers and officials to various departments, began to seal accounts, and examine officials one by one.

Even the three judicial departments, the Censorate, the Dali Temple, and the Ministry of Justice were not exceptions. They were first investigated by the factory guards, and then they were included in the joint investigation and reviewed the various departments together.

On the first day, the factory and the three courts jointly arrested more than a hundred people from various departments of the capital and local officials entering Beijing.

The next day, the number of officials arrested and imprisoned increased to more than 300.

On the third day, the incident continued to expand, and more than 1,000 officials were taken away and imprisoned in the imperial prison.

On the fourth day, the prisoners reached three thousand.

On the fifth day, more than 5,000 people were reached.

At this point, a huge storm had formed, with a tendency to sweep everything and destroy everything.

From the chief minister Yuan Jixian to the censor Kedao, they were all shocked by the huge storm and submitted memorials, asking not to expand any more.

Many officials reported that the water was clear and there were no fish, etc. In short, according to the emperor's investigation, all officials would have to go in. At that time, who would become an official and manage the world.

Liu Jun continues to pay attention to the progress of the matter.

By this time, many surviving officials were already in danger, and they began to collectively attack Jinyiwei and Dongchang.

Liu Jun asked the factory guards to stop arresting people, but did not release them immediately. Two more days passed.

This week is simply a black week for all the great Han officials.

The more than 5,000 officials were taken to the imperial prison, but they were not tortured. They were just asked to lock them up and give them a pen and a notebook to tell them honestly.

These people have received gifts more or less and given gifts. Some have received larger amounts, some have only gray incomes of some unspoken rules, and some are even just reciprocity.

However, Liu Jun invited them all to the imperial prison and gave them a week's imprisonment, which was to give them a profound lesson. Liu Jun knew that he could not really promote the imperial prison and locked up all officials involved in corruption.

These officials have already been on Liu Jun's blacklist, but before the new officials are trained, Liu Jun cannot replace them all at once. At most, he will take out the more serious people to kill the chicken to warn the monkey.

When the seventh day passed, Liu Jun finally made a ruling on the incident.

In the end, Liu Jun personally convicted more than 100 criminal officials who received serious bribes and received relatively large amounts, and punished them for recovering stolen money, confiscating property, exiling to the border to reclaim wasteland, and issuing labor reform in mines.

The remaining thousands of officials and officials were mostly given slightly lighter punishments such as warnings, salary fines, demotion, and demotion.

The more than 5,000 officials who entered the Jinyiwei who had drunk tea were asked to report their personal property before they were released and explained the source of their personal property. If the source cannot be explained and the amount is large, they will be deemed to be confiscated and confiscated.

"Next time, when they take bribes, they will probably think about today first!" (To be continued.)
Chapter completed!