Uncle from a poor family - Chapter 734 No One Delivers Winter Clothes

Pang Qing left the capital.

Because he learned that Li Zisheng had already arrived at his post in Juyongguan, and Pang Qing could travel from the capital to Juyongguan in about a day if he walked faster.

When Pang Qing arrived at Juyongguan, he took a lot of effort to enter the pass.

Li Zisheng had been in Juyongguan for four or five days and had completely recovered. Seeing Pang Qing's hurried appearance, Li Zisheng seemed very relaxed.

Li Zisheng is very open-minded.

Now that Emperor Chenghua, who favored me, is gone, what is the point of me being an official?

Are you waiting to be bullied?Pang Qing said with a bitter face: "Now it's not a question of whether you want to retreat or not, but whether you can retreat safely!"

"You mean, I want to leave, but I can't?"

Pang Qing said helplessly: "The voices in the court this time are not to dismiss you from office. Some people even think that you should continue to work for the court... but just want you to return all the money you have embezzled and accepted bribes."

"Huh? What kind of logic is this?"

Li Zisheng frowned and said, "I am guilty, so just punish me. How can someone know that I am guilty but not pursue the crime and just ask me for money?"

Pang Qing sighed, "They want to punish you while asking you to return the stolen goods. But don't you have the support of His Majesty and Zhang Guozhang?"

Pang Qing said: "But the means you use to make money is to exploit others, which involves selling official positions and titles. In their view, no matter where you use the money, or whether it is used in the right way, as long as it is obtained illegally, it must be taken out and used to fill the hole in the current court."

Li Zisheng asked with a dark face: "The money has been spent, where can I get it from? If they don't believe me, just seal up my mansion and let them search it!"

"Master Dao, you are just telling me this. If you tell the people in the court, will they believe you?" Pang Qing seemed helpless. "Now the officials and the people think that you have hidden a large amount of gold, silver and jewelry, almost to the point of being rich enough to rival a country. Because when you were the late emperor, you had so much power. Anyone in the court who wanted to be an official would give you money, right?"

Li Zisheng rubbed his nose and said, "Yes, I have given it all. If I had kept all the money, I would indeed be as rich as a country, but the problem is that I gave every penny to the late emperor for his expenses... The problem is that the late emperor's property is the country, isn't it?"

"what?"

Only now did Li Zisheng figure everything out.

It’s not a question of whether you want to return the stolen money or whether you have the ability to do so.

He is your backer, the current emperor, and now he is forcing you to return the stolen money in order to preserve the reputation of your former backer - his deceased father.

Li Zisheng said as if he was angry.

"Then you may have to think about where you will be a Taoist priest in the future!" Pang Qing said, "In the Jinyiwei prison, maybe you can stay there for a few more days. Because your reputation outside is not very good now, and that Zhang Guozhang has not recovered from his illness. If you go to the prison again this time, no one will send you winter clothes."

"Scare me, you actually scared me!"

Li Zisheng's face was full of grief and anger.

Perhaps in his opinion, only this method could prevent Pang Qing from saying things he didn't want to hear.

Pang Qing said: "I have already gone to see the second son of the Zhang family. According to him, the current situation is indeed very difficult and there is no solution at the moment. In fact, when I think about it, you did a lot of wrong things when you were the late emperor, so even if you want to try your best to make amends now, you can't make up for it."

Li Zisheng said dejectedly: "Does that mean I should hang myself on a tree in the southeast and die? Then everyone will be happy?"

"Master Dao, please don't say such discouraging words. Aren't we still trying to find a solution?" Pang Qing said, "But I heard from the Ministry of Personnel that you will be transferred back to the capital soon, because they all want... to make you go back to endure this hardship. Whether they like you or not, they all want you to go back!"

……

After meeting Pang Qing, Li Zisheng was completely depressed.

He paced back and forth in his room alone, not even wanting to eat dinner. It seemed that he had reached the end of his rope.

"That's over a million taels of silver. Where can I get it? Go back, go back... I might as well die here! Or maybe when I led the troops out of the border earlier, I could have died heroically and left a good reputation! These people are so heartless and have no conscience."

"I'm not hungry, no one is allowed to disturb me tonight!"

Li Zisheng shouted and drove the man away.

He came to the table, picked up the brush, and wanted to find someone to talk to about his grievances, but unfortunately he couldn't put pen to paper.

After much thought, he realized that the only person who could help him right now was Zhang Luan, so he shamelessly wrote a letter to Zhang Luan, trying to ask Zhang Luan to help him turn the tide.

"I don't ask them to give me anything in return, I just hope they can be reasonable. Can't they even do this humble request?"

"In this world, it seems that Lai Zhan is the only one with a broad mind! He has helped me gain military merit, giving me the opportunity to continue to gain a foothold in the court. Unfortunately, this incident happened now... Now I want to get out of this unscathed, is there no chance for me to do so?"

……

……

The attacks on Li Zisheng were still ongoing. Even in the court, many ministers demanded on the spot that Li Zisheng return all the proceeds of corruption and abuse of power during the Chenghua period.

Zhu Youtang was also quite angry when he heard this, and asked: "My dear ministers, you said that Li Zisheng made more than one million taels of silver by selling official positions and titles. Do you have detailed evidence to prove it? If it is just empty talk, how can we get people to hand over the silver?"

Ma Wensheng stepped out and said, "Your Majesty, this matter has been corroborated by many people, especially those messengers during the reign of the previous emperor. From their mouths, we learned that the silver and money given to Li Zisheng alone amounted to hundreds of thousands of taels."

In order to save the face of most people in the court, Ma Wensheng could only start with those small fry.

Zhu Youtang said: "Should we conduct a thorough investigation? See who in the court has given gifts and what the exact amount is?" Upon hearing this, many officials present had strange expressions on their faces.

The downfall of Li Zisheng is what they most want to see, but if they are told to conduct a detailed investigation, even to find out how much bribes Li Zisheng has received in the past and from whom he received bribes, then they are absolutely unwilling to do so.

This attack on Li Zisheng was more likely to be secretly pushed by someone with ulterior motives. Those who had bribed Li Zisheng are now avoiding this issue.

In fact, most of them had no choice but to stand on the same side as everyone else, otherwise they would be exposed and people would know that they had also bribed Li Zisheng.Li Rong, who was standing next to Zhu Youtang, said, "Your Majesty, the Censorate has already investigated this matter in detail. You can report the clues you have obtained. If they are true, you can indeed ask Li Zisheng to return the money he obtained illegally. After all, the court is currently short of funds and will soon have to repair the river embankment..."

Although the emperor did not announce Huai'en's retirement in public, everyone with a discerning eye knew that Huai'en would never come back.

It’s just a matter of final announcement.

However, because Huai'en's retirement was not made public, the current structure of the Silijian remains the same as before, with Tan Ji, the second-in-command, temporarily acting as the top leader, and Tan Ji still concurrently serving as the commander of the Eastern Depot.

However, in the past few days, Qin Ji, who was recuperating at home, rarely appeared beside the emperor. It was basically Li Rong, Dai Yi, Xiao Jing and Chen Kuan who accompanied the emperor.

After all, he had not communicated with Zhang Luan and his son. If it was just to ask Li Zisheng to return the stolen money to preserve his father's reputation, Zhu Youtang would still be willing to do so.

Because even Zhu Youtang himself knew that Li Zisheng was not a good person. Zhang Luan had mentioned this to him before... Li Zisheng was a person who had been used as a gun by Emperor Chenghua and had too much bad reputation. He could be sacrificed for the stability of the court at the appropriate time.

As for treating him as a trusted minister... Zhu Youtang never had such an idea.

After all, after Zhu Youtang ascended the throne, he never even had a detailed conversation with Li Zisheng in person. The only time they communicated was when Li Zisheng was imprisoned years ago.

Li Rong said: "I am willing to take on this task."

At this moment, Li Rong also has to plan for himself.

Logically speaking, once Huai En left, he would be the second-in-command of the Imperial Household Department...but the problem is that, in addition to Tan Ji, there is also Tan Chang who is currently stranded in Shanxi and has not returned. If Tan Chang comes back...it would be hard to say who would be in power and who would be out.

Since he had to investigate Li Zisheng and balance the relationship between Zhang Luan and the ministers in the court to ensure that both parties were satisfied, Li Rong felt that he could give it a try.

"Ah."

Zhu Youtang nodded and said, "If there is anything you don't understand, you can go to your father-in-law's house and ask for his opinion."

Zhang Luan again?

When the ministers present heard what the emperor said, anger instantly surged up in their hearts.

Li Rong asked, "Your Majesty, do we need to ask for the opinion of Zhang Guozhang? Would it be... not good?"

Zhu Youtang had his own reasons. He said, "Before, when Li Zisheng was detained for a crime, my father-in-law came forward to handle the case and personally interrogated him. At that time, Li Zisheng cooperated throughout the process. He obeyed me obediently last time, so why not this time?"

At this time, Liu Ji walked over and said, "Your Majesty is wise. I also think that Minister Zhang of the Ministry of Revenue is the most suitable person to help investigate this matter."

Many people glared at Liu Ji and thought, are you showing off your abilities again?

But the strange thing is that this time Wang Shu, Ma Wensheng and others did not stand up to express their objections... because they also wanted to bring Zhang Luan down.

Didn’t you, Zhang Luan, claim to be sick and not go out since the New Year?

I'll give you a difficult task. If you have the ability, continue to go against public opinion to protect Li Zisheng. Then not only will Li Zisheng lose everything, but you, Zhang Luan, will also be ruined.

……

The matter was finally settled.

Although Zhu Youtang directly told Zhang Luan to investigate at the time, he felt afterwards that this matter seemed unusual.

When he returned to Kunning Palace, he quickly sent someone out of the palace to call Qin Ji, wanting to ask his wife's opinion.

Zhang Yu looked at her worried husband and asked, "Your Majesty, what's wrong?"

Zhu Youtang said, "People in the court have asked to investigate Li Zisheng again, saying that the people are now full of resentment, and people throughout the capital are talking about him, saying that he is a treacherous minister. It seems that this person cannot stay in the court."

Zhang Yu said, "Then investigate... Isn't he just a minister? Isn't Li Zisheng a Taoist priest? Let him go back and continue to be a Taoist priest, isn't that good?"

Zhu Youtang said, "That's true, but this time the court officials want Li Zisheng to return all the money he got from corruption and abuse of power. The total amount must be hundreds of thousands or even millions of taels of silver."

"So many?"

"I'm afraid... your father will have an opinion about this. Besides, this time Li Zisheng helped the court with military merit. Wouldn't it be a bit... not so good to just investigate a meritorious official?"

Zhu Youtang is also a soft-hearted person, or rather, he also has his face to save.

No matter what, Li Zisheng was still a regent. Not only had he helped him, but he had also just made a great contribution. It was really unbearable for him to just slap him to death.

Zhang Yu said, "Then let him return the money. Are you afraid that he will keep it privately? Or should we just raid his house?"

Zhu Youtang seemed uncertain.

Zhang Yu thought for a moment and shook her head, "I don't know. Your Majesty, isn't this a decision you have to make yourself? Or... you can ask my father, or Yanling for his opinion?"

Zhu Youtang nodded and said, "Okay then, I will ask my wife not to enter the palace for the time being and go see my father-in-law first... I hope I won't disturb my father-in-law's recovery."

Zhang Yu said, "It's just a question, isn't it? Didn't Yanling say that my father's condition has improved a lot? He can't hide forever. Since Li Zisheng has a good relationship with him, let him give some advice... It's not wrong after all..."