After being a widow for half my life, I found out that my husband was not dead.

Yan Mu brought a lot of official officials this time and drove away the guards from Li Huai's mansion, leaving Wanchun Garden to be guarded by his people.

Knowing that he came to investigate Yang He's corruption case in the name of the emperor, Hongxuan gave him a big salute.

"His Highness has not been cleared of guilt, but he is here to investigate this case. It is not appropriate for the situation or the law, but the Emperor still sent you here. It shows that His Highness is very capable, and I really admire him."

Yan Mu narrowed his eyes, "Stop kidnapping me!"

"Your Highness has great wisdom that can stabilize the country!"

"I know how much wisdom I have, and I don't accept flattery."

"What's even more valuable is that His Highness can recognize himself clearly and not be arrogant or complacent."

Yan Mu was speechless. The old Taoist priest wanted him to sit on that throne, be a wise monarch, bring peace to the world, dedicate himself to the cause, sacrifice his own ego to achieve great things, just like the saints in the book who would leave their names for eternity.

His lifelong wish was to support such a monarch and become a wise minister who would be famous throughout the ages.

It's a pity that he is not so righteous, let alone selfless. Even if he becomes a monarch, he will not give up his ego. He just wants to live as indulgently as he can, as happy as he wants.

Seeing that Yan Mu was already a little impatient, Liu Yunxiang quickly changed the subject: "Quickly take out the account books you two stole and see if they are of any use."

Xue Changfeng slapped his forehead, he really wanted to do this, so he hurriedly took out the account book from his arms. Feng Zheng also took it out, and when they put them together, there were about ten books in total.

Everyone gathered around, and Liu Yunxiang asked everyone to take a copy to see if there were any problems.

She picked up a book and saw Yan Mu still sitting in his original position. When he saw her looking at him, he pulled her to sit next to him.

"Don't you want to take a look?" Liu Yunxiang asked.

Yan Mu snorted, "I don't want to see it when I think of Yang He tricking me for nothing."

Liu Yunxiang was funny, "You should know that he had no choice but to do it."

"I know, but I just don't want to help him."

"Only children hold grudges."

"What do you mean?"

Liu Yunxiang leaned into Yan Mu's arms, "Let's watch together."

Yan Mu hugged Liu Yunxiang and kissed her secretly when others were not paying attention, so she was no longer so angry. He hugged Liu Yunxiang and looked through the account books with her.

This is a booklet for paying taxes and grains from various places. They first saw Qixian County. Because of the severe drought last year, the court exempted them from paying taxes and grains, so their page was empty. Looking further back, other counties did not pay enough.

"Are other counties also affected?" Yan Mu asked.

Liu Yunxiang nodded, "The Taoist priest and the others went to investigate. Last year, in addition to Qixian County, several surrounding counties were also affected by disasters, ranging from mild to severe, so the taxes and grain paid were insufficient."

However, these counties made up for it after last year’s autumn harvest, so the final result is “flat”.

Yan Mu looked at the word 'ping' and hesitated slightly, "Yanzhou has increased taxes by [-]% more than other places. It can be made up for the level that year, unless there is a big harvest."

At this time, Hongxuan turned around and said, "I asked the ancient county magistrate that last year's autumn harvest was also affected, and the grain output was not as good as in previous years."

Yan Mu's mind turned around and he continued to look back. The account books were very detailed and clear, and it could be seen from them that the taxes paid by the people and the taxes and silver paid by the merchants were all in full, but what he paid to the court was The account books were falsified, and the embezzled 100 million taels were calculated in this way.

Looking further back, Liu Yunxiang suddenly took a look at a place, and hurriedly showed it to Yan Mu: "We have been to this Changhe Village. All the young and middle-aged people in the village were captured to join the army, and they all died. The young women and their children were also After leaving, only the old people are left in the village. Although there are fertile fields, most of them are deserted, and only a few acres of land are cultivated, barely maintaining the food rations of the old people in the village. They have no extra food to pay taxes, and in order to evade those who call for payment, They even pretended to be ghosts to scare them.”

However, at the bottom of this page, the amount of tax paid by Changhe Village was clearly recorded, which was after the [-]% increase. This was obviously wrong.

Liu Yunxiang asked Hongxuan and Xue Changfeng to look at those from other years, and they quickly found them all. In the past few years since Yang He took office, Changhe Village had no record of tax arrears and had paid them in full every year.

Liu Yunxiang put several account books together, and things became clear at once.

"There was never such a million taels. It appeared in the account books and then disappeared from the account books. It did not go into anyone's pocket."

Hongxuan nodded, "As time goes by, the amount gets bigger and bigger, and I can no longer hide it. Someone has to take the blame, so Yang He stepped forward."

Xue Changfeng scratched the back of his head and didn't understand for a moment, "The imperial court checks the accounts every year, how could it not be found out?"

Yan Mu curled his lips, "Because there have been constant natural and man-made disasters in the past few years when Yang He was in Yanzhou, he made false accounts every year when he reported them to the court. If the court didn't check it, it would be fine. Once it was checked, there would be loopholes. And it's a long time. , the bigger the vulnerability, the harder it is not to be discovered.”

"In order to prevent the court from holding the people and businessmen accountable, he took it upon himself to make the court think that he had embezzled." Liu Yunxiang continued to explain.

Xue Changfeng thought for a while before he figured it out, "So the people of Yanzhou say that he is a good person, but a good person is not necessarily a good official. A good official wants to protect the imperial court and the country, but he failed to do so and only protected the people of Yanzhou."

"The year your Excellency first came to Yanzhou and took office, there was a severe drought and the people were starving. He asked the court for relief, but the court not only did not give it, but also imposed an additional [-]% tax. He watched the people starve to death one by one and could only He scolded himself for being incompetent. Later, he went to other states to borrow food, but was rejected many times. He even knelt down to those people. Finally, he borrowed food and set up a porridge shed in the city. But when he returned home, he found his wife and daughter. They all starved to death." When he said this, Feng Zheng's eyes turned red, "The graves in the west courtyard of Futai Mansion belong to the old lady, madam and young lady, as well as a few servants. Your Excellency felt that he was deeply ashamed of them, so he buried them. They are buried in the west courtyard, and I have to go there every day to see them."

Liu Yunxiang was shocked when he heard this. It turned out that those buried in those graves were Yang He's relatives.

"In the past, Yanzhou did have abundant rainfall and fertile land. It was the main grain-producing area of ​​Darong. The economy and trade were prosperous and the people were wealthy. But in the past ten years or so, for some reason, droughts often occurred in Yanzhou, and the imperial court was blind. The people were complaining, and the merchants fled one after another, and Yanzhou suddenly became poor. In order to change this situation, the Lord began to make false accounts to conceal the court. In the good years, he reported the encounter. Disasters reduced food production, so he could only pay half of the tax. In drought years, he said he had encountered a severe drought and had no harvest, and asked the court for relief. If the court refused, he asked for [-]% of the merchant tax to be used for disaster relief. , After such deception year after year, the people have enough food and clothing, the merchants have stayed, and the economy and trade are becoming more and more prosperous." After Feng Zheng finished speaking, he shrugged, "This is the truth, it doesn't matter whether we adults are corrupt or not. , deceiving the imperial court is always a capital crime."

Liu Yunxiang sighed deeply. No wonder Yang He never told the whereabouts of the 100 million taels. No wonder he didn't think they could save him.

So, they really couldn't save him.