A concubine enters the mansion? Reborn, three matchmakers and six engagements to marry the Prime Min

Song Hongshen's words were so powerful that the auxiliary general Zheng Jin was shocked.

Marquis Jingyuan was kneeling on the ground, his eyes lowered with fear in their eyes.

Most of the civil and military officials didn't know what was going on, but when they heard the words "eating empty salaries", they all shuddered subconsciously.

The chief minister of the cabinet, Xu Yixiang, was ousted by Shen Zhixiu because he was drawing a salary without doing any work.

It's only been a few years, how could anyone still dare to do such a thing?

Emperor Xuande's face darkened at this time, and he looked at Song Hongshen, "You said General Zheng was taking a salary without doing anything. Do you have any evidence?"

Song Hongshen said: "General Fuguo is a second-rank general who has made great contributions to the Great Zhou. If there is no solid evidence, I would not have mentioned it rashly."

Song Hongshen then added: "As for the evidence, Lord Shen and I have already sorted it out. We haven't had time to present it to the emperor yet. The evidence is currently in the cabinet duty room."

Zheng Jin thought for a moment, doesn't what His Royal Highness the Crown Prince said mean that there is no evidence at the moment?

Could it be that he was just deceived by rumors?

Zheng Jin immediately raised his head, looking aggrieved as if he had been wronged.

"Your Majesty, I am innocent. Your Highness the Crown Prince has slandered me in public without any evidence. I beg Your Majesty to help me. The Zheng family is full of loyal and brave people, and we will not tolerate your Highness the Crown Prince humiliating us like this."

As he said this, he looked at Song Hongshen again.

"Your Highness, I am impeaching you only for the sake of my daughter."

"If Your Highness really only has deep feelings for the Crown Princess, you can just send Nan Qing back to the Zheng family. I will never force Your Highness again, and please give me a way out."

Zheng Jin was in tears and looked like he was going to die in Qianyang Palace if he had a disagreement.

Song Hongshen looked at Zheng Jin's behavior and laughed out loud.

"General Zheng is really a man who won't cry until he sees the coffin. It's a waste of your talent to be a general. In my opinion, you'd better go to a theater troupe to act."

After thinking for a while, Song Hongshen looked at Shen Zhixiu and said, "Sir Shen, since we have come to this point, why not send someone to bring the evidence?"

Shen Zhixiu nodded and said, "Okay." He went directly to the leader of the Dragon Guards, Pu Yi, and whispered a few words in his ear. Pu Yi consulted Emperor Xuande and went there in person.

While waiting for Puyi to collect the evidence, Song Hongshen said, "When the Second Prince was in charge of the Western Frontier, the number of soldiers reported to the Ministry of War was 105,820."

"Last spring, the second prince was beheaded, and General Zheng fled to the Western Frontier."

"General Zheng went to the Western Frontier and reported to the emperor that he wanted to eliminate the bandits on the border because he was afraid that the Western Vietnamese army would join forces with these bandits to cause trouble."

"The cabinet believes that the Second Prince had a close relationship with Western Yue in the past, so there has been no major war in Western Xinjiang. Since the Second Prince has gone, we must make adequate preparations, so we approved General Zheng's request."

"Two months later, General Zheng reported to the emperor and wiped out the bandits. However, the place where the bandits were located was easy to defend but difficult to attack, so our side also suffered heavy losses, with more than 20,000 people killed in the battle."

"Afterwards, General Zheng petitioned the court to increase the number of troops, citing the West Yue's reinforcement of troops in the border towns as an excuse. He wanted to increase the number of troops to 130,000, and the court approved it."

"According to the specific casualties reported by General Zheng, the Western Frontier should increase its troops by 47,000."

"But in reality, General Zheng only added 27,000 soldiers. The remaining 20,000 were just empty names."

Zheng Jin was already sweating all over. There was not a single mistake in what Song Hongshen said. Even the specific numbers were extremely accurate.

Zheng Jin believed it, he really had evidence in his hands.

Emperor Xuande was also shocked. Two hundred thousand soldiers' salaries for nothing? Zheng Jin was really bold.

However, among the court officials present, there were also some who did not know what the meaning of 20,000 soldiers without any salary was.

Then Song Hongshen continued, "A soldier needs three taels of silver for his monthly salary, food, clothing, etc."

"Twenty thousand soldiers will give us an extra sixty thousand taels of silver every month."

"That's more than 700,000 taels a year."

"Is this what General Zheng meant by loyalty to the emperor and patriotism? Didn't General Zheng feel guilty when he cried out for justice?"

Emperor Xuande sat in the hall, looking at Zheng Jin coldly. From his expression, he knew that what Song Hongshen said was true.

"What are the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Revenue doing? How could they not know about such a big thing?" While Emperor Xuande was speaking, he looked at the Minister of War Yang Wenshi, and the newly appointed Minister of Revenue Yan Ting.

According to the rules, the Ministry of Revenue was responsible for checking the number of people when escorting military pay and the Ministry of War was responsible for transporting food and fodder.

Ensure that the actual number of troops is consistent with the number reported to the court.

The Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of War failed to detect the omission of 20,000 people. This is more than just dereliction of duty.

Upon hearing this, Yang Wenshi and Yan Ting hurried to the center of the hall, knelt down and apologized, but they could not say a single word.

Song Hongshen spoke again, "Father, I have already investigated everything. Although the two ministers were responsible for failing to supervise this matter, they were also deceived by their subordinates."

"Minister Jiang Rang of the Ministry of Revenue and Minister Shi Chengyin of the Ministry of War are General Zheng's accomplices."

As soon as he finished speaking, Puyi took back the file that Shen Zhixiu had placed in the cabinet duty room and presented it directly to Emperor Xuande.

Emperor Xuande took it and read it with a serious face.

After reading it, he slammed the file in his hand onto the table and said, "You are so brave."

Shen Zhixiu stepped forward and said, "Your Majesty, the Crown Prince and I have been investigating this matter for several months, and the evidence is conclusive."

Emperor Xuande said in a cold voice: "General Zheng Jin, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue Jiang Rang, Vice Minister of the Ministry of War Shi Chengyin, behead them in public."

"My family is exiled to Mobei and will never be allowed to return to Beijing."

"The cabinet will draft an order for the rest of the accomplices."

Song Hongshen said, "Father, I request your permission to send Concubine Zheng, Concubine Jiang, and Concubine Shi back."

Everyone was then shocked to realize that this matter of empty payroll involved the Crown Prince's three concubines.

Is it a coincidence, or did His Royal Highness the Crown Prince do it on purpose?

Shi Chengyin knelt on the side and regretted that he shouldn't have listened to Jiang Rang in the first place. Sure enough, his suspicion was correct. How could there be such a coincidence?

Emperor Xuande pondered for a moment and said, "Just as you say."

The concubines in the Eastern Palace are supposed to give birth to children. It is impossible that the mother of the little emperor's grandson will be the descendant of a criminal.

I thought today's morning court would end with this case of drawing a salary without working.

But no one expected that Song Hongshen would impeach Li Zhiyong, the prefect of Shuntian Prefecture, right after that.

During the four years that Li Zhiyong served as the governor of Shuntian Prefecture, he was corrupt, abused his power, and bent the law for personal gain. He used his power to force a decent woman to be his concubine and even beat her fiancé to death.

The evidence is still conclusive, with both human and material evidence.

The Shuntian Prefecture Governor was the father and mother official of the people in the capital. Upon hearing this, Emperor Xuande became furious again and directly sentenced Li Zhiyong to behead and his family to exile.

Song Hongshen proposed again that Li Liangdi be sent back to the Li family.

At this point, the four concubines and dukes of the Eastern Palace were "annihilated."

When I returned to the East Palace after court, the imperial guards were escorting several concubines away.

Zheng Nanqing stopped and looked at Song Hongshen with hatred, "Your Highness didn't plan to choose a concubine, did he? These are all tricks. When the four of us entered the East Palace, this was destined to be the outcome, right?"