Chapter 25: Imperial Power Technique

The sky gradually darkened, and still no news came.

Realizing that the situation was not good, Yue Shufeng just got up and prepared to leave when he was blocked by the Eastern Depot agents who broke in.

This scene was too familiar.

A few days ago, his confidants were taken away like this.

"Lord Yue, please follow us for a trip!"

The leading eunuch said in a mocking tone.

No matter how prominent your status was in the past, once you fell into their Eastern Depot's hands, you immediately became a prisoner.

"Bastard!

This official is the Left Ding Yushi-in-Chief of the current dynasty; how can I be manipulated by you petty people!

Even if you want to convict me, it must be approved by the Cabinet and His Majesty."

Yue Shufeng scolded disdainfully.

As a high-ranking official of the second rank, holding the Censorate, which had the most fierce mouth-cannon combat power in the Great Dayu Dynasty, his power could already rival the Ministers ranked at the bottom of the Six Ministries.

The party struggle was so intense before, but the fire didn't burn on him, which was because Great Dayu had an unspoken rule that "punishment does not reach the scholar-official."

Flipping the history book forward, the title of Left Ding Yushi-in-Chief in ancient times was Ding Yushi-in-Chief, which happened to be the wave that possessed special privileges.

"Lord Yue, calm down; we are not here to convict you this time, but there is a case that needs your cooperation in the investigation.

And it is a major case of treason!"

The young eunuch said with a smile that was not a smile.

The bottom line was broken once, so it could be broken a second time.

Ordinary charges could indeed not do anything to the high-ranking Left Ding Yushi-in-Chief, but treason was an exception.

Looking at the high-ranking officials above the second rank who were killed in the Great Dayu Dynasty, basically all were related to treason cases.

Whether anyone rebelled was not important; the key was that the Eunuch faction now needed a treason case to deal a heavy blow to the Pure Stream party members.

"You... you are framing loyal officials!"

Yue Shufeng was so angry that his face turned iron-blue, and his speech was not as smooth as before.

Treason, whoever touches this charge will die.

He admitted that he had indeed done quite a few messy things, many of which harmed the national interest, but he absolutely never thought about rebelling.

"Lord Yue, these words cannot be said randomly.

We are just asking you to cooperate with the investigation; we didn't say you participated in treason, so where does the framing come from?"

The young eunuch's words made Yue Shufeng stomp his feet in anger.

Mouth-cannon had always been his specialty; he never expected that one day he would be broken by a few simple words from others.

The imperial prison, what kind of ghost place it was, he knew best.

No matter how innocent one was, once a person entered, the conviction was entirely up to them.

The only ones who could save him now were the several Grand Secretaries and the Emperor.

As long as these people spoke, the Eastern Depot would not dare to use major torture on him, and there would still be room for maneuver.

After circling in his mind, Yue Shufeng's fantasy was shattered.

Among the five Grand Secretaries in the Cabinet, the Pure Stream party and the Eunuch faction each occupied two seats, and there was also a neutral Grand Secretary.

The Eunuch faction and the neutral Grand Secretary definitely couldn't come down to save him.

His own faction's Grand Secretary Pang was currently in a coma.

Regardless of whether it was a true coma or faking illness, since he had jumped out of the storm vortex, he would not get involved again.

The other Grand Secretary in the Pure Stream party had a conflict with him because of the dispute over entering the Cabinet two years ago.

At such a time, not kicking him while he was down was already considered taking the overall situation into account.

Expecting people to bet their political future and reach out to pull him was obviously impossible.

The Grand Secretaries wouldn't act, and the Emperor couldn't be counted on.

Thinking about how many memorials he submitted to scold the Emperor during his tenure as Left Ding Yushi-in-Chief, he knew what kind of impression he had on Emperor Tianyuan.

In the imperial palace, Zuo Guangen was kneeling on the ground and pleading guilty to Emperor Tianyuan.

The Eastern Depot's response during the day looked very capable, but in reality, it still left behind many hidden dangers.

"Pointing at a deer and calling it a horse" suppressed the students' petition and didn't cause major chaos.

Originally it was a great achievement, but this thing itself was a taboo existence.

Later, arresting Yue Shufeng, the means were even more rough.

Two-thirds of the officials in the Censorate were emptied by him, and even the Left Ding Yushi-in-Chief was taken down.

The per capita task volume tripled, and they had to clean up the mess left by their colleagues.

In the long time to come, the Censorate would not be able to work normally.

This level of strike had long exceeded the scope of party struggle.

"Humph!"

"Your courage is not small; my Censorate was tossed to pieces by you.

Now you even dare to arrest the Left Ding Yushi-in-Chief; will you invite the Ministers and Grand Secretaries into the imperial prison together in a few days?"

Emperor Tianyuan seemed very angry, but he was not really angry.

Tossing about other yamen would harm the country and the people. Tossing the Censorate to pieces just happened to let his ears be quiet for a few days.

If he wanted to stop it, he would have intervened long ago. It wouldn't be until the Eastern Depot arrested the Left Ding Yushi-in-Chief into the imperial prison that he called Zuo Guangen to reprimand him.

"Your Majesty, this servant is wronged!"

"That group of censors took the imperial court's salary and didn't do human things all day long.

The people I arrested, I dare not say they all deserved to die.

But according to the "Great Dayu Law," if they were all pulled out and beheaded, there would definitely be no injustice.

These people pretend to be moral gentlemen on the surface, but secretly engage in forming cliques for private interests; they are truly the biggest tumor of our dynasty.

The stolen money and silver I investigated reached as high as 4 million taels.

There are also more than 200,000 taels of gold, more than 2.8 million mu of land, tens of thousands of shops and houses, and countless ancient calligraphy, paintings, and rare treasures.

The Directorate of Ceremonial made a rough estimate; if all the stolen money they confessed was confiscated, the total value would not be lower than the imperial court's annual income.

With just that little salary of theirs, even if they worked for three thousand years, they couldn't accumulate so much wealth!"

Hearing the number of stolen money, Emperor Tianyuan was directly left without temper.

If he had known that these people were so capable of corruption, he should have released the eunuchs earlier, and he wouldn't have had to suffer from financial scarcity for a long time.

"Get up!"

"It's hard for you, Guangen!"

Emperor Tianyuan softened his tone and said.

With this money, the foreign trouble problem facing the imperial court was directly solved.

Don't look at how badly Liaodong was defeated; as long as there is money in hand, it is completely possible to pull out another army.

The combat effectiveness of the Great Dayu army has always been linked to money and grain; as long as the money is sufficient, the combat effectiveness can soar.

The huge number of stolen money is mainly because the Eastern Depot handles cases without the habit of distinguishing between legal property and illegal property.

Regardless of whether it is the criminal official's ancestral property or the land affiliated under their name by neighbors, it all became stolen money here.

The huge amount of stolen money became favorable evidence to hammer these criminal officials to death. Even if someone wants to overturn the case for them in the future, the huge amount of stolen money is a hurdle that cannot be bypassed.

Emperor Tianyuan is not a fool; he naturally knows the inside story, but he can't stand the wealth moving people's hearts.

An iron case is an iron case.

Sacrificing a group of corrupt officials who only know how to engage in party struggle to save the empire on the verge of bankruptcy, no matter how you look at it, is worth it.

An emperor must be confused when he should be confused.

Anyway, the matter was done by the eunuchs, and the stolen money entered the national treasury; what does it have to do with him, the Emperor?

"Your Majesty, these are all things this servant should do."

Knowing that this pass was passed, Zuo Guangen breathed a sigh of relief.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 26 =====