Chapter 1023

A friend heard him and said, "Don't even talk about your judgment—you even have the ability to judge people? That Xu Youzhen, you once spoke up for him, yet during this civil-military conflict, he directly submitted a memorial accusing you of monopolizing state affairs, nearly branding you a traitor."

Yu Qian's dark skin turned even darker, redder.

The friend kept complaining: "And what about Shi Heng? You once relied on him, recommended him to the Emperor—yet what did he do? One man ascends, and his whole clan flies upward; even his nephew's brother-in-law rose to prominence. Then he turned around and tried to secure a post for your son, dragging you into corruption with him. Now, in this impeachment of the State Teacher, he's the loudest—because the State Teacher dislikes him, and the military audit first uncovered his crimes."

Yu Qian: …

The friend: "Come on, tell me—what ability do you have to judge people?"

Yu Qian fell silent.

Struck down by his friend's words, Yu Qian longed even more to see Pan Yun—he urgently wanted to prove he hadn't misjudged her.

The Emperor was also thinking of Pan Yun, using yellow talismans to beg her to return quickly.

After the corruption case in Guangdong's garrison forces came to light, the imperial censors dispatched to inspect military affairs across garrison regions had their results.

All garrison forces and frontier troops showed similar corruption, differing only in degree.

Among inland garrisons, the main offenses were seizing farmland and colluding with local gentry to force-sell military farmland;

frontier troops primarily embezzled payrolls by inflating troop rolls.

Some cases were even worse than Guangdong's.

Because so much corruption had been uncovered—and several military nobles had incurred widespread outrage—most court ministers revived Yu Qian's proposal, strongly demanding the Emperor place all distribution of military farmland, grain rations, and pay silver under the Ministry of War's direct control.

The Emperor was tempted several times; each time he was about to agree, he remembered Pan Yun's warning, and fell silent.

The court ministers naturally noticed the Emperor's indecision.

"Someone must have whispered something to the Emperor—otherwise he wouldn't hesitate," said the civil officials supporting the plan: "We must find this person and remove the Emperor's ailment."

The military officers, sharp as ever, also noticed. They gathered and said: "Someone must have whispered something to the Emperor—otherwise he wouldn't hesitate. We must find this person and convince him to dissuade the Emperor. We absolutely cannot agree to such an absurd proposal. The Five Military Commissions have always held authority over military farmland—that's the law established by the Founding Emperor. How can we break it?"

Both sides exerted pressure, and separately learned that the Emperor had asked eighteen times in three days: "Has the State Teacher returned?"

Now it was clear—everyone knew who it was.

The civil officials couldn't remove her; the military officials couldn't bribe her. Both sides fell silent.

Pan Yun returned to the palace amid this silence, bringing the Emperor and Empress a local specialty.

Hearing the State Teacher was in the Kunninggong, the Emperor immediately made an excuse to abandon Yu Qian and the others, rushing off to the Kunninggong to see her.

Seeing the giant wooden barrel wildly swinging in the courtyard, the Emperor blinked in confusion: "Is this… the Guangdong specialty?"

Pan Yun: "Yes. It's a new device recently developed in Guangdong—it can wash clothes and also thresh grain."

The Emperor: "There's such a thing?"

Instantly forgetting everything else, the Emperor ran over to inspect it.

Inside the wooden barrel was a nested iron barrel, its walls studded with protruding oval ridges; as it spun furiously, the clothes inside tumbled, churned, and rubbed against one another.

Seeing this, the Emperor's first thought was: "With this barrel, the palace won't need to hire so many palace maids."

The Emperor's eyes sparkled—how much money would this save?

After Zhu Qiyu ascended the throne, he released a batch of palace maids—he'd tasted the benefits: gaining a good reputation while cutting palace expenses. If he could do it again…

The Empress said: "Your Majesty, even the clothes and curtains of the lowliest palace maids aren't suitable for washing in this laundry barrel—but they could be taken to the imperial estates for threshing grain."