The events at Princess Changying's mansion were only a busy one for a while, but the person was dead after all. In the final analysis, it was Li Shao's own unruly behavior that led to his misfortune of running back to the capital. He couldn't blame anyone else.
The news spread in the streets for a while, and people were still pointing fingers at it. But when Princess Changying's mansion was renovated, even the signboard and the stone lions at the door were replaced, and the place became deserted, there was nothing more to talk about.
Besides, there is never a shortage of lively things in the capital.
Soon everyone's attention was drawn to another major event.
Immediately after the joyous event of the birth of the little prince, another great joyous event is about to come.
Emperor Longqing issued an edict to formally select concubines for the princes and he also graciously allowed the princes to stay in Beijing and wait for the princes' wedding ceremonies before allowing them to return to their fiefdoms.
To put it nicely, this is a grant of permission. To put it bluntly, this is just looking for an excuse to continue detaining people.
In the end, they tried every possible way to detain them and prevent them from returning to their fiefdoms.
Among the princes, only Prince Zheng remained calm. After all, he was a lone commander without a son, so he didn't have to worry about choosing a daughter-in-law.
But the rest were not so able to sit still.
Princess Duan still looked happy and cheerful while paying her respects, chatting and laughing without looking worried at all, but the futon at home was almost broken by her kneeling on it.
Something happened in Prince Duan’s Mansion.
After a while of peace, a censor was sent out to test the waters. Prince Duan then understood the intention of his superiors and dared not act recklessly anymore. Even the censor was pushed, as they wanted him to implicate Prince Linjiang so as to shirk responsibility.
Finally the matter was suppressed.
But just two or three months later, as the year was coming to an end, a major incident occurred.
It was said that the incident started on the fourth day of the twelfth lunar month, but in fact it happened in October. The newly appointed Lianghuai Salt Administrator submitted a memorial praising the previous Salt Administrator Huang Bingqing for issuing a huge amount of salt permits during his tenure and for his devoted contribution to paying taxes to the national treasury for the six provinces of Lianghuai. He also compiled a number, saying that, for example, last year, Huang Bingqing collected an additional three taels of silver on top of the three taels of silver for the envoy and three taels of silver for taxes on each salt permit, and put the money into the Salt Administration's warehouse for public use.
Among them, except for the 140,000 taels borrowed by Huang Bingqing to buy jade and antiques, and for celebrations such as the birth of a child and the marriage of a daughter-in-law, there are still 310,000 taels left. Now please hand it over to the Ministry of Revenue for collection.
In just one year, the extra three taels of silver collected from the salt permits issued in advance added up to 420,000 taels!
Emperor Longqing asked the Ministry of Revenue to check, only to find out that no previous salt administrator had ever reported this income. He asked the Ministry of Revenue to check the files, but found no official documents or account books about this income. He knew something was wrong.
He secretly ordered the Jiangsu Governor Zheng Zhe to conduct a detailed investigation together with the new Lianghuai Salt Administrator Zeng Yao.
Two months later, on the fourth day of the twelfth lunar month, Zheng Zhe submitted a memorial to the emperor, saying that all previous salt administrators had been corrupt, deceived their superiors and concealed the truth from their subordinates, privately extorted salt merchants, and accepted bribes.
The total amount of interest collected on salt permits issued in advance over the years was more than 14 million taels. The former Salt Administrator Huang Bingqing extorted 500 taels from each salt merchant every month in the name of purchasing food during his term of office.
A rough calculation showed that his term of office was only three years, and when all the embezzlements were taken into account, the total amount of embezzlement was more than one million taels.
Emperor Longqing was furious and cursed Huang Bingqing in public. He issued three edicts in one day to reprimand her and asked the Minister of Rites Zhang He to preside over the trial.
The order to punish the person was issued, but the Minister of Justice Zhang He fell ill.
Emperor Longqing sneered and immediately appointed Sun Zhiyuan, the new vice minister of the Ministry of Justice, who had barely taken office, to preside over the trial.
The imperial edicts were issued one after another, and the whole court was shocked.
Everyone knows that the salt administration is a lucrative job, but no one knows exactly how it is lucrative.
It was not until they heard that in the three years of salt administration, the amount of corruption that could be detected was more than one million taels that they were shocked.
I am also curious why this matter has been kept secret for so many years and has come to light at this time.
Of course there is a reason for this.
Zeng Yao is not a fool. He was able to get this lucrative position thanks to the Fang family. His son married the niece of Queen Fang, so this lucrative position fell into his hands.
However, he hadn't expected that after making so many arrangements and spending so much money, he finally took advantage of the hot market and thought he could make a fortune, but those salt merchants did not take him seriously.
They thought he was easy to bully and didn't even give him the customary welcoming banquet.
That would have been fine, but when his seventh concubine gave birth to a son, he held a banquet, but not one of these people offered any honor.
He was so angry that he stabbed the abscess open.
Once this abscess was poked out, he simply started to act like an honest official. After all, his reputation had already been established, and he was now relying on the Fang family, so who was he afraid of
They thought they could have a good New Year. After all, Emperor Longqing had just got a little prince, and it had been very lively a while ago. Even if something big happened, as long as it wasn't too serious, Emperor Longqing would just let it go with a simple raise of his hand.
But I didn't expect that no one would have a good year.
Except for a visit to the Imperial Ancestral Temple to offer sacrifices, Emperor Longqing spent all the rest of the year in the Imperial Study. Several ministers in the cabinet almost never left the palace and even had their clothes packed by their family members and brought into the palace.
After checking and reconciling the accounts day and night, I finally figured out the total.
The court had issued salt permits in advance over the years for six places, including Huainan, Huaibei, Jiangxi, and Jiangsu, totaling more than 4.6 million taels of salt permits, and the tax silver that should have been paid to the national treasury was more than 14 million taels. However, except for the 310,000 taels of silver reported by Zeng Yao that was still in the Salt Administration Office, the rest was all embezzled.
Emperor Longqing was extremely angry, and on the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, he changed the chief judge of the court. This time, it was the Minister of Justice Qian Shiyun, who had just entered the cabinet, who personally presided over the trial.
The intention is to get to the bottom of it.
The Prince Duan's mansion was filled with fear during the year. Prince Duan even slept uneasily at night and even gnashed his teeth in fear in his dreams. It was a cold winter day, but when he woke up the next morning, he found that the place where Prince Duan slept was clearly wet.
The further he investigated the case, the more anxious he became. He kept urging his wife to go to the palace to ask Queen Fang for information.
Even if Princess Duan didn't know before, how could she not know now
Her family must be related to this case. Her heart sank. There were charcoal pots burning everywhere in the house, but she still felt cold. She hugged Prince Duan's legs and asked him tremblingly: "Prince, tell me the truth, how did you get involved? How deep are you involved?"
Her eyes were straight, with dilated pupils and empty vision, like a frightened owl that looked like it could not hold on and was about to fall down.