"Your Majesty, a major case has occurred in Cangzhou recently. Two fraudsters who make a living by forging privately carved official seals and forged official documents, pretending to be the confidants of the new prefect and wreaking havoc in Cangzhou... Fortunately, the new prefect arrived in time to expose the crime, and then arrested the two. After interrogation, both have confessed their crimes and are now being taken to Liangjing, awaiting their fate. Your Majesty, please make your decision."
At the morning court, the Minister of Justice stepped out of the team and reported the details of the case to Emperor Liang Ping. In general, cases of fraud and deception do not need to be sent to the capital for punishment. But this case is different, because the targets of the two scammers are a group of court officials. They have successfully deceived everyone with just a seal and a document, and they are able to tyrannize the local area.
This made everyone wonder if there were other people who had also used this method to commit fraud successfully? In those remote prefectures and counties, were the people who took office really the people appointed by the court? On a larger scale, if someone from a foreign country used this method to sneak into Daliang, infiltrate the officials, and steal the secrets of the court, wouldn't it be easy
How could Emperor Liang Ping not think of the problems that the ministers in the court could think of? After all, the emperor was the one with the most severe brain disease.
His face suddenly darkened, and he said, "Those two swindlers committed such a crime, they should be beheaded, and the execution will be carried out at noon three days later. The two and their three clans will all be exiled to Kongzhou, and they will not be pardoned even if they are pardoned!"
"I obey your order!" The Minister of Justice responded immediately after receiving the order.
"Also, the officials in Cangzhou were not alert and were manipulated by two swindlers, which caused the reputation of the government to decline and the people to complain. They are to blame for this." Liang Pingdi's furious look made the court silent, and even the sound of breathing was almost inaudible. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath and exhaled, as if to calm himself down.
"Of course, the law does not punish everyone. Considering that they have served as officials for many years and have made great efforts even if they have not made any contributions, I will spare their lives. However, the death penalty can be avoided, but the punishment for living cannot be avoided. All officials in Cangzhou will be demoted by one level, fined for half a year, and all of them will be rated as medium to low in the evaluation that year."
"I obey your order!" The Minister of Personnel came out and bowed.
"By the way, who is the Cangzhou governor who exposed the swindlers? He is alert and solved a case before he took office." Emperor Liang Ping said with praise. If this matter was exposed after the two swindlers escaped, the court would really lose face. As a monarch, rewards and punishments should be clear. Those who have committed mistakes should be punished, and those who have made contributions should be rewarded. This is the way of being a monarch.
"Your Majesty, he is Pei Che, a successful candidate in this imperial examination. When he was assigned an official post, he happened to choose the position of magistrate of Cangzhou." The Minister of Personnel stood up. He was impressed by Pei Che. In addition to his appearance, another reason was of course because Pei Che's uncle worked in their government office.
"…" Emperor Liang Ping was speechless, but since he had asked, he couldn't just brush it off lightly. He had to pinch his nose and give him a reward. "Although this is his responsibility, he has made some contributions after all. I will reward him with five strings of northern pearls and ten rolls of silk."
The ministers in the audience were a little confused. This reward... wasn't it a little too little
Emperor Liang Ping noticed everyone's expressions and explained, "Well, Pei Che is young and has made great achievements in his first term as an official. It is inevitable that he will be complacent. If the court continues to praise him, I am afraid he will become complacent. If this continues, he may become an ordinary person."
The ministers immediately changed their expressions and acted as if they were touched: "Your Majesty has good intentions, this is a blessing for Lord Pei!"
Others followed suit, saying that Emperor Liang Ping valued Pei Che. Otherwise, why would he have chosen the reward with such care and concern that he would become complacent
Emperor Liang Ping had a meaningful smile on his face, but he was very annoyed in his heart. He had not paid attention to Pei Che for such a period of time, and he did not expect that something like this would happen.
The court's rewards came along with the punishments of other officials. For a time, the Cangzhou government office was filled with a scene of one family rejoicing while hundreds of families were sad.
Jiang Miao looked at the plump and round northern pearls and felt happy. Then he looked at the silks, which were all in less bright colors, just right for making summer clothes for them.
"I didn't expect that the emperor would reward you. Do you think he has let go of the old grudge and is not going to make things difficult for you?" Jiang Miao asked. It was not a pleasant feeling to have someone watching you from above.
Jiang Miao sighed: "The old emperor is so stingy, you have no descendants, but he still won't let you go."
Pei Che was used to his outspokenness, but he also knew that Jiang Miao was very sensible in front of outsiders and never said much.
"It doesn't matter. After he made a move once, he won't do it again easily. If people see that he is targeting us, that old story will inevitably be dug up, which will not do him any good." The prince felt resentful because he couldn't win the battle for the prince's wife. After becoming emperor, he still did not forget to take revenge on his descendants. How could he be a wise and enlightened monarch with such a petty mind
"That's all right. If the reward is small, then so be it. You don't rely on it for a living anyway. And to be honest, this silk is just right for us to make clothes. It won't look good on a grown man in colorful clothes." Jiang Miao comforted.
Pei Che immediately became alert and began to recall whether his clothes had the "colorful" things that Jiang Miao mentioned, and decided to wear less of those bright colors in the future.
Jiang Miao didn't know that his casual words had affected Pei Che's aesthetic taste. He put away the Beizhu, thinking of giving it to a few sisters in the future, and then asked Chan Yi and Wen Jing to take down the silk and give everyone some clothes. If the two of them didn't like these colors, they could buy brighter ones and come back to reimburse them. Jiang Miao has always been frugal with money, but he is still very generous to his employees. If he is not more generous, one day his people will be bribed by others with petty profits, and then it will be too late to cry.
After explaining everything, Jiang Miao went to the kitchen to cook. They had been here for about half a month, and during this time, Pei Mu and Xiao Shitou had transferred to the government school.
The school was just opposite the government office, and all the students were from official families, and the teachers were hired after many tests. Jiang Miao was worried that the two of them would be bullied in such a school, and he repeatedly told them to tell the truth if they were bullied.
But he forgot one thing, Pei Che was the top leader in Cangzhou. Before the two entered school, all the children were told not to provoke them, and if they were bullied, they should try to avoid them. They were the young yamen from Liangjing, and they might not be easy to get along with.
In this way, both sides went to school for two days with trepidation, and then found that the other side was not as unreasonable as they had imagined. After getting to know each other, Jiang Miao stopped picking them up and let them move with the main group, which was also more conducive to their integration as soon as possible.
Jiang Miao, who was only responsible for three meals a day, suddenly had nothing to do. Although he did similar things in Liangjing, he still had a shop to worry about at that time. When he was free, he studied new dim sum dishes and lived a fulfilling life.
Feeling a little bored, Jiang Miao began to wander around Cangzhou City. Within a few days, he had a general understanding of the situation here.
The reason why it was so fast was that, firstly, Cangzhou was not very big, its area was only about a quarter of Liangjing. Secondly, Cangzhou was indeed a poor area, with few people on the streets, and the development of various industries seemed to be a bit sluggish. All the shops were relatively idle, especially those luxury shops, whose eyes lit up when they saw a customer.
There was nothing to see on the street, so Jiang Miao went outside the city. There were mountains all around, and he thought there must be a lot of good things on the mountains. Unlike Liang Jing, the nearby mountains were not very high, and you could see the top at a glance.
(End of this chapter)