sovbooks Chapter 12: A raid on a house uncovers a letter of treason and collusion with the enemy!
Chapter 12: A raid on a house uncovers a letter of treason and collusion with the enemy!
Zhu Zaiyi's seemingly casual question sent a shiver down Zhu Xixiao's spine.
He fell to his knees with a thud, cold sweat pouring down his forehead.
"Your Highness! I was just about to report this matter!"
"The raiding party has returned and is waiting outside the palace!"
Zhu Zaiyi remained silent.
Zhu Xixiao immediately understood and shouted at the top of his lungs towards the outside of the hall, "His Highness has decreed that they may enter!"
Soon, heavy footsteps came from the palace gate.
Dozens of Imperial Guards filed in, two by two, carrying large wooden boxes with heavy steps, clearly indicating that the contents of the boxes were extremely heavy.
Zhu Zaiyi's gaze swept over the wooden boxes, his face remaining expressionless.
"Open."
Zhu Xixiao dared not delay and personally stepped forward to lift the lid of the first box.
"Whoosh—"
In that instant, the entire hall fell silent.
The chests were neatly stacked, reflecting a dazzling light in the morning sunlight streaming in from the palace gates. The light was so golden that it was almost blinding.
Before anyone could react, the second box was opened.
This time, it was a whole box full of gold ingots, each one meticulously cast with the "Jiajing" reign title.
The third bite was a whole box of silver ingots, a dazzling expanse of white.
One box after another was opened, and the contents inside were more astonishing than the last.
The entire Hall of Supreme Harmony was filled with thirty or forty large boxes.
The civil and military officials craned their necks, staring in astonishment.
They knew Yan Song was corrupt.
Throughout the entire court, who didn't know that Yan Song was corrupt?
But no one expected that he would be so greedy!
This is no longer just greed; this is moving the Ming Dynasty's national treasury into one's own home!
Zhu Xixiao's hands were trembling.
He picked up a thick ledger, opened it to the first page, and read aloud in a trembling voice: "Your Highness, the Emperor Emeritus! After a preliminary inventory, a total of—"
He paused, seemingly startled by the number himself.
"Eleven million taels of silver and one hundred and thirty thousand taels of gold were confiscated! In addition, there are countless fields, shops, antiques, and paintings, the value of which is incalculable!"
"Twenty-one million taels"
Twenty-one million taels!
What does this mean? The total annual tax revenue of the Ming Dynasty was only around four million taels of silver. Yan Song alone embezzled five years' worth of the court's total revenue!
Just then, an old voice suddenly rang out.
"Your Highness!"
Fang Dun, the Minister of Revenue, staggered out of the procession and knelt down with a thud.
This elderly minister, over seventy years old, was now weeping uncontrollably, crying like a child.
"Your Highness! The Emperor Emeritus!"
His voice was hoarse.
"Your Majesty... I have been in charge of the Ministry of Revenue for three years, meticulously calculating every penny, wishing I could stretch every copper coin in half. Yet, the treasury of our Great Ming... the treasury's silver reserves are now less than two million taels!"
The six words "less than two million taels" struck everyone's heart like a heavy hammer.
The national treasury is less than a fraction of the wealth of a minister's family!
If this gets out, where will the Ming Dynasty put its face?
Zhu Di could no longer listen.
He suddenly stood up from the dragon throne and strode out.
All the officials in the court gave way, and no one dared to stand in front of the furious Emperor Taizong.
Zhu Di kicked over a gilded incense burner next to him.
Two million taels?!
Zhu Di's eyes turned red. Pointing at the gold and silver scattered on the ground, he roared, "Back when I was sailing the Western Ocean, compiling the Great Code, and launching five expeditions to the northern deserts, even when the national treasury was at its most strained, it was still more than ten times more extravagant than it is now!"
He grew angrier as he spoke, his voice echoing throughout the Hall of Supreme Harmony: "That Yan Song, a mere Grand Secretary, has amassed enough wealth to fund two Northern Expeditions! Enough for another voyage to the West! Enough for me to revise the Yongle Encyclopedia three more times!"
"waste!"
Zhu Di suddenly turned around and started cursing at the entire court of officials.
"You're all utterly useless! A bunch of good-for-nothings! I entrusted this empire to you, and this is the result you've given me?!"
No one dared to refute it.
All the officials knelt down in unison, touching their foreheads to the ground, not daring to utter a sound.
Emperor Jiajing was so frightened that he huddled in a corner next to the dragon throne.
Zhu Di unleashed a torrent of curses, his chest heaving violently, seemingly still not satisfied. He abruptly turned to Zhu Xixiao and roared, "Move all of these things to the square outside the Meridian Gate for me!"
"Pile them up like mountains! I want all the people of the capital to see how their taxes, and the Grand Secretary they support, are 'sharing the burdens of the nation'!"
Zhu Xixiao immediately kowtowed: "Yes, Your Majesty!"
Just as the Imperial Guards were about to begin moving the items, Zhu Xixiao suddenly remembered something.
He carefully took out a dark, heavy iron box from his pocket and presented it with both hands.
The iron box wasn't large, only about the size of a palm, but it was completely black and covered with dense, eerie runes.
"Your Highness," Zhu Xixiao lowered his voice, "this was found in the deepest hidden compartment of Yan Song's study, as you instructed. The compartment was hidden in a partition in a wall, and we would never have been able to find it without Your Highness's prior warning."
Zhu Zai Rui's gaze fell on the iron box.
This was exactly what he had specifically instructed Zhu Xixiao to find.
Zhu Zaiyi only needed to use his spiritual power to probe slightly to understand how to open it.
He put the box into his sleeve and was about to announce his resignation from court, leaving the cabinet to handle the follow-up matters concerning the confiscated property.
But just then, a deafening roar suddenly came from the direction of the rear hall.
"You bastard! You beast!!"
The fury contained in that voice almost blew the roof off the entire Imperial Palace.
Everyone turned around in shock, only to see that Zhu Di had somehow taken the iron box from Zhu Zai Rui's sleeve and had already opened it by force.
Zhu Di held a stack of yellowed letters in his hand.
His hands were trembling.
The veins bulged out, making him look ferocious and terrifying.
"boom!"
Zhu Di slammed his palm hard against the golden dragon pillar beside him!
Zhu Di's palm strike left a deep and clear handprint on the pillar!
The entire hall trembled, and dust fell from the beams.
"Excellent! What a fine Grand Secretary of the Ming Dynasty!"
Zhu Di's voice was deliberate, each word squeezed out as if from between his teeth.
"He's not just greedy!"
"He also betrayed his country!"
"Even Altan Khan's army rations were sold by Yan Song!!"
These words shocked the entire court!
Corruption is a capital offense.
Those who collude with the enemy and betray their country will be executed along with their entire family!
How dare Yan Song?!
He's already the Grand Secretary, second only to the President. What more could he want? Why would he collude with foreign enemies?!
Zhu Xixiao trembled as he picked up a few scattered letters from the ground, unfolded them, and read them aloud.
The contents of the letter were shocking.
It details how Yan Song and his son used the "White Lotus Sect" as intermediaries to smuggle ironware, grain, and medicinal herbs—items strictly prohibited from export by the imperial court—to the Mongol Altan Khanate in the north, and even... a defense map of the nine important border towns of the Ming Dynasty!
The date, quantity, and person in charge of each transaction are recorded in great detail.
In return, they received gold and silver treasures plundered from the border by the Mongols, and a continuous stream of "tribute" from Altan Khan.
Xu Jie stood in the train, feeling a chill run down his spine as he listened.
He was indeed Yan Song's political enemy, but he never expected that Yan Song would be so audacious!
He immediately stepped forward and said in a deep voice, "Your Highness! The Emperor Emeritus! This matter concerns the safety of the Ming Dynasty and is of utmost importance! Yan Shifan must be brought from the imperial prison to the palace immediately for a face-to-face confrontation!"
Zhu Zaiyi nodded.
Soon, Yan Shifan, who was still imprisoned in the imperial prison, was dragged up by two Jinyiwei guards like a dead dog.
Yan Shifan's hair was disheveled and his prison uniform was stained, but when he saw the scattered letters on the ground, his pupils suddenly contracted.
Instead of being afraid, he threw his head back and burst into wild laughter.
"Hahahaha!"
The laughter was so wild and unrestrained that it echoed throughout the hall, sending chills down one's spine.
"Now that things have come to this, do you think killing my father will solve everything?"
Yan Shifan suddenly broke free from the Jinyiwei's grasp and staggered to his feet.
He raised his hand and pointed to the Jiajing Emperor, who was huddled up next to the dragon throne.
That finger pointed straight at the emperor.
The entire hall erupted in uproar.
"Do you think my father didn't know what he did?!"
Yan Shifan roared hysterically, his voice shrill and piercing: "Every time we traded with the Mongols, he accepted the 'Longevity Gold' offered to him without the slightest hesitation! When those gold and silver were carried into the West Garden, box after box, did he ask how they came from? Did he ask a single question?"
"My dad was the mastermind, and he was an accomplice!!"
"Without his tacit approval, would my father dare to do these things? Without his indulgence, could those ironware and grain have been transported out of the border cart by cart?"
The entire venue was deathly silent.
All eyes were quietly drawn to Jiajing.
Jiajing's face was deathly pale.
Zhu Di slowly turned around.
His movements were so slow that it made people uneasy.
Step by step, he walked toward the Jiajing Emperor.
Every step he took felt like stepping on Jiajing's heart.
"Zhu Houcong".
Zhu Di's voice suddenly became calm, eerily calm.
"Is what he said... true?"