Da Ming: I told you to die for your cause, why are you actually going to die?

Chapter 74 You knew you were going to die! [Requesting monthly votes]

"You're talking nonsense."

Fu Youwen snapped out of his shock and looked at Zhang Biao with suspicion and uncertainty, saying:
"When did His Majesty issue an edict? How come I didn't know? How dare you falsely convey an imperial edict!"

"Hahaha!"

Zhang Biao laughed wildly again, then grabbed Fu Youwen by the collar and said coldly:
"Fu Youwen, to be honest, I really want to twist your head off! How did you, with that pig brain, manage to get into such a high position? And you even accused me of forging an imperial edict!"

After finishing speaking, he glanced at the officials in the Ministry of Revenue, then nodded and said:
"Very well! Since Vice Minister Fu dares to question the Emperor's decree, then let's bring Commander Jiang here! Let's ask him if it was truly the Emperor who issued the decree!"

After saying this, he prepared to send someone to find Jiang Huan.

"no need!"

Just then, a familiar figure, accompanied by several Imperial Guards, walked over and looked at Fu Youwen calmly and coldly, saying:

"Minister Fu, everything that Imperial Censor Zhang said is true. I heard it with my own ears. His Majesty issued an edict to promote Zhang Biao, a seventh-rank Imperial Censor of the Censorate, to the position of Left Vice Censor-in-Chief of the Censorate, to supervise the Ministry of Revenue's finances, grain, and land taxes."

"What!?"

Fu Youwen was once again utterly shocked.

He didn't expect it to be true, and he certainly didn't expect Jiang Huan to be here.

However, since the emperor values ​​Zhang Biao so highly, why is Zhang Biao still so reckless, not only ungrateful for the emperor's favor, but also causing the emperor to faint three times?

What exactly is he trying to do?!
Why do this?!

If he had explained his authority earlier, I could have given him some money. Why did he have to do it this way?!

Countless questions arose in Fu Youwen's mind.

However, he did not compromise because of this.

Because he firmly believed that the crimes Zhang Biao and his group committed in the Fengtian Hall were a death sentence.

So, he gritted his teeth and resorted to his old method again.

To feign poverty.

But then he heard him say, his voice trembling with tears:

"Imperial Censor Zhang! It's not that I don't want to give it! It's just that I really can't!"

"What you did in the Fengtian Hall yesterday was an unforgivable crime!"

"His Majesty is currently unwell and has not yet issued an edict to distribute salaries. If I were to distribute salaries privately, it would be against reason and law! Even if you were to kill me, I would not dare to obey!"

There was some truth to what they said, and upon hearing this, the hope that had just been ignited in Shen Lang and the others dimmed again.

Yes, to anger the emperor to the point of fainting is a grave offense.

"Is it unreasonable? Is it illegal?"

Zhang Biao sneered, released Fu Youwen abruptly, and said mockingly:
"Old Fu, when we tried to reason with you and explain the law, you cried poverty and acted like a rogue. Now that we don't want to reason with you anymore, you're suddenly bringing up reason and the law? You're quite the double standard player!"

As he spoke, he took a step back and nodded:

"Fine! You're not going to pay me? Fine! Then let's have an on-site meeting for the Ministry of Revenue's financial audit today! Accountant Shen!"

"Here I am, Brother Biao!"

Shen Lang was startled and quickly took out his treasured abacus, which he had somehow acquired.

"Master Sun!"

"exist!"

Sun Gui raised the chamber pot lamp, which had been relit and was emitting a faint glow and smell, high in the air, trying to make the light shine on the door as if it were an auditing searchlight.

"Editor Li!"

"Here!" Li Mo finally found the shoe he had pretended to have lost, but the recording tool was really gone. So he simply picked up a sharp stone and prepared to carve words on the stone steps in front of the household department to record the information.

"Fellow colleagues!"

Zhang Biao addressed the crowd behind him: "Everyone, pay attention! Today we're going to help the officials in the Ministry of Revenue sort out the accounts! Let's see how the national treasury got so empty!"

Upon hearing this, Fu Youwen felt a chill run down his spine, a bad premonition creeping over him.

Zhang Biao cleared his throat and began to count:
"First! In May of the twenty-fourth year of Hongwu, the Zhejiang Provincial Administration reported that 8,000 taels of silver were allocated for the repair of the Qiantang River dike! How much was actually used for repair materials and labor? How much was left over? Where is the leftover? Minister Fu, what was the estimated price of the house your brother-in-law bought by West Lake in June of the same year?"

boom!
Fu Youwen's face turned deathly pale instantly.

Zhang Biao gave him no time to react, broadcasting at an extremely fast pace:

"Secondly! In the autumn of the twenty-fourth year, 200,000 taels of military pay for the northern frontier were sent from Yingtian to Datong. How much was lost en route? Who was the escort officer? It seems to be a distant nephew from your hometown? After escorting this shipment of pay, he returned home and married his third concubine. The dowry was quite generous!"

"The third point! The old rice in the capital's official granaries is being replaced with new rice, with a subsidy of 15,000 taels for the price difference. But the quantity of new rice entering the warehouse doesn't match the invoice, does it? Did that batch of mismatched rice end up at 'Fengsheng Grain Store' in the south of the city? What was the owner's surname again? I think it was also Fu?"

"Article 4..."

Zhang Biao meticulously documented each and every case, detailing the time, location, amount, handlers, and the suspected final destination of the funds…
As if reciting a familiar story, crystal clear!
Many details are even clearer than those recorded by the Ministry of Revenue's accounting department!

You asked him where he got the information?
Naturally, it was what he heard, subtly hinted at, and even some "well-meaning" people on the internet during his countless previous reckless actions that told him this. He was just waiting for the day he would do something big!

Meanwhile, Shen Lang was clicking away on the abacus, his fingers barely leaving the abacus, while he rapidly recited astonishing numbers:
"Preliminary estimates indicate that 30,000 taels of military pay were embezzled! 5,000 taels of the repair fund surplus were misappropriated! 8,000 taels were profited from the price difference in the granary! In total, 43,000 taels! And this is not all!"

Upon hearing this, Sun Gui excitedly swayed the chamber pot lamp in his hand, the light and shadow flickering, as if he were DJing this accounting show.

The 'crackling' sound of Li Mo carving words into the stone sent shivers down the spines of the officials from the Ministry of Revenue inside the gate, as if they were being carved with their own epitaphs.

Other lower-ranking officials in Beijing were also indignant and joined in the commotion:

"Good! Well calculated! Calculate it clearly!"

"Excellent! We must find out how much of our hard-earned money they've embezzled!"

"Damn it! No wonder you're always complaining about being poor and not having money to pay our salaries! It turns out it all went into your pockets!"

As Fu Youwen listened to Zhang Biao's incredibly precise expense report and the ever-increasing amounts, he felt as if every word was a knife stabbing into his heart.

He was drenched in cold sweat, his official robes were soaked through, and his lips trembled so much that he could not utter a complete sentence.

"No, that's not how it is, Imperial Censor Zhang. Please let me explain."

He tried in vain to explain, but his voice was as faint as a mosquito's hum.

"explain?"

Zhang Biao sneered and said disdainfully, "You'd better go explain to the King of Hell!"

"Oh, right."

As he spoke, he suddenly seemed to remember something and added, "Also! Minister Fu, the jade Guanyin you gave to a certain empress in the palace for her birthday last year was quite valuable, wasn't it? Where did the money come from? Which government department's accounts did it go through? Do you need me to explain it to you in public?"

Boom!

This sentence became the last straw that broke the camel's back!
This involves the palace; they're trying to kill him!

"Stop talking! Please! Don't forget it! Grandpa Zhang! Ancestor Zhang!"

Fu Youwen completely broke down, his voice hoarse and wailing as he cried:
"I was wrong! I was really wrong!"

"No! You don't just know you're wrong, you know you're going to die!"

Zhang Biao remained expressionless, relentlessly pressing his advantage:

"I gave you a chance earlier, but you didn't take it! Now it's not something that can be resolved by just giving money!"

After saying that, he turned to look at Jiang Huan beside him and said indifferently, "Commander Jiang, what do you intend to do?"

(End of this chapter)