I embezzled 100,000 taels at the beginning, and the empress begged me to be more greedy

The empress has made up her mind about the candidate for Zuo Fu Si.

In the court, ministers reported other state affairs to His Majesty.

When talking about the floods in Jizhou and Yuzhou, Chen Qing couldn't help but frown.

The towns in the north suffered from disasters all year round. No matter how many officials the court sent or how much relief money it allocated, it still could not alleviate the disaster.

A while ago, a major disaster struck Yuzhou, and hundreds of thousands of victims have not yet been properly resettled, and now a new disaster has occurred.

Could it be that God is not blessing Dayan?

It is truly a disaster year.

The empress was depressed.

"Is there no official in the Great Yan Dynasty who can handle these disasters?"

The Empress questioned.

For some reason, a name came to her mind at this moment.

No minister in the court dared to answer.

"All those involved in the Yuzhou case will be executed!"

Chen Qingyun's majestic words echoed in the hall, shocking every minister.

Your Majesty is decisive in killing, and your ministers have long known about it.

At this moment, the only sound in the hall was the sound of wind.

The ministers said nothing, fearing that His Majesty would get angry again.

"Retreat!"

……

Prime Minister's Mansion.

Wangshui Pavilion.

Right Prime Minister Lu Jun was sitting under the pavilion with Minister of Personnel Xu Renyou, drinking fine wine together.

As the prime minister of the dynasty, Lu Jun often hosted banquets to entertain other officials.

There are factional struggles in the court, and no one can please both sides, so everyone has to choose to take sides.

Lu Jun's faction had its own forces planted in both the imperial court and local prefectures and counties.

"Your Majesty has not been to court for many days, but this morning in the court, he suddenly said that he wanted to appoint personnel from the Left Auxiliary Office. Prime Minister, don't you find it strange?"

Xu Renyou whispered.

The old prime minister stroked his pale beard and said, "Could it be that Wei Hong whispered something in Your Majesty's ear and took the opportunity to plant his own power in the court?"

The factional struggles in the imperial court have long been an open issue.

Now that the Left Prime Minister Wei Hong is in power, he inexplicably placed a small local county magistrate in such an important position as the Zuo Fusi.

Lu Jun couldn't help but feel a sense of threat.

This threat was not just an arrangement of an official position, but was due to the emperor's consent.

The empress had always been suspicious by nature, so why did she agree to Wei Hong's proposal so easily this time?

Lu Jun couldn't figure it out.

"We must not allow this so-called Jiang Zuo to join the court." Lu Jun said, "It is absurd for a ninth-rank official to be promoted to the second rank."

They had already arranged the post of Zuo Fu Si and could place officials from their own faction in the position at any time.

Who knew that Jiang Zuo would suddenly appear from the sky? It was really unexpected.

Xu Renyou sighed helplessly and said, "Prime Minister, but this is the candidate chosen by His Majesty. How dare we object?"

Lu Jun coughed twice and said angrily: "We must not let Wei Hong and his party gain power."

Xu Renyou remained silent and thought for a moment. Suddenly, he showed a cunning smile and said, "I heard that Anding County is located in the border area and has been invaded by the barbarians in the northern desert for many years. It is not peaceful. Do you think Jiang Zuo will encounter any danger on the way to Beijing..."

Lu Jun quickly understood and said, "It's hard to say, hard to say."

"I will also send a team of people to escort Lord Jiang to the capital." Xu Renyou said again, tapping the table with his right index finger.

……

Anding County.

yamen.

"Sir, the emperor's decree has arrived."

Master Guo hurriedly went to inform Jiang Zuo.

Jiang Zuo suddenly stood up from the wooden couch, feeling a little nervous.

When the emperor's edict arrives, it's bound to be bad news.

The last time an imperial decree was issued, one million taels of silver were "robbed" from Anding County.

But at this moment, Jiang Zuo did not dare to delay and hurried forward to receive the order.

"The Emperor, in compliance with the Will of Heaven, proclaims..." The chief eunuch read out the imperial edict, "From today on, Jiang Zuo is appointed as the Left Assistant Secretary. He must come to the capital within ten days to be appointed..."

"Thank you, Your Majesty."

Jiang Zuo thanked him, feeling confused.

After the eunuch left, Jiang Zuo couldn't help wondering: "What is Zuo Fu Si?"

"Congratulations on your promotion, sir!"

Master Guo looked delighted.

As the saying goes, when one person succeeds, the whole family will benefit. As Master Guo, who has followed Jiang Zuo for many years, naturally wants to get some benefit from it.

"What are you happy about?"

Jiang Zuo, however, had a worried look on his face.

"Your Excellency's promotion is worth celebrating. Why are you frowning?"

Master Guo was puzzled.

"What do you know? This is called a promotion in name only and a demotion in reality. What is there to be happy about?"

Jiang Zuo sighed and shook his head.

Master Guo really didn't understand, so he said, "Sir, His Majesty has assigned you to the capital to serve as Zuo Fu Si, which is no small position. Let me explain to you, Zuo Fu Si is a second-rank official position, much higher than a county magistrate. How can this be considered a promotion in name only but a demotion in reality?"

No matter how high the official position is, Jiang Zuo is not interested.

Jiang Zuo was thrown into jail not long ago, and today he was suddenly promoted by imperial decree.

Is there such a thing in this world?

"Master, you think too simply." Jiang Zuo's idea was completely different. "The real purpose of the empress is clearly to transfer me away from Anding County, and then take everything in Anding County back to the central government..."

"Sir, you think too much. Maybe the emperor found out the truth about Anding County and thought you were a talent, so he specially recruited you to the court."

"No, no."

Jiang Zuo always felt strange.

But now there are only two paths in front of him.

Either go to court or go to jail.

For a person like Jiang Zuo who has a free and easy personality, there is really not much difference between being an official in the court and going to prison.

Once you enter the court, you have to be careful with your words and actions and serve the capricious empress.

Jiang Zuo could imagine his miserable life in the future, so naturally he was unwilling to do that.

"Lord Jiang, don't want to go to Beijing?" asked Master Guo.

"Of course not."

"It is difficult to disobey the emperor's order. What do you decide to do?"

"Either delay or run, Master, which one do you think is better?"

Jiang Zuo had no idea at the moment.

"We can't delay for long now. If we run, we won't be able to escape now."

Master Guo said calmly.

“Why can’t you run away?”

Jiang Zuo planned to escape southward.

"Because the Thousand Cavalry Division is about to come to Anding County again, I guess they are here to escort Lord Jiang to Beijing to take up his post." said Master Guo.

"what?!"

Jiang Zuo was shocked.

Ever since the "official grain case", Jiang Zuo had an inexplicable aversion to the Qianqi Division. Even if the misunderstanding was finally resolved, it was difficult to eliminate his resistance to these court lackeys.

"When did it happen? Why didn't you tell me earlier?" Jiang Zuo asked nervously.

This time, it was Master Guo who was relatively calm. He said, "The Thousand Cavalry Division comes and goes like the wind. It's good that we received some news in advance. I heard that they are only 20 miles away from Anding County. If Lord Jiang wants to escape, I'm afraid it will be too late."

Jiang Zuo paced back and forth in anger, and said angrily in his heart: "You are such a good empress, you like to send people to monitor me so much, don't you?"

How to deal with this now?

"I just want to be a rich county magistrate. You want me to go to Beijing to be an official?"

Jiang Zuo calmed his mind and thought seriously about countermeasures.

Time is running out, and the Thousand Cavalry Division's fast horses are about to arrive at Anding County...