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

Jiang Zuo was wearing a mask at the moment, which was equivalent to covering his face, but he seemed to have overlooked a problem. Doing so made him more obvious.

Among all the people in the audience, only Jiang Zuo and Master Guo wore masks.

"Sir, I have already ordered someone to prepare the room."

Master Guo whispered in Jiang Zuo's ear.

Jiang Zuo nodded silently, continued to lower his head and walked forward.

This bath center is a formal place, and Jiang Zuo doesn't need to be so sneaky.

There are many dignitaries and wealthy young men here, and maybe they even have acquaintances from Jiangzuo.

After taking two steps, someone suddenly stood in front of Jiang Zuo.

This person looked at Jiang Zuo's eyes with a strange look. After a moment, he said in surprise: "Hey, isn't this Prime Minister Jiang?"

"Prime Minister Jiang? Are you serious?"

As soon as these words were spoken, everyone's attention was immediately focused on Jiang Zuo.

No way, you guys recognize this too?!

I originally wanted to come here secretly, but I didn't expect that Jiang Zuo would become the focus as soon as he went out.

"This is not Prime Minister Jiang. You have made a mistake."

Master Guo hurried forward and said.

"How could I have made a mistake? When Prime Minister Jiang was promoting the imperial examination on the street, I was there. Even if Prime Minister Jiang is covering his face now, I would still recognize him. Haha..."

Others said happily.

It seemed that they all believed that it was a blessing for them to be able to see this important official of the court with their own eyes.

For a moment, almost everyone present came over to have a good chat with Jiang Zuo.

"Prime Minister Jiang also often comes here?"

The man asked again.

Jiang Zuo lowered his voice and said, "I am not Prime Minister Jiang, you really made a mistake."

Having said that, Jiang Zuo quickly freed himself and followed Master Guo's footsteps into the room.

I almost lost my reputation, it was really thrilling.

I just lay down and felt upset again.

Even a comfortable massage couldn't relieve Jiang Zuo's inner troubles.

These two days of rest made Jiang Zuo even more tired.

Another day passed.

Jiang Zuo, as usual, entered the palace early to handle government affairs for the empress.

Today, Jiang Zuo has become the right-hand man and left-hand man of the empress and an indispensable part.

There was no need for early morning court today, but the empress got up earlier than usual.

The empress did not let Jiang Zuo "sleep with her" for the past two nights, and she began to deal with government affairs at dawn.

In the imperial study room.

Jiang Zuo, with his tired body, sat on the other side of the empress and began to look through the piles of memorials.

"According to the thorough investigation by the Thousand Cavalry Division, the number of corruption cases in the Southern Kingdom has greatly increased. If this continues for a long time, I am afraid that our dynasty will not be able to rule the old land of the Chen Kingdom for a long time."

Jiang Zuo put down the memorial in his hand and began to read the next one.

The complicated area now may be the Southern Kingdom that was conquered not long ago. There are still many resistance forces in those old places of the Chen Kingdom.

Because the imperial court had no one available, most of the officials previously sent to the Southern Kingdom were in the Jiankang City area. As for the rest of the old territories of the State of Chen, it was impossible to send more officials to govern them, which led to a series of problems.

Among them, corruption is the most serious problem.

It was precisely because of the corruption within Chen that wars broke out everywhere. If Yan State does not deal with it now, it may follow in Chen State's footsteps.

Chen Qingyun also said: "Anyone who embezzles will be executed, even if they embezzle only one or two ounces of silver."

The empress's serious tone immediately made Jiang Zuo no longer sleepy. He looked up at the empress and asked in a low voice, "Then your majesty, what kind of punishment will be given to a corrupt official like me?"

Chen Qingyun raised his head and smiled helplessly, "You? I will punish you to help me handle government affairs for the rest of your life."

When it comes to greed for money, no one can compare to Jiang Zuo. Even though Jiang Zuo is now rich enough to rival a country, he still remembers his original intention and his first priority is to do business wherever he goes.

But Chen Qingyun knew very well that Jiang Zuo was not a corrupt official. On the contrary, whether in Anding County or Jiangzhou City, Jiang Zuo was a good official who was loved by the people.

With such a capable minister, how could the empress bear to kill him?

Even if Jiang Zuo really committed corruption, perhaps Chen Qingyun would still set double standards and spare Jiang Zuo's life.

Dealing with government affairs throughout his life was undoubtedly a torture for Jiang Zuo.

"This punishment is truly too cruel. Your Majesty, are you serious about it?" Jiang Zuo said.

Chen Qingyun said: "Of course it is true."

"Oh, forget it." Jiang Zuo sighed and said, "Si Yue is the emperor, so the emperor has the final say."

"Since I have the final say, you have to deal with the memorials of the next few days and you can leave tonight." Chen Qingyun said calmly.

Jiang Zuo frowned, turned his head and looked at the pile of memorials, and couldn't help but say: "Your Majesty, are you going to treat me like a donkey? There are so many memorials, and I may not be able to finish them even if I work all night!"

"I handled it all by myself before, so this is not difficult."

A workaholic like Chen Qingyun naturally cannot understand Jiang Zuo's laziness.

Jiang Zuo said: "It would be better to let other members of the cabinet participate in handling these memorials so as to share the pressure on the emperor."

"Even those officials in the cabinet, I don't trust them. Now inside and outside the court, I really don't know who is loyal and who is treacherous."

Chen Qingyun said, and then couldn't help but sigh.

Seeing the empress's worried look, Jiang Zuo couldn't help but ask, "Your Majesty, are you still worried about the past few days?"

Chen Qingyun nodded slightly, holding his forehead and said, "The West City government has already investigated clearly. There are dozens of people suspected of corruption. There must be someone hiding behind them."

These officials dared to slander Jiang Zuo, the prime minister of the cabinet, and naturally they would dare to do other illegal things. Chen Qingyun would certainly not forgive them.

Since the incident, no one has been able to escape.

Jiang Zuo said: "I'm afraid there are more than this number."

"Even under my nose, they dare to be so corrupt and abuse the power, not to mention those local officials."

Chen Qingyun said helplessly that the problem of corruption was something she had always hated, but it was difficult to eradicate. She thought about how many corrupt officials she had killed, but the fundamental problem still could not be solved.

Just as Jiang Zuo said, it is a problem of human nature and cannot be solved overnight.

The next new policy of the imperial court will be to implement high salaries to maintain integrity as Jiang Zuo said, hoping to eliminate the corrupt trend.

"Your Majesty, don't worry. I have already ordered people to convey the new policy to all places. As for the increased punishment for corruption, it may be able to deter those corrupt officials." Jiang Zuo said.

"But if the whole country implements the high-salary policy to maintain integrity, the court will have to pay a huge amount of financial expenditure." Chen Qingyun looked worried.

Jiang Zuo said: "In order to govern the court well, this sacrifice is worth it."

Chen Qingyun thought for a moment, looked at Jiang Zuo, and then said: "In this case, can Prime Minister Jiang donate some more silver to the court?"

Jiang Zuo hurriedly said: "My family is poor, I really can't do anything..."