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

"What injustice? Old man, please tell me again."

Zhang Tingye deliberately passed the message to the old man who was seeking justice.

But the old man shook his head and repeated, "My Lord, I have done nothing wrong, I have done nothing wrong..."

"Don't be afraid, I'm here."

Zhang Tingye just thought that the old man was afraid to tell the truth because of the tyranny of Jiangzuo.

But the old man continued to shake his head and said, "No, no, no, I really have no grievances. I will take my leave first."

Hearing this, Zhang Tingye was confused and helpless.

The old man had just been accusing Jiang Zuo in tears, but now that Jiang Zuo was right in front of him, he didn't dare to say a word of complaint.

"Wait, you can't leave."

Jiang Zuo called out to the old man.

The old man looked embarrassed and said nothing.

"You must have been wronged, tell me quickly." Jiang Zuo said again.

“Sir, I…” The old man’s body began to tremble slightly.

"You don't like to complain, do you? You are the clown Mo Fusheng in the opera troupe, right?" Jiang Zuo said calmly.

Hearing this name, the old man was shocked and immediately knelt down and kowtowed to beg for mercy: "Sir, spare my life."

"Okay, you like to complain, right? I'll put you all in jail and execute you today!"

Zhang Tingye looked confused and quickly stopped him, saying, "Master Jiang, this is a bit inappropriate."

When someone comes to complain, you want to kill them?

"He likes to spread rumors, so I'll let him go to jail and tell his story slowly." Jiang Zuo said with a smile.

After these words were spoken, even those dirty-dressed common people came forward to beg for mercy.

Seeing that Jiang Zuo had exposed his identity, the old man, Mo Fusheng, kowtowed and admitted his mistake: "Please spare my life, sir. I didn't mean it."

"Not intentional? What do you mean, Old Deng? Didn't you just spread rumors accidentally and slander me unintentionally?"

Jiang Zuo questioned.

Mo Fusheng kowtowed quickly and said, "Please spare my life, sir. I just accepted twenty taels of silver from a master, so I came here to complain on purpose."

"Who is it?" Jiang Zuo continued to question.

"I really don't know. The master threatened me that if I didn't do something, he would kill my whole family. I don't want to die, so I can only..."

Mo Fusheng said fearfully.

As soon as he finished speaking, the actors behind him who were also in charge of the performance came forward to beg for mercy, and their words were almost the same as Mo Fusheng's.

Zhang Tingye was stunned, and only then did he realize that he had been deceived by these common people?

He quickly signaled to his subordinates, who immediately let go of Master Guo.

Jiang Zuo had already gotten a general idea and guessed who instructed them to do this, but without evidence, he could not do anything.

"Come here, put them in jail first and interrogate them another day." Jiang Zuo ordered.

"Sir, please don't kill me. I was really forced to do this!"

Mo Fusheng begged for mercy again, and his voice gradually faded away.

"Jiang Zuo, the governor of Zhenbei, greets Lord Zhang."

After dealing with this matter, Jiang Zuo saluted Zhang Tingye again.

"Qianqi Sima Hengwei greets Lord Zhang."

Ma Hengwei stepped forward and said.

Then, the man next to Ma Hengwei also stepped forward and said, "Captain of the Tiger Army, Han Zhen, greets Lord Zhang."

"Thousand Cavalry Division! Tiger Might Army!"

Zhang Tingye was shocked and couldn't help but wonder, "The Thousand Cavalry Division and the Tiger Power Army are also in Yecheng?"

These are all the emperor's relatives, and yet they are being used by Jiang Zuo?

Zhang Tingye couldn't understand it for a moment.

The Qianqi Division and the Huwei Army were directly ordered by the emperor to come to Yecheng to assist Jiangzuo. Other officials did not receive this news at all.

Zhang Tingye suddenly realized what was going on and thought, "No wonder the emperor didn't immediately decide to investigate Jiang Zuo when he was in the court. It turns out that Jiang Zuo is actually on the emperor's side. What's the point of investigating this?"

As a veteran in officialdom, he quickly understood the pros and cons of the matter.

The emperor sent the imperial envoy just to show his attitude.

I believe the emperor himself knows clearly whether Jiang Zuo is a corrupt official.

As for the impeachment of officials, it is definitely groundless.

"Master Jiang, I am sorry for my impoliteness. I was almost deceived by this unruly man and misunderstood you. Please forgive me, Master Jiang."

Zhang Tingye was so ashamed that he quickly apologized to Jiang Zuo.

Jiang Zuo was quite magnanimous. He waved his hand and said, "It doesn't matter. I'm used to being slandered."

"Master Guo, I was reckless and I apologize to you."

As he spoke, Zhang Tingye bent down.

Master Guo quickly helped Zhang Tingye up and said, "Master Zhang, your words are too kind. In fact, I did act disrespectfully. I hope Master Zhang will forgive me."

From this point of view, Zhang Tingye is a pretty good imperial envoy.

Jiang Zuo silently had the answer in his heart.

"Master Jiang, I am quite curious about how you were able to tell the identities of those people at a glance."

Zhang Tingye was quite confused. Even someone like him who had seen the world was almost deceived by that group of actors.

I didn’t expect Jiang Zuo’s eyes to be so sharp that he could see through the other person at a glance.

Jiang Zuo smiled and said, "It's not difficult. Since I came to Yecheng, I have often gone to watch operas and listen to music. I remember all the actors and actresses clearly."

"Lord Jiang is talented. I was careless."

Zhang Tingye apologized again.

"Lord Zhang, this is your first time in Yecheng. I am busy with my duties and am sorry for not being able to entertain you well. Please make yourself at ease." Jiang Zuo said.

Zhang Tingye had many doubts in his heart, and asked: "Sir, what are the things outside the city..."

Jiang Zuo answered quickly, "You are talking about the project. That is the water conservancy project that I am in charge of building. It is already 30% completed. The workers are all disaster victims in Jizhou and Yuzhou."

“Relief for work!”

Zhang Tingye reacted immediately and realized that he had misunderstood Jiang Zuo again, and felt guilty.

"Master Zhang, I know the purpose of your visit and I will not embarrass you. Take this. This is the account of Anding County and my personal account."

Jiang Zuo said as he handed Zhang Tingye two account books. He had already ordered someone to deliver these things overnight.

Zhang Tingye was quite surprised by Jiang Zuo's frankness and ordered his subordinates to collect the accounts.

"Master Guo, please entertain Master Zhang. I still need to inspect the progress of the project on the construction site."

Jiang Zuo excused himself.

"Master Jiang, please do as you please."

Zhang Tingye said goodbye to him.

Master Guo also said, "Master Zhang, may I ask what you need to be thoroughly investigated? I will tell you everything I know."

Zhang Tingye was speechless for a moment, not knowing where to start, and just said, "I'll just take a walk first."

"Then please let me come forward." said Master Guo.

Zhang Tingye followed behind Master Guo and carefully observed the situation in Yecheng.

He discovered that every few steps he took in Ye City, he would see people distributing porridge.

Compared to other places in Jizhou, Yecheng was obviously more orderly, and there was not even a beggar or disaster victim to be seen.

Zhang Tingye was quite surprised, and he was even more shocked after opening the accounts handed over by Jiang Zuo.

The tax revenue of Anding County actually reached one million!

Jiang Zuo's personal account showed an income of nearly one million taels.

"This Lord Jiang really doesn't hide anything at all..."