Want to win the palace fight? Better to be crazy than to be idiotic!

Inside the Gongzheng Hall.

The morning court session was over, and all the civil and military officials left.

Qin Feng'an did not leave because the Minister of Revenue was still standing in front of him.

The Minister of Revenue was named Jiang Xun. He was in his prime, but his face was already full of wrinkles due to the heavy workload, and there were even many white hairs mixed in with his black hair.

He stood in front of Qin Feng'an anxiously, not knowing why the emperor summoned him.

"The memorial you submitted the day before yesterday was very strange. I read it and was very confused." Qin Feng'an carefully read Jiang Xun's memorial again, then closed it, with the doubts between his brows still not dissipated, "I kept you here because I want to hear your personal explanation of what this memorial means."

Qin Feng'an's words were dignified yet kind, like a wise king who cared about state affairs. If Su Feiran were here, he would definitely be surprised - is this the same person who talks nonsense every night in the bedroom? !

The day before yesterday, Qin Feng'an complained to her that the Gongzheng Hall was too crowded and he wanted to renovate and expand it. At the last morning court, the ministers were standing so crowded that they looked like Oreos in a box.

Su Feiran said that's not bad, how many Oreos can there be in a box? Qin Fengan said no, it's Oreos next to each other, so one cookie is at least three people's.

At the moment, it was a good thing that Su Feiran was not here, otherwise she would definitely tease Qin Fengan in this way later.

Jiang Xun bowed and said, "Your Majesty, there are differences in the population census in 18 provinces including Yunan, Hexi, and Jiangbei. After investigation, I found that although the number is almost the same every month, there are great changes in the personnel."

"These are all written in the memorials." Qin Feng'an sighed, "People have legs, so they can walk. The population is also mobile, so what's so strange about the personnel changes?"

"I have been the Minister of Revenue for five years. If it is a normal population movement, I will not find it strange." Jiang Xun lowered his head and said humbly, "It's just that in these 18 provinces, many registered people disappeared for no reason, but they did not appear in the registers of other provinces. At the same time, many people seemed to appear out of thin air and filled the vacancies of the disappeared people."

Qin Feng'an was stunned when he heard this: "Out of nowhere? Since you think their whereabouts are strange, why don't you go and ask them?"

"I have of course sent someone to investigate, but the results are also very strange."

Jiang Xun spoke hesitantly, as if he didn't know how to explain it to Qin Fengan.

"Your Majesty, as you know, every year in these provinces, many government offices record varying numbers of missing persons."

Too many people will cause problems. The ancient dynasty was so powerful that it was not surprising to report a thousand missing persons in one day. Qin Feng'an wondered why Jiang Xun suddenly brought up this matter.

"I sent people to investigate these people who seemed to appear out of nowhere, but found that they were not illegal residents, but people who had been reported missing in the past few years. The shortest one had been missing for a year, and the longest for more than ten years. Some of them were so difficult to find that the government just assumed they were dead and cancelled their accounts."

After Jiang Xun finished explaining, Qin Fengan appeared calm on the surface, but he was actually holding the corner of the table tightly.

"Minister Jiang means that those who disappear will be reported to the government as missing persons, and then one day in the future, they will reappear?" Qin Feng'an frowned, and understood why Jiang Xun was so worried. "Could it be a coincidence?"

"If Your Majesty thinks it is a coincidence, you would not ask this question." Jiang Xun had never considered the possibility of coincidence, so he answered without hesitation.

"What do those people with strange movements have in common?"

"The officials in charge of household registration visited some of them and found that most of them were men, and they were young and middle-aged."

Jiang Xun hesitated for a moment, then said,

"Generally, young and middle-aged men are the backbone of their families. If they suddenly go missing, their families will definitely report it to the police. However, the families of these people often withdraw their reports after a few months."

"The family members gave up the search when they didn't find the person?" Qin Feng'an rubbed his aching head. "I am not a government official. Minister Jiang, please stop talking in roundabout ways. Just tell me your conclusion directly."

"cough......"

Jiang Xun looked embarrassed. For some reason, he always felt that the emperor was much closer to him than before, so he unconsciously ignored the awe in his words.

Although the emperor is now more friendly, his methods are more drastic than before. The emperor in the past was diligent, but his talent was limited, and he could only be said to be a mediocre monarch. But in the past half month, the emperor has been diligent in government affairs, dealing with a myriad of affairs, rectifying military affairs, and reforming provincial governance. Many of the remaining problems have been resolved. I don't know if he suddenly got the hang of it.

Moreover, the emperor nowadays has many wonderful ideas. Yesterday he encouraged the people to invent things, today he set up schools in various provinces, and who knows what new ideas he will come up with tomorrow.

Officials from various departments ran around to realize the emperor's ideas. Although they frantically used the connections and money at hand, they had been idle officials for so many years, and most of them were quite willing to contribute to the grand blueprint of the ancient dynasty.

Not everyone can study hard for ten years for a chance of fame and fortune. "Successful entrance exam" is something that cannot be seen or touched. If one does not have a belief in his heart, he would have retreated from the road of pursuit.

After all, even a donkey on the road needs an apple hanging on its forehead. In ancient times, there were so many people taking the imperial examinations every year, and passing the examinations to become an official was just an invisible and intangible dream, not even an apple, but at most a piece of cake.

Jiang Xun was thinking wildly, but he didn't forget that Qin Feng'an was still waiting. After thinking for a while, he replied, "Your Majesty is wise. I do have some guesses, but it's hard to confirm them now. I'm afraid that making false statements will disrupt Your Majesty's arbitrary decision. Please give me some time. I will send people to find more clues and report to Your Majesty again."

Qin Feng'an waved his hand and said, "Then I'll trouble you, Minister Jiang. You may take your leave now." After that, he handed the memorial back.

"Yes."

Jiang Xun took the memorial, bowed with his head lowered, then turned and left the hall.

Qin Feng'an stood up from the dragon throne and, accompanied by Eunuch Zhang, Guard Han and a group of people, moved to Dali Garden.

After listening to Jiang Xun's report, Qin Feng'an tried to look into the matter through the records of Dali Garden. He found many strange clues, but he did not find any connection between them, so he could not string these clues together into truly useful information for the time being.

Such large-scale and irregular disappearances first occurred twelve years ago. Twelve years ago... Is this a critical node?

Qin Feng'an found the files from twelve years ago, but did not find any incident that could be linked to the disappearance case.

The only thing that concerned him was that twelve years ago, the ancient dynasty ended its three hundred years of isolation and officially opened trade with the outside world.