"Your Majesty, I believe that the Zhejiang government has not made many mistakes. The reason why the Censor-in-Chief went to Zhejiang this time was because the new Hangzhou prefect Xia Yun was impeached."

"I suggest that the court send a report of 800 li to bring Xia Yun and all the related personnel back to the court for trial."

After the cabinet chief Xu Jinsong spoke, the court was silent for about ten breaths.

At this time, officials below the second rank did not dare to speak.

It was not until Wei Zili, the Minister of Works and a cabinet minister like Xu Jinsong, spoke that the silence in the hall was broken.

As the saying goes, if the sky falls, there will be someone tall to hold it up.

After the Minister of Works finished speaking, the Grand Censor, who was in charge of the entire Censorate, stood out from the queue.

"Your Majesty, no!"

The Imperial Censor first uttered four words in a righteous voice, with an air of being determined not to bend but to break.

"The imperial court's censors have always had their own rules for handling cases. How can they change the court's rules just because of Xia Yun?"

The Chief Censor obviously showed no mercy to Wei Zili and directly refuted Wei Zili's proposal.

The dispute on the playground, which had just calmed down, became tense again because of the words spoken by these two people.

At this time, even Xu Jinsong, the head of the cabinet, was not in a position to speak up again to stop it.

After all, one of these two is the first-rank Minister of Works and a cabinet minister in the imperial court.

The other is the Grand Censor, who commands the entire Censorate and is responsible for supervising all officials.

The standoff was not broken until a sudden voice from the eunuch delivering the imperial edict came from outside the court.

"Your Majesty, the Censor Chen Ming has returned! He is now waiting outside the palace gate for your order, waiting to be summoned by Your Majesty!"

The eunuch who delivered the decree shouted loudly.

Hearing this, the silent empress revealed a gleam of brilliance in her eyes.

"Xuan."

Only one word was heard coming from the empress's mouth.

Then the eunuch who was delivering the imperial edict shouted again, "Call the Censor Chen Ming of the Censorate to come to the court and answer the questions!"

The voice of the eunuch delivering the imperial eunuch's decree was passed down layer by layer.

About half an incense stick of time had passed.

Finally, Chen Ming, who had been away from the court for more than ten days, appeared in the empress's sight again.

"Chen Ming, the Censor of the Metropolitan Censorate, kowtows to His Majesty the Emperor. Long live His Majesty!"

After Chen Ming entered the hall, he first paid his respects to the empress.

"I love your life."

At this moment, the empress was eager to know the outcome of Chen Ming's trip to Zhejiang, so she didn't care about the complicated etiquette.

When Chen Ming got up from the ground, the empress immediately asked the doubts in her heart.

"Mr. Chen, what is the result of the investigation in Zhejiang?"

As soon as the empress spoke, all the officials present turned their eyes to Chen Ming.

Most of them looked puzzled.

However, what Chen Ming said next shocked everyone in the court.

"Your Majesty, I am here to go to Zhejiang Province to investigate the case of Xia Yun, the fourth-rank prefect of Hangzhou, who was corrupt and colluded with Japanese pirates."

"After thorough investigation, it was found that Xia Yun had not committed any crime. All the charges against him were false!"

Chen Ming first used two sentences to clear Xia Yun of all suspicion.

But just because of this, some ministers in the court could no longer sit still.

"Master Chen! The court sent you to Zhejiang to investigate a case. Why is there no news in more than ten days? What are you doing?"

Pei Yan, the Minister of Revenue, walked out of the queue and made no secret of his dissatisfaction with Chen Ming in his words.

"Master Pei, what you said is wrong! Although Chen Ming is the Censor-in-Chief, when he went to Zhejiang, he was also escorting 200,000 dan of disaster relief grain allocated by the court to Zhejiang. It is reasonable that the delay is so long."

The Chief Censor of the Inspectorate stood up again. Of course, he could not stand by and watch others attack the censors under his command.

"Master Zhou! This is the imperial court, where all ministers hold public meetings. Could it be that we can't even speak up in the current Censorate?"

"Then this court, is it your Majesty's court? Is it the court of your Inspectorate?"

At this time, the young cabinet minister Xu Miao suddenly walked out of the queue. Although his voice was plain, his words were extremely aggressive.

I have to say that Xu Miao's words were really clever, and the Censor was so embarrassed that his face turned red for a moment.

Indeed, the Censorate supervises all officials and has the power to impeach them at any time.

It's not like other people don't even have the right to speak.

"I didn't mean that. If you want to kill someone, just hand me the knife. Why bother saying all this?"

The angry Imperial Censor spoke in a somewhat flustered tone.

Seeing this, other Jiangnan Party officials wanted to continue speaking, but were stopped by a word from the empress.

"enough!"

The empress looked displeased. She had had enough of the endless party struggles.

Now she just wants to quickly figure out the situation in Zhejiang officialdom.

"go on."

After the court calmed down again, the empress immediately gave Chen Ming a look.

After hearing this, Chen Ming continued to speak.

"Your Majesty, Hangzhou Prefect Xia Yun not only did not commit any acts of corruption or abuse of power, but was diligent in governing the city, saving the people of Hangzhou from famine. Since July this year, no one in Hangzhou has died from famine!"

Chen Ming's words were like a bombshell, igniting the silent court again.

Everyone began to wonder in their hearts, what exactly is Xia Yun capable of?

They were able to end the famine in Hangzhou in just one month?!

"Chen Ming, are you sure what you just said is true?"

The empress raised her eyebrows.

The development of the matter was also beyond her expectations. They thought that what Chen Ming brought back was Xia Yun's crime.

I didn’t expect that Xia Yun, that bastard, actually managed Hangzhou well!

"Your Majesty, I am willing to guarantee with my life that everything I said just now is true!"

"This memorial records the results of Xia Yun's governance of Hangzhou. Your Majesty, please read it!"

As Chen Ming spoke, he took out the first memorial from his sleeve and handed it to the empress through the eunuch.

The empress opened the memorial and looked at it. Wherever her eyes passed, she felt a surge of surprise in her heart.

It was not until a few minutes later that the empress finished reading the entire memorial and a hint of satisfaction appeared on her face.

However, before she could open her mouth to praise him, Chen Ming suddenly took out another memorial from his sleeve.

"Your Majesty, I was ordered to supervise Zhejiang. During this trip to Hangzhou, I investigated and punished 26 law enforcement officials. Among them, Zhejiang Governor Chen Hanzhi and Zhejiang Provincial Government Commissioner Zuo Anning both committed the crime of colluding with the Japanese. We have all the evidence!"

"Governor Lei Zhenlin of Zhejiang has requested the royal decree to sentence Zhejiang Governor Chen Hanzhi to be sent to the capital in prison and executed in the autumn! As for the rest of the officials, Zuo Anning and others, please make your judgment!"

Chen Ming finished speaking again, and at the same time respectfully handed the impeachment memorial in his hand to the eunuch.

And his words at this moment were like a thunder, shaking every official present.

Especially the Minister of Works Wei Zili and the Minister of Revenue Pei Yan, they all looked at Chen Ming with an incredible expression.

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