Female-male sex: Salted fish forced to rise to prominence

Murong Jing, the assistant minister of the Ministry of War, stepped out of the ranks. He bowed and said, "Your Majesty, I have something to report."

The emperor on the dragon throne nodded slightly and said calmly, "What is it that you are reporting?"

Murong Jing said indignantly, "Your Majesty, I want to impeach the Minister of Revenue, Chen Zheyuan, for failing to discipline his son, which has led to his unruly behavior and disrupted the customs of our prosperous dynasty. Now, the news that the second son of the Chen family likes homosexuality has spread throughout the capital. Such behavior is truly an insult to the elegance of scholars."

Hearing this, the Emperor turned to Minister Chen with great interest and asked, "Oh? Is this true? Minister Chen, what do you have to say?"

At this time, Minister Chen's face was flushed, and his forehead was covered with beads of sweat. Facing the emperor's questioning, he stammered in response: "Your Majesty... Your Majesty..." He was too ashamed to speak about the ridiculous things his son had done.

But at this moment, Chen Zhenglin's grandfather, Chen Shangshu, did not believe it. He stood up and retorted loudly: "How is it possible? Our Chen family has been innocent for generations. How could my grandson like a man? Someone must have slandered him."

Murong Jing sneered at this and retorted without a hint of weakness, "Humph, this is absolutely not groundless. The guards of the Princess's residence and the soldiers of the Five Cities Military Department witnessed the scene that day. Could it be that Minister Chen believes that the Princess's residence is deliberately slandering your grandson?"

At this moment, Minister Chen also knew that no matter how eloquent he was, it would be of no avail. He fell to his knees on the ground with a thud and kowtowed repeatedly to apologize: "Your Majesty, it is my fault for not educating my son well. Please punish me." After that, he fell to the ground and could not get up.

Minister Chen, standing nearby, was astonished. Seeing his son admit it himself, could it be... could it be that the rumors were true? Could his grandson truly have a lingering sexual fetish? The thought of this made Minister Chen feel dizzy and nearly lose his balance.

The emperor, sitting on the dragon throne, naturally knew the whole story. He knew that his niece Murong Xi, the girl from the Jiang family, and the girl from the Su family were all kidnapped.

But this matter concerns the reputation of several girls and cannot be made public. But in the face of this matter, how can he not punish the relevant personnel?

After a moment's deliberation, the Emperor finally spoke: "Minister Chen Zheyuan of the Ministry of Revenue, as the head of a family, failed to discipline his son effectively, causing the downfall of the family tradition and damaging the morale of our court. I hereby decree that Minister Chen Zheyuan be demoted to the rank of Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Revenue and ordered to reflect on his mistakes for three months.

Furthermore, Chen Zhenglin, the second son of the Chen family, will never be allowed to take the imperial examinations again as a punishment."

As soon as this order was issued, there was an uproar in the court. This punishment was too severe.

After hearing the emperor's verdict, although Minister Chen was unwilling, he did not dare to disobey the emperor's will. He could only kneel down and kowtow to express his gratitude, saying: "Your humble servant thanks the emperor for his grace."

Then, from the crowd, the Minister of Rites Jiang Shu walked out from the queue with a serious expression. He bowed and said, "Your Majesty, I also have something to report."

"What's the matter?".

"I would like to impeach the Minister of Revenue, Chen Zhili. Due to the Ministry's mismanagement, when the north suffered a severe drought last year, the silver that should have been used to provide relief to the victims was not distributed to the local authorities on time and in full. This ultimately led to the tragic disaster, causing countless northern victims to starve to death and forcing many people to leave their homes and become displaced."

After saying that, Lord Jiang, the Minister of Rites, took out a thick stack of documents from his bosom. All of them were densely signed with names, which were obviously relevant evidence.

He handed the evidence to the eunuch beside him, who hurried forward to take it and trotted all the way to the emperor.

The emperor took the memorial and read it carefully. When he saw the signatures, he became furious and slammed the table.

He shouted angrily: "How outrageous! How do you ministers do things?" After that, the emperor angrily threw the memorial in his hand at Minister Chen.

When Minister Chen picked up the memorial on the ground and took a look at it, he was so frightened that his whole body trembled and his face turned as pale as paper in an instant.

He kowtowed to the emperor and begged for mercy, saying: "Your Majesty, please calm down. I know my crime, but I really did not do it on purpose. It was just that the silver in the national treasury was too tight at that time, and I had no choice but to delay the allocation of silver for some time..."

The emperor was even more furious. Didn't he know whether there was silver in the treasury? This was simply outrageous.

The emperor pointed at the old man on the ground and cursed: "You dare to quibble here? I think you have been sitting in the position of Minister of Revenue for too long, so you have neglected your duties. Since you are no longer capable of this position, let's replace you."

Seeing that the emperor was furious, Minister Chen was so anxious that he broke out in a sweat. He said tremblingly: "Your Majesty, please calm down. This is all my fault. Even if I have no merits, I have worked hard. Please forgive me this time."

The emperor snorted coldly, his face as gloomy as ink, and said sternly: "What a Chen Zhili! I entrusted you with an important task, but you did your job so incompetently. It really disappointed me. From today on, you will be demoted to a doctor in the Ministry of Revenue. Go and reflect on yourself."

Hearing this, Chen Zhili's heart sank, but he knew that there was no turning back. He gritted his teeth and kowtowed again in gratitude: "Thank you, Your Majesty, for your grace. I will do my best in the future to make amends for my crime."

The emperor narrowed his eyes and scanned the ministers in the court. He asked coldly, "My dear ministers, do you have any other important matters to report?"

There was a dead silence in the court. The ministers looked at each other, and no one dared to speak.

Two officials were demoted early in the morning. How dare they offend the emperor? What if the emperor is just in a bad mood today?

Only Prime Minister Qin dared to speak out and said, "Your Majesty, the Huns in the north have been harassing our borders frequently, and the soldiers stationed in the north have a hard life. I request an increase of 200,000 taels in military pay in the north."

The emperor said: "Prime Minister Qin is right, I approve of this matter."

The emperor added: "But the position of Minister of Revenue is vacant. From now on, the position of Minister of Revenue will be temporarily taken over by Wei Ming, the Assistant Minister of Revenue, and all affairs will be handled by Wei Ming."

Wei Ming, the assistant minister of the Ministry of Revenue, stepped out immediately. He kowtowed happily to express his gratitude and said, "Thank you, Your Majesty, for your grace. Wei Ming will do his best to manage the Ministry of Revenue well in the future."

He had never thought that he would have this day in his lifetime. He had been suppressed by that old man Chen in the Ministry of Households for many years. This old man had always wanted to pave the way for his son. Over the years, he had really ignored him and made trouble for him in various ways.

Humph, this time, he must trample both the father and son under his feet, so that all their "care" for him over the years will not be in vain.

With the beginning of Qin Xiang, the court officials who followed him started to submit their memorials normally.