The war god prince climbs the wall every night, and the princess is angry

Shen Qionghua's mind was full of thoughts, but his steps never stopped.

"Manager Li."

Li Shunquan turned around, his face no longer smiling as he had in the palace garden before, and he looked solemn.

A pair of shrewd eyes fell on Shen Qionghua, as if trying to see through her.

"General Manager Li has come to the Shen Mansion, but what does the Emperor want to tell you?" Shen Qionghua asked with a smile.

Li Shunquan nodded, stepped forward and said, "Princess Jialin, the emperor has summoned you to the palace. Please come with me."

"Yes." Shen Qionghua responded.

Li Shunquan was quite surprised to see Shen Qionghua being so straightforward, and his attitude improved a lot.

Shen Qionghua followed Li Shunshen out of the Shen Mansion and got into the carriage.

The carriage slowly drove away, and six imperial guards surrounded it. Shen Qionghua lifted the curtain and glanced towards the Shen Mansion. Shaoyao was standing in front of the gate, looking forward to it.

She seemed to want to leave the house, but was stopped by the royal guards guarding the door. Passersby saw this scene and took a detour for fear of getting into trouble.

Shaoyao looked at the carriage going away, feeling extremely anxious, but her movements were restricted.

No! She had to find An Yi and ask him to go to King Rui to find a solution.

Shaoyao thought so and walked towards Shen Qionghua's courtyard with quick steps.

-

Tai Chi Hall.

Xie Rong, who was supposed to be reviewing memorials, was now sitting on the dragon throne with a gloomy face.

In the center of the hall was a mountain of boxes. Kneeling in a row in front of the boxes were the officials from the Ministry of Revenue who had just followed Xie Qian'an to the Shen Mansion to collect the silver.

Standing next to the head of the Ministry of Revenue were Xie Qian'an and Marquis Yongning.

The entire Tai Chi Hall was so quiet that you could hear a pin drop, it was eerily quiet, like the calm before a storm.

Suddenly a voice broke the silence. Li Shunquan strode into the hall and bowed respectfully to Xie Rong.

"Your Majesty, I have brought the Princess of Jialin County here."

"Announce." Xie Rong said.

"Yes." Li Shunquan walked to Xie Rong's side, turned around, and shouted loudly: "Please ask the Princess Jialin to come to the audience!"

As the words fell, Shen Qionghua walked into the hall, raised his eyes quickly and glanced around, seeing the situation inside the hall clearly.

Then, with her head lowered, she quickly walked to the side of the officials, knelt down and saluted, saying loudly, "Your Majesty, I pay my respects to you. Long live the Emperor!"

"Princess Jialin, do you know why I summoned you to the palace today?" Xie Rong's majestic voice rang out in the hall.

Shen Qionghua knelt on the ground, straightened her upper body, and said respectfully: "Your Majesty, I don't know."

"But His Royal Highness Prince An went to the Shen family to collect the silver today. It must be related to the disaster relief money."

"Princess Jialin is quite clever." Xie Rong was about to say something when a young eunuch entered the hall and hurried to Li Shunquan's side and whispered.

Li Shunquan was stunned for a moment, then nodded and turned to Xie Rong and said, "Your Majesty, His Royal Highness Prince Rui requests an audience."

"Then let him come in and listen. It just so happens that part of this matter is caused by him." Xie Rong said lightly.

"Yes." Li Shunquan agreed and walked out. After a while, he brought Xie Nanyuan in.

"My son, I will meet my father."

"Be flat."

"Thank you, father." Xie Nanyuan said.

Xie Rong looked at his always doted-on son and said, "You've come just in time. Let's listen together."

Xie Nanyuan nodded.

Xie Rong looked at Shen Qionghua, who was kneeling below him, and said, "County Master Jialin, it was you who took the initiative to propose that the Shen family hand over three million taels of silver for disaster relief, is that correct?"

"In reply to the emperor, it was this servant who proposed it." Shen Qionghua said.

Xie Rong nodded and continued, "Then why, when Prince An went to the Shen Mansion to collect the silver today, was nearly half of the three million taels of silver you handed over silver-clad copper? Are you taking me for a fool?"

Silver-clad copper, as the name suggests, is copper inside and wrapped with a thin layer of silver on the outside.

From a distance, it looks just like silver, but up close you can see many differences.

When the officials in charge of the Ministry of Revenue were counting the silver, they found that the weight of the silver was wrong. They realized something was wrong and burned it with fire. Sure enough, the surface silver fell off, exposing the copper inside.

He was immediately horrified and afraid of taking responsibility, so he reported it to the emperor.

Shen Qionghua knew in her heart that this must have been the work of Prince An, but she said with disbelief, "Your Majesty, this is absolutely impossible."

"The three million taels of silver handed over this time were all exchanged for silver notes at the bank one by one. I have also carefully checked them, and there is absolutely no possibility of copper-clad silver."

Xie Nanyuan also stood up, "Father..."

Xie Rong waved his hand, signaling Xie Nanyuan not to speak.

Li Shunquan glanced at the young eunuch beside him. The young eunuch understood and walked to Shen Qionghua with a tray.

"You said it's impossible to have silver-coated copper, but these were burned from that silver. The people at the Ministry of Revenue said that nearly half of it is silver-coated copper."

Shen Qionghua took a look and saw that the blackened area on the copper still had a hint of silver around the edges.

It is indeed silver-clad copper.

Shen Qionghua said respectfully, "Your Majesty, this could not possibly be from the silver the Shen family handed over. When the Shen family's silver left the Shen Mansion, I specifically asked several officials from the Ministry of Revenue to check it, and they found nothing unusual."

"Oh? Did you check the silver before it left the Shen Mansion?" Xie Rong looked at the people in charge.

Several people in charge hesitated for a moment and then nodded.

An official kneeling beside Xie Qian'an received his signal and straightened up, saying, "Your Majesty, we were in a hurry to get the silver back to the Ministry of Revenue. We also believed that the county lady was wholeheartedly serving the people and would not do anything shameful, so we only checked a few boxes of silver."

"When they saw nothing unusual, they transported all the silver back to the Ministry of Revenue. Unexpectedly, when they counted the silver, everything went smoothly at first, and the rest was almost all silver wrapped in copper."

"Now that I think about it, when Lady Jialin said she wanted to inspect the silver before letting it out of the palace, she might have been setting a trap for us so she could keep half of the silver."

"Your Majesty, Princess Jialin is worthy of death, Your Majesty!"