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

After these words were spoken, the entire hall fell silent.

Shen Qionghua folded her hands before her forehead, bowed and kowtowed, then stood up and said, "Your Majesty, what this gentleman said is completely false. The reason I asked you gentlemen to check the silver before moving out is purely out of caution after years of doing business."

"According to what you said, if these silver-wrapped coppers came from the Shen Mansion, you should have found them during your random inspection."

"You..." The chief was about to speak, but Shen Qionghua interrupted him, "Sir, you don't think it's a coincidence that none of you drew the silver-covered copper box, do you?"

"I put all the boxes in front of me and let you check them. If there really was something fishy going on, how could I dare to do that?"

The person in charge was not to be outdone and said, "I wonder if you're just trying to take a gamble? You were the one who suggested checking the silver. If you find any problems, you can just say it was a mistake and get the silver back."

"If you don't find out, once the silver leaves the Shen Mansion, you can completely absolve yourself of any responsibility by simply checking the silver."

"This is a bet of over a million taels of silver. Merchants always value profit, so how can they not be tempted?"

He is really eloquent.

Shen Qionghua missed the slightly sarcastic look that the person in charge gave Xie Qian'an.

Shen Qionghua turned her head and looked at Xie Rong, who was sitting on the dragon throne. "Your Majesty, what this gentleman said is entirely based on speculation. At that time, I suggested that every box of silver be checked, but the head of the Ministry of Revenue said that it would take a long time. It was His Royal Highness Prince An who proposed a random check."

"Could it be that this servant knew Prince An would eventually conduct a random inspection, so she had the audacity to mix the silver-wrapped copper into it?"

Upon hearing this, Xie Rong looked at Xie Qian'an with a gloomy expression, "Prince An, was it you who proposed the random inspection?"

Xie Qianan stepped forward and said, "Father, it was indeed this son who proposed it, but at the time I didn't think too much about it. I just wanted to transport the silver back to the Ministry of Revenue as soon as possible."

"Besides, the silver was already packed in boxes. It would have been a huge undertaking to empty it out and count it one by one. That's why I came up with this idea, but I didn't expect something like this would happen later."

Xie Rong's expression was unclear when he heard this. He unconsciously touched the ring on his thumb and turned it quickly.

After a long while, he spoke softly, "So what do you think about this?"

"Father?" Xie Qian'an looked up to meet Xie Rong's sharp eyes, then lowered them again and said, "I, your son, do not want to believe that Princess Jialin is such a bad person. I can only look at this matter from an objective perspective."

"The fact that Princess Jialin suddenly requested a silver count is indeed suspicious. Counting three million taels of silver would have taken a considerable amount of time. Furthermore, the Ministry of Revenue, having been ordered by the Emperor, naturally had to move the silver back to the Ministry as quickly as possible to add it to the national treasury."

"I'm not sure if Princess Jialin is taking advantage of me and the other ministers' psychology and is asking for a count of the silver to trick me into falling into a trap."

"But after the silver was moved from the Shen Mansion and loaded onto a truck, it was driven all the way to the Imperial Palace. With soldiers under the command of the Marquis of Yongning escorting it, the possibility of it being tampered with was practically zero."

"But if it's the Jialin County Lady who exchanged the silver, I find it a little strange. If the Jialin County Lady is reluctant to donate so much silver, then she can just donate less. Why make such a fuss?"

"Combining these three factors, I dare not say for sure what the truth is."

Shen Qionghua couldn't help but sneer in her heart when she heard his seemingly fair words.

These few words seemed to speak for her, but they actually put all the responsibility on her.

What does it mean that the possibility of someone tampering with you on the road is almost zero?

Doesn't this mean that there was a problem with the money in the Shen Mansion? Either she used some tricks to embezzle the more than one million taels, or the Shen family failed to keep good watch over it and someone took advantage of it.

The Shen family is guilty anyway.

Marquis Yongning also spoke at this moment. He clasped his hands together and said, "Your Majesty, on the way back to the palace, my soldiers have been guarding the carriage the entire time. They would never tamper with anything."

The official then spoke again, "Your Majesty, it seems to me that Princess Jialin has gone back on her word and is unwilling to hand over so much silver."

"Regarding the doubts raised by His Royal Highness Prince An just now, I do have some guesses in my mind."

"As everyone knows, the Emperor conferred the title of County Lady on the daughter of the Shen family because of her meritorious service in donating silver to disaster relief."

"The silver-clad copper discovered this time is worth over one million taels, and the remaining one million taels is silver."

"Your Majesty, if Princess Jialin had only donated a little over one million taels of silver, would you have issued this imperial decree to confer the title?"

Xie Rong's eyes flickered when he heard this, but he didn't answer. He said calmly, "Go on."

The official seemed to be encouraged, his chest straightened a little, and said, "So, I dare to guess that it is because the daughter of the Shen family is greedy for fame and feels that more than one million taels of silver cannot impress the emperor to make her a county lady, so she said she would hand over three million taels of silver."

"But after the emperor actually conferred the title of County Princess on her, she felt that three million taels of silver was too much, so she resorted to all this."

This was to drag Xie Nanyuan, who had secretly spoken up for Shen Qionghua and had her named County Lord, into the water...

Xie Nanyuan clasped his hands together, stepped forward, and said, "Your Majesty, this statement is completely false. The Princess Jialin approached me only to donate silver, and did not ask for any reward."

"Besides, the silver must be carefully counted before entering the national treasury. If it was really the Jialin County master who did it, didn't she know that this secret would be exposed soon?"

"When the palace investigates, she may not be able to escape unscathed."

"The Shen family is a wealthy and powerful family. Although they have borrowed a lot of silver from the shop to raise funds this time, it has not damaged their foundation. Sooner or later, they will earn the silver back. Why should Princess Jialin bear the crime of deceiving the emperor and destroy the entire Shen family for over a million taels of silver?"

The hall was divided, each with its own opinion. Xie Rong looked at Shen Qionghua, who was kneeling on the ground, and asked, "Do you have anything else to say?"

Shen Qionghua nodded and said, "I think this person's idea is really powerful. He has no evidence at all and relies entirely on speculation. He even thinks that I donated silver in the first place and came here for the position of County Lord."

"I, a humble servant, do not believe I have the ability to influence the Emperor's decision."

"And from an objective perspective, I truly disagree with what Your Highness Prince An said."

"Nearly half of the disaster relief money was converted into silver-clad copper. Until the matter is fully investigated, the Shen family, His Royal Highness Prince An, the Marquis of Yongning, the head of the Ministry of Revenue, and the soldiers who moved the boxes are all suspects."

"Your Highness Prince An is a party to this whole thing, so how can he be objective? How can Your Highness Prince An and the Marquis of Yongning claim that the silver wasn't tampered with during its journey back to the palace?"

After Shen Qionghua finished speaking, the hall fell silent for a moment. The other officials kneeling on the ground looked at her in surprise, as if they had not expected her to be so bold as to say anything.

The person in charge who had been throwing dirty water on Shen Qionghua almost jumped up, "Your Majesty, this Shen family girl is talking nonsense! That silver must have been worth a lot when it was in the Shen family!"

As if she was certain that the Shen family was responsible, she stopped even calling her Princess Jialin County.

Shen Qionghua glanced at him calmly, placed his hands on his forehead, bowed and said:

"Your Majesty, I have evidence to prove that the silver-coated copper definitely did not come from the Shen family!"