After traveling through time, I led the whole village to become rich!

Seeing Lord Wang acting like this, Emperor Yongxing felt that the matter must be serious and asked hurriedly, "Lord Wang, what do you want to report? Please stand up and speak."

Old Marquis Wang was still crawling on the ground, his voice heavy with grief: "Your Majesty, this time when I went to Changning County in Ding'an Prefecture, I met several disabled veterans of the Shenwu Army. These veterans who were missing limbs had a hard life...

Those veterans had fought with the late emperor and were discharged due to injuries.

In order to thank them for sacrificing their lives for the country, the late emperor and the emperor ordered the court to pay pensions to retired disabled soldiers every year to ensure their basic living security.

But the old ministers learned that they had never received any pension from the court.

More than a decade ago, the imperial court did give them pensions every year, but they refused them. They said the court was in trouble and they could no longer serve the country. They did not want to burden the court and asked that all the money be used to buy food and military equipment.

Emperor Yongxing's expression grew uglier as he listened. Old Marquis Wang continued, "For the first ten years or so, the court distributed silver every year, but then for more than a decade, it stopped. Despite this, the court continued to allocate silver every year..."

"These bastards..."

With a loud bang, Emperor Yongxing slammed his palm on the dragon table. All the eunuchs in the study knelt down and shouted, "Your Majesty, please calm down..."

Emperor Yongxing stood up, walked over to Old Marquis Wang, personally helped him up, and said, "Lord Wang, please tell me the story again in detail."

Lord Wang recounted in detail how Zhang Hulan's family had met Dong Jianyong and the others, including what Xiong Zhubu of Changning County had said. Emperor Yongxing's face was gloomy as he said, "Very good... Very good..."

Emperor Yongxing did not doubt the truth of what Marquis Wang said. He believed in the Wang family's loyalty to the court and the royal family.

Emperor Yongxing was very angry. It started more than ten years ago, when he ascended the throne. Were those people bullying him because he was young?

Lord Wang spoke again, “I hope the Emperor will thoroughly investigate this matter and not let these loyal and brave men shed blood, sweat, and tears.

These veterans have fought for the imperial court, but now they are being treated like this. If they are not properly dealt with, I am afraid that no one will be willing to work for the imperial court in the future.

These people are putting the emperor in an unjust position and destroying his reputation.

But Your Majesty, please don't be too hasty. This matter has been going on for a long time, and there must be quite a few officials involved."

Emperor Yongxing said in a cold voice, "I will definitely investigate thoroughly. These bastards are greedy for money. Have their mothers' hearts been eaten by dogs?"

I don't care how many people are involved, or who they are, as long as I can verify it, I will not let them off lightly."

"Let Minister Wu come to see me." Emperor Yongxing ordered.

The young eunuch immediately went to deliver the message.

Minister Wu came over quickly, and when he saw Lord Wang was there, he understood what Emperor Yongxing wanted to talk to him about.

Minister Wu only glanced at Lord Wang from the corner of his eye, then bowed his head as he entered the hall and kowtowed, "Your Majesty!"

"Be flat."

After Wu Shangshu stood up, Emperor Yongxing asked, "My dear Wu Aiqing, has the court continued to pay the annual pensions to disabled veterans?"

Minister Wu immediately replied, "Your Majesty, we give it every year. The Ministry of War compiles a list every year, and then the Ministry of Revenue allocates funds to the Ministry of War based on the list."

Minister Wu completely distanced his department from responsibility and said, "I allocated funds according to the list given by the Ministry of War. As for how the money was distributed to the disabled veterans later, that was the Ministry of War's own business and had nothing to do with my Ministry of Revenue."

Emperor Yongxing then asked, "How much silver does the Ministry of Revenue allocate to the Ministry of War every year?"

“Your Majesty, the Ministry of War has not yet submitted this year’s list to the Ministry of Revenue. Last year, I remember that the Ministry of War submitted a list of disabled people to the Ministry of Revenue, which included over 350,000 people. Each person received two taels of silver in compensation, and a total of over 700,000 taels of silver was allocated to the Ministry of War.

There are also over 600,000 veterans who have retired due to natural age. These veterans receive one tael of silver in pension each year. The total is over 1.3 million taels of silver.”

Emperor Yongxing then asked, "Are the lists submitted by the Ministry of War to the Ministry of Revenue over the years all archived?"

"some."

Emperor Yongxing said, "Go back immediately and seal all the archives, then send them to me. Don't let anyone else know."

Minister Wu said, "Your Majesty, if you want to retrieve the archives, then the Minister of Revenue, Lord Wang, must be aware of it. It must go through Lord Wang's hands."

"Have him deliver the archive to me personally, and I will make the arrangements."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

"Just back off."

"My minister retire."

Minister Wu bowed and left the Yangxin Palace.

Emperor Yongxing then said to Lord Wang, "Lord Wang, you should go back and rest first. I will investigate this matter and give an explanation to those veteran soldiers."

"Thank you, Your Majesty! I'll take my leave."

Old Marquis Wang left the Yangxin Palace. Minister Wu walked very slowly in front. When Old Marquis Wang caught up, he said, "Old Marquis, you are too impatient. I was thinking of waiting for you to come back and look for you."

Lord Wang asked, "Did your son write you a letter?"

"Such a big thing, how could you not tell me?" Wu Shangshu then said, "Old Marquis, you better be careful. You're going to stir up a lot of hornets' nests with this stick..."

Lord Wang said, "I'm not afraid of shit. Who cares about ghosts and monsters? If you have the guts, just come to me. I said in Changning County that at worst, I'll go to the palace with my head on my shoulders."

Minister Wu sighed and said, "I am the old marquis. You are so old, why are you still so stubborn?

You've lived for decades and it's enough. It doesn't matter if you die, but you also have to think about your descendants, right?

You only have one son, but luckily you have two grandsons. Now your eldest grandson has just gotten engaged. If they don't take action against you, what will you do with your two grandsons?"

Lord Wang sighed inwardly and said, "Alas... I can't watch the kingdom I fought so hard for be ruined by those people.

Have they forgotten that the borders are built with corpses and heads?

Whether it is the late emperor or the current emperor, they are both good emperors who work diligently and love their people, but there are always some people who hold the emperor back.

How many years of peace and stability would this last? If the grassland people attacked the south again, how many men would be willing to risk their lives for the court like they did in the past?

Some things can be turned a blind eye to, but some things are the bottom line, the bottom line that cannot be touched..."

The conversation between Lord Wang and Minister Wu soon reached Emperor Yongxing. After a long silence, Emperor Yongxing opened his eyes and said, "Announce Marquis Jing'an to come to the palace to see me..."

"Yes, Your Majesty!"

Emperor Yongxing then ordered, "Summon Hong Jinhai, the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice."

"Yes, Your Majesty!"