Chapter 930 926 [The Two Princes Are Gone]

In the interrogation room, facing Fei Chun sat three people, one in black, one in white and one in red.

The black one belonged to the National Security Council, the white one belonged to the Inspectorate, and the one in the red one belonged directly to the Minister of Dali Temple.

"Is this a joint trial in three sessions?" Fei Chun couldn't laugh or cry.

The traditional three-court trial is the Procuratorate, the Ministry of Criminal Justice, and the Dali Temple. Officials from the Ministry of Criminal Justice did not come today.

Huang Zundu, head of the National Security Council, asked: "Old Feige, you are offended, and we are also following the emperor's orders. What is your relationship with Xiao Qifeng?"

Fei Chun replied: "When I was in Luling County, he and I were neighbors. His wife often came to my house as a guest, and made my mother happy, so he recognized my adoptive father and foster mother. At that time, Xiao Qifeng also came to my house occasionally, and talked I drank a few ounces of wine, and my personal relationship was relatively good. Later, he was transferred to Guangdong, and then moved around to become an official, so there was no contact. It was not until he was transferred back to Beijing that we occasionally communicated."

"He can be promoted quickly, is it related to you?" Huang Zundu asked.

Fei Chun said: "Maybe there is, but I didn't say anything, maybe the officials of the official department misunderstood. After all, when my mother goes out, the lady of the Xiao family often follows her around. Some people will think too much when they see it."

Huang Zundu asked directly: "Have you ever received money from him? Or other gifts."

"I am the Duke of the state, and His Majesty rewarded the salt shop and the mine. I have made many contributions, and there are three mines. Do you think I will be short of money?" Fei Chun asked, "Before Ding You, I was already a second assistant. If I hadn’t gone home to keep my filial piety, I would be the chief minister of the court now, so I could be regarded as an extremely human minister, right? I’m a duke, and I’m not short of money. I’m worthy of accepting bribes from him? I’m not a fool, throwing watermelons I don’t do things like picking sesame seeds.”

Huang Zundu asked again: "Did your mother, wife and children accept bribes from the Xiao family?"

Fei Chun corrected: "That's not called bribery, it's just reciprocity. If you accept a gift, you will return it, and it's not something valuable. If you really want something valuable, I'll definitely stop it. My family doesn't lack that little money."

Huang Zundu looked left and right, but the two next to him didn't speak, and they didn't seem to know how to interrogate.

Fei Chun suddenly said with emotion: "Brothers, don't look at my mother wearing gold and silver every time she goes out, she is very frugal. Most of my mother's tiara and pendant are made of pearls. No The South Pearl (Hepu Pearl), not the North Pearl (East Pearl), nor the East and West South Sea Pearls, are all lake pearls from the south of the Yangtze River! Only the biggest one is a golden bead bestowed by the emperor. She is just trying to save face."

As far as the market price is concerned, Hepu pearls are the most expensive, followed by Northeast pearls, South Sea pearls again, Western pearls again, and Dongyang pearls are the worst.

Below these pearls, there are lake pearls in the south of the Yangtze River.

What is a lake bead?

Artificially cultivated freshwater pearls around Taihu Lake.

In the Northern Song Dynasty, there were artificial pearls in Taihu Lake. In the Southern Song Dynasty, Buddha statue beads appeared, which were carved into Buddha statues with lead or tin, stuffed into pearl shells, and taken out after two or three years, they became lifelike Buddha statue pearls.

The three interrogators couldn't help looking at each other. They hadn't really thought that Fei Chun's mother would wear cheap pearls.

Fei Chun continued: "My mother hasn't lost her petty air all these years. Apart from lake beads, most of her jewelry is jadeite. It is said that the emperor likes jadeite, and she shares the same preference as the emperor. In fact, jadeite is cheaper than red sapphire. It won't lose face if you wear it. She knows His Majesty's temper, and I often talk about the fate of the founding heroes of the past. The more I become an official, the less courageous she will be. How dare she accept bribes from others?"

"What's the matter with your third brother?" Huang Zundu asked.

Fei Chun's third younger brother was born after his parents arrived in Luling County, one year younger than the crown prince Zhao Kuanghuan.

Fei Chun sighed and said, "My third brother didn't study well, didn't pass the university entrance exam, and wanted to be an official all day long. I did say hello to him when he was admitted to be an official in the Jinling Mansion. He was promoted from an official to a ninth-rank official. I also contributed secretly. If you say I am cheating for personal gain, I plead guilty, and you can do whatever you want."

"He took Xiao Qifeng's silver, a total of 30,000 taels." Huang Zundu said.

"What?" Fei Chun stood up in shock.

Huang Zundu said in detail: "He went to Shandong as a small official, and brought a few middle school classmates with him. With the money given by Xiao Qifeng, he partnered with others in the maritime trade business. He has an official status, so it is not easy to come forward directly, so he only takes money secretly. The dry stock dividends are dedicated to running the waterway from Dengzhou to Lushun and North Korea. Moreover, under your name, you will do official business with Lushun."

"Bastard!" Fei Chun slapped the table angrily.

Fei Chun's family is not short of money, and his mother dotes on the third son the most, even if he stays at home as a pig, he can live well. This bastard actually accepted bribes as capital, and even accepted official orders under the name of Mr. Ge.

Is your mind full of shit?

Huang Zundu continued: "By the way, the trading company that your third brother is a shareholder of doesn't pay a tael of silver. He doesn't have a stable supply of goods, and he uses your name to force suppliers to sell him cotton cloth at a low price. These things , were all found out by the clean government officials at the Shipbuilding Department of Dengzhou City."

Even if Cao Benshu has no progress in Shanghai, Xiao Qifeng will be found out in Shandong.

It is really Fei Chun's third brother's company, the accounts are too confusing. A group of young people were also very cowardly. After being slightly intimidated by the honest and honest officials, they were so shocked that they recruited everything, even talking about accepting Xiao Qifeng's dirty money.

Fei Chun sat down slowly, leaned on the back of the chair and said, "I want to see Your Majesty."

"I'll ask for instructions." Huang Zundu said.

…

Imperial Garden.

Zhao Han asked with a smile, "Did the National Security Council beat you?"

"No, it's quite polite." Fei Chun replied.

Zhao Hanyin lost his smile, looked at the wind blowing on the surface of the lake, and muttered to himself: "This case is very big, maybe it's time to thoroughly investigate the city ship department."

Fei Chun said: "If you only check the Shibo Department, you will definitely not be able to find out. The Shibo Department's accounts have to be reviewed every year."

"That's right." Zhao Han nodded.

Now that there are no electronic accounts, it is impossible to compare the transaction details of various companies every year. There are so many companies in the country, if large-scale reconciliations are carried out every year, it is impossible to support so many review officials.

Even if the imperial court makes this a routine, it will conduct an inspection at most once every two or three years, and only a certain port can be randomly inspected each time.

Fei Chun said: "The crime of the minister is that he violated the regulations and asked the governor of Jinling to recruit my third brother as an official. Before the promotion period expired, he transferred the third brother to Shandong as a ninth-rank official. Besides, the minister has not done anything wrong. , Your Majesty can check it out."

There is one more thing that I didn't say, Xiao Qifeng used his own name to get promoted, Fei Chun has been pretending not to know. He thinks that Xiao Qifeng is capable and has a reputation of integrity, and he is happy to see her quickly promoted and can be used as a member of his faction.

The emperor forbids forming cliques, and Fei Chun doesn't do it deliberately, but everything can be "let nature take its course".

Xiao Qifeng was not the only member of this kind of team who was promoted by "letting nature take its course". Many senior officials of the second and third ranks in the court had a close relationship with Fei Chun.

Even Chen Maosheng, who has always been selfless, has his own team.

Zhao Han asked, "What do you think should be done?"

Fei Chun knelt down and said, "Your Majesty, please spare my third brother's life, and don't exile him in Tibet or Heilongjiang. It would be best to exile him overseas. As for the minister himself, I will let your Majesty punish me."

"Okay, I will do what you want and exile your third brother overseas," Zhao Han actually agreed, "In the ocean, there is an island with many sandalwood trees. I have named it Tanzhou. Your third brother Let's go to Tanzhou with my wife and children."

"Tanzhou?"

Fei Chun was stunned when he heard this. During his stay in Ding You, he didn't know any news about Hawaii.

In this era, is it better to be exiled in Tibet and Heilongjiang, or is it better to be exiled in Hawaii? It seems hard to say clearly, Hawaii is definitely more comfortable, but it is very likely that the boat will capsize and die halfway. Moreover, once you go to Hawaii, you will never think about coming back in this life.

Zhao Han asked someone to bring the latest version of the globe, and pointed to the center of the Pacific Ocean.

Fei Chun was speechless for a long time.

Zhao Han said again: "Your prince is gone, and the promotion and dismissal are gone. Ding You's term is over, let's start as a scholar of Dongge University."

"Thank you, Your Majesty, for your grace!" Fei Chun knelt down again.

Don't think this is taking lightly, Zhao Han punished Fei Chun very severely.

The knighthood is rolled to the end, the official is added to the end, and the rank is scattered to the end, only the rank of the job remains.

As far as Fei Chun's cabinet ranking is concerned, after the mourning period expires, he can come back directly to be the chief assistant, and the current chief assistant must give up his seat. But the emperor asked him to be a scholar of the Dongge University. Although he was still a cabinet minister, he belonged to the lowest class of cabinet ministers, and he might not be able to be the chief assistant until he died.

Political life is half over.

Zhao Han didn't know whether it was beating or comforting: "You don't have to be sad, you are not the only one who was confiscated as the duke of the country this time."

"Anyone else?" Fei Chun was surprised.

"The Zheng family!" Zhao Han sighed.

Shanghai and Dengzhou found Xiao Qifeng, a big fish.

And in Fujian, it was found that the Zheng family was collaborating with the navy in smuggling!

Zhao Han said: "The navy will not allow any business in the future, otherwise I don't know what troubles will arise."

…

Fuzhou.

Zheng Zhilong no longer lives in his hometown mansion, and bought a mansion in Fuzhou. He doesn't care about anything else, he enjoys leisure all day long, and leaves all his business to his brothers and nephews.

On this day, Zheng Zhilong was listening to an opera, and the opera troupe was raised by the family.

He was all dressed in brocade, his turban was embellished with Nanyang gold beads, and he was wearing a large Hetian jade finger wrench. While listening to the play, the maidservant was still feeding the grapes, which were brought from the north and kept in a box with ice cubes for the whole process.

"My lord, the angel is here!"

Zheng Zhilong shuddered all over and stood up quickly.

The imperial court sent imperial envoys to investigate the case, and they found the Zheng family. Zheng Zhilong knew all these things.

But he could only pretend that he didn't know that he should listen to the opera, and he didn't even dare to leave the house, as if he was resigned to his fate. The Zheng family is collaborating with the navy in smuggling, and Zheng Zhilong knows about it. His attitude is not to encourage, not oppose, and not to ask.

"Meet the angel!" Zheng Zhilong went out to greet him respectfully.

The passerby in charge of delivering the decree took out a seal and a copy of the imperial decree.

Zheng Zhilong stared at the seal and was stunned. The Duke's seal was a gold seal, but in front of him was an iron seal.

The first-class duke was directly demoted to the third-class baron, and he didn't take all his titles away to save him.

And the title is also ironic, called "law-abiding man".

Zheng Zhilong received the order with trembling hands, and asked: "My brothers and nephews..."

The passer-by replied: "All titles will be taken back. Beheaded and exiled. Half of the merchant ships of the Zheng family will be confiscated, and a fine of one million taels of silver will be fined. If the current silver is not enough, the merchants or merchant ships will be mortgaged. Go to the auction."

Zheng Zhilong's eyes were dull, and he almost fainted on the spot.