Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

Luoyang's official residences and dormitories are concentrated in the central and northern part of the southwest urban area.

It was close to the Imperial City, the land price was relatively cheap, and the number of residents was not very large. Continuing to the south, there are even cemeteries in the city, which have now been demolished and turned into residential buildings.

The official residences of the cabinet ministers and important ministers are all in that area.

They are neither large nor small in size, and they use architectural decoration to show their status, while avoiding being too luxurious and causing retired officials to stay away.

Bai Chongyan has been moved to the position of Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, and next door to his home is Qin Hui's official residence.

Youzheng (six o'clock in the evening), San Yamen gets off work.

Bai Chongyan and the officials from the Ministry of Civil Affairs walked to the roadside chatting and laughing.

Many carriages were already parked outside the Liubu Yamen. Everyone showed humility to each other, and naturally the ministers got on the bus first, and they usually shared the ride according to their work units.

Free imperial city shuttle buses took officials from the six departments to Dongkuo City.

You will encounter other vehicles on the way, coming from other yamen directions, and they will all stop in Dongkuo City.

Officials of all sizes, as long as they usually work in the imperial city, are easy to meet here when they are off work. The ministers bowed to each other and walked out of Donghua Gate, where their private cars were waiting.

Some people also choose to ride horses, especially those who are military attaches.

Bai Chongyan had already seen his vehicle. He turned around and bowed to other officials, then walked about ten steps and stepped onto the carriage.

Qin Hui also got on the bus.

Suddenly, many officials came back and blocked the road outside Donghua Gate.

Bai Chongyan opened the curtain and looked curiously, only to find that they were all officials from the Inspectorate. Suddenly I was shocked and thought to myself: "Is there another big case?"

The headquarters of the Inspectorate is located in Dongkuo City. It is the most convenient for them to get off work. They can quickly walk out of Donghua Gate without taking a car.

The situation at hand is that the Inspectorate has already got off work, but is called back to work on the way or at home.

The road is not clear yet, and there are abnormal situations.

Groups of Imperial City guards came running from Beikuo City, and there were even soldiers galloping on horseback.

I also saw Wei Liangchen, the censor of Zuodu, and several officials from the Inspectorate, walking quickly outside the Donghua Gate: "Where is Qin Hui, the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue?"

Qin Hui was sitting in the carriage, and his expression changed drastically when he heard this.

He quickly got out of the car and said, "Here it is."

Wei Liangchen said: "You don't have to go home. Let's go to Dali Temple for a cup of tea."

Qin Hui was frightened, but his expression remained unchanged: "There is an old wife waiting at home. I will send my entourage back to say something."

Wei Liangchen said: "No need. Your wives and concubines will go to Dali Temple to drink tea together tonight."

The cabinet officials waiting around to take the bus home all looked horrified at this moment.

The whole family of the Minister of Hube was invited to Dali Temple for tea, and it was the Zuodu Yushi himself who came to invite him? Qin Hui committed a major crime!

"Let's go, Qin Shangshu." Wei Liangchen urged.

Qin Hui's legs seemed to be filled with lead, and every step he took was very difficult. He was almost dragged into the car by two censors.

The curtains were drawn down, and only Qin Hui and Wei Liangchen were left in the carriage.

Qin Hui also wanted to play the emotional card and tried: "Daobi, you and I are old friends when we were young. We were classmates in Jiankang County when we were studying together. Today..."

Wei Liangchen interrupted: "Don't mention the past."

"I dare to ask, who is falsely accusing me?" Qin Hui asked.

Wei Liangchen had already entered the case trial mode and also tried to test: "Do you know Yang Yuan?"

Qin Hui suddenly realized: "It turns out to be this person. I don't have much personal relationship with him. When I was the Imperial College, he happened to be a student. This person has no ability, but he thinks he is my student, pretending to be powerful and deceiving everywhere. He committed the crime Yet?"

Wei Liangchen said: "He colluded with Xuanzhou civil and military officials to embezzle money and food, force the tribes to rebel, and even burned down official warehouses to blame the rebels."

"Burn... burn down the official warehouse?" Qin Hui couldn't believe it.

He really couldn't understand that Yang Yuan's family was so rich and he had always been timid. After being an official for more than ten years, it was just a small amount of corruption, and I didn't even get back the cost of bribery. How could I dare to commit the serious crime of beheading this time?

Qin Hui has always felt reassured by Yang Yuan, and he didn't even pay attention to the news in Xuanzhou.

Because the chaos in Xuanzhou was very small, the rebels were defeated in one day and the remnants were cleared in half a month. The eyes of the important officials of the imperial court were all focused on Linzhou. After all, the thieves who fled from there directly swept through the three northern mansions of Ningxia.

Except for the emperor himself, no central official noticed Xuanzhou!

Wei Liangchen smiled and said: "Yang Yuan was afraid of death and confessed many corrupt officials. One of them was Qin Shangshu. I heard from your majesty that he even confessed to the small house you secretly purchased."

"Where is the small house? He is slandering people!" Qin Hui denied it, but he was completely panicked and his face could no longer be tense.

He had also thought that his affair would be exposed, but he never expected that it would turn out to be Yang Yuan.

Yang Yuan is timid and his family is rich. He does not engage in corruption. He is just eager to climb up the ladder and loves to brag. Such a guy should be very safe, how could he dare to burn down the official warehouse?

Moreover, his small house is extremely secretive, how could Yang Yuan know about it?

Wei Liangchen warned: "When we arrive at Dali Temple, the officials of the Three Laws Division will come. You and I are classmates after all, so I advise you to confess honestly. If there is no conclusive evidence, Your Majesty will definitely not go to war in such a big way. You can't quibble, even if it is a capital crime, It’s better to die with dignity.”

Qin Hui was still denying: "I'm not guilty...I'm not completely innocent. I only accepted some paintings and calligraphy gifts. I don't dare to make any other mistakes."

"Let's talk about it when we get to Dali Temple." Wei Liangchen was too lazy to say anything more.

…

Bai Chongyan and the other three ministers waited until the streets were clear before they took a car back home - the Minister of Justice was not there, he was called back to work overtime.

The six ministers' official residences were next to each other.

When they returned to their residences, they found that there were also guards here. So they didn't go home, and walked to crowded places out of curiosity, and found that Qin Hui's official residence had been surrounded.

Some time ago, Li Gang took over Qin Hui's position and was promoted to Minister of Works.

According to the original timeline, Li Gang would have died of depression at this time, but he is alive and well in this time and space.

"Minister Qin has committed a shocking crime," Li Gang said in shock, "Does Minister Bai know the inside story?"

Bai Chongyan shook his head and said, "I haven't received any news."

Minister of Rites Hu Anguo said, "Officials from the Inspectorate and the Ministry of Justice have all been recalled to the government. If it was Qin Hui who committed the crime, there would be no need to mobilize so many troops. I'm afraid his students and former officials will also be investigated."

Li Gang guessed, "The Ming Dynasty was just established, and there is a lot of work to be done. In recent years, the whole country has been building a lot of projects, especially repairing official roads and water conservancy, which are all related to the Ministry of Works and are lucrative. It may be that officials from Qin Hui's faction embezzled a lot of project funds, and now their crimes have been exposed and ordered to be thoroughly investigated."

Bai Chongyan and Hu Anguo nodded at the same time, thinking that Li Gang's guess made sense.

The three of them watched from afar, and more and more officials came one after another.

Especially the ministers of various ministries, whose official residences were near the official residence of the minister. Knowing that many palace guards had come, they all ran to watch the excitement, and at this moment they talked about it one by one.

Some people secretly took a few glances and were so scared that they wanted to hide back home, but they were afraid of exposing their guilt, so they could only stand there and pretend nothing happened.

For example, Wanqi Xie.

When Qin Hui was the principal of the Imperial College, Wanqi Xie was the recorder of the Imperial College, and the two were directly subordinate to each other.

Qin Hui wanted to get rid of the Wang family and cultivate his own power.

Wanqi Xie also wanted to get on Qin Hui's way. With the relationship in the former Song Dynasty, the two of them hit it off.

Unlike Yang Yuan, who was unlearned and unskilled, Wanqi Xie was very capable of doing things, so he was regarded as one of Qin Hui's absolute confidants.

Many people knew about the relationship between Qin Hui and Wanqi Xie.

At this moment, the officials who came to watch the excitement automatically distanced themselves from Wanqi Xie. This resulted in a gap of several meters around Wanqi Xie, which was so annoying in the busy streets.

Wanqi Xie said quickly: "I only have a slight friendship with Qin... Qin Hui. He was the Imperial College Principal in the former Song Dynasty, and I was the Imperial College Recorder in the former Song Dynasty. It is inevitable that we are closer in the new Ming Dynasty. But I don't know anything about his corruption and abuse of power. I can swear to heaven that I am definitely not an accomplice of Qin Hui!"

This nonsense, even a fool would not believe it.

"I really have nothing to do with him," Wanqi Xie couldn't stand the strange look, and pretended to stamp his feet in anger, "If you don't believe it, I have nothing to say. I will go home and wait. The Holy Emperor will not wrongly accuse a good official in the court!"

After saying that, this guy turned around and went home.

He also had a set of account books, which he had to go back and burn quickly.

He exchanged all the money he embezzled into Ming Dynasty treasure notes, and regularly sent his confidants back to Yangwu (Yuanyang, Henan). It was directly under the jurisdiction of Kaifeng Prefecture and very close to Luoyang, so it was very convenient to send it there and hide.

As for Luoyang, there are still some treasure notes that have not been sent away. Burn them together with the account books!

The Ming Dynasty treasure notes, with their authority and convenience, have become an excellent tool for officials to embezzle and abuse their power. They dare not go to the official Baoquan institution to exchange them, and often send their confidants to exchange treasure notes in private silver shops, and they don’t care if they are charged higher fees.

When officials leave office or retire, a small box can hold hundreds of thousands of treasure notes, unlike before when they had to transport gold, silver and copper coins by car.

The Ming Dynasty treasure notes, a weapon for corruption!

…

Wang had long been separated from Qin Hui.

Qin Hui lived in the official residence of the Shangshu, and Wang lived in the private residence awarded to Qin Hui by the court.

This place was surrounded by Gu San’s troops, and all exits were blocked. No one was allowed to enter or leave at will.

Wang heard the noise, and was originally aggressive. When she learned that it was the palace guards, she immediately wilted.

When Gu San led his troops into the inner courtyard to search, Wang fell to her knees and cried, "My life is so miserable... I knew that Qin Hui must have done something illegal, but I had no real evidence to report it. He has not returned home for many years and only lives in the official residence. He does not allow me to step into the official residence..."

"I am the descendant of the former prime minister of Song Dynasty. I married a poor scholar and thought I had found my ideal husband... But I did not expect that Qin Hui was an ungrateful person. After the change of dynasties, my Wang family lost its power, and Qin Hui turned his face and refused to recognize me."

"He took concubines every year and no longer slept with me, or even lived in the same house with me. Although we are husband and wife, we have long been strangers... Your Majesty, I have nothing to do with Qin Hui. I did not file a divorce lawsuit with him just because I was afraid that the family scandal would be exposed..."

Gu San was annoyed by the noise and ordered, "Come here, cover her mouth and escort her to the Dali Temple for trial!"