All Heavens and Worlds Modified History System

Chapter 178 Please teach me~~~
"Thank you Zihou for saving me."

After a course of treatment, Empress Ma, whose condition had obviously improved, formally thanked Chen Ran, "I will never forget your life-saving grace."

Chen Ran nodded immediately, "I believe you!"

If a real politician said such words of gratitude, Chen Ran would never believe it.

Just like when Wu Zetian said this, Chen Ran could only laugh it off.

But since Queen Ma said this, Chen Ran would definitely believe it.

To be called a virtuous queen means that she basically has no stains, and she keeps her word and can be trusted.

Seeing that Empress Ma was about to leave, Chen Ran immediately asked, "Where are you going, Madam?"

"I haven't seen Chongba for several days. He must not be eating well." Queen Ma said with a smile, "Go cook for him."

In Empress Ma's heart, the emperor and the empress were not important; they were a real couple.

All of Zhu Yuanzhang's food and drink were always prepared by Empress Ma herself.

She hadn't cooked for Zhu Yuanzhang for several days and she felt a little itchy.

"Miss."

Under the astonished gazes of the eunuchs and palace maids, Chen Ran simply stopped Empress Ma and said, "The emperor is killing people, don't go at this time."

Queen Ma looked surprised and asked, "Kill someone? Who?"

Chen Ran didn't waste any words and explained his inference in detail.

Finally, she added, "Everyone knows that the Queen has a kind heart, and there will definitely be many people who want the Queen to intercede on their behalf. At this time, it is better not to come forward."

In the Ming Dynasty, the only person who could persuade Zhu Yuanzhang was Empress Ma.

Sometimes even Zhu Biao couldn't persuade them and could only go against them.

Queen Ma fell into silence and said nothing.

After waiting for a while, she smiled and said, "Zihou, you underestimated me."

"They want to harm my grandson, they want to harm me, and in the future they want to harm Biao'er, Chongba, and the rest of the Zhu family. I am kindhearted, not stupid, so how could I possibly speak for them!"

Hearing this, Chen Ran smiled and moved aside.

In the imperial study, Zhu Yuanzhang was holding a red pen and writing on a long list.

Those whose names are ticked must die!
"Chongpachi!"

The call made the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty tremble uncontrollably.

He looked dazed, as if coming back from a dream!
When he looked up, he saw Queen Ma coming in with midnight snacks. He stood up involuntarily, staggered over the chair, and went forward to hug her tightly!
"Hey, my clothes are dirty."

Seeing that the midnight snack she made had stained Zhu Yuanzhang's dragon robe, Empress Ma pushed him in dissatisfaction, "What are you doing? You are so old."

Empress Ma was already in her early fifties, and she was very shy to be hugged in front of so many eunuchs and palace maids.

"Xiuying!" Zhu Yuanzhang was excited, and his voice trembled. "I have been dreaming every day recently. In my dreams, Xiongying is gone, and you are gone too. I am so scared~~~really scared~~~"

Empress Ma sighed and handed the plate in her hand to the court lady Zhaorong beside her.

He patted Zhu Yuanzhang on the back with his backhand and said, "Zhongba, I'm here. I won't have this kind of dream again in the future."

"That's enough." After a while, Empress Ma pushed Zhu Yuanzhang away and said, "You must thank Zihou very much. If it weren't for Zihou's miraculous healing, you really wouldn't be able to see me and Xiongying."

"Yes." Zhu Yuanzhang returned to his emperor's posture. "I, Zhu Yuanzhang, will remember this contribution and will definitely reward him handsomely!"

If Chen Ran heard this, he would just laugh it off.

Because he knew that Zhu Yuanzhang and Empress Ma were different.

There are so many people who have made contributions under him, but how many of them can have a good ending in the end?

"Don't worry about this matter." Zhu Yuanzhang, who had regained his emperor's character, sat back in his chair and said, "Don't ask for favors from anyone."

Empress Ma smiled and brought the soup bowl to Zhu Yuanzhang. "They have already harmed my eldest grandson, and I still want to intervene? Do you think I am stupid?"

"Those who need to be dealt with should be dealt with, but we should not involve too many people."

"You woman." Zhu Yuanzhang put down the soup bowl in his hand in dissatisfaction. "What do you mean by too many implications? This is called cutting the grass to remove the roots! Could it be that we still have to give them a chance to retaliate?"

Empress Ma also knew that what Zhu Yuanzhang said made sense, so after thinking about it, she still persuaded him with one sentence: "Women and children are ignorant."

"When the nest is overturned, no egg is left unbroken." Zhu Yuanzhang took a sip of the soup, and the familiar taste softened his heart. "Forget it, the women will be sent to the Jiaofangsi."

"Jiaofangsi"

Empress Ma knew very well what the Jiaofangsi was. It was a government-run place.

When the wives and daughters of officials go there, they will be given special care and have a constant stream of business.

Although she agreed to leave it alone, Empress Ma's nature still made her say, "Why not send it to the home of a meritorious official?"

"There are no such things as meritorious ministers." Zhu Yuanzhang rolled his eyes and was about to refute, but suddenly he thought of a meritorious minister.

Chen Ran, who first saved the emperor's eldest grandson and then saved the queen, is truly a meritorious official.

He was still worrying about how to reward Chen Ran.

After all, Zhu Yuanzhang always felt that Chen Ran was unruly and had an inexplicable aversion to him, just like an emperor facing a powerful minister.
He cannot be promoted. He is just a wandering doctor. How can he be qualified to be a high-ranking official?

Simply giving money may not be considered a reward.

Now that I think about it, this is a solution.

"Okay." Zhu Yuanzhang nodded, "I'll arrange it."

The rain is coming and the wind is all over the building.

The news that the emperor was about to take action inevitably spread.

Those who are interested are also trying every possible means to protect themselves, and there is an endless stream of people using various connections to gain advantages.

However, Zhu Yuanzhang's will was so firm that he was determined to do something, and no one could persuade him except Empress Ma.

Empress Ma, on the other hand, refused to see anyone, claiming she was ill and recuperating. One day, Chen Ran was working in the East Palace office. When he was looking through the official documents, he saw an impeachment memorial.

The content said that when the prefectures and counties under the provincial governments handed over money, grain and military supplies to the Ministry of Revenue, the officials who went to Yingtian Prefecture all brought blank books with seals stamped on them for use.

Simply put, local prefectures and counties had to pay taxes, grain, and various military supplies to the imperial court.

However, due to transportation problems, the actual amount of various materials sent to the capital from far away was different from the amount received by the Ministry of Revenue.

The reason is simple, there will be losses along the way.

After all, there were no airplanes or high-speed trains, so the transportation was entirely dependent on conscripted laborers.

For example, food has to be given to the people to eat. Materials that are easily affected by moisture and mold cannot be blamed on the people who deliver them if it rains on the road. It is also possible that the materials are damaged due to various natural disasters or man-made calamities along the way.

According to the rules of the imperial court, if the items sent were different from the numbers in the account books, they would not be accepted and would have to be sent back for a new book.

After all, if the Ministry of Revenue accepted it, the missing items would be considered as a loss to the Ministry of Revenue, so of course they would not agree to that.

But if we fight back and come back again, the losses in time, materials, manpower, etc. of the round trip are impossible to calculate.

Under such circumstances, local officials who came to provide tribute simply came to the capital with blank books that had the imperial seal on them but did not have the amount of supplies written on them.

When it comes to handover, fill it out on the spot according to the principle of writing down the amount that has been delivered.

In this way, both the local government and the Ministry of Revenue were happy.

Everyone's work is done and there are no more troubles.

These blank books with seals are called empty seals.

Needless to say, there must be countless tricks involved in this kind of thing.

After all, the numbers can be filled in randomly, so given the nature of those civil servants, all kinds of manipulation are inevitable.

No one mentioned this matter before because everyone treated it as a routine.

After all, this is how it is in officialdom. Things that have conventions should be done according to conventions.

But this time it was different. An imperial censor took the initiative to bring up the matter and impeached it.

There was no impeachment before, but they suddenly chose this time period to impeach. The meaning behind it can be imagined.

After all, if the emperor said he didn't know about this kind of thing, it would be unless the person sitting on the throne was Sima Zhong instead of Zhu Yuanzhang.

"This is the Empty Seal Case, one of the four major cases during the Hongwu reign." Chen Ran stroked his chin. "This major case in history broke out because Zhu Yuanzhang noticed something fishy about the deaths of Zhu Xiongying and Empress Ma, so he chose to carry out large-scale revenge against the civil officials."

"Now, it is also revenge, but also a lead to the second stage of the Hu Weiyong case, which is even more serious and fatal!"

"Prince."

"Prince~~"

All the officials in the office stood up and saluted Crown Prince Zhu Biao who walked in.

Zhu Biao came straight to Chen Ran and sat down. "What are you looking at?"

He was not in a good mood about this matter.

After locking up his wife, the child cried for his mother, which made him very annoyed.

There is no other way, I can only hide out and seek a moment of peace.

He raised his hand and handed the impeachment to the Standing Vice Emperor of Ming Dynasty, and then added, "Your Majesty has started to act."

After reading the impeachment carefully, Zhu Biao frowned and said, "My father, did he make it too big?"

"This is to first clear out the local forces that are intertwined and eliminate possible troubles in advance." Chen Ran explained, "You also know how serious Hu Weiyong's clique is. They are intertwined and form a big network. As the saying goes, a single move can affect the entire body."

Zhu Biao naturally knew about the matter of the empty seal.

He also knew that there was something fishy going on here, but there was no other good way.

And more importantly, this is just an excuse. The emperor wants to use this excuse to attack the civil servants in the court.

The irritability in my heart became worse.

"In this case, I wonder how many people will be left in the court after this is over."

Hearing this, Chen Ran responded with a smile, "What's the big deal? Three-legged frogs are hard to find these days, but two-legged scholars are everywhere. Just hold the imperial examination and the special examination."

Zhu Biao sighed repeatedly and really didn't want to get involved in this matter.

After all, his relationship with the civil servants was actually quite good.

Thinking of this, he simply changed the subject, "Zihou, let's talk about the empty seal. I also know that there are drawbacks, but I have no way to properly solve it. Do you have a good plan?"

This question was simply asked to change the subject, as he didn't want to mention the large-scale retaliation that Zhu was about to launch.

Unexpectedly, Chen Ran smiled again and said, "How difficult is that?"

Zhu Biao was surprised and said, "Please teach me, Zihou."

"The root of this problem is the loss during transportation. No one knows the exact amount of loss, so there is room for manipulation."

"If instead of sending people from various places to deliver the goods, the Ministry of Revenue would send people to receive and confirm the goods in person, half of the problem would be solved."

Zhu Biao thought about it seriously and nodded immediately, "That's true, but if the people sent by the Ministry of Revenue are not clean,

"There are Jinyiwei." Chen Ran laughed. "The Ministry of Revenue sends people openly, and Jinyiwei sends people secretly. If there is any mistake, we will just arrest them and make an example of them."

Zhu Biao nodded again, "Why is it only half solved?"

"The other half, of course, is to deliver the supplies to where they should be delivered."

Chen Ran wanted to take a feather fan at this moment. "Assign this matter to the merchants and let them be responsible for transporting various materials to various places. As for wages, either pay them or give them benefits, such as salt permits or something."

"Officials have many ways to embezzle, but if merchants come to deliver the goods, as long as they set limits on quantity, date, quality, etc. in advance, they will solve all the problems themselves."

"I think I've seen this method before somewhere."

Zhu Biao thought about it carefully, and then suddenly realized, "Isn't this the compromise system of the Song Dynasty?"

(End of this chapter)