I am the prince of the Ming Dynasty, I don't give up

Chapter 297 Intolerable
Zhu Houxuan's greatest golden finger is his strong memory. His strong memory not only allows him to remember what he has seen in his previous life, but also comes in handy in his daily life. As long as it is a document he has read, he will not forget it. The problems in the memorial were discovered in this context.

"At that time, I specially compared the time on the memorial with the time on the report. The time on the memorial was only three days later than the time on the report. There were two different weather reports in such a short period of time. Don't you think this is strange?" Zhu Houxuan continued.

The hall was so quiet that one could hear a pin drop. Everyone present was smart and could understand what Zhu Houxuan meant. No one spoke up to refute the reliability of Zhu Houxuan's source of information. Since Zhu Houxuan could bring up this matter, it must be a sure thing.
Zhu Houxuan walked gently into the middle of the crowd, his voice still ringing, "Although I had doubts at the time, I still couldn't be completely sure if there was any problem. I was also worried that the report was wrong and that good people would be wronged, so I kept these memorials and asked the Royal Group's branches in various places to confirm the weather and disaster situation in various places."

Zhu Houxuan's voice became more and more kind.
He took a thick stack of documents and distributed them to the ministers present. "These are the summaries of reports from various places. Due to time constraints, only the reports from the four northern provinces are included. Please have a look, everyone."

Liang Chu took a document and quickly found Chenzhou, which he was most concerned about. It said: Good weather and good harvests, no drought.
Below is a chart that details the weather conditions for the past month.

After seeing such a detailed record, Liang Chu was already 80% convinced.

He compared the contents of the documents and found that among the more than 4 disaster report memorials left by Zhu Houxuan, were actually false reports of the disaster. However, there were definitely more than just these four memorials that falsely reported the disaster, because the Royal Group only had time to collect intelligence from the four northern provinces in such a short time.

"Your Highness, please order the arrest of these four men and bring them to the capital for trial." Zuodu Yushi Pengze stood up and said angrily.

Many ministers also responded.

Zhu Houxuan waved his hand gently and said calmly: "Don't worry, this is just the beginning. After all, the Royal Group is not an official organization, so we will first send imperial envoys to these problematic places to confirm the situation."

"Your Highness, this strategy is truly mature and prudent," Yang Yiqing said.

There was a burst of praise in the hall. Some people even thought that Zhu Houxuan did not want to investigate the matter any further. The eyes of the people present towards Zhu Houxuan had changed.
Zhu Houxuan nodded gently and continued, "If we really find any problems, we should not just send four people to the capital. We should find out whether local officials are involved in this matter. In addition, the disaster reports from prefectures and counties cannot be directly submitted to the Tongzhengsi. Instead, they must be reported to the higher authorities one level at a time. We should also find out whether their superiors are colluding with them. If there is no collusion, we should find out why they failed to supervise and what responsibilities they should bear if they failed to supervise."

Zhu Houxuan said the cruelest words in the gentlest tone
The ministers present were all shocked. If they continued to investigate in this way, they would surely find a lot of evidence. With the complicated network of relationships among the civil servants, it was unclear who would be implicated in the end.
But how could they refute it? Zhu Houxuan had already taken the title of righteousness in this matter. It was an open conspiracy, and his handling of the matter was completely impeccable.

"Yes, sir!" Left Censor-in-Chief Peng Ze said hurriedly.

If we were to say who among those present felt the most uncomfortable, it would definitely be Pengze. As the Left Censor-in-Chief, he was the highest official of the Censorate, which was the highest supervisory agency of the Ming Dynasty. Not only could he supervise the judicial agencies, he also had the right to "report major matters for adjudication and make immediate decisions on minor matters", and he also had the responsibility to supervise all officials.

The inspectors of the Metropolitan Procuratorate are responsible for supervising the prefectures, counties and other government offices. Now that something like this has happened, the inspectors in charge of inspecting these places are definitely involved. "The Ministry of Justice and the Dali Temple should also get involved!" Zhu Houxuan continued.

Now everyone understood that Zhu Houxuan was going to get to the bottom of this.
The Minister of Justice and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court also quickly agreed.

Zhu Houxuan then nodded with satisfaction, and the ministers present also breathed a sigh of relief.

But the matter was not over yet. Wei Bin came up and distributed the documents in his hand to everyone present one by one.

"The questions in these memorials have aroused my curiosity. I am very curious about one thing: is it only this year that falsely reporting disasters has happened?"

Zhu Houxuan's slow voice sounded again, and his voice made the ministers present feel nervous again.
"So I asked Eunuch Wei to find all the disaster reports from the past two years. And since the branches of the Royal Group in various places have gone to investigate, I asked them to collect the situations in various places from the past two years. This is the one you see in your hands." Zhu Houzhao paced slowly in the hall.

There was a sound of turning pages in the hall, and all the ministers were flipping through the documents in their hands.

"Then I have found nine problematic memorials. My Lords, please take a look at them and then discuss what to do."

Zhu Houxuan waved his hand, and a eunuch came out holding a thick stack of memorials and placed them in front of everyone.

Now the ministers are really a little scared. It will be a big deal if the lid is lifted. This is the result of the four northern provinces in the past three years. If the whole country is investigated, how much more will it be? This will be a major case involving at least hundreds of people.
How long has it been since the Ming Dynasty had such a major case involving so many officials? The last time so many officials were involved seemed to be when Emperor Yingzong was restored to the throne.
But seeing Zhu Houxuan's current attitude, no one dared to say no, so they could only continue to investigate these matters.
This evening court session had only lasted half an hour, but the ministers present felt like they were living a year.
But Zhu Houxuan was not finished yet. He smiled and continued, "In fact, I don't particularly hate those officials who falsely reported the disaster. After all, they just reported a good year as a disaster. The country suffered a little, but the people were not affected too much. After all, it was a good year."

Under Zhu Houzhao's kind smile, he was slowly accumulating strength
The officials in the palace also vaguely sensed something.
"But!" Zhu Houxuan's face suddenly turned cold, "There is one situation that I really cannot tolerate!"

"I have discovered that disasters have indeed occurred in some places, and the imperial court has exempted taxes, but some local officials are still greedy, cruel and merciless, and are still collecting taxes as usual!"

(End of this chapter)