Inheriting a Taoist temple, the story begins with Wu Zetian offering incense.

Chapter 187 Merit Points Full?! [Requesting Monthly Tickets]

Cai You also noticed the change in the sky:

"The sky was clear just a moment ago, why has it suddenly become overcast? It looks like it's going to rain, Father, hurry inside..."

These words made Cai Jing sigh, and he said coldly:

"Take the gifts from the Western Xia people and go to Kaifeng Prefecture to surrender yourself. Tell them everything about how you accepted the bribes. Don't hide anything, or the thunder from the sky will fall on your father's head."

Cai You exclaimed "Ah!"
"Everyone else has accepted them, if we don't..."

He was about to continue speaking when he was interrupted by a rumble of thunder from the sky.

Cai Jing trembled with fear and kicked Cai You.
"You beast, are you trying to kill your father?... If you don't go now, I'll sever our father-son relationship. Get out!"

Cai You then realized the seriousness of the matter and quickly led several servants to take all the gold and silver jewelry sent by the Western Xia people to Kaifeng Prefecture to turn himself in.

Only then did the rumbling thunder gradually subside, and the dark clouds began to slowly disperse.

Cai Jing looked up at the sky, thought for a moment, then turned around, walked out of his house, and went to the palace to request an audience with His Majesty.

Zhao Xu was reviewing memorials in the imperial study when he heard that Cai Jing was requesting an audience, and he found it somewhat strange:
"Summon him to an audience!"

Soon, Cai Jing arrived at the imperial study. After bowing, this historically infamous traitor knelt before Zhao Xu, his knees buckling.
"Having heard that His Majesty is sealing off the manors outside the city, I dare to offer to take on this task on His Majesty's behalf."

The manors outside the city are almost all owned by princes and nobles. Anyone who investigates this matter will offend all the officials. Even Zhao Xu himself can only investigate it superficially now and cannot rush into it.

Zhao Xu was somewhat surprised that Cai Jing, as the Minister of Personnel, would voluntarily take on such a thankless and arduous task.

"Isn't Scholar Cai afraid of offending his colleagues?"

Cai Jing made no attempt to conceal anything, recounting how his son had accepted bribes from the Western Xia:
“If I don’t distance myself from the officials, there will be many more similar incidents in the future. If I want to be loyal to the Song Dynasty, I can only offend them completely.”

Upon hearing that the Western Xia people had bribed officials, Zhao Xu immediately ordered Li Gefei to thoroughly investigate the matter.

With Li Qingzhao protecting Li Gefei, even if the officials impeached him, they would only grumble a few words without any real effect, and dare not act recklessly. It was also a good opportunity to see how many officials were actually corrupt and lawless.

As for Cai Jing, since he volunteered, Zhao Xu entrusted him with the task of thoroughly investigating the manor and bestowed upon him an imperial sword, which could be used to execute anyone below the rank of prince.

Cai Jing knelt down to receive the sword and left the imperial study with tears in his eyes.

He knew that ever since he swore his oath, he only had one path left: to be a loyal subject who put the emperor's needs first.

A loyal minister who is isolated will not have a good ending, and may not even have a good reputation, but he can fully display his talents and will no longer be troubled by interpersonal relationships.

Shortly after Cai Jing left, Li Gefei, who had received the imperial edict, rushed over. He was about to bow when Zhao Xu stopped him.
"Let's skip these formalities. Cai Jing's son, Cai You, accepted bribes from the Western Xia. I intend to have you investigate this thoroughly. Is there any difficulty?"

Li Gefei had never been given important responsibilities before, and suddenly being asked to shoulder such a heavy burden, he was not afraid at all; on the contrary, he was quite eager to try.
"How far have you gotten to in the investigation?"

“Anyone below the rank of prince can be investigated… I just looked at the list of officials waiting for their positions to be filled, and there are tens of thousands of them. It’s time to kill some of them to make room for others.”

The Song Dynasty had few official positions, but a relatively large number of positions were available through the imperial examinations and hereditary privileges. There were too many applicants for too few positions, so the system of waiting for vacancy was established.

Officials without connections will never get a real post in their entire lives and can only stay at home, eating their salary and traveling around... Well, the salary is paid continuously while waiting for a post, which is very suitable for people who want to live a comfortable life.

In order to take up their posts as soon as possible, some people had no choice but to become disciples of various prime ministers, calling themselves their lackeys. This would make it much faster to fill vacancies... This is how the so-called scholar-official clans came about.

Hearing Zhao Xu's words, Li Gefei whispered:

"Your Majesty, if you do this, you may end up being known as a tyrant."

Zhao Xu waved his hand:

"A tyrant is better than being kidnapped by a foreign race and becoming a coward!"

He also handed Li Gefei a royal sword:
"If you have no objections, then get to work. Find a way to get the mouth of the Western Xia envoy and obtain the list of officials who accepted bribes. Tomorrow I will go to court with the token. If any officials want to impeach you, they must first swear a poisonous oath on the token."

In the past, Zhao Xu faced numerous obstacles in attempting such a major move that would offend all the officials, but now, with the token that could summon divine thunder, he suddenly had the confidence to revitalize the court.

Didn't you keep saying you were doing this for the Song Dynasty? Come on, make a solemn oath first.

They don't even dare to swear a solemn oath, yet they have the nerve to claim they've been loyal to their country?

Once the officials in the court dare not swear an oath, those waiting for vacancies can seize the opportunity to impeach them. After the officials step down, their positions will be vacated... An emperor must have the mentality of fighting crickets.

When the officials are no longer a monolithic entity, imperial power will naturally concentrate in the hands of the emperor. Leaving the imperial study, a eunuch followed closely behind Li Gefei, walking step by step out… The so-called "Imperial Sword" wasn't something that could be used simply by taking it out; it required the emperor's eunuch to accompany him. Only then could it be proven that the sword was truly bestowed by the emperor. Otherwise, if you carried a piece of iron and claimed it was an Imperial Sword, would people believe you or not?

After leaving the palace, Li Gefei, accompanied by several attendants and a sword-wielding eunuch, went directly to Kaifeng Prefecture. After presenting the imperial edict, he met Cai You, who was drinking tea in the back hall.

Cai You is now twenty-two years old and works as a supervisor in the Imperial Workshop in the capital. He is a minor official, but because his father holds a high position and is very popular in Bianliang City.

Although he came to Kaifeng Prefecture to surrender himself, the officials in the prefectural government did not treat him as an ordinary prisoner; they provided him with tea and snacks.

When Li Gefei entered, Cai You put down his teacup and asked:
“I’ve handed over the treasure I collected. Can I go home now? My mother is waiting for me to come home for dinner. She’ll worry if I go home too late.”

Cai Jing married Li Qingzhao's cousin, so according to seniority, he should call Li Gefei his uncle. Cai You, as Cai Jing's son, should call him his great-uncle, but he didn't even look at Li Gefei properly and crossed his legs, acting like a spoiled brat.

After reading through the entire history of the Song Dynasty, Li Gefei didn't take Cai You's performance to heart... What's wrong with a beast who dared to frame his own father and repeatedly pleaded with Emperor Huizong to kill his younger brother?
"Cai You, who gave you this load of gold and silver?"

Li Gefei's smiling question was just like those harmless, easygoing people in the office.

Cai You continued to sit with his legs crossed, and chuckled:
"Well... I didn't see it clearly, and I've completely forgotten what it looked like."

Li Gefei then asked:

"You've handed over all the gold and silver jewelry, haven't you? Did you keep one or two pieces for yourself?"

Cai You waved his hand impatiently:
"If you want to know, go search my house. If there's nothing else, I'll head back now..."

Before he could finish speaking, Li Gefei turned to his attendant and said:
“Draft a memorial for me, impeaching the Prefect of Kaifeng for failing to imprison prisoners, failing to seal up stolen goods, and allowing criminals to sit in the back hall and openly mock officials of the court… Such a violation of the laws of the Song Dynasty, does the Prefect of Kaifeng intend to seize the throne?”

What does it mean to say something shocking or outrageous? This is it.

Impeachment for a trivial matter is nothing to the powerful Prefect of Kaifeng, but if it involves something like being forced to wear the imperial robe... that is a major taboo in this dynasty!

To be honest, ever since he learned about this history, Li Gefei has learned the broken windows theory without any formal instruction.

He'll investigate the case directly, without even showing his face, but if he's to be impeached for plotting a rebellion... he'll handle this case with 200% efficiency.

As the saying goes, like father, like daughter. Li Qingzhao's quirky personality came from Li Gefei. She seemed quiet and unassuming, but she was actually quite mischievous.

Sure enough, no sooner had he finished speaking than the Prefect of Kaifeng appeared at lightning speed. He first exchanged pleasantries with Li Gefei, and then, without saying a word, locked up Cai You and ordered an extra lock to be added and to be guarded more closely.

Just as he was about to suggest that the Ministry of Justice and the Court of Judicial Review conduct a joint interrogation, Li Gefei started causing trouble again.

He took out a piece of yellow paper with Taoist talismans drawn on it from his pocket, and slowly pasted it onto the lock of Cai You's cell door, smiling as he introduced it to the jailers and the head jailer:

"This is the Nine Heavens Divine Thunder Soul-Destroying Talisman that my daughter obtained from a deity. Anyone who dares to secretly tear it off will be struck dead by divine thunder, their soul vanishing into nothingness, unable to be reincarnated... If any of you are feeling down, you can try it. Dying here will be considered a duty-related death, a good thing."

The more he said that, the more frightened everyone became.

Cai You panicked at this point, grabbing the prison bars and shouting:
“Grandpa, I know I was wrong. It was the deputy envoy of Western Xia who delivered them to my home. There were three of them in total. After they came to my home, they also went to Master Zeng’s home.”

Zeng Xianggong was Zeng Bu, the head of the Privy Council and Zeng Gong's younger brother.

Logically speaking, this person is a proponent of war, so why would the Western Xia people seek him out?

Li Gefei was somewhat puzzled and planned to ask about it when he had time. Now he was going to send people to arrest the Western Xia envoys, lock them up, and interrogate them one by one. He also wanted to tell his daughter that next time she went to Hunyuan Palace, she should remember to bring back some books on torture and forced confessions.

Old Li's knowledge in this area is rather lacking; he needs to seriously brush up on his skills.

Meanwhile, Zhou Yi drove back to Hunyuan Palace, opened the black notebook to check his merits, and found that they had increased by one or two taels:
Eliminate evil practices and their negative influences, merit +7.

Zhao Xu bestows the Imperial Sword to rectify the court, merit +2.

[Li Shimin devises the strategy for conquering India, merit +2]

After reading it, Zhou Yi felt that the numbers didn't match up. He then looked through everyone's pages and discovered that Chen Tang had killed someone but hadn't gained any merit, instead wasting one coin of merit.

Did this guy secretly kill a wild rabbit on the way? I need to make it clear to him next time that the divine thunder is for saving lives and can't be misused.

He was now just one tael short of a pound of merit, hoping that one tael would arrive soon so he could exchange it for Taoist arts... Just as he was thinking this, Zhou Yi saw that his merit value had suddenly changed from fifteen taels to one pound and one tael.

Then, a note appeared below:
Xin Qiji assassinated Su Baoheng, the Minister of Works of the Jin Dynasty, earning him +20 merit points.

(End of this chapter)