Da Ming: I told you to die for your cause, why are you actually going to die?

Chapter 79 High-Altitude Three-Dimensional Audit! [Please Subscribe!]

"Zhang Biao?! How did you get up there?!"

Ru Chang's voice was so sharp it could shatter glass.

Zhang Biao's wickedly grinning face was embedded in the hole, as if the King of Hell had found his name in the Book of Life and Death.

"Minister Ru, we meet again?"

"Isn't the main entrance blocked? In our auditing work, we have to create the conditions if there aren't any!"

As he spoke, he gently patted the tile beneath his hand and said:

"Minister Ru, the roof of your Ministry of War isn't very sturdy; it needs repairs! Did you embezzle this money?"

"you!"

Ru Chang blushed with anger and immediately denied it, saying, "What nonsense are you spouting! I am an honest and upright official, with clean hands and no money in my pocket. How could I possibly be greedy for money?!"

"is it?"

Zhang Biao raised an eyebrow: "Whether or not there was embezzlement, we'll talk about that after we finish the audit!"

"Brother Biao!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Shen Lang's head popped up next to him.

Shen Lang was still holding the small abacus in his hand, and said with a serious expression:
"According to my preliminary estimate, the roof of the Ministry of War has been in disrepair for many years, and the total amount of repairs applied for over the years should be 1,200 taels. The actual expenditure is yet to be investigated."

Then, Sun Gui's chamber pot lamp was also raised shakily. The weak light shone through the hole and shone directly on Ru Chang's pale, fat face, as if the stage spotlight had locked onto this frightened fat rat.

"What exactly do you want?!"

Ru Chang trembled with rage as she looked at the group of people. She then pointed at the cave entrance and roared, "Get down here right now! Otherwise, I'll call for help!"

"Go ahead and yell!"

Zhao Fengman pushed aside Sun Gui and said arrogantly, "Even Commander Jiang couldn't do anything to Zhang Qianxian, do you think your men would dare to touch us?"

"Exactly! You try moving one!"

"Brother Biao, should we go down?"

Hearing the disdainful and agreeing voices coming from the rooftop, Ru Chang gritted her teeth in anger and said:

"Zhang Biao! You are a fourth-rank official of the imperial court, how could you commit such illegal acts as climbing on roofs and breaking into government offices?!"

"What do you mean by trespassing on government premises?"

Zhang Biao widened his eyes dramatically and corrected him:
"Minister Ru, you've misunderstood! This is a 'high-altitude, three-dimensional audit,' conducted to gain a more comprehensive and objective understanding of the Ministry of War's financial situation! It's to prevent some people from trying to fool us by falsifying accounts or burning ledgers on the ground!"

As he spoke, he pulled a long rope from his pocket, tied one end around his waist, threw the other end down, and shouted to those below:

"Brothers! Give me a hand! Lift up my 'audit tools'!"

"Alright, Biao-ge!"

A chorus of agreement came from below.

Soon, several tattered sacks were hoisted up, swaying precariously.

Zhang Biao opened one of them, and inside was a pile of soot and lard.

"Minister Ru, confess and you will be treated leniently; resist and you will be punished severely. Don't blame me for not warning you."

As Zhang Biao removed more tiles, he climbed down from the roof to the roof beam. With the help of Shen Lang and the others, he straddled a horizontal beam, swinging his legs and laughing:
"You'd better think carefully about whether you want us to audit your Ministry of War affairs."

"Imperial Censor Zhang, are you really going to break ties with the Ministry of War?"

Ru Chang stared intently at Zhang Biao, completely devoid of the fright she had just felt.

Zhang Biao glanced at him with slight surprise, then sneered:
"Old Ru, haven't you thought this through? I'm not even afraid of the Emperor, why would I be afraid of your threats?"

"is it?"

Ru Chang sneered, then shouted towards the door, "Someone! Let them all in!"

slam-la-

Before long, a group of veterans walked in from outside the door, each of them exuding a strong sense of solemnity.

He had clearly been on the battlefield and killed people.

But then Ru Chang calmly and unhurriedly began to introduce:

"These are all veterans of my Ministry of War who have been wounded and retired over the years. They happen to be here today to receive their pensions. They might have a bit of a temper, especially when it comes to people storming military strongholds and disrupting order. To ensure the audit process proceeds smoothly and orderly, I have no choice but to ask them to temporarily maintain order at the scene. Censor Zhang, you don't mind, do you?" What a master!
Zhang Biao secretly praised him in his heart.

This old fox is a bit more difficult to deal with than Fu Youwen.

Despite appearing flustered and disorganized, they had actually already devised a plan.

Moreover, they used the trump card of being a wounded veteran, which is difficult to criticize both emotionally and legally.

The accusation of storming a key military location and disturbing veteran soldiers was so strong that even Jiang Huan couldn't easily intervene.

Fortunately, they didn't go through the main gate; otherwise, if that old fox had stormed this military stronghold, they would probably have been in deep trouble.

Upon seeing this, Shen Lang, Sun Gui, and the others turned deathly pale, and even their previous arrogance vanished.

"Ah!"

Zhang Biao suddenly burst into laughter, and his laughter became even more hearty.

He likes these tough challenges.

"I don't mind! Of course I don't mind!"

He shook his head, as if he hadn't seen those burly veterans, and cupped his hands in greeting to Ru Chang:
"Minister Ru is a man of great integrity and willing to cooperate with the audit, setting a good example for us all. In that case, shall we begin?"

Ru Chang was slightly taken aback, wondering what was going on?
What trick is this madman up to now?
Zhang Biao turned to look at the veterans and suddenly shouted at the top of his lungs, "Veteran brothers! You've suffered!"

hum!
That shout stunned almost everyone.

Even the grim-faced veterans' eyes flickered.

Zhang Biao continued his performance, speaking with a mixture of grief and indignation:
"You fought for your country and were left disabled, but now you can only wait here for that meager pension! Do you know why the pension is always delayed? Do you know how much of the military pay you earned with your blood has been embezzled at each level?"

As soon as he finished speaking, he pointed sharply at Ru Chang and said indignantly:

"It's your Minister Ru! It's him! It's him! He's the one who drinks the blood of soldiers, embezzles salaries, and steals and sells military equipment."

"Zhang Biao!"

Startled, Ru Chang quickly interrupted Zhang Biao, shouting, "Stop spreading rumors and misleading the troops!"

"You accuse me of spreading heresy and misleading the army?"

Zhang Biao pointed to his nose, then took a long bamboo pen from Li Mo, which was covered in lard and soot from the bottom of the pot. He roared at the group of veterans again:

"Veterans! You should be able to read, right? If you can't, that's okay, I'll write it down and read it to you!"

After saying this, he wrote it in large characters on the snow-white wall of the Ministry of War.

"The first one!"

As Zhang Biao wrote, he loudly recited the numbers, his voice echoing throughout the entire Ministry of War:
"In the twenty-third year of Hongwu, the Liaodong army underwent a change of weapons, with 3,000 waist knives and 5,000 spears reported as damaged! What was the actual damage? Where did the old weapons go? Were they secretly sold to the herdsmen beyond the Great Wall? Minister Ru, your brother-in-law's new fur trading business in Zhangjiakou last year has quite a bit of capital!"

"puff--!"

Ru Chang's vision went black, and she almost fainted.

How does this madman even know about this?!
Where did he get this information from?!
Even the cunning Ru Chang was brought to her knees by this overwhelming evidence.

Because every piece of evidence Zhang Biao wrote was true, more real than gold.

Shen Lang didn't fall behind Zhang Biao either, immediately starting to calculate rapidly at the cave entrance, and broadcasting his findings in real time:
"The waist knife is priced at one tael and five mace, and the spear at eight mace, totaling five thousand five hundred taels! The suspected profit is two thousand taels!"

"Well done! Let's do it again!"

Zhang Biao, filled with boundless enthusiasm, continued to write furiously on another wall:

"Secondly! In the twenty-fifth year of the Hongwu reign, the price of winter clothing purchased by the Beijing garrison was 30% higher than the market price! Was the purchasing official your advisor from your hometown? After he took over, his family built a new five-courtyard mansion in his hometown!"

"Article Three! Horse Administration."

"Yes! It's the horse administration! The number of warhorses replenished is seriously inconsistent with the accounts! Isn't the extra silver enough to support another brother-in-law?!"

One by one, Zhang Biao used the mixture of ash and lard from the bottom of the pot to write down all the dirty deeds of Ru Chang and his cronies on the walls and even the pillars of the Ministry of War.

The handwriting was crooked and smelled of cooking oil, yet it was more impactful than any impeachment memorial.

Ru Chang, the officials of the Ministry of War, and a group of veteran soldiers below were all dumbfounded.

Damn it!
What kind of crazy move is this?!
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(End of this chapter)