Transmigrated into a Grandpa, Embracing the Laid-Back Life

Chapter 419: In Silence, Hear the Thunder

Time entered the second year of Su Ming's exile.

Spring passed, autumn arrived, and the landscape of the capital underwent subtle changes amid undercurrents. The war in the Northern Frontier continued sporadically, and the Yongchang Marquis faction's influence swelled as military power became increasingly concentrated, threatening to become an uncontrollable force.

The Great Xing emperor on the dragon throne finally began to feel uneasy.

He needed a pawn—one without deep roots, with a clean background, yet clever enough and tough enough. A spike to be driven ruthlessly into what seemed like an impenetrable military interest group.

Thus, Xu Qing, that obscure figure buried in dusty archives at the Ministry of Revenue, nearly forgotten by all, re-entered the emperor's field of vision.

An imperial decree unexpectedly promoted Xu Qing from a junior clerk at the sixth rank to a sixth-rank senior clerk at the Ministry of Revenue.

This appointment stirred little commotion in the court. To the truly powerful, it was just another of the emperor's inconsequential balancing acts. What waves could a powerless upright official stir up?

But for Xu Qing, this decree was like a key.

A senior clerk at the Ministry of Revenue could now access the most core ledgers of military expenditures.

These were no longer dusty old accounts from years past, but real-time records currently in motion.When Xu Qing first opened that volume wrapped in bright yellow silk brocade—the "Compendium of Military Funds"—under the personal supervision of the Minister of Revenue, he could barely control his trembling fingers.

He saw more, and he saw deeper.

He saw massive sums allocated under the pretext of "soldier rewards" ending up in jewelry orders for a certain noble's newly taken concubine in the capital.

He saw batches of "refined iron ore" supposedly purchased from the Southern Frontier, priced three times the market rate, with the transport caravan backed by the Yongchang Marquis's brother-in-law.

for soldiers who fell at the front lines melt away like snow under a scorching sun as it passed through layers of

was more shocking than

through the ledgers, it was like repeatedly

he learned to hide

Facing the Minister of Revenue's

at dead of night on a small sheet of

was a shocking secret capable of shaking the entire Great

in ambush in the

sharper instincts than hunters

Year three, early summer.

Xu Qing began to extend his investigation from false military expenditures into the realm of weapon manufacturing and the substitution of inferior goods, the Yongchang Marquis finally sensed that an invisible pair of eyes was staring fixedly at him

Danger arrived uninvited.

carriage entered a secluded path along the moat, the two docile draft horses suddenly seemed startled by something. They let out a shrill whinny, broke

by the sudden turn of events and was thrown from the

driven by immense inertia, hurtled straight toward

harsh scraping of wheels over gravel and the dull thuds of his

icy river water seemed to rush

to

"Clang—"

clash of metal exploded like thunder in

the side. The entire carriage tilted

"Boom!"

onto the

the wreckage, bruised and aching all over. A gash on his forehead was bleeding, and blood