Transmigrated into a Grandpa, Embracing the Laid-Back Life

Chapter 428: The Hall of Golden Chimes

Boom!

A single stone stirs up a thousand ripples!

The entire Hall of Golden Chimes erupted into chaos in an instant!

“Silence!” The sharp, cutting voice of the palace eunuch suppressed the buzzing murmurs of the hundred officials.

The officials in the Yongchang Marquis’s faction were all stunned and furious. They never imagined that Xu Qing, a man who would normally bow and scrape at the sight of the Yongchang Marquis’s Heir, would dare to launch such a lethal attack directly against the Marquis himself in front of the entire court and His Majesty!

As for the upright officials and censors, they all exchanged bewildered glances, their eyes filled with shock. Although they harbored resentment toward the Yongchang Marquis’s overbearing tyranny, none of them expected the first shot to be fired by the one person who seemed the least likely to do so!

The Yongchang Marquis’s face turned a livid iron-gray in that instant. But he was, after all, a seasoned military commander who had weathered countless storms and battles. His eyes were so dark and somber they seemed ready to drip water.

Xu Qing acted as if he were oblivious to everything around him. The hand holding his memorial was as steady as a rock.

“First crime: Embezzling military funds and trafficking military equipment!”

“In the fifth year of Great Xing’s reign, the Marquis’s ironware shop, under the pretext of ‘battle losses,’ falsely reported the loss of three thousand suits of armor, embezzling three hundred and seventy thousand taels of silver from military funds! This sum was funneled through Tongyuan Money House into the account of the Marquis’s third son…”“In the sixth year of Great Xing’s reign, the Northern Frontier suffered a great drought. The Marquis’s household colluded with a treasurer from the Ministry of Revenue to exchange old grain for new, trafficking two hundred thousand shi of military rations for a profit of five hundred thousand taels! This led to over three thousand garrison soldiers at Heaven’s Moat Pass falling ill after consuming moldy grain!”

“In the seventh year of Great Xing’s reign…”

“Since the founding of Great Xing, battle losses of military equipment have all had fixed quotas. However, Your Majesty’s minister has reviewed the Ministry of Revenue’s ledgers for the past ten years and discovered that, starting five years ago, the losses of military equipment in the Northern Frontier suddenly surged by more than threefold! Among them, the equipment manufactured by the Marquis’s ironware shop accounted for false losses and embezzled funds totaling… three million seven hundred thousand taels of silver!”

“Whoosh—!”

The court erupted in uproar once more!

taels! That was nearly thirty percent of

help but step forward and bellow in anger. “Lord Xu, do you know the grave

Qing ignored him. Instead, he slowly retrieved the first thick stack

“These are all the ledgers from Hundred Refinements Hall over the past five years, compiled by Your Majesty’s minister! Every single piece of falsely reported equipment, every tael of silver embezzled—its source in the ledgers, the transaction date, the manager involved, and even the

took the archives from Xu

peruse them. Instead, with his deep, profound eyes, he cast an intrigued glance at the

voice betrayed neither joy nor anger. “Do

officials. He did not look at the Emperor on the dragon throne. Instead, step by step, he walked up to Xu

aura honed from years on the battlefield descended upon Xu Qing like an invisible mountain. An ordinary civil official, under that gaze, would have already been trembling in both legs

Qing

and met those eyes, full

work, auditing the accounts for five years.” The Yongchang Marquis’s voice was low and hoarse, with a

Xu Qing’s ear, and spoke in a voice only the two of them could hear, enunciating each word deliberately. “Does anyone in this entire court not know that the accounts of my Hundred Refinements Hall are famously watertight?

slowly straightened up, sweeping his gaze across the hundred officials.

Xu, investigating them all by yourself, or…

landed like a heavy

silk floss—a deadly blow aimed straight for the

the support of a higher, more hidden power! He was trying to forcibly escalate a case of corruption into a factional struggle, a political

Emperor’s heart and strike fear into the upright officials

move was vicious, to

countless gazes—scrutinizing, doubtful,

the Emperor on the dragon throne narrowed his

Qing’s face still bore that same calm, ancient-well demeanor. He acted as if he hadn’t heard the trap in

know what you’ve done, don’t do it. Heaven’s net is vast and wide; it lets nothing slip through.

brushed his sleeve, as if flicking away some