Daming Super Dimension Company, President Zhu Yuanzhang!

But now he is in a bit of a dilemma. No matter what you say, you will offend people.

So Pei Yanling could only say: "I thought that this salary was set long ago and it is difficult to change it now."

Xiao Ran asked again: "Now that the treasury is empty, I wonder if Pei Shaoqing has any good ideas?"

Pei Shaoqing racked his brains and thought again and again, and suddenly he thought of the issue of official salaries that Xiao Ran had just mentioned.

Now Pei Shaoqing was confident and said loudly: "I really have a plan. During the Kaiyuan and Tianbao years, the number of households in the country reached tens of millions, the official affairs of hundreds of companies were complicated, and there were always shortages of officials."

"Since the incident, most of the household registration has been reduced. Now one official can be in charge of multiple departments. I request that from now on, if there is a shortage of officials in the internal and external departments, there is no need to replenish them. The salary left by the vacant officials can be used to replenish the national treasury. .”

Li Shimin said calmly: "Is this the method you came up with?"

Li Shi looked puzzled. He didn't notice anything was wrong.

Xiao Ran said: "Since there is no one in this position, will your court set aside a batch of salary in advance?"

Xiao Ran really doesn't understand this. For example, there were two people in a position before, but now there is only one left. Then the finance department can't return the salary of the two people left in this position, right?

This is also unreasonable.

Pei Yanling said quickly: "That's not what I mean. What I mean is that the accumulated money and silk can be used to replenish the national treasury."

Xiao Ran was silent. I wonder if this is useful. It seems to be, but it can only be done once, and it is a drop in the bucket.

Li Shi frowned and said nothing.

Xiao Ran said: "You'd better stop talking and listen to me."

As he said that, he looked at Li Shi and said, "After Pei Yanling became the head of Duzhi, because he didn't know how to manage money, he set up many projects and planned with the old officials in Duzhi to seek the emperor's favor."

"So the memorial said: 'The money and property that comes in and out of the world every year, old and new combined, is often not less than sixty or seventy million yuan. Only one warehouse is missing and lost, and it cannot be investigated. I request that a separate warehouse be set up in Zuozang Treasury. ""

Li Shi didn't know much about financial management, but he knew from Xiao Ran's tone that there was something wrong with this method, so he asked, "Xiao Langjun, what are the disadvantages of this method?"

Xiao Ran said: "This is not to say that there are disadvantages, but that there are no benefits at all. Can he add so many things to the treasury? No! Instead, it is a waste of manpower and books."

Li Shimin glanced at Li Shi and asked Xiao Ran, "Do you believe Li Shi?"

Under Li Shi's anxious gaze, Xiao Ran nodded, "Yes, and in order to make Li Shineng favor him more, Pei Yanling even lied. He said that a lot of property stored in the Yamen of Zuozangku was lost, and because of the inspection , he asked the officials to record these things in books."

"That's why I discovered something was wrong. They said that in the end, they dug up 130,000 taels of silver and more than one million pieces of groceries from the dirt. They also said that since these were recovered lost items, this was extra money. This proves that what he is doing is working.”

Pei Yanling trembled all over and cried: "Your Majesty! How dare I deceive you? Although this matter has not happened yet, it might be the truth!"

Li Shimin frowned and scolded: "Shut up!"

After speaking, he looked at Xiao Ran and asked, "Is there evidence that he lied?"

Xiao Ran nodded, "Of course there is. After this incident, Wei Shaohua, the young minister of Taifu Temple, was dissatisfied with Pei Yanling's statement and submitted a form of protest, saying that these were the existing documents submitted every month. Something, please ask for verification."

"The ruling minister requested to order the three departments to discuss and review the matter in detail, but Li Shi did not allow it. However, he did not blame Wei Shaohua. He probably knew it well but wanted to protect Pei Yanling."

Li Shimin's knife-like eyes instantly looked at Li Shi. Li Shi quickly defended himself: "Well, how could I protect a villain who deceives the emperor and ignores his superiors?"

Xiao Ran said: "Don't be so full of words. Now you and Pei Yanling haven't gotten along much, so you think you don't know how. But at that time, you trusted Pei Yanling very much."

"Let's talk about Lu Zhi, you always know what kind of person he is, right? When Lu Zhi was in Yanying Palace many times, he said that Pei Yanling was absurd and vain, and pointed out that Pei Yanling should not be allowed to be in charge of money and taxes, but you would rather think that it was Lu Zhi Even when I was ostracizing Pei Yanling, I didn’t even think that what Lu Zhi said was true.”

"At that time, the entire court knew that Pei Yanling was a ridiculous and hypocritical person. Only you, as the emperor, believed in him. When he died, everyone inside and outside the court was happy to congratulate him, but you were the only one who was still mourning and sighing."

Li Shi was dumbfounded, and even more frightened after noticing Li Shimin's unkind gaze.

In order to express his position, he quickly admitted his mistake, "Well, I might have been possessed by ghosts at that time. I will definitely not make that mistake this time!"

After saying that, he looked at Pei Yanling fiercely and said, "Since you have no talent, I will definitely not be able to use you again. You should resign and return to your hometown tomorrow!"

After all, in Li Shi's opinion, one was that the incident hadn't happened yet, and the other was that Li Shi just didn't have the talent, so he just drove him back.

In the end, he heard Xiao Ran say: "This punishment is a bit light. After all, Pei Yanling not only has no talent, he also framed a capable minister!"

"At that time, many ministers, including Lu Zhi, knew Pei Yanling's character, so they were very dissatisfied with him and reported Pei Yanling's fault to the public. However, Li Shi did not deal with Pei Yanling. Instead, he dismissed Lu Zhi from his position and made him If you go to be a guest of the prince, the rest will also be dismissed or demoted."

"Pei Yanling even slandered Lu Zhi and others for losing power and harbored resentment in his heart. He said that Lu Zhi and others preached that 'there was a severe drought in the world, the people were in exile, and Duzhi lacked food and grass for many armies and horses.' He wanted to use this to anger the masses. .”

"As a result, you Li Shi believed Pei Yanling's words when he saw that the Shence soldiers were complaining that Du Zhi was in arrears with fodder for the stable horses."

Li Shi said with great shame: "It's my fault! Prime Minister Lu is an upright man, how could he act like this! I must have lost my mind!"

Li Shimin snorted coldly, "I think you've lost your mind too!"

Xiao Ran continued: "Pei Yanling did more than that. He also secretly arrested Li Chong, one of the people who went to the table with Lu Zhi. He captured his confidant Zhang Zhong, tortured him in every possible way, and made him commit crimes. Perjury, saying that Li Chong was corrupt and took bribes, and used the money to make friends with Lu Zhi and other ministers."

"They also said that Jing Zhaoyin, who was working with Lu Zhi, misappropriated the court's money, etc., but it turned out that none of these things were true."

Li Shi couldn't sit still anymore. He pointed at Pei Yanling and said, "Okay! If you were just incompetent, I would be willing to let you go. But to my surprise, you turned out to be a traitor inside!"

"Come here! Take him down here! Put him in jail and wait for punishment!"

Pei Yanling doesn't know what to say now. After all, he knows best who he is. He is already suppressing people who had problems with him before.