Corrupt official in the Red Chamber

Chapter 132
The overseer on duty at the gate said it was an imperial envoy, so he quickly appeased everyone, and then personally invited Lao Wang to the concierge, and then sent someone into the inner courtyard to report to King Zhongshun.

After a while, the words came out, "Please come to the main hall to speak, the imperial envoy".

In this way, Lao Wang came to the main hall accompanied by a group of people. When he went in, he saw that King Zhongshun was fully dressed and waiting there.

When Lao Wang saw King Zhongshun, he hurried over to salute King Zhongshun.

When King Zhongshun saw it was him, he felt nervous and immediately went away.

"Why are you here to pass the decree?"

Lao Wang hurriedly told King Zhongshun everything that happened in the palace in a low voice.

After King Zhongshun listened, his brows were wrinkled, and a trace of blackness appeared on his face.

Although he doesn't care about the position of the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, but no matter how he doesn't care, it's still his own. Now that the inexplicable hat is put on someone else's head, he feels very unhappy.

He didn't understand in his heart, what kind of evil was his father, he trusted Jia Rui so much, and even his son had to be put aside.

"Then what do you mean by coming this time?"

"The Supreme Emperor said, please hand over the seal of the Chief of the House of Internal Affairs."

King Zhongshun hadn't spoken yet, but Chang Shi who was standing beside him spoke first.

"Did you see the Supreme Emperor personally deliver the decree?"

"That's not true. Master Jia told us."

Chang Shi's face changed when he heard this, and then he walked to King Zhongshun's side and whispered a few words in his ear.

King Zhongshun's complexion changed, and then he said in a deep voice: "Change this king's python robe, and I will go to the palace to meet the emperor myself."

After finishing speaking, King Zhongshun turned around and went to the back. Old Wang was left there without knowing what happened.

After a while, King Zhongshun changed into a full set of princely attire, and then, accompanied by eunuchs and palace guards, went out and got into the sedan chair, and then went straight to the palace.

Lao Wang was disturbed by King Zhongshun and didn't know what to do. In the end, he could only follow King Zhongshun, and a group of people came to the palace in a mess.

After coming here, King Zhongshun was blocked outside the gate of the palace.

This is also the "treatment" that King Zhongshun has only received in recent months.

In the past, if King Zhongshun wanted to enter the palace to say hello, he would go in, but now he must report first before he can enter the palace.

The eunuch in charge of guarding the gate quickly spread the news about King Zhongshun's request to see the Supreme Emperor.

However, the news that came back from Longshou Palace made King Zhongshun shudder from the top of his head to the bottom of his feet.

"The Supreme Emperor already knows the purpose of the prince's visit. The Supreme Emperor told the prince that there is no need to tell stories. This matter is the order of the Supreme Emperor himself. Let the prince do according to Master Jia's wishes."

After hearing the eunuch's reply, King Zhongshun glared at Chang Shi who was standing next to him, then angrily got on the sedan chair and wanted to leave.

But before his sedan chair left, Pharaoh put his hand on the edge of the sedan chair out of breath.

"My lord, when will you give the big seal of the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs to the little one?"

King Zhongshun in the sedan chair was so angry that he almost vomited blood, but he knew that this was at the gate of the palace, and there were countless spies staring at him!

"Give him the seal!"

The eunuch next to him heard what King Zhongshun said, and waved his hand quickly, and immediately came over again, an eunuch holding a box.

Soon, the eunuch took out a large seal from the box, and handed it to Lao Wang.

Lao Wang took over the big seal, this is letting go, and then stood aside to send King Zhongshun respectfully.

Just like that, King Zhongshun was disgraced and went back to his residence.

Besides, Lao Wang took the big seal, and then returned to the inner mansion in a hurry.

When he entered the hall, he found that Jia Rui was drinking tea on the main seat, and the eunuchs and officials below were all cautiously waiting there.

Eunuch Li, who had been standing on Jia Rui's hands, saw that Lao Wang was back and glanced at the things in his hands, and knew that he had taken back the seal, so he hurried forward and snatched the seal from Lao Wang.

Although Lao Wang was reluctant, he was still very afraid of the power of eunuch Li, so he could only let go in the end.

Holding the big seal, Eunuch Li came to Jia Rui's side in small steps, and said with a flattering smile: "My lord, the big seal of the chief of the Ministry of Internal Affairs is back."

Jia Rui put down the teacup in his hand, took the package from Eunuch Li, opened it in front of them, and saw a copper seal inside.

Jia Rui just observed casually, put it aside in satisfaction, and said to the people below:
"Today is my first day in office. I won't ask about specific matters. Please tell me about the main areas of responsibility of our Ministry of Internal Affairs."

After everyone below heard this, they hurriedly reported to Jia Rui one by one according to their authority.

At the beginning, Jia Rui seemed very leisurely, but with the reports from the people below, Jia Rui's face also became serious.

It turned out that Jia Rui only thought that the Ministry of Internal Affairs was in charge of the emperor's daily life, but after reports from these people, Jia Rui knew that the Ministry of Internal Affairs not only controlled the emperor's daily life, but also controlled all kinds of business and land in the palace.In the huge Forbidden City, lived the Supreme Emperor, Empress Dowager, Emperor, Empress, as well as a large group of concubines and members of the royal family.Their basic necessities of life are all managed by the Ministry of Internal Affairs.Therefore, the Ministry of Internal Affairs is essentially the logistics support department of the palace.

The size of the Ministry of Internal Affairs is also staggering, with more than 2000 people.As far as the number of people is concerned, it is five times that of the household department, which has the largest number of people among the six departments.

Under the Ministry of Internal Affairs, there are Guangchu Division, Duyu Division, Master Ceremony Division, Accounting Division, Construction Division, Punishment Division, and Qingfeng Division, as well as Shangsi Academy, Military Equipment Academy, and Fengchen Garden.This is what is commonly referred to as the "Seven Divisions and Three Courts".

Its scale is also operated in accordance with the six-part model.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs is also in charge of the emperor's internal treasury, as well as the annual income and expenditure.

Although it has not been counted, Jia Rui learned from the people below that there are more than 1000 million taels of silver in the Taishanghuang's internal treasury, and 200 million taels of silver in the emperor's internal treasury.

Every year, there are about 200 million taels of silver received from Neiwu Fuzhong from various places.

In addition to these obvious incomes, there are also contributions from salt merchants and others, which are nearly 200 million taels.

In addition to these, there is also the tax money allocated by the Ministry of Households every year, which is about one-tenth of the annual tax paid by the imperial court.There are also more than 100 million taels.

Calculated in this way, the Ministry of Internal Affairs has 500 million taels of silver at its disposal a year.

So much silver will be spent almost within a year, and 5000 taels will be spent almost every day.

No wonder everyone says that the Ministry of Internal Affairs is a fat vacancy. Even if you just do it casually, you can still make a lot of money.

And these money is also the fat of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, everyone has the same benefits, and everyone has great benefits.

Therefore, the Ministry of Internal Affairs has formed a huge interest group.

This group may have internal strife, but externally it is very consistent.

This also led to the fact that since the founding of the country, none of the directors of the Ministry of Internal Affairs have been punished for corruption.

The reason is very simple, there are rats all over the underwear house, and the people below are also afraid of pulling out the carrots and bringing out the mud, so they are tight-lipped.

No wonder King Zhongshun was so extravagant in the past, so the money came from here!

"Okay, that's all for today, let's check the inventory in detail tomorrow, and prepare for it when you go back, don't make mistakes when I arrive tomorrow."

The eunuchs and officials below looked at each other and nodded together.

Seeing that there was nothing wrong, Jia Rui stood up and wanted to leave, but everyone rushed him out of the gate.

When Jia Rui was about to get on his horse and leave, Eunuch Li unexpectedly came over and lay down in front of Jia Rui's horse as a stool for Jia Rui.

Jia Rui was satisfied with this man's vision, so he stepped on Eunuch Li's back and got on the horse with peace of mind.

After Jia Rui sat firmly, Eunuch Li got up from the ground, and Ma Jiangsheng, who was holding Jia Rui, said beside Jia Rui:

"My lord, I'm going to go to the man's house to report some things alone at night. I don't know if my lord will allow it."

Jia Rui glanced at him, and saw that Eunuch Li had a flattering smile on his face, "From now on, I will be my own, come if you have anything to do!"

"Thank you sir."

Eunuch Li fell to his knees and beat him a thousand.

Jia Rui didn't even look at him anymore, he rode away with his servant and left.

Eunuch Li didn't dare to stand up until Jia Rui was no longer on the street.

The other officials and eunuchs behind hurried forward and surrounded Eunuch Li, "Eunuch Li, should our previous rules still be the same?"

Eunuch Li patted the dust on his knees, and then said: "My family thinks Mr. Jia is very reasonable! You won't embarrass everyone, the rules are still the same, but the money given to Mr. Jia is three cents more than before. "

The people below were overjoyed when they heard this.

Director Li paused for a moment, then continued: "Master Jia's brother-in-law seems to be the imperial merchant of our Ministry of Internal Affairs, right?"

"Eunuch Li, your memory is really good! Mrs. Jia's brother-in-law is Xue Pan. He used to be in charge of palace flowers, and later added some porcelain business."

"That's all? For Mr. Jia's sake, we have to think about his brother-in-law, so let's give Xue Pan the business of horse feed in the future."

After hearing this, everyone didn't pay much attention to it. In the eyes of these core figures in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the business of horse feed is just a corner.

But to be honest, the horse feed business also makes a lot of money every year.

The House of Internal Affairs has nearly a thousand horses. These horses are specially prepared for the Supreme Emperor and the nobles in the palace. Naturally, they must be carefully raised, so their feed is also specially prepared.

Therefore, for this item alone, the Ministry of Internal Affairs will spend nearly 4 to [-] taels of silver every year.

Of course, the tens of thousands of taels of silver were not all feed for the horses, most of them were embezzled by the upper and lower hands.

And the imperial merchants who do this business naturally take the largest part of it, and the benefits from it are about 8000 to [-] taels.

(End of this chapter)