Chapter 415: Extra 06
Chapter 415 Extra 06 Royal Trial
It is a crime of deceiving the emperor to file a false complaint before the emperor!
Concubine Yang's pupils shrank sharply, as if falling into an ice cellar, her limbs were cold, but she was unable to answer Gu Jue's series of questions.
Now she was like a person walking on a tightrope, with an invisible abyss below her. As long as a breeze blew, she might fall down and be doomed.
Concubine Yang's fear and guilty conscience were almost written on her face.
Looking in the eyes of the three adults of the Third Division and the four officials, they vaguely had the answer in their hearts: That's it. Did the new emperor already know that Gu Ming had squandered all the 300,000 taels? It was because Gu Ming and his son were short of money that they came here to complain!
Concubine Yang rolled her eyes and said vaguely: "The money needs to be used at home." She didn't dare to elaborate. Even if she made up a lie now, someone would have to cooperate with her to fulfill the lie.
Gu Jue smiled faintly and was noncommittal.
The closed folding fan in his hand spun twice quickly, with a graceful and free movement.
Shen Qianchen looked at his hands. The skin was as white as jade, and the fingers were long and slender with distinct joints. The nails were always trimmed cleanly. Now the nails were no longer as pale as before and had a healthy blush.
His hands are very beautiful, so they look very good when playing chess, playing the piano, writing, and drinking tea. Even if he holds a fan now, he still has an indescribable sense of beauty. Shen Qianchen was fascinated by it accidentally.
Prince Li glanced at Gu Jue and Shen Qianchen, and saw that both of them were smiling. He felt that they were really well-mannered. They were almost being called demon queens and fools, yet they could still be so calm.
Prince Li admitted that he did not have such good self-cultivation, and sneered sarcastically: "Ms. Yang, even if the family has gold, they will not use three hundred thousand taels in seven months. This is absolutely unreasonable."
"When things go wrong, there must be monsters!"
For Concubine Yang, Prince Li no longer bothered to show any mercy to her.
As the Zong Ling, Prince Li could scold Taifei Yang, but the Minister of Punishment and others all saw through the case but did not tell the truth. Anyway, as long as the case did not reach the stage of joint trial by the three divisions, they did not have to interfere. The new emperor asked them to watch, so they would just watch.
Although they had only been working with the new emperor for three months, they had already begun to understand the new emperor's behavior. If he didn't take action, he would become a blockbuster. He would force the palace to do so, and check the empty salary.
Concubine Yang wants to play tricks and tricks in front of the new emperor. She is basically using a broadsword in front of Guan Gong and overestimating her own abilities!
The three adults had already relaxed and were just watching the show.
"It's... the business failed." Yang Taifei hesitated and said to Prince Li, her eyes wandering again. She clenched her hands tightly and suppressed the urge to turn her head to look at Gu Ming, for fear of being noticed.
The cold sweat on Gu Ming's temples and the back of his neck became more intense again, and a few drops of sweat slid down his cheeks to his chin.
"You lost all your family property by doing business?" Prince Li almost stopped laughing and said coldly, "Because you lost all your money, you fell in love with your stepson's money and came to complain? How shameless!"
Prince Li flicked his sleeves heavily. He was a well-known good man in the clan. It was rare to see him lose such a temper and be so shameless to a woman in public.
Concubine Yang: “…”
Concubine Yang's face turned pale and blue, and her face looked as ugly as a dead person. She said bravely: "Gu Jin forced us to sell our property at a low price. Our family suffered in the first place."
Every time she thought of Gu Jin taking advantage of the situation when the family was separated, Mrs. Yang felt her teeth itch with hatred, wishing she could eat his flesh and blood.
Gu Jin almost wanted to refute again, but finally gritted his teeth.
"Gu Ming," Gu Jue's eyes moved from Princess Yang to Gu Ming, who was bowing his head in silence, and asked, "Is that so?"
When it comes to this matter, there is actually no room for Gu Ming to deny it.
If he denies it, it means that Concubine Yang has committed the crime of deceiving the emperor, so he can only follow Concubine Yang's words and respond: "Yes, it is the minister who is incompetent."
Even if everyone in the capital knew tomorrow that Gu Ming's business failed and he lost 300,000 taels of silver, he would have no choice but to admit it.
Gu Ming still lowered his head and maintained the posture of bowing, not even daring to wipe the sweat dripping down his chin.
"Then what kind of business do you do?" Gu Jue asked, turning the folding fan in another circle.
Shen Qianchen was so excited to try it that he couldn't help but take the folding fan in his hand and imitate his example to turn the folding fan. The first time he turned it was relatively unfamiliar, so he turned it three or four times. It was a smooth ride.
While she was turning the folding fan, she had time to give Gu Ming a look below her: Once this person tells a lie, he will tell more lies to make up for it. It's better not to lie if you don't have the ability.
Gu Ming was sweating, and his eyes rolled around several times. He never thought that Gu Jue would ask this question, and he was so panicked that he couldn't think calmly.
After a while, he hesitated and replied: "Sea ship."
"I invested my money in sea trade, but something happened..."
For a moment, Gu Ming couldn't think of any business that could compensate him 300,000 taels of silver. He intuitively thought of Li Er's ship capsizing at sea.
The four people were dumbfounded. For scholars like them who came from ordinary families, three hundred thousand taels was already an unimaginably huge amount of money.
Gu Jue's eyes were looking at Shen Qianchen's hand turning the fan, but he still said to Gu Ming: "Are you sure you are doing compensation for the sea trade?"
Gu Ming nodded: "OK!"
"Gu Ming, kneel down!" Gu Jue's tone suddenly turned cold, "You still haven't confessed your guilt!"
Gu Ming was already feeling anxious, so his feet went weak, his knees bent, and he knelt directly on the gold brick floor, causing some pain in his knees.
Concubine Yang was afraid that Gu Ming would talk nonsense, so she rushed to say: "Your Majesty, what do you mean?!"
"Quuzi was careless and lost money, but Gu Jin took advantage of the situation and bullied his younger brother. Isn't it a crime? Your Majesty, if you don't uphold justice for our mother and son, you will throw a bucket of dirty water at Quanzi!"
Concubine Yang's voice became more and more shrill. In her nervousness, she completely forgot about the pain left by the stick on her body.
"Bullying?" Gu Jue raised the corners of his mouth with a half-smile. Facing the aggressive Mrs. Yang, he smiled instead of getting angry, "Gu Jin is still too tolerant."
If it were Gu Jue, he would never let his daughter be harmed like that, nor would he give up the title of county king in vain and retreat again and again.
Since Gu Ming refused to say anything, Gu Jue said it for him: "Gu Ming, didn't you use the three hundred thousand taels to fill the 'deficit'?"
Concubine Yang: "!!"
Gu Ming: "!!" Gu Ming's body trembled violently as if his heart was hit by Gu Jue's words, and his eyes were almost astonished to the extreme.
Anyone could see that Gu Jue had impressed him.
Gu Jue snapped his fingers. For Gu Jin, this seemed to be a signal. He suddenly became energetic and caressed his sleeves gracefully. It was finally his turn to appear on stage.
Gu Jin curled his lips and smiled, as if he were an elder brother like his father, and sighed helplessly: "Third brother, I have warned you a long time ago that you cannot make money from usury."
When he heard "usury", Gu Ming felt as if all the bones in his body had been taken away, and his body almost collapsed. A thought was swirling in his mind: How did Gu Jin know about usury? !
In the second half of last year, the late Emperor Gu Lang ordered the Ministry of Works to repair the Taimiao, and allocated 300,000 silver from the inner treasury to repair the Taimiao. At that time, Gu Ming was in charge of supervising the construction of the Zongren Mansion.
This three hundred and twenty thousand silver was used to pay for stone, wood and craftsmen's wages.
He deliberately withdrew the 300,000 silver from the inner treasury a month in advance and used it to secretly put usury money, thinking that as long as he paid back the money before the end of the year, he could get 50,000 taels of interest. .
This is a total of fifty thousand taels, and it is a business without capital.
Gu Ming was moved. He thought he could recover the usury money in time, but the Li Er who asked him to borrow money ran away, and the three hundred thousand taels of silver were wasted.
For this reason, Gu Ming had to sell his family property to Gu Jin at a low price when the family was separated. Only then did he collect 300,000 taels to fill the hole, and finally got an explanation from the late emperor Gu Lang.
Later, Gu Ming also kept sending people to search for Li Er's whereabouts, but because it involved his secret misappropriation of public funds, and the court explicitly prohibited usury loans, he did not dare to look for people blatantly, so he could only try to keep a low profile.
Later, the late emperor Gu Lang died.
To be honest, Gu Ming was relieved at that time, thinking that no one would trace this old account again, and no one would find out that he had advanced the money a month in advance.
Who would have thought that today, half a year later, this old incident would resurface without warning. The more Gu Ming thought about it, the more uneasy he became.
Gu Jin solemnly made a long bow to Gu Jue, his face straightened, and his handsome face that was usually a little careless suddenly became upright and solemn, and he explained the cause and effect: "Your Majesty, my third brother moved privately on an errand. The money was loaned to someone, but the other person absconded with the money, so the three hundred thousand taels of silver should have been used to make up for the shortfall in the errands. "
"Family scandals should not be made public. There are some things that I am not comfortable talking about. In fact, I was afraid that my third brother would have too much money and would borrow money and lose all the property of the Duke and Prince's Palace. That's why I exchanged the property of the Duke and Prince's Palace for me at a discount." "
Gu Jin spoke sincerely, almost saying that he had no choice but to do this in order to preserve his ancestral family property.
Prince Li really believed it, nodding and twirling his beard. Selling off the property is a prodigal act. Gu Ming can't keep the family property in the Prince's Palace, so he might as well sell it to Gu Jin at a low price.
"No, Your Majesty, I am not in the wrong." Gu Ming raised his head and shook his head in denial in a panic. A large amount of cold sweat broke out on his back. His whole body was as if he had been fished out of the water. He was frightened, embarrassed, and even more. regret.
Gu Ming didn't know how much Gu Jin knew, but he also knew that the crime of "deficit" could not be admitted. Deficit was much more serious than loan sharking.
That's right, he absolutely can't admit it!
Concubine Yang also knew about her son's usury loan, and her heart sank, but she still retorted forcefully but calmly: "Your Majesty, you have heard that Quan Zi embezzled public funds without any basis, which is really chilling!"
In Mrs. Yang's opinion, her son had "borrowed" the three hundred thousand taels of silver, but hadn't they already sold off their property and returned the money? Except for their family, no one suffered a loss. How can this be called a "deficit"!
Gu Jin curled his lips sarcastically, but was not surprised by the mother and son's reaction. Like mother, like son, this mother and son never shed tears until they see the Yellow River!
"No evidence?" Gu Jue said as he put down the tea cup in his hand. The bottom of the cup hit the table with an obvious impact, and the sound made Gu Ming's heart tremble.
Gu Jue looked at Gu Ming and said: "On the ninth day of the lunar month last winter, you gave 300,000 taels to Li Er. Li Er promised you to return it within a month and promised you 50,000 taels in interest."
"On the fifth day of the twelfth lunar month last year, Li Er left the capital without saying goodbye."
Gu Ming: "!!"
Gu Ming's heart plummeted.
When Prince Li heard "the fifth day of the twelfth lunar month", his thoughts moved. The date of the division was written on the family separation document. Jingjun Prince's Mansion was the home on the fifth day of the twelfth lunar month last year.
Looking back now, I think it was probably because Gu Ming found out about Li Er's absconding that day that he suddenly changed his attitude and sold the property to Gu Jin at a low price just to raise money to fill a shortfall somewhere.
The other people next to him were also thoughtful. Even if they didn't know the ins and outs of this matter, they almost knew everything after hearing this.
So the key to the question is, where did the three hundred thousand taels of silver that Gu Ming gave Li Er come from!
Gu Ming's heart sank even lower, and the more he listened, the more panicked he became. A desperate and shocked voice whirled in his head: Gu Jue actually knew everything, and he knew it in such detail.
He seemed to be struck by five thunders, and his mind was roaring.
He could feel his body trembling slightly, and even if he tried all his strength, he couldn't suppress it. There was only one thought left in his mind: he couldn't recognize it.
He gritted his teeth and said, "Your Majesty, I really lost the three hundred thousand taels in the sea trade business."
"Because I lost my money and my pocket is empty, I really can't live the life in my house anymore, so I thought of asking my second brother to help me."
"I didn't know that my mother-in-law would come to complain..."
Gu Ming spoke intermittently, completely ignoring herself and not daring to look at Concubine Yang.
In fact, he also persuaded Mrs. Yang once, thinking that it would be better not to make such an ugly scene, but if Mrs. Yang insisted on coming, he could not stop her.
"..." Mrs. Yang's heart felt cold, and she didn't know whether it was because she felt more heartache or because the pain in her body was more torturous.
Gu Jin and others also knew that Gu Ming was just trying to dodge and was struggling to his death. He was a seven-foot-tall man who had the courage to embezzle public funds to make loan sharks. Now he has made public outrage, but he can only shirk and put his mother to death. The concubine stepped forward to take the blame. This man was greedy, timid, and cowardly.
A loving mother often loses her sons. Gu Ming would develop such a temperament. Concubine Yang was also "indispensable"!
Gu Ming kowtowed heavily and knelt on the ground humbly: "I can't protect my ancestral property because I am incompetent."
Gu Ming was heartbroken. He knew that after today's trouble, Gu Jue would have to use his "incompetence" to suppress the invitation letter.
However, he could only accept "incompetence".
According to the current situation, if Gu Jue continues to interrogate, he will definitely be charged with embezzlement of public funds.
(End of chapter)