Chapter 77: Zhang Biao: Whose Little Darling Is Crying! Seeking Monthly Tickets
Marquis of Wuding, Guo Ying’s Mansion.
A household general rushed into Guo Ying’s room, panting and said:
“Old… Old Marquis, something terrible has happened! Zhang Biao, with that bunch of paupers, has robbed the Ministry of Revenue!”
“Pfft—!”
Guo Ying had just been revived and was shakily drinking his second bowl of ginseng soup to calm his nerves when the news reported by the household general startled him, causing him to spit out the entire bowl of ginseng soup onto his face.
“Wha-what did you say?! That scoundrel Zhang Biao robbed the Ministry of Revenue?! What was that kid Fu Youwen doing? And what about that kid Jiang Huan, why didn’t he stop him?!”
Guo Ying’s voice trembled like leaves in the autumn wind, his face filled with disbelief.
Seeing this, the household general wiped his face and said bitterly:
“It’s true, old Marquis, absolutely true. The entire street is now spreading the word that Censor Zhang led a group with abacuses and chamber pot lamps and audited the Ministry of Revenue.”
“Audited.”
Guo Ying repeated this unfamiliar new word in a murmur, his old face turning red and white.
He remembered Zhang Biao calling him a ‘stinking rock in a privy,’ and then the threat of ‘skinning and lighting,’ and then he thought about his own pile of unsavory old debts.
“Will he come for me next to settle the old scores from Poyang Lake? Or the matter of forcibly occupying farmland? Or… is it the messes made by those few unpromising descendants?”
Thinking of this, Guo Ying became more and more panicked, and then he suddenly grabbed the household general’s hand: “Quick! Quickly go and have the mansion gate firmly shut for me! Don’t let anyone in, no matter who it is! Especially that fellow named Zhang!”
After saying this, still somewhat uneasy, he urged again hastily:
“Tell everyone in the mansion to pack their bags quickly and get ready to leave. When the Emperor wakes up, I will immediately submit a memorial to return to Fengyang to recuperate! This Zhang Biao is a madman, I want to stay as far away from him as possible—!”
His voice was anxious and panicked, causing the household general to also feel a bit flustered, but he couldn’t help but remind him:
“Old Marquis, didn’t Duke Cao consult with you yesterday about countermeasures? The ginseng in your soup was also given by Duke Cao. If you leave like this, won’t it…”
“Duke Cao?”
Guo Ying was stunned for a moment, seeming to regain some rationality, then he looked at the half-bowl of ginseng soup remaining and his eyes suddenly lit up:
“Right, right, right! You’re right! Li Jinglong has plenty of oil and water! Let that madman go find him!”
Saying this, he lay back down, covered his head with the quilt, and began to slack off: “I am ill! Critically ill! Unconscious! Don’t wake me even if the sky falls!”
On the other side, Duke Cao’s Mansion.
Li Jinglong was in his luxurious mansion, facing the direction of the Qinhuai River, elegantly sipping a newly arrived Longjing tea from West Lake, trying to dispel the shock and humiliation he suffered yesterday in the Hall of Supreme Harmony Square with the tea’s fragrance.
The butler practically rolled in, his voice trembling as he described how Zhang Biao wreaked havoc in the Ministry of Revenue.
“Pfft—!”
Li Jinglong sprayed the top-grade Longjing tea all over the expensive Persian carpet.
His handsome face instantly contorted, and the official kiln teacup in his hand shattered with a ‘smash.’
“He-he emptied the Ministry of Revenue?!”
Li Jinglong’s voice changed pitch, filled with unbelievable terror and a hint of inexplicable envy.
After all, that move was too audacious.
But soon, he reacted. The next target was the Ministry of War, and then, wouldn’t it be him, the Investigator of the Military Commission? Or would he come directly to Duke Cao’s Mansion?
Thinking of Zhang Biao calling him a ‘second-generation wastrel’ and ‘disgrace of the nobles,’ Li Jinglong felt his scalp tingle.
Could his shady dealings, visiting pleasure boats, keeping actors, and misappropriating small sums of money, withstand Zhang Biao’s ‘audit’?
“Quick!”
Li Jinglong jumped up abruptly, no longer caring about elegance:
“Quickly hide all the newly collected calligraphy, paintings, and antiques in the storeroom in the cellar! No! The cellar isn’t safe either, transport them out of the city! To my villa outside the city!”
“Also, go to the accountant’s office! Change all the account books from the past three years! Yes, re-do the accounting! Make it seamless! Don’t let that madman find any flaws!”
He paced back and forth in the luxurious living room like an ant on a hot pan, muttering to himself:
“Madman! Truly a madman! He has no sense of propriety, how can he just take things?! It’s a disgrace to civilization! A disgrace to civilization!”
Meanwhile, at the Ministry of War Yamen.
Minister of War Ru Chang was frantically calculating on his abacus and wiping the unending cold sweat from his brow with a handkerchief.
He heard his trusted clerk scurry in to report the tragic state of the Ministry of Revenue.
How it was precisely accounted for by Zhang Biao, how it was emptied, and how Fu Youwen collapsed.
The abacus in Ru Chang’s hand clattered to the floor, the beads scattering everywhere.
His plump body trembled violently, his fat jiggling.
“What?! He emptied the Ministry of Revenue?! “
Ru Chang’s face was full of shock, his voice sharp and distorted: “Madman! Madman! How dare he?! Is Fu Youwen a pig?! Just let him move things like that?!”
“Where is Commander Jiang?! How can he let him be so lawless? Is there no law? Is there no justice?!”
“Commander Jiang went to the Ministry of Revenue, said a word about the Emperor’s decree, that Zhang Biao is the Left Vice Censor-in-Chief of the Censorate and has the authority to supervise the Ministry of Revenue’s money and grain, land, and taxes, and to report directly to the Emperor. He then left.”
The clerk said with a mournful face: “Moreover, that Zhang Biao… he’s unreasonable!”
“He just reported accounts! One by one, more clearly than our accountant’s office, he drove Vice Minister Fu to collapse!”
Reporting accounts?!
Ru Chang heard these two words as if he heard a death knell.
The messy accounts in his Ministry of War were no less than those in the Ministry of Revenue.
Drinking the army’s blood, reselling military equipment, eating ghost soldiers’ pay.
Any one of these, if revealed by Zhang Biao in public, would be a grave crime punishable by extermination of the clan!
He seemed to already see Zhang Biao leading those impoverished capital officials to ‘besiege the city,’ abacus in hand, exposing all his dirty secrets, and then emptying his Ministry of War as well.
“Quick! Quick!”
Ru Chang jumped up like a startled fat cat:
“Quickly close the doors! Shut them quickly! Block all side and back doors! Use door bars! Thickened ones!”
“Also go to the storeroom! Hide all the newly arrived armor and weapons that haven’t been put into storage yet! No! Transport them out of the city directly! Find a place to bury them!”
“And the account books! Burn all the account books in the yamen immediately! If they are burned, there will be no evidence for accounting… Bah! No! If they are burned, Zhang Biao won’t be able to catch any handle! Burn them quickly!”
The Ministry of War Yamen instantly plunged into extreme chaos, even worse than the Ministry of Revenue.
Ru Chang was like a headless fly, at one moment directing the blocking of the doors, at another thinking of rescuing the account books, and at another thinking of how to transfer his hidden private wealth.
He had only one thought in his mind.
Absolutely must not let Zhang Biao in! Absolutely not!
However.
Just as he was anxiously pacing back and forth in the room like he had gone mad, a cold, gloomy voice, with a hint of playfulness, suddenly came from the roof: “Oh, let’s see who the little darling is crying~”
Boom!
This sentence was like a devil’s whisper, startling Ru Chang’s plump body, causing it to tremble, and even his fat rippled.
He mechanically looked up, only to see that some of the roof tiles had been removed at some point, revealing a fair face with a slightly wicked smile.
“Zhang-Zhang Biao?!”
……
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