Chapter 79: High-altitude Stereoscopic Audit! Seeking First Subscription!
“Zhang Biao?! How did you get up there?!”
Ru Chang’s voice was sharp enough to shatter glass.
Zhang Biao’s face, twisted into a roguish grin, was stuck in the hole, like Yama finding his name in the Book of Life and Death.
“Minister Ru, we meet again?”
“Aren’t the main doors blocked? For our audit work, if conditions aren’t met, we create them!”
As he spoke, he lightly patted the roof tiles beneath him and said,
“Minister Ru, the roof of your Ministry of War isn’t very sturdy. It needs repairs! Did you pocket the money for this?”
“You!”
Ru Chang’s face turned red with anger, and he immediately denied it: “What nonsense are you spouting! I am an incorruptible official, with clean hands and sleeves. How could I possibly embezzle money?!”
“Oh, really?”
Zhang Biao raised an eyebrow: “Whether you embezzled money or not, we’ll discuss it after the audit!”
“Brother Biao!”
As soon as he finished speaking, Shen Lang’s head popped out from beside him.
Shen Lang was still holding that abacus, and said with a serious expression:
“According to my preliminary estimate, the Ministry of War’s roof has been in disrepair for years. The total funds applied for renovation over the years should be twelve hundred taels of silver, with actual expenditures to be verified.”
Next, Sun Gui’s chamber pot lamp also trembled as it was raised. The faint light shone through the hole, landing precisely on Ru Chang’s pale, fat face, like a spotlight on a startled fat mouse.
“What… what do you want?!”
Ru Chang, trembling with rage as he looked at these people, then pointed at the hole and roared: “Get down here immediately! Otherwise, I’ll call for help!”
“Go ahead and call!”
Zhao Fengman pushed Sun Gui aside and said arrogantly: “Even Commander Jiang can’t do anything to Zhang Jianxian. Do your men dare to touch us?”
“That’s right! Just try to touch one of us!”
“Brother Biao, should we go down?”
Hearing the voices of scorn and agreement from the rooftop, Ru Chang gritted his teeth in anger:
“Zhang Biao! You are a high-ranking official of the court, a fourth-rank official. How can you commit such illegal acts as tearing off roof tiles and trespassing into official premises?!”
“Trespassing into official premises?”
Zhang Biao widened his eyes dramatically and corrected him:
“Minister Ru, you’ve misunderstood! This is a ‘high-altitude, three-dimensional audit,’ to gain a more comprehensive and objective understanding of the Ministry of War’s financial situation! To prevent certain people from cooking up false accounts or burning account books on the ground to fool us!”
Saying this, he pulled out a long rope from his robe, tied one end to his waist, and threw the other end down, shouting to those below:
“Brothers! Lend a hand! Hoist up my ‘audit tools’!”
“Alright, Brother Biao!”
A chorus of agreement came from below.
Soon, several tattered sacks were swaying and being hoisted up.
Zhang Biao opened one of them, which surprisingly contained a pile of pot soot and lard.
“Minister Ru, confess and be lenient, resist and be severely punished. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
Zhang Biao continued to pry off more roof tiles, then descended to the roof beams. With the assistance of Shen Lang and others, he sat astride a crossbeam, dangling his legs and laughing:
“You’d best consider carefully whether you want us to audit your Ministry of War or not.”
“Censor Zhang, do you really intend to break ties with my Ministry of War?”
Ru Chang stared intently at Zhang Biao, completely devoid of his earlier fear.
Zhang Biao gave him a slightly surprised look, then sneered:
“Old Ru, have you not properly assessed the situation? I’m not afraid of the Emperor, so why would I be afraid of your threats?”
“Oh, really?”
Ru Chang let out a cold laugh and then shouted to the outside: “Guards! Let them all in!”
*Crash—*
In less than a moment, a group of old soldiers walked in from outside the door, each exuding a heavy aura of killing intent.
They had clearly been on the battlefield and had killed people.
Then, Ru Chang unhurriedly introduced them:
“These are all veteran soldiers who were wounded and retired from my Ministry of War over the years. They happen to be here today to collect their pensions. They may have bad tempers, especially when they see someone unreasonably assaulting a military stronghold and disrupting order. To ensure the audit process is smooth and orderly, I have no choice but to ask them to temporarily maintain the scene. Censor Zhang, you don’t mind, do you?”
What a master!
Zhang Biao praised him inwardly.
This old fox is a bit more difficult to deal with than that Fu Youwen.
He appeared flustered and disorganized, but in reality, he had already thought of a countermeasure.
And he used the trump card of wounded veterans, a card that was difficult to fault on both emotional and legal grounds.
Assaulting a military stronghold, disturbing veteran heroes – if this charge stuck, even Jiang Huan would have trouble intervening.
Fortunately, they didn’t use the main entrance. Otherwise, with this old fox’s charge of assaulting a military stronghold, they would likely be in serious trouble.
Shen Lang, Sun Gui, and the others turned pale at the sight. Their earlier arrogance had vanished completely.
“Heh!”
Zhang Biao unexpectedly let out a laugh, a more joyous one.
He loved these tough nuts to crack.
“I don’t mind! Of course, I don’t mind!”
He shook his head, as if he hadn’t seen the formidable old soldiers, and cupped his hands towards Ru Chang:
“Minister Ru is understanding and willing to cooperate with the audit, which is a model for our generation. If that’s the case, shall we begin?”
Ru Chang was slightly taken aback, thinking, begin what?
What trick was this madman trying to pull now?
Zhang Biao turned to the old soldiers and suddenly shouted at the top of his lungs: “Veteran brothers! You have suffered!”
*Buzz!*
This shout stunned almost everyone.
Even the eyes of the old soldiers, who had looked stern and murderous, flickered.
Zhang Biao continued his performance, his voice filled with grief and indignation:
“You fought for the country and were disabled, yet now you can only wait here for your meager pensions! Do you know why the pensions are always delayed? Do you know how much of the military pay you earned with your blood has been skimmed off at various levels?”
As he finished speaking, he pointed sharply at Ru Chang, filled with righteous anger:
“It is your Minister Ru! It is him! He drinks soldiers’ blood, takes empty salaries, and steals and sells military equipment…”
“Zhang Biao!”
Ru Chang, startled, quickly interrupted Zhang Biao and shouted: “Do not spread demonic words and incite the army!”
“You say I spread demonic words and incite the army?”
Zhang Biao pointed at his own nose, then took a long bamboo brush from Li Mo, dipped it in the lard and pot soot they had brought up, and roared at the old soldiers again:
“Veteran soldiers! You should be able to read, right? It’s okay if you can’t read, I’ll write and read it to you!”
Having said this, he began to write vigorously on the white walls of the Ministry of War.
“First point!”
Zhang Biao counted aloud as he wrote, his voice echoing throughout the Ministry of War:
“In the 23rd year of Hongwu, Liaodong military equipment was replaced. Three thousand sabers and five thousand spears were reported lost! What was the actual damage? Where did the obsolete equipment go? Was it secretly sold to the nomads outside the Great Wall by certain individuals? Minister Ru, your brother-in-law’s new fur shop in Zhangjiakou last year had quite a substantial capital!”
“Pfft—!”
Ru Chang’s vision went black, and he almost fainted.
How did this madman know about this?
Where did he get his information?!
At this point, even the wiliest old fox like Ru Chang was broken by this mountain of irrefutable evidence.
Because every charge Zhang Biao wrote was true, truer than gold.
Shen Lang also kept pace with Zhang Biao, busily calculating on his abacus at the hole, and reporting in real-time:
“Sabers priced at one tael and five qian, spears priced at eight qian, totaling five thousand five hundred taels! Suspected profit, two thousand taels!”
“Well calculated! Keep going!”
Zhang Biao, filled with heroic spirit, continued to write furiously on another wall:
“Second point! In the 25th year of Hongwu, the procurement of winter clothing for the Capital Garrison was priced thirty percent above market value! The procurement official was the strategist from your hometown, wasn’t he? After he handled it, a new five-courtyard mansion was built in his hometown!”
“Third point! Horse administration…”
“That’s right! It’s the horse administration! The number of warhorses supplemented is severely inconsistent with the accounts! Is the money from the extra slots enough to support another brother-in-law?!”
One by one, item by item, Zhang Biao used that mixture of pot soot and lard to fill the walls, and even the pillars, of the Ministry of War with the rotten accounts of Ru Chang and his cronies.
The handwriting was crooked, carrying a smell of oil smoke, yet it was more impactful than any impeachment memorial.
Ru Chang below, along with the officials of the Ministry of War, and a group of veteran heroes, were all stunned.
What the heck!
What kind of audacious move is this?!
【 Dear patrons, please support us with more! Monthly tickets! Full subscriptions! Auto-subscriptions! All forms of care! 】
