Chapter 132 – Inventory and the Artist’s Work

This is what you taught me.

Fan Jian sighed, rubbing his fingertips gently, feeling the touch that the paper brought.

On the paper was a charcoal drawing of a woman’s head, and even though it was only a few strokes, it was extremely evocative of that woman’s demeanor and appearance.

Especially the eyes of the woman in the drawing, just like that compassionately, tenderly, and mischievously …… looked at Fan Jian who was looking at her.

“His Majesty asked the Grand Painter to steal your portrait in the palace.” Fan Jian looked at the woman in the painting and smiled, “But for me, your appearance has always been clear in my mind.”

“Whenever I want to talk to you, I can’t help but draw one.”

“Draw the naughty you, draw the cold you, draw the sad you, draw the happy you.”

“With so many of you, who is the real you? It’s a pity that there’s no way to ask you anymore.”

Fan Jian sighed and passed the piece of paper to the candlestick to burn. He looked at the clear and beautiful face that gradually disappeared into the flames, and said in a daze, “If His Majesty and I hadn’t gone back to our old home in Tanyu State for the summer back then, we wouldn’t have met you, and there …… wouldn’t have been any of those things that came afterward.”

“Perhaps, I’m still the same painter who spends his days hanging out in greenhouses.” Lord Shangshu tugged at the corners of his own lips, spreading a hint of a self-deprecating smile, “You said that there is a need for a profession like an artist in this world. Unfortunately, in the end, I ended up being the one with the strongest smell of copper in the entire Kingdom of Qing.”

The fire on that piece of paper gradually burned to the center, leaving only some gray and black scraps of paper behind.

“You have always treated me as the most trustworthy elder brother.” Fan Jian finally said this, “I’m very grateful for your trust, so don’t worry, even if I don’t have much ability to change too much, at least, I’ll insist on standing in this Kyoto and watching Idle Child gradually grow up.”

A soft knock came from outside the study.

“Come in.” Fan Jian said with a smile.

Liu walked in with the cup of sour syrup, gently resting it on top of the desk with a lingering worry on her face. The matter in the palace had long since reached home from concubine Yigui’s place, and as the current mistress of the Fan residence, she certainly knew what kind of predicament her lord would face at tomorrow’s court.

Fan Jian glanced at her and sighed, “Rest assured, His Majesty will not treat me too harshly.”

A slight resentment flashed in Liu’s eyes as she said softly, “If His Majesty remembers old friendships, he wouldn’t have been provoked by those petty criminals to purge the Ministry of Revenue. In these six ministries, who is clean from start to finish?”

Fan Jian shook his head and said, “Trust His Majesty. When it comes to matters of dynastic importance, it is certainly not something to be taken lightly.”

Liu knew that his lordship did not want to continue this saddening topic and nodded helplessly.

Fan Jian raised the bowl to the trace of burning paper scent lingering above the desk and said, “To each other.”

Then he drank it all in one go.

Liu was slightly stunned, thinking to herself, “Who is the master toasting to?

The second day. The court meeting opened again, not surprisingly, his majesty harshly blamed the poor performance of the Ministry of households in the past two years, and pushed most of the charges of the national treasury being empty onto the head of the Ministry of households, because the Minister of households, Fan Jian, still claimed to be sick and did not go to court, so no one in the Ministry of households could defend themselves one or two, and the group of officials of the Ministry of households who had no head of the dragon were pitifully enduring the attack of the entire court.

The court issued an explicit decree, began to check the deficit of the Ministry of households over the years, by the Supervisory Yuan specific implementation, by the Ministry of mandarins, Ministry of Justice, the Da Lisi from the side of the assistance, by the door under the Ministry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences Hu Da Shi general leader of the investigation of the affairs of the Crown Prince in the side of the fill in the gaps.

There is the wind of checking the Ministry of the household, so this thing did not let people surprised, but when this position out, the ministers still feel a trace of consternation, such a big battle, it seems that his majesty is really want to let the Ministry of the household to eat some bitter head.

I wonder how Little Lord Fan in Jiangnan will react when he knows about this?

In the afternoon of that day, the officials of the various divisions of the joint investigation began to move into the office of the Ministry of Revenue, and there was another Kyoto guard responsible for mobilizing troops to watch over the various treasury departments and storage yards, and the object of the officials’ initial investigation was the accounts of the seven divisions of the Ministry of Revenue.

For a time, the big acacia tree side of the Ministry of household government office was already bustling, become more noisy, today to receive money officials less quite a lot, to check the money of the officials but a lot more.

The Ministry of households officials are nervous to these with the decree to come to the inspection of the officers to welcome into the Yamen, do not know tossed a long time, only to make a sufficient number of tai shi chairs to invite all the officers to sit down, and then by the right and left minister on behalf of the report of the Ministry of households for the past two years of the operation of the situation, but also in the monitoring of the Academy of Supervisors, began to go to clean up the books in order to wait for the inspection.

Sitting in the middle of Hu Daoshi and His Royal Highness did not how difficult these Ministry of households officials, warm words to exhort a few words will wait for the specific investigation began, but the Ministry of mandarins and the Ministry of criminal justice officials rarely find an opportunity to make things difficult for the Ministry of households of the lords, where they are willing to miss, intimidation of words, loud and angry reproach, straight to the Ministry of households said the world to hide dirt, not for the court in charge of the money and food place.

Hu can not help but frown, know that these two ministries of the governor and the Fan family is quite wrong, if they do not keep a close eye on some, I’m afraid that the investigation, really want to become the other side of the means of combating dissent.

Faced with such a big row, looking at the hall sitting so many big names, including the right and left ministers, all the Ministry of households officials are a little defeated, and even feel some kind of despair, today, Fan Shangshu is not in the court, these Ministry of households officials are born a kind of isolation by the full of officials, know that they are going to face, it is the career or even the life of the biggest a hurdle.

The officials of the Supervisory Yuan watched over the work of organizing the books, and in a short while they watched the old officials of the Ministry of Revenue clear out as many as seven large bamboo baskets of books, which the people worked very hard to carry to the hall.

His Highness the Crown Prince was bluffed by so many books, said in surprise: “so many books, one by one, when will it be right to go?”

The left minister of the ministry of households said in annoyance: “Your highness, under the ministry of households there are seven divisions, corresponding to the world’s seven road finance, and there are four clearing divisions corresponding to the river works and other things, there are three large libraries, Xishan bookstore and other seven workshops were also transferred to the ministry of households last year by the internal treasury transfer division, there are also seventeen treasury farms in the vicinity of kyoto, and there are also the baosuen bureau and the money law hall in charge of minting money, as for the canal affairs of the warehouse yard yamen in faraway Hangzhou, and the ……”

This minister lord splittingly said, actually said a tea work, did not stop.

The prince listened to the brain is confused, quickly waved his hand to stop.

Come to the Ministry of households to check the ministers are dumbfounded, always only know that the Ministry of households is responsible for the management of money, where to think of the following there is such a complicated set of institutions, which want to check clearly, it seems to be not a day or two things.

The minister of the Lord said with a smile on his face: “Your Highness, at this time, the accounts of the Ministry of Yamen are still in the process of cleaning up. The seven baskets here, is the accounts of the silver money division of Shandong Road. Because a few days ago, Mr. Shangshu is ordering the official responsible for cleaning up this road accounts, so move out fast. As for the total accounts, it will take at least ten days to clear them out.”

The Crown Prince was overpowered by this retainer and was so angry that he nearly blocked a mouthful of air and angrily rebuked, “This Palace doesn’t care how many accounts you have here or how many days it will take. But his majesty since the decree of the investigation, your hands and feet had better be faster, or do not blame the palace played you secretly resist the decree of the investigation!”

Who knows that this Minister of the Ministry of Revenue still said unnecessarily, “Your Highness the Crown Prince, naturally my humble servant does not have the guts to do so. Just ministers since you are in accordance with the emperor’s order to come to the inventory, always have to draw up a charter, exactly from which division to start? In addition to the accounts, when will the inventory of silver in the treasury start? Several million taels of silver, even if you want to count …… only to be counted for several days.”

Prince annoyed with a wave of the sleeve, lazy and this tricky mouth officials fight, anyway, wait to find out the problem, there is always no your good fruit to eat.

Hu Daoshi in the first seat on the cold eyes, the heart is also very strange. This Ministry of households in Fan Shangshu’s management, really is different from the rest of the ministries, although the minister of the Lord is not a small official, but dare to so face to face to the Prince, which is also too interesting.

He knew that the Minister of households today has a fire in his heart, couldn’t help but smile and said: ”Minister Yu this is not a bad thing to say, since it is an inventory, of course, should be carried out in an orderly manner, and it is best not to interfere with the daily office of the Ministry of households. The political and official affairs of the whole country all require the mobilization of silver money from the Ministry of Revenue, if the Ministry of Revenue’s administration is disturbed too much for the sake of the investigation, His Majesty must not wish to see it either.”

This surnamed Yu’s minister lord, obviously to Hu Daoshi to respect a lot, bowed and said: “all listen to Daoshi command.”

Since a time do not know where to start, then we must first clean out all the accounts of the Ministry of households, and then transfer specialized officials to check, the Supervisory Yuan, the Ministry of mandarins, the Da Lisi have this professional competent, just look at the appearance, at least until the day after tomorrow can not start.

At this time, an official suddenly spoke to Hu Daishi: “According to the next official, not if …… first take out the accounts of the Treasury and Jiangnan Division to see.”

The hall is quiet.

Treasury is stored in the treasury of silver, and the Ministry of households, if the treasury silver really transferred to the Jiangnan, according to the full of civil and military inferences, is certainly going to the accounts of the Department of Jiangnan. This official bluntly proposed to first transfer the treasury with the accounts of the Jiangnan Division, obviously is aimed at this rumor.

Hu Daoshi was slightly stunned, and couldn’t find any reason to oppose, and he did want to know if the Ministry of Revenue was really bold enough to privately transfer state funds down to Jiangnan. He and the crown prince slightly discussed, then instructed the officials of the Supervisory Yuan and the Ministry of households hall officials together to go first adjust the accounts of these two places.

One night nothing.

The second day nothing.

The third day was uneventful.

The Qing court for the Ministry of households of the inventory work, from the beginning of the accounts of the war into the boundless sea, the intention of the Ministry of households to find out what the problem of the officials, instantly within the accounts of those who are as many as the snow of the Cangshan Mountain was drowned out.

Expansive hall above, accounts piled up into a small mountain, filled with a burst of old paper dust flavor, so that the officials of the inventory some hard to breathe, full of visual exhaustion of the yellow paper and figures, so that these officials are disoriented.

Quiet investigation hall, constantly ringing the sound of turning the pages of the book, crackling dialing the sound of the abacus, occasionally there are one or two sips of tea sound.

The quiet mixed with the monotonous repetitive sounds was extremely hypnotizing.

So those who are seated on the master’s chair of the investigation officers although they do not have to personally face the horror of the complexity of the figures, but still feel physically and mentally exhausted, spring sleepy.

The officials of the various divisions of the inventory have been busy for several days, accounting for the numbers on those books and comparing them, but never found any problems.

Today is the Treasury and Jiangnan Division of the number of investigation, for the time being has not found can overturn the Ministry of households handle.

This makes everyone feel incredibly surprised, and even secretly inclined to the Fan family’s Hu Daoshi feel strange. So many books, even if it is not intentional, even if it is unintentional mistakes, there must be some to be normal, right? Such a huge amount of calculation work, is not the Ministry of the household in the past two years will not make a mistake?

The so-called water to clear there is no fish, account to clear there is false, the world can not exist so perfect account, if there is, it must be false account.

Hu Daoshi is like this, the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Justice of the Ministry of investigation officials are also like this, so they check more and more vigorously, as long as you can find a trace of loopholes, you can start its whole body, the entire Ministry of the Household dragged down to the horse.

However, when this warm but boring afternoon is over, buried in the accounts of the various ministries officials looked up, with incomparable shocked eyes to look at each other, and to their respective superiors shook their heads, so that the inventory officials heart surged countless disappointment.

There was no problem, at least the Ministry of the Household did not have the slightest problem with the accounts of the Jiangnan Division and the Treasury.

The Household Ministry that was checked out right now was clean, exceptionally clean, as clean as a naked virgin after a bath.

“Not right.” Yan Xingshu, the Minister of Revenue who rushed to the Ministry of Revenue this afternoon, shook his head and said to Grand Maester Hu beside him, “It’s too abnormal.”

Grand Maester Hu nodded.

Yan Xingshu narrowed his eyes and said after some thought, “Checking the accounts of these two places alone, of course we can’t find any problems. Certain people are not fools, knowing that the court is suspicious of this area, of course they want to wipe the accounts in this area extremely flat. However, all accounts and coffers are under our control, physical and digital always have to be right, the Ministry of the household if there is really a problem, then it must be the transfer of silver to erase the flat, I see …… our next step can not only focus on these places, should be expanded outward, check the seven divisions of the three large libraries, all of the accounts should be totaled up to check and will certainly find out which the Fishy.”

Dr. Hu frowned and said, “The difficulty is too great, not to mention, and it will take a long time.”

Prince in a side listening, heart suddenly surged a strange feeling, could it be around these officials are not in the Ministry of households under the jurisdiction of the Treasury in the benefits? How all have so much guts to check the accounts of the scope of unlimited expansion? He thought about it and agreed with Yan Xingshu’s opinion, being able to deal with the Fan family was the thing he wished to see the most nowadays.

The news of comprehensive account clearing by the Ministry of the household soon spread into the Fan residence, claiming that the sick in bed Fan Jian expression remains unchanged, only muttered to himself: “Artists do false accounts, of course, to strive for perfection, check it, check the wider the better, find out the bigger the problem the better.”