My Husband Is Not Easy To Mess With. - Chapter 10: Change it, I said
Chapter 10: Change it, I said
For the first time, Nie Yao felt the gold was a little hot to handle.
He wanted to refuse but couldn’t bear to part with it.
He was also worried about being scratched again.
He could only reluctantly accept it and head to the morning court with a slightly heavy heart.
“My Lord, you’re finally here!”
The morning court was nearly turning into a noon court. Qian Henduo, who hadn’t prepared, was dizzy with hunger. While reporting the three hundred taels collection results to his boss, he rummaged through Nie Yao’s sleeve.
He was trying to find two large pancakes to fill his stomach.
But instead of pancakes, he touched something heavy.
“What are you doing? Let go!”
Nie Yao didn’t want his subordinate to know that he had made a fortune from the new Emperor, so he quickly slapped away Qian Henduo’s hand. He had the young eunuch behind him quickly give the ‘egg-stuffed pancakes’ he had packed for this glutton to eat.
“What is this?” Qian Henduo finished a pancake in three bites, without even chewing.
After devouring five in one go, the burning sensation in his stomach finally subsided a little.
It wasn’t until the sixth pancake that he could actually taste it.
“This stuff is so fragrant!”
“My Lord, what is this? I’ve never eaten it at your manor before?”
“Eating so well first thing in the morning, my Lord, you’ve finally become rich! I knew following you was the right choice!”
“My Lord, can we eat this again tomorrow?”
After eating, the fellow even wanted to lick his fingers.
Nie Yao couldn’t stand it anymore and kicked him, “If you embarrass me again, get lost to the north and chew on grass roots!”
Qian Henduo also ate grass roots.
It’s just that they weren’t as tasty as meat. If possible, he hoped to eat meat every day.
If not meat, then this kind of food was fine too.
“My Lord, that bastard Sun Ji said he’s going to accuse me of insubordination to you,” Qian Henduo wasn’t keen on going north, so he quickly changed the subject. “He was putting on airs to pressure me, and I couldn’t hold back and slapped him.”
“My Lord, is that a problem?”
“I didn’t even use much force!”
Nie Yao believed he might truly not have used much force.
But Sun Ji was a civil official, and an old one at that.
Fragile bones were a given.
“Alright, I know,” Nie Yao didn’t say whether he would punish him or not, tossing the last pancake to Qian Henduo and telling him to leave quickly and stop being an eyesore here.
The new Emperor had arrived.
The morning court began.
Nie Yao didn’t have time to get updates from other subordinates, so he made a gesture to the hidden guards to send a report up to him.
It wasn’t the first time he’d asked for a work report, his subordinates understood.
They folded the pre-written document and had one of their own people, also present in the court, pass it to him.
While others were reporting their work in court.
Nie Yao was looking down at what exactly happened at the Minister of Rites’ manor yesterday.
Qian Henduo generally followed the procedure, nothing wrong there.
It was only at the end, when Qian Henduo was about to pull his men out, that Sun Ji deliberately had someone hand three hundred taels to a beggar in front of Qian Henduo. Qian Henduo then turned around and slapped him.
Hmm, no problem.
Nie Yao put away the paper and focused his attention on the court session.
“Your Majesty! Please, Your Majesty, grant justice to your servant, Your Majesty!!”
Sun Ji, with his head completely bandaged, knelt miserably in the court, prostrating himself at the new Emperor’s feet.
His expression was full of grief and indignation.
“Minister of Revenue Nie Yao extorted this old servant, and indulged his subordinate to beat your servant to this state without cause!”
“Please, Your Majesty, grant justice to your servant!”
He wasn’t the only one crying.
After his performance, others followed suit.
“Your Majesty, I have a memorial to submit. I have discovered that the Nie family is harboring private troops, with 800,000 soldiers in Moshigun under the pretense of defending against foreign enemies. Moshigun is only one prefecture of the Great Yu, why is such a large force of 800,000 needed! The Nie family surely harbors wicked ambitions, attempting to &%￥#@&%…”
The Minister of Justice presented a pile of evidence.
It claimed the Nie family was raising private armies, eclipsing the Emperor’s glory with a subject’s power. It also listed Nie Yao’s corruption, bribery, and wanton assault on court officials—in short, a whole lot of miscellaneous crimes.
These were all things everyone knew about.
Nie Yao couldn’t be bothered to listen.
“That’s enough,” Nie Yao still had a task to do, so he simply interrupted the official, “If you’re going to talk, say something no one else knows. If you have evidence that this official’s men have been oppressing the common people or abusing the villagers, bring it out now.”
“If not, then shut up.”
The court officials were stunned.
Nie Yao was usually arrogant, but he generally didn’t show it openly.
Actions like interrupting an official’s remonstrance, as he did today, had never happened before.
What was wrong with him?
The tearful Sun Ji was also momentarily speechless, even forgetting to cry. It took him a while to react, and he wailed hysterically, “Your Majesty!! Such a treacherous official is guilty of the gravest crimes! I implore Your Majesty to severely punish Nie Yao and rectify the court!”
He did have some influence.
As soon as he spoke, many people stepped forward to agree.
“We implore Your Majesty to severely punish Nie Yao and rectify the court!”
Their voices were loud.
The shouting instantly woke up some of the drowsy military officials.
They looked around.
Although they didn’t know what was happening, seeing many of their own people openly standing behind Nie Yao, they quickly wiped the drool from the corners of their mouths and followed suit.
“Your Majesty, these bastards are spouting nonsense, please don’t listen to their slander!”
“Our Lord said you are very smart, Your Majesty, you surely know who is the treacherous official and who is the loyal official, right!”
When had he ever said the new Emperor was smart?
Nie Yao glared at the military official who spoke.
A vein throbbed on his forehead.
“Qian Henduo, get back and stand properly!!”
How many times had he told him not to act like this during court!
This was the Imperial Court, not a bandit’s den, it was not!
Nie Yao also gave a kick to the other dim-witted fools who were obviously just waking up, like a kindergarten teacher, making them retreat and stand properly.
“Your Majesty! Look at them! Openly forming cliques in court, they clearly don’t place Your Majesty in their eyes!”
“Unless the Nie family is eliminated, there will be no peace under heaven, Your Majesty!”
Excellent, they had practically handed over the handle to his opponents.
This group of civil officials would probably be laughing in their sleep tonight.
Nie Yao was about to explode with anger, but on the surface, he had to maintain his cold and composed appearance.
“Your Majesty, I believe…” He scanned the surroundings and said flatly, “Going to court at the third ke of the mao hour is too early. It should be changed to the si hour for the best timing.”
Mao hour is from 5 am to 7 am. The si hour is from 9 am to 11 am. So the mao hour third ke would be around 5:45 am, and the si hour would be 9 am to 11 am.
Why start work at five or six in the morning?
Coming to argue at nine would be enough.
Seeing that those people couldn’t produce any evidence, Nie Yao ignored the wailing Sun Ji and his group, directly skipping ahead to complete the task assigned by the new Emperor.
“What is this about going to court at the si hour?” A few military officials who were actually listening were confused. Thinking their boss couldn’t hear, they muttered quietly, “Isn’t waking up at the yin hour and going to court at the mao hour just right? It’s not like we’re weak civil officials whose old bones can’t handle getting up early for court…”
Nie Yao desperately wanted to kick out these subordinates who were muttering and dissenting.
But to maintain the last shred of dignity.
He chose to feign deafness.
He said calmly, “I think going to court at the si hour is very good. What do you all think?”
“Of course! The si hour is clearly an auspicious time, going to court at an auspicious time is great!”
“Yes, yes! The si hour is good! I also think the si hour is good!”
“Minister Nie is right! I second the motion!”
The military officials were unanimous.
Some fools who had been zoning out the entire time and had no idea what was happening all stepped out and shouted, “I second the motion!”
The civil officials were shocked.
And then they erupted.
Following this, an Censor who hadn’t spoken for decades stepped forward and said righteously, “Your Majesty, Nie Yao is disrupting the court and his crime is unforgivable! I beg Your Majesty to issue an edict and have him beheaded!”