bookrandom Chapter 944: That was a loyal minister who appeared in "Northern Wing Mountains and Rivers"
Chapter 944: That was a loyal minister who appeared in "Northern Wing Mountains and Rivers"
The day Song Yuanjiu was dismissed from his post and imprisoned was his mother's birthday. He originally didn't want to hold a big celebration, but his mother refused, saying that she had worked hard all her life and this was all she could have.
The old lady raised her eyebrows, her gold-plated dentures gleaming with gold as she said, "My son has given away at least 80,000 yuan in gifts over the years! This time, I must get all the money back!"
Song Yuanjiu came from a poor family and was a filial son. He could not persuade his mother to give him a birthday banquet and invited all the officials he knew.
His eldest son Song Shenzhi and second son Song Xizhi were both studying at Yunqi Academy, and were also called back that day to celebrate their grandmother's birthday.
At dawn in the morning, the old lady was walking around the yard with her cane, watching the servants hanging red lanterns. The brand new purple jacket with longevity patterns on her was also made of the brocade that her son had given her last month.
Song Yuanjiu stood in the corridor, holding a secret letter sent by a good colleague from the Censorate, his knuckles gradually turned white.
He looked at his mother's energetic appearance and felt mixed emotions.
He met his wife in the corridor and called her aside to remind her, "If anything happens to me, you can take your mother back to your hometown. The court will not implicate you."
His wife was originally his mother's niece, she was soft-hearted, timid and ignorant. She had never had a say in the mansion, and it was always his mother who made the decisions.
The lady's face turned pale when she heard this, and she clutched his sleeve tightly, "What's wrong with my husband? How could you be in trouble?"
Song Yuanjiu had a hard time speaking out, "These are all court affairs, you are a woman and you don't understand."
Although the lady was soft-hearted, she was frightened at this moment, but she knew to hold on to the most important thing and asked, "Then my husband, tell me, are you wronged? If you are wronged, even if I risk my life, I will beat the drum for you and ask the emperor to redress your grievances."
Song Yuanjiu felt very uncomfortable. He held his wife's hand and spoke with difficulty, "It is not my fault. It is my fault that I deserve to die."
Mrs. Song threw herself into Song Yuanjiu's arms and cried.
Song Yuanjiu was heartbroken. "I have implicated my two sons. They cannot pass the imperial examinations. From now on, you must teach your sons to follow the right path and read wise books. Don't be disrespectful to the court. Everything is your own fault."
Upon hearing this, Mrs. Song cried even harder and held on to her husband's clothes tightly, refusing to let go, fearing that if she let go, he would be arrested by the government.
Song's mother looked over from afar, walked quickly, pointed at her daughter-in-law's forehead angrily, and spat, "It's my birthday early in the morning, and you're crying!" As she said that, she was about to twist her daughter-in-law's ear.
Song Yuanjiu protected his wife behind him and looked at his mother sadly, "Mother, please be nicer to Han'er in the future. She is the only one you can rely on."
Song's mother didn't understand what he said. She straightened her back and said, "I saved money to support your studies and hoped that you would become an official. Now you have achieved success and fame. I rely on you, my son!"
Song Yuanjiu thought sadly, you can't rely on your son anymore. Your son is finished!
Seeing her son in a daze, Song's mother made arrangements unhappily, "Hurry up and get dressed, the guests will be coming soon." She stroked her hair, straightened her clothes, and said happily, "Son, what do you think of my outfit? Am I presentable?"
Song Yuanjiu looked at his mother dressed up in a new outfit, feeling sad as if he had lost his parents. He thought to himself, Mom, there will be no guests coming to visit.
He opened his mouth, but nothing came out.
Mrs. Song burst into tears again, and her ears turned red after being twisted by Song's mother.
Song Yuanjiu couldn't stop him.
Song's mother was the head of the family and always had the final say. She could not find a daughter-in-law, so she went to the outside to make arrangements.
She wondered why her son was so blind that he had to marry the youngest daughter of her third brother. There were so many women among the rich and powerful in the capital, who was not better than her niece who had never seen the world?
The Song family is deserted.
There were still quite a few colleagues who came to visit, all of them were lower-ranking officials who had not yet heard the news.
Song's mother knew how to look at the rank of an official's uniform, and also knew how to look at the regulations for carriages. She looked around, but didn't see an official she liked, and her eyes almost rolled back to the back of her head.
Until the sound of the iron chains of the Ministry of Justice drowned out the sound of firecrackers at the door at the auspicious time, the incense sticks for ancestor worship in the courtyard had not yet burned out.
"Song Yuanjiu, the Minister of Zongzheng Temple..." The head of the Ministry of Justice unfolded the yellow silk edict, and his voice penetrated the snowy courtyard, "He accepted bribes totaling 377,600 taels from the awaiting garrison commander Jiang Zhongxin. Search and seize immediately!"
Mrs. Song cried heartbreakingly and ran for several blocks with her two sons after her husband's prison van. Her shoes even fell off.
The two sons' eyes turned green and their heads were buzzing. They asked the same question, "Mother, father must have been wrongly accused, right?"
Madam Song cried bitterly, shook her head, and said with sorrow, "Your father told you not to bear grudge against the court. His crime is unforgivable."
The two sons' eyes were red. The sky has fallen! Their father is in prison, where will they go?
Where will they go? They are no longer qualified to take the imperial examination. They can no longer go to the Yunqi Academy, which they have longed for and been proud of.
Why? What crime did my father commit?
The mother and her children hugged each other and cried bitterly.
Song's mother fell to the ground, her hair disheveled. "No, my son was wrongly accused. He has always been frugal, how could he accept bribes! You are wrong, wrong."
However, the officials from the Ministry of Justice pried open the bed inside and revealed real gold and silver neatly stacked under the bricks.
Song's mother also saw it and almost went crazy!
The thought of her son having so much money but not giving it to her and letting it gather dust under the bed made her eyes blaze with anger.
Song's mother fainted on the ground crying.
At this time, at Enyi Inn in Gongcheng, Lingzhou.
Shi Anxia had read Jiang Zhongxin's confession and the account books found in his mansion countless times.
The account book had written in black and white: Song Yuanjiu, three hundred and seventy-seven thousand six hundred taels.
She remembered Song Yuanjiu, who was the Minister of Zongzheng Temple at that time.
In the Northern Wing, this official position is of the third rank, the same rank as the six ministers and the Northern Propaganda Minister, and is considered to be a high and powerful position.
Not only could he have direct access to the emperor's ears and use the power of secret memorials, he could also participate in the selection of the crown prince and had the right to review the imperial archives.
In the previous life, when the imperial court was short of silver, Song Yuanjiu donated over one million taels of silver in one go.
Everyone was shocked at the time.
Everyone knows that Lord Song comes from a poor family and is frugal in his daily life. Where did he get so much money?
He explained that his ancestors had some valuable things, which he sold.
At that time, the country was in crisis, and no one would doubt the truth of this statement. Even Shi Anxia believed it, who would have thought that it was a bribe?
Song Yuanjiu died of illness soon after donating the silver. Although he was not a brilliant official in his daily life and did not do anything earth-shaking during the war, his name was still recorded in "Records of Mountains and Rivers of Beiyi".
Later, the imperial court returned part of the silver to the Song family, but Song Yuanjiu's eldest son Song Shenzhi refused.
He said that his father's will said that it was his lifelong blessing to be able to donate the Song family's money to the court.
It was also because of this that when Anxia saw that the people who were investigating the Li family were officials headed by Song Yuanjiu, he did not conduct further inspections, which led to such a mistake.
It turned out that what Song Yuanjiu donated to the Northern Wing court was actually bribe silver. This realization made Shi Anxia feel extremely uncomfortable.
He was a loyal minister who was featured in "Records of Mountains and Rivers of the Northern Wing"!
It was at this time that Shi Anxia suddenly understood the true meaning of the sentence "It is his lifelong blessing to be able to donate the Song family's money to the court."