Chapter 1680 - Seizing Kong Wu!

“Your Highness First Prince, this subject is being unjustly accused! This lowly subject has worked in the Bureau of Military Personnel for several decades and has always been conscientious and loyal. How could this subject ever do such a thing? And Your Highness King of Foreign Lands, Kong Wu naturally cannot compare to you in prestige, nor in rank. When Lord Zhangchou became unwell and the Imperial Court wished to select a temporary Minister of War, I had no idea that you desired the post. But, Your Highness, even if you are unhappy, there is no need to slander and vilify this Kong so much!” Kong Wu said in agitation, his face ghastly pale.

“King of Foreign Lands, you’re acting too excessively!”

The hall buzzed with chatter, and the officials of the Confucian Sect and the First Prince’s faction used the chance to cause trouble. Although they had been caught by surprise, they couldn’t let Wang Chong just get rid of Kong Wu.

The First Prince said nothing, only stared grimly at Wang Chong, his eyes getting colder and colder.

“Hmph!”

Wang Chong coldly took everything in, an unperturbed smile on his lips.

“Wang Chong, this prince does not care what prejudices you have against Kong Wu, but this is the court. Although Kong Wu is not the Minister of War, he is still a vital official of the court. If you do not have any firm evidence and are recklessly throwing out accusations, this prince will be forced to heavily punish you for causing trouble in court and disregarding the laws!” the First Prince finally said.

“Your Highness, this subject naturally has evidence,” Wang Chong coldly said, showing no signs of backing down. “Kong Wu has been an Assistant Minister in the Bureau of Military Personnel for ten-some years. He has placed private gain above public good and allowed his wife’s younger brother to enter the Bureau of Military Personnel as a director. To intercept the money the Bureau of Military Personnel sends to the local magistrates for military expenses is one thing, but not long ago, when the Imperial Court was engaged in peace negotiations with the other countries and when the armies were being reduced from the capital all the way to the border, Kong Wu’s brother-in-law actually dared to intercept a portion of the money being paid out to the families of soldiers who died in battle and the soldiers who were being told to retire.

“A member of the Bureau of Military Personnel found this while performing an audit and was planning to report the matter to the Imperial Court. But Kong Wu managed to seize the man, and under the charges of colluding with outside factions and disrespecting his superiors, he had the man imprisoned. In the end, he died under torture in the prison of the Bureau of Military Personnel. Kong Wu, has this king said anything wrong?”

Wang Chong coldly turned his head to Kong Wu, whose face immediately paled once more.

Before Kong Wu could speak, an old official stepped forward and rebuked Wang Chong. “King of Foreign Lands, don’t speak nonsense! Everyone in the court knows of Lord Kong’s reputation. How could he possibly do such a thing!?”

“That’s right! Even if you don’t like Kong Wu, there’s no need to resort to such methods!”

Others voiced their agreement.

The Confucian Sect and Wang Chong already had many irresolvable conflicts between them, and many of the officials present were part of the First Prince’s faction. They naturally would not believe his claims.

“Hmph, without evidence, how could this king dare to say such things?”

Coldly chuckling, Wang Chong took two items from his sleeve.

“This is an audit record from the Bureau of Military Personnel. Five days ago, I had people from the Bureau of Military Personnel thoroughly inspect this year’s financial records. The money allocated to the Imperial Court by the Bureau of Military Personnel, to be paid to soldiers being disbanded, was thirteen million taels of gold. Of this, eight million were distributed, but five million taels have gone missing without explanation.

“If my investigation is correct, of those five million taels, two million were taken by that brother-in-law of yours to the capital’s Golden Gambling Den and were lost while gambling; one million, five hundred thousand taels were sent to your own residence; and five hundred thousand was given to those old brothers of yours. As for the remaining one million taels, your brother-in-law kept them in his own estate for his own use.

Before coming to court, I already ordered men to search your brother-in-law’s residence, and this gold was found there. Even the official seals on them haven’t been melted off yet.”

As Wang Chong spoke, he flipped his hand over, revealing a gold ingot of the Great Tang, the official seal on its bottom still clear and visible.

The official ingots of the Great Tang were all cast by the Imperial Court, and they all had the official seal at their bottoms. When this money was distributed, it would normally come with a certificate that would show where the gold had come from. It was only when this certificate was obtained and the seal removed by local officials that the gold could be allowed to circulate in the marketplace.

Although there were ways to recast official ingots, this batch of gold was too large and there had not been enough time to get rid of the seals.

If this gold had been found in the residence of Kong Wu’s brother-in-law, then the evidence was firm and inescapable.

The officials who had been vigorously criticizing Wang Chong a few moments ago instantly paled at the sight of this evidence. They had been arguing Kong Wu’s case, believing that Wang Chong couldn’t possibly have found anything, but they had just been given a sharp slap to the face.

“King of Foreign Lands, you…!”

The most panicked at this time was Kong Wu. Wang Chong had been the last to enter the court, getting in just before the second whip crack sounded. Kong Wu had thought that Wang Chong had done so intentionally to act arrogant, never expecting that he had been conducting a raid on Kong Wu’s brother-in-law.

“Kong Wu!”

The First Prince roared as he glared at Kong Wu, his face twisted into a nasty scowl. Even a blind man would be able to sense his anger.

No matter what sort of accusations Wang Chong could have made, they would have been nothing without evidence. But not only did Wang Chong have the account books of the Bureau of Military Personnel, he even had official gold ingots found in the estate of Kong Wu’s brother-in-law.

Each batch of ingots issued by the court was different, and this batch was particularly special, as it was to soothe the hundreds of thousands of soldiers who were being dismissed. Not even the most eloquent arguments from Kong Wu could save him.

“Yo-Yo-Your Highness!”

Thud! Kong Wu dropped to his knees, cold sweat beading on his forehead as his face turned ashen.

“This lowly subject did not know, truly! My brother-in-law and his sister must have been secretly colluding with each other! This subject has always been so busy with military affairs that he rarely even goes home. This lowly subject knows nothing about what is going on there!” Kong Wu loudly said.

“Bastard, you still dare to argue at a time like this!”

The First Prince’s rage was on full display. Although he didn’t like Wang Chong, he could see that Wang Chong had come well-prepared. In front of so many other officials and with this ironclad evidence, the First Prince couldn’t help Kong Wu even if he wanted to.

To take some of the money meant for the disbanded soldiers was one thing, but Kong Wu had even dared to covet the compensation money paid out to the families of deceased soldiers. With this fact alone, Kong Wu could put to an end any thoughts of ever taking the post of Minister of War.

And to think that he had tried to promote Kong Wu and have him take Zhangchou Jianqiong’s place…!

Even worse was that all of this could be easily verified through another investigation, making all of Kong Wu’s arguments pointless. This was why he was so angry.

“Your Highness! I, I…”

Kong Wu prostrated on the floor, his face panicked and his clothes drenched.

The Bureau of Military Personnel did not concern itself with money and food. All of this was issued from the state treasury. But the Bureau of Military Personnel did decide how this money was distributed, how it made its way from the capital down to the soldiers.

The wages and expenses of several hundred thousand soldiers were involved in this, and normally, even the Bureau of Military Personnel wouldn’t have clear records. Accurately accounting for seventy to eighty percent of expenses would be considered superb. Verifying every single one of the millions of records was a nigh impossible mission.

Kong Wu had never imagined that Wang Chong would be able to go through such complicated accounts in such little time, verifying them one by one to get the accurate number.

This was simply unbelievable!

“Hmph!”

Wang Chong gazed at the frightened and trembling Kong Wu as he coldly chuckled. He felt no sympathy for this man.

He did not want to deal with Kong Wu purely because of his relationship to the First Prince.

The vast majority of people probably found Kong Wu to be a lover of the country and a loyal subject, but nobody understood Kong Wu’s secrets more than Wang Chong. Wang Chong also knew what would happen if he were allowed to take the post of Minister of War—no, if he were allowed to serve the First Prince.

Kong Wu had started out as a soldier and reached his position through the slow accumulation of achievements. But very few people knew that Kong Wu had actually started out as a bandit in the Qinling area, and a particularly cruel one at that.

Plundering homes and wreaking havoc on the roads was their way of life. Countless travelers and merchants in the Qinling area had been killed or injured by them, and these bandits had flourished.

In the end, the military was compelled to mobilize to surround and wipe out these bandits.

However, Kong Wu was more thoughtful than most and knew that one couldn’t be a bandit forever, or even in the near future. The Sage Emperor was growing increasingly intolerant of this sort of conduct, and the Imperial Court had begun putting up wanted posters. Continuing on this road was a death sentence.

After some thought, Kong Wu took some of his brothers and changed names with the hopes of starting over on the border. But to his surprise, through his astounding military achievements, he began to rise through the ranks, until finally, he entered the capital and joined the Bureau of Military Personnel.

This was something he had kept hidden from all the other court officials for several decades.

When he had been a bandit in Qinling, Kong Wu had already possessed a cruel personality, and as a soldier, he enjoyed punishing his soldiers with branding irons, generating much discontent.

But the capital was not the same as the wildlands, and perhaps things would have been different if Kong Wu had cultivated his mind and changed his temperament. Just as the saying went, if a bad man acted as a good man for his entire life, then he was truly a good man.

Alas, mountains and rivers were easier to change than the nature of men.

When Kong Wu joined the First Prince, his past temperament revealed itself once more. In Wang Chong’s last life, in order to exhibit his loyalty and to vie for the honor of being one of the subjects who assisted the dragon in attaining the throne, Kong Wu had engaged in large-scale massacres during the rebellion.

In the Rebellion of the Three Princes, he had first slaughtered the officials who had opposed the First Prince. After that, when the Imperial Army and City Guard soldiers in the capital were surrendering, he had them brutally massacred.

He had created even more massacres in the Rebellion of the Three Princes than the First Prince, and caused many common folk to lose their lives.

This was something that Wang Chong could never accept!

This was why he had made Kong Wu his first target!