Yang Shidao, the young supervisor in the hall, walked up and said loudly: "The first item of the court is discussed, and the Censor Taiting asked Lu Chu, the Minister of Works."

The Censorate is a very special institution. It is independent of the three provinces and six ministries, supervises the imperial court and local officials, and is directly responsible to the emperor, and has great power.

The Censorate of the Northern Sui Dynasty was directly responsible to the Regent Zhang Xuan, who granted them great power of supervision. For example, officials under the fifth rank can directly issue supervision orders to be suspended for trial. After officials above the fifth rank can sign the Regent orders by Zhang Xuan, they can also require the examined officials to be suspended for trial without the consent of the Prime Minister of Ziwei Pavilion.

If the Prime Minister of Ziwei Pavilion believes that there is a problem with the supervision of the Censorate, he can also make a joint discussion with the Regent. After the Regent agrees, he can conduct three trials. At that time, the Ministry of Justice and Dali Temple will also join in and jointly examine the officials with the Censorate.

Another power of the Censorate is to directly raise the request of the court officials in the court's discussion. The prison in the palace must be arranged, unless the court asks the prime minister, it does not require the consent of the Regent.

However, there are also restrictions on the rank of the court. The officials who are questioned must be above the fifth rank, and the censor must make a request to the palace supervisor.

This ensures the seriousness and seriousness of the court question. The minor mistakes of officials and minor crimes will not be asked on important occasions such as court discussions. Therefore, if court questions are conducted, it will definitely be a serious crime for a high-ranking official.

The Secretary of State was from a third-rank high-ranking official, which was not a minor matter. The Censor Yu Shinan walked out of the court officials and bowed to Zhang Xuan, "I would like to ask your highness to agree to the court's question!"

This is when Zhang Xuan implemented the veto power. If Zhang Xuan felt that it was inappropriate and could directly veto it, then the Tingwen would be cancelled and the Censorate would be suspended directly for supervision.

The reason why Zhang Xuan did not design the veto power as a behind-the-scenes link was because of his consolidation of the Censorate's supervision power. While expanding the power of the prime minister, he also wanted to strengthen the supervision power.

Of course, the power of supervision will not be out of control. If the Censorate wants to supervise the Prime Minister, it must be approved by Zhang Xuan. At the same time, the Prime Minister also has the right to impeach the Censor Central Chief and the Censorate to Zhang Xuan. This will allow the Censorate and Ziwei Pavilion to check and balance each other, which is conducive to the stability of the regime.

Although Zhang Xuan had the right to terminate the court question at this time, he did not veto it, but nodded, "Accurate!"

Yu Shinan turned around and said, "I would like to invite Lu Chu, Minister of Works!"

Lu Chu walked out of the court officials and bowed to Zhang Xuan, "I am willing to accept the court's question."

Although the court question is very serious, it is still a public question to some extent. It has not reached the level of conviction, but only requires reasonable explanation. If one party is asked to explain, then the Censorate can directly withdraw the case, which is a bit equivalent to a hearing in later generations, giving the other party a chance to explain.

If the official is really innocent, then public questioning is a kind of reputation protection for the official, allowing the official to publicly explain the reasons for what he has done without making people think of secret operations.

But once the minister cannot pass the court's question, it not only means formal filing and facing impeachment, but also a loss of reputation. This is the power of the court's question.

Lu Chu received a notice from the Censorate's Court yesterday afternoon, asking him to make relevant preparations. At the same time, the Censor's Court had already conducted a lot of investigations before, and only after obtaining relevant evidence was obtained, the Censor's Court's request for the Censor's Court was asked.

At this time, everyone was worried about Lu Chu. Zheng Shanguo looked at Lu Chu with complicated eyes, with a hint of expectation in his eyes, but there was also an indescribable fear. Zhang Xuan's unfathomable attitude made him seem to be unable to find his direction in the dark.

Yu Shinan said calmly: "We carefully calculated that before the transfer to Zhongdu became an official, the cumulative salary income of Shangshu Lu was more than 6,400 guan, and the legal Yongye Land and Field Rental income of more than 5,600 guan, of which half of the various expenses could be taken, and there were still 6,000 guan. Last year, Wang Shichong's list of house searches was less than 300 guan. My question is, can I calculate the income of Shangshu Lu? Is the rest of the money used to purchase land?"

A whisper suddenly sounded in the hall, and everyone realized that the Censorate was not only pursuing Lu Chu's annexation of land, but also pursuing whether he was corrupt and abused the law. Where did the money for his annexation of land come from? The problem became serious.

Zheng Shanguo couldn't help but secretly glance at King Qi Zhang Xuan, and saw that he had no expression on his face, which was still so unfathomable. Zheng Shanguo's heart became even more uneasy. He looked at Pei Ju again. He could see that although Pei Ju tried his best to hide his expression, there was still a hint of undetectable excitement in his eyes, just like a tiger peeking at his prey in the distance.

Zheng Shanguo suddenly realized that Pei Ju was not just helping him, he seemed to have a deeper intention, and Zheng Shanguo began to doubt Pei Ju in his heart.

Lu Chu still struggled to speak, but his speaking speed was very slow, which to some extent made up for his innate defects in expressing difficulties.

"I have the habit of keeping accounts. Since I entered the government, I have recorded my income and expenditure. If the Censorate needs it, I can provide it."

After a pause, Lu Chu said again: "The Sui system stipulates that I should have twenty hectares of Yongye land and six hectares of land, but in fact I had to give six hectares of land, all of which were in Zhuo County to support my parents and wet nurses. I have no income from renting a land, and I have never."

Yu Shinan was stunned and asked again: "Does there be any other income besides salary?"

Lu Chu shook his head, "No!"

"Okay! Please provide the income and expenditure account form for us to check it later. In addition, there are 280 stakes of money in the Luoyang house raid record, two pairs of white jade and a pair of golden pens. In addition, are there any other unrecorded property in the record?"

"The white jade pair was given by Emperor Tai, and the golden pen pair was given by the late emperor. There should be a precious inkstone, which was left by my father, and a few silver jewelry, which were my wife's belongings. The correct amount of money was my entire savings over the years."

A whispering sounded again among the court officials. If we didn't consider the five thousand hectares of land, Lu Chu was really penniless. In Luoyang, he was an inner-sergeant, and he was even worse than ordinary families. However, since the five thousand hectares of land was not yet clear, everyone suppressed their admiration.

Yu Shinan nodded and said, "Our army occupied Xingyang County last year. When evacuated, it took away a batch of documents, including the Xingyang County Land Certificate, and the Xingyang County Land Certificate for years. The Censorate carefully checked it. We found a total of 5,000 hectares of land recorded in the name of the Lang, which were distributed in twelve manors. I want to confirm first that Lu Youling on this land Certificate is the Lang?"

Lu Chu hesitated and said, "That's right!"

"The son-in-law is only fourteen years old this year. These five thousand hectares of land should have nothing to do with him!"

"It really doesn't matter!"

The discussion in the hall was getting louder and louder, and it was obvious that the Tingwen was becoming more and more unfavorable to Lu Chu. Now it has been confirmed that the five thousand hectares of land were used by Lu Chu. So where did these land come from? If it was annexation and purchase, where did Lu Chu get the huge amount of money?

At this time, the young supervisor Yang Shidao in the hall knocked on the cloud board again, and the hall gradually became quiet.

Yu Shinan was not in a hurry to draw a conclusion, and continued to ask slowly: "Did these five thousand hectares of land be purchased by your tribe or rewarded by the emperor?"

Lu Chu still shook his head, "Land has nothing to do with the family, nor is it a reward from the emperor."

Yu Shinan's eyes suddenly became stern, "Then Shangshu Lu needs to answer my three questions clearly. First, where did you come from when you buy the land? Second, if you don't spend money, will you occupy the land? Third, do you gain benefits from these lands?"

A bead of sweat finally appeared on Lu Chu's forehead, and he said tremblingly for a while: "I, Lu Chu, have never accepted bribes. I have only 280 stagnant coins of money, and I have never purchased land, and I will not force the land to occupy people's land. I have explained before that there is no income except salary."

"Then how do you explain these five thousand hectares of land?" Yu Shinan's eyes also showed a hint of confusion. Not only him, but everyone was confused.

At this time, Yu Shinan said slowly: "We did not find the purchase record, nor even the former owners of these manors. That's why I asked the court for the court. If Shangshu Lu is innocent, please explain clearly. The Censorate will give Shangshu a cleansing."

Lu Chu sighed and said, "These manors are not actually owned by me, I just keep them for others."

Everyone was surprised when the discussion in the hall resurfaced. The final conclusion was incredible. It was actually kept for others. It seemed that the real owners of these manors trusted Lu Chu very much and directly replaced the name on Tian Qi with his son.

"Shu Lu, who are you keeping these manors for?"

However, Lu Chu remained silent and did not answer Yu Shinan's question.

At this time, Pei Ju walked out of the court and said, "Your Highness, can the old minister say a few words?"

Zhang Xuan nodded, "Automatic words!"

Pei Ju said calmly: "Who is the original owner of this group of manors? This is the key to this case. Why doesn't Doctor Yu investigate who will handle this matter? There will inevitably be a third person in the transfer of land, and there are also recorders in the government. We should not just ask Mr. Lu, which is unfair to him."

Although Pei Ju seemed to be speaking for Lu Chu, he was actually suggesting that Yu Shinan should not just listen to Lu Chu's one-sided words, and should look for witnesses.

Yu Shinan pondered for a moment and said, "Pei Xiangguo is indeed reasonable and witnesses should be needed, but this is the strangeness of this case. There is no record of purchase and transfer. We also asked several officials who had worked in Xingyang County, but they were not aware of it. The only person who left his name on the Tianqi was Yang Qing, the former prefect of Xingyang. He seemed to be the manager, but Yang Qing had already died of illness three months ago and we could not find any witnesses, so we asked for court question."

At this time, Lu Chu bowed to Zhang Xuan, "Report to your highness, I beg you to resign from the position of Shangshu, and be willing to be punished for annexation of the land!" (To be continued.)
Chapter completed!