The disgraced official I took care of was actually Zhu Houcong's childhood friend.

Chapter 283

Once someone like Liu Ji is handed over to the Northern Garrison Command, an investigation will uncover him without fail, and may even implicate several officials, all of whom hold lucrative positions in the Ministry of Works.

Of course, Liu Ji had been an official for many years and knew what he should and shouldn't say. He didn't dare to mention a single thing that he shouldn't have revealed.

The Northern Garrison Command confiscated the homes of officials such as Liu Ji, which added a considerable amount of revenue to the national treasury and the emperor's private funds.

When Zhou Chu made this knife before, the officials hated him so much they gritted their teeth. But compared to Chen Wanyan, they found that although Zhou Chu's methods were extremely brutal, he would not interfere with the placement of these vacant positions after investigating and punishing those officials.

But Chen Wanyan is different. Now, under the emperor's deliberate indulgence, Chen Wanyan has become increasingly lawless. He not only brought down officials like Liu Ji, but also submitted a secret memorial to the emperor afterward to recommend talented people and directly put his own people in positions of power.

Chen Wanyan had learned from his previous experience. He knew very well that if he recommended someone in the court or through the cabinet, the matter would basically not be resolved. The cabinet could simply hold his memorial in vain.

So Chen Wanyan simply bypassed the cabinet and submitted a secret memorial directly to Jiajing. This was against the rules, and could even be said to have broken the rules. However, since Jiajing was going to indulge Chen Wanyan, he simply indulged him to the end and made a grand gesture to use all the talents recommended by Chen Wanyan.

As a result, Chen Wanyan became increasingly unscrupulous, and his ambition expanded much faster than that of ordinary officials.

Many officials have experienced the ups and downs of officialdom. Even if they become arrogant when faced with such situations, they will not become arrogant from the start. They will be cautious at the beginning. After all, if one step is wrong in the court, it will lead to their destruction. Everyone is very careful.

But Chen Wanyan was different. He had no experience in the complexities of officialdom, and his so-called experience in officialdom was less than a year. For the first half of that year, he was basically invisible.

When a poor man suddenly becomes rich and a scholar takes power, it's like a monkey wearing a crown, always clumsily trying to imitate a person's every move, unaware that his every move is being controlled by the monkey trainer, and there are even spectators watching.

Chen Wanyan was unaware of this, and neither were those who depended on him.

"My lord, we have planted more than twenty of our spies in the Chen residence. Now, every move the Chen family makes is under our surveillance."

Lu Wanshan said respectfully.

"Just keep an eye on him and make sure he doesn't cause any trouble that gets out of control. Don't worry about anything else."

Zhou Chu said as he added charcoal to the brazier.

To prevent Chen Wanyan from losing control and making baseless accusations, Zhou Chu and Jiajing arranged for some officials to attach themselves to Chen Wanyan and offer him advice and strategies.

Chen Wanyan is an incompetent fool. He usually listens to his subordinates' suggestions on who to impeach and who to get rid of. Although he is stupid, he is also somewhat self-aware and knows that if he makes the decisions himself, he will probably embarrass himself.

So later on, he simply stopped making decisions and listened to the ideas proposed by his subordinates.

With the cooperation of Emperor Jiajing, Chen Wanyan discovered that one or two of his subordinates made highly feasible suggestions, and their suggestions were almost always successfully implemented.

As a result, Chen Wanyan valued these two even more.

With the constant encouragement of the two and the cooperation of Jiajing and the Northern Garrison, the officials originally on Yang Yiqing and Xia Yan's side were soon investigated and their homes confiscated by the Northern Garrison.

Although Chen Wanyan's efficiency was far inferior to Zhou Chu's a year ago, the frequency was too high. For a time, the entire capital was filled with complaints. From officials to common people, everyone knew that the Empress's father was now extremely powerful and persecuting loyal officials.