Jiajing Chengming

Chapter 187: The emperor gets married, and the whole family of Jiangnan nobles is implicated!
"hateful!"

"Is this the way to treat a scholar?!"

Bang!
Ouyang Gun slammed the "Di Bao" on the table with his palm, his face gloomy.

He knew that the emperor was targeting the property of the Nanzhi gentry.

"Wang Zhenze and Gu Shilian won't save us?!"

"Are all the gentlemen in the court going to sit back and watch the emperor gain a large amount of silver from now on, and control the world's financial power, while the status of my scholars plummets from now on?!"

Ouyang Gun paced in the garden, questioning with his beard puffed and eyes glared, and suddenly he couldn't help but slap a long Taihu stone standing in front of him.

Looking at the huge fortune he had accumulated and his elegant and luxurious garden.

He felt heartbroken when he thought about all these being confiscated by the government.

He now really hopes that fellow scholars from his hometown such as Wang Ao and Gu Qing, and even the civil servants in the court can help them.

Because he had always been so arrogant and rebellious that when he was the Shaoqing of the Imperial Household Department, he dared to charge the people who raised horses for the court ten times the normal price of horses to enrich himself. At this moment, he was really scared.

"Yang Xindu really chose a good emperor! He mobilized the lowly servants to deal with us!"

In addition to fear, Ouyang Gun also became more angry.

He became even angrier when he thought about the emperor's edict threatening him not to attempt to destroy the family's wealth!

"Your Majesty is targeting my family business!"

"This has caused the wealth that I have accumulated throughout my life and that my ancestors have built up over several generations to fall into the hands of the imperial court. How can I face my ancestors in the afterlife?"

"Woo!"

Ouyang Gun was so angry that he suddenly broke down and cried on the ground.

Ouyang Gun was crying when his second son, Ouyang Lu, came over with a cold face and a torch in hand. He said:
"Dad, don't cry. This is what happened because the people formed gangs, started a slave rebellion, the morals of the scholars became corrupt, and the treacherous officials amassed wealth!"

"In short, the South Zhili is finished, and the world is finished too!"

"In that case, why don't we burn all the wealth ourselves first, so that those treacherous officials and people won't get a penny!"

"My son has asked them to prepare kerosene and torches! They are ready to burn all the treasures completely!"

"If we can't burn it, we'll smash it or sink it into the river! Let them get nothing!"

Ouyang Lu laughed coldly as he spoke.

Snapped!
Ouyang Gun slapped Ouyang Lu directly and looked at him angrily.

"No burning! You must ensure that not a single stitch in the house is destroyed! All the deeds and account books must be kept safe!"

Ouyang Gun then roared.

Ouyang Lu's eyes filled with tears, and he asked loudly, "Why can't we burn it? Are we really going to let those treacherous officials die in vain?!"

"If it burns, we will all die without a burial place!"

Ouyang Gun said with a painful voice, and then handed the "Dibao" to his second son: "Look for yourself!"

Ouyang Lu took the "Dibao" and started reading.

"tyrant!"

After reading this, Ouyang Lu couldn't help but curse.

Snapped!
Ouyang Gun slapped him again: "How dare you! If you keep speaking so recklessly, I will beat you to death right now!"

Ouyang Lu shut up, enduring the burning pain on his face and said, "But he is really mean!"

"What's the point of saying this now?!"

Ouyang Gun said angrily.

Ouyang Lu was silent.

after awhile.

He then asked, "Father, are we really going to be destroyed?"

Ouyang Gun smiled bitterly and answered his second son's question with silence.

Next.

The Ouyang family really did not dare to destroy any property.

When the people from Yanshanwei arrived, all the account books and deeds were handed over to them.

Zhu Houcong later added an edict, ordering the Yanshan Guard to be in charge of interrogation and confiscation, the Yongwei Camp to be in charge of vigilance and maintaining order, the Governor-General of the Southeast to be in charge of supervision, and the Jinyiwei to be in charge of secretly checking whether the Governor-General of the Southeast was supervising seriously, to ensure that all the property of these aristocratic families was indeed confiscated.

When the people from Yanshan Guard, the Southeast Governor's Office, and the Yongwei Camp arrived, they basically began to torture these gentry severely in order to find out all the circumstances.

However, since most of these children of the gentry did not take care of the household affairs, those who were more ambitious only studied and took the imperial examinations, while those who were less ambitious only knew how to engage in cockfighting, horse riding, and visit prostitutes.

Therefore, most of the time, it was the family slaves who were in charge of their business and were subjected to torture.

"what!"

"I say, I say, the one million dan of rice in the account book is not grain, but silver! Our master deliberately called it rice to hide it from the master!"

Changshu.

Under interrogation by the people from Yanshan Guard, the house servant of Qin Shilang's household had to confess the one million dan of rice that was recorded in the account books but not confiscated.

However, the Yanshan Guard officers and soldiers who were interrogating the aristocratic family's servant were naturally too lazy to ask more about the internal affairs of the aristocratic family. After the servant answered in this way, they only asked the servant where he had hidden the silver.

After the servant on trial gave his answer, the officers and soldiers actually seized one million taels of silver as he had pointed out, all of which were enough to make large winter melons.

Although these sons of the aristocracy were rarely tried directly, they were still tortured and taken to Fujian, ready to be transported to Donglai to mine and reclaim wasteland.

Naturally, their domestic slaves were also forced to mine and reclaim wasteland.

For a time, there was a constant stream of people heading south, and there was also a constant stream of ships carrying confiscated money heading north.

All these confiscated funds will become the capital for Zhu Houcong to expand the issuance of silver dollars in the future to solve the problem of "money shortage" among the people in the Ming Dynasty. At the same time, this also means that Zhu Houcong no longer has to worry about the problem of having no money, but only needs to worry about how to spend the money better.

Naturally, Zhu Houcong didn’t have to worry about money for his wedding.

After a series of cumbersome rituals, Zhu Houcong finally met his queen Yao Shujun in Qingning Palace.

In the warm room with flickering red candles, Zhu Houcong looked at the delicate fair face after the veil was lifted, and couldn't help feeling intoxicated and smiled slightly.

Queen Yao couldn't help but smile, her face flushed with shame, but there was a hint of joy between her brows.

For her, the emperor she was marrying was a handsome young man in the prime of his life, so she would naturally be happy.

Zhu Houcong did not say anything pretentiously. After drinking the wedding wine with Empress Yao, he waved his hand and asked Wang Chunjing to take off the heavy-looking phoenix crown on Empress Yao's head. Then he dismissed Wang Chunjing and other maids and said, "The rest, the Empress and I will do it ourselves. You don't need to worry about it, Madam."

Madam was a title for palace maids of higher status in the Ming Dynasty court. Everyone from the Empress Dowager and the Emperor to the eunuchs and palace maids were addressed this way.

Wang Chunjing was quite surprised because she was responsible for guiding the emperor and the queen to have sex tonight.

For this purpose, the Imperial Clothing Bureau gave her some temporary training and let her watch many works of Tang Yin, a world-famous master of erotic paintings.

This has made her feel hot-tempered recently, especially tonight, her mouth was dry and her heart was in turmoil, but she did not expect that the emperor would not allow her to teach.

She had no choice but to retreat with her maid.

As she was retreating, she saw the emperor taking off his own jade belt and then the empress's embroidered belt.

The next day.

The sky is clear and bright.

Zhu Houcong forcibly pulled the empress out of bed, and then helped the empress, who had difficulty walking, to meet the two Empress Dowagers.

then.

Zhu Houcong and the empress met the two concubines and nine imperial concubines who were taken in as concubines at the same time in Qingning Palace.

When these concubines appeared in front of Zhu Houcong, he couldn't help but swallow for a moment.

Because these concubines are so beautiful!
Moreover, each of them has her own characteristics, and it is hard to say who is more beautiful. Although they are different from the queen's graceful and dignified temperament, they are indeed one-sided when seeing them, especially some of them who are not very old but have developed well and obviously have innate charming characteristics, the kind that can captivate people's souls.

Fortunately, although Zhu Houcong had not come into contact with many stunning beauties before, thanks to the advanced audio and video communication technology in later generations, he had seen quite a few of them on the Internet, so he did not get too carried away and lose control, and seek pleasure in broad daylight on the spot, and from then on he became a tyrant who did not care about state affairs.

He can still stay calm.

Even when these concubines offered him tea, he was not like Jiajing in history, who could not help but linger on a concubine's beautiful hand for a while.

"You are testing me!"

But Zhu Houcong couldn't help but sigh in his heart.

Although Zhu Houcong realized it, he still visited Concubine Shun Xue that day because the empress did not want to receive favors frequently.

Then in the evening, he visited Concubine Zhang again.

"I can't do this anymore, I have to stop doing it!"

After three consecutive days, Zhu Houcong suddenly realized that this was not good and decided to control his desires.

But maybe it was because his young blood had recovered, and the next day, he couldn't help but go to the harem and have sex with a new palace maid who had not been selected into the sequence of concubines in the woods of the imperial garden!

no way.

Zhu Houcong had to admit that the newly selected palace maids were of top quality. Moreover, he knew that the harem would not impose any moral constraints on him after his wedding, so he made an exception.

Only afterwards did Zhu Houcong feel deep remorse and decide that he must restrain himself.

But on the third day, when Wang Chunjing came to help him go to bed, he couldn't help but feel restless again, and suddenly hugged Wang Chunjing from behind.

"Your Majesty?"

Wang Chunjing asked in a panic.

Zhu Houcong said nothing.

But Wang Chunjing did not resist. Instead, he turned around and took the initiative to respond to Zhu Houcong enthusiastically.

Although Zhu Houcong had been deflowering many times these days, he seemed to be less skilled than Wang Chunjing, so he couldn't resist and had to shout in the middle of the process: "Madam, don't be so impatient!"

Even the next day, after being served by Wang Chunjing, Zhu Houcong couldn't help but say to her: "Madam, you really surprised me last night!"

talking.

Zhu Houcong suddenly threw a Chengyao vase in front of him to the ground.

There was a clang.

The vase was broken into pieces.

Zhu Houcong was not angry with Wang Chunjing's behavior last night, but he was angry with himself and the old ritual-protecting party who did not want him to reform.

Because he had to admit that the method these conservative bureaucrats used to carefully select concubines to make his harem colorful was indeed amazing.

It is difficult for a young man like him to control himself without any institutional or moral constraints.

even……

He himself thought that the Ming Dynasty was not facing any major crisis now, and everyone would die, so there was no need to care too much about the people. As long as they could survive, it would be enough. If he worked diligently to make things better for the people of the world, he would only pursue some false reputation after his death, or even no false reputation at all. What was the point of gaining false reputation after death? He began to think that it would be better to be a peaceful emperor, enjoy a peaceful life, and make appropriate repairs.

Once this thought came to his mind, his fighting spirit would drop rapidly, and he would be unable to control himself from the beauty before him. As a result, he would always realize afterwards that he had not done many important things that would benefit the country and the people, and that there were many matters concerning the national economy and the people's livelihood that he had not taken care of.

Zhu Houcong also realized that before his wedding, he could still control his desire for leisure and hate work because of the implicit moral constraints. But after his wedding, because it was the responsibility of the emperor to be fair and have children in this era, no one from the empress dowager to the maids around him would advise him, and even the lecturers would not think it was wrong. He began to lose control of his desire for a comfortable life.

So, when he suddenly dropped the vase, he needed a crisp sound of breaking air to remind himself.

However, Zhu Houcong was from later times after all, and he still remembered the humiliation that China suffered after the fall of the Ming Dynasty.

Therefore, he still had a heart to strengthen the nation. Therefore, even if the sounds and colors could fascinate him temporarily, after briefly satisfying his desires, he would again feel the desire to change the destiny of the nation. Therefore, he would blame himself when no one blamed him, and would smash the vase in anger. He did not completely sink into depravity like many emperors in peaceful times in history.

Wang Chunjing naturally didn't know what Zhu Houcong was thinking. She just thought that it was because she behaved too wildly last night that the emperor was unhappy, so she knelt down immediately and said in fear and trepidation: "Your Majesty, please forgive me. It was Tang Yin who caused me to behave like that last night!"

(End of this chapter)