Jiajing Chengming

Chapter 93: A large number of ministers and assistant ministers were arrested! (Please read on)
The red-robed official immediately sat up and stopped smiling.

"Why are the Jinyiwei here so late?"

At this moment he didn't understand at all.

Why did this scene suddenly appear?

boom!
But this time.

The door of the warm room where he was resting had been kicked open roughly.

A cold wind blew in.

"what!"

Simultaneously.

The big-breasted maidservant across from him had already started screaming.

Because the people who came in were the Jinyiwei.

And they are all ferocious and evil.

They all held embroidered spring swords.

Like the white fangs of a wild beast.

Bright and clear.

This would naturally make the maids pale with fear.

"Arrest him on orders!"

"Grand Minister of Agriculture, please come with us to the Pacification Office."

At this time, Wang An, a captain of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, stepped in front of the Minister of Revenue Yang Tan and bowed to Yang Tan after speaking.

Yang Tan served as the Minister of Revenue.

A veteran who served in two dynasties.

Face still needs to be given.

Yang Tan himself felt that he had lost all face.

After all, since the reign of Hongzhi, there has never been a case where the Jinyiwei broke into the backyard and captured a minister.

But today.

The Embroidered Uniform Guard did just that.

Yang Tan's feet were shaking violently, along with the chests of the two maids.

The whole person was shaking so much that he couldn't speak.

In the end, Wang An had Yang Tan dragged down by force.

After Yang Tan was escorted out.

He discovered that he was not the only Jiuqing who was arrested.

The Minister of Works Li Sui, who was sitting next to him, was also escorted out by the Embroidered Uniform Guards with disheveled hair.

I was shaking all over.

It is October now.

The north wind blew the first snow all over the sky.

Yang Tan didn't care to look at the snow, he just shouted to Li Sui: "Grand Minister, how come you were also arrested?"

"How do I know?"

"I'm writing a letter of resignation!"

“They just barged in.”

"It makes me lose all dignity!"

“I don’t know who did it.”

"Didn't they say that the system of filial piety temples will reappear?"

"How did it become like this?!"

As Li Sui spoke, he asked about Yang Tan with a painful look on his face.

Yang Tan himself didn't know what to say.

"You bunch of damn bastards!"

"Did Liang Shunde ask you to do this?"

"It's still Gu Dayong from the Imperial Household Department!"

At this time.

They heard the voice of Left Censor-in-Chief Jin Xianmin.

Jin Xianmin also saw them.

But Jin Xianmin was immediately speechless.

Yang Tan also understood instantly.

"This is a failure!"

Yang Tan cried out for a moment, then shook his head in the snow that was like a dancing jade dragon.

at that time.

At the place of posting.

The Jinyiwei has already taken control of all the powerful eunuchs’ families and accounts here.

Lu Song even kicked over a man who tried to burn the accounts, and thus took control of the account books.

These account books were sent to the imperial study in Qingning Palace in boxes.

The eunuchs in the Inner Study Hall have already begun counting and settling the account books with a golden abacus under the command of Zhang Yong.

As for why there are boxes of account books.

That's because there were no banks in this era.

Money houses are not very common.

Therefore, whenever many dignitaries arrive at a place, whether for official business or personal reasons, they will directly ask their relatives and friends to borrow money.

This also meant that after the theoretical division plan was determined, the accounts had to be settled first in order to calculate who should get how much money.

The Prime Minister Liang Chu was here at this time, listening to the sounds of abacus, sitting in front of a small red clay stove, and drinking the glutinous rice porridge bestowed by the emperor.

The arrest of every official and the appointment of new officials were all drafted by him, and then issued directly with his red seal.

So, his hands were a little weak and he felt a little tired, so Zhu Houcong let him rest for a while and drink some porridge first.

Zhu Houcong also drank a bowl himself and looked at the calculated accounts on the side.

Through these accounts, Zhu Houcong could roughly understand the economic transactions between bureaucrats across the country, such as who borrowed 10,000 taels of silver from whom, who deposited 20,000 taels of silver with whom, and then know the closeness of the relationships between these bureaucrats.

Zhu Houcong had to admit that although the various government offices were very short of money in the court's public accounts and some offices could not even pay salaries, these bureaucrats had a lot of money flowing around privately.

"No wonder they want to stop the imperial court from rectifying the salt administration."

"They are waiting for the money I give to disaster victims to fill the hole caused by their extravagant and debauched lifestyle!"

"They are afraid that after I collect the salt profits, they will have nothing to gain."

After looking at the accounts, Zhu Houcong sneered and said a few words.

"With corrupt officials everywhere, the people of the world are hoping that Your Majesty can reform the administration and revive the government."

Liang Chu replied.

Zhu Houcong asked Liang Chu: "Wang Yangming should have arrived in Lianghuai by now, right?"

"Counting the days, it's almost time."

Liang Chu replied with a smile. …

And at this time in Lianghuai.

In Huai'an city.

Li Zanzheng, the Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Waterway Engineering, smiled and said to Shen Dong, the Governor of the Grand Canal, "Zhang Fujing is indeed not a pedantic person. He made a big splash in this grand ceremony. In the final analysis, it was just to gain the emperor's favor and become a high-ranking official. Even the previous proposal to clear the land was just a show for the new emperor."

"In this way, he got what he wanted and was promoted step by step. Now he is going south to provide disaster relief as an assistant minister."

"But if this happens, His Majesty, who is determined to rule the country, will be disappointed! The person he has placed his high hopes on is just a lucky villain. Maybe he will give up the idea of ​​reforming the system because of this."

After Li Zun said this.

Shen Dong said: "Perhaps Zhang Fujing is sensible and knows that if he uses force, he will offend the local tycoons and wealthy businessmen, and nothing good will come of it."

"But are you really sure that His Majesty doesn't know about this?"

Shen Dong asked about Li Zun.

Li Zun said: "Absolutely not!"

"This time, the emperor's close ministers are involved. We know the details of the palace very well. We may know who the emperor has met privately before the cabinet."

Li Zun replied.

After hearing this, Shen Dong smiled and said, "That's good."

"It is said that Zhou Shangwen has led troops south to suppress the bandits in Shandong and Huaibei."

"There will definitely be another military pay by then."

Li Zun replied.

"Who will lead the troops to suppress the bandits?"

"Could it be Wang Yangming?"

Shen Dong asked nervously.

Li Zun said: "It shouldn't be. Your Majesty has not summoned Wang Yangming. It is said that Wang Yangming has returned to his hometown in Yuyao."

"That's good!"

Shen Dong said as he walked out of the door with his hands behind his back: "When the time comes, we can use the opportunity to eliminate these hooligans. After all, the food bought with 500,000 taels of silver will not last long."

Li Zun nodded and said with a smile: "Your Majesty wants to reform the system because the problem of too many people and too little land has become serious. If we reduce the number of people, this problem will be gone, and we can follow the laws of our ancestors and establish a prosperous era."

Shen Dong nodded and said, "If we can't make Your Majesty suffer, then we can only make the people suffer."

“Who wants to make the people suffer?”

At this time.

Zhang Cong broke into the grain transport office.

Wang Yangming shook his cloak and followed in with a serious expression.

Shen Dong and Li Zun were quite surprised to see this, and looked at Wang Yangming curiously.

"Who is he?"

The two asked the same question at the same time.

Zhang Cong introduced him: "He is Mr. Yangming, who was ordered to come to Lianghuai to take charge of military affairs and salt affairs!"

"Wang Yangming?"

The two of them stood there in a daze.

Wang Yangming sighed and said, "What you two just said really pains me!"

"Where is your conscience?"

Wang Yangming then asked another question and mentioned the cloak.

"Take it!"

Subsequently.

Wang Yangming waved his hand.

A team of soldiers rushed in and detained the two men.

Li Zhan naturally understood a lot at this time, and he looked at Zhang Cong and shouted: "Zhang, you despicable villain, how dare you play tricks on us!"

"Who is the mean one?"

"Only those who deceive the emperor and harm the people, take bribes and pervert the law are villains!"

"You don't think that I, Zhang, am a lucky person who has won the emperor's favor just to become a high-ranking official and make a fortune, do you?"

"No way?"

"It's true that I, Zhang, want to be a high-ranking official, but not for the sake of getting rich!"

Zhang Cong bowed to Wang Yangming and said, "I'll leave the fight to you. I have to go to the disaster relief first. There are so many starving people who need to be fed. I can't delay any longer."

"The local tyrants and profiteers had driven up the price of grain to three taels per stone. Buying grain was no longer enough to provide relief, so they had to confiscate the grain's property for hoarding."

"But if this happens, the bandits and salt workers under their control will surely cause trouble. Please be careful in dealing with them. I have learned through my investigations these days that many of these forces have hidden firearms and have even recruited a number of escaped cavalry."

After Zhang Cong said this, he bowed and said goodbye to Wang Yangming.

Wang Yangming also bowed in return.

Zhang Cong took the soldiers assigned to him by Zhu Houcong and first went to the place where Zhao Ren, the largest salt merchant in Huai'an City, lived.

But when Zhang Cong had just led his troops here, he saw outside the gate of Zhao's house, a dandy young man was shooting the hungry people in the city with a slingshot, and he was having a lot of fun, and the servants beside him were following him.

"stop!"

"How can you take pleasure in abusing the people?"

Zhang Cong shouted loudly.

The dandy boy's name was Zhao Qing. When he heard Zhang Cong yelling at him, he simply fired a bullet at Zhang Cong.

Snapped!
Zhang Cong was hit by a bullet on the forehead and felt great pain.

Zhao Qing laughed wildly, very proudly: "I'm accurate, right?"

"My Lord is so accurate!"

His servant said.

Zhang Cong said in a deep voice: "Call your master out."

Zhao Ren was about to go out at this time, and at this time, he asked, "What's the matter?"

Then, Zhao Ren saw that it was Zhang Cong, and he hurriedly saluted: "It turns out to be Zhang Bu Tang, my apologies!"

"Who is this person?"

Zhang Cong pointed at Zhao Qing and asked.

Zhao Qing also complained at this time: "Dad, he yelled at me!"

"It's the dog!"

Zhao Qing replied with a smile.

Zhang Cong said: "Your son attacked the imperial envoy, which is a heinous crime! He must be severely punished!"

"Somebody come!"

Zhang Cong was speaking.

"Wait!"

Zhao Qing shouted, then walked over to Zhang Cong and said with a smile: "Minister, you are joking. My son is just ignorant and may have offended you. Why make a fuss about it? If it really doesn't work, how about I add 10,000 taels to the silver that was transported to your house?"

In Zhao Qing's opinion, Zhang Cong was also a greedy person, and as long as he was willing to spend money, the problem could be solved.

(End of this chapter)