The Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was extremely rebellious

Chapter 34 Beat to Death

The hour of Chen is approaching and the sun is about to rise, but there is a trace of dark cloud in the sky.

At this time, the Forbidden City seemed to be shrouded in haze.

The civil servants started to form cliques and try to force the emperor to abdicate.

There were dozens or even hundreds of civil servants lying on both sides of the red carpet in front of the Huangji Hall.

If Wanli didn't agree to their demands, they would just lie there and refuse to get up, and nothing they said would be of any use.

Historically, Emperor Wanli had no way to deal with them and could only give in and not attend court for decades.

Things are different now. Wanli has plenty of solutions.

He looked at the civil servants lying on both sides of the red carpet and said coldly, "I said, this matter ends here. You guys are not done yet, right?"

No one answered.

These civil servants wanted to force him to dismiss Duke Cheng and his relatives and investigate them.

Seeing this, Wanli snorted coldly, "I'll give you one last chance. Get up and return to your train. This matter is over."

Still no one paid attention to him.

These civil servants clearly wanted to fight him to the end.

Seeing this, Wanli said coldly: "You want an explanation, right? I will give you one. Duke Chengguo, let your twelve relatives come out."

Duke Chengguo Zhu Yingzhen waved his hand, and twelve generals immediately emerged from the ranks. They lined up on the right side of the red carpet, prostrated themselves on the ground, and chanted in unison, "Greetings to His Majesty."

Wanli nodded slightly, then waved his hand and said, "Bring the Four Treasures of the Study."

Two rows of imperial guards immediately carried twelve small tables with writing brushes, ink, paper and inkstones on them, and came in one after another, placing one in front of each of the twelve generals.

Wanli then said coldly, "You believed the rumors and thought they all cheated and bribed their way into the military examination. I will give you a live military examination. They will be right next to you, and you will see clearly whether they cheated or not."

This seems to be fine.

Everyone thought that they had obtained their military examination titles by cheating, so they held an on-site examination.

The problem is, the imperial examination lasts for more than one or two days. Are they just going to kneel like this forever?

Sun Jixian, the censor of Sichuan Province, said cautiously, "Your Majesty, the invigilators are all standing, so shouldn't we stand up and invigilate as well?"

You wish. Make me kneel down first and then I’ll give you some appetizers.

Wanli said coldly: "I just said that I would give you one last chance to get up and return to the train, but you didn't get up. Now you want to get up again?
You don't take my words seriously, do you? You dare to lie to the emperor in front of me, right? Do you believe that I will immediately order you to be dragged out of the Meridian Gate and beheaded in public?"

This is trouble, I've fallen into a trap.

The little emperor must have already planned to try this trick on the spot.

They were just lying on the ground and refused to get up. Can they get up on their own now?

Can not be done.

The little emperor really chopped people off for bullying the emperor in front of him!
Sun Jixian said helplessly: "I dare not."

If you don't dare, then just kneel down obediently.

Wanli said coldly, "Now, I will give you a chance. You choose whether you want to take all the questions in the martial arts examination, or two each for civil and military examinations?"

If all the questions in the imperial examination were included, it would be fatal. The sun hasn't come out yet, so it's not hot yet. Once the sun comes out, people will be sunburned to death after a few hours, let alone a few days.

The two civil and martial arts exercises will take about two hours each, which is barely enough to make it through.

Sun Jixian quickly said, "Your humble servant will select two for civil and two for military."

Wanli nodded slightly and said, "Then let Prime Minister Zhang Siwei take charge of the Art of War and Theory of Formation, archery and martial arts competition. If anyone objects, just say so and we can discuss it slowly."

Is this called negotiation?
We were wearing summer pants and kneeling on the stone slabs, and our knees hurt.

You sit on the dragon throne and feel very comfortable.

What the hell is there to discuss?

There will be no problem if the cabinet chief minister Zhang Siwei sets the questions.

This time no one objected.

Seeing this, Wanli waved his hand and said, "Give the Prime Minister a set of four treasures of the study as well. Zhang Siwei, you set the questions."

You want me to give you a question, right?
Zhang Siwei racked his brains and came up with two difficult questions.

He just wanted to make things difficult for the relatives of Duke Cheng Zhu Yingzhen.

Unexpectedly, after seeing the question, Wanli said loudly: "There are twelve of them taking the test, and there is no comparison at all. It is difficult to tell who is better or worse. In the final competition, they cannot compete with each other.

Yang Junqing, you are the top martial arts scholar, so pick eleven other martial arts scholars to take the exam with them and compare your strengths and weaknesses."

what?
Zhang Siwei's face changed when he heard this.

Yang Junqing was so frightened that he broke out in cold sweats.

He knows nothing about military strategy and battle formations, and he's even worse at archery and martial arts competitions.

Wanli said indifferently: "The most powerful person in the martial arts examination is the martial arts champion. I will pick a martial arts champion to compete with them. There should be no problem. If you continue to be unreasonable and make trouble, humph!
Yang Junqing, what are you doing there? Didn’t you hear what I said? Hurry up and choose someone.

Come, copy the exam questions and give them twelve more sets of the Four Treasures of the Study."

This is forcing someone to do something. If he doesn't do it, it would be deceiving the emperor in person. If the little emperor gets crazy, he will kill people!

Yang Junqing had no choice but to quickly walk out of the train, picked out eleven military scholars who he thought were decent, and had them kneel in front of the twelve tables on the left side of the red carpet.

Wanli waited calmly for the exam questions to be copied, then said solemnly: "Okay, I will issue the questions now. The Art of War and Theory of Formation will each take half an hour. After the archery test, there will be a martial arts competition."

He knew that Zhang Siwei would never stop, so he had already summoned the twelve relatives of Duke Chengguo to the Summer Resort to review their lessons.

The relatives of these twelve Dukes of Chengguo already had the title of military examinee. Whether they could pass the imperial examination depended on their comparison with other military examinees, and the survival of the fittest was the outcome.

They have been reviewing for so long, and they focused on these two questions, so there is naturally no problem in answering them.

There was something wrong with Yang Junqing and the eleven people he selected. Their military examination achievements were really bought, and they were bought from the county examination, prefectural examination to the metropolitan examination.

When they took part in the imperial examination, they at least memorized the test questions that others had prepared for them. Now, not only did they have no prepared questions to memorize, but Zhang Siwei also racked his brains to come up with two difficult questions!

This made them so confused that the articles they produced were a complete mess and unsightly.

Wanli took a quick look and then sneered, "First, I'll show you the article that Wu Zhuangyuan and his men have written."

This guy, after sending out twenty-four articles, almost made Wen Jinshi, who was lying on the ground, vomit.

Seeing this, Wanli sneered again and said, "I will show you again the article written by the relatives of Duke Chengguo."

The articles written by these twelve people are surprisingly quite standard and there is no problem at all!
Seeing this, Wanli waved his hand and said, "Prepare the bows and arrows and the targets."

The target for the martial arts examination is no joke, it is placed a hundred steps away.

Although not all of the twelve relatives of Duke Chengguo's Mansion could shoot arrows accurately from a hundred paces away, they had no problem shooting their arrows into the target circle.

Yang Junqing and the group of people he selected made a fool of themselves again. Most of them couldn't hit the target with a single arrow!

The final duel was even more horrific. They were all pinned to the ground and beaten by relatives of the Duke of Cheng, crying out for help. After all, this was still a contest of fists and feet. If it had been a contest of weapons, they would have been chopped down.

Seeing that they had made such a fool of themselves, Wanli said coldly, "Even the top martial arts champion cannot compare to the relatives of Duke Cheng. You have seen it with your own eyes, the evidence is irrefutable. To say that they cheated to get their martial arts honors is unreasonable.

I'll give you one last chance. If you stand up and return to the train now, forget it. I won't hold you accountable for your past behavior. But if you dare to act unreasonably again, don't blame me for being rude."

After he said this, all the upright officials hesitated.

It was obvious that they were being taken advantage of.

Zhang Siwei's people are the ones who actually bribed for the military exam. These guys are just crying wolf.

The problem is, they can’t save face, what should they do?

This was actually very easy to handle. Soon, more than a dozen clean officials quietly stood up and returned to their trains.

The Qingliu also has Zhang Juzheng's old party members.

Zhang Juzheng's mentor Xu Jie was originally a leader of the Qingliu group, and there were many Qingliu people in Zhang Juzheng's old party.

Wanli deliberately asked Liang Menglong to pick out more than ten obedient people, infiltrate these people, and follow these people to attack together, in order to divide and disintegrate the fighting spirit of the Qingliu.

Sure enough, the strongest fortresses are always breached from the inside.

When the other Qingliu saw that more than ten people had stood up, they followed suit and silently returned to the train.

They are not fools. If they are taken advantage of and exposed on the spot, will they still be fooled?

Just now they were just too embarrassed to do it, but now that there are more than ten people taking the lead, they naturally don't care.

The censors and secretaries under Zhang Siwei did not dare to get up.

Because Zhang Siwei didn't open his eyes to signal them that they could get up.

To put it bluntly, the reason why the civil servants dared to confront the emperor to the end was because they relied on the principle that the law does not punish the masses.

As an emperor, you must have someone to govern the huge dynasty. We are a bunch of officials who are against you. What do you dare to do to us?

If there were dozens or hundreds of officials, it would be difficult for Wanli to take action. If so many officials were beaten to death at once, there would definitely be an uproar in the court.

Zhang Siwei took the opportunity to fan the flames again, and it was possible that the upright officials in the court would fight to the death to replace this tyrant.

It’s different now. He has used tricks to dismantle all the Qingliu, and there are only a dozen or so censors under Zhang Siwei left on the earth.

He could finally take action.

Seeing this, Wanli suddenly roared, "You guys are just trying to make trouble, right? Come on, drag them away and give each of you a hundred lashes."

It turned out to be a beating in court, not dragging out of the Meridian Gate and beheading!

The censors and secretaries under Zhang Siwei were both surprised and happy.

What do they like? Do they really want to be beaten?
Not really.

They were happy that they were going to be beaten with a stick in the court.

The Ming Dynasty was so strange that many civil servants actually regarded the emperor as an enemy in their hearts.

When civil officials fought against the emperor, it was like going to the battlefield. If they were beaten with a stick in the court, it was like being gloriously wounded on the battlefield, which made them very proud in front of other civil officials.

Those civil servants who were beaten with the cane in the court all had arrogant expressions on their faces, as if to say, look, I was beaten up by the emperor for the benefit of everyone.

However, the pain of being hit with the cane is not ordinary. After being hit with the cane a hundred times, it will definitely be excruciating.

So, they were surprised and happy.

What made them happy was that after this beating in court, they would most likely be reused by Zhang Siwei.

What shocked them was that after being beaten with a stick in the court, they would most likely suffer broken bones for hundreds of days.

In any case, being beaten with a stick in the court would bring them more benefits than disadvantages, so when the imperial guards came up to drag them away, they did not shout or resist.

They all looked like they had died heroically, with their heads held high and chests puffed out, their faces filled with glory.

At this time, no one thought that they were really going to be sacrificed!
What Wanli meant was a hundred lashes of the cane.

There are some tricks to hitting with the board. It can appear to fall hard, but in fact it is just a slight touch, or it can be a real heavy hit.

If the beating is really severe, few people can withstand a hundred lashes.

Wanli had already given orders to the soldiers of the Beijing camp to beat them severely, beat them to death, and beat to death these traitors who deceived the emperor!
"Pa pa pa", a series of beating sounds were heard, and more than a dozen censors could not help but howl in pain.

They originally wanted to endure it.

However, these guys were too cruel. Every beating was so painful that they could not bear it at all.

The sound of beatings and screams came one after another.

All the civil and military officials in the court felt that something was wrong.

There were people who endured the beating in court without making a sound, so how could anyone scream so miserably?
Sure enough, not long after, the howling gradually disappeared, leaving only the sound of beatings.

He's already unconscious? Why are you still hitting him?
It's obvious that this is a fight to the death!

At this time, those clean officials who stood up and returned to the train began to secretly rejoice.

Fortunately, they stood up, otherwise, they would probably have been beaten to death.

When the little emperor gets sick, he really tries to kill people.

If it was really Duke Cheng who bribed for the military examination, it would be fine, but it would be worth it to die for the remonstration.

The problem is that they were obviously fooled. Zhang Siwei and his gang are just crying thief.

If they were beaten to death like this, everyone would probably secretly call them idiots!
Fortunately, fortunately, they got up.

After the beating in court, more than ten censors were no longer breathing.

They were all beaten to death!
If it were in the past, there would definitely be people who would jump out and curse Wanli as a tyrant.

But no one said a word at this moment.

The clean officials in the court don't want to be fools.

Zhang Siwei and his group don't want to jump out and get beaten.

As for Zhang Juzheng's old party, they were secretly cheering.

The storm seemed to have passed.

Zhang Siwei looked like he was asleep, with his eyes not even open.

Is he convinced?

of course not!

His eyelids, narrowed into slits, were already filled with malicious intent.

Little emperor, you are looking for death!
(End of this chapter)