Daming: Stealing Chen Yuanyuan at the beginning

Chapter 23
Spring rain is as expensive as oil, and it rains continuously in Nanjing.But facing the first shower of rain after the beginning of spring, the officials in the city were not happy.

During this period of time, with the arrival of Cao Huachun, the admiral of Xichang, Nanjing officials felt even more gloomy, and the city was locked in thick fog.

People are like a bright mirror in their hearts. Cao Huachun brought a group of Xichang minions to Nanjing for the purpose of increasing business taxes.But after Cao Huachun met the queen and prince, he settled in Taichang Temple, and there was no movement for several days.

In the afternoon of this day, news suddenly came that Cao Huachun had arrested Wei Guogong Xu Jiujue and Xincheng Bo Zhao Zhilong. The officials were in an uproar and became nervous.

"Ge Lao, Wei Guogong and Xin Chengbo were arrested suddenly, you can't ignore it!" Qian Qianyi, Minister of the Ministry of Rites, rushed to the cabinet and asked Shi Kefa, who is now the chief assistant of the cabinet and the minister of the Ministry of War in Nanjing, to come forward to rescue them.

According to court practice, cabinet officials generally no longer hold positions in various ministries.However, Li Cunming issued a decree to allow Shi Kefa to continue to serve as Minister of the Ministry of War as the chief assistant of the cabinet.

Such an arrangement is naturally intentional.Although Shi Kefa is not a general, he still has loyalty, and he has great prestige among the southern scholars. He is reused to temporarily win over the southern scholars, especially the Donglin Party members.

The emperor sits on the front line and cannot visit the court in person, so he can only take measures to stabilize the situation first.

Moreover, for Li Cunming, this cabinet system will be eliminated sooner or later.It would be a good use of everything to use it one last time before freeing up the power of the cabinet.

Shi Kefa frowned and said: "What is supposed to come will always come. We jointly signed a memorial to dissuade the emperor from raising commercial taxes, so we should have thought that this day would happen. Let's go, let's go see Factory Director Cao, and try to mediate between them. Ichiban.”

When the two came to Taichang Temple, they saw that the guards were heavily guarded.After reporting his name, he was let in after a while, and Cao Huachun did not come out to greet him.

When they came to the lobby, they saw Xu Jiujue and Zhao Zhilong being tied up tightly, and Zhao Zhilong was cursing.And Cao Huachun was sitting in the courtroom behind a major case, looking like an old god.

"Director Cao, what's the reason?" Shi Kefa asked.

"Oh, why is Mr. Shi Ge here? Please sit down!" Cao Huachun smiled without a smile on his face, and sat still without standing up to salute.

After the prince supervised the country, people thought that the Donglin Party had gained power.Qian Qianyi has jumped from an unemployed person to a minister of the Ministry of Rites, and he has been jumping up and down recently with great pride.

His eldest brother said bluntly: "Eunuch Cao, Xu and Zhao are both descendants of famous families and have titles in their bodies. Why did you arrest them? What's more, Uncle Xincheng Zhao Zhilong is still an honorary minister guarding Nanjing, holding Nanjing's garrison. Military Quan, aren't you afraid that the soldiers will mutiny?"

Cao Huachun squinted his eyes, stared at Qian Qianyi for a while, and suddenly said something inexplicable: "Qian Shangshu, before our family arrived in Nanjing, the emperor asked me to bring you a sentence. The emperor asked if your scalp was itchy."

Qian Qianyi is a typical representative of a shameless scholar. After the fall of the Hongguang court in the Southern Ming Dynasty, his concubine Liu Rushi suggested that they commit suicide together by throwing themselves into a lake to sacrifice their country. Unexpectedly, Qian Qianyi used "the water is too cold" as an excuse to survive.

Later, the Manchu Dynasty issued a hair-shaving order, and he used "itchy scalp" as an excuse to shave his hair and wear it easily without any psychological barriers.

"Is it itchy scalp?" Qian Qianyi was at a loss.

"The emperor's oral instructions are like this, our family will relay them truthfully."

Qian Qianyi had no choice but to kneel down and said: "Reporting to the words of the Holy Majesty, my minister's scalp is not itchy, thank you the Emperor for thinking about it."

Then he stood up and said very rudely: "Eunuch Cao, you haven't answered me yet. Why did you arrest the important minister of the country for no reason? Well, if you don't tell me, just break the window paper."

"Didn't you come to Nanjing just to collect commercial taxes? Xu and Zhao signed the memorial, and you attacked them. Are you planning to arrest me and Mr. Shi Ge next?"

Shi Kefa hastily interrupted Qian Qianyi's words, this kind of attitude is not for pleading, it is clearly adding fuel to the fire.

"Cao Factory Governor, I think you made great contributions to eradicating the eunuch party back then. The scholars in Donglin and Fushe praised you very much and admired you very much. Cao Factory Superintendent's poems, calligraphy and paintings are all excellent. How close you are, we have long regarded you as one of our own." Shi Kefa approached.

Cao Huachun said in a strange way: "If you are a good person, you will frame your own people and pour dirty water on them. Our family is really grateful to you!"

Shi Kefa changed his strategy and began to persuade people with reasoning: "Since the founding of our dynasty, the commercial tax has always been one-in-three. There is absolutely no reason to increase the tax. The law of the ancestors must not be violated!"

Cao Huachun seemed to be waiting for this sentence, stood up and laughed loudly: "Yes, the law of the ancestors must not be violated. Our family arrested Xu and Zhao, not because they took the lead in opposing the collection of commercial taxes, but because they were greedy for Mo Ke's deduction of military pay. According to the law of the ancestors, if you are greedy for 60 taels of silver, you have to peel the daylilies, Xu and Zhao have been greedy for a total of 10 taels over the years, and peeling the skin a hundred times is enough!"

As he said that, he dropped an account book from the table, which contained detailed accounts of Xu and Zhao's corruption and bribery.

"Our family kills corrupt officials, you Donglin gentlemen won't get in the way?" Cao Huachun asked.

Shi Kefa and Qian Qianyi were speechless for a moment. The Donglin party members always boasted of being an upright gentleman, boasting of their high morals and noble character, but corrupt officials are like rats crossing the street. Who would want to admit that they have an affair with corrupt officials?

Seeing the disgraced faces of Shi Kefa and Qian Qianyi, Cao Huachun smiled secretly and thought to himself: "The emperor's method is indeed effective, the emperor is wise!"

It is the method Li Cunming taught Cao Huachun to deal with these big officials and businessmen by arresting corrupt officials.Anti-corruption has always been natural and correct, and the common people like to hear it, but the Donglin party members know that there are tricks hidden in it, but they can't say it.

To deal with a hypocrite, you have to use the method of a real villain!

To deal with someone who likes to stand on the moral high ground, you have to stand more correctly and in a higher position than him!

Xu and Zhao were tied to the gate of the Town God's Temple. In front of the people and officials in the city, they were skinned, then stuffed with straw, made into human-skinned scarecrows and hung at the gate of the Town God's Temple.

Seeing the bloody scene, Shi Kefa almost vomited out, and Qian Qianyi also turned pale.

"Cao came prepared, we are powerless." Qian Qianyi trembled.

Shi Kefa said: "It is said that Cao Huachun is an elegant man, but now it seems that after a prison disaster, he has changed, his face is full of hostility, and he has become a crazy vicious dog!"

"Besides, his participation in forcing the palace is a great crime to exterminate the nine clans. The emperor let him go and reused him. How could he not be grateful to Dade? The vicious dog is not scary, but the terrible thing is that this vicious dog only has eyes for the emperor!" Qian Qianyi said.

Wei Guogong Xu Jiujue is a descendant of the founding hero Xu Da, and Zhao Zhilong's ancestor followed Emperor Yongle to win the battle of Jingnan.After killing them, everyone was shocked at once.

This trick was also taught by Li Cunming to Cao Huachun. Another reason why he chose to use Xu and Zhao as the knife is that when the Qing army went south in history, they sacrificed the city of Nanjing and surrendered without a fight, which led to the defeat of the Hongguang court. .

Originally, he wanted to deal with Qian Qianyi, but this old slicker hides very deeply. Cao Huachun didn't collect any evidence of his corruption and bribery, so let's not bother with him for the time being.

A bloody storm kicked off. Cao Huachun's eyes were red, and the eaves of the Town God's Temple were full of scarecrows in human skin.After the wind blew, the scarecrow swayed and looked extremely terrifying.

At the beginning, the officials were still stubbornly resisting, and went to plead with the queen and the prince, but they got no reply.Wang Chengen even avoided it from a distance, as if he didn't know about the killing in the city.

Later, the officials became timid and guilty, and finally stopped resisting the national policy of increasing business taxes.

(End of this chapter)