I am the king of the dead

After receiving the imperial edict for discretionary investigation, King Xiang also considered the strength of the investigation according to the imperial edict, and then notified Jin Yiwei, intending to arrest him.

Zhu Zhanqian came to the official residence with a group of Tiqi, and found Xiao Yu's official residence. This is the second-rank mansion specially granted by His Majesty after Xiao Jun entered Beijing, and it belongs to the best position in the official residence.

According to Hu Wei's arrangement for Xiao Jun, Xiao Jun is old and will retire after a few years, then Yao Kui will take over the Ministry of Rites, and Xiao Jun can also retire after success and deserve to enjoy the imperial tomb after death. What an honor?

There has been no such big movement in this mansion for a long time. Although His Majesty's eagle dog, Jin Yiwei, who was ridiculed by courtiers and family members as a watchdog, is really guarding the mansion, but Jin Yiwei has a reason to advance and retreat. The mansion has been calm for the past ten years.

With such a great excitement, there were naturally many people watching from the attic of their homes. Although Zhu Zhanqian and Lu Zhong brought dozens of horses, there were less than five people who stepped into the house.

"My lord knows that you are coming, please wait in the main hall." The porter opened the door neither humble nor overbearing, and Xiao Xun did not lead his servants to resist, but chose to be captured without a fight.

It's disgraceful and even more disgraceful to start a commotion in the official residence. After all, Xiao Xun is a scholar, and even if he wants to leave, he has to do so in a dignified manner.

Zhu Zhanqian walked into Xiao Xun's official residence, waited in the main hall for a while, and saw Xiao Xun holding a ledger, and behind him were several servants carrying dozens of boxes.

"Greetings to His Royal Highness King Xiang, King Xiang is a thousand years old." Xiao Min saluted. He hadn't been deprived of his official status by the edict, so he was still the minister of the Ministry of Rites of Ming Dynasty.

"It seems that you have been prepared for a long time." Zhu Zhanqian's tone was not kind, this is an out-and-out hypocrite!

Xiao Xun looks quite upright. Although he is old, he does not lose his character. He is such a person, the culprit and mastermind behind all this since he entered Beijing, impeached and boasted about Li Binyan.

Xiao Po looked a little bit pained, bowed his head and said: "Your Majesty, I knew it was time when His Majesty ordered His Majesty King Xiang to preside over it. No, to be precise, I thought of it when I first started accepting bribes." Today, this situation and this scene."

"Now that you know! Why don't you want to repent and set up such a vicious scheme to separate the relationship between Gu and His Majesty's close relatives! Now that you know why you want to make noise and make the second brother Gu hate!" Zhu Zhan looked at Xiao Yu furiously, and his voice was loud He questioned the Confucian scholar in front of him.

Xiao Xun knew why the Tiqis were looking for him, he also knew the punishment he would face, and he knew the consequences of doing these things, but he still did it, knowingly committing the crime, how abhorrent it is!

Xiao Xuan said with a more bitter expression: "His Royal Highness, I don't know when I fell into it. Once I fell into it, it was like a cow falling into the quagmire. I couldn't help it. Before, the master of the minister was Daming. Later, the master of the minister was A group of people who only have money in their eyes, and who smell like copper all over their bodies, want to be arrogant."

"I have been living in fear for these years. When this happened, I saw His Highness riding over with Ti, but I felt a little more at ease."

Waiting for death is the most torture, and death is the relief of waiting for death.

When corrupt officials fall into a cycle, the more corrupt they are, the more panic they become, and the more they panic, the more corrupt they become for a while to satisfy and appease the fear. Afterwards, they become more regretful and fearful, and they can only be greedy for more come to meet.

Human desires are endless.

It's like landlords are always annexing land, just like Shiyao Haoyou's family's silver coins can't be spent in dozens of lifetimes, and they are still making money.

"What did you get?" Zhu Zhanqi said a little angrily, "You realize that you did something wrong. With you serving Daming for so many years, His Majesty can still kill you!"

After all, the Jingtai period was not the Hongwu period. They were stripped of their skins for greedy tens of taels of silver. The investigation of corruption during the Jingtai period was very strict, but there were not many officials who died of serious corruption. Most of them were exiled. Not enough to be killed.

The Sichuan head-to-head case involved the death of Zhang Feng, the former Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs. If it hadn't caused a civil uprising, the death would not have been so embarrassing, at least it would have been decent.

"Your Highness, do you still remember that His Majesty drew four stick figures in the mansion newspaper? The more corrupt officials become, the more hands are behind their backs. When I saw that picture, it was as if I saw myself. "Xiao Xun handed over the account book in his hand, which was his evidence of guilt, so he didn't need to rummage through the box and search everywhere, he brought it himself.

Zhu Zhanqian took the account book from Luo Bingzhong, opened it, pointed at the account book with wide eyes and said, "This is a lot? More than 330 million silver coins! You, you are too much!"

Zhu Zhanqian was stunned.

During the orthodox years, the four provinces converted silver for a year, but it was only a little over 100 million taels. This Xiao Xun was greedy for the yearly silver of the third year of the Ming Dynasty by himself!

So many silver coins can be raised in Shaobao's Jiuzhong Hall for 660 years!

Hu Wei's family has [-] silver coins, and Hu Wei always praises his son for managing the family well. He feels that he is very rich, and he doesn't need to leave anything for his children and grandchildren, and they can take good care of themselves.

The amount of money was so much that even Zhu Zhanqian was amazed, and his Xiangwang Palace didn't even have so much cash in total.

What a giant of a country this is!

"So, there is no turning back for the guilty minister, and those antiques, calligraphy and paintings, and all kinds of concubines stuffed into the house are not counted." Xiao Ting said with a bitter expression: "The minister has actually been quite frugal these years. The proceeds of the stolen money are only spent on one or two hundredths, these are part of the money, and the rest are in the Beijing Normal University."

"When we leave later, His Highness will send someone to take him away."

Regret?Very regretful.

are you afraid?Very scared.

is that useful?It's useless, you should be greedy or greedy.

Xiao Xuan knelt on the ground and continued: "At that time, the guilty minister heard that Dudu Lu said that His Highness King Xiang had the habit of bringing criminal evidence home, so he more or less guessed that it was a trap, but after thinking about it, he still wanted to see if there was any investigation. To the criminal."

"Thinking about it now, it's not this time, it's the next time. This time, I can't find the guilty minister's head. The guillotine will fall when it should fall next time. It will be a matter of time."

Zhu Zhanqian handed over the account book to Lu Zhong. He was just acting with Lu Zhong. He didn't have the habit of bringing criminal evidence home in violation of the Jinyiwei Regulations.

"Do you know the punishment you're going to face? Corruption plus collaborating with the enemy!" Zhu Zhanqian pointed at Xiao Xun and asked sharply.

"I know, I'm going to be sent to Jieyuan." Xiao Zhen knelt on the ground and remained silent for a long time before saying this.

Zhu Zhanqian stood up suddenly, and said angrily: "Your Majesty is lenient, let alone investigate and handle it according to his own circumstances, do you know what it means?"

"Just don't implicate the public, don't vent your personal grievances and get implicated at will. For you, His Majesty will also be lenient and beheaded to show the public. You will die!"

"Do you know why? Just because you are a member of the second rank of Daming, my Duke Ming, and my face! Do you understand face? You don't understand. If you understand, you can make such a big mistake? "

"This is the tyrant you keep talking about! The Lord of Subjugation!"

"Look at you, and look at your majesty! You are deeply favored by the emperor, and you don't put the country's community first, and you don't care about the country's public interests for your own self-interest, what is it!"

"This..." Xiao Zhen raised his head, glanced at Zhu Zhanqian in shock, then lowered his head, and said tremblingly: "Sinful minister, you deserve death! Ashamed of the grace of God, ashamed of Your Majesty, Ashamed of the world, guilty minister, deserves death."

Zhu Zhanqian flicked his sleeves and said angrily, "Take me away!"

"Take the silver with you!"

The carriage parked in the Bieyuan of Xiao Min's capital had to line up for two streets before carrying away all the money in Xiao Min's mansion.

As Xiao Xuan said, he was really frugal. After the stolen silver was inspected, there were more than 320 taels of cash left, including silver ingots and silver coins.

Xiao Xun himself voluntarily admitted that he not only had an account book, but also a diary and handbook. He recorded all these years, when, and because of what, who and how much he received, how many things he did for these money and goods, and how much effort he spent. , who else was doing it together, they all wrote it clearly.

Jin Yiwei interrogated according to the diary and handwriting, and needed to check and supplement carefully to prevent Xiao Xun from chasing and biting randomly, but the facts proved that Xiao Xun was taking the initiative to explain, and there was nothing missing.

There are even some things that cannot be investigated and dealt with due to the passage of time, Xiao Xun has made it clear.

The last court meeting in the ten years of Jingtai in the Ming Dynasty was to discuss the big case of Xiao Xun. 27 of the 26 court officials arrived. Xiao Xun was in prison and could no longer participate in the court meeting.

Special attendees were Xiang Wang Zhu Zhanqian, and Prince Shaoshi Hu Wei. The two came to the Wenhua Palace with His Majesty. Zhu Zhanqian was the person who supervised the case. At that time, Zhu Zhanqian often came.

When Hu Wei came over, Xiao Xun was recommended by him, so he naturally wanted to participate in this court meeting. Xiao Xun was down, and he had to take care of some things in the Ministry of Rites.

"Please sit down, gentlemen." Zhu Qiyu looked around, and said seriously: "A few days ago, Xiao Yu was still here, making a statement on the reasons for the Northern Expedition for me. He seemed to be a loyal minister and virtuous, but he didn't expect to be like this in private. .”

"Know the face, but not the heart."

Zhu Qiyu's words swept across the entire Wenhua Palace like a biting cold wind, and King Jili's half-burned dragon banner on the table looked much more dazzling.

His Majesty hasn't killed anyone for a long time, and the courtiers have forgotten that the origin of His Majesty, the king of subjugation, was obtained by personally killing his own elder brother, the former emperor of Ming Dynasty.

Your Majesty is an extremely violent person, this is His Majesty's original face.

Shang Ren hesitated for a while, and said bravely: "Your Majesty, I think that Xiao Xun's confession was so smooth and he didn't make any protests. Why don't you discuss his meritorious deeds?"

Shang Lu had to say this, Taichang Temple was doing this job, and he knew that he might disobey His Majesty, so he wanted to say it.

"The minister originally suggested that His Majesty send Xiao Yu to Jieyuan, but His Majesty refused, and just beheaded to show the public. Bachelor of Commerce, His Majesty is already very lenient. Why does the Bachelor of Commerce mean that His Majesty will be lenient?" Hu Yi immediately opened his eyes. , said calmly.

"Send it to Jieyuan?" Shang Ren sat up straight suddenly, leaned back, and looked at Hu Wei in horror.

Sure enough, the most ruthless one is Hu Wei. In order to clear up his relationship, he actually wants to send Xiao Xun, whom he recommended, to Jiejieyuan to prove his innocence. If he is sent to Jiejieyuan, even the eighteenth generation of his ancestors will be confessed. Clearly.

"Your Majesty refuses. Your Majesty thinks that to minimize the impact of Xiao Xun's death, it is best not to celebrate the New Year, and hurry up. This is the best for Daming." Hu Wei explained the reason why His Majesty did this.

The downfall of a Zheng Erpin is not a bad luck for a family, but a whole area of ​​officials followed, and the interest groups involved are huge. If Xiao Zhen is really sent to Jiexie Yuan, a long-term dynasty will be launched around this. Fighting with dogs is the biggest harm to Daming.

"Beheading is good, beheading is good, I don't have any doubts." Seeing this, Shang Ren didn't have any resistance, and he would go down if he was given a step, instead of standing on it.

It was Taichang Temple's responsibility to suggest that Xiao Xun go through the eight-discussion process. He devoted himself to his duties, but he could only do this. No matter how much he did, it would be absolutely impossible.

It's no problem to enter the imperial prison, Yu Shaobao has been in it before.

But it depends on what the problem is. If you are an upright person, you need to actively speak out to rescue him. If you are corrupt, instigating the prince to rebel, and colluding with thieves, this is an unpardonable person who deserves to die.

Not everyone is a talent in prison.

"Let me tell you a few words." Zhu Qiyu said quite seriously: "When the emperor was interrogating Xiao Xun, I actually listened in the side room. He actually regretted it long ago, but it was too late."

"The best way to quit gambling is not to gamble. Some things, as long as they start, they can only fall into Abi Hell forever. That is a trap that cannot be escaped. I hope that all my lovers can encourage each other."

"I would like to follow His Majesty's instructions." Many ministers said respectfully.

"Okay, let's start discussing the matter of the Northern Expedition now. Don't talk about the matter of Xiao Yun anymore. I have made up my mind." Zhu Qiyu never expected that the words "I have made up my mind" would one day be used to forgive sins Minister on this matter.

In the end, Zhu Qiyu didn't send Xiao Ting to Jiejieyuan.

Yu Qian hesitated to speak, and finally did not speak. He actually agreed with what Hu Yi said, sending him to the court of deportation, but His Majesty has already made a decision, and it is not a big deal, so there is no need to argue endlessly.

Chapter 844 Open the door, free trade

Zhu Qiyu watched the courtiers discussing various reasons for the Northern Expedition, feeling a little dazed and distracted for a while.

He thought that more people would intercede for him about Xiao Xun's matter, but except for Shang Ren's duty, no one pleaded for mercy.

This is the Wenhua Palace, the courtiers sitting here should be a little bit sad and hurt others, feel the same for fear of something happening to them, no one will speak for themselves, it would be better to plead for Xiao Xun, but no.

There are even many people here who hope that His Majesty's punishment will be more severe. After all, the crimes committed by Xiao Ting can already be sent to Jieyuan.

This includes Hu Wei, Yu Qian, Shi Heng and other important officials. Although they did not express their views, Zhu Qiyu saw the appearance of hesitating to speak.

The ethos of the court has really changed, and these subjugated ministers may be punished by everyone.

The Northern Expedition was still debated endlessly as before, but the main theme was still the main battle, but how to fight it, and whether to set up a capital to be directly under the jurisdiction of the court after the fight was over, was the focus of the debate.

Most of the courtiers believed that a capital under direct jurisdiction should not be established, mainly because this place was really too poor.

Jiang Yuan, Shangshu of the Ministry of War, said excitedly: "Your Majesty once said at the Salt and Iron Conference in the first year of Jingtai that Yebushou went deep into the captive camp and found that there were unattended children outside the Longting tent. Only [-] children can become a person, so they will continue to attack and plunder people."

"I remember that out of ten children in the Daming Nursing Home can make up to four or five, and His Majesty praised the Nursing Home's contribution to the care of the poor."

Zhu Qiyu came back to his senses and immediately said: "To this day, there are still five or six out of ten children in the Nursing Home. Even so, I think they are already very tall, about the same as ordinary people's children. "

"To this day, I still believe that the nursing home has the merits of supporting the poor."

Zhu Qiyu affirmed Jiang Yuan's statement, and once again expressed his approval for the operation of the Daming Nursing Home. No matter how many human blood steamed buns the Nursing Home ate, it was the best thing to raise a person.

The proportion of the Daming Nursing Home is really very high.

In this vicious feudal society, it is already a blessing for Ming Dynasty to have such a high percentage of adults.

Jiang Yuan said very precisely: "So, Helin's environment is so bad, if Hu Yuanzhi hadn't made offerings internally, could Helin'an become a famous city outside the Great Wall?"

"Yuan Shizu raised Helin because Kublai Khan and his younger brother Ali Buge fought for sweat. Although they won in the end, Hu Yuan's rule over the Mongolian tribes needed to be supported by Helin. Why should we support Helin? He Lin?"

"All we need is Helin Weakness, who can't invade our Ming territory, and can't stop Daming from increasing its influence on the ground in the Western Regions."

Yao Kui didn't agree with Jiang Yuan's idea very much, Xiao Min fell down, and Yao Kui, as the second official of the Ministry of Rites, naturally carried the banner of the Ministry of Rites.

"Why didn't Jiang Shangshu speak out from his heart? Isn't that what Jin Guo did back then?"

"Our Daming will also do the same, so and so, where is the kingly way, where is the domineering?" Yao Kui knocked on the table to remind Jiang Yuan that, as Minister of the Ministry of War, Jiang Yuan's idea is very dangerous.

Reduction of Ding is a cruel and inhumane method used by the Kingdom of Jin to deal with the tribes of the grassland.

The methods of the Kingdom of Jin on the various tribes of the grassland can be roughly divided into three types: repairing trenches, instigating and cutting down.

Instigation is to stir up conflicts among the tribes, causing them to fight each other endlessly and cause chaos. For example, the Tatar tribe is a vicious dog raised by the Kingdom of Jin near the Xianbei Mountains. The Tatar tribe also poisoned Genghis Khan Temujin’s father. There is a proverb that Tatar milk tea cannot be drunk, which has been passed down for thousands of years.

To reduce Ding means to regularly send troops to clean up many tribes in the grassland, kill the population of the tribes in the grassland, and weaken the strength of the tribes in the grassland.

But as a result of doing so, it finally promoted the unity of the 72 grasslands to resist the inhumane rule of the Jin Kingdom.

After Jiang Yuan's words, he almost said the word "Cut Ding".

Reducing the number of men is not a good method, but it will arouse fierce resistance from the most ordinary people in the grassland tribes, and finally stand firmly on the opposite side with Daming.

Jiang Yuan said with some displeasure: "Huh, what's the difference between your method and the reduction of Ding? One kills with a knife, and the other kills with a government order. A family of one hundred households will be reduced to fifty households in the second generation. Half. As a result, within five generations, the family will have no remaining sons, and even though they do not have an axe, they are better than an axe."

The method of the Ministry of Rites is probably Wang Hua, which seems to be kind, but in fact the purpose is roughly the same.

"This is what is better than the axe. Will they not resist when they are killed to the point where they cannot survive? Just won't resist, won't they run away? Daming is turning the Tartar king, as long as he is willing to surrender, he will not worry about life." I can’t go on.” Yao Kui said quite confidently: “They won’t obediently straighten their necks for you to kill when you engage in massacres, but with our method, they will obediently obey, and in the end everyone is a family. I have, I have you, regardless of you and me."

"Is the Ministry of Rites like this? The heart is too dark!" Jiang Yuan said indignantly, and stopped talking. His sentence is very similar to the green hills and the green waters. There will be a period later, and the face must be saved. In fact, he has already agreed According to the method of the Ministry of Rites.

The fact is also the same. The method of the Ministry of Rites is more reliable than the Ministry of War's direct dispatch of troops, and there are few future troubles.

Yao Kui is talking about Wang Hua, what kind of decree is it?

Roughly summed up as sheep cannibalism, enclosure movement.

By using the trade of the tribute city flexibly, a large amount of production materials such as grassland cattle and sheep were traded, so that the people of the grassland were forced to survive by the profit-seeking Wala, Wuliangha and other tribes, so they naturally rose up to resist, or simply cast their minds, I suddenly feel that the world is wider.

Hubu Shangshu Shen Yi, as the new Shen Yi who got the Qigong card, he didn't make too much of a high profile, he just brought the Qigong card with him wherever he went.

Shen Yi shook his head and said: "Da Ming has the final say on this tribute market, but before the trade, you have to knock on the door first, and if you don't knock on the door, it is impossible for the Taijis of Wala and Wuliangha to do business smoothly."