Add Bookmark | Recommend this book | Back to the book page | My bookshelf | Mobile Reading

Free Web Novel,Novel online - All in oicq.net -> Historic -> Qianming

Part One: Penghu Chapter 520 Business

Previous page        Return to Catalog        Next page

    Qiang Ming 520_Qiang Ming full text free reading_Chapter 520 Business comes from (.)

    Gong Yonggu added: "Your Majesty, since this matter comes from Qian Duan, naturally I should not say anything more. But thinking about the Empress Dowager Xiaoding"

    Chongzhen sneered softly through his nostrils and said: "I knew you wanted to mention Empress Dowager Xiaoding! This country is not only my country, but also the country of Empress Dowager Xiaoding and the country of my ancestors. The difficulties of the court and my difficulties, even though you have  If I don't know, my ancestors will know everything. How can I bear to ask Qi Wan for help if it is not a last resort?"

    Liu Wenbing bravely said: "Your Majesty has worked hard for the country, and I know it very well. But today the court is in trouble, and it cannot be solved by asking several Qi Wan to help. What's more, the country is not at the end of its rope today. The emperor blames Li Guorui too much and will  May the spirit of Empress Dowager Xiaoding be in heaven"

    Chongzhen shook his head and said: "You really don't know. Don't say this to outsiders. We are almost at the end of our rope." He looked at the four royal relatives, his eyes suddenly became wet, he sighed and continued: "I govern the world with filial piety.  , Don¡¯t you know that the Empress Dowager Xiaoding is my great-grandmother? If she didn¡¯t have a lot of money and no military pay, how could I bear to do this?  We should use our money to advocate for our subjects, which is far worse than the ancients who ruined their country and rescued them!"

    The elder Prince Consort Ran Xingrang stood up quickly and said: "The country is in difficulty, and I and others are also very aware of it. But Qi Wan today is very different from previous years. The land is desolate, and the income of the farmland is limited. He is a relative of the emperor, and the expenses cannot be paid.  A sharp decrease. Although Wu Qinghou¡¯s family was relatively prosperous in the past, it has actually become empty in recent years.¡±

    Chongzhen smiled coldly and said: "You are all relatives of the emperor. Naturally, you will only think about the relatives of the emperor. If the world is peaceful and the country is rich, and more rewards are given to the relatives of the emperor every year, everyone will not complain."

    The royal relatives did not dare to speak anymore and returned their seats with their heads lowered.  Chongzhen looked at everyone and asked:

    "What else do you have to say?"

    Everybody stood up and looked at each other.  They didn't dare to say anything.  Gong Yonggu knew that Zhang Guoji would never dare to speak, so he nudged the old consort Ran Xingrang with his elbow, but saw no movement.  He had no choice but to take two steps forward, kneel down and play:

    "I don't dare to plead for Li Guorui, but I just think that Li Guorui is having difficulty getting 200,000 taels of silver at the moment. Can your Majesty be extra gracious and ask him to pay less to show sympathy, so that this matter can be settled as soon as possible?"

    Chongzhen has also thought about this issue repeatedly.  He also understood that the amount he wanted now was too big and it would not be easy for Li Guorui to come up with it, but he was unwilling to give in immediately and wanted Li Guorui to bargain after he knew how powerful he was.  He sneered and said:

    "There must be no less than a penny of silver. When the ancestor of the gods was young, an unknown amount of gold and silver from the inner treasury was transported to their Li family. Today the country is in difficulty, and I only want him to return the gold and silver from the inner treasury." He turned to Ran Xingrang and asked, "Nian Qing  Gao. Do you remember what happened at that time?"

    Ran Xingrang bowed and replied: "Zhang Juzheng died in the tenth year of Wanli, and the divine ancestor took charge of the government. It was nearly sixty years ago. There were rumors in the past that the Empress Dowager Xiaoding often rewarded the Li family with gold and silver from her inner treasury. However, because of the stupidity of the ministers,  See, even if it happened, it must have happened before the tenth year of Wanli, and it may not have been hidden until today."

    "Sixty years of living, that's more." Chongzhen smiled and continued: "You are entrusted by the Li family to come to intercede. Although I don't agree, you have done your best. I am mentally exhausted today.  There are many difficulties that I cannot tell you in detail. Please go."

    Everyone kowtowed silently and filed out.  But as soon as they walked out of the Wenhua Gate, a eunuch chased them out with a message, telling the consort Gong Yonggu to return to the Wenhua back hall.  The rest of the royal family did not dare to leave for the time being, waiting to be summoned.  At first everyone was surprised and a little surprised.  Then Ran Xingrang and Zhang Guoji had second thoughts at the same time, thinking that the emperor must have changed his mind and Li Guorui's matter had turned around. Unconsciously, they were secretly happy and exchanged glances with each other.

    Chongzhen has left the throne and is walking around in the middle of the Wenhua rear hall, frowning and looking anxious.  Seeing Gong Yonggu come in, he walked to the middle, stood with his back on the imperial case, facing south, his face was so serious that it was scary.  Gong Yonggu kowtowed, kneeling on the ground with half hope and half anxiety, waiting for questions.  After a while, Chongzhen asked his brother-in-law:

    "What complaints do the royal relatives have about this matter?"

    Gong Yonggu was suddenly startled, kowtowed and said, "The royal relatives have no complaints against His Majesty."

    "Humph, there won't be any complaints!" After a pause, Chongzhen continued: "When Emperor Wanli was alive, the old royal relatives of each family often received rewards. In the early years of Chongzhen, although things were not as good as before, I also rewarded a lot every year.  . How can we not complain now that we are relying on the royal relatives for military pay?¡±

    Gong Yonggu did hear a lot of complaints. The biggest complaint was that the royal relatives said that the clan wasThere are many princes, such as the King of Jin in Taiyuan, the King of Qin in Xi'an, King Lu of Weihui, the King of Zhou in Kaifeng, the King of Fu in Luoyang, the King of Shu in Chengdu, the King of Chu in Wuchang, etc. Each family can come up with something.  With millions of silver, it is not difficult to come up with at least a few hundred thousand. Why not let them help pay for the army?  Three or four families contributed money, which was enough for a year's military pay.  After all, the emperor is partial to the people of the Zhu family. He ignores many extremely wealthy princes, but he makes plans over the heads of several royal relatives!  Even Gong Yonggu himself has such thoughts.  However, he knew the emperor's temperament very well. Even though he was a close relative of Chongzhen and was deeply favored, he did not dare to say a word about what the emperor's relatives were talking about behind their backs.  He just lay down on the ground and remained silent.

    Seeing that his brother-in-law was silent, Chongzhen ordered him to go out.  Immediately, he walked out of Wenhua Palace with a heavy heart and took the chariot back to Qianqing Palace.

    It was already the third watch of the drum beat, and he was still leaning on the imperial couch thinking about raising wages.  He thought that Li Guorui would not dare to continue to resist if he caused some of the more respectable relatives of the emperor to suffer tonight. As long as he apologized tomorrow and was willing to pay 100,000 or 80,000 silver, he could also grant a special favor to the emperor.  No punishment.  He also thought to himself that the Queen's Qianqiu Festival was coming soon, and it was best to get help from the royal relatives before the Queen's birthday, so as not to cause trouble for the palace and Qi Wan.

    When Li Guorui, the Marquis of Wuqing, saw that the relatives who were interceding with the emperor on his behalf were frustrated, he realized that he had made the emperor angry, and even if he wanted to give out 30,000 to 50,000 silver, it would not end the matter.  Within a few days.  He had already spent 30,000 silver on the emperor's eunuchs such as Wang Dehua and Cao Huachun, and other second-rate and third-rate eunuchs also took the opportunity to extort money from him.  Li Guorui saw that nearly 50,000 taels of silver had been spent like water, and not even one tael of silver had reached the emperor's hands. After much deliberation, and repeated secret discussions with his trusted Qing guests, Li Guorui decided to just go to the court to beg for mercy and complain, and agreed to pay the debt.  Forty thousand silver coins.  Not even an extra tael of silver will come out.  What he relies on is that he is the nephew of the Empress Dowager Xiaoding and the cousin of the current emperor, and he has not committed any other crimes.  It was unreasonable for the emperor to ask him to give out a lot of money for no reason. He couldn't give out a lot of money without violating the national law.  Some of the royal relatives secretly encouraged the Li family to continue to push the envelope but try to find a way to ask the empress and Empress Higashikata to say a good word in front of the emperor.  Everyone thinks.  As long as the Queen or the very favored Empress of the East Palace say a word, things will turn around.

    For several days, Chongzhen sent eunuchs to force Li Guorui to give him 200,000 taels of silver every day, but Li Guorui could only complain.  Chongzhen was even more angry. Regardless of the consequences, he simply gave Li Guorui 400,000 taels of silver within ten days without delay.  Li Guorui was naturally frightened when he saw that the emperor was so angry and unreasonable, and quickly sent people to secretly ask the royal relatives for advice.  Everyone knew that Chongzhen was in a hurry and had nothing to do.  That's why this unreasonable and strict decree was issued.  They believed that there were only ten days left until the Queen's Thousand Autumn Festival. As long as Li Guorui held the broken jar and smashed it until the Thousand Autumn Festival, he would definitely be forgiven by the Queen's words.  Someone else had an idea for Li Guorui: sell off his property in a big way.  So the servants of Wuqinghou Mansion brought all kinds of furniture, clothes, jewelry, calligraphy, paintings, and antiques of various sizes.  Everything that could be sold was put out on the street and marked for sale, filling the whole street.  After two days, we began to demolish the houses and archways, and piled bricks, tiles, wood, stones, animal spines, etc. into two long streets.

    There is a red paper poster posted on the pile of miscellaneous items.  It read: "Due to imperial restrictions, my house is in urgent need of money; everything is sold at a low price, so hurry up if you want to buy it!" This was a great anecdote that had never happened in the past, and the whole city of Beijing was agitated.  Every day, the people in the capital went to the area around Wuqinghou Mansion to watch the excitement, as if they were rushing to a party, but no one dared to buy anything for fear of getting burned.  There were a lot of discussions among the people. Some accused Wu Qinghou of deliberately smearing dirt on the emperor's face and resisting to the end like a dog. Some said that the emperor had gone too far and that he could no longer get the 200,000 cash.  came out and forced him to take out 400,000 taels, forcing Li Wuqing to jump over the wall; in addition, early one morning, unnamed posters appeared at Daming Gate, Qipan Street and East and West Chang'an Street, praising the current emperor as a wise and holy king, and he was deeply involved in doing this.  People's hearts.

    These situations were reported to the palace by Cao Huachun, the eunuch in charge of Dongchang.  Chongzhen was very angry and ordered Li Guorui to be deprived of his title and sent to Zhenfu Prison to pursue a huge sum of 400,000 silver.  At first, he was satisfied with the anonymous posts appearing in Qipan Street and other places, which increased his determination to fight Qi Wan.  But one day later, when he knew that public opinion also criticized his actions, he immediately sent an order to Dongchang and Jinyiwei, strictly prohibiting the people of the capital from "discussing the government's affairs indiscriminately" and secretly writing anonymous posts. Violators would be severely punished.

    Chongzhen originally hoped to successfully complete the matter of asking Qi Wan for help before the Queen's Qianqiu Festival, but unexpectedly the first shot was not fired, resulting in a deadlock on Li Guorui's matter.  Even though he wanted to fight the royal family to the end, he still felt a little regretful in his heart.  On the second day after Li Guorui was imprisoned, he almost felt that there was nothing he could do to Li Guorui, so he summoned his chief assistant Xue Guoguan into the Palace of Qianqing and asked worriedly:

    "Li Guorui stubbornly resisted and even turned to Qi Qi.?Things that require help will not go smoothly.  Unexpectedly, it is so difficult to raise wages. What are your ideas, sir?  "

    Xue Guoguan disagreed with Chongzhen's willful behavior, but he did not dare to say it.  He knew very well that Qi Wan and Xun Jiu were now secretly twisted into a rope, desperately resisting the emperor's help.  He was afraid that if things changed, something would happen to him, so he knelt on the ground and gave an ambiguous answer:

    "Li Guorui should not be so stubborn. But he is the nephew of the Empress Dowager Xiaoding, and he is not comparable to ordinary foreign ministers. I don't dare to say anything about how to punish him."

    After hearing this answer, Chongzhen was very angry, but he endured it and did not show it.  He decided to test whether Xue Guoguan was loyal to him, so he suddenly asked with a smile:

    "How did you entertain yourself at home last night, sir?"

    Xue Guoguan was suddenly startled, his heart pounding wildly.  He was afraid that if he told the truth, the emperor might reproach him and say: "Huh, you are a secret minister and the leader of hundreds of officials. The famine is so serious and the national affairs are so difficult. It is only right that you should work hard day and night and not forget about peace. How can you have leisure time?"  , drank with concubines, and played chess with Qing guests until late at night?" He knew that the investigators of Dongchang often spied on the private affairs of his subjects and reported them to the palace.  It seems that what happened last night has been known to the emperor. If he doesn't tell the truth, he will be guilty of deceiving the emperor.  In a moment, he weighed the pros and cons of the two aspects, paused and said:

    "The humble minister is serving his duties in a poor manner. He cannot work hard day and night and work harder to relieve the emperor's worries on the eve of the night. He even had a drink with his family and played chess with his guests last night. Apart from these two things, he has no other entertainment."

    "Sir, did you win against the 'f*ck horse' twice?"

    "It was just two flukes."

    Chongzhen is no longer angry with his chief minister.  He was satisfied that Xue Guoguan's answer was completely consistent with the report he got from Cao Huachun, the eunuch of Dongchang. He nodded with a smile and said:

    "You don't bully me, you are worthy of being my loyal minister."

    After Xue Guoguan withdrew from the Qianqing Palace in a panic, Chongzhen fell into deep distress.  In the past two days, he noticed that his trusted eunuchs Wang Dehua and Cao Huachun were not as enthusiastic about this matter as they were a few days ago. Could it be that they had been bribed by the emperor's relatives?  He had no evidence, but he was very suspicious and cursed in his heart:

    "You bastard, there is no one you can trust!"

    Just at this moment, Cao Huachun came.  He went to the palace every day and reported to the emperor the developments of his subjects inside and outside the capital. Even the secret family affairs of his subjects were the materials he reported to the palace.  Recently, he has spent a lot of Li Guorui's money, and has been entrusted by some Dukes and Hou Xunchen to speak good words for Li Guorui in front of the emperor.  Today he bluntly reported in front of Chongzhen: Qi Wan, Xun Jiu and Jin gentry all over the capital are in danger because of Li Guorui's affairs, and every family is in panic.  Cao Huachun also showed some interest, as if Li Guorui was not as wealthy as reported outside.

    After listening to Cao Huachun's report, Chongzhen became even more suspicious. He deliberately looked into Cao Huachun's eyes and smiled without saying a word.  Cao Huachun avoided his gaze and lowered his head. His heart was agitated and cold sweat broke out on his back.  Although he was the admiral of Dongchang and had great power, and the subjects in the capital were a little afraid of him, he was the emperor's domestic slave after all. The emperor could punish him at any time with just a word, so he was extremely afraid that Chongzhen would become suspicious of him.  After a while, Chongzhen suddenly asked:

    "Cao Banban, how is business going these days?"

    Cao Huachun was shocked and turned pale. He fell to the ground and kowtowed repeatedly, saying, "I am a strict and law-abiding servant. Your Majesty knows this and never dares to be lax. I really don't know what your Majesty is talking about."

    Chongzhen continued to sneer, and after a long while, he said slowly: "You have to be careful! Someone has a secret book, telling you to take advantage of Dongchang's power and accept a lot of bribes, and the people in the capital borrowed it."

    "This slave is unjustly accused! This slave is wrongly accused! Your Majesty knows it clearly, this slave is really unjustly accused!" Cao Huachun said repeatedly, banging his head with a thud.

    Seeing that Cao Huachun was very scared, Chongzhen was satisfied and thought: "These slaves are their own family after all, and they don't dare to do bad things." In order to make Cao Huachun continue to serve him loyally, he said in a gentler tone:

    "Of course I don't doubt you, but you have to be extra careful in the future. If someone catches you, I won't be able to protect you."

    Qiang Ming 520_Qiang Ming full text free to read_Chapter 520 Business update completed!
Didn't finish reading? Add this book to your favoritesI'm a member and bookmarked this chapterCopy the address of this book and recommend it to your friends for pointsChapter error? Click here to report