Chapter 97 The capital punishment for Wang Yue
In the capital, there are still horsemen everywhere, the sound of hooves is constant, and the work of ransacking homes and detaining people is still in progress.
The Jinyiwei Imperial Prison, the Imperial Palace Prison, the Criminal Department Prison, and the Shuntian Prefecture Prison were all filled with criminals.
The gold and silver obtained from the confiscation of homes was continuously transported to the Royal Bank every day and stored there in the name of the Royal Revenue Service.
Originally, including the glass craft ordering fees paid by Zhang Heling and Zhang Yanling and the profits from the Royal Industrial Company, the total revenue of the Royal Taxation Bureau is now only more than 500,000 taels.
In other words, Zhu Houzhao's original total assets were only more than 500,000 taels of silver.
But since the house raid, the revenue of the Royal Taxation Bureau has been rising steadily.
The beheading of every scholar-official involved in the regicide case brought Zhu Houzhao an income of no less than one hundred thousand taels of silver.
Sometimes from an economic point of view, every head landed brings huge financial income.
However, these gold and silver items are only a small part of the proceeds from the confiscation of homes, and the majority is countless land and fertile fields.
Zhu Houzhao expected that this raid would bring him enough benefits. After all, he and his empire needed resources to strengthen themselves.
"Your Majesty, both Liu Jian and Xie Qian have been escorted to Beijing!"
On this day, not long after Zhu Houzhao finished exercising, Ma Yongcheng found Zhu Houzhao and reported to Zhu Houzhao the latest arrests of rebels.
As soon as Zhu Houzhao heard that Liu Jian and Xie Qian were escorted to Beijing, he ordered: "Take these two, Wang Yue, Li Dongyang, and Zhang Yu to Qianqing Palace. I will personally interrogate them!"
At the beginning of Si Shi, Liu Jian, Li Dongyang, Xie Qian, Wang Yue and Zhang Yu were escorted to Zhu Houzhao.
These five people were silent at this time and just knelt obediently in front of Zhu Houzhao.
Zhu Houzhao also came closer and said: "I still remember in May, when the late emperor just passed away, you Liu Jian, Li Dongyang, and Xie Qian cried more miserably than the other one! But who would have thought that you actually murdered someone? Late Emperor, I just want to ask you now, do you regret it?”
After Zhu Houzhao finished speaking, all five people said nothing.
Seeing this, Zhu Houzhao couldn't help but roared: "Answer me!"
"Your Majesty, why bother to ask again? Since the incident has been exposed, we have become regicide traitors. Your Majesty will just cut us into pieces!"
At this time, Li Dongyang said something first. At this time, Liu Jian raised his head and looked at Zhu Houzhao with a smile on his lips: "Regret? I am doing it for the livelihood of the people of the world and the plan for the Ming Dynasty. How can I regret it? The late emperor was indeed kind and wise, but he gradually turned his back. With the way of a wise king, if you hold the throne for a long time, the world will undoubtedly be in chaos, and what I regret now is that I took a wrong look at your majesty!"
"Your Majesty, as Liu Gong said, you have ruined our reputation and the whole family is facing the fate of destruction. Xie only regrets that he could not kill you as well, and choose another virtuous king to take over!"
Xie Qian also echoed.
Xie Qian also knew that once his crime of killing Emperor Hongzhi was exposed, he would definitely die. He did not bother to beg for mercy, and only expressed his dissatisfaction with Zhu Houzhao from the bottom of his heart. In his opinion, if Zhu Houzhao did not want to frame them, they would not They will be discovered, and they will still be wise and good ministers. Even if they are defeated by political opponents in the future, they will just return to their hometowns.
Zhu Houzhao couldn't help but laugh: "It's me who ruined your reputation. It's you who ruined your reputation. If you want to blame, you can only blame yourself! If you don't want others to know, don't do anything but yourself. The late emperor treated you badly, and you Now you still regard the late emperor as an enemy. It shows that you have always been just a group of extremely hypocritical villains. How can you talk about ruining your reputation?
I know that you want to kill the late emperor and empress so that you can control me. In your eyes, I am just an ignorant boy, but you made the wrong calculation! Although I am young, I cannot be bullied! On that day, in the Qianqing Palace, although you cried bitterly, you behaved without loyalty. Not to mention me, even ordinary people can see your tricks!
Ma Wensheng just questioned it, but your good friend Liu Daxia jumped out to accuse Ma Wensheng, and you even helped Liu Daxia suppress Ma Wensheng's doubts. You three pavilion bosses are so powerful! If you don’t pursue it, of course no one will dare to pursue it! Together with Zhang Yu, the dead eunuch, when he saw me, the Queen Mother, and you crying, he didn't help me and the Queen Mother first. Instead, he came to help you and advised you to refrain from mourning!
Zhu Houzhao walked up to Zhang Yu as he spoke: "Zhang Yu, please answer me, did you only have eyes for Mr. Sange at that time! Instead of taking me seriously, you only thought that I and the Queen Mother were just a pair of orphans and widowed mothers. It’s not important, take care of the feelings of the elders first, so as not to dissatisfy the civil servants later. Whose world is this Ming Dynasty? You eunuchs have started to be slaves to the scholars!”
Zhang Yu never expected that Zhu Houzhao would even notice such details at that time. For a moment, he could only prostrate himself to the ground: "I am guilty! I should not despise Your Majesty!"
"You are guilty! But you are not timid!"
Zhu Houzhao came to Wang Yue as he spoke: "You, Wang Yue, took off yourself quite cleanly. From the beginning to the end, the death of the late emperor had nothing to do with you, but you later dared to compete with me. Why, you want to change me Become Tang Wenzong? You don’t even think about it. I am not comparable to Tang Wenzong, and how can I be bullied by your family?”
Wang Yue was very indifferent: "The old slave does not dare to compare himself with Qiu Shiliang (who controls Tang Wenzong's power eunuch), and the old slave does not dare to bully the emperor with his weak age. It is obvious that the emperor favors and trusts the traitor and wants to trap the old slave to death, otherwise , how dare the old slave do this! But now! However, death is still inevitable. The old slave just wants to advise the emperor. If the emperor really wants to do something good, he must be careful to repeat the mistakes of the late emperor and retreat. The people standing behind you seem to be loyal to you now, but in the future Who knows!”
Zhu Houzhao did not expect that Wang Yue would never forget to trick the "Eight Tigers" until his death. He thought that this clearly showed that Wang Yue was really resentful of the eunuchs around him.
Zhu Houzhao looked back at Ma Yongcheng and Liu Jin and saw that both Ma Yongcheng and Liu Jin had angry faces. He also guessed that Wang Yue's words must have irritated Ma Yongcheng and Liu Jin.
However, Zhu Houzhao also admitted that Wang Yue was right. As the emperor, he was sitting at the top of the imperial pyramid, and he was destined to have no one he could always trust. However, he did not feel that because of this, he would not be able to last long. To rule the empire, and if he now wants to rule the empire for a long time, the first thing he needs to do happens to be to severely punish these political opponents who have been against him.
Fighting violence with violence is the most effective way to ensure security, and this has been true since ancient times.
Therefore, Zhu Houzhao only said: "We will talk about the rest later. At least now it is you, Wang Yue, who has betrayed me. Come on! Take Wang Yue down. Next, kill Chi Wang Yue first and chop him into pieces with 3,600 knives! The flesh you cut off will be your life." The ministers tasted it and ordered all the ministers from the young eunuch to above to watch it as a warning to others!”
Many thanks to the book friend Lengyue Jianmang for the reward of 1000 starting coins. Many thanks to the book friend Ning Hui Tian Xia Lives up to Qing for the reward of 200 book coins. Many thanks to the book friend Super Blood Scholar for the reward of 100 starting coins. Many thanks to the book friend V Dream of Infinity V for the reward of 3000 starting coins.
(End of chapter)