Chapter 245 The Second Assistant Wang Qiong Confessed to the Emperor
Zhu Houzhao was not worried about King Ning's rebellion, but he had to be cautious about how to deal with some officials and gentry caused by King Ning's rebellion.
After all, what Zhu Houzhao can be sure of is that from the time King Ning planned the rebellion to the actual rebellion and finally being put down, there must have been many officials and gentry who secretly accepted bribes from King Ning and even did some things for him. thing.
What's more, even the emperor himself has received benefits from Prince Ning.
In addition, what Zhu Houzhao can be sure of is that after King Ning rebels, there will definitely be some officials and gentry who are dissatisfied with the government and do not realize that this is an era of peace of mind for the people. They will respond to King Ning and seek refuge with King Ning.
After all, the emperor himself and the reformist officials behind him had dealt a very harsh blow to the gentry in the south. They first recovered their beneficiary taxes, and then cleared their land to ban slaves. All of them were cutting the flesh of the gentry.
Moreover, now he also uses public opinion to manipulate public opinion to monitor the gentry, and uses Dongchang to monitor civil servants. Naturally, this will further intensify the hatred towards the imperial court among these landlords who only want freedom and exploit the common people.
Therefore, Zhu Houzhao still had to think about how to deal with the officials and gentry who rebelled with King Ning because they were dissatisfied with the court after King Ning's rebellion was put down. Should he directly kill them without mercy, or should he be lenient?
Zhu Houzhao actually hasn't made up his mind yet.
After all, there were quite a few officials and gentry who rebelled with King Ning or secretly accepted bribes from King Ning. If he directly killed them without mercy, he might force these officials and gentry to jump over the wall.
But if he didn't kill him, wouldn't it seem like he was too kind as an emperor? He even told the gentry all over the world that he, the emperor, would be afraid of them, so they would be fine even if they defected to the rebels and rebelled with them?
Obviously, Zhu Houzhao would rather choose the former. He would rather use butcher's knife and blood to let the reactionary gentry know the consequences of rebelling against himself and disobeying the national interests, rather than letting these reactionary gentry mistakenly think that he, the emperor, is really a coward.
However, Zhu Houzhao will no longer be the young emperor he was when he first ascended the throne. He was so impulsive that he killed gentry and civilians with their own hands. There is no need to do it yourself, lest these civil servants and gentry think that it is because of the cruelty of the emperor that they end up miserably, but they do not know that it is because they have gone against the people of the entire Ming Dynasty that they have such an end.
When the enemy discovers that people of the same class also want to severely punish themselves, it will undoubtedly make the enemy collapse more easily and it will be more conducive to rule.
……
At this time, the civil servants of the central court also had very complicated emotions after learning that King Ning had rebelled.
The civil servants in the central court were more worried and worried. They were worried about whether their bribery from King Ning would be exposed after the rebellion.
Of course, after learning that King Ning's message contained a message of respect for the gentry, some central court officials secretly looked forward to whether it would be a good thing for the gentry all over the world if King Ning really succeeded.
In addition, some civil servants were extremely angry at King Ning's rebellion.
"Dehua, do you think it will happen in the south?"
On this day, Liu Yu couldn't help but ask Wang Qiong.
Wang Qiong smiled and shook his head: "To be honest, Xiaguan made preparations several years ago. No, it's not Xianguan who made preparations, but His Majesty. Besides, the people of the world are still prepared." From your Majesty’s perspective, what is happening in the south is just a joke!”
"That's good. Now the world should be stable rather than chaotic. The Uliangha in the north is ready to make a move, and the Japanese in the south have become more and more rampant recently. If there is another civil strife in the court at this time, I am really worried that it will be the people of the world who will suffer in the end!"
Liu Yu couldn't help but sigh.
Wang Qiong couldn't help but smile secretly, and said with disdain in her heart: "You are always worried about the people of the world. In fact, you are worried about the civil strife in the world. If your Majesty does anything bad, the wealth of your Liu family will also end from now on!"
It is true that Liu Yu chose to take refuge with His Majesty the Emperor when he was an official in the Metropolitan Procuratorate, and accidentally became a participant in the royal industry. It is precisely because of this that he turned an upright official into a rare rich man in the world, and Because of the contract signed with His Majesty, My own property cannot be used to buy land or buried underground. However, I do not know how to invest and am somewhat resistant to doing business, so I can only use it for enjoyment, which makes my life more and more luxurious, and I am more and more worried about the emperor's property. Guarantee, I will also follow the northwest wind.
Because of this, Liu Yu is also one of the few people in the government and the public who has not interacted with King Ning, because he is also afraid that if King Ning really rebels, he will be implicated, causing him to lose his position in the royal estate like Zhang Yong. benefits.
Wang Qiong sometimes really envies officials like Liu Yu, and envies people like Liu Yu who enjoy lifelong wealth because of their "cultivation of the dragon". They don't have to make money in the officialdom or do things against their conscience. They can still be upright officials. With a generous income, he can also openly increase income for the court and benefit the people, because doing so is also good for his own family. But Wang Qiong also knows that officials like Liu Yu cannot last long, because not every emperor is not as greedy as the current His Majesty. If once King Ning really succeeds or waits until the new emperor ascends the throne, the new emperor will The emperor will definitely not let officials like Liu Yu benefit. After all, the new emperor can say that it is your duty to govern the world well. It is naturally impossible to get the benefits of successfully governing the world.
However, now officials like Liu Yu who are tied to the interests of Emperor Zhu Houzhao naturally don't have to worry about being implicated if King Ning's rebellion fails. They even only angrily advise the emperor to rebel against King Ning and those who follow King Ning. The people were severely punished and even immediately searched and detained all the civil and military officials who had had contact with King Ning.
Although Liu Yu only expressed concern that the people of the world might be plunged into war when chatting with Wang Qiong alone, after meeting Zhu Houzhao, he gave direct and strong advice:
"Your Majesty, King Ning acted rebelliously, wasted the emperor's kindness, and intended to bring trouble to the world. This is an unforgivable crime! I thought that I should immediately dispatch elite troops to the south to quell the rebellion, and immediately ordered Xichang and Jinyi Guards to immediately detain the officials in the DPRK who had contact with King Ning, and severely It would be better to kill three thousand people by mistake than to let one person go without interrogation! Otherwise, it will not be enough to stabilize the world!"
Zhu Houzhao knew that the reason why Liu Yu had such a tough attitude was that Liu Yu himself had no contact with Prince Ning. Like the previous civil servants such as Ma Wensheng and Jiao Fang, he had been tied to his own interests as the emperor from the beginning, so he was unwilling to suppress Ning. The king's affairs were so urgent, which was exactly the same as the behavior of several eunuchs such as Liu Jin. They were very active in dealing with King Ning's affairs just as they had followed him to reform the government.
Otherwise, they would not be scolded as eunuchs by some civil servants and squires who opposed them behind their backs.
Even when the court first received news of Prince Ning's rebellion, Liu Yu made plans that night to revoke Prince Ning's status and denounce Prince Ning as a rebel.
Zhu Houzhao can understand the mood and purpose of people like Liu Yu who belong to the big bureaucratic and big capitalist class.
But as the emperor, Zhu Houzhao also had to consider the mood of officials from other backgrounds in the dynasty. For example, the depressed Wang Qiong in front of him. Zhu Houzhao could guess that this Wang Qiong must have received the benefits of Prince Ning like himself, otherwise Won't frown when Liu Yujian suggested using factory guards to arrest officials who had dealings with King Ning.
Zhu Houzhao did not immediately agree to Liu Yu's proposal, nor did he reject Liu Yu's proposal. He only asked Xiang Wang Qiong. He wanted to know what methods Wang Qiong, who represented the vast majority of officials in the court, would propose to deal with the problem of Ning. The crisis arose when Wang rebelled.
"What does Wang Qing think of King Ning's rebellion?" Zhu Houzhao asked.
Wang Qiong himself has been thinking about it. He can guess that King Ning's rebellion may have caused Zhongjunshe officials like Liu Yu to want to use the opportunity of punishing King Ning's rebel forces to further compete for power in the DPRK. His Majesty asked at this time. Naturally, I also gave myself, the non-Loyal Society officials, a chance to save themselves.
Wang Qiong thought for a while and said: "Your Majesty, I believe that King Ning's rebellion and the counter-insurgency should be planned for your Majesty by the General Staff of the Guards, while the punishment and conviction of the rebels should be the responsibility of the Third Law Department, and the Cabinet The Six Ministries have no right to interfere, and the Ministry of Personnel is responsible for the removal of officials. ”
Zhu Houzhao met with Wang Qiong and told him a procedure. The implication was that he had no way to change the fact that his officials had benefited from Prince Ning. Naturally, everything still depends on you, the emperor. If you want to handle it according to the rules, you can handle it according to the rules. If you can't handle it according to the rules, you don't have to handle it according to the rules. Anyway, the people of the world are facing you, so you can do whatever you want.
"Actually, I have also taken a lot of benefits from him, Prince Ning. According to Liu Qing's words, I have to be detained. However, in my opinion, no one can predict that Prince Ning will rebel, so I accept some gifts from some exchanges. It's normal. If the water is clear, there will be no fish. But now that King Ning has become a rebel, the gift we take from King Ning can no longer be called a gift, but The ill-gotten wealth is the wealth of the people collected by King Ning! King Ning's rebellion must have harmed and poisoned the people. Poor Jiangxi people! Therefore, I believe that these ill-gotten gains should not be kept to ourselves. We all love the people. The people should return the wealth and anointing collected by King Ning to the people!”
"But how to pay it back? I have an idea. In order to prevent these people from falling into laziness after receiving the wealth directly, I thought I could let the court take care of them first and do something meaningful for the people of the world!"
Zhu Houzhao then added: "As far as I know, the Ministry of Industry currently lacks enough money to renovate the city wall, build water conservancy projects, pave roads and build bridges, etc. But in fact, the key to making people rich depends on how many roads are built and how many buildings are built. How many bridges have I crossed, so I I suggest that you and I all take out this ill-gotten wealth and invest it in the court, so that the court can form an infrastructure bureau. The infrastructure bureau will use the money to build roads and bridges for the people. What do you think? ?”
Liu Yu was still confused, thinking that he was asking for money, but he didn't receive any benefits from Prince Ning.
But just when Liu Yu was in a daze, Wang Qiong couldn't wait to reply: "Very kind! Your Majesty is wise! The wealth received from Prince Ning is naturally ill-gotten wealth, but if he invests in forming an infrastructure construction bureau, it will benefit the world." People, increase food production and reduce the occurrence of disasters, and this will also allow the court to do the work of building roads and bridges instead of the gentry, and it will be more beneficial for the people of the world to be in the hands of the court!”
"I dare not deceive Your Majesty. I have received a total of more than 300,000 taels from King Ning. I have decided to dedicate all of it to the imperial court. I hope Your Majesty will approve it. In addition, I would like to ask Your Majesty to punish the crime of corruption!"
Wang Qiong started asking for help.
Liu Yu looked confused and thought, since when did you, Wang Qiong, accept so many bribes? Although I believe you may have received benefits from Prince Ning, it is impossible for you to have received more than 300,000 taels! Even if he, Prince Ning, was as rich as the world, he would not be able to bribe an official with hundreds of thousands of taels every now and then! And he didn’t even admit it, he confessed it himself! It’s incredible!
Sorry, I am in a bad state. Although I wrote according to the established ideas, I did not think specifically about how to write better, so please forgive me. In addition, there is a reason why Wang Qiong did not admit it to himself and took the initiative to admit how much benefits he received from Prince Ning. I will explain it later, and book friends can take a guess. Wang Qiong must not only be trying to protect himself, but also see other opportunities, otherwise I wouldn't write about his psychological activities of envying Liu Yu. Thank you book friend My name is Strong Tiger, not Fat Tiger for the 1000 starting coin reward
(End of chapter)