Eighth year of Chongzhen

Chapter 74
Hearing Chongzhen's gloomy and cold tone, the words he said pierced people's hearts like sharp swords, and all the eunuchs were scared out of their wits and sweated profusely.

Wang Dehua was also an old man who lived in the latent residence when Chongzhen was the king of Xin. After Zhu Youjian ascended the throne, he took over the power of the eunuch in charge of the chief of ceremonies as a matter of course. His close relatives also followed suit, and his nephews and nephews basically took jobs in Jinyiwei to get paid, and then relied on his fame and power to do business and make money. This is also a common thing.

Wang Dehua has followed Chongzhen for many years, so he understands his master's character and temper. He knows that although he is irritable and irritable, he is tolerant to those around him and sometimes gets angry, but he never says such harsh words. It seems that I don't know what rumors reached his ears.

Wang Dehua raised his head slightly, and quickly glanced at Wang Chengen who was standing beside Chongzhen, and saw him looking down at the ground with lowered eyebrows, as if the emperor's temper had nothing to do with him.

"This grandson must have passed the word to the emperor! I heard that the emperor trusts him even more these days, and his nephew has also entered the Jinyiwei and became a real-time hundred household. What a favor this is. Several of his nephews Although my nephew is also a Jinyiwei, both at the rank of a thousand households, but actually has nothing to do with Jinyiwei, it’s just a name, so it’s not like this grandson, huh!"

Thinking of this, Wang Dehua wiped the sweat from his forehead, kowtowed his head, and said: "This old slave is obedient to the emperor, this old slave and others are all handicapped people, and they are fortunate enough to serve the emperor's family, so they are absolutely loyal. The old slave is greedy for money, but his loyalty to the emperor's family can be learned! Just now, the emperor's words made the old slave feel ashamed to death, and he didn't know that slave dared to speak such rebellious words to the emperor, causing the emperor to be so angry ! This damned slave, if the old slave finds out who it is, he will definitely be shredded into pieces!"

Wang Chengen was unmoved, and still looked down at his feet. Chongzhen sneered and said, "Wang Dehua, I ask you, where is your loyalty? How can you judge that what I just said is a rumor? As the seal of the supervisor of ceremonies, the entire palace The inner capital is under your jurisdiction. When you hear this, you don’t go to find out if it is true. Instead, the first thing you think of is to know who told me! According to what you said, it doesn’t matter whether the palace You have to keep it a secret from me for any kind of emotion that arises? What is your intention, you slave!"

Thinking of what Wang Chengen had secretly investigated, Chongzhen became even more furious. At the end, he casually grabbed the teacup on the case and threw it at Wang Dehua. It immediately flowed down from Wang Dehua's head.

Wang Dehua was beaten for a moment by a teacup. After waking up, he kowtowed desperately to beg for mercy regardless of the blood on his head. The others were not much better. They had followed Chongzhen for many years. Everyone kowtowed vigorously, and Wang Zhixin was so frightened that he burst into tears.

Chongzhen shouted loudly: "Don't cry! Cry again and drag him out to death!"

Wang Zhixin, who was crying loudly, heard Chongzhen's shout, like a duck whose neck was suddenly caught, the crying stopped, his upper body twitched, and tears kept falling down.

Chongzhen took a deep breath and let it out, his anger eased a little, he said coldly: "Wang Dehua, I see that you are an old man in Qiandi, let me spare you once today! You have ten days to give I have cleaned up all kinds of dark affairs in the palace, and found those who have evil intentions. I don’t want people to spy behind me! If there are any people in the palace who dare to link up with people inside and outside, don’t blame me for being cruel!”

The blood on Wang Dehua's head flowed down his cheeks to the ground, and there was already a small puddle of blood on the ground. Hearing Chongzhen's words, he felt relieved. He thought that the emperor would send him to guard the imperial tomb in a fit of anger. , then the wealth and honor of himself and his family over the years will dissipate immediately, the wall will fall and everyone will push him, and there will be people in the palace who envy and envy him. No one will show any sympathy to anyone, and she must not lose the trust of the emperor.

After knocking his head a few times, he said: "Well, the Pope knows that this old slave will definitely handle the errands well, so that the Emperor can feel at ease!"

Chongzhen snorted coldly: "I don't listen to slogans, I want results! Get up and stand aside!" Wang Dehua kowtowed, stood up obediently, and bent over to avoid it.

Looking at the few people still kneeling on the ground, Chongzhen continued to shout: "Wang Zhixin! Do you think that if you pretend to be pitiful, I will soften your heart and let you go? I know that when it comes to greed in this palace, your Wang Zhixin is second. , Others dare not say number one, you dare to ask for any money, and you dare to accept anyone's money! I heard that you have saved as much as 10 taels of silver in the years since I became the throne. Is it true or not? "

Wang Zhixin choked back and said: "If you go back to the emperor, this old slave doesn't like anything else in his life, he only likes money. After all these years, apart from the relatives at home doing some business to earn some money to honor the old slave, the old slave really received a lot of money. The old slave deserves to die for the money that should not be collected, and when I go back, the old slave will dedicate the silver to the emperor!"

Chongzhen was immediately annoyed, and he scolded: "You old dog! Am I a fool who cares about other people's wealth? The civil and military honors of the Manchu dynasty have become richer and richer. Do I have to force them to donate money?" The family fortune? I won’t pursue the previous matter for the time being. Although I am poor, I will not force others to make things difficult! I just want to ask you, Du Xun, the eunuch in charge of Xuanfu Town, was your disciple?"

Wang Zhixin suddenly understood that Du Xun had guarded the Xuan Mansion for several years, and he had benefited a lot from the eight Zhangjiakou Fort families who committed the crime this time. In view of his well-behaved and filial piety, Wang Zhixin, through Wang Dehua, put him in the supervisor of ceremonies and made him a personal eunuch. Du Xun was naturally grateful to him as a godfather and obeyed.Just now I didn't say anything about it in front of the courtiers. It turned out that the emperor was afraid of making his family ugly. It seems that his godson is doomed. He spit out the money to send to guard the imperial tomb. If he doesn't handle it well, he will die the fate of ah.

In a flash of thought, Wang Zhixin had already thought through the cause and effect thoroughly, he kowtowed, straightened his upper body and said: "Go back to the emperor, Du Xun is indeed under the old slave's sect, the old slave saw him as smart and smart, and he was reasonable in dealing with people and things. Only then did he adopt him as a adopted son. He guarded the Xuan Mansion for several years, and during that time he never forgot to give the old slave New Year's Day gifts. He had little contact with him on weekdays. Last year, the emperor called him back, just happened to be the chief eunuch The vacancy, the palm print eunuch saw that he was proficient in writing, so he was available, so he was put on the clerk's office, the emperor, Du Xun is also your slave, if he violates the laws of the country, the old slave will kill him when he returns!"

Wang Dehua, who was standing on the side, glared at him, wishing to kick this old thing to death: If you, an old dog, brought Du Xun and gave our family 2 taels of silver, would our family have allowed him to enter the Supervisor of Ceremonies?This time you put the shit bowl on our head, our family will never end with you!
Chongzhen hehe said: "Jin Yiwei has confiscated his family property at this time, what is the use of keeping such slaves who eat inside and outside? I sent him to guard the important town on the nine borders, in order to monitor the local officials and generals. I didn't expect him to join forces with him! Wang Zhixin, take someone to the Rites Supervisor to take him down, and immediately kill him with a stick! You should be imprisoned!"

Wang Dehua and the others shuddered secretly, took down his godson with his own hands, and watched him be executed with a stick. The prestige of Wang Zhixin was gone in an instant. Who would dare to rely on him again?

Wang Zhixin understands the truth, but he can't care much about it now, let's talk about protecting his own family first, and when the matter is settled, his family will ask the emperor to go to Tianjin for the elderly. The money he has been greedy for so many years, he will be a rich man. It's more than enough, the palace can't stay any longer, it's better to get away as soon as possible while the emperor didn't kill them all, he stood up after kowtowing without saying a word, bent down and stepped back out of the hall, and ordered the little yellow gate to call Several eunuchs who were executing the sentence went straight to the supervisor of ceremonies.

After Wang Zhixin left, Chongzhen took a look at Cao Huachun, Gao Qiqian, and Liu Gao who were still kneeling, and said, "The territory of the Ming Dynasty is in turmoil. It is rumored that the Zhu family's country is in danger of being overthrown. Different thoughts, I tell you, as long as I am here, Daming will not perish! If anyone is careful enough to be found out by me, I will punish his nine clans! Get out and do business!"

Wang Dehua and the others almost scrambled out of the Zhaoren Palace, and they all warned themselves that they can do nothing about the bad things in the past, and just keep the wealth in front of them. If anyone wants to inquire about the news in the palace, then He is his own enemy, and he will never die with him!

A few days later, Kuai Ma delivered the imperial decree to Sun Chengzong. With an order, the square in front of the governor's office in Xuanfu Town was filled with killing people every day, and the crowd of onlookers was like going to a market. A head fell to the ground, and then a group of family members of the criminals went south to Lingnan and Qiongzhou under the escort of the officials. , when I was domineering, I am afraid I would never have dreamed of today.

As for the confiscated silver taels, Chongzhen left 30 taels to Sun Chengzong, asking him and Zhu Zhifeng to follow Sun Chuanting's actions, open up wasteland in the Xuanfu, train troops to protect the people, recruit new soldiers, reissue the outstanding food and salaries of the soldiers, and promote the use of loyalty to serve the country. , a man of integrity and courage to fight, comprehensively get rid of the old shortcomings of the Xuanfu army, clean up the black sheep in the army, and create a strong army with strict military discipline and obedience to command. Kill it.

In the secret letter to Sun Chengzong, Chongzhen asked him to send people to take care of all the stolen goods and seal up all the shops involved in the case. The shopkeepers should report to the local government every day and wait for a firm named Sihai to accept these assets and personnel. The value of the goods is extraordinary, and when the time comes, the Four Seas Commercial Bank can directly trade with these materials, saving a lot of money, and Chongzhen no longer needs to inject capital into the commercial bank. After these materials are sold, the four seas commercial bank will no longer be short of principal.

(End of this chapter)