Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 44

Zhu Youjian walked into the Confucian mansion.

At this time, the Confucian Mansion was already in chaos.

The Confucian family, who used to be domineering, only had the old, the weak, women and children, and they were confined in the house tremblingly looking at the robber-like civil servants outside.

And on top of their heads are Confucian boys who were hoisted up one by one.

When Zhu Youjian entered the main hall of the Confucian mansion, he happened to see three potbellied Confucian family members hanging from the beams of the house.

"Your Majesty, this is Kong Yinzhi's uncle, his second younger brother, and his fifth younger brother who just passed the provincial examination."

Li Mingrui, with his sleeves half rolled up, came over with a pen in one hand and a ledger in the other.

Then, Li Mingrui said: "These few people are finally full of martyrs, and it is not in vain that they have received the country's grace."

Zhu Youjian just smiled.

He didn't know how to evaluate this group of crazy civil servants, and forced the Kong family to do an act of loyalty that they didn't want to do.

At this moment, he saw Shi Kefa bringing out boxes of silver with several civil servants.

And Chen Chunde, the censor of the left deputy capital, took a hammer and smashed the walls everywhere, saying that the gentry always hid the silver in the wall.

The Chen family is a tea merchant for generations, and the Kong family's money cannot be hidden from him.

The left servant of the Ministry of Households was collecting the general statistics of the proceeds from the house raids, and kept saying that it was not enough: "The booklet of the Ministry of Households records that his Confucian Mansion owns more than [-] hectares of land, it is impossible to just have such a small amount of money!"

As soon as the civil officials heard this, they continued to search the Confucian mansion frantically.

Zhu Youjian could see it.

These civil servants are completely crazy. Not only do they want the Confucius family to die to achieve the desired result in their hearts, but they also want the Confucius family to hand over all their property.

It seems that this can satisfy them, thinking that this is the performance that a family of saint descendants should have.

Daming's civil servant group has always been a terrifying force.

This is the product of the imperial examination system and the advocacy of literature and suppression of martial arts.

The social elite from the bottom to the top are concentrated in this group.

Since orthodoxy, Daming prospered because of them, and died because of them.

Zhu Youjian knew that what he needed as an emperor was to control this terrifying power well.

You can neither be led by the nose by this group of people, nor have too much estrangement from this group of people, and never communicate with each other.

Because doing so, whether it is the former or the latter, will bring disaster to Daming.

For example, in the first few years of his tenure in power, the former had aggravated the hardships of the people because of his trust in the Donglin Party.

The latter, like the Wanli Emperor, led to the decadence of the government.

And now this group of civil servants is just being used by Zhu Youjian to deal with the Kong family.

Civil officials represent the interests of the gentry class, and letting them deal with the Confucian family is tantamount to a struggle among the gentry class.

Naturally, the emperor Zhu Youjian would not offend the gentry all over the world.

As for the crazy civil servants, they don't worry about the consequences at all.

At least so far, the control of public opinion in the whole world is in their hands, and they can explain it however they want.

Even if it is forced to say that the Northern School of Confucianism is full of martyrs and donates all family assets for national use, it is estimated that some people will choose to believe it.

Naturally, Zhu Youjian would not deal with these civil servants who were used by him.

After all, he himself is also the beneficiary of this.

From the high-ranking officials of the ministry hall to the censor officials and the Hanlin officials who have never been stinky, they didn't care about their own image at all.

Boxes of silver were carried out by them and registered in the book.

As for the antique jade wares, they, as the top two Jinshi scholars with five chariots of education, can estimate them at a glance.

Shi Kefa has not closed his eyes for three days and three nights.

Shen Jiayun, the prime minister of Taipusi, fell asleep on top of a pile of silver when he was tired, and continued to register after waking up.

Without asking Jin Yiwei and others to help, the civil officials who had been busy for several days unearthed more than 600 million taels of cash in the Confucian mansion!

At this point, the Confucian sect of the Northern School was wiped out by the civil officials, and all their family properties were confiscated!
The figure of more than 600 million taels is equivalent to about three times the current annual income of the Daming treasury.

Zhu Youjian had to admit that this Confucian mansion was undoubtedly a big moth that brought down Daming, and it was also a big moth that had existed for hundreds of years.

Perhaps in the entire Shandong territory, the property of the Kong family, who is as rich as a country, is already worth a king's mansion.

However, to get more than 600 million taels at once, for Zhu Youjian, there is no doubt that he has enough funds for his preparations for going south.

Including the remaining 100 million taels, he now owns about 800 million taels of silver.

This number is enough to build a strong army and sustain a big war.

It is also more difficult for the gentry and chaebols in the south of the Yangtze River to use economic control to control him.

You know, just three months ago, Zhu Youjian had to ask the minister for help because he was worried about a mere 100 million taels of silver.

Now he has more than 800 million taels in cash alone.

Zhu Youjian's waist is naturally much stiffer. Daming has always hidden wealth from the people, and he can improve the financial situation by just picking up a local tyrant.

seriously.

Zhu Youjian has now begun to wonder if he doesn't need to be polite to the gentry in Jiangnan after he arrives in Jiangnan.

You must know that the merchants in Jiangnan are even richer in the world, and there are also Huizhou merchants who are famous all over the world.

Even if the great pirate Zheng Zhilong could be eliminated, he might get even more wealth.

On the day of leaving Yanzhou.

Zhu Youjian once again convened the ministers.

"Not a single man from the Confucian mansion will be left behind, and you loves are really ruthless. Tell me, how to explain this matter to the world, and will Jiannu use this as an excuse to blame us for disrespecting Confucius and Mencius?" .”

The reason why Zhu Youjian said this is to see how the ministers after these impulsive actions deal with the aftermath.

"Your Majesty, the tragedy of the Confucian Mansion was caused by the bandit Tian Jianxiubu who raided into Yanzhou. We were just passing by!"

What Huaiyang governor Li Mingrui said made Zhu Youjian dumbfounded.

Zhu Youjian hurriedly asked other ministers: "You all think so?"

"Yes, all the ministers think so!" All the ministers replied in unison.

Zhu Youjian admired the cunning of his group of civil servants very much in his heart. He didn't expect that this group of people would just dump the blame for destroying Confucianism on Li Zicheng.

"Forget it, Li Zicheng has already taken the blame for robbing Chen Yuanyuan for me, and now it's nothing to take the blame for destroying Confucianism for you. Anyway, one blame is a blame, and two blames are also a blame. He, Li Zicheng, is born to be a blame man Well, thieves have no human rights, it has been a thing since ancient times.”

Zhu Youjian slandered a few words, and then ordered: "Li Mingrui, it is up to you to write an appeal to the world. I express my deep sympathy for the tragedy of Confucianism in the disaster of bandits, but for the surrender of Confucianism to Li Zicheng and his preparation The opportunistic actions of building slaves are also deeply shameless, and now they have been wiped out by the bandits, it can only be regarded as their own fault."

"Report to Your Majesty, I have already written it in advance, please read it, Your Majesty!"

Li Mingrui submitted it after speaking.

Zhu Youjian glanced at it, and indeed achieved his goal of throwing the blame for the destruction of the Confucian family to Li Zicheng and spreading the ugly deeds of the Northern Confucian sect to the world.

"Let's tell the world."

(End of this chapter)