The Royal Merchant of the Red Chamber

At Tianqi's first court meeting in four years, the old ministers who had just experienced their age and were a little lazy suddenly found that there were many new faces at the court meeting.Although most of them are below the fifth and sixth ranks and can only occupy the class but have no right to speak, and even have to kneel in the outer hall during the court meeting, but the addition of so many faces will still make people feel like No, the vigilance of Mingming and Mingming comes.

Reminiscent of the Enke examination after the beginning of spring, many ministers realized it.The little emperor, who has been on the throne for three years, is no longer satisfied with the previous positioning of human-shaped jade seals and court murals.After three or four years of foreshadowing and planning, this deeply hidden young emperor finally began to reveal his sharp fangs honed for a long time to the world.

The first thing that changed was that the little emperor's will could finally be delivered directly to the ministers and even the ruling and opposition parties regardless of the emperor's attitude.

Even the old four kings and eight princes are always trying to obey the law when they promulgate the decree, intercepting and shelving, but the Holy One just glanced at everyone coldly, and passed these corpses without any scruples. Give instructions.

With all the help of their fingers, the old officials in the court who were busy fighting for power all day long realized that, unknowingly, the majesty and power of the little emperor had penetrated into every detail of this huge mechanism.Even in remote villages thousands of miles away, if the Holy Majesty is willing, his decrees can be fully implemented in less than a month.

And those high-spirited old ministers, after causing trouble to no avail, gradually found that their private behavior was restrained in one way or another.Even within three months after the age, the courtiers who expressed their dissatisfaction with the Holy Majesty openly and secretly were impeached by many little-known officials.

Different from the hypocrisy of those speech officials in the past who heard the news, the speech officials of the impeachment this time attached a dazzling array of evidence at the same time as the memorial, which clearly listed the bribes accepted by the impeached officials. Greedy for food and wages, and have done any small things that are prohibited even if they are visiting brothels as officials.

Within three months, as many as 13 officials above the fourth rank were dismissed due to ink corruption and various crimes.Among them is Wei Zhiru, a Qingliu old man who claims to be noble and loyal.This half-year-old Guozijian Jijiu often uses the mouth of the emperor to belittle the young and the old, and the second-rank official who always criticizes the current policies is accused of visiting brothels and fornicating his subordinate Yuan's wife. dismissed from office.That night, because he couldn't bear the humiliation, he dropped a piece of white silk on the beam of his house and committed suicide.However, if you are sober for the rest of your life, even if you die, you will not be able to save it.

However, his children, wives and housekeepers could not bear the gossip in Beijing, so they had to move back to their hometown of Pingyang under the pretext of the old man returning to his roots.Moreover, if an old official commits such a detrimental personal virtue, I am afraid that within three generations, his descendants will also have no face to be an official.

The death was so tragic that all the courtiers immediately worked hard.For a time, any instructions issued by the Holy Majesty were unimpeded from top to bottom.When Tu Zhen took advantage of this east wind to completely consolidate his position in the court, all the courtiers suddenly realized that they, the old courtiers who relied on the emperor's "power over others", had not been able to do so for half a year. I have seen the emperor himself.

All of a sudden, the courtiers, who had an exceptionally keen sense of smell, immediately panicked all day long.But on the contrary, there is another group of ministers who are complacent and promoted.For example, Master Xue Zhizhang, the Minister of the Ministry of War from the second rank, was dismissed because of the corruption and bribery case of Shangshu of the Ministry of War, and directly leapfrogged to the position of Minister of the Ministry of War.

Another example is Lord Lin Ruhai, the Minister of the Household Department who was promoted by the Yanzheng, and he was also promoted to the Minister of the Household Department with ease in this turbulent change.Prince Teng Wang, who was appointed as the capital inspector of the nine provinces, was appointed as a cabinet scholar by the emperor.Zhen Yan of the Jiangning Weaving Mansion also stayed in his original position after going to Beijing this time, and even got the order of the Holy Majesty and his family to go to Beijing.Among them were the King of Dongping County and the King of Beijing County, two kings with different surnames. They even ended their leisure career wandering in Shenjing all day long, and were sent by the Holy Lord to patrol the surrounding areas shortly after the year...

The vicissitudes of the situation finally settled, and the remaining officials and ministers who were excluded could only sigh with regret.The generous, shy and silent young emperor finally showed his resolute and vicious methods to his courtiers.

At this time, the ministers who were a little more clear-headed gradually came to their senses.Thinking about the last draft, the Holy Majesty chose without exception the female relatives of the Four Kings and Eight Dukes who were close to the Emperor to enrich the harem, and soon after, he issued a decree to visit relatives and return to Luan.Moreover, most of the harem concubines who visited their relatives owed a lot of money to the imperial court and had an inseparable relationship with the emperor. "Humerus veterans"...

The furniture of officials, who had been quite critical of their own women's lack of consecration, stopped, and even faintly grateful for today's "indifference".After all, the water is so clear that there are no fish, and people are so observant that there are no disciples. It is difficult to keep clean and honest if they are in their position as officials.If he really received the order of the family, I am afraid that he will repair the family's villa when he is full of ambition.Reminiscent of the farce of "repaying debts with the whole family" that has been raging since a few years ago in the Jiangnan Zhen family, all the ministers suddenly felt cold hands and feet——

Now that the government has gained the greatest right to speak in the court, should the next move be to clean up the administration of officials?

The conscious officials immediately thought about whether they had "borrowed" money from the court, and hurriedly assigned their family members to rummage through the boxes and cabinets in the house, and finally found a dusty IOU in a corner for a long time, and then followed the above The sale of the amount of sales, the pawn of the pawn, finally collected all the silver and turned it over to the household department.The next month, the Holy One used various excuses to transfer his original position.Either get promoted, or be transferred outside to be a real vacancies...

All of a sudden, the ministers who were on the sidelines with a wait-and-see attitude also started to jump around.Of course, everything has two sides.There will always be two types of people who actively cooperate and passively resist when a move is carried out.Many courtiers also boasted of "hard work and great achievements", or they clearly used the emperor's face not to take Tuzhen's implicit attitude in their eyes, and continued to bear it silently.Among them, the royal family and the eight princes and sixteen princes are the majority.

Seeing this situation, Tu Zhen waited casually for more than three months, and after finding that no one went to the household department to "fill up the deficit", he raised his eyebrows leisurely and prepared to move on to the next step.

And in the next period of time, all the courtiers finally saw the power of the blood droplets and sticky sticks that were not inferior to or even more terrifying than the Jinyiwei in the hands of the emperor.The deficient and greedy rations and the use of these rations were all reported by the officials in the form of account books.Tu Zhen took these undeniable evidences as a raft, and the questioning courtiers were speechless.

Naturally, there was another wave of "timid and fearful" officials who couldn't resist Tu Zhen's relentless pursuit and began to sell off their assets to make up for the shortfall.However, in view of their original uncooperative attitude, Tu Zhen's light words doubled these numbers and put them on everyone's heads.

The huge debts overwhelmed those courtiers, and they were afraid that the Holy One would really sharpen the knife and wait to slaughter them, so they had to sell all the unchangeable ancestral properties to try to pay off the debts.For a while, there were pawn sales everywhere in Shenjing, and knowing that the Xue family in Jinling was rich in wealth and the family members were rich, they simply pawned their valuable property in the pawnshop under the Xue family's name, which was considered a favor.Xue Pan was so happy that he couldn't stop smiling from ear to ear, he stayed in the pawn shop almost all day and counted, and his teeth itch with hatred.It was another good beating to those courtiers.

Just when things were going very smoothly, the emperor, who had lived in the deep palace for a long time and had no news, finally got the news of the changing situation through the efforts of the loyal ministers of the previous dynasty.Frightened and paled, the emperor mobilized the secret guards around him to thoroughly investigate the court's actions in the past six months. After learning that Tu Zhen had concealed such a generous move from him for half a year, the emperor's expression finally changed.

At the same time, Tu Zhen was sitting on the dragon chair in Qianqing Palace with a livid face, and Lin Mozhi, the chief person in charge of the sticky pole, was kneeling on the floor tiles in front of him.He looked at Tu Zhen with a guilty expression and said, "Your Majesty Qizuo, the king of Xining, the Duke of Zhen, the Duke of Qi, and the Duke of Xiu avoided the eyeliner on the stick and directly colluded with the people of Jinyiwei, bypassing our arrangements. The close monitoring in the palace revealed the movement of the previous court to the emperor. Now the emperor is assigning Jinyiwei people to roam around the capital to spy. We are afraid of confronting the Jinyiwei people, so we dare not stop them. However, all the Jinyiwei who have been exposed have been monitored, so please show me what to do next."

Tu Zhen didn't pay attention to Lin Mozhi's report, but asked Lin Mozhi with a livid face, "You are cautious by nature and meticulous in doing things, how could you make such a big mistake for no reason?"

Lin Mozhi's face darkened.He has been pestered by Prince Zhongshun recently, and he is top-heavy, and he has no extra energy to supervise the operation of the sticky pole.I thought that there should be no problem with the overall situation being settled, but who knew that such a mistake would happen because of his negligence for a while.If it is really implicated in the Holy Majesty's plan, he will die forever.

Tu Zhen had also heard about the entanglement between Lin Mozhi and Prince Zhongshun.Now seeing Lin Mozhi's silent and ashamed appearance, he knows that only the word love can confuse Lin Mozhi, who has always been cold and indifferent.As the most important courtier under him, and because of Xue Pan's restraint, Tu Zhen's feelings for Lin Mozhi are still somewhat sincere.

Seeing how ashamed and embarrassed he is now, Tu Zhen sighed softly.He didn't pursue Lin Mozhi's dereliction of duty, but the onlookers clearly pointed out: "Although I hate Tu Zheng, I have also heard the news that Tu Zheng went to the south of the Yangtze River seven or eight years ago to find someone. Yes. I will not comment on his intentions for you for the time being. However, you have a sharp weapon like the sticky stick in your hand. As long as you don’t delay the business, I have no objection to your private use. It’s deeply affectionate, and it’s still a play on the spot. You only need to do a little research to know.”

Lin Mozhi's face was slightly moved, he pursed his lips and remained silent.

Tu Zhen said again: "It is not too much for me to kill Tu Zheng a hundred times for what he did in private. The reason why I have tolerated him until now is that I will not touch him before the time comes. Two... you Are you willing?"

Lin Mozhi subconsciously clenched his hands hidden in his loose robe.The neatly manicured nails printed red marks of crescent moons on the palm, and bright red blood flowed out from between the fingers and landed on the shiny floor tiles.Lin Mozhi stood there in a daze as if he had lost all feeling.

"There has always been no family relationship in the Tian family. The tragedies of flesh and blood, and father and son killing each other are always on the scene from time to time. Behind the new atmosphere of changing dynasties, blood and corpses are always intertwined. I have already sat in this seat, and I have to continue in order to save my life. But You are different, you have followed me for so many years, and you have worked hard even if you don’t say credit. What’s more, you and Pan’er have a close relationship, and I believe that even he wants you to live happily in the future.” Tu Zhen said, relaxing a little and posing With a slightly pleasant arc, he sighed softly at Lin Mozhi.

"I hope that no matter what decision you make, you will not regret it in the future."

Lin Mozhi looked up at Tu Zhen, hooked the corners of his mouth, revealed an extremely indifferent and tender smile, and thanked Tu Zhen softly: "The sage is so painstaking and solitary, and the humble minister is afraid. It's just that some things don't mean that you can let go of them of."

Tu Zhen sighed softly, and said: "Although the tragedy that day was ordered by him, he may not be clear about the various reasons. As far as I am concerned, even if Zhongshun dies tens of millions of times, it is difficult to atone for his sins. But in the end Looking at it, I'm afraid you don't necessarily want him to die. If not, you wouldn't be lost because of him today and make such a mistake."

Lin Mozhi immediately bowed and knelt down, and said in his mouth: "This matter is all defeated by a humble minister, and it is difficult for a humble minister to atone for his sin if he dies. Please forgive me."

Tu Zhen shook his head with a faint smile, and said with a smile at Lin Mozhi: "Just as he was saying that he can't atone for his sins if he dies, you also say 'he can't atone for his sins if he dies'. You also said that you don't have him in your heart. Him, are you going to die for love?"

Lin Mozhi was speechless for a moment when he was teased by Tu Zhen.

Tu Zhen waved his hand, and said casually: "Okay. After all, paper can't cover the fire, and there will always be a day when we face up to each other. Now it's just a little earlier. The overall situation is settled, even if he is unwilling , what can I do."

Lin Mozhi knew that most of what Tu Zhen said was to comfort him.After all, with Tuzhen's mind, if he is not [-]% sure about everything, he will never be exposed.Now, although things are likely to happen in nine out of ten cases, if it were not for Lin Mozhi's negligence, the emperor would not know about these things even if he died.

Although there is no serious problem now, I'm afraid that the emperor will tear his face regardless, and Yu Shengshang's reputation will be damaged.

Tu Zhen looked at Lin Mozhi still feeling ashamed, shook his head and said with a light smile: "If you really want to make amends, then you can straighten out your own affairs. I don't want to live a long life. I hope there is nothing wrong with you, if you make Pan'er sad, you will really be doomed."

Lin Mozhi became shorter, bowed down again and said, "This humble minister takes orders."

Just at this time, Dai Quan, who was guarding outside, came in to report, saying: "Li Deyu, the chief eunuch of Qiankun Palace, asked to see the Holy Majesty, and said that the Emperor has a decree, and invites the Holy Majesty to have an audience with Qiankun Palace."

Tu Zhen sat upright, with a pleasant smile on his lips and said: "The Lord is here."