The ruthless emperor in the late Ming Dynasty forced Chongzhen to abdicate at the beginning

Chapter 150
The girl was only five or six years old, and was held in the arms of the red lady, looking like she wanted to cry but didn't dare to cry, her whole body was shaking, and her dirty little face was pale with fright.

The red lady was embarrassed and surprised to see her frightened like this, but after coaxing her for a long time, although the little girl was not crying, she was still trembling nervously.

"Your Majesty, use this..."

Seeing this, the female soldier at the side found a pear from somewhere and handed it to the red lady to remind her.

"Come on little sister, my sister invites you to eat pears..."

"Eat it!"

Sure enough, with the pears to eat, the little girl finally calmed down a lot, and she was no longer so scared when she looked at the red lady.

The red lady breathed a sigh of relief, and then asked with a smile: "Little sister, tell me what is your name? How old is this year?"

"My name is Erya, and I'm six years old." The little girl whispered while nibbling on a pear.

"Eat slowly, be careful not to choke."

The red lady wiped the juice from the corner of her mouth with her sleeve, and asked again: "Then do you know who my sister is? Why are you afraid of her?"

"Well, I know, you are Hong Niangzi, the emperor's woman, they all say you like to eat children..." The little girl nodded and said in a low voice, and then she looked at Hong Niangzi with some fear.

The female soldiers and guards at the side were all furious when they heard the boy's words, and all of them blushed with anger.

The little girl's parents turned pale with fright, and knelt down again with a plop: "Your Majesty, please forgive me, Er Ya is young and ignorant, talking nonsense, the villain has never taught her this, and never said that Madam bad word about..."

"Don't talk."

Seeing that the little girl was about to start crying again, the red lady waved her hand at them, then turned her head and smiled and said, "little sister, can you tell my sister who told you these things? If you tell me, my sister will give you another pear." Eat, okay?"

"Okay, Brother Big Dog and the others said it."

"Oh, how old is Big Dog Brother? Do you usually play together..."

The red lady seduced her carefully, and asked people to find the big dog and all the children in her mouth.

More than a dozen children, big and small, all knew Hong Niangzi, and they were all trembling with fright.

Finally, after a lot of comforting and questioning, the red lady finally figured out what was going on. It turned out that some street vendors arranged themselves in various places in the south of the Yangtze River, and specially used some candy gadgets to trick these children and spoil her. fame, and even made up a ballad.

"Your Majesty, those small traders really deserve to die, and their hearts can be punished!"

All the female soldiers and guards were gnashing their teeth.

These small traders are clearly trying to tarnish the reputation of the empress on purpose, and they also start with children, which is really extremely insidious.

"It's not just those small traders who should be killed!"

The red lady's face was equally gloomy and frightening.

She knew that those small traders had no grievances against her, so she would never, and would not dare to arrange her in such a random way, she must have been instructed by those literati, or those small traders were sent by someone with a heart to pretend to be.

It is conceivable that everyone in the world thinks that Hong Niang is a heinous ogre king, even if His Majesty does not kill her, he will put her in the cold palace because of her reputation.

Thinking of this, Hong Niangzi also shuddered.

For the first time, I felt how these literati used their mouths to kill people invisible.

"Immediately send someone to investigate the situation in the palace. We must investigate the situation in all parts of the south of the Yangtze River, and arrest all vendors who have arranged for the palace."

The red lady said coldly.

All along, she didn't care much about fame, so she didn't care about the nonsense of Jiangnan literati.

Who would have thought that they would be so shameless, not only talking nonsense, but also hitting children with ideas, which is tolerable, but unbearable.

This happened.

Hong Niangzi was not in the mood to learn more about the specific situation of these people, so she directly ordered people to announce that each household would be compensated ten taels of silver, and moved to Beijing.

More than [-] people were frightened to death when they heard that they were going to move to Beijing, and none of them wanted to.

It can be heard that each household will be compensated ten taels of silver, and they can continue to spin and weave when they arrive in Beijing, and their children can still study and test their grades, so there is no longer any resistance.

The red lady looked at the little girl who had gotten close to her a lot, thought about it, and asked people to go to the city to buy a lot of fruit candy and cloth to distribute to all children under ten years old.

"The imperial concubine gave this to you. The imperial concubine is a good person, and those who speak ill of the imperial concubine are the bad ones, you know?"

"understood."

The children all answered in unison.

"Come on, everyone follow me, the imperial concubine is a good person, and the red lady is a bodhisattva who saves the suffering. Whoever speaks ill of the red lady is a big villain."

"The imperial concubine is a good person, and the red lady is a female Bodhisattva who saves suffering..."

Chen Yuanyuan led a group of women, handed out things to the children, and taught them to follow her.

In the end, not only the children, but also their parents shouted slogans in unison.

"Yuanyuan, your method is good, but it's a bit...ahem, it's too straightforward!" The red lady blushed a little at the end.

"The empress is a female Bodhisattva who rescues the suffering. The servants are just telling the truth. Those people are too insidious to ruin the reputation of the empress. As the saying goes, everyone's mouth makes money. The empress's matter is no small matter, and must not be left alone."

Chen Yuanyuan was also very annoyed, but at the end she said it with worry on her face.

She knows better than Hong Niang that people's words are terrible.

"Your Majesty, why don't you ask your servants to take the sisters to various places in the south of the Yangtze River to clarify for your Majesty?"

"Well, okay, let's do it this way. At that time, each household will be given two catties of salt, and the children will be given two feet of cloth, just like today."

The red lady gritted her teeth and said, she was obviously really scared, and decided to buy people's hearts.

And the scholars and literati who were always watching from a distance looked at each other when they saw the red lady buying people's hearts so straightforwardly, and scolded her shamelessly in their hearts, even the female Bodhisattva who saved the suffering could shout out.

"Hehe, it seems that the imperial concubine actually cherishes her reputation very much!"

"Yes, this is not a bad thing!"

While everyone was talking about it, Tietou came over with a pair of soldiers. Everyone immediately became nervous, but they still pretended to be calm.

"Everyone, the empress summoned you, let's go!"

"This general, I don't know why your mother summoned me?"

Hearing that Hong Niangzi was going to summon them, everyone was startled, and a man stood up and asked cautiously.

"If you tell you to go there, just go there, there is so much nonsense, go!"

Tietou kicked his ass and cursed.

The other soldiers also stepped forward and drove them away with knives. Obviously, they were all suffocated because of the arrangement of Hong Niangzi. They wanted to beat these scholars hard no matter how displeased they were.

Thousands of scholars and literati saw that these soldiers were all vicious, with shining knives slapped on their bodies, and they didn't dare to say a word anymore. In the cold weather, they all walked quickly with their fans in hand.

Compared with these literati, they were still in the mood to watch the excitement. The cotton merchants in the city were shocked when they heard that Hong Niangzi was going to send 10,000+ people from outside the city to Beijing.

Without these people, how will they weave, spin and dye cloth in the future?

The ones who are anxious are like ants on a hot pan, their intestines are green with regret.

But if they wanted to rob people from Hong Niangzi, they really didn't have the confidence, so they had to go to the gate of the palace to beg to see the Queen Mother and ask her to make the decision.

And here a group of scholars and literati were also brought in front of the red lady. There were thousands of people, ranging from fifteen to sixty-year-old white-haired old men, almost all wearing long gowns and holding folding fans.

"Student Hou Fangyu pays homage to the imperial concubine!"

"Student Fang Yizhi pays homage to the noble concubine!"

"student…"

All the scholars bowed and saluted in unison. Although they all showed neither humble nor overbearing, many people were still the most disturbed in their hearts.

Apparently the rumors spread and even they themselves believed it.

"I know the four of you. You have a nickname, the Fourth Young Master of Jinling, right?"

The red lady nodded, and took a look at Fang Yizhi, Hou Fangyu, and Mao Pijiang, who were the leader.

"It's just a false name, let the empress laugh!"

The four looked humble, but they were all a little proud, while the others looked at the four with envy and envy.

"It's good to know that it's a false name. The four of you are so famous, so Enke must be in high school this year?" The red lady said slowly.

Seeing the imperial concubine being so direct, the four of them blushed with shame. If they were in high school, how could they be so full and toss about every day?
"Why, you didn't pass the exam? No way? None of the four princes of Jinling passed the Jinshi exam, so how old is it to pass the exam?"

There was a smile on the corner of Hong Niangzi's mouth, and wherever she looked, all the literati lowered their heads.

The four who were the first to bear the brunt were even more eager to find a crack in the ground to sneak in. Obviously, they all understood that the imperial concubine was deliberately humiliating them.

"You can't even pass the examination of a Jinshi, and if you don't go back to your hometown and study hard behind closed doors, you will know that you are nostalgic for the Qinhuai River all day long, boasting, it is a waste of food, in my opinion, even these things Women who weave and spin are inferior!"

"Scholars can be killed but not humiliated, why did your empress humiliate us so much?"

Although they knew that the empress was intentionally humiliating them and wanted to take the opportunity to vent their dissatisfaction with the scholars in Jiangnan, Fang Yizhi and more than a dozen scholars still stood up and questioned with anger.

"Why are you still not convinced? Could it be that what I said was wrong? You and others can't govern the country, and Wu can't carry a knife to fight the enemy. Apart from boasting, spreading rumors, making troubles, and fooling children, what else can we do?"

Holding the sword in her hand, the red lady stepped forward and stared at them.

Shocked by the aura of the red lady, the few scholars took a step back subconsciously, while Fang Yizhi took a deep breath and said again: "Your Majesty, the rumors are not our fault. If you really want to vent your anger on Let me wait, although the student is a scholar, he is not afraid of power, and he is not afraid of life and death."

"Yes, I am not afraid of power, I am not afraid of life and death, I will kill my mother if she wants to, and I will never frown!"

Infected by Fang Yizhi, many scholars also blushed, stood up and looked at death as if they were at home.

"It's a joke, I am the imperial concubine of Daming, this time she went south to appease the people on behalf of the emperor, how can she be punished without guilt?

How about this, I entrust you with a task. Within an hour, record the statistics of these 10,000+ people, including their birthplaces, ages, skills, whether they are married or not. . "

Everyone was relieved when they heard the front, but their scalps were numb when they heard the back. There are only about a thousand of them, and there are more than 100 people, and each of them must be responsible for at least [-] people.

It would be enough to make simple statistics, but if it is a detailed list, it will definitely not be completed, after all, they have not prepared anything.

"Your Majesty, this is clearly a difficult task for the strong!"

"That's right, it's impossible to finish within an hour."

Fang Yizhi said following his neck, and the others nodded.

"If you don't want to, you can leave, but you all have fame, don't you want to serve the court if you become a scholar in the imperial examination? If you don't want to serve the court, then what's the use of this fame?"

The red lady said in a cold voice, she didn't bother with them anymore, and drove back to the palace directly, leaving a group of scholars at a loss.

(End of this chapter)