I'm really not doing business

Chapter 684: Beijing Camp, Prepare to Torture

The families of soldiers had no children, so they deliberately adopted three children in order to take advantage of the monthly food subsidies for wives from the Ming court. Things like this were bound to happen, but Zhu Yijun didn't care. He just wanted to increase the money. He did it to expand his base and to prevent the trend of promoting culture over military power. There were still too many Jinshi from gentry origin in the court, so that the political power was completely controlled by these people.

To correct a wrong must go to overextend oneself. Problems must be solved when they arise, but one cannot give up just because he is afraid of problems. This is Zhu Yijun's attitude.

Dai Fengxiang, Shu Hua and the officials kneeling in the execution hall could not understand what Zhang Juzheng, Hai Rui and the Emperor, including him, were trying to achieve by going through so much trouble.

We are all meat eaters, we are all the ruling class, is it really necessary to go to such a stage of public trial and make things so difficult for each other? We all sit together and oppress the poor and the coolies, hasn't this been the way it has been for so many years?

Why? To borrow a phrase from Liu Bei: It is nothing more than a thought to save the people.

A goal that can never be achieved and always needs to be pursued. This is the most practical idea of ​​Zhang Juzheng, Hai Rui and other loyal supporters of the Ming Dynasty's revival.

After Yuan Hongyu's verdict, people's emotions were finally vented and then began to slowly disperse.

Zhu Yijun saw Xu Bangrui's Mansion of Duke of Wei. Viewed from Xi'an Gate, the Mansion of Duke of Wei was the most magnificent manor in the whole city, bar none. Duke of Wei was the second most powerful and wealthy person in the Ming Dynasty, the first being the emperor.

The entire Duke of Wei's Mansion covers an area of ​​more than 250 acres, and the gardens alone exceed 155 acres.

The predecessor of the Duke of Wei's Mansion was the Prince of Wu's Mansion, which was the residence of Zhu Yuanzhang when he was called the Prince of Wu in Nanjing. Later, after the imperial palace was built, it was awarded to the Duke of Wei, Xu Da.

Zhu Yuanzhang expanded his own house and gave it to Xu Da.

This actually explains Xu Bangrui's choice. He chose to surrender, not because he was spineless, but because this was the fate of the Wei Mansion. From a very early time, the rise and fall, honor and disgrace of the Wei Mansion had been tied to the empire.

After Dai Fengxiang and Shu Hua were sentenced to death, the literati of the Ming Dynasty also breathed a sigh of relief. The turmoil caused by breaking the bottom line of political struggle was finally over. However, soon, even greater storms came to the scholars of the Ming Dynasty.

The Emperor of the Ming Dynasty actually split up the Southern Yamen, and used such a bizarre division into Jiangzuo and Jiangyou.

It means dismantling. According to convention, it should be divided into Jiangnan and Jiangbei. However, the Ming Dynasty divided it into Jiangzuo and Jiangyou, which was really unexpected.

The Duke of Wei's Mansion, which had been placed with high hopes, chose to surrender. Coupled with the tragic end of Dai Fengxiang and Shu Hua, the literati and officials of the Southern Court were temporarily hesitant and dared not speak loudly. It was in this context that the splitting of the Southern Court began to be slowly promoted.

On April 17th, another group of soldiers arrived at the outer city wall of Nanjing City of the Ming Dynasty. They were 4,500 elite soldiers selected from the Ninth Battalion of Zhejiang Province. They came to Nanjing City under the leadership of Ma Wenying, Zhang Wenyuan and others. After meeting the emperor, they will take a boat at Pukou to Songjiang Prefecture, and then set sail from Songjiang Prefecture to the Nagasaki Governor's Office.

When these 4,500 elite soldiers arrived and stationed outside the walls of Nanjing, the city of Nanjing became even quieter, because these elite soldiers were the ones who really turned Zhejiang upside down.

In the eyes of the Southern Court scholars, the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty must be crazy to dare to meet with these ruffians and thugs who dared to rebel against his authority!
"The four thousand five hundred elite soldiers who entered the city to wipe out the bandits have scared these lowly scholars into silence. I thought they were so tough." Zhu Yijun changed into his military uniform and said to Feng Bao beside him with a smile.

"They actually think that His Majesty will eventually return to the Northern Yamen." Feng Bao provided an answer from another perspective. They were not submissive, nor were they frightened, but were temporarily avoiding the spotlight.

How can you, the emperor, not go back?

"When I leave, a torn-up Southern Government will be more conducive to its stability, so that it won't end up like the Netherlands." Zhu Yijun didn't really care. He did have to return to Beijing, but the Southern Government was dismembered under the visible hand, and without the previous combined force, the Ming Dynasty's control over the fourteen prefectures of the Southern Government was still strengthening.

We should not only learn lessons from the long history of the Central Plains, but also draw lessons from the progress of the world.

Spain was the world's first empire on which the sun never set. Its decline began with the rebellion in the Netherlands, which was of course also caused by the troublemaker England.

What is more interesting is that there is also a country with a similar status in the East, that is Japan. Japan always stabs its suzerain country in the back, time and time again. This is also the fundamental reason why the Zhejiang Ninth Battalion was deployed to the Nagasaki Governor's Office, to suppress Japan's wolfish ambitions.

"Your Majesty, General Qi has arrived." A eunuch hurried in and said with his head bowed.

Qi Jiguang was the vanguard for the emperor, while Li Rusong stayed in the Beijing camp in the Northern Yamen. As the first military hero in the Wanli Dynasty, Qi Jiguang naturally had to support the emperor. Qi Jiguang was actually a little worried that if the Nine Camps in Zhejiang caused any trouble, it would be a big trouble. The soldiers of the Nine Camps would not do that, but that did not prevent some people from fanning the flames.

For example, spreading rumors that the deployment in Nagasaki was a strategy of killing with a borrowed knife, using the Japanese knife to kill the mutinous soldiers of the Ninth Battalion.

"General Qi, are you willing to come back from Longtan Villa? Did you catch any fish?" Zhu Yijun asked with a smile when he saw Qi Jiguang who was very energetic.

“No fish caught.”

"Your Majesty, I am worried that some lowly scholars in the Ninth Camp of Zhejiang will talk nonsense and create chaos, making everyone lose face. I came out of Longtan to tell these people that they can make trouble, but if they cross the bottom line again, the Beijing Camp should enter the city to wipe out the bandits." Qi Jiguang answered your majesty's question very clearly. His appearance was to prevent some people from treating the soldiers of the Ninth Camp of Zhejiang as tools of struggle.

"Your Majesty, I have met you." Qi Jiguang was not good at fighting in the court because he never pointed his sword inward. If the lowly Confucian scholars insisted on forcing him to take action, he could also prove his position with practical actions.

"I am looking forward to it more and more. I hope these lowly scholars can give me a little surprise." Upon hearing this, Zhu Yijun immediately expressed that he hoped these lowly scholars would be more motivated and have a stronger will to resist so that they could cause some big trouble, so that he could watch the fun.

The Ming Emperor who was not afraid of big trouble and watched the fun.

Zhu Yijun's carriage headed towards the outer city gate. In the carriage, Zhu Yijun saw a Ming Dynasty Nanjing city whose prosperity was gradually fading. The further he went to the outer city, the fewer brothels he could see. He could only see endless houses. These houses seemed to have no planning at all. There were only winding and narrow alleys. The shops were no longer lined up in an orderly manner, but scattered here and there. There were more markets where people sat on the ground.

The Ming Emperor arrived at Jiangdong Gate. Qi Jiguang led an infantry battalion into the camp first, and then the emperor appeared on the parade ground.

"Your Majesty, we greet you. Long live your Majesty." Ma Wenying, the commander-in-chief, led all 4,500 elite soldiers to kneel down and salute. The drums gradually stopped, the trumpets no longer sounded, and the parade ground was very quiet.

Zhu Yijun was silent for a long time before he said, "Comrades, thank you for your hard work."

This is a sentence without a beginning or an end, and it was not in the previous rehearsal.

According to the drill, if the emperor said "Please stand up", the soldiers would thank their majesty; if the emperor said "The Ming army is mighty", the soldiers would reply "Your majesty is mighty".

Now that His Majesty is talking about hard work, the soldiers are a little confused for a moment.

"Your Majesty has worked even harder!" Ma Wenying, as the head of the Ninth Battalion, held it in for a long time before finally uttering something incoherent.

Zhu Yijun did not smile. He stretched out his hand and said calmly, "No need to be polite. You soldiers are going to the expedition to Japan. I have nothing to reward you. I will give you money first and then we can eat. I brought wine and food, and we will have a big banquet today."

Zhu Yijun did not give a long speech, nor did he give any instructions. In fact, he had prepared everything, including a formal imperial edict and some vernacular speeches, but he did not speak any of them. Instead, he chose to distribute silver and then eat after that.

Because he saw a different Ming army. The men in the nine Zhejiang battalions were pale and thin, forming a sharp contrast with the sharp soldiers in the Beijing battalion.

Zhu Yijun had no doubt that one elite soldier of the Ming Dynasty's Beijing camp could defeat three Zhejiang soldiers with his bare hands.

Zhu Yijun had never seen such a Ming army. He had seen the Beijing camp, Li Chengliang's servants, the foreign soldiers led by Ling Yunyi, and the Ming navy, but he had never seen the beggar-like Ming army.

"Thank you, Your Majesty." Ma Wenying was also a little confused. She didn't know why the emperor gave up speaking, but she still chose to agree.

Zhao Mengyou and Luo Bingliang, with the imperial guards, carried boxes of silver to the parade ground. The clerk began to record, and the soldiers of the nine battalions of Zhejiang began to receive the silver. Everyone received ten silver coins, and the scene was orderly.

Zhu Yijun called Ma Wenying to his side.

"How much is the military pay for the soldiers of the Ninth Battalion in Zhejiang?" Zhu Yijun asked about the treatment of the Ninth Battalion in Zhejiang.

Ma Wenying bowed his head and said, "One stone and four dou a month, which is five cents of silver."

"It's so little, is it enough to eat?" Zhu Yijun asked calmly with his brows twisted into knots.

Ma Wenying didn't know why the emperor asked, so he answered truthfully: "If I were alone, it would be enough to eat, but if I had a wife and children, it would not be enough."

“How often do you eat meat?”

"In March, if we go on a tour, we can eat better because we can catch some fish along the way. It has been better in recent years because we can eat sweet potatoes." Ma Wenying told the emperor why the Nine Battalions of Zhejiang went on a tour, in addition to flood prevention, it was also for fishing.

Zhu Yijun asked a lot of questions until it was time for dinner. Then he asked Ma Wenying to take the elite soldiers selected from the Ninth Battalion of Zhejiang to dinner and stopped asking questions.

Through Ma Wenying's answers, Zhu Yijun had a comprehensive understanding of the life of the Ming Dynasty soldiers in terms of food, clothing, housing and transportation.

If they did not go on tour, they would only eat meat during the Chinese New Year, and the meat was very bad, almost rotten. If the emperor had met these soldiers five years ago, he would have seen soldiers who were skin and bones, instead of those with pale faces and thin bodies.

Now, thanks to the promotion of sweet potatoes, the soldiers of the 9th Battalion in Zhejiang can finally have food to eat, but it is just boiled sweet potatoes and sweet potato vines.

Zhu Yijun thought he was very down-to-earth, but in his impression, sweet potato vines were used to feed pigs. However, for poor laborers, even these sweet potato vines were not something they could eat for three meals a day.

When going out fishing, fish scales and gills are also eaten for a feast, and eggs are a very precious thing.

Even if it is not a disaster year, they will eat grass, namely bracken, which is the grass on graves. They eat coarse salt with the bracken. If it is a disaster year, they will eat tree bark, coal, and Guanyin soil.

Every time the Ninth Battalion went out on patrol, the people lined the streets to welcome them. However, the local gentry and wise men hated them with all their might, because the people would follow the soldiers of the Ninth Battalion to fish. Normally, these lakes, ditches, and rivers were occupied by the local gentry and wise men. Only when the soldiers of the Ninth Battalion came, would the people join in the fun and catch some fish to make salted fish.

The reason why these Nine Battalions were hated by the local gentry was not only because the quality of the dams they built was so good, but also because the Nine Battalions in Zhejiang had scales.

When these local nobles and gentry collected rent, they all used fake scales. They were supposed to pay 100 kilograms of grain, but the fake scales could only weigh 130 kilograms. The scales of the Zhejiang Jiuying were famous for their accuracy, so the people were looking forward to the Jiuying's inspection. When the Jiuying arrived, the people borrowed the scales to weigh the grain.

Soldiers in the Ninth Battalion would not go to the doctor when they got sick. It all depended on fate. If they were lucky, they would survive. If not, they would be taken away by God.

"General Qi." Zhu Yijun looked at Qi Jiguang and whispered, "Did you eat so badly when you were fighting against the Japanese before? Or is it the situation I saw that you used people to move forward and when you didn't need them, you just shouted for war and killing?"

"Your Majesty, the food was also so poor when we were fighting against the Japanese pirates. There were no sweet potatoes at that time. Now the soldiers of the nine battalions in Zhejiang can use sweet potato flour to thicken the food. I think the soldiers in Zhejiang are much stronger now than before." Qi Jiguang answered the question truthfully.

Qi Jiguang actually didn't like the fact that His Majesty said that he had no military talent and didn't know how to fight. In his opinion, farming and fighting are one, and without farming, how can there be fighting?
Your Majesty has been farming personally for so many years, and Baoqisi's promotion of sweet potatoes is the greatest knowledge of soldiers and the greatest military talent. He can ensure that the soldiers have enough food, which is a logistical talent.

It is normal that even the emperor is not as good as me when it comes to pickled vegetables and rolled tofu.

"It has always been bad." Zhu Yijun said with some disappointment: "Zhejiang and Nan Ya are already the richest places in the Ming Dynasty, but it is still like this. It seems that I have not done well enough. There is a long way to go and a heavy responsibility."

Qi Jiguang was stunned. His Majesty criticized himself after seeing the appearance of the soldiers of the nine camps in Zhejiang, but Qi Jiguang felt that this criticism was wrong. He felt that His Majesty had done well enough.

The world belongs to everyone in the world. Does Your Majesty have to shoulder the rise and fall, honor and disgrace of the world alone?

"How good is good? What level of achievement can be considered good? Compared to the days when soldiers had no food to eat, now is a good day." Qi Jiguang refuted the Majesty's point of view in a very rare way. He was familiar with contradictions and said that he hoped that the Majesty would not deny himself.

"At the very least, it should be good if the soldiers, craftsmen, and farmers can have enough food to eat." Zhu Yijun gave his own standard.

Qi Jiguang smiled but said nothing. In fact, he really wanted to say that some princes may not even have enough food and clothing, and your majesty's goal is a bit high, but it is better to have a higher goal. If the goal is high, it is worth pursuing this goal for a lifetime.

"I was wrong. I cannot accept that some despicable scholars used the soldiers of the Ninth Battalion as tools of struggle." Zhu Yijun suddenly remembered the conversation with Qi Jiguang when he met him at Nanhu Villa. He admitted that he was wrong. The Ninth Battalion in Zhejiang had suffered a lot already. If they were used again, they would be even more miserable.

Ma Wenying had a soldier under his command named Ge Erzhu. He had an older brother named Ge Dazhu in his family. One year when there was a famine, both of them were sold by their father. They originally thought that they were sold to others to work like slaves, but when the two brothers were locked up, they found out that they were actually sold to be made into rice and meat.

Rice meat is the meat that grows on people who eat rice, that is, Dazhu and Erzhu, who were both treated as animals to be slaughtered. Ge Dazhu used his life to exchange for his brother's chance to escape. Later, Ge Erzhu joined the Ninth Battalion. When the Ninth Battalion mutinied last time, Ge Erzhu killed the human traffickers in that family's human trafficking shop with his own hands and saved three children.

The disturbance caused by the Ninth Battalion in Zhejiang was truly a complete mess.

Zhu Yijun did not make any speech, but expressed his support for the deployment of nine battalions of Japanese troops through practical actions. In the end, it was a case of killing with a borrowed knife and thus falling apart without any attack.

When Qi Jiguang came out of Longtan Fishing Villa, those who had some ideas immediately lay dormant. This was Qi Jiguang's deterrence. The censors of Beiya did not dare to accuse Qi Jiguang of having troops and might rebel, because Qi Jiguang really had the strength.

"Splitting up the Southern Court will cause some trouble. I have already demonstrated my violence, but they are not afraid at all." Zhu Yijun returned to Nanhu Villa and received a memorial from Li Le, the governor of Yingtian. After reading it, Zhu Yijun said this to Feng Bao.

The emperor was very angry and the consequences were serious.

Li Le wanted to take advantage of the emperor's presence to check the rice in the Ming Dynasty's granary, but a fire broke out in the early summer weather.

Fire dragons burning warehouses were not uncommon, but this time it was particularly violent because the Southern Yamen was about to be split up.

Songjiang Prefecture was originally split out of the Fourteen Prefectures of the Southern Court, and now the Thirteen Prefectures were split into three. When the dismantling took place, it was natural to check the silver and grain stored in the prefecture treasuries. The first to burn was the treasury of Yingtian Prefecture, but the Taicang in Nanjing was not burned, as it was under the direct jurisdiction of Li Le.

But when the treasury of Yingtian Prefecture caught fire, all the thirteen prefectures in the Southern Court caught fire immediately.

You want to demolish the Southern Courtyard, right? Then divide the family property directly.

Zhu Yijun rubbed his temples, thought for a long time and said: "These bastards, if I don't give them some ruthless treatment, they just don't treat me as an emperor. I want to demolish the Southern Court, and they burn the treasury, and finally make a fortune, right!"

"Go to Zhangjing Camp and prepare to torture for salary."

The Emperor of the Ming Dynasty lost his patience to continue the fight and chose to overturn the table. Following Yin Zhengmao's demolition of the door, Ling Yunyi's murder, Wang Jiaping's confusion, Wang Yi'e's erection of a monument, Shen Shixing's parade through the streets, and Zhu Yiliu's public trial, the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yijun, finally came up with his own method: torture and extortion.

"Reward?" Feng Bao thought he had misheard and asked blankly.

"Torture and pay the soldiers, take my imperial edict and the emperor's sword, and send them to Zhangjing Camp. Anyone who disobeys my order will be killed without mercy." Zhu Yijun wrote the imperial edict and handed it to Feng Bao.

"I obey your order." Feng Bao received the imperial edict and rushed to the Beijing camp! As a man of fun, he felt that the public trial was not fun enough, and this torture was the real fun!

Qi Jiguang received the imperial edict right after he returned to Longtan Villa. He was stunned for a moment and said to Zhang Juzheng who was receiving the edict with him: "Sir, why don't you go to Nanhu Villa to persuade His Majesty?"

Zhang Juzheng asked doubtfully, "What are you trying to persuade?"

"Persuade him to be kind and forgive." Qi Jiguang said as a matter of course. The emperor had already ordered to torture him, but Zhang Juzheng was able to remain calm. If you don't manage and persuade the students you taught, then Qi Jiguang will really have to carry out the emperor's order.

Zhang Juzheng said confidently, "They burned the treasury. This is disobeying the imperial order. This is rebellion. Your Majesty tortured them and forced them to spit out whatever they ate. Isn't this benevolence? Your Majesty is reasonable enough. He did not order the Beijing troops to kill them all. What else could this be but benevolence?"

"It's not the early years of the country. Culture and education are not flourishing. There are no scholars serving as officials. Everything has to be accommodated."

Wang Chonggu leaned over to take a look at the imperial edict, then immediately ordered his guards to pack their bags. He looked a little hurried.

"Is Wang Ci Fu going to persuade Renshu?" Qi Jiguang looked at Wang Chonggu who was in a hurry to leave and asked curiously.

"Zhang Juzheng can sit still, what's the use of me trying to persuade him? That's my job. That's Mr. Zhang's job. I have to go back to Nanjing City and prepare the imperial edicts!" Wang Chonggu said angrily, "These bureaucrats in the Southern Court are really stupid. If they were not blind or deaf, they would have seen through Chen Wuyin's case long ago. I don't know what they are testing!"

"Isn't it good for the head to be on the neck?! What a bunch of idiots!"

Wang Chonggu was going back to Nanjing to prepare the imperial edict. His Majesty had been a very obedient emperor in the Northern Court for twelve years. He also had the imperial edict to kill Chen Youren in the street. Everything was done according to rules and procedures.

These Southern Court officials are so evil that they insist on forcing Your Majesty to the point of breaking the rules!
But Your Majesty must not break the rules. Wang Chonggu must prepare all the imperial edicts before the Beijing troops arrive!
After Wang Chonggu left, Qi Jiguang began to mobilize the Beijing camp, with three lieutenant generals responsible for going to Luzhou Prefecture, Yangzhou Prefecture, and Suzhou Prefecture, while Qi Jiguang himself was responsible for guarding Yingtian Prefecture.

The process of extorting money was not for the elite soldiers of the Ming Dynasty's Capital Camp to break into people's houses directly, hang them up and torture them for extortion. Instead, the Ming Dynasty's Capital Camp was responsible for the security, while the two northern and southern pacification offices were responsible for arresting people, and then taking back the money and goods that should have been in the treasury. As for how much money was originally in the treasury, it needed to be sorted out by the Minister of Revenue Wang Guoguang.

The role of the Beijing Army was still to prevent rebellion, not to arrest people directly.

After receiving the imperial edict, Zhao Mengyou immediately summoned all the imperial guards. After reading the imperial edict, he first arrested all the officials in charge of the Yingtian Prefecture treasury.

The torture officially began.

This time of torture and collection of salaries scared all the scholars and officials in the Southern Court. They never expected that the emperor did not regard them as subjects at all, but as rebels. As soon as the fire in the treasury started, the emperor issued an order to torture and collect salaries!

And judging from the situation, the emperor had already prepared a combination of punches and was waiting for them.

Zhu Yijun was indeed like that. He was a bit too lenient in predicting the outcome. He anticipated the worst outcome, which was that when the Southern Court was split up, there would be civil unrest, civil turmoil, or even a clear-cut rebellion and a purge of the imperial court. In order to deal with various situations in the split up of the Southern Court, Zhu Yijun made sufficient preparations.

Torture is a less violent method in his arsenal.

Now even the officials in the Southern Court are looking forward to the emperor's return to the Northern Court as soon as possible! When His Majesty was in the Northern Court, he was really principled. When he came to the Southern Court, he didn't follow principles at all. He would take action without hesitation.

Zhang Juzheng, the imperial tutor, prime minister, and Earl of Yicheng of the Ming Dynasty, not only did not stop it, but also submitted a memorial entitled "Torturing Officials to Prevent Corruption", in which he argued in detail the rationality of torturing officials.

Yes, instead of advising benevolence and forgiveness, Zhang Juzheng demonstrated the legitimacy of the emperor's use of violence to exercise imperial power. From the first year of the Wanli period, the first sentence of Zhang Juzheng's new policy was the sovereignty of affairs, that is, the power of the emperor's majesty and fortune.

Now all the officials in the Southern Court have a choice: money or life.

You either have money or you lose your life, or you lose your money or you lose your life.

In fact, behind this choice was that the emperor forced all the bureaucrats in the Southern Court to collectively express their opinions on whether they agreed to split up the Southern Court. If they agreed, they would spit out what they had eaten, and if they disagreed, they would die. Then the imperial guards would confiscate their homes and recover the silver, money and grain.

This is what the emperor said to Zhang Juzheng before he left. He wanted to see if he, a strong dragon, could suppress the local snake.

"It seems that the bureaucrats are not that tough. I thought that some people would value money over their lives and stick their necks out to die to prove that I am a tyrant. But in just three short days, the money and grain that were burned by the fire dragon in the Yingtian treasury have been returned in full." Zhu Yijun saw Zhao Mengyou's memorial and said with a smile to Zhang Juzheng who was meeting him.

After only three days of collecting salaries, the money and grain in the treasury were returned.

"Your Majesty, is there no fine?" Zhang Juzheng asked in confusion. Is it enough to just collect the debts? If you don't take the opportunity to impose a fine, who would treat you as an emperor?
"Ah?" Wang Chonggu was stunned. Is this human language?

He finally understood that the emperor and his imperial tutor were truly master and disciple. Just look at Zhang Juzheng, he actually thought the emperor's methods were not harsh enough!
"Indeed, they have to pay a fine. How about this, if you pay another one of the same scale, I will release them. If not, I will exile them to Java. There is a severe shortage of manpower there now, and it takes nine harvests in two years. If we can exile Java, many people in our Ming Dynasty will not starve to death." Zhu Yijun agreed with Zhang Juzheng's suggestion. In addition to torture and salary, he chose a fine. Whatever he took, he would give back double.

The struggle has always been like this. If you take a step back, don't blame me for taking three steps forward.

"Is there no one among the officials of the Northern Court cursing me?" Zhu Yijun felt a little surprised. After he left the capital, he did not see any of the long memorials that usually cursed the emperor with innuendos.

Zhang Juzheng smiled and said, "All the officials in the Northern Court are looking forward to your Majesty's return as soon as possible."

This is the benefit of the control group. The emperor should still sit on the dragon throne and see what Prince Lu did, and then the officials in the Northern Yamen will start to remember the emperor's good deeds.

"Liu'er is in trouble again?" Zhu Yijun frowned, realizing that things were not simple.

"His Royal Highness Prince Lu has extorted another 500,000 silver coins from the wealthy households in Xitu City." Zhang Juzheng explained that it was not a big deal, just a matter of jealousy.

It was well known that Prince Lu liked beauties from all over the world. However, a beauty who was supposed to be presented to Prince Lu was snatched away by a wealthy man in Xitu City.

How could Zhu Yiliu bear such an injustice? In addition to taking the person back, he also extorted an additional 500,000 silver.

"Prince Lu is really fooling around! Where did the money go?" Zhu Yijun said in feigned anger.

"It went into the imperial treasury." Feng Bao hurriedly explained where the silver had gone. Prince Lu had no interest in silver. He only liked beauties from all over the world.

Zhu Yijun heard this and nodded, "Well, that's right. Liu'er has been a bit naughty. I will definitely give him a good scolding when I return to the capital!"

(End of this chapter)