The literary giants of the late Ming Dynasty began by copying books

Chapter 307 Eunuch presents book

On the canal, Ye Chengxue was making tea and asked: "Brother Jianyang, I heard that what the Zhejiang Party did recently was your idea?"

Wang Wenlong glanced at him and laughed loudly: "I'm just an assistant coach of the Imperial Academy. How can I know these things? Don't make fun of me, Ru Xi. My purpose of going north this time is to go back to Nanjing to work. I am no longer Xu Futai's staff."

"Brother Jianyang's words are not entirely true." Ye Chengxue shook his head and said.

Wang Wenlong poured a cup of tea for Ye Chengxue and said with a smile: "My dear brother, you and I are still friends in poetry and prose. Can we not talk about these matters in the court?"

Ye Chengxue thanked him for the tea, nodded and said, "Jianyang and I are close friends. I always say so."

Ye Chengxue's father, Ye Xianggao, was a leader of the Donglin Party. He naturally had information channels to know that the Zhejiang Party was favoring Wang Wenlong during this period, and he could guess what Wang Wenlong was doing.

It's just that although Ye Chengxue is also a junior student of Donglin, he has no interest in party struggle. He is a moderate person and has no intention of Wang Wenlong helping the Zhejiang Party. However, he can only have such a character if his father is Ye Xianggao. Now that Wang Wenlong's position is unclear, even lower-level Donglin Party members would not be willing to make hasty friendships with Wang Wenlong.

Wang Wenlong smiled and said: "No matter what happens in Fujian, in Jiangnan, I still run a newspaper with Magistrate Li, right?"

Ye Chengxue smiled and said: "Brother, acting like this is like walking on a tightrope. It's not easy to walk."

Wang Wenlong did not want to be too partisan. He helped Shen Yiguan firstly to repay Xu Xueju, and secondly because he knew that the Zhejiang Party would gain power in the next few years.

At the same time, in the capital, the dust of the fake Chu King case gradually settled.

And this is not the first time that Emperor Wanli has been concerned about Zhu Huakui's family property. As early as five years ago, Wang Shouren (not Wang Yangming, just the same name), a direct descendant of the early Ming Dynasty general Wang Bi, of the 100 defenders in the capital, found in his family tree When Wang Bi died because of the Lan Yu case, Wang Bi's son was young and was taken in and raised by Wang Bi's sister, the Princess of Chu during the reign of Zhu Yuanzhang.

It was also rare in the Ming Dynasty to pay bribes to the emperor for trial cases.

Wang Wenlong was in trouble in Fujian at this time and had to go back to Jiangnan to deal with things. Ye Chengxue also took his wife and children to Nanjing to meet his father. Both of them took their families and chartered several large boats. They laughed and talked about poetry and interesting things on the boat. There was not much time. comfortable.

When the Donglin Party comes to power in a few years, Wang Wenlong will probably help the Donglin Party. In the 31st year of the Ming Dynasty in Wanli, the party struggle has become more and more intense. If you don't stand, you will be attacked. What Wang Wenlong did was just for himself in Wanli. During the Ming Dynasty, we just wanted some space for doing things.

The political calculation of Emperor Wanli behind this was not the main reason. The bigger reason was what Emperor Wanli gained from this case: King Zhu Huakui of Chu contributed 20,000 taels of silver to the court on the pretext of helping with work.

The family tree records that Wang Bi left more than 68,000 taels of gold, 2.5 million taels of silver, and countless jewels, all of which are stored in the treasury of the King of Chu. There are also more than 80 farmlands given to Wang Bi by Zhu Yuanzhang, and all of them are He collected farm rent in the name of the Prince of Chu. Over the past few hundred years, the total land rent amounted to more than 8 million taels. Wang Shouren calculated by himself that all his property should be worth more than 13 million taels if converted into silver.

Emperor Wanli was quite satisfied with the outcome of the case. If the case is reviewed, it will be found that Emperor Wanli basically stood on the side of the Zhejiang Party and fully supported Chu King Zhu Huakui.

The report by the Donglin Party members was correct. Zhu Huakui did go to the capital to pay bribes in order to keep his throne. He not only bribed Shen Yiguan, the chief minister of the cabinet, and officials from the Ministry of Rites, Science and Road, but even Emperor Wanli took the money, and it was also used in the public account. .

Wang Shouren considered that it was difficult to get back the money by himself, so he might as well donate it to Emperor Wanli to fight for a future, so Shangshu Wanli expressed that he would donate all these properties to the court in the name of himself and Wang Bi's sixth grandson, Wang Jinxi, to rebuild the fire. The three burned halls.

Emperor Wanli was overjoyed when he heard the news, so he ordered the eunuch and eunuch to take Wang Shouren to Huguang and work with the Huguang governor to help recover the "Wang Bi's inheritance" embezzled by the Chu Palace.

A large group of people arrived at Prince Chu's Mansion, and Zhu Huakui was stunned. Wang Bi has been dead for more than two hundred years. His fifth and sixth descendants suddenly came back with family trees to collect debts, and the amount was thirteen million taels. This is a number that no normal person can imagine. The Ming Dynasty during the Wanli Period The total annual income of money and grain is about 40 million taels. Wang Shouren is asking Zhu Huakui to give him the total tax revenue of a quarter of the entire Ming Dynasty in one go. If Zhu Huakui had so much money, he would be able to rebel... Zhu Huakui Yi The lawsuit on the forehead could only be filed in tears, saying that Wang Bi was sentenced to death because of the Lan Yu case. Wang Bi's descendants all relied on the support of the Chu Palace to continue their heirs. The Princess of Chu was able to raise Wang Bi's children and grandchildren at a very high risk. Big risk, how could there be so much property left? Moreover, more than two hundred years have passed, and many princes have been entrusted to the King of Chu. How can they come up with so much money in one go?

Emperor Wanli still didn't believe it, so he asked officials to investigate carefully, and then found that the Chu Palace had only about 180,000 taels of silver, and there was no other treasure. If he wanted more money, he could only ask the Chu Palace to sell the farm. Emperor Wanli was very disappointed, so he ordered Let this matter go.

Or should we say that the Donglin Party's attack this time was a bit hasty?

Guo Zhengyu, the Minister of Rites, said that Zhu Huakui promised to bribe him 10,000 taels of gold to secure his position as King of Chu. Ten thousand taels of gold was worth one hundred thousand taels of silver. Emperor Wanli knew it was a lie as soon as he heard it.

Wanli knew that the total deposits of the Chu Palace were only 180,000 taels, and the account books of Zhu Huakui's family were still with him. Emperor Wanli had only made 20,000 taels when he went to the palace in person. How could Zhu Huakui get the 100,000 taels to bribe the Donglin Party? Having a hard time?

Therefore, Wanli also sided with the Zhejiang Party from the bottom of his heart.

In the end, the Zhejiang Party he supported won, and Wanli also successfully obtained the 20,000 taels of bribe Zhu Huakui promised him.

Emperor Wanli said with emotion and smile to the eunuch Zhao Lu beside him: "I heard that Wang Jianyang of Fujian was the one who mediated this matter. Otherwise, he wouldn't have cut through the mess so quickly. This boy really has the skills of Su Qin and Zhang Yi."

Zhao Lu hurriedly flattered: "Then Wang Jianyang is just a middleman. The real thing is the emperor's clear view. The emperor is like a Bodhisattva who has taken care of all the ghosts and evil spirits in the world. How can the little guy below dare to do anything wrong?"

"How can you and other palace people have such insight?" Emperor Wanli said with emotion: "In the past, when working in the court, there were always people from different parties arguing with each other. One party could not win against the other party. Even if I supported you from behind, I would always get things done. It's very ugly. Wang Jianyang came up with some ideas and settled the matter this time. This is a very talented person."

Zhao Lu said: "When the emperor talked about this, I remembered something."

"What's the matter?" Emperor Wanli asked.

Zhao Lu said with a smile: "I heard that Wang Jianyang recently published a new book "On Nations and States" and brought a sample book to the capital. Mr. Shen Ge asked the Imperial College to print thousands of copies and distribute them all over the capital."

"On Nation-States"? The title of this book is quite interesting. Please bring me a letter to the palace." Emperor Wanli said curiously.

Temporarily letting eunuchs out of the palace to work on books was very common in the Jiajing Dynasty when the emperor loved to read novels. Moreover, once Jiajing became obsessed with reading books, they did not consider money issues at all, and often spent dozens or hundreds of taels just to find a copy of a book. The eunuch made a lot of money.

But this was the first time in Wanli Dynasty.

Zhao Lu thought about the character of the emperor at that time, but when he left the palace, he did not take any money from the inner treasury. He advanced money to get a letter "On the Nation and the State" and sent it to the palace that afternoon.

Sure enough, the book was placed on Wanli's desk. Wanli saw that the book came quickly and heard that Zhao Lu did not spend money carelessly. He liked it instantly. He only felt that Zhao Lu did things quickly and well, and he was dedicated to his work without any selfish motives.

After presenting a letter, the position of tax supervisor and eunuch was already beckoning to Zhao Lu.

(End of this chapter)