Ming politicians

() It is the end of June in a blink of an eye.

The imperial decree has not yet come down, Su Tiancheng thought about the matter of contacting Nanjing Jingying, and temporarily put it down.

During this period of time, he was not idle, and wanting to be a magistrate at the grassroots level of the Ming Dynasty was far from that simple. Delegating power was just Su Tiancheng's unrequited love. In a short period of time, he could not do it at all. The arrangements made by the main leaders will never be decided by themselves.

Kuang Siming's mansion has been cleaned up. After discussing with Qu Qingze, Kuang Siming's family finally returned to the mansion and lived temporarily, but they are not allowed to leave the mansion, otherwise they will be killed. This is also because the conditions in the prison are too poor to accommodate them. up.Qu Qingze understood Su Tiancheng's promise, and took responsibility together with Su Tiancheng to let Kuang Siming's family return to the mansion to live temporarily.

The remaining sixteen salt merchants left the prison one after another, each sending 50 taels of silver.

Qu Qingze admired him so much, he never imagined that Su Tiancheng was so powerful, he killed people without blood, and asked the rest of the salt merchants to obediently take out the silver, which is another 900 million taels of silver.

The treasury of Jiangning County is already heavily guarded, with three floors inside and three floors outside, and more than 500 million taels of silver, which is almost equivalent to the fiscal revenue of the entire Ming Dynasty. That is to say, the silver taels in the treasury of Jiangning County can be Underwrite the expenses of the Ming Dynasty for one year, including the salaries of all officials and the expenses of the army.

It's a pity that Su Tiancheng can only watch these coins, and dare not touch a single coin.

Gentlemen and merchants from Jiangning County began to visit Su Tiancheng.

They would not come to the door empty-handed, and they all brought their belongings, some with a few thousand taels of silver, and some with a few hundred taels of silver, which accumulated quite a lot.

All the money also entered the treasury of the county government.

Su Tiancheng was also very surprised. Zhu Youjian was short of money, and the shortage was already miserable. Isn't he jealous of so much money? If he allows himself to use these money, he can completely change many unfavorable situations in a short time. situation.

Su Tiancheng didn't know that there was already a mess of noise in the capital.

Zhu Youjian sat in the Hall of Mental Cultivation, his face turning blue.

Liu Yulie, the Minister of the Ministry of War, was in charge of military affairs in Shandong, and was charged with the heavy task of destroying Kong Youde. After being deceived by Kong Youde and mastering the details of the officers and soldiers, he launched a surprise attack, causing heavy losses to the officers and soldiers.

Zhu Youjian was furious and had made up his mind to send Liu Yulie to prison.

There was a wave of unrest and another wave. Hua Yuncheng, a member of the staff, impeached Min Hongxue, the Minister of the Ministry of Officials, for favoritism, fraud, and appointment of private individuals. Jianfeng pointed directly at Wen Tiren, the second assistant of the cabinet.

The position of Minister of the Ministry of Officials is very important. Zhu Youjian was very cautious. He ordered Hua Yuncheng to be summoned to specifically inquire about the matters reflected in the memorial. With the support of Wen Tiren, they form cliques in the court for personal gain, and try their best to squeeze out any officials who do not meet their own requirements and those who are unwilling to attach themselves.

Zhu Yu ordered Jin Yiwei to investigate, and the situation he got was mainly about Min Hongxue's problem, and Hua Yuncheng's response was basically true, but Wen Tiren was not involved for the time being.

Zhu Youjian is clear about the struggle between Zhou Yanru and Wen Tiren. He acquiesces in the struggle between ministers, as long as it is within the controllable range, but if it is too much, he will still take action.

What is even more irritating is that the editor of Zodiac Zhou at the Imperial Academy thought that he was ill. At the beginning of the new year, Shangshu asked to resign and go home. Wen Tiren said that the two of them only knew how to bully the superior and flatter the inferior, they did nothing, made the court a mess, and demanded that the emperor be close to the virtuous ministers and stay away from the villain. Wouldn't this be openly saying that Zhu Youjian was blind and neglected in employing people.

In a fit of anger, Zhu Youjian dismissed Huang Daozhou and demoted him to a commoner. Unexpectedly, in the recent period, Xu Eryi, the head of the Ministry of Industry, was dismissed again to complain for Huang Daozhou.

This is tantamount to slapping Zhu Youjian in the face.

None of this is a particularly big deal.

The incident in Jiangning County has aroused Zhu Youjian's great attention.

Zhu Youjian was very happy to receive the secret report from Jin Yiwei, Tang Shiji, Shangshu of Nanjing Military Department, Yin Wang Daozhi of Yingtianfu, and Ma Jiagan, who was judged by Yingtianfu. Kuang Siming's family got more than ten million taels of silver. With such a huge sum of money, he can do many things well.

But another secret letter made him hesitate.

This secret document was handed over by Cao Huachun, the Chief Eunuch of the Supervisor of Ceremonies. It contained a memorial to Wang Zhen, the eunuch in charge of Nanjing, saying that Su Tiancheng, the magistrate of Jiangning County, had ulterior motives and was rebellious. He might become the biggest traitor in the Ming Dynasty.

The examples they cited are mainly in four aspects. One is the expansion of the Jiangning County Inspection Department, which has increased to more than [-] people. After investigation, these sergeants are Xiong Tingbi's former soldiers. These soldiers have already left the army. Now, it has been nearly ten years since hermitage, what does it mean to gather under Su Tiancheng's command instead of serving the imperial court?

The second is that Su Tiancheng bought a mansion in the suburbs of Jiangning County. Court officials are not allowed to buy a mansion privately after taking office in one place. Su Tiancheng bought the mansion before he took office. Obviously, he had ulterior motives and wanted to take root in Nanzhili , To expand their own power, maybe they are preparing to rebel.

The third is that Su Tiancheng wanted to contact the Nanjing Jingying. Without an imperial decree, civilian officials cannot contact the army. Su Tiancheng proposed to contact the generals of the Tokyo and Xijing camps in front of Wang Zhen. This is a great rebellion. measures.

The fourth was to search Kuang Siming's mansion and found a large number of firearms. Su Tiancheng actually thought that they would equip them to the Jiangning County Inspection Department in order to strengthen his own strength. This further showed that Su Tiancheng had ulterior motives.

After watching the secret performance, Zhu Youjian seemed to have been poured a basin of cold water.

He will not easily believe Wang Zhen's secret performance, but he has to think about it.

If these things are true, then, within a few years, he will have a headache about Nanzhili.

Qu Qingze, who lined up next to Su Tiancheng, didn't notice these things, why didn't he report it.

Based on this situation, Dong Chang had already left the capital and went to Nanzhili. The purpose was to go to Jiangning County, and after making unannounced visits, he would directly contact Su Tiancheng.

Later, Jin Yiwei once again submitted a secret report, saying that Su Tiancheng once again confiscated 900 million taels of silver from the salt merchants, and the silver deposit in the Jiangning county government treasury had reached a huge amount of 500 million taels.

In it, there is Qu Qingze's memorial, which specifically emphasizes that Su Tiancheng has not spent a single coin, and has been waiting for the emperor's will. Moreover, many gentry and merchants visited and sent silver, all of which went into the treasury .

Many things mixed together, which made Zhu Youjian upset.

The court minister, he didn't know who to trust.

The focus now is to wait for news from Dong Chang.

Looking at Wang Chengen beside him, Zhu Youjian finally spoke.

"Elder-in-law, you are optimistic about Su Tiancheng. What do you think of such a big incident in Jiangning County?"

"Your majesty, this servant thinks that Su Tiancheng is very gratifying and congratulatory for being brave and resourceful to do such a big thing. Your majesty can make an order to escort Bai Yin to Beijing."

He looked at Wang Chengen. He still fully trusts the eunuch who is by his side at this moment. At least one thing is, over the years, Wang Chengen has never formed a party for personal gain or used his trust to make friends with ministers. In this respect, Cao Huachun is even worse. Up.

"You know people, you know their faces, but you don't know your heart. Father-in-law, you should be more careful when looking at people from now on."

Wang Chengen's heart skipped a beat. Why did the emperor say such a thing? This is a very serious thing. Could it be that Su Tiancheng did something outrageous?

During this time, he has been feeling that something is wrong.

There was a fight between him and Cao Huachun. The two were not convinced. Cao Huachun, as the chief eunuch, had always wanted to gain the emperor's greatest trust. However, Wei Zhongxian had taught him a lesson before, and the emperor was very careful. Yes, Cao Huachun can't be successful, but Cao Huachun's power should not be underestimated.

Two days ago, Cao Huachun played a secret book.

This is not a rare thing, Cao Huachun is temporarily acting as Dongchang, and there are many secret memorials on weekdays, but this time it is a little different. After the emperor saw the memorials of Jinyiwei, Nanzhili and Yingtianfu, he was very happy Happy, but when Cao Huachun played, the emperor's mood changed immediately.

There must be something strange here.

Just now the emperor asked about Su Tiancheng, it is very possible that this memorial is related to Su Tiancheng.

Wang Chengen immediately thought of Wang Zhen, the eunuch guarding Nanjing.

Wang Zhen is Cao Huachun's best friend.

Wang Zhen is the eunuch in charge of Nanjing, so big things happened in Jiangning County, Minister of War Tang Shiji, Yin Wang Daozhi of Yingtianfu, and Ma Jiagan, the general judge of Yingtianfu, all had memorials, but Wang Zhen didn't. This is not normal.

Moreover, the Ministry of Household Affairs in Nanjing had issued a memorial before, saying that Su Tiancheng's lingering on the Qinhuai River was indecent. Wang Chengen knew very well that the relationship between the Secretary of the Ministry of Household Affairs in Nanjing and Wang Zhen was extraordinary.

Thinking of this, Wang Chengen immediately became cautious.

For so many years in the palace, I have never seen any kind of cruel struggle. After all, there is a reason for everything I do. If my speculation is true, Wang Zhen must impeach Su Tiancheng. I know, the memorial was directly handed over to Cao Huachun, and Cao Huachun was handed over to the emperor, so that he could avoid himself.

Cao Huachun can go directly to the Hall of Mental Cultivation and see the emperor alone.

Wang Chengen felt chills in his heart. Cao Huachun did not intend to deal with Su Tiancheng directly. Su Tiancheng is only the magistrate of Jiangning County, so it is not worth his doing.

Cao Huachun's goal was aimed at himself.