Jiajing Chengming

Chapter 281 Jiajing demonstrates and goes to apologize to the late emperor!
Since Xie Qian had chosen to sacrifice his two sons and took the initiative to apologize to Zhu Houcong, he would no longer dare to show any disrespect to Zhu Houcong in public.

So, after meeting Zhu Houcong, he and his two sons knelt down obediently in front of Zhu Houcong.

After Zhu Houcong asked this question, he also answered very respectfully:

"This is all my fault. I didn't discipline them well!"

"I am ashamed of your majesty, ashamed of my ancestors, and ashamed of my country!"

"I, the guilty minister, am willing to be severely punished and pay the penalty for my family's crime, in order to uphold the law of the land!"

The eldest son Xie Zheng also bowed his head and said:
"This is all the work of this guilty minister and my younger brother Xie Pi. My father only learned about this not long ago. I beg Your Majesty to have mercy on me and not vent your anger on my father!"

"Just as my brother said, this is all due to my and my brother's disloyalty and unfilial behavior, and my father has been implicated and has to apologize as well!"

"My brother and I will never be forgiven for our crimes. I only ask Your Majesty to show mercy and forgive my father and my innocent family members!"

Xie Pi also bowed his head and answered.

"If you had come to ask for forgiveness earlier, I might have shown leniency."

"But you guys are here just now, especially you, Xie Pi!"

Zhu Houcong suddenly pointed at Xie Pi and said, "You actually brought the Hanlin group of honest people to cause trouble, trying to stop me from finding out your details! You really have evil intentions and are a traitor pretending to be loyal!"

Xie Pi did not refute this, but his expression became more depressed.

"Therefore, it is impossible for me to forgive you easily anymore."

"Don't blame me for being ruthless, Mr. Xie!"

After Zhu Houcong's words, Xie Qian said: "This is all due to my son's disloyalty and unfilial behavior. Your Majesty, even if you skin him alive, it is not a pity. How dare I complain!"

talking.

Xie Qianjiu said, "But I ask Your Majesty to understand clearly that although you have violated the laws of our ancestors, the smuggling you are doing is related to the flow of goods between the north and the south, both inside and outside the country!"

"Therefore, I dare to advise Your Majesty that Your Majesty can kill my son, but please do not confiscate my house and leave some of my family members who are still responsible for the circulation of goods, so as not to affect the circulation of goods throughout the north and south, and even affect the nine borders."

"But my family is naturally not qualified to monopolize this profit, so I respectfully hand over all the family members who work for the Xie family as distributors to the government, and hand over the smuggled profits over the years, totaling 10 million taels of silver, to Your Majesty!"

"And please, Your Majesty, grant me mercy. These family members of mine can continue to supply goods to the north in the future, but they will be supplied to the supply and marketing shop instead. They can also continue to ship goods overseas, but they will only sell goods from the supply and marketing shop."

Xie Qian was going to donate all the profits from his Xie family's smuggling monopoly to the imperial court.

Including tens of millions of taels of silver in stock.

What Xie Qian requested was that the emperor would show leniency to his family in view of the fact that his family was responsible for the circulation of goods between the north and the south, and that they were willing to cooperate only with the court from now on.

Zhu Houcong understood what Xie Qian meant.

But he had to admit that Xie Qian was bold enough when it came to compromising.

As the emperor, he really had no reason not to agree to Xie Qian's request.

After all, although he wanted to punish the Xie family, he did not want to cause a significant loss of trade volume between the north and the south, and thus affect the economy of the entire society.

And now, it is obvious that many of the mid- and downstream merchants who are familiar with the flow of goods between the north and the south, both inside and outside the country, are members of their Xie family.

Therefore, it was really difficult for Zhu Houcong to find another family to replace the Xie family.

But Zhu Houcong was also very satisfied with this.

After all, Xie Qian was willing to pay tens of millions of taels of silver and was willing to give up a lot of Haili to the court, which showed his sincerity.

As an emperor, he had to show a stern but lenient image to the outside world. Naturally, he would show mercy to veteran ministers like Xie Qian who took the initiative to ask for forgiveness.

After all, this also represents his attitude towards the two previous emperors and is related to the stability of his throne.

Now that Xie Qian had voluntarily given up, Zhu Houcong no longer had to force him. In order to make most of Haili return to the court, he had to completely break off relations with him. Regardless of any negative impact, he directly ordered the search of Xie Qian's house and even punished Xie Qian himself.

Therefore, Zhu Houcong said: "Since you have kidnapped your two sons to confess your crime and voluntarily returned all your illegal gains, I will let you go and not raid your house or implicate your family members. I will save your dignity!"

"but!"

"Xie Pi and Xie Zheng must be punished according to the law! Otherwise, it will serve as a warning to others and correct the country's laws!"

"What's more, Xie Pi actually hid in the palace and forced the emperor to abdicate, defending the rebels. It can be seen that he has no father and no king, and has abandoned his country and his family. If he is not killed, how can we be a righteous minister and enlighten the people's hearts!"

After Zhu Houcong said this, Xie Pi began to twitch all over.

The emperor gave him such an evaluation mercilessly, but he could not refute it.

This naturally made him very sad.

Xie Qian did not say much. Since he had already taken the initiative to plead guilty, he was naturally ready to be slaughtered by the emperor. So he just closed his eyes and kowtowed:
"I thank Your Majesty for your grace! My son is immoral and has caused Your Majesty's wrath. I am guilty of this crime and cannot be forgiven. Please blame me for my poor teaching and for indulging my son in this crime!"

"Your sins are more than just poor teaching and immoral behavior!"

Zhu Houcong looked at Xie Qian and said something.

Xie Qian was startled.

I felt a chill on my back.

His two sons also looked up at Zhu Houcong in surprise.

In the hall where candles flickered, it was so quiet that one could hear a pin drop, and even Xie Zheng's crying could be heard.

Xie Qian's heart beat faster because of his son's crying.

Zhu Houcong then looked up at the gilded caisson, then took the gilded wooden hammer from the bronze chime beside him, clapped it gently on his palm, and sighed:

"Xie Qian, Master Xie, you are not honest!"

Xie Qian raised his head abruptly after hearing this. "Am I dishonest?"

boom!
boom!
……

Zhu Houcong suddenly struck the bronze bell violently.

Xie Qian and his two sons were suddenly deafened by the noise, and at the same time they seemed to be able to feel the emperor's endless anger.

For a moment, Xie Qian was heartbroken.

"Didn't you say you wouldn't rob my house and save my dignity?"

"Your Majesty, could you please stop knocking?"

“That sound is so scary!”

Saying.

The main periods during which Xie Qian served in officialdom were the Hongzhi and Zhengde dynasties.

Although these two emperors had very different styles of governing, they had one thing in common: they were not too harsh on their ministers.

Of course, there were examples of censors being beaten to death in the early years of Zhengde, but that was related to Liu Jin.

Zhengde himself was relatively respectful to his ministers.

When Liu Jian and Xie Qian failed to force Zhengde to kill the Eight Tigers, Zhengde did not do anything to them.

Therefore, ministers like Xie Qian did not feel so deeply about the saying "serving the emperor is like serving a tiger". They felt that the emperor could conceal things if he could, deceive if he could, and act if he could. Even if he had already willingly become a prey to the emperor, he did not have to reveal everything.

But Zhu Houcong has always adhered to the principle that although I can forgive you, the Xie family, and even Xie Qian himself for the sake of the overall situation and long-term interests, I must also make you fear and obey me from the bottom of your heart and not dare to play tricks on me again.

"Xie Qian, you have also been a minister of two dynasties. Do you think I will believe that you can't even take care of your own two sons?"

After Zhu Houcong stopped knocking, he looked at Xie Qian and asked another question.

When Xie Qian heard this, he was struck by lightning and froze in place.

He didn't expect that the emperor would expose his lies and not give him any way out. It seemed that although the emperor showed him mercy, he would not let him off easily.

This made him feel that the new emperor was even more terrifying, and that he was much more scheming and vicious than the two previous emperors.

"You've already lied to me once, saying you can't control your brother, and you're going to lie to me again, saying you can't control your son!"

"Do you think I have an obligation to play dumb with you, or do you really think I'm dumb?"

After Zhu Houcong asked this again, Xie Qian closed his eyes slightly and sweat began to appear on his forehead.

He became more and more certain that what the emperor meant was that he had no intention of letting him go easily just because he gave up the smuggled Haley and donated his property!
then.

Xie Qian then kowtowed to the ground and said: "I am a disloyal and dishonest official and I deserve to be killed!"

"You just understand."

"But Fei Hong, Wang Qiong and other ministers have all submitted petitions to plead for you, hoping that I can use this to ease the disputes over and protection of rituals throughout the country."

"I can't kill you, so I have to let you go to hell and ask the previous emperors to punish you!"

When Zhu Houcong got to this point, he asked Xie Qian with a smile, "What do you think?"

Xie Qian's body trembled suddenly after hearing this.

Only then did he realize that the emperor wanted him to commit suicide to apologize!

But how could he be willing to commit suicide to apologize?

Therefore, Xie Qian couldn't help but choke up with tears at this time:
"Your Majesty, what you said is a wise and benevolent act. I, a guilty minister, should be grateful to you!"

"But I am an old man with only a few years left in this world, so there is no need to rush to apologize to the previous emperors. It is better to make amends for my past mistakes while there is still some time left and do what I can for Your Majesty and the country!"

"In this way, I can repay your kindness and generosity a little bit!"

"Therefore, I beg Your Majesty to show me great grace and allow me to spend the rest of my life at Your Majesty's service, doing a few things to be loyal to the king and protect the people!"

Xie Qian had to survive.

He knew he couldn't die.

Because if he died, his Xie family would completely lose its support and its status would plummet.

By then, it would not just be a simple matter for the Xie family to donate all their wealth, but they might even lose their ancestral property!
Therefore, he would rather sacrifice his two sons than take all the blame himself.

After all, a person of his status no longer lives for himself.

Zhu Houcong smiled and asked Xie Qian: "What can you do for me?"

talking.

Zhu Houcong spread his arms and placed them on the armrests of the chair, and said with a smile: "Do you think I am in need of old ministers to work for me now?"

"Your Majesty is not short of old ministers serving you now!"

"But Your Majesty is now in need of an old minister who can kill Yang Tinghe for Your Majesty!"

Xie Qian gritted his teeth and replied.

Zhu Houcong's eyes suddenly lit up after hearing this.

In his opinion, in terms of seniority and prestige, the only living old ministers who were higher than Yang Tinghe were Xie Qian and others.

But how did this old thing know that I had such thoughts?

(End of this chapter)