Ming Dynasty: Traveling through the harem, Zhu Yuanzhang was dumbfounded

Chapter 64 Applauding Li Zicheng
Zhu Yuanzhang, who had been sitting on the Diaoyutai throne before, now looked unhappy.

He had never seen such a shameless person!
In the face of national crisis, as the father-in-law of the emperor, instead of taking the initiative to stand up and protect the country, he actually embezzled the money prepared by his own daughter!
Does the Ming Dynasty really make them so disgusted?
Greedy! Miserly! Ruthless!

As for Zhou Kui, Zhu Yuanzhang could only think of these six words to describe him.

He swore that if Zhou Kui stood in front of him, Zhu Yuanzhang could tear him in half with his own hands.

Feeling depressed and unhappy, Zhu Yuanzhang let out a deep breath without interrupting Yang Chen.

"When the ministers saw Zhou Kui taking out money to pay the army, they followed suit.

Those who contributed more would give at least one thousand taels of silver, and those who contributed less would give dozens of taels. In the end, all the civil and military officials contributed nearly 110,000 taels of silver.

However, this amount of money was not enough. In order to raise more money, Chongzhen even knelt down and begged them for help because the Ming Dynasty was about to perish.

In the end, a total of nearly 200,000 taels of silver were raised in scattered donations.

But this amount of money is simply a drop in the bucket when facing Li Zicheng's hundreds of thousands of rebels."

This time, Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't bear it anymore.

His entire chest was shaking like a blower, his eyes were red like a killer, and he cursed in a strong voice:

"Kill! They deserve to be killed! These traitors! Rebellious ministers! Flatterers! They all deserve to be killed!"

His roar echoed throughout the Wenhua Palace, and even made the guards outside the door ready to rush in to see what had happened that made their Majesty so angry and furious.

Yang Chen, who was watching the irritable Zhu Yuanzhang from the audience, discovered that the other party was actually staring at him.

At this moment, he instantly regretted it.

I thought he really believed Lao Zhu's lies, saying that he had been through many ups and downs and could endure anything.

Don't get emotional because of his words.

Now it seems that this guy completely overestimated his own strength.

"Your Majesty, calm down. You are an emperor who rides a horse to kill enemies. You have seen all kinds of battles. This thing that has not happened in the future is not enough to make your Majesty angry, right?"

Looking at Zhu Yuanzhang's scarlet eyes, if he didn't persuade him any more, Zhu would probably vent his anger on him.

However, when Zhu Biao heard this, the corners of his mouth couldn't help twitching, and he thought to himself, how can you comfort others like this?

In the end, he stepped forward himself.

He poured a cup of tea for his father and helped him sit down personally. He waited until his emotions calmed down a little before he walked down.

"What happened to these traitors later?"

Zhu Yuanzhang wished he could eat the flesh and blood of his descendants who were forced to kneel down by these parasites.

But this can only be a fantasy.

Now he wanted to hear what Yang Chen had to say about the fate of these people.

A playful smile appeared on Yang Chen's face.

"I know what your majesty is thinking, so I won't waste my words. These ministers not only ruined the Ming Dynasty, but also ruined themselves.

After Emperor Chongzhen hanged himself on Coal Hill, Li Zicheng, the King of Rebellion, was able to enter the capital without any hindrance.

These many ministers immediately abandoned their identities as ministers of the Ming Dynasty and took the initiative to stand behind the city gates to offer their loyalty.

However, the moment he entered the imperial city and opened the national treasury, Li Zicheng found that there was not a single cent in the treasury, and he was immediately in trouble.

Thinking about how I fought so hard from the countryside to the capital, but in the end I got nothing. Wasn't it all in vain?
Besides, he still had hundreds of thousands of insurgents to feed, and the treasury was out of money, so naturally he had to go to rich people to get it.

As a result, all those high-ranking officials became targets.

At that time, the main slogan of Li Zicheng's uprising was equal distribution of land and exemption of grain taxes, and he originally launched the war from the perspective of the peasant class.

After finally capturing the capital, he found that there was not enough money in the Ming treasury to distribute, so he ordered his men to set up a temporary organization.

It was called the Bixiang Zhenfu Division, and the purpose of the people here was very simple, which was to give officials who surrendered at the city gate a chance. Each person contributed different amounts of money according to their official rank.

For example, the Grand Secretary of the Cabinet needed to provide military pay of 100,000 taels of silver, while the Shangshu and officials of various departments needed 70,000 taels of silver.

However, these officials were all confused, because the reason they surrendered to King Chuang was because they heard that the other party treated people who surrendered to them very well. They didn't expect that they didn't enjoy the benefits, but had to be the first to pay money.

This behavior soon caused the officials to criticize and denounce him, but they did not expect that King Chuang was not Chongzhen.

His attitude towards those officials was that if they didn't accept his toast, they would be punished. If anyone didn't take the money, he would punish them. He would use torture such as pricking their fingertips with pliers and so on.

When they were almost dead, they finally realized how happy it was to live under Chongzhen's rule.

At least compared to Li Zicheng."

"It's what they deserve! These people deserve it! Li Zicheng's methods are in line with our temperament! Those officials are all parasites! They don't deserve to die!"

Especially that father-in-law Zhou Kui, I really want to skin him alive and pull out his tendons. As a royal relative, he doesn't want to live and die with our descendants, but he even covets the Queen's money.

Such things that pigs and dogs don't know deserve to die!"

On the stage, Zhu Yuanzhang, who had been sulking and looking gloomy, now looked very happy.

He kept clapping his hands in the air, indicating that he agreed with Li Zicheng's recovery of stolen goods and aid in the collection of military funds.

What he hated most in his life was corruption. Only after experiencing being framed by corrupt officials could one understand the deep feeling of powerlessness.

A higher-ranking official can crush people to death, let alone officials who oppress ordinary people who have no say or even no status.

Otherwise, how could someone say that the emperor is far away and the sky is high, and even gods cannot control us?

Zhu Biao, who was standing next to Yang Chen, glanced at his father and felt relieved.

After half a day, he knew best how much unhappiness his father had accumulated in his heart. Now that he could let him vent it out, it was much better than keeping everything in his heart.

"Tell me, what happened to that worse-than-animal Zhou Kui?"

He didn't want to pursue anyone else, he just wanted to know what would happen to this man who even embezzled his daughter.

“Since Your Majesty wants to know, I won’t waste my time.

After learning that his daughter had died, Zhou Kui hid in his luxurious mansion and waited for Li Zicheng's men to come. He had already prepared 100,000 taels of silver.

But the people under Li Zicheng were not stupid. As the father-in-law of the emperor, he not only embezzled the royal family's money, but also used his status to make a lot of money in business. How could he have only this much money?

As a result, Zhou Kui was imprisoned by these people and tortured with irons, salt water, whips, etc.

During this process, he still refused to explain. It was only when he could no longer bear it that he slowly began to reveal where he had hidden the money.

Finally, Li Zicheng and his men saw a wall made of silver in a secret passage in Zhou Kui's mansion, with a total value of an astonishing 800,000 taels of silver!
In addition, there are all kinds of gold, jewelry, precious antiques, calligraphy and paintings, not to mention the thousands of acres of fertile land occupied by the people.

You can calculate how much these things can be sold for. "

(End of this chapter)