Ming Dynasty: A mere unruly commoner is rebelling against the heaven?

Chapter 126 The two deposed empress dowagers both passed away!
Zhang Miao died, but his family did not.

Zhang Miao is the nephew of Zhang Min, and Zhang Miao's son is the great-nephew of Zhang Min. As long as he is not out of the nine generations of the family and five degrees of mourning, he cannot escape death.

Wang Zhi looked at the corpse lying on the ground and Zhang Miao's son who was crying non-stop, his brows were cold and his face expressionless.

"take away."

"Yes, Mr. Factory Supervisor!"

The guards from the Western Factory received the order and immediately went forward to arrest Zhang Miao's family.

"Ahhh! Let me go!"

"Dad! Mom! Save me, Dad!"

"Dad! Dad! Wake up, Dad!"

"..."

Miserable cries echoed throughout Zhang Miao's residence, but the ruthless Western Factory guards had already captured all of Zhang Miao's family members.

After Wang Zhi walked out of Zhang Miao's residence, someone would send Zhang Miao's family back to the Xichang Prison.

After dealing with Zhang Min's affairs, Wang Zhi went straight to the residence of Fang Xian, the left minister of the Ministry of Public Administration.

Fang Xian still lives in the capital, and is living well and leading a very happy life.

His parents are still alive, he has a good wife, two beautiful concubines, a smart son and a beautiful daughter.

The Chinese New Year is approaching, and Fang Xian and her wife are happily planning how to celebrate this year in a lively and harmonious manner.

"Master, Xiaoying has grown a lot taller. The clothes I made last year can no longer fit her this year."

"Then go get some more cloth and make a new one."

Fang Xian sat by the stove, on which a pot of rice wine was warming.

There was heavy snow outside the window, and there was a warm stove and fine wine inside the window. Fang Xian took two bites of pickles and took a sip of warm rice wine.

Looking at my wife knitting a sweater beside me, I just feel that life is so beautiful.

All this started thirteen years ago, when Zhang Min, the eunuch in charge of the Imperial Stables, took a packet of medicine from him.

To be honest, when Fang Xian prepared the medicine, he actually didn't know who it was for.

The order he received at that time was to just get the medicine and hand it over to Zhang Min.

Then news spread from the palace that the crown prince's biological mother had passed away.

As a result, Zhang Min herself died a few days later.

This frightened Fang Xian so much that he lived in fear for ten days.

Fang Xian had even written his suicide note and chosen a burial site. The only thing left to do was to buy a coffin and shroud, when he received news that the late emperor had promoted him to the position of Zuo Tongzheng of the Ministry of Public Administration.

Now, Fang Xian felt at ease.

However, before they could enjoy these peaceful days for a few years, the late emperor passed away.

When the new emperor first ascended the throne, Fang Xian was really scared for a while.

But as time passed, Fang Xian saw that Zhu Youtang was completely unaware of the palace secrets, and his fear and terror gradually subsided.

But on such a day when every household was lit up and families were reunited, there were suddenly several hurried knocks on Fang Xian's door.

The knocking sounded urgent and powerful, as if it was death knocking on the door.

But it wasn’t death knocking on the door, it was the West Factory!

"I'm coming……"

When Fang Xian's servant opened the door, he was frightened by the Western Factory guards outside the door, who were covered in snow and had a murderous look on their faces. They screamed and ran away.

"Ahhhh!!!"

"The West Factory is coming! The West Factory is coming!"

The servant's scream immediately alarmed the entire Fang family.

Fang Xian's hand holding the wine glass began to tremble, his pupils shrank, his lips were tightly pursed, his face turned frighteningly pale, and his teeth made uncontrollable clicking sounds.

The fear emanated from his pores, penetrating deep into his bones. He couldn't control himself from being afraid, and even felt that breathing was becoming increasingly difficult.

At this moment, he seemed to have suddenly returned to that afternoon thirteen years ago when he heard the news of Zhang Min's death in the Imperial Hospital.

Boundless fear overwhelmed him, making him unable to cope and unable to resist.

"father!"

Fang Xian's two children rushed into the room, hugged Fang Xian tightly in horror, and trembled with fear all over.

Fang Xian wanted to open his mouth to comfort his two children, but fear made him open his mouth but no sound came out.

At this time, someone was already outside the house, reading out the charges against him.

"The Left Minister of Public Administration Fang Xian is plotting treason, and all his nine clans will be executed!"

"Go and catch them all!"

"Yes, Mr. Factory Supervisor!"

A group of extremely vicious Western Factory guards rushed into the house and captured Fang Xian and his family.

When Fang Xian was arrested, he was completely devastated.

He was in a panic and cried out loudly.

"No, Master Wang! I am innocent, I am innocent!"

"I was just following orders. I didn't mean to harm..."

Before Fang Xian could finish his words, Wang Zhi, with a gloomy face, slapped him unconscious. At the same time, a tomb in the suburbs of Beijing was also dug up by the Western Factory.

The tombstone was destroyed and the coffin was opened, revealing the broken bones inside.

On the shattered tombstone, you can vaguely see Zhang Min's name written on it.

Those skeletons that were exposed in the wild were whipped and then dumped in the wild to be taken away by wild dogs.

The storm in the capital was still going on. At the same time, three more teams of Western Factory soldiers came out of the capital.

One team went to Chun'an Prefecture in Zhejiang Province to capture the three tribes of Yi Shanglu.

One team went to Tong'an County, Minzhou to kill Zhang Min's nine clans, and the other team went to kill Fang Xian's clansmen.

It is worth mentioning that Shang Lu was the only top scholar in the entire Ming Dynasty who won three top honors in a row!
He served in the reigns of Yingzong, Daizong and Xianzong, and was an important official during the Chenghua period.

He died in the 22nd year of Chenghua, and was posthumously named Wen Yi.

But now that his posthumous title has been taken away, even his corpse will be opened and whipped.

It is said that Shang Lu was worthy of being the only person in the Ming Dynasty who won three top honors in the imperial examinations. He was extremely smart.

It is not known whether Shang Lu had calculated that he would face disaster after his death, so he built twelve tombs for himself before his death.

After his death, Shang Lu carried twelve coffins out at the same time and buried them in twelve different places. No one knew where Shang Lu was buried.

Therefore, the Western Factory had no choice but to destroy all twelve tombs one by one and open all the coffins to check the bodies.

It was finally discovered that Shang Lu’s coffin was buried in a green lotus pond, which was called a lotus cave. It had excellent feng shui, gathering the spirit of mountains and rivers and the essence of heaven and earth.

Shang Lu took great pains to choose this Feng Shui tomb for himself during his lifetime, but in the end it was never used.

When the Jinyiwei opened the coffin, Shang Lu's body had already decayed to the point where only bones and flesh remained.

But the Western Factory guards still dragged him to the downtown area, whipped his bones until they broke, and then abandoned him in the wilderness.

At the same time, more than a hundred people from the three Shang merchants were exterminated.

……

The news that Wang Zhi, along with the people from the Western Factory, raided the homes of Zhang Miao, the Minister of the Ministry of Rites, and Fang Xian, the Left Minister of the Ministry of Public Administration, did not cause any stir in the capital.

Although these two people are also high-ranking officials with great power.

But these days, many important ministers of the second rank, such as royal relatives, cabinet ministers, and six ministers, have been executed.

The property of a third-rank official who was one of the Nine Ministers and a fourth-rank official who was the Left Vice Minister were raided, which was not really a big deal.

However, the officials in the capital were somewhat confused as to what crime the two families were charged with for having their property confiscated.
Unfortunately, the West Factory was like an iron barrel, and no matter how hard they tried to find out, they couldn't find out anything.

At the same time, another piece of gossip was also circulating in the capital.

It is said that the Western Factory opened Zhang Min's grave, whipped the corpse, and left it exposed in the wild.

Everyone was wondering why the emperor was picking on an old eunuch who had been dead for more than ten years.
But soon, this doubt was diluted by a great piece of good news!

Some people saw with their own eyes that the body of Huai'en, the former eunuch in charge of the Imperial Household Department and director of the Eastern Depot, was carried out of the palace by the young eunuchs in the palace and buried in the suburbs of Beijing.

The news that Huai'en was sentenced to death by Zhu Youtang soon spread throughout the capital.

When the officials in the capital heard the news, they could hardly believe their ears.

Last month, Huai En was in high spirits, leading the East Factory's men to arrest people all over the capital.

At that time, whoever saw Huai En in the capital would take the initiative to bow and greet him, calling him Eunuch Huai?

But now, after just a few days, Huai En went from being one of the most powerful people in the capital to a cold corpse.

When he died, he didn't even have a proper coffin. He was just wrapped in a torn straw mat and buried directly in the ground.

After being shocked, the officials in the capital city congratulated each other with more smiles on their faces. They even added an extra dish to every meal and ate a few more bowls of rice.

As the New Year is coming to an end, Huai En's death is the best New Year gift these officials in the capital have received.

But if we were to say who was the most surprising, it would definitely be Liu Jin, the current director of the East Factory.

After learning that Huai En had died, the first thing Liu Jin did was to remove Li Guang from his position as the chief of the criminal justice system and demote him to the position of the chief of a small foreign service team.

A captain of a service only commanded five to ten people, and he was reduced from a thousand households to a captain of a service.

Liu Jin almost pressed Li Guang from the sky into the mud.

Huai'en had already been sentenced to death by Zhu Youtang, so there was no need for him to keep Li Guang any longer and he simply sent Li Guang away from the power center of the East Factory.

Later, Liu Jin personally led the team to search and seize Huai'en's property.

Who would have thought that Huai En, the man with thick eyebrows and big eyes, had earned a lot of money for his retirement during his time as the commander of the East Factory.

Liu Jin seized 300 taels of silver, 1,600 strings of Hongzhi treasure notes, more than 1,000 acres of land and 12 houses from Huai'en's private residence.

The twelve houses does not mean that Huai En has twelve houses, but that the area of ​​one of his houses is as large as twelve rooms.

For a governor of the Eastern Depot, these properties can only be considered as greed within limits.

You have to know that it was only half a year from the time Huai En was appointed as the commander of the Eastern Depot to the time he was sentenced to death by Zhu Youtang.

After Liu Jin reported the amount of Huai'en's property to Zhu Youtang, Zhu Youtang just responded lightly and didn't say much.

Before the civil and military officials in the court could be happy about Huai'en's death for long, five days later, bad news came from the palace.

The late emperor's empress, the current empress dowager Wang.

There was also Wu, who was deposed by the previous emperor and then canonized as empress dowager by Zhu Youtang.

They were both stripped of their titles as Empress Dowagers and reduced to commoners!
What is even more shocking is that not long after the two Empress Dowagers were deposed, they both committed suicide in the palace and died!

(End of this chapter)