Taichang Ming Dynasty

Chapter 249 Impeachment and Statutes

"Let me ask this a different way." Lu Wenzhao tapped the slightly protruding cardboard square on his chest with his middle finger. "Shen Zhenfu, if I give this to Han Tongzhi and the others, how do you think they'll thank me?"

Although the knocking was barely audible, almost completely drowned out by the incessant cries of pleas from the prison, Shen Zhengping still hallucinated a terrifying sound. This sound was like a sharp needle piercing his eyeballs, and with every beat of his heart, this almost tangible pain penetrated deeper into his brain.

Shen Zhengping felt like he was suffocating, unable to utter a single syllable. He was clearly being held down by the shoulders, but it felt as if someone was choking him.

At that moment, Lu Wenzhao slapped Shen Zhengping's back, startling his pounding heart to a sudden halt. Shen Zhengping's wide-open eyes darkened. The next moment, blood flow returned to normal, and his vision returned, but Shen Zhengping's ears were filled with a continuous ringing like thunder.

"Alright. Shen Zhenfu, I'll ask you one last time." Lu Wenzhao stood up and walked to the bed opposite. He gently lifted the half-covered blanket and asked, "Do you like the gift the Jinyiwei gave you?"

Shen Zhengping focused his attention on the bed, and only then did he realize that the person squirming and struggling on the bed opposite was Shen Caiyu's nephew and housekeeper Shen Xie. Shen Zhengping was horrified: it turned out that Shen Xie and Shen Fujing, father and son, were imprisoned facing each other!
"I like it, I like it very much." Shen Zhengping nodded vigorously, then forced out a twitching smile.

Lu Wenzhao patted Shen Xie's fat belly and said, "I told Housekeeper Shen before that the Jinyiwei are not judges and won't care about murder or arson. But the Jinyiwei are not judges, you should be. Are you willing to be a judge?"

"Yes, I do." Shen Zhengping still didn't understand what Lu Wenzhao was going to do, but his will had completely collapsed, and he could only follow Lu Wenzhao's words like a puppet.

"It's a pity that you can't be a judge, you can only be an executioner." Lu Wenzhao waved to a captain in embroidered uniforms, and the captain immediately came over with a rope.

"Don't give it to me, give it to Shen Zhengping." Lu Wenzhao raised his head towards Shen Zhengping.

"Yes." The captain walked up to Shen Zhengping and handed him the rope. At this moment, Lu Wenzhao's voice, indifferent but with a hint of fatigue, rang out again. "Shen Fu committed suicide out of fear of his sin. His bastard father, who had aided and abetted the evil, couldn't bear the blow and banged his head against the kang, dying in prison."

"God calms you down. Do it, and you won't have any worries." Lu Wenzhao stepped aside, waiting for all this to happen with an expressionless face.

"Okay! I'll do it." Shen Zhengping stood up, pushed the rope aside, and came to Shen Xie's side. Shen Zhengping took a few deep breaths, then trembled and grabbed Shen Xie's head. "You are guilty." Shen Zhengping growled, suddenly raised his right hand, and dropped it heavily.

Boom!Boom!Boom!
One, two, three times. With each rise and fall, the fierceness in Shen Zhengping's eyes became more obvious.

Shen Xie was still struggling, wanting to roar and demand why Lu Wenzhao had broken his promise. But like Shen Fujing, his mouth was stuffed with smelly cotton rags. These smelly cotton rags muffled all human sounds, and Shen Xie could only let out the most primitive muffled roar.

Gradually, the muffled roars faded, leaving only the monotonous, sticky thuds of thuds in the cell. Shen Xie's features gradually deformed, his forehead slowly sinking. Only when the hard earthen kang was soaked with dark red blood did Shen Zhengping drop the still-warm corpse's head. "Haha!" Shen Zhengping laughed dryly, his expression growing even more manic.

"Okay. The child is still watching, don't let him wait too long." Lu Wenzhao's cold voice was like a bucket of cold water, pulling Shen Zhengping back from his gradual madness.

Shen Zhengping turned around and found Shen Fujing being pulled by the hair by the Jinyi captain guarding him, and pressed against the gap in the wooden fence. His gaze passed over Shen Fujing's head and stopped at the fanatical yet sadistic expression of the Jinyi captain behind the two layers of wooden fence.

The corner of Shen Zhengping's eye twitched, as if he were looking at a demon from hell. Even more terrifying was the feeling he had that he had seen this demon before. "Is it necessary to go this far?!"

"It's just killing someone. It's a death anyway. In fact, torture itself doesn't have much meaning." Lu Wenzhao took the rope and walked to Shen Zhengping.

"Then why is this happening?" Shen Zhengping had lived for over forty years, aiding and abetting the evildoers. He had also killed people with his own hands, but he had never felt such fear as he did today.

"Because this is about me. I don't care how Shen Xie dies. If I were to handle it myself, I would just stab him in the heart." Lu Wenzhao leaned close to Shen Zhengping's ear and whispered, "Take a closer look at who's standing behind Shen Fujing?"

"Who is it?" Shen Zhengping felt that the face was really familiar, but he just couldn't remember it.

"The victim of this case. Don't you recognize him?" Lu Wenzhao stuffed the rope into Shen Zhengping's hand.

"The victim?" Shen Zhengping suddenly realized. "Wang Gui!?" He was so shocked that he almost cried out.

"If things are to be done, they must be done properly. You are still useful, but I don't want to kill this poor victim for you. My conscience would be uneasy. So, to shut him up, I have no choice but to do this." Lu Wenzhao left the prison and said to Shen Zhengping through the wooden bars, "Don't worry, your memorial will be submitted to Beijing today. After the matter is resolved, the Jinyiwei will recommend you for merit."

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Not long after, in the side hall at the back of the Tianjin Guard Command Headquarters, there was a quiet room specially set aside for the Jinyiwei.

"Captain, are you looking for me?" Lu Jianxing pushed the door open and entered. He had been guarding the main hall of the Command Headquarters with his men until he was called in. It was called guard duty, but in reality it was a form of control.

"Come. I have to make you run again." Lu Wenzhao smiled and waved at Lu Wenzhao.

"Just your orders." Lu Jianxing came to the table and stood there, and asked, "Where are you going?"

"Go back to Beijing." Lu Wenzhao placed two leaves, one thick and one thin, on the table.

"Go back to Beijing? Is things settled?" Lu Jianxing asked.

"I've done everything I can. Whether it's approved or not depends on who's above." Lu Wenzhao suddenly remembered the receipt he'd received from Beijing. It contained just two lines of text: "Shen Caiyu's affairs are known to everyone, so you don't need to worry about them anymore. Just do your job well and try not to cause any big noise."

"This is Shen Zhengping's memorial. After you arrive in Beijing, send it directly to the Ministry of War." Lu Wenzhao said, pointing to the thicker one.

"it is good."

Lu Wenzhao moved his finger to another leaflet. "This is what I wrote. Send it directly to the Command Headquarters and give it to Luo Jingli." "Okay, I understand." Lu Jianxing folded the two memorials and put them in his arms. He asked, "Does your Excellency have any other instructions?"

"Go quickly and come back soon. After you go out, call Han Tongzhi in." Lu Wenzhao replied.

"Yes." Lu Jianxing turned and left.

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Not long after Lu Jianxing left, Han Chengkui walked in again. At this time, Lu Wenzhao was no longer in front of the desk, but sitting next to the coffee table.

"Greetings, sir." Han Chengkui saluted respectfully.

"Please sit down." Lu Wenzhao smiled even brighter than before.

"Haha." Han Chengkui responded with a flattered expression. "Then I will dare to sit with you, my superior."

"After court is dismissed today, take your people to the Pacification Office and take Shen Xie away." Lu Wenzhao said to Han Chengkui.

Han Chengkui asked with concern: "Is there any information about Shen Caiyu's whereabouts?"

"I have some clues, and we're following them." Lu Wenzhao shrugged and replied perfunctorily to Han Chengkui. Then he got straight to the point and said, "By the way, how are you preparing the money I want?"

Han Chengkui was startled for a moment, then smiled apologetically and said, "One hundred thousand taels is not a small amount. You have to give us some time."

"I've given you my sincerity. You have to give me a real number." Lu Wenzhao looked displeased.

"We scraped together enough, drawing from all the money houses in Tianjin, and only managed to collect about 40,000 taels. We've already sent people to other places to get the rest." Han Chengkui wasn't lying. A cunning rabbit has three burrows; any corrupt official with a bit of common sense wouldn't keep their money in one place.

"Hurry up, I don't want to stay here any longer." Lu Wenzhao said. "I still want to investigate Shen Caiyu's case."

"Okay. I'll do it as soon as possible." Han Chengkui's eyes lit up. Finally, he could send this greedy plague god away.

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The imperial financial meeting lasted almost the entire day, and even lunch was held in the Wenhua Hall.

At the end of the meeting, the emperor did not invite everyone to dinner, but instead sent his officials home to eat Yuanxiao. Although it was still the end of the Lunar New Year, the country's messy financial situation and huge military deficit still made everyone look unhappy.

Since it was not yet time to adjourn the court, after bidding farewell to the Six Ministries at the Wenhua Gate, the cabinet members returned to the duty room nearby.

As soon as he entered the duty room and before he even sat down, Han Yu couldn't wait to ask, "Ye Ci Fu, do you really want to cut military spending in the border towns?"

Ye Xianggao turned around and hadn't spoken yet when Fang Congzhe, who had just arrived at the main seat, took over the conversation: "What reason is there not to cut it? The military expenditure of the border towns is very wrong, it is really too high. Thirteen million, even if the four million from Liaodong is taken away, it is still too high." The four million that Fang Congzhe mentioned was the silver calculated by converting the Liaodong army's wages and food into silver.

"As long as we can keep Bushitu and Huduntu under control, there won't be any major problems for Jizhen, Xuanfu, and Datong." Ye Xianggao sat down and briefly repeated the proposal he had made in Wenhua Hall. He then added, "Besides, cutting military spending is better than Cui Dongchang taking this opportunity to propose sending eunuchs to supervise the border towns. Eunuchs are relatively obedient in the palace under the control of the Imperial Household Department. But once they are sent abroad, they will inevitably act recklessly under the emperor's banner."

Senior civil servants generally didn't reject the eunuchs as a whole. Many of them had taught in the Imperial Library's inner library when they were young, and many still went there to teach the eunuchs. Especially in the past twenty years or so, the top eunuchs had generally enjoyed a good reputation.

Many eunuchs were even more virtuous and upright than the top civil servants of the time. For example, Tian Yi, the eunuch in charge of the Imperial Household Department, who died in the 33rd year of the Wanli reign, was nearly beheaded by the emperor in court for blocking the reintroduction of the mining tax.

In February of the 30th year of the Wanli reign, the emperor suddenly fell ill and, believing he was dying, he urgently summoned the chief minister, Shen Yiguan, to Qixiang Palace to entrust his son to his care.

While the emperor asked Shen Yikuan to assist the prince to become a wise monarch, he also announced the abolition of mining taxes and recalled the mining supervisor and tax collector.

After the emperor finished speaking, Shen Yiguan was moved to tears, the empress dowager cried with grief, the crown prince, and the other princes also cried. That night, Shen Yiguan drafted the imperial edict in the cabinet duty room in front of the cabinet ministers who had stayed up all night.

But the next day, Emperor Wanli regained consciousness. The first thing he did after opening his eyes was to ask the eunuchs to quickly find Shen Yiguan and retrieve the imperial edict. When the eunuchs went to Shen Yiguan, the ministers all said no, refusing to return it, saying that the emperor never joked.

Eunuchs came one after another to recover the imperial edict, and there were twenty of them in total. The eunuchs kowtowed and bled, begging Shen Yiguan to hand over the imperial edict. At the same time, Tian Yizheng, the eunuch in charge of the Imperial Household Department at the time, led a group of senior eunuchs to kneel and beg the emperor to revoke the order. Tian Yi argued with reason, and the Wanli Emperor was so angry that he drew his sword to kill him. But Tian Yi still insisted on his own opinion, and did not back down, and fought to the death. But just as the emperor was arguing with the senior eunuchs, the eunuchs who ran to the cabinet came back with the imperial edict that Shen Yiguan had returned.

History records that the emperor was furious and wanted to kill him. He spoke more forcefully, but the envoy had already arrived with the previous edict.

This made Tian Yi, who was ready to sacrifice himself, very angry. Afterwards, when Tian Yi saw Shen Yiguan, he spat at him and said, "Sir, just hold on a little longer. The mining tax will be abolished. Why are you so cowardly?" It really seemed like the eunuchs were about to fight to the death, but the Prime Minister was the first to give in.

But then again, the upper limit of eunuchs is very high, reaching as high as Zheng He. Meanwhile, the lower limit is also very low, reaching as low as Wang Zhen. Furthermore, after being sent to the local areas, no one dared to supervise them because they were under the banner of the palace. Therefore, eunuchs were easily corrupted. Even if they were not corrupt, most eunuchs had no experience in military command. Even if they were parachuted in, even if they had good intentions, they could easily become amateurs guiding experts.

"Although I don't know when the emperor will summon us for a meeting again, the issue of military expenses will definitely be brought up again next time. We have to come up with a set of rules. If eunuchs are really sent to the border towns to supervise the army, something big will definitely happen." Ye Xianggao said worriedly.

Liu Yirong's eyes flickered slightly. He could roughly guess that Fang Congzhe and Ye Xianggao had probably already discussed this matter and reached an agreement. He sat down at his seat and asked, "Ye Cifu, is this regulation you're talking about about cutting military spending or inspecting the border towns?"

(End of this chapter)