The Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was extremely rebellious

Chapter 143: Kill without a care
The capital city has been extremely busy these days.

Ordinary people are too busy to handle it.

They had to be busy with their own work, but they also had to take time out to watch the fun and listen to those literate people bragging about articles they had read in the Wanli Palace Gazette.

That was the top scholar's essay. Ordinary people had no chance to see it. Officials who could normally see the top scholar's essay would not come over and tell them about it. What's more, the top scholar wrote about the disaster caused by the northern barbarians.

They are also very concerned about what the Northern Tartar Disaster is all about, and ordinary people love to hear about this.

They are so busy all day that their eyes and ears seem to be exhausted.

The officials in the court were even busier. Not only did they have to complete the task of performance evaluation, but they also had to listen to people's nonsense, submit memorials to advise the young emperor, and read Wanli's reports to try to figure out the young emperor's thoughts.

I was so busy that day that my brain was a little exhausted.

After a few days of bustling activity in the capital, the house searches gradually came to an end. The cavalry from the Beijing camp seemed to have returned to the Nanyuan parade ground, and the Jinyiwei also gradually dispersed. The common people could only disperse with reluctance.

At about 5 p.m. that afternoon, the sky was covered with dark clouds. There was no sunset, and it seemed as if it was getting dark early. The palace looked gray and hazy.

The oil lamps in the imperial study were already lit.

Wanli looked at the list of confiscated property in his hand and couldn't help but snort coldly.

The three great families of Puzhou were all as wealthy as a country, but the total amount of gold and silver seized from their children and in-laws was less than five million taels!

is it possible?

Last time, he seized the line of Marquis Wuding and the relatives of Zhang Cheng, as well as the heir of Marquis Wuqing and a lackey of the three major wealthy families in Puzhou, and seized more than six million taels of gold and silver.

Are the three great families of Puzhou not as rich as Marquis Wuding?

That's a joke.

The annual income of the two major salt fields is more than this, and the eight imperial merchants are richer than the Qing court.

They are truly wealthy enough to rival a country.

These guys actually transferred all the money away in advance, so he only managed to steal so little. This time he really miscalculated and didn't keep a close eye on these guys in advance.

As a result, most of the people ran away, and no one knew how much money was lost.

The money he needs next year is not just a little bit, five million taels is far from enough.

Also, it took him nearly ten days to copy a few companies last time, but this time it only took five or six days, so he hasn't even published the second issue of the Wanli Palace Gazette yet.

Should we start killing now?
Never mind, kill!

Wanli frowned and pondered for a while, then said decisively: "Yingzhen, order people to post notices overnight. The three major families of Puzhou and their relatives are collaborating with the enemy and selling out the country. The entire family will be executed!
Tomorrow morning at about noon, the execution ground in Xishi will begin!
Go ask Lu Yi to prepare the prison van and start taking people to the West Market execution ground at around 1:00 AM tomorrow morning."

Duke Chengguo Zhu Yingzhen bowed without hesitation and said, "I obey your command."

After going out to fight the Northern Barbarians, he seemed to have become a lot braver.

Wanli then said to Li Xuancheng, "My dear uncle, quickly send someone to convey my order. I order the Supervisory Office, the Ministry of Justice, and the Supreme Court to prepare officials to supervise the execution, read out the charges, verify the identity, and carry out the execution. Be prepared to start the execution at dawn tomorrow morning at 11:00 AM."

Li Xuancheng nodded repeatedly and walked away quickly.

Wanli thought for a moment, then said to Shan Sinan, "General Shan, send more troops to the West Market tomorrow to keep watch. I think someone might cause trouble."

The reason why he started killing without caring about anything was that he felt someone was going to cause trouble.

This is basically the routine for civil servants. First, they submit memorials to advise and remonstrate. If the emperor does not listen, they will start to make trouble.

He had kept a large number of memorials of advice and remonstration without reviewing them, and I guess those civil servants couldn't bear it anymore.

If he continued to wait, those civil servants would trick the young people into making trouble.

Once a young and foolish person starts making trouble, it can be really annoying.

He couldn't just deal with those young fools for no reason.

Therefore, it would be better to start the execution immediately and let those young people make trouble at the execution ground. Then he would find a pretext. If they make trouble at the palace, it can be said to be persuasion, but if they make trouble at the execution ground, it would involve the laws of the Ming Dynasty.

At this time, officials from all the major government offices began to pour out.

After the You hour, they can go home. It is so cold, and they all want to go back quickly to sit on the warm kang and have a good meal.

However, some people did not go home.

Xu Guo and Xu Xijue followed Shen Shixing's carriage in a carriage and went to Shen Shixing's mansion.

Shen Shixing brought the two of them to a living room with a warm kang, ordered someone to heat the kang, and served some wine and food. Then he invited the two of them to sit down and drink a glass of wine to warm themselves up.

Although their bodies were hot, the faces of the three men were still very cold.

Their secret instigation and persuasion obviously had no effect. Not only did Wanli not order an end to the house searches, but he also sent a court report to all officials.

The three of them saw it at a glance. What was meant by the Northern Tartar Disaster was that the three major powerful families in Puzhou were collaborating with the enemy and selling out the country.

Li Tingji's article on the Li Fuda case was not about Li Fuda of the Maitreya Sect, but about how the three major powerful families in Puzhou were connected with Wuding Hou Guo Xun and Altan Khan.

Of course they knew that the three major families in Puzhou were collaborating with the enemy and selling out their country.

But they pretended not to know, and they even ordered people to encourage those young people who really didn't know to submit petitions to plead for mercy to the three major families in Puzhou.

As for why.

That's of course for profit.

The three great families of Puzhou gave them enough benefits, and even the disciples and old friends of the three great families of Puzhou in the court followed them.

In this situation, they naturally have to take action.

If they don't take action, the benefits will be a one-time deal and will be gone in the future. The disciples and old friends of the three major families in Puzhou in the court will no longer follow them.

The problem is, it’s useless even if they take action.

Shen Shixing couldn't help but sigh slightly. "The young emperor doesn't care about those memorials at all. This brat has already sent an order. The sons of the three great families in Puzhou and their relatives will be executed tomorrow morning."

Hearing this, Xu Guo was obviously a little anxious and said, "Then we have to quickly send someone to beat up those fools and stop them."

This guy is obviously hiding something from us.

Xu Xijue frowned slightly and said, "Every time the young emperor executes someone, he sends a large number of Jinyiwei and imperial guards to guard the execution ground. Can those fools stop him?"

Hearing this, Xu Guo rubbed his hands anxiously and said, "What should we do? Otherwise, should we send someone to talk to Gao Maocai, Xin Zixiu, and Zhang Mengli?

If the young emperor wants to execute someone, he has to have someone do it. If they don't send an official, will the young emperor let the Jinyiwei and the imperial guards do it directly?"

You guys get more benefits than us, right?
So urgent.

Shen Shixing slowly shook his head and said, "It's useless. Xin Zixiu and Zhang Mengli are like stones in a toilet. They don't pay much attention to our people. Gao Maocai is the only one who is willing to talk to us, but it's impossible for him to disobey our orders for us. He is not a brainless person.

Let's let those brainless youngsters take over. Even if we can't save the children and relatives of the three major families in Puzhou, we must do it to show the people of the three major families in Puzhou that we are really working hard to help them.

You still have to explain to Han Ji that we really can’t stop the confiscation of property. It’s impossible for the little emperor to stop halfway through the confiscation.”

This guy is really caught between two sides.

At first, he was fooled by Wanli into fighting against the three major families of Puzhou. When he found that he could not defeat Wanli with his own strength, he turned around and licked the three major families of Puzhou!
At that time, Wang Chonggu was worried that if the Northern Tartars could not kill Wanli, Wanli would deal with them. This guy licked him just right, and the two sides hit it off.

According to Wang Chonggu's original plan, if Wanli took action against the three powerful families, their disciples and old friends would temporarily turn to Shen Shixing, work together to build momentum, speak for them, and cheer for them everywhere, making it seem that all the civil servants were on their side, so that Wanli would be afraid to take action and dare not deal with them.

Who would have thought that Wanli didn't care at all. Not only did he raid their homes without hesitation, but he also immediately ordered their execution after the raid!

This really caught Wang Chonggu and Shen Shixing off guard.

How deep was the hatred between Wanli and the three powerful families of Puzhou?

So reckless.

They don’t know that the eight imperial merchants in history sold out the Ming Dynasty.

Wanli knew it.

Can he spare these guys?
(End of this chapter)