The Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was extremely rebellious

Chapter 166 Suspected of Rebellion
Jiang Guohua was escorted back to Beijing, and Wanli decided to personally try this man with a heart as black as ink.

It was early in the morning at about 1 a.m., and it was cloudy and rainy. The sky was very dark, so it was not suitable to go out.

Wanli got up early, and he got up so early just to go out.

He impatiently changed into his Feiyu suit and called Shan Sinan over, saying hastily, "General Shan, prepare the carriage. I need to go to the Northern Pacification Prison."

Shan Sinan said without hesitation: "Your Majesty, how many cavalry guards do you need?"

Wanli said without hesitation: "The Northern Pacification Office is not far away, just bring a hundred experts to protect it."

Soon, hundreds of imperial guards set off escorting a carriage.

Li Xuancheng and Shan Sinan were still sitting in the carriage with Wanli. The number of people was not noticeable at all, so no one knew that Wanli had left the palace.

At this time, in the gloomy and terrifying imperial prison, Jiang Guohua was sitting against the wall in a daze with a look of horror on his face.

He knew what he had done.

If the three major families in Puzhou had not lost their power, he would have been fine. Zhang Juzheng vaguely knew that there was something wrong in Shangzhou, but he only demoted him and did not investigate further.

At that time, the three major wealthy families in Puzhou were at their peak of power, and Zhang Juzheng did not dare to provoke them. After he was demoted, he was transferred to the Nanjing Ministry of Justice as a doctor, and later transferred to the Guangdong Provincial Administration Commissioner's Office to serve as a judicial inspector.

Originally, he thought he would continue to be promoted to councilor, then to governor, and then transferred back to the capital to serve as vice minister of six ministries, or even promoted to minister of six ministries.

Who knew that Zhang Siwei would suddenly pass away.

Immediately afterwards, the young emperor began to deal with the three major powerful families in Puzhou.

He was so frightened that he immediately retired and returned home.

Unexpectedly, he was still arrested and imprisoned in the imperial prison.

Who is suing him?

It seems that Chen Lu died of anger a few years after he was dismissed from his post and investigated.

He was still daydreaming when several jailers suddenly came up quickly, opened the cell door quickly, and dragged him out.

Soon, he was dragged into the torture room by these guys and thrown to the ground.

It seemed that he was the only one in the imperial prison at the moment. The executioners seemed to be bored to death and looked at him like a cat seeing a mouse.

Sitting behind the desk was a young man in his twenties. He didn't look like a ferocious Jinyiwei at all, but more like a rich young man.

Who is this?
Are you the son of a noble family?
He had never met Wanli because he had been transferred to a local position before Wanli ascended the throne.

Wanli looked at this guy and said expressionlessly, "Jiang Guohua, tell me the truth. What did you do as the Right Counselor of the Shaanxi Provincial Administration Commission?"

Sure enough, it was because of this.

Jiang Guohua still hoped for the best and said, "I didn't do anything. The officials of the Shaanxi Provincial Administration Commission all know that I am incorruptible and honest."

Are you still incorruptible and honest?
Okay, let me see how shameless you are.

Wanli said coldly: "You didn't do anything, why were you demoted?"

This!
Jiang Guohua racked his brains and said, "Well, this humble official is honest and upright, and never accepts bribes to do things for others. As a result, I have offended many people. They are maliciously slandering me."

And malicious slander?
Wanli sneered, "Who is slandering you maliciously?"

You do not know?

I can’t tell you this.

Jiang Guohua simply pretended to be confused and said, "I don't know who is maliciously slandering me."

Are you pretending to be confused?

Wanli pretended to be curious and asked, "You are only in your fifties, why are you retiring and returning home?"

I'm just afraid that the truth will be revealed.

Jiang Guohua simply lied, "My humble servant is in poor health and can no longer serve as an official. I have no choice but to retire and return home."

It's not that you're not feeling well, it's that your skin is itchy.

Wanli suddenly shouted angrily: "How dare you talk nonsense?

Don’t you know your own resume? You became a Jinshi in the 38th year of Jiajing, and you were promoted all the way. In the 12th year, you were promoted to Right Councillor.

Is it so easy to get promoted to this position? If nothing goes wrong, will you be promoted to the Minister of Six Ministries in another twelve years?

Tell me the truth, who did you rely on to have such smooth sailing?"

I can't say!
The problem is that such a promotion is really too abnormal. Not many top scorers get promoted like this.

If I don't tell, I'll probably be severely punished. What should I do?

Jiang Guohua thought about it anxiously, and suddenly an idea struck him: "I have taken refuge with Lord Gao."

High arch?

You think I'm easy to fool, right?

Wanli narrowed his eyes and said coldly, "Gao Gong was even punished by Zhang Juzheng at that time. You committed such a serious crime and you are only demoted?
Moreover, you slowly ascended back later. Gao Gong was dead but you were still ascending. He used his soul to ascend for you, right?
Don't think I don't know about Shangzhou's affairs. I ask you again, who did you take refuge with?

I!
Is this the little emperor?
The people around didn't seem surprised at all.

This is the little emperor!

Jiang Guohua was so scared that he collapsed to the ground.

The little emperor found out about what happened in Shangzhou!

Seeing this, Wanli gnashed his teeth and said, "You are truly cruel! Tens of thousands of miners and tens of thousands of innocent souls... Even if they stole some minerals, what's the big deal? Theft is punishable by a beating at most, yet you mobilized a large army to kill them all!"

Aren't they just afraid that the imperial court will find out that they're mining and smelting iron for you? How dare you be so cruel!
Today, I will collect some interest from them. Come, torture him severely. Use all eighteen kinds of torture on him. Just don't kill him."

what?
All kinds of tortures are used!
Jiang Guohua almost peed his pants when he heard this.

Several executioners pounced on him like wolves and tigers, pinned him to the ground and started beating him.

The torture in the imperial prison was truly cruel, indescribably cruel.

As soon as the special knife cut him, Jiang Guohua screamed in pain, "Ah, I confess, I confess, Your Majesty, I confess, I surrendered to Yang Bo, ah, I confess everything, please stop now!"

Is that the answer?
Still early.

Wanli asked coldly, "Whose idea was it about Shangzhou?"

Jiang Guohua cried miserably, "I don't know. I ordered the miners to mine at full capacity and produce more iron, but they refused, so I reported it.

Afterwards, I received a secret order to report the Shangzhou miners who were illegally mining iron and coal, and no one was able to stop them. Then, the imperial court sent a large army to suppress them. This was not my idea!

Wasn't it your idea?
Wanli raised his hand to stop the executioner, then asked, "Who led the troops to wipe out tens of thousands of miners?"

Jiang Guohua said without hesitation, "Zhang Siwei's distant cousin Zhang Weizhong."

Damn it, this guy got away with it. I shouldn’t have killed him with a knife in the first place.

Wanli frowned, then asked, "What kind of people did you recruit to mine later? How many did you recruit?"

Jiang Guohua hesitated for a moment, then shook his head and said, "I didn't recruit them. I don't know who they are. They came here on their own. There are probably more than 10,000 young and strong men."

Do you still want to hide it?
Wanli looked at the executioners.

The executioners immediately pounced on him like wolves and tigers.

Jiang Guohua immediately howled miserably, "I confess, I confess, they are Northern Tartars, they are Northern Tartars. They brought their own tents, and you can tell at a glance. But they are not wearing Northern Tartar clothes."

Northern Tartars?

The young and strong people of the Tumed tribe!
Wanli raised his hand again and asked, "How much iron can tens of thousands of Northern Barbarians produce in a day?"

Jiang Guohua said honestly, "They don't know how to smelt iron. The ones who smelt iron are sent by the three great families of Puzhou. Because there are too few people to smelt iron, they can only smelt a few hundred thousand kilograms of pig iron a day."

Hundreds of thousands of pounds is not enough?

Wanli continued to ask, "How do you transport hundreds of thousands of kilograms of pig iron every day?"

Jiang Guohua continued honestly, "The Northern Tartars have plenty of horse-drawn carriages. Hundreds of thousands of pounds of pig iron would only take a few thousand carts. If we pull it to the Ba River in Lantian, over a hundred miles away, there will naturally be boats to pick it up."

It seems that this guy only knows this much.

The charges are enough.

This guy defected to Yang Bo and helped them privately smelt pig iron, and is suspected of treason.

Next, we still have to collect some interest from those tens of thousands of wronged souls.

Wanli thought for a moment, then stood up and said, "Continue to use all eighteen tortures. When you're done, give him some medicine. Don't let him die."

what?
I've confessed everything, but you still have to use all kinds of torture!

Jiang Guohua was so frightened when he heard this that he begged for mercy again and again: "Your Majesty, please spare my life! Your Majesty, please spare my life!"

Wanli ignored him and just turned and left.

Several executioners pounced on him like wolves and tigers.

(End of this chapter)