Zhu Houzhao never thought of himself as a good person, let alone a person who repaid his grievances with virtue.

In his previous life, although he was law-abiding and grateful, he was never willing to let himself be wronged.

In the days of Emperor Hongzhi's funeral, Liu Jian, Li Dongyang, and Xie Qian, in order to show the majesty of being auxiliary ministers, and also to test themselves, applied not to kneel in the Zigong Palace of the first emperor on the grounds of winter rain and coldness.

At that time, Zhu Houzhao, who was obscure in Taoguang, wanted to clean up the inner court first and then clean up the outer court, and avoid the outer court from making a stumbling block for himself when he cleaned up the inner court, so he agreed to the requests of Liu Jian, Li Dongyang, and Xie Qian at that time, and tolerated the provocative behavior of these three cabinet ministers against him.

But Zhu Houzhao did not forget the provocation of these three ministers to himself, nor did he forget the disrespect they indirectly revealed to the first emperor.

Not to mention that the current Emperor Zhengde inherited Zhu Houzhao's emotions, that is, as a later Ming Dynasty lover who respected Emperor Hongzhi, he could not tolerate the disrespect of others to Emperor Hongzhi.

Therefore, Zhu Houzhao must ask Liu Jian and other three ministers to kneel back now for the gifts owed to Emperor Hongzhi! At the same time, I also want them to suffer well in front of the mausoleum of Emperor Hongzhi!

However, Xie Qian didn't want to kneel now, and Zhu Houzhao couldn't help laughing: "Yes!" Wang Yue intended to harm me, and I sentenced him to 3,600 knives! And you Xie Qian harmed the first emperor, which is equivalent to harming my father, and you are not willing to kneel, naturally you must not be spared, if you want to double, I will sentence you to 7,200 knives! ”

Seven thousand two hundred dollars?!

Xie Qian couldn't help but be stunned!

Xie Qian couldn't imagine how terrifying it was to cut seven thousand two hundred knives on himself!

Before Zhu Houzhao could call someone to take him down, Xie Qian hurriedly kowtowed again and said, "Your Majesty!" The minister is guilty, and the minister is willing to go to the first emperor's mausoleum to kneel for two days and two nights! I only hope that Your Majesty can see that the minister is so sincere, and punish the minister lightly! ”

"Please punish Your Majesty lightly!"

Liu Jian and Xie Qian were also busy kowtowing to Zhu Houzhao and begging for mercy.

"Everything depends on the meaning of the first emperor, wait to see if the first emperor will give me a dream!"

Zhu Houzhao said that he hurriedly ordered people to drag Liu Jian, Li Dongyang, and Xie Qian down, and instructed: "Liang Ze, who is dressed in brocade clothes, leads people to watch them at the imperial tomb, and if they dare to move, they will nail their feet and legs to the ground!" ”

At the same time, Zhu Houzhao looked at Zhang Yu again: "Since you have only been the cabinet ministers in your eyes from the beginning, then you should also accompany them to kneel, after all, they are your real masters!" ”

When Zhang Yu heard Zhu Houzhao say this, he immediately cried and roared: "Emperor! The old slave knows that he is guilty! The old slave deeply regretted that he was blind and ignorant that day, and he should not disrespect the emperor and the queen mother, but the old slave is your house slave, not their cabinet servant! ”

"Drag it on, I'm too lazy to talk nonsense with you!"

Zhu Houzhao said that he asked the Jinyi guard to drag Zhang Yu down, and ordered: "Pass the decree, and escort Liu Wentai to the imperial tomb to kneel!" ”

……

At that time, in the afternoon of this day, when the cold rain was pouring on Beacon Mountain, Liu Jian, Li Dongyang, Xie Qian, Zhang Yu, and Liu Wentai were escorted to the mausoleum of Emperor Hongzhi located here and knelt.

It was the wax moon, and it was raining like ice and snow, and the temperature was so low that people could feel the cold to the bone.

These six people, who have always been accustomed to enjoying happiness, have suffered like this, Liu Jian began to tremble as soon as he came here, shouting that he wanted to go back.

Li Dongyang also said with teeth fighting: "This is going to be cold to death!" ”

Xie Qian even cried with a sad face: "I'm afraid of the cold, I'm afraid of the cold, I'm from the south, I'm really afraid of the cold!" ”

Zhang Yu only leaned on his back.

And Liu Wentai is like reciting a medical book: "In such a cold place, kneeling will only make the cold penetrate the bones, and at least it will be infected with wind and cold, and at worst, the wind evil will enter the body, and it will hurt to death!" I, Liu Wentai, don't want to suffer this crime! ”

Naturally, the brocade guards didn't care whether the five people were willing or not, and directly forced the five people to kneel on the ground.

And these five people did not dare to disobey, after all, they also knew that if they did not kneel, they would be nailed to the ground.

Liu Jian knelt on the ground and suddenly felt as if a knife was constantly cutting his knees, making him feel like he was kneeling on a needleboard.

And Li Dongyang suddenly stood up and shouted: "This is really cold, I can't kneel!" ”

However, Li Dongyang had to kneel down after seeing the knife in Liang Ze's hand.

At this time, Xie Qian didn't stand up, but only shrunk his neck and kept sobbing.

Zhang Yu kept shouting that it hurts!

Liu Wentai still cried: "I don't want to die like this, I don't want to die like this!" ”

These five people are not young, and they are not ordinary people, and kneeling in such a cold field naturally makes them more uncomfortable than cutting them with a thousand knives.

But it's also the punishment they deserve.

And what they don't know is that this is just the beginning for them.

When the evening came, when the wind was gusting, these five people were all terrified because they participated in the murder of Emperor Hongzhi, and instinctively felt that the ghost of Emperor Hongzhi was watching them in the dark.

When a voice close to mourning sounded, Liu Jian shuddered first: "First Emperor, is it you?" ”

When Li Dongyang heard Liu Jian's question, he couldn't help but think of the fact that if it wasn't for the first emperor to promote him, he was afraid that he would still be working hard in Hanlin, and he felt a little guilty for a while, and immediately cried: "First emperor! I can't help you! The minister is guilty! The minister is guilty! ”

Li Dongyang kept kowtowing.

Xie Qian was also a little scared, but now when he saw Li Dongyang kowtowing directly in fright, he was also so frightened that he trembled a little, and he also cried, without the prestige of the former cabinet ministers: "Emperor Xian, don't look for the minister, although the minister is guilty, but it is not the minister who wants to harm you, and besides, you are not the minister who is poisonous, if you want to blame, blame Zhang Yu, blame him, he hurt you!" ”

"You have to exonerate yourself! I didn't dare to harm the first emperor, if you didn't promise to say that it would be okay to hurt the first emperor, otherwise how would I, a eunuch in the inner court, dare to harm the first emperor! ”

Zhang Yu also hurriedly defended himself, there were black holes all around, and he was really afraid that the ghost of the first emperor would entangle him.

"That's not my crime alone, it's Li Dongyang who analyzed and said that this matter will not be discovered, Emperor Xian, if you want to blame it, blame Li Dongyang!"

Xie Qian pointed to Li Dongyang and shouted towards the mausoleum of Emperor Hongzhi.

"First Emperor! The minister was wronged, the non-minister first thought about wanting to kill you, it was Shoufu, it was Shoufu who said that you have been the emperor for seventeen years, and before the prince grows up, you should also go into the soil for peace, Xie Qian also said that it is better to be a big one, and the minister made a plan for this! ”

Li Dongyang said with a sad cry.

Although there were no so-called ghosts or anything like that except for the brocade guards who were guarding them, these five people were all frightened, and they were busy kowtowing and begging for mercy, and told them everything they had committed.

And Jin Yiwei Qianhu Liang Ze couldn't help but shake his head when he saw this, he never thought that these old men who used to be high in the cabinet would be afraid of being like this now, on the contrary, these Jinyi guards who were doing things under them didn't do anything bad and were not afraid of ghosts knocking on the door, and they were still standing at their posts calmly and leisurely.