Volume VII Chapter 6 The Way of Corruption
Wen Tiren took his henchmen to Chongzhen to frame Zhang Bin, saying that Zhang Bin formed a party for personal gain, cronyism, bullying superiors and subordinates, mutilating dissidents, oppressing the people, and forcibly taking and plundering, these are just enough.
Although these charges are framed, there is still a little bit of far-fetched evidence, but in the end, he said that Zhang Bin was angry and resentful, and the people were not happy, which was a bit excessive.
This is complete nonsense, there is no basis at all, the people of Fuguang and Guangzhou provinces can be said to live and work in peace and contentment, and live a prosperous life.
So, why did he say that?
He naturally said this for a purpose, because he was going to send someone to Fuguang to loot and loot Fuguang's wealth.
This is the usual trick of the eunuchs, they often forcibly seize and provoke the people to revolt, but when it reaches the ears of the apocalypse, it is the people who resist taxes and intend to rebel!
Chongzhen is a little more difficult to fool than the apocalypse, so Wen Tiren will say this, he is laying the groundwork for the future looting action, when the time comes, after the looting of the people's fat and people's ointment, it will definitely make the sky angry and resentful, and the people will not be able to make a living, he can directly spread his hands in front of Chongzhen, and shirked: "Your Majesty, look, I said that Zhang Bin made Fuguangtian angry and resentful, and the people are not happy!" ”
Is the eunuch so shameless?
Wei Zhongxian is in Japan, and more shameless things have been done!
For example, the famous Huangshan Wu Yangchun case of the Tianqi Dynasty is a model of the eunuch party forcibly seizing and looting the people's fat and ointment.
Wu Yangchun, a native of She County, Huizhou, is still a fellow villager with Bi Maoliang and Bi Maokang brothers, but this Wu Yangchun is not a high-ranking official from Jinshi, he is just a businessman.
She County, Huizhou is the birthplace of Hui merchants, and there are many merchants here, and the Wu family of She County is the most famous of the Hui merchants.
This is not famous in Huizhou, but in the entire Ming Dynasty, because the Wu family of Shexian County donated to the imperial court twice in order to glorify the threshold.
The so-called donation is actually to spend money to buy officials, which is a unique rule in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, rich people can donate a certain amount of silver taels to the imperial court, and the imperial court will give a certain grade of official position according to the amount of silver taels in return.
Of course, the officials who donated are all loose officials with no power, that is, they take care of themselves, they can't control others, and they won't have any impact on the court.
The ancestor of the Wu family in Shexian County started by buying timber from the Yellow Mountain, and later responded to the call of the imperial court to deliver grain and grass for the soldiers of the border army, in exchange for salt, and started a salt business, and became rich because of it.
Fame and fortune, fame and fortune, the word fame and fortune do not know how many people have been killed, as soon as this person has a name, he wants to seek profit, this person has a profit, he wants to seek fame, and in the Ming Dynasty, doing business is a cheap business, and being an official is the business of honoring the ancestors.
The first donation of the Wu family in She County was in the early years of Wanli, when Wanli had just succeeded to the throne, the capital earthquake, the north suffered from drought, and the south suffered from floods, Wu Yangchun's grandfather Wu Shouli took the initiative to donate 200,000 taels of silver for disaster relief, and the imperial court greatly praised and awarded two officials of Guanglu Temple in the southern capital of Wu.
The second donation of the Wu family in Shexian County was in the twenty-fifth year of Wanli, when the Wanli Korean War was in full swing, the palace suffered a fire again, and the imperial court was in urgent need of money, Wu Yangchun's father Wu Shizuo led his brothers and nephews to donate 300,000 taels of silver as military funds to help the Ming army defeat the Japanese in Korea, and the imperial court once again greatly praised it, and awarded Wu Yangchun this generation of brothers five people in the scholar's position.
It should be said that the Wu family of Shexian County was a model of businessmen at that time, although they donated silver taels to seek officials, but also made a lot of contributions to the imperial court's disaster relief and foreign wars, it stands to reason that the imperial court should be well praised and given a certain amount of care.
Wanli Dynasty is indeed like this, the imperial court praised the Wu family of She County, and also took considerable care of them, other traders who did salt business always had to be exploited by corrupt officials when they exchanged for salt, but the Wu family of She County was never embarrassed.
However, as soon as the Apocalypse Dynasty arrived, the attitude of the imperial court towards the Wu clan of Shexian County changed, or the hands of corrupt officials and corrupt officials could no longer be controlled, they didn't care that the Wu clan of Shexian County was a righteous merchant who was praised by the Wanli Emperor, once they had the opportunity, they would pounce on it and bite a few bites.
For example, after Wu Shizuo's death, because Wu Yangchun was the eldest son, he got a share of the salt business in more than 2,000 acres of mountainous land in Huangshan and Huaiyang and other places, while the second son Wu Yangze only got a share of the salt business but not the mountainous land, so he was not satisfied and ran to fight a lawsuit with his eldest brother.
As a result, this lawsuit was protracted, and there was no conclusion until Wu Yangze died, and a patrol surnamed Luo also embezzled half of the more than 2,000 acres of mountainous land, saying that it was Wu Jiayin's commercial tax, and half of the mountainous land was not included in the official!
This matter is not over, and then Wu Yangze's domestic servant Wu Rong actually embezzled Wu Yangze's family property, and also occupied Wu Yangze's concubine, it is really unreasonable, Wu Yangchun, as the eldest in the family, went to help Wu Yangze clean up the domestic servants at this time, sued Wu Rong, and wanted the government to punish him severely, but Wu Rong bribed and bought off the corrupt officials, and he ran away!
Wu Yangze's family property is gone, and the Wu family has lost nearly one percent of their wealth at least because of it, and I don't know if the government took more or Wu Rong's evil servant took more.
This matter is actually nothing, there is another person who makes the Wu family irreversible, this person is Wu Yangchun's nephew Wu Kongjia.
Wu Kongjia is extremely narrow-minded, his father was originally weak and sickly, and once had a dispute with Wu Yangchun because of clan affairs, and soon died of illness.
However, Wu Kongjia put this account on Wu Yangchun's head and insisted on treating Wu Yangchun as an enemy who killed his father!
Wu Yangchun is also a responsible person, although Wu Kongjia's father was originally weak and sick, and he didn't live long, but he died of illness soon after a quarrel with himself, he always felt that he had a responsibility in it, so from that time on, he took good care of Wu Kongjia and his mother, and sponsored Wu Kongjia to participate in the imperial examination.
Wu Kongjia studied hard for ten years, including going to the county, province, and capital to catch the exam for more than ten years, and he didn't earn a penny, his family's living expenses, and the cost of his study and examination were all from Wu Yangchun, it stands to reason that Wu Kongjia should no longer resent Wu Yangchun, after all, people quarreled with his frail and sick old father, and as a result, he paid his family's living expenses and reading examination fees for more than ten years, which is enough, but this Wu Kongjia has always held a grudge.
Sometimes, hatred can indeed make people stronger, and this Wu Kongjia participated in the fifth year of the Apocalypse and the palace examination with the funding of Wu Yangchun, and actually won the first and third places in one fell swoop, which is the so-called Tanhualang!
The third place in the first class, according to the routine, was awarded to the Hanlin Academy for editing, this Wu Kongjia did not compile some good things during the editing of the Hanlin Academy, and he actively participated in the editing of the infamous "Three Dynasties Classics", reversing black and white, confusing right and wrong, and smearing the Donglin Party.
Wei Zhongxian saw that this kid was good and promising, so he accepted Wu Kongjia as his adopted son.
In the Apocalypse Dynasty, Wei Zhongxian's righteous son is a great figure, at least he can mix six books, and it is not a matter to enter the cabinet, Wu Kongjia was still studying in the Hanlin Academy at the time, and he had not yet been released, so he was not brilliant yet, but he used Wei Zhongxian's identity as a righteous son to start revenge on the Wu family of Shexian County.
At that time, when the three major halls of the palace burned down by the Wanli Dynasty were being repaired, Wu Kongjia immediately pulled Wei Zhongxian's confidant Huo Weihua to propose to take the wood of Huangshan, which meant that the Wu family of She County would provide wood for free and consume Wu Yangchun's family wealth!
This guy, how much wood does it take to repair the three halls, Wu Yangchun was shocked when he heard the news, and hurriedly sent someone to the capital with 30,000 taels of silver to make some money, wanting the court to take back his life.
It's good to die, the people he sent to the capital to do some things actually gave the silver to Feng Quan, the head of the cabinet, Feng Quan took the money and ran to tell Wei Gong Public Relations that Wu Kongjia heard the news and simply ran to cry with his eunuch father Wei Zhongxian, begging the eunuch to make his own decisions and clean up the Wu family in Shexian County.
This is a good thing, you take revenge, I rob the money, and complement each other.
Wei Zhongxian immediately asked people to write a letter of retribution, saying that Wu Rong, a small citizen of Huizhou, sued Wu Yangchun, befriended the gentry, occupied Huangshan, and stole timber.
What is there to say about this little thing, the apocalypse who was played with by Wei Zhongxian didn't ask what was going on at all, and directly allowed it.
Now Wu Yangchun's family is miserable, his father and son three plus five in-laws, all of them were caught in the capital by Jinyi Wei Ti Cavalry, Wu Yangchun was frightened and sent 50,000 taels of silver to Jinyi Wei Commander Tian Ergeng, wanting to ask him to raise his noble hand and let himself and his family go, but the result was naturally that the meat bun beat the dog and had no return.
Tian Ergeng directly put them in the edict prison, tortured them, and the three of Wu Yangchun's father and son who were beaten were all stripped of their skin and flesh, and they were tortured to death without even hearing the verdict.
Wei Zhongxian finally decided that Wu Yangchun's family would take more than 600,000 taels of stolen goods, and the rest of the in-laws would each take 136,000 taels of stolen goods, and they would "occupy" 300,000 taels of silver on the mountain occasions.
Anyway, the person who was caught by him and imprisoned in prison, no matter what the reason, death is a death, it depends on how long the torture lasts, how to torture, the longer the person he hates, but the torture is only the beginning, he still has to sit on the stolen goods, that is, to rob money, how much money he set, the family of the "human prisoner" who was tortured to death must pay him how much money, if he doesn't give it, even the family members will be arrested and tortured to death!
At the behest of Wei Zhongxian, it was the eunuch minions who went to Huizhou to recover the "dirty silver", and Lu Xia, the director of the Department of Cleaning and Officials of the Ministry of Industry, asked, this guy, directly with more than 30 wives and concubines, stayed in Huizhou Mansion and began to recover the "dirty silver".
The meaning of bringing the whole family with him is obvious, that is, to scrape the hometown of Huizhou Shexian County, the birthplace of the famous Huizhou merchants, and the hometown of rich armor!
Wu Yangchun's family is just a branch of the Wu family in She County, where did he get more than 600,000 taels of silver, and his in-laws did not have more than 100,000 taels of silver, and it was not worth 300,000 taels to sell all the mountain farms accumulated by Wu's ancestors, that is to say, even if all the family properties of Wu Yangchun's family and his in-laws were copied, all of them were sold, and more than one million taels of silver were sold.
Wei Zhongxian naturally knew that he couldn't loot more than one million taels of silver just by searching Wu Yangchun's family, so he sent Lu Xia to ask, but not only to loot Wu Yangchun's family's property, but Wu Yangchun's family couldn't scrape up more than one million taels, so they would loot the entire Wu family in She County, and if they couldn't find it, they would loot all the merchants and ordinary people in the entire She County, anyway, no matter what, his father-in-law Wei would have to loot more than one million taels of silver from here!
After Lu Wen searched the homes of Wu Yangchun's family and several of his in-laws, a total of less than 600,000 taels was scavenged, which was far from enough, so he began to attack other branches of the Wu family in She County, and then gradually spread to all the wealthy households in She County.
It is impossible to count how much silver he has looted, anyway, he has been looting in She County for nearly six months, breaking into private houses, illegally arresting, and persuading him, doing everything he can, and he has already looted the more than one million taels that Father-in-law Wei wanted, and he still doesn't stop, because he still has to collect "dirty silver" to fill his pocket!
The thugs trained by the eunuchs under him also filled their pockets one by one and did whatever they wanted, they not only robbed whoever had money, but also broke into the door when they saw that the girl was beautiful, wantonly ruining and humiliating!
Shi Wancheng, the prefect of Huizhou, was unable to resist Wei Zhongxian's obscenity and could not protect the people under his rule, so he wrote to resign, but Wei Zhongxian deliberately detained him like a monkey and did not reply, and finally he felt guilty, and even abandoned the official directly, shaved his ordination and became a monk!
The people of She County were unbearable and humiliated, gathered tens of thousands of people, and rushed directly into the yamen where Lu Xia wen's office was going to kill this evil official, but as a result, Lu Xia ran away with the looted people's fat and ointment, and the angry people only killed two eunuch thugs.
This was the famous Huizhou People's Revolution at that time, in order to cover people's eyes and ears and fool the apocalypse, the Eunuch Party actually included Wu Yangchun in the list of Donglin Party, and branded all the assets under his name on the Donglin Mansion Treasury, and made him a behind-the-scenes figure who specialized in providing black gold for the Donglin Party, and slandered that the Huizhou People's Revolution was the Donglin Party taking the lead in inciting the people to resist taxes and rebel!
Obviously, it was to loot the people's fat and ointment, wantonly humiliate women, engage in anger and resentment, and force the people to resist, but it became the Donglin Party to take the lead in inciting the people to resist taxes and rebel, and the shamelessness of the eunuch party can be described as extraordinary.
For example, the Donglin Party is obviously less than 100 people, the backbone of the eunuch party, Wei Zhongxian's godson, Cui Chengxiu, the imperial history of the left capital of the Metropolitan Procuratorate and the secretary of the military department, has already counted it, he wants to list a list of Donglin generals, and gather one hundred and eight generals in Liangshan, but he can't make it up, because there are not so many Donglin parties, but in the Tianqi Dynasty, there are no less than 1,000 court officials who were pointed out as Donglin and brutally persecuted by the eunuch party!
Of course, this is all a matter of the court, and it has little to do with the common people.
Back to the Huizhou Civil Revolution, is this the end of the matter?
Of course, it's not over, dare to "resist taxes", dare to "gather people to rebel", then it's okay, since the eunuchs are so rumor-mongering, slandering, and distorting the facts, it is naturally not just to fool the apocalypse, they really want to clean up the people of Huizhou as anti-thieves!
Lu Wen didn't dare to go back, so Wei Zhongxian sent another Huizhou local, Xu Zhiji, a eunuch minion, to She County to continue to search for people's fat and ointment, and arrest the thieves!
Xu Zhiji was more ruthless than Lu Xia, he prepared the torture hall, set up a dry torture instrument on both sides, and then took the yellow book, summoned the Huizhou merchants one by one, and forged the amount of dirty silver set by Gonggong Wei according to the yellow book, as soon as he came up, he opened the yellow book, patted the amount of dirty silver approved by Gonggong Wei, and forced the merchants in Huizhou to hand over the "dirty silver".
He also sent his son Xu Minggao and his servant Lin Zizhang to run rampant in the countryside in the name of tracking down the thieves, extorting bribes everywhere, making the whole Huizhou people miserable.
Pity his grandfather, Xu Guo, a scholar of Wenyuan Pavilion in the Wanli Dynasty, was originally a well-known generation of pavilion elders in Huizhou, and when he came here, his reputation was stinky, and he had a notoriety of "weaving a huge room, not avoiding the party, and the Hui people cut their teeth"!
Just when the people of Huizhou were unbearable and humiliated, and were ready to gather again to "rebel", things suddenly took a turn for the better.
Because the apocalypse died, Chongzhen succeeded to the throne, Wei Zhongxian committed suicide in fear of crime, Xu Zhiji was listed in the eunuch rebellion case, was arrested and returned to Beijing for trial, and the catastrophe in Huizhou was over, otherwise, it would be so wantonly looted and humiliated by the eunuch party, not to mention Huizhou businessmen, even the people of Huizhou may be accused of being traitors who gathered people to rebel, and their families were ruined and displaced!
There is an example of Wei Zhongxian's shameless looting of people's fat and ointment, how can Wen Tiren be soft!
The way of corruption, the eunuch party is the best at it.
The reason why he reversed black and white, saying that the current Fuguang Tian is angry and resentful, and the people are not happy, is that he is preparing to conduct a crazy raid in Fuguang, which is far away from the emperor of the mountain, which makes the people really angry and resentful, and the people are not happy!