Eunuchs are a very special group in the Ming Dynasty, in the process of conquering foreign races, all the children who capture foreign races are basically castrated and sent to the palace as eunuchs.

Therefore, for a long time in the early Ming Dynasty, there were many eunuchs in the Ming Dynasty, and most of them were of different races.

Before Tumubao, the eunuch power was greater than the civil official class and the military general class because of their relationship with the royal family.

Because they have the financial power of the Ming Dynasty in their hands.

The internal supervision of the Ming Dynasty and the internal affairs office of the Qing Dynasty, which replaced the economic power of the internal supervision, were the largest institutions in the country at that time.

After the Qing Dynasty, because of the insufficient number of eunuchs, Kangxi established the Internal Affairs Office, with more than 3,000 officials and more than 100,000 jurisdictional personnel.

However, their power was far less than that of the eunuchs in the early Ming Dynasty.

Because the Ministry of Internal Affairs still only governs the economic affairs of the bannermen, and now the eunuchs of the Ming Dynasty govern almost all the economic affairs of the entire Ming Dynasty.

In addition to paying grain and taxes, all other economic affairs of the Ming court were in the hands of eunuchs, including the endowment handed over to the royal treasury.

In addition, handicraft workshops and business activities, from the development of mines to the cultivation of tea and silkworms, are all under the jurisdiction of internal supervision.

Mining is internal supervision, weaving is internal supervision, silk is internal supervision, customs is internal supervision, ceramics is internal supervision, tea is internal supervision, and there is almost no internal supervision.

In addition to these, there are also a large number of internal prisons placed in various military camps, supervising each army from top to bottom.

Then there is the inner treasury of the palace, the purchasing envoys from all over the country, the tax supervisors, the subordinates of each royal palace, and so on......

Twelve eunuchs, four bureaus, eight divisions, how many eunuchs there are in total, I'm afraid no one can say.

There are many wise people in this huge group, such as Wang Yan, who is impeccable in both marching and fighting, and the head of the palace.

There are also Zheng He, Hou Xian, Wang Jinghong, etc., these are all famous figures in history.

However, compared with the large number of internal supervisors in the Ming Dynasty, there are only a few outstanding talents, and most of them have an extreme mentality different from ordinary people because they have become disabled.

In other words, there has been a little bit of change. State.

If you have a body, you can't do it, and you're still lustful.

Some like to torture people because their bodies are not good.

More often than not, they satisfy their own selfish desires through the control of money.

They are greedy for money and officials, and they are different from ordinary people.

This is because officials and ordinary people have more money to keep for their relatives in addition to satisfying their own enjoyment.

But they are more for their own enjoyment, and they have no scruples in the chamberlain class to compare and show off.

Does Zhu Di know about this? Of course I do.

But he didn't care.

Because the circle of eunuchs is not large, most of the money they are greedy for is still circulating in this circle. It can be said that if the royal family wants to get it back, they don't even have to stretch out their hands, they send it with a mouth.

Therefore, in Zhu Di's view, the money in the world is his own, and it is better for the internal prisoners to be greedy than in the hands of the people. After all, the internal supervisors are closer to themselves, and the embezzled money is no different from their own.

Therefore, the royal family is not afraid of the eunuch's greed, but is afraid that he will not be able to do anything. As long as you are capable, I don't care how greedy you are.

And Ma Qi is one of the representatives, he can have no bottom line for money, and those gold and silver are the most important meaning for him to show off his existence.

But he was very good at being a man, he was harsh to the people, and in turn he was more loyal to the royal family, and even embezzled gold and silver, which went around in his hands, and then entered the royal treasury.

He didn't care about gold and silver, but the satisfaction that came to him in the process of plundering gold and silver.

Zhu Di can tolerate such a person, but what Zhu Zhanji hates most is the bottomless behavior of bullying the people.

In Jiaozhi, it was because he didn't care about the difficulties of the people in Jiaozhi at all, and forced the people to sell their sons and daughters to make up enough gold and silver for him, which led to the rebellion in the thirteenth year of Yongle.

also because he had no bottom line, he formed a big enmity with Huang Fu, the political envoy at that time, and both sides longed for each other's death.

Because he had no bottom line, he wanted to serve as the town guard envoy of Osaka, but was vetoed by Zhu Zhanji, but later he became a transshipment envoy who transported grain from Nanyang to Daming.

Although he is a domestic slave of the royal family, he belongs to Zhu Di's direct family slave.

He did not directly offend Zhu Zhanji, the heir who had not yet taken over the family business, and Zhu Zhanji could not punish him for his mistakes.

But if this matter is not Ma Qi's hands and feet, Zhu Zhanji will definitely not believe it.

Moreover, even if he didn't do anything, Zhu Zhanji also needed an object to establish his authority.

So, even if he's unlucky this time!

Only by disposing of a competent internal prison lieutenant and those officials who dare to do their own with the people's living food can they be held accountable according to the law.

There were only Zhu Zhanji, Jin Kuo, Li Liang, and Yang Zhangde left in the room.

Zhu Zhanji sighed and was silent for a long time before he said: "You don't have to get too involved in the affairs of Lin San and these people, your energy is mainly focused on investigating who is greedy for the grain, and who is the buyer?" ”

Yang Zhangde said softly: "Your Highness, what if it involves officials above the third grade?" ”

Although Jinyiwei is responsible for supervising hundreds of officials, he has no investigation power over officials of the third rank and above. Of course, this is not a certainty, the key is to see who is in charge.

When Ji Gang served as the commander, even those super-grade nobles were afraid when they saw him, and the governors of the first grade were beaten half to death by him.

"Whoever it is, check it out for me." Zhu Zhanji sneered and said: "Grandpa Huang is going to go on an expedition and take my father away, if I don't make a big fuss, how can people be afraid of me?" ”

Yang Zhangde completely understood, this case just gave His Highness the opportunity to kill chickens and monkeys, and now he wants to supervise the country, so naturally he wants to form a deterrent, this is a good opportunity.

With such a purpose, he has no worries about investigating the case.

"Then Weichen will send these Lin three or a few people back to Shandong tomorrow......"

"No, you can't leave Ying Tianfu, I need you to help me show my sword in the capital. This case is not complicated, you can just send a few good people to investigate the case. After a while, I will arrange for Li Liang to contact Gu Zuo and ask him to send someone to go with you tomorrow. ”

Jin Kuo reminded: "Your Highness, do you want to send someone to contact Liu Zhong, the commander of the Qingzhou Weidu, and ask him to protect the investigators?" ”

He was arranged by Zhu Zhanji to preside over the overall situation at home, and now that there is a corruption case, although Zhu Zhanji does not blame him, he will inevitably question his ability.

He wanted to be positive, but he also knew that he couldn't get rid of suspicion, and he hated Ma Qi to death.

"How do you know that Liu Zhong is not involved?" Zhu Zhanji shook his head and said, "I will arrange for the First Fleet to send a fast ship to send the investigators to Jiaozhou, and then the Second Fleet will send a team of 1,000 musketeers to protect the investigators." ”

Jiaozhou is also Qingdao in later generations, where it is an important port to receive grain from the South Seas, although most of the grain transported to Qingzhou is loaded on river boats in Laizhou Bay, and enters the inland through tributaries such as the Mi River and Bailang River, but it is correct to put aside the Laizhou sailors who are the most suspicious, starting from Jiaozhou.

Zhu Zhanji was not afraid of collusion between the internal supervisors and local officials, and what he was most afraid of was that his Laizhou sailor would also be dragged into the water.

If this is the case, Zhu Zhanji will definitely clean up the moths in the army first.

He was busy with affairs, and since he had already met Tang Sai'er and the others, and they were also bewitched by themselves, they were ready to pull a group of people to the Ural Mountains, so today's main purpose had been achieved.

He also asked Gu Zuo to arrange people to go to Shandong, so he didn't stay here for a long time.

When he was about to go out, he remembered that Lin San and the others were poor and white, and now they didn't go to the Ural Mountains for anything, and their families had food, and they couldn't rest assured that they were old, weak, sick and disabled.

He explained to Li Liang again: "You will personally send five hundred silver dollars to Lin San in a while, don't let people blackmail you." Let them settle their families with the money and prepare all kinds of tools. ”

Walking out of the Jinyi Guard, Zhu Zhanji got on the horse, and then asked Jin Kuo again: "Where is Ma Qi now?" ”

"He set up the transshipment division in the prosperous Ningbo, and the current people should also be in Ningbo."

"Send a decree to Yu Xian, escort Ma Qi back to the capital for me, and I will personally try him."

Back at the palace, Chen Cheng, who had already seen Zhu Di, was waiting for Zhu Zhanji in the reception room of the Information Division. When he saw Zhu Di, he naturally got the credentials for appointment and liaison with various countries, and he would set off when he only waited for the internal supervisor and Jingwei to form a mission here.

He was about to set off, and his affairs were also busy, so he just briefly reported Zhu Di's attitude and arrangements to Zhu Zhanji, Zhu Zhanji told him a few words, and then got up to leave.

At this time, Sun Lin, who had a depressed face, came to Zhu Zhanji and knelt down with a plop. "The slaves and maids are unknown, please punish Your Highness."

"Explain things to me clearly, instead of asking for guilt at every turn. Get up and speak. ”

Sun Lin took out a stack of correspondence and said, "This Xiong Du is also an old man in the palace, and he joined in when the Consultation Department was first formed. He was transferred to the Laizhou Navy Division by slaves and maids in March last year to serve as the supervising army, and the grain dispatch in Laizhou has only been in and out since then. ”

"A small Shuizhai supervisor can't preside over such a big nest case, where is the problem with the dispatch of these grains, and what is the problem? Who is involved? ”

"The slaves and maids are checking the incoming and outgoing accounts of the grain depot, but there are no problems so far."

Zhu Zhanji's face sank, and he wondered: "Then how do you know that there was a problem with the grain dispatch in March last year?" ”

Sun Lin hurriedly explained: "Because before that, the grain ships would transport some local specialties from Shandong to the south, which can not only earn some freight, but also ballast." However, since March last year, fully half of the ships have been registered for unloading in Laizhou, but there is no record of loading them. ”

Only then did Zhu Zhanji clear his doubts, and Sun Lin was able to verify this matter through circumstantial evidence, which showed that he still had a brain. "Is there a record of the loading and unloading of these ships after they return?"

"I'm afraid that only the Transshipment Department has a detailed registration of this, and my subordinates are preparing to send someone to Ningbo to check ......."

Zhu Zhanji pondered for a while and said: "With so much food, I'm afraid only big merchants can eat it." And these merchants are basically either in Quanzhou or Ningbo.

Jin Kuo, you go to the ceremonial supervisor, and ask Wang Yan to send someone to Ningbo and Quanzhou to check the accounts of the city and the customs there, not only to check the accounts of the internal supervisor, but also to check the capital transfer envoy on the side of the imperial court, I still don't believe it, hundreds of thousands of stone grain can not be found.

The order was sent to Liu Jiang, asking him to summon Meng Ying of the First Fleet, Yi Xin of the Second Fleet, and Gu Xingzu of the Fourth Fleet to Beijing in addition to Zhu Zhen of the Third Fleet. ”

Jin Kuolen paused for a moment, and hurriedly persuaded: "Your Highness, by all means." That's not the case! What's more, Na Yixin is now preparing to survey Beiyang, Gu Xingzu is not loved by His Majesty, and if he is rashly recruited into Beijing, he will be written by the ministers. ”

Zhu Zhen accompanied Zhu Zhanji to the West, which can eliminate suspicion.

Yixin was in charge of the Second Fleet, which was in charge of the northern waters of the Ming Dynasty, and Laizhou was under his jurisdiction.

The Fourth Fleet's base in Guangzhou Bay, later known as Zhanjiang, governed a large area of sea from Guangdong to the South China Sea.

The grain ships of the internal supervision need to go through the hands of the Fourth Fleet to pull grain from the South Seas, and to unload grain in Shandong, they need to go through the hands of the Second Fleet.

And the settlement is in Ningbo, where the Third Fleet is located, which makes Zhu Zhanji very worried that his several fleets will be deeply involved.

But it's impossible to think about it, because the more people there are, the more difficult it is to distribute the benefits, the fewer the benefits become, and it is not cost-effective to take risks.

In later generations, Zhu Zhanji has seen too many contradictions in the distribution of interests, and he also understands many types of economic crimes.

Basically, no matter how big the nest case is, it is mainly the corruption of key figures, and most of the other officials use tricks to deceive and conceal it.

On the one hand, it is difficult to balance the distribution of interests, the more people, the less the return, on the other hand, it is also for confidentiality, the more people know, the easier it is to be exposed.

If they can really pull all the three fleets into the water, these hundreds of thousands of stone grains, at most hundreds of thousands of taels of silver, are simply not enough.

Jin Kuo dissuaded because the current Ming generals were basically not summoned by the emperor after they got the right to lead the troops, and they could not return to Beijing.

If they are recalled to Beijing because of the investigation of the case, it will make Wenchen think that Zhu Zhanji is not going to conspire to "force the palace".

Zhu Zhanji took a deep breath and calmed down his mood. He also knew that when he was angry, he was prone to make wrong choices, so he simply focused on arranging people to communicate with Gu Zuo.

Yesterday, Gu Zuocai sat in the position of Shangshu, and today he is still busy moving and meeting guests. He probably didn't even understand the personnel of the Criminal Department clearly, and it would be difficult for him to bother sending people to Shandong now.

Lieutenant Officer Xie Kuang came to the Counseling Department. "Your Highness, Your Majesty has just arrived in the afternoon, and beckoned His Highness to have lunch with him in the Jinshen Palace."

"Got it."

Looking at Xie Kuang, Zhu Zhanji asked, "Is Zhongguan Xie familiar with Ma Qi?" ”

Xie Kuang bowed and said: "The slave maid was by the side when the master was in Liaodong, and at that time, Ma Qi was already a purchasing envoy in Shuzhou. The slave maid returned to Beijing with the master, and Ma Qi served as the weaver of the Suzhou Weaving House. Later, he served as a purchasing envoy to Jiaozhi and a transshipment envoy to Nanyang, and basically served in other places. Except for some contact every once in a while, every time he returned to the palace, he gave some gifts, and the slave maid did not have much personal relationship with him. ”

Zhu Zhanji also knew that the internal supervision system was too big, and there were 24 yamen, all of which had branches throughout the country, in charge of all walks of life.

Of course, these vines are all epiphytic to the royal family, from a system, even people who don't know each other, can cling to each other.

Compared with other ministers, the eunuchs are very united, no matter how fierce the infighting is, when targeting military generals and civil officials, they can abandon their estrangement and hug together.

Seeing that Zhu Zhanji had no words, Xie Kuang was a little anxious. "Your Highness, the slave maid is just at the master's place, and I know that His Highness wants to punish Ma Qi and check the accounts. The slave and maid were in charge of the accounts in the early years, and the loopholes in the general accounts could not be hidden from the eyes of the slave and maid. ”

Zhu Zhanji nodded and said, "I will tell your master in a while to send you to Ningbo." ”

"Your Highness!"

Investigating corrupt officials has been a fat gap since ancient times. No one dared to touch Ma Qi's property in the palace, this belonged to the royal family, and he was about to be cut down if he stretched out his hand.

But he has served as the chief official for so many years, and his family background is not thin. Even if most of it has to be handed over to the royal family, the person who handles it can make a fortune in a short time.

In the palace, to Zhu Zhanji's surprise, in addition to Zhu Di, there was also the new Yin Zhaoyi of Yingtianfu.

Zhao Qian served as a scholar, and later demoted to a squire, if it weren't for Ding Wei, I am afraid he would have been promoted to a scholar a long time ago.

Now that he is serving as this Ying Tianfu Yin, it is not considered a promotion, so Zhu Di also gave him a Shangshu title, in addition to Ying Tianfu Yin's Yulu, there is also a Shangshu Yulu.

However, Zhao Yi does not like luxury and lives a frugal life, and today he resolutely resigned to Zhu Di from Shangshu.

Of course, the resignation is only a good job, not a false title. He, Ying Tianfu Yin, is one of the most difficult officials in the Ming Dynasty, and it is still very useful to hang a Shangshu title.

Zhu Di was very happy with his attitude, and deliberately left him to eat with him today.

At the same time, he was accompanied by Yang Rong, who is now promoted to a scholar of Wenyuan Pavilion, a bachelor of Hanlin, and the first assistant of the cabinet.

Zhu Zhanji's impression of Yang Rong is better than that of Yang Shiqi, and his impression of Yang Pu, another of the three Yangs, is also better.

Yang Shiqi is more inclined to a secretary and a staff officer in Zhu Zhanji's heart, this person has the ability, but the ability is mainly reflected in maintaining the relationship between all parties.

Because of his mediation, Zhu Gaochi has always received high support among the ministers, but what about the execution ability to do things...... Very doubtful.

And Yang Pu has not really gained power now, he is also cautious, except for a little higher literary talent, Zhu Zhanji did not find any advantages in him.

But Yang Rong is different, this person has a sensitive temperament, is good at observing words and feelings, and is especially good at planning border affairs.

Yao Chongke is known as one of the four prime ministers of the Tang Dynasty, an outstanding politician and military strategist.

Although Yang Rong was praised so much at this time, and there was a sense of self-praise by Wenchen, Zhu Zhanji knew that he did have a high military quality.

In the sixth year of Yongle, his father died, and Zhu Di did not allow Ding to worry, so he buried his father and recalled it.

In the seventh year of Yongle, his mother died again, this time because the first Northern Expedition was approaching, Zhu Di did not even give him a leave, let him preside over the surrender of Gansu, and served as the marching Sima during the Northern Expedition.

After the Northern Expedition, he taught Zhu Zhanji military knowledge for two years, and Zhu Zhanji saw his ability to coordinate marching operations.

In the Second Northern Expedition, he served as Zhu Di's confidential secretary, and he was responsible for the clothing, food, housing and transportation of the entire army, and handled it in an orderly manner.

After Hu Guangyongle's death in the sixteenth year, he was promoted to the rank of chief assistant to the cabinet.

However, because he was valued by Zhu Di, he was not liked by Wenchen, and a number of ministers recommended him to serve as the priest of the country.

Zhu Di's nostrils were on fire, and he scolded the ministers: "I know that he is more than enough to serve as a sacrificial wine, but which of you can take over his position as the head of the cabinet?" ”

The ministers who said it in a word were speechless, but they still let Yang Rong sit in the position of the first assistant of the cabinet.

However, this cabinet chief assistant has no administrative power now, so he is a big secretary, but he belongs to the emperor's closest secretary.

Zhu Zhanji still recognizes Yang Rong's ability, but he will not give the cabinet too much power in the future, and it is still very appropriate to let Yang Rong, the first assistant of the cabinet, serve as the secretary of the military department in the future.

Seeing Zhu Zhanji coming, Zhu Di ordered someone to set up a meal, and then asked him: "Why didn't you go to the bridge today, but went to see a few Shandong people, is there anything abnormal?" ”

Zhu Zhanji didn't have the idea of hiding it, Yang Rong and Zhao Li who were present had no deep relationship with Shandong, and he didn't mind telling this matter.

"Grandson suspects that they are the White Lotus Sect's desires, so they have to meet them face to face."

Zhu Di was shocked, "Since that's the case, why don't you detain them and find out!" ”

Zhu Zhanji smiled and said, "Even if they are, Sun Er is not going to arrest them." Grandson has promised them today that as long as they can camp in Xi'an, in the desert arctic, and expand the territory for my Ming Dynasty, grandson will promise them an earl. ”

Zhu Di frowned and pondered for a while before he said: "It is reasonable to let such a suspicious person open up the territory for me, but Count Xu Yi ...... What do you think? ”

There was a globe in the temple, Zhu Zhanji took them to the front of the globe, turned the globe, pointed to the direction of the southern foot of the Ural Mountain and said: "Grandpa Huang, this place is 20,000 miles away from my Ming Dynasty, and it can't be navigated by boat, can I really control such a distant area?" ”

Before Zhu Di could reply, Yang Rong had already nodded and said, "Your Majesty, Your Highness is very clever in this move. If they were the remnants of the White Lotus Sect, being sent to this extreme western land would already be the greatest punishment. The Ming only need to provide some weapons to allow them to settle there, and after a few decades, it will become the territory of my Ming Dynasty. Even if it doesn't work, I don't lose anything. ”

Zhao Yi also supported Yang Rong's idea, but he said: "It's just that these people disregard the righteousness and allow them to take the position of earl, which is too preferential." ”

Zhu Di said with a smile: "An earl's position, if it really makes me settle down, it's not a ......."

Zhu Zhanji said: "The reason why these people came to the capital is for a big case, since last year, the hundreds of thousands of stone relief grain that the imperial court has transported to Shandong have not been distributed to the people, and it is for this matter that the grandson has delayed until now." ”

The price of grain in the Ming Dynasty is very low now, and one stone of rice is only two dollars and five cents of silver, and one silver dollar can buy 480 catties of rice.

But hundreds of thousands of stone grain can also be worth 100,000 taels of silver, and this is not just a matter of silver, without food, the people will not be able to survive, but there will be a big mess.

Several people are smart people, and the smiles on their faces disappear when they think about the problem behind this.

(The phone was broken, and now I'm going to repair the phone, I'll change a chapter today, and the second chapter is uncertain) (https:)

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