Unless there is an emergency, high-ranking officials of the ministry usually do not directly confront the emperor, and they usually inform the cabinet in advance and determine the basic solution before presenting it to the emperor. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

But now, Guo Yunhou obviously encountered an emergency, and he didn't bother to go to the cabinet to discuss with Wei Guangwei, so he came directly to Zhu Youxiao to do something.

"Your Majesty, now the price of grain in the capital has risen wildly, many rice shops have just opened in the morning, and they will be sold out in less than an hour, and then when they open again in the afternoon, they will rise four or five times, and many people have no rice to buy, and even some poorer court officials have been without rice for a few periods, so if it continues, it will be a civil unrest!"

Guo Yunhou's words reminded Zhu Youxiao of what Wang Chengen reported a few days ago about the Fan family, one of the eight major Jin merchants, buying a large amount of grain from Huguang and Gyeonggi and taking the opportunity to hoard Juqi.

In addition, Zhu Youxiao had learned from Sun Zhiqi that Zhang Yong, one of the main messengers of this assassination, was the force of the Eight Great Jin Merchants, and in addition, those Tartars also infiltrated the capital with the help of the Eight Great Jin Merchants.

From this point of view, these eight Jin merchants and the Donglin Party have long colluded together, and with the Manchu forces, they are now facing not three separate hostile forces, but three united forces.

However, because Nurhachi had just died, and Huang Taiji had not been on the throne for a long time, his internal struggle had not ended, and there was no time to organize a large-scale military force to go south at this time.

The main officials of the seven border towns, which are closely related to the eight Jin merchants, have been deployed by themselves, and have formed an encirclement of these eight Jin merchants.

Since the second year of the Apocalypse, the Donglin Party has been hit by the Eunuch Party year after year, although its power is still not to be underestimated, but it can't make much waves.

Since this is the case, Zhu Youxiao couldn't help but clench his fists: "Since you want to take my life and the country, then I will take your family property and life first!" ”

As soon as Zhu Youxiao said this, Wang Chengen suddenly walked in, handed over a fold and said: "Your Majesty, the Criminal Department has given Hou Sui a performance in the matter, and the compromise is to let His Majesty release the Jin merchants of the Qingshan Guild Hall who were sent to Dongchang not long ago, according to Hou Sui, these Jin merchants are all grain merchants, and if they are not released, there will be a food shortage in the capital." ”

"I just arrested them, and these Jin merchants can't sit still and threaten me, okay, very good!"

Zhu Youxiao turned around and asked Wang Chengen as he spoke: "Have you sent all the people, when are you going to do it?" ”

"It's all arranged," Wang replied.

Zhu Youxiao nodded and said, "Okay, it's up to you to tell Guo Aiqing that in a few days, the food shortage in the capital will be completely solved." ”

"One day", Wang Chengen looked at Zhu Youxiao and said this to Guo Yunhou.

"One day?"

Guo Yunhou couldn't believe Wang Chengen's words, and hurriedly said: "Your Majesty, I'm afraid that now I really have to discuss with those big grain sellers such as Jin merchants and other businessmen, but even this can't be solved in a day." ”

"Hmph, consult with them, this is also what you said in a hall and a second-grade Shangshu, so why didn't they come to consult with me when they were plotting to kill me!"

Zhu Youxiao was a little annoyed, many of these court officials had more or less relations with the Jin merchants, for example, this Guo Yunhou and the former first assistant Han Yi were friends in the same year, and because of this, this Guo Yunhou, as the head of the household, also knew that the grain was in the hands of the Jin merchants, but what he thought of was not to fight these profiteers in the name of the imperial court, but to discuss with these Jin merchants.

"Your Majesty's words are wrong, Your Majesty is a body of ten thousand gold, who dares to murder Your Majesty, those businessmen just love to make some money, and they will not harm the foundation of the country."

It's good that Guo Yunhou didn't say this, but as soon as he said this, Zhu Youxiao immediately pointed at Guo Yunhou angrily and shouted: "Presumptuous! When will it be your turn to teach me a lesson, you court officials who grew up with the Four Books and Five Classics on their backs still have me in their eyes, and there are no people in the world, and now you have been speaking for those profiteers! ”

"Your Majesty spares your life!"

Guo Yunhou saw that Zhu Youxiao was suddenly furious, and he was so frightened that he hurriedly knelt on the ground.

Zhu Youxiao snorted coldly, let Guo Yunhou get up, and then punished Guo Yunhou for half a year, and demoted the household department Zuo Shilang temporarily took charge of the household department.

Guo Yunhou, who felt like he had walked outside the ghost gate, was sweating profusely at this time, and he didn't dare to say a word more, for fear that he would accidentally annoy the emperor again.

"I used to think that these Donglin Party and Jin merchants were sometimes not of the same mind as me, but everyone was a subject of the Ming Dynasty, and they were all for the sake of the Ming Dynasty, so I adopted a policy of Huai Rou, first enabled a large number of dismissed officials and rehabilitated them, but I didn't expect that these chaotic ministers and thieves would not die, and they even colluded with the Manchu Tartars to harm me, the so-called Son of Heaven was angry, and millions of corpses were ambushed, so I let them taste my iron-blooded blade!"

I can't help but feel that Zhu Youxiao is not angry, after he became the emperor, he was killed several times in a row, and it is impossible for anyone to ignore it, so he will tolerate it, unless that person is a coward by nature!

"Wang Chengen!"

"The minister is here!"

"Arrest now! If there is a resistant, you can kill them on the spot, and the criminal department who helped the Eight Great Jin Merchants to blackmail me just now gave me the middle of the matter, and also sent me to prison, and punished the crime together with the Donglin thieves! ”

Zhu Youxiao gave an order.

Wang Chengen immediately retreated without saying a word, and in an instant, the crazy revenge of Emperor Zhu Youxiao of the Ming Dynasty began to be staged.

……

Fan Yongdou, a great Jin merchant who didn't know that his actions had annoyed the emperor, was chatting and laughing with Han Kui, the butler of the former first assistant Han Yi, in the private room of the first restaurant in the capital at this time, and said triumphantly:

"Brother Han doesn't know, although Fan is just a lifelong member, but the dignitaries in the court also know a lot, and now the one in the Forbidden City is still being played by me between applause, and even within three days, there must be court officials who want to come to me, and when the time comes, it will be sold to the court at a price higher than thirty percent at this time, Zhu Youxiao's little boy will not only give me a bounty and silver, but maybe he will also give me an official and a knight, because I helped him solve a big crisis, but I don't care about this, I only care about silver."

As he spoke, Fan Yongdou burst out laughing and asked Han Kui: "Your master's comeback is eyebrow-raising." ”

Han Kui sighed and whispered in Fan Yongdou's ear: "I thought that His Majesty was going to reactivate the Donglin Party today, but who knew that it was just going through the motions and blinding the world, and at the beginning, my lord had a deep friendship with King Xin, and he really did a few things that were sorry for His Majesty today. ”

Fan Yongdou nodded, he was also involved in the murder of Zhu Youxiao, and his Fan family and the Han family were world friends, so this Han Kui dared to tell these things to himself.

But when he heard Han Kui talk about this, he was also a little secretly worried, but when he thought that the lifeblood of the imperial court was in his hands, he was relieved a lot.

However, at this moment, there were several screams outside the house, followed by a splash of blood on the window, which frightened Fan Yongdou and Han Kui to stand up immediately.