Zhengde shook his head and said: "Everyone knows that doing business can make a lot of money, but the taxes are so low, and most businessmen love to evade taxes, opening up trade will only make businessmen richer and more difficult to control, at the beginning of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, Shen Wansan, the richest man in Jiangnan, was richer than the country, and donated money to build the Yingtian City Wall, so that Taizu's face was gloomy, how could I repeat the mistakes of the past?" ”

Duan Fei said with a smile: "Your Majesty, there are two sides to everything, from the face of the royal family, Shen Wansan is indeed not doing right, but, on the other hand, if it were not for Shen Wansan and the huge riches in Jiangnan competing for donations, would Ying Tiancheng be able to build so quickly and so well?" If there is a famine and the treasury is empty, will the emperor accept donations from merchants? The face is small, but the national fortune is important, the emperor. ”

Zhengde said with a smile: "These words have also been said at the court meeting, but it's a pity that you weren't there, otherwise you will be the one who is criticized and disgraced, I don't care about face, but those officials in the court really care, I understand that you are right, but it is really difficult to convince the officials." ”

Since ancient times, China has a tradition of valuing agriculture over commerce, and it is almost impossible to change it overnight, Duan Fei gave up continuing to persuade, but said confidently: "Your Majesty, the minister is not afraid of losing face, the minister is willing to share the emperor's worries, the minister intends to implement the policy of opening up sources and reducing expenditure in the Jinyi Guard, or can save some silver for the emperor every year, what does the emperor think?" ”

Zhengde glanced up at him and said, "You said to hear it?" ”

Duan Fei said: "Your Majesty, the minister's throttling strategy is to reduce the Jinyi Guard, the minister made a preliminary investigation today, and found that the number of Jinyi Guards on the register reached more than 45,000, and there were as many as 150,000 side branch personnel and related people who were not included in the register, although these people were not registered, but they all wanted to do things with silver, Jinyiwei was only 10,000 people when it was first built, and now it has four times as much. ”

Zhengde glanced at him meaningfully and said, "You want to abolish the Jinyi Guard?" This is not easy to do, I still want to eliminate many useless officials and yamen, as long as it is brought up in the court, the civil and military of the Manchu Dynasty will kneel and shout that the country will not be a country. ”

Duan Fei said confidently: "Your Majesty, Jinyiwei is different from them, the dismissal of Jinyiwei hundred officials is definitely in agreement with both hands, not to mention that the minister does not plan to lay off many people in one step, the minister plans to cut a little bit bit of the knife, cut a little today and a little tomorrow, in less than a year, Jinyiwei will definitely take on a new look." ”

Zhengde said: "Since you have a plan, then do it boldly, with my support, I guess those people won't be able to make any trouble." ”

Duan Fei said with a smile: "Jinyiwei is just a knife in the emperor's hand, the emperor wants to sharpen the knife and grind off the rusty places, what can happen to those rusts?" The emperor, this is the minister's policy of throttling, the policy of open source is simpler, the minister plans to do some business in private in the name of Jinyiwei, the emperor still remembers the bribes that the minister kept for the emperor in Suzhou? They have been invested and done by the ministers, and they have made a little money, with the backing of Jinyiwei, the ministers can make these small businesses bigger, these money are kept and operated by the ministers for the emperor, within a few years, the emperor is the richest man in the Ming Dynasty, what is that Shen Wansan? The emperor's hair is thicker than his thighs. ”

Zhengde smiled happily, his eyes showed a look of longing, as if he was fantasizing about the day when he would become the richest man, but he quickly doubted: "Is this okay?" Are those officials afraid that you won't drown you with saliva? Does this count as competing with the people? ”

Duan Fei said proudly: "The ministers just want to share their worries for the emperor, what do they like, the ministers are not afraid of them, doesn't the emperor also think that those merchants pay too little tax?" Ministers doing this is like snatching the money in their hands and giving it to the emperor, which is called competing with profiteers instead of competing with the people. ”

Zhengde smiled: "That's right, they can only talk about it, what can they do to you?" Or do you have a lot of ghost ideas, just do as you say, and grab the silver in the hands of those profiteers for me, hehe, the sooner the better, if you can give me a sum of money before the Queen Mother's birthday, then it would be the best. ”

Duan Fei thought for a while and said, "The minister obeys the order, and he must try his best to let the emperor give the queen mother a big gift!" ”

Zhengde was very pleased, and he suddenly said: "You are very busy when you first take charge of the Jinyi Guard, right?" I want to go hunting in the royal garden, I wonder if you have time to accompany me to play? ”

Duan Fei thought for a while and said, "Your Majesty, tomorrow is not the case, there are still many things to be done, and it should be no problem the day after tomorrow or later." ”

Zhengde smiled: "Okay, it's decided, get ready the day after tomorrow, you wait for me outside the Yongding Gate." ”

Duan Fei had achieved his goal, and after leaving the leopard room, he went straight to Fusi, Jinyi Weibei Town, where there was a place that made people smell and change color - Imperial Prison!

Jinyiwei has the responsibility of criminal investigation of hundreds of officials, scholars and pawns, the meaning of this criminal investigation is not quite the same as the criminal investigation of later generations, the meaning of punishment is the meaning of punishment, the punishment is placed before the investigation, this word from the day of birth represents the meaning of torture to extract confessions, Jinyiwei's edict is even more notorious, even Dongchang has to throw prisoners into Jinyiwei edict prison for interrogation, until the end of the Ming Dynasty they have their own prison, this is a later story.

Jin Yiwei has the right to set up his own court outside the three divisions, and has the right to detain and interrogate suspects, and it is impossible for the emperor to personally review and deal with the cases reported by Jin Yiwei one by one, which makes Jin Yiwei actually grasp the conviction and sentencing of these major cases, and can run rampant and frame them wantonly.

Because of the lack of supervision, there were many unjust cases in Jinyiwei's edict prison, and the punishment was cruel and appalling, and the prisoners in the edict prison died at every turn, and they were lucky to come out alive, and most of them became crippled.

Beizhen Fusi was completely controlled by his trusted subordinates, and Duan Fei went straight into the famous Jinyi Guard Prison.

Behind the gate is a small courtyard with a blue-tiled house standing alone, which is only the entrance to the prison, and the entire prison is built underground.

Wang Zuo personally led the way, and took Duan Fei to send the iron ladder up by shouting, and then he really entered the edict prison, the setting of this underground prison is somewhat similar to that of a modern prison, and the characteristics are extremely tight, and only after passing several checkpoints did he come to the real detention area, and then the air suddenly became dirty.

Wang Zuo took Duan Fei to a dark hall lit with torches, where the torture equipment was complete, tables, chairs, beds and even pots and pans were all available, but the bed was an iron soldering bed, the chair was a tiger chair, the pot was used to burn oil, and the small mace like nails nailed could be imagined to be used to scrub the prisoners......

More than a dozen Jinyi guards guarding here hurriedly saluted Duan Fei, Wang Zuo introduced: "Lord Commander, this is the center of the Imperial Prison, and it is also an independent torture room, where the execution and interrogation can make all the prisoners of the Imperial Prison hear the screams of the tortured, torture their minds, and make them collapse faster, the only way out here is where we came, here is the human cell on the left, the ground cell on the right, and the Tianzi cell in front of it, where prisoners of different identities and different crimes are held, Among them, the Tianzi cell is even worse, and it is basically impossible for the prisoners who are locked in to come out alive, and Yi Yuanning, Fan Rong, and Liang Heng are locked up inside. ”

These people are already dead, Duan Fei said that he wanted to be interrogated at night, but he didn't bother to think about it at all, he actually had another purpose for coming to the edict overnight tonight, he took a deep breath, forcibly adapted himself to the environment here, and asked casually: "Who else is in the Tianzi cell?" ”

Wang Zuo replied: "I just checked in the afternoon, there is no one else in the Tianzi cell, it is said that Liang Heng just dragged out the bodies of three death row inmates this afternoon, and he suspects that he wants to kill people." ”

Duan Fei said categorically: "Find out their identities and crimes, even if they die, they have to have an explanation, how many prisoners are in the ground number cell and the person number cell?" ”

Wang Zuo turned around and took the booklet, looked through it, and said, "My lord, there are still three people in the cell number, and there are seven people in the cell number. ”

"So little?" Duan Fei was puzzled: "Didn't you say that the edict prison was overcrowded?" ”

"This ......" Wang Zuo saw that there were no outsiders around, and replied honestly: "My lord, this edict is indeed overcrowded most of the time, but now the situation is different, when Commander Qian fell, it was empty, and during this time, we were closely watched by Dongchang, so we didn't arrest a few people." ”

Duan Fei suddenly sighed and said, "Go and bring them out one by one, bring their charges, this official will try them for the first time tonight, starting with the felons." ”

These people were not captured by Wang Zuo, so they did not hesitate to open the prison door to pick up people, and after a while, they brought someone out.

Seeing this person, Duan Fei couldn't help but be stunned, because this prisoner turned out to be a red-haired and blue-eyed foreigner.

Wang Zuo sent this person's information and said: "My lord, this person's name is Yasan the Fire One, he was brought back from Jiangnan by the traitor Jiang Bin, this person pretended to be a foreign envoy, and he should have been executed a long time ago, but it seems that he has something to do with the emperor, and the emperor has asked about him, so no one has touched him." ”

The red-haired fire man Yasan hurriedly said: "My lord, I am wronged, I am really a member of the envoy sent by the Governor of Francoji stationed in Manchu Thorn 'Wayapai Andara', I am the general fire man Yasan, who is responsible for interpreting the dialogue between the envoy Pyris and the emperor, and the emperor also knows me." ”

Duan Fei snorted, looked at the information and threw it aside, and said: "You said that you are the envoy of the Buddha Langji, then let me ask you, since your governor sent an envoy to the Ming Dynasty to become friends with us, why did he first occupy our subject country Manchuka, and then occupy our territory Tuen Mun Island?" Your so-called envoys burned, killed and looted along the way, they are simply robbers, do you dare to say that you have not killed the people of the Ming Dynasty? ”

PS: Readers' "The wind blows the grass has not moved" reading is very serious and careful, it is worth learning from everyone, this book actually has many inappropriate and even big omissions, you need to find out together, I am just a very ordinary and ordinary person, mistakes are inevitable, fortunately I have a correct attitude, good at criticism and self-criticism, I hope you will spare time and fingers, more correction!