Cui Xiang, who had been imprisoned, turned pale when he learned of this, he knew Emperor Longqing too well, and knew that he was taking the opportunity to make trouble, imitating the Taizu he admired the most, not only to kill his whole family, but also to nail himself and his henchmen to the pillar of shame of treason.

For the literati, the most painful thing is not to raid the family and exterminate the clan, after all, it is the tyrant's doing, their iron bones can still make them immortal and praised by the world, the most painful thing for them is to remove their "spine", crush them spiritually, let them taste the pain referred to by the thousand husbands when they are alive, so that their whole family and family can not raise their heads in this world.

Destroying a person physically is not a skill, but completely destroying a person mentally is great.

And this trick is what Xiao is best at, to be precise, this is the usual method used in the Taizu period, Xiao Sheng relied on literati to govern the country, but at the same time he was full of jealousy towards them, in order to keep his image of a benevolent monarch, he rarely killed ministers, and even rarely exterminated the clan.

But each time, he personally went down to argue with those civil officials, enumerated their crimes, mobilized the court to refute them, humiliated them from their ideological roots, forced their protégés to break off their old grievances, and then tattooed them in the faces, demoted them to civilians and sent them back to their hometowns, and mobilized those neighboring peasants to humiliate them from time to time......

The list goes on and on.

When Taizu, there were many civil officials who hated Taizu, they were humiliated, and they committed suicide, thinking that they could protect their name for a lifetime, who knew that this was the case, Taizu refused to let them go, and buried them in one place, and set up a monument in front of the tomb, with the words "sinner's grave" written on it, and then set up a kneeling bronze statue, so that they were spurned by hundreds of thousands of people.

Every time he did this kind of thing, Taizu looked heartbroken, and the edict must first pretend to express his own pain and regret, and then praise how benevolent he was, and could not bear to hurt their lives, and finally angrily denounced the crimes of these civil officials, after these edicts were issued, he also ordered all prefectures and counties to send people to the villages and towns to read the edicts aloud, so that all the people would know.

In the eyes of the villagers, Taizu is a great benevolent king, and those criminals have failed such a Ming monarch, and they are really heinous villains.

The civil officials have bitter words, they just have different political views from Taizu and advised Taizu, how can they have anything to do with the great rebellion and treason? At that time, those civil officials were all trembling and living like quails, especially in the later period, and rarely violated the will of Taizu.

Cheng Jin deeply suspected that Xiao Sheng's strange malice towards civil officials with hysteria had a lot to do with Wen Dingnian, and he poured out all the anger he suffered on Wen Dingnian back then to those civil officials.

The emperors after Taizu were short-lived, and they could be regarded as real benevolent and cowardly, and they respected the civil officials very much, and it was only from that time that the civil officials began to really control the government.

Emperor Longqing has admired this grandfather since he was a child, and he can't put down Taizu Benji, and he has been held hostage by civil officials for many years, and his hatred for them, especially Cui Xiang, is the same as that of Taizu back then.

Cui Xiang and Emperor Longqing have been together for so many years, where can they not see the intentions of this young son of heaven, on the one hand, they are glad that the son of heaven has grown up, and on the other hand, they are bitter and sighing that they want to become his first test stone.

At the beginning of this matter, his youngest son Cui 13 went to Dali Temple to ask for guilt, he also knelt on the Golden Temple to ask for guilt, he knew that his crime was not serious, he just wanted to use his humble attitude in exchange for the mercy of Emperor Longqing, he was also willing to let go of power, just hope to be able to protect his family, just return to his hometown safely, people who are too fond of power, often do not end well.

From this point of view, Cui Xiang can be regarded as knowing the current affairs, but it is a pity that Emperor Longqing is not a benevolent and soft-hearted person, and he never intended to let him go, after he was imprisoned, this emperor who usually always called "Xiangye" and "Xiangye" never came to see him once, although the jailers in the prison always treated him politely, but he knew that he was finished.

He himself is a suspect, and it is difficult to come forward to refute, so he made his protégé old in the court, begging Emperor Longqing to give him the last trace of face, so many years in the court can be regarded as meritorious, the merits and demerits are offset, simply dismissed him, he is willing to never step into the capital again for the rest of his life.

And the girl in Cui's Mansion who had already made a marriage with Emperor Longqing, but had not yet passed the door, handed a sign to the palace and asked to see the Empress Dowager Cheng, thinking of asking the Empress Dowager Cheng to persuade Emperor Longqing to let his family go.

Empress Dowager Cheng looked at this girl who knelt in front of her, with a humble and deferential attitude, but she had a high and arrogant attitude from her bones, although she was smiling, there was not much warmth in her smile.

She is the queen mother, but she is from a humble background, and what she hates the most is these noble-born daughters of the family, and she feels that they all look down on her.

After Cui's daughter left, she said to the palace beside her, "In the end, it is Cui Xiang's granddaughter, who is extremely well educated, and it is at this time that she still has the bearing of not admitting defeat in her bones." ”

Somehow this word spread out, and three days later, the Cui family committed suicide, and the Cui family did not dare to publicize it, only saying that the future queen had a sudden illness and died.

When he heard the news, Emperor Longqing's brows relaxed, although he didn't speak, the corners of his lips rose slightly, and the big stone that had been pressed on his head for so many years finally moved away.

He has only met the Cui family girl once, and he has never said a word, although the Cui family girl is not bad, but he is used to seeing beauties, and it is difficult for him to have a good impression of this kind of noble beauty, the Cui family has declined, and he naturally does not need to marry the Cui family again.

And Empress Dowager Cheng just recited a word of Buddha with an expressionless face, and began to choose a new candidate for Empress Zhang Luo for Emperor Longqing, and the fall of Cui Xiang made her see a glimmer of hope, maybe a few girls from the Cheng family may really enter the palace.

Among the several girls of the Cheng family, Cheng Chan is what she values the most, her appearance and talent are all one in a million, and she treats herself very deferentially, and understands etiquette, although Emperor Longqing treats her without children's affection, but after the establishment of this matter, it is not up to the emperor's temperament, and the love of children and everything has to stand aside, Cheng Chan is his cousin after all, there is such a relationship, he will not treat Cheng Chan harshly, and he can also have a little more incense for the Cheng family in the future.

Thinking of Cheng Chen, Empress Dowager Cheng couldn't help but think of Cheng Jin, the little girl's face was too seductive, although she only saw it once, but Empress Dowager Cheng, who had read all the beauties in the world, was still deeply impressed by her.