In the early spring of Chongzhen's third year, the Son of Heaven went out of the palace to visit the people privately, and encountered assassins on the way.

The Son of Heaven was furious and ordered Tian Ergeng, the governor of Jinyiwei, to be responsible for solving the case. Jin Yiti rode around, and found the person behind the assassin in one day, and after interrogation, it was found that behind it was the envoy of Wu Weixian, the Marquis of Gongshun, and Xu Yunzhen, the prince of Dingguo, was also involved.

The Son of Heaven was furious, the Xiyuan guards came out, surrounded the Gongshun Hou Mansion and the Dingguo Mansion, Gongshun Hou Wu Weixian knew that he was afraid of the crime and committed suicide, and the Dingguo Duke Xu Xigao also died of horror.

Jin Yiwei interrogated all night, and was shocked to find that there were as many as 16 nobles involved in the assassination case, which was caused by the decision of the Son of Heaven to set up a tax department to levy commercial taxes some time ago.

When the Son of Heaven heard the news, he was shocked and angry, and sighed that the country had supported the nobles for more than 200 years, and promised to be hereditary and die with the country, but he didn't expect these nobles to murder the monarch's father for the sake of mere interests.

Jinyiwei and Xiyuan guards made a big move, and sealed sixteen honorable mansions in one day, and all the nobles involved were arrested and sent to Jinyiwei Zhao Prison, and for a time Zhao Prison was overcrowded, and the city was shaken.

Above the court, the courtiers were also talking about the assassination. This case involved so many nobles and so many people who were arrested, it was no less than an earthquake for the court. Although the nobles have no say in the court now, most of these nobles serve in the capital of the five armies in the capital of the capital in Beijing, and their clansmen are all over the Beijing camp and the sixteen guards of the Beijing division. The arrest of so many nobles caused a very big shock in Beijing.

Many officials have found that the situation today is very similar to that of the Hongwu period. During the Hongwu period, the two cases of Hu Weiyong and Lan Yu were arrested and killed......

The current Ming Dynasty, of course, does not have the abundant martial virtues during the Taizu period, but today's nobles are not as prominent as the martial arts of the Taizu. Now that there are more than a dozen nobles who have been arrested, will more be implicated, will it be implicated in civil officials? Many officials are deeply worried.

As a result, some officials who claimed to be sober asked the emperor not to make a big move so that the court was shaken. Who knew that as soon as Song Shu was sent to the palace, a brocade guard came to the door, arrested the official on the pretext of being involved in the rebellion case, and was arrested and tortured in Zhao Prison and then released.

Seeing such an end, the other civil officials who originally wanted to go up and down didn't dare to speak.

Some arrogant and domineering nobles who oppressed the good were arrested, which made the people of Beijing celebrate. And the rest of the nobles were in a state of panic, not knowing when the knife would fall on their heads.

Jiading Bofu.

"Come on, what's going on outside? Is there a brocade guard coming? Jiading Bo Zhou Kui hid in the room and shouted in horror outside.

Zhou Ping, the housekeeper of the Bofu, hurriedly came over: "Master, there are Jinyi guards passing by, but they are not coming for us, I have inquired, they are going to copy the Fengcheng Hou Mansion." ”

"Fengcheng Hou Mansion?" Zhou Kui muttered. Fengcheng Hou's Mansion is not far from Jiadingbo's Mansion, and Zhou Kui and Fengcheng Hou also move around more frequently. In the incident of the Taxation Division, the tea shop in the Fengcheng Hou Mansion also suffered a great loss, and the commercial tax was increased by 3,000 taels, and the Fengcheng Hou invited Zhou Kui to eat wine several times, wanting Zhou Kui to speak in front of the emperor, and exempted the tea shop from commercial tax.

"The Marquis of Fengcheng has been arrested, the Marquis of Dingxi has been arrested, and it will probably be our Jiading Bofu's turn next." Zhou Kui said sadly.

"No, my lord, you are the lord of the country, and Your Majesty will not embarrass you for the sake of the queen's face." Zhou Ping comforted, it was the first time he had seen Zhou Kui so frightened.

Zhou Kui shook his head painfully: "You don't understand, you don't understand." ”

The Marquis of Fengcheng, Dingxi Hou and others were very close to Wu Weixian, the Marquis of Gongshun, which was the main reason why they were arrested, and he also met with Wu Weixian many times ago and accepted thousands of taels of silver from Wu Weixian, and promised to enter the palace to speak for him in front of the queen and persuade the emperor to cancel the tax department. Now that Wu Weixian actually assassinated the emperor, once Jinyiwei finds out that he has a lot of dealings with Wu Weixian, will he think that he is also involved in the assassination case?

What a national abbot, in front of the stabbing case, the national abbot is a fart! The Heavenly Family is the most ruthless, how can they care about the queen's thoughts? If he is arrested for this matter, maybe even the queen will be implicated.

At this moment, Zhou Kui regretted it very much, regretting that he shouldn't have accepted the silver of the traitor Wu Weixian!

"Zhou Ping, you go and clean up the gold and silver, this time we may really have to go back to Jiading's hometown." Zhou Kui said sadly.

"Master, no, no, or you will beg the queen?" Zhou Ping was startled and hurriedly said.

Zhou Kui nodded painfully: "So far, it can only be like this." ”

Jiading Bofu and the queen are one, and if she is implicated in the murder, the queen will inevitably be implicated. There is no way for me to discuss this matter, so I can only discuss it with the queen.

......

"Except for receiving Wu Weixian's silver, father, do you really have nothing else to do with him?" Empress Zhou asked.

Zhou Kui shook his head: "Daughter, you have to believe that you are a father, you are confused for your father, and it is impossible for you to participate in the rebellion case." ”

Empress Zhou frowned and said, "I naturally believe in my father, but I'm afraid that the people of the Hou Mansion will talk nonsense." ”

There are too many people involved in this rebellion case, and Queen Zhou, who lives in the palace, also noticed the abnormality. If there were really more than a dozen nobles involved in the rebellion, they would not be able to keep the secret at all, and I am afraid that it would have been leaked long ago. Then Wu Weixian is not stupid, he must know that the more people who know, the more danger of leakage. This is an assassination and not a rebellion, why do you want so many people?

Therefore, most of the more than ten nobles who have been copied are probably wronged......

With Jinyiwei's means, what kind of confession can't be obtained, if it is really implicated in Jiading Bofu, I'm afraid it will be very troublesome.

"Father don't worry, daughter will show your majesty." Empress Zhou reluctantly comforted.

Just when Zhou Kui was about to leave the palace, a eunuch from the Qianqing Palace suddenly came to deliver a decree, saying that it was summoned by the emperor.

"Father said it well in front of His Majesty." Empress Zhou instructed.

Zhou Kui followed the little eunuch out of Kunning Palace and arrived at Qianqing Palace, but Zhu Youzhen did not approach him, but was taken into a side hall.

"Let's wait here for now." The little eunuch threw down a sentence and left.

Zhou Kui waited anxiously, waited for two hours, no one took him to see the driver, that is, no one even brought him tea, Zhou Kui became more and more desperate, just when he was about to collapse, the door of the palace finally opened, and Wang Chengen, the great eunuch beside the emperor, walked in.

"Princess, Your Majesty, he ......" Zhou Kui didn't dare to put on a stand anymore, and quickly stood up.

"Your Majesty will not see you, let me ask a few words." Wang Chengen stood in the center of the side hall and said lightly.

"Listen to the oracle." Zhou Kui hurriedly knelt down.

"Guozhang, did you accept Wu Weixian's silver a few days ago and lobby the queen for him to enter the palace?" Wang Chengen said that at this moment he was asking questions for the emperor.

"Your Majesty, but there is something to do, but the old minister just wants to ask His Majesty to exempt from commercial taxes, and after the queen's persuasion, he realized his mistake, so he took the initiative to pay the commercial tax, as for other things Wu Weixian did, the old minister really didn't know." Zhou Kui hurriedly said, trying his best to clear up the relationship with Wu Weixian.

"The queen gave you five thousand taels of silver, why did you only hand over three thousand taels to the tax department, where did the remaining two thousand taels go?" Wang Chengen asked again.

"This ......" Zhou Kui's old face turned red suddenly, he didn't expect that even the emperor knew about this kind of thing.

"Zhou Kui, as the head of the country, you don't think about the reputation of the queen, take the lead in resisting the tax department, collude with the traitor Wu Weixian and others, accept bribes from them, and vainly want to interfere in the imperial court tax system, are you guilty?" Wang Chengen asked sharply.

Zhou Kui was so frightened that he was sweating profusely and crawled on the ground: "The old minister is guilty, the old minister is guilty, please deal with it Your Majesty, but all this has nothing to do with the queen!" ”

"For the sake of the queen's face, I will not pursue you for the crime of colluding with the traitor Wu Weixian for the time being, but the death penalty can be avoided and the living crime cannot be escaped. Order to hand over all the property of the store you have taken, and go home to think about it behind closed doors! Wang Chengen said.

"Yes, the old minister obeys." Zhou Kui hurriedly said.

"Okay, Your Majesty's words have been relayed by the old slave, hurry up, it's very cold underground." Wang Chengen hurriedly said.

Zhou Kui got up from the ground tremblingly, and he was sweating profusely on a cold day.

"Princess, Your Majesty?" Zhou Kui asked tentatively.

Wang Chengen sighed: "Your Majesty is very angry, saying that he didn't expect his father-in-law to have something to do with the traitor. Guozhang, with all due respect to the old slave, if you are not the queen's father, you will really be in a catastrophe this time, and you will definitely end up being beheaded. After you go back, hurry up and hand over the occupied shop and property, don't make Your Majesty angry again, and in the future, you can honestly eat and drink spicy food in the Guozhang Mansion. ”

After thanking Wang Chengen for the reminder, Zhou Kui went out of the palace and did not recover until he got on the sedan chair. At this moment, he has a sense of the aftermath of his life.

"Master, how are things?" Zhou Ping asked.

Zhou Kui sighed: "Finally, I don't have to go back to my hometown in Jiading." ”

"That's a good feeling." Zhou Ping said happily.

"What a fart, there are other shops in Silk Village, as well as the tens of thousands of acres of land around Beijing, can't be saved!" Zhou Kui sighed for a long time.

"Although I saved my life, but thinking that the shop and land I finally got are gone, my heart really hurts, and Your Majesty is too ruthless, so it is better to kill me.

Your Majesty, Your Majesty, I don't think you want to pursue the case of rebellion, you are obviously using the case of rebellion to make people get money and make money, you don't even let go of your father-in-law, Your Majesty, you are too ruthless! Zhou Kui muttered to himself in the sedan chair, very, very painful, it was simply painful.

Outside the sedan chair, Zhou Ping pursed his lips and secretly said You even pit the queen's and your daughter's silver, no wonder Your Majesty is messing with you.

PS: There is one more chapter.