The middle-aged fat man is "wise and martial" again, and he is also "the king of all generations", which has also attracted the approval of many tea customers.

After drinking another pot of good tea, the middle-aged fat man and Wen Sheng got up and left the teahouse.

"That seems to be the money boss of Hechun Building." A tea guest said to the same table with a familiar feeling: "There is a very backstage, and no one dares to make trouble in Hechun Building." ”

"Hechun Building-" The tea guests at the same table showed a look that all men understood, and said with a smile: "The top brand is as beautiful as a fairy, very good, very good!" ”

Not to mention the reaction of the tea customers, just say that the middle-aged fat man and Wen Sheng came out of the teahouse and walked and chatted on the street.

"Brother Qian—" Wen Sheng finally didn't have to endure it anymore, and said with a sneer: "In front of the public, you dare to say that you are a businessman?" Buying and selling skin and meat, can it also be said? ”

Qian Fat Man didn't care, and said with a smile: "Why, it's not the same as buying and selling." Moreover, taking the opportunity to praise the saint is also loyal and patriotic! ”

Wen Sheng shook his head and teased: "Do you want the girl in the building to also talk about 'Saint Wise Divine Martial Arts' all day long?" ”

Qian Fatzi was about to reply, but when he saw a Dongchang fan coming in a hurry, he hurriedly straightened his expression.

"Master Qian quickly go to the noon gate, and the factory supervisor will be summoned." Dongchang Fanzi walked past Qian Fatzi, leaving only a word, and left without looking back.

Qian Fatzi and Wen Sheng glanced at each other, and their faces became solemn. The fat man turned around and beckoned his subordinates, turned over and got on his horse, his movements were sharp and agile, and he rode towards the imperial city.

…………………………

In the mid-to-late Ming Dynasty, the gentry group continued to decay and gradually became a huge vested interest group.

As can be seen in the historical record, this group is intertwined and extends to all strata from top to bottom.

In the court, they are constantly fighting and excluding dissidents; At the local level, they looted the people's fat and ointment, and only cared about their own interests, regardless of the interests of the country and the life and death of the people.

Even, in the struggle at the top, this group can influence the imperial power, that is, the inheritance of the throne.

The controversy over the great etiquette, the theory of the three kings being crowned, and the battle of the palace transfer case are ostensibly high-sounding Confucian morality, but in fact they are for the interests of the group and the party.

The power of vested interest groups is so huge, why does Zhu Youxiao dare to brazenly reform and continue to deepen?

The reason is simple, he sees through the essence of this group. It seems to be strong, but in fact it is weak; It seems to be united with the outside world, but in fact, it falls apart when it is critical.

Moreover, it is not that the imperial power cannot fight this interest group. Instead, from the perspective of the feudal emperor, picking infighting and balancing is in line with the emperor's mind and is conducive to the stability of imperial power.

For this set of power games, the emperors of the Ming Dynasty played it skillfully.

Whether it is Jiajing who cultivates immortals, or Wanli who lives in the palace, or the little carpenter in history, they seem to be not doing their jobs, but they all firmly grasp the imperial power and government affairs.

The reason is also simple, no matter how bad the emperor is, he also knows to firmly grasp the army. And the civil official group in the court seems to be powerful, but it just hasn't crossed the emperor's bottom line and is too lazy to clean them up.

Taking the Great Etiquette Dispute as an example, Emperor Jiajing was almost the enemy of all civil officials in the court in order to prove that "my father is my father".

As a result, more than 200 civil officials, wearing "justice" official uniforms and claiming to be "a national soldier for 150 years, who have adhered to the righteousness of discipline and righteousness, and died today", knocked on the door of Zuoshun Gate and shook the door, "sonic shock to the court".

As a result, he was beaten by the emperor's combination of imprisonment and torture, suspension and punishment, and all of them closed their stinky mouths.

Gave you face, didn't you?! It's all not cleaned up. Emperor Jiajing's victory fully proved that the result of "kicking his nose in the face" was not wonderful.

Zhu Youxiao also regarded this case as a sign of weakness in the civilian bureaucracy. How can you go to prison, suspension, torture, cane reprimand, and suspension, don't you bastards still be reluctant to hold official positions, and brazenly continue to be officials?

If you have the ability, all get out, I want to see if the court can run and if the sky can fall?

Some of those who want to be officials and want to be promoted are eager to occupy a position and get out of here and make room for themselves!

The reason why Zhu Youxiao was able to achieve the goal of purging the court in a short period of time was that first, the imperial power supported him and the army was the backing, and secondly, he did not play his cards according to common sense and did not engage in any balance.

The crackdowns were almost indiscriminate, and party officials from Donglin, Chu, and Zhejiang were among them. Those involved in party disputes, wanton attacks, those who do not do practical things, and those who are corrupt and corrupt will all be taken down without mercy.

Such an operation was obviously shocking and unexpected. When the civil official group came to their senses, a large number of stalwarts had either been convicted or gotten out, and the emperor's broadsword was waved at the magistrate again.

Just as Zhu Youxiao judged, a group of officials were eliminated, and another group of officials came up. On the question of whether to continue to adhere to the previous way of being an official or to obey the emperor, most people wisely chose the latter.

In addition to Sun Chengzong, Li Qiyuan, Bi Zisu, Tao Langxian and other cronies personally promoted and appointed by the emperor, even superficial obedience is quite important for Zhu Youxiao to promote reform.

Of course, not many people knew about the emperor's ambitions. Most people attributed the implementation of the emperor's policies to financial shortfalls, to the enormous cost of the war, and the emperor had to do so.

What I want to build is a Ming Dynasty where the sun never sets, what is Jiannu, what is the chieftain, and my eyes are the whole world.

For this goal, God blocks and kills God, Buddha blocks and destroys Buddha, I launch a storm, and even I am afraid!

Zhu Youxiao flipped through the newspaper, although there were his original words, but the royal pen was very well polished, which made him very satisfied.

Raising commercial taxes and cracking down on collusion between officials and businessmen, although the will has been made a long time ago, it is still not clear enough in the end, which makes Zhu Youxiao feel a little lacking.

Now, the Supreme Emperor of the Ninety-Five has spoken, to see who dares to blow up his wings and who dares to make irresponsible remarks.

Zhu Youxiao put down the newspaper with satisfaction, took a sip of the teacup, and saw Wang Tiqian hurrying in, kneeling down to report: Wei Zhongxian, the governor of Dongchang, entered the palace with the stall Qian Baihua to meet him.

Lao Wei hasn't been in the palace for a few days, and this time with a stall, I don't know if there is anything urgent. Zhu Youxiao put down the teacup and ordered the palace people to summon him.

Soon, Gonggong Wei entered the hall with Qian Baihua, knelt down and kowtowed, and said "Long live".

"Get up!" Zhu Youxiao said casually: "Wei Ban, suddenly entered the palace, what is the matter?" ”

Wei Zhongxian hurriedly took out the question book and bowed down to give it to Wang Tiqian, who came over.

After receiving the question book forwarded by Wang Tiqian, Zhu Youxiao opened it and looked at it twice, his face became serious, and even showed a little anger.

But after more than a year of exercise and habits, the emperor has become much calmer. He read the question book with a gloomy face, and it was rare that he didn't get angry.

Gonggong Wei peeked at the emperor, and saw that he had put down the question book, but he was silent, so he lowered his head and bowed again, waiting for the emperor's inquiry.

"Are you sure that Wu Changchun didn't spy on important information?" The Emperor finally spoke, and asked in a deep voice.

Wu Changchun is the son-in-law of the traitor Li Yongfang, and he also married the daughter of Zhao Yihe, a Chinese officer under Li Yongfang, as a concubine.

In the forty-sixth year of Wanli, that is, the year Li Yongfang surrendered, he was sent to Beijing to hide.

In the first year of the Apocalypse, Liaoyang was lost, and Wu Changchun secretly came to Juehua Island near Ningyuan to meet with Li Yushan, who was sent by Li Yongfang.

Li Yushan gave Wu Changchun 700 taels of silver for his activities, and conveyed Li Yongfang's instructions to him to pay attention to collecting intelligence in the capital.

If there is important information, it will be sent to a home named Chen Yijing in Pingdu, Shandong, and then Chen Yijing will send it to Houjin.

After receiving the funds and receiving the mission, Wu Changchun returned to Beijing and began to actively try to break into the upper echelons of the Ming Dynasty in order to obtain important information.

Important information, of course, is military first. Therefore, Wu Changchun set his sights on the position of the Ministry of War. He pretended to be the martial arts resume of the deceased uncle Wu Yiyang and began to carry out some operations.

Through a man named Zhou Yingyuan, Wu Changchun got acquainted with Ji Yingcheng and several other officials of the Ministry of War, opened the way with silver, and bribed these officials to get himself into the Ministry of War.

If the matter can be done, Wu Changchun promised a reward of 1,400 taels of silver, and also paid 450 taels of activity expenses in advance.

Ji Yingcheng and others took the benefits of Wu Changchun, and really helped him with things, and really got Wu Changchun an official position as a garrison of the military department, and even issued the appointment documents.

But just when Wu Changchun couldn't help but be happy, someone reported that Wu Changchun was an impostor, and his martial arts qualifications were fake.

In fact, this person didn't know the details of Wu Changchun, but he just wanted to blackmail Wu Changchun with this matter and extort a sum of silver as hush money.

Ji Yingcheng knew about the report and exposure, and he was afraid that he would be implicated, so he asked for the appointment document of the Ministry of War from Wu Changchun.

The money was spent, but the officials didn't catch it, Wu Changchun can be described as a chicken and an egg, and he was unlucky.

Seven hundred taels of silver seems to be a lot, but ordinary people can't earn so much after working hard all their lives.

But for Wu Changchun, he rented a house in Beijing and bought a prostitute named Li Fenger... The woman is happy and happy, seven hundred taels of silver is not enough to spend!

So, Wu Changchun left Beijing and wanted to sneak back to Liaodong to get some funds back. However, after the Battle of Guangning, the Ming army implemented a strategic contraction and relocated the Liao people, which was tantamount to cutting off the source of Houjin intelligence.

When Wu Changchun came to Shanhaiguan, he found that he couldn't do it if he wanted to sneak back to the Houjin occupation area, so he had no choice but to return to Beijing again.

The days when he had no money in his hand were really sad, so Wu Changchun sold Li Feng'er to a person named Xue Yingkui at the price of eighty taels of silver.

And Xue Yingkui sold Li Fenger to Hechun Building at a price of one hundred and fifty taels of silver.

When Wu Changchun was living with Li Fenger, he was once drunk and talking nonsense, and he was not paying attention and exposed his details.

But Wu Changchun obviously didn't remember, or forgot about it, and actually sold Li Feng'er, who knew about it, and laid a fatal hidden danger for his exposure.

Li Feng'er picked up guests in Hechun Building, and she didn't mean to harm Wu Changchun, maybe she didn't take it seriously. So, without paying attention, she shook off Wu Changchun's matter.

What is the place of Hechun Building, that is the key place for Dongchang to collect intelligence, not only there are many eyeliners, but even the nominal boss is Qian Baihua, the crotch head of Dongchang, how can he let go of this important information?

Originally, outside the main department of the pacification department, and inside the main factory of the east factory, this was the scope of responsibilities set by the emperor.

Therefore, Dongchang pays more attention to the intelligence collection of the market, and the prostitute... The courtyard not only has all kinds of people, but also a place for officials and scribes to enjoy themselves, and it is also a key group of people for the emperor to monitor.

But with such an important clue all of a sudden, Father-in-law Wei was not so high-spirited, and transferred the case to the Zhenfu Division for meritorious service.

sent Dongchang Fanzi to secretly arrest Wu Changchun, and successfully tried the confession, so Father-in-law Wei hurriedly brought Qian Baihua, the person who directly solved the case, to grab the credit.

Hearing the emperor's inquiry, Gonggong Wei hurriedly bowed down and replied: "The emperor can rest assured, the information collected by this Wu Changchun is not important, and there is no chance to send it out. This is all the emperor's wisdom, and the clever plan to move the Liao people to the customs has worked. ”

For Father-in-law Wei to shoot the horse so naturally, Zhu Youxiao felt very comfortable. Originally, if it weren't for the strategic contraction, if it wasn't for the relocation of the Liao people, how could it cut off the intelligence transmission line of Houjin?

Of course, various conditions in ancient times also determined the difficulty of espionage work.

Taking Wu Changchun as an example, he infiltrated the Beijing Division, which was equivalent to breaking contact with Houjin. Because he is the only one who goes to find Houjin, and Houjin wants to send someone to find him, which is a bit like looking for a needle in a haystack.

This means that Li Yongfang took great pains to establish the intelligence line of the Fan family in Shanxi, but he could not send someone to connect this line of Wu Changchun.

Zhu Youxiao pondered for a long time, then raised his head and asked, "Wu Changchun's attitude is tough, is it easy or more difficult for you to review your confession?" ”

Wei Zhongxian looked at Qian Baihua and motioned for him to answer.

Qian Baihua hurriedly bowed down and said: "Long live, Wu Changchun is a soft bone, he has confessed all before he was punished, and he swore to serve the Ming Dynasty." ”

The corners of Zhu Youxiao's mouth pursed slightly, revealing a sneer of disdain, looked at Wei Zhongxian, and asked, "What does Wei Ban think should be done with Wu Changchun?" ”

Wei Zhongxian also made a guess when he came, thinking that the emperor would most likely be furious and cut Wu Changchun with a thousand knives, and those officials who accepted bribes to provide convenience for Wu Changchun's military department were also unlucky.

But as soon as the emperor opened his mouth to ask, Gonggong Wei felt that he had probably guessed wrong. The emperor didn't get angry, and the words he asked were ambiguous, and there seemed to be some meaning for comparison?

"Back to the emperor, the slave thinks that killing Wu Changchun may have the effect of setting an example." Gonggong Wei stole at the emperor's expression, paused and continued: "But if you spare his life, maybe it will work even more in the future." ”

Zhu Youxiao smiled, did not say what he had just planned, nor did he criticize Wei Gonggong's ambiguous answer, stretched out his finger and pointed at Qian Baihua, and asked, "What about you, what do you think should be done?" ”

Qian Baihua bowed down and replied: "Weichen thinks that Wu Changchun's life can be kept temporarily, because he is Li Yongfang's son-in-law, and he may be able to write some articles in the future." ”

That's right, Wu Changchun is just a pawn, and killing him is just to vent his anger, and it doesn't have much effect.

But Li Yongfang, this big traitor, the spy leader of Houjin, Zhu Youxiao hated him to the core.

And the special relationship between Wu Changchun and Li Yongfang really has a lot to do. At the very least, wouldn't it be better to block Li Yongfang, or even make him lose Houjin's trust?

……………………