But as soon as he walked into the Qianqing Palace, Zhu Zi saw the unkindness on his father's face. In addition, Zhu Biao stood aside and kept winking at him, telling him to deal with it carefully. Zhu Zi immediately understood that if his father summoned him to the palace today, he might not be doing anything good.
The cheerful expression just now quickly calmed down, and he stepped forward and said: "My son, I pay my respects to my father. May your father be well."
"Hmph!" Lao Zhu waved his sleeves angrily, turned to Zhu Biao and said, "Give him the memorial and see what explanation he has."
Seeing that his father was so angry, Zhu Zi seemed to not want to talk to him at all, and just left him on the ground. Zhu Zi's heart was like lightning and he was trying his best to recall, wondering what he had done to anger his father.
But no matter how Zhu Zi recalled it, he couldn't think of anything that made his father angry. During this period of time, he basically stayed at home and rarely went out. Even the few times he went out, he came and went in a hurry, and came back without delay at all. He never had a conflict with anyone, so he should not have offended his father.
When Zhu Biao heard his father's instructions, he had no choice but to step forward with a sigh and hand the memorial to Zhu Zi.
At the same time, he turned around and held up his hands, wanting to say something for Zhu Zi, but Lao Zhu immediately waved his hand and interrupted: "You don't have to speak for him, I want to hear his explanation."
Zhu Zi opened the memorial in confusion and looked at it, his brows began to wrinkle. As he read sentence after sentence, his frown became deeper and deeper.
In the end, Zhu Zi even had anger on his face. He held up a memorial and shouted at his father about his injustice, saying: "Father, this is slander. They are slandering my sons and ministers."
Lao Zhu waited for Zhu Zi to finish speaking, and then asked in a deep voice: "You said that the supervisory censor slandered you, didn't you collect information from all the officials, and they were framed?"
Zhu Zi immediately raised his head and said, "I did collect information about some officials, but I definitely did not do anything illegal or disciplinary as stated in the memorial."
"Have you really never done anything illegal?" Seeing Zhu Zi's decisive words, Lao Zhu softened his tone a lot. After all, Zhu Zi was able to voluntarily give up his feudal status. Lao Zhu originally thought that he had suffered a loss and still felt indebted to him.
Zhu Zi hurriedly bowed down again and said: "My son really did not do anything illegal or disciplinary. He did collect information about some officials, but I dared to ask my father, who violated the laws of the Ming Dynasty?" A national law?"
Lao Zhu was stunned when he heard this. He was very familiar with the Ming Dynasty Law. After thinking about it carefully, he really couldn't find which one Zhu Zi had violated. Since Zhu Zi did not break the law or discipline, Lao Zhu's attitude towards him suddenly became much better.
Seeing Zhu Zi still kneeling on the ground, he whispered: "Get up."
"Thank you, Father." The sadness on Zhu Zi's face suddenly disappeared, and his smiling expression returned. These were things that he had thought over and over again when he was preparing to start this business. It is just a dream for the supervisory censor to get hold of him in this place.
Zhu Biao was very surprised by Zhu Zi's performance and couldn't help but look at his eighth brother a few more times. As for Zhu Zi's response just now, he himself couldn't guarantee that he could do better than Zhu Zi.
Seeing Zhu Zi's response so fluently, Zhu Biao immediately felt relieved and prepared to wait and see what happened. When his eighth brother could no longer cope, he would help.
Lao Zhu did not let Zhu Zi off just because he explained the matter of collecting official information. The memorial listed Zhu Zi's several major crimes, and collecting official information was only one of them. If he wanted Lao Zhu to let him go, Zhu Zi had to explain all the major crimes in the memorial.
Even if Zhu Zi said that the charges in the memorial were false, he still had to convince Lao Zhu.
After Lao Zhu paused for a few breaths, he asked again: "What about impeaching you for extorting money from officials? Is there such a thing?"
Zhu Zi immediately held his head high and said: "Father, I have never extorted money from officials. Yes, some officials have given me some property, but they gave it to me willingly."
Although what Zhu Zi said was very pleasant, Lao Zhu still understood the key point of Zhu Zi's words at once, his eyes suddenly condensed, and he shouted sternly: "How dare you accept bribes from officials?"
"Father, I did not accept bribes from officials." Zhu Zi quickly denied it, then spread his hands and said: "Except for an idle prince, I have no position or power. Who would use the money to bribe me? ?”
Lao Zhu frowned, what Zhu Zi said was not unreasonable. Since ancient times, bribes have always been given to powerful people. I have never heard of anyone bribing a powerless person.
Giving money to powerless people is not called bribery, it is called throwing money in the water.
"That means you haven't received money from officials? Is the censor slandering you?" Lao Zhu suddenly became angry, but this anger was not directed at Zhu Zi, but at the censor. of.
Supervisory censors do have the power to report matters upon hearing of the news. No matter who they are or what the matter is, they can report them for impeachment. However, the supervisory censors generally still need to have real evidence to impeach people. They themselves do not want to report some things they take for granted to the emperor, because this will make the emperor feel that they are doing nothing.
What's more, Zhu Zi is still a prince, so even if he supervises the impeachment of the censor, he will be more cautious.
Originally, Lao Zhu thought Zhu Zi would deny it, but he didn't expect it.
After Zhu Zi heard this, a trace of embarrassment flashed across his face, but he nodded and admitted, "My son has indeed received property from some officials."
Lao Zhu was shocked when he heard this, pointed at Zhu Zi and asked in confusion: "You have no power, why should those officials give you money?"
Zhu Zi immediately lowered his head, unwilling to tell the reason. This is his secret to making money, his cash cow, how could he give up so easily?
"Say!" Lao Zhu shouted angrily, staring at Zhu Zi with eyes as wide as bells.
Seeing this, Zhu Zi had to explain: "Father, officials in the world are divided into imperial officials and foreign officials. Those who are within the capital are imperial officials, and those outside the capital are foreign officials."
Worried that his father would not understand, Zhu Zi patiently explained to his father.
Then he continued: "Every year, countless foreign officials come to the capital to do business, allocate money and food, or pay taxes. Many of these officials come to the capital for the first time. They are not familiar with the capital's life and place, let alone There are officials in various ministries. Even if there are several districts in the southeast, northwest and northwest of the capital, they don't know. Even if they want to come to the court to do business, they don't even know where to go. Take the Ministry of Husbandry, for example. The ministry has more than a dozen bureaus and bureaus, with many names. How can these officials, who have just arrived, find the places they need directly? Therefore, the ministers took advantage of this opportunity to send people to release them. The news is out that I have detailed information about the six ministries of the imperial court and will provide them with convenience."
Zhu Zi said it very tactfully. He only said that he would provide convenience and did not say anything else. But both Lao Zhu and Zhu Biao knew that if they wanted Zhu Zi to provide convenience, these officials would naturally have to give him money.
Lao Zhu frowned in confusion and asked, "Just like this, they will give you money willingly. How much will they give you?"
"This..." It was related to his own money bag, and Zhu Zi certainly didn't want to say it.
Lao Zhu narrowed his eyes and stared at him, saying "Hmm~".
Zhu Zi gritted his teeth this time and reluctantly replied: "Father, it's not that I don't want to say it, it's that there is no accurate answer for this matter."
Lao Zhu was not easy to fool. He looked at Zhu Zi calmly, raised his chin and said to him: "Just tell me how much you usually take at one time."
Zhu Zi was forced into a corner and had no choice but to hesitate and say: "One time, probably a few hundred guans."
"A few hundred guan?" Lao Zhu was immediately shocked. A few hundred guan was not a small sum.
Lao Zhu angrily slapped the imperial court, stood up, raised his finger and pointed at Zhu Zi and cursed: "How could they give you hundreds of dollars just for breaking the news? How dare you say you didn't take any bribes? You still don’t recruit people from the real situation!”
Zhu Zi quickly knelt down, raised his hands in the air and explained: "My father misunderstood my son. I really did not accept bribes."
"Then how could they give you so much money at once?" Lao Zhu grabbed the amount of money and refused to let it go. He didn't even believe that there would be such a fool in the world. Just a little bit of information would give away hundreds of money. go out.
What news is so valuable? Gold is not worth the price either.
Zhu Zi had no choice but to explain: "Father, the value of your ministers' information is not as low as you thought. Father, why don't you think about it, if an official comes to the capital with grain and cloth to pay taxes, if he is confused and knows everything I don’t know, if he wants to find accurate news in the capital, it will take at least ten days and a half."
"In the past ten days and a half, their group of dozens of people have eaten and stayed in the capital. Do they need to spend money? Yes, not only do they need to spend money, but the money is not a small amount. .Also, they can’t carry such a large amount of food and cloth with them, right? They have to find a warehouse to store it temporarily, right? This is another huge expense. Also, the things are stored in the warehouse, just in case. If it rains, what if it gets wet? If it gets moldy, it will be wasted. The risk is not small."
"But as long as they find Erchen, it will be different. Erchen can let them find the right place and settle the matter within one day. In this way, they don't even have to stay in the capital for one night. , and there is no need to search for a warehouse, they can go home happily with the tax payment certificate on the same day.”
"The amount of money I got from staying with them in the capital for ten days and a half is nothing at all. Moreover, by doing this, I can consider it as a contribution to the court, right?"
Lao Zhu's eyes were dizzy after hearing this, and he sat back on the chair in despair. He always felt that there was something wrong with this, but he couldn't find a reason to refute Zhu Zi.
In this matter, the foreign official reduced his expenses and gained benefits. It would also be beneficial for the court to receive tax revenue as quickly as possible. And Zhu Zi even got money, which is nothing to say. No one of the three parties suffered a loss, but all of them benefited?
This is completely different from Lao Zhu's common sense understanding.
Zhu Zi indeed accepted money from officials, but can he be considered to have accepted bribes?
cannot!
If even doing things that are beneficial to the court can be regarded as accepting bribes, then no one in the court will dare to do anything in the future.
Therefore, even Lao Zhu could not use such an excuse to punish Zhu Zi.
After a long silence, Lao Zhu turned to ask: "What about the censor impeaching you for threatening officials and interfering in court affairs?"
"My son has never threatened an official. He is just an idle prince. Who can a powerless man threaten?" Zhu Zi denied.
When Zhu Zi was helping people mediate matters, he did go to some officials. Once someone finds him, he is expected to help solve the problem. He would invite relevant officials to a banquet. At the banquet, Zhu Zi would not tell the other party explicitly, but would implicitly express that so-and-so knew him.
Those who can be officials in the capital are all talented people. Zhu Zi said that as long as there is no sworn hatred, ordinary officials will give Zhu Zi a face, laugh twice, drink a few glasses of wine, and then tell the matter. Reveal it.
After all, Zhu Zi is the prince. As the saying goes, don't look at the monk's face to see the Buddha's face. Officials will not care about ordinary trivial matters. And since Zhu Zi is doing such a thing, who of them can guarantee that they will not come to Zhu Zi's house in the future?
This kind of thing is a matter of face for Zhu Zi. He hosted a banquet to entertain the other party and gave him face, so the other party would naturally not hold on to him.
But such a thing would be a disaster for the officials below. If Zhu Zi hadn't stood up for them, they would have died.
By the way, what does it mean for those officials to spend some money on such a thing? What they were afraid of was not how much Zhu Zi would charge, but that he would not accept it!
Of course, Zhu Zi is not stupid. If there is really a sworn hatred between the two, he will not take over no matter how much money the other party pays.
In other words, Zhu Zi is just trying to show off his own face. Who does this bother?
Seeing his father's hesitation, Zhu Zi thought for a moment and sighed: "Yes, I did invite some officials to dinner, but I really just invited them to dinner and did not threaten them. If my father doesn't believe it, You can send someone to ask those officials. At the banquet, Erchen didn't even threaten them. Moreover, Erchen didn't know where he heard about this censor. Erchen and all the officials were at the banquet. We get along quite harmoniously, how can you slander your ministers and threaten them?"
Lao Zhu saw something strange and was not sure what was going on. Then he asked doubtfully: "You invited officials to dinner? Did you accept money from someone else?"
"Ahem, this, my father, I did receive the money. After all, I also need to spend money to buy a banquet. But I dare to promise my father that they gave it to me voluntarily and there was absolutely no blackmail. They." Zhu Zi replied with an embarrassed look, and made a gesture of swearing towards Lao Zhu.
Lao Zhu couldn't figure out what was going on here for a while, so he nodded and said, "Then you go back first. I will send someone to investigate this matter. If you really did something extraordinary, I can’t spare you.”
"Then I will leave first."
After Zhu Zi left, Lao Zhu rubbed his temples with a headache, turned to Zhu Biao and asked, "What do you think?"
Zhu Biao scratched his chin, feeling an inexplicable familiarity with what his eighth brother said just now. Now I heard my father ask myself, and after thinking about it, he replied: "Father, from what the eighth brother said, it seems to be true. He may have indeed received money from some officials, but he also really He helped those officials solve a big problem. And his actions did not cause any losses to the court, so..."
Lao Zhu leaned back on the chair and sighed heavily. His doubts did not get answers from Zhu Biao, but instead deepened.
"That's all we can do now. Let's wait until the investigation is clear about what exactly happened."
Zhu Biao tilted his head and thought for a moment, then suddenly said with a smile: "Father, don't you think this is a good thing?"
"What good thing?" Lao Zhu turned his head and looked at Zhu Biao in confusion.
Zhu Biao replied sternly: "In the past, my eighth brother, to tell the truth, his behavior before was indeed a bit eccentric. But when my father looked at my eighth brother today, he was confident and bold in his speech. I didn't dare to expect that. Emperor Manfu, originally I was prepared to intercede for my eighth brother, but I didn’t expect that my eighth brother would explain it clearly without my son opening his mouth. If it were the previous eighth brother, would he be able to do this? "
Lao Zhu nodded slightly when he heard this. Only when Zhu Biao mentioned it did he notice Lao Ba's performance from beginning to end, which was remarkable. In the past, Zhu Zi was always submissive and timid when facing himself. But today, he actually dared to stand in front of him and argue with him rationally.
Thinking of this, Lao Zhu couldn't help but laugh. He was obviously very satisfied with Zhu Zi's current performance.
However, even so, Lao Zhu still shook his head and sneered: "He had better tell the truth and not lie to me. If I find out that he is messing around, I can't spare him."
Zhu Biao stood aside and smiled slightly, but did not interrupt, and he was even less anxious. Based on his understanding of his father, the more he said that he could not spare Zhu Zi at this time, the more likely Zhu Zi would hold the board high and put it down gently, even if something really happened.
...
Two days later, Jiang Wei came to report with a series of verified information.
"Your Majesty, I have fulfilled my mission. Please take a look at it."
Lao Zhu took the document handed over by Jiang Wei and opened it. Because there was a lot of content, Lao Zhu could only read it slowly bit by bit.
Seeing the emperor lowering his head to read the document, Jiang Wei thought for a moment and said in a low voice: "Your Majesty, I have found out in the past two days that His Highness King Tan did accept money from some foreign officials, but he also helped those foreign officials solve their problems. Question. I even found out that a foreign official expressed gratitude to His Highness King Tan. It was definitely not like the impeachment, saying that His Highness King Tan raided *officials."
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