At the root of the imperial city, in the deep courtyard of a wealthy family, candlelight flickered in the hall and three people drank and sighed, but it was Zhou Kui, the head of the country, and his son.
"The gelded dog is now in full swing and no one in the empire dares to mess with it. In addition, it is not a secret that the queen neglects my father in the capital. My eldest brother and I went to several houses and everyone talked about it, but it was clear that we did not want to wade into this muddy water. Ah," the second son of the Zhou family said dejectedly.
"If that damn girl hadn't been so unfilial, how could dad have ended up in this situation and suffered the injustice of that castrated dog?" Zhou Kui gritted his teeth angrily and couldn't help but slap the table. The two sons were in panic: "Dad, be careful, if you are Outsiders will be in big trouble if they hear about it!”
The Queen's mother-in-law is the most important thing in the world. She must bow to her biological parents when they see her, and she is honored as Queen whether officially or privately. It is a big taboo for Zhou Kui to say "die girl" at this time!
"There are only you and me, my father and my son, here, why are outsiders here?" Even though Zhou Kui said this, he couldn't help but glance outside the hall.
"Dad, the walls have ears." The eldest son of the Zhou family sighed: "Dad, if you want to get back the one hundred thousand taels of silver, you have to go find the queen. The dog eunuch is so powerful now that we can't defeat him!"
"Nonsense, if dad can speak to the queen, how can he be fooled by that castrated dog and be blackmailed out of a hundred thousand taels of silver?" Zhou Kui became more and more angry as he thought about it: "To this day, dad still doesn't know where he offended the queen. So heartless all of a sudden."
"Dad, why don't you try to find the way to the prince? In the past few days, I have heard that the prince occasionally leaves the palace incognito..." Zhou Laoer suggested but was interrupted by Zhou Kui shaking his head: "The prince has a close relationship with that castrated dog... ...I'm afraid he is more ruthless than the Queen."
"But now that we have no choice, we have to give it a try. You two sons will tell me what you say to me." Zhou Kui was finally persuaded: "Then let me ask if he leaves the palace in the next few days, my father will stop him and try." Try, at least find out why the queen treats his parents like this, and know what the disease is so that you can take the medicine."
Then he rolled his eyes again: "There is also the one hundred thousand taels of silver that the gelding lost. Dad must get it back, he must get it back! If you two brothers try extreme means again, you must do it at all costs."
Zhou Kui was notoriously greedy by nature and loved money as much as his life. Historically, he spared no money when the bandits tortured him. The bandits killed his eldest son and his wife, but he still said he had no money. They also killed his wife. Is he still alive? , it was not until he was beaten until he was about to die that he realized how much money a person can do after death, so he recruited more than 500,000 taels of silver.
It is conceivable that such a person who loves money as much as his life and is extremely stingy could not give up after being cheated out of a hundred thousand taels.
There is a large house in Gongxian Hutong at the east wall of the imperial city. The owner lives in seclusion and seldom comes out. Neighbors know very little about him. They only know that he is a wealthy old man in his sixties who has five or six dogs and cats. There are four maids and handymen in the house. The five of them are also very low-key and reticent on weekdays.
Neighbors who had seen the rich old man said he was not a simple person. The reason is that Yinwu seems to be a ruthless character.
I have to say that this neighbor is very discerning. This old man is indeed a figure and comes from the palace.
Yes, he was a eunuch, but he was not an ordinary eunuch. He was once the leader of Dongchang.
After the fall of Wei Zhongxian, Dongchang was shelved by Emperor Chongzhen due to public indignation and no new factory governor was promoted. However, after all, this yamen was inherited from ancestors and served the emperor. Emperor Chongzhen could not close it down and just dealt with it in a low-key manner. A eunuch was found to manage it. Although he was not officially appointed, he was still the actual person in charge.
This eunuch is the owner of this mansion, the eunuch Wang Zhixin.
Although Wang Zhixin is an eunuch, he has a title, and his brother and nephew have hundreds of royal guards. Although he was not well-known during his time in power, he did a lot of evil things. History books use four words for him: "Unjust crimes", which means he committed many unjust cases.
In addition, Wang Zhixin also has the nickname of the richest man, and he is the richest eunuch.
Regardless of whether he was guilty of too many unjust cases or was amassing money excessively, Emperor Chongzhen always turned a blind eye. It was not that he didn't want to take care of it, but that he didn't have that much energy. At that time, the Ming Dynasty was on the verge of collapse, and there were constant wars outside. There were several bad news a day, how could there be any Kung Fu handles these trivial matters.
Until one day, when the news that Chang Yu, who was in charge of depositing money, pretended to be an eunuch of Dongchang in Datong and killed Jiang Yu, and then deceived and deceived him into donating money on behalf of the king, reached the ears of Emperor Chongzhen, he suddenly became excited and his head felt hot or something. Oh, after making a decision that I have always talked about, it can be called a stroke of genius. The fake act came true. A secret edict not only confirmed Chang Yu’s identity as the eunuch of the East Factory, but also directly made him the boss. Shidong Factory.
This Wang Zhixin was also an old man. Seeing that he had been deprived of power, he had done a lot of bad things, so he accepted the resignation of Gao Lao when he saw that it was good. Emperor Chongzhen was seeing that he was upset, and used this to push him away from the common people's anger. Wang Zhixin was carrying a lot of things. The pot is out of the palace, the palace is deep and simple, and the book is mediocre, which can be considered a good result.
Even though the new eunuch became more and more famous, it did not stir up any ripples in his heart. He just raised flowers and plants at home and played with cats and dogs, and his life was very comfortable.
Until one day, the wind blew through the door of the house.
The imperial court launched an anti-corruption campaign and strictly investigated all kinds of corruption and bribery by Beijing officials. People were panicked for a while. In fact, as early as when Chang Yu came to power, he caused a stir against the nobles. He implicated many nobles on the pretext of using Beijing soldiers for private purposes and fined them a large sum of money. At that time, Wang Zhixin shook his head after hearing this. An ignorant child has offended so many honorable men before he has a firm foothold, and he will only fear that he will die without a burial place in the future.
Unexpectedly, the little eunuch became more and more brave. He was not only a good at making money, but also made great achievements in turning the tide, killing thieves and quelling the chaos. He was in the limelight for a while. Not to mention that the nobles did not dare to touch him now, and they could not touch him.
Whether he was moving or not, Wang Zhixin was just watching in the dark for fun, but he never thought that one day suddenly news came out that Dongchang had found him!
How could Chang Yu miss the former richest eunuch!
At this time, Wang Zhixin panicked and hurriedly entered the palace to ask for an audience with Emperor Chongzhen. Unexpectedly, Emperor Chongzhen had no time to see him, so he had no choice but to send someone to send a message to Wang Chengen, hoping to come to the palace to reminisce about the past.
Wang Chenen had an old relationship with him, so he refused and went to visit him, but he also poured cold water on him: It's not that he doesn't want to help, it's that he really can't help. Even the emperor can't help, because it's not a yamen coming to investigate, it's Dongchang. , Jin Yiwei, and the three departments of the Metropolitan Procuratorate jointly investigated!
Wang Zhixin became more and more panicked and begged Wang Chenen to show him the way by remembering his past feelings.
Wang Chenen knew that Wang Zhixin had embezzled a lot of money and done a lot of dirty things during his reign, but some of them were taking the blame for Emperor Chongzhen. Seeing this, he really pointed the way: Although the three The departments jointly investigated, but among them Dongchang is the largest, and the words have the most weight. In addition, you are also an old man from Dongchang, so you should start from Dongchang.
But this made Wang Zhixin troubled again. After Chang Yu took over the Dongchang, he made drastic changes, promoted new people and appointed trusted and capable officials. His old subordinates are now just doing odd jobs and can't talk at all, while the young eunuch and Chunxiang are all working outside the capital. Not online.
"Go find Wu Mengming," Wang Chenen warned before leaving.
Wu Mengming is the commander of the Jinyiwei, another sword of the emperor, but he has been secretly attached to Chang Yu of Dongchang. This person is the actual commander of the current anti-corruption storm.
Spending money to eliminate disasters made Wang Zhixin feel a sharp pain in his heart. He knew that Wu Mengming was a money-greedy guy, and it would take a lot of money to do business with him!
It is really ironic that the imperial court lets an extremely greedy guy investigate corruption repeatedly. What kind of world is this! Wang Zhixin couldn't help cursing secretly, but asked Wu Mengming to be a guest at his house.
