The eunuch Tu Wenfu and his entourage arrived in Qufu.
Accompanying Tu Wenfu were Zhang Tiqian, the eunuch of the Sima Supervisory Committee, and Zhou Yingqiu, the director of the Ministry of Works.
Zhang Tiqian is Wei Zhongxian's confidant, with great kung fu and vicious methods. In the forty-seventh year of Wanli, when Wei Zhongxian came to power, Zhang Tigan contributed a lot. It is said that he killed five eunuchs in one day, which frightened the former eunuch Lu Shou into surrendering and gave up the throne of eunuch Zhang Yin to Wei Zhongxian.
This time the imperial court appointed Zhang Tiqian as the supervisor of the Dengzhou army to control the money and food of the soldiers, horses, and troops. In theory, all the soldiers, soldiers, and water camp soldiers in the Dengzhou Prefecture would be under his control.
Zhou Yingqiu was a Jinshi in the 23rd year of Wanli Dynasty. In the Wanli Dynasty, he remained unknown for more than ten years. After Emperor Taichang ascended the throne, Zhou Yingqiu was promoted by the emperor to be the director of the Ministry of Industry, and this time he was promoted to Dengzhou Military Preparation Road.
These two men, both civil and military, were the confidants of the emperor and Eunuch Wei respectively. They suddenly airborne at Wendeng at the same time, which shows that the emperor and Jiu Qian Sui were already suspicious of Marquis Ping Liao.
In other words, Liu Zhaosun's eldest brother Wei Zhongxian began to feel dissatisfied with his younger brother.
The dissatisfaction is also understandable. It is said that a big tree attracts the wind.
When Liu Zhaosun killed Yuan Yingtai, the Liaodong governor, Emperor Taichang held back and did not take action against the military leader.
Now Liu Zhaosun is making more progress. Not only does he have his own way in Liaodong, but he also wants to expand his power to Shandong by countering the rebellion.
In July and August, the surrounding prefectures and counties of Jining and Linqing continued to impeach the Marquis of Pingliao. Officials from various places impeached the Kaiyuan Army in the name of pacifying the Wenxiang Sect, and came to Jining, Linqing, to show off their power and show their power, showing their disobedience.
In Zhu Changluo's view, Liu Zhaosun was just grabbing some money in Dengzhou. He dared to threaten the canal, which violated the emperor's bottom line.
Although Zhu Changluo indulged in women, he also attached great importance to military and state affairs like his father Wanli.
The emperor was furious and summoned Wei Zhongxian into the palace to reprimand him severely, urging him to beat his sworn brother so that Liu Zhaosun would stop acting recklessly.
Jiu Qiansui was also dissatisfied with the recent expansion of Marquis Ping Liao in Shandong. He only wanted Liu Zhaosun to stay in Liaodong and be his Marquis Ping Liao. Unexpectedly, this younger brother was very ambitious. If he occupied Dengzhou today, would he plan to plot the capital tomorrow? .
After all, Wei Zhongxian is the emperor's man, and he knows that all his power comes from Emperor Taichang. What Liu Zhaosun is doing now has seriously threatened the imperial power.
It's time to make a choice, whether to follow Ping Liaohou or the emperor.
Wei Zhongxian gave the answer with practical actions.
That's why there was a matter of exchanging the supervisory army and the military preparation road.
Liu Zhaosun knew nothing about the changes in the capital.
Pei Dahu and the others have not returned yet, and Liu Zhaosun suspects that these three guards have been captured by the Jin Yiwei.
Shen Lian is also in trouble.
~~~~~
Liu Zhaosun didn't know Tu Wenfu. He had no impression of this person. He only knew that this eunuch was difficult to deal with.
Historically, Tu Wenfu was Wei Zhongxian's confidant and was promoted to the eunuch Si Li Bingbi. After Wei Zhongxian's downfall, he was banished to Nanjing by Chongzhen to live in leisure. He was one of the few bigwigs in the eunuch party who could be saved.
Kang Yingqian sent money to Tu Wenfu, but Tu Wenfu refused. He turned around and introduced Zhang Tiqian and Zhou Yingqiu to Kang Yingqian.
After a few people exchanged pleasantries, Eunuch Tu pulled Supervisor Kang aside and whispered:
"Kang Xunzong, ordinary civil servants regard Liaodong as a land of wolves, but it is not easy for Kang's army to hold on here. To be honest, our family has heard from the emperor that Kang's army has made outstanding achievements in Liaodong, and we have been thinking about it. You are transferred back to the capital to be in charge, so as not to suffer in this bitter and cold place."
Kang Yingqian naturally didn't believe these nonsense. What he did in Liaodong was enough to kill his head ten times, and there was still a question about how long the Taichang Emperor could live.
"The emperor's kindness is so great that I am so grateful. However, my talents are limited and my knowledge is shallow. Compared with the cabinet ministers, my fire is as bright as the sun and the moon. I am old, so I will live in Liaodong for a few years. Thank you for your promotion, Eunuch Tu."
Seeing that Kang Yingqian was shameless and determined to leave with Liu Zhaosun, Tu Wenfu's expression suddenly turned gloomy and he said coldly:
"Our family came to Qufu just to announce the decree. Eunuch Zhang and Mr. Zhou are both people trusted by the emperor. This time we were ordered to come to Shandong to thoroughly investigate the murder of Yan Shenggong. They will be stationed in Dengzhou in the future and will assist Ping Ping. The Marquis of Liao and Kang Xunjian."
Kang Yingqian knew that these two men were difficult to deal with, so he smiled and nodded.
"Don't worry, Eunuch Tu. I, the Marquis of Ping Liao, will do my best to cooperate with the supervision of the army and the military preparation."
~~~~~
On October 18, the second year of Taichang, Qufu County Government.
Tu Wenfu slowly unfolded the imperial edict, and Ping Liaohou led a group of civil and military officials to burn incense to answer it.
Fengtian Chengyun Emperor
The imperial edict said: "Jings to reward virtuous and meritorious service are the classics of the imperial court; the title of Gao Marquis is to promote the mainstay talents." The Marquis of Erping Liao, Liu Zhaosun, served the Rongzhan army, established honors for the Liao Zuo, and overcame the Communist military affairs. After a long period of time in Kaiyuan, the territory was defended by him; when he first ascended to Qilu, the demons and rebels were wiped out! With Qin's kindness, I will reward you with ten thousand taels of silver, support the three armies, and confer the title of Prince Shaofu of the Marquis of Pingliao. I will lead you as the chief military officer of Dengzhou, and lead the defense of Dengzhou. I appreciate this! October 6, the second year of Taichang.
Liu Zhaosun received the imperial edict and thanked the emperor for his kindness.
"It's great to congratulate Marquis Ping Liao on his promotion to the rank of noble! The newly arrived military and military supervisors must be very thorough, Marquis Ping Liao."
Liu Zhaosun heard that there was something in the old eunuch's words and Kang Yingqian said that the emperor had begun to be wary of Kaiyuan, so he did not care about this person.
The two exchanged a few words, and Liu Zhaosun wanted to persuade Tu Wenfu to stay in Qufu for a few more days. The old eunuch refused again and again, saying with a strange tone:
"That's all. Qufu has just been hit by the chaos. Even Shenggong Yan was killed by traitors. Our family's fate is not as tough as that of Kong Shengren. We'd better go back and recover first."
That day, Eunuch Tu took the young eunuch and returned to the capital to resume his duties.
Liu Zhaosun arranged for Kang Yingqian and Jiang Zheng to receive the newly arrived supervisors and soldiers.
Zhou Yingqiu and Zhang Tiqian also didn't have enough money, and they didn't even want any money. Coupled with the unpleasantness of their words, Liu Zhaosun lost interest in buying them off.
The two sent their close servants to explore Qufu City for two days, but did not find the results they wanted.
Zhou Yingqiu and Zhang Tiqian also want to go to Konglin, the Confucius Mansion, to check, hoping to find any clues about the murder of Yan Shenggong.
After getting permission from Liu Zhaosun, Kang Yingqian sent someone to accompany Eunuch Zhang and Mr. Zhou, and the Intelligence Bureau secretly monitored them closely.
The soldiers had already moved everything out of the Confucius Mansion. Except for the two stone lions at the gate, which could not be moved, Liu Zhaosun didn't leave any of the thousands of artifacts, treasures, calligraphy, paintings and antiques in the Mansion back to Wendeng.
Kong Lin's experience was even worse.
Since the Qin and Han Dynasties, literati and poets of all dynasties have been planting trees here, including pine, nanmu, teak and other fine woods.
The rulers of all dynasties took protective measures against Confucius. During the Manchu and Qing Dynasties, in order to demonstrate the fine tradition of respecting Confucianism, the Qing Dynasty even built walls around Confucius and stationed troops.
In short, under the protection of various emperors in the past dynasties, the Confucius Forest has towering giant trees, vast green areas, and extremely rich forest resources.
And good wood was an extremely scarce resource in the Ming Dynasty.
The construction of royal palaces especially requires good wood.
Most of the palace buildings are civil structures, which are prone to fires. In the Ming Dynasty, there are many records of palaces being burned down. Of course, these were actually man-made disasters.
In the 19th year of Yongle (the second year after the capital was moved to Beijing), there was a fire in Fengtian Hall. The fire spread to Jinshen Hall, two halls and three halls were reduced to ashes at the same time.
In the summer of the thirty-sixth year of Jiajing, another fire broke out in the three main halls. The fire burned along the east and west corridors of the three main halls to outside the Meridian Gate.
In the twenty-fifth year of Wanli, this time not only the three main halls were burned down, but also the Qianqing Palace and the Kunning Palace. The middle road of the Forbidden City was in ruins. The reconstruction project of these palaces took 35 years, and it was not completed until the sixth year of Tianqi (1626).
······
In the early Ming Dynasty, Wudang Mountain was built, 100,000 soldiers and civilians were dispatched, and countless good trees were harvested.
Emperor Jiajing believed in Taoism and built Taoist temples in various places. In addition, the palaces in the Forbidden City were constantly burned down and rebuilt.
Phoebe resources in North China were quickly depleted, followed by those in Huguang and Jiangnan.
In the end, the emperor had to send people to Yunnan and Guizhou and other places to cut trees. Because the mountains where the nanmu grew were high and the water was deep, the cost of cutting was heavy. (Note 1)
At that time, officials who harvested wood were described as follows:
The official who picked wood would eat and sleep in the open air, sun and sunset in the mountains, maybe one and a half years old. (Note 2)
Of course, even so, no one dared to take Kong Lin’s idea.
Liu Zhaosun had already killed Duke Yan Sheng, so it was reasonable to cut down a few pieces of wood.
The soldiers cut the giant wood into pieces, hid them in the grain and grass shipped to Wendeng, and secretly went to Weihaiwei Port.
These high-quality timber will be floated on the sea by boat and transported to North Korea's Pi Island to provide the core materials for Pingliao Hou's shipbuilding business.
The stone steles in the Confucius Forest are extremely valuable, and there are many authentic works of calligraphers from past dynasties in the forest of steles. At the suggestion of calligraphy and painting expert Qiao Yiqi, Liu Zhaosun arranged for Xie Yang, the Secretary of Industry and Commerce, to have the Department of Industry and Commerce smuggle these stone steles to the south through Liaodong Trading Company. Sold to the rich men in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Fujian in exchange for tea and silk.
Qiao Yiqi roughly estimated that even at the current lowest market price, more than 500 Tang and Song dynasty steles would cost at least 500,000 silver.
The Kaiyuan Army did not participate in the digging and robbing of graves. It was not because Marquis Pingliao was unwilling, but because his transportation capacity was limited and he could not move so many things.
Basically, it was done spontaneously by the surrounding tenant farmers.
Of course, Marquis Pingliao provided these angry tenants with the tools to commit crimes and the necessary food.
Taken from the people, used by the people, this is how it should be.
Not only that.
Marquis Pingliao also announced that the rent of 300,000 acres around Konglin would not have to be paid this year or next.
Considering that there will be no descendants of Confucius to succeed Yan Shenggong for a while, Qufu Konglin will only become a land without an owner in a short period of time.
Whether it was logging or tomb robbing, as long as anything was done on Confucius' head, it would be a serious crime of beheading. Naturally, the tenants of Confucius stood firmly with Ping Liaohou.
Zhou Yingqiu visited every day and finally found a tenant who was willing to report Kai Yuanjun.
The tenant was imprisoned in Qufu Prison. Before Bing Bei Dao could take a confession, the man died violently in prison the next day.
In the end, Marquis Pingliao handed over more than thirty Wenxiang Sect rebellious people and blamed them for the crimes of cutting down trees and robbing tombs and monuments.
At the same time, the public opinion in Qufu was fierce. Those tenants who had benefited from the benefits blocked the gate of the county town and prevented people from leaving the city. They said they wanted to avenge Yan Shenggong and go to the capital to file a petition.
The law does not punish the public. Unless we want Shandong to continue to riot, we can only hastily end the Confucius tragedy.
Zhang Jianjun and Zhou Yingqiu knew that Liu Zhaosun was behind this. They were angry but had no choice but to hold their noses and admit it.
Note:
1: The battle of harvesting wood started from the time when Emperor Cheng was renovating the palace in Beijing... (During the Wanli Period), the construction of the three palaces was booming, and nanmu was harvested in Huguang, Sichuan, and Guizhou. ——"History of Ming Dynasty·Food and Goods"
2: "Guangzhiyi·Jiangnan Provinces"
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