What? Don’t confiscate your home? Only confiscate part of the money and land?
Wang Tiqian was so shocked by Zhu Youjian's words that he even forgot to cry. Is this young emperor telling the truth? How is he different from Wei Zhongxian? The same is true for collecting money to avoid guilt...
Zhu Youjian looked at Wang Tiqian and said in a serious tone: "What? I am extraordinarily merciful and give you a chance to atone for your sins. Are you still unwilling?"
Only then did Wang Tigan react, and kowtowed repeatedly: "Yes, yes, long live your Majesty's grace. I am so grateful that I shed tears of gratitude. I am willing to give up all my family property, just to atone for some of my sins..."
Zhu Youjian smiled, this attitude is not bad... It seems that the business of selling "indulgence coupons" can still be done! Anyway, I ransacked so many houses in my previous life, but I didn't get much money out of it, but I got a lot of money from the people who were in charge of ransacking the houses. It would be better to use the treacherous method, and for the most heinous crime, let the family members of the sinner ransack their own home in exchange for a limited amount of immunity. For those who have sinned less, let them exchange silver and land for indulgences. After atonement, one can still reform and become a good person.
Think about the eunuchs in this dynasty, all of them have to buy indulgences... Why can't the Ming Dynasty worry about being loyal?
"Wang Tiqian," Zhu Youjian said warmly, "go back and rewrite the apology memorial... You must explain your crime of corruption. This is the key point! In addition, please report the number again and how much money you are prepared to donate. Use the land to atone for your sin of corruption! Remember, the land for atonement is best within the territory of Beizhili, and it is best to be connected into a large area."
Unlike Nizi who valued industry and commerce, what Zhu Youjian values most now is land! And it's still the land of Northern Zhili... It's not because he has outdated ideas and doesn't know the benefits of industrial and commercial development, but because Zhu Youjian's current ruling center is Northern Zhili, not Southern Zhili.
North Zhili is not as good as South Zhili. South Zhili has convenient water transportation and developed agriculture, which can support a large industrial and commercial population, and the local agriculture can also provide raw materials for industry and commerce. The land in North Zhili is barren, and the local output is not enough to supply Beijing and nearby military towns such as Jizhou, Liaodong, and Xuanfu. Millions of stones of rice are imported through the Grand Canal every year, so there are no conditions for vigorously developing industry and commerce. If we want to develop industry and commerce, we must further gather the population in Beizhili. At the same time, a large amount of farmland will be converted to produce cash crops such as cotton, mulberry and hemp. As a result, the grain output of Beizhili has declined, and more grain needs to be imported through the canal every year!
Therefore, Zhu Youjian, who is now based in Beizhili, can only base himself on the land - using the land of Beizhili under his nose to support the emperor's servants. With elite soldiers who can really fight, his emperor can be stable!
But where did the land in Beizhili come from? The first step was, of course, to tap the potential and take out some land from the royal gardens and imperial estates (granges belonging to the emperor, crown prince and queen mother) around Beijing and distribute them to the soldiers. Among them, the Royal Garden covers an area of about hundreds of thousands of acres. It is possible to fully excavate and divide 500,000 acres of it. The Huangzhuang is mainly distributed in the eight prefectures of North Zhili, mainly in the three prefectures of Shuntian, Baoding and Hejian, with a total of about 37,800 hectares, or 37.8 million acres. The total area of the imperial manor and gardens is 4.23 million acres...Zhu Youjian also plans to dig some more Kinki land from officials in the inner court and outside the court to make up 5 to 6 million acres.
Then these five to six million acres were carefully divided and given to brave and courageous cavalry selected from various military towns to form a cavalry guard directly under the emperor.
Of course, atonement Yin Zhu Youjian is also needed. Because you can’t fight with just cavalry! Nizi's army is mainly composed of the Western French infantry, and the most elite among them is the Scout Guards. To train as a Scout, you have to spend money... You have to hire foreign generals as teachers, you have to buy high-quality muskets and artillery for use, and you have to buy poor children from the barren lands of the northwest as soldiers. If you can spend five or six years training a Guards force of 30,000 to 50,000 Scouts, plus 10,000 Guards Cavalry. After five years of Ping Liao, there is some hope.
Thinking of this, Zhu Youjian's tone became serious again, "Wang Tiqian, don't think that everyone who follows Wei Zhongxian can atone for their sins... Some heads must be killed! This is necessary!
Only by killing a group of people can the remaining people know that the opportunity to redeem their sins is rare! As for who to kill or not, it all depends on the sincerity of the atonement! "
This means that if the money and land for atonement are insufficient, your head will be killed! And there are indicators for decapitation... Are you afraid of death?
Of course Wang Tiqian was scared to death, and kowtowed as if pounding garlic, "I have the sincerity to atone for my sins. My sincerity is very, very great!"
Zhu Youjian said: "Then go back and write the memorial of atonement... Think carefully before writing, because you only have this chance!"
After saying this, he waved his hand and hit the Fa Wang body back.
After Wang Tiqian, the two great men, Li Yongzhen and Liu Ruoyu, also pleaded guilty one after another... Of course, the crimes they requested were not established. If you go back and write the memorial, you must be deeply aware of your crime of corruption!
After that, more than a dozen people came one after another who had always been close to Wei Zhongxian. One of them was actually Liu Chao, the governor of Nanhaizi. It turned out that when Zhu Youjian launched an attack in the imperial city, he was not in the Nanhai Army, but in a private residence in Beijing.
After learning that Wei Zhongxian had fallen, Liu Chao found a place to hide. At the same time, he also sent his confidant eunuchs to inquire about the news. When they found out that indulgence coupons were being sold in Wenhua Hall, they hurriedly came to buy them.
He knew that he had committed a lot of crimes and had many enemies - Wang An, another big brother who had blocked Wei Zhongxian's rise in the past, was killed by him.
Many of the powerful eunuchs around Zhu Youjian are Wang An's old friends. If he doesn't work hard to save himself and waits for his enemies to take action first, he will definitely be one of the targets for beheading!
So he worked hard, and in one fell swoop he took out 200,000 taels of silver and 20,000 acres of land in Beizhili!
"This slave is guilty, this slave has become a corrupt official, this slave has betrayed the trust of Emperor Daxing..." So Liu Chao, who was lying on the ground and begging, looked pitiful, but he was thinking like this - he took out all the After paying so much money and land, the emperor should have spared me, right?
But contrary to Liu Chao's expectation, Zhu Youjian's answer to him was a cold snort.
Seeing Liu Chao trembling, Zhu Youjian said in a calm voice: "Liu Chao, do you think I don't know that you are Wei Zhongxian's best friend? The troops Wei Zhongxian used to rebel were all your subordinates. Your crime is so big, just 20 Want to redeem ten thousand taels of silver and 20,000 acres of land?
Someone is coming! Drag this traitor out and execute him in Lingchi! "
Execution in Lingchi?
Liu Chao was so confused that he even forgot to beg for mercy. It was not until two guards from the Qianqing Palace picked him up and dragged him outside the Wenhua Palace that he realized what he was doing and shouted like a pig: "Long live Lord, please forgive me! Long live Lord, please forgive me!" Spare your life... slave, slave, I have found out my crime, I want to make meritorious service for my crime, I want to expose Cui Chengxiu, Tian Ergeng, Xu Xianchun and their sins!"
Zhu Youjian sneered a few times, "Drag him back!"
The two guards responded and carried Liu Chao back to the hall and threw him at Zhu Youjian's feet.
Zhu Youjian glanced at Liu Chao, who had passed through the gate of hell and was already lying on the ground, and said coldly: "Liu Chao, I know the sins of Cui Chengxiu, Tian Ergeng, and Xu Xianchun, and I don't need you to expose them!"
No need to expose? What to do?
Liu Chao was almost scared to death by Zhu Youjian's words.
Zhu Youjian said: "But I can still be lenient and give you a chance to survive! Aren't you familiar with Wei Zhongxian? Then you must know how much money and land Wei Zhongxian and his family have, right?"
"I know, I know, all slaves know..."
Zhu Youjian said: "Then I will let you search the homes of Wei Zhongxian and several nephews and grandnephews... After the search is completed, I will ask several nephews of Wei Zhongxian to check your accounts! If the accounts are not correct, I will kill you. , spare them! The accounts are correct, kill them, spare you! Liu Chao, just take care of yourself!"
