Huang Qiong didn't pay much attention to the Minister of Industry's explanation, which was obviously evasive. With a wave of his hand, he ordered the fifth master Chu to be brought up. Huang Qiong looked at the fifth master Chu who was so frightened that his face was pale and there was still an unknown water stain in his crotch. He smiled and said: "This fifth master will tell all the adults here what he said to me in Dongshi. , restate it again.”
But the fifth master Chu, whose courage was frightened, could still speak at this time. Even if he could say it, how could he dare to say it again? He is a little stupid, but he is not a fool. He knew that if he really said it, not to mention himself, it would be a matter of whether the entire Chu family could be saved. If the Chu family was still there, he would still have hope of saving his life.
But if the Chu family was implicated along with him, he would seriously have no hope at all. The fifth master Chu, who was planning to beat him to death in his heart, could no longer talk about it. When he saw the cowering eyes again, Huang Qiong lowered her head and looked at him with a smile on her face, but her eyes were extremely cold, but she couldn't help but look at him. Almost everything he said in Dongshi came out exactly as he said it.
As soon as he finished speaking, Uncle Chu and a group of officials immediately collapsed to the ground. The Minister of the Ministry of Industry, who had been arrogant before, kowtowed desperately and said: "Your Highness, I am really unjust. We really didn't know that the Chu family has such a close relationship with the King of Shu and the King of Song. We really didn't violate it. According to the court regulations, any prince has been implicated. It is really unjust to be a low-ranking official."
Looking at the officials in front of him, Huang Qiong waved his hand to stop the Minister of Industry from explaining, and said coldly: "You all go back first. I will give you one day to think carefully about what to do next and how to explain to me. These things. On the third day of the lunar month, you report to the palace yourself. Don't let me send troops to invite you one by one, because then it will be difficult to say good things."
After all the officials were rolling away from the Chu Mansion, Huang Qiong looked at the two Chu brothers in front of him coldly. Without even turning around, he directly faced the leading military attache beside him and said, "Put all the Chu family members together." Wait, I will lock them all with you. Send a hundred sergeants with clean hands and feet to copy this mansion for me. Remember to copy it cleanly, so that I don’t leave a single piece of paper in this mansion."
After hearing Huang Qiong's order, the military attache did not dare to neglect it. With a wave of his hand, he led a group of soldiers and rushed in directly. All the men, women, old and young in the house were locked up, and the one who bore the brunt was Uncle Chu. When the thousands of Chu family members in this mansion were driven out of various courtyards by the wolf-like officers and soldiers, Huang Qiong was shocked to find that the Chu family not only raised hundreds of beauties of all kinds.
There are even more than fifty eunuchs among his servants and servants. Especially in the inner house, all eunuchs are used. Throughout the dynasties, in addition to the emperor's charter for officials of a certain rank, clans, princes, and princes could use eunuchs, that is, eunuchs. Not to mention ordinary people, even those officials who use eunuchs will be convicted of overstepping the rules and treason. The Chu government not only used eunuchs, but also used them in such large numbers.
Not counting other things, just finding so many eunuchs would not be an exaggeration to convict the Chu family of rebellion. The iron law of this dynasty was that officials had no purpose to raise eunuchs with a staff of one hundred, and they were exiled to Longyou and Lingnan, and their families were enslaved in the palace. Regardless of whether the people are rich or poor, if they raise eunuchs, they will be punished as treason. The male members of the family were punished and beheaded, and the female family members were made slaves of the frontier soldiers. They were not pardoned in any case.
Looking at the fifty or so eunuchs, Huang Qiong smiled faintly at the eldest man of the Chu family: "Mr. Chu, you are really courageous. An ordinary merchant family actually dares to raise eunuchs so boldly. The number is still so large. It seems that the laws of the imperial court are really regarded as nothing in your eyes. This is good, very good, even I will admire your boldness."
When Huang Qiong said this, there was always a smile on his face. But the extremely cold tone made Uncle Chu completely collapse to the ground. As a merchant, how could he not know that as a commoner, driving an eunuch without authorization would be a serious crime of treason according to the laws of the imperial court. Although his family is said to be wealthy in Xijing, they have no fame and have never received any promises or rewards from the emperor.
Now being found to have used eunuchs is a capital crime. Even if the prince has not found any real evidence of his having an affair with other princes. But raising eunuchs in violation of the law is enough to send everyone in his family to the execution ground. Looking at his younger brother who was the instigator of what happened today and caused such great trouble to him, Mr. Chu couldn't help but close his eyes in despair.
In fact, today's laws and regulations are becoming increasingly relaxed, and some wealthy and wealthy merchants who have no fame and reputation are relying on their own money to privately take the restrictions of the court less and less seriously. In order to prevent the same wives and concubines from appearing in the same cloud, or to prevent myself from doing business abroad for a long time, the color of the hat on my head was changed. Or they give birth to children who are not of their own blood. Those wealthy families secretly raise many eunuchs.
Coupled with the fact that the poor are becoming increasingly impoverished, many families with no place to support themselves have come up with the idea of having their boys castrated and sent to the palace to serve as eunuchs. Even if you can't climb to a high position, you can always have a stable income to help your parents support the family. But to work in the palace, you don't just have to find someone to castrate the child. To be a eunuch in the palace, you also need to find ways to give gifts.
But they are so poor that they castrate the boys who are responsible for carrying on the family line and send them to the palace as eunuchs. Where does this family have the money to give gifts? As a result, many eunuchs who were castrated by their parents ended up living among the people because they had no money and no way to enter the palace. Although these eunuchs are looked down upon by the world, they are very popular among the wealthy families. After all, these people have strength but no ability.
In order to make money, some unscrupulous human traffickers even kidnap boys, castrate them and then resell them to wealthy people. Those eunuchs, like singers, were even given to each other as gifts by officials and wealthy households. Nowadays, there are many wealthy families raising eunuchs. Fan Jian once told Huang Qiong that the Fan family had more than a hundred eunuchs who served the mistress in the inner house.
But although scandals happened in every family, they were not exposed after all, let alone fell into the hands of the current prince. Now the Chu family, because the fifth master Chu is lustful, in order to show his family's strength in Xijing City. In Dongshi, I said everything that should be said and what should not be said. He also publicized their family's relationship with the kings of Shu and Song, which directly attracted a murderous god to the Chu family.
After the house was raided, the matter of raising the eunuchs could no longer be concealed. It was even copied out in front of the Crown Prince, and it was useless to try to make excuses for myself. It would be a capital crime for ordinary people to use an eunuch without permission. Their family directly copied more than fifty, which could only be an even greater crime. Seeing these eunuchs being copied out, Uncle Chu knew that he was probably dead this time.
Just when this Uncle Chu was no longer in despair. A box carried over by several house-searching sergeants gave him another heavy blow, making him completely pale. He had always kept this box in a secret room that no one was allowed to approach. It contained no other items. All of them are secret letters between him and the King of Shu before, and now between Concubine De and the Queen of Song and her son.
The Chu family was originally just an ordinary businessman traveling between Shuzhong and Chang'an. The reason why he was able to reach the point where he is now a powerful and wealthy man, and officials from all over the country give him face, was entirely due to the support of the King of Shu in the past. After they became prosperous, the Chu family became one of the main sources of wealth for the King of Shu. After the King of Shu fled to the Western Regions, the Chu family secretly smuggled a large amount of arms, money and silk from Chang'an City to the Western Regions.
As the King of Shu fled to the Western Regions, the forces in the interior were either wiped out or had gone underground to hide, and it was no longer possible to provide them with the protection of the Chu family. The Chu family, which had already tasted the benefits of the prince's support, immediately took the initiative to seek refuge with the King of Song after knowing that Concubine De's natal family was a very powerful civil servant in the court. He provided a large amount of money and materials to the King of Song, his mother and son, in order to obtain the protection of Concubine De's natal family and the King of Song.
And inside this box, there are not only letters to and from the King of Shu and the King of Song, but also secret letters about his collusion with some officials. Among these letters, it was revealed that he colluded with officials and businessmen to amass money. There is even a yellow book, which records how the Chu family first acted as a middleman for the king of Shu, and later acted as a middleman for the mother and son of the king of Song, bribing certain officials at prices and the amount of property given.
This box that he thought he had hidden secretly was unexpectedly revealed. But Uncle Chu didn't even think about it. The guards and soldiers around Huang Qiong were all selected from the Eight Imperial Forest Army. These people in the capital are all veterans of extortion and house confiscation. Some older veterans can tell with just a glance whether there is a secret room in a certain room.
With a little hand weighing, you can tell what's inside the box. After following Huang Qiong, although he has become a good person, he no longer does those things that make him rich easily. But after all, time is still a little short, and the original basic skills have not been lost. Your Chu family keeps these things secret, how can you hide them from these people? Finding these things is a piece of cake for these soldiers.
Huang Qiong ignored Uncle Chu who turned pale after seeing the box. After the soldier opened the box, he took out a few letters and two ledgers, opened them and looked at them briefly. Just because you don't know it by looking at it, Huang Qiong couldn't help but be stunned. He just picked up a few letters, but the contents of these letters were all about the affairs of the Chu family that King Song had explained.
Among these letters, before he came to the west, the letters sent by the King of Song Dynasty kept asking for money. More content is to ask the Chu family to come forward for him, to buy the Xijing camp at all costs, and to cause internal strife among military attachés at all levels in the northwest frontier army and the guard army. Even if you can't let those military attaches fight among themselves, even if you let the military attachés of the second army try their best to delay the dispatch of troops and not cooperate with yourself.
In short, in one sentence, the counter-insurgency in Longyou was defeated without a fight because of internal chaos. After he completed the counter-rebellion, the letter sent by the King of Song Dynasty was not only very disappointed with the performance of the Chu family. He also told the Chu family to do everything possible to create trouble in Xijing and cause trouble for themselves. The clan members who encouraged the Second Road were in conflict with themselves, the ambassador of controlling the Second Road system.
The King of Song directly told the Chu family that if these two things were accomplished, he would be heavily rewarded. And after he worshiped Taizu's mausoleum on behalf of the old man, he was canonized as the crown prince by the Ming Dynasty. The letter sent by the King of Song asked the Chu family to find ways to find a master of martial arts and assassinate him in Xijing. In a recent letter, King Song's words showed unusual impatience, even extreme madness.
Faced with King Song's madness, Huang Qiong closed his eyes and meditated for a moment, but said nothing. He just calmly arranged for the box to be returned to the palace immediately. And before leaving, he repeatedly told the person who escorted the box that no one was allowed to open the box after it was delivered to Wanchun Hall, let alone read the words inside.
