Upon hearing this, the smile on Zhu Houzhao's face disappeared.
Although he likes to play around, he will still lose his temper when it comes to matters involving human life.
"What's the meaning?"
"This slave will die at the hands of Liu Jin soon!"
"Why did he want to kill you? You two are my confidants."
"Because my slaves prevented him from treason!"
Zhu Houzhao's expression finally became serious, and his voice was a little low:
"Zhang Banban, you can't talk nonsense about this... Do you know that Liu Banban is the eunuch in charge of the ceremony and an important member of the imperial court. To slander him at will is not a small crime."
Zhang Yong was already prepared. He took a few steps closer on his knees and took out the prepared memorial from his pocket:
"This is the evidence, your Majesty, please take a look at it!"
Zhu Houzhao took the memorial and read it.
The embezzlement amounted to millions of taels... It was a lot of money, but it was still acceptable.
Acting wantonly in the court... Zhu Houzhao frowned.
When officials from all over the world came to Beijing, they all bribed Liu Jin and obeyed him like a filial son... His brows became more and more frowned.
Crack down on dissidents, intervene in the imperial examinations, promote party members... Zhu Houzhao's lips began to tremble slightly, his brows furrowed, and then he threw the memorial to the ground!
His heart was completely filled with anger, and there was even a trace of uneasiness and... fear?
Both the East and West Second Factory and Jinyiwei were controlled by Liu Jin and his party members. The news from the emperor's eyes and ears was that the world was peaceful. Now that he thought about it, he must have been deceived.
If everything in the memorial is true, then even his status may have been threatened by this eunuch!
His eyes stayed on the final impeachment of Liu Jin's rebellion.
With his intelligence, he could naturally see that there was no real evidence for this impeachment, but a possible conjecture based on Liu Jin's power and some arrogant behavior.
But these things don't matter now.
His own connivance towards him had made the eunuch's power threaten the emperor, and he had to die.
However, after all, Liu Jin has all the power in the government and everyone in the world hears his name, so he still has to give him a reason to end his career.
"Zhang Banban, you will immediately mobilize the fifth military camp to Beijing, arrest Liu Jin, Gu Dayong and others, and guard the East and West Second Factory, immediately!"
"I will personally lead people to search Liu Jin's mansion tomorrow."
Zhu Houzhao lowered his eyes and spoke lightly, seeming to be hinting at something:
"I hope that my Liu Daban will not...really hide any prohibited items..."
Hearing this, Zhang Yong rolled his eyes and understood the deep meaning of Zhu Houzhao's words. He said respectfully:
"According to the order!"
But in my heart I was overjoyed—it’s done!
The memorial arranged by Chen Guogong is really powerful. It is really amazing that it can make His Majesty react like this!
At the same time, a trace of awe emerged in his heart.
I must not provoke Chen Guogong like this stupid spore Liu Jin.
…
On the second day, Zhu Houzhao personally led soldiers from the Fifth Army Camp to Liu Jin's mansion and launched a search.
They successively found 240,000 ingots and 57,800 taels of gold, 5 million ingots and 1,583,600 taels of gold ingots, and these are only items that can be directly converted into money. Other gems and antiques were found. , Jade belt and golden armor are countless.
Zhu Houzhao's eyes widened when he saw it. Liu Jin's assets were equivalent to the total tax revenue of the Ming Dynasty for five or six years. It is not an exaggeration to say that he is as rich as the enemy!
Although he had thought that Liu Jin would be corrupt, he did not expect that Liu Jin would be so corrupt, even far exceeding his internal funds.
As the raids progressed, the things that were found became more and more shocking.
Opening the wooden box, there were five hundred firecrackers inside; opening the straw leaning against the wall, three hundred armors were revealed.
Seeing this armor, everyone who participated in the house raid was shocked.
The so-called "one armor can carry three crossbows, and three armors can enter the underworld" is not a joke. Even if you are as strong as the Yan family, you will not dare to equip your clan soldiers within the control of the Ming Dynasty with armor, because once you do so , then it is almost a blatant announcement: I am going to rebel.
However, the dazzling three hundred full armors in Liu Jin's mansion blinded the eyes of all the soldiers. These armors were even better than the armors worn by their generals.
With a "pop" sound, everyone turned their heads and saw the folding fan in Zhu Houzhao's hand falling to the ground. At this time, the emperor's eyes were already red:
"What a thief, you really have a different intention!"
The roar spread throughout the mansion, and everyone realized at this time——
Liu Jin, it’s over.
At this time, Liu Jin was not aware of all this. He didn't even know why he was arrested and imprisoned by the soldiers from the Fifth Army Camp who suddenly appeared.
Maybe it was a misunderstanding. He comforted himself like this.
After all, there was no warning at all. Not long ago, everyone was kind to you and me. Why did you get caught all of a sudden?
He even doubted whether Zhang Yong had rebelled.
So when Emperor Zhengde walked into the prison, Liu Jin immediately knelt down in front of him, hugged Zhu Houzhao's thigh and cried bitterly.
In his understanding, the emperor was completely obedient to him. As long as the emperor was still there, nothing would happen to him.
However, before he could say anything, the emperor's boot kicked him hard in the stomach, so hard that Liu Jin held back tears.
"Liu Banban, this was found from your mansion."
Zhu Houzhao coldly threw a yellow robe in front of him. The five-clawed golden dragon on it was so dazzling.
Liu Jin:? ? ?
No, where did this yellow robe come from?
…
The powerful officials of the Ming Dynasty were different from those of the previous dynasties. All their power was based on the emperor, so when they lost the emperor's favor, they also lost everything.
Towering trees collapsed overnight.
The imperial court began a comprehensive liquidation. Yan Yuan's men joined the civil servants to launch a frantic offensive against the officials who had taken refuge in Liu Jin. The former was for his own advancement, and the latter was in revenge for Liu Jin's oppression of them.
There is no doubt about Liu Jin's fate. He rebelled and was executed by Ling Chi. While he was executed, he also took down nearly 300 officials of his own party.
This is a very scary number. You must know that there are less than 500 officials in the central court of the Ming Dynasty who are above the seventh rank. More than half of them are Liu Jin's party members. This shows how huge his power was at his peak, which made Zhu Houzhao feel heartbroken. Terrified.
Fortunately, Zhang Yong exposed it in time, otherwise the consequences would be disastrous.
In addition, countless local officials were implicated by him. It can be said that there was a complete reshuffle.
As Zhu Houzhao's new favorite, Zhang Yongze took over the power of the inner court. Although he was still the palm of the Royal Horse Supervisor, the Si Li Supervisor was also his. The East and West Second Factory and the Jinyiwei were all completely purged.
There were serious vacancies among the six ministers, so Zhang Cai naturally won the election and became the new minister of the Ministry of Personnel.
Yan Yuan was also summoned by Zhu Houzhao not long after.
(End of chapter)
