Seeing that the Emperor was resolute and refused to give in, the ministers present stopped trying to persuade him.
After all, this is a matter between the Supreme Emperor and the new monarch, and the ministers are unwilling to get too involved.
When Zhu Qizhen saw that the ministers were silent, he asked Li Shi: "Li Aiqing, do I have to issue an imperial edict when I return to the city? Has the new king mentioned it clearly?"
Li Shi shook his head when he heard this: "Your Majesty, the new king did not say it clearly. It is just the words of Wei Chen and his family, but Wei Chen still insists that Your Majesty should give an explanation to the people of the world."
Zhu Qizhen waved his hand: "Okay, I understand, I will consider it. You can go back and recover."
After sending away these ignorant ministers, Zhu Qizhen, accompanied by Le Jinrong, the Zuo Secretary of Jiaofang Division, and Xing'an, the eunuch of Dongchang, came to the newly built felt tent next to him and prepared to choose two women to vent his anger. .
As soon as he entered the felt tent, Zhu Qizhen was dumbfounded. He saw twenty or thirty women kneeling neatly on the carpet. There are four noble people in the front, and eight new talents in the two rows behind. This is normal.
In the three rows at the back, there are five women kneeling in each row. They are all naked, with only a thin gauze covering their faces. The beautiful scenery makes people's blood rush.
Although Zhu Qizhen is the emperor and has been in the imperial court for fourteen years, he has never been extravagant. Although he has many concubines, when he was in the imperial court, they were all quite law-abiding and did not engage in any tricks.
Xing'an on the side had just entered the felt tent and was standing next to Zhu Qizhen, neither advancing nor retreating. Although the emperor was not too shy about eunuchs, this was a very private matter after all. Even if he had the nerve to look at it, the emperor might not be willing to have anyone watch.
Anyway, if it were Zhu Qiyu, he would never let anyone look at his woman, not even the eunuch. Zhu Qizhen paid little attention to this. Instead, he noticed that there was one person missing in the account, and asked Jin Rong:
"Didn't the queen send twelve concubines? Including the previous four, there are sixteen in total. Why is there one missing now?"
Jin Rong heard the words and replied: "Your Majesty's eyes are as bright as fire. As expected, you can't hide anything from your Majesty. She is a little girl named Ling'er, only fourteen years old. Although she is a prostitute in the Jiaofang Department, she has not yet opened her bud. It was specially chosen by the Queen. Sent to His Majesty for a taste.
But I didn't expect that after Miss Ling'er arrived, she suddenly didn't want to sleep with her, so she begged Yuan Bin for help. Yuan Bin actually refused to let Ling'er come to sleep with him on the grounds that Ling'er was a concubine given to him by the queen. "
Zhu Qizhen was angry when he heard this, and immediately ordered Xing'an to summon the two of them in person. Zhu Qizhen himself chose among the fifteen concubines, and finally lifted the veils of two of them and took them back to his felt tent to enjoy.
Xing'an received the order and brought the two of them here not long after.
According to Zhu Qizhen's original intention, it would be enough to teach the two of them a lesson. Yuan Bin likes a mere little girl, so it's not impossible to give her to him.
But after meeting Ling'er, this superb little beauty, Zhu Qizhen changed his mind instantly.
It can only be said that the tacit cooperation between Queen Zhou and Princess Qi has reached a seamless level. One is familiar with Zhu Qizhen's character and preferences, and the other understands the man's psychology and desires. Therefore, among a dozen mature women, there happened to be such a young girl with both stunning beauty and stubborn personality, which successfully aroused Zhu Qizhen's desire to conquer.
So Zhu Qizhen smiled at Yuan Bin and said: "Yuan Aiqing, you concubines, although they are nominally given to you by the queen, they are actually sent for my enjoyment. This girl Ling'er is very close to me, I left it.
If you don't think it's appropriate, I don't want the other three concubines that the queen gave you, so I will give them to you. "
Yuan Bin shook his head and expressed his unwillingness to compromise.
Surprisingly, Zhu Qizhen did not impose any punishment. He just ordered Yuan Bin not to touch Miss Ling'er and sent them away.
Even Xing'an and Jinrong on the side were confused.
Zhu Qizhen took Xing'an to a deserted place outside the tent and explained the secret mission to Xing'an alone. Zhu Qizhen is not really stupid, and he also knows how to place people around Xin Jun.
Zhu Qizhen and Zhu Qiyu, brothers in distress, began to send undercover agents to each other, and then it was up to see which side was more skillful and could successfully undercover.
Xing'an is now the second-ranking official in the Supervisor of Ceremonies and is in charge of Dongchang. Zhu Qizhen ordered Xing'an to surrender to the new king no matter what means he uses to gain his trust in order to prepare for a fatal attack on his younger brother one day. one strike.
In real history, Zhu Qizhen arranged it this way, and Xing'an did it this way. However, Jingtai was really fooled, and was played around by Xing'an, and in the end he actually made a move to seize the door.
So when the truth about Xing'an's undercover identity was revealed, the officials were furious and demanded that Xing'an be put to death. Unfortunately, it was too late, and Jingtai and his close ministers were played to death.
But history is history, and this is now. Zhu Qiyu was not that easy to deceive. At this time, he was squatting in the warehouse with his beloved concubines, directing his guards to load the rare treasures into trucks and transport them out.
While Zhu Qiyu was looking at the treasures, he praised: "The princess is still smart. She took advantage of the opportunity to raise funds and sold these useless scraps of metal and exchanged them for white money. This time I made a big profit, which is enough for me." It’s been a splurge for months.”
Hearing their husband describe these treasures as scrap metal, the concubines present laughed.
Zhu Qiyu only likes jade, jade, agate, colored glaze and other simple and pure treasures. As for the gold and silver utensils, lacquerware, wood carvings, etc. in the treasury, no matter how precious they were in the eyes of the world, Zhu Qiyu did not even look at them. He ordered them to be moved away, sent to Jietian Tower, and auctioned to those stupid people at the dinner party. The rich and powerful in the capital have a lot of money.
Seeing that Zhu Qiyu was almost ransacking his house to sell off these treasures, Lin Xiangyu couldn't help but advise: "Husband, please take it easy. Although those powerful people are stupid and have a lot of money, they can't help throwing away hundreds of treasures like my husband at one go."
"Okay, okay, I feel upset when I look at these things. Anyway, you should get rid of all these things when you have the chance. Change them to silver and hold them in your hands. You can send money to your cronies at any time.
Hey, I want to give the ministers salary and salary, and I want to give the people of the country tax exemption and free from corvee for one year, but the money has not been received yet. "
Lin Xiangyu smiled and said: "As a husband and a woman, it seems a bit excessive to say that you deserve it. But you made such a big promise all of a sudden. You are really asking for trouble."
"Hey, it's not easy for the people. Even if I suffer a little bit, I still have to give the people some time to breathe. You don't know that the south has been completely destroyed by the Xuande and Zhengtong dynasties.
Now the south is full of rebels. Except for South Zhili, there is not even a completely peaceful province left.
Beijing is too far away from the south. The negative effects of Taizong's move to Beijing are gradually becoming apparent. The south has begun to lose control. You see, in another hundred and eighty years, the South will begin to be unable to collect taxes.
Moreover, the north is not much better than the south. There is a pot of rotten porridge everywhere. Do you think we can do without reform?
The difficulty now lies in the need to recuperate and recuperate while also deploying troops abroad. The two are very contradictory, but neither will work. "
(End of chapter)
