"Your Majesty, Zhou Kui, is here to see you!"
After Zhou Kui entered Dongnuan Pavilion, he immediately knelt down and saluted.
Chongzhen looked through the memorial slowly, as if he had not heard Zhou Kui's salute.
Half an hour passed, and Chongzhen still had no intention of asking Zhou Kui to get up. Zhou Kui's legs were already numb, and he was thinking about what the emperor meant.
After another half-quarter of an hour passed, Chongzhen put down the memorial and said calmly: "Zhou Kui, do you know your guilt?"
Zhou Kui was suddenly startled and whispered: "Your Majesty, I don't understand..."
"Don't understand? Then tell me, why do you have a fortune of hundreds of thousands?"
"Your Majesty, I was wronged. How could I have so many..."
"Zhou Kui, you are so stubborn."
Chongzhen interrupted Zhou Kui sharply: "At noon on August 29th, the seventh year of Tianqi, at Yamo Zhai, Qingyan Tower, Nancheng, you promised Chen Shaoming to help him get a salt guide, and he promised to give you one hundred thousand taels after the completion of the matter. Silver, I'll pay you 30,000 taels in advance, this can't be wrong!
You can't wait any longer. You'll start making money as soon as I ascend the throne! "
"On the third day of September in the seventh year of the Apocalypse, the head of the Wang family in Datong invited you to meet at Fengmingyuan to discuss the tea ceremony..."
"You are the head of the state, and you went to a brothel. Where is your etiquette, justice and shame? The royal family has been completely disgraced by you!"
"You won't deny what the Jin Yiwei found out, right? Do you think the Jin Yiwei are all blind? Do you want me to arrest all these people and question them?"
"You should know about Jin Yiwei's prison. Do you believe that I will let you live in the prison for half a month?"
Upon hearing the imperial edict, Zhou Kui trembled all over and his eyes were full of fear. Several people who entered the imperial edict managed to come out alive.
"Zhou Kui, I'll give you a chance to live. As long as you hand over Tan Mo's property, I'll forget about it."
"Your Majesty, even if you kill me, I still don't have so much property!"
Chongzhen looked at the pleading Zhou Kui coldly, with a sneer in his heart.
Zhou Kui was extremely greedy for money and stingy. According to historical records, in the 17th year of Chongzhen's reign, Li Zicheng fought all the way to Beijing. Chongzhen asked ministers to donate money to help pay and recruit brave soldiers.
Since he wanted to donate, he had to set an example first, so Chongzhen asked the eunuch Gao Ding to go to Zhou Kui's house to "borrow money". As a result, the eunuch made full use of it, crying, making trouble, and hanging himself. He cried so miserably.
In short, it's all about having money but having a life.
After Queen Zhou learned about it, she gave Zhou Kui a lesson, and then gave Zhou Kui the five thousand taels she earned from selling her gold and silver jewelry. Who would have thought that Zhou Kui only donated three thousand taels, but made two thousand taels instead.
Seeing that the father-in-law was like this, other relatives of the emperor, princes and ministers also followed suit. In the end, Chongzhen only raised 130,000 taels.
After Li Zicheng came to Beijing, Zhou Kui was arrested and forced to kill his wife and daughter-in-law. After being tortured severely, he handed over his family property, which included 520,000 taels of silver and hundreds of thousands of precious coins. There are more than 3 million taels of silver.
The most shameless thing is that this guy actually handed over the prince Zhu Cixiang who was hiding in his house to the regent Dorgon in order to save his life.
This last point was the main reason why Chongzhen wanted to trouble Zhou Kui in the first place.
Qian Qianyi was shameless, but compared to Zhou Kui, he was nothing. At least he didn't kill his wife or sell his son for money.
"Zhou Kui, I ask you one last time, do you want to hand it over or not?"
"Your Majesty, I really don't have that much money, I..."
"Someone, pull Zhou Kui out and chop him down!"
Fang Zhenghua came in and grabbed Zhou Kui's neck. Zhou Kui resisted fiercely: "Your Majesty, your daughter is the queen, and I am the father-in-law of the country. You are newly enthroned, so you cannot kill the father-in-law!"
"King Zhang?"
Chongzhen sneered: "Since I can make her the queen, then I can depose the queen."
A simple sentence made Zhou Kui, who was struggling fiercely, calm down instantly, his eyes full of disbelief.
Even though Queen Zhou behind the curtain knew Chongzhen's plan in advance, her face turned pale when she heard the words of the deposed queen again, and her whole body was trembling slightly.
"Zhou Kui, if I publish the evidence of your crime, do you think anyone will dare to gossip after I am deposed?"
"I'll give you one more chance. Do you want to hand it over?"
After a long time of drinking tea, Zhou Kui didn't say anything. Chongzhen waved his hand and said: "Drag him out, chop him down, and ransack his home. All the property he obtained will be put into the treasury, and all the clan members will be exiled to the bitter cold land."
After Fang Zhenghua got the order, he dragged Zhou Kui outside. Zhou Kui woke up from a dream and screamed: "I am willing to hand you over, please let your Majesty spare my family!"
After saying that, he burst into tears, and his cry was so miserable.
Listening to the cries, Chongzhen looked a little bored. If it wasn't for Empress Zhou's face, he really wanted to take this guy out and chop him up, but it would be so troublesome.
"Big companion, tell Li Ruolian that the Zhou family will keep it for Zhou Kui, and leave another 10% of the family property to Zhou Kui, and the rest will go into internal funds."
"In addition, ask Li Ruolian to arrest all the people involved. Don't they have money? If you want to survive, then take the money and send it back to me ten times as much as you gave. If there is one or two silver less, then kill one of their clan members. .
If anyone holds an official position, they will all be dismissed and investigated, and they will never be employed. "
After Chongzhen finished speaking, he said to Zhou Kui who was crying: "Zhou Kui, from now on, if I know that you have dealings with those ministers and gentry again, and if you dare to accept a tael of silver from them, I will kill you directly. "
"Drag out!"
After Zhou Kui was dragged out, Queen Zhou walked out from behind the curtain and knelt on the ground: "Thank you, Your Majesty!"
Chongzhen helped up the pale Queen Zhou and said, "Yufeng, I hope the father-in-law can understand my good intentions, otherwise the father-in-law will definitely be killed when there is a reckoning in the future."
"If the father-in-law comes to you and complains in the future, just let him know so that he doesn't lose his memory."
"When the government is stabilized, I will make him an earl, give him some land, and he will become a rich man with peace of mind!"
"On behalf of my father, I would like to thank Your Majesty for your kindness!"
"Feng'er, it's not a formal occasion from now on, so there's no need to give big gifts. You're tired and I'm tired too. When you get to the harem, you're home, so there's no need to be so cumbersome."
Chongzhen helped Queen Zhou up and said with a smile: "It's getting late, let's go and have a rest, and give me a son and a daughter as soon as possible!"
There is a saying: The clouds on the temples are swaying with golden steps, and the hibiscus tent warms the spring night.
After a night of fun, Chongzhen got up early and was full of energy.
He took Fang Zhenghua and others to run around Meishan several times. The body is the capital of revolution, and he didn't want to die before completing his goal.
After washing and eating, we went to court in the morning. After yesterday's killing, the ministers in today's court meeting were much more honest. Chongzhen only raised some opinions and transferred them all to the cabinet for processing.
It was like this for half a month, and Chongzhen did not take any further action. Every day he went to court, approved some documents that were consistent with the opinions of the cabinet and the Supervisor of Ceremonies, and then accompanied Empress Zhou, Concubine Tian and others. The days were quite relaxed.
This also made the ministers in the DPRK breathe a sigh of relief.
On this day, Chongzhen had just finished his breakfast and was about to go to the morning court. Fang Zhenghua came in with an extremely serious face.
"Your Majesty, the Fang family sent to Zhongzhou to deliver the decree is back."
"Let them in quickly!"
Chongzhen was very happy. He wanted to know Qin Liangyu's reaction now. Then he looked at Fang Zhenghua's serious expression and asked doubtfully: "Why do you have such an expression?"
"Your Majesty, something big has happened!"
