The more people you offend, the more likely you will be impeached and attacked openly or covertly. People with different identities and weights impeached and attacked Wang Chengen. If they happened too often, they would often arouse Emperor Chongzhen's suspicion, and they would not end well in the end.
There were too many similar examples in the Chongzhen Dynasty! This is also the reason why Wang Dehua responded to Wang Chengen so confidently.
However, after Wang Chengen heard this, he strode up to Wang Dehua and stared into his eyes.
This made Wang Dehua stunned for a moment, wondering what he meant?
Although I couldn't understand it, I didn't have any fear. I looked back at Wang Chengen's eyes and thought to myself, our family has walked many more bridges than you have walked. I want to express myself in front of the emperor. It’s tender!
Wang Dehua was thinking about it when suddenly, he saw Wang Chengen stretched out his hand and slapped him hard in the face with a "pop" sound. He even hit him so hard that he could no longer sit still and turned his side. Fall to the ground.
"Old man, how dare you threaten our family at this time?" Wang Chengen looked down at him and shouted coldly.
When his godsons saw him, their mouths hurt. The godfather’s slap was a bit harsh!
Wang Dehua felt a huge pain in his mouth and spit out a mouthful of blood. There were only a few teeth mixed in the blood. He looked at the teeth on the ground, covered his face, and was stunned for a long time. Then he slowly sat up again and looked up at Wang Chengen.
As the saying goes, those who are bold are afraid of being stunned, and those who are stunned are afraid of losing their lives.
Wang Dehua never expected that after he said so much, Wang Chengen didn't listen at all. Logically speaking, he has spoken clearly enough, so he won't be unable to understand, right? After all, Wang Chengen was the adopted son of Cao Huachun. How could he fall into Cao Huachun's eyes without any cleverness?
To be honest, Wang Dehua was a little confused at this time.
At this moment, Wang Erbiao from before ran back in a hurry, handed over an account book with both hands, and said respectfully: "Godfather, my son has been brought back."
So Wang Chengen took the account book and started reading it. When the people around him saw him like this, they immediately came closer with lanterns so that he could look through it.
I saw that in this account book, there were dense records of what someone had paid tribute to on a certain day. Just looking at it, Wang Chengen's pupils shrank. The weight of this account book is indeed not light!
After flipping through it quickly, Wang Chengen closed the account book with a serious look on his face.
He had actually heard of some of the people and events involved in this account book. After all, such things were no secret in today's court.
But the records were displayed before his eyes, some of which he had heard of, and more of which he had not heard of. In short, the number of gifts given to Wang Dehua was far beyond his expectation. This was really shocking to him when he saw it.
What makes Wang Chengen even more troublesome is that there are many people from Dongchang on this book, and the amounts are not small. The fact that they can use so much money to honor Wang Dehua only shows that they have more on hand. Then you don’t have to ask where their money comes from. It’s definitely not clean!
After reading this account book, if Wang Chengen didn't know that Zhang Mingwei came from a later generation, that the Ming Dynasty would fall in two years, and that he would be the only one to accompany Emperor Chongzhen on his journey, he would really not dare to investigate further.
How could he not know that three people become tigers! The former chief minister Wen Tiren must have been trusted by the emperor. He was the longest serving chief minister in the Chongzhen Dynasty. But in the end, he was jointly attacked by the inner and outer courts, and finally lost the trust of Emperor Chongzhen, and ended sadly.
Therefore, if it was the original Wang Chengen, the most likely thing for him would be to accept Wang Dehua's proposal, hand over 50,000 taels of silver to the emperor, throw out some unimportant people, and end up with 80,000 taels of silver himself. In the end, this matter Just let it go.
But at this time, Wang Chengen had a relationship with the emperor, so he naturally had another choice. I saw him ordering his left and right: "Watch him!"
After he finished speaking, he took the account book and turned around and left.
When Wang Dehua saw it, he was shocked and asked quickly: "Eunuch Wang, where are you going? You...you really want to shoot these into the sky?"
He thought Wang Chengen would be frightened, but he was surprised to see that Wang Chengen looked like he was going to report to the emperor.
When Wang Chengen heard this, he turned to look at him and sneered: "Are you trying to deceive the emperor?"
After he finished speaking, he glanced around at his godsons. He probably knew what they were thinking, and said coldly: "You must have heard what our family means. Do you have an idea of what to do in the future? "
Regardless of whether his godsons understand it or not, whether they agree with him or not, as long as they still recognize him as their godfather, they can only stand with him, otherwise they will have to change their family. But who knows if such a person will betray him again in the future, so other eunuchs generally won't want him.
Therefore, after Wang Chengen said this, his godsons could only respond repeatedly, saying that they knew what to do.
Of course, we can't just be tough. After they responded, Wang Chengen comforted them and said, "Don't worry, what this old guy said will never happen to our family."
After he finished speaking, he turned around and strode away.
Wang Dehua looked at his back and was dumbfounded. There was such a freak in the Chongzhen Dynasty. Didn't he know that the situation was already so bad and he wanted to add fuel to the fire? Almost everyone has a part in giving and receiving gifts. What ability does Wang Chengen have that he dares to be an enemy of the public? Believe it or not, even the emperor could only lift it up high and put it down gently after seeing it!
After all, it is absolutely impossible to govern the Ming Dynasty by relying on the emperor alone!
Thinking of this, he looked at Wang Chengen's godsons and immediately said with a sneer: "We advise you to make plans early. Your godfather is obsessed and overconfident. He wants to be an enemy of everyone. He will definitely not end well!"
………………
In the main hall, Zhang Mingwei and Emperor Chongzhen finally shared a bed. The prince made a bed beside him, while Princess Kunxing's bed was in the side hall, where the conversation could be heard.
Emperor Chongzhen himself was not sleepy at all. He continued to catch Zhang Mingwei and asked expectantly: "The prince has made arrangements to go south. What about the capital?"
Leaning on the bed rail, I don’t know how many discussions about similar issues have been discussed in later generations. Zhang Mingwei only needs to make slight modifications based on the current time, and that’s the answer.
Therefore, he didn't hesitate much and immediately answered: "It's very simple, rectify the administration, identify spies, secure money and food, organize and train the new army..."
Before he finished listening to what he said, Emperor Chongzhen was so shocked that it took him a while to come back to his senses. He immediately interrupted Zhang Mingwei's words and asked doubtfully: "Sir, rectify the administration, implement the money and food, organize and train I can understand the new army and so on. But what’s going on with the investigation of spies?”
To be honest, ever since he knew that there was probably collusion between inside and outside the palace that killed his fifth son, he has been very sensitive to spies.
Zhu Cixiang next to him was also a curious baby. He was lying on the bed, holding his head in his hands, staring at Zhang Mingwei with a curious look on his face. It was obvious that even he was surprised by this statement.
Zhang Mingwei said with a stern face: "Your Majesty does not know that after Jianlu entered the pass, he publicly issued an order to seal the eight Shanxi merchants in the pass as the eight imperial merchants to reward them for their contributions before Jianlu entered the pass. Think about it , How many important things did these eight Shanxi merchants do for Jianlu to get this decree?"
"What?" Emperor Chongzhen was shocked when he heard this. As the emperor, of course he knew that to allow Jianlu to issue such a decree, he must have given Jianlu too much help to get such a reward. However, he couldn't even imagine what they, a group of businessmen, had done to help Jianlu so much, so he immediately asked.
After hearing this, Zhang Mingwei said angrily: "Smuggling grain, selling iron tools and other things that the captives are in urgent need of, these are all huge profits..."
"That's all?" Upon hearing this, Zhu Cixi couldn't help but feel a little disappointed, so he interrupted and asked. Why do I feel so ordinary when I listen to this?
After hearing this, Zhang Mingwei immediately turned to look at him and said seriously: "These are not enough? Prince, think about it, what is missing in the pass? Why are thieves everywhere and the people are in dire straits? Isn't it just a lack of food! But those Shanxi merchants collected nearby The province's grain was sold to Liaodong. Think about it, the people in the pass starved to death and forced the people to rebel, but they fed the Jianqiu in Liaodong. Do you think this is a big deal? Not to mention, the Jianqiu defeated the imperial army. One of the things they rely on is their excellent ordnance. Where do these come from? Just because the Tunguska savages can mine and make their own ordnance?"
In terms of ordnance, of course, the Ming army from abroad also contributed to the transportation team captain, but it is certainly not all.
As soon as he said this, Emperor Chongzhen slapped the edge of the bed with hatred and shouted: "Damn it, damn it, they all deserve to die, I will decree tomorrow to exterminate them all!"
Isn't the most important reason why the Ming Dynasty ended up in this situation because of the lack of food? Under such circumstances, these Shanxi merchants even sent grain to Jianlu. To be honest, Emperor Chongzhen was heartbroken after eating them.
