After hearing this, Zhang Mingwei reminded Emperor Chongzhen: "Why did your Majesty promote him again and again, and finally he reached such a high position as a judge?"
"Of course he has outstanding talents!" Emperor Chongzhen replied matter-of-factly upon hearing this.
Prince Zhu Cixiang knew that there must be something wrong here, so he looked at his father and then at Zhang Mingwei, listening to the conversation between the two of them with great interest, without feeling sleepy at all.
Zhang Mingwei looked at Emperor Chongzhen, who was a little confused, and reminded him again: "Then what talents does he have? According to the information I checked, he was promoted very quickly, but he has no famous achievements. Daling River City fell, and he should be dismissed from office. After he resigned, he was promoted; he talked about military tactics, but his soldiers mutinied but nothing happened..."
After hearing these words, Emperor Chongzhen wanted to defend Chen Xinjia: "However, he has achieved great results in rectifying the border defense. He is proficient in military affairs and is far better than other officials. Whether they are foreign officials, supervisors, or ministers of the DPRK, they all praise him. he……"
Although Chen Xinjia was the king of his country at this time, but later on, Zhang Mingwei's previous remarks gradually made him unable to speak anymore.
Seeing Emperor Chongzhen's face getting more and more ugly, Zhang Mingwei was not afraid of attacking him, so he reminded him again: "At the beginning of the third year of Chongzhen, Zuo Yingxuan, the magistrate of Changli County, blocked the siege of the Jianlu army for seven consecutive days, which was one of the few at that time. The county magistrate who defended the city more. Although Lun Gong was promoted afterwards, he was not banished to Fenzhou Prefecture in the end? This is a real achievement, not just a boast. They were both born in Juren, but their situations were very different. Why?"
Before Emperor Chongzhen could answer, Zhu Cixiang responded first: "Sir, is it because those Shanxi merchants gave him money?"
After hearing this, Zhang Mingwei turned to look at him and had to admire in his heart, Zhu Cixi is a teachable boy!
Looking back, Zhang Mingwei looked at Emperor Chongzhen, whose face was very ugly and had some anger, and said again: "Also, about the defeat of Songshan, I checked the historical data and learned that Zu Dashou sent dead soldiers to break out and said that the reinforcements would come with vehicles. The battalion advanced steadily and slowly, and the war could not be started rashly. Hong Chengchou and His Majesty also wanted to fight steadily, but Chen Xinjia advocated a quick victory and insisted on a four-pronged attack. He sent Zhang Ruoqi to lobby, and at the same time he wrote a letter in person to urge Hong Chengchou to send troops. The result was a huge defeat, and the court finally The main army was surrounded and annihilated, I wonder if this is the case?"
At this time, Emperor Chongzhen's face was extremely ugly. From Zhang Mingwei's questions, he already understood that he mistook garbage for treasure and mistook the wrong person.
Zhang Mingwei already knew the answer by looking at his face, so he concluded: "It can be seen from this that Chen Xinjia is not proficient in military affairs at all, but he is praised by internal and external officials; he has no merits, but he is promoted very quickly; there is no other reason for this. , as the prince said, use money to open the way, and this is also in line with the practice of the Ming Dynasty officialdom!"
As the Romans do in the countryside, he talked a lot with Emperor Chongzhen, and his words had a bit of an ancient accent.
Emperor Chongzhen lowered his head and held the quilt tightly with both hands, so tightly that the veins on the back of his hands showed, clearly filled with hatred.
At this time, he not only felt that he had been fooled by Chen Xinjia, but also that the government was so corrupt that everyone only valued money and no longer had him as a king and father.
Thinking of this, he suddenly raised his head again, with deep expectation in his eyes. He looked at Zhang Mingwei and thought in his heart: Fortunately, God took pity on Ming Dynasty and sent down Sir. From now on, I have a real backbone!
With this in mind, Emperor Chongzhen said sincerely to Zhang Mingwei: "Thanks to the fact that you are here, sir, I won't be fooled by them anymore. This Chen Xinjia, I will definitely cut him into pieces with a thousand knives!"
After hearing this, Zhang Mingwei persuaded him instead: "Your Majesty, this is the result I have inferred based on historical data. What is the real situation? It is best to let the factory guards investigate! The cancer of Shanxi merchants is also deep-rooted and intertwined. It must be We need to find out clearly before we can uproot it.”
After hearing this, Emperor Chongzhen originally wanted to say that there was no need to investigate further and that Chen Xinjia deserved to die. But later, when Zhang Mingwei said that it was related to uprooting the cancer of Shanxi merchants, he did not say this.
After thinking for a moment, Emperor Chongzhen was about to speak when suddenly there was a movement from the door of the palace: "Your servant Wang Chengen is interrogating Wang Dehua and has come to reply."
Emperor Chongzhen couldn't help being stunned when he heard this, why so fast?
Despite this thought, he still let Wang Chengen enter the palace.
Zhang Mingwei was also a little curious. The result of the interrogation came out so quickly?
Wang Chengen entered the palace and was shocked when he saw the situation inside. How in the world have I ever heard of an outsider sleeping in the same bed as the emperor, with the prince sleeping on one side, and even the eldest princess sleeping in the side hall!
At this moment, he had a deeper understanding of Zhang Mingwei's importance. But at this time, he had no time to think too much, and immediately reported to Emperor Chongzhen: "Your Majesty, I have seized the account book detailing Wang Dehua's money collection this year. The amount involved is shocking. Please take a look at it."
After finishing speaking, he took another step forward and presented the account book to Emperor Chongzhen with both hands.
Emperor Chongzhen immediately took the account book and started looking through it. Wang Chengen also immediately took the candle and moved closer so that the emperor could see clearly.
Emperor Chongzhen's face was already livid after he had only turned a few pages. Then, as he turned faster and faster, his face became more and more ugly.
Suddenly, he suddenly closed the account book and shouted sharply: "Damn it, damn it, damn it all..."
If Zhang Mingwei had not had a clear impression of the corruption of the government and the corruption of officials mentioned before, at this moment, after he saw this account book, he definitely had a profound understanding.
Emperor Chongzhen, who was a little furious, handed the account book to Zhang Mingwei and said bitterly: "Sir, please look at this, this is really shocking, civil servants should be killed!"
After finishing speaking, he seemed to remember that Wang Chengen was actually similar to these people and had been greedy for a lot of money. This made him look at Wang Chengen a little wrong.
When Wang Chengen saw this look, sweat suddenly broke out on his forehead. He knew that although Zhang Mingwei had excused his matter, the emperor definitely understood what was going on. It was just because he accompanied him to hang himself that he didn't get angry because he had the opportunity to step down.
Now because of this booklet, the Emperor remembered that he was also involved. This impression may be difficult to change in the future!
At this time, Wang Chengen didn't know why, but he remembered Wang Dehua's warning, and he couldn't help but regretted it a little: Can it really be foolproof just by relying on the friendship of hanging?
Besides, after Zhang Mingwei took the account book and looked through it, he found that the contents were not surprising at all.
In this account book, officials from Zhou Yanru, the chief minister of the Ming Dynasty, to those with noble positions in the capital, all gave gifts to Wang Dehua. In addition, many people in Dongchang also paid tribute to Wang Dehua.
While he was watching, Wang Chengen, who was beside him, tried his best to express himself in order to restore some of the impression in Emperor Chongzhen's mind, and asked for instructions: "Your Majesty, these are only for this year. I will continue to interrogate, but... I just don't know these How should people deal with it?”
Although he just shouted "Civil officials and ministers should be killed", if they really want to kill them all, it is definitely unrealistic. Faced with this case of bribery involving almost the entire court, to be honest, Emperor Chongzhen himself didn't know what to do.
In the past, it would have been a headache for him, but now, he can save some worries. When he saw him, he immediately asked Zhang Mingwei: "According to Sir, how should we deal with it?"
