Just listen to his answer to Liu Zongzhou: "Only one of the eight major Shanxi merchants has been arrested. If the news is announced at this time, it will definitely alert the snake."
Speaking of this, Zhang Mingwei said bitterly, "These Shanxi merchants have made great contributions to the rise of Jianlu. To a certain extent, the Ming Dynasty fell into a situation where wars were everywhere, and the soldiers and people of the Ming Dynasty died. I don’t know how many of them are direct or indirect accomplices. If we don’t arrest them all, if we don’t confiscate their homes and exterminate their clans, then I will really regret my trip to Ming Dynasty!”
"Come to the Ming Dynasty?" Liu Zongzhou was shocked when he heard this. He couldn't help but asked in surprise, "Is it possible that the Duke of the country is not from the Ming Dynasty?"
As he spoke, his face was full of suspicion, and he looked Zhang Mingwei up and down, wanting to see if he was any different from the people of Daming?
When Zhang Mingwei was asked this question, he knew that he had let something slip, so he immediately explained, "I meant to come to this world for a visit."
"Come to this world for a visit?" Liu Zongzhou couldn't help but repeat with a little doubt after hearing this.
Previously, he suspected that Zhang Mingwei was from overseas. This time, he didn't know why, but he felt that Zhang Mingwei came from the sky?
Seeing him like this, Zhang Mingwei couldn't help but feel a little speechless. He simply changed the subject and said, "The news cannot be announced immediately, but we cannot let this situation in the capital continue. Not to mention the money of corrupt officials, even other wealthy families cannot use their money." If they all move to other places, what will happen to the capital, right?"
Unexpectedly, Liu Zongzhou became suspicious, but did not answer his words. Instead, he said seriously, "My lord, I really don't know where the lord is from."
"..." Zhang Mingwei couldn't help but feel dumb after hearing this. You old man, why are you asking about my origins? Do you have a granddaughter or something?
He didn't want to talk about this topic, so he said to Liu Zongzhou, "Of course I am not an ordinary person! As for my origin, the emperor knows it, the prince knows it, and the eunuch Wang Eunuch, who is the chief ceremonial officer, also knows it. If you insist on holding on to my origin, you can ask emperor!"
Liu Zongzhou would not ask the emperor. Because what the emperor wanted to say has already been said.
He looked at Zhang Mingwei suspiciously again, and guessed with a little uncertainty, "Could it be that the Duke of the State comes from some reclusive family?"
Zhang Mingwei is really speechless. Could this bad old man really have a granddaughter to marry and come to check his household registration?
He didn't have time to talk about this with him, so he stood up, turned around and prepared to go to the back office.
Seeing this situation, Liu Zongzhou couldn't help laughing, as if he had won a battle, he quickly stopped Zhang Mingwei and said, "My lord, I made a mistake. I made a mistake."
After hearing his admission, Zhang Mingwei stopped and turned to look at him.
When Liu Zongzhou saw it, he smiled and said, "Actually, the Duke has a very good temper. Some people outside say that the Duke will confiscate his house and behead him at every turn. It is really unreasonable!"
"That's it?" Zhang Mingwei was a little speechless after hearing this, and couldn't help but said to him, "You are so old, don't you know that you should treat like-minded people like the warmth of spring; treat your enemies like the autumn wind? Is it normal to sweep fallen leaves?”
"..." This time, it was Liu Zongzhou's turn to be a little dumbfounded. Not to mention, he was already a lot older, but this was the first time he heard this.
After coming back to his senses, he finally showed a serious look and said with a little worry, "My lord, we won't talk about other things. The current situation in the capital, my lord will see if he can think of a way to stabilize the situation." ?”
After a pause at this point, he added, "As soon as the situation in the capital happened, the emperor already knew about it. He called a few of us to discuss, but we couldn't come up with a solution. Therefore, the lower official rushed over. Here, let’s see if there is a way to solve it?”
Since ancient times, there has been a saying that it is better to believe that something exists than to believe something does not exist.
Now that there are rumors like this in the capital, it is very likely that those wealthy families will start to transfer their family wealth, at least part of it, no matter what the court does.
This situation didn't matter much during the Taiping years. But in these troubled times, it will only have a negative impact on the situation.
Liu Zongzhou and several others discussed it for a long time, but they couldn't come up with a way to reverse the situation.
Therefore, at this time, after Liu Zongzhou finished speaking, although he looked at Zhang Mingwei, he actually had no hope!
But who would have thought that after Zhang Mingwei lowered his head and thought for a while, he raised his head and looked at Liu Zongzhou and said, "Lose the city and impose martial law in the capital. This can prevent this situation."
"What?" When Liu Zong heard this on Monday, he immediately shook his head and said, "The capital is not in danger, so why is martial law required?"
After hearing this, Zhang Mingwei couldn't help but remind him, "Don't forget, isn't there a group of thieves claiming to be two hundred thousand? They have entered Hebei and are heading towards the capital. It is said that this group of thieves may attack the capital. In order to prevent the thieves from attacking in advance Sending people to sneak into the capital, in order to ensure the safety of the capital, isn't it a logical thing to impose martial law?"
When Liu Zong heard this on Monday, his eyes suddenly lit up.
There is indeed such a group of thieves, and I had a headache when discussing matters before, mainly because the imperial court did not have many troops. There is definitely no problem in guarding the capital, but it will be difficult to stop this bandit from flowing in the capital, and it is likely that an edict from the King of Qin will be issued. It has to be said that this is another blow to the court's prestige.
Thinking like this, Liu Zongzhou nodded and said seriously, "This reason is indeed possible. But, when will the martial law in the capital be maintained? It is impossible to continue the martial law forever!"
After hearing this, Zhang Mingwei immediately answered him: "The capital is under martial law and the city is closed, which will prevent the news from leaking out. Then, I will ask the emperor to immediately mobilize the army to various places to uproot the influence of the Shanxi merchants. Just in time, their money and food You can copy them all, it’s enough for the imperial court to reorganize the army and fight a big war with Li Zicheng’s bandit army, I guess it’s a lot!”
At this point, without waiting for Liu Zongzhou to ask questions, he continued, "In addition, I took advantage of the opportunity of closing the city to deal with other matters. Then, by making the news public and guiding public opinion, it is probably about the same." !”
"It seems that this is the only way to deal with it first!" Liu Zongzhou basically understood what Duke Xingguo was thinking. After thinking about it carefully, he said, "In this case, without further delay, how about we enter the palace together and ask for the emperor's decree?" ?”
After hearing this, Zhang Mingwei nodded and said, "Okay, I just want to show these confessions to the emperor."
So, the two of them prepared to enter the palace directly.
The imperial guard who came over to deliver the confession never had a chance to speak. Seeing the opportunity at this time, he quickly reminded Zhang Mingwei, "Huang Yunfa also confessed something very shocking. I wonder if the Duke can see it?"
In fact, when he asked this question, he heard the conversation between Zhang Mingwei and Liu Zongzhou, which was not involved at all. It could only mean that these two adults had missed that matter, so he quickly reminded it.
Zhang Mingwei couldn't help but be a little surprised when he heard this. He didn't want to look, so he directly asked, "What is it?"
Liu Zongzhou beside him was also curious. He had also turned over the confession just now. However, when I saw the previous chapter, I discovered that the Shanxi merchants were shocking in selling grain, grass, ironware, and tipping off the news, so I stopped reading, thinking that this was all the rest of the content.
So, he also turned to look at the Imperial Guard Captain, wanting to know what happened, and he used very shocking words to describe it?
I only heard the Jinyi Guardsman reply: "After Huang Yunfa finished his confession, he was forced to question by his subordinates and others, and then he confessed. It is written at the end. It is about the eleventh year of Chongzhen, when Lu Benbing was still serving as the governor of Xuanda. things on."
Afterwards, he roughly explained the situation, and Liu Zongzhou immediately asked for the confession. After reading it with his own eyes, he couldn't help but said bitterly, "What a bold thing to do, what a bold thing to do!"
"Haha, Tonglu can do anything, how can they not do this kind of thing!" Zhang Mingwei sneered, "They pursue interests at all costs and do whatever they want for their own selfishness. These Shanxi merchants are one family. There must be others too. Haha, just wait!"
With that said, he did not stay any longer and immediately went into the palace with Liu Zongzhou to meet the saint.
………………
Not long after, Emperor Chongzhen also saw the confessions of Chen Xinjia and Huang Yunfa, especially the latter's confession, which was more detailed. He couldn't help but became furious and immediately said to Zhang Mingwei, "I want to destroy these nine tribes! I will leave this matter to Mr. You have full authority to do it. If you need to mobilize any troops, just ask!"
On the way into the palace, Zhang Mingwei had already thought about the secret case and immediately reported it.
Not long after, soldiers from the Five Cities Military and Horse Division immediately went to the streets and alleys to enforce martial law. Soldiers and horses from the Beijing camp were also dispatched to guard various city gates. And the factory guards also sent people to guard the door together. No one is allowed to enter or leave the capital without the emperor's decree or the warrant of Duke Xingguo.
All of a sudden, the capital was in a panic. The carriages and horses that wanted to take their belongings out of the city were all blocked, and it was very chaotic for a while.
Subsequently, a large number of Jin Yiwei and Dongchang fanmen dispersed out and seized the shops, residences, etc. of the eight major Shanxi merchants in the capital. Everyone waited, and they were all arrested.
There were so many people that the Jinyiwei Prison could not contain them, and finally these prisoners were imprisoned in the Prison of the Ministry of Punishment.
In short, on this day, everyone was driven back to their homes, and from time to time they heard the rumble of hooves outside, the collision of armor, the footsteps of soldiers, etc., as well as the voices of loudly yelling at prisoners, etc., which scared many people. They all hid at home praying to God and praying to Buddha. They didn’t know what had happened and they must not be visited by the factory guards.
Especially those who had impeached Duke Xingguo before, they almost wet their pants. They regretted it to death. Why did they offend Duke Xingguo in the first place!
Although Zhang Mingwei did not personally participate in the search, he was busy all day and returned to his house in the evening.
What surprised him a little was that Concubine Tian's father also went out to greet him tremblingly.
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