Suddenly, she looked at Li Guorui who was looking for something and asked quickly: "Did he persuade you to change your mind?"
"That's him!" When Li Guorui heard this, he gritted his teeth and said, "If it hadn't been for him, I would still be the Marquis now, and I would still have at least half of my family wealth! It was all his fault, and my fault..."
Before he finished speaking, he heard footsteps coming from outside, and at the same time a voice rang out: "Brother Li, how could I have harmed you? This is not good of you. I was kind enough to give you a cure yesterday." You agree with the idea!"
Li Guorui was stunned for a moment, then turned around and saw a middle-aged man stepping inside. Who else could it be if he wasn't Linhuai Marquis Li Zushu!
Immediately, Li Guorui pointed at Li Zushu and shouted sternly: "Why do you dare to deny it now if you didn't harm me? If it weren't for you, why would I be like this!"
"No, no, no!" When Li Zushu heard this, he immediately shook his head and said sincerely, "It was Zhou Kuina's coward who harmed you, but don't blame me."
Li Guorui was stunned after hearing his words. For a moment, I forgot to continue to condemn and fight him.
To be honest, it does seem to make sense. If Zhou Kui hadn't rebelled against him and stabbed him in the back, he wouldn't have ended up like this. Maybe he wouldn't have had to pay 200,000 taels of silver.
After all, when he first started selling pots and pans, he saw the bustle at the door and heard the noise, which was all beneficial to him. Moreover, the servants of various nobles are also trying to induce the crowd. Maybe it is really possible.
Thinking of this, the anger in his heart towards Li Zushu was vented. Thinking of what he had experienced now, he sat back on the stool in annoyance, with a sad face of hopelessness.
"Sister-in-law, can you let me and Brother Li have a few words alone?" Li Zushu turned to Mrs. Li Guorui and said, "Perhaps the current situation may not be irreversible."
Upon hearing this, a glimmer of hope immediately appeared in the eyes of Li Guorui and his wife. Looking at Li Zushu, it was as if he saw a life-saving straw.
Even Li Guorui couldn't wait and said to his wife quickly: "Why don't you hurry up and make a pot of tea... boil some hot water, go quickly, go quickly!"
They've all been scraped clean by Dongchang Fanzi, where will the tea leaves come from to entertain the guests!
Being poor, if you want to be poor, you can only boil hot water.
Upon hearing this, Mrs. Li Guorui quickly got up and went out. Just when I was going out, out of curiosity, I wanted to eavesdrop on what could be done to save this situation?
However, Li Zushu seemed to know that she wanted to eavesdrop, so he actually followed her out. He smiled and watched the somewhat embarrassed Mrs. Li Guorui walk away before he closed the door and went in to talk to Li Guorui.
"Brother Li, no matter what, you are the grandson of Empress Dowager Xiaoding and a relative of the emperor." Li Zushu whispered, "Even if the Tian family is ruthless, you can't do anything openly, right?"
Li Guorui listened and nodded. If he wasn't related, he might be put in jail in Dongchang after what happened today.
But speaking of it, he actually envied Li Zushu's noble status.
He was awarded a title by relying on relatives, but his foundation and connections were incomparable to Li Zushu, who was awarded a title by military merit. Especially for Li Zushu, his ancestor was not only a founding hero, but also the nephew of Emperor Taizu. This relationship was even more remarkable.
This Li Zushu was the eleventh grandson of Li Wenzhong, the king of Qiyang. In the Ming Dynasty, he was a true nobleman with upright roots and Miaohong. There are countless disciples and former officials, not to mention, just the relationship between the founding heroes can make them and the Ming Dynasty live together with the country. It is said that the Li family still maintains the death-free ticket passed down from their ancestors!
It was precisely for this reason that when Li Zushu came to his door last night, he was a little surprised and naturally believed what Li Zushu said.
When Li Zushu saw Li Guorui nodding, he continued: "So, your chance of making a comeback lies in the word 'absolute'."
"How do you say this?" Li Guorui couldn't understand, so he asked quickly.
Li Zushu was not in a hurry to answer. He turned his head and looked outside. After finding no one listening to the wall, he whispered to Li Guorui: "You think, you must be extremely sad about what happened today. You are so poor that you have nothing. If forced to this point, he hangs himself. If this happens, everyone will say that the emperor pushed too hard. How could his own relatives do this? Are you right? Moreover, we will also use force over there. Spreading this news will seek justice for Brother Li. Think about it, with our ability, is it possible that this matter will turn around?"
Li Guorui's face turned a little pale when he heard this and said: "This... how can this be allowed? I'm already dead, why do you need to ask for justice? You... are you just teasing me?"
"Brother Li, you are really honest." Upon hearing this, Li Zushu couldn't help but shook his head and sighed, "You can really commit suicide!"
"Then..." Li Guorui was a little confused by what he said.
Seeing this, Li Zushu cursed a pig in his heart, and then explained in a low voice: "Brother Li hanged himself in the room. I watched outside the door. As soon as Brother Li hanged himself, I broke in and killed Brother Li." Save him. In this way, Brother Li has also committed suicide, and I can prove it to Brother Li. This matter will be done! "
Upon hearing this, Li Guorui couldn't help but be overjoyed. It would be great if he could not die himself and save the current situation. Even if the chance of success is low, at least try, what if it can be saved? Or if you can save a little bit and be better than the current situation, that's also good!
Thinking this way, Li Guorui agreed.
The two of them immediately started to take action, but when Li Guorui stood on the stool and was about to put his head into the rope noose, he said a little worriedly: "If I don't do this directly, will it be considered that I have committed suicide?"
"This won't work. Do you think the East Factory is just for decoration? If you do it, you have to be serious, otherwise it might be the crime of deceiving the emperor, which is a serious crime!" Li Zushu immediately objected after hearing this.
Li Guorui seemed to make sense when he thought about it. The crime of deceiving the emperor was no joke. There was still one hanging on the Zhengyang Gate!
Thinking like this, he had no choice but to obey, but at the last moment, he hesitated and said to Li Zushu again: "I am heavy, you have to come in quickly and save me, otherwise, you will suffer!"
"Brother Li, don't worry!" When Li Zushu heard this, he hurriedly patted his chest and assured, "You don't even look at my family, but they are known for their martial arts. This move is so fast!"
Hearing this, Li Guorui felt relieved a lot, and after some more instructions, he started acting.
Inside the room, Li Guorui watched Li Zushu standing at the door staring at what was going on inside. After confirming that he could see his movements, he put his neck into the rope sleeve and kicked off the stool.
The chubby weight made him unable to breathe. He quickly signaled with his eyes and hurriedly urged Li Zushu to come in and save people.
But who would have thought that at this moment, a sarcastic sneer appeared on Li Zushu's face. He didn't make any moves, he just watched Li Guorui struggling to survive.
At this moment, Li Guorui suddenly realized that he wanted to die!
This time, he panicked, but it was useless. After struggling for a while, there was no more struggle, just a corpse floating there.
When Li Zushu saw it outside the house, he sneered. When he heard something seemed to be moving from the courtyard, he quickly avoided it.
There was indeed movement. It was Mrs. Li Guorui who came over with a pot of hot water.
He coughed at the door, then pushed the door open and said at the same time: "Master, Master Marquis, drink some hot water to drive away the cold!"
Just after he finished speaking, when he looked up, he suddenly saw his master hanging from the beam, floating there without any struggle.
With a "clang", the object in her hand fell to the ground. Mrs. Li Guorui was so frightened that she sat down on the ground, and then she cried: "Someone is coming, someone is coming quickly..."
"What's the matter? What happened?" Li Zushu appeared and pretended to be shocked when he saw the situation. "What's going on? When I went to relieve myself just now, I persuaded Brother Li to be more open-minded. How could he He just hanged himself!"
After wasting time, when he finally rescued Li Guorui, he was already out of breath.
Seeing this, Li Zushu said indignantly: "The imperial court actually forced nobles to hang themselves. It's not a serious crime of treason. This is too much!"
After finishing speaking, he turned to look at Mrs. Li Guorui and said to her: "Sister-in-law, don't worry, you must handle Brother Li's funeral properly. If he is fair, other members of our family will definitely stand up and demand an explanation!"
Mrs. Li Guorui, with a sad face at this time, just lay on Li Guorui's body and cried loudly. Her mind was a mess. When she heard his words, she sobbed and said: "How can you have the money to take care of it? Master, why did you leave it behind?" My mother-in-law, what should we do in the future..."
When Li Zushu heard this, he immediately took out a few banknotes from his arms and stuffed them into Mrs. Li Guorui's hand. At the same time, he said: "Sister-in-law, don't worry. The so-called rabbit dies and the fox is sad. The rest of us have taken care of Brother Li's matter and will definitely do it for you." I’m asking for an explanation.”
After saying that and a few more perfunctory words, he left, but did not return to his house.
At the same time, Emperor Chongzhen finally had time to rest after a busy day.
He was quite satisfied with this day. The layout had been started before, and the biggest trouble was solved through the queen, and 700,000 taels of silver were obtained at once. With this silver in hand, we can fight another good battle with the Jianlu in Guan Nei.
In fact, no one in this world is not afraid of death, especially those royal relatives and nobles. Once they realize that there may be a catastrophe, the compromise will definitely be a compromise, because they have no hard bones.
In the original history, Emperor Chongzhen's disposal methods were not good enough, so he couldn't do anything. For example, in the case of Zhou Kui, he just sent a eunuch to persuade him and asked Zhou Kui to set an example. The queen even secretly gave him five thousand taels of silver and asked his father to donate it. It's strange that this kind of behavior, which is neither painful nor itchy, and even obviously nice words, can make people feel scared.
To be reasonable, it is even more useless to say that the Ming Dynasty will be miserable and the country will probably fall. If these royal relatives and nobles could solve the problem by reasoning, it would not be the end of the Ming Dynasty, and the Ming Dynasty would not have died.
Therefore, Emperor Chongzhen gave Queen Zhou a very strong impression from the beginning. She could do anything for the sake of the Ming Dynasty. After several visits, I was deeply impressed by Queen Zhou. Therefore, as soon as Queen Zhou learned about Zhou Kui, she immediately felt her own crisis, as well as her son's crisis. Under such pressure, after hearing about Zhou Kui and seeing the memorial that the emperor showed her about Zhou Kui's clever plundering, combined with these things, it was impossible for Queen Zhou to be kind to Zhou Kui and beg Zhou Kui to obey. .
This does not mean that Queen Zhou is not virtuous, or that these things have nothing to do with being virtuous or not. It can only be said that the most basic interests determine the actions to be taken.
Since ancient times, governing the world with filial piety has been the foundation of the rule of dynasties in the past dynasties. Zhou Kui is the queen's biological father, so if he criticizes her harshly, he will be criticized. In particular, some competitors would say that there was something wrong with the queen's character, which she did not want to see. The so-called killing of relatives for the sake of justice is only the last resort. However, once this kind of reputation thing conflicts with her most basic interests, there is only one way to choose. Anyone who can stand firmly in the palace will not be stupid.
The most ruthless emperor's family, from a certain perspective, this is indeed the case!
Emperor Chongzhen is relatively satisfied with the current outcome of the matter. Public opinion outside does not say much about his emperor. On the contrary, they all sympathized with him as an emperor. It was quite unlucky to have such a relative. It's okay to say that Wu Qinghou's relatives are far apart, even his father-in-law is like this, which is really touching!
After all, this kind of thing may happen to every household. If you feel the same way, you will definitely side with the emperor.
Thinking of this, Emperor Chongzhen was thinking about the next step. He should take this opportunity to repair and improve those royal relatives and nobles.
Think about it, even the Queen Mother's brother can be granted the title of Marquis, and it has been passed down. If this kind of thing was considered okay before, then starting from yourself, you should set clear rules for this. The titles of the Ming Dynasty were given away too easily, and those who were raised were nothing but moths.
Emperor Chongzhen was not too worried about this, because these relatives and nobles only relied on the royal family and did not have much strength themselves.
However, for another type of nobles, Emperor Chongzhen currently has no special way to treat them. These nobles are the descendants of those founding heroes. Their power is far beyond that of their relatives. There were many intermarriages, disciples and old officials, especially military generals, and there were even many nobles who were in charge of the military.
If these nobles can really fight for the country and be loyal to the emperor and serve the country like their ancestors did when the country was founded, then it would be nothing. However, at this time in the late Ming Dynasty, the original Emperor Chongzhen could not see these nobles, but the current Emperor Chongzhen knew very well that most of them were rotten. At least in later generations, I have never heard of anyone who could fight in the late Ming Dynasty coming from among these nobles. However, many of them opened the door and surrendered in the end, either to Li Zicheng or to the Manchus.
Therefore, Emperor Chongzhen at this time had no good impression of these nobles at all.
However, these nobles cannot be moved by simple charges. Those who bully men and dominate women cannot be dealt with using the concepts and laws of later generations. They were a privileged class in the Ming Dynasty. Doing this kind of thing should not be too normal, and it would be just a slight punishment. If they want to conduct a house search or something, it will definitely detonate this noble group. The consequences of this, at least The current Emperor Chongzhen cannot bear it.
It’s time for me to seal a group of nobles from the Ming Dynasty, beat a group, and replace the old with the new!
Thinking like this, he began to read the messages in the eavesdropping system.
