Shower breaks.
Xie Jianze was lying on Meng Zezhi's body, panting lightly, his body was paralyzed, and he didn't even want to open his eyes.
At this moment, his mood was incomparably calm, and the hesitation, apprehension, hesitation... all turned into a flash.
He confessed.
For a man whom I have never seen before.
Like a moth to a flame, knowing that there is no future.
Meng Zezhi was content, and his right hand swam around Xie Jianze's body, the smooth and delicate touch was so addictive.
After being vegetarian for decades, I can finally eat meat again, and I still eat whatever I want.
After adjusting his emotions, Meng Zezhi spoke suddenly, breaking the tranquility of the afternoon: "Gu remembers, the editor once said to Gu that the father emperor is not Tang Taizong, and Gu is not the prince."
Hearing this, Xie Jianze opened his eyes suddenly, his face changed dramatically, he straightened his body, facing the paranoia and madness in Meng Zezhi's eyes, he said absentmindedly, "Your Highness—"
What he meant was clearly to learn to conspire against the prince.
Meng Zezhi looked at him with a dazed expression, and said, "Gu has no way out."
As if he had made up his mind, he said word by word, "Gu has no way out!"
"Your Highness."
Seeing that his sullen face was no longer as suave as he used to be, Xie Jianze felt very distressed.
There is nothing more desperate than being betrayed by those closest to you.
No wonder he let go of so many cronies under his hands, and asked him to investigate the affairs of the third prince, Qin Shi. Who knows how many of those people under his hands are the meticulous work of the Emperor Tianming.
"I understand." Xie Jianze's heart gradually calmed down.
Anyway, the body and heart have been given, and I don't care about this life.
To rebel, you must first have soldiers in your hands.
Although under the name of the predecessor, there was Donggong Liulu (the prince's direct army), about 30,000 soldiers and horses, but the real control was in the hands of Emperor Tianming, and the predecessor could mobilize only 3,000 troops.
At this time, it was the family's turn to contribute.
Meng Zezhi directly threw the things found out by the Xie family in front of the patriarchs of aristocratic families. They were not stupid and naturally knew what it meant.
The Emperor of Heaven is trying to force the family to a dead end!
Old Man Yuan put down the letter raft in his hand, his expression solemn: "What do you mean by Your Highness?"
Meng Zezhi was expressionless, took a sip of tea from the tea bowl on the table, and then said, "Your Majesty and the lonely, the kindness between father and son is gone."
"This—" Everyone seems to have already made up their minds, but after all, it is a matter of life and wealth, and they can't make up their minds for a while.
"I'll say a few words first." The Xie Family Patriarch said.
Everyone looked at him in unison.
"Obviously, Your Majesty is determined to deal with the family, and I have nowhere to escape."
The people present were either the predecessor's Yue family, or the predecessor's foreign family, or the family's heir was serving as a messenger by the predecessor's side. In short, they are now grasshoppers on a rope with Meng Zezhi.
"People are killed by swords, and I am fish." The head of the Xie family said: "I think my family has made great contributions to the Great Gan Dynasty, but if it becomes a thorn in the eyes of His Majesty, it is really ridiculous."
Hearing this, the corners of everyone's eyes turned to Meng Zezhi.
Meng Zezhi did not change his face, to put it bluntly, this is the contradiction between imperial power and prime ministerial power. The emperor wants to be arbitrary, the scholar-officials want to rule the world with the emperor, and everyone wants to overpower the other.
The head of the Xie family was testing Meng Zezhi's opinion on this matter.
"Xie Patriarch's words are very true."
Meng Zezhi thought very simply, the standard of a good emperor is never arbitrary, diligent in government and love for the people. Instead, they are good at employing people. When it is time to recuperate, they will never expand their territory and make rash moves. When it is time to set things right, when killing decisively, never for one's own sake, looking ahead and looking after the future.
Just like Emperor Chongzhen, he can be regarded as a model of diligence and love for the people, but in the end, didn't the Ming Dynasty still subjugate the country? Another example is Liu Bang, the great ancestor of the Han Dynasty, who was obviously a greedy and lustful villain, but he was able to secure the foundation of the great Han for thousands of years, because he was good at employing people, and only meritoriousness.
For Meng Zezhi, not being able to take power alone is not a bad thing, he just needs to be the sword hanging over the head of the scholar-officer.
Meng Zezhi's answer was obviously in line with everyone's wishes.
The Xie family head finally said: "It's not very pleasant to say, the dog will jump over the wall if he is anxious, can we just make excuses and wait for death?"
How could anyone present not understand what he meant: "It's just that we don't have many troops at all."
As the so-called scholar rebels, if they fail in three years, this is what they say.
"We have no way out." The old man Yuan made a decision immediately: "My Yuan family will send five thousand guards, two hundred thousand taels of silver. The guard Ma Jun's commander Yu Zhao Gan is my nephew, and he can mobilize at least eight thousand. Soldiers."
The so-called escorts are actually the troops that are kept in private by the major families.
The predecessor was the son-in-law of the Yuan family. Other aristocratic families may still have the opportunity to be a junior, but the Yuan family did not have it. Meng Ze knew that if they could not go further, the Yuan family would definitely be destroyed, so they not only supported Meng Ze. There is no choice but to know.
—Obviously, the Yuan family did not know the relationship between the Yuan family and the third prince Qin Shi.
Thinking about it, the Yuan family is upright and honest. If they were told about the filthy affair between the Yuan family and the third prince Qin Shi, it is very likely that the first person who could not spare them would be the Yuan family.
Under such circumstances, how dare the Yuan family tell the truth of the matter to the Yuan family.
Unexpectedly, the old man Yuan actually revealed his family background.
After pondering, the head of the Xie family said: "My Xie family has sent 5,000 guards and 150,000 taels of silver. The commander of the Bazhou Guard is my son-in-law, and he is in charge of 6,000 soldiers and horses."
Bazhou is only 200 miles away from the capital and can be reached in one day.
Whether it's for self-protection or for the Xie family's future wealth, he must win.
Seeing that the Yuan Xie family took their stand, the other families gritted their teeth and made up their minds.
"My Zheng family sent three thousand guards and one hundred thousand taels of silver."
"My Liu family sent three thousand guards..."
In just a few minutes, the people present gathered 70,000 soldiers and horses and millions of taels of silver for Meng Zezhi.
Not to mention the influence of the aristocratic family among readers.
It is no wonder that the Emperor of Heaven went to great lengths to destroy the family.
"Okay." Meng Zezhi immediately stood up: "I will use tea instead of wine here, and toast everyone."
Everyone immediately picked up the tea bowl in front of them: "Your Highness."
After speaking, they raised their heads and drank the tea in the tea bowl.
Meng Zezhi was in high spirits: "After this is done, Gu Bi will not be stingy to reward you with high-ranking officials and generous salaries."
"Thank you, Your Highness."
"As for the time of the uprising, it's set at the New Year's banquet." Meng Zezhi said coldly.
The reason why Emperor Tianming disclosed the affairs of the third prince Qin Shi to the Xie family was to force him to rebel!
If that's the case, then he will give Tianming Emperor a great gift.
It was already evening when we returned to the East Palace, and the eunuch Man Gui hurriedly greeted him: "His Royal Highness, Song An, the chief minister of the household, and He Xingjian, the left servant of the Ministry of Personnel, ask to see you."
Meng Zezhi stopped: "Where is he now?"
"Waiting in the study."
"go."
"Your Highness." Seeing Meng Zezhi coming in, the two hurriedly knelt down and bowed.
"No ceremony." Meng Zezhi gave a hand: "What's wrong?"
"His Royal Highness," Song An stood up: "Yuan Qiao, the censor, just sent someone to send a letter to Wei Chen."
With that, he took out a letter from his sleeve and handed it to Meng Zezhi.
Yuan Qiao, the censor, was a nail that had been placed in the Imperial Court by his predecessor, and he was a cronie among cronies.
Song An continued: "He said that Pei Zhongyue, the censor of the right deputy capital, was preparing to join more than ten censors to participate in the performance of Shaanxi's political envoy Si Zuocheng, and announced that the political envoy Cheng Yuanzhong would donate to the prison and donate more than 4 million taels of silver. ."
Because of the lack of rain in the northwest, the grain output is not high, so Shaanxi is currently a poor place, and the grain depot is empty. In the previous dynasty, the imperial court allowed wealthy households in Shaanxi to donate grain to the local yamen in exchange for their status as supervisors of the Guozijian, and the grain was used to subsidize local expenses.
Shaanxi is poor, and the price of donating to prison is not high, only more than 100 Shidoumai (100 taels of silver) is enough.
It's just that selling officials and rank is not a good reputation. After the establishment of the Gan Dynasty, the court abolished this system.
After Cheng Yuanzhong took office in Shaanxi, just as the treasury was empty and the imperial court was unable to subsidize Shaanxi, Cheng Yuanzhong and You Cheng announced that the political envoy discussed with him, and on the grounds that Shaanxi was short of grain, he requested to open the donation prison again, and the Emperor of Heaven agreed to it after thinking about it.
Unexpectedly, Cheng Yuanzhong came up with the idea of these grains.
On the grounds that the food was inconvenient to transport, he ordered the donors from the prefectures and counties in Shaanxi to directly convert the food into silver and hand it over.
The money was collected, but the grain depot was still empty, so Cheng Yuanzhong, together with officials from all over Shaanxi, falsely reported the drought that year, falsely claiming that all the grain was taken for disaster relief, and then divided up the four million taels of donated silver.
It wasn't until last month when a censor returned to his hometown to visit relatives and passed through Shaanxi that he discovered the truth.
"Cheng Yuanzhong?" Meng Zezhi remembered that there was still such a number one person under his predecessor.
He Xingjian, the left servant of the Ministry of Officials, smiled wryly, and with a plop, he knelt on the ground again: "His Royal Highness, the concubine of the minister is currently serving as a prefect in Shaanxi."
In the Qian Dynasty, the corrupt officials were punished by the system of consecutive sitting. If the corruption was less than half of the taels, they would be removed from the official position; half-taels to five taels, and fifty sticks of staff... Those who greed for more than 10,000 taels of silver would be hanged, and the whole family would be exiled for thousands of miles.
He Xingjian's younger brother, as the prefect of a prefecture, must have received more than 10,000 taels of silver.
He Xingjian was the right-hand man of his predecessor. If he was implicated in this matter, Meng Zezhi would suffer great losses.
Pei Zhongyue, the imperial censor on the right, belonged to the eldest prince, Qin Yu. Obviously, this matter was Qin Yu's handwriting, and the purpose was naturally to avenge the previous arrow.
"His Royal Highness, what should we do now?" Song An asked anxiously.
Meng Zezhi raised his eyebrows: "Since that's the case, let's just make things bigger."
It would be best for the Emperor of Heaven to not have so much free time to stare at them, or to convince him that they were really preparing to rebel.
The author has something to say:
The prototype of the corruption case in this chapter is the case of Wang Jiwang in the Qing Dynasty.