At Funing Palace, he ate and talked with Princess Yongning. It was not until late afternoon that Yang Ning left Funing Palace when Princess Yongning was reluctant to leave. He went to the lobby of the Dongchang headquarters with Xiang Zhong.

Because all the work in the new year has already begun. Most of the staff and "stall workers" in the East Factory have gone to various places to work. Therefore, the inside and outside of the Dongchang lobby seem a bit deserted at this moment. Only There are only a few internal supervisors such as supervisors and supervisors who come and go to the headquarters to report and handle affairs, as well as supervisors and supervisors at the headquarters.

Hearing the arrival of Yang Ning, Dongchang was in charge of punishing thousands of households and punishing Tiefeng. The new one in charge of hundreds of households, Zhang Weinian, hurriedly led a group of people to welcome him out of the gate of Dongchang. Zhang Weinian just came back from Yanqing Mansion in the north at noon today. Bu Chang's relative general Ding Sheng led his men to monitor the situation.

As for Xing Tiefeng, who was in charge of the Thousand Households and was second only to Yang Ning in the East Factory. Even though Empress Dowager Li had learned further information about the assassination of the thief before him today, it was probably Xing Tiefeng's "contribution". This made Yang Ning feel slightly unhappy. But at this stage, Dongchang has not yet been reorganized and perfected. Xiang Zhong, Zhang Weinian and others are not powerful enough. Yang Ning still has to rely on this rough-looking and straightforward man for most affairs of Dongchang. , is actually an old official from Dongchang who is sophisticated and ruthless at heart. But fortunately, Xing Tiefeng is just loyal to Queen Mother Li. This will not cause any harm to Yang Ning.

Above the lobby of the East Factory, Yang Ning listened to Xing Tiefeng's report on the affairs that came to the East Factory during this period, as well as the news about the thieves who assassinated Yang Ning. In fact, these matters had already been reported to Yang Ning by Xiang Zhong. But in the end there was one This incident attracted Yang Ning's attention. It was information that Xing Tiefeng had just obtained at noon. It was about the civil unrest and constant rebellions in Shandong, Henan and other places. It was found that there was an anti-religious sect... The Dayi Cult was fanning the flames behind the scenes. , traces of agitation and instigation.

This is the second time Yang Ning has heard the name of the "Dayi Sect". The last time he heard it was mentioned by Zhang Juzheng when he first met at Longfu Temple. At that time, Zhang Juzheng said that the Dayi Sect was a cult that took advantage of the Yellow River floods. Inciting the victims to rebel and hiding evil intentions. Unexpectedly, after so long, the Ming court not only failed to eradicate this righteous sect, but its activities became more and more rampant.

In the eyes of Zhang Juzheng and Dongchang, and in the eyes of the Ming court, the Dayi Sect was a "cult" and an "anti-religion". But in Yang Ning's mind, there was no obvious hatred towards it. In his opinion, this Dayi Sect may be just like the "Yellow Turban Army", "White Lotus Sect", "Taiping Heavenly Kingdom" and other organizations and sects in history. They are all "officials forcing the people to rebel" and have to rise up in order to make a living. Just poor peasants who resisted.

Since ancient times, success has led to kings and losers. If the Great Righteous Sect succeeds, then their leader will be another "Zhu Yuanzhang" and another "Ming Dynasty" will be established. If it fails, then they will only be bloody suppressed by the Ming court. According to Yang Ning's personal opinion, the success coefficient of this Great Righteous Sect is probably very small.

Because. Although the rule of the Ming Dynasty is now extremely weak and devastated, it has not yet reached the point of destroying the dynasty and replacing it. What's more, now that Zhang Juzheng has come to power, the entire Ming Dynasty is about to face a complete new reform. More importantly, It is the reform that will have its own "far-sightedness", checking for deficiencies and filling in the gaps. As the reform unfolds step by step, the lives of the people in the world will step by step become stable and prosperous. Organizations like the Dayi Sect that seek to achieve their goals will lose the most important thing for their survival. The strong soil...that is the people's hearts. The final outcome will definitely end in failure. But I don't know how many people will be buried in hell by then.

After listening to Xing Tiefeng's report on this matter, Yang Ning didn't say much. But he remembered it in his heart. From this, he also thought of the movements of foreign races on the border. However, there was very little information about this in Dongchang's intelligence. The news. This makes Yang Ning quite helpless. But there is nothing that can be done about it, because this is determined by the nature of the current Dongchang. It is a violent tool used by those in power to monitor ordinary people and officials.

Although Yang Ning may not be able to change the nature of Dongchang in the end, he can change the functions of Dongchang. From the day he took over Dongchang, he made up his mind to shift Dongchang's functions from internal to external. Such as monitoring enemy espionage activities in Ming Dynasty, monitoring border changes, and even sneaking into enemy countries for reconnaissance, etc. It completely transformed Dongchang, a huge and bloody spy agency notorious in history, into a "sharp weapon" for the Ming Dynasty to maintain the stability of the people and the country. Of course. .This requires quite a long process to achieve.

Xing Tiefeng's report was completed. Zhang Weinian, who was in charge of the Dongchang's legal supervision, reported to Yang Ning based on the "Factory Training" and "Factory Regulations" engraved on the iron monument in front of the hall when Yang Ning took office. Violations of regulations and disciplines among the Dongchang fanmen.

As expected, as Yang Ning expected, those rebellious and bloody veterans in the East Factory did not follow the eighteen "factory rules" that Yang Ning had formulated and issued repeatedly when they went out to perform "factory affairs." Keep it in mind.

According to Zhang Weinian's report, in just over half a month since Yang Ning initially rectified the East Factory, there have been no less than twenty incidents of Dongchang's servants violating the 18 "Factory Regulations". Almost one incident a day. Among them, incidents of acting arrogantly, bullying the people, and seeking personal gain with power account for the majority. The parties involved in these incidents are currently only recorded by Zhang Weinian, waiting for Yang Ning to order punishment; and among them, two incidents are of the most serious nature. Serious. The consequences and impact are also extremely bad.

One incident involved one of the twelve departments in the East Factory responsible for monitoring all officials in the capital, interrogating the prison hall, and interrogating criminals. An internal prison foreman under the "Maobu" and a stall under his department, several Fanzi unjustly arrested and imprisoned an "editor" of the Hanlin Academy, tortured him to extract a confession, and after being beaten, he secretly blackmailed the family of the editor of the Hanlin Academy. As a result, these people got money, and the Hanlin Academy editor was tortured by several people. The editor died tragically in prison. When his family learned about it, they were heartbroken and angry. Wearing clothes and mourning, they went to the lobby of the Ministry of Justice, Dali Temple, the Metropolitan Procuratorate and other government offices to cry and make a fuss. Everyone in the capital knew about it, and the impact was extremely bad.

Xing Tiefeng hesitated and did not come up with any advice on how to deal with the offending eunuch foreman, the stall owner, and several gangsters. However, Zhang Weinian made a prompt decision and led his men to arrest them and take them to the Dongchang Prison. For this reason, he also had " There was a conflict between the "Maobu" internal prison and the subordinates.

Hearing this, Yang Ning couldn't help but look at Xing Tiefeng. He knew in his heart that the reason why Xing Tiefeng didn't express his stance was because he didn't want to offend others. Besides, in the old Dongchang, such things were not considered serious matters. .According to the rules of Dongchang for so many years. As long as it does not cause very serious consequences. As long as it does not anger the emperor and issue an edict to blame, then it is not a big deal. In fact, to put it bluntly, Xing Tiefeng has been doing Dongchang for so many years. Thousands of households were sentenced to death. Cases like this where torture was used to extract confessions and people's lives were wasted. There must be many cases on hand.

Under Yang Ning's gaze, Xing Tiefeng could not help but give a frightened explanation. He had considered the overall situation, fearing that radical methods would cause chaos. For such things, he had to wait for Yang Ning, the factory director, to come back and report to the Empress Dowager and the Empress Dowager Ming. The emperor dealt with it and so on. Regarding Xing Tiefeng's explanations, Yang Ning didn't say much or blame him. But in his heart, his impression of Xing Tiefeng was even worse.

This Xing Tiefeng has been in Dongchang for many years. He is really regarded as an "old fried dough stick". Although he helped a lot in taking over Dongchang at the beginning and made a lot of efforts, he always thinks about the benefits and harms in his actions. But now that the factory supervisor of Dongchang has been replaced by himself, he is even more prepared to carry out drastic reforms of the notorious Dongchang. People like Xing Tiefeng will eventually become a "stumbling block" on the road to reform. Yes. Naturally, the "stumbling block" must be removed. But this Xing Tiefeng can be regarded as Empress Dowager Li's person after all. However, he cannot touch him in a short period of time. This is all he can do for the time being. There is only a lot he can do. Cultivate Xiang Zhong, Zhang Weinian and other people who are loyal to him, hoping to eventually control the entire Dongchang and act like a finger.

Another incident reported by Zhang Weinian was much worse than the previous one. Among the eight departments outside the Twelve Departments of Dongchang, several "secretaries" in the "Chen Department" responsible for the investigation and supervision of Tianjin, Henan and Shandong When they were performing factory duties in Hejian Prefecture, they encountered a team of escorts belonging to the "Zhenyuan Escort Bureau" in Shandong. Seeing the beauty of the escort owner's daughter, they actually became lustful. They flirted with each other before, and the two sides clashed. They also saw the silver coins exposed in the broken escort car and became greedy. This group of Dongchang stall bosses actually brutally murdered the entire escort car fleet, a total of sixteen people, and only the daughter of the escort owner was killed. He was able to escape with his life under the desperate escort of all the bodyguards.

In terms of time, this incident happened just before the Lantern Festival, just two days after Yang Ning promulgated the 18 factory regulations and became familiar with all the Dongchang slaves. And because someone escaped, those gangsters who committed the crime But he also realized the seriousness of the matter. He chased and killed the escort master's daughter but failed, so he fled in all directions.

And it was the daughter of the escort master who escaped with her life. In grief, anger and despair, she evaded the pursuit of the gangsters all the way to the capital. Exhausted mentally and physically, she happened to encounter a long row of imperial officials sitting in sedan chairs on the street. He threw himself in front of the sedan and stopped him. The officials sitting in the sedan were Zhang Juzheng, the chief minister of the cabinet, and others who had returned from Tianshou Mountain to worship the emperor's tomb.

According to Zhang Juzheng's temper, how could he turn a blind eye to such a thing? He immediately took the woman back to his house. After asking, he understood the whole story. He was immediately furious. But considering that these evildoers were Dongchang Yang Ning, a subordinate of his subordinate, went to Changping Tangshan and did not come back. Zhang Juzheng suppressed the matter for the time being. He only informed Xing Tiefeng, the "big stall owner" and Zhang Weinian, the "second stall owner" of Dongchang. A few days ago, when Yang Ning came back, he was assassinated because of the investigation. These matters in Dongchang were temporarily suppressed. Now that the assassin's matter has been revealed, these matters have been put on the agenda.
Chapter completed!