Because of this, several pavilion elders suddenly didn't know how to reply to the emperor.
Don't let the Emperor see it. The Emperor has already spoken. If they stop them, I don't know what the Emperor will think. If they let the Emperor see it, based on their understanding of the Emperor, once the Emperor sees the crimes committed by those people, I don't know.
What kind of trouble will it cause?
The silence of the pavilion elders naturally attracted Zhu Houzhao's attention. Seeing the expressions and reactions of the pavilion elders, Zhu Houzhao was not stupid, and he quickly thought of something.
Seeing Zhu Houzhao's expression serious and staring at Yang Tinghe, Wang Yangming and others said slowly: "It seems that what Li Qing said in the memorial is indeed true. Those people in the south of the Yangtze River are really lawless and have no law."
.”
As he spoke, Zhu Houzhao sneered and said, "Don't the Qing family want me to see the criminal evidence of those people presented by Li Qing?"
As soon as the emperor spoke, the elders who had just stood up immediately fell down in front of the emperor again.
Yang Tinghe looked frightened and said: "How dare you, my ministers!"
If this charge is true, at worst it would be to obstruct the Holy Spirit's hearing. A few people are not willing to bear such a charge.
Swinging his sleeves suddenly, Zhu Houzhao said to Qiu Ju beside him: "Qiu Daban, convey my decree and order people to immediately bring to me the evidence of crimes against the powerful officials of Yangzhou Prefecture that Li Qing presented.
Want to see it!"
Upon hearing this, Qiu Ju quickly responded and immediately sent someone to convey the order.
Ignoring Yang Ting and others who were kneeling on the ground, Zhu Houzhao turned around and walked into a pavilion not far away and sat down.
Qiu Ju, who was waiting on the side, first glanced at Yang Ting and several pavilion elders who were kneeling there not far away, and then whispered to Zhu Houzhao: "Your Majesty, please calm down and don't hurt the dragon's body."
Qiu Ju had been by the emperor's side all these years, and he knew the emperor's temper very well.
With Zhu Houzhao's temperament as the emperor, he would not be angry with his important ministers under normal circumstances, but now he turned a blind eye to the elders who were kneeling there, which shows that the emperor was really angry.
Zhu Houzhao slapped his hand on the stone table next to him and snorted coldly: "How can I not be angry? The officials of the Ming Dynasty dare to kill even the imperial envoys. They still have me as the emperor in their eyes, but there is also the Ming Dynasty.
"
Zhu Houzhao said coldly: "Fortunately, it was Li Qing who went to Jiangnan this time. If someone else had gone to Jiangnan, they might have been harmed by these people. By then, these local officials would still be powerful. I don't know what to do."
You are making fun of me, the emperor."
Seeing Zhu Houzhao's angry look, Qiu Ju comforted him and said, "Your Majesty, please calm down. Brother Li Huan has already arrested these people, and has presented all the evidence of their crimes. They will be punished severely."
"
After Qiu Ju's persuasion and some venting, Zhu Houzhao's anger subsided a little. He took the tea cup from Qiu Ju's hand, drank the warm tea, and looked at the man kneeling on the ground not far away.
Yang Tinghe and Wang Yangming sighed softly when the others stood there.
"Qiu Daban, go and ask the Qing family members to get up."
Qiu Ju responded and hurriedly ran to Yang Tinghe. Wang Yangming and others approached and said to them: "Sir, your majesty has an order, please get up."
After hearing this, several people first bowed to Zhu Houzhao who was sitting in the pavilion, and then slowly stood up.
With the emperor's will, no one below naturally dared to neglect it. It was just a matter of time for a cup of tea when several Imperial City guards came slowly carrying several large boxes.
Zhu Houzhao's eyes fell on the big boxes, and there was a bit of anger in his eyes.
As the box fell to the ground and was opened, just as Zhu Houzhao had imagined, the box was filled with piles of cases. Needless to say, these must be the crimes of the officials in Yangzhou Prefecture and the local powerful.
Taking a deep breath, Zhu Houzhao stood up and walked directly to the boxes. He took a copy of the case from one of the boxes, opened it, and scanned it ten lines at a time.
This case is about how a powerful Zheng family in Yangzhou Prefecture used the guise of business to engage in human trafficking in the south of the Yangtze River for decades.
According to the statistics of the person in charge of the Zheng family in the case, in the past few decades, there has been a huge human trafficking interest chain with the Zheng family at the core. The number of people trafficked by the Zheng family alone is no less than 10,000.
You must know that the Zheng family has cultivated a large number of thugs who went into the countryside to kidnap and rob a large number of children and women, and sold them as goods to various places.
Looking at Zheng's charges recorded on the case book, Zhu Houzhao couldn't help but exert force on his hand holding the case book, and almost crushed the case book to pieces.
"They deserve to be killed, they deserve to be killed. Even if they kill the nine clans, it would not be an exaggeration to kill these unscrupulous people."
As he spoke, Zhu Houzhao put down the case report in his hand and picked up another case report. This case report was exactly how Yangzhou Prefecture officials planned it and how he personally explained it to Xu Wei, the general judge of Yangzhou Prefecture.
He led a night raid on the Jinyi Guards' Thousand Households in Yangzhou and killed everyone in the dignified Jinyi Guards' Thousand Households.
He also explained how he colluded with the prefect Xu Lin and led people to attack and kill the imperial envoys.
Li Huan's memorial was of course a brief summary, but among the cases explained by Xu Wei, they were extremely detailed, giving Zhu Houzhao a sense of immersion.
However, the more this happened, the angrier Zhu Houzhao became, because from Xu Wei's confession, Zhu Houzhao saw that almost all the officials in Yangzhou Mansion were rotten. As an official of the imperial court, he did not bother to care for the people of Li and reported it to the police.
The king, however, was obsessed with taking bribes and perverting the law, and even dared to do such daring things as attacking the imperial envoys.
With a bang, Zhu Houzhao slapped the big box in front of him, smashing one of the boxes to pieces on the ground.
"It's time to kill them. I'm going to kill all nine of them!"
After seeing two case files in succession, Zhu Hou looked after him with gnashed teeth and rage, roaring that he wanted to kill these nine tribes of people.
After browsing for a while, Zhu Houzhao became more and more annoyed as he read. He walked away angrily. An invisible power spread, frightening Qiu Ju and several other servants.
He didn't dare to take a breath, for fear that he would be used as a punching bag by the angry emperor.
"The anger is killing me, the anger is killing me!"
As if he couldn't find anyone to vent to, Zhu Houzhao kicked a big tree next to him hard.
Suddenly, the big tree, which was as thick as a bucket, was shaken violently by the emperor's kick, and immediately the withered and yellow leaves fell.
The withered yellow leaves fluttered down, and many of them fell directly on Zhu Houzhao.
Yang Tinghe, Zhang Cai and others beside them couldn't help but look a little surprised when they saw this situation.
In fact, it was the force that Zhu Houzhao unintentionally revealed that made Yang Tinghe, Zhang Cai and others, who were scholars, couldn't help but look at him with side eyes.
When did the emperor have such amazing military power? Why didn't they know about it?
Although they also knew that the emperor had practiced martial arts with Li Huan for a period of time, and even now the emperor still takes some time to practice martial arts every day.
However, neither Yang Tinghe, Zhang Cai nor the officials in the court took this to heart, and only regarded it as the emperor's preference.
It can be said that no one has thought about the results of the emperor's martial arts training. After all, except for Taizu and Emperor Wen, few emperors in the Ming Dynasty were fond of martial arts.
He vented his anger, but it was the big tree that was pitiful. After being kicked hard by Zhu Houzhao a few times, the roots of the tree rooted in the earth were shaken by it, so that the ground cracked.
The cracks one after another are shocking.
Exhaling a breath of turbidity, Zhu Houzhao suppressed the anger in his heart, looked at Yang Tinghe, Wang Yangming, and Zhang Cai and said, "How do you think this major case should be handled?"
Yang Tinghe glanced at the emperor, hesitated for a moment and said: "Your Majesty, this case is of great importance, involving nearly ten thousand people. It should be held at a court meeting and discussed by hundreds of officials."
Zhu Houzhao couldn't help but snorted coldly after hearing this: "Discuss? The evidence of these people's crimes can be said to be conclusive, so there is no need for hundreds of officials to discuss it. In my opinion, just severely punish those involved in the case in accordance with national laws."
Yang Tinghe lowered his head slightly when he heard this, and looked relieved when he lowered his head.
Zhu Houzhao did not notice this, but said coldly: "Pass on my will..."
"Your Majesty, I think what Mr. Yang Ge said is true. This case must be discussed by all officials..."
Just when Zhu Houzhao was about to open his mouth to issue an order, Wang Yangming, who had not spoken yet, directly interrupted the emperor's words and bowed to the emperor with a solemn look on his face.
Zhu Houzhao was interrupted by Wang Yangming. He was already simmering with anger because of those cases and was about to get angry. However, when he saw the solemn look on Wang Yangming's face, Zhu Houzhao couldn't help but froze.
The emperor's reaction was naturally seen in Wang Yangming's eyes. Seeing that the emperor was about to get angry but was stunned for a moment, Wang Yangming said in a deep voice again: "Your Majesty, this case is of great importance and must be discussed by all officials."
At this time, Yang Tinghe, Zhang Cai, and Wang Hao all glanced at Wang Yangming, with a complex look flashing in their eyes.
For Wang Yangming, to be honest, Zhu Houzhao still relied on and trusted him very much, even if he was a little angry in his heart, but seeing Wang Yangming's solemn look and repeatedly emphasizing that all officials should discuss it together, Zhu Houzhao realized it even though he was slow to react.
What.
Taking a deep breath, Zhu Houzhao glanced at the people in front of him, looking thoughtful. After a while, he slowly said: "I'm a little tired. Please leave first. This matter will be discussed.
I will think it over carefully before speaking."
It seems that they did not expect that the emperor would react like this, but they said nothing, bowed their hands to the emperor, and then slowly retreated.
Several pavilion elders were walking in the empty palace city, and they could see the tall and straight figures of the heavily guarded imperial city guards all around them from a distance.
Zhang Cai paused, glanced at Wang Yangming and sighed softly: "Brother Yangming, you shouldn't have just..."
The eyes of Yang Tinghe, Zhang Cai and others also fell on Wang Yangming. Although Zhang Cai's words were not spoken, the meaning was well understood by those present.
It just means that Wang Yangming should not have prevented the emperor from making a decision on that major case.
Wang Yangming looked at a few people with an indifferent look and said: "Guys, as the saying goes, eating the emperor's salary and being loyal to the emperor, as a minister, how can Wang, as a minister, sit back and watch the emperor's father bear the reputation of a tyrant for a while?"
While he was talking, suddenly there was a rush of footsteps behind him.
The sound of footsteps dissipated the slightly disharmonious atmosphere among the few people. Several people followed the sound and saw Qiu Ju, who was serving the emperor, running over at a trot.
As he approached, Qiu Ju first bowed his hands to several people, then his eyes fell on Wang Yangming, with a smile on his face and said: "Marquis of Xinjian, Your Majesty asked the old slave to come and keep you here. Your Majesty has something to summon you."
.”
Yang Tinghe, Zhang Cai, and Wang Hao looked at each other, nodded slightly at Wang Yangming, and then smiled at Qiu Ju and said: "Since your Majesty has summoned us, we will take our leave first."
Qiu Ju, with a smile on his face, nodded towards Yang Ting and the others and said, "Guest elders, please go slowly."
When Wang Yangming followed Qiu Ju to see the emperor again, the emperor had already returned to the imperial study.
In the imperial study room, Zhu Houzhao, who was sitting there changing his clothes, saw Wang Yangming and stopped Wang Yangming who was about to salute him and said: "The Qing family does not need to be polite."
As he spoke, Zhu Houzhao waved his hand towards Qiu Ju and said, "My dear companion, give Wang Qing's family a seat!"
After thanking the emperor, Wang Yangming sat down and looked at the emperor.
Zhu Houzhao put down the tea cup in his hand, looked at Wang Yangming with a somewhat solemn look and said, "Why did the Qing family try to dissuade me again and again just now?"
Zhu Houzhao was not a fool. If he hadn't noticed Wang Yangming's obvious dissuasion, he might not have been able to secure his position as emperor.
Wang Yangming said solemnly: "Your Majesty, don't you know that if your Majesty personally orders a serious case in Yangzhou Prefecture today, your Majesty will not be able to bear the name of tyranny in the future."
Zhu Houzhao couldn't help but be stunned for a moment after hearing this. After all, Zhu Houzhao was too young. Even though he had received an excellent royal education since childhood, and was even taught the art of emperors by Emperor Xiaozong, it could not change that he was only in his twenties after all.
fact.
Compared with those old ministers who have been in high and low official positions in the court for decades, it is normal for the emperor who is young and energetic and has a boyish nature to be impulsive and think poorly.
Looking at Wang Yangming, Zhu Houzhao couldn't help but have a look of thinking on his face. After all, he was the emperor who had received a perfect education in the emperor's mental skills. It was fine for a while. But when Wang Yangming pointed it out, Zhu Houzhao naturally understood it all at once.
Taking a deep breath, Zhu Houzhao couldn't help but smile angrily: "Okay, okay, you are really a good minister of mine. Do they want me to bear the name of a tyrant? If I kill these people, I will be labeled as a tyrant."
So what if I become a tyrant!"
Wang Yangming's eyes lit up when he heard this, and then he shook his head and said, "Your Majesty, things are not that simple."
[I recommend a book "Chewing the Dragon". The author has good writing skills and has many manuscripts. If you are interested, you may want to take a look. 】