"Your Majesty, all slaves are incompetent, slaves deserve to die..."
As soon as Liu Xi and Fan Xian were brought into the Nuan Pavilion, they fell to their knees on the ground and burst into tears.
"You two idiots, you idiots!"
"I'll beat you to death, you useless bitches!"
Zhu Cixiang rushed forward with a flurry of punches and kicks, obviously very angry at the incompetence of these two guys.
After venting for a while, I returned to the soft couch.
"Kneel down before me."
"Listen, Liu Xi, I am now appointing you as the Chief Superintendent of Ceremonies and Chief Print Officer, Fan Xian, and the Admiral of Dongchang. Now go and seize the property of Wang Dehua and Wang Chengen, the two killers, and their gang members.
You know, if you dare to embezzle even one tael of silver, I will skin you, so get out of here!"
"Yes, your Majesty, don't worry. I will check it thoroughly and never let anyone take away any money."
The two of them were moved and excited, kowtowed quickly, and trotted out rolling and crawling.
"well!"
Zhu Cixiang was helpless to the extreme.
Although these two piles of mud can't help the wall, at least they can rest assured and don't have to worry about betrayal, so for the time being, they can only force the two of them to the wall.
We just happened to take this opportunity to carry out a major purge and rectification of the eunuchs and maids in the inner court. All those who had been loyal to Chongzhen were taken down and their homes ransacked.
It should have been done a long time ago, but the enemy currently has no time or energy, so he temporarily suppressed it. Who would have thought that he was almost overturned by his father Chongzhen just by leaving for a day.
After cleaning the palace, and with the Red Lady's 30,000 troops outside the palace, Zhu Cixi slept very soundly that night.
But there were countless people in the city who stayed awake all night.
Obviously, both civil servants and nobles know that His Majesty has surrendered a powerful bandit army, and there will definitely be big moves next.
that's the truth.
Zhu Cixiang didn't want to wait any longer for almost a whole day. As soon as the day broke, he sent someone to summon all the nobles to the Huangji Palace for a banquet, preparing for a direct showdown.
After receiving the call, the honorable nobles were also in a dilemma. Everyone knew it well last time when they pretended to be sick.
His Majesty even directly summoned everyone to the Huangji Palace without leaving any room. He was obviously ready to fall out.
If they don't go, they will definitely fight against each other and blood will flow. In the end, either they will kill the emperor, or they will all be killed by the emperor.
Although everyone was afraid that one day they would be exposed to the fate of the Duke and the others, so they gathered together to petition, but it was only when His Majesty did not have many troops and there was another layer of fig leaf that they were united.
Now that the palace is completely under His Majesty's control, and with the Red Lady's 30,000 people eyeing her, plus Zhou Yuji's troops and imperial guards, almost all the nobles have no confidence to win.
After weighing the pros and cons, those royal relatives were the first to compromise, but naturally they got out of hand and rushed to the Huangji Palace in a hurry, because the emperor had set a time, and there was no need to go if they were late.
Inside the Huangji Palace.
Just like last time, sumptuous food and wine had already been put on the table. Zhu Cixiang sat on the dragon chair and looked at all the distinguished officials, many of whom nodded with satisfaction and breathed a sigh of relief.
He was really afraid that these nobles would choose to resist to the end, which would be troublesome. After all, the 30,000 troops of the Red Lady are not even mercenaries.
Fortunately, his judgment was right. As long as he showed a posture of preparing to fight to the death, these nobles would not dare to risk everything.
"I know that all of you are wealthy, and you are worried that one day your homes will be confiscated by me like Duke Cheng and others."
"I also know that you incited the soldiers in the capital to petition, not to force me to kill Zhou Yuji, but to force me to abdicate."
As Zhu Cixiang's words were poured into everyone's ears, all the nobles prostrate themselves on the ground, all covered in sweat, and their minds were extremely tense.
"But I want to tell you that no one can force me to abdicate. If you want me to abdicate, unless you step on my corpse and help the Supreme Emperor to the throne, even if the Taizu comes, I have only one sentence, I would rather be broken into pieces.
, not for Waquan!”
"I don't dare!"
All the nobles hurriedly said in a trembling voice, "Now that His Majesty is a swordsman and they are fish and meat, they can only resign themselves to fate."
Zhu Cixiang stood up quickly and roared.
"What else are you afraid of?"
"You are afraid that I will confiscate your family, but have you ever thought about it, when my father asked you to borrow military salary, and you withheld 10% of our family property, why did I have to take such a drastic step?"
"If even one of you is as brave and good at fighting as your ancestors, why would I appoint a general military officer as the governor to defend the city?"
"As long as there is one of you who is loyal to the Ming Dynasty and to me, why would I take the risk myself and recruit a group of rebels to surrender?"
"You are all noble royal relatives who share weal and woe with my Ming Dynasty. You were my biggest supporter originally, but what about now? Whose fault is it after all this?"
"I don't want to say any more. If you take all the soldiers and horses out of the city to garrison before dark today, the past affairs will be wiped out. You will still be the nobles of my Ming Dynasty and my humerus ministers. If you don't want to, then you
My fate as king and minister is over."
After Zhu Cixiang finished speaking, he waved his hand directly.
When everyone saw that His Majesty did not capture them directly, their tense hearts finally relaxed a little.
But when they thought of what His Majesty had just said, they all got up and left in despair.
Taking the soldiers out of the city means that they have completely given up resistance, confiscating their homes and beheading them all at the whim of your majesty.
But if you don't lead troops out of the city, you will be a traitor and traitor.
Obviously, His Majesty gave them the right to choose at this time, allowing them to choose whether to be loyal ministers or rebellious ministers.
After all the nobles came out of the palace, people's hearts dispersed.
It was also the royal family who took the lead in taking action, taking the soldiers and horses under his control out of the city, and then returned to the palace to resume his duties.
It was as if His Majesty wanted to kill and ransack his house, and all the ministers recognized it.
Obviously they all understand what the emperor's desire for control is.
Indeed, Zhu Cixi did not really want to confiscate all their homes. As long as he could confiscate the homes of these nobles at any time, this would be the embodiment of the supremacy of imperial power.
However, some time ago, these nobles actually resisted, making him no longer able to control their life and death. This is absolutely unacceptable as an emperor.
So now that these nobles have chosen to surrender and put themselves and their families' lives and fortunes under the control of the emperor again, he has not really killed them.
Although it was great to capture them all and then cook the civil servants in one pot, the sequelae were huge.
The final consequence is that everyone is in danger, and no one will truly obey him as the emperor. The territory he can control is probably only one-third of an acre near the capital. This incident is the best example.
Now he also understands that as an emperor, he cannot convince the people of the world just by relying on conspiracy and tyranny. He still has to follow the high road and convince the world with reason. At least he must do things with reason and evidence and cannot arrest people randomly.
kill.
He also understood the principle of mutual checks and balances, so he did not completely deprive the nobles of their military power.
Instead, they only selected 30,000 refugees from the capital camp, assigned them to Commander-in-Chief Zhou Yuji, and mixed them with the 30,000 bandits. They then trained and guarded various gates in the capital.
Although Zhou Yuji was loyal, it was not advisable to leave all the troops and horses to him alone.
As for now, there is not much conflict of interest between him and the Honorable. He is not short of money for the time being, and the Honorable does not have much food.
The land outside the city is now filled with landowners who have taken refuge with the rebels. As long as they want, they can have as much land as they want.
Therefore, for these nobles, we can boil the frogs in warm water and slowly transform them, and deal with those who cannot be transformed.
After all, they had been divorced from the country for so many generations, so at least they were much more loyal than Wu Sangui and other generals.
The defense of the city where he worked together this time is the best example.
But when the nobles saw that Your Majesty had reduced their 30,000 troops and horses, they temporarily felt relieved. If Your Majesty did nothing, it would be really terrible and really fatal.
Xungui took a step back first, and Zhu Cihong did not kill all the people. Finally, a trace of trust between the monarch and his ministers was restored, and they would no longer dare to go to court.
Civil and military officials pretended to be ill and did not dare to go to court. This was probably the first time in the Ming Dynasty.