Ji Song was completely drunk and spoke the truth. Under the clouds and fog, all Ji Gang's money-making tricks were revealed.
He told Wang Xian that in fact, most of the time, Ji Gang did not need to do anything himself. He could not spend all his money just relying on the filial piety of his subordinates. He told Wang Xian that these days, Ji Gang appointed private individuals and squeezed out the old people of Yandi. The Thirteen Taibao were either squeezed out of the Jin Yiwei or had to bow their heads to work. Now in the Jin Yiwei, Ji Gang's henchmen Zhuang Jing, Yuan Jiang, Wang Qian, Li Chun, Pang Ying and others are in power. These people rely on Ji Gang's trust. , using the power of the Jin Yiwei to plunder people's property and rob people's women. The plundered property and beauties paid half of the filial piety to Ji Gang, and Ji Gang allowed them to do whatever they wanted and protected them.
He told Wang Xian that Shen Wansan, a rich man in the past in Wudi, had his family confiscated by Taizu during the Hongwu period and was sent to Yunnan. However, Shen Wansan was so rich that he could rival the country, and there was still a lot of missing property. Shen Wansan's son Shen Wendu secretly asked to see Ji Gang. He gave him gold and dragon horns, quilts embroidered with dragons, brocades depicting phoenixes and other rare treasures. He voluntarily joined Ji Gang's disciples and donated money every year during festivals. Ji Gang greatly admired Shen Wendu and trusted him very much. He is regarded as a figure like a military advisor and obeys his advice. Almost everything happens according to his plan.
It was these people who colluded with each other and worked together to do many shocking things. For example, they asked their subordinates to pretend to be imperial edicts several times and went to various salt fields to extort more than 4 million kilograms of salt. When they came back, they pretended to be imperial edicts and seized the salt. Twenty official ships and four hundred ox carts were used to transport the goods to private houses without payment.
They also falsely accused dozens and hundreds of big businessmen and only stopped after searching their properties; they even defrauded the treasures of the Cochin envoys and seized the fields and houses of officials and people; they also raised many desperadoes and secretly made swords, armor, bows and crossbows. Tens of thousands... Wang Xian was dumbfounded when he heard that Ji Gang and his party had done countless evil things. It seems that it is not difficult to find a breakthrough if you want to deal with him.
He continued to ask, but Ji Song finally couldn't hold it any longer and fell asleep...
Wang Xian kicked him, but the guy didn't respond. He had to snap his fingers, and then two guards came in and dragged Ji Song out like a dead pig.
When there was no one in the room, Wu Wei walked out from behind the curtain and held up the thick record with both hands. Wang Xian looked through it carefully and said with uncontrollable excitement: "Ji Gang, where are you running?"
"My lord, please don't be too optimistic," Wu Wei said with a frown: "Ji Gang's misdeeds are known to the world, but he has still stood firm for more than ten years. He has his own reasons."
"I know," Wang Xian said with a smile: "Is this called self-defeat in order to protect yourself? He has too much power. He can monitor hundreds of officials in the court, arrest, interrogate and execute ministers without going through the judicial department. How can the emperor trust him? It is not about being honest and self-defeating, but about delivering the handle to the emperor. Only when the emperor believes that it is easy to get rid of him will he be able to use him with peace of mind."
"Your Excellency is wise." Wu Wei nodded.
"Of course, when did I lose my wisdom?" Wang Xian said with a smile: "But there must be a limit to self-deprecation. It doesn't matter if you are more greedy for money and have more women. But you can't exclude dissidents and use private individuals. Ah, what on earth do you want to turn the emperor's eagle dog into your own running dog? Not to mention forging imperial edicts, intercepting beautiful women, arrogant attire, and threatening officials. I bet that these emperors must not know." He paused and said: "And it can be inferred that the emperor's ears and eyes have been completely blocked by him. What the emperor sees and hears is what he wants the emperor to see and hear. What he doesn't want the emperor to see and hear. The emperor basically cannot see or hear. arrive"
"..." After listening to Wang Xian's analysis, Wu Wei felt sweat on his forehead and asked, "Is this guy crazy?"
"Who knows? If you want to make him die, you must first make him crazy," Wang Xian said lightly: "Maybe he just deserves to die."
"Sir, are you really confident to overthrow Ji Gang?" Wu Wei gulped, this was really exciting.
"No." Wang Xian shook his head and said: "Ji Song's words are not enough. Besides, as you said, Ji Gang has his own way of establishing himself. If he cannot break his way, he will not fail."
"What's his point?" Wu Wei asked in a deep voice.
"He has - how did I know?" Wang Xian said seriously.
"How did I know..." Wu Wei was stunned and said with a wry smile: "My lord, you are joking."
"Wouldn't it be better if I knew?" Wang Xian sighed and said: "Ji Gang has been standing for more than ten years. He is so deeply entrenched that he wants to bring him down with one hand covering the sky. He does not have a long-term plan, strong support, and enough "It's impossible to be lucky." He said with a smile: "Hey, it's so dangerous! The road to Shu is so difficult that it's harder to climb to the sky."
"My lord, arresting Ji Song today," Wu Weidao said, "is this the first step?"
"Not really, I can only understand the situation." Wang Xian shook his head and said, "I have to discuss this matter with His Highness before I can make a plan."
"What about Ji Song?"
"I'm done with the soft ones. Let's try some hard ones tomorrow." Wang Xian stretched and said happily: "I finally feel sleepy."
"But sir, you have agreed to go to Zhou Zhengtai's house for dinner..." Wu Wei reminded helplessly.
"Oh, really?" Wang Xiancai noticed that the sun was already setting outside, so he could only yawn and said: "Okay then, give me a bath and change clothes, and make a pot of strong tea."
When it was getting dark, Wang Xian came to the Yamen of Zhensi. In the back Yamen, Mrs. Zhou Xin cooked in person. She started working at noon and prepared dozens of specialty dishes, just to thank him for this little benefactor.
So no matter how sleepy Wang Xian was, he had to come. Fortunately, he was young and energetic. He took a cold bath and drank a pot of strong tea, and he became energetic again. But there was no good way to get rid of those rabbit eyes.
Seeing him like this, Zhou Xin asked with concern: "Why, you didn't catch up on some sleep when you went back?"
"I couldn't sleep, so I suddenly interrogated Ji Song." Wang Xian said with a smile.
"How was the harvest?"
"It's quite rich," Wang Xian said with a wry smile, "but my interrogation skills are limited, and I can't ask the boss to do it for me." Zhou Xin is the chief justice of a province, and turning a blind eye to Wang Xian's act of setting up a private torture chamber is already the limit. , it is impossible to help him interrogate anymore.
"..." Zhou Xin put down his chopsticks, slowly stretched out his hand and said, "Show me the transcript."
"It's better that you understand me," Wang Xian smiled sheepishly and took out the transcript from his sleeve. Zhou Xin read it carefully under the light. His face became more solemn as he read it. At the end, he was filled with indignation. , all kinds of comments said: "The country is in great trouble, the people are the great thieves! If this disaster is not eliminated, the country will be in trouble."
"Are all the things above real?" Wang Xian asked.
"Indeed, Ji Song wouldn't make it up to harm his uncle, right?" Zhou Xin said solemnly: "But this confession alone is not enough to get rid of this beast."
"That's natural." Wang Xian nodded: "Ji Gang has survived for more than ten years, so he must have a way to protect himself.
"Yeah." Zhou Xin nodded and said: "His way of self-preservation, or how to establish himself, is actually divided into two stages. The first stage is loyalty and cruelty. The emperor wanted to clean up Jianwen's old ministers, so he copied them and let them Thousands of families are destroyed and people are killed. This kind of thing is not something ordinary people can do. It can only be done by people with a heart as hard as stone and who have lost their humanity."
"Yes." Wang Xian nodded and listened to Zhou Xin continue: "But he has done too many bad things, and he is also worried that he will be used by the emperor to appease public anger. After all, his two predecessors, Jiang Xian and Mao Xiang, died in this way.
, it was impossible for him not to be vigilant. Especially since the emperor stopped understanding Jianwen's old ministers in the past few years and lost Chen Ying, he would feel sad about the death of a rabbit and a fox. In order to prevent himself from being sacrificed by the emperor, he cultivated
He trusted his confidants and strengthened his strength. On the one hand, he changed his previous position and began to move closer to the King of Han."
Wang Xian couldn't help but secretly lamented that Jiang was still too old, and Lao Zhou saw it more clearly than himself. "At first I thought he was seeking death. But then I figured out that when he approached the King of Han, he probably got a hint from the emperor."
"What?" Wang Xian was surprised.
"You have to remember that there is only one sky in the Ming Dynasty, and that is the direction of Emperor Yongle's court. Behind it is the embodiment of the emperor's will." Zhou Xin lowered his voice and said: "The emperor does not want to see forces that threaten him in the court.
Therefore, the more the ministers support the prince, the more the emperor will suppress the prince. However, the prince is the crown prince, and he is kind and generous. He has won the support of the civil servants. This support cannot be suppressed by the emperor if he wants to suppress it. Therefore, the emperor repairs the prince from time to time.
On the one hand, he supported the King of Han and suppressed the prince. However, the King of Han's strength was inherently flawed. Only with discipline can he compete with the prince. I can see this. With the emperor's sage, he can naturally see it better. That's why I feel that discipline
Leaning towards the King of Han is the emperor’s wish.”
"That's too bad..." Wang Xian looked extremely ugly. He knew that in any period of human beings, politics trumped everything. In the Ming Dynasty, imperial power trumped everything. For the emperor, how to ensure that his power was not
Being challenged is his priority, and other things, no matter how big they are, have to be pushed to the back burner.
If Jigang helped the King of Han fight against the prince because of the emperor's arrangement, that would be enough to make his status as stable as Mount Tai. It would be extremely difficult to move him.
"Balance - this is the way to establish oneself in the later period of Ji Gang," Zhou Xin said solemnly.
"No wonder he can sit in the crater of the volcano." Wang Xian sighed.
"Actually, he was suffering a lot." Zhou Xin laughed sarcastically and said, "He should know very well that in the end, no matter whether the King of Han or the Prince wins, there will be no room for him."
Wang Xian thought about it and nodded: "Yes." It goes without saying that if the prince wins, but if the king of Han wins, then he has done so many shameful things for the king of Han, and Zhu Gaoxu cannot keep him either.
"According to your opinion, Ji Gang's game of chess is a dead game no matter how you play it?"
"Yes." Zhou Xin nodded heavily and said: "The balance will eventually be broken one day, and that will be the day he dies."