If Wang Dehua, the admiral of Dongchang, becomes ruthless, more people will be unlucky.
The few people who were tortured to death could not escape, and the people who had contact with them could not escape. Then, those who were in the Fushe community in the capital were also arrested on a large scale.
At this time, Fushe was already the largest society in the late Ming Dynasty. It was an organization united by dozens of societies in the late Ming Dynasty. It began to rise in the south of the Yangtze River. By the fifteenth year of Chongzhen, it had already expanded to the northern capital.
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According to records, the number of people reached more than two thousand!
In ancient times, this number of people was absolutely unprecedented.
You must know that among the more than two thousand people, all are scholars, and most of them are from official families. Such a force is definitely a very huge force.
In other words, there are definitely a lot of people who have returned to society in the capital.
As soon as Dongchang was arrested, people were in a frenzy. People from Dongchang could be seen everywhere, escorting groups of scholars. This situation was almost the same as when factory guards were rampant during the Tianqi years.
Many officials dare not say anything about this.
This is a case involving imperial examination fraud and murder. The matter is so big that no one can handle it.
At least when it first happened, no one dared to take the lead and speak for the restoration of society.
However, what is surprising is that under such a situation, rumors began to spread, saying that rampant factory guards would definitely attract the wrath of God. The disaster like the explosion at Wang Gong Factory during the Tianqi Years is the best example.
If the emperor does not restrain the factory guards, change his mind, and rectify the recent treacherous ministers in the court, disaster may come.
As soon as this rumor came out, it just met the needs of the officialdom, and those officials began to actively spread the rumor. With added fuel and jealousy, the rumor became more and more terrifying. It even pointed the finger at the emperor, saying that the world was in chaos and that the emperor had lost his morality.
Some imperial censors also began to write memorials, asking Emperor Chongzhen to comply with the will of heaven and the people, restrain the factory guards, stop the persecution of civil and military officials, eliminate the treacherous ministers at the head, etc.
If past experience is followed, once this situation occurs, the emperor will definitely be under great pressure and is likely to make a compromise.
However, this time, they were wrong again!
Even something unexpected happened suddenly.
Xichang suddenly mobilized in large numbers and surrounded the residence of Duke Cheng Guo, as well as the residences of several generals in the Beijing camp who were closely connected with Duke Cheng Guo.
The Yongwei camp also followed suit. The Yongwei camp generals who took control of the Wucheng Bingma Division took the soldiers of the Wucheng Bingma Division to the streets to enforce martial law, while the Yongwei camp headquarters directly broke into the Beijing camp.
Controlled the entire Beijing camp.
This group of people, headed by Chengguo Gong Zhu Chunchen, were all arrested and sent to Jinyiwei Prison. This incident shocked the entire capital.
You must know that Duke Cheng Guo is by no means comparable to ordinary civil and military officials. Even the chief assistant and the like cannot be compared at all.
Duke Cheng Guo is a hereditary duke of the Ming Dynasty, originating from Zhu Neng, a famous general during the time when Emperor Chengzu Zhu Di of the Ming Dynasty was in trouble.
Not to mention the distant ones, let’s just talk about Zhu Xizhong, the Duke of Chengguo. He was extremely trusted by the emperor. He represented the emperor on behalf of the emperor sixty-six times to offer sacrifices to Yuanqiu thirty-nine times, to Fang Ze twenty-nine times, and to participate in the Jinshi Enrong Banquet nineteen times.
When Muzong Muzong and Ming Shenzong ascended the throne, they both held the task of holding the festival crown. The rewards were incomparable.
Because of his reasons, his younger brother Zhu Xixiao was promoted to an official position, and he was promoted to Taibao and Crown Prince Taifu, in charge of the Jinyi Guards, and the Left Governor of the Rear Army Governor's Mansion.
Zhu Xixiao was even able to coerce Emperor Wanli to make his brother Zhu Xizhong, the Duke of Chengguo, the king of Dingxiang. He also fought with the British Duke family of the Ming Dynasty over the title of king to the "British Duke Zhang Mao".
From this we can see how powerful the Cheng Guogong lineage is.
In other words, the lineage of Duke Cheng was trusted by all Ming emperors.
Suddenly, Emperor Chongzhen arrested the current Duke Cheng. It would be strange if everyone's jaws were not dropped!
You must know that before this, Emperor Chongzhen also trusted Duke Cheng Guo very much. Just like the previous emperors, he handed over the capital camp to Duke Cheng and asked him to patrol the borders on his behalf.
In addition to being shocked, all civil and military officials also knew the crime of arresting the current emperor.
He colluded with the internal servants, fabricated rumors about the Nine Lotus Bodhisattva, and killed the emperor's fifth son; he took charge of the Beijing camp, emptied his salary, deducted military pay, and enslaved the soldiers in the Beijing camp as slaves. Now he is fabricating rumors with the intention of influencing the court...
In short, there are a lot of charges, many of which involve conspiracy.
However, no one believes that Duke Cheng Guo is really capable of treason, but no one can guarantee that Duke Cheng Guo has not done any of these things!
The Nine Lotus Bodhisattva incident shocked the capital. On the surface, it was only related to the private affairs of Wu Qinghou's family, but it killed the emperor's fifth son, overthrew a chief minister, and changed the situation of the court.
In short, in the past few days, major events in the capital were happening one after another. Whether it was the Chengguo case or the Wuchang case, they were all big events.
The factory guards did not stop, but became more active. The people arrested were no longer just scholars, civil servants, and even military generals.
Jinyiwei ordered the prison to be imprisoned, but in just a few days, it was overcrowded.
On the streets of the capital, the three major internal guards, that is, the Jinyiwei, Dongchang and Xichang people, with the assistance of soldiers from the Five Cities Soldiers and Horses Division, ransacked their homes. Anyone who was caught had their homes ransacked.
Many of the officials who had fueled the flames through rumors before, including those who spoke with the imperial censor, were arrested. The charges were simple: corruption.
More and more property was reported to Emperor Chongzhen.
The cash amount alone reached three million taels, more than half of which came from the Chengguo Duke’s Mansion!
No matter what the crime was, this incident was ultimately regarded as the first anti-corruption case in the Ming Dynasty since the Hongwu Dynasty.
Because in the eyes of later generations, it does not matter whether the specific charges are true or not. What is important is that after doing this, Emperor Chongzhen became rich!
Emperor Chongzhen couldn't help but feel very happy when he saw the increasing wealth.
This kind of money comes really quickly, a lot, and very easily!
Liu Weichao once said that after the thief Li entered the capital, he finally got 70 million taels of gold, silver and jewels. But this time, he only got more than 3 million. Even if other properties were added, it would not exceed 800.
Ten thousand taels. It’s still far away from the 70 million taels!
It feels good to confiscate a house for a while, but wouldn’t it feel good to keep ransacking a house all the time?
Thinking about Liu Weichao's words, Emperor Chongzhen changed his mind.
Not to mention too much, can you just copy 30 million taels? By the way, you can also rectify the officialdom, and you can have money to strengthen the army, provide disaster relief, etc. It can be said that you kill two birds with one stone.
Emperor Chongzhen thought this way and decided to strike while the iron was hot and continue to steal more corrupt officials. No matter what, it would be good to avenge himself in the other world.
But who knows, before he takes the next step, the consequences of doing so will begin to appear.