Yongli Ming Dynasty

Chapter 86 Search
Nearly a hundred Jinyiwei surrounded Wang Kun's mansion tightly. Dozens of them surrounded the front and back gates and various important roads. The remaining imperial guards followed Li Chengzhi and broke into the mansion.
The guards at the gate of the palace saw a group of people in scarlet uniforms rushing to the gate. They were about to stop them, but they were pushed away.
"If anyone obstructs the work of the Imperial Guards, they will be prosecuted on the spot."

When the guards in front of Wang Kun's door heard the Tiqi's shout, their faces suddenly changed. When they saw several Tiqi drew their swords, the guards quickly threw the swords on their waists to the ground.
As a group of imperial guards entered, Wang Kun's mansion was in chaos.

There was a teahouse not far from Wang Kun's residence. The second floor had been completely cleared out. Several soldiers were guarding the staircase. Only two people were standing by the window on the huge second floor.

Ding Kuichu looked at the group of Tiqi who broke into Wang Kun's mansion with a gloomy expression on his face. He looked at Ma Jixiang who was silent at the side.

"You are the commander of the Royal Guards, why is it Li Chengzhi who is searching the mansion?"

"Your Highness has personally issued an order to have Li Chengzhi of the Southern Pacification Department take charge of this matter. What else can I do?"

"After all, Your Highness still doesn't trust me, an outsider from Fujian Province."

Ma Jixiang's face also looked a little ugly, and he said in a deep voice
Ma Jixiang led the Jinyifu of Fujian Province to Guangdong. Now the Jinyiwei in Zhaoqing City are all Ma Jixiang's trusted subordinates. Ma Jixiang also has the merit of supporting the enthronement, so Zhu Lang can only let him continue to be in charge of the Jinyiwei.

Although Zhu Lang could not take away Ma Jixiang's official position for the time being, he could train another army in Jinyiwei.

Under Zhu Lang's leadership, the Jinyiwei North and South Pacification Divisions were actually split apart. Even though Ma Jixiang was the commander of the Jinyiwei, he had no control over Li Chengzhi.
Although Jinyiwei also has the word "wei" in its name, it seems to belong to the military system of the guards, but in fact it is very special and is the emperor's private army.
Why did the Jinyiwei sometimes dominate the Northern Pacification Division, sometimes the Southern Division suppresses the Northern Division, and sometimes the Factory Guard suppresses the Jinyiwei? The fundamental reason is that the Jinyiwei is the emperor's private army.

Jinyiwei had long been separated from the Five Military Commands of the Ministry of War and became a private army controlled by the emperor.
Among the Jinyiwei, whoever is closer to the emperor is the most powerful.

Apart from this, no commanding officer can help.

Li Chengzhi was born as a guard of the royal palace. He was inserted into the Jinyiwei by Gui Jianguo and had the privilege of meeting His Majesty at any time. Under such circumstances, how could Ma Jixiang be in charge of the affairs of the Southern Pacification Division?

A group of Southern Guards rushed into the palace. After reading the order of His Royal Highness the Regent to confiscate the palace, everyone in Wang Kun's palace was shocked at first, but then quickly quieted down. According to the request of the Jinyiwei, they stood obediently in the open space in the courtyard.

Since Wang Kun was a high-ranking official in the inner court, most of the people serving him were naturally eunuchs in the palace. After everyone heard the imperial edict of the palace confiscation, no one dared to disobey.
If the Jinyiwei were to search and confiscate the property of a rural landlord, even if the emperor ordered it, there would probably be one or two loyal servants who would resist for their master. However, such a thing would never happen in Wang Kun's mansion.

The eunuchs in these palaces feared the power of the emperor more than anyone else. The reason why they served in Wang Kun's mansion was, after all, because Wang Kun was the chief eunuch in the palace.

Now that Wang Kun has lost his power, who would still fight and die for a eunuch who has lost his power?
Under such circumstances, Li Chengzhi and his entourage's raid on the palace went extremely smoothly. Not only did they not encounter any resistance, but some eunuchs even took the initiative to guide the group of imperial guards to various warehouses in the palace.

The valuables in the storeroom of Wang Kun's mansion were quickly cleared out, but Li Chengzhi looked dissatisfied when he saw the report from his subordinates.

After the imperial guards searched the warehouse, they only found more than 10,000 taels of silver. With some jewelry and other things, they barely got 20,000 taels of silver. How could this satisfy Li Chengzhi?
Wang Kun was a dignified official in the Imperial Household Department, and he had sold so many official positions. How could he only have a mere 10,000 or 20,000 taels of silver in his mansion? Even if the official positions in the court were devalued now, it would never be possible for the more than a dozen central government positions to depreciate to this extent.
If so many official positions were really sold for this amount, then Wang Kun might as well ask to be a tax inspector. Setting up a tax inspector station in a local area would earn more than this amount of silver.
Li Chengzhi looked at the eunuchs and maids kneeling on the ground in the courtyard, his eyes turned, and then he spoke in a cold voice

"Wang Kun sold official positions and brought chaos to the court. He is now doomed to die. You, the people in the palace, who knew about this and did not report it, and helped the tyrant to commit atrocities, are all guilty and cannot escape punishment."

"General, please understand. We are just servants in the mansion. How would we know what Wang Kun did? We have nothing to do with Wang Kun."

The eunuchs and palace servants below immediately cried out in injustice, their faces filled with fear.
"If you say it's none of your business, then what do I need to do? I'll punish all of you, the palace maids will be sent to the Jiaofang Bureau, and the eunuchs will be charged with conspiracy and executed."

Li Chengzhi's voice was icy cold. The maids and eunuchs below looked at the Tiqi standing in the courtyard with a knife in hand and a cold expression. They could no longer control themselves and their faces showed despair. There were faint cries from the crowd.
"I am not a heartless person. I will give you a chance to redeem yourself and make meritorious contributions."

"I am very dissatisfied with the treasures seized from Wang Kun's mansion. There must be some secret vaults and hidden compartments in the mansion!"

"Whoever can provide clues will be exempted from the crime. If the secret vault found is of great value, I will reward you generously, even arranging for you to serve in the palace."

After Li Chengzhi finished speaking, the crying in the crowd below suddenly stopped. Everyone looked at each other, and then lowered their heads, with different expressions on their faces.
After a while, a eunuch in a green robe in front of him suddenly spoke with a twinkling look in his eyes.

"Do you really mean what the governor said?"

"What you are asking for may seem impossible to you, but it is easy for me."

"The secret vault must be in this mansion. I'm just too lazy to spend time looking for it."

"For the same secret vault, only the first person to report the clue will be rewarded. You have to think carefully, because you only have this one chance."

Li Chengzhi snorted coldly and glanced at everyone in the field. As expected, after hearing Li Chengzhi's words, the crowd below suddenly started to make a subtle noise again. But before everyone could think about it, the green-robed eunuch who spoke first had already spoken loudly.

"Commander-in-chief, I have important clues to report."

"Okay, follow me. If the clues are useful, I will reward you handsomely."

Li Chengzhi looked at the green-robed eunuch in front of him, a smile flashed across his face, and he led the green-robed eunuch out of the courtyard.
When the eunuchs saw this scene, how could they bear it?
They have been serving in the mansion for a long time, so naturally they all think they know some secrets of the mansion, but who knows if others also know what they know? This is their only chance.

Seeing that Li Chengzhi was about to leave, they no longer dared to hesitate and spoke

"Commander-in-chief, I have important clues to report..."

"I am the maid who cleans Wang Kun's study, and I have important clues to report..."

A group of eunuchs and maids in the courtyard spoke out one after another. Under their reports, the Jinyiwei quickly found a secret room in the wing room of Wang Kun's living quarters.

bang
A huge hole was smashed open on the floor of the wing, revealing an underground space.

This is obviously not the main entrance to the secret room, but it makes no difference to the Jinyiwei. As long as they have determined the location, they can just force it open.
Several Tiqi followed the ladder into the secret room first. After a quarter of an hour, they confirmed that there were no traps in the secret room, and then returned to the ground to report.
Li Chengzhi then followed the ladder and entered the secret room.

The secret room was only the size of a normal bedroom. There were a dozen boxes piled in the corner. Because the ground was violently broken, the boxes were covered with dust.
Li Chengzhi opened one of the boxes, and under the yellow candlelight, a silver light appeared.
There were a lot of silver ingots in the box. Some were big and some were small. The small one was ten taels and the big one was fifty taels. They were all neatly stacked in the box.
Li Chengzhi opened the remaining boxes and saw that they were all filled with silver. In the innermost smaller box, there were palm-sized gold cakes.
At this time, the candlelight shines brightly, which is really dazzling.

Li Chengzhi was very satisfied when he saw this. These boxes alone were worth 70,000 to 80,000 taels of silver, which was enough to kill Wang Kun two or three times.

After Li Chengzhi confirmed the treasures in the box, he did not look at them any more. He glanced at other places in the secret room.

In addition to the boxes piled in the corner, there are two bookshelves in the center of the secret room, which are filled with vases and scrolls of various colors. You don't need to look at them to know that they are rare antique calligraphy and paintings.

A quarter of an hour later, Li Chengzhi walked out of the secret room, but the Tiqi guarding the cave entrance found that his governor had a serious expression on his face and was holding a small wooden box tightly in his hands.

Seeing Li Chengzhi's serious expression, the group of imperial guards also became nervous.
"Bring up everything from the secret room."

Li Chengzhi ignored everyone's reaction, just gave an order, and hurried out of the room with the box.
The group of Tiqi were stunned. They had seen the contents of the box when they went down to explore the way.

Now, after the governor came out, he just carried a small wooden box and hurried away. No one knew what was in the box. The governor didn't even care about the huge amount of silver.

Half an hour later, all the valuables in the secret room were finally carried into the courtyard, but Li Chengzhi did not even look at the silver and valuables on the ground, but just held the wooden box tightly in his arms.
"Leave half of the people to continue to search the mansion to see if there are any hidden compartments or secret rooms. The rest of the people take the stolen silver and follow me back to the palace to report."

"Yes"

The imperial guards obeyed the order respectfully and were about to escort the silver out of the palace, but Li Chengzhi thought about it and said
"Open the boxes in front and escort them out of the house. Let Wang Kun die knowingly."

The Tiqi riders obeyed the order again, and after lifting the boxes onto the carts, they opened the first few boxes, revealing boxes full of silver ingots.
Then the group of imperial guards just took the silver and left the mansion.
The Jinyiwei drove the carriage out of the mansion. At this time, the officials who knew about the shocking changes in the court sent people to wait outside Wang Kun's mansion to find out the result of this search.

When the imperial guards appeared at the door with silver, the people gathered in front of the mansion were shocked when they saw the cart full of silver.

Not far from the gate of the palace, there were more than a dozen imperial censors wearing official robes of Xiezhi standing guard.
These people didn't even take off their court robes. It looked like they had just finished court and were waiting outside the gate of Wang Kun's residence.

At this time, the imperial censors saw the silver on the car and immediately shouted angrily. Then the imperial censors cheered again. Everyone celebrated with joy on their faces.

This time, the Supervisory Office took action and brought down the imperial eunuchs in the court. Let's see who dares to look down on them in the future.
In a teahouse not far away, Ding Kuichu looked at the carts of silver and valuables being transported out of the mansion, and his face became completely gloomy.

"Let's go, Wang Kun is beyond help"

Ding Kuichu was silent for a while, then suddenly turned around and walked out, without a trace of nostalgia.

Ma Jixiang, who was behind Ding Kuichu, was stunned for a moment before he reacted and chased after Ding Kuichu in front of him.
(End of this chapter)