Gou was a member of the imperial family in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 854 Audacious
Although Lou Laoer was given the power to submit secret reports, this power was actually more of a symbolic one. After all, Lou Laoer was just an old military leader who had the status of a second-class viscount today because he helped train the new army. Moreover, although his position as commander was not revoked, it had actually been a nominal position since the day he returned home.

Zhu Shenzhu never thought that Lou Laoer would send him a secret letter, but the secret letter in his hand was sent by Lou Laoer. Looking at the secret letter in his hand, Zhu Shenzhu was very curious. He opened the wax seal on the spot, opened the secret letter box, and took out the secret letter inside.

When Zhu Shenzhui opened the secret folder, he frowned at the first glance. Lou Laoer was not very literate and his cultural level was not high. His handwriting was like a dog's crawling. Not only were the sizes different, but it was also not smooth to read and there was a lot of colloquialisms in it.

But when Zhu Shenzui patiently read on carefully and spent some time finally finishing reading the contents of the memorial, his face instantly became extremely ugly, with undisguised anger revealed in his eyes and brows.

"Your Majesty..." Zhou Anmin, who was standing by, saw Zhu Shenzhui's face change and asked cautiously.

"You can read it yourself." Zhu Shenzhui handed the secret letter to him casually. Zhou Anmin took it nervously and opened it to read.

After reading for a while, Zhou Anmin's expression became panic, and beads of sweat appeared on his forehead. He stood up in a hurry, put the secret letter aside, and knelt down in front of Zhu Shenzhui.

"I failed in my duty. This is my fault. I never expected such a horrific thing to happen. I failed in my duty as the head of the Jinyiwei and betrayed your majesty's trust. I ask your majesty to punish me..."

"Okay, okay, get up." Seeing Zhou Anmin repeatedly apologizing, Zhu Shenzui's anger was still there, but it was much better than before.

After taking a look at Zhou Anmin, Zhu Shenzui raised his hand to ask him to get up, but Zhou Anmin still refused to get up, and kept saying "I am guilty, I know I am wrong, I deserve to die" all the time. Seeing his look, Zhu Shenzui felt a little amused.

"Okay, there's no need to be like this. I'm not angry at you." Zhu Shenzhui said, "Although you are the commander-in-chief of the Jinyiwei, you have been in charge of the Jinyiwei for too short a time, and you have been paying attention to the affairs of the north for the past two years. This incident happened in the south, and you are out of reach. Moreover, I know that the various Jinyiwei departments in the south have not yet been integrated, and this incident involves a local governor. Although you were at fault for not knowing about it in advance, it is understandable."

Zhou Anmin felt relieved when he heard this. He had been very careful these days. Although he was in charge of the Jinyiwei and held great power, and Zhu Shenzhui gave him the title of first-class earl after he ascended the throne not long ago, and Zhou Anmin was also the husband of the eldest princess Zhu Xiu'er and the brother-in-law of the current emperor, he was a true relative of the emperor and his popularity was unparalleled.

But in fact, the higher the official position, the more cautious Zhou Anmin was. Although he had a good relationship with Zhu Shenzhui and they were relatives, his current position was not simple. You have to know that the person in charge of Jinyiwei was not only the emperor's confidant, but also held great power.

Don't underestimate the Jinyiwei. In terms of actual official position, the Jinyiwei commander is not high, just the third rank, but the power is huge. The Jinyiwei belongs to a special department, which can be said to exercise power on behalf of the emperor. The Jinyiwei not only supervises all officials, but also has the imperial prison, and has the special power to arrest people directly according to the emperor's instructions without going through the three judicial departments.

Over the past two hundred years since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, the Jinyiwei, a special agency, was at its most powerful and everyone was terrified by its power. Even the emperor set up the East Factory, West Factory and Inner Factory to restrain the Jinyiwei.

But the problem is that although the Jinyiwei had great power, few of the Jinyiwei commanders had a good ending.

Since the Ming Dynasty, there have been very few Jinyiwei commanders who were able to hold on to this position and retire safely, and most of them did not end up well. Not to mention the distant past, just take the late Wanli Dynasty as an example. Luo Sigong colluded with the eunuch Wang An and the Donglin Party to create the Palace Move Case. Later, he was dismissed by Emperor Tianqi and almost lost his head.

After the death of Emperor Tianqi, Tian Ergeng was involved in the investigation of the eunuch party and was executed by Emperor Chongzhen. Luo Yangxing was favored by Emperor Chongzhen and replaced Tian Ergeng as the commander of the Jinyiwei, but he was involved in the court's party struggles. Zhou Yanru's resignation was related to Luo Yangxing, and his ability was not as good as his father Luo Sigong, let alone Tian Ergeng. In addition, Emperor Chongzhen greatly weakened the power of the Jinyiwei after he ascended the throne, so he was basically a decoration in the position of commander of the Jinyiwei.

After Zhu Shenzhui became regent, he removed Luo Yangxing from his post and directly placed Zhou Anmin in the position of commander-in-chief of the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

Zhou Anmin was originally from the Jinyiwei. He held a high position in the Jinyiwei and knew the internal affairs of the Jinyiwei very well. He was also very capable. In addition, he was Zhu Shenzhui's brother-in-law, so he was naturally the best candidate to take charge of the Jinyiwei. In this way, Zhou Anmin became the commander of the Jinyiwei. After taking this position, Zhou Anmin has been working hard and cautiously. Zhou Anmin is a very rational and sober person. He knows that the position of the commander of the Jinyiwei is not easy to sit. Once he does something wrong, even though his identity is different from the previous commander of the Jinyiwei, he knows Zhu Shenzhui's personality and temper better. With Zhu Shenzhui's personality, if Zhou Anmin really does something wrong, Zhu Shenzhui will definitely not be soft-hearted. Maybe he will not kill the donkey like the previous emperor, but it is very likely that he will be dismissed from office or even lose his title. Zhou Anmin does not want to end up like this after working hard all his life.

Apart from these reasons, another key reason is that the eldest princess Zhu Xiu'er had previously privately persuaded Zhu Shenzhui to take a concubine. Before Zhu Shenzhui ascended the throne, many nobles had found Zhu Xiu'er and tried to win her over and flatter her. Although Zhu Xiu'er was of noble status, she was just an ordinary princess before, and how could she have seen such a scene when she rose to fame overnight? When she was flattered, she became arrogant and did not think about some things. She was fooled by them. She took the opportunity to enter the palace to talk to Zhu Shenzhui about taking a concubine and recommended several candidates to Zhu Shenzhui.

Zhou Anmin had no idea about this matter before, and only heard about it later. After learning about this, Zhou Anmin was instantly frightened and broke out in a cold sweat. Others did not know how Zhou Anmin, as the commander of the Jinyiwei, could not understand the true intentions of these people? Moreover, after Zhu Shenzhu ascended the throne, there was a talk in the court that he should take concubines to enrich the harem, but Zhu Shenzhu agreed on the surface, but secretly played the civil service group and the noble group together. When Zhou Anmin made the connection between the two sides, his face turned pale with fear.

Even if his wife was the emperor's sister, the eldest princess of the Ming Dynasty, could he interfere in the affairs of the emperor's harem? Moreover, there were outsiders secretly instigating, and Zhu Xiu'er, a woman, knew nothing and became a pawn in the hands of the other party. Fortunately, Zhu Shenzhu had a good relationship with his sister Zhu Xiu'er, and Zhu Shenzhu handled the matter with ease, so in the end, the incident did not cause any consequences.

But what if the consequences really happened? Zhou Anmin couldn't imagine what the result would be. His wife might be fine, but his position as the commander of the Jinyiwei would definitely be over. If things went wrong, his life would be in danger.

After this incident, Zhou Anmin severely taught his wife a lesson at home, warning her not to associate with people whose background she did not know, and not to trust their words. As for the affairs of the harem, she should not get involved. Don't think that the emperor is your brother. Where does the family affection come from in the royal family? The water in the palace is deep. She is just a princess. If something really happens, it will be too late to cry.

Because of these reasons, Zhou Anmin has been particularly careful in the past two months, fearing that something might go wrong. But the more he feared, the more likely it was to happen. After reading the contents of Lou Laoer's secret memorial, Zhou Anmin's head suddenly started buzzing, and he was completely panicked, fearing that Zhu Shenzhu would put the blame on him.

Fortunately, Zhu Shenzhui was nostalgic after all, and this matter was just as Zhu Shenzhui said. Although Zhou Anmin was responsible for the negligence, the main reason was not him. Although Zhou Anmin controlled the Jinyiwei, he could only manage half of the Jinyiwei of the Ming Dynasty. The Jinyiwei in the south was relatively independent due to geographical reasons. In addition, Zhu Shenzhui's succession to the throne was different from that of ordinary emperors. After controlling the north, he had not yet fully brought the south into it. The same was true for the Jinyiwei. Although Zhou Anmin had made a series of arrangements, including adjusting the candidates of the Jinyiwei in each guard to extend the tentacles from the north to the south, this could not be completed in a short time.

After making sure that Zhu Shenzhui had no intention of punishing him, Zhou Anmin broke out in a cold sweat and stood up.

After standing up, Zhou Anmin immediately stated that he would arrange people to investigate the matter immediately and make sure to get to the bottom of it.

This is no small matter. The imperial court had long prohibited mining, but some people opened mines secretly without the knowledge of the imperial court. Not only did they open the mines, but they also continued to do so for so many years and caused many deaths. This is simply lawlessness.

Zhou Anmin knew about the mine in Niutou Mountain in Yiwu. After all, the Jinyiwei had long registered the situation in various places, and the mine in Niutou Mountain was very famous in the Ming Dynasty. It was discovered as early as the Yongle period, and was officially mined in the Jiajing period. It was mined for nearly a hundred years. This mine is not only a silver mine with huge reserves, but also accompanied by gold and copper mines. Its value is extraordinary.

According to the records of the mine supervisors sent by Emperor Wanli to Niutou Mountain during the Wanli period, the mining tax of Niutou Mountain alone reached 5,000 taels a year. And this was only the mining tax, not including the gold and silver harvested from mining. According to the mining tax rate charged to the mine supervisors, which was 30% tax to 2, the total amount of gold and silver mined in Niutou Mountain was as high as 75,000 taels.

This is still the case on the surface. How could those eunuchs who were sent to supervise the mines outside not be corrupt? Reporting a profit of 50 taels out of a 100 taels is already very good. The greedy ones often report 40 or even 30 taels out of a 100 taels. Most of the money was taken into their own pockets by those who manipulated it. Judging from this ratio, the annual income of the Niutou Mountain mine is at least more than 150,000 taels, which is quite astonishing.

It is clear that the imperial court stopped mining in the first year of Chongzhen, and the Niutou Mountain mine had been closed long ago. But who would have thought that the mine was quietly reopened in just the third year of Chongzhen, and remained open for more than ten years.

Over ten years, based on an annual revenue of 150,000 taels, this would be an astronomical figure of 1.5 million taels. Zhou Anmin could not imagine that such a thing would actually happen, let alone that the local officials in Zhejiang would have such courage.

(End of this chapter)