Emperor Zhengde

Chapter 355: The fall of Xu Jin, the cabinet vice minister
As long as they are human, it is difficult to guarantee that they will not hide anything from themselves. After all, humans are not machines. They have consciousness, fear, and what they think is the most reasonable choice.

Zhu Houzhao knew that he could not be absolutely sure that the Western Factory, which was controlled by eunuchs, would not hide anything from him or even deceive him.

Therefore, Zhu Houzhao had other sources of intelligence.

"Gao Zhong, do you know anything about the Yunheng Literary Society and the Western Factory?" Zhu Houzhao looked up at Gao Zhong. The secret report from the Minister of War Qin Jin made Zhu Houzhao interested in this literary society. Of course, what interested him more was why Gao Zhong, the governor of the Western Factory, did not mention this literary society to him.

Gao Zhong was stunned for a moment, as if someone had put a piece of ice on his back. He couldn't help but feel a chill, thinking that His Majesty actually knew about the Yunheng Literary Society! He was so confused that he forgot that His Majesty didn't say that he could conceal it just because he wanted to.

Gao Zhong couldn't help but smile bitterly, and quickly apologized: "Your Majesty, please forgive me! I wanted to report to you after I found out everything, but I didn't expect that you have already shown an interest in this Yunheng Literary Society. I failed in my duty and should have reported it to you as soon as possible. According to the report, this literary society is the same as the Zhongjun Society, and it has its own charter, which aims to protect the rights and interests of the people."

"You, the Western Factory, are my eyes for understanding the people. When to open and when to close your eyes depends on my decision. Do you understand?"

Zhu Houzhao reminded Gao Zhong and said:

"I will spare you this time, but you must remember, if you conceal such a thing again and want to save face for others, I will make your end miserable. I am not afraid of offending others, I will give you a lifetime of peace, but if you are not loyal to me, you know the consequences!"

Gao Zhong was so frightened that he knelt down in front of Zhu Houzhao and said, "I know my crime, I know my crime!"

"Get up, there's no need to do this. Just remember that the Western Factory belongs to me, not your private property," Zhu Houzhao said as he stood up and clapped his hands. "This Yunheng clerk will continue to monitor, but it's interesting that bourgeois political groups have begun to appear in my Ming Dynasty! Fortunately, they have not yet aimed to overthrow the regime."

Zhu Houzhao said this and asked Gao Zhong to retreat.

Gao Zhong was already sweating profusely from fear at this time. He couldn't help but secretly slap himself and said, "Why did I think of hiding this from Your Majesty!"

Zhu Houzhao looked at Gao Zhong's regretful expression and wanted to laugh. He also thought to himself, "These civil servants representing the merchant class may have been thinking of controlling the court power in various ways, but they will never realize that they are actually very weak.
Apart from kneeling down to foreign enemies, we cannot really expect them to lead the country to progress;

If it weren't for the emperor forcing reforms, these bourgeoisie who rose to prominence through business, whether they were Shanxi merchants or Huizhou merchants, would never have allowed the Ming Dynasty to embark on the path of industrial civilization. They would even have taken the initiative to lead the foreign enemies, because they only cared about profit.
Now that I have developed the Ming Dynasty into an industrialized country, these guys want to seize power, want to reap the benefits, and want absolute freedom. Is this possible? Will the peasants and workers agree? They don’t even have the courage to overthrow the emperor themselves. What can they achieve? "

……

Xu Jin indeed did not have the courage to do so. Even many Ming merchants doing trade in Portugal at that time did not have the courage to say that they were from the Ming merchant group. Instead, they said that they were from Japanese merchants. The reason was that the expeditionary force had already captured Seville, Portugal, which made the Portuguese royal family furious and they began to drive out the Ming merchants.

In order to protect their own interests, these Ming Dynasty merchants stated that they were not Ming Dynasty merchants, but said they were Japanese merchants, or even global merchants without nationality. Some even directly said they were Portuguese merchants, and even hired a Portuguese to act as the "emperor".

Just as these Ming Dynasty trading companies remained indifferent when the Portuguese colonists massacred Ming fishermen in the Ceuta area, they forgot that they were from the Ming Dynasty when they went to places where the Ming Dynasty's influence had not reached, and were even unwilling to admit that they were from the Ming Dynasty.

It is understandable that they were only doing this to protect themselves, but it does show that they were cowardly and incompetent, just like how they behaved in history when facing the Qing Dynasty's invasion of the Pass.

of course.

Cowardly merchants may not be able to stand up for their dynasty, but the dynasty's army has this responsibility.

Therefore, when Yu Dayou's expeditionary force entered the Portuguese territory, the means of revenge were not merciful.

Da da!

The expeditionary force marched in neat steps, stomping their heavy leather boots on the Portuguese land, making dull sounds.

at the same time.

The dull sound of gunfire and the earth-shaking sound of artillery fire also rang out on the Portuguese land.

The Portuguese, who only knew how to plunder, were vulnerable to the imperial army. The imperial expeditionary force quickly occupied the entire Portuguese territory and captured the Portuguese king and other nobles and brought them back to their country.

In addition, pirates such as Wang Zhi also captured many Western foreigners and dealt with them in accordance with the requirements of the Ming court.

Of course, after the Ming expeditionary force entered Portugal, these Ming trading companies naturally began to recognize themselves as Ming trading companies again and asked the expeditionary force to protect them.

When the officials sent by the Ming court to manage Portugal followed the expeditionary force to occupy Portugal and began to establish Ming government in Portugal, these Ming Dynasty trading companies also demanded tax exemption from the officials sent by the Ming Dynasty to manage Portugal because they were Ming Dynasty trading companies.

In any case, when Zhu Houzhao saw Yu Dayou appear in the Meridian Gate with a large number of prisoners of war from Portugal, he knew that his life as an emperor had not been lived in vain.

Zhu Houzhao did not show any mercy to these kings and nobles from Portugal. He ordered the Ministry of Justice to give severe sentences to all of them, and all of them were executed for murder and other crimes.

Of course, Yu Dayou's return from the expedition to Portugal completely dispelled the rumors that had arisen in the capital about Yu Dayou establishing a country overseas.

Of course, Xu Jin also knew that the rumors he created would be exposed because of Yu Dayou's triumphant return, but he was not too worried about it. He was not afraid that he would fall because of the rumor. After all, no one could provide evidence to prove that he was the one who led the rumor to frame Gao Zhong.

However, it was at this time that Wang Wenbing, the censor of the Censorate, impeached Xu Jin for fabricating rumors to slander Yu Dayou and secretly creating the illusion that Yu Dayou and Gao Zhong were conspiring to rebel. The evidence was that Xu Jin's eldest son Xu Yuancheng had said so after drinking at Yunheng Literary Society. In addition, there was also secret letter evidence that Xu Jin contacted the pirate Xu Hai with the intention of killing the expeditionary general Yu Dayou.

Zhu Houzhao did not expect that the censor Wang Wenbing would produce such conclusive evidence, but in any case, Xu Jin's intention to frame the Western Factory Governor Gao Zhong and the military official Yu Dayou, especially his intention to limit his own imperial power, made Zhu Houzhao decide to take this opportunity to take action against Xu Jin.

"What a vicious cabinet vice-chairman! Draft an imperial decree to order the East Factory Inspectorate to arrest Xu Jin immediately. At the same time, announce to the Ministry of Personnel to revoke all of Xu Jin's official titles!"

Zhu Houzhao said this after receiving Wang Wenbing's impeachment memorial. This also meant the end of Xu Jin's official career.

However, Zhu Houzhao did not understand why Xu Jin would think of colluding with pirates to kill the expeditionary force general Yu Dayou.

In fact, Yan Song knew all this because it was all directed by him and Xia Yan.

Yu Dayou did encounter pirates, but it was not through contact with Xu Jin who was far away in the capital, and Xu Jin would not be stupid enough to risk his life to silence Yu Dayou. It was just that Xia Yan and Yan Song had been keeping an eye on Yu Dayou's whereabouts. After learning that Yu Dayou encountered pirates when passing through Jiugang, Xia Yan and Yan Song conspired to forge a letter of Xu Jin's contact with the pirates. At the same time, they also used their undercover agent in Yunheng Literary Society to find out from Xu Yuancheng the secret that Xu Jin wanted to create rumors to deal with the Western Factory.

Zhu Houzhao was naturally too lazy to pursue the truth of all this. Xu Jin's attempt to move the Western Factory undoubtedly touched the bottom line of him as an emperor. Therefore, now that he had evidence, he would naturally go with the flow and severely punish Xu Jin.

At this time, Xu Jin had not yet realized that officials such as Xia Yan and Yan Song, who represented the interests of the nobles and the common people, had helped the emperor find an excuse to deal with him.

Now he is still waiting for news from the south, waiting for news of chaos in the south, because Zhu Wan's southward crackdown on smuggling will surely arouse resistance from many southern gentry. Xu Jin believes that it will be an opportunity for civil servants like him who represent the merchant class to fight back.

"How is the situation in the south now? Have you told Zhu Wan about Shuangyu Island?"

Just as Xu Jin was asking Ni Yuanlin, Zhao Zhi from the East Factory Inspectorate came over with some other people from the East Factory Inspectorate.

Seeing this, Xu Jin couldn't help but look at Ni Yuanlin. At first, he thought that the people from the East Factory Inspectorate were looking for Ni Yuanlin, so he told him, "Yuanlin, commit suicide to avoid suffering! This will be good for you and for everyone else!"

Ni Yuanlin nodded. He had now joined the Yunheng Literary Society and did not want to expose too many like-minded people. Seeing the arrival of the East Factory Inspectorate, he knew that it was not a good thing, so he immediately took a poison pill.

For a moment, Ni Yuanlin couldn't help but cover his throat in pain and sat down on the ground, but there was still a smile on his face, because in the past when the East Factory and the Embroidered Uniform Guard arrested people, very few criminals succeeded in committing suicide.

Now that he was able to successfully commit suicide before being caught, it must be considered a victory. He believed that these minions of the emperor would be very angry and it would be difficult for him to report to the emperor.

Although Ni Yuanlin was in great pain, he was also very proud. He looked at these people from the East Factory Inspectorate with pride.

The people from the East Factory Inspection Office did not consider Ni Yuanlin as their first concern at the beginning, so they could not stop Ni Yuanlin from committing suicide. When they quickly grabbed Xu Jin's arm, a person from the East Factory Inspection Office helped Ni Yuanlin up and said, "You are the Cabinet Secretary Ni Yuanlin, what's wrong with you? Do you want to be sent to the hospital?"

At the same time, Zhao Zhi said to Xu Jin, who was already under control of his people: "Lord Xu, according to the imperial decree, please come with us. We need you to explain some issues."

"What's going on? They're not arresting me? They're arresting Lord Xu?! I, I committed suicide in vain?!"

Ni Yuanlin was horrified and felt extremely regretful, but he was too poisoned to speak and could only point desperately in the direction of the clinic.

Xu Jin was also very surprised at first, wondering why the people from the East Factory Inspection Office suddenly came to arrest him. He wondered if they had really caught him. But when he saw Ni Yuanlin struggling in pain, he realized something and immediately shouted:
"Quick, quick, send him to the clinic, he, he accidentally took the medicine!"

Ni Yuanlin died of poisoning before he could be sent to the hospital.

"Tell me, Lord Xu, why did you slander General Yu, why did you frame the governor of the Western Factory, Eunuch Gao, and why did you murder the cabinet secretary Ni Yuanlin and force him to commit suicide."

Zhao Zhi from the East Factory Inspectorate questioned Xu Jin, and unexpectedly, Zhao Zhi also blamed Xu Jin for Ni Yuanlin's suicide, mistakenly believing that Ni Yuanlin was forced to commit suicide by Xu Jin.

Xu Jin eventually confessed to conspiring to spread rumors to slander Yu Dayou and Gao Zhong, but naturally he was unwilling to admit that he forced Ni Yuanlin to commit suicide.

In addition, he was unwilling to admit his alleged crime of colluding with pirates to kill Yu Dayou and silence him.

But despite this, because Wang Wenbing provided conclusive evidence, and Xu Yuancheng's interrogation confession also confirmed that his father Xu Jin had done many evil things, the earliest of which could be traced back to the installation of water pipes in Shuntian Prefecture when he already knew about Paine's conspiracy with his Xu family to embezzle state assets. The deaths of Wei Ying and Yun Ji were also dug out one by one.

finally.

Zhu Houzhao agreed with the decision of the Ministry of Justice and successfully sentenced Xu Jin to public beheading and confiscated all his property.

Even Paine was not spared. He was arrested, his property was confiscated, and he was executed!

What is shocking is that the Jinyiwei actually seized property from the Xu family worth more than 20 million silver dollars!
Zhu Houzhao therefore had to admit that since the Ming Dynasty opened up the sea, many gentry did not become poorer due to the court's increased commercial taxes. On the contrary, these gentry gradually became larger tycoons because of the benefits of opening up the sea.

"Xia Yan, it must be Xia Yan. He must have framed me!"

Xu Jin couldn't help but shout like this before he died. He believed that Gao Zhong, the governor of the Western Factory, would not dare to do so, nor would he contact the censor to attack him like this. And only Xia Yan, who was in charge of the empire's internal affairs, could make such a meticulous arrangement.

Therefore, he couldn't help but think that it was Xia Yan who harmed him. Of course, by shouting like this, he also meant to lead his accomplices to regard Xia Yan as an enemy in the future.

"A traitor who brought this upon himself! If he was truly incorruptible, how could I have framed him! He did this simply to harm me before he died! I will not be like him. Even if I die tragically in the future, I will never die because of a crime! I must have been killed by a hypocrite like Xu Jin!"

When Xia Yan said this, Yan Song's heart skipped a beat. For a moment, he thought Xia Yan was talking about him. He smiled awkwardly and said, "Yuan Fu is highly valued by your majesty and has made great contributions to the country. How could he die tragically? Even your majesty has said that the court should not execute court officials for unfounded crimes in the future!"

Xia Yan nodded, and then said: "That is just your Majesty's wishful thinking. When the monarch and his subjects disagree, they will make false accusations when necessary. However, it is too early to talk about that now. Right now, the most important thing is to let your Majesty decide on the crown prince!"

Thank you for your calm and enthusiastic 1000 Qidian coins reward



(End of this chapter)