Emperor Zhengde

Chapter 91: Arresting the Former Prime Minister Liu Jian (Part )
While the imperial officers and soldiers were following orders to arrest and execute the rebels and confiscate their property and exterminate their families in the capital, Zhang Yong and others in Fengyang had also begun to confiscate the property of Liu Jian and Xie Qian.

The first family to be confiscated was Liu Jian's family.

Liu Jian's family had become a large family in Luoyang, Henan. After Liu Jian's father passed the imperial examination, many people began to donate to the family business and property.

After Liu Jian passed the imperial examination and became the prime minister, the scale of his family business grew exponentially.

Today, Liu Jian's family has become a well-known family in Luoyang, Henan.

Zhang Yong personally led tens of thousands of soldiers to Luoyang. He also knew that Liu Jian, the prime minister of the cabinet, must have a very powerful family, so even if he wanted to confiscate his property, he had to prepare more manpower.

However, at this time, Liu Jian and others did not know that he was about to have his property confiscated and his family exterminated, and they did not even know that something had happened in the capital.

After all, martial law was imposed in the capital just a few days after Li Dongyang was thrown into prison, and the people Liu Jian left in the capital had no time to send the news back to Luoyang.

Although Liu Jian has resigned from his official position, his influence is still enormous. He is so busy with social engagements every day that the local officials and gentry who come to visit him have to wait until next year.

Liu Jian's family was busy using his father's influence as the former prime minister of the cabinet to start massive land acquisition.

Just like in the original history, after Xu Jie retired from the Jiajing period, his family members aggressively annexed land. Liu Jian's family was naturally no exception. This is called collecting dividends in official circles.

After all, as the chief minister of the cabinet, Liu Jian has promoted many people during his years in charge of government affairs, and many people owe him favors.

However, for the sake of his own reputation, Liu Jian naturally did not dare to let his family members do too much during his tenure. But it was different after he retired. He no longer had to care about whether he could keep his official position. After all, he no longer had an official position, so naturally he had to collect bonuses from his disciples and old friends who were officials in the court, such as embezzling official land and seizing private land.

Of course, it is not convenient for Liu Jian to collect the profits personally. He now declares to the public that he only studies at home and does not care about worldly affairs!
The person who managed the family business for Liu Jian and collected the dividends was his nephew Liu Xi.

Unfortunately, when Zhang Yong led his troops to Luoyang to confiscate Liu Jian's family, an incident related to Liu Jian's family happened in Luoyang.

The local people in Luoyang reclaimed more than 8,000 acres of fertile land, but when they applied to the government to have the land they reclaimed registered in their name, they were told by the government that all the land had become the private land of the Liu family!

Naturally, these people who were reclaiming the wasteland were unwilling to do so, so the brave ones reported it to the prefect of Henan Province.

But what the people did not know was that these more than 8,000 acres of fertile land were given to the Liu family by the Henan prefect. Therefore, the people who took the lead in filing the complaint were arrested for disturbing the government.

"The troublemaker has been arrested. Please tell the Lord to rest assured. I don't know if the Lord is free tomorrow. I want to visit him!"

Henan prefect Yan Yang also sent a letter to Liu Xi as soon as he captured the civilians.

After learning about this, Liu Jian made an exception and met with Henan prefect Yan Yang once. After all, Yan Yang helped him do this.

However, on the day Liu Jian met Yan Yang, one of the rioters was blackmailed to death in prison by a petty official, which aroused public anger and made the people even more violent. Led by several students from humble backgrounds, the people surrounded Liu's mansion and demanded that the elder Liu Jian give them justice.

But Liu Jian scolded Henan prefect Yan Yang: "Prefect Yan, you are the local leader, I shouldn't scold you, but since you are my student, I have to ask you, Henan Luoyang is also a place ruled by the king, why is it that under your rule, the banditry is so rampant! If this continues, how can the people of Henan live in peace!"

"Master, please calm down. I will immediately dispatch troops to defeat these bandits!"

Henan prefect Yan Yang was terrified and hurriedly said goodbye to Liu Jian and went back to the prefectural government to mobilize troops.

At this time, Zhang Yong's men also arrived in Luoyang, Henan.

Because it was a peaceful time, Zhang Yong did not inform the local government in order not to alert Liu Jian and others, so the officials in Luoyang, Henan, did not know that Zhang Yong had brought his soldiers to Luoyang. The city defense post in Luoyang, Henan was even non-existent, allowing Zhang Yong to enter Luoyang City with his soldiers without any effort.

"Immediately surround the residence of the criminal official Liu Jian! Quick! Quick!"

As soon as Zhang Yong entered Luoyang City, he immediately began to give orders.

At this time, Henan prefect Yan Yang also came over. He hadn't seen Zhang Yong yet, but saw a military officer leading a group of soldiers running towards him. He thought the military officer was his subordinate, so he immediately ordered:

"Hurry to the Lord's house! Arrest all those people who are causing trouble! No, kill them all! They actually made me lose face in front of the Lord, I will make them all die miserably, a bunch of unruly people who are nothing but grass!"

Zhang Yong happened to arrive at this time. When he heard what Henan prefect Yan Yang said, he asked, "Who are you? What is the matter?"

Henan prefect Yan Yang did not expect that a eunuch would suddenly appear. He realized that these officers and soldiers were not his people. When he saw Zhang Yong wearing a dragon robe, he knew that he must be a senior eunuch in the inner court. Although he was wondering why such a high-ranking eunuch suddenly appeared in Luoyang City, he did not dare to ask. He just hurriedly straightened his clothes and replied:
"I am Yan Yang, the prefect of Henan, and a student of Liu Gefu. I have met this eunuch. I dare not hide the truth from you. I did not rule strictly, which led to some unruly people making trouble in front of the old man's house. You came at the right time. These unruly people wanted to kill you and rebel. Please help me to kill these unruly people. I am sure the old man will thank you for this!"

Yan Yang didn't know Zhang Yong's background, so in order to avoid being looked down upon by Zhang Yong, he directly brought up Liu Jian and stated that he was Liu Jian's student.

Zhang Yong just smiled and said, "Well, you lead the way!"

After hearing what Zhang Yong said, Yan Yang was overjoyed and hurriedly took Zhang Yong to Liu's house.

As soon as he arrived in front of Liu's mansion, Zhang Yong saw a large number of people surrounding the main gate of Liu's mansion, shouting slogans like "Please, Sir, do justice" and "Please, Sir, make the decision for us"!

"Eunuch, these are the troublemakers! There are only about a hundred of them. Although I don't know what you are here for, I believe it will not be difficult for your officers and soldiers to kill these troublemakers!"

Yan Yang said.

Zhang Yong laughed and said, "Why did we kill them? Was it the Emperor's order or did they want to harm the Emperor?"

"But, they surrounded the minister's mansion. Eunuch, you can't just stand by and watch this. Be careful or the minister may submit a memorial to the emperor." Henan prefect Yan Yang was afraid that Zhang Yong would be angry, so he didn't say "be careful or the minister may submit a memorial to the emperor."

Zhang Yong ignored Yan Yang and only ordered a military officer: "First, take people to surround Liu's mansion!"

As he spoke, Zhang Yong shouted to the people who were making trouble in front of him: "Who among you is in charge? Tell me why you are making trouble. I will take charge of you!"

At this time, the people who were intimidated by the large number of soldiers were still a little scared. Now, after hearing what Zhang Yong said, they were all agitated. At this time, a middle-aged man wearing a lazy scarf stood up and said, "Tongsheng Wu Xingyuan is their leader! I have sent you a petition. Please read it. The sufferings of us common people are all written on this paper."

When the Henan prefect saw Zhang Yongyao taking the complaint, he was afraid that Zhang Yongzhen was going to play the role of a judge, so he hurriedly reminded him, "Although you are a high-ranking official, your behavior of manipulating local civil affairs is a bit excessive."

"I am Zhang Yong, the governor of Fengyang. His Majesty has ordered that I can do whatever I want during the arrest of the rebels. Since these people are related to the rebels, I can take care of them, even you!"

Zhang Yong took out the imperial edict and said, "It is a draft of the cabinet, the seal of the Imperial Household Department, and the personal order of His Majesty!"

Henan prefect Yan Yang was speechless upon seeing this and was horrified at the same time. He thought that this man was actually the emperor's favorite minister Zhang Yong. Now he was talking about arresting rebels and brought so many officers and soldiers with him, and even had an imperial edict. Who exactly was the rebel he wanted to arrest? Could it be the cabinet minister?
When I think about this.

Henan prefect Yan Yang also felt something was wrong.

Thanks to my book friend Zhanli Moxin for the 200 starting coins reward,
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(End of this chapter)