King Xiang of the Red Chamber

Chapter 816 Why don’t you report to me!

Seeing that everyone was puzzled, Park Junda continued, "Just let the emperor issue an order to sentence Sun Shaozu to death!"

"How can we get the emperor to issue an edict?" Someone asked a stupid question, but it also expressed the thoughts of others.

Park Jundae smiled and said calmly, "I don't have the ability to get the emperor to issue an order, but as long as Sun Shaozu has committed an unforgivable crime, the emperor will definitely kill him!"

"He deliberately let us escape before. Is this a serious crime?"

Park Jundae replied: "Although it was intentional, we are the only ones who know about it. Without solid evidence, how can the court believe it?"

"This fellow levied heavy taxes and killed many people. We can always find evidence of this!"

Park Jundae added: "He can definitely pass the buck to his subordinates. Besides, Sun Shaozu is deeply trusted by the emperor. Even if these things are true, the emperor will probably just let them go!"

"The emperor is fair and just, so why shouldn't he handle this matter impartially?"

Glancing at the man who was speaking, Park Jun laughed and said, "You haven't been educated, why do you believe these nonsense?"

"But……"

However, as a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty for hundreds of years, the Korean government has always respected the superior country and has endlessly praised the emperor's virtues.

Of course, the royal family and the literati deified the emperor in order to strengthen their own rule and legitimacy. After all, they had been authorized by God to confer the title.

"Brother, then what do you think...what should we do?" someone asked.

"You have to grasp the key points when doing things. Think about it, what is it that the emperor cannot forgive?"

Everyone looked thoughtful, and then each of them gave reasons such as corruption, harming the people, disrupting politics, and losing troops, to which Park Jun-dae just smiled.

Knowing that he didn't agree, someone asked, "Brother, tell me, what can't the emperor tolerate?"

"To the emperor, the most important thing for his subordinates is loyalty. Other sins can be forgiven, but disloyalty is an unforgivable sin!"

This is Park Jundae's opinion. Others did not take it seriously. They did not think it was reliable, mainly because they could not understand the meaning of it.

Although they don't understand, Park Joon-dae is indeed a good brother, so no one questions his judgment.

"But how can we prove that he is unfaithful?"

This is a good question. Park Jundae answered: "Do you know what Sun Shaozu is in charge of now?"

"Isn't he the deputy governor of the Anton Xingdusi? Of course he is in charge of military affairs!"

After hearing his subordinate's reply, Park Jun-dae corrected him, "That is his official position. His most important mission at the moment is to manage the affairs in Japan. To be more specific... The emperor asked Sun Shaozu to make money for him in Japan!"

Everyone agreed with this statement. It was no longer a secret that the Japanese garrison was near several silver mines.

"But I heard that Sun Shaozu had tampered with the silver mine and made at least tens of thousands of taels of silver a year!"

Park Jun-dae is indeed not an ordinary person. He went into exile after the defeat of the Korean army. During that time, he did a lot of business. Not only did he go to Japan in person, he also made friends there, which gave him a rich source of information.

He paid close attention to almost every senior general of the Andong Xingdusi, but Sun Shaozu was the one with the biggest flaws. He only knew about Sun Shaozu making money from several silver mines.

"Tens of thousands of taels of silver, that's really a lot!"

Hearing his men sigh, Park Jundae sneered, "Of course it's not a small amount. Last year, the silver mine output decreased, and Japan handed over 400,000, but this guy only took 60,000 or 70,000!"

Everyone was shocked, but Park Jundae hadn't finished speaking yet. He continued, "That's not enough. We have to say he embezzled 100,000 or 200,000!"

"Frame him?" someone asked.

"That's right. Otherwise, if he was just greedy for tens of thousands of taels of silver, the emperor wouldn't necessarily kill him!"

Stroking his beard, Park Jundae looked thoughtful and continued, "Besides, it's not enough to just covet the silver. After all, the current emperor may not care too much about these details!"

"What else?"

Park Jundae went on to say: "It must be said that he has made so much money and wants to rebel, and wants to split the land and become a king in Japan. After all, he now has wives and concubines in Japan, and they have given birth to sons for him!"

In his opinion, a corrupt official who attempted to rebel, coupled with various other crimes, was enough to kill Sun Shaozu.

"But, these are just our own words. How can we let the emperor know and believe these?"

Park Jundae laughed and replied, "Don't worry, someone will help us do it!"

There are both coincidences and the result of Park Jun-dae's early planning. Anyway, the owner of a Japanese silver mine was forced to the point of ruin by Sun Shaozu.

The man was being hunted and no one in Japan dared to keep him, so he crossed the sea to North Korea to hide. After several months, he fell into Park Jun-dae's hands.

Originally this was just an ordinary story, but now Park Jun’s shit has been put to good use.

"Brother, I don't understand why we must belong to the imperial court. Can't we just keep dealing with them?"

There were many people at the scene who supported this idea. Park Jun-dae knew that this problem must be answered, otherwise there would be rifts between the brothers in the future.

"First, if we continue to fight, more people will die, many more!"

War is cruel. Although they have managed to hold out over the past few years, they have indeed paid a heavy price.

"Secondly, the imperial court not only has the soldiers of the Andong Xingdusi, but also the elite troops of the Beijing Camp and the Imperial Guards!"

As someone who had participated in a real war, Park Jun-dae had witnessed with his own eyes the elite troops of the Ming Dynasty and their power to dominate the world and crush every enemy with ease.

In the past few years, they have fought back and forth with the government troops, but they were only fighting against the third-rate troops of the Ming court. Even the Andong Xingdusi did not try their best, because the cost-effectiveness of fighting them with all their strength was too low.

But if the rebellion really angered the emperor and made him determined to kill them, he would not even need to dispatch the elite troops of the Beijing camp. He could just cancel the border restrictions and let the Jurchen tribes move south, just like he did a few years ago.

After winning a few victories by chance, Park Jun-dae did not become complacent, but instead had a clear assessment of the current situation.

…………

The first year of Qiansheng passed like this, and in February of the second year of Qiansheng, Yingchun finally gave birth to a son. This was Zhu Jinghong's seventh son, and he named him Zhu Mucheng.

The newly selected beauties have been assigned to live in different palaces, and now only concubines and above have independent bedrooms.

In the past few months, several countries in the southeast have been unstable. Even the Ayutthaya Kingdom, where the Annan Xingdusi is stationed, has now seen a rebellion.

As the main battlefield of the struggle between the East and the West, these places are indeed difficult to maintain peace, and it is the local people who suffer.

Of course, in the increasingly unstable situation, the local dignitaries are also very uncomfortable, and some have begun to migrate, mainly heading north into the Ming Dynasty.

Park Jundae's guess was correct. Zhu Jinghong's main focus at the moment is on the southeast, and he is indeed not very concerned about the affairs of the northeast.

But on February 18, a memorial from the Liaodong Inspector General drew his attention to the north.

The content of the report from Liaodong was not complicated. It was just that more than 20 Japanese people sailed across the ocean to the Inspectorate and Censorate to file a complaint, exposing Sun Shaozu's corruption, violation of regulations, winning over Japanese powerful people, and intending to rebel.

At the beginning of the report, the identities of these Japanese were first mentioned, then how they fled after being persecuted by Sun Shaozu, and finally the content of their complaint was summarized, which was the several major crimes mentioned above.

At the end of the memorial, some data were attached, mainly about Sun Shaozu's corruption in the past two years. Of course, the Liaodong inspector only quoted the testimony and did not guarantee the authenticity of the testimony. In the winter warm room of the Qianqing Palace, Zhu Jinghong was looking at the last page of the memorial, and his face was livid at this moment.

"In the 20th year of Zhengtong, 60,000 yuan was embezzled in the spring and 250,000 yuan in the summer... a total of 250,000 yuan for the whole year!"

"In the first year of Qiansheng, 270,000 yuan was embezzled!"

In these two years, Japan handed over a total of 780,000 yuan, and Sun Shaozu alone received 520,000 yuan.

Even if the testimony was exaggerated, it showed that this guy was indeed greedy, which made Zhu Jinghong angry and humiliated.

"My money!" Zhu Jinghong slammed the memorial on the imperial desk, brewing murderous intent in anger.

He didn't mind if Sun Shaozu took a little money, but it was too much for this guy to take so much money. The key point was that this guy didn't know his limits and was using the money to give benefits to his subordinates.

Is that welfare? This is purely buying people's hearts and pulling everyone on board.

In addition, the report also said that Sun Shaozu had close contacts with Japanese daimyo and had found a woman and had children with her in the local area.

This guy has no other family members, only a childless wife in Beijing, and the key is that he is cruel and ruthless...

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The more Zhu Jinghong thought about it, the worse the situation became. He immediately ordered, "Send an urgent message to the Andong Xingdusi, asking Geng Zonggui to immediately detain Sun Shaozu. Send Chen Yu to Japan to take charge!"

The Chen Yu he mentioned was another deputy commander of the Andong Xingdusi, who had the same rank as Sun Shaozu and had more experience.

"Yes!"

Picking up the memorial again, Zhu Jinghong picked up his red pen and wrote on the cabinet's draft: "Handle it strictly as described!"

Generally speaking, easy drafts would be written as "approved" or "approved". Such comments at this time are indeed rare, which shows how angry Zhu Jinghong was about this.

The cabinet's draft opinion was quite standard, asking Liaodong to transfer the case to the Andong Xingdusi, and letting the military inspector and the eunuchs investigate it together. At the same time, the capital would send patrol inspectors to deal with it strictly.

After putting the memorial back, Zhu Jinghong ordered again: "Let Li Wenzhao come to see me!"

"Yes!"

The imperial court had spies both inside and outside the country. The Southern Pacification Office was responsible for monitoring foreign countries, and people were arranged in Japan and North Korea, but Zhu Jinghong did not know about these situations, so accountability was initiated now.

This is only preliminary accountability. Once the matter is investigated thoroughly, the censor and eunuch in charge of supervising the army, as well as Geng Zonggui, the commander-in-chief in charge of management, will all bear their respective responsibilities.

At this moment, Zhu Jinghong was in a bad mood, simply because Sun Shaozu's condition was too serious. Even if he squeezed out any possible water in it, it still seemed too outrageous.

How could he know that the content of the so-called lawsuit was three-tenths true and seven-tenths false, mixed together so that it was difficult to distinguish the truth from the false.

Sun Shaozu was indeed arrogant and domineering in Japan, he did spend money lavishly, and he did have many contacts with local daimyo.

But his purpose was to stabilize the situation and wait for an opportunity to expand territory. He absolutely had no intention of rebellion.

In fact, Zhu Jinghong also subconsciously believed that this guy was unlikely to rebel, but he just couldn't trust him.

Perhaps it was indeed because of Sun Shaozu's character, but the deeper reason was that Zhu Jinghong would rather believe it. After all, the emperor cared most about the dragon throne under his butt.

About half an hour later, Li Wenzhao, the new commander of the Southern Pacification Office, arrived outside the Qianqing Palace, panting.

At the beginning of this year, both he and Chen Yuntai were promoted, and now one is in charge of the Southern Division and the other is in charge of the Northern Division.

Li Wenzhao was very sensible. When he learned that the emperor had summoned him urgently, he knew that something must have happened. The problem was what had happened. He had to know so that he could think of a way to deal with it.

This matter is very simple. You only need to spend some money to get preliminary information about the situation.

So while he was on the road, Li Wenzhao realized the problem and knew that the emperor was very likely to hold him accountable, which made him complain bitterly.

Less than a month after being promoted, such a bad thing happened.

Soon, Li Wenzhao was led into the hall, knelt respectfully outside the threshold of the warm room, and then paid homage to the emperor.

Zhu Jinghong did not ask him to get up, but asked while reading the memorial: "Do you know the responsibilities of the Southern Pacification Office?"

"Your Majesty, the Southern Division has two responsibilities: one is to supervise the Northern Division's law enforcement, and the other is to spy on the true situation of the foreign vassal states!"

"Which one is more important?" Zhu Jinghong asked coldly.

He was six or seven meters away from the emperor, but he was still under tremendous pressure. At this moment, Li Wenzhao's mind was racing, and he replied: "Your Majesty, this is my job, and it is extremely important!"

"If it is so important, why didn't your Southern Pacification Division notice that Sun Shaozu had embezzled so much? Is this what you call important? Are you so loyal to your duties?"

Three consecutive questions made Li Wenzhao sweat profusely, and he even felt like he was about to die.

Fortunately, he had learned about the situation in advance, so he made some temporary preparations so that he was not speechless at the moment.

"Reporting... Reporting to Your Majesty, the matter of Sun Shaozu's corruption... was reported to the Korean Thousand Households Office!"

Zhu Jinghong became even angrier after hearing this, and then angrily shouted: "Since you have reported it, why don't you report it to me?"

Li Wenzhao is already over 40 years old and has experienced a lot of swordplay over the years, but he is just a rookie in front of Zhu Jinghong. At this moment, he was so scared that he couldn't stop shaking.

Why not report it?

This question is easy to answer. The Southern Pacification Office has reported the relevant situation, but considering that Sun Shaozu did not gain much from the country and that he was a close confidant promoted by the emperor, the report used the Spring and Autumn style of writing.

The most crucial problem was that every day there were too many reports from the East Factory, the Jinyiwei, the Northern and Southern Pacification Offices, and various ministries and agencies. Unless they were particularly important military or national affairs, he would only take a quick look at them.

The Southern Pacification Office submits reports every day, so it is normal that he ignored the unimportant reports on certain days last year.

In other words, the Nanning Pacification Office was responsible for half of the incident, and Zhu Jinghong also shared half of the responsibility.

But of course Li Wenzhao didn't dare to say these things, otherwise he would be seeking death.

"I have failed in my duty and delayed your majesty's important affairs. I deserve death. Your Majesty, please punish me!"

As a member of the emperor's household slaves, and in charge of the most critical Jinyiwei, the most important thing is loyalty. There will be no problem in maintaining this, and dereliction of duty can be forgiven.

At this moment, Li Wenzhao took the initiative to plead guilty and handed over the power of life and death to the emperor. This was his way of showing his loyalty and also his unique skill to save his life.

It was not easy for Zhu Jinghong to arrange loyal and trustworthy people in these key positions, so it was impossible for him to kill Li Wenzhao.

Being angry is to vent emotions and also to express one's attitude towards the matter. Now Zhu Jinghong's goal has been achieved.

"If I really want to punish you, how many heads do you have for me to chop off?"

"I promoted you to the position of Commander-in-Chief because I want you to manage the Southern Department for me and help me put an end to all the foreign vassals!"

"I don't lack slaves who kowtow to me. What I want are capable and capable officials who can get things done!"

Hearing the emperor's tone soften, Li Wenzhao finally breathed a sigh of relief, but his expression was still frightened and he listened attentively to the instructions.

(End of this chapter)