At the end of the Han Dynasty: a stingy husband from his hometown

Chapter 71 Meeting Wang Fu in Prison

The next day, Zhou Qi rushed towards Luoyang early with the evidence of Wang Ji and Lieutenant Liu.

As for the family members of Wang Ji and Lieutenant Liu, they are temporarily detained in the prison in Xiangxian County, and they will not be dealt with until the court makes a formal judgment.

But Zhou Qi didn't know that just after he left, Zhou Jing of the Peiguo Zhou Clan sent a greeting card, wanting to come and visit Zhou Qi, a junior of the Zhou Clan, in person.

In fact, Zhou Qi also planned to visit Zhou Jing before.

But the other party belonged to a high-ranking family after all. If Zhou Qi had not sent out an invitation, it would have been a bit abrupt for Zhou Qi to visit him rashly.

Coupled with the tight schedule of the trip, Zhou Qi had just finished his official business, and Yang Zuoshi urged him to rush back to Luoyang with the two criminal evidence as soon as possible.

A combination of various reasons caused Zhou Qi to miss the official meeting with Zhou Jing.

However, although Zhou Jing did not see Zhou Qi, he began to pay attention to Zhouji Township, a branch of the Zhou family in Peiguo. The folks living here also lived better and better because of Zhou Jing's help.

Of course, these are things for later, so I won’t show them for the time being.

But when Zhou Qi and others passed by Xu Jiazhai, Zhou Qi personally sent Xu Chu back and planned to ask Yang Qiu for credit for Xu Chu, but Xu Ding refused.

Xu Ding is relatively calm.

He knew that the fight between Yang Qiu and the eunuch would inevitably set off a bloody storm in the court, and he didn't want Chu to go to this muddy water.

Several people cherished each other, and Zhou Qi didn't stay in Xujiazhai much, and continued to rush towards Luoyang, and didn't even contact Cao Cao again.

It's not that Zhou Qi is ungrateful, it's just that Cao Cao's status is very embarrassing now.

Cao Cao also warned Zhou Qi not to communicate too much with him after joining Weiyang Qiu of Sili School, as this may cause Yang Qiu to be dissatisfied.

Zhou Qi and others rushed to Luoyang in late April.

What surprised him was that Yang Qiu returned to Luo Yang ahead of him.

You should know that although Zhou Qi and others traveled to and from Xiangxian County and were delayed there for a while, Yang Qiu had many men and was accompanied by Sili Xiaowei's honor guard convoy, so the marching speed was naturally not as fast as Zhou Qi and others.

Yang Qiu was able to return to Luoyang so quickly, which shows his eagerness to cut off Wang Fu.

After Zhou Qi got the news, he couldn't help but feel lucky that he didn't waste too much time in Xiang County, otherwise it would most likely cause Yang Qiu's dissatisfaction.

He arrived in Luoyang with Wang Ji and Liu Zhongwei's criminal evidence, and before he had time to visit the scenery of the capital and feel the customs here, he was urgently called into Sili Xiaowei's mansion by Yang Qiu.

"My subordinates pay their respects to the envoy!"

When Zhou Qi saw Yang Qiu, he did not dare to neglect him and hurriedly stepped forward to greet him.

But Yang Qiu laughed loudly, helped Zhou Qi up personally, took his arm and said, "History of Yang Zuo has told me everything you did in Xiang County."

"Although I had great expectations for you, I never thought that you would be able to handle things properly in such a short period of time."

"With the solid evidence you brought, Wang Fu's bastard is not far from death!"

Zhou Qi said modestly, "It all depends on the prestige of the envoy."

Yang Qiu waved his hand and said: "The title of Lieutenant Sili is certainly useful, but if you didn't have the means, you would never have taken down Lieutenant Peiguo so easily."

"In the feudal state, the prime minister and the lieutenant are in contact. Is this a taboo of the court?"

"Even if there are no other crimes, only this one, these two people will not escape the court's punishment!"

What Yang Qiu said was true.

The imperial court has long introduced various policies to restrict the enfeoffment of the princes and kings. The earliest princes and kings can be said to be the country of China. The princes and kings have an independent military and political system, and the internal officials are almost replicas of the imperial court.

During the period of Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty, the court began to gradually weaken the princes and kings, and no longer let the princes and kings themselves canonize officials to govern the country, but instead replaced the princes and kings with officials appointed by the court.

The position of prime minister of the princes and kings was changed to that of state minister, and most of the other official positions similar to those at the center of the court were abolished.

In the period of Emperor Cheng of the Han Dynasty, in order to continue to divide the power of enfeoffing the country and the prime minister, the prime minister of the country was only in charge of civil affairs like the prefect of the county, and the lieutenant of the country was only in charge of military affairs like the captain of the county.

So far, except for the title, the official position of the feudal country is almost the same as that of the county, and this system has also been inherited to this day.

The reason why the imperial court separated the military and political administration of counties and states was to prevent local governors from becoming too powerful and affecting the imperial court's local rule.

Normally, in order to avoid suspicion, local county chiefs and top military and political officials would not get too close.

Wang Ji and Lieutenant Liu's collusion in private, if they were not stabbed to the court, it would be a felony if they were found out by the court. In addition, the crimes the two had committed in the past were enough to make them beyond redemption.

Even if the two have already conferred their heads, their families will also be implicated.

Having said this, Yang Qiu's face was full of smiles.

He looked at Zhou Qi and said, "The reason why the Son of Heaven relies heavily on eunuchs is nothing more than two factors."

"First, the national treasury is empty now. There is not much money in the royal treasury. The eunuchs do not care about reputation and can help His Majesty to make money unscrupulously."

"Secondly, Your Majesty thinks that the eunuch is in poor health and has no other way out except to rely on the emperor faithfully."

Speaking of this, the smile on Yang Qiu's face became brighter and brighter.

"Previously, Yang Biao of Jingzhao Yin reported on Wang Fu, saying that Wang Fu ordered his minions to steal more than [-] million yuan from Jingzhao Yin. With so much money in just one county, isn't Wang Fu rich enough to rival the country? Your Majesty can indulge Wang Fu. He just made money, but he didn't allow the other party to take the money into his pocket instead of giving it to His Majesty."

"It is precisely for this reason that His Majesty ordered me to imprison Wang Fu and investigate his disciples and old officials."

When Zhou Qi heard this, his heart moved slightly, and he had a little more understanding of today's world.

If he had some illusions about Liu Hong before, he believed that he was quite capable of restricting the family and consolidating imperial power.

Now, Zhou Qi could only sigh in his heart that the battle between the emperor and the aristocratic family was nothing more than a dog biting a dog.

If Liu Hong could be like the late emperor and be considerate of the people while restricting the aristocratic families, maybe the world would not collapse to this point, and the people of the world would not be forced to raise flags to rebel.

What the emperor cares about today is not the life and death of the people in the world, but the rights in his own hands and the money and food belonging to the royal treasury.

It was precisely for this reason that he allowed the eunuchs to control the government and run rampant in the local areas. He even sold his officials and titles in the form of installment payment, and in disguise encouraged these official buyers to plunder the people's wealth and anointing to fill the royal treasury.

What Liu Hong did was inferior to that of the late emperor. You can tell just from the posthumous titles of the two men.

No matter how much the scholars scolded the late emperor and gave him bad reviews, they believed that the evil policies he carried out were too numerous to describe and that there was no good governance during his reign.

Even Zhuge Liang said when he was a teacher: "When the late emperor was here, whenever he discussed this matter with his ministers, he would sigh and hate Yu Huan and Ling Ye."

Even Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang hated the two emperors Huan and Ling when they mentioned them, but they could not change the achievements of the first emperors.

According to posthumous posthumous posthumous law, to open up land and serve far away is called Huan, and use Wu Zhengding;

Such a beautiful posthumous title, even though the party's imprisonment was due to Emperor Huan, which caused him to be reviled by the scholars, the posthumous title "Huan" did justice to the late emperor.

Liu Hong is different. The posthumous title of Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty explains everything.

If Emperor Huan was still alive, Zhou Qi might do his best to assist him, but a faint-hearted emperor like Liu Hong was not worthy of Zhou Qi's allegiance.

He lowered his hands and looked like he was listening.

Yang Qiu was obviously very interested, and continued: "If it is said that Wang Fu's minions are corrupt and only affect His Majesty's interests, then his adopted son Wang Ji's collusion with Lieutenant Pei Guo is an offense to His Majesty Nilin."

"With this evidence, Wang Fu will never stand up again!"

Zhou Qi said at the right time: "In that case, I would like to congratulate you on getting rid of a traitor for the country."

Yang Qiu smiled and stroked his beard lightly, and said: "Since the evidence is conclusive, let's get started without further delay. Please make some preparations and come with me to the prison to try Wang Fu and his son today."

"Such a traitor, we must not let them live another day!"

When he said this, Yang Qiu's eyes were already filled with killing intent.

Zhou Qi accepted the order solemnly, and after making some preparations, he immediately followed Yang Qiu into the prison belonging to Sili Xiaowei's Mansion.

Compared with the mess, darkness and dampness of ordinary prisons, most of the prisoners arrested in Sili Xiaowei's Mansion are high-ranking officials of the imperial court, and at the worst, they are children of aristocratic families, and their status is very noble.

So in order to show respect to these people, the prison belonging to Sili Xiaowei's Mansion has good living conditions and food, and there are jailers who come to clean it every day.

When Zhou Qi saw Wang Fu and his son, he felt that their clothes were clean, their faces were rosy, and even their hair was combed very neatly.If their hands were not shackled and they were wearing prison uniforms, there would be no clue that they were in jail.

Wang Fu is already very old, but Wang Fu's son Wang Meng is still in his prime.

Although Wang Fu was only a regular servant, with a silver seal and a green ribbon, and a rank as high as two thousand stones, he was a close minister of the emperor, extremely powerful, and had the title of champion marquis, so his status was absolutely illustrious.

As for his son, Wang Meng, who held the position of Yongle Shaofu, he was a middle school two thousand stones, with a silver seal and green ribbon. If only in terms of rank, his status was even higher than that of Zhongchangshi.

However, after all, Zhongchangshi was a close official of the emperor, and the actual power between the two was still very different.

When Zhou Qi saw the two of them, he thought of Wang Ji, who was the Prime Minister of Pei State, and couldn't help but secretly sighed: "Both father and son are two thousand stone officials, with silver seals and green ribbons. How prominent their families are."

Zhou Qi looked at himself again, even if he gambled his life and worked hard, but he was still just a low-quality official, the gap was too big.

It's true that people are more dead than people, and goods are thrown away.

When Wang Fu saw Yang Qiu coming in, his cloudy eyes moved slightly, he stood up and said, "Yang Qiu, I want to see Your Majesty."

When Yang Qiu saw Wang Fu looking like this even when he was about to die, the corners of his mouth curved.

He asked someone to open the door and walked in, kicked him to the ground, and said with a sneer, "You will never see Your Majesty again in this lifetime."

(End of this chapter)