unclear

Chapter 472 King Sai 3
Since we were fighting against the civil servant group at the time and could not take action to rectify it, we did not mention it publicly. Later, when setting up the market, they also deliberately avoided the frontier areas controlled by Shanxi merchants, which was also a hint.

Unexpectedly, those profit-minded guys not only stopped before the good news came, but also got bigger and bigger, and even dared to resell artillery. If there was no sign of this, they would dare to sell the Great Wall.

But three feet of ice cannot be frozen in a day, and businessmen alone, no matter how daring, cannot achieve this. Behind them are not only the shadows of the civil service group, but also the support of military officers and nobles. Therefore, where to start the investigation is a great test of political wisdom.

After several confrontations, the civil servant group has become wary of the emperor, and it will be even more difficult for him to play the trick of pretending to be a pig and eating the tiger. After the Chaoyang Gate defense battle, the generals and nobles also understood the emperor's strength, and it was basically impossible to show weakness and deceive him.

Not only would they not accept deceit, they would also pay special attention to the emperor's every move. As long as they sent people to investigate locally, the secret would be exposed within a few days. Not only would they find nothing, but they would also alert the enemy.

After careful consideration, Hong Tao decided to take action on the clan. The fiefdoms of King Su, King Qing, King Dai and King Jin were located in the border areas, intersecting with the main activity areas of Shanxi merchants.

Although they cannot interfere in government affairs, are not allowed to meddle in military power, and do not interfere with the livelihood of the four people, they still occupy a large amount of land and capital. By the late Ming Dynasty, many vassal kings would use their status as domestic slaves to acquire shops and properties and conduct indirect commercial activities. The most common one was to open banks to issue usury loans.

Having been operating in the local area for more than 200 years, I dare not say that it can be regarded as a local snake even if it takes both black and white. Even if you are not directly involved in smuggling activities, you still need to know something about the situation. The investigation of members of the clan is a family matter of the royal family, and foreign ministers have no right to interfere. This is to avoid leaking information in advance to the greatest extent possible and causing unnecessary trouble.

But at the moment, we don't have much manpower to investigate the four vassals together, so we can only find the one with the greatest suspicion and concentrate on making a breakthrough. So who is the most suspicious? Hong Tao felt that Prince Qing's mansion was not small.

Since the Jiajing Dynasty, their family has only been able to get half of their annual salary, but they have no poor relatives. They obviously have unknown gray income, and they might be participants in border smuggling!
"As far as I know, the situation of Prince Qing's Mansion is special. During the Bo Bai Rebellion, Prince Qing's Mansion was almost destroyed. The tenth generation of Prince Qing, His Highness, was hidden in the cellar by the old princess. From then on, the whole family of Prince Qing Ding withered.”

Unfortunately, Xing Tao guessed wrong. Zhu Guozuo used facts to explain why King Qing's family had a modest annual salary but no descendants who were in trouble. The cost-effectiveness is not that you eat the night grass, but that the family has a small population and you don't have to think of ways to make money. You can live well just relying on the income from the fief.

"Where is that generation of kings?" Two consecutive vassal kings were not too suspicious, and Hong Tao began to doubt whether his judgment was correct.

"On behalf of the king...it's hard to say anything. I can't make irresponsible remarks about the king and father. Your Majesty can see the records of the clan." When he mentioned the king on behalf of the king, Zhu Guozuo's expression immediately became less relaxed. He hesitated while stroking his beard, but in the end he still didn't want to. Tell it personally.

Compared with King Su and King Qing, the case files of King Dai's family are more than twice as thick, and they are all official records. In other words, during the past two hundred years, there were many incidents in the Prince's Palace, which were enough to be recorded by the court.

"This family is really weird!" It took Hong Tao half an hour to finish reading it. No, I can't say that I have finished it, I can only say that I have finished it. I roughly skimmed the content without reading it carefully. Even this is enough. The life of Emperor Wanli is fantasy enough, but compared with Dai Wang, it actually feels a bit dwarfed.

The acting king Zhu Gui was the thirteenth son of Zhu Yuanzhang and his biological mother was Concubine Guo. Who is Guo Huifei? Guo Zixing’s daughter. Who is Guo Zixing? Zhu Yuanzhang's eldest brother when he first debuted, and Empress Ma's adoptive father. In the royal family, sometimes the mother is more valuable than the son, and sometimes the son is more valuable than the mother. Zhu Gui belongs to the latter. His mother's family is relatively powerful, and he has received more attention since he was born. He is much happier than Prince Qing and Prince Su.

In the eleventh year of Hongwu, Zhu Gui, who was less than four years old, was named King of Yu and founded Nanchang. As Zhu Gui grew older, his knowledge did not increase, but his temper increased, and he always liked to use force to solve problems.

Zhu Yuanzhang took a look, he liked to dance with swords and guns, right? Let me find you a place where you can use your talents. So in the 25th year of Hongwu, Zhu Gui was granted the title of King of Dai and the country of Datong was founded.

In the year before he became vassal, Zhu Yuanzhang personally arranged the marriage for Zhu Gui. Princess Xu also has a great background. She is the second daughter of the late King Xu Da of Zhongshan. Now Zhu Gui not only has a distinguished wife, but also an even more powerful brother-in-law, the fourth brother Zhu Di.

Xu Da's eldest daughter is Princess Yan, while Zhu Gui and Zhu Di are half-brothers. If it weren't for Wang An's help, Hong Tao would have been confused for a long time but still couldn't understand the relationship between the two people.

Zhu Di's son and Zhu Gui's son both have the same grandfather Zhu Yuanzhang, and they also have the same grandfather Xu Da, so they are both cousins.

A few months ago, Hong Tao had calculated the relationship between Albert VII and Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II, but he still couldn't figure it out. Now he finally understands it. If a biological brother marries a biological sister, the offspring will have a double relationship.

With such a prominent family background, Zhu Gui would most likely be unable to suppress his temper after arriving in the fiefdom. As a result, the chief historian of Dai Wang's palace was very busy, going to the court from time to time to accuse Dai Wang of various evil deeds.

In the first year of Jianwen, Zhu Yunwen was about to reduce the feudal vassal, so he simply attacked the uncle who had made the fiefdom so angry and demoted him to a commoner. But if God takes a fancy to someone, he will jump off the building without falling to his death. He will just get covered in dirt.

Within a few years, Zhu Di killed Zhu Yunwen and became emperor. After ascending the throne, he immediately restored his brother-in-law's title of acting king. Ordinarily, someone else would have restrained himself after this incident, but Zhu Gui refused and continued to toss around in the fiefdom, even ignoring Zhu Di's imperial edict to summon him to the court.

Zhu Di, probably because of his brother-in-law's face, simply let his brother do what he wanted. As long as Zhu Gui didn't have the intention to rebel, he could do whatever he wanted and ignored him.

It is true that Zhu Gui did not rebel, but he married a concubine, whom he loved very much, and then regarded Princess Xu as a thorn in his side. The prince and his son also became more and more uncomfortable with her, and eventually she was forced to death.

"Compared with the acting king Zhu Gui, my father is quite kind to me!" There is a saying that people will die when comparing with others, and goods should be thrown away when comparing goods. Seeing this, Hong Tao actually felt lucky. Emperor Wanli didn't want to see him anymore, and he didn't want to die. The abuse of the eldest son by Heishan Lao Zhu's family is hereditary and started more than a hundred years ago.

(End of this chapter)