The Ming Dynasty started with saving the eldest grandson

Chapter 414 The Dirty Palace
Looking at the information in his hand, Chen Jingke felt his scalp tingling.

Zhou Ji, the son of Zhou Dexing, and Wang Yong, the son of Wang Cheng, committed adultery with palace maids.

(This is a true historical event, borrowed here.)
Even though he trusted Du Tongli very much, he couldn't help but question:
"Are you sure you're not mistaken?"

Du Tongli replied: "How could I dare to make a mistake in this matter... I didn't believe it at first, and I checked it several times before I dared to confirm it."

"Your Majesty sent Commander Jiang to investigate Zhou Dexing and others. He also got the information and must have entered the palace to see the emperor by now."

Then it's almost certain, how dare they do that.

Chen Jingke took a deep breath and said, "Why do you want to die if you can just live a good life?"

Du Tongli replied: "How would I know? Maybe it's what you said."

Chen Jingke shook his head and asked, "Did you send someone to monitor them?"

Du Tongli nodded and said, "We have sent enough people to monitor them. All it takes is an order from your majesty to bring them to justice."

Chen Jingke nodded: "That's good."

At this point, Du Tongli asked carefully: "Do you think this matter needs to be reported to His Majesty?"

Chen Jingke glanced at him and sighed, "Old Du, remember your identity and don't commit suicide."

Du Tongli quickly explained:

"I am not trying to hide this from Your Majesty. I am considering that Commander Jiang must have reported this matter."

"His Majesty must be very angry right now. It would be inappropriate for me to bother him again."

Chen Jingke said: "He is him, you are you, and now you are the commander of the Jinyiwei."

"With such a serious incident, if you don't go to see His Majesty in person, you will be guilty of a capital crime."

Du Tongli broke out in a cold sweat: "Yes, I know I was wrong. I will go to the palace to meet the emperor now."

Chen Jingke stood up and said, "Let's go together. If I pretend not to know about such a big thing, the emperor will definitely make trouble for me."

When Du Tongli heard that he was going with them, he felt much more relieved.

He was already afraid of meeting the retired emperor, let alone something like this having happened. It would definitely be unlucky for him to go there now.

If one fails to handle the situation properly, a beating would be the least of his problems.

Everything would be fine as long as Chen Jingke was with him. At most he would be scolded.

The two immediately set out for the palace.

As expected, as soon as I approached the entrance of the hall, I heard Zhu Yuanzhang's roar:
"Zhou Ji and Wang Yong, only by annihilating their three clans can I relieve the hatred in my heart."

Hearing Zhu Yuanzhang's angry voice, Du Tongli's legs couldn't help but go limp.

Chen Jingke was not affected. He spoke to the eunuch and asked him to pass the message on.

Just a moment later, Lao Zhu's voice came from the hall:
"Why are you standing at the door pretending? Do you know the etiquette now?"

Chen Jingke shook his head and walked into the hall, while Du Tongli stayed outside.

At this time, Zhu Yuanzhang, Empress Ma, Zhu Biao, Zhu Xiongying and Xu Miaojin were all there.

There was also a beautiful middle-aged woman kneeling on the ground.

Not only was Old Zhu angry, but Empress Ma also looked very unhappy.

She is the mistress of the harem... Although she is not in charge of things now, such a big incident is a slap in her face.

Zhu Biao's face was already completely black. Such a thing happened during his tenure, which was a huge shame.

Zhu Xiongying was simply angry. Daring to have an affair with a palace maid was simply courting death.

Kneeling on the ground was Zhu Biao's Concubine Cao.

Since Zhu Biao had no queen, the affairs of the harem were handed over to the more favored Concubine Cao.

She takes care of small matters on weekdays, and asks Empress Ma or Zhu Biao for big matters.

But no matter what, she cannot escape the blame for what happened now.

Seeing Chen Jingke come in, Old Zhu was furious:

"Please, please, why don't you plead for me now? You are the only one who knows how to be a good person, but you won't do it this time, right?"

Chen Jingke could only smile bitterly.

Ma Niangniang said, "If you are angry, then be angry. Why take it out on the child? He doesn't know anything about this matter."

Old Zhu snorted twice and quickly explained: "I'm teaching him a lesson. Don't be so quick to beg for mercy in the future."

"Just like this time, it's us. If it were another emperor, he would definitely be implicated."

Chen Jingke was touched and said sincerely: "Thank you for your teachings, Your Majesty. I know I was wrong."

Old Zhu pointed at him and said, "You know you're wrong, but you won't change."

"Humph, I'm too lazy to talk to you. Does Du Tongli have any other clues?"

Chen Jingke handed him the intelligence and said, "Du Tongli is waiting outside. This is the result of his investigation. I don't know if it is different from Commander Jiang's."

Old Zhu grabbed it, flipped through it briefly, and threw it aside, saying:

"It's pretty much the same as what Jiang Li investigated... These two are really bold. I've already ordered Jiang Li to arrest them."

"We have to ask who gave them the courage."

The more he talked, the angrier he became, and he started cursing again:

"Aren't we being nice enough to this old bastard Zhou Dexing?"

"How dare he allow his son to commit such a heinous crime? Does he deserve our trust?"

What he said is absolutely true.

Among the founding nobles of the Ming Dynasty, there are two people with the most special identities, one is Tang He and the other is Zhou Dexing.

The two of them are Lao Zhu's real fellow villagers and grew up together.

Let’s not talk about Tang He’s affairs. It can be said that Lao Zhu trusted him the most.

Zhou Dexing was a few years older than Zhu Yuanzhang and should have taken care of him in the past.

Later, when Zhu Yuanzhang rebelled, he joined the rebel army and made considerable contributions.

Zhu Yuanzhang was also very kind to him. When he built his mansion beyond the standard, he was impeached by his ministers.

The crime could be serious or minor, and the usual punishment was stripping of title and execution.

Old Zhu said directly, my brother has suffered all his life, what's wrong with him enjoying himself now?
This matter is over.

After that, the rewards given during festivals and holidays were always the best among those given to the nobles.

He was even given the power to enter and leave the palace.

But it was this old man who first contacted various nobles to "force the emperor to abdicate".

Now it has been discovered that his son had committed adultery with a palace maid.

Actually, the fact that this matter was discovered was due to his own fault for being too jumpy.

If he had been a good marquis, given Zhu Yuanzhang's favor towards him, the Imperial Guards would never have investigated his family background.

It was because he 'forced the emperor to abdicate'.

Old Zhu was angry and wanted to find out how many people were involved and see if they had any other plans.

As a result, what Zhou Ji had done was discovered.

Following Zhou Ji, Wang Yong was pulled out.

It is very likely that Zhou Dexing did not know what his son had done, otherwise he would not dare to jump like that.

Zhou Ji probably didn't expect that his own father would suddenly do this.

All I can say is that the father and son in this family betrayed each other and they died worthy deaths.

There is actually not much to say about the outcome of this matter.

The destruction of the three Yi tribes is a foregone conclusion.

The question is whether there are other people involved.

The more crucial question, which is also the one that everyone is avoiding, is it that only the palace maids were involved?

Will the concubines also get involved?
These questions can only be answered after the two men are arrested and interrogated.

Then everyone discussed how to deal with the issue of "forcing the emperor to abdicate".

The angry Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Xiongying both thought that this was a good opportunity to give them a good lesson.

To strike a blow to the arrogance of the nobles. Chen Jingke did not persuade them this time, he was not a pushover.

He hated those who "forced the emperor to abdicate" even more than Zhu did.

I came out to protect them before because I didn’t want chaos to occur in the country and affect the good situation.

Now that this matter has come out, he naturally won't try to persuade her anymore.

He even supports Lao Zhu and Zhu Xiongying.

Since we have to kill people, we might as well kill a few more and solve the problem at once.

On the contrary, Ma Niangniang expressed a different opinion:

"If we punish too many people at this time, outsiders will suspect that we are slandering them so that we can retaliate against them."

“So, it’s better to keep the two things separate.”

"Let's deal with Zhou Ji and Wang Yong's cases first. As for the other nobles, there will be plenty of opportunities to deal with them later."

Although Lao Zhu was angry, he did not lose his mind. He naturally knew that what she said made sense.

If we exaggerate at this time, everyone will inevitably be suspicious.

Did you deliberately frame them in order to retaliate?
Although it is a bit unreasonable to say that you are cuckolded, the person who spread the rumor doesn't care so much.

Therefore, in the end, he suppressed the idea of ​​exaggerating the issue and just dealt with the matter at hand.

After the external matters are settled, it is time to deal with the internal affairs.

Because of her poor management of the harem, Concubine Cao was demoted to a concubine.

But that's not all, she will be grounded until the case is over.

Once the case is over and it is confirmed that there is no involvement, things can return to normal.

Then Empress Ma came out again to help Zhu Biao organize the harem.

This made Zhu Biao very ashamed. He was already the emperor, but he still had to trouble his mother with matters in the harem.

Empress Ma only felt sorry for her son. She had to worry about state affairs and could not find peace in the harem.

"Ah, Xiongying's mother passed away early. It would be great if she were still here."

These words made everyone feel heavy-hearted, and Zhu Xiongying even had tears in his eyes.

Xu Miaojin quietly moved to his side, grabbed his hand and gave him strength.

In fact, everyone saw her little action, but they just didn't want to spoil the fun, so they pretended not to see it.

Afterwards, Empress Ma took Xu Miaojin away.

She wanted to take this opportunity to reorganize the harem to train Xu Miaojin.

As the future queen, you must know how to manage the harem.

There is nothing more instructive than real cases like this one.
-
It is generally acknowledged that Jiang Li is a ruthless man and the sharpest knife in the hands of the emperor.

Especially after Zhu Yuanzhang abdicated, he also resigned as the commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard and became Zhu Yuanzhang's shadow.

Zhu's great anti-corruption achievements in the past two years are inseparable from his intelligence support.

This time he took action to capture Zhou Dexing and Wang Cheng's entire family. The ministers naturally knew that this was the order of the retired emperor.

If Zhu Biao issued an order, it would be Du Tongli who should take action.

No one understood what happened, they only knew that Jiang Li took action to arrest someone.

Naturally, people would think that this was a retaliation for "forcing the emperor to abdicate."

There were many different opinions at the time. Some people thought it was normal and that anyone who dared to force the emperor to abdicate would definitely have to pay a price.

The emperor has been ruthless and decisive all his life, how could he endure this kind of anger from them?
Some people also think that Lao Zhu is too stingy. You said before that you would not pursue the matter, so why are you turning your back on me and refusing to admit it?
And even if you want to retaliate, can't you wait until the storm has passed?
The ones who were really panicked were the nobles who joined them in forcing the emperor to abdicate.

Don’t be fooled by their high-profile behavior before. In fact, they just hold the idea that the law cannot hold everyone responsible.

Seeing that the emperor was actually going to settle accounts, they were naturally afraid.

Some people are waiting to die at home, while others are using their connections to get things done.

Others have already started preparing for their funeral.

Zhu Yuanzhang also deliberately intimidated his ministers and did not tell them the reason, but let everyone guess.

Although there is no way to settle accounts with you, it is still possible to scare you.

Moreover, this time the threats were not only directed at the nobles who had caused the trouble, but also at other civil and military officials.

Even though I have abdicated, I can still kill people.

Don't use the "no punishment for everyone" approach against us. We won't fall for it.

This trick is indeed very effective. These days, all the ministers have become more honest than each other.

The debate about the Great Partition has become much smaller.

Even Xu Da, Li Shanchang and others thought that Zhu Yuanzhang was eager to settle accounts.

They privately asked Chen Jingke about the situation. If it was true, they were prepared to give him some advice.

It’s not that I’m against a big purge, but it’s not appropriate at the moment.

Since the matter involved the imperial palace, Chen Jingke could not say much to them and only told them that it had nothing to do with forcing the emperor to abdicate.

Zhou Dexing and his gang had committed other crimes, but they had not been discovered before.

"This time they forced the emperor to abdicate. The emperor wanted to know the details and sent someone to investigate."

"As a result, what they had done before was found out."

Hearing this, Li Shanchang got up and left without saying a word.

Highlight the one that is not mixed.

In fact, he couldn't get too involved. He was not clean in the Hu Weiyong case. If he got too involved in some things, it would only bring trouble to himself.

Xu Da was quite speechless. This incident was really... what he deserved.

"Is it serious?"

Chen Jingke said: "The three tribes of Yi."

Xu Da's expression suddenly became extremely solemn. Ever since the Ming Dynasty's politics were on the right track, Zhu Yuanzhang would not easily exterminate three clans of an ethnic group without a legitimate reason.

There are only a few crimes that can result in the extermination of three generations of the family, such as treason, assassination of the emperor, etc.

He couldn't figure out which of the two people, Zhou Dexing and Wang Cheng, could have violated?
But no matter which one they committed, it was not his business.

So he left soon.
-
The Jinyiwei also quickly obtained the evidence.

Speaking of which, Zhou Ji and Wang Yong also knew what crime they had committed. Once proven guilty, their entire clan would be exterminated.

So at first he refused to admit it.

But unfortunately, their mouths were not as hard as the torture instruments in the Jinyiwei prison, and they all confessed after a few days.

The problem still lies with Zhou Dexing.

As mentioned earlier, Zhu Yuanzhang gave him the power to enter and leave the palace, which meant he gave him a badge.

Then, this privilege was stolen by Zhou Ji.

Not only did he secretly commit adultery with the palace maids, he also dragged his good friend Wang Yong into it.

Speaking of which, this matter is directly related to the fact that Zhu Biao had no queen.

Empress Ma retreated to the second line, and the affairs of the harem were handed over to Concubine Cao.

But she was just a noble concubine, and she had three competitors of the same level, and a group of concubines were eyeing her covetously.

In short, the management of the harem is a bit messy.

This gave Zhou Ji and Wang Yong an opportunity to take advantage of.

But any normal person would not harm the women in the palace.

Even if she was just a palace maid.

Why did Zhou Ji have such a perverse idea?
As the saying goes, when you pull out a radish, you bring out the mud. A case that had been buried for a long time was dug up.

Zhou Ji said that he committed the crime because he was seduced by Zhao Fu, the son-in-law of Hu Mei, Marquis of Linchuan.

As early as the 16th year of Hongwu, Zhao Fu had committed adultery in the palace.

As soon as this confession came out, Zhu Yuanzhang exploded on the spot.

(End of this chapter)