King Luhuang of the Ming Dynasty: My father, Ming Taizu

Guo Ning understood, "Don't worry, second brother. We can't do the job of a thousand-man captain, but we can replace the centurions and all the soldiers with our own people. There shouldn't be any problem. If it's still not enough, we can transfer people from the city management team."

Zhu Tan issued several orders, and for a moment, Kyoto was in chaos.

Occasionally, you could see some guards in brocade robes galloping on the streets, and occasionally you could see some officials being arrested and sent to the Zhenfu Division.

For a moment, everyone was in a panic, and the officials below didn't know what was going on.

Zhou Yu looked at the people being taken to the Pacification Office one by one. His legs began to tremble. He mustered up the courage to look for Chu Bingsen.

"Marquis Jianchang, it's just a piece of cake for you to kill me. I admit defeat. Marquis Jianchang doesn't think so. Does he want to kill us? Although the Empress Dowager doesn't like the two of us, she will definitely not let us have an easy time."

Zhu Tan stretched out his arm, hugged Zhou Yu's neck, chuckled, and said, "Lord Changning, you are too kind. We have formed a good relationship. Since you have admitted your mistake, I will naturally not pursue it further. However, if I want to kill Shao Xi, I will have to see if you and his two brothers can behave themselves."

Zhou Yu was shocked, because Shao Xi was the younger brother of Concubine Shao. In terms of power, he was even more powerful than his brothers in the Zhou family.

Besides, killing a relative by marriage was unprecedented.

"Marquis Jianchang, isn't this inappropriate? It will be hard to explain to Concubine Shao from Prince Xing's side. Besides, Shao Xi was only involved in the imperial examination at most, and he cannot be sentenced to death!"

Zhu Tan glared at Zhou Yu and said, "That's why I want you two brothers to testify. Wasn't Shao Xi involved in the suppression of the 'Witch' Taoism? Don't you have any idea?"

Zhou Yu's heart sank. As a member of the royal family, if he were involved in witchcraft, his life would be in danger.

And judging by Zhu Tan's expression and face, he obviously wanted to wrongly accuse him so that he would die.

If the two of them want to escape, they must become accomplices, which will put them to death!

However, when you are under someone's roof, you have to bow your head. At this time, Zhou Yu no longer cared about Shao Xi's life or death. The most urgent task was to sever the relationship between the two people.

If they did not agree with Zhu Tan's suggestion to attribute the incident to witchcraft, the two brothers would surely die.

"According to what Marquis Jianchang said, Shao Xi and Yang Peng colluded with witchcraft to murder the empress and officials in the court. They deserve to be put to death, they deserve to be put to death, they deserve to be put to death."

Seeing that Zhou Yu was quite sensible, Zhu Tan put his hand on Zhou Yu's shoulder and said, "That's right, let's discuss the details first, so that Shao Xi won't be able to deny it and get killed."

These people always act unreasonably.

No matter who you are, no matter what level of official you are, as long as there are cavalry, they will be tied with iron chains and sent to the Zhenfu Division.

Zhou Shou and Shao Xi are such examples. They both stayed at home, but ended up causing big troubles and were sent to the Zhenfu Division one after another.

Zhou Shou would naturally let Zhou Yu interfere and let Shao Xi take the blame, while Zhu Tan, on the other hand, sneered and stared at the captured Shao Xi.

Shao Xi's expression remained unchanged and he seemed very calm.

"Marquis Jianchang, what do you mean by that? I am the Earl of Changhua, the Dowager Consort's biological brother. How could you do this to me?"

"nonsense."

Zhu Tan suddenly exploded and kicked Shao Xi hard, knocking him to the ground.

Then, he kicked Shao Xi hard, leaving him with a broken teeth.

Zhu Tan had a grudge against Shao Xi from the beginning, because Shao Xi was the uncle of Emperor Jiajing, and Emperor Jiajing wanted to wipe out his entire family.

Zhu Tan, this little colorful butterfly, had not yet spread his wings and flew high when something unclear happened between Li Guang and Shao Xi, so Shao Xi took advantage of the imperial examination case to make a move on him.

There was an irreconcilable hatred between the two of them, and now that Shao Xi was in his hands, he would naturally take this opportunity to kill him.

After beating Shao Xi severely, Zhu Tan felt a little relieved and then began to plan how to push Shao Xi to the side of Prince Xing Zhu Youlang.

If Zhu Youlang was implicated, Jiajing's father would be placed under house arrest or even stripped of his title before Jiajing was born, so that Jiajing's son Zhu Houcong would never see him again.

This little butterfly demon of his was still a decent person, and he didn't disgrace the reputation of a time-traveling man!

Zhu Tan did consider sending people to destroy Prince Xing Zhu Youlang, which would have been more direct. However, this cannot but mention the rule of the kings of the Ming Dynasty.

Each king had his own guards. Even if they had been chopped off several times, they still had a lot of soldiers. Every mansion had its own army, just like a small court, which made it difficult for people to get close.

It is extremely difficult to physically eliminate a vassal king of the Ming Dynasty.

Of course, not everyone can become an emperor like Zhu Yuanzhang, that is, Zhu Yuanzhang.

All other rebellions, such as the Ming Dynasty, were crushed.

Zhu Tan's ultimate goal was to pin the accusation of rebellion on Zhu Youlang, and then use the institutions of the Ming Empire to beat him to death, only then could he feel at ease.

This has nothing to do with character or world outlook. There is only one thought, which is to survive.

Zhu Tan thought to himself, if he didn't do this, or if he was too cowardly and showed mercy, who would sympathize with him when his head and body were separated in the future?
So he took the initiative and killed Prince Xing Zhu Youlang first to prevent Jiajing from being born by him.

With this purpose in mind, Zhu Tan took extremely severe action against Shao Xi, who was transferred to the "Zhenfu Division".

Moreover, there were many people in the Jinyiwei who were good at torture. Each of them knew how to use at least ten different instruments of torture. They beat Shao Xi severely, making him suffer a lot.

Shao Xi was not an idiot. When he heard that Prince Xing Zhu Youlang was involved, he immediately became alert and panicked.

He thought that he was just an excuse for Emperor Hongzhi to kill Zhu Youlang, so he gritted his teeth and endured it. However, he did not expect that this move was exactly what Zhu Tan wanted.

When Shao Xi was being tortured, there were people in other dungeons. There were two people accompanying Zhu Tan, one was Zhou Shou and the other was Zhou Jia.

The two of them usually looked arrogant and bullied others, but this was the first time they had been so close to each other.

To put it bluntly, he was almost scared to death and witnessed Zhu Tan's cruelty thoroughly.

In their company, they dared not even breathe, for fear of making Chu Tian unhappy and taking his anger out on them.

Excluding Shao Xi, who was specially taken care of by Zhu Tan, a total of more than 130 people were captured, most of whom were princes, nobles and royal relatives in the capital.

Among these people, there were several that Zhu Tan was very familiar with, such as Wang Yan's niece-in-law, Dingxi Hou Jiang He, the son of Wei Guogong Xu Pu, who had a quarrel with Zhu Tan, and some military dignitaries.

Zhu Tan was not too cruel to such people. The relationship between them and Yang Peng and the uncle and nephew was just one of mutual benefit.

As long as you don't involve witchcraft, you won't be guilty of a serious crime and can save your life, unless you are willing to pay the price and make amends. Is Zhu Tan short of money?

Li Guang's mansion was ransacked, Zhang Heling's property was divided up by him, Yang Peng and others embezzled and accepted bribes, and he was only one step away from seizing one million taels of silver.

These riches are enough for him to squander. If he converts them into future currency and adds inflation, he will definitely be the richest man.

However, it is far from enough to use this money for real things.

What is Zhu Tan going to do?
There are many, most of which are fanciful, but there is no doubt that the first one is to restore the glory of Zheng He's voyages.

However, this went against the national policy of the Ming Dynasty and encountered great obstacles.

Secondly, he wanted to support Zhu Youtang and build the Ming Dynasty into a truly prosperous era, even surpassing previous prosperity.

He once had a bit of sympathy for the Ming Dynasty and thought that it was the best. Therefore, Zhu Tan did not want the Ming Dynasty to be replaced by the Mongols on the border a hundred years later, thus starting a history of humiliation for China.

Another thing is to improve the quality of life and improve people's living standards. As the saying goes, people must have their own ideals and lofty ideals, so that they can live a better life!
But all this is just a luxury.

Zhu Tan himself only had a rough idea, but what conditions were needed to achieve all the concepts? That was a huge sum of money!
Therefore, Zhu Tan generously accepted bribes from those who had little to do with Yang Peng and were involved in ordinary cases. He planned to detain them for a few days to scare them, and then release them.

As for those who are in league with Yang Peng, his nephew, his nephew and others, or who are in collusion with them, I’m sorry, but I want their money, but they will also kill them.

Guo Ning handed a list to Zhu Tan.

"Second brother, we have investigated all the 37 dead people on this list. They have little to do with Yang Peng. Moreover, they also want to make up for their mistakes. Each of them received 3,000 to 5,000 taels of silver, ranging from 30,000 to 10,000 taels. Let them go now."

Zhu Tan took a quick glance and saw that the first one was the son of Duke Wei. Although he was not the crown prince, he was said to be quite loved by Duke Wei.

"Well, he has to pay another 100,000 taels of silver. If we just let it go, wouldn't it be a disgrace to the Duke of Wei's reputation? I think I also captured Dingxi Marquis Jiang He, so why is there no sign of him here?"

"Jiang He is suspected of other crimes and bribed Yang Peng, which led to the death of a family of seven. This is irrefutable evidence and he cannot be released."

Jiang He is Wang Yan's niece-in-law. She would never believe that she had really found out.

For Wang Yan's sake, he might show mercy, but he could no longer help her with something like killing.

Just as Zhu Tan was thinking this, a servant came to report that the daughter of Marquis Rui'an had arrived and wanted to see her husband Jiang He.

Beside him was a woman named Wang Shilin, the second daughter of Wang Yuan, Marquis of Ruian.

"This guy! I'm just worried that you won't be able to help nagging."

Zhu Tan thought for a moment and understood that after Jiang He was captured, his wife Wang must have asked his father Wang Yuan and his aunt Wang Yan for help.

Wang Yan herself couldn't go out, so she asked her two nieces to come over, probably to pass on a message to Wang Yan.

Since everyone was present, they naturally had to meet each other. Zhu Tan asked Guo Ning to teach those people a lesson, and then called the Wang sisters over as well.

As soon as Jiang He's wife entered the room, she burst into tears and insisted on seeing Jiang He. Zhu Tan had no choice but to call someone in and let the two of them meet first.

There were only Zhu Tan and Wang Shilin in the room. As mentioned before, Wang Yan's niece was a sharp-tongued person and could not speak clearly.

Perhaps because he was too nervous, he said, "Hou, Hou, Hou."

Zhu Tan took a breath and felt as if his heart was being hollowed out.

I thought to myself why it sounds like Sun Wukong!

"Please be patient. Tell me first, does the old Buddha have an imperial decree?"

Wang Shilin nodded. She also realized her problem. She was so angry that her face turned red and she clenched her fists.

"Aunt, aunt."

Zhu Tan covered his head with one hand. This time, he thought of not Monkey King, but a living pigeon.

He had previously rejected the blind date introduced to him by Wang Yan because he had good taste. With Wang Shilin around, others would definitely worry about him.

“Write it down in writing!”

Zhu Tan glanced at the paper and pen on the table, secretly groaned in his heart, and hurriedly stuffed the brush and writing brush onto Wang Shilin's desk.

Wang Shilin's eyes turned red and tears welled up in her eyes. She had a congenital defect, which was a natural inferiority complex.

But remembering his aunt and sister's requests, he picked up the pen and started writing on the paper.

Zhu Tan did not expect that Wang Shilin was so good at calligraphy, with the style of a master. He must have followed Chu Suiliang, which was pleasing to the eye.

When he sent the letter, he found out that Wang Yan had asked his niece to bring a very important letter, which was not to plead for his nephew and son-in-law.

The note made it clear that Concubine Shao was complaining to the emperor on behalf of her brother Shao Xi, and Emperor Hongzhi seemed to be moved.

Zhu Tan knew that Zhu Youtang was easy to talk to. If Concubine Shao really interceded for him and let Shao Xi go, not only would it create a deep hatred, but Prince Xing Zhu Youlang would not be implicated, and all his previous efforts would be in vain.

The information provided by Wang Shilin was of great importance, and even spies in the palace such as Liu Jin and Zhang Yong knew nothing about it.

"Is there anything else?" Zhu Tan asked quickly, fearing that Wang Shilin had forgotten about this matter.

Wang Shilin continued, "My aunt said that we should pay attention to Wang Min and Ma Cheng, the captain of the Imperial Guard. Wang Min's sister is the younger brother of Emperor Xianzong's concubine Shun."

Zhu Tan's eyebrows jumped suddenly. Wang Min was indeed in the pacification army and had completely surrendered in recent days.

Moreover, he was a veteran of the Imperial Guards and had handed over some matters to Wang Min. Was there something wrong with Wang Min?
Zhu Tan could only say something to Wang Shilin, asking her to stay where she was, and then he hurriedly found Guo Ning.

Guo Ning, who had been gone for less than fifteen minutes, also rushed back and almost bumped into him.

Before Zhu Tan could speak, Guo Ning's face was ashen, his lips trembling violently, and he stammered, "Second brother, this is bad, it looks like we're in big trouble."

"Calm down first and tell me what happened?" Although Guo Ning was trying to comfort her, she still had an ominous feeling in her heart.

Guo Ning was about to cry. "Among those who were originally to be released, plus those who were detained, more than 20 people have been poisoned to death. They were all poisoned to death. Hua Chang, Chen Yu, and Changhua Bo Shao Xi were all killed." (End of this chapter)