Good son-in-law of the Ming Dynasty

The weather in Beijing gets colder earlier than in Cangzhou, and it also gets colder earlier than in modern society.

When Su Mu and others set off to return to the capital, the city of Beijing ushered in a heavy snowfall.

Seeing that there is less than one month left, the 16th year of Hongzhi will pass, and then enter the new era of Zhengde Year.

To paraphrase a sentence from later generations: the year just passed was destined to be an extraordinary year.

At the beginning of the year, Emperor Hongzhi, who had reigned for 16 years, died.That night was also the same snow, the same cold.Then, more shocking news came that Xu Can, the chief eunuch of Bingbi Dongchang, the chief supervisor of ceremonies, and King Huai led troops into the interior to make trouble.In the end, with Prince Zhu Houzhao in charge, the riot was finally suppressed.

Eunuch Xu and King Huai were fined to kneel in the snow all night and were frozen to death.

At the same time, martial law was imposed in the capital, and all the vassal kings in Beijing were ordered to leave the capital and return to the vassal.

Hongzhi Daxing, Prince Zhu Houzhao took over the throne according to the system, and set the year name as Emperor Zhengde.

It's a pity that Emperor Zhengde was not yet 16 years old and could not take charge of the government.But the country cannot be without a master. Therefore, as a last resort, we can only ask Empress Zhang to listen to the government behind the curtain, and Liu Jian, Xie Qian and Li Dongyang will assist the government.

As a result, the government is basically completely controlled by the civil official group.

Next, after the peach blossom flood came down, a flood washed over several prefectures and counties in Zhending, and more than [-] people were displaced.The treasury of the imperial court was empty, so they had no choice but to order Changlu, Lianghuai, and Zhejiang and Fujian saltworks to release silver from the treasury.

Unexpectedly, the bank in Changlu Saltworks was so empty that it could run away, and a shocking corruption case surfaced like this.

The entire Changlu salt transportation envoy, from the Tongzhi, the deputy transfer envoy, down to the concierge, was wiped out, and the relevant people were also sent to the capital, where they were detained in the Ministry of Punishment, Dongchang, and Jinyiwei Beiya.

You know, at the beginning of the year, the transfer envoy of the Changlu Salt Transport Envoy was removed from his official title because of his close relationship with King Huai.

Up to now, the entire salt company has completely stopped.

No way, the imperial court can only ask Yangzhou Tuiguan to temporarily act as a transfer envoy, and first maintain the entire Yamen, waiting for a new transfer envoy to take office.

Now that the corrupt officials in Changlu have been brought to justice, according to the court system, they should be interrogated by the three courts, convicted, and then the stolen money should be recovered.

But at this time, even more unexpected news came.

Liu Konghe, Yang Zilie, and Jing Ting, the three principal offenders, committed suicide in fear of crime in Dongchang Prison.

If a person dies in prison, it is also related to the whereabouts of 200 million taels of silver. How can the three justices agree.Therefore, they sent elite personnel to the East Factory for inspection.After this investigation, it was found that all three of them died of suffocation, and no wounds could be seen on their bodies.

The people in Dongchang said that the three committed suicide by throwing a rope, but if they had hanged themselves, there would be no mark of the rope on their necks, and their cervical vertebrae were intact.

Obviously, they were murdered.

As soon as the news came out, the ministers were in an uproar, and they all went to the court to impeach Liu Jin, the owner of Dongchang, and demanded that the court strictly investigate.

It's strange to say, but Empress Dowager Zhang issued an order, saying that since the principal culprit is afraid of crime, the case will be closed.

The ministers still refused, and found the cabinet again, but the cabinet remained silent.

In the end, except for the suicide of the three main criminals and the confiscation of their family property, the other accomplices were either killed or exiled. This is the biggest case since the new king came to the throne. Finally, the trial was completely concluded.

This is purely the gourd judge's random judgment of the gourd case. The so-called upright and outspoken people in the court kept submitting the papers, but they were all kept by the Queen Mother.

The more Empress Dowager Zhang kept silent, the more energetic the ministers were, and they were planning to make some more noise.

At this time, the appearance of a person attracted the attention of the court officials.

It turned out that Lu Yan, the deputy head of the Yangzhou government, made Wu Shiqi have an accident in Cangzhou.In order to collect money for relief, this man detained the salt merchants for no reason, put them under house arrest in the yamen, and refused to release them unless they gave them money.

Ordinarily, Mr. Wu has made a great contribution to the court.But this idea can be a salt merchant, who is not inextricably related to the grandma in the court.As a result, Master Wu's background was completely raised by everyone.Then I heard that this person was born in Juren, and he actually became a seventh-rank official of the imperial court.And for the job of the salt department's transfer envoy, he tore off his face, and his ugly face was completely exposed.

This kind of villain has the face to be an official.

As a result, the attention of the gentlemen and gentlemen shifted from the major corruption case of Yansi to Mr. Wu, and they began to impeach this villain.

Just as the commotion was in full swing, Mr. Wu did another beautiful thing.He used the official salt of the Salt Division as a guarantee, issued salt tickets in Cangzhou, and within half a year, he completely made up for the previous deficit, showing his superb financial management skills.

The problem is that the civil servants think that this person is Sang Hongyang, a traitorous minister in the future. This kind of person will gain power in the future, and the voice of impeachment will be even louder.

Empress Dowager Zhang probably couldn't stand it anymore, so she dismissed Wu Shiqi from the post of agent and transfer envoy, and was transferred back to the Department of General Administration of the capital to be an experiencer.

As for the transfer envoys, Tongzhi and deputy envoys of Changlu Salt Division, it is up to the court to discuss and decide.

For the sake of these three official positions, the ministers huddled together and let Mr. Wu go. Otherwise, Mr. Wu would not know how to step down.

No matter how you look at it, Wu Shiqi's reputation is pretty bad.

Only after Qianqiu, maybe it will be listed in "The Biography of the Shing Chen".

In addition to the death of Hongzhi and the enthronement of the new emperor and the chaos in Changlu Yansi, the major events of this year also included the emperor's marriage.

Because the emperor's marriage has a strong political meaning, as long as the wedding is held, from the legal system, Zhengde is qualified to be in charge of the government.

At this time, the ministers were shocked to find that their knowledge of Emperor Zhengde was still blank.I only know that the emperor was willful and mischievous when he was in the East Palace, but no one knows what kind of character Long Live Lord is, whether he is a wise man or a fool, and how capable he is of governing.In the future, I will be in charge of the government, and I don't know what attitude I will have towards the courtiers.

Although the situation in the court has been a little chaotic this year, it is all within the controllable range.

Looking back now, everyone was surprised to find that whether it was the chaos after King Huai's rebellion or the corruption of the state after the Zhending flood, Queen Mother Zhang was able to deal with it calmly and kept the court in order, showing that Showing superb political skills, this has to be admired.

At the most critical moment, after the Empress Dowager Zhang listened to the government behind the curtain, she did not make any major adjustments to the government. She still followed the rules of the Hongzhi Dynasty and trusted civil servants.

Today, Emperor Zhengde is about to take charge of the government. If he implements the New Deal, will the civil servants still be as comfortable as before?

At this time, the ministers suddenly felt a little lost, and even thought: It would be great if His Majesty the Emperor was a few years younger.

Of course, political things have nothing to do with ordinary people in the capital.

After a long period of peace and a prosperous life, a huge citizen class has formed in several major political and economic metropolises in the Ming Dynasty.

Especially in places like the capital, housing prices and land prices are high, and the total number of migrants who come to Beijing for business, business, exams, and study tours every year remains at around [-].As long as you have a room in the capital and rent it out, the rent alone is enough for the food and clothing of the whole family, and you don't need to go out to work so hard.

With money and leisure, after solving the basic food and clothing problems, there is a higher level of requirements for spiritual life.Hearing, listening to music, eating wine, drinking tea, and even playing money and whoring, playing mistresses have entered the daily life of citizens.

At the feet of the Son of Heaven, prosperity is prosperity, but it may not be the most benevolent area.

Since the second half of this year, a novel called "A Dream of Red Mansions" has become popular in Beijing.

This book was produced by the royal family of Neishutang, the paper is of high quality, and each book can be sold for three renminbi.

Of course, there is no such thing as genuine editions these days. Within two months after a book is released, as long as it sells well, a large number of pirated editions will appear immediately.Like "A Dream of Red Mansions", in addition to the Neishutang edition, there are also "Wind into the Pine" edition, "Tingyulou" edition, "Drunk Awakening Stone" edition, and a messy edition.

The "Wind into the Pine" version is better. Other versions of "A Dream of Red Mansions" have very poor paper, and some are even so bad that they can be used to fight fires after reading it.

As soon as the book came out, it became popular immediately.

It is really well written. The book is about the love and grievances between a group of wealthy men and women.

As usual, this kind of book can be directly classified as Fengyue Shuer.

But when they saw the author's signature, no one made irresponsible remarks.

The person who wrote this book is Su Mu Su Ziqiao, the most talented person in the world, and his book can be read as an ordinary pornographic book.No matter what you do, you have to see the essence through the phenomenon, and through the love of men and women, you can realize some philosophy of life.

Besides, this book was handed down from the palace, it is a desk book for the Cisheng Empress Dowager to govern the country and family.

Therefore, as soon as this book came out, it became popular immediately.

Not only ordinary people buy a book to read it obsessively, and want to lust for the romantic men and women in the Grand View Courtyard, but even scholars will buy a book by the way, savoring the poems and sentences in it carefully, and thinking: We scholars, the ultimate goal of studying imperial examinations is To be an official and enter the examination, he was appointed as a marquis and worshiped as a prime minister.It turned out that this prince's family lived such a life, such a rich and noble experience is not in vain in the world.

In addition to the good sales of novels, recently the opera troupe in the capital has also invited famous contemporary songwriters to rehearse the play relying on the stories in "A Dream of Red Mansions".What Daiyu buried flowers, Xiangyun was drunk.

If it is said that Su Mu's reputation was only limited to the literary world before, but now, it is widely known by the middle and lower class people.

The snow is falling, and the year is coming to an end.While entertaining, people will inevitably buy new year's goods, clean the house, and prepare for the new year.

Su Mu's family was not immune either.

Early in the morning, Xiaodie called everyone up to clean the door: "Hurry up, the master will return to the house in a few days. Also, Master Wu will also be transferred back to the capital. If there is no accident, Madam I have to come back from Yangzhou too. The courtyards of Master Wu and Master Wu have not been lived in for a few days, and they all need to be cleaned. Our master likes to be clean the most, and there is no dust in sight."