Zhou Kui was scared and surrounded him with great fear. Even when facing the tortures in the prison of Zhao, he had at least not experienced the experience of what he could stand before. But when he was with Luo Xiaoba, he was scared and urinated.

Luo Xiaoba is a perverted murderous demon. Although he was tortured by the Jinyiwei, his thin body seemed to be left with only a skeleton. But the more this happens, the more terrifying it looks.

After eight years of endless torture in the imperial prison, it is better than a knife to add a neck. Luo Xiaoba is worse than death, but this is also his fault.

For eight years, he had eaten food like water, but he was not dead yet. So, when he met Zhou Kui who was locked up with him, he stretched out his nose and sniffed desperately.

"Meat, I want to eat meat, it smells so good. Give me a bite, just one bite."

As he said that, Luo Xiaoba opened his incomplete mouthful of yellow teeth and screamed at Zhou Kui with grinning.

The dignified father-in-law Zhou Kui had seen such a formation there. He was so scared that he was scattered. A smelly liquid flowed down his trouser legs, and he was so scared that he was so scared that he was urinating.

Fortunately, Luo Xiaoba was tied to his hands and feet by an iron chain that was thick with his arms, and the other end of the chain was nailed to the wall. Zhou Kui could only be in one corner of the cell, Luo Xiaoba was swaying at him, but it was always a few feet away.

"Help, help, help, help, let go of me, let go of me! I said, I will say whatever you ask, I will say."

Zhou Kui's psychological defense completely collapsed, so he simply took everything. Because he knew his identity, even if he confessed all of them, he could at least save his life.

I am the emperor's grandfather and the empress dowager's biological father. No matter what, my identity as a royal relative will not change. If I can spare my life by chance, I will be content.

It's better than facing this cannibal demon. Maybe Luo Xiaoba will pounce on him and bite him.

This is even more terrifying than killing himself. Zhou Kui's psychological defense collapsed, and the Jinyiwei began to interrogate overnight.

This is just one of the means to interrogate the prisoners in the prison, and other more terrifying methods of interrogation have not been used. Even so, Zhou Kui also tricked them all.

The more the trial continued, the more shocking the case became. Zhu Cilang finally underestimated Zhou Kui. Unexpectedly, Zhou Kui, who seemed to be unrevealed in recent years, became the most greedy person in the Ming Dynasty.

Since Zhu Cixuan succeeded to the throne, Zhou Kui has been managing Xishan. Although when the dividends were distributed at the end of the year, Zhu Cixuan always allowed Zhou Kui to continue to invest in the expansion of the glass factory with the reasons of investment. However, over the years, Zhou Kui has still used various means to gain a lot of wealth from it.

If it is easy to say that the money from Xishan Glass Factory is embezzled, but Zhou Kui has done a lot of business of buying and selling officials in private. However, what he does are promotions of local officials. The biggest one is to spend money to buy a county magistrate.

Three years after the Qing Dynasty, there were 100,000 silver silver. It seemed that the small county magistrates in this place were inconspicuous. In fact, if those officials wanted to buy a vacancies for the magistrate from Zhou Kui, they needed 80,000 taels of silver.

This is just the initial price. Now with the rise in productivity of the Ming Dynasty and the addition of factors such as inflation, if you want to buy a county magistrate from Zhou Kui, you need 500,000 taels of silver.

This is such a terrifying number. You should know that during the reign of Emperor Chongzhen, the annual income of the entire treasury was only more than four million taels.

Although the annual tax revenue of the treasury is calculated by hundreds of millions of taels, that is, the annual tax revenue of the treasury is as high as billions of taels of silver. You can buy a county magistrate for 500,000 taels of silver, after all, it is not a small amount.

This is just the price of buying an official. After those officials who spent a lot of money to buy the magistrate, they naturally had to make back the bribe money after taking any of them.

Doing this would be like causing heavy disasters to the local people. No wonder Zhu Cixuan found many clues when reviewing the political achievements of officials from all over the country.

Some counties that are obviously quite rich have repeatedly experienced deficiencies. In recent years, Zhu Cixuan has invested a lot of manpower, material and financial resources in building water conservancy and improving people's living standards in recent years, so he did not take it seriously.

But judging from Zhou Kui's confession, the Ming Dynasty officialdom was definitely not as honest as it seemed on the surface. Behind it, there were still many dirty transactions.

This is just an interrogation of Zhou Kui, a father-in-law, who actually involved so many interests. Zhou Kui's mansion searched for a total of 12 million taels of silver.

Where did this money come from? It was naturally Zhou Kui's corruption. The case was so widespread that even Zhu Cilang unexpectedly. Five officials were caught in the Ministry of Personnel alone. Among them, two of them committed suicide at home.

Officials from other departments involved a total of 131 people in the Zhou Kui corruption case, including administrative officials in various places.

A Zhou Kui was searched and half of the officials in Suzhou and Hangzhou were dismissed. This made Zhu Cilang very angry, and he began to start a new round of anti-corruption in the court.

In the Huangji Palace, Zhu Cilang's eyes were cold. The officials below were silent.

On the imperial table in front of the emperor, there were files of the searching of the father-in-law Zhou Kui and the eunuch Shangshen supervisor Chen Degui. The case was so involved that it caused a great sensation in the court. At this time, Zhu Cixuan summoned all the ministers to start a new round of anti-corruption in the court.

"Why don't you talk anymore? You loyal ministers. On weekdays, aren't you anxious to show how honest and honest you are? Look at the court, you are all hypocritical. Behind you, who knows how much you have embezzled!"

"I should die if I am guilty of being punished." The ministers knelt down one after another, and someone was nervous and sweating in secret.

Zhu Cilang looked up at the hall: "I know, I know that there are still many bad sheep among you. But today I will tell you on this Huangji Hall. If I throw it away and don't repent, I will sooner or later find your head. What you plunder is all about the people's fat and ointment. What you drink is the blood of the people and eat the meat of the people. The people are my people. Whoever dares to go against the people, I will take their heads!"

Zhu Cilang became more and more excited as he spoke, and the ministers below burst into tears. The Zhou Mansion was investigated, and Zhou Kui was still imprisoned in the imperial prison. Zhu Cilang was also in a difficult situation. He had no good idea for a while to deal with his grandfather.

If you don’t kill Zhou Kui, it will be difficult to shock the little girl. If you kill Zhou Kui, then you will be your own grandfather. Not to mention that the Supreme Emperor Chongzhen would not agree, then Empress Dowager Zhou would definitely not agree, that was her father.

The message from the Empress Yi'an of Cining Palace Zhang Yan was already coming. Even the Empress Yi'an, who has always been very wise, was dissuading Zhu Ciyang. Although Empress Yi'an did not say it clearly, the meaning was already very obvious, and the father-in-law should not be killed.

Now Zhu Cilang is furious in the court, and all the officials in the court are silent. Chen Degui, the eunuch in charge of the seal of Shangshen, has been dismembered by five horses. Local magistrates who bought and sold official positions have also been punished accordingly. Those who commit serious crimes are beheaded, and those who are dismissed from office and recovered from dirty silver.

For example, an official from Haiqu County spent 130,000 taels of silver to buy a job as a magistrate of Haiqu County from his father-in-law Zhou Kui. This official had been doing business for all generations and had a huge wealth in his family. He bought this official purely for the sake of a backer of his family. After all, behind the merchants, there is a phenomenon of collusion between officials and businessmen.

And when this official took any part of the party, he actually managed Haiqu County in an orderly manner. Although he bought it as a county magistrate, he was still quite upright in the official position and was deeply loved by the local people.

After the case of Zhou Kui buying and selling officials was exposed, the official was also implicated and imprisoned. Originally, the person in the list of officials prepared by the Ministry of Justice had already been included in the column of the death row of Qiu Hou.

After reading the files and discovering the ability of this person, Zhu Cixuan made a favour with the law, and the crime of death was not allowed to be eliminated. He dismissed the Haiqu County Magistrate, fined 700,000 taels of silver, and exiled for 3,000 miles at the same time.

This is considered kind enough. The other officials involved in the case basically all fell to the ground. Only this official is still upright, so he spares his life.

Exile for three thousand miles is actually a slave to the border. However, if the family has money, they will not suffer much. However, if they perform well, they will have a chance to forgive.

At the same time, Zhu Cilang also cleaned up a group of prisoners in the imperial prison. Such as Luo Xiaoba and others were also pulled out to execute him. As for the father-in-law Zhou Kui, Zhu Cilang was indeed a little embarrassed.

After scolding the ministers, Zhu Cixuan, who had dispersed in the court, just returned to the Qianqing Palace when he heard someone crying sadly inside.

Zhu Cilang was stunned, but still walked in with a tough bullet and bowed, and then bowed: "My son has met his father and his mother."

Chongzhen, who became the Supreme Emperor, sat there with a cold face and said nothing, while Empress Dowager Zhou was crying sadly with a handkerchief. Zhu Cilang was in a mess, and it was obvious that his parents were pleading for Zhou Kui.

Strangely, Chongzhen didn't say anything. Empress Dowager Zhou, who was beside him, finally couldn't help it. She stopped crying: "Ciyang, if you become the emperor, you will not recognize your relatives. If you copy your grandfather's mansion, I won't blame you, but if you put your grandfather in the dark place in the imperial prison, what do you want to do? If you copy your Zhou mansion, you will not give up. Are you trying to destroy the clan?"

Unexpectedly, Zhu Cilang actually confronted him: "I thought about extermination of the clan, but my mother and queen are also among the nine clans."

Empress Dowager Zhou was stunned. Obviously she didn't expect Zhu Cixuan to say these ruthless words. She was stunned for a moment, then burst into tears: "Wuwuwu, listen, do you hear what this child is still talking about?"

Empress Dowager Zhou said this to Chongzhen, and Chongzhen still had a cold face: "Rebellious son! What are you talking nonsense!"
Chapter completed!