The middle-aged fat man was "wise and powerful" and "wise king of all ages" and praised him, which attracted many tea lovers to agree.

After drinking another pot of good tea, the middle-aged fat man and Wen Sheng got up and left the teahouse with pride.

"That seems to be Boss Qian of Hechunlou." A tea chef said to his deskmate familiarly: "It has a very backstage, no one dares to make trouble in Hechunlou."

"Hechunlou--" The tea chef at the same table showed a look that men knew, and laughed: "The top brand is as beautiful as a fairy, very good, very good!"

Not to mention the reactions of the tea shops, I just talked about the middle-aged fat man and Wensheng leaving the teahouse and walking on the street and chatting.

"Brother Qian--" Wen Sheng finally didn't have to bear it anymore and said with a sneer: "In public, can you say that you are a businessman? How can you say it out loud?"

Fatty Qian didn't care and said with a smile: "How come it is different, there is a buying and a sale. Besides, taking the opportunity to praise the emperor is also loyal to the emperor and patriotism!"

Wensheng shook his head and teased: "Do you want the girls in the building to keep the 'Sage's Wisdom' all day long?"

Fatty Qian was about to reply, but saw a Dongchang man coming hurriedly and quickly calmed his expression.

"Sir Qian goes to the Meridian Gate quickly, and the factory supervisor will meet the summons." The Dongchang man walked past Fat Qian and left only a word, and left without looking back.

Fatty Qian and Wen Sheng looked at each other and their faces became solemn. Fatty Qian turned around and attracted the servants who followed him, turned over and rode his horse, and moved quickly and headed towards the imperial city.

…………………………

In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the gentry group continued to decay and gradually became a huge vested interest group.

In historical records, we can see that this group is complex and extends to all levels from top to bottom.

In the court, they fought endlessly to eliminate dissidents; in the local area, they plundered people's wealth, only cared for their own interests, regardless of national interests and the lives of the people.

Even in the battle at the highest level, this group can influence the imperial power, that is, the inheritance of the throne.

The battle of great etiquette, the theory of the conferred title of the three kings, and the battle of the palace case were superficially high-sounding Confucian morality, but in fact it was for the interests of our group and our party.

The vested interest groups are so powerful, why did Zhu Youxiao dare to make a bold reform and continue to deepen?

The reason is very simple. He saw through the essence of this group. It seems strong, but it is actually weak; it seems united and external, but it actually falls apart when it is in danger.

Moreover, it is not that the imperial power cannot fight this interest group. Instead, it starts from the perspective of feudal emperors, provoking internal struggles and balancing, which is in line with the emperor's minds and is conducive to the stability of imperial power.

The emperors of the Ming Dynasty were skillful in playing this set of games of throne.

Whether it is Jiajing, who was cultivating immortals, Wanli who was staying in the palace, or the little carpenter in history, they seem to be inactive, but they all firmly grasp the imperial power and government affairs.

The reason is simple. No matter how unemployed the emperor is, he knows to firmly grasp the army. The civil service group in the court seems to be strong, but it is just that he has not crossed the emperor's bottom line and is too lazy to deal with them.

Taking the great ritual dispute as an example, in order to prove that "my father is my father", Emperor Jiajing was almost enemies with all the civil servants in the court.

Therefore, more than 200 civil officials, wearing "justice" official uniforms and claiming that "the country has raised scholars for 150 years and died after adhering to integrity and righteousness, is today", knocked on the quid at Zuoshunmen and shook the door, "the sound shook the quid court."

What was the result? The emperor was sentenced to prison and torture, suspended from office and was punished, and he was beaten to death with a combination of punches, and all of them closed their mouths.

Is it true that I give you face?! I don’t have to deal with it. Emperor Jiajing’s victory fully proves that the result of “sticking the face” is not wonderful.

Zhu Youxiao also regarded this example as a manifestation of the weakness of the civil servant group. How come you are imprisoned, suspended, tortured, punished, and suspended salary? Are you bastards still reluctant to leave your official positions and shamelessly continuing to be officials?

If you have the ability, you will get out of here. I want to see if the court can operate and the sky can collapse?

Some people want to become an official, but they hope to be promoted. Those who want to take up a position should get out of here and make room for themselves!

The reason why Zhu Youxiao was able to achieve the goal of purging the court in a short period of time was that he supported the imperial power and the army as a backer, and secondly, he did not play according to common sense and did not balance it.

There is almost no difference in the crackdown, and the party officials of Donglin, Chu, Zhejiang and other party are all involved. Those involved in party disputes, those who wantonly attack, those who do not do practical things, or those who are corrupt will be taken down without mercy.

Such an operation was obviously shocking and caught off guard. When the civil servant group recovered, a large number of backbone forces had been convicted or left, and the emperor's sword waved towards the local officials again.

As Zhu Youxiao judged, a group of officials were eliminated and another group of officials came forward. Most people wisely chose the latter when it came to the question of whether to continue to stick to the previous way of becoming an official or obeying the emperor.

In addition to the emperors such as Sun Chengzong, Li Qiyuan, Bi Zisu, and Tao Langxian, who personally promoted and appointed confidants, even if they were superficially obedient, it was very important for Zhu Youxiao to promote reform.

Of course, not many people know the emperor's ambitions. Most people attribute the implementation of the emperor's policies to insufficient finances and the huge expenses of war. The emperor had to do so.

What I want to create is a Ming Dynasty that never sets. What is Jiannu and what is the local chief? My eyes are the whole world.

For this goal, I am furious and even afraid of myself!

Zhu Youxiao looked through the newspaper. Although he had his original words, his pen was polished very well, which made him very satisfied.

Although the order was issued for raising commercial taxes and cracking down on collusion between officials and businessmen, it was still not clear enough, which made Zhu Youxiao feel a little lacking.

Now, the Supreme Emperor of Nine Five has spoken, and see who dares to blow up his wings and who dares to speak out.

Zhu Youxiao put down the newspaper with satisfaction, picked up the teacup and took a sip. Then he saw Wang Tiqian hurried in, kneeling down to report: Wei Zhongxian, the admiral of the East Factory, brought the first money Baihua to the palace to meet.

Old Wei has not entered the palace for some days, but this time he brought a stall with him. I don’t know what important matters are. Zhu Youxiao put down his teacup and ordered the palace servant to summon him.

Soon, Eunuch Wei brought Qian Baihua into the hall, knelt down and kowtowed, saying "Long live".

"Get up!" Zhu Youxiao said casually: "Wei Ban, suddenly entered the palace, why report?"

Wei Zhongxian hurriedly took out the question book and bowed to Wang Tiqian who was walking over.

After taking the question book submitted by Wang Tiqian, Zhu Youxiao opened it and looked at it, his face became serious, and even showed a little bit of anger.

But after more than a year of training and habits, the emperor had become much more calm. After reading the question book with a gloomy face, he rarely did not get angry.

Eunuch Wei looked at the emperor secretly and saw that he had put down the question book, but he pondered and bowed again, waiting for the emperor's inquiry.

"Are you sure Wu Changchun has not spyed on important information?" The emperor finally spoke and asked in a deep voice.

Wu Changchun is the son-in-law of the great traitor Li Yongfang, and he also married the daughter of Zhao Yihe, a central officer under Li Yongfang, as his concubine.

In the 46th year of Wanli, that is, the year when Li Yongfang surrendered, he was sent to Beijing to lurk.

In the first year of Tianqi, Liaoyang fell, and Wu Changchun secretly came to Juehua Island near Ningyuan to meet Li Yushan sent by Li Yongfang.

Li Yushan gave Wu Changchun 700 taels of silver to fund the activity and conveyed Li Yongfang's instructions to ask him to pay attention to collecting information in the capital.

If there is any important information, it will be sent to a home named Chen Yijing in Pingdu, Shandong, and then Chen Yijing will be sent to the Houjin side.

After receiving funds and receiving tasks, Wu Changchun returned to Beijing and began active activities to try to invade the top leaders of the Ming Dynasty in order to obtain important information.

As for important information, military is the first priority. Therefore, Wu Changchun targeted the position of the Ministry of War. He pretended to be the dead Dabo Wu Yiyang's martial arts resume and began to operate.

Through a man named Zhou Yingyuan, Wu Changchun met Ji Yingcheng and other officials of the Ministry of War, and used money to open the way and bribed these officials to get himself into the Ministry of War.

If the matter could be done, Wu Changchun promised a reward of 1,400 taels of silver and paid 450 taels of activity in advance.

Ji Yingcheng and others took the benefits of Wu Changchun and helped him with his affairs. They really got Wu Changchun the position of garrison in the Ministry of War, and even the appointment documents were issued.

But just when Wu Changchun was so happy, someone reported that Wu Changchun was an impostor and that his qualifications for martial arts were fake.

In fact, this person didn't know Wu Changchun's background, and just wanted to blackmail Wu Changchun with this matter and blackmail a sum of money as a hush fee.

Ji Yingcheng knew about the report and exposed. He was afraid that he would be implicated, so he took back the appointment document of the Ministry of War from Wu Changchun.

The money was spent, but Guan'er didn't make it. Wu Changchun was so lucky.

Seven hundred taels of silver seem to be a lot, but the people can't earn so much after working hard all their lives.

But for Wu Changchun, he rented a house in Beijing and bought a prostitute named Li Feng'er... The girl was free and happy, and 700 taels of silver was not enough to spend!

So Wu Changchun left the capital and wanted to sneak back to Liaodong and get some funds back. However, after the Battle of Guangning, the Ming army implemented strategic contraction and moved all the Liao people, which was equivalent to cutting off the source of Later Jin intelligence.

When Wu Changchun came to Shanhaiguan, he found that he could not do anything to sneak back to the territory occupied by the Later Jin Dynasty, so he had no choice but to return to Beijing again.

It was really sad that he had no money in his hand, so Wu Changchun sold Li Feng'er to a man named Xue Yingkui for 80 taels of silver.

Xue Yingkui sold Li Feng'er to Hechun Tower for 150 taels of silver.

When Wu Changchun was living with Li Feng'er and was fooling around, he once said drunk and nonsense, and he was careless and exposed his details.

But Wu Changchun obviously didn't remember or forgot about this matter, and even sold Li Feng'er who was informed, laying a fatal hidden danger for her exposure.

Li Feng'er was not trying to pick up customers at Hechun Tower, but she didn't intend to harm Wu Changchun. Perhaps she didn't take this matter seriously. So, she was not careful and she shook Wu Changchun's affairs out.

Where is Hechunlou? It is the key place for Dongchang to collect information. Not only are there many eyeliners, but even the bosses who are named are all the money from Dongchang. How can you let go of this important information?

Originally, the Emperor's responsibilities were set by the Emperor.

Therefore, the Dongchang paid more attention to the collection of information in the city, and the prostitutes... not only have all kinds of people, but also places where officials and literati enjoy themselves and show off, but also a key group of people that the emperor needs to monitor.

But with such an important clue at once, Eunuch Wei was not so noble and Liangjie, so he handed over the case to the Fufu Department to make meritorious service.

The Dongchang man was sent to secretly arrest Wu Changchun and successfully interrogated the confession. Eunuch Wei quickly brought Qian Baihua, the direct solver, to rob the merits.

Hearing the emperor's inquiry, Eunuch Wei hurriedly bowed and replied, "Don't worry, the information collected by Wu Changchun is not important, and there is no chance to send it out. This is all the trick of the emperor's wisdom and moving all the Liao people into the pass."

Zhu Youxiao felt quite comfortable with Eunuch Wei so naturally. That was it. If it weren’t for the strategic contraction and the Liao people moved in, how could he cut off the intelligence transmission route of the Later Jin Dynasty?

Of course, various ancient conditions also determined the difficulty of spy work.

Taking Wu Changchun as an example, his infiltration into the capital was equivalent to breaking contact with the Later Jin Dynasty. Because he was the only one who went to find the Later Jin Dynasty, the Later Jin Dynasty wanted to send someone to find him, which was a bit like looking for a needle in a haystack.

This is why Li Yongfang took great pains to establish the information line of the Fan family in Shanxi, but he could not send someone to connect the line of Wu Changchun.

Zhu Youxiao pondered for a long time and looked up and asked, "Wu Changchun is tough in his attitude. Is it easy or difficult for you to review the confession?"

Wei Zhongxian looked at Qian Baihua and signaled him to answer.

Qian Baihua quickly bowed and said, "Long live back, Wu Changchun is a cartilage. Before he was executed, he admitted it all and even swears to serve the Ming Dynasty."

Zhu Youxiao's lips pursed slightly, showed a trace of contemptuous sneer, looked at Wei Zhongxian, and asked, "Wei Ban thought what should we do with Wu Changchun?"

When Wei Zhongxian came, he also made speculations that the emperor would probably be furious and cut Wu Changchun into pieces. Those officials who accepted bribes and provided convenience for Wu Changchun to enter the Ministry of War are also in danger.

But as soon as the emperor asked, Eunuch Wei felt that he had guessed wrongly. The emperor was not furious, and his questions were ambiguous, and it seemed that he was a bit of a test.

"Go back to the emperor, I think killing Wu Changchun may have the effect of serving as a warning." Eunuch Wei peeked at the emperor's expression, paused for a moment and continued, "But if he spared his life, it might be more effective in the future."

Zhu Youxiao smiled, not expressing his plans for having just been born, nor criticizing Eunuch Wei's ambiguous answer. He pointed at Qian Baihua and asked, "What do you think you should deal with it?"

Qian Baihua bowed and replied, "I thought I could keep Wu Changchun's life for a while, because he was Li Yongfang's son-in-law, and he might write some articles in the future."

That's right, Wu Changchun is just a pawn, and killing him is just a vent of anger and has no effect.

But Li Yongfang, this great traitor and the spy leader of the Later Jin Dynasty, Zhu Youxiao hated him to the core.

And the special relationship between Wu Changchun and Li Yongfang is really worth writing. At least, wouldn’t it be better to cause Li Yongfang to be disturbed or even lose the trust of the Later Jin Dynasty?
Chapter completed!