The Son of Heaven has refused to go to court for ten consecutive days, and he stays in Wanjintang in the West Garden every day, eating, drinking, and having fun, and even pampering the noble concubines, all in the middle of Wanjintang's money and silk. In the past ten days, from morning to night, the carriages carrying money and silk into the palace have been flowing endlessly, without interruption from beginning to end.

The Son of Heaven has become rich.

On the eleventh day, he went to court. The Son of Heaven stood with his hands in his hands, looked at the ministers under the hall, and sneered: "Are you Aiqing very afraid? ”

Silent.

"I see that you all came with money, presumably to write a book, to advise, and to redress your grievances?"

Voiceless.

The Son of Heaven suddenly pointed his finger at the ministers and screamed hoarsely: "Thieves, you are all thieves, you are the biggest thieves in the world, you have stolen my country, my people, my palace, you have committed heinous crimes, you are heinous, you should be killed, all should be killed, I will kill you......"

The ministers were terrified, frightened, and fell to their knees.

The Son of Heaven gasped violently, and his little face turned red.

"Think about it for yourselves, how much money do you have to buy back your heads, buy back your clan children, buy back your protégés and old officials." The Son of Heaven calmed down a little and continued, "Three days, I will give you three days, otherwise you will be killed!" ”

The Son of Heaven's eyes widened suddenly, and said gloomily: "Is there anything else in the book?" ”

There was a dead silence in the hall, and the tension was almost suffocating.

"Is there any other advice?"

The Son of Heaven looked around at the ministers, his face full of disdain, and suddenly, he waved his hands and roared furiously: "Get out, get out of here......

The ministers rushed back as if they were on the verge of amnesty.

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Situ Cui Lie, Sikong Xu Xiang, Yang Qin in the Imperial History, and Shangshu Lu Zhi did not go home directly after the court, and went straight to Yuan's mansion.

In the eyes of the ministers, today's son has always been a mediocre, muddy, arrogant, lascivious, and extravagant person. Although they shouted "long live" in their mouths and looked like gods, they actually treated him as a waste, an idiot, and a pustule in their hearts. Unexpectedly, it was such a person, but without them noticing, they quietly launched an anti-corruption operation, and this anti-corruption storm was like a storm, giving them a heavy blow. Relatives, traitors, and the three major forces of the clan were all hit hard overnight.

Yuan Kui fell ill. His family's protégés and former officials were the most arrested. The Yuan family from Yuan An to Yuan Kui, the four generations and five people are the three dukes, the power is overwhelming, the children of the clan, the protégés and the old officials, I am afraid that the Yang family valve who is the first in the Han Dynasty is also sighing to himself. In this storm, Yuan's gate valve suffered the greatest loss. As the head of the family, Yuan Kui was angry and anxious, heartache and worry, and finally couldn't support it and lay down.

Several people comforted Yuan Kui a few words, and then discussed how to deal with it.

"We have been focusing our attention on Xiliang and Li Hong, but we have neglected the capital we are in, our opponents, and the Son of Heaven, so that we have lost today. It's a painful lesson. Yuan Kui waited for everyone to sit down, sighed, and said with emotion.

The hearts of the people were heavy, and they were speechless.

"Today, in the court, everyone wrote a letter of complaint and advice, what did Your Majesty say?"

Cui Lie smiled bitterly: "The boss must not believe it when he says it, thinking that I am talking nonsense." Then he briefly recounted the events of today's court and asked, "Do you believe it, sir?" How did the Son of Heaven suddenly change? ”

Yuan Kui thought for a moment and said, "In this way, Your Majesty has no intention of continuing to investigate. He still wants to take the opportunity to make money. ”

Lu Zhi said indignantly: "Although Your Majesty has no intention of pursuing it, he said it very clearly, those who are involved in Xiliang's corruption must be conscious and return the money to him." Where is he taking the opportunity to make money, he is clearly extortion. ”

"What about extortion?" Xu Xiang said, "Your Majesty understands very clearly, he just wants us to pay for our own officials." Zigan, don't be lucky, you still have to pay some money when it's time to pay some money, don't get caught again like last time. Last time, in order to exonerate you, I turned a lot of money into a lot of money and took a lot of twists and turns. If you knew this, you might as well use your money to bribe Zuo Feng at the beginning, and you would have suffered a lot less. Don't lose your temper again this time. If you don't have any money, I'll give it to you, isn't it six million dollars? ”

Yang Qin reluctantly smiled in the imperial history: "If you make some money, you can make some money." First, we ourselves can be spared, and second, those who are caught can be redeemed unscathed. Money is a thing, you can still earn it back, less is less, it doesn't matter, just when we satisfy Your Majesty's hobby. Speaking of which, Your Majesty is very gracious this time. His Majesty has arrested many people and has a lot of evidence in his hands, but so far he has neither held us accountable nor beheaded those arrested officials, except for the money he has stolen. ”

Yuan Kui, Cui Lie and the others nodded, feeling that what Yang Qin said was also reasonable.

Yuan Kui stroked his long beard and said slowly: "Your Majesty is such a smart person, why haven't we seen it in the past?" He took advantage of Xiliang's corruption to suppress us, the traitorous eunuchs, and the power of his relatives, not only took the opportunity to collect money and win the hearts of the people, but also quickly built up the power of the clan in order to compete with us. Don't you see? ”

Cui Lie bowed slightly, and said: "The power of the clan is already very strong, and now, with the deliberate support of His Majesty, it has already fought against us. We didn't know anything about this arrest in advance, because His Majesty completely abandoned us, and kept the traitors and relatives strictly confidential, and did not leak a drop of water. His Majesty used the guards Liu Ting and Guangluxun Liu Yu to control the northern and southern armies respectively. Inside and outside the palace, echoing each other from afar, caught us off guard. ”

"This year, His Majesty has lost trust in the traitors and has begun to reuse the royal family members." Xu Xiang said, "At the beginning of the year, His Majesty promoted Liu Yan from Nanyang Taishou to Zongzheng, and from Zongzheng to Taichang. Liu Yu is also promoted from Pingyuan to Shangshu, and then from Shangshu to Guangluxun. Captain Liu Ting was quickly promoted by the bus commander. Now even Liu Yu's son Liu He is a talker. ”

"It's glad that His Majesty doesn't trust the eunuch, but because of our long confrontation with the eunuch, His Majesty is very wary of us, and this time he doesn't even trust us. We people are loyal to the Great Han Kingdom and His Majesty, but we are always suspicious of His Majesty......" He shook his head again and again, looking very discouraged.

"Although the people in the clan are noble, they are still mainly scholars, and they have a deep relationship with us, and our goals are the same in the matter of cracking down on traitors, so I don't think it's a bad thing for the clan's power to become stronger." Lu Zhi analyzed: "As the power of the royal family grows stronger, the power of the traitors will be further weakened. If we join forces with the forces of our relatives headed by the general to fight against the traitors, I am afraid that their lives will be even more difficult. ”

"Nope." Cui Lie waved his hand vigorously and said, "No, Lord Lu's words are not right. Now we are not joining forces against the eunuchs, but we are going to join forces against the other forces. If this force is not extinguished immediately, it will directly threaten the safety of the Great Han Kingdom. ”

"You mean Li Hong?" Yuan Kui asked.

"Yes, we've talked about him many times. Although we tried our best to kill him, even joining forces with the eunuchs to deal with him, we still couldn't kill him. Cui Lie sighed, "Have you noticed that this time the Son of Heaven and Li Hong launched an anti-corruption and arrest operation in Guanzhong and Kandong at the same time, and the strength and viciousness of the methods displayed are terrifying. If this time it is not the fight against corruption, but His Majesty's elimination of dissidents, what will be the result? I'm afraid we're going to be caught by them all when we're defenseless, right? ”

"What we had feared before has finally come to fruition." Cui Lie looked at the few people present and continued, "This slave from Northern Xinjiang doesn't understand anything, he's an idiot, but it's this kind of person who is terrifying. He is loyal to the Son of Heaven, absolutely loyal, so if the Son of Heaven has the heart to use him and keep him firmly in his hands all the time, as His Majesty's own strong strength, then what should we do? Waiting to be killed? With Li Hong's current strength, he can not only destroy us, but also destroy the traitorous relatives, and in the future, he can also destroy the Great Han Kingdom. This potential hazard, we must deal with it as soon as possible. ”

Yuan Kui nodded frequently, brushed his beard and said, "My lord is right. Last year, Huangfu Song held a heavy army and his prestige was skyrocketing, and the Son of Heaven also trusted him very much and was favored. However, we and other forces in the DPRK and China were worried that the power of Huangfu Song would swell in the future, which would be detrimental to the country, so we joined forces to persuade His Majesty to take the opportunity to relieve Huang Fu Song of his military power and dismiss him. Unexpectedly, the tiger of Huangfu Song left, but the leopard of Li Hong came. This bloody leopard has killed us terribly. He sighed, and then said, "If I knew this, it would be better to let Huangfu Song quell the rebellion in Xiliang and put this barbarian in the northern Xinjiang to guard the border pass." Huangfu Song was born in a wealthy family, is loyal, and abides by the festival of monarchs and ministers, so he should not do anything cheating. He got along well with us at the time, and we should have wooed him instead of ......"

He said regretfully: "If he is in Xiliang now, how can this kind of thing happen? ”

There was silence in the room. If you knew this was the case, why bother in the first place. It's too late to regret it now.

After a while, Yang Qin asked, "What tricks does Lord Situ have?" The methods used by the eunuchs were brutal and ineffective. A group of villains, in addition to harming others and making money, I really don't know what else they can do? Several assassination attempts were unsuccessful. We tried our best to trick the leopard into Jincheng, but we still didn't kill him. Yang Qin said hatefully: "A bunch of incompetent eunuchs. ”

Cui Lie smiled and did not answer. He said to Yuan Kui: "Tomorrow, the general will have a treat." I went to the General's Mansion and chatted with the General and Marquis Zhao. ”

＝

Taiwei Zhang Wen received the holy decree of the Son of Heaven and led the Taiwei Mansion back to Chang'an to deal with some matters related to the aftermath of the Western Expedition.

Lord Taiwei was in a bad mood. Although the Xiliang rebellion under his command lasted a year and finally ended victoriously, he was really not happy. Ever since Li Hong took matters into his own hands and began a bloody crackdown on corruption in Xiliang, he has fallen into extreme passivity. Now, under the personal command of the Son of Heaven, Xiliang has entered a period of full-scale outbreak, and all the forces in the DPRK and China have appeared one after another, and the entire Han Kingdom has been swept into this storm.

Zhang Wen was lucky to be out of this storm. He watched coldly, and it was clear that he knew that his career had come to an end.

Li Hong led the Jizhou army to Xiliang in time to save Zhang Wen in the crisis; After Li Hong led his troops to win successive battles, Zhang Wen once felt that he would be brilliant. When the traitorous eunuchs in Kyoto were ready to wantonly bully a meritorious man as they had done in the past for a little profit, Zhang Wen actually acquiesced. For the sake of his own petty profits, he not only did not stand up to defend his subordinates, but succumbed to the obscenity of the traitors. Zhang Wen's mistake eventually led to the outbreak of the Xiliang anti-corruption storm, and thus shattered the balance between the forces of the Han Dynasty.

Zhang Wen has been reflecting and looking for the gains and losses in the process of counterinsurgency in Xiliang. In the end, he came to the conclusion that he could go home and recuperate. He is old, he has too many concerns, and gains and losses and fame and fortune have smoothed out his sharpness. He can no longer be like a leopard, galloping freely on the battlefield and doing whatever he wants.

His fate has been tightly tied to Li Hong's fate. Li Hong is dead, he is the scapegoat for this storm, if Li Hong continues to live and live in a beautiful way, he will be able to survive, and even still enjoy official luck. But he couldn't see any hope for Li Hong to live. This man, except for the Son of Heaven, has already offended all the bureaucrats of the country. It would be a miracle if he could survive like this.

He couldn't see Li Hong's hope of survival, nor could he see his peaceful old age, so he was in a bad mood.

Gaehoon walked in lightly. Zhang Wen looked up at him and asked, "Does Your Majesty have a holy decree?" ”

Gai Xun shook his head and said, "My lord, you can stay in Chang'an for a while, rest well, and see the movements in Luoyang." If things in Luoyang slowly subside, it's not too late for you to go back. ”

"The situation in Luoyang is already very clear, the Son of Heaven has no intention of curing corruption, his purpose is very simple, everyone takes the money and leaves, the sooner the better. I heard that His Majesty has not been to the court for a long time, and he stays in the West Garden every day to collect money. Zhang Wen smiled bitterly, "Neither of us is in Luoyang, so this money is left." ”

Gai Xun was stunned for a moment, then burst out laughing. Zhang Wen was infected by him, thinking about the busy appearance of the Son of Heaven collecting money in the West Garden, and finally couldn't help laughing wildly.

"Li Hong is different, he came to Xiliang and Guanzhong to be real, and he is still in full swing to torture the arrested officials, so he has to find out the big names in the court. I've heard that he's killed several of them. The Son of Heaven collects money over there, and he doesn't release people here at all, and something will happen sooner or later. Gai Xun wiped the tears from the smile on his face and said, "If the Son of Heaven finishes letting everyone go in Luoyang and takes back all the money, and this kid is still working hard here, it is estimated that the situation will be unfavorable for him." ”

Zhang Wen sighed helplessly, shook his head, and said, "Let him do whatever he wants." This kid is ruthless and very cunning, and it is difficult for anyone to deal with him. We recommended him to Jincheng with the intention of killing him, but he came back unharmed, and I don't know what he had in mind. There is also that batch of evidence, I don't know what went wrong in the middle, Nan Rong didn't get it, and finally got it for him. ”

"Don't think too much, adults." Gai Xun said, "If this kid's luck has always been so good, we can also stick to the light." ”

"Forget it, don't count on it." Zhang Wen said, "I went back to Luoyang this time, and I guess no one paid attention to it." I'm the least popular person in Luoyang now. ”

The two were chatting here without saying a word, when Huangfu Li walked in with a letter.

"My lord, my father sent a letter from a horse."

Zhang Wen and Gai Xun glanced at each other, and their hearts suddenly became uneasy. At this time, Huangfu Song sent 100,000 people to send a letter urgently, affirming that something big had happened in Luoyang.

Zhang Wen hurriedly opened the bamboo slip, and after hurriedly scanning it, his face was a little ugly. He stood up and handed the letter to Gai Xun.

"Traitors mislead the country, traitors mislead the country." After Gai Xun finished reading it, he covered the scroll and sighed.

Zhang Wen frowned tightly and paced back and forth in the room, refusing to give up.

"My lord, you'd better go, or you'll ......"

Zhang Wen stopped and looked at Gai Xun, with a trace of tears in his eyes.

"My hard work for more than a year, more than a year of hard work." Zhang Wen shook his head vigorously and said bitterly, "If this continues, how can my Great Han Kingdom prosper......

Gai Xun smiled coldly, pointed at Huangfu Li and said, "Immediately send eight hundred miles to ride on the Book of Heaven, saying that Lord Taiwei suddenly fell seriously ill and urgently needed to return to Beijing for treatment." ”

＝

Dong Zhuo has been very angry recently, drinking in the camp every day, listening to female music, and scolding people.

Li Hong personally led a team to raid his home. Although his younger brother Dong Min ran away with a group of henchmen overnight after receiving Dong Zhuo's warning, and transferred the family's money, Li Hong was very persistent and searched his house vigorously, even demolished the wall, and finally almost demolished the dock fort. Li Hong didn't find anything, so he took his family away.

Dong Zhuo was furious after receiving the report and took his men to intercept it. Li Hong didn't drag him at all, he took out the holy decree very arrogantly, and after reading it triumphantly, he escorted people away. Dong Zhuo was so angry that he wanted to kill him.

On this day, the decree of the Son of Heaven came.

Song Dian immediately returned to Beijing. Dong Zhuo immediately led his troops to Beidi County in Xiliang, and it was said that there was a rebellion in Lingqiang.

＝

At the same time, Li Hong also received a holy decree.

The holy decree demanded that Li Hong immediately lead his troops back to the camp in Huaili. He will continue to be responsible for the anti-corruption in Xiliang, but he hopes that he will end the anti-corruption as soon as possible so that he can lead his troops back to Jizhou as soon as possible.

Xu Rong, Lu Yi, and Hua Xiong continued to lead the army to garrison the Zixiu Mountain camp, and they were all under the control of Liangzhou Thorn Shi Geng.

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