Chapter 73 I will not attend the morning court tomorrow
When Chongzhen returned to the Qianqing Palace again, he found that Wang Chengen had already prepared writing brush, ink, paper and inkstone.

"I'll write it later."

After writing two test papers in one day, even Chongzhen felt exhausted.

"Yes, Your Majesty!" Wang Chengen quickly took these things away.

But he did not leave, but continued to wait for the emperor to speak.

Chongzhen looked at the memorial on the table, and after a long while he finally spoke: "Tell me, how many people did I kill today?"

Here it comes. Wang Chengen was shocked and replied truthfully: "Your Majesty, today in the court, twenty-six corrupt officials who were in collusion with Fan Yongdou and others were executed, and Shuntian Prefecture Governor Dong Shilai was imprisoned."

"Twenty-six?"

Chongzhen stood up suddenly, his eyes wide open with anger, but when he thought about what he had seen in the examination room today, his inexplicable anger subsided a lot.

After being stunned for a while, he slowly sat down again, "What about the others?"

"The rest is the matter of borrowing horses from the Beijing camp..." Wang Chengen looked at the emperor cautiously, thinking: The emperor's illness is indeed different from before. At least... he is no longer irritable and easily angered.

"The horses of the Beijing Camp? Is Li Banghua planning to reorganize the cavalry?"

Wang Chengen lowered his head and replied, "Yes, Admiral Li has formed a 5,000-man cavalry battalion..."

After listening to this, Chongzhen's eyes flickered for a while, and he sighed, "The idea of ​​forming a cavalry battalion is good, but once this thing is borrowed, how can it be so easy to get it back?"

He once again asked Wang Chengen to bring him writing brushes, ink, paper and inkstone. The second test tomorrow would be on an essay from the Four Books and an essay on the theory of surnames or the Book of Filial Piety.

Copy one of the passages from memory, without any typos or erasures.

……

at the same time,

The night in the capital was extremely lively, as the news that the Jinyiwei was demanding debts from all officials spread like wildfire among them.

Many people also gathered in front of the Jinyiwei's door.

They all make various excuses and don’t want to pay it back.

"My ancestors fought together with Emperor Chengzu to establish the country. Who do you think you are? You actually come to my door to collect debts? Isn't this a slap in my face?"

"That's right. My grandfather died defending Beijing. I borrowed a few horses and you come to our door. Isn't that throwing shit on our faces?"

"You don't have money, but you want your life..." A nobleman lifted up his clothes, revealing the fat underneath, and pointed at his chest, "Come on, stab here."

Ma Shiwei, the deputy commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, looked at the other party and couldn't help sweating on his forehead.

He was also an old member of the Jinyiwei, and could be considered a member of the noble group. Now, seeing these guys like this, his face immediately turned green.

He suddenly pulled the nobleman over and said, "Master Jiang, please don't shout. The emperor now is completely different from before..."

Dingxi Marquis Jiang Bingzhong raised his eyebrows and looked at him, sneering: "Different, what can be different? Your Majesty is still the same Majesty as before, how can he change his appearance?"

"You useless bastard, how come you become even more courageous after becoming the deputy commander of the Imperial Guard?" Dingxi Marquis Jiang Bingzhong cursed with disdain.

"Who is making a noise here?" At this moment, several people from the Yongwei Camp suddenly rushed out of the alley, led by Huang Degong.

Last time, he and Sun Yingyuan had a duel in the army, and neither of them gained the upper hand.

Just when he was feeling very angry, it happened that most of the Jinyiwei troops were heading to Shanxi, and His Majesty ordered the Yongwei Battalion to send people to help maintain public security in the capital.

Ma Shiwei, the commander of the Jinyiwei, narrowed his eyes and pulled Dingxi Hou Jiang Bingzhong hard, but was suddenly pushed away by the other party. "What are you afraid of? Why should I be afraid of him, a white-clothed man?"

"Why does a lieutenant general who was driven out of the Beijing camp show off his power here?"

Dingxi Marquis Jiang Bingzhong bared his teeth and said, "You guys are here to collect debts, come on, let's see what you can do to me."

"it is good!"

"well said!"

"Good job, Marquis Dingxi. Why do you want to put all the bad debts of the government office on us?"

Dingxi Marquis Jiang Zhongbing stiffened his neck. Hearing the compliments from everyone, he couldn't help but feel proud and even bowed to everyone, "Thank you all for your respect. I, Jiang Bingzhong..."

Suddenly, his eyes froze, because everyone who had been cheering just now fell silent and looked behind them in fear.

"What's going on?"

Dingxi Marquis Jiang Bingzhong turned his head and his eyes suddenly widened.

A flash of cold light flashed and my neck suddenly felt cold.

He subconsciously touched his neck...blood dripped onto the ground through the gaps between his fingers.

It dripped on the ground, making a tapping sound.

Blood seeped through the bluestone floor and dripped into the cracks.

Dingxi Marquis Jiang Bingzhong's whole body went limp and he fell to his knees on the ground. The fear on his face buried him like a flood. He stretched out his hands and tried to grab Huang Degong's clothes.

"Hiss~~~Hu~Still alive, I'm still alive..." Dingxi Marquis Jiang Bingzhong looked at Huang Degong in horror. He suddenly realized that he was not dead.

But the pain in my neck was particularly clear.

"I haven't used this kind of knife for a long time. I missed the target and didn't chop off the head." Huang Degong wiped the knife on Dingxi Marquis Jiang Bingzhong's body and said, "My Lord, what did you say just now? You don't have money, but you want my life?"

"My Lord, don't step back. Let me chop you again. When you die, I'll give you my life. How about that?"

Dingxi Marquis Jiang Bingzhong looked at him tremblingly, "Huang Chuangzi, Huang Crazy, who the hell wants you to pay with your life?"

As he spoke, he kept backing away, scolding his men, "What are you still standing there for? Take me to see a doctor. Do you really want to see me die?"

As Dingxi Marquis Jiang Bingzhong was carried away, all the other officials and meritorious officials fell silent.

Huang Degong looked at the group of people and said, "Are there still people who are trying to act tough? Come... stand forward. I'll see how many I can kill today."

"This……"

All of a sudden, all these noble lords and civil and military officials looked at each other with green faces.

But no one dared to stand in front.

They didn't dare to exchange their lives with Huang Crazy's.

Huang Degong held the knife in his hand and said, "His Majesty's imperial decree has come down. The Jinyiwei, the Beijing Camp, and the Yongwei Camp are carrying out their duties in compliance with the imperial decree. If you make me uncomfortable, I will not make you comfortable either."

The muscles on the faces of the nobles and civil and military officials twitched, and they could only grit their teeth and leave.

On the way back,
Several nobles met in private, and Huaining Marquis Sun Weifan said in a hateful voice: "Damn it, how did we run into this bastard Huang Fengzi?"

"We, the nobles, have lost our military power, and we relied on our faces to earn some money. Now we are going back in disgrace today? What do those merchants and wealthy people we protected before think? Will they still pay tribute to us in the future?" Xincheng Hou Wang Guoxing said with clenched hands.

Since Yu Qian's defense of Kyoto, the power of the nobles has been greatly weakened. They were already insignificant in the court, but no matter what, their reputation was still there. They relied on their reputation to win over a large number of merchants, wealthy families, and landlords, and sucked their blood, which was also very lucrative.

Taikang Hou Zhang Guoji: "That's right, we must save our face."

"But now Crazy Huang is taking the gift, how can we stop it?" Huaining Marquis Sun Weifan couldn't help asking.

"I heard that several high-ranking officials in the cabinet also borrowed military horses from the court, and they were not just three or five horses, but dozens or even hundreds of them."

"Huh? Who told you that? Why aren't their names on the Jinyiwei list?"

"Those guys are smarter than monkeys. Can they borrow money by themselves? They let their 'students' borrow money, while they get the advantage."

Upon hearing this, Huaining Marquis Sun Weifan could not help but curse: "Well, they did not show up, but repeatedly encouraged us to fight with Your Majesty, while they watched the boat capsize from the shore. What a bunch of old perverts."

"We can't let them stand on the shore, we have to pull them down."

"That's right!" Zhang Guoji, the Marquis of Taikang, gritted his teeth. "Why are they so clean and innocent? The trouble they stirred up is not caused by fire or water? If we pull them down from the high platform and drop them into the mud, they will be as bad as us."

"Let's go and talk to His Majesty!"

"Don't treat anyone as a fool, let's go!"

……

On the civil service group side,

In the residence of the Minister of Rites Huang, the Left Vice Minister of Personnel Tian Weijia, the Minister of Justice Zheng Sanjun, the Left Vice Minister of Rites Xue Guoguan, the Right Vice Minister of Rites Zhang Sizhi and others gathered together again.

Tian Weijia, the left assistant minister of the Ministry of Personnel, had a dark face. "What's wrong with these nobles? Instead of talking about each individual, they exposed Guo Chunkui, Pei Bijin, Lu Wenyi and others. Where can I get so many soldiers and horses?"

The people he was talking about were the ones who had been smuggling military horses out of the Beijing camp in recent years. As the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, he naturally reaped a lot of benefits from it.

Of course, it was not just him. The Minister of Justice Zheng Sanjun, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel Xue Guoguan and others also borrowed military horses from them.

They said they borrowed but never returned them. This trend had been formed in the capital since the Wanli period. Otherwise, there wouldn't be only a thousand or so horses left out of the 26,000 horses in the Beijing camp.

"I suggest that you pay what you owe and return what you owe." The Minister of Rites Huang Shijun glared at everyone and said, "I've told you a long time ago not to treat the nobles as fools. After all, they are lords, so even if they are a little muddleheaded, Your Majesty can turn a blind eye."

"But we are different. Now is the critical moment for us to compete with His Majesty."

"If we want His Majesty to take a step back, we must first ensure that we are clean."

"What Minister Huang said is correct. Now is the critical moment." Zheng Sanjun, the Minister of Justice, also gritted his teeth and said, "A little impatience will ruin a big plan. It's nothing more than a few dozen horses and a few thousand taels of silver."

That's it...

For them, it is really just that. Which family here does not have tens of thousands of acres of land?
For them, several thousand taels of silver was just a pain in the neck.

"Just as you say." Tian Weijia, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, could only nod helplessly, "When His Majesty finds out that the local government's orders are not being implemented, he will turn to us for help."

……

Early the next morning,

The third test in Chongzhen required one passage from the Four Books or scriptures, one regulated verse, and one five-character eight-rhyme test poem.

This time, the cheating was even more serious than the last time. His face was burning with anger, but he did not stand up. Instead, he cursed in a low voice: "The Ming Dynasty will perish? If this continues, how can it not perish?"

"How could it not perish? It was completely destroyed by these termites."

He looked at the guard's knife in the distance and really wanted to pull it out and chop the two cheaters on the heads.

At this time, a voice came from the gap next door, "Are you Mr. Dugu's student?"

"How do you know? Are you?"

Chongzhen was about to speak, but quickly turned his head back because an official came to inspect.

After everyone passed by, a voice came from the gap next door again, "The five of us are guarantors for each other, so we naturally know... I can see that this is your first time taking the exam, so it's normal for you to be indignant."

“Is this the norm?”

"Hey, what's so strange about this? These people are all powerful families in the county. They have already given a lot of money to the higher-ups. Even if you are not convinced, it's useless."

"Can they keep cheating like this? What about the provincial and palace examinations?"

"I'm not sure about the provincial and palace examinations, but the county and prefectural examinations must have been arranged. After all, they just want to have the status of a scholar so they don't have to pay taxes. And with this reputation, they will be gentry in the future. They don't have to kneel when they see the county magistrate. With this status, they can do whatever they want."

"So this is a common situation, you say?"

"It's very common... Last year, when I went back to Zhejiang to visit my relatives, I talked about this with a relative and found out that it's not just in Xiangyang Prefecture, but in other provinces and counties as well."

"I was about the same as you when I took my first county exam..." The student did not say more to Chongzhen, but sighed, "The world is in chaos, and people's hearts are no longer the same as before!"

"These days, without a background and a famous teacher, talent is worth nothing."

His tone was full of envy and jealousy towards Chongzhen, because he knew that one of Mr. Dugu's students was a high-ranking official in the court.

This alone was an insurmountable chasm for him.

The people next door fell silent again because an official came to inspect. Chongzhen looked at the knife on the official's waist, and his hand holding the brush trembled slightly.

Only then did he realize that the situation in the Ming Dynasty was even more terrible than he had imagined.

Even if he kills one cheater, there are still thousands and millions of such cheaters.

After the officer walked by, the people next door stopped making any noise.

"The Ming Dynasty is about to fall... What the emperor's uncle said is true!" Chongzhen stood there in a daze, speechless for a long time, until someone came to collect the papers, only then he realized that it was already late.

……

At night, Chongzhen returned to the Qianqing Palace again, but he didn't say a word.

Wang Chengen waited for a long time, waiting to tell the emperor what happened today, but found that the emperor looked strange, "Your Majesty, are you feeling unwell?"

"You go out first. I want to be alone for a while." Chongzhen waved his hand dejectedly.

Wang Chengen was about to turn around when he heard the emperor say, "I will not attend the morning court tomorrow... If the officials ask, just say I am ill."

Wang Chengen was shocked, and slowly turned to look at the emperor. With trembling lips, he asked, "Your Majesty, do you want me to ask the imperial physician to come over..."

This was the first and only time that Chongzhen, although not sick, took the initiative to not attend the morning court. For Wang Chengen, this was like a bolt from the blue.

In the past, even if he was not sick, the emperor would insist on attending the morning court as long as he was able to get up. In the ten years since he ascended the throne, the number of times he missed the morning court can be counted on one hand.

"No need to call the imperial physician, just do as I say." Chongzhen waved his hand gently, signaling Wang Chengen to go out and close the door behind him.

Since the more diligently he works on government affairs, the faster the Ming Dynasty will collapse, why should he be so obsessed with attending the early morning court?

(End of this chapter)