The 29th day of the first lunar month in the 28th year of Chongzhen.
Countless prison vans from Nanjing arrived in Beijing.
Chongzhen, who had received the news in advance, ordered Li Ruolian, who had already arrived in the capital, to wait outside the city.
After handing over the prisoners, Li Ruolian took all the people involved in the case to the imperial prison and detained them.
Before entering the imperial prison, some prisoners shouted at the top of their lungs that they were innocent.
The moment they stepped into the imperial prison, everyone subconsciously shut their mouths.
The first feeling was chilliness, which seemed even colder than the winter in the capital.
Then a foul and foul smell hit me in the face, making me feel nauseous.
In the dim candlelight, the dark red walls and ground looked like a bloodthirsty beast, waiting for its prey to arrive.
From time to time, the squeaking of rats and the painful wails of prisoners could be heard from the corners of the cell.
Li Ruo Lian said in a gentle tone: "Please come in, my lords!"
Zhu Guobi's voice trembled: "I want to see your majesty, I want to appeal to your majesty!"
Li Ruo Lian comforted him, "Don't worry, Master Zhu, His Majesty will come."
There are many prisoners but few cells.
Many people were locked up together.
Xu Wenjue looked at Zhu Guobi, who was in the same cell with him, and complained: "Hey, you had 70,000 troops, but you were defeated by 9,000 cavalry! If we hadn't been defeated, the situation would definitely not have developed like this, and we wouldn't have become prisoners."
Zhu Guobi yelled at the top of his voice: "Can you blame me for this?"
Xu Wenjue also shouted: "Then who do you blame? You can't blame me, right?"
Zhu Guobi said angrily, "If you want to blame someone, blame the useless people in the Nanjing Military Department. It's bad enough that they didn't recruit soldiers in time, but the soldiers they trained were also powerless, so we were easily defeated."
As soon as he finished speaking, Ren Jun, the left assistant minister of the Nanjing Ministry of War, who was in the cell on the left, loudly retorted: "You are talking nonsense! Is it the Ministry of War's fault that the troops were not recruited in time? It's the Ministry of Revenue's fault! The Ministry of Revenue has no money and no food, so how can the Ministry of War recruit soldiers? Is it relying on empty promises?"
"The problem of poor training is also money and food. When there is enough money and food, we can train every day. If there is not enough money and food, we can only train once every five or ten days!"
Before Ren Jun could finish shirking his responsibility, the official from the Ministry of Revenue in the cell on the right started cursing, "Bullshit! We never owed the Ministry of War any money before the troops were dispatched. Although we owed some money after the troops were dispatched, we always transferred money to the Ministry of War first whenever we had money. How dare you blame the Ministry of Revenue?"
"In addition...after the troops are dispatched, the army is allowed to raise money and food on its own. Zhu Guobi, you bastard, it's your own problem that you can't raise money and food. Don't put the blame on the Ministry of Revenue."
Zhu Guobi was furious: "You are the bastard, your whole family are bastards."
"Our whole family are bastards, and your whole family are bastards!"
This group of people were already full of resentment because they were imprisoned in the imperial prison.
As you and I started to talk, we soon started to curse each other.
The Jinyiwei outside came in and threatened: "Shut up, anyone who makes a loud noise again will not have food for three days."
Considering that the food in the imperial prison was already poor, they would probably starve to death if they were not given food for three days.
Everyone had to shut up and keep quiet.
Next, the Jinyiwei interrogated the prisoner.
As the prince's teacher, Ni Yuanlu was the first to be brought to trial.
Without waiting for Li Ruolian to ask, Ni Yuanlu took the initiative to say: "Commander Li, don't ask anything. Even if you ask, I can't tell you. Even if I tell you, it will be lies and nonsense."
Li Ruo Lian was a little surprised: "Oh? Why don't you tell the truth?"
Ni Yuanlu smiled and raised his head: "I am afraid that if I tell it, everyone present will die."
Li Ruo Lian was a little unconvinced: "Isn't this too exaggerated?"
"If you don't believe me, you can try it."
Of course Li Ruolian didn't dare to try, but he couldn't just not ask anything.
Just when he was thinking about what to ask, Chongzhen's decree came: he was ordered to bring Ni Yuanlu to the Qianqing Palace, and Chongzhen would interrogate him personally.
Li Ruolian did not dare to neglect and personally brought Ni Yuanlu into the palace.
At this time, Chongzhen's "illness" had been cured.
The imperial physician who "treated" him not only got promoted and made a fortune, but was also hailed as a miracle doctor by the people of the capital.
He became famous overnight.
When the emperor and his ministers met, Chongzhen felt a little sad.
Ni Yuanlu still had some black hair on his head when he left the capital.
When he returned to the capital, his hair was already white.
Ni Yuanlu also felt a little emotional.
In his eyes, Chongzhen had changed from a young man in his thirties to a middle-aged man in his forties.
Chongzhen was the first to break the deadlock. He pointed to the stool that had been prepared in advance and said, "Mr. Ni, please sit down."
Ni Yuanlu replied: "I dare not."
Chongzhen shook his head slightly: "It is not up to you to decide whether I am guilty or not."
Ni Yuanlu bowed deeply and said, "Then I will respectfully obey your command."
As Ni Yuanlu sat down, Wang Chengen walked out of the hall quickly.
Li Ruolian wanted to leave as well, but Chongzhen stopped him: "Commander Li, you don't have to leave."
Li Ruolian shuddered all over, and a bad feeling came over him.
Chongzhen asked directly: "How have you been these years, Mr. Ni?"
Ni Yuanlu was stunned for a moment.
He thought Chongzhen would ask him something about the prince, but he didn't expect Chongzhen to care about him.
After being stunned for a moment, Ni Yuanlu hurriedly said: "I am doing well. I have enough food and warm clothes."
"It seems that Zhu Cilang treats you well."
"Your Highness is indeed kind and righteous."
Chongzhen changed the subject: "Do you think the prince is guilty?"
"I don't know."
"Do you think Xie Sanbin is guilty?"
"I don't know either."
"Don't know, or won't tell?"
Ni Yuanlu raised his head and said, "I want to say that being a king is difficult, and being a minister is not easy."
This sentence means that it is difficult to be a king, and it is not easy to be a subject either.
Chongzhen smiled and said, "It is indeed not easy to be a minister, but it is even harder to be a king. I want to know your opinion on this matter. If you don't tell me, you are making it difficult for me!"
At this point, Ni Yuanlu had no way out.
He could only say: "I believe that there is no good or evil heart, but there are good and evil intentions. Knowing good and evil is conscience, and doing good and avoiding evil is the study of things."
This sentence comes from Wang Yangming.
In his later years, he summarized his thoughts into these four sentences, which were later called the Four Sentences Teaching.
Ni Yuanlu used these four sentences to tell Chongzhen that the prince's act of raising an army could not be simply measured by whether he was guilty or not.
In other words, the prince and the Nanjing gang cannot be convicted easily.
Including Ni Yuanlu himself.
Chongzhen laughed: "It is understandable that you use the words of the saint to help the prince and the Nanjing ministers to exonerate themselves, but whether this matter is a loyalty to the king or a rebellion, there must be a conclusion. If it is a loyalty to the king, then Xie Sanbin and Wang Chengen should die; if it is a rebellion, then the prince and the Nanjing gang should die."
Ni Yuanlu lowered his head and began to think.
This issue is very serious.
If this incident is defined as serving the king, then it means that Xie Sanbin, Wang Chengen and the Prince Ding Zhu Cijiong on the front line are all guilty.
Will this work?
Obviously not.
If this incident is defined as rebellion.
Then the prince, the civil and military officials of Nanjing, and Ni Yuanlu himself were not only guilty, but also guilty of unforgivable crimes.
This obviously doesn't work either.
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