Inside the Palace of Heavenly Purity, Ni Yuanlu’s thoughts were in a tizzy.
Who is guilty and who is not guilty?
After thinking for a long time, Ni Yuanlu raised his head and said slowly: "Your Majesty, I think the prince is serving the king, Xie Sanbin and Wang Chengen are suppressing the rebellion, and they are all innocent."
Chongzhen was so angry that he laughed: "I asked you to answer yes or no, and you answered with an or! You are not answering the question, but making fun of me."
Ni Yuanlu immediately stood up and saluted: "I dare not."
Chongzhen pointed at Ni Yuanlu's nose and said, "Who do you think is guilty? You can't let me take the blame, right?"
Ni Yuanlu didn't dare to say it out loud, but he agreed very much in his heart.
As the instigator of this incident, the person who should be held most responsible is Chongzhen himself.
But as the emperor, it was not his turn to take the blame anyway.
Ni Yuanlu bowed again and said, "Your Majesty, I think there are three kinds of people who need to bear the blame."
"Go on."
"Yes," Ni Yuanlu swallowed his saliva and continued, "The first type is the princes who responded to the Crown Prince's call for support without verifying the situation with His Majesty! As princes of the Ming Dynasty, no matter what the situation, they should verify the situation with His Majesty at the first time, instead of responding rashly."
Chongzhen nodded: "Well, go on."
Ni Yuanlu secretly glanced at Chongzhen out of the corner of his eye, and felt relieved when he saw that the other party looked satisfied.
"The second type is those who, under the banner of serving the emperor, resist or even abolish the currency reform. Currency reform is a national policy that has been implemented for several years. Most people have already exchanged their silver for Ming Yuanbao, but the group headed by Zhu Guobi, in order to gain the support of a small number of people and raise money and grain, did not hesitate to abolish the national policy at the cost of it."
"Such perverse behavior only benefits oneself, but is not good for the country and the people, and should be punished."
"The third type is those civil officials, military officers, and eunuchs who, during the period when Your Majesty and the Crown Prince were ill, deceived their superiors and subordinates, formed cliques for personal gain, arbitrarily killed innocent people, and disrupted state affairs."
He bowed to Chongzhen and added: "Your Majesty, please severely punish the above three types of people!"
Looking at Ni Yuanlu in the audience, Chongzhen was somewhat hesitant.
Among the three types of people mentioned by Ni Yuanlu, the first two do need to be severely punished.
But the third one is debatable.
Because strictly speaking, Xie Sanbin, the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue and Chief Minister of the Cabinet, belongs to the third type of person.
Xie Sanbin really deserves to die, but the time is not yet right.
Chongzhen stood up and said to Ni Yuanlu: "Mr. Ni is indeed a great scholar of our dynasty. He can analyze the complicated court situation so clearly."
"Your Majesty, you are overpraising me. I am not a great scholar, I am just good at observation and analysis."
Chongzhen nodded again and looked at Li Ruolian: "Commander Li is in charge of the imperial prison. Please interrogate the prisoners from Nanjing according to Mr. Ni's wishes."
When mentioning the word Nanjing, Chongzhen deliberately emphasized the tone.
Li Ruo Lian understood immediately.
He knew that even if Xie Sanbin was guilty, he couldn't do anything now.
As for when to take action, we have to wait for Chongzhen's order.
Chongzhen also instructed: "First record Mr. Ni's confession. If there is no problem, release him as soon as possible."
"Yes!" Li Ruolian took Ni Yuanlu away.
After "interrogation", Ni Yuanlu and some officials were acquitted.
Others were not so lucky.
It was a horrible sight to see him wailing in pain under the torture instruments of the Embroidered Uniform Guards.
But there are exceptions.
Although Qian Qianyi, the leader of the Donglin Party, was also imprisoned in the imperial prison, he was not tortured.
"Why don't you let me torture Qian Qianyi?" Li Ruolian asked Wang Chengen curiously, "Is Your Majesty worried that he will not be able to withstand the torture and die in prison?"
Wang Chengen shook his head slowly: "No."
"Why is that?" After saying this, Li Ruo Lian felt that something was wrong and quickly said, "Sorry, I shouldn't ask."
Wang Chengen smiled and said, "Haha, it's okay. His Majesty asked me to tell you that a saint does not kill people, but only destroys their hearts."
Li Ruo Lian was a little surprised: "Don't you want to kill any of them?"
Wang Chengen shook his head: "Oh, Commander Li is confused. For those who are greedy for life and afraid of death, killing them is to destroy their hearts!"
Li Ruo Lian immediately showed a happy smile: "I understand, it's not that we won't kill, but we will kill selectively!"
"That's right."
While Li Ruolian was interrogating the prisoners, Chongzhen began to plan another major event.
He had thought about this matter since he first crossed over.
But the time was not right.
Later it was delayed due to various reasons.
Liaodong is now settled.
Once the war in the South is over, we can put our ideas into action.
A day later, he secretly found the Minister of Personnel to discuss the matter.
Half a month later, the Jinyiwei's interrogation came to an end.
Chongzhen did not rush to convict this group of people, but summoned princes from all over the country to Beijing based on their confessions.
Those princes who usually commit many evil deeds and oppress the people will face Chongzhen's stick of reducing their power.
......
The 18th day of the first lunar month in the 28th year of Chongzhen.
After resting for many days, Zhu Cijiong left Nanzhili and divided his troops into three groups to attack Fujian.
Zeng Ying, Yang Zhan and Zheng Chenggong took the water route and advanced southward along the coast.
Li Xianzhong and Liu Zhaoji entered Jiangxi from Huizhou Prefecture and planned to enter Fujian from Jianchang Prefecture (Nancheng County, Jiangxi).
Zhu Cixiong led the main force from Changzhou Prefecture in Nanzhili and entered Zhejiang.
As always, local officials surrendered.
After entering Zhejiang, they divided their forces again.
Qin Yiming and Ma Wannian headed southeast, intending to enter Fujian from Fenshui Pass.
On the 24th of the first lunar month, Zhu Cijiong's troops arrived at Quzhou Prefecture.
He wanted to take the Xianxia Ancient Road to enter Fujian.
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