“Your Majesty, please calm down!” Zhang Jing struggled desperately, knocking his head until it bled, and cried to the sky, “I am a loyal and courageous servant, and I will never deceive Your Majesty! In fact, I did not write down a lot of information that I heard from others and that cannot be supported by isolated evidence…”
Well, it seems this isn’t the complete version yet.
"No need to drag him out!" Wanli said coldly.
Before Eunuch Zhang could breathe a sigh of relief, he heard the emperor gnashing his teeth and saying, "Beat me right in front of my eyes! This is the only way to relieve my hatred!"
Well, just hearing the sound doesn’t make me feel better.
The eunuch then fetched a piece of felt, put it under Zhang Jing's body, held down his hands and feet, and stuffed his mouth tightly with wet linen.
The linen cloth was secretly soaked with anesthetic. Wanli beat the palace maids with a stick all day long, and no one knew how many eunuchs and palace maids were beaten to death. You can tell how much force was put into the stick by listening to the sound. So the eunuchs dared not let him go, and could only use this method to alleviate the pain of the factory master.
Then he took off his cotton pants, revealing two bruised buttocks.
The two strong eunuchs then picked up the chestnut wood sticks that were cut into hammer shapes and began to swing the hammers about fifty or eighty times... uh, beat with boards.
After just a few hits, Zhang Jing was whimpering and twisted into a knot, with blood marks all over his buttocks.
Wanli stood on the throne with his hands behind his back, watching the execution in person, and continued to beat Zhang Jing dozens of times, until Zhang Jing's buttocks were covered with blood. He then raised his hands, and the slapping sound stopped abruptly.
"Isn't it time to tell the truth now?" Wanli asked coldly.
"Your Majesty, you beat me to death. What I told you was the truth..." Zhang Jing barely raised his eyelids and said weakly, "The East Factory has been planning for two years and has planted countless secret agents overseas. Then they sent two people to collect information because they were afraid that they would come back to fool people. At first, I didn't believe it, but more than a dozen groups of people came back and all said the same thing. They were all terrified and scared. Your Majesty can summon them to confront them, and then you will know that I am not exaggerating..."
After saying that, he cleverly fainted.
The eunuch looked at Wanli, asking if they were going to continue fighting.
Wanli waved his hands in annoyance, and the eunuchs, as if they had been pardoned, hurriedly lifted the felt and carefully carried away the most miserable factory manager in history.
Zhang Hong knelt down silently and picked up the papers on the ground.
"Do you believe it?" Wanli asked quietly.
"When I first heard it, it was really unbelievable." Zhang Hong lowered his head and said carefully while packing up: "I guess those foreigners exaggerated a lot in order to show their merits. But..."
As he spoke, he raised his head slightly and looked at Wanli's expression.
"The groundwork has been laid. 'But' is the key point." The emperor sneered and sat down on the steps. He looked with a distracted look at Zhang Jing who was being carried out through the layers of curtains.
"Why, are you feeling sorry for your godson?"
"I dare not, but I think that although the outsiders are exaggerating, there is no smoke without fire. There is a saying in my hometown, it is better to be cautious than to be too cautious." Zhang Hong prostrated himself at Wanli's feet and kowtowed heavily:
"So I dare to think that it is always a good idea to take precautions, Your Majesty."
Wanli snorted but didn't get angry. The reason was simple. Even if the East Factory was exaggerating, even if one percent of what they reported was true, his kingdom would be in danger of changing hands.
"A giant beast like Xiangliu or Zhulong could not be created overnight, right? Then why didn't anyone tell me before?"
"We all knew that the Jiangnan Group was very powerful, rich enough to rival a country, and their fleets were everywhere on the four seas." Zhang Hong smiled bitterly, "But they have always been very cunning, keeping things within and acting outside. No one thought they would be so powerful. They had two former prime ministers as their backers. Without solid evidence, who would dare to accuse them?"
"Isn't the purpose of setting up the East Factory to prevent problems from happening? What do they do? Why did they report it only now?" In fact, Wanli was being unreasonable. He knew about the fire in Dongchang Hutong in the 15th year of Wanli, and he also knew about Zhang Jing's investigation of Jiangnan Group.
But the emperor wanted to pass the buck, so how could Zhang Hong point it out? He had to push the blame onto Feng Bao, who was already dead, saying that the East Factory was previously controlled by Feng Bao, and he was covering for Zhao Hao, so of course the palace was in the dark. When Zhang Jing took over the East Factory, didn't he start to investigate the Jiangnan Group with all his strength when everything was in ruins?
Zhang Hong spoke slowly, but every word he said made sense and was very convincing, worthy of being called the 'Prime Minister'.
Wanli was silent for a long time, then he covered his face in frustration and suddenly choked up and said, "I still don't want to believe it..."
In fact, I can't believe it. So, Xu Ge Lao's heart learning is the kingly way!
Zhang Hong didn't dare to say anything anymore. Serving the emperor is like serving a tiger. If he doesn't handle the situation well, he will inevitably follow in Zhang Jing's footsteps.
"You said, so many ministers, one by one, risked their lives to fight for the country, and kept saying they were loyal to the emperor and patriotic, why didn't they remind me?"
Zhang Hongxin said that after Yu Qian and Zhang Juzheng, it was difficult to ask civil officials to be loyal to the emperor. As for the struggle for the foundation of the country, it was a struggle for who had the final say and for another Wanli after Wanli in the future...
Naturally, he didn't dare to say these words.
"And those military generals, have they really been bribed by Zhao Hao?" Wanli finally remembered that he not only had the survival in front of him, but also the border generals in the distance.
"This old servant really doesn't know." Zhang Hong shook his head and sighed.
"Have I really become a lonely man?" Wanli chuckled with a creepy look on his face, staring straight at Zhang Hong and said, "Are you unreliable too?"
"Your Majesty, you can't throw the baby out with the bathwater!" Zhang Hong was stunned for a moment, then he leaned forward and kowtowed, crying, "The roots of us rootless people are in you, Your Majesty. Without you, we are worse than dogs. Your Majesty, you absolutely do not need to doubt the loyalty of our servants!"
Wanli stared at Zhang Hong's tearful old face, and after a while he raised his head and sighed, "Yes, only you servants are on the same side with me."
"Yes, we are His Majesty's servants, so our lives and deaths are all up to His Majesty." Zhang Hong nodded vigorously and said, "Of course, there are also those with bad intentions, such as Liu Jin in the Zhengde Dynasty. However, no matter how arrogant he was, the Emperor could have him tortured to death with just a note. And I dare to say that Liu Jin was also loyal to Emperor Wuzong."
The old eunuch made up his mind and said, "If Liu Jin was here, Emperor Wuzong would not have fallen into the water!"
"Shut up!" Wanli was about to shout, how can a dead eunuch like you dare to talk nonsense about such things?
But then he thought, this is a knife at my neck, what is there to be afraid of? He smiled sadly and said, "Open a bottle of soda for me."
Zhang Hong quickly opened a wooden box, took out a bottle of iced happy water from the thick quilt, pulled out the cork with a pop, and poured it into the glass for the emperor.
"You continue talking." Wanli took a sip of happy water to stimulate his taste buds and spirit.
"Then I, this old servant, risked my life to make a suggestion - a very important reason for the current situation is that the late emperor was too close to the civil officials and listened to Gao Gong in everything. As a result, he was coaxed by those civil officials to withdraw the eunuchs who were stationed in various places and the eunuchs who supervised the army. Even the eunuchs who sat in the three camps were cancelled! We, the emperor's retainers, were all driven back to the palace. We were guarded like thieves. Once we left the capital, we would be reported! How can we look after the emperor's house?!"
As the head eunuch, Zhang Hong always sought benefits for the 30,000 eunuchs. He looked down on Feng Bao, who tried to please foreign officials for fame and did not fight for a future in the inner court.
It must be said that he had grasped the timing very accurately. It was just when Emperor Wanli had no choice but to pin his hopes on them.
As expected, Wanli agreed with his words and said, "It would be a mistake to withdraw all of them."
He naturally knew that Emperor Xuanzong of Xuande broke the ancestral rule that "eunuchs were not allowed to read and write" in order to check and balance the civil service group. He set up the Nei Shutang to teach eunuchs to read and write, and granted the power of approving documents to the Silijian, cultivating them to become the emperor's wings and minions in order to check and balance the civil service group headed by the cabinet.
In addition, Emperor Xuande followed Emperor Chengzu's practice of appointing eunuchs to take charge of important tasks such as diplomatic missions, special expeditions, military supervision, garrison operations, and intelligence. He also posted eunuchs to garrison and supervise the military in important places such as the Nine Borders and Thirteen Provinces, the Banknote Customs and the Maritime Customs, to monitor the actions of civil and military officials on behalf of the emperor.
If all these eunuchs who were in charge of garrisoning and supervising the army were still there, how could he be unaware of the expansion of the Jiangnan Group just because of Feng Bao's treason?
Even Feng Bao wouldn't dare to deceive God in that case!
"Oh, this is such a bummer!" Wanli took another sip of happy water in hatred. Thinking that this was also produced by Jiangnan Group, he threw it hard at the warm cage. The cup broke into pieces with a crackling sound, and the soda turned into caramel with a crackling sound.
"Fortunately, I went against the public opinion and restored the internal exercises a few years ago. Now I have about three thousand Jingjun guards. Otherwise, I wouldn't be able to sleep peacefully!" Wanli felt fortunate again. It was really a blessing in disguise.
"Not only the Jingjun, but also the 30,000 eunuchs will swear to defend the emperor to the death!" Zhang Hong said in a deep voice.
"Yes. The most urgent task now is to quickly restore the eunuchs who guard the city and supervise the army, and keep an eye on those civil and military officials to prevent them from colluding with the Jiangnan Group!" Wanli gritted his teeth and said, "No, we must seize the military and political power, so that I can get rid of them all!"
"Your Majesty is wise. This is a fundamental solution." Zhang Hong nodded and said, "It's just that Zhao Hao and the Jiangnan Group don't know that we already know their true situation. They think Your Majesty is still in the dark. If we alert them now, will they be desperate and do something desperate before they are done?"
"Well, what you said makes sense." Wanli nodded slightly, thought for a moment, and slapped his thigh and said, "I got it. Isn't the Ministry of Revenue always complaining about being poor? Then I will send eunuchs to various places to check taxation and supervise mines to find out why commercial and mining taxes are always not collected. Isn't this reasonable?!"
"In the name of a mining supervisor and tax collector, you are actually a garrison supervisor?" Zhang Hong's eyes lit up and he praised loudly, "Your Majesty is truly extremely wise. Nothing can stop you!"
"Hahaha, of course!" Wanli felt as if he had done it again, and said proudly: "And the most important thing is that I sent eunuchs to act as mine supervisors and tax collectors, without going through the outer court. They can only watch!"