Chapter 112 Wei Zhongxian Arrives

"Since His Majesty is not going to deal with us, why does he want to force Cui Chengxiu to death?" Li Yongzhen said anxiously: "Old friends like Huang Liji are also retiring or returning home, which may be a sign that His Majesty is going to deal with us."

"No!" Wei Zhongxian flatly denied, "Just think about how much silver we can collect from the two taxes in the Ming Dynasty each year? Even during the time of Zhang Juzheng, the single whip method only brought in a surplus of about 3 million taels of silver each year, but we have given Your Majesty 20 million taels of silver in one go!"

"That's not even counting the more than 10 million taels of land, houses, jewelry and antiques. Not to mention our poor emperor, even Emperor Hongwu would not be willing to kill me!"

"Then what does Your Majesty mean?" Li Yongzhen thought about it carefully and realized that this was indeed the truth.

What does the Ming Dynasty lack most today?
Food or troops?

These things are certainly in short supply, but ultimately it’s all due to lack of money.

With silver, we can provide disaster relief and exempt taxes. If the people can survive, they will naturally not rebel!

With silver, we can pay the unpaid wages. With the wages, the soldiers will have higher morale when fighting, and the border defense can be stabilized!
If both internal and external stability are maintained, the Ming Dynasty will have a long and lasting prosperity!
So although the Ming Dynasty seemed to lack everything, it was ultimately because of a lack of money. With money, any difficulty could be easily solved.

At this time, whoever can get money for the Ming Dynasty will be the Ming Dynasty's number one contributor.

Unless one is hopelessly stupid, no one would kill the God of Wealth.

Is Chongzhen a fool?

You can say he is incompetent, but you can't say he is stupid.

Moreover, given the predicament at the end of the Ming Dynasty, even if the emperors of all dynasties in China were put in charge, few would dare to say that they could turn the tide.

So it is obvious that Chongzhen would never touch Wei Zhongxian, at least not at this stage.

Upon hearing this, Wei Zhongxian sighed and said, "Although His Majesty still needs me, the old brothers from before obviously can't tolerate me."

"We are all your Majesty's servants. Your Majesty can use us with peace of mind. But it's different for the foreign ministers in the past. We should kill them when necessary and let them go when necessary. Otherwise, how can we give an explanation to the people of the world?"

Wei Zhongxian's words were vague and seemed to have no reason.

But Li Yongzhen understood and couldn't help but sigh.

To put it simply, Wei Zhongxian and Li Yongzhen were eunuchs and the emperor's household slaves after all.

In history, there has never been a eunuch who rebelled and became emperor. Even though Wei Zhongxian was notorious, Chongzhen could still use him with confidence.

But people like Huang Liji and Cui Chengxiu are different.

They were all foreign officials in high positions. It is hard to say whether they would still be loyal to the Ming Dynasty and Chongzhen without Wei Zhongxian's suppression.

Even if they did not have the courage to rebel, the eunuch party had a very bad reputation.

When Chongzhen ascended the throne, he naturally had to do something to show the spirit of the new dynasty.

Without touching Wei Zhongxian, Huang Liji, Cui Chengxiu and others naturally became the best explanation that Chongzhen gave to the people of the world.

The wheels rumbled forward, and the carriage fell into a long silence.

Soon after, it stopped at the gate of a house on Xixie Street.

Wei Zhongxian was about to get off the carriage when he suddenly heard the eunuch driving the carriage exclaim, "Why is the door lock gone?"

"What's going on?" The curtain of the car was lifted, revealing Wei Zhongxian's somewhat feminine face.

The young eunuch pointed at the street gate of the house and said, "Look, the door is unlocked. It looks like someone is living here."

Wei Zhongxian frowned and got out of the carriage on the stool handed to him by the eunuch.

When I arrived at the street gate, I saw that the iron guard that was originally hung on the door was gone. In addition, new door gods and couplets were posted on the gate, which really looked like someone lived there.

Wei Zhongxian showed a rare trace of nervousness on his face and hurriedly went up to knock on the door.

Soon after, a slightly childish female voice came from the yard, "Who is it?"

Wei Zhongxian didn't say anything, but just reached out and knocked on the door a few more times.

Then I remembered the sound of the bolt moving, and the woman's voice saying, "Could it be that the master is back?"

With a creak, the street door opened.

Xiao Wu was standing behind the door. He suddenly saw three people he didn't recognize and immediately said angrily, "What do you do? Why don't you even hear a squeak when I knock on the door?"

Li Yongzhen stepped forward with a serious face and asked, "Little girl, I haven't asked you who you are yet!"

During the time that Xiao Wu followed Wang An, he ate well, slept well, and grew taller. His temper also became worse. Hearing this, he said angrily, "You are such a weird person. You went to someone else's house and asked who they are. It's really hilarious!"

"Do you know who our master is? How dare you come here to cause trouble?"

When Xiaowu said this, both Wei Zhongxian and Li Yongzhen laughed.

Although Wei Zhongxian's power was not as great as before after Chongzhen came to power, no one dared to speak like this in front of him.

Li Yongzhen grinned and said, "Little girl, our factory master is too lazy to say anything more to a little girl like you, call Li Mao out for us!"

Xiao Wu said fiercely, "You are crazy. What's Li Mao or not? This is the palace of the emperor! There is no one named Li Mao!"

As he said this, he closed the street door with a bang.

Li Yongzhen looked at the closed street door and his fingers trembled with anger.

"Hey, where did you come from, little girl? How dare you be so rude! If it were in the past, I would have sold you to the Music Bureau!"

After cursing, Li Yongzhen looked at Wei Zhongxian and said, "I don't know what kind of people this kid Li Mao brought to my house. I will teach him a lesson when he comes back!"

However, Wei Zhongxian frowned, looked around suspiciously and said, "It's the first one on the east side of Xixie Street!"

Li Yongzhen echoed, "How could someone go wrong? This girl must have been brought in from somewhere by Li Mao to serve as a maid. She's just arrived and she doesn't follow the rules."

The eunuch driving the carriage said, "Then we should wait at the door?"

Li Yongzhen was furious when he heard this. He slapped the eunuch on the back of his head and cursed, "How dare you let our factory master wait at the door? Since the last emperor, no one has ever been so capable!"

The young eunuch stepped aside aggrievedly. That wasn't what he meant.

After Li Yongzhen finished cursing, he leaned close to Wei Zhongxian's ear and said, "Why don't you let your subordinates just break the door open? I also know a little bit of martial arts."

Wei Zhongxian waved his hand and said, "There are so many eyes on us, both in the government and in the public. We should be low-key and not cause trouble!"

"Although the emperor is using us now, if we do something to embarrass him, it will only bring trouble to ourselves!"

"What the factory manager said is right!" Li Yongzhen said hurriedly.

After a pause, Wei Zhongxian said helplessly: "Go wait in the car."

Li Yongzhen hurriedly helped Wei Zhongxian into the car, cursing: "This brat Li Mao, wait and see how I will deal with him later."

(End of this chapter)