Chapter 78 Zhu Chunchen

After Chongzhen scolded him, he became even more annoyed and convinced that Zhu Chunchen had indeed seized Wang An's coal mine.

Moreover, Chongzhen had been in contact with Wang An for such a long time, and although he sometimes felt that Wang An had some small-peasant ideas, there was absolutely no problem with his character.

There is absolutely no reason to falsely accuse others, especially when the other party is a duke of the current dynasty.

So from this point of view, Chongzhen also had unconditional trust in Wang An's words.

Since it can be confirmed that Zhu Chunchen did occupy Wang An’s coal mine and even wanted to occupy Wang An’s coal warehouse, the preliminary decision was made.

After glancing at Shi Fenglai and Qian Longxi again, Chongzhen finally set his sights on Shi Fenglai. "Let Mr. Shi handle this matter. Order Zhu Chunchen to return the occupied coal mines and not to send people to harass the people. Go and do it quickly!"

Shi Fenglai glanced at Qian Longxi calmly, then took the order and left.

Seeing that Chongzhen adopted Shi Fenglai's opinion, Qian Longxi secretly complained in his heart. He failed to flatter the emperor, but instead let Shi Fenglai become famous.

Chongzhen glanced at Qian Longxi again, waved his hand impatiently and said, "Qian Aiqing, you can go down as well. But you should be more careful in your work in the future and think it through first."

Qian Longxi agreed without hesitation and then retreated.

After the two cabinet ministers left, Wang Chengen came up and said hesitantly, "Your Majesty has already ordered Duke Cheng to return the occupied coal mines, which is tantamount to admitting that Duke Cheng has committed illegal acts, but there is no punishment. If the young master knew about this, I'm afraid he would not..."

Having said this, Wang Chengen stopped talking.

Chongzhen glanced at him and said unhappily, "Nothing, you're not satisfied, right?"

"If it were an ordinary citizen, my punishment of Zhu Chunchen would be a great favor from heaven. However, our brother is not an ordinary person after all. If I cannot give him a satisfactory explanation for this matter, I am afraid that there will be resentment."

"But Zhu Chunchen usually knows his place in front of me. Maybe there is some misunderstanding? Besides, Zhu Chunchen's ancestors have made great contributions, so I can't be too harsh on him."

"Forget it. I will leave the palace once and try to find out what my brother has to say first."

"Here!"

At this time, Shi Fenglai, who had received the imperial order, walked straight out of the Meridian Gate and got on an official sedan chair.

Immediately, a butler came to the curtain of the sedan chair and asked, "Master, shall we go back home?"

Shi Fenglai didn't know what he was thinking about, he smiled and said, "No hurry, let's go do an imperial errand first."

…………

"I was wondering who it was. It turns out to be the Lord. Your presence really brings honor to my humble abode!"

At the Mansion of Duke Chengguo, Shi Fenglai was led by a servant into the flower hall before he met Zhu Chunchen.

In previous years, when Wei Zhongxian had not yet fallen, even if Shi Fenglai was not yet the prime minister of the cabinet, Zhu Chunchen had to bow and nod when he saw him.

But now that he had come to visit him in person, Zhu Chunchen instead put on airs. Not only did he not come out to greet him, but he continued to sit on the chair without any intention of getting up.

In the final analysis, it was nothing more than realizing that Shi Fenglai would not be able to stay in the position of Prime Minister for long.

Shi Fenglai had long been accustomed to the fickleness of human nature, so he didn't say much. He just made a few casual polite remarks and sat down without waiting for Zhu Chunchen to find a seat.

Seeing this, Zhu Chunchen grinned with disdain and snorted through his nose, saying, "I wonder what brings you here, Lord?" Shi Fenglai knocked on the coffee table and got straight to the point, "I'm afraid the Duke doesn't know that someone has filed a complaint against you today?"

Zhu Chunchen's eyes suddenly widened, and his previous composure completely disappeared. He stood up and asked anxiously: "My Lord has always been kind to others, how could someone sue me? Where did this come from!"

Seeing that Zhu Chunchen was a little flustered, Shi Fenglai waved his hand and told him the story of how Wan An had filed a complaint to the emperor and how Chongzhen had made the decision.

Then he stood up and said, "His Majesty wants you to return the coal mine to the owner and stop sending servants to harass and oppress them. As for other things, he didn't say much."

"I have delivered my message. I will not bother you any further."

After that, he left.

At this moment, Zhu Chunchen had forgotten Ju Ao. He actively caught up with Shi Fenglai and stopped him to ask for details, saying nice things all the time.

However, Shi Fenglai knew that his career would not last long, so he was too lazy to make such a scene. He cupped his hands and said, "That's the whole thing. I don't think your Majesty has any intention of taking advantage of this matter. Duke, just return what you have taken, and this matter will probably end here."

After saying that, he turned around and left without saying anything more.

After Shi Fenglai left, Zhu Chunchen immediately frowned and spat, muttering, "What a piece of shit, how dare you put on airs in front of this duke."

"Wait until you are dismissed from office, and then I'll show you how I'll deal with you!"

After cursing, Zhu Chunchen immediately yelled, "Zhu Wuneng, come out and die!"

As soon as he finished speaking, a middle-aged man with a short beard ran in from outside the hall in a panic.

It was on that day that the middle-aged manager who tried to "buy" Wangji Coal Warehouse with one hundred taels of silver was beaten up instead.

"Zhu Wuneng, the Duke of this country appreciated you and made you a steward, but you brought me a big lawsuit. I think you don't want these two pig legs anymore?"

Zhu Wuneng had been eavesdropping outside the hall and knew what had happened. He immediately knelt down and explained in fear:
"I saw that Wang Ji's honeycomb coal was selling very well, so I thought of providing another way for the Duke to make money. But I didn't expect that Wang was not only ignorant, but also extremely bold. Who would have thought that he would dare to file a complaint to the emperor? This, this, this..."

"But I really don't know what Mr. Shi said about the coal mines!"

Zhu Chunchen went up and kicked Zhu Wuneng to the ground, but did not respond to the conversation of the coal mine owner.

Zhu Wuneng didn't know this, but Zhu Chunchen knew it.

When Zhou Kui's family fell from power, although most of their assets were confiscated by the court, some of them were still divided among the nobles in the capital.

Zhu Chunchen was used to the coal mine business, so he immediately set his sights on the two coal mines of the Zhou family.

Originally, I thought that I would wait until the Zhou family was desperate and then bargain hard to take over the coal mine. But later I heard that the coal mine was directly taken away by the Ministry of Households. I thought it would be better if the Ministry of Households directly confiscated it.

With the efficiency of the bureaucrats in the Ministry of Revenue, it would take some time to sell it or organize the mining.

So they took advantage of this gap and asked the shopkeeper in charge of the West Mountain line to directly organize people to start mining without authorization.

He thought that with his status as a duke, by the time the Ministry of Revenue found out about it, it would have already become a fait accompli, and he didn't expect that they would make things difficult for a duke like him.

(End of this chapter)