Chapter 804
Confessing Like Beans Through a Bamboo Tube
Pan Yun: "I am just a commoner, but didn't I clear my father and brother's name and make Wang Zhen go to prison with me? Going back, neither Xue Xuan, the Vice Minister of the Court of Judicial Review, nor the three Grand Secretaries Yang could do it, but I did."
Sun Xin recalled the various intelligence reports she had gathered, and the chill that had been rising in his heart lessened slightly. He asked, "Are you going to ask the Prince of Zhou and the Duke of Qian to intercede on your behalf? Or ask Xue Xuan to plead for mercy?"
He looked at Xue Shao and gave an extremely ugly smile: "Xue Xuan has offended many people in the court. If he pleads for my family, it will probably backfire."
“No, I must ask the Empress Dowager and the Earl of Huichang to intercede for your family.” Pan Yun asked with a soft laugh, “Is this weight sufficient?”
Sun Xin looked at her in surprise. He didn't know what she could do to get the Empress Dowager and the Earl of Huichang to plead for him, but if the Empress Dowager could plead for his family, it would be better than the entire court of officials nagging the Emperor a hundred times.
Sun Xin stared intently at Pan Yun's expression, seemingly trying to ascertain the truthfulness of her words.
“A monk does not lie,” Pan Yun said. “I am not a good person, but I disdain to deceive people.”
Sun Xin lowered his eyes and pondered for a moment. Outside the torture chamber, the guards' uneasy whispers drifted over. He knew he had no choice. He finally made up his mind: "Fine, I confess!"
He stared intently at Pan Yun and said, "Pan Yun, if you lie to me, I will be like Chao Yan, I will never let you go, even if it means my death."
Pan Yun smiled slightly and nodded in agreement, "Okay!"
Wu Zhihong hesitated, wondering how Pan Yun could agree to this so readily.
Just do your best in this matter. It concerns the Empress Dowager, so we must be cautious. If she can't do it, are we really going to throw our lives away for a villain like Sun Xin?
Wu Zhihong winked at Xue Shao, hoping he would try to dissuade him.
Xue Shao pretended not to see it.
Pan Yun wasn't afraid of Sun Xin when she was human, so why would she be afraid of Sun Xin when she turned into a ghost?
He couldn't defeat them when he was a human, and he was even less able to defeat them when he was a ghost.
As soon as Sun Xin agreed, Pan Yun looked at Wu Zhihong.
Wu Zhihong immediately ordered his men to untie him and let him down. He also ordered the guards to be kept away to ensure that the conversation in the torture chamber would not be heard by anyone.
In the end, only Pan Yun, Xue Shao, Wu Zhihong, the county magistrate, and a clerk remained in the room.
The practice of imperial clansmen engaging in maritime smuggling was not started by Prince Lu; Emperor Yongle was well aware of it during his reign.
However, the policy of maritime prohibition has a long history. Even though it was somewhat relaxed during the reign of Emperor Yongle, there was very little private maritime trade. Trade between overseas countries and the Ming Dynasty was mainly conducted through tally trade, which was overseen by the imperial court.
The Ming Dynasty was a superior nation, and when foreign vassals came to pay tribute, the principle of "returning favors with small gifts" was generally upheld. For every tael of silver they brought, the Ming Dynasty would return one tael of gold.
Therefore, the overall trade in Keng Chau was unprofitable.
Under such circumstances, the Yongle Emperor viewed the private maritime trade by members of the imperial family as nothing more than family members earning some pocket money, which he considered a way to subsidize the imperial relatives.
The royal family would also offer tribute when they made money in maritime trade.
In addition to enjoying the profits from these treasures himself, the emperor would occasionally reward his ministers or allocate some money from his private treasury to the national treasury to subsidize the shortfall in the tally trade.
Therefore, Prince Lu's initial involvement in maritime smuggling was a semi-official act. Besides Prince Lu, the Zhou royal family, which was on good terms with Pan Yun, and even the Mu family, were initially involved.
The Zhou Prince's Mansion was impeached by officials in its early years.
However, in the later years of the Yongle Emperor's reign, court officials opposed Zheng He's voyages to the Western Ocean, believing that they would waste the people's wealth and be of no benefit to the country.
Emperor Yongle then halted the voyages to the Western Ocean and reduced the scale of the tally trade.
When Emperors Renzong and Xuanzong ascended the throne, the maritime trade was further reduced, and members of the imperial family gradually reduced their maritime smuggling activities.
For example, the former Zhou king was among the first to withdraw.
“Back then, when the imperial censor went south, he accused four princes of smuggling. The late Prince Zhou took this opportunity to withdraw, and immediately sold his ship and dismissed the crew,” the chief clerk said. “He left so decisively because Prince Zhou still had the Bureau of Medicine under his command. He devoted himself to medical books and pharmacopoeias. Even without maritime trade, he still lived a carefree and comfortable life. But my prince is different.”
This Prince Lu was Emperor Yongle's nephew. His father was Emperor Yongle's tenth brother. In his early years, he was very intelligent and performed well, and was deeply loved by the emperor and empress.
But after arriving at his fiefdom, his personality changed drastically for some reason. He not only became fond of beautiful women, but also became obsessed with cultivating immortality. He ate elixirs all day long and died from them at the age of twenty.
At that time, Emperor Taizu Gao was still on the throne. Emperor Hongwu disliked this son very much and gave him the posthumous title of "Huang" after his death. At that time, Prince Lu had just been born.
“The late Prince Lu left nothing to our Prince. Maritime trade is one of the biggest sources of income for the Prince Lu’s Mansion. So after the court made it clear that it did not want the imperial family to interfere in maritime trade, the Prince Lu’s Mansion could only go into the shadows and carry it out in private.”
Pan Jun scoffed at his excuse, saying, "He is the emperor's grandson and the new emperor's nephew. His father left him such a large fiefdom and estate. Do you think he didn't leave him anything?"
“Having good teachers, a good background, and connections, yet being thirty years old and unable to support oneself, having to rely on smuggling and maritime trade to make ends meet,” Pan Jun countered, “is that something to be proud of?”
Sun Xin had never seen the Prince of Lu from this angle before, and was stunned for a long time upon hearing this.
Pan Yun shook his head: "You, who studied hard for more than ten years to become an official and finally rose to the rank of fourth-grade chief secretary, were dragged into smuggling and committing crimes, yet you sympathize with a royal relative who has been pampered since childhood and has had many good teachers... I thought the Prince of Lu was more tragic. He is just a parasite who has great capital but is still unable to support his family through legal means even at over fifty years old."
Sun Xin's pupils constricted, his chest heaved rapidly, and his lips trembled so much that he couldn't speak.
Wu Zhihong, feeling extremely uncomfortable, quickly changed the subject: "And then?"
Sun Xin remained silent for a while before continuing, "After it was completely conducted in private, the fleet had to find another sanctuary. In the past, the imperial family's smuggling was semi-public. The Quanzhou, Fuzhou, and Weihai garrisons would turn a blind eye when they saw the imperial family's ships at sea. If they encountered pirates, they would also lend a hand. After the court disliked it, we could only cooperate in private."
"The cooperation between Prince Lu and Quanzhou Guard began in the sixth year of Emperor Xuanzong's reign. Initially, Prince Lu paid for the Quanzhou Guard's protection. Later, Wang Zhen figured out this way and got in touch with Prince Lu through the Quanzhou Guard. As he asked for more and more, Prince Lu began to cooperate with Japanese pirates at sea..."
Sun Xin felt that this matter could not be blamed on Prince Lu, but rather on Wang Zhen's excessive ambition.
After Wang Zhen planted his own people in the Fujian Provincial Administration Commission and the navy, the money that Prince Lu gave him for each voyage was enough to buy five rounds of tolls from Japanese pirates at sea.
Of course, Prince Lu eventually disliked paying tolls to the Japanese pirates, so he gradually built up his own group of men and had them hide at sea under the guise of pirates.
At the same time, he did not abandon his cooperation with the Japanese pirates. (End of Chapter)