Daming Yinghua

Chapter 131 Acting
In Yanzhou City.

Zheng Haizhu, who had gone back to the inn to change clothes, went out with Wu Bangde through the back door, walked around an alley, called a handlebar, and rushed to General Yasukuni's mansion.

In the western sun, Zhu Yipai, together with Guo Shi, mixed bean cakes for two beloved horses.

When I looked up, I saw the butler of the mansion walking quickly with Zheng Haizhu and Wu Bangde.

"Patriarch, Miss Zheng said that there was something urgent to report, so the younger one brought them in directly."

Zhu Yipai looked at Zheng Haizhu in surprise: "What's the matter?"

Zheng Haizhu got straight to the point and said: "Your Highness, I want to find mines on this trip, so I asked my buddy to go to the charcoal mountain to make a stop first. My guy said that when I saw charcoal workers transporting charcoal before, they used big bamboo baskets. It’s better to put it on both sides of the mule. But the charcoal worker we met today packed it in sacks. It’s not raining today, why is it so? It seems to be to cover the iron inside. If only some damaged shovels and the like Come to repair it, just show it openly. What's more, this charcoal worker today is suspected to be a member of the Wenxiang sect. Therefore, the grassroots guessed that it was a weapon."

Zhu Yipai was quite surprised when he heard this, and his eyebrows furrowed.

Zheng Haizhu continued: "We were afraid that the other party would be suspicious, so we didn't follow the uncle and nephew all the way. We don't know if they dropped their weapons somewhere in the middle. If not, it would be even more wrong. Send them to the palace, what are you going to do?"

Zhu Yipai's face turned serious, and he turned his head to ask the housekeeper: "Did you go to the palace to get all the charcoal from our mansion this month?"

"Go home, Lord, yes."

Zhu Yipai thought for a while, and said to Zheng Haizhu: "I'm sorry for Miss Zheng and Shopkeeper Wu, let me go and have a look."

Wu Bangde said: "Your Highness, can the grass people just watch around and not go in. And Miss Zheng, it's better to pretend to be a servant of your house."

Zhu Yipai nodded: "That's right, if they really have ghosts, there must be traitors in the charcoal courtyard, and I'm afraid they will recognize you."

The Guo family on the side hurriedly assigned a maid to take Zheng Haizhu to change into the indigo robe that accompanied the general's mansion.

At this moment, twilight is about to rise, and the darkness is getting thicker. Zheng Haizhu and Zhu Yipai's two guards are following behind Zhu Yipai. From outsiders, they look like ordinary servants.

The Charcoal Courtyard of King Lu’s Mansion is located in the Yangsheng Gate on the east side of the palace. Because it also sends charcoal to the three county prince’s mansions and two general Jingguo’s mansions in Yanzhou at the same time, the scale is larger than ordinary mansions. In front of a row of warehouses, There is a spacious yard.

Distribute charcoal to each prefecture in the morning, and collect charcoal from charcoal households in the afternoon.

At the beginning of the year, the servants ushered in the most relaxing time of the day.

Before waiting for the dining room to deliver steamed buns and noodles, several young people played Cuju on the yard to relax.

Suddenly, with the sound of "General Yasukuni has arrived", Zhu Yipai stepped into the courtyard angrily.

He kicked the bamboo pole that supported the ball net upside down, and said angrily: "Kick your ass, a bunch of bastards who take money from my Zhu family and don't work hard!"

Several servants immediately fell silent and knelt down one after another, not daring to speak out.

A little old man ran out of a room on the left in a hurry.

"Oh, oh, oh, your highness is here, why..."

Zhu Yipai waved his sleeves to interrupt him: "Are you in charge?"

The little old man kowtowed again and again: "The villain's surname is Cui, he has cultivated a great fortune in his previous life, and he can help the prince and the nobles raise charcoal."

Zhu Yipai said coldly: "Wow, Zhang Luo is doing well, what kind of things are Zhang Luo here?"

There was a hint of ignorance in Guanshi Cui's panicked expression.

Zhu Yipai didn't say another word to him, but turned to Zheng Haizhu, who was acting as an attendant behind him, and said, "Follow me in and have a look."

Zheng Haizhu hunched over and followed.

Relying on the torches of the guards sent by Zhu Yi, Zheng Haizhu saw that two of the young servants who were kneeling on the ground just now raised their heads.

When Zhu Yipai passed by them, he paused and asked, "Which firewood room is it?"

A young man stood up awkwardly: "Your Highness, please lead the way."

Zhu Yipai nodded, and the young man hurried forward.

After walking a few steps, Zhu Yipai suddenly said, "Which charcoal houses are there?"

The young man seemed to be in a daze, then quickly turned around, and said cautiously: "Your Highness, the charcoal room is the big one at the west end. The charcoal room is dirtier than the firewood room, so don't dirty your royal highness's brocade boots."

Zhu Yipai waved his hand, pointed at Guanshi Cui who was following Pidiandian, and said, "You, go and light the lamp in the charcoal house, then come out and wait in the yard with the others."

……

The charcoal room is not small. When entering the door, there are rows of neatly stacked bamboo baskets filled with charcoal.

Zhu Yipai stood with his sleeves behind under the oil lamp, his long shadow reflected on the sandy ground outside the door.

Zheng Haizhu deftly walked around the bamboo basket and walked deep into the charcoal house.

When she passed the only window, she suddenly stepped to the window sill and looked out.

There is no one outside the window.

Zhu Yipai observed the details of Zheng Haizhu's behavior calmly.

He saw her scan for a week, then went straight to the pile of sacks that were half the height of the wall, stopped to observe for a while, then carefully pushed the sack above with his hand, stretched out his foot, and looked back at Zhu Yipai.

Zhu Yipai immediately reprimanded loudly: "You bastard, you don't even know how to cover an oilcloth!"

In his voice like a bell, Zheng Haizhu quickly stretched out his foot and kicked the bottom of the last few sacks.

Not long after, Steward Cui, who was terrified outside the courtyard, and the two young servants who were nervous, finally saw Zhu Yipai come out.

"Which charcoal worker sent the sack inside?"

Cui Guanshi stepped forward in a panic, his voice trembling: "Go back, go back to your highness, it's the brother's house of the villain's mother-in-law."

"What's your surname?" Zhu Yipai still couldn't hear the emotion in his tone.

"My surname is Zhao."

Zhu Yipai finally showed a trace of kindness on his face, and threw a small object on the ground: "It's for your uncle's family. The work is meticulous. Look at the charcoal sent by other houses, just take a bamboo basket and show it outside, ah What if it rains on the road? Now the wind is blowing from the northwest, and what if it rains through the broken window in the middle of the night? The general lost his temper today because the charcoal in our house was unbelievably damp yesterday. Xun coughed up the little county master!"

Cui Guanshi bent down and picked up the thing on the ground, it turned out to be a small golden leaf.

Mother, it feels really good to be a Tailai.

He kowtowed four or five times like a chicken pecking rice, and said loudly: "Your Highness reprimanded you, and reprimanded you. Tan is in the mountains, and the villain can't take care of it. When Tan enters this yard, the villain should take care of it with all his heart." Yes. From now on, the villain will definitely protect the charcoal of the other families as well."

Zhu Yipai let out a "hum" in his nose, and took another deep breath.

It seems to be making a big fuss, and I finally feel comfortable.

He walked out of the courtyard, and suddenly remembered something, and asked, "Hey, is there a door at the other end of the charcoal courtyard?"

Cui Guanshi replied: "Yes, there is a door at the west end, and outside the door is the second east door of the palace wall across the corridor."

Zhu Yipai said: "Lead the way and take me there. This general is going to enter the palace."

Cui Guanshi was taken aback for a moment, and blurted out a presumptuous question: "What time?"

Zhu Yipai's face sank: "Why, you are a charcoal burner, and you have turned your back on General Ben? Let me tell you, General Ben is the one who sued His Highness. The steward of the Timber Academy and a worthless person in the Zongfu Yibin colluded and used the name of repairing other businesses to embezzle wood, wood, and silver. Listen carefully, if any vassal seeks you in the future, the first to report to this general will be rewarded."

Yibin is the husband of the daughters of clans such as princesses and county masters.

The emperors and princely families of the Song and Ming dynasties became the consort of the princess or the Yibin of the clan daughter, which meant that they had no chance of official career.

Therefore, males who were entrusted with Jinshi and high hopes by big families were seldom willing to be Yibin.

Many of those who were pushed out to be Yibin were good-looking nephews who had no hope of making art. After marriage, they ate soft meals from their wives and natal families, gradually became depressed, and even fell in love with expensive antique calligraphy and paintings. After a long time, So he started all kinds of greedy ideas.

Cui Guanshi had really encountered Yibin who used various names to dismantle charcoal, and he couldn't bear the disturbance. Hearing this, he hurriedly led everyone to respond.

Zhu Yi sent others to go to the west gate of the charcoal courtyard. The young man who claimed that the charcoal house was dirty just now brought a lantern from nowhere and followed him attentively, supplementing the blind area illuminated by the torch. Yi Pai and Zheng Haizhu pay attention to the gravel under their feet.

When they arrived at the west gate, Zhu Yipai stopped suddenly, pointed to a row of wooden wheels placed against the wall, and asked, "What is this?"

Steward Cui said respectfully: "Your Highness, at the princess's birthday banquet tomorrow, there are some big guys in the lanterns. In order to surprise the princess, the lantern dancer will bring the lantern dancers to our charcoal dismantling yard first. When the fireworks are at their peak, They walked through the corridor from this gate, passed through the east gate of the palace, and happened to arrive in front of the Cunxin Hall. The wheels that His Royal Highness saw were all illuminated, and the little one didn't know how to actually do it."

Zhu Yipai didn't seem to be interested in this, instead he muttered with some displeasure: "Mystery and extravagant skills are just for the sake of defrauding our Zhu family's money."

……

In the middle of Xu Dynasty, in the small warm pavilion behind Chengyun Hall, Zhu Shouhong, the eighth generation king of Lu of the Ming Empire, was listening to the young woman kneeling in the hall solemnly with his concubine Mengshi.

Zheng Haizhu described what he had experienced today from Chaican Mountain in the suburbs to the Charcoal Courtyard of the Wangfu, and then said in a calm tone: "Your Highness, the grassroots counted in that charcoal house, and the thirty sacks on the backs of eight mules, one mule There are twenty small sacks on the cart, all of them are there. The grass people kicked the sacks, and there was also the sound of copper and iron. The charcoal in the bamboo baskets that have been stacked in the charcoal house will be distributed to the various prefectures tomorrow morning, and then the next morning It's time to distribute the charcoal in those sacks. If you don't dispose of it tomorrow, it will be revealed in the next day. Now the two inner gates are locked, so the Caomin speculated that the family surnamed Zhao was suspected to be a charcoal householder of the Wenxiang Sect. Pretending these iron guys to enter the royal city will be used tomorrow night."

Zhu Yipai stood beside Zheng Haizhu, most of the time he looked down at her condescendingly, his serious eyes carried a kind of scrutiny of nobles towards commoners.

But there were also moments when Zhu Yipai would quickly glance at King Lu, who was sitting there, trying to catch his uncle's reaction.

Zhu Yipai, the irritable little highness in the eyes of everyone, is actually good at using the explosive smoke as a curtain to cover up his deep heart like a pool of water.

But he believes that no matter how deep the pool is, as long as it is clear, he has a clear conscience.

Since he was fifteen or sixteen years old, with this heart in mind, he has paid attention to, participated in and even tried to make decisions on various affairs in the Lu Fan fiefdom.

Of course, his father, King Taixing, reminded him that although King Lu loves him as an uncle, King Lu's concubines are not necessarily, nor are other county kings and uncles who have sons.

In the 300th year of the Ming Dynasty, the Lu Fan went smoothly to the present day, owning thousands of hectares of land, choking the benefits of the canal, enjoying the glory of the hometown of Confucius and Mencius, and looking northeast to the Liaohai of Dengzhou. Besides King Fu, the title of King Lu was coveted by many people surnamed Zhu.

No matter how sudden and urgent something is, you must be careful, and don't let others take advantage of it.

Therefore, just after passing through the second gate of the East and waiting for the little firemen to take them into the Nuan Pavilion to meet King Lu, Zhu Yipai briefly checked the judgments of the two with Zheng Haizhu, and then told her: "After entering the house, you Let me talk about it first, when it comes to judging that the ironware will be used tomorrow night, then stop, and no matter what His Highness asks, I will answer it."

At this moment, King Lu Zhu Shouhong listened to Zheng Haizhu's words, and cast a suspicious glance at Princess Meng.

Mrs. Meng showed surprise, and said, "Isn't His Highness hosting a birthday banquet for my concubine tomorrow night? According to the number of sacks that Miss Zheng just said, there are forty or fifty pieces of weapons. Where did these four or fifty people come from?" Come out, what are you going to do?"

Zhu Yipai weighed the reactions of King Lu and Princess Wang, and he already knew what he didn't know about them in advance.

He then followed Meng's words and said: "Yes, what needs to be considered is who they plan to use and what they will do. My nephew, after verifying what Miss Zheng said in the charcoal room tonight, is first worried about the two highnesses. An Wei, after all, the charcoal dismantling yard is already in the royal city, and later seeing that the guards at Erdaomen are as usual, and the guards are all familiar faces from Xungui's family, so I feel a bit more worried. My nephew began to think about those wheels that he saw in the charcoal yard."

When Zhu Yipai said this, he turned slightly and looked at the two little firemen at the door.

King Lu Zhu Shouhong let out a slight "huh", and the servants and maids standing beside him walked out of the hall and led the two little firemen to the outside of the threshold.

Zhu Yipai then took a few steps forward, and told Zhu Shouhong and Concubine Meng his guess in a low voice.

Zhu Shouhong pondered for a while, then looked at Concubine Meng: "What do you think?"

Concubine Meng only gave birth to one daughter after entering the palace, and she was infected with the epidemic again, and she was never pregnant again. In addition, her natal family had more old Confucians who wrote books and taught Confucian classics, so there was no concern for having an heir to succeed the next generation of King Lu. Obsessive, like Zhu Shouhong for several years, loving Zhu Yipai's nephew.

"Pai'er is right," said Concubine Meng, "I only think about His Highness's safety in my heart. Only when the truth comes out can the hidden danger be broken. Therefore, don't scare the snake tonight, and wait for the snake to come out of the hole tomorrow night. "

Zhu Shouhong nodded: "The widow also thinks the same way. Only by letting them show their bodies can they know whether it is Wen Xiangjiao who is doing evil things, or whether it is related to other thieves and rebels. Our Pai'er is smart. Make them feel like they're being watched."

Zhu Yipai did not show the slightest joy of being praised, but still frowned and said: "But tomorrow, if we send more guards with swords inside and outside the Cunxin Hall, it may make the bad guys suspicious. If we arrange 20 people as usual, isn't it too few?" gone."

Zheng Haizhu, who was kneeling on the ground, suddenly raised his head and said: "The grassroots dare to say that there will be a group of people tomorrow, and they will definitely not be the gangsters' accomplices. They can be used as cover to install His Highness's personal guards."

(End of this chapter)