Uncle from a poor family

Chapter 596 Which side are you on?
In the lobby of the East Factory, the report continues.

After listening to Mou Bin's story, Huai En said thoughtfully: "In other words, the Zhang family actually prepared a large number of people to deal with emergencies early on, but they were very forbearing. From the beginning, they could obviously solve the problem with sticks, but they still sent a weak scholar to reason with him. It was not until the people who went to make trouble couldn't help but speak rudely to the queen that the Zhang family took the opportunity to hurt people?"

Mou Bin clasped his fists and said, "That's probably the situation."

Qin Chang quickly asked: "What exactly did those people say?"

"This……"

Mou Bin seemed very evasive.

Obviously, he didn't dare to say anything malicious to slander the queen.

Tan Chang waved his hand and said, "You are not guilty, but you can say whatever you want."

Mou Bin said helplessly: "I was not present at the time, but I heard from the people who were following me that someone accused the Zhang family of harboring filth and corruption, with men being thieves and women being prostitutes, saying that snakes and rats are all in the same nest, and that the people in charge of the palace weaving are thieves, beasts in human form, and they cursed..."

"A thief and a whore!?"

Huai An interrupted Mou Bin, his face full of anger: "What vicious words you said, even involving the crime of deceiving the emperor, I would hit him too if it were me!"

Qin Chang was terrified, fearing that there would be more vicious words coming out of his mouth, and hurriedly asked: "What else did they curse?"

"He also accused Zhang of colluding with the eunuchs, not distinguishing between inside and outside, and mixing court affairs with family affairs, which was shameless and presumptuous." Mou Bin replied cautiously.

Huai En sneered and said, "What do you mean by collusion with eunuchs? They should be talking about the eunuch party, right?"

Mou Bin didn't dare to respond this time.

Zhu Ji, who had been listening for a while, said hurriedly, "Someone is talking nonsense and polluting the ears of the two eunuchs."

"Ugh……"

Huai En sighed and shook his head, saying, "Although it may be an unintentional mistake, the big mistake has been made. In the eyes of those who don't know the inside story, the person who is in charge of the weaving in the palace must be a supervisor. Who would have thought that it was the Queen who personally supervised the matter? This continuous criticism..."

Qin Chang looked unhappy and said helplessly: "The palace has not yet produced large quantities of cloth, otherwise the Queen's reputation would have been known long ago, and naturally no one would dare to talk nonsense."

Wynn asked, "Was the beating serious?"

"Several people...are seriously injured, with broken bones and muscles. They will probably be unable to get out of bed for quite some time."

Mou Bin said, "I have asked the people of Shuntian Prefecture to take the perpetrators into custody in the Daxing County government office, and have strictly ordered them not to be brought to court for questioning."

Huai En asked: "Just arrested the person who beat the man? What about the person who caused the trouble?"

Mou Bin defended himself, "Eunuch Huai, they were the ones who got beaten."

Huai En shook his head: "Come here to cause trouble for no reason, and insult the queen, what kind of crime is this? No one will sympathize with you if you get beaten... You are being unfair!"

"Two eunuchs."

Zhu Ji continued, "Regarding the insults, maybe someone deliberately directed them. It's also possible that the people who insulted were not the ones who caused the trouble, but the Zhang family found someone to stir up trouble in the crowd, using this as an excuse to beat them up."

Huai En smiled faintly and said, "The analysis does make some sense, but do you have any evidence?"

"This……"

Zhu Ji was speechless for a moment.

I haven't even been there, and you're asking me for evidence?

"They are causing trouble for no reason, aren't they?"

Huai En looked at Qin Chang standing beside him, "You said that Zhang's family was bullying the market, but you don't even have the most basic evidence. You don't even know what Zhang's business is. You dare to cause trouble in the property under the name of your relatives in such a hurry. You don't take me, the noble relatives of the Ming Dynasty, seriously!
"You can go to Zhang Guozhang's house to make trouble today, and then you may go to another house. If you set a precedent, the consequences will be unpredictable."

These words confused both Zhu Ji and Mou Bin.

They were all thinking.

Which side are you on?
This is very confusing for those of us who are doing the work. Who should we help?

Huai En asked: "Is there enough time to catch the troublemakers now?"

"I'm afraid it won't work."

Mou Bin told the truth, "The crowd has dispersed, but the news of Zhang's beating has spread like wildfire in the capital. I heard people talking about it from time to time on the way here."

“That’s a good point.”

Huai En looked at Qin Chang with admiration, as if to say, you finally did the right thing.

It doesn’t matter whether the Zhang family was justified in beating people, or who was right.

When promoting to ordinary people and creating public opinion, they must say that the Zhang family, the in-laws, took advantage of their power to bully others and beat up a group of unarmed scholars and fellow villagers... This will create the illusion that Zhang Guofu is a bastard, his family members are not good people either, all crows are black, and there is no essential difference between the Zhang family and the Wan family.

As for the facts, who among the people cares about that?

Huai En asked with interest: "What are they talking about? Ask about the rumors. If Your Majesty asks about it later, I will tell Your Majesty the truth."

Qin Chang couldn't help but look at Huai En with admiration.

When the beating happened, the little emperor certainly didn't understand what was going on, so he had to ask the people around him for their opinions on the matter.

If Huai'en, Qin Chang and others told the emperor at this moment that the people were talking about the Zhang family, the in-laws, bullying others... then even if the emperor was partial to his wife's family, he would have to consider the consequences of arousing public anger, and then he could secretly make things difficult for the Zhang family.

Mou Bin lowered his head and whispered, "The people said... we fought well."

"..."

Even though Huai En expected to hear any answer without being surprised and was mentally prepared, he seemed unable to accept this statement.

Qin Chang narrowed his eyes and asked, "What nonsense are you talking about?" Mou Bin's face turned pale, "I have never said anything false... People say that in order to monopolize the market in the capital, the merchants in Beijing suppress the merchants from other places, which leads to the high prices in the capital.

"They also said that it was the Beijing merchants who suppressed the Huizhou merchants that caused the price of cloth in the capital to soar before the New Year, and even the price of grain was much higher than in previous years... And today, the Beijing merchants teamed up to cause trouble at the Zhang family's mansion, attempting to completely control the prices of grain, salt, and cloth. In the end, they ran into a hard nail and were beaten up by Zhang's people, so they all applauded."

Qin Chang's face turned pale and he shouted, "Isn't this nonsense?"

Mou Bin quickly said, "Someone is spreading rumors, but it is more likely that someone has made preparations in advance to deal with public opinion."

Huai En sighed, "There are always higher mountains than other mountains. Before that group of people could use the sympathy of the people to show fairness and justice for them, they were preempted by others, who took advantage of the people's concern for people's livelihood and turned the tables on them, targeting the merchants in Beijing. It can be seen that this group of people... are usually hated by others. They chose the wrong partner."

When Qin Chang heard this, he looked ashamed.

Because he could hear that Huai En was educating him and telling him that he was using the wrong strategy.

Huai En smiled and added: "Zhang Guozhang was able to go from a mere student to the most sought-after position in the Ming officialdom, the Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue and the Imperial Academy Scholar, in less than a year. His insights and methods are truly unmatched."

Qin Chang said, "Eunuch Huai, do you still want to listen?"

"I won't listen anymore."

Huai En said, "It's come to this, everything is lost, it's time to stop. Eunuch Tan, what do you think?"

Qin Chang smiled awkwardly. In front of Zhu Ji and Mou Bin, he certainly would not admit that this matter had anything to do with him.

Tan Chang said, "I will ask someone from the East Factory to investigate and find out the reason behind it, so that I won't be unable to answer when Your Majesty asks."

Zhu Ji said, "Then... two eunuchs, how should we deal with the group of people who are temporarily detained? They are all beaters. Although they are not in the capital, they are in the suburbs of the capital. Moreover, they used sticks, which can be regarded as a fight. This matter is not small."

"Do we have to wait for His Majesty to decide personally?"

Huai En frowned and said, "Now is the period of mourning for the late emperor, everything must be restrained. If it really gets out of hand, even if it's reasonable, it will become unreasonable!"

This is actually a disguised form of beating.

It seems that those who went to cause trouble deserved to be beaten.

It seemed that the Zhang family had done nothing wrong, and they could even beat people up with a clear conscience and win the hearts of the people.

But the problem is that we are still in the national mourning period. No matter how dissatisfied you, Zhang Luan, are, your family members' armed assault is a serious crime. That group of scholars didn't know how to avoid it, and you, Zhang Luan, don't know what is good and evil?
……

……

Zhu Ji took Mou Bin away.

After the people left, Qin Chang no longer had to pretend. He seemed to have his soul taken away. He sat there slumped with a dull look in his eyes.

Huai En stood up and said softly, "Listen to my advice and stop."

Qin Chang looked up at him and said, "I am not in charge of or planning this matter."

"I know."

Huai En said, "The one who secretly planned all this was actually the elder Liu Ji... But what kind of person is he? In terms of practical ability, he is not even as good as Wan An, let alone being compared with the unparalleled national scholar Zhang Guozhang?"

Qin Chang asked bitterly, "Is it really impossible to stop it?"

Huai En said: "This matter is not over yet. From what I can see, things will continue to ferment in the next two days. If you want to make a difference in this matter, you must first get out of it."

"This……"

Qin Chang seemed very embarrassed for a moment.

It seems like he is questioning, I'm already in so deep, and you're actually asking me to get out?

Can I smoke it?
"In short, you should not look at this matter from a position of opinion. Try to appear to be strictly neutral. If someone mentions this to you, even if it's Liu Ji, you should pretend to be completely unaware of it."

Huai En said, "As long as you don't move, Zhang Guozhang will never bring trouble to you."

Tan Chang sighed, "I'm not afraid of trouble, I'm afraid that everything will be peaceful forever."

Huai En smiled and said, "It's not good to worry about nothing. Who knows what the future will be like? Zhang Guozhang and his son never showed up from beginning to end. They only let a scholar come out to preside over it, and that group of people couldn't handle it. Haven't you realized it yet?"

"This……"

Qin Chang thought to himself, do I still need to be aware of this?
You should have realized that I was no match for Zhang Laizhan, so you surrendered early, just like how we treated Ji Xiao, Li Zisheng and Liang Fang?
Don't care?

Huai En said: "Now that you know the whole story, you begin to understand that the Zhang family is not easy to deal with, but some people may not be able to see the situation clearly. I am afraid that some people will go against the current and will not stop until they make a big fuss even though they should not make things worse."

"You mean, Mr. Liu?"

Tan Chang asked.

"Apart from this guy who is as anxious as an ant on a hot pot, jumping up and down, who else would confront Zhang Guozhang head-on at this critical moment? This person is not worth consulting with."

Huai En said this and was about to say goodbye and leave.

After hearing this, Qin Chang could only smile bitterly.

In order to deal with a future powerful official, I even cooperated with the prime minister of the dynasty, and you actually concluded that the prime minister was not worthy of cooperation?

Apart from the Prime Minister, who else would be so eager to expel Zhang Laizhan from the court?

Or is there anyone else who has the strength to fight against it?
"Be sure to remember my words."

Before leaving, Huai En still reminded, "You have obviously lost this time. No matter how unwilling others are, or what plans they have to fight back, you... must withdraw as soon as possible. Even if you are asked, you must know nothing. Only in this way can you have a chance to save yourself or even turn defeat into victory."

(End of this chapter)