Back to Daming to be a genius

Chapter 136
"Hey, brother, have you heard anything new? The old Jiannu Nuerhachi dreamed last time that Zhang Haogu, the Xinke Tanhualang of our Ming Dynasty, led troops to attack Shenyang and set fire to the Dazheng Palace. It all came true!"

"Cut! Brother, are you from the countryside? What's this new? Last year, it was spread all over the capital. At that time, the elders said it was a good omen. The old Jiannu Nu'er Hachi would not be able to make it for a few days. Liaodong It's about to be peaceful. The result is good, Zhang Tanhua really broke into Shenyang and burned the Jiannu Palace, Liaodong is almost peaceful."

"Brother, listen to me, don't you know? After the dream came true last time, Nuerhachi old Jiannu had another dream related to our Daming."

"What else is there? My brother, sit down and have a cup of tea, tell me about it."

"Brother, I will tell you this, please don't say that I told you, you put your ears closer—Nurhachi old Jiannu, dreaming that our Lord Xin of Daming killed you Our emperor ascended to the throne, and finally the rebel army broke through the capital, and King Xin hanged himself on Meishan Mountain."

"What else is there? Brother, this is not a joke!"

"Hush——! Keep your voice down! Brother, brother, how many brains do I have to make fun of this matter? To tell you the truth, this matter has been spread all over the capital these days. I saw in the book that King Xin used a nail to pierce a small wooden figure with the emperor's birthday written on it, and there was a spell on the small wooden figure!"

"Really? Xin Wang is crazy? The current emperor is his own brother, and he is still tired of defeating his own brother?"

"Take it!" Probably because the voice was a little louder to be overheard by others, a group of strong men like wolves and tigers rushed over from the side, roaring, and pressed the pair of brothers and sisters who were whispering to each other on the table in the teahouse Without saying a word, they were full of fists and kicks, and the pair of suffering brothers and sisters cried and howled, struggling desperately and shouting, "What are you doing? Who are you? Why beat us and arrest us?"

"Why? Just rely on this!" The leading brawny man showed his badge of the Dongchang fan service stall, and in front of the countless people in the capital who came to see the excitement after hearing the news, he said to the pair of fellow sufferers with a grinning grin: "Good boy!" How dare you spread rumors behind your back that the prince murdered his brother and usurped the throne? How dare you eat a leopard? Give me a hard hit!"

"Decree!" The other Dongchang spies agreed in unison, and immediately punched and kicked the pair of fellow sufferers until their heads were bloodied and they cried, "Master, we dare not!" , please forgive us, I, Zhu Wenhao, don’t dare to chew my tongue anymore!” “Master, I don’t dare anymore, I, Luo Qingmu, don’t dare to listen to these rumors again in the future! Master, I beg you forgive me!"

"Stop talking nonsense, arrest them all to the East Factory, and interrogate who is behind them!" The leader of the East Factory waved his hand again, and more than a dozen Dongchang guards set up the pair of brothers and sisters who had been beaten bruised and swollen, Put handcuffs and shackles on them first, and then drag them away.The head of the Dongchang stall turned to the onlookers and said loudly: "Listen to me, all of you. It is said on the street that the old slave Nuerhachi dreamed that the prince of Xin killed the current emperor, and used sorcery to defeat the emperor and usurp the throne. Inverse—that's nonsense fart! Jiuqiantui has asked the emperor for an order, and the culprit who spread this rumor must be found out! If anyone among you dares to spread this rumor again, these two bastards will be What will happen to you! Do you hear me?"

"Listen... I heard it." The onlookers timidly agreed, whether they had heard the rumor before or just heard it, they were determined not to whisper about it in places like teahouses and restaurants. It's over—even if you can't help but say it, you should tell it to your closest person in a quiet place with no other people!At the same time, the same scene happened one after another in many places in the capital, and the rumors that were originally quietly circulated in private quickly became known to everyone...

…………

"Brother Huang! Sister-in-law!" At the same time, in the imperial palace, the future Chongzhen Zhu Youjian knelt in front of Ming Xizong and Empress Zhang Yan, crying to death with snot and tears, kowtowed and said: " Emperor Mingjian, even if I have a hundred guts, I would not dare to do things that make me exterminate myself from the ancestors of the Ming Dynasty, let alone use any sorcery to get tired of defeating you, Emperor Brother——!"

"Your Majesty, this servant is willing to guarantee the Lord Xin, and the Lord Xin will never do such a thing." Wei Zhongxian, who was standing by the side, also knelt on his knees, kowtowed and said: "Your Majesty, this must be the intention of some treacherous people with ulterior motives. To provoke the relationship between the emperor and the king of Xin, please don’t blame the king for this, and I hope the emperor can rest assured that the servant has sent out all the servants in Dongchang, and will definitely catch those treacherous people who spread rumors!"

"The servants are also willing to guarantee, and the servants are also willing to guarantee." Wei Zhongxian's two buddies, Wang Tiqian and Li Yongzhen, also knelt out to uphold justice, insisting that those rumors are all false, and they are all villains with ulterior motives to provoke Ming Xizong and Zhu Youjian. The brotherhood was deliberately spread.Several big monsters stood up to guarantee Zhu Youjian with such loyalty, and the die-hard royalists Zhang Weixian, Zhu Chunchen, Zhang Guoji and others naturally did not dare to neglect, they all used their wealth and lives to guarantee that Zhu Youjian would never do such a thing , there must be another conspiracy behind this incident.Ming Xizong, who was so angry that he was a little sick, waved his hands and said weakly: "You all get up, emperor brother, you get up too, I believe you will not do such a thing. Zhongxian, if you find such rumors circulating among the people, you should report to him immediately. I report that you have done a good job, you go and investigate for me, and if you find out who made the rumor, you will deal with it severely!"

"Slaves respectfully obey the imperial decree." Wei Zhongxian agreed respectfully.At this time, Zhang Yan, the empress standing beside Ming Xizong, said, "Wei Zhongxian, where is your godson Zhang Haogu? The rumor about Jiannu was related to him last time. Why doesn't he speak up this time?"

"Stinky bitch, why did you suddenly think of asking about the situation of the little monkey?" Wei Zhongxian shuddered in his heart, and quickly kowtowed to his arch-enemy Zhang Yan and replied: "Queen, Zhang Haogu, that monkey has only returned to the capital for three days, I'm afraid I haven't heard such rumors yet." Zhang Yan looked forward with beautiful eyes, smiled and said nothing.But at this moment, a young eunuch rushed in, kowtowed to Ming Xizong and said: "My maidservant has reported to the emperor that Jinzhou soldier Zhang Haogu asked to see him, saying that he has something about King Xin to report to the emperor."

"As expected." Zhang Yan sneered in her heart.Emperor Xizong of the Ming Dynasty was overjoyed and said, "Quickly declare Zhang Aiqing to enter the palace." The eunuch took the order and left, and after a while, Young Master Zhang, who was sweating profusely in a Confucian shirt and square scarf, was led into the Qianqing Palace. After saluting, Wei Zhongxian reprimanded hypocritically: "Zhang Haogu, why did you come to the palace to ask for an audience without wearing court clothes? How decent is it?"

"Your Majesty's forgiveness is a very important matter. I didn't have time to go home and change clothes, so I went directly to Chengtian Gate to ask for an audience. Please forgive me, Eunuch Wei and the Empress." Young Master Zhang kowtowed while wiping his sweat.Of course, Ming Xizong didn't care about these trivial matters, first let Young Master Zhang flatten, and then sent a hot towel to wipe Young Master Zhang's sweat, and then asked: "Zhang Aiqing, why did you enter the palace in such a hurry? ?”

"Reporting to the emperor, I heard a rumor on the street when I went out to play today." Young Master Zhang said excitedly: "It is said that Nuerhachi, the old Jiannu, had another strange dream. Rebellious, but also tired of defeating the emperor - this is completely a shameless trick of the villain! The purpose is to provoke the brotherhood between the emperor and the king of Xin, please don't believe it!"

"Zhang Aiqing, do you think so? I don't believe it either, I absolutely don't believe that my younger brother would do such a thing!" Ming Xizong said happily.Zhang Yan remained calm and asked Young Master Zhang: "Zhang Haogu, how do you know this is a despicable trick of a shameless villain? What evidence do you have?" Wei Zhongxian also chimed in: "Yes, Zhang Haogu, Do you have proof?"

"Huh? Isn't it right?" Young Master Zhang, who has a better sense of smell than a dog, suddenly realized that something was wrong - Zhang Yan, one of the five most beautiful queens in history, Zhang Yan, Queen of Apocalypse, is Chongzhen's best friend and also Wei Zhongxian's deadly enemy. What certificate?Isn't she afraid that the evidence I presented will prove Chongzhen to death?Thinking of this, Young Master Zhang quickly cheered up, peeked at Zhang Yan's expression, and said cautiously: "My minister reported to the queen, the old Jian slave Nuerhachi who was rumored in the capital last time dreamed that my minister broke through Shenyang and burned the Dazheng Palace. In fact, it is nothing at all. The rumor is that the eighth son of Nuerhachi's old Jiannu Huang Taiji and the traitor Fan Wencheng ordered the Jiannu to spread the secrets. The army, and Nuerhachi, the old Jiannu, never had such a dream at all. My minister entrusted the emperor and queen Hongfu, although he was caught in the trick, he was lucky enough to win the battle, and Jiannu's trick failed. Afterwards, when the minister succeeded in attacking Shenyang, he was captured The family members of the traitor Fan Wencheng were tortured to death, Fan Wencheng’s brother Fan Wencai confided this secret to this minister in order to seek a quick death, and the Ming soldiers who accompanied him to attack Shenyang can all testify to this minister.”

Speaking of this, Young Master Zhang kowtowed heavily, and said impassionedly: "So I believe that this matter must be a treacherous villain who imitated Jian Nu and spread vicious rumors to sow dissension in an attempt to alienate the brotherhood between the emperor and the king of Xin, so that the emperor Brother Xin and King Xin are fighting each other, please the emperor don't..."

"Wait." Zhang Yan suddenly interrupted Young Master Zhang, and said with a sneer, "Zhang Haogu, what do you mean when you say that the emperor and King Xin are fighting brothers and sisters? Are you implying that the emperor may do something to the emperor? "

"I don't dare!" Zhang Yan saw through Young Master Zhang's vicious thoughts, and his little face turned pale with fright. Doom!"

"Your Majesty, Zhang Haogu is also kind-hearted. He was anxious to defend King Xin's grievances, so he accidentally said a wrong sentence. Please forgive this monkey bastard." Fortunately, Wei Zhongxian was beside him, and he hurriedly pleaded with Ming Xizong.And Ming Xizong's heart is soft, and his ears are also soft. In addition, Young Master Zhang is indeed speaking well for Ming Xizong's only younger brother, so Ming Xizong nodded quickly and said: "Zhang Aiqing, get up, you are speaking for my brother. I don’t blame you for the wrong words. Zhongxian, I will leave this matter to you, find out the culprit who spread rumors and hurt King Xin as soon as possible, and I will punish him severely!”

"The servant obeys the order." Wei Zhongxian respectfully agreed again.On the other side, Zhang Yan smiled at Young Master Zhang and said: "Zhang Haogu, I just reprimanded you because you accidentally said something wrong, but I have to thank you for King Xin because of your redress for King Xin. , you have to take care of yourself in the future, understand?" Young Master Zhang was sweating profusely, and hurriedly kowtowed to agree, and then he and Wei Zhongxian left Qianqing Palace together under the pretext of tracking down the culprit of the rumor, leaving behind Zhu Youxiao and Zhang Yan and his wife to lead a group of hard-core royalists The party comforted Zhu Youjian who was crying to death.

After Wei Zhongxian and Young Master Zhang left the palace with a lot of worries, of course it was impossible to really catch the culprit who spread the rumors - Wei Zhongxian and Young Master Zhang couldn't ask Dongchang Fan or Jin Yiwei to put themselves in the dungeon, right?He went straight back to Wei Ran Hutong and entered the secret room of Wei Zhongxian's home. When there were only father and son left in the secret room, Wei Zhongxian and Young Master Zhang began to discuss various unusual signs of today's incident.

There are two major doubts about this incident. One is that Zhang Yan seems to have known that Young Master Zhang is going to enter the palace, and the other is that Zhang Yan deliberately picks on the faults in what Young Master Zhang said, and it seems that he has long been preventing Young Master Zhang from setting Chongzhen up. Pointing directly at Young Master Zhang and Wei Zhongxian behind Young Master Zhang.But Young Master Zhang and Wei Zhongxian couldn't figure it out. Zhang Yan, who never left the palace alone and was surrounded by Ke Shi's eyeliner, how could she expect these things?And this seamless and vicious trick carefully arranged by Young Master Zhang, where is the flaw exposed?
"Godfather, are those people you sent to spread rumors reliable? Could it be that something went wrong with them?" Young Master Zhang asked with treacherous eyes blinking.Wei Zhongxian also blinked treacherous mung bean eyes and replied: "It is absolutely reliable. Those people were brought from the countryside by our family and your godmother. It's not even bullshit, and it won't betray us."

"Did the godfather leak our plan to others?" Young Master Zhang asked again.Wei Zhongxian glared at Young Master Zhang, and shouted angrily: "Monkey boy, your godfather eats more salt than you eat. Do you dare to reveal this kind of extermination to others? Even your godmother, we The family didn't dare to let her know."

"That's right, if someone informs, the Queen has the real evidence, and she would have put us to death." Young Master Zhang nodded, and said to himself through gritted teeth: "Then what's wrong? What's wrong with this matter? You can't just joke around, if you are a little careless, you will never turn over..."

The embarrassed father and son stared at each other, and no one could figure out what went wrong in this matter. They stared at each other for a long time with frowning faces and trembling fear. Suddenly, Young Master Zhang slapped himself fiercely, jumped up and shouted in a low voice: "Godfather, I understand the reason. We underestimated the most important point in this matter from the very beginning!" Wei Zhongxian was stunned for a moment, and then hurriedly asked: "Monkey boy, we underestimated the most important point!" !"

"What we underestimated is the thoughts of godfather and your cronies!" Young Master Zhang said with a livid face, "Godfather, do you still remember that when the emperor was seriously ill, he called King Xin to his side to guard the marquis? You cared about the emperor's dragon body and didn't think too much about it. It was only afterward that you realized that the emperor was going to pass the throne to King Xin. But godfather, you didn't think about it. At that time, you were obsessed with the authorities and didn't consider the emperor's intentions. What about the others? They are onlookers. Can't you see that the emperor is going to pass the throne to King Xin? These people, in order to protect themselves and their own glory and wealth, have never thought of taking refuge in King Xin behind your back? To the queen who will soon become the empress dowager?!"

Wei Zhongxian was dumbfounded, but his body was covered in cold sweat.Young Master Zhang continued with a livid face: "These people may not deliberately want to harm your godfather, old man, but in order to please the king and queen, I'm afraid they wrote letters of loyalty, self-recommendation letters and so on. And the queen got the handle and became their lackeys! This time, fortunately, we did a good job of keeping secrets and did not let them get the handle of the evidence, so nothing happened—but we returned home in the same sedan chair that night, The next day there were rumors in the capital that were unfavorable to King Xin, as long as you are a smarter person, it is not difficult to think that we are behind this matter!"

Wei Zhongxian continued to be dumbfounded, and it took a long time before Wei Zhongxian's pale face turned livid, then dark again, and finally Wei Zhongxian jumped up violently, kicked over the coffee table next to him, and roared with a ferocious expression: "Sure enough! Sure enough! No wonder Our family tried them, but they didn't respond, and they pretended to be confused. It turned out that they had already prepared their way out! Damn, if it wasn't for our family's good luck and a loyal godson, our family's future would be How he died, I don't know!"

"Good son!" After roaring, Wei Zhongxian pressed Master Zhang's shoulders fiercely, and said in a deep voice: "Our family finally knows who is the most loyal to our family today, monkey boy, you can rest assured to our family, as long as our family If you can pass this level and continue to hold the power, our family will never treat you badly! What you say is our family's words! Tell our family, who are those who may betray our family?"

"Godfather, there are too many, so many children can't figure out that those people may betray you." Young Master Zhang shook his head in pain, and said weakly: "It goes without saying that civil and military officials, they have everything for their own status, glory and wealth. They may fall to the king of Xin; the father-in-laws of the ceremonial supervisors may fall to the king of Xin in order not to be implicated by you. Even the maids and eunuchs in the palace may fall to the queen and become the queen in turn Watching you and the godmother's eyeliner, in the face of interests, there are not many people who can be as indifferent as the boy and not change their position."

Apart from his understanding and knowledge of history, Wei Zhongxian's level of cunning in the political arena is actually no less than that of Young Master Zhang. After calmly thinking about it, Wei Zhongxian nodded, gritted his teeth and said, "Monkey, you are right, except Anyone other than you may betray our family, and it is not so easy for our family to find out the traitor! You are young and have a good brain, tell our family, what should our family do next?"

"Godfather, don't worry, they are not our opponents." The young master Zhang who also calmed down said in a deep voice: "Godfather, think about it, if their city is deeper, hold your breath for a while, and wait until we start the next step. If we get the real evidence, we will be put to death immediately! It's a pity that the queen is a little weaker, and she can't calm down and startle the snake, letting us know that there are traitors in us - just based on this, the queen and the others will not be our opponents !"

"You're right, that stinky bitch is too young to be our match!" Wei Zhongxian nodded, somewhat regaining his confidence, and the skinny old hand clasped Young Master Zhang's hand again and asked, "Monkey, tell me quickly!" Our family, what should we do next?"

"Godfather, my child thinks that we should act separately next step." Young Master Zhang murmured and said, "Godfather, work harder, and spend more time with the emperor during this time, so as not to let other people have the opportunity to slander the emperor. As long as the emperor does not Nod, we can sit back and relax. As for King Xin, let me deal with it. Those who betray us are counting on King Xin to succeed after he succeeds to the throne—as long as we get rid of King Xin and cut off their thoughts , They just want to crawl back obediently and lick your feet!"

"Okay, let's do it like this!" Wei Zhongxian nodded, and said with a smirk: "If our family discovers the mole, even if they want to crawl back and lick our feet, it is wishful thinking!"

"There are still some things." Young Master Zhang was not polite, and took the opportunity to say: "My boy is not strong enough in the capital to deal with King Xin. My boy has the courage to ask his godfather to promote Song Jin as the deputy admiral of the East Factory and Xiao Chuan. To punish Qianhu for Dongchang, these two people have the best relationship with Haier, and Haier trusts them the most, with their help, Haier can use Dongchang's power to deal with King Xin."

"Okay, our family will go and order in a while, bring these two people up, and let them be your deputy!" Wei Zhongxian nodded immediately.Young Master Zhang said again: "Godfather, on your side, you must immediately find out the traitor who is serving the emperor, and cut off the way for the enemy to use the emperor to deal with us! As for how to catch the traitor, my child has already come up with an idea... ...."

With Young Master Zhang's wonderful plan, Wei Zhongxian happily went out to make arrangements. Before leaving, Wei Zhongxian patted Young Master Zhang's shoulder again, pursed his dry old mouth, and said with a choked voice after a long time, "Father and son are united, and their strengths are determined." Jin, from now on, don't call our godfather, but your own father!" Young Master Zhang hurriedly kowtowed, and sweetly called: "Dear father."

"Dear son." Wei Zhongxian burst into tears, helped up Young Master Zhang, nodded, and then left the secret room.Looking at the old back of Wei Zhongxian leaving, Young Master Zhang sighed, and sighed in his heart: "Oh, I have fallen too deep, I have to do this. And Chongzhen, Chongzhen, you and I have no grievances at all. No enmity, but I always feel that you are not as good as the old eunuch Wei in governing the country, the lesser of two evils, for the sake of the Han people, for the sake of the millions of Ming people in the world, and for myself, I can only wrong you! Hehe, Fortunately, I also have a big killer that no one can think of - once the big killer is used, even your beautiful sister-in-law will support me to kill you!"

(End of this chapter)