Internal official prison.
Located in the northeast corner of the palace, this is also where the eunuchs of the East Factory usually work.
Factory minister Wang Dehua is sitting here. Even though the time is up, he still does not go to rest. Instead, he keeps meeting with his subordinates and seems very busy.
It has been several days. As a factory minister and top leader of Dongchang, Wang Dehua has not seen Chongzhen, which was a rare thing in the past.
But if we look at the current situation, it is not a problem for him to do this. After all, even the Ming Dynasty is about to fall, so why would he go to see Chongzhen? What he should do now is to open up the relationship between the two and keep enough distance. Only in this way, he can move forward after Dashun's army enters the city.
Otherwise, if someone reports that he is too close to Chongzhen, wouldn't he be implicated?
Wang Dehua did not go to see Chongzhen. He believed that it was no longer necessary. In his estimation, the Ming Dynasty would fall in a few days. He was waiting, waiting for the new master to appear, how he should behave in order to regain power and gain wealth again.
While he was waiting, it was not that he did nothing. His godson, godson, and great-grandson sent many people to keep an eye on Chongzhen's every move in the Jianji Palace.
But Wang Dehua still underestimated people's hearts in the end. Even he didn't pay attention to Chongzhen. How could his disciples and grandchildren below him pay attention to him. Without seeing any benefits, some people would inevitably slack off. This made Zhu Changwu not get any news from the first time he entered the palace to the time he left.
It was only three hours ago that Wang Dehua learned the news about the arrest of Cao Huachun and the others from his subordinates, which made him very surprised for a while.
Although they are all eunuchs and work in Dongchang, their relationship is not close. How about the eunuch? When their numbers increase, they will naturally fight among themselves and then divide into gangs.
Just like Wang Chengen is also a eunuch, but he is a eunuch who serves as a ceremonial officer. Although he has the title of deputy owner of the East Factory, his job is mainly to serve the Long Live Lord. Because of different functions, he does not have much contact with him at ordinary times.
The same is true for the relationship between Wang Dehua and Cao Huachun. Unless they are friends, the relationship is just ordinary, and it is inevitable that there is even some personal enmity in it. But now, these three people were actually arrested. After getting the news, he had to become vigilant.
In the past, when Cao Huachun was arrested, he would have jumped for joy. Without this old rival, Wang Dehua would have monopolized power, which was a good thing. But what is the situation now? The Ming Dynasty is about to perish. How can there be people who are so full that they can arrest eunuchs?
At this point, shouldn't we think of ways to find a way out?
After learning the news, Wang Dehua relied on his sensitive political sense and immediately sent someone out to inquire, but the effect was not ideal. The result was that the person was caught in the Jinyiwei dungeon, and the guards there were very strict. Dongchang Fan Unless you reveal your identity, you won't be able to get in at all.
Speaking of which, Dongchang's power is still higher than that of Jinyiwei. If they need to take action, they will transfer people from Jinyiwei to coordinate their handling of cases. In other words, they are a higher-level leadership organization.
It can be said that, after all, it is not a direct jurisdiction, but at most it has the power to supervise and mobilize personnel when necessary. Normally they still can't interfere with Jin Yiwei's handling of cases. But now they don't even know what happened. Let Wang Dehua send someone to ask directly. He will not do such a reckless thing.
Wang Dehua was able to stand out from the ranks of tens of thousands of eunuchs and become the most powerful boss of Dongchang because of his prudent work style. It was as if he saw the corruption of the Ming Dynasty and sent someone to contact Li Zicheng secretly. However, the process was very secret, and people always met and talked directly with each other, leaving no words on paper. That's what makes him smart.
If you can't intervene directly, you can only think of other ways. Wang Dehua is still thinking about which Qianhu, Baihu or General Banner of Jinyiwei he has close relationship with, trying to find out some useful information from their mouths. When the news came out, there was a knock on the door, and a foreman named Tang Tong walked in.
"Godfather, the Jin Yiwei side suddenly started arresting people. The two policemen we sent have been arrested because they were too close to the dungeon entrance. These Jin Yiwei have taken the courage of leopards. What do they want to do?" Tang Tong He spoke with indignation, giving the impression of being greatly wronged.
But he forgot, okay, why did Dongchang send people to the entrance of Jinyiwei's dungeon? If you don't come, how will they arrest your people?
If you don't come, will I stop you?
"Caught our people?" Ignoring Tang Tong's complaints, Wang Dehua's few eyebrows knitted together instantly after hearing the news.
Jinyiwei dared to arrest people from Dongchang. Such a thing has not happened for countless years. At least if Jin Yiwei was still in charge of the old guy Wu Mengming, he would never have the guts to openly conflict with Dongchang.
Speaking of Wu Mengming, as the commander of the Jinyi Guards, this person is definitely an expert in internal fighting. After he received Chongzhen's attention and trust, he continued to suppress his colleagues, and finally he found a reason to join forces with another Li Ruolian, a fellow commander of Jinyiwei at the time, overthrew Luo Yangxing, the commander at the time, and eventually became the new commander.
He took care of his own family, and his methods were very aggressive, but every time he saw Wang Dehua, he was always cautious and smiling. That was because he knew that he could not keep up with the level of trust he had in Long Live Lord's heart, so He gave in.
For such a man who knew current affairs, even if Wang Dehua was killed, he would not believe that he would order the Jin Yiwei to arrest Dongchang. So there was only one result, and that was the replacement of the top management of Jinyiwei. This also made him involuntarily think of the new commander that people were talking about on the Xuanwumen Gate Tower. It seemed that his name was Zhu Changwu.
Yes, his name is Zhu Changwu. I heard that he is the seventh son of King Xiang.
snort! He is just the son of Prince Xiang, not to mention not the legitimate heir, but so what?
Living in Huguang all the year round, I have already had a relationship with Lord Long live. When it comes to the level of trust between me and the Emperor, I can't compare to the relationship between me and the Emperor. Even if Prince Xiang is still alive, he will not put him in the eyes of Wang Dehua. .
Now he is just a child, and he will not be looked at seriously. But if this person becomes the commander of the Jin Yiwei, it will be very different.
Historically, those who can serve as commanders of the Imperial Guards are those whom the emperor has great trust. Where did this Zhu Changwu come from? Why had I never heard of it before? Why did he soar into the sky?
While Wang Dehua was still thinking about where Zhu Changwu came from, the foreman Tang Tong spoke again, "Godfather, do you want your son to come out and fish him out, and take a look at what's going on in the dungeon?"
"Don't be impulsive!" Wang Dehua waved his hand after hearing this.
"Cao Huachun and the others are not from the same group as us, and he doesn't know much about our affairs. Even if something happens to them, it has nothing to do with us, and we'd better take a look first. By the way, you go next Let’s find out who Zhu Changwu is. There are also the young eunuchs at Jianji Hall. Give them money and ask, maybe they can give us the answer we want.”
Wang Dehua was very cautious. He was not ready to end until he understood who Zhu Changwu was. He wanted to see it first before talking.
Wang Dehua said so. Although Tang Tong wanted to rush in directly. He thought that no one dared to do anything to him, but when he thought that his godfather had always done nothing wrong, he had no choice but to nod and agree.
It was gradually getting brighter outside. In the Jinyiwei dungeon, Cao Huachun and the other three finally couldn't stand it any longer. After being cut off hundreds of pieces of meat, they finally revealed the place where the money was kept.
Cao Huachun confessed that he had one million taels, Wang Xiangyao had 400,000 taels, and Zhang Yongyu had 300,000 taels. The three of them totaled 1.7 million taels.
After learning everything was explained, Zhu Changwu stood up from his chair and said, "It's so damn poor. The three of us together are half of Zhu Chunchen's property. It cost me so much time. You guys really refreshed my life." Cognition, I finally know what it means to take money rather than life.”
Seeing that the bodies of Cao Huachun and the others were riddled with wounds, Zhu Changwu sighed.
The three of them were already dying, and what they wanted to do most at this time was to die quickly.
"Well, since everything has been explained, there is no need to keep them. You three can go down and collect the reward." Zhu Changwu said while looking at the three Jinyi guards responsible for the execution. Then at some point a tiger-tooth dagger appeared in his hand, and it quickly passed through, bringing out a blood arrow in mid-air.
In the blink of an eye, Cao Huachun, Wang Xiangyao, and Zhang Yongyu dropped their heads and died.
After the death of the three people, Zhu Changwu noticed that the value in the system had increased by a full 1,800 points, and they were all heinous.
"Very good." When he felt that the system value had reached 36920 points from the original 35120, the corners of his mouth raised and Zhu Changwu laughed.
"Sun Baihu, drag the bodies of the three people to the mass grave and throw them away. Remember, you need to be hidden and don't let others know about this. Do it yourself."
Zhu Changwu didn't want to hide the matter forever. He knew that he couldn't hide it at all, but he could hide it for a moment longer. Now he really didn't have time to deal with the eunuchs in the East Factory. The army was about to triumph, and he had more important things to do. Things have to be done.
...
Outside Beijing, the capital of the Ming Dynasty.
It was already daybreak, and the Ming army, which had won the battle, was lining up to rush towards the capital.
At night, they rested outside the city. But this night, they didn't get much rest. They were excited in the first half of the night.
