It turned out that Zhu Yuanzhang had always had a question in his mind when he was interrogating Xu Yunzhen.
That's why Li Zushu had to recruit Xu Yunzhen to join the gang, even to the point of exposing Wang Dehua's identity.
Now it seems that Xu Yunzhen should be the spokesperson of some gentry in the south in the north, and Li Zushu needs the support of these people, so he wants to win over Xu Yunzhen.
This can also explain why after Xu Yunzhen joined the gang, Li Zushu gave him one million taels of silver. Presumably this was the price for the help of the Jiangnan gentry.
It's just that Xu Yunzhen didn't expect that the silver given by Li Zushu was actually obtained from Taicang, so from the moment he accepted the money, he lost the freedom to advance or retreat.
From this point of view, Li Jing’s disappearance may not have been caused by Li Zushu, but could also be caused by Xu Yunzhen.
Because Xu Yunzhen is already under the control of Li Zushu, and with Li Zushu's personality, he will definitely let Xu Yunzhen do as much as possible, so that he will have more and more handles in his hands, and it will be more conducive for him to control Xu Yunzhen.
Furthermore, Li Jing angered the Jiangnan gentry with his petition. Now Li Jing entered the court and became Zhu Yuanzhang's favorite.
This situation is not what the Jiangnan gentry wants to see. Maybe they have been planning to deal with Li Jing for a long time, but they have never found a suitable opportunity before.
Of course, Zhu Yuanzhang had previously killed many nobles and wealthy businessmen, confiscated their property, and distributed land to the people, which may have been a trigger.
It may be that these things came together to make the Jiangnan gentry feel dangerous, so this joint operation was carried out.
And Li Zushuying also saw through the thoughts of the Jiangnan gentry, so he played this trick again after the failure, just to force the Jiangnan gentry to completely fall over to them.
From this point of view, Li Zushu's side may have soldiers but no money, or there may not be many soldiers, just an empty show, otherwise the Jiangnan gentry would not have chosen him when the capital was besieged previously. Z.br>
But no matter what, after Li Zushu's defeat and escape this time, he will definitely stir up chaos in the south, so his top priority is to stabilize the gentry in the south.
Even if he couldn't hold himself steady, he would at least be delayed until he could catch his breath.
Zhu Yuanzhang wanted to understand this and was determined. Then he found that everyone was looking at him with doubts.
He glanced at everyone calmly, then looked at Zhu Cihong and said: "Prince, after dawn today, you ask the Ministry of Justice to interrogate Xu Yunzhen and others, and ask them to find out the details of this matter and give us an explanation!"
Although Zhu Cixiang heard that there was something in Zhu Yuanzhang's words, he thought of Zhu Yuanzhang's previous instructions and thought that the other party had forgotten it for a moment, so he politely reminded him: "Father, didn't you say that you should take it a little longer?"
Zhu Yuanzhang shook his head and said: "Prince, you don't have to keep silent anymore. Li Zushu's failure will cause war in the south. This matter is inevitable."
"For the current plan, we can only open up the food route as soon as possible and protect the south of the Yangtze River, so that we can be in an invincible position."
Everyone was shocked when they heard this.
Wang Jiayan hesitated for a while and then said: "Your Majesty, are you worried that the chieftains from Yun, Gui and other places will take the opportunity to cause trouble?"
Zhu Yuanzhang nodded and said: "This is only a possibility. There is also Zhang Xianzhong from Sichuan. He was also forced to go to Sichuan. If there are changes in the south, he may come out to stir up trouble."
"So you immediately summon everyone from the Ministry of War to discuss this matter and make sure to work out a feasible plan to nip this crisis in the bud..."
Just as Zhu Yuanzhang was talking, he found Wu Laoliu walking in hurriedly.
He couldn't help but stop and looked at Wu Laoliu with some surprise: "But what happened again?"
Wu Laoliu bowed respectfully, then glanced at Wang Jiayan, and then looked at Zhu Yuanzhang.
When he saw Zhu Yuanzhang nodded slightly, he said: "Your Majesty, Li Dayong and the others have recruited them, and they say that the person who ordered them is Jin Zhijun, the Minister of War!"
"Jin Zhijun?"
Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly remembered that Jin Zhijun had participated in pacifying the soldiers before, and then Wang Jiayan asked him to investigate the Fuchengmen incident. He did not expect that a person Wang Jiayan valued so much was the mastermind behind the scenes.
So he frowned and looked at Wang Jiayan and said, "Wang Qing, what's going on?"
When Wang Jiayan heard this, he shook his head repeatedly and said: "This is impossible. He has been accompanying me to comfort the soldiers tonight, and he was injured and almost lost his life. How could he instigate it?"
"Furthermore, as Jin Zhijun is the minister of the Ministry of War, if he wants to do such a thing, there is no need for him to come forward in person. Is it because Li Dayong and others have hatred in their hearts and are deliberately slandering?"
Wu Laoliu couldn't help frowning when he heard this, but he didn't speak.
Zhu Yuanzhang glanced at Wu Laoliu and said, "Is this possible?"
Wu Laoliu shook his head and said: "No, because in order to prevent them from colluding with each other, we arrested Li Dayong and others and escorted them separately for interrogation. As a result, they all said that the person who ordered them was Jin Zhijun, so I felt that Jin Zhijun was suspected. It’s huge!”
Zhu Yuanzhang glanced at Wang Jiayan and asked, "Has this matter been discussed in advance?"
"After all, as Wang Shangshu said, as a minister, Jin Zhijun really has no need to do such a thing himself!"
Wu Laoliu bowed and said, "Although this possibility is possible, Jin Yiwei is not a vegetarian. Besides, we arrested seven people in total, and the ones we identified were all Jin Zhijun, so I don't think this possibility exists."
When Zhu Yuanzhang heard that Jin Zhijun was involved in this matter, he immediately thought of the passage in Chang Ying's treasury and the transferred silver, and he was already convinced.
However, in order to win over Wang Jiayan, he asked a few more questions.
Seeing that Wang Jiayan had no intention of speaking at this moment, he must have been muttering in his heart.
So Zhu Yuanzhang looked at Wu Mengming again and said: "Wu Qing, you immediately go and secretly capture Jin Zhijun, and at the same time seal his mansion from the inside, and no one is allowed to go out."
After Wu Mengming bowed in agreement, he asked again: "Your Majesty, do you still want to arrest those wealthy businessmen?"
Zhu Yuanzhang was silent for a while and said: "Not only must we arrest him, we must also kill him with great fanfare, but this time we will not be implicated."
"In addition, you arrested Shen Weibing, the minister of household affairs, and Gong Dingzi, the imperial censor. At the same time, you ordered Fan Jingwen and Li Banghua to reflect at home and not to go out unless ordered!"
"Also, take Wang Zhangsuo and put him in a prison..."
Zhu Yuanzhang said, suddenly stopped, glanced at Wang Jiayan, and then continued: "At the same time, the Ministry of Punishment is ordered to find out the cause of the matter as soon as possible, and must give us an explanation before noon today."
When Wu Mengming heard Zhu Yuanzhang's instructions, he couldn't help but glance at Wang Jiayan. Seeing that he didn't stop him anymore, he bowed and left Dongnuan Pavilion in a hurry.
"Wang Qing, it's all your fault for the plan to quell the rebellion in the south!"
Zhu Yuanzhang saw Wang Jiayan's looming anger and knew that he was dissatisfied with what had just happened, so he took the opportunity to comfort him.
Hearing this, Wang Jiayan bowed and said: "Your Majesty has your orders, and I must obey them. But... I... I am afraid that your Majesty will kill too much and the world will not be peaceful. Please think again!" "
After Wang Jiayan said this, he hurriedly knelt down to apologize, his body trembling slightly at the same time.
