Chapter 052 Huai'an Cao Gang III
Weng Shijie immediately felt that the young man in front of him was really extraordinary: "Mr. Chen is really young and promising, and the name of Jinling Nalan Rongruo is indeed well-deserved."
Chen Cao shook his head: "Thank you, Hall Master Weng. The matter at hand is simple but complicated. It seems that people in the court are fighting for the water transportation. Yang Yipeng has to respond. I don't know if Hall Master Weng can trust Chen." .”
Weng Linzhi immediately interjected: "Dad, my child went to all the officials he knew, but no one was willing to help our family. Even Mr. Chen, and my little sister didn't want me to look for him. It was all my child who shamelessly went to find it. Mr. Chen didn't even want to help me." Without shirk, I came to Huai'an in person and just rescued my little sister from prison."
"Seriously?" Weng Shijie looked at Weng Linzhi, and then at Chen Cao.
"It's absolutely true." Weng Linzhi nodded.
Weng Shijie once again raised his hand towards Chen Cao: "Thank you, Mr. Chen. In that case, please ask Mr. Chen."
Chen Cao clasped his fists: "May I ask Hall Master Weng, among the officials in the DPRK and Central Government, whether they are in office or in office, who is your biggest supporter?"
Weng Shijie said without hesitation: "Fang Congzhe, the former chief minister of the cabinet."
Chen Cao suddenly realized: "Did Feng Quan contact you?"
Weng Shijie raised his eyebrows: "How did Mr. Chen know?"
Chen Cao already knew the cause and effect of the matter, and then said: "It seems that Hall Master Weng is just a prostitute in this matter. The real show has just begun."
The way Chen Cao sighed made Weng Shijie frown: "Master Chen, do you mean that I am just a chess piece?"
Chen Cao shook his head: "You are not a chess piece, so you abandon it..."
Only then did Weng Shijie truly feel the world spinning: "No, no, I am loyal and will never be abandoned... Absolutely not..."
Weng Linzhi didn't know much. Chen Cao's words were purely a riddle. He could only understand the superficial meaning: "Master Chen, father, what do you mean by your words?"
Weng Shijie kept shaking his head, and Chen Cao was also amused: "Hall Master Weng, if you want to get out of this quagmire safely, it is no longer possible in Chen's opinion. What you have to do now is to protect Weng." Brothers and daughters.”
The sky in Weng Shijie's world is falling: "Impossible, impossible, absolutely impossible..."
Weng Shijie wandered around the cell as if he was crazy, and kept repeating these words. Weng Linzhi was so frightened that he knelt down to Chen Cao: "Master Chen, help me..."
Chen Cao bit the dead skin on his mouth and stared at the moldy roof of the prison. He kept shaking his feet. He was thinking of a solution, but for a while he really didn't have any good solution, so he asked: "Hall Master Weng, you must answer Chen for the last question. Have you made any promises to the people behind you?"
Weng Shijie stopped wandering around and said with a trance in his eyes: "They are officials and I am a people. Whatever they say is what they say. What qualifications do ordinary people have to argue?"
Chen Cao left...
He returned to the inn very depressed. No wonder Yang Yipeng had told him not to get involved in this matter before. Now that he thought about it, the old man had been prepared for it. Going to him by himself was just a fake act, and he wanted to really threaten him. , not yet possible.
Zhao Xin came into the room with tea. When he saw Chen Cao coming back from prison, he knew something was wrong with his expression: "Sir, how about we stop? You still have your own ambitions, so you don't have to worry about this unimportant matter." Let’s get in there ourselves.”
Bang...
Weng Meixin kicked open the door, came in, stared at Chen Cao and said, "Mr. Chen, I heard what you said. Is it really impossible to save my father? If not, I can do it myself."
"Yourself?" Chen Cao turned to look at Weng Meixin, and then motioned to Xin Zhao to close the door and go out to guard: "Are you going to rebel with the millions of unarmed Cao Gang members and their families? Or do you want to be like Liu Liu and Liu Qi? You were famous for a period of time and then wiped out? And then you, as the first offenders, were executed by a thousand cuts?"
"How do you know?" Weng Meixin asked in surprise.
"Women's thoughts are always so unrealistic, so they say they can't accomplish big things." Chen Cao sighed and shook his head: "If you do this, all your relatives from the nine tribes will die, why do you want to implicate those innocent people? Do you think Does everyone want to rebel with you?”
Weng Meixin's momentum was cut off by Chen Cao in half, and her whole body softened. Tears fell from time to time, and she showed the appearance of a little woman again, crying: "Three brothers are dead, father is arrested, Jinan Everyone in the family was imprisoned in the governor's office. When the third brother came back, he said that even you couldn't save my father. What should we do? Who did we offend? Why did we do this to us..."
Chen Cao didn't want the woman to cry, so he stepped forward and held Weng Meixin in his arms, patted her on the back and said, "You have to be patient in everything, otherwise you won't be able to accomplish big things, and it will hurt other people."
Weng Meixin reacted immediately and opened Chen Cao's arms: "Men and women are not close to each other, why are you holding me?"
"I'm afraid you'll be sad..." Chen Cao said, then he pulled Weng Meixin to a chair and poured a cup of tea: "The matter is too complicated. If I insist on intervening, I'm afraid I will get into big trouble, but I hope you can save me." For the sake of my life, I will definitely help you."
"Aren't you afraid of trouble?" Weng Meixin's tenderness at this moment was something Chen Cao had never seen before.
Chen Cao nodded: "Originally I wanted to stop, but now that I have lost my skin with Yang Yipeng, why not fight him, but you brother and sister must cooperate well."
"How to do it?"
"Come here with your ears..."
Chen Cao personally sent Weng Meixin out. Zhao Xin came into the room and said, "Sir, are the forces in the DPRK and China competing for water transportation?"
Chen Cao nodded: "The current situation should be that the purpose of Weng Shijie being abandoned by the three parties of Qi, Chu and Zhejiang is that they want to use Weng Shijie to punish Li Yangchong behind Yang Yipeng." Chen Cao sat down and said: "Li Yangchong is from the Donglin Party Ye Xianggao knew about it. It’s about water transportation..."
"Then Weng Shijie can completely turn the crisis into safety?" Xin Zhao frowned?
"Is it possible to turn the crisis around by returning it to him?" Chen Cao raised his eyebrows: "You think things are too simple. If so, no one would dare to touch Weng Shijie. But if there is an official document from the Ministry of Punishment, it will be with Weng Shi Jie's death came to fight Yang Yipeng, so that he could resign as governor of water transportation, and he could also attack Li Yangchong. You say, who wouldn't want to kill two birds with one stone?
What's more important is that the position of Governor of Water Transport is very lucrative. No matter who it is, everyone wants to take over this position. Li Sancai made his fortune through this..."
Xin Zhao understood immediately: "My lord, I understand that no matter how the government and China fight, there are actually only two factions, the Eunuch Party and the Donglin Party, right?"
"More than that," Chen Cao shook his head: "On the surface, it seems that only Wei Zhongxian is fighting against the Donglin Party. There are also people from the Qi, Chu, and Zhejiang Parties in the interior. Fang Congzhe is not a good person. On the surface, they allied with Wei Zhongxian, but privately they all He has his own Xiao Jiujiu, hehe...this group of people is a bit interesting..."
"Sir, now it seems that we are one of our own people behind Weng Shijie?" Zhao Xin suddenly realized: "We are also eunuchs..."
Chen Cao glanced sideways at Xin Zhao, making Xin Zhao feel uncomfortable: "Why, Xin Zhao, are you proud of being an eunuch?"
Xin Zhao trembled all over: "My subordinates don't mean that, but we are still number six, aren't we?"
Chen Cao squinted his eyes and let out a long breath, which frightened Xin Zhao and quickly apologized. Chen Cao then said: "We must work hard to become the number one figure in the eunuch party."
Xin Zhao: "...."
"You're right," Chen Cao patted Zhao Xin on the shoulder: "They are indeed one of our own, but they probably don't know that I intervened, so I have to give them a break first, and then I'll use my own methods to deal with them. , Weng Linzhi has already gone to inform people, and there will be clues in a few days. You should send someone to deliver a letter directly to Wei Liangqing's house, and tell them about our intervention, so as not to accidentally hurt one of your own."
"Yes, my subordinate will do it now."
...
three days later
A messenger yamen quickly ran into the governor's yamen, sweating profusely: "Sir, something bad happened. The canal, the canal was blocked, and all the first summer grain that had just been collected in Nanzhili was robbed. All the soldiers responsible for safety along the route were killed.”
"Ah..." Yang Yipeng was so shocked by the news that the book in his hand fell to the ground: "What's going on?"
"I don't even know, but this is an official document just sent from the General Military Office." The officer quickly handed over the official document.
Yang Yipeng opened the official document and fainted immediately.
After waking up, Yang Yipeng quickly held an emergency meeting. The meeting was attended by big bosses from the Governor's Yamen and the General Military Yamen, but Chen Cao arrived at an inappropriate time.
And he also acted domineeringly.
"Master Yang," Chen Cao walked into the lobby and interrupted their meeting: "How do you do things?"
Wang Yiqing saw Jin Yiwei coming. Although he had never met Chen Cao, he at least knew that such a number one person had come to Huai'an Mansion: "Master Chen, we are discussing things."
"What?" Chen Cao frowned and looked at Wang Yiqing, not daring him, and sat directly on a chair: "Don't forget, although you are in charge of water transportation, this is South Zhili, summer grain has been robbed, and canal waterways have been blocked. , do you still want to cover up such a big thing?"
Although Yang Yipeng was unhappy with Chen Cao, there was nothing wrong with Chen Cao's words, so he waved Wang Yiqing to sit down and said: "Master Chen came at the right time. I am discussing how to deal with this group of horse thieves."
"Master Yang, according to the detective report from our Jinyi Guards, Xia Liang was robbed in Taoyuan County. Is this possible?" Chen Cao said seriously.
Wang Yiqing knew this matter best, so he leaned on his chair and handed over to Chen Cao: "It did happen in Taoyuan County. A group of thieves hijacked the summer grain shipped to the capital in Taoyuan County, and attacked and killed me who was escorting me along the way. There were more than 230 soldiers from the general military office. After robbing the summer grain, they dug through the ships and blocked the canal."
"May I ask Mr. Wang, why are there horse thieves in Huai'an?" Chen Cao looked at Wang Yiqing sideways as a return gift to him.
Wang Yiqing took a deep breath to suppress his anger and said: "It must be from Shandong."
"Do you know how many there are?" Chen Cao asked again.
"There are no survivors, but the number of soldiers who can attack and kill my two hundred households should be three hundred or more." Wang Yiqing said without thinking.
"So many thieves entered Huai'an, killed people and looted goods, and yet they walked away calmly. Mr. Wang, what do you do for food?" Chen Cao said coldly.
Wang Yiqing finally couldn't suppress his anger and pushed the coffee table next to him: "Chen Cao, what qualifications do you have to ask this general? Don't forget your authority."
"Presumptuous..." Zhao Xin, who was standing behind Chen Cao, sternly scolded: "My lord is the commander of the Jinyi Guards of Nanzhili. Naturally, he has the right to intervene in such a big matter. Mr. Wang, this officer is Zhao Xin, the commander of Nanzhi Fusi Town. , let me ask you, the summer grain was robbed in the canal waterway. As the chief water transport officer, do you know the inside story? Or was this matter planned by you? "
"Nonsense..." Wang Yiqing rebuked angrily: "Others are afraid of you Jin Yiwei, but I am not afraid of you. When will it be your turn to intervene in the affairs of our General Water Transport Yamen?"
Chen Cao raised his hand to stop Zhao Xin, and then said tepidly: "General Wang is such a powerful official. I, the Imperial Guard, are the Emperor's personal soldiers, and I don't have the qualifications to ask about the affairs of the Water Transport General Soldier's Yamen. I wonder who can?" Let His Majesty come and ask in person?"
Wang Yiqing and Yang Yipeng moved their bodies together, and Chen Cao continued: "Since General Wang thinks that my Jin Yiwei can't ask questions, it's only a small matter. Business is business. Zhao Xin, record all what General Wang said today, and we'll do it later. Send it quickly to the capital and hand it over to Eunuch Wei."
Yang Yipeng spoke: "Master Chen, we are talking about business now. General Wang is also a little excited because he is concerned about the robbery of Xia Liang. I hope Master Chen will not care about it."
Chen Cao ignored Yang Yipeng's words, stared at Wang Yiqing and said, "It's OK if I'm not qualified to ask, but General Wang must know that what Chen Cao asked today is for Duke Wei."
Wang Yiqing was so excited that he forgot Chen Cao's multiple identities because of his excitement. This guy was born in the family of the Duke of Wei, and Xu Hongji, the Duke of Wei, was in Nanjing garrison. Established, it does not belong to any place administratively, but its armaments are restricted by Nanjing garrison, and it essentially belongs to the sequence of Nanjing garrison.
As soon as Chen Cao finished speaking, a government servant ran into the lobby quickly: "Sir, Duke Wei is here."
"Ah?" Yang Yipeng frowned, and then immediately stared at Chen Cao: "Chen Cao, you are really good at breaking..."
Chen Cao pretended not to hear and looked outside the lobby.
"Wang Yiqing, what do you do for food?" The young man in red python robe yelled sternly, who is Xu Hongji, the Duke of Wei?
Everyone in the hall quickly stood up and saluted Xu Hongji: "I have met Wei Guogong (see Wei Guogong)..."
Xu Hongji glanced at Chen Cao, then walked straight to Yang Yipeng's seat and sat down, and then cursed: "Having been the water transport commander for so many years, you can't even protect a canal. In my opinion, you are I don’t want to be the water transport commander at all.”
Chen Cao couldn't suppress Wang Yiqing, but Xu Hongji could. The few words he said frightened Wang Yiqing so much that he knelt down on one knee and gave Xu Hongji a military salute: "My lord, I have been wronged..."
