When thieves entered the country, the governors of the two palaces stayed away. This move was extremely shameless, but it was very common in the late Ming Dynasty. People who surrendered at the door were everywhere, and some even came from dozens of miles away, so Ma Shiying I don't feel so embarrassed about myself.
Moreover, if it were placed on another governor, he would just take the opportunity to curry favor, but Lu Zhenfei was different. He was an upright man and really couldn't stand what Ma Shiying did, so he endured it for a few days and finally said bluntly: "At this time, the governor should be in charge of the overall situation in Luzhou Mansion. , What’s the point of staying in Fengyang?”
Ma Shiying sighed and spread his hands: "If the governor has no soldiers, no silver, no food, no food, what can he use to fight the rebel army?"
With one word, Lu Zhenfei was speechless.
Yes, fighting means losing money, and right now you have money but no soldiers. In the first two years, Huang Degong stationed troops in Dingyuan to guard the imperial tombs in Fengyang and Sizhou. Later, when he moved to Luzhou to guard Zhang Xianzhong, he surrounded Zhang Xianzhong with Liu Liangzuo's men. Then One win after another, Zhang Xianzhong was so beaten that he could only hide in the mountains and dare not show his face.
Thinking about how exciting and energetic they were back then, if Huang Degong and Liu Liangzuo were still there, how could they be afraid of Bai Wang's bullshit pioneer, the murderer Zhang Xianzhong, who was so awesome, Huang Degong's 5,000 troops were just running away with their heads in their arms.
The problem is that Huang Degong is not here. Now there are only a thousand people in the entire Luzhou Prefecture. How can we beat them?
Lu Zhenfei was frustrated because he was powerless and anxious, and he was too lazy to look at Ma Shiying's face. He left the house early every day, and sometimes went to chat with Zhu Yujian inside the high wall, talking about the situation in the world, and sighing at each other.
Although Dongchang Changyu tried his best to turn the tide and stabilize the situation in the north, the imperial court was at the end of its strength. With such chaos in the south, it was probably too much to do but too little to do.
Zhu Yu was locked up in a high wall for seven or eight years, and he had no information about what was going on outside the window. Recently, Lu Zhenfei came to know a little bit about it from his mouth, and he was particularly interested in hearing the story about the eunuch of Dongchang, who actually appeared in Ming Dynasty. Such a strange person!
"He was able to break down the thieves and quell the chaos with his own strength. What if he went south..." Zhu Yujian was interrupted by Lu Zhenfei before he finished his words: "Fighting is not an ordinary man's bravery. What he fights is food, grass and silver! It's not that he questions the eunuch's ability. , but the imperial court is powerless at this time. To put it bluntly, it has no money and no food. How can we fight this war?"
"It's true that war costs money, but war depends entirely on money. So this war is still fought by people. Everyone is competing with who has more money." Zhu Yujian smiled bitterly and shook his head: "The little eunuch fought hard in the north for several times. Are they relying on silver to win successive victories? The imperial court has so much silver?"
Lu Zhenfei also had a wry smile on his face: "I don't know how he fought, but most people fought with money. Don't tell others. In the fifteenth year of Chongzhen, the bandits joined forces to besiege Kaifeng. At that time, Zuo Liang had the military power. Yu Yongbing's self-respect was uncontrolled. Considering that Zuo Liangyu was once an old subordinate of Hou Xun, the imperial court replaced Ding Qirui with Hou Xun, the governor of Baoding's seven towns, to break the siege. But even so, Zuo Liangyu was still bargaining, and in the end Hou Xun had no choice but to spend 500,000 yuan to fight with him, so Zuo Liangyu sent troops to fight with Li Zicheng in Zhuxian Town. Of course, he lost in the end. Look, one battle only cost 500,000 yuan!"
Zhu Yujian couldn't help but sigh: "If this is the case, what should we do?"
"What can we do?" Lu Zhenfei raised his head and looked at the sky: "Leave it to fate. The war situation in the south is urgent. The imperial court will never allow the rebels to conquer Nanjing. Maybe the eunuch of the East Factory is coming soon. I hope he can find a way."
"It's hard for a clever woman to make a meal without rice, so what can he do if he comes? His hands are like that of Ma Shiying. He has no silver, no soldiers, no food. He can hope to advance on his own." Zhu Yujian sighed: "Even if he can bring soldiers and horses from the north, he will not be able to survive." It is difficult to save a fire that is near by water far away...I am afraid that the day lily will be cold by the time it comes."
"Since he has emerged as a new force, he has his own uniqueness. Maybe he has magical means." Lu Zhenfei smiled slightly: "Unless the rumors are false!"
"Your Majesty the Governor, Your Majesty the Governor..." At this moment, the attendant hurried over. Seeing him in such a panic, Lu Zhenfei raised his eyebrows: "The sky is falling!"
"Sir, the sky has not fallen, but the people from Dongchang are coming."
Well? Lu Zhenfei was startled, glanced at Zhu Yujian, stood up and asked, "What are the people from Dongchang doing here?"
"I don't know, there are more than ten people who have just arrived at our Yamen. Their faces are dusty. It can be seen that they have come from afar and they say they want to see you..." Lu Zhenfei's heart moved: "How old is the leader?"
"Very young, no more than twenty, full of murderous intent..." Before the attendant could finish his words, Lu Zhenfei left in a hurry.
Fengyang City is not big. Lu Zhenfei returned to the governor's office in less than a quarter of an hour and went straight to the lobby. He saw Ma Shiying drinking tea and chatting with a young eunuch, so he hurried forward to greet him: "Xia Guan Lu Zhenfei I have met the Lord Governor."
The young eunuch stood up quickly and said, "Governor Lu...well, Chunxiang, the executioner of our East Factory, is not the governor." Chunxiang smiled slightly and wondered why Lu Zhenfei was so reckless.
Uh... Lu Zhenfei was really startled when he heard this. Maybe he had talked too much about Chang Yu with Zhu Yujian recently, or maybe he was always looking forward to him going south, so he was surprised to hear that a young eunuch from Dongchang was coming, so he mistakenly thought it was Chang Yu.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, don't blame me, Mr. Chun." Lu Zhenfei apologized deeply, but he was very confused in his heart as to what the people from Dongchang were doing here. Thinking about this, he glanced at Ma Shiying secretly.
Ma Shiying didn't know either. When he heard that someone from Dongchang came to his door, he was filled with fear. After all, he felt very guilty. As the governor of the rebel army, he hid here, thinking that the imperial court sent people from Dongchang to investigate him.
After chatting with Chunxiang for a while, he gradually relaxed. Although he didn't say anything, it was obvious that he was not here for him, because the eunuch didn't know him at all, and he had never even heard of his name.
After Lu Zhenfei took his seat and exchanged a few polite words with Chunxiang, he couldn't help it anymore and directly asked why he was here. Chunxiang smiled faintly and said, "Can I take a step to talk?"
Ma Shiying was very discerning and hurriedly got up and left. It seemed that he had nothing to do, which was great.
"Our family is ordered to investigate a secret case and we need Governor Lu's assistance." Chunxiang went straight to the point.
Lu Zhenfei raised his eyebrows and was shocked. Could it be that he was involved in a certain case in Dongchang? This was not good.
"Governor Lu, don't think too much, just help to ask some questions." Chunxiang looked at his words and realized that he was thinking too much. It seemed that Dongchang's reputation was still too unlucky, and no one wanted to be affected by it.
"Eunuch Chun, just say hello." Lu Zhenfei was relieved when Chunxiang said this.
"It concerns the former Tang King Zhu Yujian." Chunxiang paused: "How much does Governor Lu know about him..."
Lu Zhenfei was shocked and confused. Zhu Yujian had been imprisoned for seven or eight years. What other cases could he be involved in? Or was it because he had been so close to him recently that he was being picked on...
"I visited him by chance last year and saw that he was polite and well-spoken. I visited him several times recently when I had nothing to do, but they were just for casual chats and did not involve government affairs..."
Lu Zhenfei was quite open-minded and talked a lot. Chunxiang listened carefully and looked calm. He nodded slightly for a long time and said: "Since Governor Lu is familiar with the deposed Tang Prince, can I introduce him to him?".
Nonsense, since your Dongchang is here to investigate the case, you can directly mention people and still need Mao's introduction. Lu Zhenfei is a sensible person. Dongchang, deposed feudal king, secret case, any one of these three keywords is a broom star. People can't avoid it. Nowadays, the three-in-one power is even more powerful. No one with a sick mind would post it.
So he declined politely, saying that he still had official business to deal with, and only sent his servants to lead the way.
Sure enough, ginger is very spicy! This kind of old official knows how to avoid suspicion. Whenever it involves the royal family, he would like to cover his ears and stamp his feet. I won’t listen, I won’t listen...
After leaving the governor's office, Chunxiang smiled bitterly and shook his head. In just a few months, he, like Chang Yu, had grown up rapidly from a handyman eunuch and experienced too much right and wrong. However, in terms of scheming, he was far inferior to Chang Yu. Even in these officialdoms, Even the old guys are not as good as me. It seems that I still have a lot of room for improvement.
