British Government House, study room.
From time to time, cicada cries came from outside the window. Zhu Yi and Zhang Xi sat opposite each other. As soon as they sat down, Zhu Yi couldn't wait to speak.
"Second Master, what is going on? Could it be that the Emperor has given you some special errand?"
It has to be said that Zhang Shi was quite pleased with Zhu Yi's appearance at this moment. You must know that he had never been as favored as Zhu Yi in front of the Supreme Emperor. Now it is rare to see that Zhu Yi also has something unknown to him. In his heart Of course there is some pride.
Of course, it only took a moment before he put away his thoughts and said.
"My lord, don't worry. Since the Emperor has given orders, I will tell you everything, but..."
At this point, Zhang Xi paused and said.
"If I'm not wrong, the Supreme Emperor should have also assigned errands to you alone, right?"
Are you trying to get some information?
Zhu Yi's eyes flashed, and he immediately remembered the instructions given to him by the Supreme Emperor in Nangong.
So, after weighing it briefly in his mind, he quickly nodded.
"Indeed, why, Second Master, do you want to know what the errand is?"
"My lord, are you willing to tell me?"
Faced with the question being thrown back again, Zhang Shi just asked rhetorically.
As a result, the two of them stood in a stalemate on the spot, and a ray of sunlight leaked into the room, reflecting colorful colors in the swirling purple smoke.
Finally, Zhu Yi took a sip of tea and said calmly.
"If the Second Master insists on listening, then of course I have to say..."
Seeing this situation, Zhang Xi's eyes flashed, and then he smiled.
"What are you talking about, Mr. Guo? It's important to run your errands well. As a family friend of ours, am I the one who makes things difficult for you?"
At the same time, looking at Zhang Shi who stopped asking questions, Zhu Yi felt relieved.
It seems that his idea is correct...
What Zhang Min said just now was to test him.
You know, the rumors in Beijing are getting tighter now, and the Supreme Emperor has made up his mind to rebel. Because of this, many of Nangong's actions have become cautious.
The most obvious point is to leave many things to him, Zhang Shi, and Chen Mao.
So far, although Zhu Yi can roughly guess the general movements of the other two people, the specific details are not clear at all.
There is no doubt that this is a means of keeping secrets, which is not surprising. After all, it would be truly stupid to entrust such a major matter as rebellion to the hands of one person.
In fact, when Zhang Shi asked the question just now, Zhu Yi wanted to exchange his arrangements for Wu Yu and others with Zhang Shi for a moment.
However, when the words came to his lips, he suddenly stopped talking, because he suddenly remembered that when the Emperor specially separated the three of them to explain the matter, he specifically asked him to keep the matter confidential and not to tell others.
For Zhu Yi, Nangong's decree was of course not binding. However, just now, he suddenly thought that if the Supreme Emperor had consciously divided the entire plan to avoid failure due to the mistakes of one of them, then... Whether they are faithfully executing Nangong's instructions is very possible.
In other words, Zhang Xi's current actions are probably to test him on behalf of the Supreme Emperor. If he really tells the story about Wu Yu and others, then Zhang Xi might turn around and report it to Nangong. .
Zhu Yi was not sure whether his idea was right, but at least it was possible, so he would try to avoid risks as much as possible.
Judging from Zhang Shi's current performance, his guess was indeed not unreasonable. However, what made him somewhat doubtful was whether this kind of temptation was due to the Supreme Emperor being cautious, or because he was too eager just now. What suspicions did Zhang Min have?
"Let's not mention this. Just now in the Nangong Palace, the Supreme Emperor ordered me to inform you about the imperial mausoleum. I should obey it."
Thoughts were swirling in Zhu Yi's mind, but Zhang Xi continued to speak on the other side.
Seeing this situation, Zhu Yi had no choice but to suppress the doubts in his heart, cheer up and look at Zhang Xi opposite him. Then, the latter pondered for a moment and spoke.
"Actually, my knowledge of this matter is limited. The Supreme Emperor ordered me to bribe two eunuchs who were supervising the construction of Shouling with a lot of money. Later..."
…………
"What? Has the imperial mausoleum been tampered with?"
In the Qianqing Palace, Zhu Qiyu was leaning on the couch. When he heard Shu Liang's words below, he immediately sat upright.
Shu Liang obviously knew how important this was, so he quickly took two steps forward and explained the news in detail.
"...According to the news from the Duke, the reason why the imperial mausoleum was flooded this time was not just because of the heavy rain in recent days, but because Zhang Xi was hindered by the order of the Supreme Emperor, and their purpose was Chen Jing, the prime eunuch of the Internal Affairs Bureau!"
In fact, this matter is not complicated to talk about. Previously, Zhang Shi was ordered to recruit many people from various religions and nine schools and keep them in the mansion. Among them, there were people who were proficient in Feng Shui and Kanyu, just for this matter.
Shouling is an imperial mausoleum, so in addition to the officials from the Ministry of Works, the people responsible for its construction were also the internal officials and supervisors in the palace. Among the two, the officials sent by the Ministry of Works had a lower position, so the internal officials and supervisors occupied more of the position. The dominant position, and now the person in charge of the Internal Affairs Bureau is Chen Jing, one of the two favored eunuchs promoted by Huai En himself.
Chen Jing was originally a eunuch in the inner study room. He especially liked reading and was neat in his work. Therefore, he won the favor of Huai En and was promoted all the way up to be responsible for the affairs of the inner study room. However, this person had a shortcoming, that is, Believe in Feng Shui.
Zhang Shi grasped this point. He first bribed two eunuchs in Shouling and asked them to find a way to introduce Chen Jing to an alchemist named Tongyin. This man was quite famous in Beijing, and many Wealthy people had asked him to perform divination, and Zhang Shi had already spent a lot of money. Therefore, under the bragging of the two eunuchs, his colleagues seemed to have become omniscient gods.
Back to Chen Jing, after he got to know his colleague, he asked him to find a ghost house for him with good feng shui. So, after his divination, his colleague told Chen Jing that if the feng shui was good, it would be a good place for his descendants. , naturally it is the Royal Tianshou Mountain, but the entire Tianshou Mountain is a royal mausoleum. Naturally, a mere eunuch like Chen Jing would not dare to think of it.
So Tongyin pointed him to another road, which was a place seventy miles northwest of Tianshou Mountain. According to Tongyin, although that place was far away from Tianshou Mountain, it was not far away from Tianshou Mountain. The mountains are connected, and one can borrow a little bit of dragon energy to leak out. Under the protection of this blessing, the Chen Jing family can be long-lasting and become an official family from generation to generation.
You should know that although Chen Jing was an eunuch, he also had descendants of his family. Therefore, after learning the news, he was overjoyed and immediately asked his colleagues to help tap acupuncture points to find out the specific location.
It was at this time that his colleague proposed that if he wanted to borrow the dragon's energy, he must first go into Tianshou Mountain in person and see the Yuling and Shoulings that are currently being built. After determining the true location of the main palace, he could follow the energy. Check the context and find the trace of dragon energy leaking out.
Chen Jing thought at the time that it was just a matter of going in for a look, so he ordered someone to take his colleague in. However, the matter ended here, but it was just the beginning. The colleague had finished looking at the two tombs. After taking the position, he came out and told Chen Jing that the Emperor is the Supreme True Dragon. Logically speaking, there can only be one true dragon in this world.
However, now there are the Supreme Emperor and the current Holy Emperor in the palace, both of whom are real dragons, and Yuling and Shouling are too close to each other. As a result, the two dragons will definitely fight with each other. Even if the Tianshou Mountain Mountains can draw out a trace of dragon energy, It will be exhausted in the fight between the two dragons.
After going through so much trouble, Chen Jing was naturally very frustrated when the opportunity that he was looking at to benefit his descendants was quietly slipped away. So, taking this opportunity, his colleagues proposed a solution.
He said that although Yuling and Shouling are close to each other, as long as they find a way to separate them, they can avoid the situation of the two dragons fighting. It just so happens that the main palace of Shouling is built on the main line of Tianshou Mountain. The main palace of the mausoleum is moved ten feet to the northeast, and the Yuling Mausoleum and Shoule Mausoleum will be separated by the main line of Tianshou Mountain. In this way, although it is not visible on the surface, it can perfectly solve this problem. .
After all, it is the imperial mausoleum, and the stakes are very high. Once the matter is discovered, it will be a crime of losing the head. Therefore, at first, Chen Jing sternly rejected this method, and his colleagues did not bother him and left. However, his actions did not stop. After that, colleagues kept going in and out of wealthy homes, pointing out many hidden treasures in the underworld, and their reputation became bigger and bigger.
At the same time, Zhang Mian continued to ask the two eunuchs who had been bribed by him to mention Tongyin in Chen Jing's ears from time to time. Finally, after a few months, Chen Jing couldn't hold it anymore and approached Tongyin again. , he really didn't have the courage to change the location of the imperial mausoleum, but he couldn't resist the temptation of the so-called Feng Shui treasure land, so he had to ask his colleagues again and again if there was any other way.
Finally, seeing that Chen Jing had finally taken the bait, his colleague revealed his true purpose. He told Chen Jing that if the method of moving the main palace did not work, then he could only dig a three-foot-wide strip underground on the northwest side of the main palace. He used this path to barely separate the dragon energy from the two imperial tombs. Then he went to the so-called Feng Shui treasure land to do the same thing, and he could barely achieve the same effect.
It should be said that changing the structure of the underground palace without authorization is also a capital crime. However, compared with moving the location of the underground palace, it is just digging a path underneath and still covering it with bricks and stones. If you don't check carefully, basically nothing can be found, so , after much hesitation, Chen Jing still couldn't resist the temptation, and secretly modified the underground palace according to Chen Jing's method.
However, after such a change, something went wrong. Originally, the location of the underground palace was not high. Under the continuous heavy rain these days, the accumulated water flowed in along the path underneath. This is how the Ministry of Works issued this memorial. …
"...Your Majesty, I have sent someone to investigate secretly. The underground palace was flooded ten days ago. On that day, Chen Jing went to the imperial mausoleum, but instead of reporting the matter to the superior, After suppressing the situation, he secretly met several times with the official responsible for the matter from the Ministry of Works, and then the Ministry of Works submitted a memorial to repair the imperial mausoleum."
"Although the evidence is not complete yet, I feel that if nothing else happens, Chen Jing is afraid that the matter will be exposed, so he bribed the Ministry of Works officials responsible for the construction and planned to cover up the matter as an accident."
When he said these words, Shu Liang's expression was very careful.
After all, when it comes to the imperial mausoleum, if something like this happened, you can imagine how angry the emperor would be.
On the contrary, Zhu Qiyu himself was indeed angry, but it was not as intense as Shu Liang imagined.
After all, in his previous life, his Shouling was demolished directly by Zhu Qizhen after the restoration. Now it is just flooded, which is really not a big deal.
What really puzzled him was...
"Shu Liang, have you ever thought about why Nangong did this?"
After pondering for a moment, Zhu Qiyu frowned and asked.
After hearing this, Shu Liang was stunned for a moment, not knowing how to answer.
However, this time, it was not because he didn't know the answer, but because the answer was already ready to come out. Shu Liang didn't understand why the emperor would still ask questions.
However, seeing the emperor's cautious expression, Shu Liang could only say cautiously.
"In my humble opinion, I feel that their move is to bring down Chen Jing. According to the emperor's instructions, since Wu Yu and others were transferred back to the palace, they secretly paid bribes or did other things. Servant They all pretended not to know, and occasionally pushed me. Now, Wu Yu is the eunuch of the Qianqing Palace, and Wang Dingtong has become the young eunuch of the War and War Bureau."
"Although Chen Jing is bold enough to do such a thing this time, he has always been Eunuch Huai'en's right-hand man. If he falls, someone will definitely have to replace him in the Internal Affairs Bureau. When the time comes, Wu Yu and others will If you have some connections, you might be able to go a step further and become the eunuch in charge of the inner palace. In this way, it will be much easier for them to move around inside and outside the palace..."
There are twenty-four yamen in the palace. Although the internal officials and supervisors do not seem to be prominent, because they are responsible for the construction of palaces and mausoleums, they often need to go in and out of the palace. Therefore, in Shu Liang's opinion, if they can Getting the Neiguanjian is undoubtedly a good thing for Nangong. With the help of the Neiguanjian, they can deliver news more conveniently. In some special times, it may even play a greater role. Unknown.
After listening to Shu Liang's words, Zhu Qiyu did not refute, but he also did not express agreement. Indeed, Shu Liang's analysis was reasonable, but he always felt that something was not right.
Although it is said that the internal official supervisor is indeed an excellent position to communicate with the inside and outside, you must know that based on the current situation that Zhu Qiyu has grasped, although there are many people hired by Nangong, there are actually only Wu Yu and Wang Ding who have some positions. These two people, although they have high positions in the palace, are not particularly favored people. At least, the number of times they can show their faces in front of Zhu Qiyu is limited.
Under such circumstances, how can Nangong guarantee that after Chen Jing falls, his replacement will be Wu Yu or Wang Dingtong?
If there is no guarantee, then Zhang Xi has spent so much energy, and Zhu Qizhen may even have planned all of this personally. Isn't it a waste of time to draw water from a bamboo basket?
This really confused Zhu Qiyu, so in the end, after hesitating for a long time, he finally spoke.
"Don't take any action for the time being, let's see how it develops in the future..."
(End of chapter)
