No matter what it is, it is not a small matter for the court.
As for the relationship between each victim and Zhang Yongde, they are direct relatives. And for Zhang Yongde's position, it is naturally not a good thing.
If it were an era of peace and prosperity, each of these would be enough to hurt Zhang Yongde's roots. Of course, in such a family of royal relatives and such a high position, any murderer is enough to wipe out the nine clans.
Even in this era where human life is considered careless, these things may seem trivial in the separatist regimes in various places, but they may also be earth-shaking.
Fu Yanqing is interested in these things, firstly because Guo Rong is his son-in-law, and secondly because all the princes are his nephews. As the most authoritative foreign vassal of the royal family, the reason why Fu Yanqing remains standing is because of this caution.
According to the intelligence obtained, Zhang Yongde knew that these things were not that simple. Although he did not take any action, he would definitely take precautions.
Of course, Fu Yanqing would not make random speculations. After all, whether these things were coincidences or deliberate actions, neither Emperor Guo Rong nor Prince Consort Zhang Yongde were fools. They are the leaders of this era and the most promising people of this era.
According to Fu Yanqing's opinion, Zhang Yongde was a very smart person, otherwise how could he survive in such a cruel environment in the Zhou Kingdom in the Central Plains. He must have known that he was the most suitable at this time, to remain unchanged in response to all changes, so even after receiving the news of Guo Rong's death, there was no change.
In the past, Fu Yanqing would naturally have been doubtful about these words. But after learning that Guo Rong was seriously ill, Fu Yanqing sent someone to monitor Zhang Yongde. Because no matter whether Zhang Yongde is pretending or he really belongs to this kind of person, there is really no change in Zhang Yongde at this time.
Indeed, as a political figure in the Great Zhou Kingdom, Zhang Yongde's situation in the Zhou Kingdom is very delicate and sensitive, and everyone knows the secret between him and the country's leader. Zhang Yongde holds a high position and Guo Rong is young and promising. The two of them became famous for a while. If you want to replace him, it must be Zhang Yongde.
Zhang Yongde's family has been passing down martial arts and military skills for nearly a hundred years. Although everyone is a military general, they are all good at both civil and military skills.
In particular, most of the children in the Zhang family are famous for their benevolence and filial piety, and all of them have impressive martial arts skills. For example, Zhang Yongde himself looked more elegant, but he was also a famous general when he immediately led the army.
And his cousin Zhang Yongheng, who was killed, was not a particularly outstanding celebrity, nor was he the best in the family, nor was he the kind of commander-in-chief who responded to everything. However, his martial arts skills are not much different from Zhang Yongde. If such a person really goes out to lead the army, he will still achieve a lot.
The brothers of the Zhang family are quite good at sword and horse skills, and it is not a problem to have more than a dozen big men. What's more, as a local Sima, he would definitely have a few following him around, but he didn't expect to be assassinated in the street. Fu Yanqing's most intuitive thought was that someone deliberately did this to the Zhang family.
In a scene like being stabbed to death in the street, either the murderer has outstanding martial arts skills, or his cousin Zhang Yongde is too bad and is as vulnerable as an ordinary child. But is such a thing possible?
Zhang Yongde wouldn't believe it if he told it to him, and even Fu Yanqing wouldn't believe it. Because he has been on the border guard for many years, Fu Yanqing has not interacted with many people in the world, but he has quite a few people under his command. Thinking about the strangeness of this matter, everyone agreed that someone was trying to disrupt the situation.
Zhang Yongde, a cousin, has made achievements in politics, so the family has been gradually cultivating him in recent years. Fu Yanqing had certainly seen it back then, and it was also the most exciting time.
As for Zhang Yongde's uncle Lu Xie, it is said that he is Zhang Yongde's youngest uncle. He is a few years older than Zhang Yongde. Because of his relationship with the Zhang family, Fu Yanqing had met him before. Although it was only because the late Emperor Guo Wei was promoted to serve in the name of the Zhang family after he ascended the throne, he was indeed a person with great ideas and abilities.
As General Dingyuan of the fifth rank, he followed the Zhou army to garrison along the Yangtze River. Since the Tang State surrendered and ceded territory, all north of the Yangtze River belonged to the Zhou State. As a general of the Zhou Kingdom, Lu Xie naturally had an army and set up a camp as a base. As long as he doesn't make any mistakes, he will definitely achieve great success when the imperial court goes south again.
As for the theory that his crimes were caused by soldiers escaping to the Southern Tang Dynasty, Zhang Yongde completely believed it, and Fu Yanqing believed it even more. Because no matter how powerful the Zhou State's military force was, and even now it was forcing the Tang State to cede territory and submit it to vassal status, the Tang State had always been more prosperous than the Zhou State.
Years of war in the Central Plains had left all the land barren. There were many soldiers stationed along the Zhou Kingdom who turned out to be people from the Tang Kingdom. Although they were rearranged and joined different teams, their thoughts in their hearts were still on the South. What's more, the Zhou army has just conquered the opponent. Even if there are some inducements, small-scale favors are unlikely to be achieved.
However, the soldiers of Zhou State have always been veterans mixed with new recruits, and the surrendered soldiers were separated from the original generals. There is an obvious ratio and treatment for the surrendered soldiers and new recruits in each military camp. As for the soldiers in Lu Xie's camp who were able to kill generals and escape smoothly, Zhang Yongde felt deeply suspicious, and even Fu Yanqing also felt that he had made a mistake.
After all, Lu Xie also had his own troops. It is said that all of Lu Xie's troops were killed at that time. How big of a group of deserting troops would it take to cause rebellion?
Because Lu Xie was able to gradually become a general that day, and it was indeed the late Emperor Guo Wei who favored the Zhang family. Later, according to Fu Yanqing's knowledge, it was Lu Xie who showed his ability and rose to prominence in the army. His strengths were discovered by the late Emperor Guo Rong, who gradually promoted him to a middle-level general and was on his way to training and leading high-level generals.
Fu Yanqing would definitely believe Guo Rong's vision. If it was just to save the face of the Zhang family and Zhang Yongde, Guo Rong could have left Lu Xie in the capital as a casual senior military official.
Emperor Guo Rong was indeed young and promising, and did not try to promote Lu Xie out of consideration for Zhang Yongde's sake. However, Lu Xie was promoted smoothly under Guo Rong's hands. This just proves Lu Xie's ability and competence. The incident of his soldiers fleeing, and in the end he was killed by the fleeing soldiers, made Zhang Yongde feel sad and made Fu Yanqing feel the crisis.
This was a premeditated plan that involved not only the emperor Guo Rong and the consort Zhang Yongde, but even more people into this spiral.
