…
…
On this day, outsiders have no way of knowing what exactly was discussed between Zhao Junchen and the eunuch Yao Rang, and what kind of agreement was reached.
After Zhao Junchen sent Yao Rang away, he summoned Peng Ji again, saying that he had successfully bribed Yao Rang, so that Peng Ji no longer had to worry and could go ahead.
After hearing this, Peng Ji was immediately excited and had no doubts at all.
In Peng Ji's view, a big shot like Zhao Junchen must attach great importance to his own credibility, and it is related to such a key secret, involving the benefits of tens of thousands of kilograms of gold, so how could he lie?
There is absolutely no fake!
Therefore, Peng Ji immediately believed Zhao Junchen's words and thought that he would be able to show off his talents unscrupulously!
But in fact, Zhao Junchen really lied.
After a secret conversation, Zhao Junchen and Yao Rang did reach many secret agreements, but these agreements did not include deceiving Emperor Deqing.
As the saying goes, words and deeds can influence the situation subtly. The prince Zhu Heyu, who was brought up by Yao Rang himself, is a naive and stubborn person who sticks to the rules. From this alone, we can roughly infer Yao Rang's true nature.
Yao Rang was just an eunuch in the inner court, so he naturally did not have the capital to be naive and stubborn. He was better at forbearance and flexibility, but his unswerving adherence to the Three Cardinal Guidelines and the Five Constant Rules was no less than that of the former prince Zhu Heyu.
In a nutshell, the word "loyal servant" is most appropriate to describe Yao Rang.
He was loyal to Prince Zhu Heyu, even though Zhu Heyu had driven him away many years ago; he was equally loyal to Emperor Deqing, even though Emperor Deqing didn't care about him at all.
Therefore, helping Zhao Junchen deceive Emperor Deqing undoubtedly exceeded Yao Rang's bottom line.
During the secret conversation with Yao Rang, Zhao Junchen only tried a few words, but soon gave up the idea, and instead took the initiative to express his position, agreeing with Yao Rang to report everything truthfully to Emperor Deqing.
In this way, Eunuch Yao can take the opportunity to perform meritorious service, attract the attention of Emperor Deqing, and maybe have the opportunity to return to the side of Prince Zhu Heyu.
At the same time, Zhao Junchen also suggested that Yao Rang delay sending the relevant news back to the capital center for a few days. He first pretended that he had been complicit in order to lower Peng Ji's vigilance.
This approach did not violate Yao Rang's principles, so he only hesitated for a moment before agreeing to Zhao Junchen's proposal.
All in all, Zhao Junchen said that he had successfully bribed Yao Rang, which was completely false.
Zhao Junchen naturally attaches great importance to his own credibility, so every time he betrays his trust, he will definitely kill them all so that the deceived person can never speak again, and then he can continue to maintain the image of being true to his word;
It is true that Zhao Junchen will not give up the benefits of tens of thousands of kilograms of gold easily, but the Hubu Yamen is his own garden to Zhao Junchen. There is no real difference whether this batch of gold is stored in the national treasury or put into private pockets.
*
After Zhao Junchen's layout was completed, in the following few days, the situation in Jinzhou Camp quickly showed signs of getting out of control.
The first is the departure of Liaodong Cavalry Qianhu Yan Zhen.
With the support of Zhao Junchen, Jinzhou garrison Peng Ji quickly handed over the 3,000 garrison troops of Jinzhou camp to Yan Zhen. After Yan Zhen had this part of the military power, he quickly led the Liaodong troops under his command. The cavalry and the three thousand garrison troops happily left Jinzhou Camp and rushed to the plains north of Jinzhou Camp to train and integrate their troops.
Zhao Junchen promised Yan Zhen that once news of a request for help came from the frontline battlefield to the Jinzhou camp, he would immediately arrange for Yan Zhen to lead his army to the expedition.
Yan Zhen was only thinking about making great achievements, so he naturally became more and more excited after hearing this.
Therefore, Yan Zhen did not notice that the three thousand garrison troops handed over to him by Peng Ji all had one common feature, that is, these garrison troops had always maintained a neutral attitude in the Jinzhou camp and had never been direct. Participating in any factional dispute is an extremely important buffering and stabilizing force in the Jinzhou camp.
After Yan Zhen led his army to leave, only a group of Liaodong cavalry under Wu Jiyun remained in the Jinzhou camp. The rest of the garrison was also divided into factions, either completely loyal to Jinzhou garrison Peng Ji, or still loyal to He Yu .
Then, Peng Ji transferred Liu Xiong to Wu Jiyun and deliberately leaked the news.
Just as Zhao Junchen expected, He Rensheng immediately sensed the danger after hearing the relevant news and was immediately taken aback. He quickly united with the military attaches stationed in Jinzhou Camp who were still loyal to He Yu to jointly put pressure on Wu Jiyun. people.
However, Liu Xiong was Wu Jiyun's only hope to find out the truth about his father's death in battle, so naturally he would never agree.
As a result, a conflict quickly broke out between the two sides.
At this time, Jinzhou Camp has lost the veteran Yan Zhen, and there is no neutral force to buffer and stabilize the situation. In addition, Zhao Junchen, Peng Ji and others are hiding behind the scenes to add fuel to the fire, so the conflict between Wu Jiyun and He Rensheng is natural. It's getting worse.
The Liaodong cavalry under Wu Jiyun is undoubtedly more powerful, but He Rensheng has more support from powerful military attachés, so there is not much difference in strength between the two sides.
At the same time, both sides also have their own worries.
For Wu Jiyun, the Liaodong cavalry under his command were all He Yu's private soldiers in the past. Even though He Yu has died unexpectedly, there are still a large number of Liaodong cavalry loyal to He Yu. Although Wu Jiyun is their leader Qianhu, he cannot He encouraged all the Liaodong cavalry to support him unreservedly and become enemies of those forces that were still loyal to He Yu.
For He Rensheng, with the murder of He Yu, it is difficult to say how long and to what extent the military attaches stationed in Jinzhou Camp who seem to be still loyal to He Yu can remain loyal, and He Rensheng himself is also in the wrong. , because he could not explain why he had to compete with Wu Jiyun for the custody of Liu Xiong.
In fact, He Rensheng didn't know whether He Yu actually plotted to stab Wu Shanqi in the back. He just thought, like Zhao Junchen, that with He Yu's majestic character, it was not surprising that he would do such a thing, so he absolutely did not dare to bear this responsibility. risk!
In this way, because of their equal strength and their own concerns, the two forces, Wu Jiyun and He Rensheng, continued to have small-scale conflicts, but they did not dare to completely turn over the table.
He Rensheng has always been scheming and has been unable to make up his mind to throw the boat under the bus, while Wu Jiyun deliberately delayed the time and raced against time to interrogate Liu Xiong severely, and the situation gradually became a stalemate.
At the same time, taking advantage of the intensification of the conflict between the two forces, Jinzhou garrison Peng Ji was also busy. On the one hand, he used his neutral position to secretly control the rhythm of the conflict between the two parties, and on the other hand, he unscrupulously commanded his cronies to attack from the Jinzhou camp. A large amount of gold and various treasures were moved from the military depot.
In this way, two days later, Peng Ji sent another message to Zhao Junchen, stating that all the gold and various treasures in the Jinzhou Camp Army Depot had been emptied and loaded into trucks.
As long as Zhao Junchen gives an order, the convoy carrying a large amount of gold and treasures can set off immediately and transport them all to the capital.
However, just when Peng Ji was extremely excited about the huge benefits he was about to pocket, Zhao Junchen secretly met with Wu Shanqi again.
Next, the following conversation took place between the two.
"Do you know the truth?"
"I know! Liu Xiong is not an iron man. After two consecutive days of torture to extract a confession, he finally couldn't bear it anymore and confessed the truth to his humble position!"
"What's the truth?"
"Everything is as I have suspected for many years. My father died unjustly!"
"Want revenge?"
"think!"
"What price are you willing to pay?"
"...Bizhi is the only child in the family. He doesn't have a son yet, so he doesn't dare to die! On the premise of saving his own life, Beizhi is willing to do anything!"
"How many of the Liaodong cavalry under your command are willing to follow you unswervingly?"
"There are only about six hundred people!"
"Very good! As long as you follow the plan, I guarantee that you will get what you want!"
…
…
