Tokugawa Hidetaka was loyal, but now he did not dare to disobey Ming's will.
Therefore, he had to listen to Chen Xinjia, the official stationed in Japan.
Tokugawa Hidetada also asked Tokugawa Iemitsu to send a group of shogunate troops to detain Hong Chengchou and other reactionary gentry who stayed in Edo.
Therefore, the elder Sakai Tadanobu led a group of shogunate troops to the residence where Hong Chengchou was waiting in Edo.
"Please come out, Mr. Hong, and all the fu yeomen (a kind of close ministerial position of the Japanese shogunate)! Your country's envoys request that you be detained immediately, and please obey!"
However, Sakai Tadanobu was quite polite to Hong Chengchou and others.
Because his brother Sakai Tadakatsu died at the hands of Ming officials, he was considered an anti-Ming faction in the shogunate, and naturally he was very respectful to Hong Chengchou and others who were also anti-Ming.
At this time, Sakai Tadanobu politely stood outside the residence of Hong Chengchou and others and shouted.
But more than a quarter of an hour later, no one came out of Hong Chengchou's mansion.
Sakai Tadanobu had no choice but to break in with the shogunate army, only to find that there was no one in the entire mansion.
"Search!"
Although Sakai Tadanobu wanted Hong Chengchou and others to escape, he was also worried that Tokugawa Hidetada would blame him for letting Hong Chengchou and others escape, and would make himself atone for the crime in order to give an explanation to the Ming Dynasty, so he immediately ordered a search.
It was not until Sakai Tadanobu saw the unlocked back door that he stopped letting his people search. He was already sure that Hong Chengchou and others had escaped in advance.
…
Indeed, when Hong Chengchou learned that Ming Dynasty's foreign affairs officers were coming to Edo, he fled here overnight.
"Everyone, you must believe now that some of us are secretly communicating with the imperial court! Otherwise, Chen Xinjia would not have asked the shogunate to detain us as soon as he came to the Japanese country, and even know everything about the iron materials we presented to the craftsmen. , It’s like we have a pair of eyes beside us. I’ve heard for a long time that Dongchang has many eyes and ears, so Hong’s eyes were really opened today!”
As he spoke, Hong Chengchou glanced at Ding Qirui, Ye Chuchun, Ye Chengmin and others, as if he wanted to see some clues in the eyes of these gentry.
Ding Qirui, Ye Chuchun, Ye Chengmin and others all looked astonished and looked at each other.
For a moment, Hong Chengchou couldn't see any clues.
Therefore, Hong Chengchou continued: "Of course, Hong had already expected that coming to the shogunate to meet Tokugawa Hidetada might leak the news, but why did Hong still do this? It was because Hong wanted to try. Let’s see if any of us are secretly communicating with the imperial court!”
As he spoke, Hong Chengchou stared directly at Ye Chuchun and Ding Qirui, the two imperial prisoners who had finally escaped from the mainland, staring intently, and said: "Before Yang Gong got into trouble, Hong reminded him that everything must be done as necessary. Caution, he didn't take it seriously. He believed that the imperial court would not pay attention to this kind of thing. The first thing to do in an army and to fight a war was to know the enemy first. Hong was not a very wise man, but Hong knew that everything depended on the word 'prudence'. , the Nagasaki incident, the imperial navy arrived in Nagasaki within half a month of the incident. Even if the imperial new soft sailing ship was as fast as a sharp arrow, it would not have arrived in half a month. If the imperial navy had not been informed of the news in advance and mobilized in advance It is impossible for our troops to be so fast!"
"Is this happening?"
Ding Qirui asked first and looked at Ye Chuchun in astonishment.
Ye Chuchun's heart was pounding and he wanted to avoid Hong Chengchou's eyes, but he still raised his eyes and bumped into her. He didn't speak at first. Firstly, he didn't know what to say to cover himself up. Secondly, he felt that not speaking at this time would be harmful. It's best, otherwise the more you talk, the more holes you'll find.
Ye Chuchun touched his chin pretending to be thoughtful and scanned all the gentry present, as if he was thinking about who was the undercover agent.
Hong Chengchou looked at the expressions of Ye Chuchun and Ding Qirui and became uncertain for a moment. He didn't know whether Ding Qirui was pretending to be surprised or whether Ye Chuchun was pretending to be calm.
"Perhaps an official of the shogunate betrayed the news!"
Ye Chengmin suddenly said something at this time.
Hong Chengchou looked at Ding Qirui and Ye Chuchun again.
Ye Chuchun wanted to echo the idea for a moment, saying that it might be the officials of the shogunate who informed the court officials in advance of the news they heard when Tokugawa Hidetada met with them.
But Ye Chuchun held back at the last moment. He knew that he couldn't rush to agree at this time, otherwise the guy in front of him named Hong Chengchou would find out his flaws.
However, when Ding Qirui was about to speak, Ye Chuchun immediately said before Ding Qirui spoke: "Now we need to find out whether there are any eyes and ears of the imperial court among us!"
"Yes! That's what I mean too!"
Ding Qirui glanced at Ye Chuchun in surprise. He didn't expect that Ye Chuchun had the same view as him.
Hong Chengchou began to focus more on Ding Qirui.
Seeing this, Ye Chuchun breathed a sigh of relief and thought to himself: "This guy named Hong is so fucking awesome!"
…
"The traitor Ding Qirui actually wrote a secret letter to the court officials. Why, does he really think that the court ministers also want to kill the king like him?"
Daming Garden of the Capital, Qinzheng Hall.
Here Zhu Youxiao received a secret letter from Jiang Dejing, the right minister of the Ministry of Rites, a secret letter written by Ding Qirui.
"I didn't expect that he would write to me, but I did just have friendship with him in the same department, and there is no other relationship. Your Majesty, please be careful!"
Jiang Dejing replied.
Zhu Youxiao nodded: "I know that your loyalty will be known if you can take the initiative to hand over the traitor's letter. You can continue to contact them, but you need to tell me the content of the contact. I want to know what they want to do. .”
"I obey the decree!"
And because of this, Zhu Youxiao couldn't help but frown and think deeply, thinking: "Are these people still in contact with other ministers?"
"We are told that Wei Zhongxian has come to see me."
So Zhu Youxiao called Wei Zhongxian and asked, "Have any other officials in the court received any secret messages?"
Wei Zhongxian hurriedly replied: "Reporting to the Emperor, Dongchang has not yet found out, but according to the report of the informant in Dongchang, Hong Chengchou, a gentry who has been active overseas recently, took the initiative to suggest other reactionary gentry to contact the ministers of the DPRK! And Hong Chengchou also personally wrote to the Grand Sima Got the secret message."
Yuan Keli?
Zhu Youxiao fell into deep thought.
"I know!"
Zhu Youxiao then only replied this sentence, and then said: "This matter ends here. Can Dongchang find a way to get rid of this Hong Chengchou? You Wei Zhongxian really can't deal with him."
Wei Zhongxian hurriedly said with fear and fear: "This slave is incompetent! Please punish me!"
"Step back, it doesn't have to be like this."
Zhu Youxiao only said this.
Wei Zhongxian wiped the sweat from his head and hurried to Dongchang. He called Sun Yunhe, who was transferred back to Dongchang to take charge of overseas reactionary affairs, and shouted: "Someone bring a secret message to Ye Chuchun! Hong Chengchou can't stay anymore." , if he cannot let Hong Chengchou come to our house and let us play with him once within a month, then he will kill Hong Chengchou personally at the cost of exposing himself. Our family will ask the court for rewards and posthumous titles for him, and we will also treat him as The family is our own family, but if he does not complete it, then our family will kill his entire family before being punished by the emperor!"
…
Ye Chuchun still didn't know that Wei Zhongxian had put more pressure on him because of the heavy pressure from the emperor. He was now instigating Ye Chengmin: "Young Master! We went to sea to rebel against the imperial court because our teacher died unexpectedly. I wonder if you still remember our teacher?" He died after climbing a mountain with his treacherous minister Li Zhizao! And Li Zhizao has been promoted to higher ranks since then."
"you mean?"
Ye Chengmin somewhat understood what Ye Chuchun meant and hurriedly asked.
Seeing this, Ye Chuchun hurriedly said: "What I mean is that Hong Chengchou may be a person like Li Zhizao! He wrote to Yuan Keli. Although he wrote to Yuan Keli to let us know, he may have done this on purpose so that we would not be suspicious. , and also offered to have the court’s eyes and ears among us so that he could kick himself out.”
"It makes sense! This guy surnamed Hong is also bad enough!"
Ye Chengmin nodded.
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