At present, factory guards can only temporarily identify the poisoner as the imperial chef Xing Youen, and the accomplices are Yang An and Hua Yulu. As for whether other people are involved, it is still under investigation.
However, the imperial chef who cooked the royal meals together with Xing Youen and his family members were already imprisoned. They were only given time to think about it and had not yet been sentenced.
According to the laws of the Ming Dynasty, the crime of poisoning the imperial meal is equivalent to committing rebellion, not to mention that this time it was really successful, not an attempted poisoning...
Who dares to use such a cook who dares to poison his master's food?
Even if the Empress Dowager shows some mercy to these people, the best outcome would be to go mining on the grassland until she dies.
Li Fengxiang, the supervising eunuch of the inner factory, was responsible for interrogating the cooks. He originally planned to obtain confessions by confessing one person and releasing the whole family.
As a result, a group of cooks actually started biting each other in order to survive, making Li Fengxiang unable to distinguish which part of the many confessions was true.
It is impossible to verify the authenticity in a short period of time. In order to survive, this group of people will insist on their confessions even if they are tortured, because perjury will also be punished by execution.
Zhang Guoyuan, the person in charge of Shangshan Supervisor, was in jail at night and was naturally taken into custody. However, the Empress Dowager remembered that she had worked hard for many years and had never had any problems before, and she did not embarrass him too much.
The palace was so disturbed that they no longer dared to use the royal chef to cook. Each palace used maids to cook. The taste was much worse, but at least it could save lives.
In the Kunning Palace of the Empress Dowager and the Immortal Palace where Emperor Haojing and his concubines lived, the maids also cooked and they ate first.
Then he gave it to the dog. After an hour, everything was fine, and the nobles had their meal again.
If you don’t want to starve, you can only eat some military rations to satisfy your hunger...
In accordance with the empress dowager's decree, all land borders were temporarily closed, and the Bohai Sea Fleet and the Yellow Sea Fleet were dispatched together. Foreign ships were only allowed to enter and were not allowed to leave for the time being.
The Ministry of Rites has notified the ambassadors of various countries, saying that the Ming Dynasty will make up for the losses caused by this with local specialties, and hopes that the other party can understand.
After giving each ambassador a voucher worth ten thousand silver coins, the ambassadors who knew the truth were naturally willing to help. After all, it was a special period.
It won't work if you don't cooperate. The other emperor is about to die. Once the most powerful empire in the world is angered, no one who seeks death will be able to leave the Ming Empire alive!
Since they have obtained a wanted warrant worth 10 million silver coins, the officers and soldiers at the port and pass are all screening the suspects. If the suspect is caught, they will be released...
The photos and fingerprints of the three suspects are on file in the Ministry of Civil Affairs. They have been printed in large quantities by printing plants and sent to surrounding governments and garrisons.
With the latest reward order, as long as you catch a suspect, you can receive a reward of up to five million silver coins.
Therefore, at this time, officials, soldiers, and even hunters, bodyguards, gangsters, etc. all joined in the search for suspects.
The most anxious people now are the cabinet and the internal servants. Although they are two completely different gangs, due to the situation, they have to start working together to try to solve the case as soon as possible.
The reason is very simple. Once Emperor Chongzhen returns to the north, can he still use the cabinet and servants of the Beiting?
What's more, this man's previous behavior dissatisfied both groups.
Even if the determined king Zhu Cijiong or the emperor's eldest grandson Zhu Xiangtang succeeds to the throne, they will be much better than the fifth prince or Emperor Chongzhen.
Prince Dingzhong is the second son of the Empress Dowager, Zhu Xiangtang is the eldest grandson of the Empress Dowager, and the fifth prince is the son of Concubine Tian Guifei.
If Emperor Chongzhen insists on making the fifth prince his heir, then the Queen Mother will definitely not agree when King Dingzhi and the emperor's eldest grandson are both alive.
Tens of thousands of East Palace guards and surrounding garrisons would not agree, because the change would directly affect their interests.
Under the instruction of Queen Xue Wanqing, she might do something earth-shattering...
Tianjin guard general Ma Wei was the son of the former guard general Ma Xu. After Ma Xu died of illness, Emperor Haojing missed his old relationship and asked his son to inherit his father's legacy.
We have received a secret order. Once Emperor Chongzhen's Luan Jia lands, please go into the city to rest as much as possible, and do your best to serve Luan Jia well.
This is not to let Ma Wei please Emperor Chongzhen as much as possible, but to delay time. The longer the mopping, the greater the credit. Xue Wanqing will reward him based on his merits afterwards.
Whether Luanjia travels by sea or by water, he will definitely pass through Tianjin, which is the first stop.
The second stop is Tongzhou, with Tianjin Medicine, which is a dual node of railway and water transportation.
After Li Chengdong retired, his son Li Yuanyin, who was also a disciple of Emperor Haojing, was responsible for leading his troops to guard this place.
Li Yuanyin did not dare to commit regicide without receiving an order. After all, he was his father who respected his master, but he definitely dared to detain Luan Jia.
If Luan Jia does not go to these two places, but takes the land official road directly to the Beidu City, then the third move will be used.
Negotiate with Emperor Chongzhen first, and then invite him to enter the city!
There is nothing we can do about this, it is considered a last resort.
There are more than 100,000 troops stationed around Beidu. If Emperor Chongzhen allows Concubine Tian's son to inherit the throne, it will be tantamount to dethroning the descendants of the Empress Dowager!
These more than 100,000 troops were personally trained by Emperor Haojing, especially the East Palace Guards, which had the strongest combat effectiveness. How could this result satisfy them?
Former post soldier Li Ni joined the rebellion because Emperor Chongzhen abolished the post. If Emperor Chongzhen relapses, the destructive power will be far greater than before...
Therefore, after getting the consent of the empress dowager and the empress, the chief assistant Du Yinxi had to risk being yelled at by another emperor and planned to make a three-part agreement outside the city in advance.
If Emperor Chongzhen agrees, everything will be easy to talk about. Otherwise, it would be better to let the emperor's grandson Zhu Xiangtang supervise the country first.
At least this person has studied at the Academy of Sciences for many years and is under the supervision of the Empress Dowager and the Empress. He will not just come up and issue random decrees.
"Yang Lang, what should we do now?"
"Continue going south to a certain port under the jurisdiction of Nanting. If the supervision is lax, you and I can go directly to sea!"
Yang An originally wanted to run north and find an opportunity to get out of the pass, but then he thought about it. The port was already like this, and the pass would naturally be strictly guarded.
Instead of having difficulty, it would be better to go directly to Nanting. As long as you reach the Jiangnan area and spend enough money, you can find a ship to go to sea.
Even if you are not going directly to Nanyang, or even India, you can escape to heaven by arriving in Dongfan first, then changing ships to Nanyang.
It took the two of them three days to arrive in Shandong. As long as they stayed up day and night and were careful on the road, they would not attract attention.
But they didn't know that all the areas north of Jining had received the news.
There is a telegraph cable connection between Beidu and Jining. As long as there is no problem with the cable, Jining, which is located in the middle section of the water transport, will get the news within a few minutes.
The response of the troops stationed along the canal was naturally very rapid, but the news spread to the hinterland of Shandong much slower.
This also resulted in Yang An and Hua Yulu entering Shandong before the garrison troops in various places could react, and they fell through the cracks.
Shandong has a large population, but it is mainly concentrated along the canal and the peninsula.
Yang An chose a less traveled path to go south. As long as he passed through Shandong and reached Haizhou (Lianyungang) in the northeast of South Zhili, he could go directly to the sea...
Beiting and Nanting were connected by cables laid along the canal, and the transmission of information by telegraph was very fast.
At the beginning, the Beiting was responsible for laying the lines between North Zhili and Shandong, while the Nanting was responsible for the line south of Shandong all the way across the river to Nandu.
There were troops stationed along the telegraph lines to protect the safety of the cables. There were warning signs with pictures and texts around the cables. Anyone who cut the cables, regardless of age or sex, would be executed.
Since the reporting rights at the northern end of the cable are controlled by the Military Aircraft Department, the Empress Dowager has issued an edict not to report this matter. Anyone who dares to report to the Southern Court without authorization will be immediately imprisoned.
Nanting could only learn about the matter by arranging people in Beidu to pass on the information, which was much slower, especially under the premise that entry and exit were not allowed in Beidu.
All the officials sent by the Southern Court were registered with the Ministry of Personnel. If the agents assigned to them wanted to go out of town, no reason would be feasible.
If you have a sick mother at home, the factory guard will send someone to check it out. It is true that she will be sent to the city for treatment.
On the contrary, you can move into the imperial prison first...
After so many years, the factory guard's prison has never been so lively!
Not only the factory guards, but also the three yamen of Dali Temple, the Metropolitan Procuratorate, and the Criminal Department detained a large number of suspects in places where people could be detained.
There were fugitives who were hiding in Beidu under the pretext of being "dark under the lights", but all of them were picked up by the factory guards who conducted dragnet searches in the city.
Now, regardless of whether they are involved in the emperor's poisoning, as long as there is a problem with the identity information, they will be detained first and then investigated one by one.
If anyone dares to resist, he must be a bigger suspect. The factory guards and garrison will do their best to arrest him!
Since Li Yuanyin was a disciple of Emperor Haojing, something happened to his master and he was unable to go to Beidu, so he went to Tongzhou where he was stationed to hunt down the suspects.
The officers and soldiers of the department were required to search house to house. Rice vats, water vats, stove pits, stables, and even chicken coops in people's homes were not to be spared!
If the suspect is caught, it will be revenge for the respected master.
If the suspect is caught by others and still escapes from Tongzhou, Li Yuanyin will have no choice but to commit suicide and thank his gratitude...
The people were very cooperative with this. After all, Emperor Haojing was considered one of the best emperors since the founding of the Ming Dynasty.
Not only were the Donglu and herders defeated, so that everyone no longer had to worry about being robbed, but life was getting better day by day.
At this time, if a bad person dares to murder such a good emperor, he has lost his conscience and should be cut into pieces.
As for whether there were people who avenged private vengeance or enriched their own pockets during the search, we can't take care of them now.
"According to the chief assistant, what should I do?"
By the time the news reached Nandu, seventeen days had passed since the incident.
Chongzhen thought about it, but still couldn't make up his mind, so he asked his chief assistant Qu Xuanpin to discuss it.
Qu Xuanpin is the eldest son of the late former chief minister Qu Shichu, but he is almost sixty years old now.
"This matter is His Majesty's family matter. I dare not..."
"Times have changed, and I am already in my sixtieth year. Naturally, I will not act as resolutely as I did back then! It's okay for you to speak frankly, I will forgive you!"
"...I dare to ask Your Majesty if you want to return to the north?"
"I won't hide it from you, I have this intention, but I also have concerns!"
"In my opinion, Your Majesty can return to the north, but you cannot establish the bloodline of the imperial concubine as your continuation!"
Qu Xuanpin inherited his father's ideas, and he knew everything about the royal family and officialdom clearly.
"Oh? What's the reason?"
Chongzhen did think about recalling the Burmese king so that he would inherit the throne a hundred years later.
"Your Majesty's eldest son and second son are both born to the queen. Although the eldest son is in trouble, he still has heirs, and the emperor's eldest grandson has grown up. The whole court must regard him as the foundation of the country. If not, there is still King Dingzhong, although Far in the west, it is said that he will return within two years. If Your Majesty wants to establish the Burmese king as the heir, it will inevitably conflict with the demands of the Northern Court and even the Queen. There are more than 100,000 royal troops stationed around the northern capital, which may not do anything to Your Majesty. But the person your Majesty wants to establish is only afraid of..."
Qu Xuanpin thought that when Emperor Chongzhen returned, those in the Beiting would naturally not treat him like the emperor. After all, they were orthodox.
But if the emperor wants to establish Concubine Tian's son as the chief heir, it will be regarded as violating the fundamental interests of the other party.
At that time, the two fathers separated their families and each took charge of their own land.
Now if Emperor Chongzhen becomes King of Myanmar, it will be equivalent to retracting the words of dividing the family.
The Eight Corners of Beiting can be inherited by either Prince Zhong or the emperor's eldest grandson, but they cannot be given to the heirs of Concubine Tian.
This is not just talk, the other party has hundreds of thousands of elite king masters in their hands!
They really made the other party anxious, so they directly sent troops to board the warship and landed outside Nandu City!
"How do you think I should handle this matter?"
Chongzhen thought about it and felt that what Qu Xuanpin said made sense.
King Dingzhong is also his son, and his line of succession must be higher than King Burmese.
Although this boy has no talent, he is delicious, but he also has some self-awareness, and he will definitely not bring down Ming Dynasty.
"When your majesty returns to the north, you can first promise the queen that you will choose the king or the emperor's eldest grandson as your heir. If your majesty's eldest son recovers, everything will be fine. If not, you can act in accordance with your previous promise."
"...really can't make the King of Myanmar the heir apparent?"
"The queen has hundreds of thousands of royal troops, hundreds of millions of taels of military pay, and there is no shortage of military rations. If your majesty wants to make the king of Myanmar your heir, you only need to do one thing well!"
"Oh? What's the matter?"
"Walking upside down from now on!"
To establish King Mian as the heir apparent was to put the cart before the horse. Qu Xuanpu could not directly criticize the emperor in private, so he could only explain it this way, hoping that the other party would understand.
"..."
Chongzhen really wanted to establish the Burmese king as his prince, who was much stronger than King Dingzhi in all aspects, but the chief minister also mentioned many difficulties, and they existed in reality, so he could not insist on doing so.
It is said that the traitor is not dead yet, and we don’t know what the specific situation is.
But as long as the traitor is still alive, the tens of thousands of East Palace guards who are loyal to him will not turn to him.
If the entire Beiting family is really controlled by the Queen and insists on making Prince Zhong or the Emperor's eldest grandson his heir, it will be really hard for him to handle it.
The opponent has no shortage of soldiers, money, or food, and his persuasive power is overwhelming.
The current situation is obvious. From now on, the successor to the throne must be selected from the Queen's lineage!
Qu Xuanpin guessed that the Beiting had not yet announced the heir to the throne, which meant that the Beidi had probably not died yet.
On the contrary, the emperor's eldest grandson will definitely be announced as the throne before the Southern Emperor returns to the north.
The King of Burma was born to Concubine Tian Guifei, which means that as long as the Queen's lineage remains intact, the King of Burma will not be able to ascend the throne!
