That night, Xu Yongan found 500 confidants and loaded the 200 barrels of gunpowder in the arsenal onto carriages and transported them out.
Chang Feng led them to a place at the foot of Mount Tai.
That place was almost two miles away from the private residences of Jiangnan nobles.
Chang Feng ordered: "Excuse me, brothers, dig a hole!"
Five hundred soldiers waved their heads and spent half the night digging a large pit ten feet square and one foot deep.
At the right moment, the gunpowder was neatly stacked in the big pit.
Chang Feng ordered people to fill in the soil and pull out a long lead.
Liu Jin lit a stick of incense and handed it to Chang Feng: "Chang Baihu, success or failure depends on this."
Chang Feng nodded slightly and carefully placed the middle end of the incense stick against the lead. This has a delaying effect. When half of the incense stick is burned, the incense will ignite the fuse.
After the arrangement was completed, Chang Feng and the others and the sergeants retreated a mile away!
After half a stick of incense, the fuse was lit and "Bah la la!"
"boom!"
A thunder resounded throughout the heaven and earth!
The huge force generated by the explosion of two thousand kilograms of gunpowder in the pit made the doors and windows of the private residences of the Jiangnan nobles shake slightly.
In each private residence.
A group of great scholars were discussing knowledge late at night. Ripples appeared in the teacups placed in front of them.
A group of noble men hugging the beauty and drinking, felt the seats shaking slightly. The beauties were so frightened that they crawled into their arms.
Next, it's Fatty Xu's turn!
Fatty Xu led hundreds of Taishan Guard sergeants and rushed to dozens of private houses. They all banged gongs and shouted: "The earth is shaking! The ground is shaking! Avoid disaster! Run away! Go to an open place to save your life!"
From each private house, countless people rushed out like ants. They were afraid that the earthquake would get worse and worse, until their houses would collapse and their noble bodies would be crushed under the rubble.
Chang Feng and Liu Jin also came over.
A white-haired scholar asked: "Guan family, what happened?"
Chang Feng replied: "Didn't you hear the shout? Mount Tai is shaking! My dear, you guys didn't see it in the house just now. The whole Mount Tai trembled!"
"Fortunately, Taishan didn't fall. If it had, we would all be crushed to pieces!"
The scholar was a little strange: "There seemed to be a flash of light just now."
The bright light mentioned by the Confucian scholar is the fire produced by the explosion of gunpowder.
Chang Feng deceived him: "It is said in the Bamboo Chronicles that whenever the earth moves, there will be an evil light accompanying it!"
"Bamboo Chronicles" is the earliest seismology monograph in China. The evil light mentioned in the book is actually the earthquake light.
The scholar was surprised: "Ah? Why did the ground suddenly move?"
Chang Feng said: "Looking at the old man, you look like you have read a lot of poems and books. You should know Dong Zhongshu's theory of telepathy between heaven and man, right?"
"There must be some injustice in the world, and God is angry!"
At the foot of Mount Tai, hundreds of Jiangnan nobles and their servants and maids struggled all night without daring to close their eyes. He hid in the open space outside the private house for a night.
At dawn, Chang Feng said to them: "Everyone, the disaster seems to have passed. Well, last night was really scary! I saw Mount Tai trembling in the moonlight!"
"Everything should be fine now. Please go back home and rest."
The crowd gradually dispersed.
Chang Feng went non-stop and arrived at the Tai'an magistrate's office and found Liu Daxia.
Chang Feng said to Liu Daxia: "Master Liu, let's go to Qufu immediately to discuss a major matter with Duke Yan."
Liu Daxia asked: "What's the big deal?"
Chang Feng said: "It is a big matter whether the prince can keep his throne!"
Liu Daxia knew that Chang Feng was from the prince's faction and did not dare to neglect him. Follow him on horseback to the Duke Yan's Mansion in Qufu, a hundred and fifty miles away.
That night, Chang Feng and Liu Daxia, who were tired of travel, met Kong Hongtai.
Kong Hongtai asked: "It's so late, what do you want from me?"
Chang Feng said: "There was an earthquake in Mount Tai last night. I would like to ask Lord Yan Shenggong and Master Liu to take the lead and jointly submit a letter to the court with the Jiangnan gentry and scholars to report the unusual disaster."
Kong Hongtai was confused: "Special disaster?"
Chang Feng said: "That's right. Please make it clear in the memorial that Mount Tai was shaken by this earthquake. Countless houses collapsed. Tens of thousands of people were displaced and took shelter to save their lives."
Liu Daxia questioned: "What are the collapsed houses and the displacement of tens of thousands of people? Why don't I, the prefect of Tai'an, not know?"
Chang Feng said: "You're right if you don't know. The disaster is a rumor! I need Yan Shenggong and you to make this rumor for me to protect the prince!"
Chang Feng told everything about his plan.
Kong Hongtai was a little embarrassed: "The Master said that virtue is abandoned by hearsay. If I help you spread rumors, wouldn't I become an unvirtuous person who does not respect the teachings of the sages?"
Liu Daxia also hesitated: "Yes. If we fall for this trick, we will become a bully."
Chang Feng said loudly: "Seeing the treacherous party persecuting the prince, standing by and avoiding it, that is the real lack of virtue!"
"The prince is the hope of the Ming Dynasty! If he is deposed, the court will be completely controlled by Concubine Wan Guifei's party. The Ming Dynasty will fall into the eternal night!"
""Zhu Zi Yu Lei" said, if the sky does not give birth to Zhongni, eternity will be like a long night."
"Only Prince Bao can eliminate the traitors, protect the people, and benefit the common people! Light up the long night!"
"This is the right way of a saint!"
Chang Feng is sometimes taciturn and sometimes has a bright tongue. I was stunned to say that spreading rumors was the right path of a saint.
But people like Kong Hongtai and Liu Daxia just do this.
Kong Hongtai was moved by Chang Feng: "That's it! For the sake of the bright future of the country, I will do something against my will and lie once."
Liu Daxia asked: "Chang Baihu, are you sure that the prince can be saved as soon as he reports the disaster?"
Chang Feng shook his head slightly: "I'm not sure. It all depends on whether the arrangements made by Eunuch Huai'en before he was demoted to Nanjing were thorough!"
Three days later.
As Duke Yansheng, Kong Hongtai summoned Jiangnan nobles and local scholars in Tai'an Mansion to discuss the matter of reporting strange disasters.
In fact, in the past three days, the rumors of strange disasters in Mount Tai have become more and more outrageous.
Some people even say that a dragon split Mount Tai in half that night, and that it was the Empress Nuwa who descended to earth and closed Mount Tai.
The Jiangnan nobles also wrote letters to their relatives, friends, and disciples in the imperial court, telling them about their thrilling experiences in the disaster.
Naturally, all these experiences are exaggerated.
When these letters arrive in the capital, everyone in the government and the public will think that a disaster has really occurred in Mount Tai. What is false will become true.
How noble is Yanshenggong? He took the initiative to ask the nobles to join him in signing a statement to formally report the disaster on Mount Tai to the court. The crowd naturally responded.
Go to the upper room in front of Confucius' mansion.
Chang Feng held a long joint album in his hand. There are more than four hundred signatures on it.
Without exception, they are all famous people in the scholarly community.
The first signature is Yan Shenggong Kong Hongtai, and the second signature is Liu Daxia, the prefect of Tai'an.
Chang Feng looked at this document as if he was looking at the hope of saving the crown prince position and Chang Feng's life and future!
Chang Feng ordered Fatty Xu who came with him: "You and Eunuch Liu immediately take the three hundred regiments of soldiers to return to the capital to protect this memorial and hand it over to the court!"
Fatty Xu caught the thick fold with both hands.
Chang Feng did not let go: "Xu Guangzuo, this is a matter of national importance. We must return him to Beijing safely."
Fatty Xu said: "Master Chang, don't worry, I'm here."
Chang Feng looked at Fatty Xu's leaving figure and said to himself: "Everything is done, let's obey fate."
