Although Emperor Chongzhen didn't know where Liugong Island was, it was not difficult to check it with the place name, and he soon found out that it was in Weihaiweina.
Has this Wu Zhong betrayed him? Emperor Chongzhen really wanted to find out about this.
If there is no betrayal, he is the leader of the two Manchu ships this time, and it will be much easier for him to do things; if he betrays, it will be more troublesome!
With this in mind, he sent a message to Li Ruolian, the commander of the Jinyi Guards, asking him to prepare to leave the capital.
Not long after, there was another decree, asking him to rush to Wuying Palace to meet him immediately.
Li Ruolian was actually a little puzzled by this. If the civil uprising in the south was not over, he estimated that the emperor would probably send him to deal with the civil uprising. But logically speaking, it seems that it would be more appropriate for Dongchang Admiral Wang Chengen to go. After all, it was the Dongchang people who were killed.
However, now that the civil uprising in the south has long since subsided, more than a hundred officials have been removed from office. This has made the entire officialdom in the south know the emperor's attitude and determination. It is based on the law and has the ability to prevent disasters for the people. With great righteousness, there is no objection at all whether it is among the people or the officialdom.
When he arrived in front of Wuying Hall, Li Ruolian suddenly came back to his senses and wondered if the emperor had asked him to investigate the cause of Wu Changshi's death. Because Wu Changshi died, although it was said that he died of illness. But if connected from various events, it seems that it is not as simple as death from illness. He just slipped and fell into the water and caught the wind and cold. How could he die in less than a month?
This is indeed a doubtful point, but from the perspective of an emperor, there is no need to mobilize so many troops for this kind of thing, and let him have a dignified commander of the Royal Guards to come forward, right?
With these doubts, he entered the palace to pay tribute to Emperor Chongzhen and waited for the answer to the mystery to be revealed.
What surprised him a little was that there was a map of the Ming Dynasty hanging on the screen in the hall, with lines and marks drawn in ink.
Li Ruolian immediately realized that the emperor's summons must be related to this map. But this made him even more confused.
Emperor Chongzhen saw a smile on his face, and after asking him to excuse himself, he stood up from his throne, walked to the screen, motioned for him to move forward, and then pointed to the map and said to him: "Wu Zhong is back. He is now We are still here, Liugong Island. We are scheduled to leave tonight for Haizhou and rest there for ten and a half days. I want you to go south immediately and rush to meet Wu Zhong."
Haizhou is under the jurisdiction of Huai'an Prefecture. Emperor Chongzhen was not familiar with this, but after asking about it, he found out that this Haizhou was called Lianyungang in later generations, which made it much clearer. Of course, Li Ruolian must know Haizhou.
When he heard what Emperor Chongzhen said, he was immediately overjoyed.
To be honest, he was not optimistic about Wu Zhong being released. This kind of thing about lurking secret agents is basically a narrow escape from death. But what I didn't expect was that Wu Zhong actually sent back the news and rescued people. But after leaving the customs, there was no news again. This must have happened in the past year, and he thought Wu Zhong might be dead.
Unexpectedly, he was overjoyed to hear that Wu Zhong was back. Wu Zhong was his former confidant.
But immediately, he realized again, how did the emperor know? Liugong Island is so far away from the capital. Unless the emperor was informed of this in advance, the emperor would not have known about this distance, and he was not lucky!
Thinking like this, he once again confirmed that the emperor also controlled another force, or the factory guards, whose ability to spy on information was at least much better than what Li Ruolian knew. More importantly, the method of delivering the message was strange and impossible to detect.
Thinking of this, Li Ruolian felt even more awe-inspiring, and his awe for the emperor became even greater.
Emperor Chongzhen didn't expect that he had thought so much in his mind. He just said to him with a smile: "Wu Zhong is a man who works hard and has great achievements. Even if he is bribed by the captives, he still maintains his integrity. I am very pleased! You know people well." , I am also pleased."
Li Ruolian was confused again. Just like Wu Zhong, who was taken away to Liaodong, could he still be bribed by Jianlu?
However, he was confused in his heart, but on the surface he was very humble, and at the same time he was naturally happy.
Emperor Chongzhen stopped talking nonsense and began to assign tasks to him.
Needless to say, Emperor Chongzhen was able to learn this information by paying attention to the information sent back by the Class A eavesdropping seeds on Wu Zhong.
It turned out that after Wu Zhong landed on Liugong Island, he first stopped his men from massacring the people of Liugong Island. The reason was that merchants from the south of the Yangtze River in the Qing Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty were doing business, and they might often stay here in the future. If they killed people now, Maybe the Ming Dynasty will pay attention to this, which is not conducive to trade.
At this point, Emperor Chongzhen felt that Wu Zhong would basically not betray, and he had confidence in Wu Zhong, and then continued to watch.
Subsequently, under Wu Zhong's arrangement, the navigation necessities of the two ships were supplied at a high price. At the same time, he used the excuse of being a bird to eat at a high price at the house of the patriarch surnamed Liu on the island. In the meantime, he found an opportunity to speak to the clan leader alone, and made it clear to the clan leader that as soon as they left, he would go to the government office and ask them to convey to the commander of the Jinyi Guards that Wu Zhong was back and would rest in Haizhou. a period of time.
Although he didn't say it clearly, leaving the clan leader surnamed Liu confused, Emperor Chongzhen knew that Wu Zhong had not betrayed him at all. He was just trying every means to contact the Jinyiwei commander as soon as he returned to land, which is enough to prove this. .
After receiving this key information, Emperor Chongzhen was overjoyed and immediately secretly summoned Li Ruolian.
Not long after, Li Ruolian hurriedly left the Wuying Hall with excitement, rushed back to the Jinyiwei Yamen, summoned a group of Jinyiwei elites who had already been named, immediately left the capital, and rushed to Haizhou.
…………
Haizhou was not big or prosperous at this time. After all, the Ming Dynasty opened sea routes, so people and goods traveling from south to north all used canals.
After Wu Zhong and his party arrived here in two boats, one boat stopped at the bamboo island outside, but the boat with gold, silver and jewelry arrived in Haizhou.
As the ship slowly docked, I listened to the noisy local accent on the dock. Well, although the accents were different, they were all Mandarin. All I could see were Ming Dynasty costumes, and I never saw the dazzling money rat tail. Wu Zhong's mind flashed through scenes of struggling to survive in Liaodong, and he saw his compatriots who were all skinny and numb, but in front of him was a lively atmosphere, with visitors coming from the north and south, with different expressions, laughter, laughter, and frowns, no matter what , all looked so kindly.
Suddenly, he wanted to shout loudly: I am finally back!
However, this cannot be done. If he showed such joy, the men behind him would definitely doubt their loyalty to Jianlu. Who knows how many of these people are unwilling to be slaves? After all, they are different from me. They are spies sent by the emperor to Liaodong.
He was thinking about it when suddenly, a flattering voice came from the shore and said: "This master, does he want to hire helpers or is he looking for some kind of business?"
Looking closely, he naturally knew the identity of this person. He should be a tooth man, trying to steal business here.
In fact, Wu Zhong was not thinking about business at all at this time, but was just worried.
Although he took a certain risk and asked the clan chief named Liu of Liugong Island to inform the government, he was not sure whether the message could reach the Jinyiwei Yamen and reach the commander.
In fact, Wu Zhong contacted Jin Yiwei without any hope at all. After all, in terms of time, even if everything goes well with the message, the commander is in the capital. After hearing it, it will take a lot of time to report it to the emperor and then come to Haizhou to find him.
After giving up this unrealistic idea again, Wu Zhong returned to reality and said to the tooth man on the shore: "If you can find a good inn, take me there and give you a reward!"
The Yaman was about to respond when suddenly, someone rushed over from behind and responded loudly: "Master, I will take you, I will take you there, I know a very good inn..."
When he heard that someone was trying to steal business, the Yaman immediately became angry. He turned around and found that he was also dressed as a Yaman, but he was just a stranger. At least he had no impression of him, so he immediately shouted: "On that road? Didn’t you see that I greeted you first?”
"What's the use of saying hello first? That gentleman hasn't gotten off the boat yet, and he hasn't made a deal with you yet!" The person who came later said disdainfully, "The key is to look at this gentleman, and it's not like shopping around. My attitude is the worst. Okay, you can satisfy this master, you know?"
Upon hearing this, it seemed that this person was not breaking the rules. However, this man's words made him feel a little uncomfortable, as if he often ordered people around.
When he thought of this, he suddenly felt happy again. Just because of this, the master would definitely not be happy to deal with such a person. At least in terms of humility, I will definitely have the upper hand.
Thinking of this, he did not continue to get angry, but turned his head, with a smile on his face, and bowed slightly: "Master, if you choose a villain, you will definitely..."
Before he finished speaking, Wu Zhong interrupted him with a voice full of surprise: "No need to say anything, I'll go with you, but you must satisfy me!"
"Okay!" The toothy man agreed, but at the same time, he found that the master was pointing at the person coming from behind, and he suddenly became stupid. What is going on? Why would you choose him?
Of course Wu Zhong didn't care about the Yaman's feelings. He took five or six of his men and immediately got off the boat, walked to the man's side, tried hard to suppress the joy in his heart and said: "Lead the way!"
At this time, he still had doubts in his heart.
Because, this person is not a Yaren at all, but a Jinyiwei Xiaoqi, or his right-hand man when he was still the Jinyiwei General Banner in the capital, named Wei Minghua.
Logically speaking, even if Wei Minghua is on business in Haizhou, he won't become a fan, right? Just in this posture, it was as if he was waiting for himself here. But, how is this possible!
This possibility, judging from the time, was immediately ruled out by Wu Zhong.
At this time, he had doubts in his heart, but he couldn't ask immediately. He could only follow along and look back for an opportunity to ask.
Not long after, Wei Minghua took them into Haizhou City and arrived at the largest inn in the area, called Tongfu Inn.
After entering, Wu Zhong was of course satisfied with the inn, and gave Wei Minghua a reward and asked for a good yard, showing that he was a wealthy businessman.
Wu Zhong could clearly feel that his men were very happy, but he couldn't help but feel a little anxious when he couldn't find a chance to talk to Wei Minghua alone.
Wei Minghua obviously knew what he was thinking, and took the initiative to say to him: "Sir, the wine of this inn is famous here..."
Upon hearing this, Wu Zhong understood and immediately ordered the shopkeeper to serve them good wine and food.
Next, needless to say, Wu Zhong started pouring wine himself.
He is the head of the group, at least nominally, headed by him. This was just after landing, so no one would have any doubts. Everyone was exhausted from the boat ride, and their mouths were like birds. As soon as the good wine and food were served, they naturally started to eat freely.
As a result, within half an hour, everyone in the group was drunk. Even Wu Zhong himself drank a lot, but he had something on his mind, so of course he would not get drunk.
After putting down these men, he pretended to go to the toilet and left the door.
As soon as he came out, he immediately rushed towards the courtyard gate. As expected, Wei Minghua was there.
As soon as they met, Wu Zhong couldn't help but feel happy and wanted to ask Wei Minghua questions.
However, Wei Minghua turned around and left, saying at the same time: "You can't be out for too long, move quickly!"
Wu Zhong was stunned when he heard this. He immediately understood that Wei Minghua was here for him and seemed to know his affairs. So where is he taking himself?
Confused, he followed a few steps, only to find that Wei Minghua had taken him to a courtyard next door.
Pushing open the courtyard door, Wu Zhong found two people standing behind the door. Although they were wearing ordinary clothes, he immediately felt that they were elites in the army.
They seemed to know that Wei Minghua would come and bring someone with him, so the two people didn't ask at all, they just closed the door and stayed there vigilantly.
In this way, Wu Zhong became even more curious, who did Wei Minghua take him to see?
When he entered the door, he found someone sitting at the main table drinking tea. With just one glance, Wu Zhong froze, because he was very familiar with this person. Even if he didn't look at the face, even if he was wearing ordinary clothes, he knew who it was.
For some reason, Wu Zhong felt a surge of sadness in his heart, and his eyes turned red. He immediately knelt down on one knee, clasped his fists and raised his head and said excitedly: "Wu Zhong, a member of the Jinyi Guards, comes to see you, your commander!"
The person in charge is, of course, the commander of the Imperial Guards, Li Ruolian. As soon as he saw it, he immediately put down the tea cup, stood up quickly, walked forward quickly, helped Wu Zhong up with his own hands, and said excitedly: "I'm sorry for you!"
