Chapter 1472. A humble person comes to the rescue.
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Over the years, Wang Baoren and Zhou Shangjing have fought openly and secretly countless times.
As for the result of victory or defeat, to put it mildly, Wang Baoren suffered repeated defeats and battles, which made Zhou Shangjing extremely afraid. At worst, Wang Baoren suffered repeated defeats, just like an unkillable cockroach, which annoyed Zhou Shangjing.
But Wang Baoren's greatest advantage is his perseverance. Even if he fails countless times, he will still not lose his fighting spirit and can still seize every opportunity to make a comeback and challenge Zhou Shangjing again with confidence.
What's more, Wang Baoren's confidence at this time is not without reason. He has been in control of the Six Ministries of Nanjing in recent years. Although he has been restrained and suppressed by Song Chengren, and because of Emperor Deqing's plan to take over power, he has been in control of the Six Ministries of Nanjing.
His business has suffered heavy losses for many years, but Wang Baoren still retains several key trump cards.
These key trump cards were Wang Baoren's greatest confidence in making a bet with Zhou Shangjing at this time.
The most important thing is...Wang Baoren actually doesn't particularly care about whether Zhu Hejian can successfully overcome the current difficulties and whether he can successfully take over the position of crown prince.
Wang Baoren is now the crown prince and grand master, and Emperor Deqing also intends to let him return to the center of the temple to check and balance Zhou Shangjing and Zhao Junchen, so he does not care who is the crown prince, as long as the situation in Nanjing is settled and Emperor Deqing is successful
After taking back power from the Six Ministries of Nanjing, he could return to the center of power.
Even if Zhu Hejian was defeated by Zhou Shangjing in the end, and his crime of secretly raising dead soldiers was exposed, Wang Baoren could change his position in an instant, add insult to injury without any psychological burden, and choose to stand with Zhou Shangjing to jointly expose Zhu Hejian's wolf ambitions to Emperor Deqing.
, when the time comes, he will also be a meritorious minister, and he will still be the crown prince and grand master, which will not affect his plan to return to the center of the imperial court.
Under the current situation, Wang Baoren can be said to be sitting firmly on Diaoyutai, and the overt and covert fighting between Zhou Shangjing and Zhu Hejian cannot have much impact on him.
Wang Baoren has been secretly supporting Zhu Hejian during this period, and now he wants to bet with Zhou Shangjing on the futures of Zhu Hejian and Song Chengren. In fact, Wang Baoren does not really support Zhu Hejian, he just wants to use this opportunity to challenge Zhou Shangjing again.
In short, in Wang Baoren's eyes, choosing to support Zhu Hejian was just a way for him to challenge Zhou Shangjing. Even if he failed in another challenge, it was just another way to regain his strength.
This is also the real reason why Zhu Hejian has never dared to trust Wang Baoren.
Therefore, when Wang Baoren and Zhou Shangjing were making a bet, they never mentioned the bet from beginning to end, because Wang Baoren just wanted to win the bet and take the opportunity to cut off Zhou Shangjing's arm to help Song Chengren. As for whether he could still do it after winning the bet.
Gaining extra bets is completely irrelevant.
Zhou Shangjing also knew Wang Baoren's thoughts very well, so he directly agreed to Wang Baoren's bet proposal.
Seeing that Wang Baoren was about to return to the center of the temple, the situation in the temple was bound to change accordingly. Zhou Shangjing thought that he should give Wang Baoren a beating in advance so that Wang Baoren could once again realize the gap in strength between the two sides. After returning to the center of power, he should stay calm and low-key and not jump too much.
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Just when Wang Baoren challenged Zhou Shangjing again, Zhu Hejian had already entered the Nanjing Shantang.
At first, because there were other half of the hostages waiting to be released in the charity hall, Zhu Hejian behaved like an ordinary hostage and kept a low profile, allowing the "Chaofeng" dead men to hold him hostage. He only took the time to say something to those hostages who had not yet left.
A high-sounding speech, in which he stated that he would risk his life for the sake of the people of the Ming Dynasty, moved the hostages to tears and trembled all over. Before leaving the charity hall, they all took the initiative to kowtow to Zhu Hejian to thank him.
At this time, Lu De still stayed in the shantang in the name of negotiation and did not leave immediately.
After the hostages left the charity hall one after another, Lu De walked to Zhu Hejian and whispered: "Your Highness, after this incident, your name of benevolence and righteousness will be spread all over the world, and you will definitely be unpopular.
It’s within reach! As long as you successfully overcome the current difficulties and don’t let Zhou Shangjing get caught, your position will be extremely consolidated after taking over as Crown Prince!
These orphans in the Nanjing Charity Hall were originally helpless and had a very clean background. Now they are rescued because you went to the tiger's den in person and became hostages on their behalf. They will all be grateful in the future, so the students think that we
From now on, it is best to bring these orphans to the capital for intensive training. After three to five years at most, you can gain a group of loyal confidants who will never betray!"
Seeing that Lu De had thought of many long-term plans so quickly, Zhu Hejian couldn't help but become more and more satisfied with Lu De's intelligence. He believed that although his trip to Nanjing had experienced countless twists and turns, he had also gained many unexpected surprises.
For example...finding a talent like Lu De who is still willing to loyally support him in times of adversity.
Therefore, Zhu Hejian first nodded lightly, then shook his head and said: "Ziyu, your idea is certainly reasonable, but it is not the time to consider these things yet. The top priority is to successfully overcome the current predicament. We must not let that old fox Zhou Shangjing
Catch our flaws! Otherwise... there will be no mention of the future!"
While talking, Zhu Hejian directly put his arms around Lu De's neck, bringing their heads closer and closer, as if they were brothers.
Then, Zhu Hejian carefully explained at a volume that only the two of them could hear: "Next, you don't want to stay here with me anymore, and leave with the hostages!
And after you went outside, you immediately cooperated with the guarding eunuch Xi Cheng, the prince's grand master Wang Baoren, and Xu Shoubei to keep an eye on Zhou Shangjing. This old fox's behavior tonight was extremely suspicious. I suspect that he has already dug up Zhou Shangjing.
The trap is set, just waiting for me to jump out of it!
But it doesn't matter. As long as you can hold him back as much as possible so that he can't act as he pleases, I can lead the 'Chaofeng' dead soldiers here to get out of trouble smoothly, and then I can implement the 'bad strategy'. Our round is considered
If you keep it, you will be able to win undefeated in the future and have no worries!"
Having said this, Zhu Hejian hesitated for a moment, and then added: "Since this period of time, I have also arranged many back-ups, just to prevent Zhou Shangjing from doing anything bad to me! And apart from me, the only back-ups are mine.
The accompanying eunuch Jia Lun knows all the details. I have already warned Jia Lun in advance and asked him to fully cooperate with you. So when you deal with Zhou Shangjing later, if you encounter an unsolvable problem, you can seek support from Jia Lun.
He might be able to help you!"
After hearing Zhu Hejian's explanation, Lu De's eyes suddenly flashed.
After this period of observation, Lu De had already discovered that Zhu Hejian was suspicious by nature and rarely trusted others. The only true confidant he could confide in was Jia Lun, the eunuch who had been with him since childhood.
But now, Zhu Hejian is willing to let Jia Lun cooperate with Lu De, which means that Lu De is very close to becoming Zhu Hejian's true confidant.
Therefore, Lu De immediately nodded vigorously and said: "Don't worry, Your Highness! Leave everything to the students. I will never betray His Highness's trust!"
Zhu Hejian seemed to have full confidence in Lu De. After smiling with relief, he patted Lu De hard on the back, and then let Lu De leave Nanjing Shantang.
After watching Lu De leave, Zhu Hejian finally slowly turned around and looked at Jiang Xiao, who was standing quietly not far away, waiting for him.
Noticing Zhu Hejian's scrutinizing eyes, and all the irrelevant people had left, Jiang Xiao did not need to continue to cover up. He immediately knelt down on the ground, buried his head in apology and said: "Your Highness, because of my subordinate's unauthorized actions, I actually brought trouble to Your Highness.
Such great trouble and danger almost ruined His Highness's grand plan, and even disturbed His Highness to personally lend a helping hand. I am really ashamed of myself, so please punish me!"
Seeing Jiang Xiao kneeling directly in front of him to plead guilty, Zhu Hejian's eyes suddenly flashed with relief, thinking that Lu De's judgment was correct. Although Jiang Xiao had acted without permission these days, he had not betrayed him.
The next moment, Zhu Hejian reprimanded with a cold expression: "Jiang Xiao, Jiang Xiao... you really disappointed me this time! It's not because of how much trouble you caused or how much danger you brought, but because of your unauthorized behavior.
Act on your own initiative! If you cause trouble and danger because of your lack of ability when executing my orders, then I will never blame you, but your ability has never been a problem. You are just too arrogant.
Even if you do things without authorization, you can definitely solve all the troubles by yourself, and you won't even let me discover that you did things without authorization, but you still got away with it in the end, right?"
After hearing Zhu Hejian's scolding, Jiang Xiao remained silent and pressed his head tightly against the ground, completely losing his former toughness and confidence.
After Jiang Xiao was rescued from death row by Zhu Hejian, he had already sworn to be loyal to Zhu Hejian for the rest of his life. Although he was a lawless outlaw, he was also a man who promised a lot of money. Now he has not forgotten his original oath, and the current situation is all because of himself.
Although he had learned from Lu De that Zhu Hejian wanted to abandon him completely, he did not complain about Zhu Hejian's ruthlessness. Instead, he believed that he was in the wrong and wanted to regain Zhu Hejian's trust.
After seeing Jiang Xiao's silence, Zhu Hejian slowly shook his head: "I don't even bother to ask you why you did things without permission. I just want to know...after what happened today, how can I continue to trust you in the future?
, entrusting you with an important task?"
Jiang Xiao finally stopped being silent and spoke up to defend himself: "Your Highness, please listen to your subordinate's explanation. This subordinate's unauthorized action is certainly due to selfish motives..."
After saying that, Jiang Xiao told Zhu Hejian in general about how he accidentally discovered Hu Xiao's traces and how he couldn't bear the hatred patiently and wanted to seek revenge on Hu Xiao even at the risk of taking risks.
After hearing Jiang Xiao's explanation, Zhu Hejian frowned more and more.
He and Jiang Xiao are the same kind of people, both are extreme and persistent people, so he can generally understand Jiang Xiao's decision, but understanding does not mean forgiveness.
In fact, after listening to Jiang Xiao's explanation, Zhu Hejian became even more unable to forgive Jiang Xiao - he himself could be extreme, but his subordinates should never have such power.
Extreme people like Zhu Hejian are often even more intolerant of the extreme behavior of those around them.
But before Zhu Hejian could express his position, Jiang Xiao added: "However, my subordinate's unauthorized actions were not all out of personal grudges, but also because I accidentally discovered a major secret and wanted to find out the truth for His Highness...
I believe that as long as His Highness can master this secret, he will be able to manipulate Huo Zhengyuan and Zhao Junchen behind Huo Zhengyuan at will in the future!"