When he arrived in the capital, the emperor was still stranded in Xishan and had not returned.
In fact, Zhu Hao had no clear purpose in returning to Kyoto this time. It was like the emperor had set up his posture and was waiting for the enemy to fall into his trap. At the critical moment, he found that the enemy not only did not come, but also surrendered on his own initiative.
And Zhu Hao is the net that Zhu Si laid in advance.
Without even enemies, this net has no practical effect.
Xu Jie didn't quite understand the errands he had to do back in Beijing, so he had to say goodbye as soon as he returned to the city: "Jingdao, if you are very busy, I will go back to the Ministry of Industry. There are some things I can't touch!"
Xu Jie probably knew that Zhu Hao returned to Beijing to lead the Dongchang and Jinyiwei work. It sounded very bizarre. A foreign minister actually controlled the Ming Dynasty's factory and guard system. Who would believe it? But Xu Jie also knew that there was nothing he could do.
Using common sense to speculate on the relationship between Zhu Hao and the emperor, he simply chose to avoid it.
Zhu Hao said: "Zisheng, please work with me. There are some things that you must step forward to do!"
"What's the matter?"
Xu Jie looked puzzled.
Zhu Hao smiled and said: "You have to go see Zhang Cong, the Hanlin scholar, pass on some messages for me, and tell him... this matter can only be investigated on him!"
"ah?"
Xu Jie was surprised, why did he suddenly mention Zhang Cong?
Aren't Zhang Cong and Zhu Hao the same group?
Even if the two of them had a small grudge, Zhu Hao wouldn't take Zhang Cong to the hospital, would he?
Zhu Hao said coldly: "Zisheng, you have to go, unless you think this court can accommodate an official with no background..."
In his words, Zhu Hao threatened, if you don't go, you can go back to your hometown to farm!
…
…
Zhang Cong originally thought that Zhu Hao had nothing to do when he returned to the capital. He didn't even plan to guard against Zhu Hao until he saw Xu Jie who came to visit his house late at night.
"Xu Zisheng, didn't you go to Tianjin with Zhu Jingdao? Why did you come back so soon?" Zhang Cong said, "He came back to work for His Majesty. What do you do?"
What Zhang Cong means is that you can just stay in Tianjin. You are a big tree like Zhu Hao on the list. He relies on you so much that he even transferred you away from Yang Shen early and was not involved in the Zuo Shunmen incident. Why don't you
How about staying in Tianjin and helping him build ships in return?
Xu Jie said: "Shilang Zhu has something to say, please come down and inform Bachelor Zhang."
"Oh? What are you talking about?"
Zhang Cong asked coldly.
Xu Jie hesitated for a moment and suddenly remembered Zhu Hao's threat. In order to stay in the court with peace of mind and serve as an official, he could only tell the truth: "He said that he knew that you were secretly spreading rumors that His Majesty left the capital and went to Xishan. He also said that he had enough evidence.
.Now that the civil servants have not responded to His Majesty’s patrol incognito, he has no choice but to investigate you!”
"What?"
Zhang Cong became furious when he heard this.
I didn't deal with you Zhu Jingdao, but you turned against me?
etc!
How did that kid know about this?
Could it be that……
From the beginning, the person who provided me with information was not Huang Zan, but him? Did he deliberately dig a hole to frame me?
Xu Jiewei said: "I don't want to get involved in the dispute, but I am entrusted by Zhu Shilang and have to come to explain the situation. The grudges between you... I don't understand."
"Don't you understand?" Zhang Cong had long regarded Xu Jie as a member of Zhu Hao's party. How could he believe what Xu Jie said now?
Xu Jie said: "Even before returning to Beijing, I only knew that I was returning to the court on the order of the emperor, and I had no idea what errands I was going to do. What I really wanted to do was to return to the Hanlin Academy and work in peace of mind. It was he who kept me by his side, saying that he was entrusted with important tasks.
, I... I really don’t understand what his intention is!”
Zhang Cong looked grim when he heard this.
Now it is equivalent to saying that Zhu Hao has set up the cannon at his door and warned him clearly that the next step will be to send Jin Yiwei to arrest people. At that time, he, Zhang Cong, may be in bad luck.
But what does Zhu Hao mean by giving advance notice?
Zhang Cong's mind was confused for a while, and he couldn't understand the trick at all.
"With that said, I'll take my leave!"
Xu Jie was also worried.
I even began to wonder whether I should take the initiative to ask for a transfer to Nanjing.
Seeing that he was about to be involved in the dispute between Zhu Hao and Zhang Cong for no apparent reason...
Is this the main conflict in the imperial court today? Why are the two of them so incompatible despite being members of the Lili faction?
"Um."
Zhang Cong waved his hand, not even planning to see the guests off.
…
…
Xu Jie left, and Zhang Cong immediately sent someone to call Huo Tao.
Now he doesn't care about avoiding taboos. Since Zhu Hao knows that he revealed the emperor's patrol to the civil servants, he must have known who was helping him secretly. It is very likely that Huo Tao and Zhu Hao are in the same group... Of course this
Just an assumption.
According to Zhang Cong's opinion, Huo Tao should not defect to Zhu Hao. It is most likely that Huo Tao has also been taken advantage of.
"Then...what should we do?"
After hearing Zhang Cong's introduction to the situation, Huo Tao's eyes widened, sweat broke out on his forehead, and his nervousness was palpable.
Zhang Cong said: "You really didn't know in advance what role Zhu Jingdao played in it?"
Huo Tao looked bitter: "I will tell you after I get the news. I also said that the news came from the factory guard, or maybe someone couldn't stand Zhu Jingdao's behavior... If you think this is his deliberate design
, then I will try to find the person who leaked the news to us, so that we can launch a counterattack!"
"it's useless!"
Zhang Cong shook his head, "It was an oversight on my part. I always thought that Zhu Jingdao was not in the capital and would not be able to cause any trouble. Who knew he...sigh!"
Huo Tao didn't quite understand: "Zhu Jingdao said he had evidence... Where did the evidence come from?"
This is a situation that Huo Tao cannot understand.
It was just a message. Huo Tao asked himself that even the person who sent the message might not know who was behind it. The main reason was that the ministers confirmed through personal experience the next day that the emperor would not go to court, so they began to talk and felt that the emperor was likely to go on a tour.
Now... someone has endorsed it, and this person can only be Huang Zan...
Huo Tao couldn't figure out what role Zhu Hao played in it.
Zhang Cong said: "Zhu Jingdao has always been very docile and non-competitive, but even Yang Tinghe, Jiang Mian and others have been squeezed out by him one by one. Do you think he will be a good person? Not only does he
With the support of the emperor, and the support of the elders of Prince Xing’s palace, there are many ways to do it! Now I am afraid that he will eradicate all of us who have used it at once, so as not to disturb his control of the government in the future!"
"This... has never been used by him before."
Huo Tao seemed very unjust. Who did I provoke?
Zhang Cong said: "Aren't you mine?"
This sentence awakened Huo Tao. Although he rose to prominence by joining the Yili Sect, before experiencing the Zuo Shunmen incident, who knew the existence of Zhu Hao? It was all through Zhang Cong.
In the past, everyone thought that Zhang Cong was the leader of the rites faction, and even Huang Zan and Tang Yin were just cover-ups. After all, Huang Zan and Tang Yin did not have the courage to move forward when initiating courtiers to discuss rites.
On the contrary, it was Zhang Cong who proposed the ceremony in the 16th year of Zhengde's reign, making him the friend of all people in the world who were interested in the ceremony.
To put it another way, perhaps in Zhu Hao's eyes, all those who later participated in the ceremony belonged to Zhang Cong's faction.
Except Huang Zan and Tang Yin!
"Then...how should we deal with it now?"
Huo Tao's mentality is obviously not as good as Zhang Cong's.
Zhang Cong sighed: "It's a pity that Zushi is not in the capital. Perhaps Zhu Jingdao chose to attack because of this. I am now afraid that Zhu Jingdao will also deal with Zushi. By then... we, a group of rising stars, may be in the court."
China’s status cannot be guaranteed.”
"What should we do now?"
"We can only try to find someone to minimize the impact of this matter, and at the same time insist that Zhu Jingdao framed it out of thin air! His Majesty will not accept such a thing that is made out of nothing without conclusive evidence, and the matter has not happened.
I don’t believe he can come up with any convincing evidence!”
"Yep."
Huo Tao agreed with Zhang Cong's point of view, "If he had evidence, he wouldn't let Xu Jie come to scare you! He is deliberately disrupting our hearing!"
…
…
The next day, there was still no court meeting.
Zhu Si stayed in Xishan, and there was no news about when he would return to Beijing. At the same time, the ministers knew early on that the emperor would not be back in a short time, because yesterday several groups of troops were transferred from the Beijing camp to guard Xishan.
Rites Yamen.
Zhang Cong came to visit in the morning and went directly to the official room dedicated to the minister. Zhang Cong spoke sincerely and explained to Xi Shu the threat Zhu Hao had made to him.
Xi Shu was surprised and confused: "Is it really you?"
Zhang Cong shook his head: "How is this possible? What good will it do to me to reveal His Majesty's whereabouts?"
Xi Shu thought for a while. Although he had suspected Zhang Cong from the beginning and felt that this person was unscrupulous in doing things, it seemed that it was really difficult for Zhang Cong to benefit from the emperor's inspection tour and leaking secrets.
"Then why does he do this to you?"
Xi Shu frowned, "Could it be Xu Zisheng who is instigating discord?"
"Impossible! Zhu Jingdao trusts Xu Zisheng so much that he even took him with him to Tianjin, and this time they came back together!"
Zhang Cong answered decisively.
Xi Shu said doubtfully: "Then I don't understand what you are worried about... Since His Majesty's leaking secrets on patrol has nothing to do with you, then let him talk about it! Will Your Majesty condone the internal strife among those around you? Although Jingdao is young and vigorous,
But it still makes sense. In the past few years, we have not seen any disturbances caused by him in the government, and no one even knew what his position was for a long time."
Based on what Xi Shu means, are you, Zhang Cong, too unfounded?
You think you have a high rank, but in fact you are just a Hanlin bachelor at best. That is the position Zhu Jingdao obtained without caring about himself. You said you have a high reputation among the Yili sect, but you don't see how high you are.
It's all you who are so blind there.
Zhu Hao didn't even deal with Fei Hong and others, why would he deal with you first?
To put it bluntly, are you qualified?
Zhang Cong said: "Since he has no intention of fighting, why did he send someone to tell me this?"
Xi Shu shook his head: "If you have doubts, you can go see him in person and ask him in person. He has returned to the capital! If you don't want to go, then I will go and I can even ask him clearly for you... Now you meet
I don’t want to verify the matter, I just want to create a confrontation, and I don’t think about how to persuade His Majesty to return to Beijing as soon as possible and stabilize the court. In fact, there is no priority!"
Zhang Cong said coldly: "The enemy is already on my head. If I continue to give in and compromise, I'm afraid there will be no room for me in this court!"