The 'tiger' Mr. Lu mentioned was actually Hu Shidao's code name.
Some time ago, Hu Shidao had followed Zhu Gui's order and shifted the focus of his work to Nanjing. Originally, according to Zhu Gui's idea, he wanted to seize more business opportunities in Nanjing, the most important economic and political center in the early Ming Dynasty.
This allowed the Datong Chamber of Commerce to expand rapidly in size and power. Although preparations for the 'Jingnan Campaign' were also mentioned, they were not the focus of this period.
It's just that during this period of time, 'big events' came one after another. Even without Zhu Gui's arrangements, Hu Shidao had to invest more efforts in this aspect.
Without Zhu Gui's support, Hu Shidao's intelligence organization was obviously unable to support itself. After all, it was very expensive to maintain a large group of informants, so he approached Mr. Lu.
It can be said that the two parties hit it off immediately and immediately formulated a specific action plan.
So the intelligence collection work of the Nanjing Branch of the Datong Chamber of Commerce also began.
…
The actions of the Nanjing Branch of the Datong Chamber of Commerce are very secretive. Although many people know that the Dai Wangfu is behind this chamber of commerce, in this extraordinary period, if something happens to the Datong Chamber of Commerce, the whole of Nanjing will fall into chaos.
Therefore, even though Emperor Hui of the Ming Dynasty intended to punish Zhu Gui by targeting the Datong Chamber of Commerce, he was stopped by Fang Xiaoru, and even officials from the Ministry of Revenue were required to come forward to maintain a closer cooperative relationship with the Datong Chamber of Commerce.
And the development of the matter was exactly as Mr. Lu expected. Nanjing city had allowed caravans to leave the city one day after the city was closed.
There is no way, the price of food in the city has begun to skyrocket, and if this continues, a civil commotion will easily break out.
Three days later, Nanjing City was finally completely released.
The announcement stated that several rebel kings who intended to rebel had been caught.
In fact, the imperial court could no longer withstand the pressure brought by soaring prices.
However, the announcement was not entirely false. Three feudal lords were indeed captured by Lan Yu's men.
It's just that there are neither Zhu Gui nor Zhu Di, the king of Yan, among them.
Emperor Hui of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yunwen, put them in the sky prison without even interrogating them.
At the same time, Fang Xiaoru was asked to draft an edict, saying that several other vassal kings and princes also intended to rebel. If they did not arrive in Nanjing within one month to plead guilty, they would launch an army to conquer.
This edict spread quickly throughout the Ming Dynasty, and Zhu Di, who had not even returned to Yanjing, received the news halfway.
Zhu Di could only smile bitterly and said: "It seems that I have underestimated him. His methods are so quick, and he is completely incomparable with his elder brother."
Zhu Gui also received the news from Mr. Jin on the same day.
He was also a little surprised by this.
Because according to later historical records, from the time Zhu Yunqi ascended the throne to the time Zhu Di launched his army, there was a four-month game.
But according to the current situation, I am afraid that the conflict between the two sides will break out in a month.
This was somewhat beyond Zhu Gui's expectations because he was still not ready.
If we don't refer to history, the imperial court currently has an absolute chance of winning against King Zhu Di of Yan (it was also the case historically).
And what is different from history is that the imperial court has the famous general Lan Yu.
So this can no longer be judged by referring to history.
But what Zhu Gui didn't know was that Lan Yu was heading towards Yunzhou at this time.
Lan Yu almost led five thousand cavalry to Yunzhou at full speed, and even had very little time to rest on the way.
This also caused many cavalry horses to die suddenly on the road.
Lan Yu, on the other hand, abandoned most of the team and directly led the five thousand elite cavalry among them to continue on their way.
But he still found no trace of Zhu Gui.
It's not like he never thought that Zhu Gui might not be on his way on the official road.
But now he doesn't know whether Zhu Gui's team is in front or behind him, so if he intercepts the opponent halfway now, he may not only let the opponent return to Yunzhou, but more likely, with his current strength, it is impossible to do so
Completely surround the opponent.
So Lan Yu's idea is to go directly to Yunzhou and intercept the opponent at Zhu Gui's base camp.
He could even directly take over the local garrison, that is, Zhu Gui's bodyguard, to drain the firepower.
In Lan Yu's view, no matter whether Zhu Gui had any thoughts of rebellion or not, it was impossible for his guards to betray the imperial court.
As for the order given by Emperor Hui of the Ming Dynasty to capture King Dai alive, Lan Yu did not decide to obey it.
Anyway, when the time comes, as long as you use the excuse of "disobeying orders and dying on behalf of the king," even the emperor will be unable to do anything.
And Lan Yu can just avenge her shame.
…
After Zhu Gui waited for two days, he finally couldn't sit still.
Because the funeral of the late emperor had already begun, and he also obtained the burial list of the late emperor from secret channels.
It included more than two hundred concubines in the harem, including Concubine Guo Hui.
So after the blockade of Nanjing City was lifted, Zhu Gui disguised himself and sneaked into the city.
However, he did not go to the Xu Mansion to inquire about the situation. Instead, he found a shop belonging to the Datong Chamber of Commerce. This shop was opened by businessmen from the Datong Mansion, and it was more trustworthy than other local businessmen.
After Zhu Gui came to the shop, he asked the waiter to call the boss, and then took out the exclusive token of Dai Wangfu.
Upon seeing this, the boss immediately invited Zhu Gui to the backyard, and then knelt down to say hello.
Zhu Gui asked him to explain the situation in Nanjing in the past two days. After comparing it with what he knew, he found that the boss did not mention the queen, so he brought the carrier pigeon from his place and sent a secret message to Hu Shidao.
Soon Hu Shidao came in a hurry.
After the master and servant met and bowed, Hu Shidao reported the information he had to Zhu Gui.
"The emperor has listed all other vassal princes except the prince as rebels against the king, and the general Lan Yu led a heavy army to Datong Mansion. Your prince, what should we do now?" Hu Shidao said worriedly.
Only then did Zhu Gui know that on the night he left Nanjing City, other vassal princes also left from Prince Yan's Mansion, but it was because they got the news that the Royal Forest Army wanted to arrest them.
As for Lan Yu, Zhu Gui was a little surprised. He didn't expect that the other party would rush to Datong Mansion with a heavy army in order to avenge himself.
However, he had already informed Datong Mansion using a carrier pigeon and received a reply from Gongsun Ming, so he was not very worried.
On the contrary, he was not very sure about Guo Huifei's situation.
Hu Shidao also expressed that this matter was a bit difficult, because with his current means, his penetration into the palace was still very limited, and the intelligence would be delayed for more than half a day.
In the end, Zhu Gui made a risky decision, which was to sneak into the palace before the late emperor was buried, and then find an opportunity to rescue Concubine Guo Hui from the palace.