Prince Yi's Mansion? Why did Prince Yi's Mansion buy so much grain at all costs? Zhao Shiqing's face suddenly darkened and he said sternly: "Don't blame the palace for everything! This is no small matter!" "Sir, how can a lower official not know the importance of the matter?" Lu Shunbo raised his head and looked at him and said: "The transshipment of such a large amount of rice was concealed. However, a large house was newly built in the west of Nanfeng County. It is actually a warehouse. It has been purchasing rice since this spring. The owner of this house is a merchant from Fujian, but the title deed is Dong Jingye, the nephew of the eunuch Dong Jingye. "Lin Tao's." Zhao Shiqing glanced at the door and felt a little panicked. Dong Jingye was the most powerful eunuch in front of King Yi Zhu Houye. He had followed Zhu Houye for more than 20 years. His nephew Dong Lintao was quite active in Jianchang Mansion. Of course he knew it, and Lu Shunbo didn't dare to talk about it. Every county in Jianchang Prefecture, Jinxi and Chongren purchased grain with such great fanfare. Could it be that it was all done by Prince Yi's Mansion? What's the matter with being so unapologetic? He couldn't help but feel confused for a moment. At this moment, a relative knocked on the door and came in. After serving tea to Lu Shunbo, the relative casually handed over an official letter and said, "Master, this is from Xincheng County." Zhao Shiqing took the letter and waved, The screen retreated and followed him, and then he took it apart and read it. At first glance, his face immediately turned pale. The Xincheng County Magistrate reported that a new group of bandits was discovered in the Hongmen Town area. There were hundreds of people. They were extremely secretive and rarely came out on weekdays. To carry out robberies, we sincerely pray for more troops to encircle and suppress them. After being in a daze for a long time, he raised his head and said to Lu Shunbo: "Don't make any noise about this matter. Pay close attention to the movements in the country. If you find any other abnormalities, report it immediately." After hearing this, Lu Shunbo couldn't help but be confused. He also counted on the prefect to dissuade the prince. We couldn't let food prices continue to rise. If this continued, something big would happen sooner or later. But seeing Zhao Shiqing's gloomy expression, he didn't dare to say anything, so he had to get up and leave. Wait for him to retreat. Zhao Shiqing then said to the outside world: "Come here!" "Young man is here." "Go to Prince Yi's Mansion with my note immediately." Zhao Shiqing said in a deep voice, "Just say that I have something urgent and ask to see Mr. Chang Shi." In the southwest corner of Fucheng, Prince Yi's Mansion should not be called a palace, but a royal city. This is a completely imitation version of the Forbidden City. The Jinshui Bridge, Yudai River, city walls, gates, and palaces are all imitations of the Forbidden City. However, the specifications are slightly lower. It was built in the fifth year of Hongzhi in the Ming Dynasty and took three years to complete. The entire royal city has green tiles and red walls, red doors, carved beams and painted buildings, cornices, and more than 800 internal and external rooms. It accounts for almost a quarter of Nancheng. There is an independent courtyard to the north of the Zunyi Gate in the royal city - the Changshi Division of the Prince's Palace. The Changshi Division is an official agency that manages the affairs of the Prince's Palace. It is an exclusive agency that assists the royal palaces in handling relationships with the central government and local administrative departments. When Zuo Changshi Sun Zhizhen heard that it was the prefect of Jianchang who came to pay his respects, he hurriedly welcomed him out. In terms of rank, Changshi was only of the fifth rank. In terms of official career prospects, the palace officials had many restrictions. They were basically imprisoned within the palace and could not compare with local officials. However, because they relied on the big tree of the prince, local officials treated them with great respect. Sun Zhizhen is only in his early thirties. He was also a genuine Jinshi. When he came out of Zunyi Gate, he saw that Zhao Shiqing had got off the sedan chair and was waiting. He quickly walked a few steps, bowed his hands with a smile, and said, "Why do you need me, Mr. Zhao, to come to the door in person?" "Master Sun is deaf to what's going on outside the window. This matter is not trivial." Seeing his solemn look and unkind tone, Sun Zhilin said immediately: "Let's talk about it after we go in. Mr. Zhao invites you." After sitting down, Zhao Shiqing did not say any greetings, but said directly: "Master Sun, does he know that the price of rice in Jianchang has exceeded seven coins and one stone?" Seven coins and one stone? The price is a bit high, but what does it have to do with the palace? Sun Zhilin glanced at him and said casually: "What do you mean, Master Zhao?" "Master Sun, you really don't know?" Zhao Shiqing was already very worried and had no time to grind his teeth with him, so he said directly: "Buy and hoard rice in large quantities. It is not only Jianchang Prefecture that is driving up the price of rice, but also Jinxi and Chongren counties. I am not going around in circles. The grain merchants in Nanfeng County have the shadow of Wang Fu. Sun Zhilin was shocked and said in a deep voice: "Hoard rice." "Grain, Master Zhao should know the importance of this." "Of course I understand." Zhao Shiqing said coldly: "Master Chang Shi had better ask Eunuch Dong, what good things did his nephew do in Nanfeng?" A new group of bandits has recently arrived outside Men Town, with hundreds of people Jianchang Mansion has no right to interfere with the affairs of the Prince's Palace. I only hope that the Prince's Palace will immediately open a warehouse to release grain, stabilize grain prices, and clothe The Chief Secretary has sent a letter to inquire about this matter." As he said this, he stood up, bowed his head, and said: "Within three days, I have not seen a drop in food prices. I will reply to the Chief Secretary truthfully and say goodbye." Sun Zhilin looked at him walking out of the signing room. My heart is like a ballJianchang Prefecture, Jinxi and Chongren purchased a large amount of grain, and hundreds of bandits suddenly appeared. What on earth is going on? King Yi Zhu Houye has only held the title of prince for a year. He usually looks gentle and has no ambition. How is this possible? After being stunned for a moment, he hurried to the Cunxin Hall. The Cunxin Hall was filled with singing. Zhu Houye, who was in his forties, quietly watched the songs and dances rehearsed by the opera troupe in the mansion. Although he was over forty, he still She was very well maintained, and she looked no more than thirty-five or sixty. From the front, she really looked like Hu Wanli, but she was fairer than Hu Wanli, and she was a little more graceful and elegant. Hearing that the eunuch Dong Jingye whispered that Sun Changshi was outside asking for an audience, Zhu Houye frowned slightly, shook his head slightly, and continued to enjoy the singing and dancing. When the singing and dancing stopped, he waved his hand to reject the musicians and said to Dong Jingye raised his chin slightly. Sun Zhilin walked in quickly, knelt down and saluted, and said in a deep voice: "Your Majesty, I have something important to report." The Chief of the Royal Palace is not appointed by the palace, but appointed by the court. He is not only in charge of the palace's government orders, but also in charge of the palace's affairs. , and is also responsible for the sarcasm of the assistant prime minister. After hearing these words, Zhu Houye straightened up slightly, secretly wondering what else had reached the ears of the chief minister. He immediately waved his hands, and several eunuchs quickly bowed. out. "Your Majesty, Zhao Shiqing, the prefect of Jianchang Prefecture, just came to the royal city" Sun Zhilin explained the situation in detail before saying: "Your Majesty, this is a serious matter. I sincerely pray that your Majesty will find out as soon as possible." Zhu Houye listened. I was extremely shocked. There is such a thing? He immediately shouted: "Call Dong Jingye to come in." Dong Jingye didn't know that disaster would come from heaven. Hearing that Zhu Houye's tone was wrong, he was a little cautious, secretly thinking that something had fallen into the hands of this damn Chang Shi. He bowed in and said aggrievedly: "Your Highness¡ª¡ª." "Tell him. ." Zhu Houye said with a gloomy face. After listening to Sun Zhilin¡¯s words, Dong Jingye suddenly broke into a cold sweat. He stammered quickly: "Your Majesty, this is impossible. This is definitely someone who deliberately framed the Prince for injustice. Such a large amount of rice was purchased. How much money is there" Zhu Houye pursed his lips tightly. He also thought about this problem. Such a large-scale purchase of rice and raising the price of food to such a high level cannot be accomplished with a few thousand taels of silver. It would take at least tens of thousands of taels, or even hundreds of thousands of taels of silver to achieve this. After thinking for a while, he said in a deep voice: "You will go to Jianchang Mansion with You Changshi immediately, and ask them to help investigate this matter thoroughly. You must Find out the person behind the scenes." Dong Jingye crawled out of the hall while waiting, and then Zhu Houye looked at Sun Zhilin and seemed to ask him. He seemed to be saying to himself, "Who is it? He is so willing to spend so much money to frame me? He is trying to alienate the family ties of the Tian family. Are you not afraid of killing the nine clans?" It is indeed quite strange that the other party is so generous and does not shy away from it. Sun Zhilin has been all the way. , also suspected that even if King Yi wanted to rebel, he would not be so blatant. He has been in Prince Yi's Mansion for three years, and he also believes that Prince Yi cannot have the intention to rebel. After all, the current vassal kings are all toothless tigers. How can they rebel without soldiers? Being framed is certain, but the question is who would frame King Yi like this? After all, he took a little longer to think about it. At that moment, he bowed and said: "Your Majesty, if someone deliberately framed someone, there must be a back-up plan, and this matter cannot be hidden from the factory guards' eyes and ears. Will Your Majesty, please go to Shang Shu to self-examine first?" Shang Shu self-identify? Zhu Houye shook his head slightly. This kind of thing can only become darker and darker. Jiajing was originally ruled by vassal kings. The rebellion of King Ning in Nanchang only lasted more than 20 years. Shangshu's self-discrimination can eliminate Jiajing's rebellion. suspicion? After pondering for a while, he said: "Is it feasible to ask the palace to open warehouses to release grain to stabilize the price of rice?" After pondering for a while, Sun Zhilin bowed and said: "The other party has strong financial resources, how much grain can the palace release? Even if the three counties and princes release grain at the same time , the other party can definitely eat it. " Hearing that he was deliberately biting the three princes' palaces, Zhu Houye couldn't help but look a little pale. The other party's attitude was simply to kill all his Yiwang lineage. Could it be that Jiajing was worried about the local vassal king? Use dirty means to cut down the vassal clan? On second thought, he rejected this idea. Now that the Ming Dynasty is restless in the northwest and southeast, it is impossible for Jiajing to disturb the vassal king at this time. This is not possible. Who else but the imperial court has such strong strength, and why would they frame him as King Yi? My father had a calm temperament and had no fight with the world. He had never offended anyone in the capital, and he had never offended such a powerful figure in the years since he became a feudal lord. What was going on? He was puzzled for a moment. He couldn't help but feel worried when he thought about the possibility that the other party might have a back-up plan, and the hundreds of bandits that suddenly appeared in Hongmen Town. The opponent's attack was so big and bold, so the back-up plan couldn't be too small. , how to deal with it? How to make Jiajing believe that he, King Yi, has no rebellious intentions? After thinking for a long time, he said: "Immediately check the people around me to see who else is"??Is his relatives related to purchasing grain during this period? The palace will open a warehouse to release grain from now on. In addition, people will immediately notify my three younger brothers to ask them to self-check and release grain. All those involved in the purchase of grain will immediately sell the grain in their hands. If there is no skin left, the hair will be attached. Tell them clearly that as long as they sell the grain in time, I will not hold them accountable, and then write a letter to the capital commander, asking them to send troops to suppress the bandits. " After hearing Wu Zishun's report that Prince Yi's Mansion opened a warehouse to release grain, Hu Wanli smiled indifferently and said lightly: "They let it go, and we let it go too. This caused local officials and factory guards to pay attention to a few people from King Yi's lineage. It is enough for the prince to be on high alert. " "What's next? "Wu Zishun said in a deep voice. "Tell the merchants who come out to buy grain to stay away and go into the mountains to avoid the limelight. Hu Wanli pondered and said: "Ask the two battalions of the escort team to make some noise and test their reaction. In addition, have you found out the situation of the caravans from several palaces? ¡± The imperial court explicitly prohibited the lords from doing business, but this prohibition had long been ignored by the lords in various places. The annual salary of ten thousand dan sounds like a lot, but in fact it is only four to five thousand taels of silver a year. Zhuangtian¡¯s The income is not that good either. No prince has a large family, and the salary is just a small salary, not to mention the luxury. Therefore, each palace is full of tricks. Jianchang Prefecture is on the border with Fujian, and maritime trade has been extremely prosperous in recent years. There are caravans from Prince Yi's Mansion and the three princes' mansions traveling to and from Xiamen, Zhangzhou, and Quanzhou. This is well known in Jianchang Prefecture. "The secrets are all figured out. Wu Zishun nodded and said: "The Nanyang sea trade ships return in April or May, and the caravans from several princes will return to Jianchang Mansion in mid-June." " Hu Wanli said with a smile: "Ask the gangsters to get some firearms and give them to those caravans. " Frame? Wu Zishun hesitated for a moment, then said: "I'm afraid this is a bit difficult " "It's not difficult, it's just a piece of cake. "Hu Wanli said nonchalantly: "The underworld has a lot of dirty tricks, such as changing packages or bribing caravans with money to help them get through. They are just ordinary methods. Sometimes the tricks of the underworld are beyond your imagination. " Wu Zishun has been dealing with the underworld gangs for many years, but he doesn't know much about the underworld's shameful tricks. They all communicate in black language, and ordinary people really can't understand them. With him Because of his identity, the gang members didn't dare to be presumptuous in front of him. He didn't know where Hu Wanli knew this. Let alone an outsider, even he found it difficult to understand Hu Wanli. It seemed that there was nothing he didn't understand. After pondering for a while, he said: "Young Master, since you want to use firearms to frame me. Do you want the escort to expose their muskets? " After thinking for a while, Hu Wanli said: "Jianchang Mansion is not remote. Hundreds of bandits will definitely cause local encirclement and suppression. What's more, the local officials and factory guards now suspect that King Yi is rebelling, so they will not let it go easily. It's better than the bandits pretending to be guards. When the local guardsmen surrounded and suppressed them, they not only had to show off their muskets, but also led them to suspect Dongxing Port. " Prince Yi's Mansion is over. There is no way out except rebellion! Wu Zishun sighed secretly. It was rare to see Hu Wanli plotting against others. If he didn't want him to plot against others, he would do it one by one. Once the local guard During the encirclement and suppression, the officers and soldiers suspected that these so-called bandits were the Dongxing Port Guards. They must have thought, why did the Dongxing Port Guards appear in Jianchang Mansion? When they found out that the Yiwang Mansion caravan was also smuggling firearms, everything was self-explanatory. After thinking for a while, he said: "Master, if the escort is exposed, the imperial court will probably mobilize heavy troops to encircle and suppress us. " Hu Wanli smiled slightly, and then said: "It is necessary for the imperial court to attack with heavy troops, so as to force King Yi to make up his mind to rebel. It is not difficult to break through. However, three more battalions need to be mobilized. King Yi will have no heirs. He will not abandon his three brothers. We will send troops to support the three county kings. Only in this way will he rebel without hesitation. " Wangfu and Hu Wanli released grain at the same time. The price of grain in Jianchang and Fuzhou Prefecture quickly dropped to six yuan per stone. A large number of grain merchants brought grain to Jianchang Prefecture and were immediately hit. It was impossible to transport it back, so it could only be sold on the spot. After three strikes, the price of grain immediately fell below six yuan. Hu Wanli changed hands and ordered a bargain hunting, buying a large amount of grain to stabilize the price. At about five cents and five, he did this not to make money, but to prepare for war. Of course, it was also to make the ears and eyes of local officials and factory guards tighten their hearts. The price of food quickly fell and returned to normal. Price, the chief officials of the counties below Jianchang Mansion were secretly relieved, but the prefect Zhao Shiqing was always on tenterhooks. He vaguely felt that the matter was not that simple. Sure enough, after only two days of calm, he asked for a report, At the junction of Jianchang Prefecture and Fuzhou Prefecture, another group of hundreds of people emerged from Yunlin Mountain near Jinxi County.Bandits. Thinking of the previous increase in rice prices, he couldn't help but secretly feel chilled. He immediately reported to the Jiangxi Capital Commander's Office for five hundred miles and begged to send troops to encircle and suppress the situation. , Jianchang Thousand Households jointly encircled and suppressed. On May 23rd, more than 1,600 soldiers from two thousand households in Fuzhou and Jianchang surrounded and suppressed Yunlin Mountain and returned with a great defeat. More than 400 people were killed and injured. The two thousand households in the village all insisted that those who were entrenched in Yunlin Mountain were not bandits. Almost everyone in that group had a musket, and the muskets did not require matchlocks. Not only were there many muskets, but they were also skilled in battle formations. One thousand six hundred people, one When they met, they were beaten to the point where they lost their armor and were defeated. The corpses brought back also proved that what the two thousand households said was true. They were indeed killed by muskets. When the news came out, the whole of Jiangxi was in an uproar. They used muskets entirely, and they were bandits with new muskets. Are they still bandits? Many officials vaguely guessed that the escort team from Dongxing Port might have arrived at Jianchang Mansion. In Prince Yi's Mansion, Zhu Houye couldn't help but turn extremely pale when he heard that the bandits entrenched in Yunlin Mountain were most likely soldiers from Dongxing Port. No matter how slow he was, he had now realized that it was Dongxing Port who was setting up a trap to harm him! What he couldn't understand was why Dongxing Port wanted to harm his Yiwang lineage? He and Dongxing Gang had no grudges in the past, and they had no grudges in recent times. They had no intersection at all. There were so many vassal kings in the Ming Dynasty, why did Dongxing Gang find him? Although he couldn¡¯t understand it, Zhu Houye knew very well that Prince Yi¡¯s Mansion wouldn¡¯t be able to clean it up even if he jumped into the Yellow River. No one would believe him that Prince Yi¡¯s Mansion had nothing to do with Dongxing Port, and Dongxing Port would definitely force him! How to clear up the relationship with Dongxing Port? Out of desperation, he suddenly had an idea, run away! Escape to Nanchang City! (To be continued)