Without money, what is the point of being a traitor?

Chapter 141 A Thought Birth

Zhai Dean's breath stuck in his throat, supporting him from completely collapsing.

When my eyes swept across the gloomy bedroom that was like hell, I noticed the light outside.

He staggered out as if he had found a life-saving straw.

His legs were extremely stiff, and he couldn't move them with any strength.

When he finally opened the curtain and fell out, just as the breath in his throat was about to dissipate, he saw a man dressed in the uniform of a military officer of the Jinyiwei sitting at the table.

There was a candle lit on the table, dimly illuminating the face, making the man look indescribably powerful and terrifying.

Zhai De'an swallowed the breath in his throat in shock, "You, you..."

Pei Yuan looked at him expressionlessly, "Jinyi Qianhu, Pei Yuan."

When Zhai Dean heard that Pei Yuan was a Jinyiwei, he was like a devil who was longing for the world of the living. He was actually relieved to have escaped a disaster. "You are the Captain Pei!"

He said it again, tears streaming down his face.

Pei Yuan knew before that this guy was useless, and was afraid that he would break his string, so he waited until he calmed down a little before saying, "I heard that you wanted to plot against me?"

"Yes, yes, they asked me to do it." Pei Yuan's voice was like the only light in Zhai Dean's frightened heart. He even hoped that Pei Yuan would say a few more words.

Zhai De'an cried and confessed, "They asked me to keep a close eye on the Suzhou and Hangzhou Weaving Office. As soon as the silver carts went in to load the goods, they encouraged the weavers to block the road and besiege. I had no choice. I had no choice."

Pei Yuan glanced at Zhai Dean's hand and thought, a fourth-rank prefect of Suzhou was able to swallow his anger even after someone chopped off his fingers, which shows how cowardly and incompetent this guy is.

What principles can be expected from such a person?

Since he was so vulnerable to threats, Pei Yuan would naturally not show him any mercy.

Pei Yuan leaned forward slightly and bent down to look at Zhai Dean.

The candlelight on the table was blocked by Pei Yuan behind him, so his face was immersed in the darkness and could not be seen clearly.

Pei Yuan stared at Zhai Dean from a close distance, "You are afraid of them, but aren't you afraid of me?"

Zhai Dean shuddered with fear when he heard Pei Yuan's voice.

He quickly said tremblingly, "I'm afraid, I'm afraid! I'm also afraid of Qian Hu!"

According to Pei Yuan's original plan, he was going to simply and rudely get through Zhai Dean, so that he would be afraid to ruin his own plans.

But seeing that Zhai Dean was so easy to control, Pei Yuan had another idea.

The Thousand Households Office for Suppressing Evils is very special. Its duty is to hunt down evil cults and monitor temples and monasteries. It does not have a fixed station.

Those personnel usually either go out to investigate or carry out missions, or sit and spy in various temples and palaces.

Relatively speaking, the proportion of manpower in the north may be higher.

But despite this, the roots of this thousand households are still in the south.

Even after Han Qianhu came back, he worked directly in the Nanjing Jinyiwei Yamen.

The reason is simple. The Jinyiwei in Beijing was originally just a branch of the Jinyiwei in Nanjing. The two sides were not copied in a one-to-one ratio.

When Zhu Di first moved to Beijing, he simply called Beijing "Xingzai" for fear of being criticized for his legitimacy.

Therefore, the names of various civil and military institutions in Beijing are prefixed with "Xingzai". For example, the real name of Beijing Jinyiwei is "Xingzai Jinyiwei".

Later, in the 19th year of Yongle, Zhu Di felt that he had secured a stable throne and he established Beijing as the capital.

The Jinyiwei on both sides were renamed Beijing Jinyiwei and Nanjing Jinyiwei, and their power began to exchange.

When Zhu Di's son Zhu Gaochi came to power, he began to miss the good life in the south, so he wanted to move the capital back to Nanjing.

Moving the capital is not an easy matter, but it does not prevent Zhu Gaochi from satisfying his desire to talk.

Therefore, the names of the Six Ministries, the Five Military Commissions, the Embroidered Uniform Guard, etc. in Beijing were added with "Xingzai".

Zhu Gaochi died young, before he could achieve this goal.

Then his son Zhu Zhanji came to power.

As we all know, the relationship between father and son is not as close as the relationship between grandfather and grandson. The little grandson Zhu Zhanji especially admired his grandfather who was talented and ambitious.

He thought his father was doing something stupid, so he put the matter of Zhu Gaochi moving the capital on hold.

But even if it was shelved, this was the only major project that Zhu Gaochi had been focusing on during his ten months in power, and Zhu Zhanji could not reject it completely.

Therefore, Beijing still plays a small role and continues to operate in a complacent manner.

How long did this last? It lasted until the sixth year of the Zhengtong reign of Emperor Yingzong of the Ming Dynasty, when the Beijing government's "temporary residence" was completely eliminated.

In other words, after being a concubine in Beijing for nearly forty years, she was finally made the principal.

However, the idea that the wife was the first in Nanjing City was too deeply rooted in people's minds at that time.

Think about the age group of people in power in the imperial court?

They are all people in their 40s or 50s and above, and most of them are from the South.

Since their infancy, childhood and adolescence, these people have remembered that Nanjing is their first wife.

So after Emperor Yingzong of Ming was captured, no one cared where the emperor was and started to clamor for moving the capital.

Future generations may feel depressed when they see this. Has the Ming Dynasty reached such a critical moment?
They are even moving the capital!
——Well, nothing serious.

Throughout history, there is no record of the Oirat conquering any city of the Ming Dynasty.

After Zhu Houzhao returned from a battle at the border, the Oirat Mongols no longer dared to advance on a large scale and only engaged in harassing and looting in the border areas.

So, was that a scare?
The hearty laughter of the court officials could be heard by Yesen all over the grassland.

Nanjing lost its last precious chance to return to the principal wife, and the Nanjing Jinyiwei began to decline completely.

The Beijing Jinyiwei was not only thriving, but was also divided into two major institutions: the Northern Zhenfusi and the Southern Zhenfusi. The Nanjing Jinyiwei, except for some special functional departments, was basically marginalized.

The Thousand Households Office for Suppressing Evil is the most primitive functional department among them.

Pei Yuan is now the executive deputy commander of the "low-level, high-skilled" Zhenxie Qianhu Office, so he has to consider some things comprehensively.

For example, the key position of the Suzhou prefect.

This Zhai De'an seems to have some good points.

In the balance of terror against the weak, the one who strikes harder is more likely to gain the other's loyalty.

Compared with the box of fingers, this room full of heads must be more convincing to Zhai De'an.

Pei Yuan looked at Zhai Dean, his expression unchanged, "It seems that you are also a man who knows the current situation. Now I will give you a chance to choose, do you want to help those people, or do you want to help me?"

Zhai De'an had no other answer at this moment, he kowtowed repeatedly and said, "Your humble servant is willing to help Qian Hu."

Pei Yuan's expression softened a lot. "Okay, you are still useful to me, so I won't make things difficult for you. When the silver transport vehicle arrives, you can follow their instructions and continue to incite the weavers to cause trouble. I will have a plan to deal with it then. I don't need you to take risks. At the critical moment, just pretend to be confused."

Zhai Dean thought he was going to become a victim of the conflict between the two powers, but when he heard Pei Yuan's words, he nodded like a chicken pecking at rice, "I understand, I understand, I will never ruin Qian Hu's plan."

Pei Yuan then leaned back in his chair, letting the faint light of the candle fall on his face again. "As for the rest, don't worry. Qianhu Suo will come forward to mediate and won't embarrass you. Later, I will have someone send you a sign of the Hundred Households of Qianhu Suo. If any Jianghu figure dares to provoke you, Qianhu Suo will fight him to the death."

In order to strengthen Zhai De'an's confidence, Pei Yuan said to him, "As the fourth-rank governor of Suzhou, you have some status. You should have heard about the whole story of this silver transportation."

Zhai Dean said quickly, "I know a little bit."

Captain Pei smiled wryly and said, "Then you should also know where these heads came from, right?"

"These are all people from the Northern Pacification Office. There are thousand households, hundred households, and general flags among them, and there are quite a few of them. I dare to kill all the people from the Northern Pacification Office without blinking an eye, let alone those unpresentable chickens and clay dogs."

Zhai Dean, who had been accustomed to being coerced for a long time, immediately felt that the thigh he was holding this time was really strong and powerful.

He said quickly, "From now on, I will rely on Qian Hu's care."

Pei Yuan revealed a little more, "Don't worry, even if you have difficulties at the moment, or someone in the government makes things difficult for you, it's not a problem. I have connections in the court, and after the rebellion in Bazhou is quelled, if there is a chance, I will help you move forward."

Zhai De'an heard this and could not refuse, so he said, "It's all up to the commander."

Pei Yuan arranged some details and then signaled Cheng Lei to make a move.

Cheng Leixiang immediately led people into the house and collected all the heads.

Pei Yuan did not stay long after seeing this, and said to Cheng Leixiang with a smile, "Light more candles for Magistrate Zhai later."

I’m afraid Zhai Dean won’t be able to sleep tonight.

Pei Yuan walked out of the room and went straight to Song Chunniang who was guarding the rear.

Song Chunniang was very alert. She recognized Pei Yuan and then stepped out from the dark and asked, "How is it going?"

Pei Yuan couldn't help but remind her when he saw her casual tone, "You should call me Sir."

Song Chunniang couldn't help laughing.

After a long while, she said charmingly, "Yes, Master Qianhu."

The words were drawn out, with an itchy ending.

When Pei Yuan heard the messy footsteps coming from the backyard, he didn't have any extra thoughts and just gave Song Chunniang a warning look.

The Jinyiwei packed the heads into sacks and transported them over.

Pei Yuan said, "Let's go, let's go back and have a good sleep."

Song Chunniang remembered something and asked, "What about the servant who asked the question just now?"

Pei Yuan glanced at Song Chunniang and answered mercilessly, "Get rid of it and leave some thoughts for Zhai De'an."

Song Chunniang didn't say much and walked towards the place where the servant was tied up.

Soon, Song Chunniang carried the servant who was tied up tightly and struggling desperately and walked towards the well in the yard.

Pei Yuan took a glance at it, but didn't pay much attention to it, and quickly climbed over the wall to go out.

Then he stood in the shadow and looked at the teahouse which was still burning.

Soon, everyone came out and the sacks were hung down with ropes.

Pei Yuan warned the Jinyiwei, "This trip went smoothly and didn't alarm anyone. Please keep it secret after you return."

The Jinyiwei all responded in a low voice.

By the time we got back to the inn, it was almost dawn.

Pei Yuan never got involved in any dirty stuff and went straight to bed.

When he woke up at noon, Cheng Leixiang came to report, "Captain, a fast horse reported that the silver transport vehicle arrived at Captain Tan Tai's place this morning. Captain Tan Tai had already made preparations, and as soon as the silver transport vehicle arrived, they started to rush to Suzhou. They will arrive in Suzhou around noon tomorrow."

Pei Yuan was overjoyed, "This is good news."

The Sixth Girl did not let him down at the critical moment. The longer the time drags on, the weaker Pei Yuan's deterrent power on Zhai Dean will be.

We should take action in time while Zhai De'an is frightened.

Pei Yuan asked again, "What about the Suzhou prefect? ​​Is there any problem?"

Cheng Leixiang smiled, "I heard that there was a fire in the prefect's back office last night, burning many houses. Now the Suzhou prefect has moved to the post house. I also heard that he was frightened and has a high fever."

Pei Yuan also laughed, "He's not stupid."

I guess Zhai De'an doesn't dare to live in the back hall anymore. How can he sleep well with so many rotten heads placed there?

By lighting this fire directly, they could leave the rear court openly and live somewhere else, and at the same time eliminate all traces of Pei Yuan and others' visit.

At the same time, with the excuse of being frightened by the fire and having a high fever, it was easy to cover up any subsequent problems with the weavers.

Pei Yuan asked again, "Have you dealt with those heads?"

Cheng Lei said, "Not yet."

Pei Yuan thought for a moment and said, "Let's find a place to bury him first, and then let Qianhu Suo know later."

Pei Yuan ate something, and the Jinyiwei who had been busy all night woke up one after another.

After everyone had a full meal, Pei Yuan did not stop and returned to Changzhou County, going directly to where Hou Qing and the others lived.

When Pei Yuan saw Monk Daigu again, he was seeing him and Hou Qing eating.

His hands were greasy and his lips were shiny.

Pei Yuan laughed, "The recovery is not slow."

Monk Daigo was stunned when he saw Pei Yuan.

Hou Qing pushed him, and Monk Daigo bowed to the ground, "This humble monk greets Captain Pei."

"Yeah." Pei Yuan agreed with a smile and helped him up again.

Monk Daigo seemed to have recovered from what happened before.

He was originally a beggar with nothing, and everything in the past was just a dream.

During the two or three days of recuperation, the things that I hadn't figured out in my mind became clear to me when I ate meat.

Without the influence of the previous monk Daigo, this guy can finally eat meat as he wished.

The meat was so delicious.

For today's monk Daigo, living well and eating delicious food are beliefs that are more firm than those of Buddha.

When this thought arises and you laugh out loud, that is the real enlightenment.

When he had his own beliefs and persistence, and his own independent nature, he gradually began to understand the abilities that he could not control in the past.

Monk Daigo first realized the Buddhist teachings that often lingered in his mind but he did not understand their meaning, and then he realized the supernatural powers that he often thought about but could not use.

(End of this chapter)