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

Chapter 398 Logical Chain

Pei Yuan asked Tian Fu, "Then what should I do according to you?"

Tian Fu replied, "Bi Zhen has already become the eunuch guarding Shandong. There are not many things that he can covet and fear. Even if there are, he may not need to join forces."

"That's why wild animals like to travel alone."

"The Qianhu already has the help of Gu Dayong, Qiu Ju, Xiao Yan, Lu Ting, Wang Chang and others. If Bi Zhen and others are added, with so many beasts traveling together, will there be enough benefits for you to distribute?"

Pei Yuan was alarmed when he heard this.

Then, Tian Fu continued with a meaningful tone, "Even if there is, I'm afraid that when Qianhu achieves his wish, others will change their stance and regard you as an enemy."

Pei Yuan thought of the example of Zhang Feng that Tian Fu had just mentioned, and sweat broke out on his forehead.

Pei Yuan was able to gather so many ferocious beasts around him, not only because he had leverage over those people, but also because they had interests to share ahead of them.

In the eyes of those people, Pei Yuan was also a ferocious beast capable of hunting with them, so the two sides formed a relatively close relationship.

But what happens when the hunt is over?

Don’t even think that far ahead.

Gu Dayong has now gotten rid of his reputation as a waste and restored the West Factory; Qiu Ju has escaped from the East Factory and avoided the attacks of Zhang Rui and Zhang Xiong; Lu Ting successfully defeated the rebels in Bazhou, and with this merit, even if he cannot become the seal of the Imperial Household Department, it is enough for him to rely on his indestructible golden body; as for Xiao Jing, he has taken steady and cautious steps and has outlasted several emperors.

Speaking of which, Pei Yuan’s current situation is the most unsafe one.

What's more, the struggle between the "Seven Tigers of Zhengde" and the "Old People of Hongzhi" will have an outcome within two years.

Pei Yuan couldn't help but think of this.

If we look at it from the theory of land tax, then when the winners share the profits, won’t they drive themselves away first?

Pei Yuan was in a trance and felt as if he had suddenly realized something.

Then he asked Tian Fu again, "Then in your opinion, what should I do?"

Tian Fu did not dare to ask Pei Qianhu's intention, but just said slightly, "Instead of forcing a joint effort, it would be more cost-effective for Qianhu to show his own strength and let both sides live in peace."

Pei Yuan felt somewhat unwilling to hear this.

If we can get those three guys into our camp, it will definitely be a powerful enough help.

But what Tian Fu said also makes sense.

After all, it’s because my own strength hasn’t kept up.

Pei Yuan hesitated for a long time, and finally sighed, "If I have a foundation, the mediocre people in the world are really nothing to worry about."

Tian Fu saw that Pei Yuan seemed to be lacking in courage, so he tried to comfort him.

Fortunately, Pei Yuan has fully realized the fact that his foundation is shallow, and is no longer in a hurry to expand. He plans to proceed steadily and do a good job in Luojiao first.

A few days later, officials from the Shandong Provincial Surveillance Office arrived one after another to investigate the incident in which the Luo sect members attacked and killed the Yanggu County Magistrate.

The matter was brought forward by the eunuch in charge of the garrison, with Pei Yuan serving as a circumstantial witness.

Therefore, he was summoned to the county government office for questioning several times.

When the news that officials from the Shandong Provincial Surveillance Office had arrived in Yanggu spread, Pei Yuan's search and arrest of the wealthy families in Yanggu County could no longer be concealed.

Many members of those big clans had escaped and came to complain, saying that the Jinyiwei were arresting people at will.

Pei Yuan was not afraid of this.

He came to arrest someone with sufficient evidence.

After capturing the young and strong prisoners, we not only recorded their confessions, but also found out their names and places of origin and made files.

It is simply impossible to expect that all these thousands of people would collude with each other and commit suicide.

As long as the Censor-in-Chief follows the lists, he will definitely get evidence.

After reading what Pei Yuan submitted and briefly discussing it, the officials from the Censorate immediately shifted the focus of the trial to procedural issues.

According to Fei Yue, assistant to the Supreme Court, even if this matter was not hosted by the Ministry of Justice, it should be handed over to the Shandong Supreme Court for handling.

The Jinyiwei had no power to initiate a major case in Shandong.

Fei Yue even demanded in harsh words that Pei Yuan must hand over all the captured members of the big clans and the looted property to the Censorate.

The Censorate would report to the Ministry of Justice and the Dali Temple and ask the court to send someone to handle the matter.

Pei Yuan originally wanted to let this guy named Fei Yue see clearly who the current number one man in Shandong belongs to.

However, with the reminder from Tian Fu before, Pei Yuan had become cautious about these superficial supports.

The reason why Wang Chang was able to come to Shandong to serve as a provincial governor was that he had to hand over the Nanjing Ministry of War as a price.

Moreover, various factions in the court viewed this incident as a prelude to Wang Chang's safe departure.

If Wang Chang were to do this and that and act too excitedly now, the factions in the court would lose the most basic consensus in ignoring Wang Chang.

If the court suddenly transferred Wang Chang to places like Sichuan and Jiangxi, then Pei Yuan's series of plans centered on Shandong would lose the most critical support.

Fortunately, the Censorate and the Embroidered Uniform Guard were not subordinate to each other, so Pei Yuan could completely ignore Fei Yue's barking.

He even laughed and cursed, and deliberately provoked Fei Yue several times, which made Fei Yue very angry.

But Fei Yue was no pushover. Seeing Pei Yuan being so arrogant, he not only sent an official document to Wang Chang, the governor of Shandong, but also sent a private letter to his colleagues in the court for help.

As Fei Yue made such an effort, the follow-up of the Yanggu incident soon spread to Jinan Prefecture.

When the officials of Shandong Provincial Administration heard that the Jinyiwei had actually run to a small county below and arrested people and confiscated their homes, they were all filled with indignation.

This is actually the same reason why all those small tyrants hated Liang Ciwu.

If the Jinyiwei can extend their tentacles from the capital at will and arrest people and confiscate the property of local wealthy families at will, then who can guarantee that they will not be the next one?
After all, those officials all came from the same class.

So after hearing the news that the Jinyiwei were causing trouble in Shandong, officials led by the Left Governor Jiang Hong immediately began to put pressure on Pei Yuan.

Of course, after understanding the cause and effect of the incident, they also knew that it would be difficult to cover up.

Therefore, the main direction of the objections was also to investigate the legality of Pei Yuan's procedures in handling the matter.

As long as they can get the person back from Pei Yuan, they will naturally find a way to judge the case and come up with a result that is "both in line with the national law and in line with human nature."

Pei Yuan turned a blind eye to the accusations from the Shandong leaders and concentrated on packing the gold and silver into boxes and selling the valuables.

Left Governor Jiang Hong and others were very angry about this, and immediately began to jointly write a letter to the court, requesting that the Jinyiwei who were causing trouble in Shandong be recalled to Beijing.

After Wang Chang, the top man in Shandong, signed his name generously, he immediately sent someone to deliver a letter to Pei Yuan at night to remind him of this matter.

Pei Yuan remained calm and did not say anything until Chen Bing, the censor sent by the court to investigate, arrived.

"Back then, when the Bazhou Army was in Huaibei, they once raised the slogan of 'clearing the emperor's side and supporting the virtuous king'. Everyone knows this."

"According to the investigation of the Jinyiwei, the virtuous king that the Bazhou rebels wanted to support is the current King De."

When the Censor Chen Bing heard this, he was immediately alarmed and interrupted Pei Yuan, "This is not what I want to ask about. You are not allowed to speak carelessly about the affairs of the royal family and the vassal states."

Pei Yuan grinned after hearing this, "What nonsense? At that time, the Bazhou Army had hundreds of thousands of troops. Isn't it possible that not many people knew about this?"

"Not to mention that there are ready-made Bazhou Army prisoners in Huguang who can be interrogated. When the Bazhou Army withdrew from Huaibei, many local people were also taken hostage and took the opportunity to escape."

"Whether it's the Huguang front or the Huaibei front, as long as Censor Chen asks someone, he will know what the Bazhou Army was talking about when they were clamoring to 'clear the emperor's side and support the virtuous king'."

This incident was a small episode that happened when I was negotiating the price with King Ning.

It was a big deal involving several divisions, so King Ning certainly couldn't just foolishly pay money based on someone's words.

So King Ning put forward a condition, asking Pei Yuan and others to prove that they were indeed representatives sent by the Bazhou Army.

The requirement given by King Ning was to let the Bazhou Army raise the slogan of "clearing the imperial court and supporting a virtuous king".

And for various reasons, the dirty water was thrown on Prince De.

This incident was actually done by the Bazhou Army, and Pei Yuan was not afraid of investigation at all.

It was precisely because of this extremely high degree of coordination that Pei Yuan sold the Bazhou Army for a good price.

Well..., it can be considered as mutual complementation.

Supervisory Censor Chen Bing was unwilling to get involved in the affairs of the vassal kings, so he turned a deaf ear and said, "This time I came here only to investigate your case of poisoning the people of Yanggu. I will not ask about other matters."

Pei Yuan sneered at the censor after hearing this and said, "You won't ask anything? Then how do you know that this incident in Yanggu has nothing to do with the prince?"

Chen Bing listened and asked cautiously, "What do you mean?"

Pei Yuan finally revealed his true intentions and said to Chen Bing, "During the battle in Huaibei, Eunuch Lu Ting and the governor-general Bai Yu attacked the enemy halfway across the river and defeated the Bazhou bandits in one fell swoop."

"One of the bandits rushed to Shandong in a panic. The two leaders were called 'Big Tiger' and 'Starry Sky'. Their slogan was 'Purge the court and support the virtuous king'. They wanted to join forces with the King of De."

Chen Bing's eyes immediately became sharp.

He suddenly realized that this might be a bad thing.

Before he could interrupt again, Pei Yuan continued, "This group of bandits are used to robbing and looting. Because they just suffered a great defeat, their military discipline was lax. When they entered Shandong, they started burning, killing and looting everywhere. Many local bandits in Shandong also ran to join them."

"One of them is 'Little Wusong' from Yanggu."

"That young Wu Song attacked the eunuch Gu who was in charge of military affairs, and conspired with many big families in Yanggu County to get young men from them to help snipe the imperial army."

When Chen Bing heard this, he immediately made a choice.

He said decisively, "I see. I know the truth. Those powerful families are lawless and deserve death. I will report this to the court. I will leave the matter here to Captain Pei to handle."

After Chen Bing finished speaking, he was about to leave.

But Pei Yuan was not willing to let him get away. He suddenly stood up from his seat and grabbed his sleeve.

With a fake smile on his face, he said, "I haven't finished speaking yet, why is Censor Chen leaving in such a hurry?"

Chen Bingqiang said, "The matter is clear now, there is no need for Captain Pei to say more."

Pei Yuan already knew that this guy was a smart one, and he was too lazy to play wits with Chen Bing anymore. He pulled hard, making Chen Bing stagger, and brought him closer to him.

Then, under Chen Bing's angry gaze, he slowly said, "Does Censor Chen also think that it would be safer for the emperor's own army to deal with such rioters?"

Chen Bing's face darkened slightly. He considered it for a moment and said, "Of course it should be so."

Pei Yuan took the opportunity to finalize the matter, "I think so too."

Then, he said the words that Chen Bing had always wanted to avoid without any mercy.

"Then I don't understand why so many Yanggu nobles would help those Bazhou bandits who shouted 'clear the emperor's side and support the virtuous king'? Why do the current Shandong officials call for Pei to be killed, but protect the accomplices who helped the Bazhou bandits?"

After that, he smiled and said, "Is the prestige of the Prince of De so high in Shandong?"

Pei Yuan said that he didn't understand, but he understood the meaning of the previous and the next.

Clearly a logical chain has been established.

First of all, it is certain that these Yanggu nobles assisted the Bazhou bandits. Pei Yuan can not only provide confessions, but also find a large number of young and strong people who participated in this matter as witnesses.

Secondly, these Bazhou bandits came to Shandong to "clear the emperor's side and support the virtuous king". This virtuous king was the King of De, who was enfeoffed in Jinan Prefecture and had deep roots in various parts of Shandong. And there was sufficient evidence for this.

In this way, regardless of whether "clearing the imperial court and supporting a virtuous king" was the wishful thinking of the Bazhou bandits, a strong logical relationship was established between the Bazhou bandits and King De.

Again, Pei Yuan's seemingly reasonable pursuit of the Bazhou bandits' accomplices was strongly opposed by the Shandong officialdom.

Therefore, in this logical chain, the protection of the big families in Yanggu by the Shandong officials was to cover up the matter and work together to protect King De.

Because if we continue to investigate this matter, it will definitely be related to Prince De.

If we trace back the results and look for the motivation of the Shandong officials working together to protect Prince De... the impact of this incident is unimaginable.

Chen Bing stared at Pei Yuan, his eyes showing some anger and confusion, "Why would Captain Pei do this?"

If the matter involves the princes, not only will Chen Bing have a hard time, but the Shandong officials will also have a hard time, and Pei Yuan will also have a hard time.

And what about Prince De?

As long as he pretended not to hear about this matter, no one would come to argue with him.

Chen Bing had no idea why Pei Yuan would do this.

Pei Yuan smiled and said without further explanation, "I have waited for you in Yanggu for so long just to tell you this. Please return to the court to report. I also have other official duties to attend to."

Chen Bing's face was gloomy and he swung his arm vigorously, pulled the sleeve from Pei Yuan's hand, then strode away.

After Chen Bing left, Chen Toutie, Tian Fu and others came over.

Chen Toutie said to Pei Yuan in shock, "Could it be that Qian Hu's target is Prince De?"

Pei Yuan looked at Chen Bing's back and smiled, "How could that be? Although Prince De is greedy, he has a high rank in the royal family. Unless he is determined to rebel, other means will not hurt him."

Chen Toutie looked at Pei Yuan with a confused look on his face, "But judging from Qian Hu's intention, he is clearly targeting Prince De."

Pei Yuan naturally had nothing to hide from Chen Toutie and Tian Fu, so he spoke casually.

"I'm targeting another little guy, but before I start hunting him, I have to drive away those Kings of De and Lu, so as not to disturb me."

(End of this chapter)