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

Chapter 556 A blessing in disguise
Li Shishi was very moved when he heard this. "My dear brother, you are truly a man who does not avoid enemies when making external appointments. If the Ning King succeeds in the future, he will definitely not forget your contributions."

Pei Yuan's expression became even more frank when he heard this.

As the saying goes, a blessing in disguise.

In a few years, when Zhu Houzhao's succession crisis is completely triggered, the forces dependent on him will be forced to find replacements.

The border troops chose to try their best to introduce beautiful women to Zhu Houzhao, and even sent pregnant women directly into the palace.

The choice of the civil officials, eunuchs and royal guards was Prince Ning.

From Pei Yuan's perspective, cooperation with the border troops is still the most beneficial.

Under this premise, Qian Ning's choice is not a bad thing for Pei Yuan.

At the very least, this could give some strength to the four towns that have already made enemies with Qian Ning, and make them realize the urgency of the matter.

Li Shishi was deeply moved by Pei Yuan's loyalty when he heard Pei Yuan suddenly change the subject.

"By the way, speaking of the heir, I suddenly remembered a hidden worry."

Li Shishi was a little nervous when he heard this, "Please speak, dear brother."

For Li Shishi, allowing Prince Ning's lineage to smoothly inherit the throne is more important than anything else.

As long as Prince Ning or his son successfully ascends the throne, other matters will be trivial and can be handled slowly.

Li Shishi knows Pei Yuan's evil nature better than anyone else.

As long as he tells you about your hidden worries, you'd better believe it...

Don't ask, you can't think about this kind of thing too much.

But Captain Pei looked worried.

"If something happens to the emperor in the future, he should either appoint the eldest son or the most virtuous one. Prince Ning is the elder of the royal family, with an unusually high seniority, and his reputation as a virtuous man is known throughout the world."

"In theory, he is the first choice for all the civil and military officials in the court."

After hearing this, Li Shishi keenly realized the key words and immediately became a little uneasy. Don't be too theoretical!
He hurriedly asked, "Then, my dear brother, who else do you think can threaten King Ning's position?"

Pei Yuan immediately mentioned a person, "I think that the Prince of De who is in Shandong may be a big trouble."

Since Prince Ning had long harbored the intention of rebellion, people around him naturally knew all about the potential princes within the royal family.

When Li Shishi heard that it was Prince De, he immediately breathed a sigh of relief and said with a smile, "My dear brother, you are worrying too much. As for the eldest son, Prince Ning is the fifth-generation grandson of Emperor Taizu, while Prince De is only the sixth-generation grandson of Emperor Taizu. There is still a generation difference between the two."

"As for appointing a virtuous person, Prince De has always been known for his greed and is far inferior to Prince Ning. From my perspective, Prince De is not a threat to Prince Ning."

Pei Yuan listened and said, "So, that's only in theory."

"The current emperor is the eighth-generation grandson of Taizu. If we really want to talk about 'elder', there are the Empress Dowager and the Grand Empress Dowager in the palace, so Prince Ning's seniority may not be an advantage."

"Let's talk about appointing a wise ruler. I'd better speak frankly and tell you what I think a wise ruler is."

This was the first time Li Shishi discussed this with Pei Yuan, and he asked with great concern, "What kind of wise ruler do you think of?"

Pei Yuan glanced at Li Shishi and said calmly and directly, "Whoever gives me more benefits is a wise king."

Li Shishi didn't expect Pei Yuan to be so open and was dumbfounded for a moment.

After a while, he comforted himself by saying that it was no wonder that Pei Yuan was so crude and superficial, just a warrior.

Li Shishi forced a smile and said to Pei Yuan earnestly, "Prince Ning has been very kind to Captain Pei. If Captain Pei is willing to help Prince Ning wholeheartedly, he will be given a high position and generous rewards in the future."

Pei Yuan patted his chest and said, "Of course I am loyal."

Then, before Li Shishi could breathe a sigh of relief, Pei Yuan said jokingly, "Prince De is not as good as Prince Ning in everything. Do you think he will be willing to give more because of this?"

When Li Shishi heard this and thought about Pei Yuan's theory of virtue and vice, he immediately lost his composure.

Can Prince Ning really ignore the existence of Prince De?

No.

The lines of Prince Ning and Prince Yan are very distant, but Prince De Zhu Jianlin is the son of the God of War and Zhu Houzhao's great uncle.

Once Prince Ning came to power, the entire Prince Yan's Jingnan system might be overturned. But if Prince De came to power, there would be no such concern.

Moreover, Prince De was based in Shandong and his financial resources were much stronger than Prince Ning who was trapped in Jiangxi, and he was also closer to Beijing.

Once Zhu Houzhao died, Prince De could take over the position in Beijing by virtue of his positional advantage as long as he could connect with the court officials.

Others don't care which king of the Zhu family is more wise.

When Pei Yuan wanted to sell the Bazhou Army to King Ning, King Ning asked the Bazhou Army to give a token of their loyalty, which was to ask them to use the name of supporting King Baode in order to alienate the relationship between the two sides.

From this, we can see that Prince Ning was wary of Prince De.

Li Shishi was deep in thought when he heard Pei Yuan say, "Even if Prince Ning succeeds in getting the position, I'm afraid that this is not what Prince Ning wants to see, right? "

"Instead of Prince Ning taking action at that time and causing a backlash from the other princes, why not kill Prince De now? In this way, we can use the power of the current emperor to eliminate this scourge for Prince Ning."

Li Shishi understood a little bit, so he asked directly, "Do you have a grudge against Prince De?"

Pei Yuan was stunned for a moment, and coughed lightly with a little embarrassment, without covering it up, "I guess so, but do you think what I said just now makes sense?"

After hearing Pei Yuan's admission, Li Shishi felt that his thoughts became clearer.

Although what Pei Yuan said just now made some sense, it was not enough to impress Li Shishi to persuade Prince Ning to take action against Prince De.

But Pei Yuan said that he had a grudge against King De, which is very powerful.

After understanding this, Li Shishi immediately changed his mindset and said to Pei Yuan with a smile, "When you get better, I'll punish you with a drink."

Pei Yuan was surprised and asked, "Why is this?"

Li Shishi blamed him, "You were so evasive and alarmist when speaking for me. If you had said earlier that you had a grudge against Prince De, how could we, the Ning clan, just sit there and watch?"

As he spoke, Li Shishi began to act out, saying passionately, "We in the Ning Clan have always been loyal to our friends. You underestimate our magnanimity, so shouldn't you be fined a glass of wine?"

Mainly according to Li Shishi's assessment, with the destructive power shown by Pei Yuan, if he wanted to kill Prince De, he might really be able to do it.

If Prince Ning could take the opportunity to get rid of a trouble while Pei Yuan was dealing with Prince De, it would definitely be a win-win situation for everyone.

In this case, why not do it?

Pei Yuan saw that his words failed to impress this old fox, and instead achieved his goal after being seen through. For a moment, he was speechless.

Okay, it's a mountain of shit code, as long as it works.

After a while, Pei Yuan said sincerely, "I don't know how magnanimous the King of Ning is. But today I know how magnanimous the Dadu Xian is."

Li Shishi had been repeatedly defeated by Pei Yuan, and now that he had defeated Pei Yuan, he was secretly pleased and asked, "Do you have any good ideas for the Defan matter?"

Pei Yuan didn't want to explain it in detail, but only hinted, "It's already being done."

Li Shishi thought to himself that it was true, and asked eagerly, "How sure are you?"

As long as Pei Yuan is more than 60% sure, he can mention this matter to King Ning and seek some assistance from him. Pei Yuan has adjusted his mentality and quickly changed his position, "Of course I am 100% sure."

"Originally, I could have done this myself, but the timing is not right yet. I mentioned this to the Grand Du Xian just now, firstly to leverage the power of the Ning Clan to expand the results, and secondly to seek credit from King Ning."

When Li Shishi heard this, he thought about it and felt that this should be the case.

Li Shishi then said generously, "Then I will wait. When you need Ning Fan, please don't be shy."

The two sides chatted for a while and agreed that after Pei Yuan's injuries recovered, they would buy Li Shishi a drink to apologize.

Only then did Li Shishi leave with satisfaction.

Pei Yuan looked at Li Shishi's departing back and thought that although these old guys were a little difficult to deal with, they did add another link to the chain of encirclement and suppression of De Fan.

A mature conspiracy goes through four stages: planning, planning, launching and harvesting.

Pei Yuan had been planning for several months to wipe out De Fan in one fell swoop, and had made sufficient preparations and moves.

The reason why he didn't start in a hurry was that he couldn't handle such a rich harvest by himself.

The huge reputation and experience points of overthrowing Defan were the gifts Pei Yuan prepared for the person in the painting.

Well, as long as they are willing to obey...

——At the same time, several younger brothers in the examination room, unaware that someone had paved a smooth path for them, were still working hard on polishing their essays.

Pei Yuan looked at the sky and it was almost noon.

So he asked, "Has Chen Xinjian ever come back?"

The Jinyiwei who was serving nearby replied, "Chen Xinjian just came back once, saying that it was for the wedding, and he will come again later."

Before he finished speaking, Chen Xinjian came over excitedly from the courtyard.

When Chen Xinjian saw Pei Yuan, he bowed and said, "Captain, I have already scheduled the wedding for tonight. When the time comes, please come and have a drink at the wedding."

Pei Yuan breathed a sigh of relief and gave another reminder, "Very good, the sooner the better. I will go see Jiang Bin later and ask him to give the 'gift' as soon as possible."

Chen Xinjian felt more and more puzzled as to why Pei Yuan was so eager to get him married.

I've never seen such a concerned boss.

Although Chen Xinjian was confused, he thought that it was a good thing for him, so what else was there to say?

Besides, the wedding was a bit hasty.

But people need to look forward.

This is a marriage that Captain Pei had worked hard to arrange. What will happen in the future?

The opinions of relatives and neighbors mean nothing.

Chen Xinjian said excitedly, "Then I will hurry to prepare for the wedding. The captain should come early tonight to drink the wedding wine."

Pei Yuan waved his hand, "Go ahead. Bring some more brothers to help you."

After Chen Xinjian left, Pei Yuan stared at his back for a while before saying, "I wonder if Captain Han has run into any trouble."

Thinking about his promise to Chen Xinjian, Pei Yuan asked someone to call Cen Meng and said to him, "Come with me to Da Ci'en Temple later and meet Jiang Bin. If anyone comes to visit in the afternoon, ask someone to write down their name first."

Cen Meng quickly asked someone to make arrangements.

After a while, Pei Yuan got out in a sedan chair and headed for Da Ci'en Temple.

Pei Yuan sat in the sedan chair and felt deeply moved. The life of a civil servant was really enjoyable.

Unfortunately, as a warrior, Pei Yuan still has a long way to go if he wants to receive such treatment.

Pei Yuan can ride a horse, but his guards are not qualified to ride a horse.

This made it impossible for Pei Yuan to take advantage of his speed on horseback, and he would easily become a sitting duck because he was too conspicuous.

If this sedan had a little more protection, it would be nice to travel in it.

But if you want to ride in a sedan legally, you still have to use some brains.

Pei Yuan's thoughts diverged. There was no need to consider upgrading the rank of military officers, so was there any way to get himself a civil official?
Pei Yuan pondered all the way and heard someone outside say, "We have arrived at the Da Ci'en Temple."

Pei Yuan got off the sedan chair and soon attracted a lot of people's attention.

After all, Pei Yuan’s several famous battles were fought here.

First, he beat Liang Ci'e twice; second, he confronted the Grand Secretary Liang Chu and the Jinyiwei Commander Zhang Rong here; third, he beat up the Governor-General Jiang Bin here.

Now, seeing a fifth-rank strong man with a bruised face and nose appearing on his battlefield, he was naturally recognized quickly.

Pei Yuan immediately puffed out his chest proudly and welcomed the pointing and criticism from the crowd.

Cen Meng also remembered Pei Yuan's instructions to deliberately create a brotherly relationship between Pei Yuan and Jiang Bin, so he shouted, "Everyone, disperse. Captain Pei is here to visit his sworn brothers. What are you doing gathering around?"

When everyone heard that Pei Yuan was here to see Jiang Bin, they started pointing fingers even more.

When Pei Yuan heard words like "night shift ward" and "taking advantage of someone's misfortune", his face darkened again.

He immediately scanned the crowd and shouted angrily, "Come here, there must be Japanese spies here! Catch them all!"

Seeing Pei Yuan getting angry, the crowd dispersed.

Pei Yuan entered the Da Ci'en Temple indignantly.

Cen Meng waved to the Taoist Zhenji who came over to greet him, and the Taoist Zhenji immediately tactfully withdrew.

The Taoist priest who was originally here was Yun Weilin.

In the past, there were many Dharma Kings in the Da Ci'en Temple, and it was also highly valued by Zhu Houzhao. Many officials and nobles came and went, so Yun Weilin, who was in charge here, gradually became a powerful figure.

In order to win over the Taoist Zhenji who stayed behind in the capital, Pei Yuan's first move was to swap Yun Weilin with Cheng Zhihu and move Yun Weilin out of the Da Ci'en Temple's lair.

After seeing how powerful Pei Yuan was, Yun Weilin chose to submit, and the other Taoists in the capital who were watching followed his lead.

Later, when Pei Yuan wanted to use Zhihua Temple, he sent the untrusted Yun Weilin to Yuanen Temple.

After Cheng Leixiang was promoted to the commander of Tianjin Garrison, his father Cheng Zhihu tactfully resigned from his job at Da Ci'en Temple and went to Pei's house to look after the family.

The Taoist priest Zhenji of the Da Ci'en Temple was an unknown person picked by Pei Yuan at random.

All we want is to prevent him from becoming too powerful and causing more trouble.

According to the affiliation, Pei Yuan is the uncle of the uncle of Da Ci'en Temple, so naturally no one dares to stop him when he rushes around here.

When they arrived at the courtyard where Jiang Bin was recuperating, those selected servants were about to try to stop him.

Pei Yuan did not hesitate to show the aura of the Third Master and directly scolded, "Get out! My eldest brother is the emperor, and my second brother is the master of your family, who do you think you are?"

(End of this chapter)