Yongli Ming Dynasty

Chapter 76 Kindness
Li Chengzhi pushed open the door of the Governor's Office study and walked in. He found Zhu Lang sitting behind the desk, reviewing the memorials on the table.
When Zhu Lang saw Li Chengzhi coming in, his eyes lit up, he put down the memorial and said
"Chengzhi is here, but is the matter settled?"

Li Chengzhi bowed and spoke respectfully.

"Yes, I have searched in and around Zhaoqing and found three calligraphers who are good at imitating. Among them, one named Liu Heng has the most exquisite skills."

"Liu Heng is a calligrapher in a counterfeiting gang. This gang specializes in counterfeiting calligraphy and paintings from previous dynasties and has deceived many officials in the city."

"This is the handwriting copied by Liu Heng. Please check it out, Your Highness."

Li Chengzhi took out two pieces of letter paper from his sleeve and handed them to Zhu Lang above him.

"The one with the mark is written by me, and the other is copied by Liu Heng."

Zhu Lang took the two pieces of letter paper and found that the contents on the two pieces of letter paper were not only exactly the same in handwriting, but even the ink spots left by accident when writing were all copied.
Zhu Lang looked at the two pieces of letter paper with a hint of amazement in his eyes. Even if Li Chengzhi wrote another one himself, he probably couldn't achieve this effect. This level of skill had indeed exceeded his expectations.
Zhu Lang fiddled with the letter paper and said

"Liu Heng has already dealt with it."

"Yes, I have led the Jinyiwei to forge the illusion that Liu Heng fled for fear of crime. Liu Heng's family has also been controlled by the Jinyifu. Several Tiqi who handled this matter have also been arranged to stay in the attached middle school to guard Liu Heng's family. All relevant people are now in the mansion, and there is no possibility of leakage," Li Chengzhi replied softly.

"Well, Chengzhi's work is always reassuring, but this matter is of great importance. We must not take it lightly before it is finalized."

Zhu Lang finally put down the letter paper in his hand and looked at Li Chengzhi below.

Li Chengzhi responded respectfully, but after a slight hesitation, he spoke again.

"As Your Highness said, this matter is indeed of great importance. Afterwards... do we really not need to deal with the person who copied it?"

Zhu Lang looked at Li Chengzhi with a cold expression on his face, and was slightly stunned, then smiled and waved his hand.
"Chengzhi, don't be too nervous. Although this matter is urgent, the news cannot be leaked for one or two months. After this matter is accomplished, it will not be so important anymore."

"Besides, this person has good skills and is a rare talent. Besides, isn't he still under the control of the Jinyi Mansion? There is no need to take his life at will."

Li Chengzhi responded respectfully, looking at the young prince above, with a hint of admiration in his eyes

After he broke out of the palace and led Li Mingzhong's army to confront the Guangdong Army, His Highness finally made him his confidant and involved him in His Highness's most core plan.

Now he is only responsible for completing this plan, and all other matters have been handed over to Deng Mingwu.

But it was precisely because he knew what His Highness was about to do that he knew how urgent this matter was.
If he were to choose, once the plan was completed, he would never let the people involved go.
In Li Chengzhi's eyes, His Highness's decision was a bit too soft-hearted, but even so, he felt a little kind in his heart.

A ruler who kills decisively is a hero, but who knows if this decisiveness will one day kill his subordinates?

As a subordinate, he felt that the young man in front of him was more worthy of his loyalty.

Zhu Lang above just mentioned it casually, but he didn't expect that Li Chengzhi below had already thought so much.

Zhu Lang took the two pieces of letter paper from the table, looked at them again, and finally made a decision in his heart. He said
"Let's just take Liu Heng"

Zhu Lang put down the letter paper, then turned back to the table and took out a stack of memorials from a box.

"This is the petition of persuasion submitted by the four men, as well as the congratulatory letter submitted recently. Take it and have Liu Heng familiarize himself with it as soon as possible, and then copy it out according to the plan."

"Although the troops of Gan Province have gathered in Ganzhou, these remaining soldiers have long been frightened and are not ready to fight. Chengzhi and I have discussed this before, and I still think that Ganzhou is undefendable because the soldiers inside are frightened and there is no reinforcement from outside.
"Once Ganzhou is captured, the Qing army can invade Guangdong at any time. The army in the court cannot be hindered by this anymore."

"You ask someone to copy the letter as soon as possible. Once the letter is completed, we will start immediately."

Zhu Lang spoke softly, with a stern look on his face.

"Yes." Li Chengzhi said seriously, took the memorial on the table with both hands, then left the room and hurried back to the Jinyi Mansion.
Li Chengzhi left the room, and Zhu Lang was the only one left. He took a memorial and read it, but found that he was already undecided.
Now, ten days have passed since he ascended the throne. In the past ten days, he has inserted Li Mingzhong into the imperial lecture, married Jiao Lian, hosted a banquet for all the generals inside and outside the court, deposed Li Yongmao, and deliberately delegated power to Wang Kun. Now his plan has finally reached the final step.
Zhu Lang felt uneasy when he thought of this. He simply put down the memorial in his hand and called Li Guoyong to

"What's the situation at the Silijian?" Zhu Lang looked at Li Guoyong below.
"I followed your Highness' instructions and only went to the Imperial Household Department to report for duty every day and then returned, deliberately ignoring what was going on in the Imperial Household Department. As expected, Wang Kun became unscrupulous."

"According to the news sent back by Li Laitong, Wang Kun has been violating the rules and transferring officials without authorization these days. There are seven or eight promotion memorials submitted to various ministries through the Imperial Household Department alone. The highest-ranking official has even been promoted to the rank of Vice Minister."

"This is the result that Li Laitong did not deliberately investigate. It is unknown how many officials were secretly promoted and rewarded."

Li Guoyong secretly glanced at His Royal Highness the Regent above him and said cautiously
Li Guoyong originally thought that Zhu Lang would be furious, but he found that the Regent looked calm and smiled.

"Once you have power, you can issue orders."

Zhu Lang was relieved when he heard Li Guoyong's report. He had arranged such good conditions for Wang Kun, but Wang Kun couldn't help himself.

If Wang Kun wanted to promote someone, this was indeed the best time. With the establishment of the new dynasty, officials from all sides were promoted frequently. As long as Zhu Lang, the regent emperor, did not interfere, he could use this opportunity to get promotion for anyone he wanted.
Why do you want to promote him? Because he supported

Why do you want to transfer me away and let that bastard take over when I am doing a good job in this lucrative position?

Because you supported him, you want to be promoted and leave. Because he also supported him, he wants to fill the lucrative position.
Only at this time could Wang Kun sell official positions and titles on a large scale and hide all these changes in the frequent promotions after the establishment of the new dynasty.

As long as Zhu Lang does not find fault during this period of time, once this period of time has passed and the officials of various departments have been promoted and rewarded, no one will dare to bring up these things again.

Anyone who wants to bring up old scores will have to face all the officials who were promoted during the establishment of the new dynasty, and the risks Wang Kun took in the process of selling official positions and titles can be resolved smoothly.

"Where is Ding Kuichu?" Zhu Lang asked again
"Ding Kuichu is being watched by Deng Mingwu. According to Deng Mingwu's report, there are dozens of carriages in front of the Ding Mansion every day, all of which are officials from all walks of life who come to seek official positions and do business."

After the establishment of the new dynasty, the Jinyifu was divided into two. Ma Jixiang, who had a lot of experience, was naturally appointed as the commander of the Jinyiwei. The most powerful Beizhenfusi was also under his command.

However, the Southern Pacification Division was controlled by Li Chengzhi and Deng Mingwu. Now, the Jinyi Tiqi in the Southern Pacification Division were all soldiers selected from Li Mingzhong's army.

Although Ma Jixiang was the commander of the Jinyiwei, and nominally both the North and South Divisions should be under his jurisdiction, Li Chengzhi and the others were from the royal palace guards and had the right to meet Zhu Lang at any time.
Under Zhu Lang's order, the Southern Pacification Office even moved out of the government office to work independently, so Ma Jixiang could no longer control Li Chengzhi and others.
The current structure of the Jinyiwei in Zhaoqing City is that Ma Jixiang leads the Northern Pacification Division, Li Chengzhi and Deng Mingwu mobilized soldiers from the army to reorganize the Southern Pacification Division, and all the people who originally belonged to the Southern Pacification Division were swept into the Northern Pacification Division.

The newly established Southern Pacification Division did not even have a single Jinyi old member. In fact, it had become completely independent.

All the current members of the Southern Pacification Division were previously soldiers. They were not familiar with the procedures of the Jinyifu, so naturally they could not supervise the Northern Pacification Division.

Zhu Lang's purpose of reorganizing the Southern Pacification Division was obviously not to use them to check and balance Ma Jixiang, but to use the existing organization to form a team of spies who were absolutely loyal to him.
Now the North and South Pacification Offices have been separated, each doing its own thing, and no one knows what the other is busy with.

Li Chengzhi of the Southern Pacification Division was concentrating on completing Zhu Lang's core plan to seize power, while Deng Mingwu was in charge of the rest of the surveillance tasks in the division.

"Flowers are in full bloom, fires are blazing, it's a prosperous scene, it's worth all my efforts"

Zhu Lang whispered to himself, with a cold light flashing in his eyes

Li Guoyong below seemed to have heard nothing, he just bowed his head and stood quietly on one side.

"Let Li Laitong sort out the things collected by the Imperial Household Department and then hand them over to Chengzhi. He knows what to do." Zhu Lang said softly with a blank expression on his face.

"Also, keep an eye on the memorials from the Ministry of War these days. Any memorials related to Ganzhou should be submitted to the government immediately."

Zhu Lang gave another order, and Li Guo responded respectfully, then left the room and closed the door.

"The net has been woven, the fish has been hooked, we just need to wait for the east wind to blow, then we can pull in the net."

Zhu Lang walked to the window, looked at the blue sky in the distance, and whispered to himself
(End of this chapter)