Prince Chongzhen

Chapter 174 This Letter Can Save Your Life
Morning of September 7
Although the ministers repeatedly warned not to spread the news about His Highness tonight, there were at least three to two thousand people around at the time. Even if no one deliberately spread the news, all kinds of rumors reached the other side within a few hours.

"Please be patient, everyone. Let's talk one by one."

Zhang Yinli and others have fled Hangzhou for two days. During this period, people have been leaving and coming back to the place where he lived, so it is not too deserted.

But early this morning, his spies in the city brought him a piece of great news, and afterwards, all kinds of people who had always been avoiding each other suddenly flocked to his small residence at the same time as if they had made an appointment.

"Your Excellency, what else is there to think about? The news has spread throughout the city that the Crown Prince is seriously injured and will not live long. If you don't seize the opportunity to take back the power in the palace, it will be too late to say anything after His Highness dies."

"Death? I heard that he just forgot something."

Hearing the words of the Taoist scholar in front of him, Zhang Yinli couldn't help but ask another question.

According to the information he received, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince suffered a severe blow to the head while fighting the enemy, and after waking up, he couldn't even remember where he was.

But now after hearing what this person said, the information received by each party was different, so he said this with a puzzled look on his face, and the other party looked up and asked the other party: "What is the information you received?"

Hearing this, everyone started talking at once.

Some of the information obtained was roughly the same as Zhang Yinli's. Some said that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince was seriously injured and was about to die. Some even claimed that His Royal Highness's injury was not caused by the Tartars, but was assassinated by the assassins sent by Ma Shiying who took advantage of the chaos.

His reasons were sufficient. People like them would always have guards around them, let alone the Crown Prince?

If there wasn't a problem inside, how could the great Crown Prince of Ming Dynasty be injured like this despite a great victory?

As for Ma Shiying's motive, it was simple.

The current lord is not as easy to fool as the previous ones. In addition, he has a strong army in his hands, so Ma Shiying's power will naturally be greatly weakened.

Who can accept such a situation calmly?

What's more, Ma Shiying was a person who brought disaster to the country and the people. It was natural and reasonable for him to do such a rebellious thing for the sake of the power in his hands.

After hearing this speculation, the people who had been arguing with each other suddenly became quiet, as if they were all thinking about something carefully.

The reason why the so-called aristocratic families can stand firm is that most of their children serve in the court. With their training and education at all costs, most of their main lineage members can pass the imperial examination and get an official position.

Under such circumstances, the qualifications of those who stay in the clan to take charge of miscellaneous affairs will be slightly lower.

So when this conspiracy theory, which is quite in line with human nature, was put forward, it attracted all their attention.

But who is Zhang Yinli?

Not to mention that he passed the imperial examination and became a Jinshi despite his humble family background, the fact that he could become the prefect of Hangzhou, one of the largest cities in the world, shows how outstanding he was.

Therefore, when he heard this conspiracy theory, he found the loophole in it in a moment.

It doesn't really matter to him whether there are loopholes or not. The most important thing for him now is how to avoid being used as a gun by these local forces.

Even though he was hiding here and didn't dare to return to Hangzhou, he still knew everything Ruan Dacheng had done.

Unlike other officials, this man had an irreconcilable feud with the Zhejiang faction of the Donglin Party. In the past half day, he used the excuse of raising supplies for the army to give the local aristocratic families in Hangzhou a good beating.

Yesterday, because of the presence of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince and the fact that the punishment was not severe enough to cut off the family inheritance, the families were able to endure it.

But now, no matter that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is about to die or has lost his memory, he can no longer suppress all parties. These people will naturally not allow Ruan Dacheng to bully them anymore.

just
"If you want to do anything, you still need Mr. Huang's approval."

Up to now he has not asked these people what they want to do, but no matter what he does, he knows that he must obtain Huang Daozhou's permission.

This is not to say that he respects Huang Daozhou very much. The most important thing is that if there is no big man leading the way, he, a small prefect, will have to become the leader. With his small body, he is afraid that he really cannot handle such a big thing.

"Your Excellency, please do not blame me for speaking frankly. Although Mr. Jishan entrusted us to Mr. Shizhai, Mr. Shizhai has his own students and former officials, and there is still a layer of separation between him and us."

At this point, the Taoist scholar looked at Zhang Yinli's expression, and after seeing that he did not seem dissatisfied, he said, "It is better to keep such important matters secret."

"What if something goes wrong?"

"It's okay, don't worry, everything has been planned out, and there will be no complications. Even if there is a mess, Mr. Shizhai will not sit idly by."

Hearing this, Zhang Yinli almost cursed out loud.

Due to the obstruction of Ma Shiying, Liu Zongzhou, the leader of Zhejiang literati, was unable to enter the court during the period when the rebel king was regent. Therefore, Huang Daozhou, who had a close relationship with him, became the spokesperson for Zhejiang local forces in the court.

But in the eyes of these people, although Huang Daozhou had a close relationship with Liu Zongzhou, he was not a native of Zhejiang after all, and there was little possibility that he would help them out of trouble, so they wanted to make the matter a fait accompli first.

Once things started to happen, Huang Daozhou had to make some concessions for them in the court even if he was unwilling, otherwise he might fall out with Liu Zongzhou.

They will be fine by then, but what about Zhang Yinli? !

Thinking of this, Zhang Yinli couldn't help but sneer: "Su Dengdi, you guys have a good plan!"

"Why do you say that, Lord?"

Seeing Zhang Yinli's reaction, Su Dengdi seemed surprised, but his eyes were clear and steady, and it was obvious that he had something to rely on.

Su Dengdi was the only son of the main branch of the Su family in the city. Although he passed the imperial examination at a young age, he made no progress in the imperial examinations and finally had to donate his official position.

As a result, all matters concerning communication between the aristocratic families in Hangzhou city fell on his shoulders.

With his status, he naturally knew what Zhang Yinli had done in Hangzhou over the years, so he was naturally not worried about not being able to control this small prefect.

"Your schemes are bound to cause a civil uprising, so why do you want to involve our government?"

At this point, the truth has basically been revealed, so Zhang Yinli just straightened it out and stopped trying to hide it.

He thought clearly that these people were probably planning to create a "civil uprising" when Ruan Dacheng was "taxing and levying heavy taxes", so whether or not they would kill him on the spot was not important.

Under such circumstances, no matter how he thought about it, it seemed that he, the prefect who had been deprived of power, was of no use. However, these people kept forcing him here, which made Zhang Yinli unable to guess what they were thinking.

"Please punish Nguyen Da Cheng according to the law when he stirs up a civil uprising."

He was just an ordinary prefect, but Ruan Dacheng was a true third-rank official. In the past, he might not even have been able to see Ruan Dacheng.

Now this group of people actually asked him to "punish" them. It was obvious that they were overwhelmed by the news that the prince had an accident. He didn't have the slightest intention to accompany these people to go crazy.

"This matter is beyond our ability. Please find another way."

"Your Excellency, we will take care of everything. You just need to respond to the official request."

"That's it? You want to make this government a scapegoat, right?" Upon hearing this, Zhang Yinli laughed out of anger.

Not to mention whether His Royal Highness the Crown Prince can pass this test, even if he really can't, Ma Shiying still has more than 10,000 soldiers. At that time, for the sake of his own reputation, he may not kill as many people as before, but it is inevitable for me, a small prefect, to quell the matter.

By then, even if each ethnic group would inevitably have to pay some price, they would not be as severely beaten and injured by Ruan Dacheng as they are now.

"Your Excellency, what are you talking about? Regardless of whether His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is seriously injured or has lost his memory, the future government will definitely fall into the hands of gentlemen like us. Aren't you worried that you will drift further and further away from Donglin when you are so cautious now?"

These words were full of threats. Everyone knew that Donglin had always been "either a comrade or an enemy". If Zhang Yinli refused their request, he would be a real enemy.

But in his opinion, even if His Royal Highness the Crown Prince could not survive this test, it was still unknown who would win or lose in the dispute between Huang Daozhou and Ma Shiying.
"Sigh~~"

Thinking of this, Zhang Yinli took a breath of cold air, and then his face became gloomy for a while, and then he cried out in pain and fell to the ground.

"Fu Zun!"

"Call the doctor!"

Such poor acting skills could not fool anyone present, so when Zhang Yinli's family was in chaos, the visitors just watched coldly from the sidelines.

"go!"

The group knew that Zhang Yinli was pretending to be dead, but they had no choice but to retreat when faced with such a shameless tactic.

"Without Zhang Yinli at the front, this matter will be difficult to handle."

"The arrow is on the string and has to be shot. The worst that can happen is that we will throw a few more people who start fighting. Does Ma Shiying really dare to do anything to us?"

As soon as they left the mansion, someone sighed worriedly, but Su Dengdi said something decisive and hurried to the riverside.

It may seem a bit exaggerated to say that the arrow is on the string and must be shot, but there is no one to put pressure on the "eunuch party". If Ruan Dacheng is really allowed to do whatever he wants, every household will really not be able to bear it.

After a few more words, the remaining people dispersed, but they did not notice that there were a few people in the tea stall in the distance who were looking at them inadvertently.

"Don't move."

Seeing the group leaving, those people planned to follow them separately, but just as they were about to take action, an older one of them directly spoke out to stop them.

"The shopkeeper?"

"You don't need to follow these guys anymore."

"what?"

The younger ones were puzzled when they heard this, but the older one didn't explain. After a while, he went to the back of the street alone.

"That's different from what my father said."

"Well, it's different from what my father said."

"I thought I could show off my power, but I didn't know that I was just delivering messages for so many days."

"Of course not. My father told me about this job. Hey!"

Seeing the older ones leave, the younger ones began to chatter.

From what they said, it was difficult to tell why they were following Su Dengdi and others, but it seemed that what they were doing was a family business.

After a while, the older one came back staggeringly, lingered at the tea stall for a while, and then left with the younger ones.

Not to mention the identities of these people, nor what arrangements Su Dengdi made after returning to Hangzhou, his target Ruan Dacheng has not yet noticed anything about this matter.

Well, I can’t say I didn’t notice it at all.

After the incident with His Royal Highness the Crown Prince last night, he was called by Ma Shiying to give him a good lecture.

There was nothing else to his intention. He was probably just afraid that without the suppression of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, he might do something out of line and provoke a counterattack from the people in Donglin.

But Ruan Dacheng has been fighting Donglin for half his life. How could he let it go easily in this situation?
What's more, he had the protection of soldiers transferred from Li Yongmao, and he was actually hoping that the people of Donglin would do something so that he could avenge himself for decades of grudges.

Therefore, as soon as the sun rose today, Ruan Dacheng ordered people to pass on the message to each household, asking them to quickly prepare the materials needed by the army, otherwise no one would be able to rescue them under military law.

The so-called military supplies had actually been collected once yesterday. Today's collection was ostensibly for the reinforcements from eastern and southern Zhejiang that were about to arrive, but the soldiers from other places were considered guest troops. Even if Hangzhou had to prepare military supplies, it was not something that Ruan Dacheng should worry about.

Now he is working so hard on this matter, his purpose is actually very simple, that is, to take advantage of the fact that there is no suppression from above and do his best to force the local forces in Hangzhou.

Time passed little by little, and there was only half an hour left before the deadline he set. However, at this time, only a few heads of small families were sitting in the government hall.

However, those aristocratic families who truly represented the local power of Hangzhou were not even seen.

"Minister, the other people here said that you are just making things difficult for them. I'm sorry they can't obey your order."

"It's impossible to obey?"

Hearing this, Ruan Dacheng couldn't help but burst into laughter.

He went through so much trouble just to hear this sentence.

In the past, he would probably have been concerned about the reaction of His Highness, but now the Crown Prince might have even forgotten his own last name. As long as he acted quickly enough, could the people of Donglin still be able to cause any trouble in front of more than ten thousand soldiers?

"Send the order, tell the soldiers to get ready, follow me to persuade each family." At this point, he noticed that the representatives of the small families in the hall looked a little uncomfortable, and then he comforted them: "I know that those families have oppressed you in the past. Now please wait in the hall for a while. I will discuss important matters with you when I return."

After saying this, Ruan Dacheng went straight out of the hall without caring about how the others reacted. However, after he had taken a few steps, another servant ran in in a panic.

"Minister, a child sent a letter saying that..."

The servant seemed afraid to continue speaking here, and this behavior made Ruan Dacheng frown.

"How can you be so hesitant?!"

"It can save your life."

Zhang Yinli

There was a lot of work at the unit before the holiday, so it’s a little late to finish it. Please forgive me.

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(End of this chapter)