Gou was a member of the imperial family in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 1031 Meridian Gate
Gu Guoen's death caused a huge storm just as Zhu Shenzui had expected. He was a censor and imperial secretary, but he had just impeached several important officials and the next moment he was assassinated in the street. This was something that had never happened since the founding of the Ming Dynasty.

When the news spread, everyone was stunned. The fastest to act were naturally the censors and other officials who supported Gu Guoen in the court at that time. Even the middle and lower-level officials who had not spoken out at the time were equally angry.

The next morning, the officials who heard the news came to the Forbidden City in a mighty procession. After arriving at the Meridian Gate, they knelt down facing the palace and shouted that the censors were innocent of the impeachment. Speaking out was a system of the dynasty. How could he be so cruelly attacked for impeaching an important official? Where is the law of the Ming Dynasty? Where is the ancestral system? Such an incredible thing happened on a bright and sunny day. Is this still the world of the Ming Dynasty?
In addition, these people also submitted memorials written in blood to seek justice for Gu Guoen, and directly pointed the spearhead at the important officials impeached by Gu Guoen today, begging the emperor to immediately issue an order to conduct a thorough investigation, arrest the murderer, and severely punish him according to the national law...

As time went by, more and more officials came to the Meridian Gate, and a large number of people knelt densely. Soon, even students from the Imperial College came. In addition, there were many students in Beijing, because the new imperial examination would be held in half a year. Many students from all over the country had already gone to Beijing in advance. When the Gu Guoen incident came out, how could these students sit still after hearing the news? Most of the students were young people. Young people were full of enthusiasm and were easily influenced by external factors. How could they not participate in such a big event?
When the news reached the palace, Zhu Shenzui's face turned pale and he was so angry that he felt uncomfortable.

What was this? Was it an attempt to force the emperor to abdicate? These officials and students knelt in the Meridian Gate for so long that they could not get up. Could it be that they were trying to force the emperor to do this? Besides, who did they mean by severely punishing the murderer? Could it be that they had already considered that the impeached officials had done what happened to Gu Guoen? If he did what these people wanted, wouldn't he have to arrest all the cabinet ministers? Even the Minister of War and the Vice Minister would be arrested and put in jail?

It’s just a joke!

What happened to Gu Guoen was strange. Wen Tiren and other important officials in the court who could reach this level were not stupid. Using this method to kill people? Isn't it just adding fuel to the fire? Only a fool would do this!

The moment Zhu Shenzui learned that Gu Guoen had been assassinated, he was clearly aware that this matter was by no means as simple as it seemed. Gu Guoen's impeachment of important officials in the court today was only the first step, and the second step was Gu Guoen's death.

In his opinion, Gu Guoen was just an insignificant chess piece. No matter who instigated or bribed him to impeach an important official, the people behind the scenes wanted more than just impeachment. Now they used such means to assassinate Gu Guoen in broad daylight and made a big fuss about it to arouse the indignation of officials and students. This was their current goal.

Moreover, Zhu Shenzhu concluded that the other party had a backup plan. The Wumen Incident was just the beginning, and what followed would inevitably be a series of events.

After learning about this, Zhu Shenzhui made arrangements immediately and sent Zhou Anmin and Xu Xiancheng out. The former was asked to go to the Jinyiwei Yamen immediately to temporarily take over the Jinyiwei and the Police Department. Now the Jinyiwei commander-in-chief Wu Mengming is not in Beijing. Zhou Anmin is the boss of the Jinyiwei. Although he no longer holds the position of Jinyiwei, most of the Jinyiwei are still his people. Now the situation is special, so it is most appropriate to let Zhou Anmin temporarily take over the Jinyiwei and the Police Department.

After arriving at Jinyiwei, Zhou Anmin immediately took action and convened a brief meeting with officials at all levels of Jinyiwei and the Police Department. Then orders were issued one after another, with the Police Department taking the lead in investigating the case, while Jinyiwei secretly assisted in investigating the truth of the matter, striving to find the murderer of Gu Guoen as soon as possible and follow the clues to find the person behind the scenes.

As for the fact that Shuntian Prefecture was merely cooperating, it did not mean that he completely ignored Shuntian Prefecture, but that Zhou Anmin believed that the current Shuntian Prefecture was not trustworthy. Such a big case had occurred in the capital, and Shuntian Prefecture could not be blamed no matter what. Moreover, the situation had changed so much at present, and no one could guarantee whether there were people from the other party inside Shuntian Prefecture. For the sake of caution, Zhou Anmin did not dare to take the risk, so he would rather only use the Embroidered Uniform Guard and the Police Department, and not let Shuntian Prefecture get too involved.

As for Xu Xiancheng, it was different. As the Minister of the Imperial Household Department and the Minister of the Imperial Guard, Zhu Shenzhu asked him to immediately mobilize the Imperial Guards to rearrange the palace restrictions after the incident. There was more to the story than that. Now that the chaos had broken out, who could guarantee that no one would take advantage of the chaos to attack the Imperial Guards?
No matter how chaotic the outside world was, the palace had to be stable first. Zhu Shenzhu could only be assured of this if Xu Xiancheng was in charge. Xu Xiancheng immediately rearranged the security measures for the palace, adjusted and arranged the guards to be stationed. In addition, after seeking Zhu Shenzhu's consent, he also requisitioned the cadets of the Royal Military Academy in Xiyuan and organized them into a team to be responsible for the order outside the palace and ensure safety.

In addition to these, Zhu Shenzui also ordered a part of the new army stationed in the capital to be commanded by reliable military officials to block the nine gates of the capital to ensure that there would be no chaos in the capital.

After doing all this, Zhu Shenzhui received the news from Wumen. He was so angry that he wanted to send people to arrest all these bastards and beat them severely at Wumen. What are these guys doing now? They are still kneeling at Wumen. Isn't this adding fuel to the fire? However, reason still defeated anger. Zhu Shenzhui knew clearly that there were people with ulterior motives among these people, but most of the officials and students should not know the truth and came here just because of anger and passion. They were nothing more than being used by others. If Zhu Shenzhui used tough measures to deal with them at this time, it would not only have no effect, but on the contrary, it would give the other party a handle.

Faced with this situation, Zhu Shenzhu could only order Xu Xiancheng to strictly guard the palace and send people to control the situation at the Meridian Gate to prevent conflicts from deteriorating. In addition, he asked Zhang Ruitu, Yang Sichang, Qian Qianyi and others to go to the Meridian Gate immediately to persuade these officials and students to disperse as soon as possible, and publicly promised that the court would conduct a strict investigation into Gu Guoen's death, and once the murderer was found, he would be punished according to the law.

"Dad!" The prince, dressed in a military uniform, walked into the Qianqing Palace. The hurried footsteps made Zhu Shenzhui, who was concentrating on his work, raise his head. "Here you are." Zhu Shenzhui nodded slightly and asked, "How is the harem going?"

"Don't worry, my second brother and his men are stationed in the harem. I just came from the harem and came to see you specially." The prince had just arrived with the military academy cadets after receiving the order. Not only the prince came, but also the King of Song.

The prince, along with the military academy students, worked with the imperial guards to arrange the security of the harem, and then discussed with the King of Song before going to the Qianqing Palace to meet Zhu Shenzhui. After all, the prince's status was different, he was the crown prince of the country, and today's incident came too suddenly, how could the prince rest assured about his father?

"How about your Eastern Palace? Has the Crown Princess been settled?" Zhu Shenzhui asked.

"My mother has taken the Crown Princess to her palace. My uncle's people are in charge there. There will be absolutely no problem. You can rest assured." The Crown Prince replied.

Zhu Shenzhui nodded. It seemed that everything was fine in the palace, and he no longer had to worry. He looked at the prince and saw that he had a worried look on his face and seemed to be hesitant to speak. Zhu Shenzhui couldn't help but laugh.

"Why? Are you coming to see me because you're worried about me, your father?"

"This..." The prince hesitated and said, "I am not worried about your problem. With your ability, you are not afraid of these things. Besides, the arrangements you have made now are just a precautionary measure."

"Oh!" Zhu Shenzhui smiled, waved at the prince and patted the chair beside him to let him sit down.

After the prince sat down, Zhu Shenzui's gaze stayed on the prince's face. Ever since the prince entered the military academy, he had less time to follow him to handle government affairs. He had been studying in the military academy for more than a year. Although the military academy was not far from the imperial palace, it was located in the West Garden to the west of the imperial palace. However, due to the special reasons of the military academy, the prince could only return to the palace on holidays and lived in the military academy on weekdays.

Even if he returned to the palace, the prince could only come to the Qianqing Palace to meet Zhu Shenzhui for half a day, to pay his respects, and to continue to assist in handling government affairs, and to chat with the father and son. As for the rest of the time, the prince had to go back to the East Palace to be with the Crown Princess. The prince had already married and had his own family. Zhu Shenzhui, as a father-in-law, could not let his daughter-in-law stay alone in the empty room all the time, so he should let the young couple have some time alone.

The study and coursework in the military academy are very heavy and extremely strict. Even though the prince has a special status in the military academy, he does not receive any extra treatment. Everything is no different from other students. Although such a life is boring and hard, the prince has always done it seriously, which makes Zhu Shenzhui very pleased.

With his military school career and his age, the prince has obviously matured a lot this year. The contours of his face have gradually lost their previous immaturity, replaced by the firmness and decisiveness of a man. If nothing unexpected happens, the prince will officially enter the army for internship as one of the first batch of military school students next year. After one year of internship, he will be awarded a military rank and military position. By then, the prince will be officially graduated from the military school. According to Zhu Shenzhu's reform of the military system, all future military school students will be like this. After graduation, they will enter the army according to their own circumstances, and will be promoted step by step according to their abilities and future merits, and eventually become the backbone of the future army.

But compared to other students including the King of Song, the prince is different from them after all, so his subsequent military positions will be adjusted. Generally speaking, at best he will only serve as a councilor in the General Senate, or be responsible for logistics in the Five Military Commandery, and generally speaking he will not actually go to the battlefield.

(End of this chapter)