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

Chapter 622 Just the beginning

Du Xun and Wu Mengming came on strong, but ended up with a whimper.

But to be precise, their trip to Shanxi was not without gain. After all, the downfall of the Fan family in Jiexiu could give an explanation to Emperor Chongzhen, and the confiscation of Fan's property had brought them a lot of valuables. Although the amount of these valuables was nearly half less than expected due to the previous incident in the old house of the Fan family in Jiexiu, it was still a large sum of money.

After Emperor Chongzhen got this money, he instantly became much more well-off, so it was not in vain. However, because the Fan family incident involved too many people, Emperor Chongzhen did not investigate further in order to appease the royal family, and the Hengtong incident was temporarily suppressed.

But both Zhou Anmin and Zhu Shenzui knew in their hearts that the matter was only temporarily postponed and not over, and the means they used were a bit crude and the cover-up was too obvious to fool Du Xun and Wu Mengming at all, especially the latter, because they would return empty-handed and even get into trouble after returning to Beijing. Wu Mengming, as the co-director of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, would probably not let it go.

"Du Xun is an old fox, but he is just a servant of the royal family. If he gets benefits, he will speak for us. But Wu Mengming is a poisonous snake. We must be on guard!"

After seeing off Du Xun and others, Zhou Anmin returned to the Jinyiwei Yamen, where Zhu Shenzhui was already waiting in the back hall.

"It doesn't matter. We can delay it as long as we can. Wu Mengming has been in trouble for a long time since he came back to Beijing. Even if he can find time to continue the investigation, it will take some time."

"Of course." Zhou Anmin nodded and said, "But he secretly met with a few people before leaving Taiyuan. If I'm not mistaken, although he returned to the capital, he left spies in Shanxi."

Zhu Shenzhui smiled at Zhou Anmin and said, "Since my brother-in-law already knows that he left spies, what use are these spies? I think my brother-in-law can solve it himself, right?"

"Hahaha, there's no problem solving it, but it's better to keep him for now and wait until the capital has a result. They're just a few spies, not worth mentioning." Zhou Anmin said confidently, then suddenly remembered something and asked Zhu Shenzhui in a low voice: "Now that Du Xun and Wu Mengming have returned to Beijing, this matter has come to an end for the time being. What should we do with Fan Yongdou? Kill him or keep him locked up?"

"Keep him locked up. It's easy to kill him, but he's more valuable alive. Don't forget that Fan Yongdou's case involves a lot of people, and what we're dealing with now is just the tip of the iceberg. If you keep him alive, he might be useful in the future."

"Then I'll listen to you. Save his life and let this old guy live a few more days." Zhou Anmin immediately agreed.

When arresting the Fan family members, it was said that Fan Yongdou had learned the news in advance and escaped from the tunnel, and then disappeared. But in fact, Zhou Anmin sent people to arrest Fan Yongdou as soon as possible, and originally planned to hand Fan Yongdou over to Du Xun and Wu Mengming, but Zhu Shenzhu asked Zhou Anmin to secretly detain Fan Yongdou, and publicized that Fan Yongdou had escaped, but actually locked him up in a secret place unknown to anyone.

After the interrogation, a lot of things were dug out from Fan Yongdou, not only the evidence of Fan Yongdou's smuggling to the Jiannu, but also a series of collaborators of the Fan family in the Ming Dynasty, including many people who participated in this matter.

The written evidence seized from the Fan family was only a small part, and many were not included. However, Fan Yongdou, the head of the Fan family, had all of them in his possession. In order to save his life, Fan Yongdou confessed them all without much effort.

What was confessed was truly shocking. Fan Yongdou had colluded with the Jiannu for so many years, engaged in large-scale smuggling and made huge profits. It was not limited to the Fan family. Several other famous Shanxi merchants, including local officials, royal family members, and even officials in the capital and even the palace were involved. These people formed a huge network, otherwise they would not be so unscrupulous.

If Zhou Anmin had not intervened this time, and Zhu Shenzhu was decisive, Fan Yongdou would not have been exposed. Moreover, Zhu Shenzhu had learned from Fan Yongdou that his previous speculation was correct, and the Hengtong incident was indeed done by Fan Yongdou, or more precisely, by Huang Taiji.

A few months ago in Liaodong, Huang Taiji's confidant Fan Wencheng personally met with Fan Yongdou. He was keenly aware of the problems with Hengtong through the battle of Chahar. In addition, Fan Yongdou himself had some doubts about Hengtong at that time. After reporting the matter to Huang Taiji, Huang Taiji deliberately instructed Fan Yongdou to send people to spread rumors in the capital after returning to the Ming Dynasty in order to find out the truth and at the same time strike his opponent. In addition, there were people in the capital who were secretly colluding with the Jiannu. As a result, what happened later happened.

Because of these, Zhu Shenzui also proved that Fan Yongdou was the mastermind behind the secret attack on Hengtong, including the attack on the caravan on the grassland, the civil strife in the Ashitemur tribe, etc. These were all done by Fan Yongdou. His purpose was very simple. It was nothing more than because of commercial competition, to prevent Hengtong from becoming bigger, and to monopolize the smuggling trade in Liaodong including the grassland. However, he did not expect Hengtong to react so quickly and investigate so closely. If Fan Yongdou had not decisively cut off the clues at that time, Zhu Shenzui might have traced him back to him a few years ago.

But even so, Zhu Shenzhui did not let Fan Yongdou go. Although there was no evidence, Fan Yongdou was the most suspicious. This was one of the reasons why Zhu Shenzhui later decided to attack the old house of the Fan family in Jiexiu. Although Fan Yongdou intended to cover up this matter and did not confess at first, after a few tortures, the old guy cried and confessed everything. Zhu Shenzhui spared Fan Yongdou's life not because he became a vegetarian and believed in Buddhism, but because he felt that Fan Yongdou still had some value. Anyway, he couldn't escape if he was locked up, and keeping him alive would only waste some food. Although there is still a famine in various parts of the Ming Dynasty, and many provinces have suffered a serious reduction in grain production due to banditry, this little grain can still be taken out. Sparing his life for the time being may be of some use in the near future.

The Fan family affair had been a big deal in Shanxi for quite some time, and many people were implicated. Although Emperor Chongzhen finally called a halt to the case, he did not spare the local officials and generals who had been arrested.

Soon after Du Xun and others returned to Beijing, the court issued an edict to remove the Jiexiu County magistrate and the Fenzhou Prefecture governor from their posts. As for the lieutenant general, he was directly demoted to a commoner. The guerrilla general and several centurions did not get any benefits either. They not only lost their official positions, but were directly thrown into prison and might even lose their heads.

As for Du Xun, after meeting him and listening to his report, Emperor Chongzhen did not make things difficult for him. After all, he was the emperor's household slave and someone close to the emperor, and Du Xun did not do anything in this matter. His role in going to Shanxi was merely to monitor the case on behalf of the emperor, so Du Xun quickly returned to his original position and continued to be the eunuch.

But Wu Mengming was not so lucky. Because of the death of a middle or high-level royal family member, Emperor Chongzhen was under great pressure and had a bad impression of Wu Mengming. Although Wu Mengming directly pointed out that Zhou Anmin had problems in his report to Emperor Chongzhen, the Shanxi Jinyiwei disobeyed orders and acted on their own, which led to the subsequent situation.

But after listening to Du Xun's words, Emperor Chongzhen did not believe Wu Mengming's words at all, especially when Du Xun secretly told Emperor Chongzhen that Zhou Anmin, the head of the Jinyiwei in Shanxi, had done Wu Mengming a favor, but Wu Mengming not only did not repay the favor but also planned to secretly harm Zhou Anmin. Emperor Chongzhen's impression of Wu Mengming was immediately very bad. He felt that Wu Mengming was a man who did not care about loyalty and righteousness at all. He even betrayed his lifesaver. So was his so-called loyalty to him real? Emperor Chongzhen naturally had to discount it.

Moreover, Zhou Anmin was only an assistant when they were sent to Shanxi to investigate the case. Later, what Zhou Anmin did was approved by Emperor Chongzhen. Du Xun and Wu Mengming were both appointed by Emperor Chongzhen. Especially the latter, as the Tongzhi of Jinyiwei, the second-highest person in this agency, actually pushed the responsibility onto his subordinates, which made Emperor Chongzhen very disappointed with Wu Mengming.

In the end, Emperor Chongzhen found a reason to send Wu Mengming back. A few days later, Commander Luo Yangxing adjusted Wu Mengming's powers according to the emperor's will. Although Wu Mengming's position was not taken away, he still remained as the Tongzhi. However, Wu Mengming's power in the Jinyiwei was greatly reduced. He was even directly sent to the Imperial Prison to be the "jailer". Wu Mengming, the Tongzhi and second-in-command of the Jinyiwei, was actually transferred to manage the Imperial Prison. This made Wu Mengming indignant and hated Zhou Anmin so much that he swore that this matter was not over and he would make Zhou Anmin pay when he had the chance.

There was a stir in the capital, but it gradually died down. However, although it seemed to have calmed down on the surface, undercurrents were still surging in secret. Everyone knew that the matter had only been calmed down temporarily, but it was not over at all.

Sure enough, not long after, another wave of rumors began to spread in the capital, this time the rumor still pointed to Hengtong. Not only Hengtong, but also Zhou Anmin of the Jinyiwei of Shanxi and the royal family that Zhou Anmin was connected to, and there were even rumors directly pointing to Zhu Shenzhui.

It is no secret that Zhou Anmin's wife is a member of the royal family. Zhu Shenzhui is Zhou Anmin's brother-in-law. Although his status in the royal family is not high and he is only a middle-to-lower-level member of the royal family, he is a real member of the royal family after all.

Moreover, Zhu Shenzhui's ancestral fiefdom was in Pingyang, and the head office of Hengtong Commercial Bank was also in Pingyang, which made people suspect that there was a connection between them. In addition, the time when Hengtong started to rise overlapped with the time when Zhou Anmin rose rapidly in the Jinyiwei, and in addition, Wei Zhongxian asked Zhou Anmin and Hengtong to jointly lead border trade affairs. All these were connected, and the rumors were so convincing that people could not help but believe them.

It is not known who spread these rumors. Although they have not yet caused a great impact, Zhang Xijun did not dare to be negligent after learning about them and hurriedly warned Shanxi.

After receiving Zhang Xijun's urgent letter, Zhu Shenzhui did not panic. What was coming would come, and he had been prepared for it. What he had done before was just to delay time. As long as the rumors were not nipped in the bud, they would not stop.

Sheep Head Mountain.

Since Li Hu became a bandit in Yangtou Mountain and was recaptured by Zhu Shenzhui, Yangtou Mountain has become one of Zhu Shenzhui's important bases. The dilapidated temple where Zhu Shenzhui lived in the early years is still there, but now the temple has been repaired. Although the temple is not big, it is no longer as dilapidated as before.

Not far from this temple, there is a large village. This village was originally a residence for refugees who settled in Yangtou Mountain. Now it is built with blue bricks and black tiles and looks like a paradise.

(End of this chapter)