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

Chapter 630: Traitors in the Court

"No!" Just when Li Guofu was relieved, Zhu Shenzhui suddenly said, "Although Wu Mengming is the co-director of the Jinyiwei, he has lost the emperor's favor. How can he easily see Your Majesty? Even if he intends to fan the flames and take revenge, if there is no one in the court to help, how can he write to Your Majesty and persuade Your Majesty to change his mind? Don't lie to me! Wu Mengming alone can't do this!"

“This...this...” Li Guofu’s mind raced. He didn’t expect Zhu Shenzui to know all this. Originally, he just planned to push Wu Mengming out as a shield. After all, Li Guofu had a good relationship with Du Xun. Before coming to Shanxi this time, he met Du Xun and asked Du Xun for advice on the situation in Shanxi.

Du Xun talked about the events in Shanxi, and mentioned the matter of Wu Mengming when he talked about the Jiexiu Fan family case before. He told him that the reason why the investigation turned the problem of Hengtong to the Jiexiu Fan family was because Wu Mengming originally planned to set a trap for Zhou Anmin and make Zhou Anmin a scapegoat.

Unexpectedly, Zhou Anmin took advantage of the opponent's strength and not only did not fall into the trap, but instead shifted the spearhead from Hengtong to the Jiexiu Fan family. He also made a big fuss about this matter by using the imperial order, which almost made it impossible for the court to handle it.

In the end, although the Jiexiu Fan family was resolved, the Hengtong issue was shelved. Even Wu Mengming himself did not get any benefits. He returned to the capital in disgrace and was reprimanded by Emperor Chongzhen and eventually sent to the imperial prison.

In this case, Wu Mengming shot himself in the foot, and after this incident, Du Xun also realized that Wu Mengming was a complete villain. You know, Zhou Anmin saved Wu Mengming's life, but Wu Mengming did not repay the favor, but instead set a trap for his benefactor, intending to use Zhou Anmin as a knife to make merit for himself. Even Du Xun, the eunuch, looked down on him.

Du Xun privately reminded Li Guofu that if he wanted to take action against Zhou Anmin, he should not make a big fuss, but go there in secret. When he got there, he should not do anything else, but take Zhou Anmin first and control the Jinyiwei Yamen in Shanxi.

Du Xun had seen Zhou Anmin's shrewdness and cunning. If Zhou Anmin knew about it in advance, Li Guofu's mission would be difficult to accomplish. If Zhou Anmin could not be captured, not only would he be unable to deal with the royal family and Hengtong in Pingyang, but he would also cause other troubles, which Li Guofu must keep in mind.

Although Li Guofu listened to Du Xun and made arrangements in advance, he never expected that on the day he left Beijing, the news from the capital had reached Shanxi. Before Li Guofu entered Shanxi, Zhu Shenzui had already set a trap and waited for him to fall in.

Now Li Guofu has fallen into Zhu Shenzhu's hands, and all his arrangements have been useless. To put it bluntly, Zhu Shenzhu can make him live or die now, and Li Guofu doesn't want to lose his life in vain. When Zhu Shenzhu expressed his disbelief in his words and bluntly said that Wu Mengming alone could not convince Emperor Chongzhen, Li Guofu hurriedly said that Wu Mengming was just the cause and someone else helped Wu Mengming to speak, which made Emperor Chongzhen change his mind.

Zhu Shenzhui asked who the person who spoke was, and Li Guofu quickly said that the person was the Prime Minister Wen Tiren.

When he heard Wen Tiren's name, Zhu Shenzui sneered immediately. His face changed and he had someone remove Li Guofu's chair and kicked Li Guofu to the ground.

"Wen Tiren? Do you think I don't know what's going on in the court just because I'm in Shanxi? Wen Tiren has always been a lone minister who never participates in party disputes. After becoming the Prime Minister, he has been even more cautious. Although he is greedy for power and money and is not a good person, he is an extremely smart person. How could such a person collude with Wu Mengming secretly? Wu Mengming is only the co-director of the Jinyiwei, and his status is far different from Wen Tiren's. What benefit can Wen Tiren get from colluding with Wu Mengming?"

"My family... I..." Li Guofu was speechless. He blurted out Wen Tiren's name subconsciously, because Wen Tiren was the current Prime Minister. With Wen Tiren's status and position, if he tried to persuade Emperor Chongzhen, Emperor Chongzhen would have to give him some face no matter what.

But he didn't expect that Zhu Shenzui would directly expose his lies, and his expression suddenly changed, with a murderous look, which frightened Li Guofu.

Li Guofu knelt on the ground and kowtowed to Zhu Shenzhu repeatedly, and said that there were only rumors in the palace that Wen Tiren was involved, and he did not know whether it was true or not, and asked Zhu Shenzhu to forgive him if he had said anything wrong. He said that in addition to Wen Tiren, there were several other people involved, and he immediately said their names.

After hearing the names of these people, Zhu Shenzhui frowned slightly and asked directly whether two of them were members of the Donglin Party. Li Guofu said that the two were indeed members of the Donglin Party. Upon hearing this, Zhu Shenzhui asked, since the Donglin Party was causing trouble, it would definitely not be just these two people, why was there no Donglin Party leader, former Prime Minister Qian Longxi?

As soon as these words came out, Li Guofu suddenly had an idea, and he quickly said that these two people were instructed by Qian Longxi, but he had no evidence, he just heard about it, and he was afraid that Zhu Shenzhui would blame him for making random accusations, so he didn't dare to say it just now. Zhu Shenzhui's expression relaxed, and he nodded and said that this was right, since the Donglin Party was involved, and Qian Longxi was the leader, then everything could be explained. However, although Qian Longxi was the prime minister and his status and identity were sufficient, he was not the real boss in the Donglin Party. Since this matter was related to Qian Longxi, there must be someone with a higher status than Qian Longxi in the Donglin Party who was involved, so who was this person?

At this time, Li Guofu had no other ideas. He could only continue to think along the lines of Zhu Shenzui's meaning. Suddenly, a name jumped out of his mind. He hurriedly said that in addition to Qian Longxi, there was also Han Yu. Han Yu's status in the Donglin Party was much higher than Qian Longxi. Since Wei Zhongxian took action against the Donglin Party during the Tianqi period, the backbone members of the Donglin Party were killed or demoted by Wei Zhongxian, and almost all of them were caught in one fell swoop.

Han Yu managed to escape and finally saved his life. After Emperor Tianqi passed away, Emperor Chongzhen came to power. Han Yu, as a veteran of the Donglin Party, was a meritorious official who supported Emperor Chongzhen. Moreover, soon after Emperor Chongzhen ascended the throne, he took action against Wei Zhongxian and vigorously eradicated the eunuch party, which was also due to Han Yu.

Han Yu is now in a high position in the court. Although he is no longer the prime minister, his power is probably no less than Wen Tihen. More importantly, Han Yu is the leader of the Donglin Party. In addition, he is also Yuan Chonghuan's teacher. After Yuan Chonghuan was imprisoned, Han Yu once spent a lot of effort to save him. Although he failed in the end, his position in the court is still stable. He has always been good friends with Qian Longxi. The real mastermind behind this incident should be Han Yu and Qian Longxi.

After Li Guofu mentioned removing Han Yu's name, Zhu Shenzui seemed satisfied. However, he said that Li Guofu's words alone were not enough to prove his claim. He wanted Li Guofu to write down everything he had just said.

Li Guofu agreed after a slight hesitation. Zhu Shenzhui had Li Guofu taken away and asked him to write down everything. Li Guofu did not dare to resist and was taken away to write for more than half an hour before he wrote down everything he had just said on paper.

After the writing was finished and sent to Zhu Shenzhui, Zhu Shenzhui was not satisfied with a few places after reading it. He circled and changed a few places and asked Li Guofu to rewrite it. Li Guofu had no choice but to rewrite it according to Zhu Shenzhui's instructions. After reading it again, Zhu Shenzhui nodded to show his satisfaction, but he shook his head again and asked Li Guofu to sign and seal it. Otherwise, how could he prove that this thing was written by Li Guofu?
At this point, Li Guofu had become a puppet at the mercy of others. In order to save his life, he did almost everything Zhu Shenzhu told him to do and signed his name on the document immediately.

After Li Guofu finished doing all this, Zhu Shenzhui winked at his left and right, and they immediately understood and took Li Guofu away. Li Guofu was so scared that he begged for mercy again and again, thinking that Zhu Shenzhui was going to punish him directly, but when the person who took him away told him that his life would be fine, since he had done what Zhu Shenzhui wanted, he could rest assured that he would never be killed, and of course he would not be let go. He would be wronged for a few days, and he would be let go after the truth was revealed.

With a sigh of relief, Li Guofu stopped struggling and was taken away.

After Li Guofu was taken away, Zhu Shenzhui couldn't help laughing when he saw the document in front of him. Li Guofu's incident was an accident, but it was also a good thing. Now he had the evidence written by Li Guofu himself, so this document would be very useful and would have a great effect on the subsequent plan.

A few days later, Zhu Shenzui came to Luzhou Wei. At this time, the entire Luzhou Wei had been completely controlled by Wang Rong and his son, including the nearby Lucheng, Changzhi, and Pingshun, which were also taken without bloodshed.

Zhu Shenzui's army has been assembled. More than 2,000 elite cavalry, 6,500 new troops, 5,000 garrison troops and civilian laborers have been recruited. In addition to these, Luzhou Wei also left behind a considerable number of garrison troops. This army was commanded by Wang Rong and stationed in Luzhou Wei, forming a horn with Zhaowuling and Yangtoushan to ensure the stability of the old nest.

Zhu Shenzhui's main force, under the banner of the officers and soldiers, went directly eastward through Yuxia Pass and entered Henan from Shanxi on the same day. After arriving in Henan, his troops did not stop for a moment, but marched north along the official road. On the third day, they passed through Ci County and entered northern Zhili and arrived in Handan.

When they arrived in Handan, local officials saw an army of such a size coming from the south and sent people to inquire about their origins. Zhu Shenzui had someone take out the forged imperial edict and took out Li Guofu as a token of the angel, saying that Emperor Chongzhen had issued an edict ordering the Shanxi Wei Army to enter Zhili and garrison in Jizhou. Because the military situation in Liaodong had changed, in order to prevent the Jiannu from attacking the Great Wall from Jizhou and Zunhua again and threatening the safety of the capital, their troops were going to provide support.

Because what he said was well-founded, and there were imperial edicts and eunuchs to prove it, and Zhu Shenzhu did not ask the local government to provide food and fodder, let alone request to enter Handan for rest. Local officials were already on guard against the passage of government troops, fearing that these government troops would cause trouble in the local area, or even rob and extort.

When the local officials heard Zhu Shenzhui's army say this, they were naturally very happy, and even offered some food and chickens and ducks to show their sincerity. Zhu Shenzhui did not refuse the other party's kindness, and accepted it with a smile. He kept his promise and did not enter the city. He passed directly from the east of Handan City, set up camp ten miles outside the city that night, and broke camp the next day, then crossed the river and continued north to Julu.

(End of this chapter)