Daming: Internship also counts as work experience

Chapter 100 The People of the Village

After the eunuch read the imperial edict aloud, he handed it to Qian Xun and ran away, fearing that the Prince of Han would leave him to rest in peace in Le'an.

Zhu Gaoxu's anger, after rising and falling, finally erupted in his study.

Zhu Gaoxu thought Jia Chuan was plotting to burn down the granaries, but what was the point?

Zhu Heng has prepared a written defense; shall we use it?

Wang Bin had made arrangements in advance, thinking that the layoffs could be delayed for a while. When the capital urged him, he had already made arrangements. It was just a matter of a few people, which was easy to handle. Now that he knows, should he use it?

If the officials under the Prince's residence were merely under house arrest or sidelined, the court could easily replace them. But those who had already been won over and were already holding official positions, would be delayed if they were replaced at this crucial juncture? Especially since Qian Xun had only been there for a few months.

It's no wonder Zhu Gaoxu is so irritable. He wasn't like this before. His father would scold him, and his elder brother would always sigh. Not to mention accepting money, his elder brother would give him money to make him happy. His elder brother had the people, the big picture, and the ancestors in his heart. How come he changed so much when it came to his nephew?

Zhu Heng concluded: "It was that Judge Jia who caused all this trouble. I told him long ago that I should kill him!"

Wang Bin immediately became furious: "Do you think he's hiding because he's afraid?"

"After he died, no one dared to speak ill of him in the capital."

"What brilliant plan do you have to ensure his death? Are you planning to send troops to surround and annihilate him? He cleared out all the people around his house just so you could send troops to surround and annihilate him! How is this any different from starting an uprising?"

Zhu Heng was also furious, but he knew that he had tried to kill several times without success, and that mobilizing troops was not a good plan. So, the only option was...

"Your Highness, please recall a few people from the estate," Zhu Heng said to Zhu Gaoxu, bowing. His tone was resolute. "Kill Jia Chuan! Looking back now, it's all his scheming. Even if we swallow this insult, what about next time? Kill him! Even if someone else comes, it won't be Jia Chuan."

Zhu Gaochi's blood pressure seemed to have dropped considerably, and he muttered, "Good generals are hard to find!"

Upon hearing this, Wang Bin knew that further persuasion would be useless, so he sighed, closed his eyes, and sat upright.

Zhu Heng hurriedly said, "Killing him inside the house might be exactly what he wants. We should think of a way to get him out. Once he's out, all sorts of things can happen."

"Recall three guards from the manor," Zhu Gaoxu said in a deep voice.

……

The people in the house learned in the afternoon that the imperial eunuch had gone to the Prince's mansion. At dusk, Wu Bing received news that eight people from the manor outside the city had entered the city, but they did not know which of them were experts.

It is clear that Wu Bing had no idea what was going on with the people in the village.

Everyone was waiting for the nighttime raid, but the night passed quietly and peacefully.

Except for Dong Yuanyuan and Old Zheng, who didn't miss their sleep, everyone else took turns dozing off for a while.

After everyone had breakfast, they gathered in the main hall of the front courtyard. Gao Yuntian was puzzled and asked, "Could it be that the people of the Prince of Han's mansion have given up and no longer need the cover of darkness, thinking of making their move in broad daylight?"

Chen Mo said, "Perhaps the Emperor's decree this time didn't impose a severe punishment, so the Prince of Han didn't care and just endured it."

Wu Bing reminded him, "The eunuch who delivered the imperial decree left in a great hurry."

Jia Chuan thought for a moment and said, "Let's take turns catching up on sleep first. We shouldn't be exhausted before they arrive. If the enemy doesn't move, we won't move. The Emperor won't let this opportunity pass; otherwise, he wouldn't have informed the prefectural government in advance. The late Emperor started working on the downsizing, but it wasn't effective. Everyone in the court knows this, so it's reasonable for the Emperor to do it again. So, putting everything else aside, the decree must include the downsizing of guards and provisions. Since the Emperor knows the prefectural government's provisions are stored in the Prince's granary, and it's all recorded in black and white, it would be unfair for the Prince of Han to blatantly rob us if the Emperor didn't give something in return. Furthermore…"

Gao Yuntian quickly said, "You don't need to tell us these things, I wouldn't understand anyway."

Chen Mo stood up and said, "They might be making arrangements. There's no use in us being anxious. We might as well catch up on some sleep."

Everyone dispersed.

……

Jia Chuan was sleeping soundly when he was woken up by someone pushing him. When he opened his eyes, he saw Gao Yuntian with a serious expression.

“The officials from the prefectural government said that a victim reported early this morning that her husband had not returned home all night, and then a body was found by the river in the south of the city.”

Jia Chuanteng sat up abruptly, took a deep breath, and said, "You're waiting for me here!"

Jia Chuan quickly got off the ground and followed Gao Yuntian into the hall, where Chen Mo and Wu Bing were waiting.

Chen Mo hurriedly said, "This is definitely an attempt to lure you out; you mustn't believe it."

Wu Bing also said, "In all my years in Le'an, there have been very few murder cases. You should understand why: without a victim reporting it, the yamen won't take it seriously. But this case is too strange. Reporting it after not returning home for one night doesn't make sense. And finding the body by the river after reporting it is too coincidental. I questioned the yamen runners carefully, and they said the place where the body was found wasn't far from the house. If it were far, they probably wouldn't dare to go there, especially since it was by the river..."

"How powerful are the people in the village?" Jia Chuan asked Wu Bing.

Wu Bing shook his head and said, "I haven't gotten any information about what's going on in the village all these years."

Jia Chuan said, "It's alright, we still have Zhu Zhanqi, he knows a little bit about it."

Then they remembered that there was a commoner prince in the mansion.

……

Zhu Zhanqi lived in a single room, which was semi-basement, similar to a prison cell, but with a blue brick floor and only a narrow window above the roof that let in sunlight.

Inside the room was a wooden bed, a wooden table, a stool, a chamber pot, and a disabled person.

Since Zhu Zhanqi moved in, he had no one to serve him. He didn't have to cook for himself, but he also had no one to talk to. Meanwhile, Yu Yan was living comfortably in the backyard with Gao Yunduo and Dong Yuanyuan. Zhu Zhanqi, who was already mentally unstable, became even more irritable due to the pent-up emotions. When he saw Jia Chuan, he wanted to find something to hit him, but Gao Yuntian kicked him to the ground.

"I really don't understand, how can someone be so eager to get beaten up?" Chen Mo asked, puzzled.

Jia Chuan laughed and said, "You can't understand his pain."

Zhu Zhanqi felt relieved after being kicked by Gao Yuntian, and his anger vanished instantly. He timidly looked up at Jia Chuan, then lowered his head again.

"Those who achieve great things throughout history, which one hasn't suffered hardships that ordinary people can't bear?" Jia Chuan began to deceive: "You grew up in the Prince's mansion, so you must have read a lot of books. I don't need to explain these principles to you, do I? Besides, given the current situation, your father has sent people to kill me several times. Hiding you here is also to save your life."

Zhu Zhanqi breathed a sigh of relief; Jia Chuan knew the child had believed it again.

"The Emperor's decree has arrived, and your father is furious. He's even threatening to kill me, and has recalled everyone from the estate..."

"Then you can't escape it?" Zhu Zhanqi asked nervously.

"Get up, sit down and talk. Don't fall to the ground so easily. You are going to be a king in the future, so you should have the proper demeanor."

Zhu Zhanqi obediently got up and sat on the stool, but Chen Mo pushed him and made him sit on the bed again.

Jia Chuan sat down on the stool and said, "I've heard you say that the people in the manor are formidable, so I've come to ask you if you're willing to go to Fengyang now? Right now, I don't know if I can escape this... I really don't want you to take the risk with me. Even if I hide you in such a secluded place, if something happens to me, they can still find you."

Zhu Zhanqi was stunned. The previous sentence had been spoken with the air of a king, so how did the next sentence suddenly become about saving his life?

"But you don't need to worry too much. I have plenty of manpower, otherwise your father wouldn't have failed so many times."

Zhu Zhanqi's mind raced. He could almost see himself sitting on the throne in the palace. What was blocking his way?

"You, you just said that the Emperor's decree has arrived, and my father, he's panicking?"

"How could he not be anxious? I'm here to report his misdeeds. Once I get the evidence and send it back to the capital, the Emperor will naturally believe me. Whatever your father says will be useless. Just this one thing, how could he not be anxious? You should know him."

Zhu Zhanqi nodded repeatedly, then said as if to himself, "He even brought people from the manor here, which shows how much he wanted to kill you. Logically speaking, he wouldn't need people from the manor to kill you. It seems you're right; he tried to kill you several times but failed, so he brought people from the manor here."

"It's impossible for everyone in the village to be a master, right? What good would it do if they came? I think your father will still be disappointed this time."

"Don't underestimate your enemy!" Zhu Zhanqi said seriously, "Your ability to gain the Emperor's trust naturally makes you a thorn in my father's side. The people around you must be quite skilled, otherwise, the Prince's mansion would have had assassins who killed you long ago. But the people in the manor are different. Well, let me put it this way, my father has had this idea for a long time. When my grandfather was alive, he was afraid that if he repeatedly provoked my uncle, my uncle would send people to kill him. So he searched the martial arts world for skilled people and hired them for a lot of money..."

Zhu Zhanqi paused to think for a moment, then said:

"I remember it was something like that at first. When we got to Le'an, I heard that those guys didn't go to the Prince's mansion, but went straight to the estate. Maybe my dad thought that since it was far from my uncle, he wouldn't have to worry. But since those guys had nothing to do on weekdays, my dad had them teach apprentices. But I think I remember that when we were in Nanjing, my dad found them two apprentices... Oh well, never mind, anyway, they all have apprentices. You look so refined, you probably don't understand the ins and outs of this. You should ask those two. Martial arts practitioners value talent the most. The apprentices my dad arranged were all young boys with some basic skills. Those guys chose their apprentices..."

"You mean, the ones who are truly risking their lives are the apprentices?"

"Of course! People in the martial arts world have some strange habits. Although they're called martial arts people, they actually follow even stricter rules than the Prince's manor. What they do and don't do is very clear. They take so much money and do nothing all day. Later, it was too much of a waste to just guard the estate. That's why my father added the requirement of teaching apprentices. These few people... My father started looking for them when I was a child. At first, he only found two, then three. When I went to Beijing, I heard that there were already five apprentices. That means he found five. They weren't easy to find. It's not just about knowing some kung fu. My father had very high standards. Besides, some martial arts people didn't want to get involved..."

"How many will each person teach?" Jia Chuan interrupted Zhu Zhanqi.

"Two of them. It's as if they agreed that they would only teach two people. They also agreed that if anyone trespassed on the estate, the people of the Prince's Mansion would take action if they couldn't stop them. They wouldn't care about anything else, but the apprentices who had already completed their apprenticeship could leave the estate."

Jia Chuan squinted and said, "In other words, these five people could have trained at most ten people over the years, and the apprentice of the last one to go might not have graduated. When the emperor was ambushed, these people... might have all been sent out. It just depends on which route the emperor took and whether it was possible to kill a few..."

"What are you calculating? The people you train must first become my father's personal bodyguards. My father is shrewd; those old guys will quit sooner or later. My father..."

Jia Chuan slapped his thigh: "That's right! Once they've finished their apprenticeship, they can leave the manor. Uh... after they've finished their apprenticeship, will they still have to continue teaching two at a time?"

“Of course not. My father said that these people are only for protecting the manor. The disciples he teaches will be used as bodyguards for him and us brothers. Once he sits on the throne, these Jianghu people will be useless. They are not good at leading troops into battle, and even if they were, they wouldn’t do it.”

Gao Yuntian snorted and muttered, "It's not that I don't need to, it's that they don't want to teach me more."

Chen Mo muttered, "What business is it of his to put him next to us brothers in the future?"

Jia Chuan seemed not to hear, raising his eyebrows and saying, "What am I afraid of? They're just a few apprentices who haven't finished their training. The most skilled one still has to guard your father, and the others who have finished their training are probably already dead somewhere else..."

"Don't underestimate those who haven't completed their apprenticeship yet. Oh, how should I put it? I've met one, but I don't know if he's graduated yet..."

"When did you meet him?" Jia Chuan asked with a disbelieving expression.

"When they were in Beijing, they came to Beijing once to deliver something..."

"Was it a person being sent?"

"Oh dear, these things... The late emperor dealt with everything that needed to be dealt with after he ascended the throne. Don't you think about it? My father said back then that I was the one who sent him the information. Where did I get the information? Would the late emperor not ask? And after asking, would he not punish me? What you need now is to know how skilled these people are, not to worry about who my father's people are in the capital. Those people he found are no match for him. Only he thinks that anyone would believe he can seize the throne."

Zhu Zhanqi had been quite talkative these past few days because he hadn't had anyone to talk to. Jia Chuan coughed lightly and asked, "You knew he was extraordinary after just one meeting?"

"He killed seven Imperial Guards. Isn't that impressive? He did it all by himself. He spotted someone acting suspiciously outside the manor, quietly followed them, and fought seven against one. He won. If he had let one go, would he have needed you to come? Do you know what it means to be skilled and daring? I heard this from chatting with the people in the manor. Although I didn't witness it myself, I saw that the people in the manor had great respect for him. He was the only one who accompanied and escorted him the whole way. The other servants were just for show. Don't you think he's amazing?"

When Chen Mo and Gao Yuntian heard that this man had killed seven Imperial Guards, their eyebrows shot up.

Some people don't need to be known; just hearing about them can make your blood boil.

Chen Mo and Gao Yuntian's anger was not only because the man had killed their colleague, but also because of the dignity of the Embroidered Uniform Guard. They didn't know where this dignity came from, but they both had it right now.

(End of this chapter)