Ming Dynasty: Moral blackmail? I, Emperor Chongzhen, have no morals!

Chapter 98 Is Prince Shen finally standing up for himself?

After Zhu Jian entered the city, his gaze swept over the streets, buildings, and vendors. His eyes saw no joy on their faces, only the hardship of their lives. When the cavalry entered, they hurriedly scrambled to the side, looking at the cavalry with fear. They assumed it was another governor or commander-in-chief arriving in the capital...

When Wang Dehua arrived at the Wuying Hall, it was already evening. He had just been summoned and rushed from the Directorate of Ceremonial to the Wuying Hall. There he saw Zhu Jian kneeling on the ground.

"Your Majesty, this humble servant Wang Dehua pays her respects."

"How is Shanxi?" Zhu Jian was most worried about the plague in Shanxi. If a large-scale plague broke out in Shanxi, he could consider temporarily going to Jinan to garrison under the pretext of avoiding the plague. After all, these troops, which he had worked so hard to build, could not be infected with the plague. These hundreds of thousands of troops were his last line of defense.

When Wang Dehua heard the emperor ask about the plague, he was startled. These two words had become an obsession for him lately. Gao Qiqian had caused quite a stir in Shanxi. If it weren't for the fact that the officials in the court were all occupied by the eunuchs he had arranged, there would probably have been a flood of impeachments by now.

"Your Majesty, the plague has been contained, but... but..."

'

Seeing that Wang Dehua was hesitant in his speech, Zhu Jian's face immediately showed displeasure: "What is it?"

"It's just that Gao Qiqian went a bit too far..." Wang Dehua didn't mention Wu Daozheng, the director of the Eastern Depot, because Wu Daozheng was his godson, but instead shifted the blame to Gao Qiqian.

Gao Qiqian was one of the emperor's trusted eunuchs and was once sent to supervise the army in Guanning and Jinzhou. Although it is unknown why he was recalled, people still felt that Gao Qiqian was still the emperor's confidant and that the emperor might let the matter drop out of consideration for him.

There's another layer of meaning: Gao Qiqian wasn't one of Zhudehua's men, so if he had to choose, he would naturally abandon Gao Qiqian and protect Wu Daozheng.

Upon hearing that the plague had been contained and had not broken out on a large scale, Zhu Jian felt slightly relieved. As long as the plague hadn't broken out on a large scale, that was good. He calmly asked, "What happened?"

"Gao Qiqian killed a lot of people! Among them were people from the Prince Shen's mansion!" After saying this, Wang Dehua bowed even lower. The imperial family and the eunuch faction had always kept to themselves, but now Gao Qiqian was not even giving face to the princes. When the princes' officials and their men tried to forcibly leave Luzhou and enter Taiyuan, Gao Qiqian ordered them to be shot dead in the street with firearms. When the news was relayed back to the Directorate of Ceremonial by Wu Daozheng, it really shocked Wang Dehua. Fortunately, the Prince Shen did not show up, so there was still room for the matter to be resolved.

"Prince Shen?" Zhu Jian stroked his chin, pondering the Shen vassal state of Luzhou. In the last incident involving Shanxi merchants, the Jin vassal state and the Dai vassal state were both destroyed. Why was this Shen vassal state left out?

After thinking for a long time, Zhu Jian suddenly slapped his forehead and realized that Shen Fan had immediately offered up all the grain, gold, silver and land stored in his mansion as military supplies, so he let him go.

Zhu Jian thought to himself: How could such a person send someone to cause a conflict with Gao Qiqian?

"stand up!"

"When I first arrived in Shanxi last time, Prince Shen provided me with a large amount of provisions and pay. How could someone like that have a conflict with Gao Qiqian?" Zhu Jian asked.

Upon hearing that the emperor intended to punish Gao Qiqian, Wang Dehua quickly replied, "This servant will immediately have the Eastern Depot thoroughly investigate Gao Qiqian!"

Gao Qiqian didn't care about giving him up, as long as his adopted son, Wu Daozheng, the director of the Eastern Depot, wasn't punished by the emperor. His authority as the Grand Eunuch of the Directorate of Ceremonial Affairs depended entirely on the Eastern Depot. Without the Eastern Depot, he would be like a tiger with its teeth pulled out, only having intimidating power but unable to kill anyone.

Zhu Jian frowned, his voice growing increasingly cold: "What are you investigating Gao Qiqian for?"

"Use your brains! Who's using Prince Shen as a pawn, or is Prince Shen completely unaware of this?"

Gao Qiqian's suppression of the plague was a great achievement. Even if he had killed many people, including an official from the Shen Prince's mansion, and even if he had killed the Shen Prince and massacred an entire county, Inspector Zhu would still protect him. But whether he would be spared in the future is uncertain...

Wang Dehua was taken aback upon hearing this, then quickly kowtowed and said, "This servant obeys the decree."

After Zhu Jian's reminder, Wang Dehua also felt something was strange. He didn't know that Prince Shen had sent grain and provisions to the emperor. If it was really as the emperor said, that Prince Shen was "wise and could see the times clearly," then there was something wrong with the officials under Prince Shen's residence.

Just as Wang Dehua got up to leave, Zhu Jian stopped him again: "I am writing a letter to Prince Shen. Have Wu Daozheng deliver it to Prince Shen. Remember, it is not for interrogation."

"Yes"

Wang Dehua went to the desk and began grinding ink, but kept turning his head to the side, as if afraid of seeing the contents of the letter Zhu Jian was writing. Zhu Jian noticed and said, "It's alright for you to look!"

"This servant wouldn't dare," Wang Dehua said, but his eyes kept glancing at the letter.

After Zhu Jian finished writing, he picked up the paper and handed it to Wang Dehua: "This is to comfort Prince Shen, and also to let him investigate the background of the murdered person and find out if there are any other similar people in the Shen family."

Zhu Jian's letter was clearly telling Prince Shen that he had been used as a pawn. If he knew this, he should say so, and the emperor would not blame him. But if Prince Shen did not know, the matter was much more serious. To dare to plant a spy in a prince's residence was to have the audacity of a bear and the gall of a leopard.

The Shen princely domain was established by Zhu Yuanzhang's twenty-first son. Compared to the Jin princely domain, the Dai princely domain caused less disturbance to ordinary people, who generally lived peacefully without any major incidents. If even such a princely domain was not spared, Zhu Jian felt that he would become like Zhu Yunwen in reducing the power of the princely domains, unsure of which side was more important.

Wang Dehua took the letter, folded it neatly, and said, "This servant will send someone to Shanxi to deliver it to Wu Daozheng."

"Go and tell Gao Qiqian that after the plague in Shanxi is quelled, I will give him a great credit."

"Yes, Your Majesty!" When Wang Dehua heard that the emperor not only did not blame Gao Qiqian, but also wanted to reward him, he began to think about pulling Gao Qiqian along. At the very least, he wanted Gao Qiqian to know that he had spoken well of him in front of the emperor, even though the truth was that the blame was being shifted onto Gao Qiqian.

After Wang Dehua left, a cold glint flashed in Zhu Jian's eyes. He understood Wang Dehua's intentions. Although he was a bit cunning, he was still within control. As for the matter of the officials under the Shen Prince's Mansion, it was clear that someone in the court was opposing him. Since there were people who were not afraid of death, he would grant their wish.

Zhu Jian thought it unlikely that the Shanxi gentry and merchants would be involved. After all, the bloodstains from the murders in the last Shanxi merchant Tongqing case hadn't dried yet. Anyone who wasn't stupid wouldn't get involved in the plague, since the plague was real and people were really dying, and the troops controlling it were also killing people. This wasn't fake. Daring to openly oppose the eunuchs meant they were targeting the eunuch faction, and Gao Qiqian was the representative of the eunuch faction in Shanxi, as well as the representative of imperial power in Shanxi.

Before long, Wang Huamin, the chief eunuch of the Inner Court, came before Zhu Jian, bowed and said, "Your Majesty."

"You will arrange for two people, under the guise of being guards of the Eastern Depot, to go with the people arranged by Wang Dehua to deliver a message to Gao Qiqian and investigate Shen Fan privately."

Zhu Jian doesn't completely trust Shen Wang, but he won't publicly investigate Shen Wang either. On the one hand, Shen Wang might actually be wronged, and on the other hand, he won't contradict himself, since he let Shen Wang go before.

"Yes!" Wang Huamin took two steps back and left the Wuying Hall.

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