At noon the next day, Manager Li heard news that among the hundreds of people recruited ten days ago, only one with the surname Miao and a maid. Li Wei was as if he had been poured with a basin of cold water, and his heart suddenly became cold. It seemed that this guy who was stealing the letter was very cunning and had changed his name. But he didn't know his appearance. How could he find this?

Li Weizheng considered it over and over again and decided to spend another sum of money to bribe Manager Li and plant Yang Ning'an on the King of Chu Wharf. It's a reason! Of course, he was learning the operation of the dock on the spot. This was a piece of cake for Manager Li. In this way, Yang Ning transformed himself into the manager's assistant on the King of Chu's private dock, slowly looking for the whereabouts of the family members who stole the letter. At this time, Li Weizheng's attention was completely focused on the King of Chu.

Zhu Zhen, the King of Chu, was the sixth son of Zhu Yuanzhang. He was named King of Chu in the third year of Hongwu. He was founded in Wuchang and officially took office in the 14th year of Hongwu. It has been ten years since then. Unlike the King of Qi, who was also a concubine but had a strong ambition, Zhu Zhen, the King of Chu, valued more elegant life. The rich fish and rice in the land of Jingxiang and Chu quietly nourished this Prince of Taiping. His greatest wish was to enjoy this life safely.

Perhaps it is precisely because he was unwilling to have an accident that Zhu Zhen was also very low-key in his fiefdom Wuchang, rarely interfered in local government affairs and Huguang's power layout, and had few bad records. This made his father Zhu Yuanzhang very satisfied. As a father, Zhu Yuanzhang also hoped that his sons could live carefree, so he gave his sons a lot of rewards every year, and Zhu Zhen always got a generous share.

However, in the spring of the 23rd year of Hongwu, Zhu Zhen's peaceful life was disrupted. He received a secret letter from the King of Qi, who had the best relationship with him a month ago, saying that a letter written by Prince Zhu Biao to Lan Yu was stolen by Lan Yu's family. It was rumored that Lan Yu wanted to support the prince to take the throne as soon as possible. Zhu Zhen was not interested in this letter. He knew that even if the prince fell, it would not be his turn to the Eastern Palace. Therefore, at first he just smiled and did not take it seriously, but the development of the matter was beyond his expectations. Soon, the second secret letter from King of Qi arrived, saying that the person who stole the letter returned to his hometown in Huangzhou, and then the third secret letter arrived again, pointing out that the person who stole the letter was Wuchang now, just under his nose, begging him to help him anyway.

The following situation seemed to confirm the information of the King of Qi. All forces gathered in Wuchang, the Eight Immortals crossed the sea, and each used their magical powers to dig the ground with three feet of Wuchang. At this time, Zhu Zhen suddenly had an idea to use his local snake's advantage to grab the letter first and secretly present it to his father. In this way, he would not make things worse, nor would he have to worry about the father's reproaching him for sitting there in the future. Maybe he would also be praised by the father's understanding of the general and taking the overall situation into consideration.

So, Zhu Zhen, the King of Chu who had been mediocre, also quietly took action.

Zhu Zhen had a lot of wives and concubines, among which his favorite woman was the fifth concubine Cheng, who could be said to be obedient to her. Cheng had a brother who was originally a small official in the army. Because of Zhu Zhen, he was promoted to the direct guard commander of the King of Chu and to Qianhu. He also tried his best to be loyal to Zhu Zhen. This time, Zhu Zhen handed over the task to him.

On the evening of that day, Zhu Zhen was considering discussing the invitation to dinner. Of course, there must be a reason for treating guests to dinner. Especially a prince like Zhu Zhen, who pursues low-key behavior, needs a big reason. There are two reasons. First, the birthday of the prince Zhou, the official concubine, has come. She has always had an objection to her favored five concubines. The relationship between the two has changed from a strong jealousy to a strong yao flavor. It just takes advantage of the opportunity to make a birthday to compensate Han Concubine and give her enough face. Secondly, the new prince's mansion was completed last month, and ordinary families still have the idea of ​​boiling the pot after the new house is completed. How can it be reasonable if he is a dignified prince? So after thinking about it over and over again, he decided to invite a guest.

"Your Highness, this time I treat you only to officials, and I think it is inappropriate." The person who spoke was Mr. Hu, a staff member of Zhu Zhen. He was very powerful and cautious and rational. He reminded Zhu Zhen to pay attention to his image several times, and made contributions to Zhu Zhen's favor and gained his trust. This time, Zhu Zhen was preparing to only invite local officials, so Hu's staff member could not help but remind him.

"Why is it inappropriate?" Zhu Zhen asked in surprise.

"Your Highness will understand just by thinking about the situation in the court."

‘The situation in the court?’ Zhu Zhen suddenly didn’t react. Seeing that Mr. Hu wanted to speak but stopped, he couldn’t help but say unhappy: “Just say it straight, don’t make a mistake for me.”

"Your Highness think about it. Now the emperor's desire to handle Li Shanchang has been revealed. Everyone in the court is in danger. If the Li Shanchang case is a big deal and involves officials in Huguang, it just so happened that these officials are His Highness's guests. What will the emperor think when he knows it?"

Zhu Zhen suddenly realized that he was glad to pat his forehead. Indeed, King Tan died last month due to being involved in the Li Shanchang case. If this matter involves him again, the consequences will be unimaginable!

"Then according to your wishes, you shouldn't treat you, that's right!"

Aide Hu smiled and said, "No need. Your Highness invites guests as a guest, but you don't just invite officials. You should invite celebrities from Jingchu to the banquet. Thank them for giving money and food to calm the Western Barbarians, and at the same time, they will also give porridge to the people, and then publicly declare that they will not accept congratulatory gifts. This will not only relieve the emperor's worries, win the heart of love for the people, but also undermine the influence of the government, and also leave a reputation in the emperor's heart. It can be said that he will kill four birds with one stone."

"I'm going to kill four birds with one stone!" Zhu Zhen praised it very much. "Just do what you say. You will write the invitation wording. I will draft the list. The time will be set in ten days."

At this time, the guard's report came from outside the door, "Your Highness, Cheng Qianhu is asking for a meeting."

Aide Hu didn't like Cheng Qianhu, who relied on being the brother-in-law of the King of Chu, was domineering in Wuchang and was constantly doing evil. He stood up and said, "Your Highness, then I will avoid it."

"No! Don't leave." Zhu Zhen knew that his inner brother must have come for Lan Yuzhi's letter, and he really wanted to hear what Aide Hu said.

After a moment, the door was pushed open and a man with a bearded face came in. His name was Cheng Yannian. He was thirty years old this year. He was rough in appearance. He was not tall, but his shoulders were extremely wide and looked a little deformed. This man was rude and had no talent in his abdomen, but he was very good at ease. His girl was the one who took advantage of Zhu Zhen's opportunity to play and devoted him to Zhu Zhen's favor. He also rose to a thousand households the year before.

Cheng Yannian was lustful and had many good women. At the end of last year, he accidentally saw Ye Sutong, the daughter of the Hanyang prefect Ye Tianming, who was shocked, so he wanted to get her. He asked his sister to plead for the King of Chu several times, but Zhu Zhen was also in a dilemma. He had long heard that the lady of the Ye family had urinated since childhood, so Ye Tianming had rejected many noble proposals from the nobles in the court. Moreover, Cheng Yannian already had three wives and four concubines, and it was unreasonable to marry Ye Sutong as his concubine. However, Zhu Zhen could not resist the begging of his beloved concubine, so he looked for opportunities to hint Ye Tianming several times, but Ye Tianming was clear-cut: his daughter had promised her and had no luck in her fate, so Zhu Zhen had to do it, but Cheng Yannian refused to give up, so he decided to get Ye Sutong by any means.

The day before yesterday, Ye Sutong came to Wuchang and was discovered by his subordinates while waiting for the ship. Cheng Yannian immediately rushed to the dock and wanted Ye Sutong to get on his ship. Of course, it would be difficult to get off after getting on his ship. Ye Sutong ran onto the civilian ship. Cheng Yannian had no choice but to order two subordinates to stare at her and look for another opportunity in Hanyang. Unexpectedly, the two subordinates encountered the Jinyiwei on the ship. The name was not clearly seen, but one Jinyiwei was a hundred households.

Cheng Yannian thought about it all night and thought about the sudden rise in Wuchang recently. The more he thought about it, the more he felt strange. How could the Jinyiwei appear in Wuchang? And it was a hundred households,

When hundreds of households appear, they usually come to handle the case. Could it be that there will be any case in Wuchang? He hesitated for a night and decided to report the matter to Zhu Zhen.

Cheng Yannian walked up to Zhu Zhen and knelt down, "I am Cheng Yannian to meet His Highness."

"Get up and talk!"

Zhu Zhen was basically satisfied with this brother-in-law. Although he caused a lot of trouble for himself, he was smart and capable, loyal to him, especially his ability to command the army, making up for his lack of talents in this area.

Zhu Zhen was also very concerned about the progress of Lan Yu's letter, so he asked him straight to the point: "Is there any news about that matter?"

Cheng Yannian stood up and bowed and replied, "Report to your highness, your subordinates have sent additional personnel, but the deployment of control in Wuchang is still a bit thin. There is no news at the moment. I beg your highness to add additional personnel to me."

Zhu Zhen pondered for a moment and said, "This is how you do it! Your mission is just a temporary action. I will allow you to select some staff from the royal family to supplement it, and disband them after the matter is over. Is that good?"

"Thank you, your highness, I have something to report."

"What's up?"

Cheng Yannian did not dare to say that the wharf intercepted Ye Sutong, and pinched the branches and said, "After hearing the report, Wuchang discovered the hundreds of Jinyiwei households. For some reason, his subordinates dared not hide it. They came here, so they came to report to His Highness."

Zhu Zhen and Aide Hu looked at each other, and their eyes showed surprise, but their thoughts were different. Aide Hu thought that the Li Shanchang case might really involve Huguang officials, and the case was in danger of expanding, while Zhu Zhen thought that his father was secretly observing him. It seemed that he had to be careful when treating him this time and could not be caught by the Jinyiwei. He nodded and said, "I understand, you can quickly find the whereabouts of the letter. This is the important thing."

"Yes!" Cheng Yannian said yes, but his feet did not move. Seeing that he looked inappropriate, Zhu Zhen asked again: "Is there anything else you have?"

"That's the matter." Cheng Yannian glanced at Aide Hu and hesitated: "I can give up my second wife's position. I want to ask Your Highness to go and tell me again."

His sister was in a bad mood these two days, so he didn't dare to go to find her, so he came directly to ask the prince and brother-in-law for help. Zhu Zhen suddenly realized, and was both angry and funny in his heart. This brother-in-law was very infatuated. He pondered slightly and smiled, "If you can complete that letter beautifully, I will definitely go and have a good talk with Prefect Ye again to fulfill your wish."

"Thank you, Your Highness! Thank you, Your Highness!" Cheng Yannian thanked him repeatedly and slowly withdrew from the room. As soon as he left, Aide Hu immediately advised: "Your Highness, you must not agree to Cheng Qianhu's affairs about the daughter of Prefect Ye."

"I'm just the beauty of adulthood, so what's the harm?" Zhu Zhen felt a little unhappy when he saw that he repeatedly opposed him today, but he knew that Mr. Hu's words must have a basis, so he restrained his displeasure and said lightly: "Why not to talk about the reason for Mr. Hu?"

Aide Hu sighed: "Your Highness always says that the beauty of adulthood is just to fulfill the beauty of thousands of households throughout the journey. Ye Tianming refused many times, and his attitude is clear. If Your Highness goes on and over again, this is called relying on power. Ordinary small families are OK, but Ye Tianming is very famous in Qing Dynasty, and he was born in a professional orthodox manner. He has always been the person concerned by the emperor. If you force him to marry a daughter, if this matter is to be the literati and officials of Xie Jin, the officials and the imperial officials.

When they learned that they were in the same spirit, they would definitely report to the emperor. Maybe the ugly things about Cheng Qianhu were revealed together, and His Highness’s image in the emperor’s mind would be destroyed. Moreover, he thought that after the Li Shanchang case, the emperor would definitely promote a group of new people according to the old rules. Ye Tianming’s conditions were extremely tough, and he might be valued by the emperor. If he ascended to a high position, how could he give up with His Highness? Your Highness, this is a spring of trouble, so you should not be careless!"

Zhu Zhen suddenly woke up and nodded slowly, "Thanks to your reminder, otherwise I will commit a stupid thing again, okay! I should write a book to calm Ye Tianming down."

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Chapter completed!