Yang Ning said: "You seem to be very afraid of King Huainan. Why, does he have a problem with our Qi family?"
Mao Wenshou said: "Your Majesty, you don't know. When the Holy One appointed the crown prince, there was some controversy in the court. Some people even directly wrote to the King of Huainan, asking the Holy One to appoint him. This was naturally the result of King Huainan's instructions behind his back. However, the appointment of the crown prince was not the same. There was indeed a disturbance, and several officials were even punished.”
"Oh?" Yang Ning said: "King Huainan has always been obsessed with the throne?"
"If only the King of Huainan has this idea, there is nothing to be afraid of." Mao Wenshou said: "But as far as I know, there are many people in the court who are on the side of the King of Huainan, including the Jindaohou among the four marquises. , the relationship with King Huainan is not bad."
"Jin Daohou?"
Although Mao Wenshou was only the local governor, he obviously understood the situation in the DPRK quite well. He explained: "Your Majesty, when Taizu conquered the world, he gathered a group of good ministers and generals under his command. Jin Daohou was promoted by Emperor Taizu. In addition to There are still many Jindaohou in the court who are the direct descendants of Emperor Taizu. After Emperor Taizong succeeded to the throne, he also promoted many talents. Jinyihou Qi's family was promoted by Emperor Taizong."
Yang Ning immediately understood. According to what Mao Wenshou said, there are still two factions of the Taizu family and the Taizong family in Chu State today.
Many officials headed by Jin Daohou were promoted by Taizu in the early years. These people naturally still have feelings of gratitude for Emperor Taizu. Although Jinyihou has outstanding achievements in the two generations of marquises, he was promoted by Emperor Taizong. Naturally, the people of this line hope that King Huainan, the direct descendant of Taizu, can inherit the country, and the rising stars like Jinyihou naturally strive to protect the line of Emperor Taizong, that is, to support the current prince.
"Since Emperor Taizong inherited the throne, didn't he... didn't he think about what happened next?" Yang Ning couldn't help but lowered his voice and said: "Officials from Taizu's line have different aspirations, couldn't Emperor Taizong see the clues?"
"Actually, there is no need to look for clues. The succession of the crown prince has always been stormy." Mao Wenshou sighed: "Emperor Taizong was passed down to the current emperor. At that time, many people wrote letters asking for the emperor to establish him. The King of Huainan was the crown prince, and there were not many of them. In fact, not many people mentioned that Taizong promised to pass the throne to the King of Huainan at the beginning. It was at that time that many rumors began to spread, saying that Emperor Taizong took over the jade seal. At that time, he promised that King Huainan would return the throne once he grew up. No one can be sure whether it is true or not. However, many people are talking about this matter, and it must be said that King Huainan is the orthodox heir to the throne. "Leaning forward, he lowered his voice and said, "Emperor Taizong conferred the title of Prince on Prince Huainan, so the turmoil has subsided."
"The Ninth Five-year-old is the foundation of the country. King Huainan and those under him are ambitious and are always a threat to the throne." Yang Ning whispered: "Emperor Taizong never thought of cleaning up?"
Mao Wenshou said: "Actually, Emperor Taizong has been making preparations. Originally, Jin Daohou was the number one general in Chu. The Jin Daohou clan has many people who are good at fighting. Jin Daohou's prestige in the military could be said to be the highest at that time. No one can surpass him. In order to weaken the influence of Jin Daohou in the military, Emperor Taizong reused the old Marquis. The old Marquis lived up to the expectations of the emperor, made great military achievements, and his prestige was as good as that of Jin Daohou. However, the country was not stable at that time. There are powerful enemies outside, and if Emperor Taizong attacks too harshly, I'm afraid our country will be in chaos first."
Yang Ning nodded slightly, but he could understand Emperor Taizong's thoughts.
The men and horses left by Emperor Taizu were all the heroes who founded the country. Although Emperor Taizong was also wary of that group of people, as Mao Wenshou said, once an internal purge started, the first victim would be the Chu State itself. Under the circumstances at that time , unity is better than anything else, a lifetime of civil strife is tantamount to self-destruction.
"After the death of Emperor Taizong, the Holy Emperor inherited the throne. He always comforted King Huainan and gave him many honors. In addition, he promoted many new officials. The officials of Taizu's line were also weaker than they were back then. A lot." Mao Wenshou said: "The general guarded the front line of the Huai River. He has made outstanding achievements, and the Holy One feels at ease. Over the years, the King of Huainan is said to be much more honest, and has not caused too much trouble. Only in the Holy Book When the crown prince was established, someone wrote another letter and was dismissed from office by the Holy Emperor."
Yang Ning said: "So you think this time the Holy Emperor passed away and the prince is far away in Eastern Qi, the Huainan King and his gang will take the opportunity to cause chaos?"
"This is not impossible." Mao Wenshou said: "If the general was still alive and held military power, King Huainan would not dare to act rashly. However, if the emperor died and the general died at this time, they might not be able to give birth to a child. So ambitious.”
Qi Feng finally said: "If King Huainan really succeeds, the first person he has to deal with will definitely be our Jinyihou Mansion."
At this time, Yang Ning had a rough understanding of the situation in the court. According to Mao Wenshou, the Jindaohou should be from the Huainan King's side, while the Jinyihou should be from Emperor Taizong's lineage. If the Huainan King was If he really sat on the throne, he would naturally not be able to let go of the Jinyi Hou Mansion.
When he left Beijing, he didn't know the inside story. Only then did he realize that the capital was actually in an extremely tense situation during this period. It's no wonder that many officials did not come to pay homage during Qi Jing's funeral. Even on the day of the funeral, there were not many officials to see him off. I am afraid that those officials saw that something was not normal in the palace, and they all knew that the Jinyihou Mansion was the key target of the Huainan King. Now that Qi Jing has passed away, in their view, Jinyihou Mansion is like an ant after autumn, unable to recover, so they all distanced themselves to avoid being involved by Jinyihou.
It's no wonder that just after Qi Jing's death, the Marquis of Wuxiang came to break off the engagement without waiting for the funeral. But there was a big mystery behind this.
His mind was spinning, but he was thinking in his heart that strange things happened to the Qi family recently. It couldn't be the Huainan King and his gang who were behind it, right
At this moment, someone outside the door hurriedly reported: "Your Majesty, a group of people suddenly came towards us. There are many of them. I don't know where they came from."
Yang Ning was startled, then suddenly patted his head and said, "That's one of our own, don't get me wrong." He knew that it was Gu Wenwen who got impatient with waiting and led his men to kill him.
When he came to the old house, he forgot that Gu Wenwen was still waiting for his signal, and said: "Those are the people of the Gu family. I didn't know that you had taken control of the old house. The Gu family made preparations and brought people over at night. We need to arrest those guys."
Mao Wenshou smiled and said, "Your Majesty, please rest first. I know them, and I'll explain them." He handed them over and went out.
Yang Ning waited for him to go out before asking Qi Feng: "Where is the fake Qi Cheng being held?"
Qi Feng said: "Locked in the woodshed, the prince wants to interrogate?"
Yang Ning nodded slightly, and Qi Feng said: "Send someone to guard him over there. We have interrogated him, but we didn't find anything useful. I'm going to bring him here right now."
Yang Ning stood up and said, "I'm going to the woodshed!"
The two of them went straight to the demolition house. There was a guard outside the door. Qi Feng opened the door. Yang Ning entered the woodshed and saw the fake Qi Cheng tied up like a rice dumpling and thrown in the corner of the woodshed. Hearing the noise, the fake Qi Cheng looked up. After taking a look, he was surprised when he saw Yang Ning, and said in a voiceless voice: "You... are you still alive?"
Yang Ning walked over and said with a smile: "The general manager expects me to die?"
Fake Qicheng opened his mouth, but no words came out, but there was fear in his eyes.
"Zhao Yuan is dead, oh, no, it's the judge." Yang Ning knelt down and said, "I also know about Jiuyou Ksitigarbha. In fact, I came to see you just to ask a few irrelevant questions. , if you answer honestly, you are insignificant, I can consider letting you live, otherwise...!" With a flash of his hand, the cold blade was revealed.
"Now that you know everything, what else do you have to ask?" Fake Qicheng said: "I told them everything that needs to be said, and I don't know the rest."
"It seems that you are still prepared to be loyal to Jiuyou Ksitigarbha." Yang Ning said with a smile: "But does Jiuyou Ksitigarbha care about your life and death? It is said that if you are loyal to Jiuyou Ksitigarbha, you will not go to hell after death. In that case , I will cut your throat with a knife now, you can try to see if you will go to hell?" After saying that, the cold blade was already pressed against Fake Qi Cheng's neck.
The corners of Fake Qicheng's eyes twitched and he said, "You... what do you want to ask?"
"Where did the tax money go?" Yang Ning said coldly: "You sent 20% of the tax money collected to the capital. Who did you give it to?"
Fake Qicheng said: "You should ask your Qi family. The tax money was sent to the capital and handed over to your Qi family."
"Don't fight with me." The cold blade in Yang Ning's hand moved forward again. It had cut the skin and blood was flowing down. The fake Qi Cheng had already shouted: "It's... the third old man of your Qi family!"
Yang Ning was startled, frowned and said, "Third Old Master?"
"Yes, the tax money has been delivered a long time ago. It was the third old man of the Qi family who sent someone to check and accept it." Fake Qicheng said: "The judge told me that this time the tax money does not need to be sent to the Jinyi Hou Mansion like before. It only needs to be sent outside the capital. Someone responds.”
Yang Ning looked sternly and asked: "Why do you want to hand over the tax money to the third old man?"
"When I came to the Qi family's old house, it was under the orders of the judge. We first kidnapped the real Qi Cheng, and then used him to threaten the old manager Qi Hong. We then found an opportunity to drug Qi Hong and control him, and then took control of the entire old house." At the critical moment of life and death, the fake Qi Cheng didn't care about his integrity and confessed: "After I took control of the old house, I found an opportunity to let the judge enter the old house. From the beginning to the end, everything I did was obeyed by him."
"Have you always been in contact with the Third Old Master?" Yang Ning asked, "Or did you just get in touch recently? Do you know Qi Yu?"
"I don't know exactly what's going on, but the judge said that your Qi family has our spies, and the judge knows everything about your Marquis' mansion." Fake Qi Cheng said: "Have the judge had any contact with the third old man before? I don’t know, I’ve never heard him mention the Third Old Master before, the expenses and income here are all handled by the judge, I just follow the instructions and do the specific work.”
"Is there your eyeliner in the Hou Mansion?" Yang Ning's eyes turned cold, "Who is the eyeliner?"