After a new year, the tense situation that had been turbulent in the past years has at least eased a little on the surface. In the palace, Concubine Yue made a gesture of showing weakness, and the Queen's main focus was on stabilizing the Sixth Palace, and the two did not have too much conflict for a while. In the court hall, although the Prince and King Yu were still at odds with each other, because there was no new lead for the time being, the situation of the needle tip against Maimang has been reduced. The official confrontation between the two made people feel very peaceful, and even a little too peaceful.
Sure enough, the leisurely days do not last for a few days. On the twenty-first day of the first month, a loud noise shook half the capital.
At that time, Mei Changsu, who was basking in the warm winter sun by the window, felt a slight tremor that was almost imperceptible. After about half an hour, he learned that the tremor was not an illusion.
"The gunpowder stored in the private gunsmith exploded unexpectedly?" After hearing the news from Li Gang, Mei Changsu closed his eyes and murmured to himself, "King Yu is indeed more ruthless than me... He is actually able to make things happen. It's so loud..."
"It is said that it was caused by the recent lack of snow and dry weather and the fall of Mars. After the explosion of the entire private gun workshop, it was razed to the ground. It was initially estimated that there were more than 90 households involved in the surrounding area, most of which were destroyed by subsequent fires. More than half of the neighborhood was burned, and the casualties were heavy. Now, because the bodies are incomplete, it is difficult to determine how many people died, but there are dozens of people in the single private gun workshop, plus the civilians who have suffered unwarranted disasters, at least there are more than 100... "
"What about the wounded?"
"Nearly 150 people, about 30 people were seriously injured."
"How is the fire now?"
"Fortunately, there was no wind today, and it didn't extend to the next neighborhood. Now it has barely been extinguished. However, the fire was too big at that time, and there were only so many people who arrived at Jingzhao Yamen first. The residents who put out the fire couldn't control it at all. Neighboring people were busy transporting property, some treacherous people began to take the opportunity to loot, and the patrol battalion arrived at this time. His Royal Highness King Jing led his own soldiers to the scene to calm them down. Later, His Royal Highness King Jing spent part of the tents in the army to accommodate the victims and the injured for the time being. The doctors and medicines in the Taiyuan Hospital were all registered by the official, and they could not be allocated for a while, so His Highness contributed funds. The subordinates have already started the medical cousins in the capital to go to support the expropriation of civilians." "Well done." Mei Changsu praised, and added, "The burns are not easy to cure, the Xunyang Yun family has something to do with it. A good plaster, send someone to fetch some and give it to King Jing."
"Yes."
Mei Changsu's eyes flickered for a while, and he said: "Now that the first month is almost over, it is not the most dangerous time, but this tragic accident happened, the timing is too coincident... Focus on investigating King Yu in detail and try to find evidence that he intentionally caused the case. How can so many lives die silently... Once there is any progress, report it to me immediately."
"Yes."
After Li Gang bowed and stepped back, Mei Changsu slowly got up, walked to the desk and unfolded a piece of snow-white rice paper, and began to paint with ink, trying to stabilize his mind. Fei Liu also came in and took a pen, lying beside him and drawing silently, accompanying him silently. The sun's feet outside the window moved slowly, and Mei Changsu's mood gradually settled. After finishing one painting, when he stopped writing and stood up, he felt a little sore in his waist, and the teenager next to him raised his head, his beautiful big eyes full of concern.
"Flying out to play, right?"
"No!" The boy shook his head.
"Then... go out for a walk with Brother Su?"
"it is good!"
Mei Changsu picked up a large fur coat with mink lapels from the hanger next to him, put it on, and walked out of the room. Seeing that he was dressed for going out, the guards in the courtyard were busy preparing the sedan chair. After the group exited the gate, they followed Mei Changsu's instructions and walked across the street to a street where there was still smoke.
Although there is no clear card, but the Jingzhao Yamen's catchers form teams in twos and threes, still preventing idlers from going in and out at will, from a distance, half of the neighborhood is broken and ruined, filled with a smell of burnt stench. Occasionally, there are still remaining open flames, which are doused by the patrolling officers and soldiers. Mei Changsu got out of the sedan chair and walked inwards along the deserted street. The guard who was in charge of guard saw that he was dressed well, and he didn't know what the reason was. Although he still had to follow his duty to ask questions, his attitude was still kind.
"I'm..." Mei Changsu was thinking about what would be more appropriate to say, when he suddenly saw Lie Zhanying coming out of a corner by Zhonglang from Prince Jing's Mansion, he raised his head and greeted him.
In fact, Lie Zhanying didn't talk to Mei Changsu much at all, but he was still impressed by Mr. Su, who directly led to the internal rectification activities of Prince Jing's mansion. Seeing people take the initiative to greet him, he immediately responded politely.
The catchers stared blankly at the two of them waving at each other, thinking that they were both from Prince Jing's mansion, and hurriedly stepped aside to make way. Mei Changsu walked over quickly and asked, "Where's His Royal Highness Prince Jing?"
"Inside..." Lie Zhanying pointed the direction with his hand gesture, and suddenly felt that it was not very appropriate, so he asked, "Did His Highness invite Mr.
Mei Changsu looked back at him and said deliberately, "No, His Highness has been hiding from me and didn't want to see me. I heard that he was here today, so I came here."
"Ah?" Lie Zhanying was just stunned, but Mei Changsu had already walked away. When he reacted and rushed to catch up, King Jing happened to be patrolling from the inside with his personal soldiers, and the three bumped into each other. face to face.
"Mr. Su?" Although King Jing was also a little surprised, he immediately understood, "Any major event in Beijing can't escape Mr.'s eyes."
Mei Changsu looked around, although there was still a sound of mourning in his ears, but there was no one who was displaced from the streets. There are tents next to each other on both sides of the road, and officers and soldiers are holding pots of steaming food and distributing them tent by tent. The smell of herbs wafted from the other side of the street, and white cloth-covered stretchers were being carried out.
"If it's a battlefield, it's nothing, but this is the prosperous imperial capital of Daliang Kingdom, and the scene is a bit tragic," Mei Changsu sighed, "Your Highness has really worked hard."
"They are all diligent and conscientious commoners. No one knows that there is a gunpowder store next to their house." King Jing also sighed and signaled Lie Zhanying to step down, "Maybe it's really fate, it can be more than that. Just one day…”
Mei Changsu raised his eyebrows, "What do you mean by this, Your Highness?"
"Shen Zhui happily told me yesterday that he finally found out the fact that the Crown Prince and Lou Zhijing of the Ministry of Household set up a private gun shop to make huge profits, but he has no right to seal it up immediately, so he has already submitted a report to the Holy See, requesting His Majesty allowed the Jingzhao Yin House to help seal up this private gun shop, seize the stolen money, and arrest the suspect. He was very confident at that time and said that Zhu's approval would be issued within a day or two. I didn't expect... Hundreds of lives were wiped out in the blink of an eye in such a tragic accident... and for most of them, it was a disaster."
Mei Changsu gave him a deep look, "Your Highness thinks, this is an accident?"
King Jing's eyes condensed for a moment, and he slowly turned his head to look directly at Mei Changsu's face, with a cold tone in his voice: "What is Mr. Su implying?"
"Shen Zhui, as his successor, is impeaching his predecessor. No matter how many witnesses there are, it will be nothing more than a corruption case. After all, the prince is the prince. No matter how His Majesty reprimands him, the punishment will be invariable. It doesn't hurt. But now a cannon rang out, and the matter was suddenly made known to everyone. In the end, this is also hundreds of lives, and the people's grievances will soon form a state of uproar. The prince will be punished, I'm afraid it will be more than It was much heavier in the past. Please think about it carefully, Your Highness, the Crown Prince will definitely suffer when this case gets bigger, so who will benefit?"
"Just to increase the weight of the crown prince, Prince Yu treats human life as nothing?" Prince Jing's expression was tense, anger was gradually filling under his skin, and iron lines were drawn from his lips. After muttering to himself, he suddenly turned his suspicious gaze to Mei Changsu again, "Is this Mr. Su's miraculous plan for King Yu?"
Mei Changsu thought he heard it wrong at first, turned his head to look at Prince Jing, and then slowly realized that what he said was indeed what he had heard. Although it was misunderstood, and in terms of the situation, it wasn't too much to be angry with, but for some reason, Mei Changsu felt a burst of anger in his heart, forced himself to endure it for a long time, and said coldly, "No. After the incident, I investigated and speculated."
King Jing saw his face sinking, his tone was very cold, knowing that he had said something wrong, he apologized in his heart, and hurriedly said: "I misunderstood, sir, don't worry about it."
Mei Changsu turned his head to one side lightly, looking at the collapsed private house blackened by the smoke, and said nothing. King Jing's temperament has always been arrogant. After apologizing, others ignored him and refused to say another sentence. The scene suddenly cooled down.
At this time, an internal history of Prince Jing's mansion ran over and said: "My lord, my subordinates have been ordered to investigate. In addition to the materials spent by the inner courtyard of the mansion, a total of 200 tents and four quilts have been spent on the military account. One hundred and fifty beds. These are military funds, do you want to report them to the Ministry of War?"
"Thanks to your reminder, otherwise I would have forgotten. Although this is not a big deal, it is better to report to the military department."
"Yes." Just as Neishi was about to leave with a salute, Mei Changsu suddenly whispered two words. Because of the low voice, even King Jing, who was only a step away from him, was a little unsure whether he heard it right or not. He glanced at him and saw that the other party's eyes were lowered and his expression was quiet, and he didn't mean to repeat it again. He couldn't help but move slightly, and said to the Neishi: "You have a lot of things in your hands, so it's the king who forgot. , you also forgot, there is no need to report to the Ministry of War for the time being."
For such a strange order, Nei Shi really couldn't think of the reason, and opened his mouth in surprise for a long time, until King Jing frowned, then quickly agreed with a "yes" and walked away quickly.
When he was far away, Jing Wangfang asked slowly: "Sir, you know that although this batch of military funds has been allocated to me, it has been used for the resettlement of these disaster victims. , why did the gentleman say no?"
"Is it wartime now?"
"no."
"Is this a large batch of military funds?"
"It's almost nothing in terms of numbers."
"Can't the tent and quilt be recycled after use?"
"Of course it will be taken back in the end?"
"During the non-war period, borrowing a few tents and a few quilts to go out, what's the big deal?"
"Though the matter is small, it should be informed according to the system..."
"What if you don't tell me?"
King Jing's eyes narrowed slightly, "Sir, you should know that the Ministry of War is the sphere of influence of the Crown Prince. Although this fault is small, once caught by the Ministry of War, I'm afraid that he will still be involved with me."
"I just want them to join you." Mei Changsu turned to face Prince Jing, "Your Highness is eager for justice and kindness to the victims, is this a bad thing?"
"of course not… "
"His Royal Highness has done a good deed, and the mistake he made is only a small one, not worth mentioning. The Ministry of War can clearly understand His Highness's momentary negligence, but he insists on holding on to it. If this complaint is brought to the cabinet, the courtiers will think that Is it your Highness that your sin is unforgivable, or did the Crown Prince use the hands of the Ministry of War to suppress you?" A sneer hung on Mei Changsu's lips, "It is far from the Prince who can cover the sky with one hand, and the Ministry of War wants to join you, you just need to admit your mistake. It's just a matter of urgency and miscellaneous things, just ignore it for a while, and even if King Yu doesn't show up, there will naturally be Geng Jie's courtiers who will come out to speak for you, what's there to worry about?"
King Jing proudly said: "I'm not afraid of what the Ministry of War will do to me, no matter how strict my father is, I don't care about this small crime, but it's just that this omission can be avoided, so why bother with it? out?"
Mei Changsu's smile was even colder, "How can you not make trouble? Now that the courtiers are busy, most of their eyes are on the Crown Prince and Prince Yu. How many people will really notice what His Highness does? Although it is more work and less talk , but don't say it yourself, let others say it is always okay. When the Ministry of War sues, the emperor and the courtiers will notice that when the prince and the prince are biting and tearing each other, who is controlling the scene? Who is it? Peace of mind of the people? Who is clearly silent, but yet to be attacked? Everyone has a steel scale in their hearts, and there will naturally be a public opinion about what is right and what is wrong. On the other hand, if Your Highness, you report to the Ministry of War now, although things are done flawlessly, But the effect is counterproductive, and the good deeds of His Highness are buried in vain, as if the clothes are walking at night, no one knows."
King Jing's two strong brows furrowed together, and said, "This king does these things, not for others to see."
Mei Changsu sneered a few times and said, "If you think about showing it to others before you do it, then it's a matter of His Highness's virtue, but if you've done good deeds and no one knows about it, then I'm useless as a counselor. ... Even for Su, please feel sorry for your Highness."
King Jing listened to his words with ridicule, and his words were sharp. Knowing that his temperament was not flat, he was not annoyed, and said lightly: "Mr. is all for me, so why not talk about grievance. This is a thoughtful sir, and I am ashamed. Why don't you do everything as you say."