The room was spacious. Xie Liangcheng asked them to sit at the round table in the middle. He moved his arms and legs freely before saying, "I know you guys have a lot of things to do. In the final analysis, they are plotting against me just to plot against An An and you. You are their ultimate target."
Xie Liangcheng is a very open-minded person and also an extremely kind person.
He obviously knew a lot of things. He had been in the hands of the Third Brothers for so long and suffered so much. He must have known Xue Changshi very well and must have known the relationship between Xue Changshi and Chu Jingxing. From his point of view, it was inevitable that he would suspect Princess Linjiang.
With his ability, he must have had his suspicions.
But he did not mention it in front of Chu Jingwu.
Whether considering his friendship with Wei An or considering Chu Jingwu's face, this person is really rare and extremely smart.
Shen Chen finally understood why Wei An trusted him so much and recognized him as his sworn brother. He became closer to him than before. He sat next to him and said, "Xue Changshi and his men came all the way from Guangchang with great resentment in their hearts. This time they came with the intention of catching us all in one fell swoop, so they came with such a fierce momentum. They were so cruel to you that they wanted to kill you. I wonder how the prince is doing now."
The prince he was referring to was of course Prince Zheng.
Xie Liangcheng tapped his fingers on the table, as if he didn't feel the pain from the wound on his body. He didn't frown as he said, "They use all kinds of tricks, but their goal is to make us all die in disgrace. That's why they led me to the border and deliberately framed me for colluding with the Tatars. The method used to deal with the prince is actually similar. They want to slander the prince for treason."
Shen Chen immediately understood what he meant. He glanced at Wei An and knew that Wei An also knew it, so he couldn't help but said, "Shandong Dongchang!"
Wei An almost said these four words at the same time as him.
As soon as they finished speaking, they were both stunned, looked at each other, and smiled at the same time.
Xie Liangcheng looked up at Wei An, and saw that when Wei An looked at Shen Chen, his eyes were brighter than usual. He knew what was going on, and felt that his decision not to keep asking Chu Jingwu questions was correct. When Shen Chen finished speaking, he nodded and said, "Dongchang, Shandong, was purged because of you. That incident involved not only local officials, but also many wealthy local families. You can say that the impact you have caused is huge, and those people rebelled because of you."
Those newly appointed officials naturally wanted to make a lot of efforts, but because of the previous events, the people of Dongchang were already unstable and their vitality was severely damaged. Once the contradictions were intensified, some people rose up in rebellion.
In addition, a lot of things have happened since Emperor Longqing came to power, and the incident in Dongchang Prefecture was just an excuse for the natural disaster.
Those officials ignored the fact that the local area was suffering from drought and kept the tax collection concealed from the court, which led to this incident. When the incident broke out, they did not dare to take responsibility, so some officials simply followed the rebels and became traitors.
You know, when the people become ruthless, they will be most hateful towards those in official positions and will do anything.
The magistrate of the county where the riot started was beheaded by the victims, and his entire family was killed and robbed, making the situation a complete mess.
Officials are also human beings, and as human beings, they are afraid of death.
Given the premise that Shen Chen had been assassinated in Dongchang Prefecture before, which led to a major reshuffle of the Dongchang Prefecture officialdom, they had no confidence in the court and always felt that the court would not let them go, so they simply rebelled.
Those who join the rebellion always hope to have better protection. In addition, Xue Changshi and others may use some acquaintances to act as go-betweens and instigate. The people of Dongchang Prefecture are most likely to attack King Zheng, hoping to drag him to be buried with them, or they really want to drag King Zheng into the water.
Wei An and Shen Chen both felt that they were the most likely ones to take action.
In other words, King Zheng is most likely in Dongchang Prefecture now.
Shen Chen glanced at Wei An and immediately said, "Don't worry, after I go to Shandong, I will do my best to search for the prince. No matter if the officials of Dongchang Prefecture or Xue Changshi's people got the order, or if those officials just wanted to drag another person into the water, they will not kill the prince. After all, the prince's identity is special, so it should be too late."
Chu Jingwu also nodded beside him: "If I were them, I would not feel confident in doing such a thing of confiscating the family and exterminating the clan. Anyway, we have already gone down a path to the end, and we will definitely not care about anything else. If we can find a prince, when he really becomes powerful, we can use him as a cover and raise the banner. If he doesn't become powerful, there will be someone to take the blame. Anyway, he will not be killed."
But the prince will definitely have to suffer a little.
Especially if it was really planned by Xue Changshi and others, then they would have suffered a lot. After all, Xie Liangcheng was only Wei An's sworn brother, but King Zheng was what they considered to be Wei An's nominal father.
But he didn't dare to mention these things now, and comforted Wei An: "Second brother has always been steady in doing things..."
Wei An hummed, then turned around and asked Xie Liangcheng: "I have already interrogated Xue Changshi and confirmed that he is unwilling to speak. Brother, do you still want to ask him in person?"
Xie Liangcheng raised his eyebrows, and a dark shadow appeared in his surprisingly bright eyes: "There are some things he won't say, but there are also some things he may not be unwilling to say. When I was in Datong before, I vaguely heard some things, and I want to verify them."
The third brother and his friends were not familiar with that group of Tatars. It seemed that those Tatars only recognized tokens of gratitude and would only interact with them based on these tokens.
And according to the third brother, the token is not in Xue Changshi's hands, but in the hands of someone else.
Xie Liangcheng was very interested in this other person. Even if he couldn't find out who this other person was, it would be good to ask what the token was, or the whereabouts of those Tatars.
You know, if his guess is really confirmed in the future, and it is indeed Princess Linjiang who is plotting against Wei An and Shen Chen, then this will be a bargaining chip that can really help Wei An and Shen Chen deal with Princess Linjiang.
If the previous attempt to murder Wei An and Shen Chen could only be regarded as a personal moral failure, then colluding with the Tatars was truly an unforgivable crime that was condemned by the people of the world.
King Linjiang would never tolerate this woman again.
Wei An is still surrounded by dangers. This time, the torture he inflicted on him by the third brother and others made him more deeply realize their malice towards Wei An becoming Shen Chen's wife, which made him feel very uneasy.
When he said that, Wei An nodded and said, "I'll let Lin Yue take you there when the time comes."
"No need to wait until then." Xie Liangcheng shook his head: "Anyway, I have nothing to do now, let's do it now." (To be continued)