The news that Emperor Longqing was angry with Chu Jingmeng and Chu Jingqian soon reached the Jiang family. After all, Jiang Zining was the prime minister, and he soon heard from Emperor Longqing himself why he was so angry about this incident.
The imperial study was very quiet. Jiang Zining could even hear his own breathing. He felt a little embarrassed. His heartbeat, which had been very slow, suddenly started beating fast. He frowned slightly, raised his head with a slow reaction, glanced at Emperor Longqing quickly, then lowered his head in a hurry, and said in a low voice, "This matter... doesn't make sense. Why would the two princes go against a guilty minister?"
As he spoke, he stared at his feet, stood up and bowed to Emperor Longqing as usual: "Your Majesty, I'm afraid this matter is a little strange."
Emperor Longqing's health was getting worse. Even at this time, he was lying on the couch. He leaned on the pillow and coughed for a while with a flushed face. Then he looked at him and sneered: "Is there something strange? The person was caught red-handed, but he dared to reach out to the Jinyiwei. What else could be strange?"
He was very angry, his eyes were cold and his face was filled with viciousness.
Perhaps when a person is seriously ill, they don't have much time left, so they no longer have to think about or worry about anything, let alone hide anything. The voice of Emperor Longqing made Jiang Zining tremble in his heart.
Censor Chen was just a criminal, and he did not take him seriously. At first, he did not even think about the existence of such a person, until Chu Jingmeng and Chu Jingqian came to him in a panic and told Jiang Songwen that Shen Chen had a plan to bring Censor Chen to the palace to meet the emperor, saying that he had evidence of their crimes in his hands. Only then did they panic.
Originally, Jiang Songwen didn't take it too seriously. Censor Chen had already been branded as a criminal by Emperor Longqing. His crime was that he failed to supervise the imperial mausoleum properly. But in fact, it was his collusion with Prince Linjiang and his close relationship with Prince Linjiang that completely lost the favor of Emperor Longqing.
In Emperor Longqing's mind, there was no way to turn over such a charge.
But Chu Jingmeng was so anxious that he was about to cry. He told them tremblingly that Shen Chen had asked them to help intercede with Emperor Longqing and asked Emperor Longqing to meet Censor Chen. He said that Censor Chen had collected all the account books of tributes that Jiang Songwen had obtained by virtue of his control over the Ministry of Works. He also said that Shen Chen said that the account books not only contained records of Jiang Songwen's past acceptance of bribes, but also evidence that this time Jiang Songwen was ordered by Jiang Zining to write a letter ordering those local officials to approach Prince Linjiang.
This is the most important thing.
Emperor Longqing hated those who formed cliques for personal gain, and Xia Song died because of this.
Jiang Zining has always pretended to be very good, always saying that he only has disciples and no clique. Moreover, he used the incident of Prince Linjiang to act as a loyal minister in front of Emperor Longqing. His future official career will be extremely smooth and he will become extremely prominent.
He couldn't fall at this step, because if he did, he would be like Xia Song and the others before.
At this point, the people I have offended are countless. If I fall one day, how can I have a good ending
So even if he had not thought of killing Censor Chen at the beginning, once this incident came out, he had to be killed.
But they don't want to do it themselves.
When people reach a certain level, they will cherish their lives very much. Just like them, they regard life as extremely important. Even if Censor Chen is a criminal, his death will not affect anything. To a large extent, he will not be taken seriously or noticed by Emperor Longqing.
But they still haven't decided to do it themselves.
Since Chu Jingmeng and Chu Jingqian are so sincere, and what they have handed over as a token of their allegiance are the lives of the Chen family's members, then just let them do their job to the end and send Censor Chen to heaven with them.
Anyway, it's better not to bother two people for one thing.
Chu Jingmeng and Chu Jingqian agreed. They had no reason to refuse. They were princes who had been demoted to commoners, and they were able to see the light of day again because of their Jiang family.
They knew very well that Emperor Longqing's temporary favor was unreliable. He was about to die, and the throne would soon be taken over by someone else. Only by clinging closely to their Jiang family could they get temporary peace or future wealth.
It is normal to take some risks, do some things and pay some price for this wealth.
With the Jiang family's connections, it was indeed very easy to contact the Jinyiwei to take action - the Jinyiwei people had long been no longer a group of ironclad people.
After hearing the news of Censor Chen's death, they were completely relieved and began to take action against Shen Chen. They sent a forged letter to Emperor Longqing, which was written in Shen Chen's tone, describing all the grievances of Emperor Longqing and others, and asked Prince Linjiang to make proper plans for himself and the future.
These words clearly contain the intention of rebellion. They were written by the followers of the Chiang father and son, and every word is precious.
If Emperor Longqing knew about this, Shen Chen would surely be dead.
In fact, after Emperor Longqing learned of the existence of the secret letter, he was indeed furious and quickly ordered Shen Chen to be executed.
But some problems occurred in the process - because Shen Chen was not executed immediately, but was taken to the palace by Young Master Lin to meet Emperor Longqing.
Young Master Lin is an extremely scary person. Even if he is not the emperor's uncle, Jiang Zining would stay away from this person and not offend him if possible. This time, because they want to plot against Shen Chen, they even thought of a way to transfer Young Master Lin to Tongzhou in advance to capture the prisoner.
Who knew that Young Master Lin did not leave at all, and rushed to the Pingxi Marquis Mansion at the last minute, rescued Shen Chen, and brought Shen Chen into the palace.
When Jiang Zining received the news, he knew it was not good, so he immediately packed up and asked someone to contact Eunuch An to get information.
Jiang Zining sighed in his heart. Thinking of these things, he felt a headache. He didn't know what Shen Chen had said to Emperor Longqing. Emperor Longqing was so angry that not only did he not kill Shen Chen, but he also asked him to deal with Chu Jingmeng and Chu Jingqian. He wanted to exile them and never recall them.
He knew in his heart that there was definitely a problem, but he didn't know where the problem lay. Regarding yesterday's incident, the information he got from Eunuch An was limited and there was nothing useful at all. He had no way of finding out, so he could only find out step by step.
When Emperor Longqing mentioned this matter, his expression was so sinister that his heart skipped a beat. He quickly reacted and immediately lowered his head to look at his feet, looking at his nose and his heart, and said: "Your Majesty... The Prince of Linjiang is a very scheming person. The Marquis of Pingxi has been with the prince for many years and has long been like a father and son to the prince. When the prince got into trouble, he was very anxious... This matter is probably related to the Marquis's excessive anxiety..."
Emperor Longqing glanced at him sideways. (To be continued)