Chapter 14: Taking Advantage of the Opportunity to Make Money

  The Eastern Depot had been idle since the first year of Chongzhen, when Emperor Chongzhen ordered that no one was allowed to leave without permission. Occasionally, they would run errands, but it was never as glorious as before. This time, following Emperor Chongzhen's imperial edict, they searched for accomplices of the assassin and exerted all their energy. Except for the palace where the Empress, the Imperial Concubine, and Wang Cheng'en were staying, which remained calm, the rest of the palace was in an uproar, with chickens flying and dogs jumping about.

  It started with just investigating Wang Xiong's usual associates and palace eunuchs, but Wang Xiong was a person who had been ordered to be killed by the previous emperor and was saved by Wei Zhongxian. The current Emperor Chongzhen is also the mastermind behind the attack on Wei Zhongxian, so how many people dare to associate with Wang Xiong? As a result, nothing could be found out, so the scope of investigation began to expand, starting with those who had been close to Wei Zhongxian's faction.

  In fact, this assassination was very simple. Wang Xiong Wu had always regarded Wei Zhongxian as his savior, but he was killed by Emperor Chongzhen. Previously, there had been no opportunity to do so, and it just so happened that Zhong Jingwei appeared, and then was arranged to be on duty in the side hall where Emperor Chongzhen thought it was safer inside the palace. The incident of Zhong Jingwei gave him a shock, including Wang Chengen who did not carefully guard Emperor Chongzhen's safety.

  In addition, by the end of the Ming dynasty, the discipline of the imperial guards had become very lax. (According to legend, during the Tianqi period, the palace was even burgled, and the guards did not even see the shadow of a thief, only finding a rope hanging from the wall.) This gave Wang Xiangxu an excellent opportunity to assassinate Emperor Chongzhen. The poisonous throat-constricting insect toxin was something he had obtained by chance while working in the imperial stables. That's the whole story of the assassination.

  Naturally, the event gradually began to degenerate, with those who had grudges seeking revenge and those who had grievances complaining. Those who had neither grudges nor grievances simply made a fortune. Of course, all of this was tacitly approved by Cao Hua Jun, and some of it was even instructed by him. This opportunity was too good to pass up.

  On this day, Archie had just finished feeding Zhong Jinwei a liquid diet and was sitting in front of his bed, holding the bowl and gazing at Zhong Jinwei's unconscious face. At this moment, Zhong Jinwei was the most important man in Archie's life. Not to mention that Archie had already been bestowed upon Zhong Jinwei by Emperor Chongzhen, but just from these few days of interaction, Archie felt that Zhong Jinwei didn't treat her as a servant girl or something similar, giving her a feeling that Zhong Jinwei treated her as an equal person, or a friend, or perhaps someone he simply admired. Thinking about this, she couldn't help but blush. In fact, Archie had another kind of admiration in her heart for the strong, or those with abilities, it's just that she hadn't discovered it yet. Archie silently prayed to all the Bodhisattvas and gods in heaven, please let Zhong Jinwei recover soon.

  At this moment, the door of the side hall was roughly pushed open, and two East Factory thugs rushed in. The guards at the door shrank to one side, apparently not daring to show any resistance.

  One of the Dongchang guards said to Archie: "Are you Archie?"

  A Qi stood up in a panic and said in a low voice: "Yes." Then the policeman said: "You've committed a crime, come with us."

  "A Qi was stunned and said: 'What, what's going on? I didn't do anything.'"

  The guard held up the steel knife and said, "The accomplices of the assassin who attempted to kill Your Majesty have already confessed. There is evidence against you too. If you don't confess your crime, come with us quietly and suffer less punishment."

  Aqi was shocked and stunned for a while before reacting, panicking: "No, no, I'm not, I'm not an accomplice of the assassin, they must have remembered it wrong."

  Actually, there was no such thing as the assassin's confession. The palace had been searched thoroughly, and these two suddenly remembered that there was a palace maid named Aqi who was skilled with her hands and often carved things to sell outside the palace, making a lot of money, so they came to extort her.

  Two of the bandits looked at the little girl who was scared to death, exchanged a glance, and one of them who had not spoken before said: "Looking at you, you don't seem like an accomplice of the assassin, maybe it's just a misunderstanding."

  Aqi nodded hastily. Fanzi didn't let Aqi start, and continued: "But since we have a confession, although we want to help you get out of this, it's also very troublesome. You know that this matter can't be settled without that thing." After finishing speaking, he made a hand gesture indicating money.

  He finally understood that they were here for the silver. Now, since he was in a difficult situation, he thought it would be better to spend some money to get rid of them. He nodded and went to his own room, took out all his savings and said to the two men: "Thank you two brothers for your help, this is my entire savings, please help me to borrow some."

  Two coins were exchanged with a smile, thinking it was quite good. But after weighing them in hand, the face changed, and Archie was scolded fiercely: "Just this little silver, to send away beggars!"

  A Qi stepped back, looking wronged and said: "I only have 42 taels of silver in total, all here." For an ordinary palace maid, it might be almost enough, but rumors had it that A Qi sold her carvings for a lot of money, at least over 100 taels. Here, not even half of the money was present. The two guards felt they were being fooled and angrily said: "You've sold so many things outside the palace, yet you only have this little money? Since you love money more than your life, I'll fulfill your wish, take her away."

  Aqi was actually wronged. Firstly, rumors are always exaggerated; secondly, she indeed had more skills than other palace maids and could sell them for money, but they were all entrusted to the guards to sell, those guards bullied her as a weak woman, long-term in the palace did not understand the market, just pressed an extremely low price back to her, swallowing most of the money.

  "Aqi immediately knelt down, crying and saying: "I really only have this much money left, I still need to take care of the young master. Please, two nobles, be kind and help me out. My young master saved the emperor and is the one the emperor values most. Now if I leave, there will be no one to take care of the young master."

  When two police officers took away the offender, what kind of reason hadn't they heard before, where would they believe it, and directly went forward to lock up Aqi.

  When they passed the gate, Li Li and Zhu Guozhong, who were guarding the gate (the previous two guards had been punished for dereliction of duty), plucked up their courage and said: "This, this, can't be taken away, he is the person arranged by His Majesty to take care of Mr. Zhong." The two Japanese samurai were furious, seeing that there were still two more people coming out, so they took them all away together.

  Zunhua, in front of the Shuntian Governor's Mansion, there are two stone tablets, "Fu'an" and "Jingjing", respectively. At the gate, soldiers with guns stand guard, looking solemn and stern. Ordinary people usually try to avoid walking on this side of the road unless they have to pass by the governor's mansion.

  On this day, the weather was as hot as ever, and there were few pedestrians on the road. The soldiers at the gate also looked lazy and lacked spirit. Suddenly, a horseshoe sound came, and at this time, someone was still running on the road, either with a nervous breakdown or an urgent matter. Several soldiers looked up to see that from afar, judging by their clothes, it was a middle-ranking official and two brocade-clad imperial guards who were riding over. The small head of the gate guard, having seen much and knowing many things, knew they had come to deliver an imperial edict. He quickly arranged for one soldier to go inside to report while also arranging for someone to go up to receive the horses.

  As they approached, several soldiers came forward to hold the reins of the horses. The official did not say much and directly said: "There is an imperial edict for the Governor of Shuntian, Right Vice-Director Wang Yuan-ya, to lead the way."

  Wang Yuanye, also known as Pu He, a native of Taiyuan Wei, Shanxi Province, was resting in the back at this time. Upon hearing that an imperial edict had been issued, he hastily changed his clothes and prepared to receive the edict in the Xiang Tang Hall. After the central official arrived and stood in the center of the main hall, he said: "By order of His Majesty, Wang Yuanye, the Right Vice Censor-in-Chief of Shuntian Prefecture, is summoned to receive the edict; all others are to withdraw."

  After everyone else had left, two Imperial Guards closed the gate and stood on either side of it.

  Everything is ready, and the official begins to convey Chongzhen Emperor's oral decree: "There is a change in Liaodong, I think it is very likely that the bandits will bypass Shanhai Pass, take the Mongolian route, and suddenly enter your defense zone to attack the capital. Therefore, you should be highly vigilant, diligently train your troops, and if you encounter an attack by the bandits, you must hold on firmly. I will mobilize the army to fight a decisive battle against the bandits and annihilate them in one fell swoop. This is top secret, and only you need to know."

  Wang Yuan-ya listened to the imperial edict of Chongzhen Emperor, and was taken aback. Previously, he had heard that the commander-in-chief of Ji-Liao, Yuan Chonghuan, had killed the general of Pidao, Mao Wenlong, but how did the emperor infer that Jianyu would come to attack his defensive area, instead of attacking Yuan Chonghuan, and still came all the way here? It's impossible, as it had never happened before.

  Wang Yuanye thought so, but the Chongzhen Emperor had already said so. As a working man, what else could he do? He could only follow orders. So he said: "I obey your edict."

  After the transmission of the imperial edict was completed, the central official was about to take his leave when Wang Yuan-ya secretly handed him a silver ingot from his sleeve and asked: "His Majesty is far-sighted and wise, I am deeply impressed. Does your honor know if there are any other reasons for His Majesty's judgment?"

  "Our family doesn't know," the official said, having accepted the bribe, and after a moment's pause, he lowered his voice and continued, "But I've heard that there is a strange person in the palace who gives advice to His Majesty." He didn't dare mention spirits or monsters, as all officials are alike; if he dared say such things, it would be considered seditious. After finishing speaking, fearing Wang Yuan would ask more questions, he hastily took his leave and left.

  Wang Yuanye didn't bother to ask the eunuch who had delivered the edict, and instead thought to himself: "What a strange person, what kind of strange person would give His Majesty such a foolish idea? It's going to waste money and grain. Since the edict has already been issued, we have to follow it, otherwise, if something really happens, we won't be prepared and will end up in trouble."

  After consideration, he sent people to find Da'an Kou Canjiang Zhou Zhen, Longjing Kou Canjiang Zhang An De, and Malan Gu Canjiang Zhang Wan Chun and others to come over for a military meeting.

  Previously, the abolition of soldiers was promoted, and as a result, there was almost a military mutiny. The world is not very peaceful now, and the abolition of soldiers is really helpless. It's all because of the shortage of military rations and fodder, and the court can't provide them, so they have to adopt a cheap strategy. Now that war preparations are about to begin again, even with toes, it can be known that another water battle will be fought for military rations and fodder.

  King Yuanye still had some military rations and fodder in his hands, which was the only benefit of the previous troop reduction and also the basis for not opposing Emperor Chongzhen's oral order. Several generals came and heard King Yuanye say this, and they immediately made a fuss. One said that the soldiers under him were so hungry that they could only swallow their saliva in bed, economizing on food, how could they have the energy to train? Another said that the military pay had been delayed for so long, if it wasn't issued, there would be no motivation; another shouted that the armor was all broken, even the battle robes were patched up again and again, now they were all exposing their buttocks, see if some basic things should be issued. Anyway, just a bunch of excuses, the military discussion meeting became a complaining conference. If you want to practice martial arts, Governor, first satisfy the basic conditions.

  Wang Yuanye also had to rely on these people to get things done, and he had anticipated their reaction. He began to haggle with them, and in the end, they agreed that the soldiers would practice for 10 days, and at night, they would not be required to disperse to the Mongolian grasslands. In exchange, they would receive a certain amount of military pay and grain as compensation.

  The military meeting ended, Wang Yuanya's face was bitter, and he felt heartache for the accumulated military supplies; while the various generals returned with excitement, how many of these things given by Governor Zhang would really reach the soldiers' hands, just look at the smiles on their faces.