Jinyi champion

Zhu Hao took Xu Jie back to Beijing.

When he arrived in the capital, the emperor was still stranded in Xishan and had not returned.

In fact, Zhu Hao didn't have any specific purpose for returning to the capital this time. It was like the emperor put on a posture and concentrated on waiting for the enemy to throw himself into the trap.

And Zhu Hao is the net that Zhu Si laid in advance.

Without even enemies, this net has no practical effect.

Xu Jie didn't quite understand the errands he had to do when he returned to Beijing, and he had to leave as soon as he returned to the city: "Jingdao, if you are very busy, I will go back to the Ministry of Industry, I can't touch some things!"

Xu Jie probably knew that Zhu Hao was going back to Beijing to lead the Dongchang and Jinyiwei to do things. It sounds weird. A foreign minister actually controlled Daming's factory guard system. Who would believe it?But Xu Jie also knew that it was impossible to judge the relationship between Zhu Hao and the emperor with common sense, so he simply chose to avoid it.

Zhu Hao said: "Zisheng, you handle the case with me, there are some things that you must come forward!"

"What's the matter?"

Xu Jie looked puzzled.

Zhu Hao said with a smile: "You are going to see that Hanlin scholar Zhang Cong, pass some messages for me, and tell him... this matter can only be investigated on him!"

"what?"

Xu Jie was very surprised, why did Zhang Cong come up all of a sudden?
Aren't Zhang Cong and Zhu Hao in the same group?
Even if there is a little grudge between the two, Zhu Hao wouldn't take Zhang Cong as a knife, would he?
Zhu Hao said coldly: "Zisheng, you have to go, unless you think this court can accommodate an official without any background..."

In the words, Zhu Hao threatened, you must go, otherwise go back to your hometown to farm!
……

……

Zhang Cong thought that Zhu Hao would have nothing to do when he returned to the capital, and he didn't even intend to guard against Zhu Hao until he saw Xu Jie who came to visit the house late at night.

"Xu Zisheng, didn't you go to Tianjin with Zhu Jingdao? Why did you come back so soon?" Zhang Cong said, "He came back to serve His Majesty, what are you doing?"

What Zhang Cong meant is that it’s fine for you to stay in Tianjin. Zhu Hao is a big tree on your list. He relies on you so much that he even transferred you from Yang Shen’s side early. He didn’t get involved in the Zuoshunmen incident. Why didn’t you Stay in Tianjin and help him build a ship as a reward?
Xu Jie said: "Zhu Shilang has something to say, let me come down and tell Zhang Xueshi."

"Oh? What?"

Zhang Cong asked coldly.

Xu Jie hesitated for a moment, and suddenly remembered Zhu Hao's threat. In order to stay in the court with peace of mind as an official, he could only truthfully say: "He said that he knew that you were secretly spreading rumors that His Majesty left Beijing for Xishan, and that he had enough evidence. .Now that the civil servants have not responded to His Majesty's incognito tour, he can only investigate you!"

"what?"

Zhang Cong was furious when he heard this.

I didn't deal with you Zhu Jingdao, are you targeting me?
and many more!

How did that kid know about this?
Could it be that……

From the very beginning, it wasn't Huang Zan who gave me the information, but him?He deliberately digs a hole to frame me?

Xu Jie wondered: "I don't want to get involved in right and wrong, but I was entrusted by Zhu Shilang and had to come to explain the situation. The grievances between you...I don't understand."

"Can you not understand?" Zhang Cong had long regarded Xu Jie as part of Zhu Hao's party, how could he believe what Xu Jie said now?
Xu Jie said: "Even before returning to Beijing, I only knew that I was returning to the court under the emperor's order, and I didn't know what errands to do. What I thought about was to return to the Imperial Academy to serve in peace. , I... really don't understand what his intention is!"

When Zhang Cong heard this, his face was stern.

Now it is equivalent to saying that Zhu Hao has put the cannon to his door, and he has clearly warned him that the next step will be to send Jin Yiwei to arrest people, and Zhang Cong may be in bad luck at that time.

But what does it mean for Zhu Hao to notify in advance?
Zhang Cong's mind was in a mess for a while, and he couldn't understand the trick at all.

"That's all for now, I bid farewell!"

Xu Jie was also frightened.

I even began to wonder whether I should take the initiative to go to the university and ask to be transferred to Nanjing to work?

Seeing that he was about to get involved in the dispute between Zhu Hao and Zhang Cong for no reason...

In other words, is this the main contradiction in the court today?Why did the two of them obviously belong to the Yili sect, but they got into such an incompatible situation?
"Ah."

Zhang Cong waved his hand, not even intending to see off the guests.

……

……

Xu Jie left, Zhang Cong immediately sent someone to call Huo Tao.

Now he doesn't care about avoiding taboos. Since Zhu Hao knew that he was the one who disclosed the matter of the emperor's tour to the civil servants, he must have known who the person who was secretly helping him was long ago. It is very likely that Huo Tao and Zhu Hao are in the same group...Of course this is the case. Just an assumption.

According to Zhang Cong's thinking, Huo Tao should not defect to Zhu Hao, the most likely is that Huo Tao was also taken advantage of.

"Then... what should we do then?"

After hearing Zhang Cong's introduction, Huo Tao's eyes were wide open, his forehead was sweating, and his nervousness was beyond words.

Zhang Cong said: "You really don't know what role Zhu Jingdao played in it?"

Huo Tao had a bitter expression on his face: "I'll let you know the news after I heard it, and I also said that the news came from the factory guard, or that it's because someone doesn't like Zhu Jingdao's behavior... If you think it's a deliberate design , then I will try to find the person who leaked the news to us, so that we can launch a counterattack!"

"It's useless!"

Zhang Cong shook his head, "It was also me who was negligent. I always thought that Zhu Jingdao was not in the capital, so there would be no disturbances. Who knew that he... Sigh!"

Huo Tao didn't quite understand: "Zhu Jingdao said he has evidence...where did the evidence come from?"

This is a situation that Huo Tao cannot understand.

It was just a letter, and Huo Tao asked himself that even the person who sent the letter might not know who was behind it, and the main reason was that the ministers confirmed that the emperor would not go to court through personal experience the next day, so they started talking, thinking that the emperor might go on tour Yes...someone endorsed it, this person can only be Huang Zan...

Huo Tao couldn't figure out what role Zhu Hao played in it.

Zhang Cong said: "Before, Zhu Jingdao had always been very docile and seemed not to fight with others, but even Yang Tinghe, Jiang Mian and others were pushed out by him one by one. What kind of trouble do you think he would have? Not only did he With the support of the emperor, and the support of the old man of the Xing Palace, there are many tricks! Now I am afraid that he will eradicate those of us who have used it once, so as not to disturb him in the future to control the government!"

"This...has never been used by him before Xia."

Huo Tao seemed very wronged, who am I provoking?

Zhang Cong said: "Don't you belong to me?"

One sentence awakened Huo Tao. Although he rose through joining the Yili faction, before the Zuoshunmen incident, did anyone know of Zhu Hao's existence?It's all through Zhang Cong's threading.

In the past, everyone thought that Zhang Cong was the leader of the Ritual Sect, and even Huang Zan and Tang Yin were just a cover. After all, Huang Zan and Tang Yin did not have the courage to move forward when mobilizing courtiers to discuss rituals.

On the contrary, it was Zhang Congzhengde who played the ceremony in 16 years, making him the object of friendship for all those who are interested in discussing the ceremony in the world.

To put it another way, perhaps in Zhu Hao's eyes, all the people who later participated in the ceremony belonged to Zhang Cong's faction.

Except for Huang Zan and Tang Yin!

"Then... how to deal with it now?"

Huo Tao's mentality is obviously not as good as Zhang Cong's.

Zhang Cong sighed: "It's a pity that Zishi is not in the capital. Perhaps Zhu Jingdao chose to attack because of this. Now I am afraid that Zhu Jingdao will even deal with Zishi. When the time comes...our rising stars may be in the court. The middle position is hard to secure.”

"What should we do now?"

"I can only try to find someone to minimize the impact of this matter, and at the same time insist that it was Zhu Jingdao who framed it out of thin air! His Majesty would not believe this kind of out-of-the-box thing without conclusive evidence, and it didn't happen. Substantial evil results, I don't believe he can come up with any convincing evidence!"

"Yep."

Huo Tao agreed with Zhang Cong's point of view, "If he had evidence, he wouldn't let Xu Jie come to scare you! He deliberately disturbed our hearing!"

……

……

The next day, there was still no court meeting.

Zhu Si stayed in Xishan, and there was no news about when he would return to Beijing. At the same time, the ministers knew that the emperor would not come back in a short time, because yesterday they dispatched several groups of troops from the Beijing camp to guard Xishan.

The yamen of the Ministry of Rites.

Zhang Cong visited in the morning and went directly to the official office dedicated to Shangshu. Zhang Cong spoke earnestly and explained Zhu Hao's threat to him to Xi Shu.

Xi Shu was puzzled: "It's really you?"

Zhang Cong shook his head: "How is this possible? What good will it do me to reveal His Majesty's whereabouts?"

Xi Shu thought about it, although he suspected Zhang Cong early in the morning and felt that this person was unscrupulous, but it seemed that it was really difficult for Zhang Cong to benefit from the emperor's tour of leaking secrets.

"Then why did he do this to you?"

Xi Shu frowned, "Could it be Xu Zisheng sowing discord?"

"Impossible! Zhu Jingdao trusts Xu Zisheng so much that he even took him with him when he went to Tianjin. This time they came back together!"

Zhang Cong answered firmly.

Xi Shu said suspiciously: "Then I don't understand what you are worried about...Since the matter of His Majesty's tour and leaking secrets has nothing to do with you, then let him talk about it! Would His Majesty condone the infighting among the people around you? Although Jing Dao is young and energetic, But it still makes sense, I haven’t seen him make any waves in the court in the past few years, and no one even knows what his position is for a long time.”

According to Xi Shu, are you, Zhang Cong, too worried?

You think you have a high rank, but in fact you are only a Hanlin bachelor at best, and that is the position Zhu Jingdao obtained when he was not a rarity. You said that you have a high reputation in the Yili sect, but you didn't see how high you are. It's all your own nonsense.

Zhu Hao doesn't even deal with Fei Hong and others, so he will deal with you first?

To put it bluntly, are you qualified?
Zhang Cong said: "Since he has no intention of fighting, why did he send someone to tell me these things?"

Xi Shu shook his head: "If you have doubts, you can go to see him in person and ask him face to face. He has already returned to the capital! If you don't want to go, then I will go, and I can even ask you clearly... You meet now I don’t want to ask for evidence, I just want to create confrontation, and I don’t want to persuade His Majesty to return to the capital as soon as possible, so that the court can be stabilized, there is no distinction between priorities!”

Zhang Cong said coldly: "The enemy has already cornered me, if you still keep giving in and compromise, then I'm afraid there will be no room for me in this court!"