This Jinyiwei is obviously super strong but draws too much

Chapter 1142 The mysterious master

The head of the Jinyiwei has been replaced four times, but Lord Zhu has never moved away. He can be regarded as a legend in the Jinyiwei.

There are many legends about this old man, ranging from a mentally retarded old man who knows no martial arts to a god with unparalleled skills in ancient and modern times. In short, there are all kinds of rumors, and no one can make a judgment about this old man.

However, since the previous commander, Lord Lu, accidentally became the emperor after leaving the Jinyiwei, he was somewhat curious about this old Lord Zhu, so naturally there would be people who knew the inside story who would come and tell him about the past.

The old members of the Jinyiwei died or retired, and now there are only a few people left who know what happened back then. Meng Yuan is one of them, and another is Qiu Qingyun, who also served as a Tongzhi.

After Mr. Meng was taken away by Aunt Axiu, his whereabouts were unknown. Apart from knowing that he was still alive, even Lu Hanjiang found it extremely difficult to meet him, so the only one who could answer his questions was Qiu Qingyun.

As Meng Yuan's close comrade-in-arms, the former Tongzhi Qiu knew a lot of secrets, including the glorious resume of Mr. Zhu.

In general, the fact that Mr. Zhu was able to stay in the position of Tongzhi for more than 60 years was not entirely due to his unparalleled qualifications. This gentleman had two amazing highlights.

One of those times, which was also the first time that Mr. Zhu became known to Meng Yuan, Qiu Qingyun and others, was during the palace coup several decades ago.

The history of the previous emperor's ascension to the throne was written with the blood and corpses of countless people. At that time, the royal family in the capital fought for the dragon throne and the blood flowed like a river. The cruelty was far greater than this time when Lu Hanjiang came to the throne.

At that time, Meng Yuan was still a playboy, with no official position or job. Apart from his martial arts, he had almost no outstanding qualities. It was just a pipe dream for him to help the late emperor.

So at the last moment of seizing the throne, Meng Yuan used his family connections to get himself into the ranks of the Jinyiwei, because these were the only two teams that could use knives in the capital.

Afterwards, the old man began to lobby his colleagues in the Jinyiwei with his eloquence. Meng Yuan was a smart man, and he soon discovered that when the situation had become clear, the top leaders of the Jinyiwei were almost all pawns of various forces. Not only would he fail to win them over, but he would also easily expose himself.

Therefore, Meng Yuan decisively gave up the work of instigating rebellion among the upper-level forces, and then he concentrated on lobbying the thousand households and hundred households who directly commanded the soldiers.

During the palace coup that followed, more than half of the fourteen thousand households were won over by Meng Yuan, but even so, this force was still insufficient when facing enemies that were several times their number.

At that time, Meng Yuan sent all his forces to the late emperor to prepare for changes in the palace, while he stayed in the Zhenfu Division as bait to attract the firepower of other forces.

Originally, Meng Yuan's plan was to rely on his martial arts to hold on until the late emperor won the tough battle in the palace, but what he didn't expect was that the princes and the aristocratic families had joined forces to gather a large number of elite soldiers and martial arts masters. He was no match for them and was about to be killed on the spot.

It was at this critical moment that Mr. Zhu, who had already reached the rank of Tongzhi at the time, came forward to help Meng Yuan without consulting anyone beforehand.

The situation was critical at that time. Meng Yuan, Qiu Qingyun and others were forced to defend the Beizhenfusi yamen. They were about to be wiped out, but suddenly Lord Zhu intervened.

The old man stood alone in front of the rebels, with his hands behind his back, not saying a word. His indifferent eyes seemed to regard the thousands of troops in front of him as grass. He had the posture of a peerless master, and scared the rebels so much that they dared not step forward.

At that time, Lord Zhu seemed to have no involvement in the disputes in the capital. Holding a pen in one hand and documents in the other, the old man seemed to be just passing by. However, it was this detached calmness that made the rebels look at each other in bewilderment. After shouting and cursing for a long time, no one dared to take action.

The two sides were in a stalemate, and the situation dragged on until the late emperor dealt with all the opponents in the imperial city and stabilized the situation and rushed with his army. The rebels who realized it later wanted to fight to the death, but unfortunately the opportunity was fleeting, and these people were defeated and killed. Later, Meng Yuan was grateful for the help of Mr. Zhu. After he became the commander, he purged almost all the original people in the Jinyiwei, but kept the position of Tongzhi for Mr. Zhu, and later he repeatedly petitioned the late emperor to reward this old man.

During the time when Meng Yuan was the commander, Lord Zhu was most favored by everyone in the Jinyiwei, which naturally attracted the attention of others, such as Mr. Baimei, who had not yet entered the court at that time, and Luo Yuanjing.

Master Luo was not only a great Confucian scholar, but also a swordsman who was able to compete with the abbot of Shaolin Temple. His martial arts attainments were derived from the world's best Confucian knowledge, and he was a true master.

After learning about the existence of Master Zhu, Master Luo once went to him to seek advice, but due to his status as the head of Confucianism, this competition could not be made public.

Apart from the parties involved, there were only two people who witnessed the competition. One of them was Qi Yunzhou, the eldest disciple of Master Luo, and the other was Qiu Qingyun of the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

According to Lao Qiu's recollection, the two masters stared at each other from dozens of steps apart. Although neither of them made a move, their eyes had met in the air countless times.

Qiu Qingyun said that he saw Master Luo's face full of shock, and he wanted to draw his sword several times but finally stopped. In the end, the duel ended in nothing. Master Luo did not draw his sword, and Lord Zhu did not make a move either, so it was a draw.

However, Qiu Qingyun, who was not very fond of the academy and the group of Confucian scholars, insisted that Master Luo was just being cowardly. Although he was not sure why, the Jinyiwei won the battle anyway.

Qiu Qingyun's ideas are very personal, which is understandable considering his background as a member of the Imperial Guard, but they are inevitably biased.

So in order to find the truth, Lu Hanjiang found another audience member from that year. Qi Yunzhou, who was Master Luo's eldest disciple, obviously did not have such high moral integrity. He recounted the battle of that year very objectively.

Simply put, what Qiu Qingyun said was basically correct. Mr. Luo was indeed very cautious and did not take any action in the end. In a sense, this was considered as admitting defeat.

However, after the competition, when the master and disciple were on their way back to Jiangnan, Qi Yunzhou heard the old master swearing for the first time. According to him, after that, every time Master Luo talked about this competition, his face became as black as the bottom of a pot, with an expression that could not bear to look back.

After finding out this much, Lu Hanjiang had actually almost determined the old man's background, but some things had been left for a long time, so it was inevitable that there was a sense of uncertainty.

So he still went to look for Qiu Qingyun without giving up.

"How good is Lord Zhu's martial arts?" Lu Hanjiang asked.

This time, Qiu Qingyun hesitated for a long time, and finally said: "What happened back then, whether it was the thousands of rebels or the peerless masters like the old master, these were not things that ordinary people could deal with. Since the old man stood in front of me without fear, I believe he must have some skills."

Lu Hanjiang touched his chin and said, "If that's the case, then I'll find a chance to try it too?"

"Your Majesty, wait a minute! What if the old man gets hurt?" After Qiu Qingyun said this subconsciously, he was also stunned. Then he and Lu Hanjiang looked at each other and laughed out loud.

The emperor's curiosity ended there, but as Qiu Qingyun occasionally spoke the truth after drinking, many people still believed that Mr. Zhu was a mysterious master of the Jinyiwei.