Pingyang Fu of the Red Chamber

Chapter 195 The Palace of Zhongshun Was Banned
Inner City of Beijing,

Qianqing Palace,
With Emperor Wu's exclamation, everyone around knelt down and pleaded guilty. Seeing this scene, Zhou Shihong cursed angrily;
"If you don't send someone to find out the situation immediately, they will all be dead."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

Just when Dai Quan arranged for people to go out again, Ma Jianshi of the Imperial City Department brought people over and knelt down to worship;
"Report, Your Majesty, Dugong, I have something important to report from my humble position."

Seeing that it was his own people coming, Dai Quan's face softened a little.

Emperor Wu hurriedly said;

"Say, what happened?"

"Returning to Your Majesty, the Chunlou in Dongcheng City was set on fire by gangsters, and the fire was out of control."

Seeing Ma Mengquan's elm-headed head at this time, Dai Quan interrupted when he asked whether the building was a person or not;
"Don't talk about this, let me ask you, what happened to the nobles, the chiefs of the ministries, and the prince in the Chunlou."

Seeing Duke Du winking at him, Ma Mengquan knew that he had said something wrong, so he immediately replied;
"Return to Your Majesty, Dugong, no one was burned, and the fire only started after people came out. All the princes and nobles left early, and basically all of them left before it happened."

Emperor Wu Zhou Shihong felt a little weak after hearing this, so Dai Quan hurriedly helped him up.

"Your Majesty, it's all right."

"Well, it's fine, it's fine, it's fine. Tell me what happened tonight, why you left early, and who started the fire? Get up and talk."

Ma Mengquan bowed again,
"Thank you, Your Majesty."

After Ma Jian got up, he told the details of the matter and the ins and outs, especially the bet between Luo Yunhou and Jia Zhen, and a poem about the frontier army.

In the end, it was revealed that there were gangsters attacking and killing the guards of Chunlou, and they should have started the fire.

Emperor Wu Zhou Shihong listened carefully, and his face was also vague after listening, and ordered;
"Go, pass the decree overnight, confine King Zhongshun for three months, and within three months, including the eldest son and princess, are not allowed to leave the mansion, and let the imperial guards bring a guard to surround them. Look after it."

"Yes, Your Majesty, this old slave will arrange someone now."

Dai Quan turned around and ordered Manager Yang to do it himself.

Looking at the flames that were still burning, the Emperor Wu suddenly smiled and said,
"It's burning well. The fire illuminates the capital so brightly that the darkness can't hide it. Only in this way can we know what's hidden below."

The people around lowered their heads, not daring to speak.

After watching for a while, Emperor Wu Zhou Shihong said to Dai Quan;

"Go back to the Hall of Mental Cultivation to rest, Ma Jian has done a lot to you, go back to rest early, and discuss this matter later."

Ma Mengquan immediately knelt down to thank him,
"Thank you, Your Majesty Ron."

Emperor Wu nodded and walked back. Dai Quan was naturally protecting him. When he walked, he pointed at Ma Jianshi, who was kneeling on the ground, to the east. Ma Mengquan immediately knew what the Duke meant and nodded. .

Dai Quan turned his head and left after seeing this.

On the way back to the Hall of Mental Cultivation, Emperor Wu repeatedly chanted this frontier poem, so Dai Quan had to wait carefully.

"Dai Quan, this poem is so rare, it can be seen that only those who have been in the frontier army for a long time can understand it and write it. Oh, the imperial court has indeed lost money to the soldiers in the frontier army."

"Your Majesty, don't blame yourself. The frontier army has been very difficult since ancient times."

Dai Quan was by his side to comfort him.

"Yeah, I know it all, but who wants to solve it, and I don't, hey."

With the sigh of Emperor Wu, it fell into silence again.

Before the Qing Palace.

Ma Mengquan got up, and then said to the person who brought him;

"Everyone, work harder and keep an eye on Chunlou carefully."

"Yes, my lord."

Seeing no one around, the general flag asked;

"My lord, do you want to send out a large-scale manhunt?"

Ma Mengquan stared and scolded;

"What are you thinking about? Tomorrow is the Great Court Meeting. Now the focus is on stability. Go back and ask Ji Qianhu to lead people to look at the Chunlou, so that the idlers don't approach, and arrest all the staff in the Chunlou and take them back to the Imperial Prison for custody. .”

"My lord, will this offend that one?"

Zongqi didn't dare to say the word Zhongshun Wang, he could only understand it.

Ma Mengquan pondered for a moment, stroked his beard and said;

"I can't do without arrest. If the emperor asks, at least there is someone who is responsible. As for that person, I still don't understand. The emperor is angry this time."

Several general banners and Shibaihu households looked at each other, suddenly realized, and then thanked in unison;
"Thank you, my lord, for reminding me."

"Well, let's go now, lest people run away, and be fast."

"It's an adult."

Ma Mengquan also knew that soldiers are expensive and fast, so he went back to the Imperial City Si Yamen without any nonsense, ordered his men and horses, and went straight to Chunlou.

The surrounding area of ​​Chunlou has been cleared and isolated, and the onlookers can only watch the fire engulf it.

As for Eunuch Yang, after receiving the oral order, he hurriedly took Xiao Huangmen and the guards on duty, and led a guard to the Zhongshun Palace.

And Zhou Yunzhen returned to the palace with a gloomy face,
So he went to the study with Mr. Mo. Zhou Jianan was practicing calligraphy in the study at this time, and he also felt something in his heart. He raised his head and looked at the porch, and saw Shizi and Mr. Mo coming, so he asked;
"Zhen'er is here, today is going well, why did you come back so early?"

Zhou Yunzhen replied with a wry smile;
"Father, the success fell short. Unexpectedly, Jia Zhen and Luo Yunhou had a brainstorm again, and they immediately left the stage early. All the people who watched the play left, and the play would not be able to be performed."

The pen in Zhou Jian'an's hand was also stunned, and a corner of the fine rice paper was cut hard, Zhou Jian'an put down the pen in his hand and sighed;
"It's the two of them again. The Jia family and the Zhang family are nobles and have in-laws. Will they show it to outsiders? The Wang family is the bond inside."

Hearing his father's suspicion, Zhou Yunzhen shook his head and denied;
"Father and son-in-law don't think that today the two were tit for tat, and Jia Zhen played tricks, but in the end she ended up in a disastrous defeat. She vomited blood and fell to the ground with a pale face. The scolding came out, so the conflict between the two families is now known to everyone."

King Zhongshun suddenly became interested and said with a smile;

"Okay, now that you've said that, he's an old dog, so isn't the Jia family a litter of dogs, haha."

"By the way, what can be so angry that you vomit blood?"

Zhou Yunzhen told all about Chunlou, and Zhou Jianan listened carefully, with a look of regret on his face.
"Zhen'er doesn't have to blame herself, the past is over, what should be done is basically done, the rest is just icing on the cake, you too."

"Report. My lord, something is wrong. My lord!"

Before the father and son finished speaking in the study, they heard the shouts of the guards from outside the study, and Mr. Mo and the prince were also shocked when they heard it.

Zhou Yunzhen opened the door, and the guard just ran in, so he knelt down and said;
"My lord, my son, it's not good. The Chunlou is on fire, and it's impossible to save it."

"what."

Zhou Jian'an yelled, and then the three of them hurried out of the study and went up to the attic to look east. The red sky indicated how strong the fire was.

Looking at the fire, Mr. Mo hurriedly reminded;
"My lord, hurry up, arrange for your own people to go out and hide, and then send your confidants to see what happened?"

Zhou Jian'an was still in a daze, but Zhou Yunzhen came to his senses and hurriedly arranged for a confidant to check in advance, and then asked Mr. Mo to take someone out of the mansion to live in another courtyard of the Wangfu, playing by ear.

However, as soon as he left, Eunuch Yang, the grand nephew, brought people to the outside of the palace. Without any explanation, he asked the forbidden army to block the palace, and then entered with the little yellow gate. The whole palace already knew the news that the forbidden army came here.

Zhou Jian'an looked anxious, and Zhou Yunzhen was also praying that nothing would go wrong, and when Eunuch Yang entered the main hall and saw that Prince Zhongshun and his son were there, he said directly;
"The Emperor's decree."

"Your brother Zhou Jian'an has given you an oral order."

After the father and son both knelt down to accept the order, Eunuch Yang said;

"The emperor ordered that Zhongshun Wang's mansion be banned from leaving the mansion for three months. The manor is guarded by the imperial guards. I respect it."

After Eunuch Yang finished speaking, Zhou Jianan and Zhou Yunzhen worshiped at the same time;

"The younger brother accepts the order."

Then the two got up and hurriedly took out 1000 taels of silver bills and handed them over, asking anxiously,
"Which family was hurt by Mr. Yang at Chunlou?"

Eunuch Yang took the bank note, touched it, put it in his sleeve, and comforted him calmly;
"My lord, don't worry. Although the building is on fire, everyone is fine. It's just that I have wronged my lord for a while."

Prince Zhongshun and his son looked at each other and heaved a sigh of relief, thanking them again and again;
"Don't be wronged, don't be wronged, send a message to His Majesty, and say that the younger brother knows his mistake."

Eunuch Yang snorted,
"It's good to know what's wrong, the prince should take care of it and rest at home,"

Eunuch Yang didn't give King Zhongshun a chance to speak, he led Xiao Huangmen back to the palace and returned to his life.

But Zhou Jianan scolded with a cold face;

"What's going on, so many guards are blind."

"Father calm down, it's my son's negligence, I didn't expect the villain to attack after the person left."

"Hey, that's all, it's lucky that no Xungui was injured, otherwise my father and son would be in trouble, do you know who did it?"

Zhou Yunzhen wiped the sweat off his forehead and replied;

"Father, I don't know yet. The loss this time is too great. Those collections have not been brought back, and the chief steward has not rescued them there. Those things must have been buried in the flames."

Zhou Jian'an didn't think about those things at all, they were all confiscated by the White Lotus Sect before, um, the White Lotus Sect.

"Zhen'er, could the White Lotus Sect do it?"

Hearing his father's question, Zhou Yunzhen also stood there thinking. After careful reflection, he found nothing suspicious. Besides, the White Lotus Sect hadn't come back for many years, but the Tianping Sect was suspicious.

"Father, my son thinks it should be the work of the Taiping Sect."

"How to understand?"

Zhou Jianan asked suspiciously,

"Intuitively, the Taiping Sect is very domineering and more ruthless."

The reason why Zhou Yunzhen said this was because the White Lotus Sect hadn't found a single person for many years, but there were many spies in the Taiping Pope City Division, so they must have many eyes and ears. Tonight is a gathering of nobles, so he will definitely not give up this opportunity.

"Think of a way to inform Mo Lao that he is dormant during this period of time."

"It's the father, the son knows."

And Zhang Jinyu, hugging left and right in the Hou's mansion, enjoying the blessings of Qi people, and dreaming beautifully on the big bed.

But I don't know that there is already a torrent and undercurrent outside.

(End of this chapter)