King Xiang of the Red Chamber

Chapter 730 Baochai: Such a person cannot be kept!

Although the emperor asked the question calmly, it brought great pressure to Daiyu.

But before she could answer, Yang Jingting replied, "Your Majesty, the princess...maybe she went out for something!"

Daiyu glanced at Yang Jingting beside her, her eyes almost spitting fire, thinking that this woman was either stupid or bad.

The next moment, Chen Zhi said in a sarcastic tone: "What could be more important than taking care of the queen mother?"

"Even if the Prince Xiang's mansion caught fire, she should stay in Kunning Palace to show her filial piety!"

After Chen Zhi finished speaking, Yuanchun asked again, "Sister Ting, why did Baochai leave?"

In fact, Daiyu was wrong. Yang Jingting just said it casually and did not intend to give others a handle.

At this moment, she also realized that this was not a simple question, but someone was going to attack Prince Xiang's Mansion.

Now that she has given birth to a child, she is even more closely tied to the Prince Xiang's Palace. Life and death, honor and disgrace are all part of it. She still has the structure to protect the palace from the outside.

The problem is that in this situation, she has no idea how to respond.

Yang Jingting was extremely anxious, with sweat breaking out on her forehead. She was very frightened at the moment.

If the Prince Xiang's Mansion suffered a great loss because of her, she would not know how to face her man when Zhu Jinghong returned home in a few days.

Just when Yang Jingting was feeling extremely anxious, Daiyu's voice rang out in her body.

"Your Majesty, the princess left the palace to get something!"

To Yang Jingting, these words sounded like heavenly music, but to Yuanchun and Chen Zhi, they sounded particularly offensive.

Both Yuanchun and Chen Zhi knew that Daiyu was extremely intelligent, so they were each thinking about how to refute.

"Get something? What?" Zhu Xianming frowned.

Yuanchun and Chen Zhi also wanted to know, so at this moment they were prepared to find fault with whatever Daiyu said.

Daiyu was obviously not so panicked, as she had already thought of a plan to deal with it. She replied respectfully, "Your Majesty, I saw that the Queen was worried about Prince Xiang in her dreams, and the Princess was really sad..."

"Just now, the princess suddenly remembered that I once painted a portrait of His Highness, and His Highness in the painting was so lifelike that it was almost a real person..."

"In order to relieve the Queen's longing, the Princess specially left the palace and returned to her residence to find this painting and bring it to the palace to present it to the Queen!"

This reason was impeccable. Yuanchun and Chen Zhi, who were ready to attack, were unable to say a word.

But they were both sure that Baochai had not returned home for a reason to paint.

But neither of them dared to reveal those shameful deeds because the time and place were not right.

At this time, Zhu Xianming sighed: "It's rare that she has such a heart!"

His words determined the nature of the matter, and Yuanchun and Chen Zhi did not dare to cause trouble anymore.

Daiyu breathed a sigh of relief, but her work was not over yet. She still had to ask Dong Fang to go back and pass on the message to avoid any more mistakes.

As for the paintings she mentioned, there were actually several of them in the palace. They were all painted by Baochai when Zhu Jinghong went on several expeditions, and Daiyu also contributed two of them.

This matter is settled, let's talk about Baochai. She has already taken a carriage back to the palace.

As soon as she entered the inner house, Xia Jingui appeared and knelt before her and paid her respects.

It was the coldest time of the year, and seeing Xia Jingui kneeling on the ground while pregnant, Baochai said, "Get up and answer!"

"Thank you, Princess!"

But when Xia Jingui stood up, Baochai had already walked into the hall, so she immediately followed her.

After entering the hall and entering the study, this was Xia Jingui's first time here.

"sit down!"

"Thank you, Princess!"

Sitting behind the desk, looking at Xia Jingui who had carefully taken her seat, Baochai asked, "Tell me...what's the matter?"

After looking around and confirming that only Ying'er and Wenxing were there, Xia Jingui said, "Princess, someone is trying to frame the palace and murder Your Highness!"

Xia Jingui thought that after she said this, the princess in front of her would be horrified, or at least nervous.

But at this time, Baochai sat quietly in her original position, just waiting for her to continue speaking.

Having been a princess for so many years and having experienced so many ups and downs, she has long since learned to keep her emotions under control and understands that she must remain calm at all times in order to make the right judgment.

"My wife's husband once offended some people in the army because of his bad temper, including Guo Xing, the lieutenant general of the Beijing camp!"

"This person was originally dead, but he came back these past two days and has been in contact with the city inspector Meng Kuan. As far as I know, the man surnamed Meng is a retainer of the Rui Wang Mansion..."

"They colluded with each other, intending to frame my husband and use this as an excuse to smear our palace!"

After listening to Xia Jingui's lack of focus for a long time, Baochai finally asked, "How did they frame me?"

"In the twelfth year of Zhengtong, this Guo Xing followed the imperial army to go to war and served as the commander of the guards of the late Governor-General Ning Huanxiang!"

"Later, Ning Huanxiang was attacked and killed, and Guo Xing also disappeared without a trace. The court ordered people to investigate and convicted Guo Xing for failing to provide adequate protection!"

"Who would have thought that Guo Xing actually returned to the capital two days ago, and got involved with Censor Meng, intending to frame our master for the attack on Ning Huanxiang!"

After hearing this, Baochai still did not get anxious. After thinking for a while, she asked, "Since they want to frame me, it must be a conspiracy. If it is a conspiracy... why do you know the inside story?"

This question stumped Xia Jingui, as she had never considered this before.

"Ok?"

"I haven't even asked for the details yet, but I've already rushed here!"

Before Baochai could ask, Xia Jingui continued, "My husband is waiting outside the house. I will go and ask him about it right away!"

"Go ahead!" Baochai's tone remained calm.

After Xia Jingui left, Baochai began to think carefully about the situation she had just learned.

She always felt that this matter was not simple, but no matter what the trick was, it was basically certain that the Rui Palace wanted to make a fuss about Ning Huanxiang's death.

According to Xia Jingui, the other party wanted to put the blame for Ning Huanxiang's death on Sun Shaozu and then throw dirty water on the Prince Xiang's Mansion.

Ning Huanxiang was the deputy governor of the Military Governor's Office at that time. He was considered to be a senior general with extensive experience, and the Ning family was also very influential in the circle of nobles.

If such a person was murdered, it would be a very serious case, and the person behind it must be the enemy of all the nobles.

The problem is that Sun Shaozu is a close confidant of Prince Xiang's Palace. Since such a person is involved in this matter, Prince Xiang's Palace can't even distance itself from him.

What's even more terrible is that Zhu Jinghong took over the military power after Ning Huanxiang's death, which led to his subsequent great military achievements. In a sense, he benefited from it, so he had the motive to instruct Sun Shaozu to harm people.

Thinking of this, Baochai felt a chill on her back.

The Prince Xiang's Mansion could take any other forms of mudslinging lightly, but things that could alienate the nobles must be treated with extreme caution.

After another round of thinking, Baochai whispered, "The Xiangwang Mansion is a big and deep-rooted place. Even if they prove that Sun Shaozu did this, they can't bring us down!"

Although it is impossible to bring down the Xiang Palace, it will always annoy certain nobles and even alienate some people. This will give Prince Rui and the Crown Prince an opportunity to take advantage of it, which is definitely not a good thing for the Xiang Palace.

"We have to put out the fire in advance!" Baochai said slowly.

The simplest way is to kill Guo Xing. If necessary, the city inspector Meng Kuan can also be eliminated.

Walking to the window and looking at the snow on the eaves, Baochai put her hands out of her sleeves and felt the chill in the wind.

"Call Deng An!"

"Yes!" After a while, Deng An trotted into the hall and knelt behind Baochai very consciously.

"I bow to your Majesty, may I ask what you want me to do for you?"

Holding a small porcelain cup, Baochai fed the kingfisher in the cage and said, "Someone is trying to harm the palace!"

"Who is so bold?"

"Before, there was a lieutenant general in the Beijing camp named Guo Xing, who was the guard commander of the late Governor-General Ning Huanxiang. He has now fled back to Beijing... and wants to frame Sun Shaozu for Ning Huanxiang's death!"

"what?"

There was so much information in it that Deng An was a little shocked for a moment.

Baochai did not urge him and gave Deng An time to think deeply.

After a while, Deng An replied, "My Lady, this matter is of great importance. We must handle it with caution!"

"How do you feel about getting rid of Guo Xing?"

"This... is possible, but I'm afraid that doing so will cause even bigger trouble!" Deng An reminded.

Baochai replied calmly, "As long as this man is dead, the Rui Palace will not be able to make trouble. At this critical moment, they will retreat!"

The Queen was critically ill, and Baochai was very sure that launching an attack on Prince Xiang's Mansion would be asking for trouble if there was no strong and direct evidence.

As long as Zhu Jingyuan doesn't do anything stupid, he will stop at this time.

Deng An thought about it and realized that this was the truth. It was up to him to figure out what to do next.

Turning around, Baochai put down the porcelain cup in her hand and said, "Go and take care of this matter... do it cleanly!"

"Yes, I will arrange it when I get down!"

Baochai instructed again: "Prince Rui's Mansion may intervene in this matter. You must make thorough preparations and act quickly. It must be done today!"

"Yes!"

"Go do it!"

"Yes!"

Deng An turned around and left. As he walked, he was already thinking about which people to send to do the job this time.

After Deng An left the palace, Xia Jingui had finished asking about the situation and returned to Tongxin Palace.

At this time, Baochai sat back in her chair and looked at Xia Jingui in front of her with a calm expression.

"Forget about the formalities and get down to business... How did your husband know about this?"

"My husband said that he and Guo Xing have always been at odds. They had an old grudge in the northwest a few years ago. When he learned that he had returned to Beijing, he went to visit him to resolve the grudge..."

"But I didn't expect that Guo Xing was so narrow-minded that he had a conflict with my husband on the spot. In a hurry, he even told me his plan, saying that he would definitely wipe out the Sun family this time!"

Sun Shaozu still didn't tell Xia Jingui the truth, so at this moment she was speaking as if it were the truth, and it looked very sincere.

However, there were even more and bigger loopholes in these words, and Baochai found it even more strange.

So she guessed that Sun Shaozu did not tell the truth and did not tell the truth to his master, which made her very angry.

After thinking about it a little more, Baochai discovered something strange. It seemed as if Sun Shaozu had predicted the future in this matter.

Did Sun Shaozu have the ability to predict the future? Baochai directly denied this possibility.

So when she thought about it carefully, she came up with a bold guess: Could it be that Sun Shaozu really did this?
Just now she thought that Zhu Jinghong benefited greatly from this matter, but didn’t Sun Shaozu also become successful because of the Northwest War and the Xiangwang Mansion?
How can such a person be reused? How can he be kept? Baochai thought secretly, but her face remained calm.

It is not easy to touch a man like Sun Shaozu. Zhu Jinghong's approval is required, so Baochai is not in a hurry about this matter.

Although Baochai's eyes were always calm, Xia Jingui still felt a little uneasy when she was looked at like that.

After a while, Baochai said slowly: "I will take care of this matter. You can go back home and don't worry about it anymore!"

Xia Jingui quickly stepped back, then kowtowed and said, "Thank you, Your Majesty. Thank you, Your Majesty!"

"Go back, I still have to go to the palace!"

"Yes...I'll take my leave!"

When Xia Jingui left the hall, Baochai immediately ordered, "Send someone to check quickly. If Deng An is still in the mansion, let him come to see me immediately!"

"Yes!"

Deng An was giving instructions to his subordinates, but before he could finish, he heard the princess summon him, so he turned back to Tongxin Palace.

After paying his respects, Deng An said, "Please give your orders, Madam!"

"This time you go in person, before Guo Xing dies... ask him why he framed Sun Shaozu!"

Is this necessary? Deng An had this thought in his mind, but he immediately nodded in agreement.

There was no other way, he had to go there in person today. It was really hard to endure such a cold day.

After Deng An left again, Ying'er came to report that the medicinal materials were ready, so she planned to set off for the palace.

But as soon as she walked out of the palace gate, she saw Dong Fangji rushing over. After paying her respects, she reported what had happened in Kunning Palace.

After hearing this, Baochai asked someone to find the painting, and at the same time she was thankful that Daiyu was in the palace, otherwise today would be a big trouble.

The painting was soon found, and Baochai set off for the palace.

On the other side, Deng An gathered his men and after dressing up, he sneaked towards the Guo family.

These men were guards recruited by the palace. All of them were highly skilled in martial arts, and their usual job was to practice martial arts with Zhu Jinghong.

These people were treated extremely well and their families were well taken care of, so they were the most loyal to the palace and in a sense could be called death warriors.

It was because time was tight and the task was heavy this time that Deng An mobilized these people. In the past, he would either look for Li Wenzhao or Chen Yuntai.

The group of more than a dozen people found out where the Guo family lived and went there. An hour later, they were outside the Guo family's house.

After finding out the situation, Deng An felt relieved to see that there were only a few officers, but he still left someone to guard.

After gathering a few elite soldiers and discussing the plan of action, Deng An gave the order to take action.

Because it was a deliberate move, the few officers guarding outside were dealt with almost silently and then dragged into the alley.

Then, seven or eight men climbed over the wall and sneaked into the Guo family.

The Guo family has fallen on hard times, so they only have three courtyards. At this moment, he is in the small study in the inner courtyard, writing the petition for this appeal.

A gust of wind blew by, and he woke up from his deep thoughts. He picked up the teacup and was about to take a sip when he suddenly found that the cup was empty.

"Someone, pour some tea!" Guo Xing shouted.

Because of his previous accident, the Guo family's life became more difficult. There were only four servants in the inner courtyard, and since they all had their own work to do, no one was always by his side.

Seeing that no one answered, Guo Xing stood up and walked around the desk, wanting to go to the door to call for help. At the same time, he thought about buying a few more maids after this matter was over.

But just as he walked past the desk, he saw two people coming in from outside. They were both dressed in short clothes like ordinary people, and even wore straw sandals.

How dare these peasants be so bold as to bypass the officials and break into my house?
At this time, Guo Xing was very angry. His contempt for the lower-class people made him not realize the seriousness of the problem.

At this moment, a sharp and sinister voice came from outside the door: "General Guo, how are you?"

(End of this chapter)