Corrupt official in the Red Chamber

Chapter 408: Searching the Second King

Li Waneng led a large number of people straight to the Prince's Palace in Beijing.

Why did he come to Beijing Palace first? That's because he knew that King Zhongshun was just a fool and couldn't make any trouble, but King Beijing had some abilities, so it was right to find him first.

After Li Wanneng arrived at the Beijing Palace, he immediately ordered people to block the Beijing Palace, and then ordered people to knock on the door.

Soon the side door of Beijing Palace opened, and a eunuch poked his head out.

However, when he saw a group of soldiers outside, he was immediately frightened and quickly wanted to close the door, but he couldn't make it in time.

The soldier who knocked on the door pushed hard and pushed the door open. The eunuch even fell down.

"What are you doing, what are you doing? Do you know where this place is?" The eunuch yelled as he tried to get up from the ground.

But Li Wanneng outside had no time to waste time here. He waved his hand, and the soldiers behind him filed in through the side door, and then opened the main door.

Then Li Waneng led the rest of the people in from the main entrance.

While there was a commotion in front, King Beijing finally walked out quickly with a few guards and eunuchs.

At the beginning, King Beijing had already received reports from his subordinates and knew that the entire Beijing Palace had been surrounded.

He wasn't too nervous at that time, because his status was placed here, and he had an old relationship with the four princes and eight princes. As one of them, Jia Rui shouldn't make it too difficult for him.

But not long after, he heard reports from the people below that the soldiers had rushed in, and he had to lead the people to the front.

When I arrived at the square, I saw soldiers commanded by Li Wan from a distance rushing in from the outside.

Seeing that it was Li Wanneng, King Beijing's heart skipped a beat, and he had a bad premonition.

However, he still managed to remain calm, came to Li Wanneng, and asked with a smile: "Master Li, what are you doing?"

Li Wanneng said with an expressionless face: "King Beijing, Mr. Jia received a secret report saying that you want to rebel, so I ask you to stay in the imperial prison for a few days. After the matter is found out, you can come back."

King Beijing almost vomited blood when he saw Li Wanneng's appearance.

What received the tip? I think it's you who has betrayed you.

"Master Li, don't talk nonsense. Xiao Wang has always abided by the law. How dare he plot rebellion? Could it be that the villain made a false accusation?" King Beijing said through gritted teeth.

"Haha, it will be clear if you went to the imperial prison for false accusation." Li Wanneng stopped talking to King Beijing. He waved his hand, and dozens of people immediately came from behind to arrest King Beijing.

King Beijing also understood that there was no use in talking any more. If he went to prison, he would not be able to withstand the torture because of his tender skin, so he might as well rebel here.

So he stepped back suddenly, and then said loudly: "Follow me and fight out of the capital."

Following his words, two to three hundred people immediately rushed out from there.

Each of these people wore leather armor and held weapons in their hands, but they were already in their forties.

Although they are very old, they are all murderous and look so oozing from the top of their bodies.

These people are the elite soldiers accumulated by the Beijing Palace for several generations.

In terms of their combat effectiveness, anyone on the battlefield can become a captain of ten or even a centurion.

If we spread these people out, recruit random troops, and train them for a month or two, we can raise tens of thousands of troops.

Li Wanneng seemed to have realized this a long time ago. Under the protection of the soldiers from the infantry commander's Yamen, he retreated quickly.

The soldiers of King Beijing followed Li Waneng and chased him forward.

Just when he was about to catch up with Li Wanneng, hundreds of archers suddenly burst out from the flanks.

I saw these archers setting up their bows as soon as they appeared. After a while, a shower of arrows rained down on King Beijing's soldiers.

These Qing soldiers only wore leather armor, but they were quite old, so facing the rain of arrows, they had almost no room to resist, and half of them fell in the first wave.

Of course, after being prepared, these people also relied on their fighting instincts to continuously shoot the flying arrows, and then rushed forward desperately, trying to get close to Li Wanneng.

However, their chances were running out. Under several consecutive waves of attacks, there were only a dozen or so people who could really stick to Li Wanneng.

However, these ten people broke into Li Wanneng's team and caused huge damage to Li Wanneng's soldiers. With just a few breaths, Li Wanneng had already killed more than 30 people.

Li Wanneng was also shocked.

He thought that with the more than a hundred people around him, he would be able to delay it for a while, but he didn't expect that it would be reduced so much in the blink of an eye.

However, although King Beijing's soldiers were brave, their numbers were only small. After Li Wan was able to react, he ordered the soldiers to besiege together. As time went by, a dozen of them finally fell to the ground.

By this time, King Beijing had already led the remaining people and rushed through the side door.

As a result, as soon as he reached the side door, he was blocked by Sun Qianhu and about a hundred people.

Seeing this situation, King Beijing looked desperate. The sword in his hand was already trembling a little.

Sun Qianhu didn't give King Beijing a chance. He stepped forward and kicked King Beijing to the ground.

As for the eunuchs and several guards who followed King Beijing, they had been chopped into pieces by the soldiers behind Sun Qianhu.

After catching King Beijing, the rest will be easy. Everyone in the entire Beijing Palace was arrested and rushed into several fairly large rooms.

Perhaps out of guilt, Li Wan was able to restrain the soldiers and did not harass the family members of King Beijing.

Then on the one hand, he ordered people to send King Beijing to prison, and on the other hand, he took the remaining four or five hundred people to Prince Zhongshun's Mansion.

It was much smoother at Prince Zhongshun's Mansion. After entering, there was no resistance at all and he captured Prince Zhongshun.

Of course, Li Wan could be more careful and low-key in Prince Zhongshun's palace.

Because King Zhongshun had a precious daughter, she was the future wife of Jia Rui's eldest son.

I still don’t know how Jia Rui will deal with King Zhongshun’s family, so I have to be careful. If one day Jia Rui still asks his daughter to be his son’s wife, then won’t he be disgraced by both parties?

Therefore, Li Waneng only locked up the family members of King Zhongshun in a large courtyard and did not allow them to come in and out at will. He did not interfere with anything else. Even the daily diet was according to the original grade without any degradation. .

King Zhongshun himself was personally escorted to the prison by Li Wanneng, and then he told the prison chief to arrange a separate private room for King Zhongshun, which had all the facilities.

After all this was done, Li Waneng took people to Jia Rui's place to respond to the order.

Jia Rui was eating at that time, and he was a little surprised when he heard that Li Wan could come to give orders. This guy was quite fast. He stole two palaces and came back so quickly.

However, Jia Rui did not go over immediately, but ate there peacefully, and then took small square steps to the front lobby.

Afterwards, Jia Rui sat in the middle and drank a cup of tea, and then ordered the people below to bring Li Wanneng over.

After Li Wan Neng came in, he was more respectful than before and immediately knelt down to salute Jia Rui.

"Kowtow to your lord."

"Get up and talk." Jia Rui put down the tea cup and said.

Only then did Li Wanneng dare to stand up carefully, and then stood beside him with his hands down.

"How are things going?" Jia Rui asked knowingly.

"Your Majesty, King Zhongshun and King Beijing have been taken to prison and are at your disposal at any time."

Jia Rui put the tea cup on the table and said: "The two of them are just the leaders. There should be a large number of people following them. If these people cannot be dug out, I will have trouble sleeping and eating."

"What do you mean, sir?" Li Wanneng asked carefully.

"Leave this matter to you, go and interrogate and dig out these people." Jia Rui said with a fierce light in his eyes.

Li Wanneng's heart trembled, but he still said calmly: "I will do my best, and I will never let you down."

Jia Rui nodded with satisfaction, then served tea to see the guests off.

After coming out of Jia Rui, Li Waneng came to the street and wiped the cold sweat from his head.

I finally passed the test today. It seems that Mr. Jia has initially trusted me. Next, I will continue to work hard and must leave a place in Mr. Jia's heart.

He did this not only for himself, but also for his family.

As for calling names? Just let yourself bear the burden alone.

After thinking of this, Li Wanneng sighed, straightened his back and walked away.

As for Shen Wence, after returning home and thinking for a long time, he felt that if he went to the memorial alone, he might offend Jia Yucun.

Therefore, he simply sent a message to Jia Yucun to come to his house, saying that he had something important to discuss.

Jia Yucun has much more free time than Shen Wence during this period. After all, he is only involved in the Ministry of War. The most he can do is go to Ningrong Street to show his face.

I was at home today thinking about how to continue to curry favor with Jia Rui and then climb up the ladder, when I suddenly received a message from Shen Wence.

Jia Yucun knew that Shen Wence was a very stable person and would not say anything important under normal circumstances.

Since he said it, there must be something important, so he didn't dare to neglect it, and immediately put on his official uniform and sat in a sedan chair, and went straight to Shen Wence.

Jia Yucun was not a little person, so Shen Wence personally greeted him at the side door. After a few words of greeting, the two came to the flower hall in front.

Everyone sat down, and the little maid left after serving fragrant tea.

At this time, Shen Wence picked up the tea cup and took a sip, then smiled and said to Jia Yucun:

"What is Mr. Jia busy with during this time?"

Jia Yucun replied with some jealousy: "What can I be busy with? It's just my own affairs, unlike Mr. Shen who has great power and is so busy that his feet cannot touch the ground."

"Haha, they are all serving the Marquis."

Shen Wence said a few polite words, then put down his tea cup and said with a solemn expression: "The Marquis has given me a hint and asked us to make a memorial and talk about the promotion of the Prime Minister, the title of Duke, and the addition of Jiuxi."

(End of this chapter)