Corrupt official in the Red Chamber

Chapter 454 Poisoning

The news that the two princes were hanged by Jia Rui came from the palace the next day.

The news was so explosive that within a day, all the dignitaries in the capital knew about it.

After hearing the news, most officials felt pity for the two immature princes.

But now they are all eating from Jia Rui, so they can only joke about it, and at the same time they are more cautious about their words and deeds.

However, there were still many civil and military officials in the Manchu Dynasty who sympathized with the emperor and missed the emperor.

In the past, although Jia Rui had monopolized the imperial court and imprisoned the emperor, he had not gone too far. However, during this period, Jia Rui was simply killing the concubines, and later even the two princes.

Therefore, two people have begun to secretly discuss in the palace how to get rid of Jia Rui, a traitor, and support the emperor to ascend the throne again.

"Master Li, you have seen what happened in the past few days. If this continues, the emperor may not be able to save his life."

"Hey, the Emperor is so confused that he actually gave Jia Rui such great power, making him now in dire straits."

"It's useless to talk about this now. Let's talk about how to get rid of Jia Rui, a traitor."

A middle-aged official with a gray beard lowered his head and sighed, "It's not that I, Old Li, won't help. With the current situation, there is really nothing we can do to him. All the troops in the capital are under his control. Even the officers from various departments outside Beijing follow Jia Rui's lead, what do you think we can do?"

Another official also had a headache. They really couldn't imagine how Jia Rui could control all the generals in the world?

"Then let's just watch Jia Rui press forward step by step. When Queen Jia in the palace gives birth to a child, we will kill the current emperor?"

The two speakers have high official positions. One of them is Shi, the Secretary for General Affairs, a third-rank official, and his name is Li Chun.

The other one is the minister of Guanglu Temple, fourth grade, named Zhou Heng.

Although these two people are not the chief officials of important departments in the court, they are relatively close to the emperor.

The full name of the General Affairs Department is "General Affairs Secretary", referred to as "General Affairs Secretary", and its chief is "General Affairs Secretary".

There are memorials inside and outside the palm and sealed complaints from the subjects. Commonly known as "Yintai".

The main responsibilities of the General Administration Department are to handle internal and external reports and seal complaints from subjects. Therefore, the General Affairs Envoy was responsible for matters such as internal and external regulations and sealed complaints from subjects, and the General Affairs Envoy was responsible for submitting these regulations and complaints to the emperor.

The chief of the General Affairs Department is the General Affairs Envoy, and there are official positions under him, such as Left and Right General Affairs and Left and Right Counselors, and they are of higher rank. In the Ming Dynasty, there was one general official with the third rank; one person each from the left and right general administration, with the fourth rank; one person each from the left and right councilors, the fifth rank, etc.

Although the General Affairs Department has certain powers in name, it does not have much real power in practice.

Because documents such as memorials and appeals were often submitted directly to the emperor after being forwarded by the General Secretary, the General Secretary did not have the power to review or process these documents. Therefore, the General Administration Department is regarded as a "plain yamen".

Guanglu Temple is one of the institutions responsible for the emperor's diet. It is mainly responsible for the purchase of daily ingredients, raw materials, and seasonings for the emperor, the summary and recording of relevant accounts, as well as the planning and implementation of sacrifices to the Ancestral Temple, major banquets, and the hospitality of foreign envoys. At the same time, Guanglu Temple is also responsible for the supply of food rations to the eunuchs and maids in the palace.

Guanglu Temple has one Qing, two Shao Qing, and two Temple Chiefs, who are responsible for various affairs in the temple. It has a bookkeeping office and a bank treasury, which are responsible for recording revenue and expenditure accounts and handling financial issues.

In addition, Guanglu Temple also has jurisdiction over some subordinate agencies, such as the Department of Fine Foods, the Department of Good Food, and the Department of Palm Mining, etc., which are responsible for different food production and supply tasks.

The specific responsibilities of Guanglu Temple include: responsible for purchasing ingredients and seasonings to ensure the quality and safety of the emperor's diet; formulating menus and recipes according to the emperor's tastes and needs; cooperating with other agencies to complete the catering for various banquets and festivals in the palace Make arrangements; manage subordinate organizations to ensure the smooth progress of food production and supply; be responsible for handling financial accounts and revenue and expenditure issues, and ensure that the temple's funds are used reasonably and legally.

Guanglu Temple's responsibilities are more important, but the one who is close to the emperor is naturally the General Affairs Department.

But in every respect, these two people are the closest officials to the emperor.

The General Secretary ensured that the emperor would not be deceived by the officials below, and Guanglu Temple ensured the emperor's food and drink.

Therefore, the two of them least wanted anything to happen to the emperor. It could even be said that they and the emperor were grasshoppers on a rope.

"Brother Zhou, we can't defeat Jia Rui clearly, why can't we do it secretly?"

Zhou Heng looked at Li Chun and said, "Why are you secretly here?"

Li Chun blinked and then said, "I heard that Jia Rui drinks ginseng soup every day. You sent someone to secretly replace the ginseng with pokeweed."

After Zhou Heng heard this, his heart trembled.

"Phytolacca" is also a traditional Chinese herbal medicine, but it is highly poisonous and looks very similar to human life. It is called poisonous ginseng.

If Phytolacca was replaced by ginseng, and Jia Rui died because of it, even if no one paid attention to the chaos at the time, and he was eventually found out, the Minister of Guanglu Temple would not be able to escape the relationship.

Therefore, Zhou Heng was somewhat unwilling.

Li Chun saw what the other party was thinking. He gently leaned his head against Zhou Heng's ear and said, "I heard that Jia Rui's brother-in-law is eyeing the position of Minister of Guanglu Temple."

The person they are talking about is Xue Pan. However, Li Chun was simply deceiving Zhou Heng. Although Xue Pan has no official position now, he is respected wherever he goes in the officialdom, and his family life is quite happy. He has no worries about food and drink, and can often go out to be cool. Being an official and being bound by others?

Li Chun was simply putting pressure on Zhou Heng to do this.

Zhou Heng was not a fool, and he understood Li Chun's intention with just a quick thought.

Zhou Heng stroked his beard and said with a smile: "Since the person named Xue is eyeing my position, I will abdicate in favor of someone worthy of my position. I was suffocating in my heart when I took this official position, so I will take this opportunity to go home and farm."

When Li Chun saw that the other party didn't take the bait, he sighed, and then directly took out the useful information.

"The emperor has already spread word that as long as you are the one except Jia Rui, you will be granted the title of marquis by then."

Zhou Heng visibly trembled after hearing this. As a low-level official, he had no hope in his life of becoming a marquis. Now that he had a great opportunity in front of him, he was naturally a little excited.

But thinking about the danger involved, he hesitated again.

"Brother Li, it's not that I won't help you. This matter is too dangerous. If one person is not good enough, hundreds of people, young and old, will lose their lives."

Seeing this, Li Chun quickly tried to persuade her again: "How about you send your family to the countryside first, let them live in seclusion for a while, and then take them back when the matter is settled. If the matter is exposed, they will not be implicated."

Zhou Heng looked at Li Chun, but his face had turned gloomy even though he was trying to persuade him. He knew that if he didn't agree, there might be no good results.

Besides, the emperor was indeed very kind to him. Back then, he was just a clerk under the emperor. After the emperor ascended the throne, he promoted himself to the position of Minister of Guanglu Temple.

It's time for him to be loyal to the emperor. Thinking of this, Zhou Heng gritted his teeth and said, "I'll take action as soon as I arrange my family in the next two days."

Li Chun was immediately overjoyed when he heard this. He patted Zhou Heng on the shoulder happily and said, "Don't worry, as long as this thing is done, you will enjoy endless glory and wealth."

After that, the two people began to secretly plan an action plan. It wasn't until the sky turned completely dark that Zhou Heng sneaked back to his home through the back door.

In the next few days, Zhou Heng's family left Beijing for various reasons.

Zhou Heng was only an insignificant official in the entire court, so no one paid much attention to him, so they asked him to send his family to the countryside after half a month of arrangements.

After the escape route was arranged, Zhou Heng began to assassinate Jia Rui.

On this day, Jia Rui finished his official duties for the day, looked at the sun that was about to set outside, shook his stiff neck, stretched, stood up and walked around the Hall of Cultivation of the Heart a few times.

Dealing with the memorial is like doing homework. I keep writing and can't lift my neck all day long. If this continues, I will definitely suffer from cervical spondylosis.

While Jia Rui was moving his body, Lao Li came over cautiously holding a tea bowl.

"My lord, your ginseng tea has arrived."

Jia Rui took the tea bowl and drank it in one gulp without even looking at it.

It has become Jia Rui's habit to drink ginseng tea at a fixed time every day. In the past, people would try it out, but as time went by, Jia Rui began to slack off.

After drinking the ginseng tea, Jia Rui put the teacup aside and prepared to go to Concubine Jing's place to have a look.

As a result, before he even walked out of the courtyard of Yangxin Hall, he felt dizzy and his heart began to beat violently, as if it was about to jump out of his chest.

In addition, he even felt that he could no longer control his muscles. Not only were the muscles all over his body sore, but they were also beating constantly.

Jia Rui immediately felt that something was wrong, that he had been poisoned.

Lao Li next to him also saw that something was wrong, and thought of stepping forward to support Jia Rui, and then quickly ordered the eunuch to find the imperial doctor.

Then Lao Li quickly asked several eunuchs and maids to help Jia Rui into the Yangxin Hall, and then let him lie on the bed to rest.

But where could Jia Rui feel stable? After a while, he felt his stomach began to cramp, and then he couldn't help but pull up on the bed.

If Jia Rui hadn't possessed the Nine-Yang Divine Skill and the Dragon-Elephant Prajna Skill, which could suppress some of the poison, with the dose of poisoning, he would have gone to see the King of Hell by now.

Jia Rui quickly moved his golden finger with his mind while he was still conscious.

After that, the golden finger that Jia Rui had not touched for many years appeared in front of him again.

Now Jia Rui couldn't care less and started searching for antidote drugs on Golden Finger.

Not long after, a large pile of pills with various names appeared in front of Jia Rui.

Jia Ruiqiang worked hard and found that none of these medicines could guarantee that he would be completely fine.

(End of this chapter)