Chapter 53
The king of Qi was defeated, and the number of people who were implicated was increasing every day. The state of Qi was the first to bear the brunt, and the most people were arrested. After spitting out more names, a few months later, the number of prisoners has reached 1,340, and so far, no one has been released.
No one knows how long this purge will last, let alone who will be the next prisoner.
"In the beginning, everyone thought it was normal. After all, the assassins have been hiding in the palace for several years, and they should have been thoroughly investigated, but now everyone doesn't think so, and they all think... they all think..." Although Zhang Youcai is bold, there are others who dare not the words said.
"Do you think the queen mother has ulterior motives?" Han Ruzi went on for him.
"Well, there are more and more outsiders in the palace, like Zuo Ji, who is about to cover the sky with one hand, but he is just an ordinary eunuch in the Cishun Palace, not even a regular servant." Zhang Youcai said angrily, he was the most The person who hates is not the queen mother, but Zuo Ji.
"Jing Yao is an old man in the palace, and his status seems to be very stable." Han Ruzi often sees Jing Yao stamping his seal in the Palace of Diligence, and feels that he is very trusted by the Queen Mother.
"Because he arrests the most people." Zhang Youcai's voice was a little loud, he hurriedly shut his mouth, and after listening for a while, he continued, "Jing Yao did everything he could to keep his position, and tried his best to arrest people in the palace, Even his cronies who have followed him for many years are not spared. He said, 'Is it a traitor or a loyal one, you can only know if you go to prison once or twice', but he himself will not enter once."
Han Ruzi turned to Tong Qing'e's approximate location, "The assassin is a eunuch, is the maid also implicated?"
"Ah?" Tong Qing'e sobbed in horror, "There is no distinction between eunuchs or palace maids in the palace, as long as you have had contacts with Qiu Jizu and Shen Sanhua, even if you just said a few words, you will be arrested for interrogation, and Zhang Youcai and I don't know if we can do it. How long have you served His Majesty, I heard..."
"Although I say, I'm not the queen mother." Han Ruzi encouraged.
"I heard that the Queen Mother will call eunuchs and palace maids from the palace garden outside, saying that they will not have bad intentions. We old people will be kicked out of the palace in the future, and go to remote places to guard the tomb, and some people want to Buried for Emperor Si." Tong Qing'e became more and more timid as she spoke, and her voice was as low as the chirping of mosquitoes.
Although the life in the palace is not very good, no one wants to leave. The burial is the real dead, and the tomb guard is the living dead. Even if you are transferred to the palace gardens in other places, it is similar to the distribution of ordinary people. It is difficult to make a breakthrough. day.
Han Ruzi felt that the empress dowager would not change all the people in the palace. This was probably a false statement made by the eunuch and the maids after they were frightened, but this kind of emotion was not harmful to him, so he said to Zhang Youcai: "Say Tell me what's going on with you 'miserable people'."
In the darkness, Zhang Youcai took a deep breath, "Originally, we all swore that we would never forgive outsiders—Your Majesty, I mean outsiders..."
"I understand, go ahead and talk." Han Ruzi could understand that in the palace, the emperor and the concubine were masters, and they were also "outsiders" in the eyes of slaves.
"Please don't misunderstand, Your Majesty, we are not an organization, we don't even have a name, and we have no ambitions. We are a group of people who help each other, share food, take care of someone when they are sick, pass a message on an urgent matter, and sometimes pool money to make If someone respects their boss, if they are promoted because of this, they should remember their former friends.
"'Once you are rich and noble, don't forget your old knowledge.'" Han Ruzi repeated, vaguely remembering an old gentleman saying something similar.
Tong Qing'e whispered: "Zhang Youcai, you really say everything, and you are not afraid of His Majesty's jokes."
Han Ruzi said sternly: "How can you be a joke, this is what I want to say to you, 'Once you are rich and noble, don't forget your old knowledge', you are my old knowledge."
Zhang Youcai and Tong Qing'e were kowtowing under the bed, and Han Ruzi suddenly remembered something, "Shen Sanhua confessed that the assassin Qiu Jizu once bribed him, and that Qiu Jizu is also yours?"
"No, no, Qiu Jizu is not." Tong Qing'e hurriedly denied, "Shen Sanhua is the one. When Qiu Jizu entered the palace, he was richer, and he was not the same as us poor people. Shen Sanhua was one of the people we put together to carry the money up, and he didn't forget it. Our old friends, who usually take good care of us, are now in prison, and I heard that he is tortured every day."
"Are you worried that Shen Sanhua won't be able to hold on and will confess to you poor people?"
The two people under the bed kowtowed again, which was what they were most worried about. Tong Qing'e was more cautious, but Zhang Youcai said most of the things, and she no longer kept secrets, "Except to pool money to honor the boss, we really have nothing. We have done it, and we often warn each other not to cause trouble. Even if someone is wronged, we will just go there to comfort them and never help with revenge. But this is the palace, and most of the bosses and eunuchs have backers, and we are not the same as us. , As for the Queen Mother..."
Tong Qing'e still didn't dare to speak, Zhang Youcai said: "The queen mother doesn't understand the suffering of us people at all. Once she hears about us, she will definitely be furious and treat us as assassins, but we are really not."
This group of eunuchs and palace maids are also desperate, otherwise they will not ask the puppet emperor.
Han Ruzi asked, "You...should be called 'the people of hard life'."
Although Zhang Youcai was young, he responded quickly and immediately kowtowed, "Thank you, Your Majesty, for your name."
Han Ruzi smiled. He didn't care about the hidden organization of slaves in the palace. Instead, he thought this was an excellent opportunity. "How many of you are suffering?"
"Probably...forty or fifty people. These are all people who know the basics. If you add friends of friends, the number will be even more. There are four or five hundred." Zhang Youcai replied.
"You've 'understood the fundamentals' at such a young age?" Han Ruzi said with a smile, Zhang Youcai was about the same age as him, and he didn't look like a "big man" no matter what.
"Actually I'm not, I'm just a 'friend of a friend' until today..."
"I am." Tong Qing'e said, at this time, there is no need to hide anything.
"You are? I thought you, like me, only heard about it today." Zhang Youcai was startled first.
"I am. When Zuo Ji chose palace maids to teach... the way of husband and wife, everyone pooled money to honor a steward eunuch and recommended me to Zuo Ji. I thought I could please Zuo Ji after I made meritorious deeds, but your majesty is not close to women, and Zuo Ji accused me of being incompetent. , I offended him instead."
Han Ruzi was dumbfounded. He had to pay bribes to even sleep with the emperor. He really didn't know whether to be proud or sad. "Forty or fifty people should be enough. Is there any one of you who knows martial arts?"
"No, but a few of us have a good relationship with the guards." Tong Qing'e said.
"Friends of friends don't want, just you guys." Han Ruzi didn't want to expand the scope.
"What does Your Majesty want us to do?" Zhang Youcai was very excited. He was only pulled into the inner circle of "hard-working people" by his friends today, and he was already thinking of doing something big. "We are not afraid of death, we dare to do anything."
Han Ruzi smiled, he didn't dare to use a group of "miserable people" to cause palace changes, it would not only hurt them, but also himself, "It's better to live, I don't want to die, and I won't let you go. Death, um..." A thought gradually appeared in his mind, "One day, this day may come soon, I will need your help, not a palace change, not a war, or go to a place with me, there , I want to re-enthrone the throne and become a true emperor, when the time comes - 'don't forget the old knowledge'."
The two kowtowed again.
"We should agree on a secret code. As long as someone tells you the secret code, you will immediately find someone to join me." Han Ruzi tried his best to make the plan more secure.
"'Bitterly people' is good." Tong Qing'e said.
"Okay, that's it. The person who passed the code to you may not be me, you believe it is."
The emperor actually had other people available, which made Tong Qing'e and Zhang Youcai even happier, and kept kowtowing, Han Ruzi persuaded: "Let's do it, remember, what I'm going to ask you to do is a bit dangerous, but it won't kill people, I don't want to kill anyone in the palace, understand?"
"Understood." The two of them said in unison, Zhang Youcai was small after all, so he couldn't hold his breath, and said, "Your Majesty must hurry up, we are scared every day, and as soon as Shen Sanhua let go, we... can't do anything for His Majesty. "
"Well, I'll do it as soon as possible." Han Ruzi couldn't guarantee the time. It was not up to him to decide. He had to wait for the opportunity to wait for the imperial concubine and Luo Huanzhang to implement their plans.
Taifu Cui Hong will definitely sneak back to the capital in secret. Once he arrives, Luo Huanzhang will issue two imperial decrees, respectively, to remove the official positions of the Southern Army Grand Sima and the palace general, and hand over to the Cui family to serve as the imperial concubine. He Donghai Wang is in the palace to cooperate with him inside and outside.
Han Ruzi found that he still had a chance: Luo Huanzhang had written the imperial decree, and the Cui family's uprising must be under his banner. As long as he escaped the murder of the imperial concubine and the King of Donghai on the day of the uprising, he appeared in time. In front of the ministers, everything belongs to him, and the Cui family will never dare to kill the monarch in public. As for how to deal with the Cui family in the future, I will not consider it.
The problem is that he still doesn't know what the imperial concubine and Donghai Wang will do.
Han Ruzi was not in a hurry to see the queen mother, but desperately hoped for the arrival of another person-Meng E was the one he needed the most right now. He had a plan that only Meng E could help realize.
"Go to sleep." Han Ruzi said, his heart was no longer empty.
In the first half of the night, the three people in the bedroom didn't fall asleep much, Zhang Youcai tossed and turned with excitement, Tong Qing'e was full of thoughts, and Han Ruzi was always listening, looking forward to Meng E's appearance.
Therefore, when the house was suddenly shaken and roared in the middle of the night, they all sat up at once, and there was no sleepiness at all.
On the third day of the seventh lunar month in the first year of Gongcheng, there was an earthquake in the capital. At that time, no one expected that its impact would be so great.
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