……

……

Zhao Mansion, in the main hall.

Because the rumor that "Shen Changmao sent someone to assassinate Zhao Junchen" spread everywhere and became more and more intense, Shen Changmao personally led Huang Yourong to visit Zhao's mansion, hoping to counter the rumors with his own actions, and also hoped that Zhao Junchen could take the initiative to stand up and help Shen Changmao clarify the rumors.

However, Shen Changmao still underestimated Zhao Junchen's greed and ambition after all, and when Shen Changmao asked for himself, Zhao Junchen actually opened his mouth and directly put forward the terms of the transaction, so that Shen Changmao no longer objected to his subordinate Zhang Jizhi taking the position of the prefect of Yanzhou!

You must know that Taierzhuang is located in Yanzhou, which is the throat of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, and its prosperity is not inferior to that of Suzhou and Hangzhou.

Just to get rid of some rumors out of nothing, and all kinds of troubles caused by rumors, to give up such an important position to Zhao Junchen, in Shen Changmao's opinion, it is inevitable that the gains outweigh the losses.

The most important thing is that according to Shen Changmao's thoughts, under the full pursuit of the major yamen of the imperial court, the murderer who assassinated Zhao Junchen will soon be caught, and the mastermind behind the assassination of Zhao Junchen can also be found out quickly.

Therefore, Shen Changmao naturally would not agree to the deal proposed by Zhao Junchen.

Just when Shen Changmao made up his mind to reject Zhao Junchen's proposal, he was just about to speak, but suddenly saw Zhao Junchen's elder Xu Qingyan hurriedly entering the main hall of Zhao Mansion, his expression was quite serious, and he walked quickly to Zhao Junchen's side, bent over and whispered something in Zhao Junchen's ear.

After hearing Xu Qingyan's report, Zhao Junchen also had a solemn expression, and after a little muttering, he instructed Xu Qingyan: "This matter is too bad, it just so happens that Shen Shoufu and Huang Ge Lao are both there, you can report it to the two Pavilion elders again." ”

Seeing such a situation, Shen Changmao and Huang Yourong glanced at each other, their expressions were a little surprised, could it be that something big happened?

On the other side, after Xu Qingyan heard Zhao Junchen's instructions, he first turned around and bowed to Shen Changmao and Huang Yourong, and then said: "Two pavilion elders, I just received the news, not long ago, Xichang finally found the traces of Zhang Wei, the murderer of my family Zhao, and Zhang Wei and several of Zhang Wei's comrades have been arrested......

After hearing Xu Qingyan's report, Shen Changmao suddenly looked happy.

According to Shen Changmao, as long as the murderer of Zhao Junchen is arrested and brought to justice, then the rumors will be self-defeating, and his innocence will soon be proven.

However, as soon as Shen Changmao's heart burst into some joy, he heard Xu Qingyan continue: "However, on the way to return Zhang Wei to the Yamen of the West Factory, he suddenly encountered an ambush, and more than 20 black-clothed people of unknown origin suddenly appeared, all armed with military crossbows, and attacked the team of the West Factory escorting the murderers...... Those men in black were obviously trying to kill people, and the murderer Zhang Wei, who assassinated my family Zhao, as well as several of Zhang Wei's accomplices, and a witness named Jiang Qing, were all killed during this period! ”

"What!?"

As Xu Qingyan's words fell, Shen Changmao and Huang Yourong both looked shocked and stood up together!

Especially Shen Changmao, he originally thought that the rumors would be shattered, and the suspicion on his body would be washed away, but he didn't expect such a change to occur!

The murderer who assassinated Zhao Junchen was killed, which means that the real culprit behind the assassination of Zhao Junchen will not be able to be found out for a long time, and in the case of more and more rumors, Shen Changmao's suspicion will become more and more serious, so how much trouble will Shen Changmao encounter? And how much will prestige suffer? How will Emperor Deqing and the hundred officials in the court view themselves?

For a while, Shen Changmao only felt like a numb heart.

After all, Huang Yourong was a bystander, and he was a little calmer at this time, and immediately asked Xu Qingyan: "Someone dares to attack the West Factory and intercept criminals?!" It's bold! What is the origin of those men in black who attacked the West Factory? Did the West Factory capture them? ”

Xu Qingyan shook his head and said: "These black-clothed people suddenly appeared, and after shooting Zhang Wei and others with a strong crossbow, they immediately scattered and retreated, and their actions were extremely neat, and after the Xichang was attacked, it was inevitable that they would be a little flustered, and after the people in the Xichang finally stabilized their position, those black-clothed people were all gone, so the Xichang did not catch them, let alone obtain any evidence, so they could not identify their origins." ”

After hearing Xu Qingyan's answer, Shen Changmao slapped the table fiercely, ignoring that Zhao Junchen was still the supervisor of the West Factory, and scolded angrily: "The West Factory is too incompetent! ”

On the other side, Zhao Junchen said coldly: "It seems that the forces opposing the rectification of commercial taxes in the DPRK and China are more unscrupulous and lawless than imagined...... Hmph, I want to see how long they can be arrogant! Even if the official can't help them, will His Majesty let them do whatever they want? ”

After hearing Zhao Junchen's words, Shen Changmao suddenly reacted - according to Zhao Junchen, when the murderer Zhang Wei assassinated him, he once said, "If you want to please the emperor, you can't block everyone's wealth", so Zhao Junchen's assassination was obviously because of the imperial court's rectification of commercial taxes!

Now, the murderer Zhang Wei was finally caught, but before he could be interrogated, he was ambushed and killed again, and the mastermind behind this incident is obviously also from the forces that oppose the rectification of commercial taxes in the DPRK and China!

In this way, as this matter intensifies and becomes more and more serious, Shen Changmao, as the leader of the hundred officials who opposes the rectification of commercial taxes, will not be more troublesome?

It is conceivable that first Zhao Junchen was assassinated, and then Xichang was attacked, these things have completely touched the reverse scale of Emperor Deqing, so Emperor Deqing will inevitably be angry and react fiercely, and killing chickens and monkeys and deterring the government and the opposition will inevitably be one of Emperor Deqing's means!

Under such circumstances, Shen Changmao's top priority was to extricate himself from this matter, otherwise he would most likely become the primary target of Emperor Deqing to vent his anger!

After thinking about this, Shen Changmao couldn't sit still anymore, and immediately stood up and said goodbye to Zhao Junchen, planning to go back to prepare a countermeasure.

However, before Shen Changmao left, he suddenly said to Zhao Junchen: "Just now, Lord Zhao thought that Zhang Jizhi was the best candidate for the prefect of Yanzhou, and the old man thought about it for a while, and he also thought it was true, and tomorrow, the old man would personally recommend Zhang Jizhi to His Majesty to serve as the prefect of Yanzhou!" ”

Obviously, under the increasingly severe situation, seeing that his innocence could not be proved for a long time, in order to get rid of his involvement with Zhao Junchen's assassination as soon as possible, Shen Changmao finally agreed to Zhao Junchen's conditions, intending to exchange the position of the prefect of Yanzhou for Zhao Junchen's support, and let Zhao Junchen take the initiative to help Shen Changmao clarify the rumors.

After hearing Shen Changmao's words, Zhao Junchen smiled slightly, and immediately reciprocated the favor, saying: "Shen Shoufu is really a person who loves talents, from this point of view, those rumors in the market are really villains to sow discord, please rest assured that Shen Shoufu will be above tomorrow morning, the lower officials will inevitably severely reprimand the rumors, and make every effort to maintain Shen Shoufu's reputation!" ”

*

Zhao Junchen stood outside the Zhao Mansion, personally sent Shen Changmao and Huang Yourong away, watched the sedan chair that the two pavilion elders were riding farther and farther, and suddenly turned to Xu Qingyan and asked, "Wei Huai is here?" ”

While speaking, Zhao Junchen's expression was quite calm, and he didn't seem to care about the attack on Xichang at all.

On the other side, Xu Qingyan nodded and replied, "Lord Wei is waiting for the young master in the study. ”

……

…… (To be continued.) )