……

……

After many setbacks yesterday, Emperor Deqing has changed a lot, no longer as before always deliberately show his imperial majesty, but his expression is much gloomy, and I don't know whether this change is good or bad.

Hearing Zhao Junchen's analysis, Emperor Deqing's eyes became more and more gloomy.

After a moment of silence, Emperor Deqing said slowly: "Your analysis is right, it is true that someone deliberately cut off the news exchange between me and the capital...... I sent someone to inquire about Huang Yourong's messenger, and he was obviously secretly calculated, and he ate unclean things in a row along the way, not only did he have diarrhea, but he also fell seriously ill, so he was delayed for such a long time. ”

After a brief pause, Emperor Deqing sneered, and continued: "In addition to Huang Yourong, during my southern tour, I also deliberately left Wang Shou, the secretary of the military department, in the center of the capital, that Wang Shou was born in the generations of nobles, and has a close relationship with the royal family, and is one of my cronies, I left him in the capital, in order to keep abreast of the dynamics in the capital, after the prince revealed his intention to rectify the commercial tax, Wang Shou immediately sent a messenger to report the news to me, a few days earlier than Huang Yourong's secret fold, But after his messenger left the capital, he soon lost his trace, and he didn't know whether he was dead or alive, and Wang Shou was also a waste, and it took several days to discover the anomaly, and he sent someone to deliver the news to me again, but unfortunately it was still a step too late, and it was not until this morning that I received his news, but it was even later than Huang Yourong's secret fold overnight. ”

Zhao Junchen said with a serious expression: "From this point of view, the minister's conjecture is correct, it is indeed someone who deliberately cut off the news exchanges between His Majesty and the capital, and concealed the matter of the prince's rectification of commercial taxes, which is really ill-intentioned...... If the minister expected it was not bad, except for Wang Shou, Wang Shangshu and Huang Yourong Ge Lao. There were other ministers who reported to His Majesty, but their messengers were equally surprised...... However, to be able to do such a thing, the influence of the people behind the scenes is really terrifying. ”

Zhao Junchen's words are still alluding to Zhou Shangjing. But Zhao Junchen clearly knew that in this matter, Zhou Shangjing was only one of the participants at best, and in addition to Zhou Shangjing, there were other forces involved!

That is the Seventh Prince Zhu Hejian!

Zhou Shangjing has always disliked to do things absolutely, and will always leave people a ray of leeway, such as Huang Yourong's messenger's encounters on the road, which are very representative - just did some tricks and feet in the food at the post station, so that Huang Yourong's messenger vomited and diarrhea and fell seriously ill. In the end, it also succeeded in delaying the news - not only did it achieve its goal, but it also made it easy for people to get their hands on it.

But what happened to Wang Shou's messenger was completely different - just out of the capital, he suddenly lost his trace, no one was born, no body was dead, if nothing else, this messenger would have been buried in a mass grave, such a fierce and ruthless method. Obviously not Zhou Shangjing's style, after Zhao Junchen heard what happened to Wang Shou's messenger. The first reaction was to think of the Seventh Prince Zhu Hejian!

In fact, Zhao Junchen used the commercial tax rectification to calculate the plan of the crown prince Zhu Heyu, and there has always been a potential ally, and this person is the seventh prince Zhu Hejian!

Zhu Hejian has long coveted Zhu Heyu's position as the crown prince, and he has planned Zhao Junchen to harm the crown prince Zhu Heyu. Naturally, it will be happy to see it happen.

Therefore, before leaving Beijing, Zhao Junchen also informed Zhu Hejian of all his plans through some secret channels, because Zhao Junchen knew. There are many loopholes in his plan, but Zhao Junchen can't patch these loopholes himself, otherwise he will add a lot of risks, and maybe his intentions will be exposed.

So, Zhao Junchen thought of Zhu Hejian, the seventh prince, and Zhao Junchen believed that with Zhu Hejian's vision and means, he would definitely take the initiative to help him make up for the loopholes.

In fact, Zhu Hejian did a very good job, not only "helping" the crown prince Zhu Heyu to suppress the old Huang Yourong, so that the crown prince Zhu Heyu smoothly implemented the commercial tax rectification plan, but also isolated the news exchanges between Emperor Deqing and the capital, so that Emperor Deqing did not know about the prince's rectification of commercial taxes until now.

Of course, regarding the conjecture of the seventh prince Zhu Hejian, Zhao Junchen would not inform Emperor Yu Deqing for the time being, so he still poured all the dirty water on Zhou Shangjing.

*

On the other side, after hearing Zhao Junchen's analysis, Emperor Deqing's expression was calm and serious, and he nodded slowly: "I also think the same way, just now I recruited several leaders of Dongchang and Jinyiwei to send them to strictly investigate this matter!" Some people are really bold and reckless, and they dare to calculate against me like this, and after I stabilize the situation of the government and the opposition, I will never spare them! ”

Speaking of the back, Emperor Deqing could no longer suppress his anger and killing intent, and his tone was extremely gloomy.

At such a time, Zhao Junchen naturally didn't dare to refute anything, and hurriedly followed Emperor Deqing's meaning and said: "Your Majesty Shengming, those people with ulterior motives, even if they can get temporary benefits, they will definitely not be able to escape Your Majesty's sanctions. ”

Emperor Deqing seemed to think of something, and suddenly added: "Just now, I convened all the high-level officials of the factory guard to discuss the matter, but I did not summon you to meet you, this is not because I don't trust you, but I know that you have been in charge of all the relevant matters of the Southern Tour, and when you return to the capital, you will have to help me clean up the mess of commercial tax rectification, so I simply won't let you participate in this matter, this is my fortuncy to understand your suffering, not that I don't trust you, so you must not think about it." ”

"Your Majesty, you are too worried, you are concerned about the love and concern of the minister, and it is too late for the minister to be grateful, how can you suspect anything!"

Between the words, Zhao Junchen's expression was sincere, but what he thought in his heart was only known to Zhao Junchen himself.

Emperor Deqing nodded with satisfaction, and saw that Zhao Junchen no longer spoke, but asked: "You just said that there are four doubts about the prince's rectification of commercial taxes, and you have already told three of them, why don't you continue to talk about the last doubt?" ”

Hearing Emperor Deqing's question, Zhao Junchen hesitated, hesitated for a moment, and finally said: "Regarding the last doubt, the minister doesn't know if it's just a coincidence...... It's just that after the minister saw Huang Ge Lao's secret folds, he found that His Royal Highness the Prince's various measures to rectify the commercial tax were almost the same as some of the minister's ideas, so he was a little surprised. ”

During Emperor Deqing's southern tour. The fundamental reason why the prince Zhu and Yu came up with a whim to rectify the commercial tax was that Zhao Junchen secretly instigated it, and the various measures taken by the prince to rectify the commercial tax were all derived from the excerpt on the rectification of the commercial tax that Chu Jiayi "stole" from Zhao Junchen, and in the end, the prince Zhu and Yu implemented the plan word for word.

Although, Chu Jiayi's identity is sensitive. Zhu Heyu may not expose her existence, but ****** officials' mouths have always been lax, Zhao Junchen still decided to take precautions.

After Emperor Deqing returns to the capital, he will inevitably investigate the reason why the crown prince Zhu and Yu rectified the commercial tax, and at that time, this matter may be found out. Since this is the case, Zhao Junchen simply took the initiative to tell this matter himself, paving the way for the future development of things.

Of course, take the initiative to speak up about it. There are still some risks, after all, Zhou Shangjing deduced Zhao Junchen's plan and purpose from this incident at the beginning.

However, Emperor Deqing is different from Zhou Shangjing, in the eyes of Emperor Deqing, Zhao Junchen is just a greedy and fearful courtier, and even when he is corrupt and bribery, he will leave a lot of flaws, and he can't design such an exquisite plan - although, Zhao Junchen's various flaws. It was all deliberately left to Emperor Deqing - therefore, Emperor Deqing would not have too much suspicion of Zhao Junchen. Even if there are doubts in his heart, Zhao Junchen has follow-up means to dispel them.

On the other side, after hearing Zhao Junchen's description, Emperor Deqing frowned and asked, "What do you mean, you explain it in detail." ”

Zhao Junchen replied, "Your Majesty." Since the minister served as the secretary of the household department, he knew that the turnover of money and grain in our dynasty was very difficult, and it has always been the biggest constraint to your majesty's government. There was a time when the minister wanted to start with the commercial tax, after all, the commercial tax of our dynasty was too chaotic, coupled with the flood of smuggling, resulting in the commercial tax of our dynasty has always been very small, so the minister once wrote an excerpt, suggesting that Your Majesty should drastically rectify the commercial tax, abolish the private tax collection stations of the yamen such as the Yamen, Huangzhuang, Junzhen, and even the Six Ministries, and at the same time severely crack down on smuggling firms, so as to increase the commercial tax revenue of our dynasty......"

Speaking of this, Zhao Junchen shook his head lightly and continued: "However, after writing this recital, the minister found that he had taken it for granted, if he did it according to the minister's ideas, the government and the opposition would inevitably be turbulent, and it could be said that the pros and cons were difficult to calculate, so it didn't take long for the minister to burn this recital...... However, after reading Huang Ge Lao's secret folds, the minister found that the prince's various measures to rectify the commercial tax were very similar to the minister's original thoughts, but the minister never revealed this matter to anyone, so he had some doubts in his heart...... Of course, maybe it's just a coincidence. ”

Speaking of this, Zhao Junchen suddenly fell silent.

But the implication is very clear - if it is not a coincidence, it is that the prince has planted eyeliner next to Zhao Junchen.

Zhu Heyu, as a prince, if he really did such a thing, it would be not very glorious.

Therefore, after hearing Zhao Junchen's description, Emperor Deqing's eyes flashed, and he waved his hand categorically and said: "Although the prince is a little reckless, he has always been upright, this matter should be just a coincidence, but Junchen, you think too much." ”

Zhao Junchen glanced at Emperor Deqing, as if he wanted to say something more, and finally said: "Your Majesty Shengming, it is indeed the minister who thinks too much." ”

Speaking of this, Emperor Deqing seemed to be a little tired, and after discussing a few words with Zhao Junchen about the arrangements for returning to Beijing, he waved Zhao Junchen away.

*

After Zhao Junchen left, Emperor Deqing suddenly sighed heavily, leaned back on the back of his chair, and his expression was full of exhaustion and helplessness.

Emperor Deqing could not have guessed that things would develop to this point.

During this southern tour, Emperor Deqing took away the first assistant Zhou Shangjing and the elder Shen Changmao, as well as many cadres of the major factions in the court, but left Huang Yourong, who had a relatively weak personality, as the auxiliary minister, and left the elder Cheng Yuandao, a hardcore supporter of the crown prince, in order to let the crown prince Zhu and Yu establish an advantage in the capital and have absolute convenience when acting.

However, Emperor Deqing gave the crown prince Zhu and Yu so many advantages and conveniences in order to let the prince Zhu and Yu suppress dissidents and compete for power! Even if the crown prince Zhu Heyu framed the ministers and oppressed Zhongliang during Emperor Deqing's southern tour, Emperor Deqing would never be angry, but would be happy to see it.

After all, compared with the other major factions in the court, the power of the crown prince Zhu and Yu was somewhat weak, and they were repeatedly suppressed, and Emperor Deqing did this to take precautions.

Of course, during this period, it would be even better if Zhu Heyu could increase some government affairs experience and increase some imperial mental skills!

It's a pity that Emperor Deqing never thought that Zhu Hejian took advantage of this rare opportunity to not only not expand his power and suppress dissidents, but instead started a commercial tax rectification, putting himself on the cusp of the storm and offending all stakeholders...... In the end, he not only wasted Emperor Deqing's good intentions, but also dragged Emperor Deqing back, so that Emperor Deqing rushed back to the capital to clean up the aftermath for him......

At this moment, Emperor Deqing only felt extremely helpless and tired......

At the same time, Emperor Deqing finally couldn't help but have doubts in his heart - is a prince like Zhu Heyu really a qualified candidate for the emperor? A hundred years later, can Zhu Heyu really be able to support the Ming Dynasty?

Such doubts dealt a blow to Emperor Deqing even more heavily than his defeat to Zhou Shangjing!

……

PS: Some of the content of these two chapters should have appeared in the later chapters, but some old readers think that the plot of "the prince single-handedly promotes the rectification of commercial taxes" is a BUG, so they wrote it in advance, which can be regarded as a bug's explanation of this plot.

Well, in fact, these contents have been hinted at before, such as Chapter 296 "Two Lists", and the content of the previous chapter about the post station and the messenger, and the relevant content of the Seventh Prince Zhu Hejian...... And this chapter just summarizes why.

In addition, there is a difference between "commercial tax rectification" and "commercial tax reform", the prince Zhu and Yu did not have the right to adjust the tax rate, and the insect never hinted that the prince would adjust the commercial tax, in fact, the insect said many times before, in fact, the commercial tax in the Ming Dynasty was low, but the problem of repeated tax collection was too serious, and the prince's commercial tax rectification was only for the private tax collection sites set up by the yamen at all levels at the beginning.

In addition, during Emperor Deqing's departure from Beijing, the crown prince had an advantage in the cabinet, don't forget that although Cheng Yuandao, a die-hard supporter of the prince, often played soy sauce, he was also a cabinet elder.

…… (To be continued.) )