Zhongzhou.

Since the end of February and now in May, the entire imperial capital has been immersed in an uneasy atmosphere. From the central princes who presided over the government to the ordinary people in Zhongzhou, they were all caught in the bad news that came from each county one after another.

The southwest of the empire, Baling, Tianshui, and Longxi, has been completely occupied by Wudou Midao. Even though the prince of Chengguo led a large army to quell the rebellion, there was no progress for a while. Due to the lack of troops, Cheng Guogong had to form a new Eagle Yang Legion, but it was not enough to turn the tide of the war for a while.

On the side of Tiannan County, the Kingdom of Oman almost mobilized the power of the country, dispatched more than 300,000 troops, went north to detain the pass, and attacked the Nanfeng Fortress.

Although the Tiannan Army was in danger to defend, it blocked the opponent with the Nanfeng Fortress and did not let the Kingdom of Oman attack a single step, but its own losses were huge. Fortunately, after a round of fruitless attacks, the army seemed to be waiting for something, and temporarily slowed down the offensive, which gave the Tiannan Army a chance to rest.

Northern Xinjiang is also not peaceful.

The Ocean Naval Division of the Lena Dynasty had another water war with the Navy's Donghai County Naval Division. This time, in order to preserve their strength, the Imperial Sailors retreated to the military port of Tokai County after a small victory. On the contrary, the Great Ocean Naval Division, which sank two lucky ships, continued to show off its military might outside Donghai County.

On land, the Lena dynasty was not settled.

On the one hand, the Lena dynasty mobilized a large army and pressed it under the Shanhai Pass in the lofty mountains. On the other hand, they played another trick of deception, secretly transferred two divisions, and cooperated with the elusive rangers to launch a sneak attack on the defense line of Choibalsan, which was 200 miles away.

Although it didn't succeed, it attracted all the military power of the Empire's northlands.

The empire finally mobilized 300,000 troops a year ago and defeated the Tile Spur cavalry, so that it did not need to face the threat of the northwest in a short time. Before he could catch his breath, he was immediately drawn into a bigger war. Two foreign wars, a rebellion, gave the empire a sense of powerlessness to deal with and enemies everywhere.

However, these are not the things that worry them the most.

Taiping Army!

After ravaging Taiping County, this rebellious army was once considered by the empire to have perished in the Bayan Mountains. But no one expected that a few months later, this rebel army unexpectedly appeared in Songjiang County and became even stronger. In a short period of time, the officers and troops of Songjiang County were severely damaged, Daqing Pass was captured, and Yuyang Mansion was captured.

Now, they pointed their troops at Chishang Mansion again, and there was a faint attempt to move south.

For the empire, although the current Taiping army only occupies less than half of the county, the threat to the empire is no less than that of Wudou Midao, and even exceeded.

The reason is very simple, it is Daqingguan!

With the mastery of Daqingguan, the land channel for the empire to aid Songjiang was cut off. Moreover, Songjiang County itself is one of the five major grain producing areas of the empire, and it is famous for its richness. It is just that Taiping County has been in turmoil before, after all, it has suffered a natural disaster, if Songjiang County is lost again, and the five major grain-producing areas will go to the second, and the food price of the empire will only soar.

Fluctuations in food prices can easily cause greater turmoil!

In case the thieves are not satisfied, they will collude with the Kingdom of Oman and go south to attack the Nanfeng Fortress from behind......

Once the southeast of the empire is lost, it will not only be a matter of Tiannan County, Songjiang County, and Ninghai County, but will cause a chain of collapse. Even if the empire gave it a go, mobilized the city guards and the Praetorian Guards in a big way, and won the battle, the situation of the aftermath would inevitably be very bleak.

The empire, which is already in decline, will inevitably be greatly damaged, repeat the mistakes of the previous dynasty, and enter the countdown to the demise of the country!

This is by no means alarmist!

It is precisely because the threat of the Taiping Army is so great, but the empire has lost its way to restrain it, that the officials and people of the entire Zhongzhou have made the news of the Taiping Army the top priority. The secret agents sent by the Military Intelligence Bureau to find out the news of the Taiping Army were also wave after wave, but there was never a decent breakthrough.

But in recent days, as the news of the Taiping army's southward capture of Chishang Mansion came back, an explosive news gradually spread in the imperial capital.

Some people claim that Chen Wu, the leader of the thieves of the Taiping Army, is the son and nephew of Chen Sansheng, the Minister of the Interior, and the Chen family, the eight major lords!

As soon as the news spread, the news caused a huge shock. Immediately, some people questioned it, but soon news came out that this secret was from the forbidden soldiers guarding the Taiji Palace. Under the false rumors, the rumors spread quickly. In just two days, this sensational rumor even replaced the news of the assassination of Chengguo Gongqian Taizhuo and the almost assassination of him, and became the most concerned remark in Zhongzhou.

"Chen Sansheng personally said that the thief leader Chen Wu is his nephew."

"Chen Wu is a force secretly supported by the Chen family of the Eight Great Gates, trying to change the world!"

"Your news is fake, right? How did I hear that Chen Wu is Chen Sansheng's illegitimate son! ”

The millions of people in Zhongzhou gave full play to their terrifying ability to speak, and quickly derived countless variants of the original rumors, and some people even made up a full set of experiences about how Chen Sansheng's illegitimate son was exiled, how he recognized the Chen family, and how he obtained the secret support of the gate valve, and he had a nose and eyes.

In the end, the news spread far and wide, and even the civil and military officials spread all over it.

Half a day later, the news spread to the inner court along the eunuchs, and when it came to the imperial banquet in the evening, the fourteenth emperor of the empire, Qianyuanji, was forced to personally recruit Ji Junchen under pressure. The experience of 32 years on the throne and the reason told him that this matter is completely nonsense and absolutely impossible. However, the Imperial Military Intelligence Bureau was unable to find out the really useful information of the Taiping Army for a long time, so Qian Yuanji made up his mind to use this matter to knock Ji Junchen.

Then, Qian Yuanji learned from Ji Junchen that the secret report had appeared a few months ago at the earliest.

"Three o'clock on the day of the xth month of the year: Lin Anping went down from the Taiji Hall to the court, and then Chen Sansheng hurriedly chased after him and talked with Lin Anping about a stick of incense, the content is unknown."

"On the same day: Huang Wei is on duty at the twelfth sentinel in the southwest of the Taiji Hall until the unitary hour."

"This record was filed the next day and marked as 'unverified'!"

Qian Yuanji could not believe the rumors spread in Zhongzhou, but the first-hand information that the military intelligence bureau spies learned in Zuichun Lou could not help but face it squarely.

After a moment of silence, he looked at the man in front of him who was regarded as an absolute confidant and asked, "What do you think?" ”

Ji Junchen hesitated for a few seconds and said cautiously: "The minister has verified this information several times, and it can be said that it is correct. That Huang Wei did say this after being drunk. But whether this is the case or not, the minister feels that it is still up for debate......"

This is also the reason why he didn't rush to poke it out before, because the matter is too big. If there is no real evidence, casually speaking out will only lead to revenge and trouble.

Qian Yuanji, who was sitting behind the imperial case, pondered for a moment, and then asked, "After this matter spread in Zhongzhou, how did the Chen family react?" ”

Before Ji Junchen was invited to play the duet, he obviously did some homework, and said without hesitation: "At noon today, when Mrs. Chen Sansheng was having dinner, she asked about this matter. Chen Sansheng was furious, threw chopsticks and said, 'How could there have been such a thing', reprimanding it as a baseless rumor, and did not do anything else. ”

"Junchen, I think your speculation is right, and there may be something else hidden in this matter."

Qian Yuanji didn't believe that the Chen family of the Eight Great Gates would be so unwise to do such a thing. In the end, he decided to stop the useless speculation and directly use the simplest method to eliminate the misunderstanding and find out the truth.

That is to recruit Chen Sansheng to meet him!

In the past two days, the whole Zhongzhou has been in turmoil, if Chen Sansheng didn't know, he would have been the Minister of the Interior in the past few years. At this moment, he received an overnight summons from Qian Yuanji, he had a number in his heart, sighed, and got into the carriage.

A quarter of an hour later, Chen Sansheng entered the Heart Cultivation Palace.

Although he didn't know how the news spread, he clearly remembered what he said to Foreign Minister Lin Anping at that time, and immediately explained the whole process in detail, and said that he could find Lin Anping to testify.

When the most critical conversation was spoken, Ji Junchen and Qian Yuanji immediately understood what was going on.

Obviously, the "secret news" that Huang Wei said at the beginning was all included in Chen Sansheng's words after being disassembled. As an expert in intelligence, Ji Junchen only asked about the direction of the wind at that time and the distance between Chen Sansheng and the guards, and roughly determined that this matter was indeed undoubted.

This truth made the three of them a little speechless for a while.

The whole Zhongzhou was in an uproar, and even the civil and military officials were alarmed, and in the end, the reason was traced to the fact that a Praetorian Guard had inadvertently overheard a conversation -- but he had not heard it all.

After Ji Junchen heard this secret news for the first time, he had been sending people to secretly keep an eye on the Chen family for several months, and he did not find any suspicious circumstances, not even normal contacts with Songjiang County. The foundation of the Chen family is in Zhongzhou, and Ji Junchen doesn't believe that they have the ability to do such a big thing under the nose of the Military Intelligence Bureau without being discovered.

Because of this, Qian Yuanji also believed in Chen Sansheng's words.

In short, taking the opportunity of this inexplicable outbreak of rumors, Ji Junchen was able to verify a news that he did not dare to verify rashly. But in this way, the intelligence gathering of the Taiping army once again reached a dead end. Believe it or not, the MIA has at least one additional direction in its hands. Now that the Chen family has been proven impossible, who will be the real background of Chen Wu, the thief leader of the Taiping Army?

Just when they were distressed, the news of the outbreak in Zhongzhou also flew back to Taiping County along the channels of the Lin family.

Unlike Qian Yuanji and Ji Junchen, who unanimously denied this secret, the head of the Lin family, who had personally dealt with Chen Wu, as well as several elders and the eldest prince Lin Yunwen, all took the case together.

It is both shocking and unexpected, and there is also the sudden realization after the mystery is solved!

No one doubted this seemingly unbelievable answer, because in the eyes of the Lin family, only from the Chen family, which was also the Eight Great Lords, could there be an excellent traitor leader like Chen Wu.

Whether to change the attitude towards the Taiping Army immediately became a new controversy for the Lin family!