After speaking, a few brocade guards stepped forward again, and each kicked Xu Youzhen a few times, beating Xu Youzhen all over his body, and then he left satisfied.

Xu Youzhen is in prison, and life is worse than death.

He originally thought that Sun Xiangyong might come to save himself, or say a few good words for himself in front of the emperor, but it turned out that what he was thinking was wrong, and his hopes were quickly dashed.

Before he knew it, he had been in prison for more than half a month. In the past half a month, he has been subjected to inhuman treatment, and he has been beaten to the point of dying. Just when he was almost completely desperate, something big happened.

Originally, Shi Heng and Cao Jixiang planned to secretly solve Xu Youzhen without following the emperor's orders. Just as he was sharpening his knife, something like this suddenly happened.

On this day, there was a heavy thunderstorm in the capital, and the storm was very violent, many people's houses were damaged by the strong wind, and Shi Heng's house was also flooded, Shi Heng felt very strange. The geographical location of his house was originally on a high place, but the water seemed to have eyes, and it was specially flooded in his house, isn't there a reason for this?

Shi Heng has always been superstitious, he has to talk about auspiciousness in everything he does on weekdays, and he has to look at the days before weddings and funerals, check the yellow calendar, and killing people is no exception. Now that there is such a big natural disaster, everyone in the capital is the emperor, and Shi Heng is no exception. He never understood why his house was built so high that it was sparse and flooded.

After thinking about it, he couldn't help but think of Xu Youzhen, and in the end he finally made up his mind. After discussing with Cao Jixiang, according to the instructions of the above, Xu Youzhen was sent to Yunnan to fill the army.

Xu Youzhen was originally a Jinshi in Xuande for eight years, and he has been in the officialdom for 16 years without any achievements. When he was young, he was made fun of just because he said the wrong thing, so he stayed incognito for seven years. Until the first year of Tianshun, he participated in the "restoration of the door", and originally thought that he could soar from there, and since then he has been flying high. Only four months later, he was imprisoned and subjected to inhuman torture. Later, although he was lucky enough to die, he was confiscated in Yunnan.

It can be said that "there is a debtor who is wronged, and there is retribution for everything, not that there is no retribution, and the time has not yet come; When the hour comes, retribution will be retribution. ”

After Xu Youzhen's matter was resolved, Jian Huaizhen talked to Zhu Qizhen again, she hoped that Zhu Qizhen could let Li Xian go, and told Li Xian what he had done, so that the emperor felt that Li Xian was a virtuous courtier.

Shi Heng and Cao Jixiang also felt that Li Xian was very good to them, so they also ran to the emperor to intercede for Li Xian, saying: "Li Xian is a good person, and the reason why he helped Xu Youzhen plan to impeach the two of them was because he was deceived and threatened by Xu Youzhen. ”

They begged the emperor to spare Li Xian.

Zhu Qizhen saw that Li Xian participated in the impeachment of Cao Jixiang and Shi Heng, since both of them came to intercede for Li Xian, it can be seen that Li Xian is indeed a bit virtuous.

Zhu Qizhen is not a person who does not distinguish between right and wrong, so he let Li Xian go, and Li Xian re-entered the official.

After Xu Youzhen's case, Zhu Qizhen issued an edict in the court, which said: "In the future, the word 'seizing the door' will not appear in all those who participate in the recital, and if anyone dares to appear, they will be punished for the crime of bullying the king; ”

As soon as Zhu Qizhen's words came out, who would dare to take the risk to receive the reward.

As a result, everyone was silent, and their hearts were full of prestige, and they no longer dared to mention the matter of "seizing the door and restoring".

After Jian Huaizhen and Li Xian teamed up to deal with Xu Youzhen, the next people they had to deal with were Cao Jixiang and Shi Heng.

Li Xian and Jian Huaizhen got together, and after analysis, the two agreed that Cao Jixiang was very shrewd, while Shi Heng was very stupid. After Xu Youzhen fell, they should first deal with Shi Heng, and then Cao Jixiang, and break them one by one.

Li Xian thought about it for a long time, but he still couldn't think of a way to deal with Shi Heng, he thought that Shi Heng was trying his best to gain the emperor's trust, and it was probably a little difficult for the emperor to shake his mind.

Jian Huaizhen seemed very calm, she already had an idea in her heart, she said to Li Xian: "Shi Heng is so violent and arrogant, why should we think of leading him to make mistakes?" As long as we don't do anything, his fox tail will soon be revealed. ”

When Li Xian heard Jian Huaizhen say this, his heart suddenly relaxed.

So, the two of them didn't do anything and waited for Shi Heng to make a mistake.

Sure enough, after assigning Xu Youzhen, Shi Heng became more and more arrogant and arrogant, refusing to take anyone in his eyes, and he felt that his achievements were high. In addition, at this time, the invasion of Warat also required Shi Heng to lead troops to fight. Shi Heng felt more and more important to the imperial court, and felt that the emperor would not deal with him, so he became very lawless.

Once, Shi Heng traveled with his men and happened to encounter more than a dozen Warat merchants. At that time, although the Ming Dynasty and Wara were fighting, the two sides still often had trade exchanges, and there were often Warat merchants entering the Ming Dynasty, and there were often Ming merchants entering Wara. It stands to reason that the entry of the Warat merchant traveler into the Ming Dynasty was protected.

When Shi Heng saw the dozen or so Warat merchants, he remembered that he had just killed a few brothers by the Warats, and he was very angry.

His subordinates took the opportunity to say in his ear: "General Shi, these dozen or so Warat caravans look like business travelers on the surface, who knows if they were sent by the Warat King to assassinate the military situation." It's better for General Shi to take them down, even if it is above the court, this is also a great merit! ”

When Shi Heng heard what his subordinates said, he was overjoyed: This is really an opportunity to make meritorious contributions. If these dozens of Warat merchants were killed as Warat troops, and then they would ask the emperor for merit after they returned, wouldn't it be a good thing.

Thinking of this, Shi Heng waved his hand and roared: "Take down all these dozens of people, and if there is resistance, don't hesitate to kill." ”

As a result, Shi Heng's subordinates all slashed at the dozen or so Warat merchants. Those dozen or so merchants were ordinary merchants, and they didn't know martial arts at all.

For example, when they were about to enter the inn to rest, they saw a Ming army rushing towards them, and they felt very frightened, so they fled in all directions. It's a pity that they haven't escaped yet, and they have been stopped by Shi Heng's men.

Shi Heng's subordinates killed people when they saw them, and soon killed these dozens of people without leaving a piece of armor.

After killing them, Shi Heng's men came to ask Shi Heng for credit.

Shi Heng looked at the corpses lying on the ground, and laughed wildly in a very sad manner: "Good, good, good, you guys are doing really well." Come, throw all these corpses into the graves, and rip off their clothes. ”

So, when Shi Heng's men heard his orders, they all came forward to strip off the clothes of the Warat caravans, and threw them into the mass graves.

On the second day, on the court floor, Zhu Qizhen asked the ministers if they had anything to play, and Shi Heng took two steps forward and said in a slumbering voice: "Your Majesty, the ministers have something to do. ”

Zhu Qizhen has been dissatisfied with Shi Heng recently, seeing that Shi Heng is very arrogant and domineering, he doesn't take himself seriously. He frowned and asked, "General Shi, what do you want to say?" ”

Shi Heng arched his hand and said: "Your Majesty, yesterday Shi Heng led a group of people to encounter an attack by a large group of Warat troops, and he won more with less, and killed more than 2,000 people in Warat with only a hundred people, and achieved a great victory. ”

When the emperor heard Shi Heng say this, he felt suspicious in his heart, this is obviously the realm of the Ming Dynasty, where did more than 2,000 Warat people suddenly appear?

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but glance at Shi Heng with some suspicion.

Shi Heng saw that Zhu Qizhen doubted him, and he was angry in his heart, so he said bluntly: "Your Majesty, don't you believe me?" ”

Zhu Qizhen shook his head and said, "It's not that I don't believe you, it's just that this is the realm of the Ming Dynasty, how could two thousand Warat troops suddenly appear?" ”

Shi Heng smiled and said: "This is why the ministers don't know, presumably they were sent by Wara to fight the vanguard, if it weren't for the shrewdness of their subordinates and the understanding of their conspiracy, I'm afraid they would have obtained the secret information of our Ming Dynasty by now." ”

"Well, since you say so, where are the corpses of the more than 2,000 Varat troops now?"

Shi Heng thought for a while and said, "I met them in the west of the city, and after killing them, I dragged them to the grove and buried them. ”

When the courtiers heard Shi Heng say this, they couldn't help but cover their mouths and laugh.

Shi Heng saw that everyone was laughing at him, and he didn't know why, so he pulled the sleeve of an official next to him and asked quietly, "Why are you laughing?" ”

The official had always been afraid of Shi Heng, and when he heard Shi Heng's question, he immediately lowered his head and said, "Lord Shi, the west of the city is a desert, where is there any grove." ”

This official's voice was a little loud, and the other officials and Zhu Qizhen heard it.

When Zhu Qizhen heard what the official said, he knew that Shi Heng wanted to take the lead in the army.

Before he could speak, Shi Heng said proudly: "Yes, there are no groves in the west of the city, it is all desert, that is my mistake." But as misremembered as I am, these two thousand Warat soldiers were killed by me and my men. ”

Everyone saw Shi Heng's words quibbling, but they didn't know what to say.

Zhu Qizhen was very angry when he saw that Shi Heng did not hesitate to bully the king in order to grab the credit.

Shi Heng didn't feel ashamed, but arched his hand to Zhu Qizhen and said: "Your Majesty, now the ministers and ministers have a total of 100 people and killed more than 2,000 soldiers in Wara, don't you have anything to say, Your Majesty?" I have two adjutant generals, one named Shi Biao and the other named Li Han, and I ask the emperor to give them the positions of left general and right general. ”

The Left General and the Right General are very high positions in the army, second only to the Left and Right Vanguards.

When the emperor heard Shi Heng say this, he definitely couldn't agree, how could such an important position be sealed casually? What's more, what Shi Heng said was unwarranted.

Shi Heng did not relent, and continued: "Your Majesty, if you don't seal Shibiao and Li Han as the left and right generals, the entire court will not accept it, and the people of the world will not accept it, and all the meritorious people will feel chilled by what you have done, Your Majesty." ”

Shi Heng dared to accuse Zhu Qizhen, Zhu Qizhen's heart suddenly rose a thick anger, he was about to say something, nearly half of the courtiers knelt down and said to Zhu Qizhen: "I beg the emperor to appoint Li Han and Shi Biao as the left and right generals." ”

Zhu Qizhen forcibly suppressed the anger in his heart, he looked at all the ministers who knelt down, these people were Shi Heng's comrades, and he wrote everyone down.

At this time, someone said on the side: "Lord Shi, you said that you want to seal Shibiao and Li Han as the left and right generals, as far as the old man knows, one of these two people is your nephew, and the other is your nephew." You seem to be a little unstable talking about begging for your nephew and nephew, right? ”

Seeing that the person had exposed himself, Shi Heng couldn't help but raise his fist at him, forcing him to take several steps back. Shi Heng said to him viciously: "The so-called virtuous do not avoid relatives, don't you even understand this truth?" Since you are already old and confused, and you don't even understand this truth, why don't you say goodbye to your hometown and go back to enjoy your blessings. ”

When that person saw Shi Heng's fierce appearance, and dared to do something intimidating in front of the emperor in the court, he was very frightened, so he kept silent and didn't dare to say a word.

Seeing this, the emperor knew that if Shi Heng's nephew and nephew were not appointed as the left and right generals today, I was afraid that there would be no way to end this matter. Therefore, he nodded and said, "Since Shi Aiqing has already proposed this, then everything should be done according to what Shi Aiqing said." Feng Shi is marked as the left general, Li Han is the right general, Lord Shi, are you satisfied now? ”

When Zhu Qizhen said these words, there was a faint hint of anger in his tone, although he tried his best to suppress it, but a discerning person could see it at a glance.

Shi Heng was completely blinded by fame and fortune at this moment, where did he think of so much. When he saw the emperor say this, he was overjoyed, and bowed to the emperor with a big grin, saying, "In this way, thank you to the emperor." ”

After the next dynasty, Zhu Qizhen was furious.

Recently, except for Xu Youzhen, no one has dared to talk to the emperor like this in the court, and Shi Heng has also gathered such a group of people, making it clear that he is threatening the emperor.

The more the emperor thought about it, the more angry he became, and his anger towards Shi Heng deepened a little, and he remembered what Jian Huaizhen said to him, "The change of seizing the door" was not the credit of Xu Youzhen. Then at that time, Shi Heng and Cao Jixiang also made their fortunes because of the "change of seizing the door", which means that the "change of seizing the door" was not the credit of the two of them. The two of them had no merit, but they had mistakes, and their fault was to make Zhu Qizhen bear a notoriety of disloyalty, unfilial piety, and unkindness.

After thinking about this, Zhu Qizhen already had an idea in his heart, and he decided to find an opportunity to take advantage of Shi Heng's mistake and demote Shi Heng to a place.

At this time, the emperor's sister Princess Ning Xin was newly widowed, and on this day Shi Heng entered the palace to meet the emperor and appeal to say something in the army, and after he finished speaking, he walked out of the Qianqing Palace, and inadvertently saw a very beautiful young woman walking over.

The young woman was in her thirties, wearing a bright red brocade robe, eyebrows like daisies, eyes like a phoenix, and a snow-white brocade. There are a few very shallow milky white flowers on the Su Jin, and the whole person walks with graceful and curling, very beautiful. Her hair is spread on her body like a waterfall, and her snow-like neck is covered with a set of peacock green jade bead chains, each jade is round and transparent, very uniform, and the color of the carving is green and moist, reflecting the beautiful face, and the face is as white as jade.

After Shi Heng saw Princess Ning Xin, he didn't know Princess Ning Xin's princess identity, but he just felt that the woman in front of him was very beautiful, and he couldn't help but have a good impression of her.

At this time, Shi Heng's wife was newly mourned, and she was trying to find a continuation for herself, so she asked the surrounding palace maids and eunuchs.

The palace maid and the eunuch listened to Shi Heng's question, but dared not to say anything, and one of the little eunuchs replied: "Lord Qiqi Shi, this is not another person, but the emperor's own sister, Princess Ning Xin." Princess Ning Xin has only been widowed for less than a month, and now she is guarding filial piety for the concubine and now lives in the palace. She has a close relationship with the emperor, so she will come to the Qianqing Palace from time to time. ”

When Shi Heng heard the little eunuch say this, he suddenly had an idea in his heart, this Princess Ning Xin was born so good-looking, and she was the eldest princess of the dignified. If he could ask the emperor to point Princess Ning Xin to him as a continuation, then his power in the palace would be one more heavy. And having such a beautiful woman by your side is also a beautiful thing!

Thinking of this, Shi Heng felt very proud.

So, he immediately returned to the Qianqing Palace to see the emperor.

When the emperor saw Shi Heng go and return, he felt very strange, so he asked, "General Shi, aren't you already gone?" Why did you come back all of a sudden? ”

Shi Heng knelt down for the emperor and said, "The minister came to ask to see the emperor, and specially begged the emperor for something." ”

Zhu Qizhen felt very strange when he saw that Shi Heng actually made such a big gift, so he said, "General Shi, let's talk about something." ”

Shi Heng played his rogue nature: "If the emperor doesn't agree to what the minister asks, the minister won't get up." ”

Zhu Qizhen couldn't help frowning slightly, and said in his heart: "Are you threatening me?" ”

Although he thought so in his heart, his face was still relaxed, and he asked, "Lord Shi, what might as well I tell you about it?" ”

Only then did Shi Heng say to Zhu Qizhen: "The minister implores the emperor to point out Princess Ning Xin to the minister as his wife." ”

"Do you want me to marry Princess Ning Xin to you?" When Zhu Qizhen heard Shi Heng say this, he couldn't help but feel a trace of anger in his heart, this Shi Heng was too arrogant and lawless.

Princess Ning Xin is not only the biological daughter of Emperor Xuande and Empress Dowager Sun, but also the eldest sister of Zhu Qizhen. She and Zhu Qizhen have always had a very strong relationship, and the two sisters and brothers once depended on each other.

Now Shi Heng actually said wildly, asking the emperor to marry Princess Ning Xin to him, isn't this whimsical?

Thinking of this, Zhu Qizhen glanced at Shi Heng, said in a cold tone: "Princess Ning Xin is newly widowed, and it is not suitable for marriage. Lord Shi wants to continue his wife, there are so many beautiful women in the world, why do you have to be Princess Ning Xin. ”

Shi Heng thought to himself: What? Let me marry another woman, other women are as beautiful as Princess Ning Xin, and they don't have the power of her! If I can marry her, I will be the concubine of the court, and when the time comes, won't I be more powerful in the court, and I can do whatever I want.