At the beginning of March, it was still very cold.

At night, the northwest wind from the Mongolian Plateau swept over the Hengduan Mountains and Yanshan like a wild horse, rolling up small straw sticks and dust in the sky above the Jingshi, wisps of cold and cold that were sometimes strong and sometimes weak unscrupulously whipped the forests inside and outside the city, and the wind swept over the tall palace in the palace, making a slight whistle.

On the east side of the palace, on an old willow tree outside the tube river that has just felt the breath of spring, there is an old owl's nest on a tall branch, and a crow is shrunken in a simple nest made of miscellaneous wood branches, shivering, perhaps because of the cold, occasionally "quack! It sounded terrible in the silence of the night.

There were no pedestrians on the street until the third watch, only the husband walked slowly on the streets in pairs, one of them carried a lantern to illuminate, and the other person knocked the gong in his hand from time to time, shouting: The weather is dry, be careful of the candle.

Boom! - Knock knock! One slow and two fast, the not-so-loud gong sounded far and wide in the silent night.

Outside the Daming Palace, facing the Donghua Gate, the fifteen-year-old young man Wang Shenglong held a yellow lantern in his hand, his head shrunk in a cotton robe sewn from lambskin, and whispered to the brocade guards guarding the Donghua Gate, and several palanquin drivers were silently guarding a small sedan chair with four people carrying a blue tweed cloth.

The Jinyi guard officer on duty at Donghua Gate spoke very politely, with a kind and stammering speech, obviously, Wang Shenglong was not an ordinary person.

Indeed, Wang Shenglong is an ordinary person from time to time, his father-in-law is Wang Chengen, the famous head of the Ming Chongzhen Dynasty, every day at this time, Wang Shenglong will bring a small sedan chair and a few family members to pick up Wang Chengen home.

Wang Chengen, the super celebrity around Emperor Zhu Youzhen of the Ming Dynasty, it is not an exaggeration to say that it is under one person and above ten thousand people, and no one is more trusted by Emperor Zhu Youzhen than Wang Chengen, so that Emperor Zhu Youzhen privately called Wang Chengen "old wife".

"Old" here does not refer to the number of years, but to the time spent together.

Wang Chengen is seven years old Chinese New Year's Eve today, and since he was sent to Xinwangfu to go undercover at the age of twelve, he has been with Chongzhen Emperor Zhu Youzhen for twenty-five years, and he is naturally called his wife by Zhu Youzhen.

Companion – Meaning partner.

Back then, worried that Zhu Youzhen, who was named King Xin, secretly befriended the ministers to his disadvantage, Wei Zhongxian, the great eunuch who controlled the government, sent Wang Chengen to the Xinwang Mansion to go undercover, obviously to take care of, but actually to supervise. But Wang Chengen did not follow Wei Zhongxian's intentions, and the news reported was always Zhu Youzhen's very disciplined, in addition to reading every day, he stayed in the palace honestly, and did not make friends with ministers, so that Wei Zhongxian gradually relaxed his vigilance against Zhu Youzhen. Like to do carpenter work Emperor Zhu Youxiao fell ill after falling into the water, before his death, he obeyed the advice of Empress Zhang Yan and passed the throne to his younger brother Zhu Youzhen, the witty Wang Chengen not only assisted Zhu Youzhen to stabilize the court, but also assisted Zhu Youzhen to eradicate Wei Zhongxian and other eunuchs, it can be said that Wang Chengen is the first major contributor to the throne of Chongzhen Emperor Zhu Youzhen.

Wang Chengen has many titles, including the chief eunuch of the inner house, the eunuch of the ceremonial eunuch, the eunuch of the chief of ceremonies, the eunuch of the chief of Jinyiwei, and the eunuch of the commander of the Dongchang factory, each of which is a role that controls the power of life and death and is feared by everyone.

In the Chongzhen Dynasty, Wang Chengen was a mixture of contradictions, himself a eunuch hated by everyone, but his character was very said in the past, full of scheming, good at playing with power, but extremely loyal to the emperor, greedy and greedy for money, poisonous methods, but very fair, so that the officials who do things honestly respect him, and the opportunistic officials are afraid of him.

At this time, Wang Chengen, who had served the emperor for a day, felt particularly tired, and sat in the sedan chair and didn't want to say a word.

There is no way, Emperor Chongzhen, like his ancestor Zhu Yuanzhang, is a workaholic, he gets up earlier than a chicken and sleeps later than a dog every day, and Lao Wang has to spend all day with the emperor.

The small sedan chair chirped and swayed north along the East Street on the side of the Tube River outside the palace.

Wang Chengen's home is in the Houhou Temple Hutong of Zhaohui Jinggongfang behind the palace, which is where the residence of Emperor Zhu Youzhen gave Wang Chengen a reward.

The emperor is the master of the world, and there are many eunuchs and palace maids who serve the royal family, and it is said that the eunuchs and palace maids of the Chongzhen Dynasty are not the most in the various stages of the Ming Dynasty, but there are more than 30,000 people. Most of the low-level eunuchs belonging to the 12 eunuchs, the 4th Division, and the 8th Bureau and the low-level palace maids belonging to the 6th Bureau and 1st Division lived in the houses around the palace and obeyed the call at any time, while the relatively high-status eunuch leaders and female officials generally had their own homes in the capital.

Wang Chengen's home was rewarded by Emperor Zhu Youzhen, and the courtyard with three entrances and three exits covers a large area. The large courtyard in the front row is where the family lives, and there are family members on both sides of the gatehouse and the courtyard, some of these family members are responsible for guarding the gate, and some are responsible for the chores in the house, and the division of labor is clear. The large courtyard in the middle is divided into two parts, the courtyard in the west is inhabited by Wang Chengen, the courtyard in the east is inhabited by Wang Chengen's righteous son Wang Shenglong, and then the garden is behind, and the last row of houses is inhabited by the guards, the accompanying little eunuch and the old mother, and the empty garden is flanked on both sides by the treasury and the place where the sundries are piled up.

As soon as he walked outside the gate, a person suddenly jumped out of the doorway of the gatehouse, startling Wang Shenglong, who was walking in front, and the two guards immediately pulled out their waist knives and rushed forward.

This is a young man, but in his early twenties, the lanterns hanging on both sides of the gate hole will shine the young man up and down clearly, I saw that this young man is wearing a Wensheng scarf and a blue Confucian robe, but it looks like the clothes have not been washed for a long time, and they are a little dirty.

"Who are you?" , a guard's waist knife pointed straight at the youth, good fellow! Is this worth it? In the middle of the night, there were people waiting at the door of the prince and the princess, the chief of Ouchi, what did they want?

The young man was not flustered, and arched his hand, "May I ask but the prince and princess of Ouchi are back?" “

Wang Chengen, who was squinting and pretending to sleep, opened the sedan curtain and saw outward, and saw clearly the appearance of the sedan chair holder by the light of the lantern on the gatehouse, this is a tall and slender young man with long facial features, and there is no malice on his face.

"Not bad! It's our family, what are you looking for in our family? ”

Wang Chengen guessed that this young man must have been sent by an official to find him in the dark, in the past, this kind of thing was common, and it was usually a gift.

"In Shuozhou, Shanxi, Wang Jinlong, a member of the university, met with the prince and the prince!"

Hearing that the young man said that he was from Shuozhou, Shanxi, Wang Chengen was startled.

Where is Shuozhou? Wang Chengen knew that there was a great wall two hundred miles south of Datong Mansion, but he didn't know anyone there. Wang Chengen doesn't feel like it, what is his identity? How dare a small local official send someone to find him, isn't he afraid that the black gauze hat on his head will be lost?

Four guards surrounded him, and searched the young man carefully up and down.

Seeing that nothing was found, Wang Chengen, who was puzzled, suddenly thought that this young man came to find himself must be related to a major incident, a few days ago he received a report from the Datong Metropolitan Government in Shanxi, Zhou Yuji, the chief soldier of the three officials of the Zuo Governor, fought against Li Zicheng, although he was defeated, but he eliminated Li Zicheng tens of thousands of horses, forced Li Zicheng to withdraw from Taiyuan Mansion, and Zhou Yuji's own whereabouts are unknown, is it related to this matter?

"Bring it into the house for questioning." After speaking, Wang Chengen put down the sedan curtain.