It was already late at night, and the entire capital was already in a deep sleep, but the lights were still on in the study room of the Huang Mansion. Huang Zicheng, with gray hair, sat behind the desk, and his face was full of contemplative expressions. Speaking of which, Huang Zicheng was less than fifty years old this year, but his hair was mostly white, and there were a lot of wrinkles on his face, which looked much older than he was.

Huang Zicheng knew that there must be many people like him tonight who have not yet slept, including Zhu Yunwen, who was placed in Liyuan Hutong by him. After all, at such a critical moment, it would be strange if he could fall asleep.

Zhu Biao's death was too sudden. Not only was Li Jie and the others unprepared, but Huang Zicheng also had no preparations. According to their plan, Zhu Yunwen would have endured for a while, which would allow Huang Zicheng and others to contact more forces, especially scholars and landlords in the Jiangnan area. As long as they could unite, they could form a force that cannot be ignored.

It is also worth mentioning that in the initial plan of Huang Zicheng and Zhu Yunwen, they did not intend to use any too fierce means, but wanted to unite more forces to put pressure on the court and Zhu Biao, so that Zhu Yunwen could ascend to the position of crown prince openly.

Although Zhu Yunxiu has been named the crown prince by Lao Zhu, the enthronement did not hold a grand ceremony, so from a legal perspective, it is not considered complete. Moreover, Lao Zhu has passed away. Although Zhu Biao is smart, Huang Zicheng believes that as long as they can unite enough people, Zhu Biao can be changed.

Unfortunately, these plans were completely disrupted because of Zhu Biao's sudden death. When Huang Zicheng received the news of Zhu Biao's death, he was completely confused. When he woke up, he immediately felt that things were not good, because Zhu Yunyu now has an absolute advantage, and Zhu Yunwen could almost be made the crown prince.

The development of the matter was not beyond Huang Zicheng's expectations. Zhu Yunqi was made the crown prince by Zhu Biao before his death. Li Jie was even prepared early and mobilized a large army to block the entire city through Lan Yu, and even the imperial city was blocked. In this way, the possibility of others being in trouble at this time was eliminated.

Thinking of this, Huang Zicheng couldn't help but sigh. Although the reason why he was demoted was mainly because Zhu Yunwen lost to Zhu Yunyu, everyone actually knew that the main reason was Li Jie. Without Li Jie, Zhu Yunyu would not have had such a big change, and he and Zhu Yunwen would not have fallen into such a embarrassing situation.

"When you are born in Yu, why do you live in Liang?" Huang Zicheng couldn't help but sigh with the Three Kingdoms, but then he thought that these Three Kingdoms were published and distributed thanks to Li Jie's recommendation, which made him look speechless. Why does it seem that Li Jie will be disturbed in everything in the world?

Thinking of Li Jie, Huang Zicheng couldn't help but sigh again. If possible, he really didn't want to go against Li Jie. He even felt an indescribable fear of Li Jie, as if no matter what, he had no chance of winning against him.

But this time the incident was related to the throne, and also to his personal future, as well as the efforts of cultivating Zhu Yunwen over the years, so he had to take risks. Fortunately, Zhu Yunwen also had the same thoughts, so the two immediately hit it off, which led to what is happening now.

However, because the matter was hasty, neither Huang Zicheng nor Zhu Yunwen had too detailed plans. He only had one general idea, that is, he had to escape from the capital and then rushed to Nanjing. Only when he got there would he receive a response from his supporters.

Just as Huang Zicheng was thinking about these things, he suddenly heard someone knocking on the door, which made him finally wake up from his thoughts and immediately said, "Come in!"

The door was opened, and an old housekeeper walked in with a tray, with a bowl of steaming goat milk on it. This was Huang Zicheng's habit. He had to drink a bowl of goat milk before going to bed every night, otherwise he would not be able to sleep at all.

"Master, it's getting late, do you want to take a break?" The old butler asked, putting the goat's milk on the table in front of Huang Zicheng.

"How can I sleep at this time?" Huang Zicheng sighed, but he still picked up the goat's milk and drank it all. The old housekeeper immediately picked up the towel on the tray and helped Huang Zicheng to touch his mouth.

"Have the letter been sent?" Huang Zicheng suddenly asked. The old housekeeper's surname was Huang, and he was born in the Huang family. He has been Huang Zicheng's book boy since he was a child and accompanied him to read and write. The two have a very deep relationship. Many of Huang Zicheng's things were also done through this old housekeeper.

"It has been sent over. I guess your highness has started to prepare." The old housekeeper replied immediately.

"That's good. Our situation is very unfavorable now. Everyone outside the mansion is staring at our eyeliner, so we must not move lightly. The people you send must be careful and never be targeted!" Huang Zicheng nodded first when he heard this, and then he reminded him.

"Don't worry, Master, although the eyeliner outside is troublesome, we are not vegetarians here, so we can avoid them. Moreover, the eyeliner outside is mainly staring at you, Master. As for the other people in the mansion, there is not so much energy." The old butler said confidently.

"That's true, but don't be careless, especially the next step is even more critical. Whether Your Highness can leave the city safely depends on our performance!" Huang Zicheng also showed a serious look on his face when he spoke at the end.

Before, Huang Zicheng sent a letter to Zhu Yunwen. In addition to reporting the situation in the city to him, the most important thing was to tell Zhu Yunwen his plan. This plan was to send Zhu Yunwen out of the capital safely. After all, Zhu Yunwen can do nothing now, and the only people who can believe are those of him.

"The villain understands, you don't have to worry. The villain will definitely act according to the plan and will never make any mistakes!" The old housekeeper immediately assured again that he also participated in Huang Zicheng's plan throughout the process and played a very important role. I guess even Zhu Yunwen didn't know that his current life was actually in the hands of a Huang Mansion servant.

"Very good. You are not young anymore. You will be with me for most of your life. If Your Highness succeeds in the future, I will plead with Your Highness and arrange an official position for your son. Then you will be blessed with your descendants!" Huang Zicheng also patted the old housekeeper's shoulder with some emotion and said.

"Mr. Xie!" The old butler said excitedly when he heard this. He was old and used to following Huang Zicheng, and had no idea of ​​leaving at all. But if he could arrange an official position for his children and grandchildren, it would mean that their family would be free from the lowliness and would become a superior person in the future.

Looking at the excited old housekeeper, Huang Zicheng also smiled with relief. He grew up with the old housekeeper and had been a master and servant for so many years. He knew very well about his thoughts.

At the same time, Li Jie in the Fufu Division also did not rest. He sat opposite Huang Hua. There were thick booklets in front of both of them, recording various information collected by the Jinyiwei, especially Huang Zicheng and others who were close to Zhu Yunwen. Every move of these people would be recorded by the Jinyiwei and sent to Li Jie.

"Mr. Huang Shilang has not performed anything abnormal recently. He usually stayed at home except to go to the Ministry of Personnel and had almost never gone out. Could it be that he really did not participate in this matter?" Huang Hua said with some doubt while looking at Huang Zicheng's itinerary record.

"Huang Zicheng must have been involved in this matter. Come and take a look at this!" Unexpectedly, Li Jie said with great certainty, and handed a piece of information in his hand to Huang Hua.

Huang Hua took it and looked at it, and found that this was the information that was monitoring Huang Zicheng in the past. You should know that the Jinyiwei was divided into three parts, and some of them were dedicated to supervising officials. Usually, the three did not interfere with each other, but there were some places where powers were intersecting. This time, Li Jie used the Jinyiwei and transferred all the information that could be found.

Huang Hua is also a good expert in analyzing information. After reading the information in his hand, he immediately discovered the problem and immediately slapped the table and said, "Huang Zicheng has a problem. In the past, every time he returned home from the Ministry of Personnel, he would go to the Yingchun Teahouse next to his home to enjoy tea, but he has never been there these days. Such an abnormal behavior should be that he has a ghost in his heart!"

However, when he said this, Huang Hua suddenly thought of something and immediately frowned and said, "Mr. Concubine, it may be difficult to determine whether Huang Zicheng has a problem with this one? After all, now that the late emperor has passed away, the court has also forbidden to have fun in the city. As an important official in the court, Huang Zicheng should be more careful, so it seems that it can be explained if he doesn't go to the teahouse for the time being."

"Then look at this again!" Li Jie seemed to have known that Huang Hua would say this for a long time, so he handed the information to the other party again.

Huang Hua took the information again and found that it was a piece of information just sent today, and it was a piece of information of high level, mainly reporting on something that happened within the Ministry of Personnel.

It turned out that the afternoon of the day before yesterday, Xu Nian, the Minister of Personnel, had the idea of ​​resigning because he was old. According to convention, as the Minister of State, he could recommend someone to take over his position before resigning. Although the emperor may not approve it, he would carefully consider his opinions, so the recommendation of this Mr. Xu is still very substantial.

The Ministry of Personnel has two ministers, Huang Zicheng is the left minister, and another minister Zhou. After Mr. Xu called the two to his office, he gave them a task, which was to assess the political achievements of officials reported in various places, so as to determine the promotion and retention of these officials.

Generally speaking, the important matters of assessing the political achievements of officials are personally responsible for the Shangshu. This time, the Shangshu Xu asked the two ministers to take responsibility separately on the grounds that he was too old and lacked energy. In fact, the intention was to use this matter to test the abilities of the two. If anyone had outstanding abilities, he would naturally be recommended by Shangshu Xu.

"I didn't expect that this old minister Xu was still a fair and selfless person. He wanted to go on and didn't want to cultivate his confidant. Instead, he let the two subordinates compete fairly, which is rare!" Huang Hua couldn't help but sigh when he saw this.

"It's not fair. Xu Shangshu doesn't want to retreat at all. It's just that his nephews at home made a big mistake. His Majesty wanted to give him some face, so he asked him to resign himself. As for asking the two ministers to review the officials' achievements, it was also a matter set by me and His Majesty." Li Jie curled his lips and said.

"So that's it, Your Majesty is wise!" Huang Hua was not embarrassed when he heard this, but instead flattered Zhu Yunxi. Although Zhu Yunxi was not here, Li Jie was in front of him. Huang Hua knew that what Li Jie heard was equivalent to what His Majesty heard.

After Huang Hua continued to read and soon discovered an abnormality. Generally speaking, when he encountered such a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, both ministers would definitely show themselves desperately. After all, they both had a great hope of taking over the position of Shangshu. You must know that the Ming Dynasty did not have a prime minister, and the Secretary of Shangshu was almost the pinnacle of civil servants, so for the position of Shangshu, it was not surprising that these two ministers fought.

In fact, the Minister Zhou was indeed very active. Since receiving the task, he immediately organized his confidants to review the political achievements of officials from all over the country. He even lived directly at the Ministry of Personnel. He had to solve the problem of eating, drinking, defecating, urinating, and sleeping in the Ministry of Personnel. It seemed that he was determined to overwhelm Huang Zicheng and was recommended by Mr. Xu to become the new Minister of Personnel.

In contrast, Huang Zicheng's performance was a bit strange. Although on the surface, Huang Zicheng also organized a staff to review the political achievements of officials, he still placed a normal price every day, not as hard as Mr. Zhou. Even if his officials were lazy, he just cursed a few words and did whatever he should do, without any nervousness at all.

"So that's it. He can sit in the face of the temptation of promotion. This is completely unreasonable!" Huang Hua also slapped the table excitedly after reading the information.

During this period, they have been paying attention to the situation of Huang Zicheng and others, so Huang Hua was not ignorant of Huang Zicheng, but he knew very clearly about Huang Zicheng's promotion trajectory. Although Huang Zicheng looked noble on the surface, he was actually quite utilitarian. When he was demoted to Songjiang, he could not be promoted so quickly based on his political achievements. Instead, he found many people behind his back to plead, which allowed him to return to the capital to work in a short period of time.

"That's true. In fact, not only Huang Zicheng, but also Qi Tai and others. Although it seems very normal on the surface, you can find some abnormal situations by digging deeper!" Li Jie also smiled a little proudly at the end. Even if the fox is hidden well, he cannot escape the hunt of his hunter.

"But we sent so many people to stare at them, but we kept finding that they had met, and we didn't find any secret connection between them. If they really hid... cough, the person who stole things, then where would they hide the person?" Huang Hua almost let out a word at the end, but fortunately corrected the situation in time.
Chapter completed!