Chapter 636 Alliance breaks down
Chapter 636 Alliance breaks down
The next morning, the steward of the governor's mansion came running to report.
"General Shi, my master woke me up in the middle of the night last night and asked me if anyone had come to the mansion in the past two days. I told him that no one had come."
"Then what?" Shi Xiaozhen asked.
"Then he started packing his luggage early this morning. He said his mother was seriously ill and he was going back to his hometown to visit her for a few days. He and his concubine had already prepared several large wooden boxes."
Shi Xiaozhen immediately realized that the imperial edict of the title must have been missing and discovered by Zhang Tai.
Shi Xiaozhen really couldn't understand how Zhang Tai, with such a fat body, could have gotten into the secret room. Maybe she was his concubine, but these trivial matters were no longer important.
"When is he going to leave?"
"From what he said, it's very likely to be today."
Shi Xiaozhen certainly couldn't let the governor Zhang Tai escape, but Zhang Tai had a thousand county soldiers under his command, and it would be difficult to catch him once he set off.
Shi Xiaozhen made an immediate decision and arrested Zhang Tai immediately.
He gave Zhao Juaner a few instructions, and Zhao Juaner nodded repeatedly and began to make arrangements in the mansion.
Shi Xiaozhen led twenty of his men and rushed towards the governor's mansion.
Two carriages were parked in front of the gate of the governor's mansion, and hundreds of county soldiers were waiting in line. The leading general was named Zhang Zengguang, who was Zhang Tai's nephew.
Shi Xiaozhen and his men came to the backyard wall, and two carriages stopped. The butler met them in the backyard and opened the backyard door for them. The butler whispered, "The master is in the study!"
Shi Xiaozhen and his men went straight to the study, only to see Zhang Tai packing a pile of silver alone in the study. The small door of the secret room in the bookcase was open, and there was movement inside, as if the concubine was in the secret room.
Zhang Tai suddenly found someone breaking into his study. He thought it was a county soldier and flew into a rage. "Asshole, who let you in?"
Before he could finish his words, a sharp sword was pressed against his throat. Zhang Tai was frightened out of his wits. He was about to shout when Shi Xiaozhen hit him hard on the temple with the hilt of the sword, and he fainted immediately.
Everyone worked together to put the obese Zhang Tai directly into a large box, and carried away together with the box. The concubine was so scared that she hid in the secret room and dared not move.
Two carriages were also parked behind, and soon the two carriages drove off in two directions.
Nearly half an hour had passed before the concubine ran out crying, "The master has been kidnapped! The master has been kidnapped!"
Zhang Zengguang was shocked and asked anxiously, "Who dares to arrest the governor?"
"I don't know. A group of men in black knocked me unconscious. When I woke up, the master was gone!"
At this time, the butler also ran over and said, "There is a carriage behind us. Has anyone seen it heading west?"
"Chase me!"
Zhang Zengguang led hundreds of soldiers to chase towards the west gate. As the soldiers disappeared, the concubine showed an imperceptible smile on her face. It would be best if that damn ghost never came back, and all the silver in the secret room would belong to her.
The concubine was so frightened at first, but after a while, she calmed down a little and suddenly realized that if the master was captured, the tens of thousands of taels of silver in the secret room would all belong to her.
She immediately hid the silver and waited for half an hour before she ran out pretending to cry and inform Zhang Zengguang.
Zhang Zengguang led hundreds of soldiers all the way to the west gate. He asked the soldiers guarding the city anxiously, "Is there any carriage leaving from the west gate?"
"There's a carriage out, but it's been a while."
"Chase!" Zhang Zengguang shouted and led hundreds of soldiers to chase towards the official road outside the west city gate.
The time interval was too long. Zhang Zengguang chased for more than 30 miles but did not see any trace of the carriage. There were too many forks in the road and he did not know which direction the carriage went.
Zhang Zengguang was panicked. That night, he rushed into the governor's mansion with dozens of his confidants. Failing to find his uncle's concubine, he simply led his men to rummage through the drawers and cabinets, stole all the valuables, and left the city overnight to seek refuge with Du Fuwei.
Five days later, Li Luming personally led 3,000 internal guards to Zhongli County. Shi Xiaozhen brought out the governor Zhang Tai who was hiding in the city. Li Luming then ordered the arrest of all officials who had colluded with Du Fuwei.
Shi Xiaozhen once again led his men to the sealed governor's mansion and counted out 90,000 taels of silver from the secret room in the study. More than 10,000 taels and a box of gold and silver jewelry were missing, which should have been stolen by Zhang Tai's concubine.
All the valuable items in the mansion, including hundreds of copper coins, hundreds of pieces of silk and satin, as well as porcelain, stationery and the like, were gone. Even Zhang Tai's official seal of the governor was missing. Basically everything was looted. It should have been taken away by Zhang Zengguang and his men.
Li Luming read out the order of King Jin, appointing the former county lieutenant Wu Changtai as the county magistrate of Zhongli County, appointing the chief historian of Huainan County Huang Yaode as the governor of Zhongli County, and escorting all those who were corrupt and committed crimes back to Jingkou.
Ten days later, Zhang Tai and ten other officials were publicly executed for treason.
Let us move the timeline forward. On the same day that Zhang Tai was captured, two large ships with a capacity of 10,000 shi from Xiangyang also arrived in Jiangdu County. More than 100 officials of the Chang'an pseudo-court and their families on the ships finally arrived in Jiangnan.
Liu Wenjing had already prepared a place to stay in Jiangdu County. He came to the dock in person to welcome the guests from afar. Gao Jiong also came to the dock to greet his old friend Su Wei.
Luo Shixin led 30,000 cavalrymen and arrived in Jiangdu almost at the same time. The cavalrymen returned to the camp to rest. Luo Shixin went to hand over orders to the King of Jin. In addition, Song Laosheng and his army who surrendered to the Sui army in the south of the Yangtze River were left to Lai Huer who was stationed in Jiangling County.
More than one hundred officials and their families entered the Jiangdu County Guesthouse. Each family was given a small courtyard to rest for a while, and then the Ministry of Personnel arranged their official positions and residences.
The most special one among them was Yuan Min. After getting off the boat, he directly took another boat to the Jingkou General Administration Office.
In the official chamber of Prince Jin, Xiao Xia specially met with his old friend Yuan Min.
The two of them reminisced briefly, and Yuan Min handed Xiao Xia the letter from the head of the family, Yuan Xiaoju.
Although the letter was written rather implicitly, Xiao Xia still caught the key point at once.
"Brother Yuan, the head of the family means that the Guanlong nobles are divided?"
Yuan Min was told by the head of the family that he must be honest when speaking to Prince Jin. There was no need to hide anything, and in fact, it was impossible to hide anything.
Yuan Min nodded, "It hasn't officially split yet, but it's heading towards a split."
"what happened?"
Xiao Xia was really puzzled as to why the relationship suddenly split up.
"There are two reasons! The direct reason is that the emperor went back on his word and did not abide by the previously reached agreement on moving the capital, which aroused serious dissatisfaction among the various families of Guanlong nobles. This dissatisfaction was not only towards the emperor, but also towards the Yuan family and the Dugu family. Everyone hoped that after the emperor moved the capital, they would all return to the officialdom, but the emperor went back on his word, so a large number of them gave up their official positions in the Western Sui Dynasty in order to welcome the Eastern Sui Dynasty, and all of them were gone. These are all written in black and white in the agreement.
According to the agreement, the Guanlong nobles no longer supported the Western Sui Dynasty and gave up their official positions. The emperor would reappoint them after the capital was moved. However, the emperor betrayed the agreement and also betrayed his promise to grant official positions, which made all the Guanlong nobles extremely angry.
"I understand everyone's anger, but what does this have to do with the division of the Guanlong nobles?" Xiao Xia was still puzzled.
“Your Highness, the Guanlong nobles were a whole before, led by the Yuan family and the Dugu family. We negotiated with the emperor together. We reached an agreement with the emperor on behalf of the Guanlong nobles. The emperor went back on his word in the end, which meant the complete failure of our two families. Everyone no longer trusted us, and the previous Guanlong noble alliance was dissolved.
Perhaps this is what the emperor expected. The Guanlong nobles, who were originally united as one, finally became a group of scattered sand. It was heard that the Dou family was valued, Dou Yan and Dou Kang were both appointed as senior executives, and Dou Wei's family was left with nothing. First, the Dou family was divided internally, and then the Yuan family and the Dugu family could not bear the consequences, so they each went their separate ways.
But the deeper reason is that the Yuan family and the Dugu family support different people. The Yuan family supports His Highness, and the Dugu family supports Li Yuan. In the past, everyone could seek common ground while reserving differences, but now it is impossible to seek common ground while reserving differences, and the alliance between the Yuan family and the Dugu family has also broken down. "
Xiao Xia nodded. He finally understood the real reason. The Yuan family and the Dugu family had completely different bets, which led to the split of the Guanlong nobles.
(End of this chapter)