Those people from the aristocratic families headed by Fan Ting, unlike Yu Zizhen who came from a family of military generals, can be considered "insiders" of the same lineage as the generals of the world. Many times, they can even easily gain a certain degree of trust and goodwill from the generals just by relying on the convenience of their identities.
They are naturally opposed to the soldiers, and once something happens, they have no way of turning around and joining forces to fight the enemy.
Fortunately, Fan Zhongming also knew a man named Yu Zizhen, and Yu Zizhen was really willing to help most of the Fan family escape from the capital.
Although Yu Zizhen asked him for a lot of compensation, in Fan Zhongming's opinion, 60% of the family wealth was obviously not comparable to the dozens of lives in their family.
That night, Yu Zizhen's subordinates observed the wind direction in advance without alerting the soldiers outside Fan Mansion, and used the help of the wind and the cover of night to give them a large amount of medicinal powder.
The soldiers who inhaled the powder soon fell into a deep sleep. The Fan family, who had already prepared simple luggage, quietly left the Fan Mansion under the leadership of Fan Zhongming, and were then quickly transported to the vicinity of the city gate in batches by Yu Zizhen's men.
As for Fan Ting and his eldest son, they insisted on not leaving, so Yu Zizhen naturally would not bother to persuade them.
Everyone has their own choices and everyone has their own destiny. At most, after they die, she will help collect and bury their bodies for Fan Zhongming's sake.
As for the other members of the Fan family, including Fan Zhongming, they had no problem leaving the city safely thanks to the large number of travel passes wholesaled by Yu Zizhen.
It is worth mentioning that Fan Ting gave two-thirds of the guards in his family to Fan Zhongming, as well as the trusted servants who served his wife, children and grandchildren, and the families of the one-third of the guards who stayed in the Fan Mansion with him and his son.
The only ones left in the Fan Mansion now are Fan Ting and his son, about one-third of the Fan Mansion guards, and those ordinary servants who know nothing about it.
In fact, Yu Zizhen didn't mind taking the servants out as well. She felt that even if Fan Zhongming and others didn't have the ability to bring them all back to their hometown, it would be fine to let them go free after bringing them out, right?
However, her proposal was directly rejected by Fan Zhongming. In his words, if these servants also followed them out of the Fan Mansion, the soldiers responsible for guarding the Fan Mansion outside would definitely notice something was wrong soon.
If they came into the mansion to check, it would be very likely that none of them would be able to leave.
Perhaps because he saw Yu Zizhen's bad face, he rarely explained to Yu Zizhen, "They are just servants. Even if something happens to my grandfather and father, they will not be punished together."
The slaves of Da Qi were like objects, and were also a kind of property of their masters. Even if their masters were beheaded, they would not die with them, but would be taken to the human market and resold.
Although there is a high probability that they will be separated from their families because they are resold and will never have the chance to see them again in this life, at least the lives of most people can be saved.
Yu Zizhen was also aware of this, and she had to admit that Fan Zhongming's concerns were actually very reasonable.
For the sake of his family, he wanted to use his own slaves as a smokescreen for a while. In the current era, Yu Zizhen really had no objection.
But even so, Yu Zizhen was still depressed. And because of this depression, even though she knew Fan Zhongming was leaving, she did not think of the friendship they had shared over the years to see him off.
After only Fan Ting and his son were left in the Fan family, the number of times Fan Ting's eldest son was summoned by Jingzhao Prefecture became more and more frequent as time passed.
At the same time, rumors gradually spread that the Queen Mother was in poor health and might not live long.
Anyone with a keen sense of smell could sense the impending tension and danger from the various changes during this period. Many officials from Yang Zhengde's faction, under Yang Shixian's private admonitions, either resigned or simply resigned during this period, leaving without hesitation.
Lu Tong was busy dealing with Fan Ting's faction, so he didn't make things difficult for them. Most of these people left very smoothly. As for the very few who Lu Tong didn't intend to let go even after they resigned, Yu Zizhen asked his subordinates to do them a favor.
At this critical juncture, Yu Zizhen certainly cannot reveal her true identity, but in the future, she can rely on this life-saving grace today to go to these officials who should have been the backbone of the court to ask for this life-saving grace.
Her life-saving grace was not just for these officials. When her subordinates saved people, they saved these officials and their families.
After so many life-saving favors, they had to repay her no matter how thick-skinned they were, otherwise don't blame her for taking the initiative to get the favor back with interest.
Those officials who were recorded in the small notebook had no idea that sooner or later, Yu Zizhen would find their homes, and the other party would righteously ask them to work for him to repay his life-saving grace.
At this time, Yu Zizhen was not only concerned with saving those people from Yang Zhengde's faction. Even when the situation was so tense, she still went to the palace on time every day with Fang Huaiying and Chen Hushan to be their study companions.
People who didn't know the situation talked about their strong nerves behind their backs.
What those people didn’t know was that not a single day of Yu Zizhen and Fang Huaiying’s time was wasted.
Xiao Yuanjin discussed Yu Zizhen's proposal with the emperor, and the father and son finally decided to listen to her and take the risk of digging a tunnel in the eldest prince's bedroom.
No one knew how Yu Zizhen brought the tools in, and how she made the excavated soil and rocks disappear. The eldest prince and his two trusted eunuchs just followed the drawings she gave them every day. When Yu Zizhen came to the eldest prince's place for lunch break or extra classes, they would hide under the big bed in the eldest prince's bedroom and dig the soil together.
They dug for at least three hours every day, and the intensity of their work caused them to collectively lose weight in just a few days. However, in these troubled times, their gradual weight loss did not arouse anyone's suspicion.
Everyone who could enter the palace knew that the empress dowager was seriously ill and the emperor's good days were basically over. As long as the empress dowager died, the emperor and the eldest prince, whom he had protected with his life, would definitely be killed in an undignified way with a decent explanation to the outside world.
I haven't seen Chen Hushan, who is always quick to seize opportunities. Although he has been coming to the palace to attend classes every day these days, he has never come to the eldest prince's palace with Fang Huaiying and Yu Zizhen again.
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