Good opportunity, God-given opportunity!

Unlike others, when Lan Yu heard the news, he was stunned for a moment, and then he was so excited that he almost jumped up.

This is the opportunity given to him by God.

Although Lan Yu's life seemed comfortable recently, as time went by, he gradually figured things out.

Although His Royal Highness the Crown Prince trusted him, the handing over of military power meant that it would be difficult for him to go to the battlefield in the future.

It is basically impossible to command hundreds of thousands of troops to fight as in the past.

This made Lan Yu drink to drown his sorrows for a while, but he was helpless.

However, when this happened, Lan Yu immediately realized that his chance had come.

Soon, Jingchuan Marquis Cao Zhen, Heshou Marquis Zhang Yi, Zhuolu Marquis Zhu Shou, Dingyuan Marquis Wang Bi and Dongguan Earl He Rong arrived one after another.

Not without surprise, everyone's eyes lit up.

Cao Zhen said excitedly: "Brother, our chance has come."

Lan Yu had calmed down at this moment, and nodded with a smile, saying, "Just be at ease and wait. I think it won't be long before we get news from the palace."

After hearing Lan Yu say this, everyone, who were originally a little nervous, became even more excited.

In fact, ever since the crown prince was officially enthroned, the Huaixi nobles and generals of Lan Yu's faction seemed to have risen in status, but in fact they suffered a lot.

Not only Lan Yu, the military power in the hands of other meritorious generals was also weakened invisibly.

A large number of elite soldiers were directly withdrawn and put under the control of the group headed by Taisun Xuanjiawei, which greatly reduced their strength.

In addition, many elite soldiers from the Xuanjia Guards were also interspersed among their soldiers.

These soldiers, who had an aura similar to that of Taisun's disciples, began to feel restrained.

You have to know that those who come out of the Xuanjia Guard and join the garrison are at least at the level of a hundred households, which can easily become a hindrance.

It can be said that the military power of the Huaixi generals was being eroded little by little by the crown prince, and they were helpless.

In another three to five years, no doubt everyone will be sidelined.

As the saying goes, a new emperor appoints new ministers.

The contributions they have made are to the Ming Dynasty and to Your Majesty, but not to the Crown Prince.

But now, the opportunity has come.

Rumors are spreading everywhere. It goes without saying that His Majesty will be furious.

As the saying goes, the people do not fight against the officials.

This directly affects the Crown Prince, and the consequences can be imagined.

In the Ming Dynasty law, there are ten unforgivable crimes.

One of the crimes is disrespect.

The bloody storm is right before our eyes.

Lan Yu really wanted to "thank" those who spread the rumors, because they gave him the opportunity to make great contributions.

Sure enough, not long after Lan Yu and others started discussing, eunuchs came to the door.

"His Royal Highness the Crown Prince has issued an order to summon Duke Lan Yu of Liang to the palace for an audience!"

"I obey your order."

After receiving the order, Lan Yu stood up, looking very happy.

In the palace.

The pressure was put on the Jinyiwei.

There is still a big difference between the current Jinyiwei and the Jinyiwei rebuilt by Zhu Di in history.

Nowadays, the duties of the Jinyiwei are mostly within the capital city, where their responsibility is to monitor all officials.

In other places, although they have the power to act, their numbers are small and they have not spread widely.

Things like this are not done in the open, but in secret, and what is needed is to gather intelligence like the Jinyiwei.

After some discussion between Zhu Yuanzhang and his grandson.

An edict was issued.

"The Jinyiwei will be in conjunction with the Public Security Bureau to monitor the entire country. They will set up guard posts in various parts of Ming Dynasty, and the funds they need will be paid for by the Imperial Treasury."

Finally, we have reached this step ahead of time.

Zhu Ying originally planned to gradually use retired soldiers and local security offices to replace the duties of the Jinyiwei in various places.

In the current situation, the Jinyiwei and the Public Security Bureau can only work together.

When it comes to gathering intelligence, those rough guys in the army are not capable of doing such delicate work. The Jinyiwei, who are familiar with this for many years, are the best candidates.

Jiang Li was ecstatic, as this meant that the power of the Jinyiwei would no longer be limited to the capital, but would radiate throughout the world.

"Is it really the Shanxi merchants who are behind this?"

In Kunning Palace, Zhu Ying asked in a cold voice.

Ye Yueqing nodded to indicate confirmation.

As soon as the rumor spread, everyone in the Qun Ying Chamber of Commerce, whether in the capital or in other places, began to use their own resources to vigorously search for the source.

Now, who among the members of the Qun Ying Chamber of Commerce doesn’t know that the boss of their chamber of commerce is the current Crown Prince, the future Emperor of the Ming Dynasty.

When something like this happened, they spontaneously began a full-scale search without waiting for orders from the capital.

This news was originally spread through the channels of the business association. Currently, the Qun Ying Chamber of Commerce has opened many small chambers of commerce to gather information.

After tracing the source, we soon discovered that all this news mainly came from Jin.

The Jin area of ​​the Ming Dynasty today refers to the Shanxi area.

Knowing that it was the Shanxi merchants who were responsible, Zhu Ying was not surprised.

Shaanxi and Shanxi are adjacent to each other, so it goes without saying that the Shaanxi rebels and the Shanxi merchants must have extremely close collusion.

As the Qunying Chamber of Commerce carries the power of the government, to a certain extent, this is collusion between officials and businessmen approved by the court.

How powerful will a chamber of commerce become with the support of the government?

In today's Ming Dynasty, the power of the Qun Ying Chamber of Commerce is expanding so fast that it is beyond the imagination of all businessmen.

Especially when it comes to all kinds of buying and selling, the Qun Ying Chamber of Commerce has no taboos and participates in all of them.

The most important thing is that by taking advantage of the convenience of official post stations, the price of transporting goods becomes extremely low, so the goods trading of the Qun Ying Chamber of Commerce is often much lower than that of other chambers of commerce.

Under such internal competition, many chambers of commerce can only follow suit and lower prices, resulting in lower profits.

Not to mention those merchants who hoard goods and sell them at high prices.

For example, if there is a food shortage in a certain place in the northwest, merchants will drive up the price of food. However, within half a month, a large amount of goods from the Qun Ying Chamber of Commerce will arrive.

If the grain is sold at a reasonable price, it will be a steady supply of food.

Those unscrupulous merchants who had hoarded a lot of grain wanted to take advantage of this to make a fortune, but in the end they lost everything.

Such things happened all over the Ming Dynasty. Because of the large-scale purchasing efforts, the transportation of grain became cheaper, and many small famines did not lead to large-scale starvation.

Moreover, when local governments have no money to purchase food, the Qun Ying Chamber of Commerce can provide interest-free loans to the governments to help them tide over the difficulties.

Moreover, because the Qun Ying Chamber of Commerce was under the command of the Crown Prince and had a semi-official background, even if some local officials wanted to have other ideas, they did not dare to actually implement them and could only deal with the famine obediently.

With the widespread spread of crops such as sweet potatoes, potatoes, and corn, it is obvious that there will be no possibility of serious food shortage in the Ming Dynasty for a long time in the future.

So the overall food prices are showing signs of a steady decline and it is difficult to see an increase.

This is the approach of governing business with business that Zhu Ying is currently adopting, and it is very effective in this era.

This is also why the Shaanxi region, which was supposed to rebel in the 30th year of Hongwu in history, started rebelling five years earlier.

Because if you don't fight back, you'll have no chance.

When everyone has enough food and drink, who will follow you to rebel?

Even if the White Lotus Sect is so deceptive, everyone has a wife, children and a warm home. Who would follow you to do such a job and risk their head?

Shanxi merchants have a strong foundation.

The Mongol Rebellion left the entire Ming Dynasty in ruins, but the Shanxi merchants, who had been dealing with the grasslands for a long time, were not greatly impacted.

During the hundred years of the Mongol Yuan Dynasty, people were divided into various classes.

The Han people were also divided into northerners and southerners.

The Han people who were hit hard were mostly those in the south.

These Shanxi merchants are growing stronger day by day.

Although they were not as famous as the eight imperial merchants during the Qing Dynasty, overall, their financial strength was on the rise. Many Shanxi merchants became rich overnight as the Mongols took control of the Central Plains.

"There is news coming from our Chamber of Commerce in Jindi."

Zhu Ying asked after thinking for a moment.

Ye Yueqing shook her head and said, "There are messages from all over the place, but there is no news from Jin. Not only the Chamber of Commerce branch, but also other small chambers of commerce, no news has come."

The meaning of this statement is very clear. The Shanxi merchants united and almost wiped out other chambers of commerce.

It can be seen that all the personal connections accumulated over the years have been utilized.

Even the heads of government offices in Jin were bribed with benefits.

Shaanxi has rebelled. Judging from the situation, Shanxi will soon join in the rebellion.

"It seems that some people are more willing to be tough than to be soft."

Zhu Ying said coldly.

He has been trying his best to avoid large-scale bloodshed, because in Zhu Ying's view, every citizen of the Ming Dynasty is extremely precious.

However, some people, although they have Ming Dynasty household registration, do not consider themselves Ming people deep down in their hearts.

In this case, then what is the point of talking about kindness?

Violence is not the best means, but it is the quickest and most effective way to solve problems.

At this time, an official came to report: "Duke Lan Yu of Liang wants to see you."

It couldn't have come at a better time.

Zhu Ying said: "Call."

Soon, Lan Yu entered the palace dressed as a military general.

"Your Highness, Lan Yu, pays respect to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince."

Lan Yu had a solemn and resolute expression. He knelt on one knee and bowed with his fists clasped in accordance with military etiquette.

"Duke Liang, please stand up." Zhu Ying raised his hand and said.

Lan Yu stood up respectfully.

"The Duke of Liang should be aware of the rumors spreading outside," Zhu Ying asked calmly.