The Ming King's Schemes and Intrigues (1)
Ming Prince's Mansion, secret room.
With a sharp "bang," the fine imperial porcelain teacup was slammed to the ground, shards flying everywhere, and the warm tea soaked the luxurious carpet.
"Useless! A bunch of useless trash!" Ming Wang Zongzheng Mingchen's face was contorted with rage, his chest heaving violently. "Such a meticulous plan, a foolproof opportunity! And yet... and yet it was all ruined by Lao Jiu's few words! Not only did he fail to bring down Jiang Wanzhi, but he also destroyed the Qingzhu connection and aroused Father's suspicion! He tried to steal a chicken but lost the rice instead!"
He grew angrier the more he thought about it, and suddenly kicked over the pear wood stool next to him.
There was no one else in the secret room except his trusted advisor, a middle-aged scholar with a thin face dressed in a gray Taoist robe. This was the strategist under the Night Hawk Pavilion Master, known as "Ghost Face Master". He stood to the side with his hands at his sides, his expression solemn but not panicked.
"Your Highness, please calm down." After Zongzheng Mingchen had vented his anger for a while, the Ghost-Faced Man slowly spoke, his voice hoarse, "This matter was indeed an accident. Who could have predicted that Prince Heng would actually protect Jiang Wanzhi and see through the secret of the 'Drunken Butterfly Flower' at a glance."
"This flower comes from a secret tribe in the southern borderlands, and very few people in the Central Plains recognize it... It seems that we underestimated Prince Heng's knowledge and how much he cares about Jiang Wanzhi."
"Care?" Zongzheng Mingchen scoffed as if he had heard the biggest joke in the world, but his eyes were full of jealousy and hatred.
"Would a cold-hearted man like Lao Jiu care about a woman? He's only concerned with his own face! The Emperor's decree of marriage has humiliated Jiang Wanzhi, and that's humiliation for him too! He's just trying to suppress me! He's always going against me!"
Mr. Ghost Face shook his head slightly: "Whatever the reason, the result is what it is. Your Highness, the most urgent thing right now is not to be angry, but to clean up the mess. Qingzhu is dead, the clues have ended with her, and our people in the Inner Court have handled things very cleanly. They won't be able to trace it back to Your Highness for the time being."
"But His Majesty must already have some doubts in his mind. We must not act rashly in the near future, especially not directly target Jiang Wanzhi, lest we get burned."
Zongzheng Mingchen took a few deep breaths, forcibly suppressing his surging anger, and gritted his teeth, saying, "Are we just going to let this go? Just watch Ninth Brother reap the benefits? I'm not willing!"
“Of course we won’t let it go like this.” A sinister glint flashed in Mr. Ghost’s eyes. “Today, Prince Heng pointed out that ‘Cleome salsa’ needs to be mixed with spices to be effective, but he didn’t investigate what kind of spices they are. We can take this opportunity to stir things up even more.”
"Oh?" Zongzheng Mingchen looked at him, his anger subsiding slightly as his interest was piqued. "What brilliant plan do you have, sir?"
The masked man stepped forward, lowering his voice even further, with a seductive tone: "Does Your Highness still remember that although Prime Minister Jiang did not remarry, his first wife, Jiang Wanzhi's birth mother, came from the Xie family, a renowned Suzhou embroidery family in Jiangnan? Although the Xie family is famous throughout the world for its embroidery, some members of its collateral branches also run a spice business, and on a considerable scale, they occasionally trade with the Southern Frontier."
Zongzheng Mingchen's eyes flashed: "I have indeed heard about it. But that was a matter concerning Jiang Wanzhi's maternal grandparents' family, and their relationship with her mother and even the Prime Minister's residence has long been distant."
“A distant relationship doesn’t mean we can’t use it.” Leng You’s lips curled into a sinister smile. “If we operate in secret, and let the Inner Court or Prince Heng’s people follow the clues, they can find out that a member of the Xie family’s collateral branch who is in charge of the spice business recently purchased a small amount of ‘Cleome’s Tears’.”
"Furthermore... there are subtle and unclear financial transactions between the accounts and the Prime Minister's steward or his trusted subordinates?"
He paused, admiring the light gradually brightening in Zongzheng Mingchen's eyes, and continued, "At that time, even if Prime Minister Jiang has a silver tongue, he will find it difficult to explain clearly. What will His Majesty think? Will he believe that Prime Minister Jiang is completely unaware, or will he suspect that he orchestrated this self-inflicted injury? And how will Prince Heng deal with himself?"
"Could the future princess and her family, whom he so desperately protects, actually be the mastermind? Wouldn't the suspicion and estrangement involved be more effective in dismantling their alliance and allowing Your Highness to... reap the benefits than simply eliminating Jiang Wanzhi?"
Zongzheng Mingchen's angry expression was completely replaced by a sinister and excited smile: "Brilliant! Brilliant indeed! This plan is extremely vicious, yet also extremely brilliant!"
"In this way, not only will we get revenge on the Ninth Prince and that Jiang Wanzhi, but if we can also shake the old bastard Prime Minister Jiang's position in the Emperor's heart, that would be an unexpected bonus!"
He rubbed his hands excitedly, pacing back and forth in the secret room: "Yes, that's the way to do it! Sir, you're in charge of arranging this personally! Make sure it's done flawlessly, so that the clues look like they were painstakingly found, and absolutely no one can tell that it was deliberately misleading them!"
"Your Highness, rest assured." The masked man bowed, his face revealing a confident and calculating expression. "In the Southern Frontier, our Night Hawk Pavilion has its own channels. It's not difficult to plant one or two 'witnesses' in the Xie family's branch spice shop and make a few seemingly secretive but actually flawed accounts."
"As for the Prime Minister's residence... No matter how strict Prime Minister Jiang is in managing his household, it's hard to guarantee that everyone under him is clean. There will always be one or two people who can be bribed or used. This matter will definitely be handled very naturally."
"Good! Good!" Zongzheng Mingchen nodded repeatedly, his eyes rekindling with ambition and ruthlessness. "Ninth Prince, Jiang Wanzhi, Prime Minister Jiang... I want to see how you break this deadlock! Can you wash this muddy water clean?!"
…………
During the days of confinement, time seemed to stretch out, flowing exceptionally slowly. The sunlight outside the window was faint, casting bright patches of light through the carved window frames, where dust particles danced silently.
Jiang Wanzhi sat upright at her desk, dozens of pages already copied onto the snow-white Xuan paper in her modern, flowing handwriting. The content of "Admonitions for Women" was dry and rigid, every word seemingly carrying a constraint on women.
As she writes, her pen will pause slightly.
My thoughts kept drifting back to that breathtaking scene at the Hundred Flowers Banquet. The chilling aura emanating from Zongzheng Hengyu as he rose, his calm yet weighty words, Su Yuyue's delicate yet venomous face, the Emperor's scrutinizing gaze, the Empress Dowager's icy rage…
Finally, there are the father's weighty analyses in the carriage, which unveil a veil of warmth.
"His actions today may not be entirely for your sake."
"Whether for public or private reasons, he would not sit idly by."
"He was just going with the flow today..."
Her father's words were like a cold carving knife, clearly and realistically depicting the vague stirrings in her heart caused by the hero saving her.
Yes, she was just a pawn who suddenly appeared in the game, and her honor, disgrace, safety, and danger were perhaps just something he glanced at casually.
A bitter feeling welled up in my heart, not entirely because my feelings had been denied, but more so because of the sense of powerlessness I felt towards this fate that I couldn't control.
She took a deep breath, forced herself to calm down, and refocused her attention on the words she was writing.
Just as she was concentrating, Chuntao quietly brought in a cup of freshly brewed jasmine tea, placed it on the table, and said softly, "Miss, take a break and have some tea to soothe your throat."
Jiang Wanzhi put down her pen, rubbed her slightly sore wrists, and took the teacup. The warm aroma of tea wafted out, slightly dispelling the gloom in her heart.
Looking at her young mistress's slightly thinner profile, Chuntao couldn't help but whisper, "Miss, are you still thinking about what happened in the palace? It's all in the past. His Majesty and the Empress Dowager were very discerning and didn't punish you severely, which is already a great blessing."
Jiang Wanzhi sighed helplessly, shook her head and said, "Sigh... my life as a salted fish is really miserable."
…………
The secret chamber of the Ming Prince's Mansion.
"How exactly do we do it?" Zongzheng Mingchen lowered his voice, every word revealing his eagerness.
A knowing smile appeared on Mr. Ghost's face. He took out a small piece of paper from his sleeve, on which was written in tiny characters with an extremely fine ink pen.
“The first step, the source in the southern border.” He pointed to the first line of the note, “The Night Hawk Pavilion’s stronghold in the southern border will immediately arrange for a reliable merchant to do a small business deal with ‘Fuyu Zhai,’ which is run by a branch of the Xie family.”
"A very small amount of 'Cleome' flowers will be cleverly mixed into the list of goods for the transaction, and the record will only vaguely record it as 'rare herbs from southern Xinjiang'. The time of this transaction will be made to be exactly half a month before the Hundred Flowers Banquet, which is just the right time, so that it is not too close to be abrupt, and can ensure that the 'Cleome' flowers can be delivered to the capital before the banquet."
"Won't the manager of Fuyuzhai suspect anything?" Zongzheng Mingchen looked at him with doubt.
"Of course not. That merchant is one of ours. He's experienced and his transactions are perfectly reasonable. For Fuyuzhai, this is just one of countless ordinary import deals. In fact, because of the small quantity and high price, the manager might even be quite pleased with himself."
"All we need is a record of the Cleome spinosa flower having passed through their hands," Mr. Ghostface said calmly, as if discussing a routine business transaction.
“The second step is to track the flow of money.” The masked man’s fingertip moved down. “We need to leave a small flaw in Fuyuzhai’s ledger.”
"A sum of money, not too large or too small, about five hundred taels, will be paid from Fuyuzhai's account under the pretext of 'purchasing special raw materials,' and the recipient will be a leather goods store that seems to have no connection with the Prime Minister's residence."
"Then, after several complicated transfers, the money will eventually be transferred to..."
He paused deliberately and looked at Zongzheng Mingchen.
"Where will the money go?" Zongzheng Mingchen asked anxiously.
"The money was transferred to the silk shop account newly opened by a distant cousin of the second steward of Prime Minister Jiang's residence. This second steward happens to be in charge of some of the Prime Minister's purchasing affairs and has close ties with the Prime Minister's accountant."
The masked man's eyes gleamed with a sinister light. "This line will be handled very discreetly, changing hands several times, and on the surface, it will never be traced back to the Prime Minister's residence. But if Prince Heng or those veterans in the Inner Court investigate carefully, as long as they are willing to put in the effort, they will eventually be able to follow the clues and find this seemingly ambiguous connection."
"Brilliant!" Zongzheng Mingchen clapped his hands. "A mere hint of a financial connection can spark more speculation than solid evidence! Father is inherently suspicious and most averse to ministers forming cliques and engaging in clandestine schemes!"
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