Volume 2: Soaring! The Overlord of the Region Chapter 232 History Fails to Repeat Itself (Part 3)
On the evening of January 4, when Wang Wenyan learned through his own unique information channels that martial law had begun in the imperial city, he knew that he had to run away.
The people of She County in Huizhou Prefecture, Nanzhili, were notoriously difficult to manage in the Ming officialdom: they were picky, loved lawsuits, and loved to gather in large groups… In such a group, it goes without saying that Wang Wenyan was a very capable person and could actually become a prison guard.
In his early years, he was young and did not do a clean job when he was corrupt and accepted bribes. He was exposed for embezzlement and was about to go to jail. Generally speaking, the thing that a prison warden cannot tolerate the most is living in prison. So he simply abandoned his job and ran away.
He ran to Beijing and met Wang An, Zhu Changluo's confidant. Although he was not welcomed everywhere, he was appreciated and treated with great courtesy by Wang An. Therefore, Wang Wenyan naturally felt grateful to Wang An.
Two years ago, Wang An was killed in the case of alienating the royal family. While Wang Wenyan lost his benefactor, he also developed a deep hatred for Zhu Youdong, the culprit of all this.
To avenge his benefactor and get rid of this evil dragon has been Wang Wenyan's only goal in the past two years.
As a retainer of Wang An, Wang , which provided him with a foundation for making trouble in the palace. After establishing a connection with the Donglin Party, Wang Wenyan had a lot of financial support, which made it easier for him to do things.
The Crown Prince returned to Beijing from Nanjing to supervise the country, so the staff of Xinghua Palace naturally needed to be greatly expanded. In terms of manpower, Zhu Youdong adhered to the stingy spirit of Emperor Wanli: try to use the existing personnel as much as possible and do not expand.
Therefore, after the death of the crown prince, Ciqing Palace no longer needed so many people. Most of these people were transferred to Xinghua Palace.
Then Wang Wenyan found a godson of Wang An: You had a promising future following Wang An before, but what about now? Facing traitors like Cao Huachun and scoundrels like Wang Chengen. You must be unhappy to have to bow and scrape to them with your qualifications? It’s okay to be unhappy, but the key is that you were rich when you followed Wang An before! The outer house was so big, the opera troupe was supported inside, and there were so many servants working for you, and a large group of relatives from your hometown came to live with you... In short, it is easy to go from frugality to luxury, but it is difficult to go from luxury to frugality. Now that Wang An is gone and you have no money, how can you live?
Come, do this, and all the money will be yours...
Now, according to the news from the palace, the evil dragon should be finished. Then, it's time for me to run away. After all, over the years , because of Wang An's relationship, Wang Wenyan has had a lot of contact with the Donglin Party, and he knows very well how cruel these Donglin Party members are. The previous cooperation was just a common goal, but now...
As an outstanding representative of cunning clerks, Wang Wenyan was a true believer of the cunning rabbit having three burrows. After receiving the news in the early morning of January 5, he quickly left his residence in Beijing and hid with a former friend who was responsible for transporting clean water from outside the city to the nobles in the city. In the early morning, he hid in a waterwheel and successfully left the city.
"Humph, I heard that the Crown Prince's most capable henchman, Tian Ergeng, is a fierce man who can fight with tigers. Now it seems that although he is fierce, he is too careless in his work. At this time, he didn't even conduct a thorough investigation of the gates in Beijing... Alas, it is true that when the tree falls, the monkeys scatter."
After secretly complaining in his heart, Wang Wenyan cheered himself up, identified the direction outside the city, and quickly rushed to Tianjin.
There were his family and the large ocean ship he had contacted in advance.
As a clerk who had been in the world for a long time, Wang Wenyan had strong social skills. Not long after he started walking, he successfully negotiated a price with a caravan from Beijing to Tianjin and got on the caravan's carriage.
At present, the official road from Beijing to Tianjin has been fully paved with cement, so the caravans can travel very fast. They can set out in the early morning and arrive in the evening.
After bidding farewell to the caravan about five miles outside the city, Wang Wenyan found his way to the hiding place of his wife and children with ease.
"Hmm? No, why do I feel more and more panicked? And there's even a faint smell of blood?"
As a former prison warden, Wang Wenyan's intuition was very accurate. When he was about two or three hundred meters away from the house he had bought for his wife in advance, Wang Wenyan's intuition told him that something bad was waiting for him ahead.
He quickly slowed down his pace, and after taking two or three steps forward, he simply turned his head and started to retreat.
A "swish" sound of something breaking through the air came rushing towards him. Wang Wenyan, who had just turned around, felt a sharp pain in his back. His thick cotton coat in this weather was actually pierced by a sharp object.
"Hiss~~ Boomerang? Are you ninjas from Japan?"
"Hi, Mr. Wang, I'm Jubei Yagyu, and I'm here on the orders of Lord Zhao to take you to see your wife and children."
"You actually attacked women and children! Don't you know that if you don't bring disaster to your wife and children, they won't be harmed?"
"When my young master sent us here, he said that as long as we can achieve our goal, we will use any means necessary. Wang Sang, goodbye... Bang~!"
With the sound of a gunshot, the villain, who had said too much, fell down at once.
"Kunewa? The Imperial Guards of the Ming Dynasty!"
"Finish the mission first!"
The two ninjas behind Yagyu quickly reached a consensus. One of them half-crouched and quickly rushed towards Wang Wenyan. The other took out a ninja dart from his arms and wanted to continue the long-range attack.
But what responded to them was a series of "bang bang" sounds.
Then, before Wang Wenyan could get up from the ground, he was surrounded by a group of Jinyiwei who were wearing Feiyu uniforms, embroidered spring swords on their waists, and each holding a six-wheeled musket.
A big hand quickly appeared and lowered Wang Wenyan's chin skillfully and lightly. Then the owner of the big hand half-knelt down leisurely, looking at him half-gloomy and half-angry.
"Wang Wenyan, you run really fast."
"Hmph... you, you guys, what are you doing, uh, ah..."
"It's hard to talk after your jaw is broken, right? But I roughly know what you want to say. Do you think we don't know you're hiding in the waterwheel? In fact, since 8 o'clock last night, we, the Jinyiwei, have controlled the nine gates of Beijing..."
"Wow~~Eight o'clock? Xu time~~Zi time~~"
"You want to ask why the Imperial Palace didn't send out the news until around eleven o'clock? Of course, His Royal Highness the Regent was completely unharmed! We just made arrangements in advance. Yes, the Emperor was cooperating with His Royal Highness the Regent in acting, and in order to make the performance more realistic, we even deceived the people in the Ciqing Palace!"
"No, I won't. It's impossible. The Gelsemium elegans poison..."
"Pa!" A powerful slap made Wang Wenyan's teeth pop out. "So what if the Gelsemium elegans is poisonous? His Highness the Regent was born from a blue dragon, and is immune to all poisons. How can you villains hurt him?"
"Pacifier, four bodies were found in the house, a young woman, a child between two and three years old, and two old servants in their fifties and sixties."
"Stop, how do you know it's the old servant and not the civil official who came to contact you?"
"Pacifier, those two people have no calluses on their index and middle fingers. On the contrary, their palms are covered with calluses."
"Well, that's a pretty careful observation. Alright, let's just collect the bodies of these three ninjas and the four people in the room, and then we'll go back to Beijing!"
