Chapter three hundred and eighty fourth: riding a tiger is difficult
British Government.
Zhang Shi, Chen Mao, Jiang Yi, Ren Li and others sat down in the flower hall.
In front of them was a graceful and beautiful woman, sitting at the head of everyone, holding up a tea cup and sipping tea without saying a word.
This person is none other than the eldest princess of Changde.
Zhang Min silently handed the letter in his hand to the others to read, with a somewhat troubled expression on his face.
After the others read the letter, they also looked at each other. After a while, Zhang Xian hesitated and asked.
"Your Royal Highness, the eldest princess, this matter is of great importance, you..."
Before she finished speaking, the eldest princess of Changde raised her jade hand, stopped Zhang Shi's words, and said calmly.
"The Queen Mother has already given her instructions. There is no need for me to send any more messages. I don't even bother to know these things. If I have anything to report, I will write it down and put it in an envelope, and I will naturally send it to the palace."
With that said, Princess Changde glanced at the group of nobles and saw that they looked troubled and embarrassed. She gently put down the teacup in her hand and stood up.
"Well, it seems that I won't be able to get a reply from my princess today, so I'll come back tomorrow so you can discuss it carefully and make an early decision."
Immediately, without much delay, she took a few attendants with her and walked towards the door of the mansion. Zhang Xian and others immediately stood up, cupped their hands and saluted.
"Farewell to Your Royal Highness, the eldest princess."
He sent them out of the mansion respectfully, then returned to the flower hall and took their seats.
Everyone glanced at the envelope on the table, sighed in unison, and frowned...
In recent days, they all knew what was happening in the capital. On the one hand, they felt a little frustrated about Luo Tong's failure, but on the other hand, they were glad that they and others did not intervene.
However, there were differences among them on whether to rescue Luo Tong.
Chen Mao felt that Luo Tong was too successful and failed too much. He failed to succeed and was caught.
Nowadays, no one in the court thinks that he is violating Yan Zhijian. Instead, they think that he is inciting the courtiers and has bad intentions.
There were some people who interceded for him, but they were few and far between. As for the big guys on the civil servant side, since Luo Tong was captured by Chen Yi and Yu Qian personally, they just stood aside and said nothing.
Therefore, Chen Mao believed that Luo Tong had no use value and should be left to fend for himself.
However, Ren Li and Jiang Yi raised objections.
Ren Li believed that Luo Tong was charged into the battle for them anyway, and even though there were twists and turns in the process, he should still try his best to rescue them.
Otherwise, I'm afraid it will not be easy to win over other civil servants in the future.
Jiang Yi, on the other hand, was simply reluctant to let go of Luo Tong's connections. With the evidence from back then, it could be said that Luo Tong was eaten to death by their Dingxihou Mansion.
In addition, he was responsible for resisting Ola, and he was a third-grade Zuo Fudu Censor, so he was a high-ranking official in the court.
After so many years of running the Dingxi Hou Mansion, there are only two or three of these connections in hand, and the rest are all interests, so they are not considered stable.
So for Jiang Yi, Luo Tong should be saved if he can.
The two sides had conflicting attitudes and were at loggerheads, and the most critical one, Zhang Shi, was hesitant again.
From his perspective, compared to Luo Tong, he was more worried about the safety of the mission after the failure of Knock Que.
Unable to reach a unified opinion, the matter continued to be delayed until today, when the eldest princess of Changde came to the British government in person.
I brought a letter written by the Empress Dowager Sun in the palace.
Briefly speaking, the content of the letter was that she already knew the ins and outs of the Knock Que incident, and praised Luo Tong for his courage and knowledge, and his willingness to take such risks for the safety of the Supreme Emperor, which showed his sincerity and loyalty.
He also said that such people are rare in the court now, so we can't just sit back and watch him be dealt with like this. We must save him and don't let him make the same mistake as Huichang Bo.
The tone of the letter was not intense, and most of the space was dedicated to praising Luo Tong, but the implicit meaning of the last sentence had to wake people up...
After a while, it was Ren Li who spoke first.
"Second Master, it seems that this matter must be done. Although the Holy Mother's attitude is not strong in her heart, Princess Changde has always sent people to deliver letters these days."
"It's the first time that he came to the door in person like today, and even waited for us to read the letters one by one, and then directly asked for a reply. It can be seen that he must have received orders from the Holy Mother."
Zhang Min glanced helplessly at the envelope on the table, nodded and said.
"What Marquis Ren said makes sense, and nine times out of ten, that's the case. But this time, the civil servants seem to have unified their attitude and want to use Luo Tong to vent their anger on the emperor. There are not enough people who are willing to intercede. Just rely on us."
How can those few people in the court possibly rescue people?"
"What's more, the situation this time is different from the last time. The last rescue of Brother Shunqing and others involved relatives, so it is justifiable for us to intervene. However, the Luo Tong matter has been a matter of the civil servants from beginning to end.
If we intervene rashly, we will only arouse suspicion."
Until now, very few people know about the connection between Luo Tong and the British government. Apart from the emperor, there are only a few well-informed high-level bosses.
Other ministers thought it was Luo Tong who took such a big risk just to gain credit.
So Zhang Shi was also in a very difficult position.
But in the final analysis, this matter was because they had no intention of caring about Luo Tong's life or death from the very beginning.
All they needed was for Luo Tong to lead people to knock on the que. As for whether they would die or live after the knocking was over, they didn't even think about it.
But now, a letter from the palace has put them in a difficult position.
Please save me. I can't think of any solution at the moment. If you don't want to save me, let's take a look at what the Empress Dowager Sun wrote in her letter.
"...Don't let these loyal and upright ministers make the same mistakes as Huichang Bo..."
This sentence alone made them unable to even say no.
On the Queen Mother's side, she must have been extremely dissatisfied with Huichang Bo last time. If she refutes her old man's face again this time, I am afraid that the relationship between the two parties will be really in jeopardy.
There was silence in the hall, but after a moment, Chen Mao suddenly spoke.
"That's true, but I don't understand why the Holy Mother got the news so quickly. Moreover, if I remember correctly, Luo Tong had no friendship with the Holy Mother before. Why did the Holy Mother suddenly want to protect him?
Such a firm attitude?"
As he spoke, Chen Mao narrowed his eyes and wandered around Ren Li and Jiang Yi.
Luo Tong's incident happened several days ago, so it is not impossible for the palace to hear some news.
However, Empress Dowager Sun said in her letter that her old man already knew the whole story, which was a bit interesting.
Chen Mao snorted lightly and said calmly.
"Second Master, it seems that besides you and me, there are others who are keeping in touch with the palace..."
These words seemed to mean something, and Zhang Shi's face suddenly looked a little unsightly, and his eyes fell on Ren Li and Jiang Yi.
If someone had tipped off the palace, it was of course Ren Li and Jiang Yi, who had been advocating for Luo Tong's rescue, and were the most suspect.
Seeing that both Chen Mao and Zhang Mian were like this, Ren Li looked a little unnatural, but before he could speak, Jiang Yi's face darkened and he said coldly.
"Second Master and Uncle Ningyang, are you suspecting me, going beyond the two of you and communicating with the palace privately?"
