Inside Yanzhou City.

Zheng Haizhu, who had already returned to the inn and changed clothes, went out with Wu Bangdang through the back door, walked around an alley, and then called a carriage and rushed to General Jingguo's Mansion.

Zhu Yipai was making bean cakes for his two beloved horses with Mr. Guo in the westerly sun.

When he looked up, he saw the housekeeper from the house coming quickly with Zheng Haizhu and Wu Bondang.

"Master, this Miss Zheng said she had something urgent to report, so I brought them in directly."

Zhu Yipai looked at Zheng Haizhu in surprise: "What's the matter?"

Zheng Haizhu said straight to the point: "To be honest with you, Your Highness, I want to find mineral veins on this trip, so I first asked my man to go to Chai Tan Mountain to mine the front station. My man said that when he saw charcoal workers transporting charcoal before, they always used big bamboo baskets.

It is easier to place it on the sides of the mule. But the charcoal worker we met today used sacks. Today is not a rainy day, why is it like this? It seems to be to cover the iron tools inside. If it is just to contain some damaged shovels and the like

Come and repair it, just expose it openly. What's more, today's charcoal worker is suspected of smelling the incense. Therefore, the common people guess that there are weapons inside."

When Zhu Yipai heard this, he was quite surprised and his eyebrows furrowed.

Zheng Haizhu continued: "We were afraid that the other party would be suspicious, so we didn't follow the uncle and nephew all the way. We didn't know whether they had unloaded their weapons somewhere along the way. If not, it would be even worse. We would directly kill the iron guy.

We are sent to the palace, what are you doing?"

Zhu Yipai's face turned serious, and he turned to ask the steward: "Did you go to the Wang's Mansion to get all the charcoal from our mansion this month?"

"Go home, Lord, yes."

Zhu Yipai thought for a moment and said to Zheng Haizhu, "Thank you, Miss Zheng and shopkeeper Wu, come with me and have a look."

Wu Bangde reported: "Your Highness, can the common people just keep an eye on the area and not go in? And Miss Zheng, it is best to pretend to be a servant of your house."

Zhu Yipai nodded: "That makes sense. If they really have a bad reputation, there must be a concubine in Chai Tan Yard who might recognize you."

Mrs. Guo on the side quickly assigned her maid to take Zheng Haizhu to change into the indigo robe worn by the general's official attendant.

At this time, dusk was approaching and the darkness was getting thicker. Zheng Haizhu and two of Zhu Yipai's bodyguards followed behind Zhu Yipai. To outsiders, he looked like an ordinary boy.

The charcoal courtyard of Prince Lu's Mansion is located in the Yangsheng Gate on the east side of the palace. Because it also sends charcoal to three princes' mansions in Yanzhou and two General Jingguo's mansions, its scale is larger than that of ordinary government offices. In front of a row of warehouses,

There is a spacious yard.

Distribute charcoal to various prefectures in the morning and collect charcoal from charcoal households in the afternoon.

At this early hour, the servants ushered in the most relaxing moment of the day.

While waiting for the steamed buns and noodles to be delivered from the dining room, a few young people relaxed in the courtyard playing Cuju.

Suddenly, with the sound of "General Jingguo has arrived," Zhu Yipai stepped into the courtyard angrily.

He kicked down the bamboo pole supporting the net and said angrily: "Kick your ass, you are a bunch of bastards who took my Zhu family's money and didn't work hard!"

Several servants immediately fell silent, kneeling down one after another, not daring to make a sound.

A little old man hurriedly ran out of a room on the left.

"Oh, oh, oh, your highness is here, how come..."

Zhu Yipai waved his sleeves and interrupted him: "Are you in charge?"

The little old man kowtowed repeatedly: "This little man's surname is Cui. He has cultivated great fortunes in his previous life and can help the prince and the nobles make money."

Zhu Yipai said coldly: "It's great to have Zhang Luo. What kind of things are there from Zhang Luo?"

There was a trace of confusion in Guanshi Cui's panicked look.

Zhu Yipai didn't say a second word to him. He turned to Zheng Haizhu who was pretending to be a follower behind him and said, "Come in with me and take a look."

Zheng Haizhu crouched and followed.

Thanks to the torches sent by Zhu Yi's guards, Zheng Haizhu saw that two of the young servants who had just been kneeling on the ground raised their heads.

When Zhu Yipai passed by them, he paused and asked, "Which woodshed is it?"

A young man stood up and said, "Your Highness, please lead the way."

Zhu Yipai nodded, and the young man ran around in a hurry.

Go to the front.

After walking only a few steps, Zhu Yipai suddenly spoke again: "Who are the charcoal houses?"

The young man seemed to be stunned, then turned around quickly and said carefully: "Your Highness, the charcoal room is the big one at the west end. The charcoal room is dirtier than the firewood room, but please don't dirty your highness's brocade boots."

Zhu Yipai waved his hand and pointed at Cui, the steward who was following Pei Diandian. "You, go and light the lamp in the charcoal room, then come out and wait in the courtyard with the others."

…

The charcoal room is not small. When you enter the door, you can see several rows of neatly stacked bamboo baskets filled with charcoal.

Zhu Yipai stood with his sleeves back under the oil lamp, his long shadow reflected on the sandy ground outside the door.

Zheng Haizhu walked around the bamboo basket lightly and walked deeper into the charcoal house.

When passing the only window, she suddenly ducked to the window sill and looked out.

There is no one outside the window.

Zhu Yipai observed the details of Zheng Haizhu's behavior calmly.

He saw her scanning around, then walked directly to the sacks piled half high against the wall, stopped to observe for a moment, then carefully pushed the sacks above them, stretched out her feet, and looked back at Zhu Yipai.

Zhu Yipai immediately reprimanded loudly: "You bastard, you don't even know how to cover it with an oilcloth!"

In his voice like a bell, Zheng Haizhu quickly stretched out his feet and kicked the bottoms of the sacks at the edge.

Not long after, the horrified Manager Cui outside the hospital, as well as the two young servants who were nervous, finally saw Zhu Yipai coming out.

"Which charcoal worker sent the sack inside?"

Manager Cui stepped forward in a panic, his voice trembling: "Go back, go back to your highness, this is the home of the villain's mother-in-law's brother."

"What's your last name?" Zhu Yipai's tone still showed no emotion.

"The surname is Zhao."

Zhu Yipai finally showed a trace of kindness on his face and threw a small object on the ground: "This is for your uncle's family. The work is done carefully. Look at the charcoal sent by other families. It's just exposed in a bamboo basket."

?What should I do if it rains on the road? What should I do if the wind blows from the northwest and rain comes in through the broken window in the middle of the night? The reason why the general is so angry today is because the charcoal in our house was extremely damp yesterday.

It made the little county chief cough and cough!"

This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! Manager Cui bent down and picked up something on the ground, and it turned out to be a small gold leaf.

Mom, it feels so good to be here.

He kowtowed four or five times like a chicken pecking rice, and said loudly: "Your Highness, you reprimanded me, you reprimanded me rightly. The charcoal is in the mountains, and I can't take care of it. Once the charcoal enters this yard, I should take care of it with all my heart."

From now on, I will definitely protect the charcoal of other families."

Zhu Yipai let out a "hum" in his nose and took a deep breath.

It felt like I had made a big fuss and finally felt comfortable.

As he walked out of the courtyard, he suddenly remembered something and asked, "Hey, is there a gate at the other end of Tanyuan?"

Cui Guanshi replied: "Yes, there is a gate at the west end, and across the corridor is the second east gate of the palace wall."

Zhu Yipai said: "Take me along the way. I, the general, want to enter the palace."

Manager Cui was stunned and blurted out a presumptuous question: "At this hour?"

Zhu Yipai's face sank: "Why, you're such a loser, and you're taking charge of me? Let me tell you, this general is the one who complained to Your Highness. The steward of the Timber Court, and a good-for-nothing member of the clan."

The ceremonial guests colluded to embezzle wood and money in the name of repairing other businesses. Listen carefully, if any vassal clan comes to you in the future, please pay attention to making charcoal fire. If you report it to this general first, you will be rewarded heavily."

Yibin is the husband of a daughter of a royal family such as the princess or county lord.

Emperors of the Song and Ming dynasties, princes and princes, became consorts of princesses or guests of honor for clan daughters, which meant that they had no chance of having an official career.

Therefore, few men from large families who have high hopes for becoming a Jinshi are willing to be guests of honor.

Many of those who were pushed out to be ceremonial guests were good-looking but hopeless nephews. After getting married, they ate the soft food of their wives’ parents’ families, and gradually became depressed. They even fell in love with money-burning antiques, calligraphy and paintings, etc. As time went by,

Then he came up with all sorts of greedy ideas.

Cui Guanshi has actually encountered many people using various names

The guest of honor who was about to remove the charcoal could not bear to be disturbed. When he heard this, he hurriedly led everyone to respond.

Zhu Yipai and others were waiting to walk to the west gate of the Charcoal House. The young man who had just claimed that the charcoal house was dirty brought a lantern from nowhere and followed diligently to supplement the blind spots illuminated by torches and remind Zhu as he walked.

Yipai and Zheng Haizhu paid attention to the gravel under their feet.

When he arrived at the west gate, Zhu Yipai suddenly stopped, pointed to a wooden wheel placed against the wall, and asked, "What is this?"

Cui Guanshi said respectfully: "Your Highness, there are some big guys in the lanterns at the Princess's birthday party tomorrow. In order to surprise the Princess, the leader of the lantern dance will bring the lantern dancers to gather in our charcoal demolition yard first. When the fireworks are at their peak,

They walked through the corridor from this gate, then passed the east gate of the palace, and happened to arrive in front of Cunxin Hall. The wheels that your Highness saw were all made of colorful lights. I don't know how to actually make them."

Zhu Yipai didn't seem to be interested in this. Instead, he muttered with some displeasure: "It's just a pretentious and extravagant trick to defraud our Zhu family's money."

…

In the middle of Xu Shizhong, in the Xiaonuang Pavilion behind the Chengyun Palace, the eighth generation of King Lu of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Shouhong, and his concubine Meng were listening solemnly to the young woman kneeling in the hall.
To be continued...