Seeing that Zhang Qigong only spoke half of his words, Zhao Hongrun frowned slightly.
Seeing this, Zhang Qigong quickly cupped his hands and asked cautiously: "Is it possible that His Highness the Crown Prince has already had doubts about Wei Gong Ziyu?"
"..." Zhao Hongrun looked at Zhang Qigong without saying anything, and then said quietly after a while: "Two years ago, when Brother Yong Wang was in power, the Smelting Bureau was thrown into a period of turmoil because of him. Afterwards, I took over the Smelting Bureau again.
, someone came to report that there was a stolen note in the warehouse, and it seemed that Xiao Ni took the opportunity to steal it... If Wei Yu really reached a tacit understanding with Xiao Luan, then Wei Yu
What you want is not just the money in Xiao Luan's hand... If I were you, I would send people to trace the mines and ore inflows in Weiguo and find the iron-making blast furnace that Wei Yu ordered to build privately.
Let’s see if the Wei people’s craftsmen’s blast furnace iron-making imitates that of our Great Wei Smelting Bureau, and from this we can deduce whether Wei Yu had contact with Xiao Luan.”
Zhang Qigong's eyes lit up and he praised sincerely: "His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is as clear as a fire. I will send someone to investigate right now."
However, as soon as he finished speaking, he was interrupted by Zhao Hongrun raising his hand: "It's meaningless."
"How could this be meaningless?"
Zhang Qigong looked at Zhao Hongrun in confusion, but Zhao Hongrun asked: "If Wei Yu really protected Xiao Luan in private, what can you do?"
"I……"
Zhang Qigong opened his mouth and immediately understood what Zhao Hongrun meant.
Yes, Wei Yu is the son of the Wei Kingdom, and will probably be the future king of the Wei Kingdom. He is not a small role that they can do whatever they want. Although the matter of "pursuing Xiao Luan" now, His Highness the Crown Prince said in front of him.
It is almost a "personal feud", but if there is Mr. Wei among them,
If Yu is involved, it may escalate to a "diplomatic incident" - even if it is finally verified that Wei Yu did protect Xiao Luan in private, is it possible that Zhang Qigong, the "Captain of the Prince's Mansion", can ignore Wei and Wei?
friendship, force Wei Yu to hand over Xiao Luan?
Or, like last time, let the court come forward to tell King Fei of Wei, so that the latter can put pressure on Duke Ziyu of Wei?
It also depends on who is being targeted. Just like what the Daliang court did last time, it finally forced King Wei Fei to send Wei Gong Ziyu to Daliang as a proton - of course, the original intention of this proton was that the court wanted to teach Wei Gong Tzuyu a lesson and let this
Mr. Wei will rarely interfere in the "Song County issue" in the future and slander the Liang court.
But because of this incident, Wei's reputation among the people of Wei suddenly dropped a lot. Many people were angry that Wei "used its power to bully others" and targeted their capable son Wei Yu for no reason. There were even rumors that Wei was
He was afraid of the virtuousness of Wei Gong Ziyu and did not want the country of Wei to become strong because of Wei Gong Ziyu.
Although this sounds very ridiculous, we have to say that the people are sometimes blind, so there are not a few Wei people who believe this rumor. But in fact, the current gap between Wei and Wei will be due to a Wei Gongzi.
Is it shortened?
No, it will only gradually widen the distance.
But in the eyes of the people of Wei State, this is very possible. After all, according to rumors in the Central Plains, the strong rise of Wei State is due to the emergence of a "Wei Gongzi Run" in Wei State. Since "Wei Gongzi Run" can
The Wei State became so powerful, why couldn't "Wei Gong Ziyu" do the same?
No matter what, today's Wei State is still a Central Plains country. Even if it is attached to the Wei State, the court cannot force Wei Gongziyu to hand over Xiao Luan unless Wei Yu publicly admits that he has sheltered Xiao Luan. - However, Wei Guo
How could Gong Ziyu admit it?
In this way, this incident may eventually become the beginning of a war of words between Wei and Wei: the Wei court reprimanded Wei Gong Ziyu and forced Wei Yu to hand over Xiao Luan; but when Wei Yu denied it,
The people of Wei State also thought that this was because Wei State was afraid of Wei Yu's talents, and wanted to frame him to prevent Wei State from becoming strong because of his son Wei Yu.
If things go on like this, conflicts will inevitably arise between Wei and Wei. In the end, it is very likely that Wei will annex Wei in anger.
But to be honest, annexing Wei State would not be of much help to Wei State.
Because the Wei State did not lack land at all, after successively acquiring Sanchuan County, Shangdang County, and this time the Hetao area, the territory was almost twice as vast as that of the Wei State nine years ago. The Wei State was only slightly larger.
?
Especially when it is foreseen that Wei and Qi are likely to dissolve their alliance or even form a confrontation due to the alternation of dominance in the Central Plains in the future, it is very helpful to retain Weiguo, a younger brother who has no ambition to dominate the Central Plains - for example
In terms of jointly resisting South Korea, even if the strength of the Wei Kingdom is no longer maintained, it can still help the Wei State fight a war of words with the Koreans and occupy moral rights. This is completely different from the Wei people quarreling with the Koreans alone.
After all, the Wei royal family is the royal family recognized by all the countries in the Central Plains.
Therefore, the most likely result is that the State of Wei intervenes in the establishment of the crown prince of Wei State, causing Duke Wei Ziyu to lose the power to succeed King Wei, but in the same way, the State of Wei also loses the support of the people of Wei State.
What's more important is that Zhao Run, the prince of the East Palace of Wei State, does not want to see this situation.
Therefore, as Zhao Hongrun said, it is meaningless to pursue Wei Gong Ziyu. Even if the suspicion is confirmed, it will only make Zhao Hongrun feel unilaterally unhappy and have some thoughts about Wei Yu.
"I see……"
Under Zhao Hongrun's explanation, Zhang Qigong suddenly understood. He finally understood why the Crown Prince in front of him clearly saw through this matter, but did nothing and pretended to be confused.
"...I think that even though Wei Yu had reached a tacit understanding with Xiao Luan in private in order to take advantage of him, he was still under great pressure in his heart. He was afraid that I, the leader, would find out. Such cooperation with ulterior motives is destined to not last long.
When Xiao Luan is drained of all his savings by Wei Yu, maybe Wei Yu will kill Xiao Luan without me taking action, send his head to Daliang, and ask for the five hundred thousand gold reward from me.
Gold." Zhao Hongrun said with a faint smile.
Hearing this, Zhang Qigong laughed and said: "Asking for a reward? Wei Gongziyu is not so 'shameless', is he?"
Zhao Hongrun glanced at Zhang Qigong and didn't say much.
Some of the things Wei Yu did may be incomprehensible to ministers like Zhang Qigong, but Zhao Hongrun could.
If he were to put himself in Wei Yu's shoes, Zhao Hongrun would still be tempted by the money in Xiao Luan's hands. This is just like when he defeated Chu Yangcheng Lord Xiong Tuo to invade the Wei State, the Wei people at home were still interested in him.
Although the Chu people responded with disgust and hatred, they still secretly opened a smuggling trade with Xiong Tuo, the king of Yangcheng, exchanging Wei's weapons, armor and grain for Chu's specialties.
Wasn't Zhao Hongrun under a lot of pressure at that time? This was also an act of capitalizing on the enemy!
But in order to make the country strong, Zhao Hongrun was willing to take some risks. Apparently, Wei Gong Ziyu thought so too.
After taking a long breath, Zhao Hongrun ordered Gao Li, the close attendant and eunuch, to say: "Gao Li, send someone to the Prince's Mansion and summon Bei Gongyu, the deputy captain of the Prince's Mansion, to the East Palace."
"Yes, Your Highness."
After a while, Bei Gongyu hurried to the East Palace.
"Beigong Yu, meet His Royal Highness the Crown Prince."
"Hmm." Zhao Hongrun waved his hand casually, and then asked Bei Gong Yudao: "I forgot to ask carefully that day...According to your guess, how much money and goods does Xiao Luan have in his hands?"
"This..." Bei Gongyu, who didn't know the reason, was confused, thought for a while and said: "According to the estimate of the humble position, it is about one million gold. In addition to the original humble position, Xiao Luan also has two other "chief clerks"
, lurking in the two countries of Korea and Qi, doing business to earn money and goods..."
"One million gold..." Zhao Hongrun paced back and forth in the hall, calculating in his mind the approximate time it would take for Xiao Luan to be "drained of money and goods and then abandoned" by Wei Yu.
"Your Highness?"
Bei Gongyu was a little confused: His Highness the Crown Prince summoned me to the East Palace specifically just to ask a question?
He looked at Zhang Qigong, hoping that the latter would remind him, but Zhang Qigong just smiled and said nothing - of course he understood the reason why His Royal Highness asked Bei Gongyu that question, but there was no need to explain so much to Bei Gongyu.
After a while, Zhao Hongrun nodded slightly, then turned to Bei Gongyu and said with a smile: "Beigong, I summoned you two today. I want to explain that the pursuit of Xiao Luan will be put on hold for now.
I heard you listed
I have made a list of Xiao Ni. Next, you can assist Qi Gong to instigate these people. I still say the same thing, I am willing to submit to the court and to the king, as long as he is not a treacherous and evil person, I will
All can be forgiven.”
"Put the pursuit of Xiao Luan on hold for now?"
Bei Gongyu was greatly surprised, but did not dare to ask in detail.
"Besides..." Glancing at Bei Gongyu, Zhao Hongrun said with relief: "No matter what happened between you two, although Xiao Luan was not caught during this trip, I also saw your sincerity." As he said,
He gently patted Bei Gongyu's arm,
With a bit of teasing, he said: "In addition to that list, in your free time on weekdays, think more about taking concubines. Although I can promise Beigong family wealth, I can't make you Beigong family prosperous. This matter
, it’s still up to you to do it yourself.”
Even though Bei Gongyu was thirty-nine this year, her face turned red with embarrassment when she heard Zhao Hongrun's teasing.
At the same time, there was a faint feeling of flattered joy in his heart.
He once again realized that in terms of personal charm, the Crown Prince in front of him was even better than Xiao Luan, and as for his magnanimity, he was far inferior to Xiao Luan.
"Many, thank you for your kind words, Your Highness." Bei Gongyu thanked with a mixture of joy and embarrassment.
After a while, after Zhang Qigong and Bei Gongyu left, Zhao Hongrun walked to the window, opened it, and felt the chill coming from outside the window, so as to calm down his anxious mood a little.
Zhao Hongrun has never worried about his cousin Wei Yu's ambition, because as long as Wei Yu's ambition is not to make "Wei dominate the Central Plains" and "replace Wei", then there is no fundamental interest between Wei and Wei.
conflict.
In fact, in Zhao Hongrun's view, it would not be a bad thing if Wei Yu could make Wei Guo stronger. After all, with the current situation of Wei and Wei, Wei Guo was indeed too weak to even stand on Wei's side.
The flags and cheers all seemed lacking in confidence.
"...give both grace and power, give both kindness and power..."
He muttered to himself.
A few days later, Wei Gong Ziyu received a letter from his cousin Zhao Run.
However, after he opened the letter, there was no letter from Zhao Hongrun in the letter. There was only a note about "refractory bricks", which exactly completed the craft records Xiao Luan gave to Wei Yu, and it happened to be Wei Yu.
What is most needed today.
"..."
After staring at the letter with a solemn expression for a while, Wei Yu summoned the hero Xia Yu.
"Send Chang Chai to keep an eye on Xiao Luan's every move...I will pay this person's head back in the future."