Chapter 329 The Murderer Is Nearby, and the Emperor Is Worried About His Successor

It is late autumn, and the sea current flows from south to north.

The fleet returning to Beijing was sailing on the vast sea. No matter how arrogant these young men were, they all felt their own insignificance at this moment.

The Chinese people's blind arrogance and lack of ambition are largely caused by seclusion.

But after Zhu Youtang came to power, everything quietly changed.

The Imperial College, which was originally used for imperial examinations, has quietly transformed into a cradle for cultivating imperial talents. This time, outstanding students from various disciplines were sent to Luzon to open their eyes and see the vastness of the ocean.

The fleet sailed northeast from the northern part of Luzon Island. When approaching the Fujian area, it passed through the Taiwan Strait and then went north along the coastline of the Ming Dynasty.

The Ming Dynasty's maritime ban policy has a long history, but in this era there is a lack of harbors to anchor, so the fleet basically needs to spend the night offshore, and relatively safe bays have become the first choice for overnight stays.

At dusk that day, the fleet was anchored in a bay.

Under the setting sun, the waves were sparkling, a few fish jumped out of the water, and a few white seagulls were circling on the mast of the ship, occasionally making a few crisp calls.

Wang Shouren was wearing a soldier's uniform and stood on the deck with his back straight.

Although his face was still immature, his whole body exuded a maturity that belied his age. However, his left eyelid twitched a few times inexplicably, which made him feel vaguely uneasy.

After Changning Bo Zhou Yu's grandson Zhou Gui mysteriously disappeared, he guessed that the matter was not that simple, and even felt that it was related to Zhang Heling's case.

Under the guidance of a young man, a young man was brought here to bathe in the afterglow of the sunset.

The young man was about eighteen years old, with a very delicate face, bright eyes, fair skin, thin body, and a faint smell of Chinese medicine.

During this trip, not only were the young masters who were rich or noble, but also outstanding students from various subjects of the Imperial College.

Wang Shouren, who was regarded as a leader among the traveling Imperial College health officials, asked the young man who was led over: "Li Yanwen, I heard that you found something fishy in Zhang Heling's death?"

"...Yes!" Li Yanwen hesitated for a moment, then nodded seriously.

Wang Shouren suddenly became energetic and looked up and down at this Huguang student who was somewhat related to him: "What did you find?"

"That day I inspected Zhang Heling's body. It was true that Zhang Heling was stabbed by the kitchen knife, but his lips and fingernails were cyanotic, and his face was distorted. Uh... cyanosis is a color that is black and red, so it is consistent with what medical books say. It's like being suffocated to death!" Li Yanwen felt serious about Wang Shouren's anxiety.

Wang Shouren knew that the young man in front of him was a genius in the ship's medical department, but he frowned slightly: "Why didn't you tell me then?"

"I have little knowledge, so I don't dare to talk nonsense. There were military doctors doing autopsies at the time, and they quickly found the Aeta people, and they had already closed the case. At that time, I couldn't speak anymore!" Li Yanwen said bitterly.

It's not that he doesn't want to find out the truth of the matter, but he is just an ordinary student from a poor medical family, and he can be said to be humble in his position.

Although he found something strange about the body at that time, the imperial envoy and the two generals had already closed the case and had the murderer executed on the spot. To raise any objection on his own could be said to be a slap in the face.

If he hadn't been unable to help but talk about various conditions of death when communicating with others, he would have decided to keep this discovery in his stomach.

Wang Shouren knew that the case was concluded very quickly that day. He only took his troops out to bring the murderer to justice. He looked thoughtful and said: "So, I'm afraid the real murderer is someone else!"

"This matter cannot be determined in this way! Although the cause of death of the corpse was that someone covered his mouth and nose, it cannot be ruled out that the Aeta man stabbed Zhang Heling first and then covered the person to death!" Li Yanwen corrected.

Wang Shouren's logical ability was far better than that of ordinary people, but he shook his head gently and said in denial: "If the murderer had already stabbed Zhang Heling to death, why bother to cover the murderer with his hands?"

"Zhang Heling... shouted for help at that time. The Aeta man was worried about alarming the others, so he hurriedly stepped forward and covered Zhang Heling's mouth and nose. As a result, he covered the unfortunate Zhang Heling to death!" Helped to bring Li Yanwen over. The eyes of Zhao Kuo, Prince Wu Jing's uncle, lighted up slightly and he speculated excitedly.

Wang Shouren glanced at Zhao Kuo, but he didn't expect this idiot to have such wisdom.

"According to the subsequent investigation, no one heard Zhang Heling calling for help that night. Judging from the position where he was stabbed, the knife happened to hit his lungs, so Zhang Heling could no longer speak at that time!" Li Yanwen shook his head gently. , combined with the knowledge of medical books to deny the Tao.

When Wang Shouren saw that Zhao Kuo's hypothesis had been overturned, he immediately became more convinced that the real murderer was someone else: "In this case, there may be someone else who killed Zhang Heling!"

When he said this, he couldn't help but glance at the cabin behind him, but found that the cabin was so eerie.

"If everything is true, when the murderer wanted to strangle Zhang Heling to death, Zhang Heling must have fought hard to survive. At that time, he would probably have reached out and scratched the murderer's face or hands!" Li Yanwen was also a passionate young man with justice in his heart, so he put his judgment to the test. Say it.

Zhao Kuo's eyes suddenly lit up and he said with great enthusiasm: "Let's search hard and find out the real murderer!"

Wang Shouren knew that this was the only clue at present, and he silently accepted the plan.

Although no one else has been killed since Zhou Gui, the grandson of Zhou Yu, the Earl of Changning, mysteriously disappeared, he always felt that this was the calm before the storm, and even that he was the next target.

"This is a scratch from a branch. Don't you have any?"

"Hate it, it's not convenient here. Let's get off the boat and find an inn to play again!"

"The wound on my face was indeed caused by being caught, but is it your business?"

...

Wang Shouren and others secretly investigated according to the clues. Although they had a different kind of affair for a while, they still locked their target on Zhang Lun, the most arrogant one.

With this key discovery, Zhang Cang, the extremely arrogant young man, became the focus of surveillance, but Wang Shouren wanted to catch him red-handed.

In the end, they believed that the basis for the murderer being scratched was just their speculation, but it could not constitute substantial evidence.

The terrain along the coast is very complex, and even some offshore areas are full of reefs.

At dusk another day, the fleet circled the deep sea area.

The sky was full of red clouds, and the sunset was like blood.

Due to the distance, they chose to stay overnight in the lee of an uninhabited island, but they didn't know that a danger had quietly arrived.

Ah...

Just as night fell, a scream suddenly sounded.

Everyone followed the sound to search, but it was pitch black around the hull. Wang Shouren vaguely realized that the third victim had appeared. He just shouted into the sea a few times, but got no response.

At this time, the wind had already started to blow on the sea, and the originally calm sea surface seemed to suddenly boil, indicating that a storm would come at any time.

"One person is missing!"

"Who is missing?"

"Zhang Lun!"

...

After counting the personnel, it was quickly locked that the missing person was Zhang Lun of the Duke of Ying's Mansion.

When this name was spoken, Wang Shouren felt a thorough chill, and immediately felt that he seemed to be stared at by a hungry wolf hiding in the dark.

If it wasn't Zhang Lun, then the real murderer was more cunning than he guessed, and the next one might be himself who had a leader position in the group.

At the same time, the sky outside was already thundering and lightning, and the breath of death had enveloped everyone in the cabin, and even the entire ship was in danger of capsizing.

It was also October, and the sea in the southeast was windy and surging, while the night sky of the capital was bright with stars.

Forbidden City, Qianqing Palace.

The lights here were bright, as bright as day.

Dozens of palace maids and eunuchs were busy like hardworking worker ants, working step by step, and were busy trying to serve the emperor who stayed in the East Warm Pavilion.

The lights were bright, and the sandalwood rose.

Zhu Youtang, wearing a dragon robe, came here after bathing as usual, and read the intelligence from all over the country every night. His beard grew longer, and he was slowly transforming into an emperor with leadership temperament.

Zhu Youtang carefully read the intelligence, like peeping at his territory from the perspective of God, and could accurately know the latest major events.

Although he has been in office for more than three years, the empire is not necessarily peaceful. The recent dispute between the grain transport and the Yellow River has given him a headache.

The grain transport is an important transportation line for the empire to fill the northern grain, and it is also related to the emperor's largest grain reserve strategy, but now it has a conflict with the management of the Yellow River.

The Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal itself has no water source. The water of the canal comes from the surrounding water systems, mainly the Qiantang River system, the Yangtze River system, the Huaihai River system, the Yellow River system and the Haihe River system.

The Yellow River managed by the Ministry of Industry needs to change its estuary, but this move is bound to change the river channel, which will naturally affect the water volume of the canal and even cause the Shandong section of the river to dry up.

Anything is a matter of one hair! Once the Shandong canal is not navigable, the grain will naturally not be able to go north, and a large amount of goods will be stranded in Nanzhili and other places, which will inevitably cause a lot of economic losses.

Even if the court has not yet come up with a plan, the price of rice in the capital has soared.

Zhu Youtang knew that the Yellow River must be managed, but the loss of the canal was too great, so he had to worry about this dilemma.

After his own investigation, neither the river nor the canal was exaggerated. The river government changed the direction of the Yellow River for river management, and the canal government opposed it to ensure the smooth flow of the canal.

After weighing the pros and cons, he decided to throw this issue to the Supreme Council, and let the important officials come up with a feasible plan.

"Your Majesty, it's time to turn over the cards tonight!" An elderly eunuch stepped forward with a tray containing wooden cards, and said respectfully.

Zhu Youtang sighed lightly, and was not happy because he had so many beautiful concubines. It was not that he was tired of these beautiful women, but that no matter how hard he worked, there was no reward.

Whether it was the reserved queen or the vixen Fan Jinling, no matter how many postures he tried, or even changed several different locations, their stomachs still did not move at all.

Until now, he still didn't understand what the problem was. If he didn't know a little bit of history, he would have even begun to doubt his body.

Zhu Youtang's fingers slid across the rows of signs. In fact, with his observation and memory, he already knew the corresponding signs roughly. At this moment, it was as if pictures of beauties passed through his mind.

"She's it!"

Zhu Youtang suddenly thought of a scene that made his blood boil, and thought of the woman who once made him unable to stop, and immediately turned over a sign.

After the eunuch saw the sign, the maid next to him who was in charge of taking notes recorded it. In order to prove that they had not cheated, the rest of the signs were turned over.

Zhu Youtang liked quietness, so he told them to send a bowl of chicken soup for supper later, and then waved his hand gently.

Niu Mengmeng brought tea, gently placed it on the table, and then stepped aside to wait for instructions.

She had been with Zhu Youtang for more than three years. She witnessed Zhu Youtang's gradual transformation into an emperor who was powerful without anger, and she herself also changed from an ugly duckling to a white swan.

Zhu Youtang continued to read the intelligence sent from various places while sipping tea.

When he saw that it was the latest military intelligence from Jianzhou, he couldn't help but frown.

In the war to recover Jianzhou last year, the Ming Dynasty swept across the entire Jianzhou with a crushing force, crippled the Jianzhou Jurchen tribe, and thus brought the entire Jianzhou back to the Ming Dynasty.

It's just that Jianzhou borders the Haixi Jurchens and the Wild Jurchens. Both the Haixi Jurchens and the Wild Jurchens are used to looting, and now they frequently harass the people who have moved to Jianzhou.

Zhu Youtang knew that this matter must be properly handled, not only to appease the emotions of the people who moved to Jianzhou, but also for the strategic goal of the northeastern granary of the Ming Dynasty.

Originally, the best way was to send troops to attack, but the Haixi Jurchens and the Wild Jurchens were only small groups, and they also had gains on their side, so there was no need to start a war.

However, things are a process from small to large, and the Wild Jurchens not only robbed the property of the people of Jianzhou, but also committed murder and arson.

Zhu Youtang knew that he could no longer tolerate it at this time, and he immediately issued an instruction: "Give generous gifts to the Haixi Jurchens, deploy troops in the west, and prepare for the war with the Wild Jurchens!"

Although the current financial situation of the Ming Dynasty court cannot support a two-front war, it is not impossible to squeeze out some money to fight the Wild Jurchens.

After formulating the strategy for the Northeast, he became more deeply aware of the importance of healthy finance to an empire.

"Haha... finally we can start mining gold!"

Zhu Youtang originally thought that Guangdong was asking for money again, but when he opened the secret report from Chen Zheng, the left assistant minister of the Ministry of Works, a long-lost smile appeared on his face.

Although gold cannot increase productivity, with enough gold in hand, the Ming Dynasty can lay a new monetary system, thereby slowly holding the seigniorage of the entire world in its hands.