Daming: At the start of the showdown, Lao Zhu was stunned

Chapter 1033 Caught on the Spot
At the same time, Dong Ji and Zhu Fu were having a secret meeting in Zhu Garden. They were quite relieved about Zhu Su's attitude.

"His Highness Prince Zhou has no intention of pursuing the matter further. It seems that he just mentioned it casually." Dong Ji poured a glass of wine for Zhu Fu. "It seems that His Highness really didn't find out about the things in Nanyang. This is really... thank God."

Zhu Fu also swept away his panic and returned to his original shrewd appearance. "Of course. Our people in Southeast Asia have never attacked Ming merchant ships. How could the court know about this?"

"Even if one or two people file a complaint with the Emperor, His Majesty and His Royal Highness are so busy that I don't think they would have the time to pay attention to it."

"Besides, we did it cleanly, and most of the people we used were bribed foreigners, Japanese, and Koreans." He took a sip of wine and said with a smile: "How could the dead foreign devils know that we were the financial backers behind those pirates?"

"Brother Dong, I'm telling you, you should have ignored it at that time. Even if that foreign devil really reported it to the Maritime Affairs Bureau, what would happen? Can they still arrest us?"

The two of them just thought that the matter was settled. After reviewing it, Dong Ji listened to what Zhu Fu said and nodded in agreement. "Alas, it's not that I was frightened by the noble young master, and I'm afraid that the Maritime Administration will have something to hold against me."

"Now that I think about it, it was indeed me who was too concerned and almost attracted the attention of His Royal Highness King Zhou... Well, I will punish myself by drinking three cups of wine." As he said this, he drank three cups of wine in a row.

In order to drag him into the water, the Dong family also gave him a lot of wealth as a profit every year. For the sake of gold and silver, he just took the blame, which was not a big deal.

Anyway, the matter has been resolved.

"Yes." Seeing Dong Ji's sincere attitude, Zhu Fu smiled with satisfaction. What he needed was a Dong Ji who could take care of the aftermath for him, not the Dong Lieutenant General who came and blamed his son.

"Brother Dong, you must remember to clean up this matter afterward," Zhu Fu instructed. "After a few days when His Highness is no longer concerned about the corpse of the foreigner, remember to dig it up and burn it."

"And the coroners who performed the autopsies..."

"Understood." Dong Ji nodded, a cruel look flashing in his eyes. "After this period of time, I will give them to..."

He made a gesture of wiping his neck.

Zhu Fu nodded with satisfaction.

The two discussed some details, trying to deal with the aftermath of this matter thoroughly. When the discussion was almost over, Dong Ji said goodbye to Zhu Fu. Zhu Fu personally sent Dong Ji out of the garden, and watched Dong Ji's carriage leave the corner of the street before turning back to the back garden. On the way, he asked the old housekeeper who followed him: "Why haven't I seen that bastard for a day... What is the young master doing now?"

"My lord," the old housekeeper replied. "The young master went to the farm outside the city early this morning and I think he will stay there tonight."

"This bastard..." Zhu Fu cursed. Ever since he panicked the day before and said that he wanted him to take the blame alone, his good son has become much more distant from him. He wanted to teach his son a lesson so that he would not be so alarmed in the future, so as to avoid causing trouble out of nothing and attracting the attention of the court. But he never got to see his son.

"Forget it, forget it, let's go back to the back house and have a good sleep first..." Zhu Fu muttered. He also vaguely felt that he and his son would become increasingly estranged, and that his son was arrogant and always causing trouble. He didn't know when he would cause a disaster for his family.

Since this big one is useless, it is better to speed up the time and practice a small one. For this reason, he bought a concubine from a brothel during the day, hoping to have a second son as soon as possible... Thinking of the delicate appearance of the newly bought beautiful concubine, Zhu Fu's heart was hot, and a part of his body that had been unusable for a long time could not help but become hard.

He came to the backyard and had a good time with the newly bought beautiful concubine. After a quarter of an hour, he fell asleep on the bed with the delicate concubine in his arms. Not long after he fell asleep, he suddenly heard an urgent knock on the door outside the house: "Master, Master!"

"Who is it?" Zhu Fu was aroused from his gentle sleep, and was extremely angry. He shouted, "Don't you know that I am resting? Who is this blind person?"

The "blind" person outside the door was one of Zhu Fu's trusted housekeepers. He didn't bother to apologize for disturbing the master's gentle place, but continued to knock on the door, while knocking on the door, he said anxiously:

"Master, Master, something terrible has happened."

"That foreign ghost outside the city...that foreign ghost...has been dug up!"

"Foreign ghosts? What foreign ghosts..." Zhu Fu was stunned for a moment before he reacted. He suddenly stood up from the bed, rushed to the door in two steps and opened it: "What did you say? Who dug up that foreign man?"

"Master, I don't know, but..." The old housekeeper had a sad face. He knew what Zhu Fu had done in Southeast Asia, so he looked particularly afraid at this moment. "Our people just got the news. At nightfall, a group of people went out of the city and dug out the body of the foreigner that had just been buried. It seems that they also performed an autopsy."

"General Dong is covering up for us... I'm afraid it can't be hidden anymore!"

"Boom!" Zhu Fu's ugly naked body suddenly shook, and he was about to fall. He panicked and held on to the old housekeeper in front of him, and barely managed to avoid falling to the ground. Only a thunderous voice kept appearing in his mind: "I can't hide it anymore!"

I can’t hide it anymore! I can’t hide it anymore!

Just now they were discussing destroying the corpse as soon as the storm had passed. But they did not expect that someone would take advantage of the night to examine the corpse of the foreign ghost again. The foreign ghost was poisoned to death, and this matter could not be concealed as long as the corpse was examined. The people who went to examine the corpse again were definitely sent by Zhou Wang Zhu Su.

After King Zhou examines the body, he will realize that Dong Ji is hiding something from him. If Dong Ji is being targeted, then he...

"Quick! Send someone outside the city to hide the bodies of the foreign devils!" Zhu Fu suddenly thought of something and shouted.

At this point, the body of the foreign devil is the physical evidence. Although destroying the body now makes the evidence worse, as long as the physical evidence is gone, there may still be a chance of saving it.

"This... Master, it's too late."

"The Prince Zhou's Palace has sent a team of people out of the city to send the body to the Dali Temple..." said the housekeeper.

Zhu Fu collapsed limply. The calmness he had just regained today disappeared once again before it lasted for a night... It was indeed the Prince Zhou's Mansion! I'm afraid that the shrewd Prince Zhou had already discovered the clues and set a trap for him and Dong Ji to fall into!

The housekeeper managed to support the collapsed Zhu Fu. Zhu Fu's new concubine had also put on her clothes, and the two of them worked together to lift Zhu Fu's fat body onto the chair.

Zhu Fu took several breaths before he came to his senses. He immediately grabbed the butler's hand and said, "Hurry, hurry up!"

"Go find Dong Ji as quickly as possible and make him take all the blame... Just say that he had a quarrel with that foreigner after drinking, and he poisoned him in anger..."

"This..." The housekeeper was a little hesitant. He wanted to let Dong Ji be the scapegoat. He was afraid that Dong Ji would kill him directly to vent his anger: "Master, how could General Dong be willing..."

"Even if he doesn't want to, he has to agree! I give him so much gold and silver every day!" Zhu Fu roared. The corpse of the foreigner could prove that Dong Ji deceived the King of Zhou, but as long as Dong Ji insisted that he was dead, they might be able to stay out of it. "Tell Dong Ji that he is dead, and I, Zhu Fu, can still support his wife and son."

"But if he speaks without restraint... then his wife and children will be executed along with him!"

Seeing that the master looked like a madman, the steward didn't dare to say much and left in a hurry.

The concubine beside Zhu Fu was trembling all over like a quail when she saw how frightened Zhu Fu was.

"Old...Master..."

Zhu Fu, however, had no intention of paying attention to the woman. He forced himself to calm down. He still had a glimmer of hope in his heart, hoping that Zhou Wang Zhu Su had not yet linked the death of these foreigners to the Nanyang pirates. As long as his words could be passed on smoothly, he was confident that Dong Ji would not betray them.

As long as Dong Ji didn't say anything, this would be just a small case of murder due to anger. There were at least 8,000 such cases every day in the Ming Dynasty, so it was really nothing big.

Given his relationship with the Zhu royal family, even the King of Zhou might not be able to find him without solid evidence.

Even if you have doubts, you may not be able to do anything about it.

The person who got into trouble was Dong Ji. What does it have to do with me, Zhu Fu?
Thinking of this, he suddenly felt his composure return. He moved his body and sat upright on the chair, and then showed some of the majesty of a master, and rebuked the concubine, "Why are you panicking?"

"Don't worry, my Zhu family will not fall!"

"Why don't you help me change my clothes quickly? You little bitch, you have no sense at all..."

He was just trying to put on airs as a master to redeem his image after his previous gaffe, but before he could finish teaching his concubine a lesson, a burst of hurried footsteps came from outside: "Master, Master..."

"What's wrong again?" Zhu Fu was frightened by the shouting and said angrily.

"Master, something bad has happened..." It was another steward who came. This steward's face was full of anxiety, and his expression was even more panic-stricken than the previous one.

"Master... Young Master, Young Master..."

"The young master has been detained by the people from Prince Zhou's Palace!"

"Ah?" Zhu Fu exclaimed, his body slipped off the chair, and he was so scared that he sat down heavily on the ground.

……

One hour ago, South City.

Abigail's body was buried randomly on a dirt hill beside the official road. There shouldn't be people around at this hour, but tonight, the lights were bright. Perhaps at the beginning, Di Meng wanted to conceal his presence and secretly inspect the body. But after receiving Zhu Su's order, they no longer had to hide.

The group simply went ahead and rushed to the outside of South City as quickly as possible to protect the body as evidence.

Zhu Su suddenly wanted to alert the enemy, and the group was almost beating the gongs and drums. Naturally, they would not hide their whereabouts. Along the way, Zhu Su called the coroner of the Dali Temple with great fanfare, asking them to be witnesses, and even sent someone to call the Jinyiwei of the Northern Pacification Office. The Jinyiwei had the power of investigation, and he needed the Jinyiwei to send out the imperial guards first to control Dong Ji, and wait for the next morning to report the matter to his father, the emperor.

Everyone thought there would be no further twists and turns, but unexpectedly, Zhu Su and his party encountered uninvited guests.

After Di Meng had examined the body, he knew that the condition of the body was extremely important evidence. However, because he had to return to report to Zhu Su, and it was inconvenient to transport the body at night, he left two people to guard the body of the foreigner that they had dug up again.

Unexpectedly, not long after Di Mengfang left, a group of people sneaked up to the hill. Seeing that the tomb of the foreign people had been dug up and there were two people guarding it, the people who came were shocked and drew their weapons without hesitation, and started fighting with the two people left by Di Meng.

Fortunately, Zhu Su issued the order early, without waiting until tomorrow to discuss it, and without trying to hide his tracks and procrastinate, so the rear team of the palace soon arrived at the earthen hill beside the official road. When they came, the two Zhou Wang's personal soldiers were surrounded by more than a dozen people and almost suffered an accident.

Upon seeing this, Di Meng quickly ordered his other brothers to rush forward and rescue the besieged brothers.

How elite are the King of Zhou's guards? Previously, they had the upper hand because they were outnumbered. But now that Di Meng and his reinforcements have arrived, these men are no match for them. The King of Zhou's guards quickly captured all these sneaky men.

"What are you doing? What are you doing?" The young man who was elegantly dressed and the leader of the group was still struggling and shouting until these people were captured and brought to Zhu Su. "How dare you, a bunch of corpse thieves, be so rude to me?"

"Do you know who I am? My surname is Zhu! If you mess with me, your whole family will be killed without a burial place!"

"Oh? What a coincidence." Di Meng was not going to tolerate him. This man came here in the middle of the night and turned the tables. He must be one of the culprits that His Highness mentioned. He sneered, "Your last name is Zhu, and my master's last name is also Zhu. Are you relatives?"

"I'll take you over right now and let my master recognize you. Who knows, maybe you two can become relatives?"

"You are worthy of marrying me?" The young man was still struggling, and kept threatening: "If you know what's good for you, let me go!"

"I am a distant relative of the royal family! Even His Majesty has to call me nephew in person. His Royal Highness the King of Zhou, who is famous throughout the world, is even more my brother. If you anger me, I will have the court exterminate all nine generations of your clan!"

"Oh? I wonder how this Mr. Zhu is going to exterminate my nine clans?" A voice suddenly sounded in his ears. The young man, who was still struggling violently, suddenly stopped. He looked up in disbelief, but what caught his eyes was a face that he was quite familiar with.

"Zhou... His Royal Highness King Zhou!"

The young man named Zhu Junyu suddenly lost his arrogance and knelt down with weak knees.

(End of this chapter)