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

Chapter 1048: Annan Civil War
As it turned out, it was not only Hu Jimei who thought so, but there were also people among the Annan ministers who thought so.

Most of the people brought out this time were Hu family confidants, and they knew that the Hu family was planning to assassinate Chen Tianping, the orphan of the Chen family. Therefore, many people looked at Hu Jimei with suspicion, suspecting that this Pingzhang had secretly killed Chen Tianping.

"Sir, could it be you..."

"No, it's not me!" Hu Jimei quickly denied it. But he denied it too quickly, which made some people more certain.

It turns out that telling us that there were assassins outside the city was actually Hu's plan.

Hu will not admit that he killed Chen's orphan. Lord Hu Jimi is trying to deceive his own people.

Tall, Lord Pingzhang is so tall!

Understanding the looks of these people, Hu Jimei was furious. But now was not the time to defend himself. Hu Jimei's confidant asked, "Sir, what should we do next?"

"..." Hu Jimi rubbed his brows and thought for a long time before he said, "Clean up the house, collect Chen Tianping's body, and secretly transport it out of the city."

"We'll talk about everything after we return to Shenglong City."

Wuqu Port is the Ming Dynasty Concession, and the Ming Dynasty King Zhou's spies are everywhere. If King Zhou finds out that Chen Tianping died here, who knows how many complications will arise.

The only option now is to wait until we return to Thang Long City and ask my brother Hu Jinyi for the decision.

Hu Jipi spent a night in fear in Wuqu Port. On the second day, when the gate of Wuqu Port was just opened, he led a group of Annan officials to the gate to prepare to leave the city. Just as they were about to leave the city gate, they saw Zhou Wang Zhu Su riding a horse very fast, and heard a hearty laugh from afar: "Master Hu left without saying goodbye, why didn't you come to inform me?"

"Could it be that I am some kind of monstrous beast that Sir Hu is so afraid of me?"

Hu Jipi wanted to leave Wuqu Port as soon as possible, but Zhou Wang Zhu Su was chasing him, so he couldn't speed out of the city. Zhou Wang saw his flaw. So he had to turn his horse around and greet him, dismounting and saying, "Your Highness Zhou Wang, you are too kind. It's not that I am leaving without saying goodbye."

"It's true that His Highness Chen Tianping can't wait to return to Thang Long City and urged us to hurry. As his subjects, we really can't disobey..."

"Your Highness, I appreciate your kindness. I will definitely hold a banquet in Thang Long City one day and get drunk with you."

"Haha." Zhu Su smiled at him but didn't answer. He just leaned over to look into the convoy and asked, "Why didn't His Highness Chen Tianping show up?"

"I have been with him on the ship all the way, and now we are suddenly separated, I really feel a little reluctant..."

"Which carriage is he in? Please ask him to get off and say goodbye to the king."

Hu Jimi's face changed, and then he forced a smile and said, "Your Highness Prince Zhou, please forgive me. Your Highness Chen Tianping was too drunk yesterday and still has an unbearable headache... It is really not appropriate for him to get out of the car and get caught in the wind."

"You are too drunk and you can't wait to return to Thang Long City?"

Zhu Su raised a mocking expression on his face, and then said to the guards behind him: "Go and help me get His Highness Chen Tianping out of the car."

"No matter what, I must say goodbye to His Highness Chen Tianping today!"

The fierce and ferocious guards of King Zhou swarmed forward. Hu Jimei's face changed drastically. He hesitated for a long time, finally gritted his teeth, pulled out the decorative sword at his waist a little, and threatened: "How can Your Highness King Zhou do this! His Highness Chen Tianping is the future ruler of Annan. Do you want to humiliate Annan?"

Unexpectedly, the King Zhou of the Ming Dynasty in front of him was even tougher than him. He drew out the long sword from his waist and put it on Hu Jimei's neck. "You don't know whether to live or die. You dare to draw your sword against me?"

"Go ask Hu Jinyi if he dares to draw his sword against me. Do you think your Annan sword is sharp? Try to see if my Ming sword is sharp first!"

The sword pointed at his neck, and Hu Jimei's neck suddenly had goose bumps all over his body. He opened his mouth but dared not say anything. This confrontation had already attracted the attention of many passers-by. Zhu Su twisted his neck and said to the Wang Wei behind him: "Keep searching!"

"I want to see what tricks they are hiding!"

The Annan people wanted to stop them, but since His Royal Highness King Zhou had already taken action, these arrogant soldiers and brave generals naturally had no scruples. They pounced forward like tigers and wolves, pushing away the Annan people who intended to stop them.

This is the concession of the Ming Dynasty, and the one who took action is the prince of the Ming Dynasty. Moreover, Hu Jimei, a member of the Hu family, has already stopped his activities, and these people are not loyal enough to go against the Ming Dynasty for the Hu family.

"Your Highness!" Soon, the guards carried a large box down from the carriage.

When Hu Jimi saw the box, his face suddenly turned ugly. He wanted to pounce on it, but was held down by two of King Zhou's personal guards.

Zhu Su signaled to Di Meng beside him, who stepped forward and opened the box in front of everyone. A bloody smell immediately overflowed, and the crowd of onlookers at the city gate also saw the blood in the box. A personal guard of King Zhou knelt down and reported: "Your Highness, there is a corpse in the box."

"After identification, this person is the orphan of the Chen family whom we escorted to Annan, Chen Tianping!"

As soon as these words were spoken, the onlookers were in an uproar.

Zhu Su was also "inexplicably surprised". At this moment, Zhu Laowu showed off his superb acting skills. He turned his head and looked at Hu Jimei in surprise, with a look of surprise and disbelief, and said in a trembling voice: "You...you actually killed His Highness Chen Tianping?"

"No, it's not me, it's not me!" Hu Jimei quickly denied. Although he did plot to kill Chen Tianping, the reason why conspiracies are conspiracies is that they cannot be exposed to the sun. Not to mention that Chen Tianping was not actually killed by him... But Zhu Su had completely entered the state, pretending to be extremely shocked and angry, and said: "Then tell me, who killed Chen Tianping?"

"If it's not you, then could it be me? If I wanted to take action, I would have killed him directly on the ship."

"Why wait until today?"

Hu Jimi was stunned. He really didn't know who killed Chen Tianping. His stunned expression and Zhu Su's explanation were all seen and heard by the astonished crowd. Yes, if the people of the Ming Dynasty wanted to kill His Highness Chen Tianping, they would have killed him at sea. Why wait until today?

In addition, Hu Jimei's stunned expression was directly interpreted as a lack of confidence in the face of Zhu Su's questioning. In addition, considering that Hu Jimei, the head of the Hu family, has now ascended the throne and "proclaimed himself emperor" and even the name of the country has been changed, the crowd of onlookers made a decisive judgment in their hearts:

Oh, it turns out that the Hu family was unwilling to return the throne to the Chen family, so they conspired to murder His Highness Chen Tianping!
"Come on, intercept Hu Jimei and the others! I suspect that they have a bigger plan in killing His Highness Chen Tianping!" Zhu Su said loudly. "I will send an envoy to ask Hu Jimei what the Hu family wants to do!"

This shout was the final word on Chen Tianping's death. Coupled with the fact that so many people "witnessed" it, the accusation that Hu murdered Chen's orphan was firmly established.

"No, it's not me, it's not me..." Hu Jimi still shouted.

"You regicide, you still want to quibble!" Zhu Su shouted, and the dog beside him slapped Hu Jimei unconscious. Everyone saw His Royal Highness Zhou gritted his teeth and said, "Come here, bury His Royal Highness Chen Tianping with honor."

"Hang this beast Hu Jipi on the city wall. I want to let everyone who passes by to see what the fate of the regicide will be!"

Well, hang it up and use it as a human billboard. In this way, the common people and merchants passing by will know that it was the Hu family who sent people to kill Chen Tianping. Hu Ji's ruling foundation will also plummet.

Zhu Su felt that his plan was successful.

Afterwards, Zhou Wang Zhu Su immediately sent envoys to Thang Long City to question Hu Jijie. Along the way, the envoys deliberately walked at a snail's pace, while spreading the tragic case of the murder of the Chen family orphan in Wu Qu Port by the Hu family's children. Soon, this explosive news swept across the entire Annan like a whirlwind.

Annan was shaken, and the nobles began to panic because of the news.

"Hu Jimei murdered the king, he is not worthy of being a son! Hu Jilie is Hu Jimei's brother, the assassination must have been instructed by him! How could the late emperor abdicate the throne to him when the Hu family murdered the descendants of the Chen family! It must be Hu Jilie who murdered the late emperor and forged the imperial edict to usurp the throne!"

At this time when the storm was about to come, Nguyen Duofang, the head of the Nguyen family, who had been hiding his strength and seemed to have succumbed to the manipulation of the Hu family in the north, suddenly started a mutiny. He quickly swept through several cities in the northwest of Annan in the name of "revenge for the previous emperor". The people of "Dayu Kingdom" were surprised to find that this general Nguyen had actually gathered a team of thousands of people in an instant, and the weapons and equipment of these thousands of elite soldiers were even better than those of the regular army of "Dayu Kingdom".

Ruan Duofang raised his flag and began to openly recruit talents to oppose Hu Jinyao.

The Annan nobles supported Hu Jinyi because Hu Jinyi represented the interests of the nobles to a certain extent and was the leader of the nobles. In the competition between the new and old schools of thought, Hu Jinyi represented the most fashionable new school of thought. As their "party leader", he started the party struggle and led them to victory. However, these nobles thought that after the victory, they would be able to divide up the defeated families under the leadership of Hu and eat a lot of oil...but their leader suddenly "betrayed the revolution", changed himself, accepted the abdication and became the "emperor", and no longer stood with these nobles.

This made the nobles feel deeply dissatisfied with Hu: It turns out that you don’t want to bring your brothers to enjoy the good life together, but instead treat us all as tools to seize the throne...

These nobles had been dissatisfied since the day Hu Jili ascended the throne. However, there was a very important reason why they did not take action.

Hu Jinyi has soldiers at his disposal.

As a power that rose through war, coupled with Chen Yizong's incompetence, Hu Ji's military power was the most important among all the ministers in Annan. Even if it was just to suppress some small rebellions, Hu Ji's military power was unwilling to give up. After "ascending the throne", it was even more so. He held great power and military power even more.

Even if some nobles wanted to fight against Hu Jinyao, they could only swallow their anger because they were afraid of the military power in his hands.

But now that Nguyen Duo Fang had suddenly raised his flag, the nobles became restless. Nguyen Duo Fang was also a famous general in Annan, and his reputation was no less than Hu Jilin. The two were even sworn brothers before... Now that Nguyen Duo Fang had risen up against the Hu, if they didn't rely on Nguyen Duo Fang to fight against the thief Hu Jilin at this time, when would they?

Of course, the core reason is that the Hu family openly killed the orphan of the Chen family, which was a taboo. The Chen family had ruled Annan for a hundred years and was still very prestigious among the gentry. What's more, the Ming Dynasty also sent people to reprimand Hu Jilin. Most of the gentry did not think that Hu Jilin, who had done such a thing, could really sit firmly on the throne.

Unless Hu Jinyi can defeat the Ming Dynasty...

Of course, Zhu Su would not act easily. He hid in Wuqu Port and led his army to keep a constant deterrent to Annan. Then he kept sending envoys to "strongly protest" and "violently condemn" Hu's crazy behavior, and also spread the news of "Hu's murder of Chen Tianping" to everyone, causing Hu's reputation to plummet.

On the other hand, Nguyen Duo Fang's momentum increased rapidly, and many nobles joined Nguyen Duo Fang's army. The nobles were divided into two camps, and the two sworn brothers Nguyen Duo Fang and Hu Ji Li also started a tug-of-war with brotherly friendship and respect, fighting until the dog brains were about to burst out, and each side won and lost.

Annan was completely plunged into civil war.

"Your Highness, are we just going to stay here and watch?" Sanbao asked Zhu Su privately one day. "This Ruan Duofang, like Hu Jinyi, is not a good person."

"Although now, because we secretly funded his weapons, he still obeys our orders."

"But now, as more and more nobles have joined his forces, his reliance on the Ming Dynasty has become less and less. In the future, I'm sure his ambitions will grow."

"If Xiang helps him defeat Hu Jinluo, I'm afraid he will become the next Hu Jinluo."

"Haha, it's okay." Zhu Su was lying on a recliner in the courtyard of the government office, feeling the tranquility of Wuqu Port, and said leisurely. Now most of Annan was caught in the war. Even in areas not on the front line, most of them were drafted to support the front line. Only Wuqu, as a concession, seemed to be out of the war, except for a team of envoys who went out every few days to reprimand Hu Jilin.

"It would be better if Ruan Duofang didn't need the Ming Dynasty's funding. Because, the Ming Dynasty never thought of using these to control Ruan Duofang."

"If you want to control Annan through others, wouldn't it be safer for us to support Chen Tianping, who has no followers, to take the position?"

"Besides, Hu Jinli has the power of an entire country, so it's not that easy to defeat him... Just be patient, just be patient, wait until Hu Jinli really gets angry, then it will be the chance for the Ming Dynasty to take action."

Zhu Su said calmly.

(End of this chapter)