The Succession Struggle in the Dream of the Red Chamber

Chapter 163 Who Will Play Against Prince Su and Prince Chengzi?
Tu Chengyu deliberately pressed He Lizhang on the matter of the Grand Secretary's family raising salt workers' orphans, simply to see how they would respond.

He Lizhang didn't know whether he had seen through Tu Chengyu's thoughts or if he had been prepared for it himself.

When he could no longer refute the argument, he stopped debating with Tu Chengyu and moved on to the next step.

He said, “Your Highness, although it is true that the Grand Secretary’s family is raising orphans, the Emperor Emeritus and the Emperor know the Grand Secretary well enough to understand his good intentions.”

Whether the retired emperor and the emperor could understand the Grand Secretary's good intentions was something Tu Chengyu couldn't guess for the time being, but he was certain that someone else was thinking of using this matter to bring down the Grand Secretary.

Tu Chengyu said, "I'd like to know if the Second Grand Secretary, Lord Tang, also understands the Grand Secretary?"

According to what He Lizhang said earlier, Vice Minister Tang had already turned against him and was preparing to remove the Prime Minister from office.

If he knew that the prime minister had such a dark past, he would definitely make good use of it.

This is probably why the Grand Secretary sent He Lizhang to stop Tu Chengyu.

Faced with this crucial question, He Lizhang replied, "Your Highness, this is also the reason why I have come to see you. I still wish to request that Your Highness not release the information you have found."

Tu Chengyu asked, "Why should I help you conceal the news?"

He Lizhang replied, "This humble official dares not ask Your Highness to help conceal the matter, but only requests that Your Highness not make it public. As for whether Your Highness will ultimately keep the information to yourself or submit it to the Emperor privately, that is entirely up to Your Highness."

His words surprised Tu Chengyu. Tu Chengyu had thought that their repeated, ineffective requests were in an attempt to suppress the information he had found.

Now it seems they simply didn't want to be discovered by the enemy; they weren't even afraid if the emperor knew about them.

This also shows that the Grand Secretary must have a way of dealing with the Emperor.

Tu Chengyu pondered He Lizhang's words carefully and remained silent for a moment.

Seeing this, He Lizhang, unsure of Tu Chengyu's meaning, continued:

"As long as Your Highness can suppress the news, the Grand Secretary will naturally not forget Your Highness's kindness."

He said the Prime Minister would remember the favor, which was an implication that they would give Tu Cheng-yu benefits.

Tu Chengyu was quite interested in these things. He was very curious about what kind of benefits a prime minister would typically offer.

So he said, "Then how will you thank me for my kindness?"

He Lizhang said, "Your Highness, these things can be discussed. However, to thank Your Highness for not leaking the information to others for so many days, I will bring your troops back for Your Highness."

Tu Chengyu asked in confusion, "My people?"

He Lizhang said, "Yes, it is the men you sent out to investigate the grain fields, Your Highness."

Tu Chengyu had sent Yang Chun with a group of people to secretly investigate the farmland, but before they arrived, their whereabouts were leaked by someone, and all of them were exposed.

Some of them were clever enough to stay far away after the excavation was exposed and did not continue to investigate the farmland.

Some who were slow to react were arrested and imprisoned by officials and gentry in various places, and have not returned yet.

These are probably the people He Lizhang was referring to.

To be honest, Tu Chengyu still cared about these people. The reason he rushed to investigate the arson case was to tell others through this matter.

Those people they imprisoned were his own men, the Prince of Su's men.

At the same time, they wanted to intimidate these gentry by severely punishing the arsonists behind the attack, so that they would release the prisoners immediately.

Unfortunately, Tu Chengyu has been in Donghu for several days now, and apart from the death of a county magistrate at the beginning, there has been little progress.

This made little progress in his efforts to rescue his captured subordinates.

Tu Chengyu thought that the rescue operation might take longer, or he might have to think of other methods.

Unexpectedly, in the blink of an eye, He Lizhang said he had brought the person with him.

Tu Chengyu believed that He Lizhang wouldn't lie about this news, since he said he had brought the person back, and Tu Chengyu could find out the truth at any time.

So Tu Chengyu asked, "Where are these people now?"

He Lizhang said, "Your Highness, these men are all in several clinics in the county town. Some of them were injured when they were detained, so I arranged for them to receive treatment at the clinics first."

His arrangements were quite thoughtful, but Tu Chengyu was somewhat worried about their injuries.

So he said to Quan Wenwei, "Mr. Quan, go out and tell Yang Chun to go and see the people we rescued in person."

Yang Chun personally led the rescued people, and was more familiar with them than anyone else.

Sending Yang Chun there would both calm their emotions and allow them to check if there were any people who couldn't be saved.

Quan Wenwei understood Tu Chengyu's intentions, nodded, and went out to make the arrangements.

After Quan Wenwei left.

Tu Chengyu looked at He Lizhang, but instead of thanking him, he stared at him thoughtfully for a while.

He then asked, "Prefect He, you seem to be doing quite well in Jiangnan. You managed to rescue my men from several prefectures and counties in such a short time."

This wasn't exactly a compliment, so He Lizhang quickly replied:

"Your Highness, these were not people I rescued in the past few days. I dare not deceive Your Highness, but in fact, I have been paying close attention to this matter since the arson incident, and I have been sending people to inquire about the whereabouts of Your Highness's men. That is why I was able to bring most of them back in the past few days."

Tu Chengyu asked in surprise, "You said you had been paying attention to the arson case for a long time? And you even sent people to search for the whereabouts of my men. Why didn't you tell me this sooner?"

He Lizhang explained, "What I did was all done in secret. Before I found out the results, it was not appropriate for me to go to the prince and say anything recklessly."

That's what he said on the surface, but the real reason was probably that he had already found out the whereabouts of Tu Chengyu's men.

He simply wanted to use all of this as leverage to negotiate with Tu Chengyu.

And his actions certainly proved that.

Tu Chengyu ignored He Lizhang's scheming for the time being; all he wanted to know was what He Lizhang had secretly investigated.
He asked, "You've been investigating for so long, have you figured out how the arson happened? Who was behind it?"

Tu Chengyu had asked this question during their previous conversation.

At the time, He Lizhang replied that he didn't know, but now that he said he was secretly investigating, Tu Chengyu no longer believed what he said the previous time.

He Lizhang was clearly aware of this, and he also knew that if he couldn't say something on this issue, things wouldn't go easily. So he thought for a moment and said, "Your Highness, although I don't know exactly who ordered the arson, I can perhaps guess something from the information I've gathered."

Tu Chengyu said, "Tell me your guess."

He Lizhang said, "I suspect that the arson incident may be related to the power struggles in the imperial court."

This was a perspective Tu Chengyu had never considered, so he asked, "Are you saying this is caused by a power struggle between the Grand Secretary and the Deputy Grand Secretary?"

He Lizhang nodded and said, "I guess that's the case."

Tu Chengyu then asked, "Then tell me why you have such a guess."

He Lizhang said, "Your Highness, I have always known that the court was going to send people to investigate the grain fields, so I have been paying close attention to it ever since Your Highness's troops arrived."

"At first, the prince's men did things quite smoothly, but not long afterward, everyone in Jiangnan knew that the imperial court was sending people to inspect the grain fields."

"The news leaked out so quickly that I immediately suspected it was deliberately spread by someone."

"But the matter of sending people to investigate the grain fields is known only to the Emperor and the Grand Secretary in the court, and only to the Prince and myself in Jiangnan."

"At the time, I thought that someone had found it on the investigators and that's how it spread."

"But just a few days later, the arson attack on Donghu occurred, which made me realize that things were not as simple as they seemed."

Tu Chengyu listened quietly to him, wanting to see what conclusion he could come up with.

He Lizhang continued, "Because in my opinion, even if they know the court is investigating the grain fields, they only need to be prepared to prevent the investigation from uncovering the true situation."

"There's no need to kill them to silence them. Besides, these people are your subordinates, Your Highness."

"At the time, I found it suspicious, so I sent someone to investigate. The results showed that they might have done this to lure Your Highness to East Lake."

Tu Chengyu asked in surprise, "Why did they lure me here?"

He Lizhang said, "Because Donghu County has Chai Ye and Wu Youwei, two orphaned salt workers raised in the household of the Grand Secretary."

"Once the prince arrives at Donghu, he will be able to find these two people and, through their backgrounds, discover that they are the Grand Secretary behind the scenes."

"If His Highness is unaware of the relationship between the Grand Secretary and the salt workers, he might very well think that the Grand Secretary was behind all of this."

"If that's the case, the prince might do what others hope: release all the information he has gathered to help them bring down the Grand Secretary."

After listening, Tu Chengyu said, "You mean to say that all of this was planned by someone else, making me their tool?"

He Lizhang nodded and said, "Yes, Your Highness."

Although his words could reasonably explain what had happened during this period, Tu Chengyu would not easily believe his one-sided story.

Tu Chengyu asked, "But I have a question. From what you just said, it seems they know of Chai Ye and Wu Youwei's existence."

"Then why don't they just expose the relationship between these two men and the Grand Secretary? Why do they have to set up such a complicated scheme and make me do it?"

He Lizhang explained, "Your Highness, they only know that these two men are related to the Grand Secretary and also to the salt workers."

"But they don't know the specifics of the relationship, so they want to ask Your Highness to help them find out the truth."

This explanation was somewhat far-fetched, and Tu Chengyu didn't quite believe it. So he continued to ask:

"If I hadn't investigated the relationship between Wu Youwei and the Grand Secretary as they planned, wouldn't that have ruined their scheme?"

He Lizhang explained, "If the prince doesn't find out, it won't be a loss for them. Besides, with their arrangements, they will definitely make the prince notice Wu Youwei and the others."

Upon hearing this, Tu Chengyu realized that he had noticed Wu Youwei because of the salt workers' rebellion. Could it be that they were involved in the salt workers' rebellion?

Tu Chengyu asked, "So, the salt workers' rebellion was also orchestrated by someone?"

He Lizhang nodded again and said, "That's true."

Tu Chengyu said, "In that case, I have one question. Since Wu Youwei grew up in the Grand Secretary's family, shouldn't he have a close relationship with the Grand Secretary?"

"Why would he instigate a salt workers' rebellion and help others frame the Grand Secretary?"

He Lizhang said, "Your Highness, it's because Wu Youwei was deceived."

Tu Chengyu asked, "Who deceived Wu Youwei, and why was it so easy for them to deceive him?"

He Lizhang immediately replied, "The reason why Wu Youwei was able to be fooled so easily is because the person who deceived him was unaware that he was harming the Grand Secretary, so Wu Youwei did not notice."

Tu Chengyu frowned and said, "From what you're saying, is all of this just a coincidence, and then someone took advantage of the situation to scheme against us?"

He Lizhang shook his head and said, "It's not a coincidence. The person who deceived Wu Youwei was outmaneuvered, which led to what happened next."

Tu Chengyu found his words somewhat confusing; how could he have been deceived in the end?

This was too difficult to understand, so Tu Chengyu asked, "Who is the person who deceived Wu Youwei?"

He Lizhang said, "Your Highness may have heard of this person; he is Yin Weixing, who once offended Your Highness."

When He Lizhang mentioned this name and mentioned that this person had offended him before, Tu Chengyu immediately realized who he was.

Thinking of this person's identity, Tu Chengyu asked, "I've heard that this person is related to a certain regent minister in the Council of State Affairs. Could he be the Grand Secretary?"

He Lizhang said awkwardly, "Your Highness is right. This man's mother is the Grand Secretary's niece, and the two families have a close relationship."

Upon hearing this, Tu Chengyu nodded and said, "No wonder this person dared to plot against me from the first time I entered Yangzhou. It turns out that the Grand Secretary is backing him up."

"Judging from his actions, I don't think he was deceived into instructing Wu Youwei to do such a thing. It's very likely that he did it on his own initiative."

Hearing Tu Chengyu say that, He Lizhang became even more embarrassed.

Based on his investigation, Yin Weixing did indeed have such thoughts, which is why he was manipulated and instigated by others to ultimately do such a thing.

However, He Lizhang dared not tell the truth about this matter; he could only say:
"Your Highness, I dare not deceive you. According to the information I have gathered, Yin Weixing was indeed deceived, and Your Highness knows the person who deceived him."

It was yet another person he knew, so Tu Chengyu couldn't help but ask curiously, "Who is it?"

Then He Lizhang said a name that greatly surprised Tu Chengyu.

(End of this chapter)