I am a temporary worker in Jinyiwei, how did I become a powerful official?

Chapter 146: Rescue Lin Chuanfeng in the Palace (-character chapter)

The cat wedding took place in the main hall of Yongshou Palace, where numerous red silks and red ribbons were hung.

As for the guests at the banquet, there were only Yan Song and his son, as well as a group of Yan's party backbones and close minister Lu Bing.

The Jiajing Emperor would not invite members of the Xu Party, so as to avoid the clamor of the clean officials saying that "the current emperor is losing his ambition due to his indulgence".

The study room of Yan Mansion.

Yan Song was dozing off on the recliner in the study.

Yan Shifan said softly, "Dad."

Yan Song opened his eyes: "Oh? What time is it?"

Yan Shifan replied, "It's morning. Father, our servants are waiting in the hall. You should change your clothes. Let's go to Yongshou Palace to congratulate the emperor."

Yan Song asked, "Has the palace issued an order on how to punish Wu Shilai, Zhang Chong, and Dong Chuance?"

Yan Shifan shook his head slightly: "There is no decree yet. Perhaps the emperor is busy with Mei Shuang's marriage and is not in the mood to deal with those three bastards."

Yan Song showed a worried look on his face: "I will never feel at ease if the emperor doesn't deal with them."

"Also, on the Royal Cat's wedding, why did the Emperor grant Zhang Yuhao, a lowly salt merchant, entry into the palace?"

"Will this matter of salt administration cause dissatisfaction to the emperor?"

Yan Shifan quickly explained, "Dad, you're overthinking it. Zhang Yuhao got through Xiao Shisan's connections and secretly gave Xiao Shisan a lot of money, which is why he got the imperial commission to recruit a son-in-law for the imperial cat."

"The cat son-in-law was offered by Zhang Yuhao after all. Zhang Yuhao is considered a family member of the cat son-in-law. When I take in a concubine, I will also ask for the poor concubine's father-in-law's help."

Yan Shifan truly regarded Lin Shisan as his own and even called him "Little Shisan".

Yan Song stood up and said, "Forget it, let me change my clothes."

In the West Garden, Lin Shisan was standing in front of a small sedan chair. The sedan chair was extremely delicate, three feet square.

A male cat who marries into the royal palace must ride in a sedan chair.

Lin Shisan took down the curtain of the sedan chair. He poured some water into a copper basin, added some Cat Crazy Drink, and then soaked the curtain in the water.

Lin Shisan instructed Chen Ju who was standing by: "Soak it for half an hour, wring it out and hang it on the sedan chair after it is dry."

Lu Fang stepped forward and asked, "Are you ready?"

Lin Shisan nodded: "Don't worry, uncle. When the auspicious time comes, the cat son-in-law will go crazy when he gets on the bridal sedan. However, in order to give it a chance to assassinate the king, I, your nephew, need to be the ceremonial officer and arrange the ceremony."

Lu Fang immediately agreed: "I will make the decision on behalf of the emperor, and you will be the ceremonial officer."

Lin Shisan lowered his voice and said, "Your Majesty, it would be best if you wear more Taoist robes today, so as to avoid being scratched by your cat son-in-law."

At the exact time of si, Yan Song, like the moon surrounded by stars, led a group of Yan party officials to the main hall of Yongshou Palace.

Lu Fang smiled and said, "The auspicious time has not yet been announced. Please wait outside the hall for half an hour. Quickly bring two chairs to the elder and the young elder!"

"It's hot, put two jars of ice at the feet of the elder and the younger elder."

Yan Song said politely, "Thank you, Eunuch Lu."

Everyone waited for half an hour, and Lu Fang led them into the hall.

The auspicious time calculated by the Imperial Astronomical Observatory had arrived. Emperor Jiajing sat upright in the green gauze curtain and struck a bronze chime.

The musicians of Taichang Temple immediately started playing festive suona, "Dilidala, Dilidala".

The ceremonial officer Lin Shisan shouted, "The auspicious time has come! Please invite the Royal Cat Bride to have her eyebrows cream!"

Two eunuchs carried an exquisite cat sedan chair into the hall. Mei Shuang lay docilely on the sedan chair.

Lin Shisan shouted again: "Please hire a cat son-in-law."

Outside the hall, Chen Ju put the cat son-in-law into the sedan chair with both hands. Naturally, the curtain of the sedan chair was full of the smell of cat crazy drinking.

If the cat-son-in-law smells the cat drinking, he will go crazy after a cup of tea.

Chen Ju ordered two eunuchs to carry the bridal sedan into the main hall of Yongshou Palace. The bridal sedan was about twenty steps away from the cat carriage.

Lin Shisan sang: "Please, Your Majesty, pick the curtains for the sedan chair for my son-in-law!"

Two eunuchs opened the door of the green gauze curtain. On a hot day, Emperor Jiajing, wearing a six-layer Taoist robe, walked out of the curtain with the help of Lu Fang.

Huang Jin stepped forward and presented a "wedding pole" with both hands.

All the Yan Party officials smiled.

Salt merchant Zhang Yuhao stood behind the officials, feeling ecstatic: After the cat wedding ceremony, I will be the world's number one businessman who has entered Yongshou Palace! With this golden signboard, I will be able to do any business with ease in the future.

Inside the bridal sedan, the cat-son-in-law was already getting restless. The smell of orange mixed with wine and pepper made him feel very uncomfortable.

Emperor Jiajing walked slowly to the front of the bridal sedan, followed closely by the ceremonial officer Lin Shisan.

Lin Shisan shouted, "Your Majesty, please pick the wedding curtains. May the family be prosperous and the country be peaceful and prosperous!"

Emperor Jiajing stretched out the wedding pole and lifted the curtain of the sedan chair!
The cat son-in-law was already very anxious. When a stranger appeared in front of him with a pole in his hand, he immediately went crazy!
It let out a heart-wrenching "meow" and jumped out of the sedan chair, scratching the chest of Emperor Jiajing with its pair of cat claws.

Fortunately, the robe that Emperor Jiajing wore was thick enough, so the cat's claws only scratched the first layer.

Everyone in the hall was stunned!
The cat son-in-law fell to the ground, baring his teeth at Emperor Jiajing, with all the hair on his body standing up.

It leaped into the air and attacked Emperor Jiajing for the second time.

Fortunately, Lin Shisan, who was standing by, was quick-witted and stretched out his wrist to block the attack. The cat son-in-law's claws immediately left two bloody marks on Lin Shisan's wrist.

The Jiajing Emperor roared like a dragon: "This cat is a deception! This cat wants to kill the emperor!"

Lu Bing was unequivocal and shouted, "General Dahan, come and protect the emperor!"

The Han generals who were guarding Emperor Jiajing never expected that a cat would kill the emperor. They were all stunned on the spot.

Only after Lu Bing shouted did they react and drew their knives to chop their son-in-law into meat paste.

Emperor Jiajing shouted: "There must be someone behind this, capture him alive!"

The big Han generals put away their swords and went forward to catch the cat with their bare hands.

Cats are famous for their agility. The cat jumped up and down, and the Han generals tried to catch it with their bare hands, causing chaos in the main hall of Yongshou Palace.

The cat son-in-law rushed in front of Yan Song and pulled out several of his white whiskers with his claws.

Yan Shifan shouted, "Take it down!"

Lin Shisan still understands the nature of cats.

The third bone under the cat's neck is the soft rib point.

Lin Shisan rushed forward, grabbed the cat's back with his left hand, and pinched the third bone under its neck with two fingers of his right hand. The cat son-in-law fainted immediately.

A frenzied expression appeared on the face of the Jiajing Emperor. He shouted, "Oh my! They are trying to kill the emperor! They are colluding with both insiders and outsiders! Who is behind this?"

"In broad daylight, under the sun and moon, someone actually ordered a cat to murder me in my Yongshou Palace!"

"They couldn't kill me by setting fire to me. They couldn't kill me by bribing the maids. But this time they used a cat to murder me!"

"This is bullying!"

"Lü Fang!"

Lu Fang understood what he meant and quickly walked up to Emperor Jiajing with the bronze chime in his hand.

Emperor Jiajing grabbed the bronze chime and threw it to the ground with a clang, completing his second act of killing.

Everyone in the hall was shocked at first, and then there was deathly silence.

Everyone in the court knew that the current emperor had a bad temper. To put it bluntly, Emperor Jiajing would go crazy from time to time. This is what happens to people who take too many pills.

When Emperor Jiajing was going crazy, no one dared to say a word. Of course, whether he was really crazy or pretending to be crazy, only Emperor Jiajing himself knew.

Emperor Jiajing walked up to the officials. He first asked Yan Maoqing, "Did you order the imperial cat to assassinate the king?"

Yan Maoqing knelt on the ground and said: "I am loyal to the emperor and will never do that."

Before Yan Maoqing could finish speaking, Emperor Jiajing kicked Yan Maoqing on the head.

Emperor Jiajing asked again: "Who offered the cat son-in-law?"

Lü Fang said, "Your Majesty, this was presented by Zhang Yuhao, a salt merchant from Jiangnan. He is in the palace."

Emperor Jiajing shouted, "Lu Bing! Arrest! Interrogate him! How could a mere salt merchant have the guts to order the evil cat to assassinate me! He must have someone behind the scenes!"

"The Northern Pacification Office and the Imperial Household Department will conduct a strict investigation!"

Zhang Yuhao was so frightened that his legs went limp and he sat on the ground, almost pooping and pissing.

Two big generals came forward and lifted him up.

Emperor Jiajing looked at Lin Shisan, who had two obvious bloodstains on his wrists. "Lin Shisan has made great contributions in protecting the emperor. I will reward you with a set of iron armor."

Lin Shisan, the instigator of the assassination of the cat son-in-law, unexpectedly became a hero who protected the emperor. The emperor granted the military officer iron armor, which was a great honor.

Lin Shisan kowtowed heavily: "Thank you, Your Majesty, for your grace."

Emperor Jiajing looked crazy and kicked Yan Maoqing again: "Is this the salt merchant under your command? Instead of expressing gratitude for the emperor's grace, you want to kill the prince?"

Yan Maoqing was in a state of bewilderment at the moment. The Emperor Jiajing had just issued an imperial decree a day ago, praising him for his meritorious service in inspecting the salt industry and bringing back 1.8 million taels of silver for the court.

Emperor Jiajing looked at Yan Song again and said, "What a good student you have taught!"

Yan Song knelt down and said: "I am guilty."

The Yan Party officials finally reacted and knelt down and shouted, "Your Majesty, please calm down."

Emperor Jiajing waved his sleeves with both hands, did a "one-legged golden crane" pose, and then rushed into the green gauze curtain, like a madman in the market.

He roared in anger in the green gauze curtain: "Ah! The death of the late emperor due to an acute illness after falling into the water was already strange. If I die at the hands of a cat today, wouldn't it be another mystery that will last for ages?"

"Lu Bing, investigate thoroughly! If you cannot find the truth, all the Jinyiwei will commit suicide from you down!"

"Get out of here!"

Yan Song and a group of officials left the Yongshou Palace in fear.

Lin Shisan also left. When everyone had left, he quietly pulled down the curtain of the bridal sedan, went to the duty room in the West Garden, and burned the curtain in the brazier until it turned to ashes.

Half an hour later, at Yan Mansion.

A group of Yan Party officials were waiting anxiously outside the study.

Only Yan Song and his son Yan Shifan were in the study.

Yan Song said, "I knew that you and Yan Maoqing had gone too far this time! Why did you take an extra half percentage of the salt business commission? Did you really take an extra half percentage?"

Yan Shifan poured a cup of tea for Yan Song and said, "Dad, I really took half a cent too much. What happened today seems to be an accident. It has nothing to do with the salt business."

Yan Song said angrily, "You usually boast of being extremely smart. Why don't you think about why the emperor didn't kick anyone else but only kicked Yan Maoqing?"

"Also, why has the emperor been so slow in dealing with Wu Shilai and the other three?"

"Do you really think that a victory in the Southeast can cover up a hundred flaws?"

Yan Shifan was enlightened: "You mean, the emperor is taking advantage of this issue?"

Yan Song closed his eyes: "That shabby businessman named Zhang fell into the hands of the Jinyiwei. What is the Jinyiwei? It's the Hall of Yama!"

"It won't take long before that scumbag Zhang will confess everything, including which family's needles he stole when he was a child, and which widow he peeked at bathing when he was young."

"Can the tricks in the salt business be concealed?"

Yan Shifan was a little anxious: "Will the emperor open a major case because of this?"

Yan Song shook his head slightly: "That won't happen. Without the Yan family, who will help the emperor to check and balance the clean officials in the court? The Japanese pirates in the southeast must be suppressed by the Yan family for the emperor. The wealth of the world must be collected by the Yan family for the emperor."

"Those who have accomplished great things in the past and present have made finding a substitute their first priority. The Yan family is the emperor's substitute. The emperor will not kill the substitute for the time being."

"Forget it. All we can do now is to wait and see the result of the Jinyiwei's interrogation of that bastard merchant."

"Strange, why would a cat go crazy in Yongshou Palace?"

Yan Shifan nodded: "There is something fishy. Send someone to find Lin Shisan and ask him about it."

Lin Shisan had already expected that with such a big incident, Yan Shifan would definitely ask him the reason.

Half an hour later, Lin Shisan came in front of Yan Shifan.

Yan Shifan got straight to the point: "Thirteen, why did the cat son-in-law go crazy?"

Lin Shisan first frowned, as if he was thinking hard.

Yan Shifan was a little anxious: "Aren't you an expert in pets? How come you don't know why your cat son-in-law is crazy?"

Lin Shisan slapped his head and said, "Oh! I remember now! So that's how it is!"

Yan Shifan asked: "What? Don't keep me in suspense!"

Lin Shisan said, "Young Lord, please be patient. When I caught the cat son-in-law in Yongshou Palace, I smelled a scent of ambergris on him."

"I think the salt merchant Zhang Yuhao wanted the son-in-law to appear in front of the emperor smelling delicious, so he used ambergris to fumigate the son-in-law in advance."

"That guy doesn't understand cats. He doesn't know that cats have a keen sense of smell and are extremely sensitive to smells. Perhaps it is the smell of ambergris that drives the cat son-in-law crazy."

Lin Shisan is just talking nonsense. How can there be any ambergris scent on the cat son-in-law?
Anyway, the cat son-in-law fainted and was imprisoned in the Northern Pacification Office as an "assassin". As for his master Zhang Yuhao, he was also imprisoned.

The Yan family had no way of verifying whether Zhang Yuhao had used ambergris to fumigate his son-in-law.

After hearing this, Yan Shifan slammed the table and said, "Stupid and cheap businessman! He thinks he is smart! He has really brought trouble to my Yan family!"

Lin Shisan hurriedly said, "Young Lord, calm down. The Emperor is also angry."

"I think Your Majesty will be able to calm down and think this through if he takes a rest."

Yan Shifan sighed, "Alas, Little Thirteen, you don't understand. This matter is not something that the emperor can get away with just by calming down! Forget it, you can go down."

At noon that day, Lu Bing ordered the executioners in the imperial prison to use their best skills to deal with Zhang Yuhao.

Just as Yan Song expected, Zhang said everything that should and should not be said.

The evidence of the Yan Party's influence on the salt business fell completely into Lu Bing's hands. Or rather, it fell into the hands of Emperor Jiajing.

In Yongshou Palace.

Emperor Jiajing said to Lü Fang, "Has your nephew been interrogated by the capable Lu Bing?"

Lu Fang said, "It should be about the right time. I will go to the Northern Pacification Office right now."

Emperor Jiajing added: "Tell the internal transport warehouse to prepare more iron racks. It won't be long before more than two million taels of silver will be deposited into the warehouse."

Emperor Jiajing is about to take the first step to suppress the Yan Party.

Lin Shisan, who planned the cat wedding assassination, was not only credited with saving the emperor and awarded the honor of armor, but also did not arouse the suspicion of the Yan family at all.

He was very proud of himself and returned to his new house with his armor.

The whole family gathered together, admiring the armor bestowed by the emperor.

Biyun asked: "What merits have you made? Why did you receive this armor?"

Lin Shisan laughed and said, "I caught a mad cat in Yongshou Palace."

(End of this chapter)