After his father left, Shen Shuren was not in a hurry to do anything. His body was just recovering from a serious illness, so haste makes waste.

He first finished his dinner under the service of his maid Qingzhi, washed and tidied up, and changed into clean clothes from head to toe.

At the same time, he took advantage of every opportunity to learn more about the current situation from Qingzhi without leaving a trace.

For example, since he recalled his father's identity just now, he had a question in his mind: Since his father is the head of the Ministry of Household Affairs and is supposed to be a Beijing official, how could he be in his hometown in Suzhou?

If you are returning to your hometown for work, what is the specific reason for your return?

Fortunately, Qingzhi knew her own affairs well, so she explained everything:

It turned out that Shen Tingyang sent another memorial to the emperor last month, and the content was still to recommend "changing water transportation to sea transportation."

Shen Tingyang has presented this kind of memorial several times. In the past, it was blocked by Zhu Dadian, the governor of water transportation, saying that the sea was high and the waves were uncontrollable, and the food and clothing of millions of Cao people were at stake, so the emperor could not force it.

However, recently there have been bandits in Shandong. The emperor had to consider the risk of the canal being cut off, so he approved Shen Tingyang to return to his hometown for investigation and organize a small-scale pilot. If it can be confirmed next year that sea transportation is more effective and more economical, then he will Large-scale promotion.

After hearing this, Shen Shuren felt relieved after confirming the little knowledge of "History of the Ming Dynasty" in his mind - there was indeed a "change of water transportation to sea" in the late Ming Dynasty.

It seems that Shen Tingyang's return to his hometown is indeed a normal Ministry of Household official business and has no direct relationship with the incident of the letter from the Imperial College. It is just a coincidence in time.

After eliminating this interference option, Shen Shuren had rested enough and asked Qingzhi to lead him to the study.

And his new follower Shen Fu had already delivered the letter from the Imperial College to the young master's desk as instructed by the master.

There are also some recent reports from the imperial palace, which Shen Shuren ordered just now, and they are all ready and put together.

Shen Fu is the son of Shen Xiang, the old housekeeper of the family. He had been sent out to work as a shopkeeper in a shop selling Korean medicinal materials.

After the young master's accident, the master was worried about the helpers around his son who were eating, drinking and living in poverty. He thoroughly investigated and eliminated some of them, and replaced them with reliable and experienced family members to serve him.

When Chen Shuren heard about this situation, he was also secretly happy: it happened that the new followers were not familiar with the young master at first, and if his behavior changed in the future, they would not be able to see any flaws.

While thinking about this, Shen Shuren kept busy with his hands, opened the document and read it carefully.

Soon, he captured an important piece of information from the "invitation letter" to the Imperial College:

"It turns out that besides me, the classmates who were invited to prison this time were also Zhu Guangshi, the nephew of Zhu Dadian, the Governor of Water Transport, and Zheng Sen, the eldest son of Zheng Zhilong...

The reason is that the "training salary" is about to start this year, and financial transfers in various places will be more difficult. The imperial court will give preferential treatment to officials and gentry children who have contributed more to "the country's salary", and hopes that all parties will work together for the country."

When Shen Shuren saw this, he thought about it for a moment.

The things mentioned in the letter should be true.

Now is the twelfth year of Chongzhen. The last straw of the three rates in the late Ming Dynasty, the "Lian rate", was indeed added from this year, with seven to eight million taels of silver every year.

Although Zhu Dadian, the Governor of Water Transport, was not in business himself, his family members were all in business, and they specialized in the business of contracting water transport.

The Shen family also came from a wealthy businessman family and owned more than a hundred large sand ships on the Yellow Sea. Shen Tingyang only bought an official position in the early years of Chongzhen and changed his career - so he has always advocated the "transformation of water transportation into sea transportation".

Of course, "changing water transportation to sea" can indeed save the court a lot of money, but at the same time, it can also win orders for its own sea fleet. Therefore, the conflict between the Zhu Dadian family and the Shen family is irreconcilable, and they are cutting off each other's people and wealth. This is the most important thing. The ultimate hatred.

As for Zheng Zhilong, everyone on earth knows that the East Asian waters south of the Yangtze River Estuary belong to him, so there is no need to say more.

To put it bluntly, the three companies mentioned in the letter were all "water transport logistics giants" at the time, and the court expected them to contribute more.

but,

If Chen Shuren had seen this letter first, he might have been gullible.

But now he has witnessed Zheng Hongkui blocking him from going to Nanjing. If the matter is so simple, why are the Zheng family so nervous?

Therefore, I can only believe half of this letter.

You can trust the facts, but not the motivations.

So, what is the real motive?

Chen Shuren thought for a while and felt that this question could not be deduced directly based on the existing evidence alone.

However, some joints can be deduced reversely——

For example, he could easily think that the letter invited him and Zheng Sen at the same time, which meant that Zheng Zhilong was most likely not "preventing his Shen Shuren from going to Nanjing", but wanted to "let the Shen family take the lead in pretending to be ill." Disobey, and then allow Zheng Sen to follow the crowd and not go to Nanjing."

After all, Zheng Zhilong has no enmity with the Shen family, so there is no need to deal with a junior like him. He took such pains, most likely for his own son.

But why was Zheng Zhilong afraid of sending his son to study? Chen Shuren became increasingly puzzled.

Because he was familiar with "History of the Ming Dynasty", he knew that Zheng Sen went to study at the Imperial College in Nanjing during the last years of Chongzhen's reign, and became a disciple of Qian Qianyi.

Of course, it might not be that early - "History of the Ming Dynasty" does not directly mention the year when Zheng Sen went to Nanjing, but Qian Qianyi met and married Liu Rushi only in the 14th year of Chongzhen. At that time, Qian Qianyi's case record had not been closed, and he was still In the wild.

Therefore, Zheng Sen was able to study with Qian Qianyi at least fourteen years after Chongzhen.

Now, it is nothing more than bringing this matter forward two or three years.

Could it be that Zheng Zhilong was afraid that his son would be taken hostage by the imperial court? But why was he no longer afraid three years later?

…

Shen Shuren was scratching his head, feeling that it was difficult to conclude the case with only one piece of evidence. So he put the letter aside and prepared to skim through other documents in order to find more inspiration.

The better a person is at intelligence analysis, the more he knows that full investigation is more important than hasty deduction.

Reading the documents with questions and conjectures in mind was indeed very efficient, but after only half a stick of incense, Shen Shuren had gained something.

He saw two important national events from two recent imperial palace newspapers:

"At the beginning of the month, Zhang Xianzhong rebelled again in Yunyang and robbed Luo Rucai in Xiangyang. As a result, all nine battalions rebelled and Huguang was destroyed. Zuo Liangyu urgently sent troops to encircle it, but was defeated by Zhang Xianzhong."

"The imperial court ordered Yang Sichang, a cabinet scholar and minister of the Ministry of War, to go south to supervise the division and quickly replace Xiong Wencan to coordinate the military affairs for the suppression of bandits in the six provinces of the Central Plains."

In May of the twelfth year of Chongzhen, Zhang Xianzhong and other thieves surrendered but then rebelled!

After recalling this important message, Shen Shuren immediately racked his brains, trying to connect it with Zheng Zhilong's anomaly, and then he discovered a guess.

Of course, this is just speculation.

Therefore, Shen Shuren did not intend to conduct rigorous verification in person, as that would be a waste of time.

He took the newspapers and letters from his residence and went straight to Shen Tingyang's study.

…

"It's so late, why don't you rest?"

Shen Tingyang was burning the midnight oil to check the water transportation accounts over the years, and was quite surprised to see his son asking for an audience.

Shen Shuren didn't even explain, and went straight to the point:

"Father, the reason why the Zheng family advised the child not to go to Nanjing because he was sick was because he wanted us, the Shen family, to take the lead in disobeying the order, and then the Zheng family would be able to do the right thing without blaming the public, right? This way he would not openly quarrel with the court, but also prevent his son from being detained. Being a hostage is really a good plan."

Shen Tingyang was stunned and stared at his son. The room was eerily quiet.

After a long time, he sighed with relief: "I have underestimated you all this time, but you actually have such vision. Just tell me how you can tell."

As Shen Tingyang said that, he stood up and locked the study door.

Normally, he would just hope that his son would study hard and not get involved in these conspiracies.

But he has been a little worried recently, fearing that he will not be able to complete his mission and cannot explain to Mr. Yang Ge, so he is a little sick and has sought medical treatment.

After his son woke up today, he was surprised twice in a row. He finally decided to give him a chance and have a frank communication behind closed doors.

Seeing that he had guessed correctly, Shen Shuren spoke more confidently:

"At the beginning of the month, Zhang Xianzhong, Luo Rucai and others rebelled, and it was Xiong Wencan who advocated the imperial edict for these traitors back then. Now the imperial court has asked Yang Sichang to supervise the six provinces in place of Xiong Wencan. Although it has not yet made clear how to deal with Xiong Wencan, with His Majesty's 'hate of evil', Most likely he will be imprisoned and executed.

Xiong Wencan was promoted from the governor of Fujian to the governor of six provinces because of his successful imperial edict to Zheng Zhilong in Fujian. Unfortunately, he succeeded and failed. He wanted to succeed all over the world with one move, but finally failed. In the hands of Zhang Xianzhong.

Once Xiong Wencan is imprisoned, other warlords and thieves generals who have been recruited by him will inevitably be in danger, fearing that they will be identified as their party members.

Therefore, the imperial court hoped that these warlords would send their nephews to Beijing as hostages to prevent mutual suspicion and jealousy. Zheng Zhilong also saw this clearly and was afraid that his son would be detained, so he tried every means to avoid this crisis."

Chen Shuren finished his reasoning in one breath.

Shen Tingyang's expression changed several times. The more he listened, the more wonderful his expression became. In the end, he couldn't help but admire:

"Yes, you can guess this matter with 70% to 80% accuracy. However, it is not the 'imperial court''s public decision to detain the general's proton - this was assigned by Mr. Yang Ge privately.

Alas, His Majesty could not get rid of the sand in his eyes. He could not even imagine that such a question of "asking Xiong Wencan so earnestly would cause people to panic."

But Yang Ge Lao had no choice. The military affairs of suppressing bandits in the six provinces were burdened on him. He was afraid that a new bandit plot would arise, so he would rather do nothing in vain. If he could get as many warlords as possible to hand over hostages, he would do as much as possible.

On the sixth day after you fell ill, Zheng Hongkui rushed to our house to investigate the truth, because they also received an invitation letter from the Imperial College and suspected that this was just a pretense - they were not wrong.

Nowadays, the Ming Dynasty has the Zheng family in the south and the Shen family in the north. If the two families are invited together, the Zheng family will not be easily alert. But the Shen family is loyal to the Ming Dynasty and has never hired mercenaries, so you will not be regarded as a hostage when you go to Nanjing. .The only real hostage is Zheng Sen. Of course, there may be other descendants of the generals in the future."

When Shen Shuren heard this, he completely understood Yang Sichang's situation.

To put it bluntly, using the analogy of "Let the Bullets Fly", Yang Sichang took advantage of the fact that the Shen family and the Zheng family were both famous, and made up an excuse to deceive them. He used the Shen family as the "Huang Silang" to cover up, and the Zheng family as the "two major families in the south of the city".

It is a common practice in the world that "whatever Huang Silang pays, the two big families in the south of the city must also pay. The more you pay, the more you earn."

After the incident was completed, all the hostages of the Shen family were returned in full, and the imperial court divided the hostages among the Zheng family.

Unfortunately, Yang Sichang was very sophisticated in his schemes, and Zheng Zhilong was not a vegetarian. With his natural suspicion and vigilance, he still smelled the smell of danger.

The Shen family's delay also had a certain responsibility - Yang Sichang wanted to take advantage of information asymmetry and create a time lag. Before the Zheng family knew that Xiong Wencan was about to fall, he deceived Zheng Sen into the road and cooked the rice.

But Shen Shuren's illness has wasted these few days of information gap.

If the Shen family doesn't make amends, they may be beaten by Yang Gelao.
To be continued...