The monk king knew that Gu Lengtai was hinting that someone was watching him because Cixi knew about the few things that he had kept secret at home. Fortunately, it was not a big deal and did not affect him.
At first, he couldn't figure out how Cixi could do this. The eunuchs around her didn't have such a wide surveillance network. It was possible for them to live in the palace, but he lived outside the palace. He was surrounded by people he trusted, so he thought it was less likely to betray him.
Besides, he had never heard of the re-establishment of the Jinyiwei in the palace. Since there was no such surveillance organization as the Jinyiwei, it was very unlikely that Cixi would directly grasp the secret affairs of her subordinates.
However, he thought of Prince Gong. Prince Gong's residence had many idle people. He heard from his clan that Prince Gong had set up a secret society in private to investigate those who opposed the Manchu rule.
At first, he did not care. He was not a Han and did not rebel against the Qing. In addition, he had made contributions and had a large number of troops under his command. This kind of surveillance should not be on his head.
It was not until Cixi seemed to know everything about him in the Prince's mansion that the Monk King felt that he was also being watched by Prince Gong. However, he could not see who was working for Prince Gong in the Prince's mansion to monitor him.
For this matter, he had consulted the advisor of the Thief Intelligence Contact Office in his residence, wanting the advisor to help him check and find Prince Gong's spy.
The advisor had been working in secret for many years and was very cunning. He knew that Prince Gong was very powerful and controlled all the power in the capital and the most mysterious surveillance agency of the Qing Dynasty. The monk king was just a guard used by Prince Gong. He used the invincible fighting spirit of the monk king to help Prince Gong suppress the peasant uprisings all over the country and maintain Prince Gong's core power in the capital.
Therefore, the advisor did not dare to provoke Prince Gong, including anyone who was related to Prince Gong's residence. Ever since he entered the monk's residence, his sharp eyes had noticed that many Manchu and Han servants were not loyal to the monk king. They always liked to fool the prince behind his back. As many people were fighting together, even if the monk king found that his subordinates were wrong, he could only turn a blind eye and treat it as if no one had done it on purpose.
After the advisor knew the severity of the situation, he simply pretended not to see it. He did not join such a gang that was similar to the thief gang, nor did he dare to betray them in front of the monk king. He was afraid that the monk king would not believe his words and sell him to the thief gang, allowing them to take revenge.
In order to attack the Taiping Army, the master monk set up a liaison office for thieves in the mansion. It was also the advisor who was persuaded by Prince Gong's people that suggested the monk king to do so.
Prince Gong's residence had its own surveillance station, but because it couldn't be openly set up, the one he controlled was only effective within the capital. He couldn't reach further places.
As for the Taiping Army, they were highly mobile. Prince Gong was unable to establish a contact point inside. He could only hope that the Monk King would do the same thing and replicate his method of establishing a surveillance office in the Taiping Army so that he could destroy the Taiping Army as soon as possible.
Therefore, Prince Gong took a fancy to the advisor in the Monk's Mansion and used various informants to coerce and bribe him, forcing the advisor to suggest to the Monk King to set up a thief liaison office to monitor and destroy the stability of the Taiping Army.
Just like that, the monk king thought that the surveillance method he invented was the result of Prince Gong's secret operation. However, the monk king did not know the inside story until he died on the battlefield. He thought that he was smart and used talents to use this surveillance intelligence network to eliminate many of the Taiping Army and Nian Army's main forces.
The monk king stared at Gu Lengtai's face for a while and felt a little touched. After all, they were a family, and caring for him was more important than being at ease. He quickly bent down to help Gu Lengtai up and comforted him. He would listen to him and not bathe today.
After he finished speaking, he wanted to reward Gulengtai. He reached into his sleeve pocket and found a few taels of gold. He took them out and stuffed them into Gulengtai's hands, telling him to eat and drink well and not worry too much.
Gulengtai hurriedly thanked him, put away the gold, and left. The monk king felt a little confused and sighed. He wanted to calm down for a while and organize his thoughts to see how to destroy the Taiping Army as soon as possible.
Suddenly, he remembered that he had forgotten to mention the things he had to do in the palace. It was all Cixi. When they met, they only talked about friendship. The monk king was so confused that he couldn't remember the big things.
He needed to spend a large sum of money every month to set up the Thief Information Contact Office in the Monk's Mansion. It was originally for the sake of the country, so he had no reason to pay for it out of his own pocket.
Moreover, he was not good at plundering the people's wealth, nor did he know how to do business, unlike Prince Gong, who would always use the name of the country to accumulate wealth for himself.
Therefore, the monk king's family did not have much money. It was only enough for his own family to spend. It was really inseparable from the government's funding to set up a thief liaison office with a large network.
Cixi was more supportive of his actions. It was all for the sake of the Qing Dynasty and for Cixi's power as Empress Wu Zetian. She represented the Qing government and gave economic support to the monk king. It was absolutely necessary.
However, when Prince Gong saw Cixi's instructions to allocate funds to the monk king, he would always be jealous. Although setting up a thief liaison office was also his idea, he did not want to pay a penny to the monk king. He only wanted the monk king to solve it himself.
The monk king regretted that he had forgotten to ask for money when he entered the palace. He was now in a difficult situation with the Long Hair team. He could not leave the informants of the Thief Intelligence Office at all. However, these informants were only masters who recognized money. If they were a few days late with the clue fee, they would threaten to quit and directly sell themselves to the Long Hair team to go against the Qing Dynasty.
Therefore, the monk king did not dare to neglect the remuneration of the informants at all. Every month or according to the days agreed upon between them, he would send silver to them regularly so that they could continue to work for the Qing government.
Now that he had not received the money, the monk king became anxious. He wished he could step out and return to the palace to find Cixi and ask her to quickly instruct the Ministry of Revenue to get the money. His enthusiasm was only for the sake of the Qing Dynasty. He did not have any selfish motives.
Butler Gu Lengtai saw the monk king pacing back and forth in the room with an anxious expression. He thought that he was making the monk king uncomfortable by not letting him take a bath.
Therefore, he quickly went to the monk king's side and wanted to say a few words of comfort. It was nothing more than," After you enter the bedroom, I'll bring you a basin of water and help you wipe your body. It'll be just as comfortable."
However, before he could say anything, the monk king reached out and put his arm around his shoulder." Good brother!" What do you think I should do? Should he go to Cixi now and ask for some money? It was the funds for the Thief Information Office.
Guleng Tai understood that his highness was anxious about money. He was afraid that he would run out of the manor again and enter the palace. Who knew what would happen? He quickly advised him. Master Monk was not in a hurry! Even if he couldn't get the funds this time, he could tell her the next time he met Cixi.
The monk king interrupted him. Don't you know that those thieves will defect when they have no money to spend? We betrayed Long Hair.
Gu Lengtai sneered and said," It is a truth that people die for wealth. We must give the money of the thief, but the monk must not ask for money from the palace again. We will pay the money first to prevent Prince Gong from fanning the flames and angering Cixi. The monk will not be able to bear the consequences."
The monk king was stunned for a moment. He felt that what Gulengtai said made sense, but he did not have much cash, so he asked Gulengtai how he could advance the money since he did not have much silver at home.
Guleng Tai smiled and comforted the monk king. The madam had some gemstones and jewelry on hand. He could pawn some of them and redeem them in the future.
The monk king nodded and sighed." That's the only way. Go to Madam's place to do some work and pawn it out. After you exchange it for silver, give it to Advisor Liu immediately and let him wire the money according to the list of informants."
When Prince Gong heard that the Monk King had spent all his savings to maintain the normal operation of the Thief Intelligence Contact Office, he couldn't help but laugh loudly at home. He felt very comfortable and secretly cursed the Monk King for being unlucky and being jealous of him. It was retribution.
At the same time, Prince Gong wanted to trick Cixi into not compensating the expenses of the informant for the monk king, which would drag down the monk king's economy and make him unable to compete with him.
Thus, the next day, Prince Gong went to Cixi's place to pay his respects. After a round of pleasantries, the two of them held each other's hands and sat on the golden kang, talking about recent national affairs.
Prince Gong deliberately praised the monk king, saying that he was a loyal minister of the Qing Dynasty and that the court should pay more attention to him.
Cixi smiled when she heard this. She thought that the relationship between the two lovers was good. They understood each other and worked together to help her achieve Wu Zetian's great cause.
However, Prince Gong changed the topic and brought up the news that had recently spread in the capital. He said that the gangs in society were getting stronger and stronger, and they were on the verge of replacing the government to govern the world. The common people said that the market was chaotic and they could not live normally.
Cixi frowned slightly as she looked at Prince Gong's order. Wherever the gangs raised their heads again, she would call for the Imperial Army to crack down on them.
After saying that, she paused for a moment and continued to order," If there are not enough imperial guards in the city, pass a message to the monk king and ask him to allocate a few battalions of iron cavalry to you. Just say what I said. Do you still need to be afraid of not being able to wipe out the underworld?"
Prince Gong deliberately sighed, his expression showing endless sorrow. Cixi stared at his face and couldn't help but laugh. Was Prince Gong also afraid of the underworld?
Prince Gong quickly replied Cixi," It's not that I'm afraid of the underworld gangs. They are no match for the Qing Imperial Army. It's just that these gangs have insider support."
Cixi was suspicious. Who could support the scoundrels in society? Are you trying to rebel?
Prince Gong pretended to be mysterious and leaned in front of Cixi. It was said that someone in the monk's residence had a good relationship with the underworld.
Worried that Cixi would not believe him, Prince Gong brought up the matter of the establishment of the Thief Information Contact Office in the Monk's Mansion. He said that this kind of organization was connected to the underworld thieves, all of whom were greedy villains.
Cixi thought that Prince Gong had misunderstood the monk's loyalty to the Qing Dynasty, so she quickly explained to him that the monk's contact office was only set up to grasp the situation of the Long Hair Thief Army, not to contact the underworld.
Of course, Cixi knew that Prince Gong wanted to say that the people used were bad people, so she quickly comforted him. The monk king had always used a sense of propriety. Even if he occasionally used a few low-class goods, it was also to break into the long-haired bandits 'army.
She took a breath and wanted to continue, but she picked up a cup of tea on the collapsed table and took a sip. She was afraid that if she spoke too much, her throat would dry up and her noble body would be damaged because of a petty theft.
Prince Gong did not dare to interrupt. Cixi was no longer the little girl from the Xianfeng era. She held great power and used both kindness and power to obtain a certain degree of support from the court. He really could not ask her for help or even as an elder. He could only bow down and listen to her.
At the same time, Prince Gong made up his mind. As long as he could not persuade Cixi to deal with the monk king, he would follow Cixi's will at any time. On the surface, he responded enthusiastically to Cixi's call to care for the monk king and tried his best not to provoke Cixi.
Cixi said that Long Hair was a thief, and that the monk king had no choice but to use some Long Hair of the same kind. It was just to take advantage of the conflict of interest between the thieves and the thieves to disintegrate the Long Hair thief army and save the Qing Dynasty.
She seemed to be worried that Prince Gong couldn't figure it out, so she quickly said that the Monk King was only using the bandits temporarily and didn't intend to use them for a long time. Once the war was over, he would eradicate these bandits and the long-haired remnants to restore the peace of the Qing Dynasty.
Prince Gong knew that Cixi had recognized the monk king in her heart, so he could only follow her wishes. Fortunately, he was prepared in his heart and did not show panic on his face, which would make Cixi suspicious. If he focused on the monk king, Prince Gong's prestige would be over.
Therefore, Prince Gong turned around to comfort Cixi." Don't worry, Empress Dowager. I will definitely support the work of the Monk King and work hard to cooperate with his intelligence plan. I will strive to defeat the Long Hair rebel army as soon as possible."
Cixi nodded and said that Prince Gong was indeed Prince Gong. He was smart and a good person. He knew what was important and understood things. It was a good thing that her eyes were right. It was a lifetime blessing to find Prince Gong.
When Cixi spoke of the emotional part, she deliberately blinked a few times to show that tears were about to fall. She tried to move Prince Gong again and tie his heart so that he could work for her at ease. The operation of the Qing Dynasty's power was not without Prince Gong's smooth handling.
As expected, Prince Gong was infected by Cixi's sad expression. It was as if he had returned to the era when he fought against the Sushun gang. He couldn't help but feel heroic. He turned around and knelt on the ground, saying, Empress Dowager, I am willing to support you for the rest of your life and be your ox and horse.
Cixi couldn't help but laugh. She thought that Prince Gong was not experienced. A woman's little trick could capture his heart. It seemed that he was still a stupid man. He was only worthy of staying under a woman's skirt for the rest of his life.
In order to hide the contempt in her heart, she quickly stretched out her hands to Prince Gong and said obediently,"You and I are family. Why are you being so cliché? Come!" I want to comfort you today.
After saying that, she lowered her voice and tried her best to squeeze out a gentle voice. She leaned close to Prince Gong's ear and said,"Dear!" I'm already yours, why are you so restrained? Hurry up and hug me, I want you!
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