Qi Jun mentioned it several times just to arouse Ye Feng's interest. Because everything he did since he came into contact with Ye Feng allowed him to discover his outstanding side.
"It's been nine years and I feel like I've been stuck in a dead end and can't get out. I just want to hear your opinion."
Qi Jun was open-minded and did not shy away from his desire to let Ye Feng participate.
Between the 10th and 13th years of the Daxia calendar, officials continued to disappear in the capital. From civil servants to military officers to eunuchs, from the sixth rank to the first rank, there are all forty-eight in total.
Some disappeared suddenly when they were going to the Yamen, some disappeared while sitting in a carriage, some disappeared while eating at home, and some disappeared while sleeping.
Some people have intersections with each other, some people don't, and some people even have hatred.
Some are good officials, and some are corrupt.
Qi Jun's father, Zhengpeng, only vaguely discovered one thing in common among these cases during the investigation: these forty-eight officials were people whom His Majesty did not like.
Fifteen of them are already on His Majesty's assassination list. That is, the person Qi Zhengpeng secretly eliminated.
Qi Zhengpeng also thought: Could the remaining people be left to the two factories to eliminate them?
Because the tenth year of the Daxia Calendar happened to be the time for His Majesty to completely secure the throne.
And only Jinyiwei and Liangchang could kill people so unconsciously.
But neither Qin Haoxian nor Zheng Lianze admitted it. Qi Zhengpeng even asked His Majesty directly, but His Majesty also denied it.
This is so strange.
Qi Zhengpeng checked again and found that there was indeed no handwriting involving the two factories and His Majesty, nor was there any work by the princes.
At that time, the foundation of the former crown prince Yang Jiaren was very stable, and the other princes' efforts to seize the throne were not as vigorous as they are now, and they did not have much power in their hands. And the forty-eight missing officials were on either side or even in the middle.
That is to say, there is no clue at all.
On March 18, 13th year, Qi Zhengpeng suddenly received news that a missing person was found in the western suburbs of the capital. Then he immediately took Mao Yuanwei and a dozen of his subordinates with him and rushed to the western suburbs.
No one was found, and they were ambushed.
When people from the suburban patrol camp found them, they only found Mao Yuanwei alive.
Mao Yuanwei was seriously injured, but survived.
Thinking about it now... Mao Yuanwei should have survived as a mole.
Qi Jun poured another cup of tea and looked at Ye Feng: "Since Mao Yuanwei is a traitor, what he said at that time is no longer credible. Do you think it was Lin Sijian who caused this? Those missing officials , if you don’t see people when you are alive, and you don’t see corpses when you die, will they all be fed to pet beasts?”
Ye Feng felt that Qi Jun was talking nonsense out of confusion.
"If it is really Lin Sijian, let alone you, Qin Haoxian alone will not know anything about it."
In the palace before, Qin Haoxian came up with many accusations, but none of them were related to these disappearances. Then it must not be Lin Sijian, otherwise Qin Haoxian's evidence would be useless.
"When we encounter a crime, we first find the root cause. Has your father found the root cause behind these cases?"
Qi Jun shook his head and blew air. “It’s just that we can’t break it until we find it.”
He felt that Ye Feng asked nonsense.
Ye Feng doesn't think so. After pondering for a moment, he smiled and said: "Actually, your father has been found. That means these forty-eight people are actually on His Majesty's assassination list, right?"
Although there is still some gap between purging, wanting to purge, and preparing to purge, and there is still the possibility of change, they have all been set as targets by His Majesty.
"Then let's think back: Why are they despised by His Majesty? Let's think again: Could there be some righteous people who designed to save them all after learning that they were on the assassination list?"
Ye Feng had reason to believe this.
It wasn't that he was thinking wildly, but that he knew something like this had happened in the future.
According to the records of his mentor: Qi Zhengpeng is not a good person. He is bloodthirsty and likes killing, and kills people at every turn. Even if he was following orders, his methods were too bloody and cruel. Jin Yiwei's reputation was completely ruined. It wasn't until Qi Jun took over Jinyiwei that he continued to rescue him in the past nine years.
But the impression left on people is still terrifying.
In other words: Someone may have planned to ambush Qi Zhengpeng in order to save people and not want Qi Zhengpeng to find out. And Mao Yuanwei might just be following the trend? Or suffered the disaster of Chiyu?
Ye Feng didn't know much before, but now after listening to Qi Jun's description and having such an idea, he suddenly became conflicted: to investigate, or not to investigate?
check!
Right now it's all just speculation. And if it’s true…
"There's no way anyone could have such a big hand."
Qi Jun expressed his thoughts. "If someone could do all this quietly, the current situation in North Korea and China would not be the same."
There have been no unusual changes in the families of those people after so many years. When you save a person, you should at least save his family as well. The three major forces are spread all over the country, but no trace of those people has been found. Want to hide them? This is too well hidden and too decisive.
Unless the people being protected have changed their appearance and lost their memory.
Ye Feng can understand. Postmodernity can do it, but here? impossible.
"Such disappearances have stopped since your father was attacked, right?"
"No."
Qi Jun shook his head: "In the past nine years, it has happened one after another, but the number is very small. There are only six people in total who have disappeared like this."
There was silence in the box for a moment.
Until the food is served.
Half and half meat and vegetables. The meaty ones go to Qi Jun, the vegetarian ones go to Ye Feng. The wine also belongs to Qi Jun.
Even as his grandson-in-law, Ye Feng voluntarily stayed filial piety for more time out of respect for his mentor.
Ye Feng ate slowly while sorting out his thoughts.
There are no corpses to examine, no root cause behind the scenes, a lack of unity, and no vested interests. This is very difficult. Where should we make a breakthrough?
"Do you have a relationship map of each of them?"
Then we can only start with interpersonal relationships. This is the basis and the shortcut.
"Yes, there are three big boxes, including almost all the officials in the court. If you don't mind the trouble, please come back and I will have someone move them over for you."
Qi Jun poured himself a drink, wiped his beard with a mocking smile.
Ye Feng found that the beard on his face was simply an eyesore.
"You are only 25 years old, why do you have such an ugly beard?"
His handsome face was almost completely covered up.
"I don't rely on my reputation to make a living. Besides, this way I can bluff people. Or when I do bad things, I won't be easily remembered."
Qi Jun kept a self-deprecating smile and answered in a self-deprecating tone.
Although there is really no ugly person in the Jin Yiwei, it is not safe to be too recognizable.
Ye Feng was still staring at his "ferocious" face, and suddenly thought of a question.
"How many good officials have you killed since you took office?"
This question is really out of the blue and should not be asked. But Ye Feng thought of this because of his father, so he couldn't help but blurt out.
"No. Not one."
Qi Jun calmed down and answered affirmatively, without feeling too sudden. It seemed that he had expected Ye Feng to ask this question. And his tone was calm, without pride or arrogance or anything else, as if it should be like this.
After answering, he added as if he was worried that Ye Feng would not believe it: "Maybe His Majesty feels that Jin Yiwei's reputation is too bad and will affect him. The dirty work is usually only left to his most trusted Qin Haoxian or Zheng Lianze."
But Ye Feng didn't believe that he hadn't encountered him before. Now that he had asked the question, he continued to ask persistently: "What would you do if you encountered me?"
