Qin Zeng was wearing a dark purple brocade robe with a plain gauze midriff underneath. He looked a little less dull than usual and had a calm temperament. But there was obviously something extra in the pace of his entry into the palace today.
When the emperor saw him coming to the palace, he said, "You must already know what happened just now."
Qin Zeng nodded and said, "I already know everything and I am willing to share the emperor's worries."
The envoys of the two countries have already left first, but all the ministers and people related to the matter are still in their original places.
Qin Zeng raised his eyelids slightly and scanned everyone, "Actually, there are traces of this matter from the beginning."
The emperor frowned slightly and asked, "What do you mean by this?"
Qin Zeng's eyes looked around and finally landed on Queen Wang. Queen Wang felt something in her heart, and she raised her eyebrows and asked, "If you have something to say, you might as well say it directly."
Queen Wang was assassinated over and over again, which had already planted seeds in everyone's hearts. At this time, Qin Zeng drew attention to her again, which made other people feel itchy and go to see Concubine Mu frequently. It's a pity that Concubine Mu's expression remains unchanged and she can't see any flaws at all.
Qin Zeng said: "The poisonous needle in the box was aimed at the Queen, and it also involved the gift presented by Chongnan. Apparently someone wanted to use Miss Wang's hand to kill people, and then blame Chongnan."
Many people are guessing this in their hearts, but no one dares to say it out loud.
Qin Zeng actually pointed out these words at such a time and on such an occasion. What did he want to do?
The eyes of many ministers and ministers became obscure, and there was a hint of horror in the veil.
Many people secretly glanced at Concubine Mu.
Concubine Mu's lips curved into a sneer, and she narrowed her eyes slightly.
The hands in Queen Wang's sleeves clenched the handkerchief tightly, sucking up the sweat from her palms.
The assassination failed yesterday, and the "old thing" Chongnan brought by chance gave Concubine Mu the opportunity to assassinate her again.
If Li Qingyi hadn't reacted quickly, her life would have been as critical as Wang Xuanyi's.
Almost everyone present, including Li Qingyi and Qin Zeng, knew the matter well. The key point was whether they could find evidence that Concubine Mu had committed the crime and punish her.
And Qin Zeng took the initiative to mention...
Feeling Qin Zeng's eyes looking towards her, Li Qingyi's heart trembled. Could it be that he wanted to take action first before Concubine Mu and the Fourth Prince? !
Seeing that everyone was watching, Qin Zeng said, "Your Majesty, this matter is of great importance. I sincerely ask you to exclude those who have nothing to do with it."
The emperor immediately waved the others to leave.
The monarch and his ministers sang in harmony, and everyone in the palace exchanged looks and retreated outside the palace.
Mu Lan was originally sitting next to Concubine Mu and was about to leave when she saw the situation. Concubine Mu turned her head and glanced at her, indicating that she did not need to leave. Mu Lan was overjoyed and thought to herself that Concubine Mu regarded her as one of her own. .
Qin Zeng did not comment on this and said: "I would also like to invite Prime Minister Xu, all the great scholars, ministers of various ministries, and Chen Yushi to stay."
Everyone was shocked. The people Qin Zeng wanted to keep were all important officials of the imperial court and powerful forces. And Chen Yushi was the father of Jinyiwei commander Chen Yan, who was known as Tiezui Yushi. That one.
If they are allowed to stay, will something happen to the Lieutenant General?
Concubine Mu was startled, and she looked straight at Qin Zeng, her expression no longer as calm as before, as if she was brewing an anger that was about to burst out at the right time.
Li Qingyi clearly saw the long nail of her little finger snapping off due to her hard grip on the armrest of the chair, and his eyes became aware.
Mu Lan's heart skipped a beat, and she had a bad feeling. However, no matter how much she wanted to leave, she couldn't speak.
Chen Yushi, as a senior official in Yushitai, was upright and devoted to the imperial court. He just paused, then took the lead to stop, turned to the side of the hall and stood there, with a solemn look on his face.
All the bachelors, including Song Qian's uncle, had different expressions on their faces when they heard Qin Zeng's words. They stood aside and looked attentively.
However, Xiang Xu and the ministers of various ministries belong to various forces, and the internal affairs of each ministry are also very complicated. When several people heard this, they felt shocked and were stunned for a moment.
They stood up on both sides of the main hall. Some of them had sweat on their heads.
Li Qingyi looked around, thinking about everyone in his heart.
The others, except for the four princes, are the emperor's confidants.
It seems that today, we really have to separate Ziwu Yinmao before we can give up.
In the main hall, all the royal relatives and relatives were all strangely silent. Li Qingyi could feel Queen Wang's nervousness, but Li Qingyi believed in Qin Zeng's arrangements and believed that he would not be wrong.
Qin Zeng picked up the box containing the hidden weapon, looked at it repeatedly, and said, "Sure enough, as Mrs. Wang said, these mechanisms are very ingenious. They have to be opened and closed many times before they are triggered, which can even kill people." .”
He raised his eyes to look at the emperor and said: "As far as I know, after the gifts brought by the Chongnan envoy were delivered to the palace, the queen personally led people to check them."
Queen Wang slowly walked up to the palace to face the emperor and saluted, "Qin Zeng is right. I personally led people to check one by one. Who among them has touched what objects has been recorded, and there is no omission." After that, she ordered Su Rong to present the record of checking the gifts that day to the emperor.
The emperor's face was serious, and he took it and flipped through it. Sure enough, everything was recorded in the book in every detail.
Concubine Mu looked at the Queen with a half-smile and said, "The Queen is indeed attentive."
Queen Wang said: "I just feel that the emperor is worried about state affairs day and night. Since I can help the emperor in some way, I naturally want to do my best to avoid unnecessary complications."
After saying that, she immediately sent people to call all the palace officials who were checking the gifts that day.
Of course Queen Wang did not bring everything in front of her to look at it carefully, but the palace servants around her did check everything and reported it to her.
If this mechanical puppet was among them at that time, someone from the palace must have seen it.
After several people from Yikun Palace who were checking the gifts came over, Su Rong brought the mechanical puppet in front of them and asked, "Have you ever seen this thing?"
Several palace maids were all dignified palace ladies with a steady temperament. One of them, who was wearing a blue palace skirt, named Linglan, said, "This slave has seen this thing before."
"Oh? Now that I've seen it, how did you report it to the Queen?"
Suzuran thought about it carefully and said, "My slave opened the box and looked at the contents inside, and realized that this object is a wood carving."
Everyone understood what was said.
If you don't know the mystery behind this machine puppet at first glance, it is indeed just a small wooden sculpture.
"No wonder I didn't pay attention..."
Su Rong took the small box containing the machine puppet and asked, "Did you find anything unusual when you opened this box?"
After hearing this, Suzuran looked at the box and couldn't help but be startled.
Su Rong noticed something was wrong and asked, "What's wrong?"
Linglan hesitated and said: "My slave remembers... the box containing the wood carvings at that time was a red sandalwood box with celestial mountain treasure trees carved on all sides, not this one!"
Everyone pricked up their ears when they heard the words.
Queen Wang frowned and asked, "Did you remember correctly?"
"My memory is definitely correct." Suzuran was very sure. "At that time, my servant was still puzzled. This wooden carving seemed to be less valuable than the box. I didn't know if there was anything special about this wooden carving, so I was curious about this thing. I watched it several times."
Qin Zeng said at the right time, "So, there is nothing wrong with the contents, but the box has been replaced."
Queen Wang stepped forward and took a closer look at the box that was equipped with a mechanism that almost killed her. Then she frowned and asked, "I think this box looks familiar."
The emperor heard this and asked, "Has the queen seen this box? Where is it?"
"Let me bring you the gift booklet brought by the Chongnan envoy last year."
Queen Wang nodded to the emperor, ordered Su Rong, turned to look at Concubine Mu, and said, "Sister, should I explain why the box of this mechanical puppet was exchanged?"
Concubine Mu frowned and said disdainfully, "I wonder what the queen meant? Did she mean that I changed the box containing the wood carvings?"
Queen Wang heard that Concubine Mu was slightly dissatisfied
Yue asked, with a face that showed no emotion or anger, and signaled Su Rongfeng to bring up the two albums together, and said to the emperor: "To be cautious, I specially hired a painter to draw all the gifts brought by the envoy into the album. , please take a look at it, Your Majesty.”
The fake smile on Concubine Mu's face suddenly froze, and her gaze towards the Queen suddenly became as sharp as a blade.
However, Queen Wang just didn't know and stood calmly where she was.
The emperor first picked up this year's book, turned to one of the pages, compared the box in the painting with the box in Qin Zeng's hand, and then said: "Although they are similar, they are indeed not the same box. It seems that this box has indeed been replaced. pass."
Queen Wang turned to another page in another album and said, "Your Majesty, the box in front of you is the one in the album."
"Indeed." The emperor nodded in confirmation and asked, "Why, does the box in front of you belong to Concubine Mu?"
Everyone looked at Concubine Mu. Concubine Mu's expression had returned to normal. She looked at Liu Ye, the female officer beside her. Liu Ye knelt down with a plop and said, "It's this slave... I went to the Queen's Palace that day and saw... The palace servants of Yikun Palace were taking stock of the gifts brought by the Chongnan envoy, so they went over to take a look out of curiosity. Unexpectedly, they accidentally broke the box containing the wood carvings. The servants were afraid that the Queen would be punished, so they thought that there was something in the imperial concubine's treasury. They only look similar, but they are good at making opinions. This slave deserves death, please punish me... But I really don’t know why this box contains murderous intent... Please tell me, Your Majesty!"
In front of so many people, how could Liuye, a noble concubine of Mu, do such a little trick in the Queen's Palace without being discovered?
But if he wanted to investigate more carefully, Liu Ye insisted that the people in Yikun Palace were negligent and did not discover what she had done. It would be the people in the Queen's Palace who would be the unlucky ones.
Queen Wang frowned, trying to find the flaw in Liu Ye's words, but she had no clue.
Concubine Mu smiled and said: "The Queen is too sensitive. Even if the maid of this palace did something wrong and secretly changed the box, the box left Kunji Palace and visited many places. The Queen cannot Say, this box is the one that I tampered with, right?"
