After sending Fang Ba away, Chang Yu stared at the candlelight in the hall in a daze. After a while, Chunxiang came in, walked to the table, sat down, and picked up the teapot to drink. Chang Yu saw that there was blood on his hands: "I did it myself this late at night. Where is life?"
"Good work comes from hard work," Chunxiang chuckled, "Learn some skills from the old people in the yamen."
Chang Yu smiled and said nothing. Everyone knew that the tortures of Dongchang and Jinyiwei were comparable to purgatory. There were eighteen ways to get a name, including finger-twisting, stick clamping, skinning, tongue cutting, ridge breaking, finger detaching, etc. Heart-piercing, Pipa, etc. are cruel, but they are all technical and cannot be handled by ordinary people.
He took out the letter Zhou Yuji gave him from his arms and put it on the table. Chunxiang picked it up curiously and squinted his eyes: "Gao Di is asking for help from Zhen Xibo."
Seeing Chang Yu smiling and saying nothing, Chunxiang added: "There was no solid evidence at first, but his letter just confirmed the crime of secretly communicating with Gao Qi without retribution." Then he slapped the letter on the table: " How does eldest brother plan to deal with it?"
Chang Yu picked up the letter and lit it on the candlelight. Chunxiang looked surprised: "This..."
"Brother Zhenxi needs to be given some face." Chang Yu smiled calmly: "Many things and many people are not either white or black. People and things are very complicated. Just point it out and everyone will understand it."
"Just let him go like this?" Chunxiang was puzzled.
"Otherwise, just because he befriended Zhou Yuji and wrote a letter to prove that he was having an affair and hiding from the imperial court?" Chang Yu curled his lips: "If there is no solid evidence, don't make a fuss. Besides, even if there is solid evidence, it may not be enough to masturbate. He has no reason now to overthrow the general guarding the gate because of a dead man. It is really unnecessary when employing people."
Chunxiang lowered his head and remained silent. Chang Yu then said: "You have the handle in your hand. It's not too late to use it when you need to take action."
Chunxiang was a little unwilling and bit the corner of his mouth: "We won't do this business at a loss. It costs a lot of money to hunt down Gao Qiqian, and Gao Di must be beaten no matter what, otherwise he will have something. The factory is very nice and gives the illusion of a lake."
"Why, Gao Qiqian only caught one person, didn't he get anything else?" Chang Yu smiled faintly, Chunxiang shook his head gently: "I wonder if this guy really didn't have any survivors, or he didn't have time before he escaped. Take it away, or hide it somewhere privately, but not much has been dug out."
Chang Yu thought for a while: "It is impossible that this guy has been favored by the emperor for more than ten years and has nothing left. But the emperor did not allow him to enter the city the year before last. The last time he was ordered to be in danger, he hurriedly escaped from the customs and escaped halfway. He must have been too late to transfer the family property. In His home should have been confiscated by the imperial court after he escaped. If you check back and see if there is no record of the confiscation, then continue digging."
Chunxiang smiled bitterly: "If it hadn't been copied, everyone would be dead now, so it would be difficult to dig out." He snorted coldly: "If there is nothing to dig out or nothing can be dug out, Gao Di will have to settle the debt. Give him a ring anyway.”
Chang Yu had no choice but to smile bitterly and nodded: "I'll let you do that."
Chunxiang's expression was a little proud after hearing this. Chang Yu warned him: "Don't go too far. After all, he is a high official in the imperial court and guards the door. When employing people now, don't go too far!"
"I know, let's stop here." Chunxiang chuckled, stood up and stretched: "It's too late, brother, go to bed early. We have enough work to do during the Mid-Autumn Festival tomorrow."
Chang Yu hummed: "I'm going to sleep in the Yamen today." After saying that, he got up and stretched: "Whoever likes to celebrate the holidays, celebrate the holidays, and whoever loves to be busy, do the work. I have to sleep and wake up naturally tomorrow. In the past two days, "I'm very tired." Chunxiang narrowed his eyes after hearing this and said with an exaggerated expression: "Are you going to sleep in tomorrow?"
Chang Yu was startled: "Why, can't you sleep?"
"Tomorrow is a festival. The emperor will sacrifice heaven and ancestors and hold a banquet for officials. Do you want to sleep in?" Chunxiang opened his eyes wide: "Or have you asked for leave from the emperor?"
In ancient times, both common people and the royal family attached great importance to traditional festivals and paid great attention to rituals. The Mid-Autumn Festival and the Chinese New Year were the two most important festivals. On this day, the royal family would worship the ancestors, entertain the ministers, and decorate the festival with lanterns and colorful decorations. Special handling.
It has been nearly two years since Chang Yu traveled across time, but he perfectly missed these two festivals.
When he first crossed over, it was just after the New Year, and Li Zicheng was already killing him without even feeling the atmosphere at the end of the festival. Then during the Mid-Autumn Festival, he was fighting Bai Wang in Jiangnan. During the New Year last year, he was returning from Yunnan after fighting the fire. On the way to Beijing.
By chance, I can celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival in Beijing this time and feel the festive atmosphere of this era. Previously, due to the emergency of the war and the uncertain situation, the royal family kept everything simple, even during holidays, and even some public events were cancelled. For fear of being spat on, they were so poor that they had to pretend to be fat and extravagant and wasteful. , what a mess it has become, and they still want to whitewash peace...
So Chang Yu thought that this year's Mid-Autumn Festival was just a simple festival, so Yu was surprised when Chunxiang said that the emperor was going to have a banquet for all officials. But then he guessed Emperor Chongzhen's thoughts.
Although it is no longer possible to say that the country is peaceful and the people are living and working in peace and contentment, compared with the precarious situation two years ago, when the building was only one step away from the country's subjugation, it is not an exaggeration to say that it is a prosperous age. This is true for the court, the royal family, and especially Emperor Chongzhen personally. , it was as if he had been reborn as a new person. It was more than a year before he truly felt that he was an emperor, a real emperor, the Nine-Five Supreme.
He was no longer the incompetent emperor who was swayed by his ministers and kept amusement.
And for more than a year, the ministers who were either arrogant or watching from afar have been submissive by him, and they will no longer lower their heads and let them spit.
Nowadays, internal and external troubles are on the rise. It is a good time to take advantage of the festival to show the majesty of the emperor's grace and power. Of course, we must also be grateful to God and our ancestors for their blessings.
This is meaningless for the cabinet. From their point of view, whether it is for political needs or to whitewash peace, such an event is needed, so this matter was decided more than ten days ago, but Chang Yu didn't pay attention, and Yesterday, Emperor Chongzhen thought that he had known about it for a long time and did not mention it. Chunxiang had the same mentality.
When holding public events, especially when the emperor wants to leave the imperial city, this kind of thing should not be careless. Dongchang must be careful whether overtly or covertly, and Chang Yu, as the leader of Dongchang, has a heavy responsibility, needless to say.
"I'm really asking for leave. You'll have to work a lot tomorrow." Chang Yu shrugged. He has always maintained a low profile and stayed out of the public eye as long as possible. Moreover, there are too many rules in this era, especially those for worshiping the ancestors of heaven and earth. Activities are filled with red tape one after another. If you are not careful or do something that exceeds the rules by accident, you will be denounced with saliva on your face.
Chang Yuye is used to it. He can't remember so many etiquettes and doesn't like to be bound by too many rules, so he doesn't want to join in the fun. He also knows that as long as he shows up, he will immediately become the center of attention, and his every move will be deliberately or unintentionally noticed by officials. Staring, that feeling is so uncomfortable.
Chunxiang believed it to be true: "Then I'll go to bed first... Oh, by the way, Xu Kailiang from the Dongcheng Army and Horses Division came here an hour ago and reported that there was a group of thieves in the city causing trouble. I thought that there would be a big festival tomorrow, so I told him I told the Jinyiwei people to go and help with the arrest... Hey, tell me how come there are thieves in this joint. Is Wang Jiayan now a hands-off shopkeeper, pointing at our Dongchang without asking at any time!"
Chang Yu was startled at first, and then he laughed: "This Xu Kailiang is really open-minded and knows how to do things."
Chunxiang looked puzzled, so Chang Yu told the story about the Chaoyangmen gang fight. Chunxiang suddenly realized: "I said, how could there be thieves entering the city? This Xu Kailiang... Hehe, not bad, he can fight against the trouble. We have thought about it from the beginning, a gangster has turned into a gangster, and even if the matter gets bigger, it won't be related to Octopus."
"Learn more. You have to be versatile in everything you do, and the road will become wider as you go." Chang Yu patted Chunxiang on the shoulder and said, "Go to sleep." Chunxiang mumbled something unknown and went to sleep in the backyard.
It is already late, and it is estimated that Emperor Chongzhen will get up and go to court in less than an hour. There are also public activities, celebrations, banquets and so on today. Most people can't bear this, so being an emperor is not that easy. Of course, those The ministers in Beijing were even more tired.
But Chang Yu was not sleepy at all. Unless the emperor ordered him to follow him tomorrow, he would not have to go there and have some leisure time. Although he did not really ask for leave, he had already laid the groundwork when he met the emperor the night before: he has been busy with official duties recently. Leave a message if you have anything to do.
Between pragmatism and ostentation, Emperor Chongzhen would naturally choose the former. He must have known in his heart that it would be quite prestigious and ostentatious to have Chang Yu follow him in public. However, he also knew that a tree attracts arrogance, and the more he behaves like this, the more his ministers will feel jealous. He hates Chang Yu. Although he also wants to make the ministers and Chang Yu incompatible, there will be many such opportunities in the future. There is no need to do this before Chang Yu is ready to attack Jinzhou.
Of course, these are all Chang Yu's guesses. I can't guarantee that Emperor Chongzhen of Qi Ming'er would ask him to go out and bomb the streets together on a whim.
He stood at the door and blew in the wind for a while. It was a bit cold, but he still didn't feel sleepy. He strolled around the yard and unknowingly walked to the fanzi on duty near Tianlao to pay him a gift. Only then did Chang Yu react. , suddenly thought of something and walked in.
There are thousands of prisons in the world, but only a few can be called heavenly prisons. Only those under the direct jurisdiction of the central court can be called heavenly prisons, such as the prisons of the Ministry of Punishment. There is another kind of prison known as the prison king in the heavenly prison, which is the imperial prison.
Ordinary people cannot enter this place, they must have VIP status, that is, criminals convicted by the emperor's edict, most of whom are high officials of the imperial court.
There are only two such places in the world, one is the imperial prison of Jinyiwei and the other is the imperial prison of Dongchang, which is equivalent to the Qincheng and Yancheng prisons in later generations, and the Prison of the Ministry of Punishment can be regarded as a detention center at most.
Because Dongchang was previously controlled by Wei Zhongxian, Emperor Chongzhen almost abolished Dongchang after he ascended the throne, and the prison of Dongchang was never used. It was not until Chang Yu came to power that he arrested dozens of nobles to warm up the scene. , and those subsequently imprisoned were mostly key criminals in Dongchang and some shady figures.
