Early the next morning, Zhao Yizhi left the morning court and came to the imperial study. The desk was already filled with a bunch of memorials.
"Feng Qi, the younger brother of the prince, was accused of being a nephew who refused to borrow money and was determined to kill someone. There is insufficient evidence and he has been imprisoned. Please make your decision."
"Qidu Lieutenant Jiang Gao, the defendant committed adultery with a woman and was discovered by her husband. He conspired with the woman to murder her husband and has been arrested and brought to justice."
"Li Zhong, who washed horses, abused lynching and killed several servants. There is no clear evidence. I await your Majesty's decision."
Zhao Yizhi opened several memorials, and they were all memorials about crimes committed by Daqi officials.
"What's going on? Xuan Liu Pang came to see me!" Zhao Yizhi shouted.
Before long, a thin old man stood outside the door and said, "Your Majesty, the humble minister Liu Pang has been ordered to appear."
"Come in." Zhao Yizhi replied in the imperial study, and Liu Pang stood up and pushed the door open.
Zhao Yizhi raised his head and was slightly startled. At first, he had some impression of this thin old man because of the incident between Mr. Wu and the Fourth Young Master. Now that we meet again, he only feels that this little old man is even thinner. It seemed that the door was not even opened when he just entered. He came through the crack in the door. Same as squeezed in.
Zhao Yizhi shook his head slightly. Now was not the time to care about this. He pushed the stack of memorials forward: "Master Liu, what's going on with these memorials?"
This confused Liu Pang. In the past two days, Liu Pang had not slept well for two nights because of the cases of these officials. Today, Zhao Yi announced that he would enter the palace, and he had already been mentally prepared.
Liu Pang said with a bitter face: "Your Majesty, this... I don't even know. In the past two days, a total of twenty-three officials committed crimes, and they were all major murder cases. Each case was interrogated by the minor officials in person, and there were no mistakes. The people who were harmed The family members insisted that it was these adults who did it. The ministers had no time to check, and these memorials were written by other colleagues in the Yamen..."
"I'm not asking you who wrote the memorial! Most of these officials are honest people. The prince Shaobao is nearly seventy years old! How did he kill his young and strong nephew? Didn't you even check it out? ?" Zhao Yizhi was puzzled.
Liu Pang still had a bitter look on his face: "This... the ministers are also very confused, but some of the victims were usually good to others and had no enemies. The family members insisted that these adults were responsible, but the ministers did not dare to punish them, so they had to temporarily Put him in prison to await His Majesty's decree."
Zhao Yizhi took a few deep breaths and calmed down. In this pile of memorials, four ministers alone were arrested. Is that okay? This was enough to paralyze all the government agencies in the capital.
"You should go back first. No punishment is allowed before the matter is verified! Don't do everything yourself. Put aside your usual tasks of helping people find dogs and catch chickens. Let's find out these cases first." Zhao Yi Looking at Liu Pang's bitter face, he knew that it was not his fault. Twenty-three officials had committed murder cases in two days, and most of them held important positions in the government. Anyone who was left with this matter would be covered.
Liu Pang knelt on the ground and kowtowed, then he took a few steps and fled the imperial study, fearing that Zhao Yizhi would be unhappy and take off his official hat.
"Chen Congwei!" Zhao Yizhi called everyone in Chen Congwei again. Qingtian was the leader and just opened the door when he was driven out by Zhao Yizhi with a wave of his hand: "Forget it, this has nothing to do with you."
Indeed, there are millions of people in the capital, and the dead are only a few dozen. Although they are related to these officials, Chen Congwei and others cannot cover everything. Let a few of them patrol and correct mistakes among millions of people, which is no different. With the needle in the haystack.
Qingtian and others closed the door and left again. Zhao Yi held his forehead and had a headache.
Suddenly, Zhao Yizhi remembered the man in black he met the night before Zhaixing, and quickly called Zhaixing in.
"Zhaixing, where did you meet the man in black the night before yesterday? If you go again now, can you still find him?" Zhao Yizhi asked.
"Can!"
Zhao Yizhi nodded and said: "Okay, now you and Jiahai...forget it, I will go there myself. Where are you? Now lead the way."
Wang Zhenliang knew Zhao Yizhi's character of leaving at a moment's notice, so the palace had already prepared many carriages on standby. Zhao Yizhi got on the carriage, and four people, Pushing Lin, Naifeng, Lijiang and Shaking Mountain, accompanied him to escort him. Zhaixing leads the way and rushes towards the man in black whom Zhaixing encounters.
"Where is this?" When they arrived, Zhao Yizhi got off the carriage and looked around.
In the words of later generations, this was already a "slum" in the capital. Sewage flowed across the alleys, exuding an unpleasant smell. The bluestone bricks on the ground were polished and rounded for hundreds of years, and the gaps were covered with moss.
"Your Majesty, be careful." Zhao Yizhi almost slipped, but fortunately Tui Lin had quick eyes and quick hands and stepped forward to hold him up.
Na Fengteng jumped up to the roof, looked around, and found a large group of people gathered in front of him, as well as some of the governor's agents. He quickly lowered his head and told the truth about what he saw.
"Your Majesty, that's where I met the man in black." Zhaixing looked along Nafeng's long stick and said quickly.
"Let's go and check out the situation!" The five of them walked towards the alley with Zhao Yi in the middle.
Zhaixing separated the crowd and squeezed in: "What happened?"
"You don't know yet? Master Fu Kong killed someone right here!"
"Don't talk nonsense! The government hasn't investigated it yet, so you're just talking nonsense! Is it possible that it was his son who did it?"
"Poor Mr. Fu, he is living a life of poverty and poverty, guarding a pile of iron lumps, and he has an incompetent son..."
Although Zhao Yizhi stood far away, he could still hear the common people's conversation clearly. When he was about to report after returning from Star Reaching, Zhao Yizhi indicated that he already knew.
"Your Majesty, it was the man in black that I met here last night." Zhaixing looked around to confirm.
Tui Lin was still standing where Zhao Yizhi had almost fallen, looking at the bluestone on the ground carefully.
Zhao Yizhi walked over and asked, "What are you looking at?"
Tuilin pointed to the bluestone slab and said, "Your Majesty, look here. This is the thing that almost tripped you just now."
There is an iron piece sandwiched between the two bluestone bricks. Nafeng pressed the long stick in his hand against the bluestone board hard, and the iron piece was knocked out. It was caught between Zhaixing's two fingers and handed to Zhao Yizhi.
Zhao Yizhi took the iron piece and slowly turned it over. The back of the iron piece was covered with dirt. Zhao Yizhi didn't mind it being dirty. He stretched out his hand to brush off the dirt on it, and the word "Chu" suddenly appeared!
"Your Majesty, could it be the Crown Prince of Chu Xiang..." Shanshan said hesitantly.
Zhao Yizhi glanced at him: "Don't talk nonsense without proof. The crime of falsely accusing a minister is not light, not to mention that the other party is the eldest son of Chu Xiang!"
Shan Shan lowered his head, not daring to answer.
"Let's go and look elsewhere."
Zhao Yizhi took Zhaixing and other five people to visit the places where the murders occurred in twenty-three places in one day. Except for Fu Kong's house which is far away, most of the other ministers live together in groups and it is not troublesome to run around.
As a result, several pieces of iron were also found sporadically at other sites, and without exception, they all had the word "Chu" on them!
"Go back to the palace." Zhao Yizhi threw the iron piece to Zhaixing and turned around to get on the carriage.
Just after returning to the imperial study, Wang Zhenliang waited outside the door for a long time, and quickly took the coat from Zhao Yizhi: "Your Majesty, Prime Minister Zhou has requested an audience. He is now waiting in the Hall of Supreme Harmony..."
"Well, you're just in time, come to the imperial study." Zhao Yizhi took the iron piece from Zhai Xing's hand, entered the imperial study, picked up the ginger soup presented by the palace maid, and took a sip to ward off the cold.
Zhou Ziru, also wearing a brocade hat and mink fur coat, patted a thin layer of snow on his body outside the imperial study room.
"Snowing?"
"It just started snowing heavily."
"That's good. The people will have another good harvest next year." Zhao Yizhi smiled happily: "By the way, what do you want from me?"
When Zhou Ziru heard Zhao Yizhi's question, he stopped moving, took out a secret letter from his arms, handed it to Zhao Yizhi, and sat down: "The spy came to report that King Chu Xiang has received the news that his grandson Ge Yigang has died. , fainted twice a day and threatened to rush to the capital to kill him. Advisors and retainers urged him to stop. King Xiang of Chu sent someone to express his wish to come to the capital to pay homage to his grandson. The messenger has already passed through Wancheng."
Zhao Yizhi took the letter, read it, and asked, "How do you think Mr. Zhou should deal with this matter?"
"It is up to His Majesty to decide whether to allow it or not."
"Then in my opinion, it's natural to agree! No matter what King Chu Xiang's purpose is, since he takes the initiative to come to the capital, just let him come. Can I still be afraid of him in the capital?" Zhao Yizhi sat on the dragon throne. I want to change to a more comfortable sitting position, but I feel uncomfortable no matter how I sit.
"Your Majesty, there is nothing to be afraid of anywhere in Daqi, not just in the capital." Zhou Ziru flattered him at the right time.
"Stop patting the horses. I don't have Mr. Zhou's skills. Mr. Zhou received the news before I received it." There was a hint of resentment in Zhao Yizhi's words.
Zhou Ziru laughed loudly: "Your Majesty, you don't need to worry. I started sending spies to the vassal kings in various places a few years ago, just so that one day they can be used to regain the vassal territory. This is a deliberate act."
Zhao Yizhi clicked his tongue and said in surprise: "Mr. Zhou is very good at what he does."
Zhou Ziru stood up and said: "Originally, I was worried that Your Majesty would be in a dilemma. Since His Majesty's holy will has already been determined, I am overly worried. I will retire."
"Wait a minute!" Zhao Yizhi shouted to stop Zhou Ziru, and threw the iron pieces on the desk: "Mr. Zhou, can you recognize this thing?"
Zhou Ziru took a closer look and said, "It's just ordinary iron pieces and some soil. Are these... leftover from farm equipment?"
Zhao Yizhi shook his head and asked: "Within two days, twenty-three court officials in Daqi committed murders at the same time, and the defendants were murderers. Has Mr. Zhou heard about this?"
"Wei Chen has indeed heard about this matter. Wei Chen concluded that this matter was framed by others. Twenty-three officials, most of whom hold important positions, committed murders at the same time. It is too coincidental. In all likelihood, someone did it deliberately. ." Zhou Ziru said, looking at the iron piece in his hand.
"This!" Zhou Ziru quickly discovered the word "Chu" on the back of the iron piece.
Zhao Yizhi stared at Zhou Ziru and asked, "I was about to ask, can Mr. Zhou recognize this object?"
"The King of Chu Xiang and the King of Sichuan and Shu have been in contact for more than a hundred years. I heard that the Tang clan in Sichuan and Shu is good at using hidden weapons. Your Majesty thought that it might be the 'entourage' around Ge Cifeng who did it, and framed the fault to the court in this way. Minister, once these important and powerful adults are imprisoned, the central court will malfunction. Chu Xiang...maybe he will be happy to see this happen?" Zhou Ziru said.
"Okay! It's what I want! I think so too! In addition, King Chu Xiang just asked to enter the capital. It seems that Chu Xiang may have had a premeditated plan!"
"Your Majesty, if you continue to cut off the situation, you will surely suffer chaos!"
