"If it weren't for the Peng family's greed, even if Zhou Zhao and others came prepared, they wouldn't be able to find you, don't you think?"
The third prince: "..."
The calmness he had pretended to be in his heart instantly collapsed. He made fists with both hands and dug his nails into his palms, thus maintaining the smile on his face.
He turned around and looked at the Seventh Prince: "We will find out when we enter the palace and meet our father."
"Then please." The seventh prince stood up straight and made a gesture of invitation.
When the third prince came out of the courtyard, he glanced at Li Qiao and said, "Master Li, nothing happens. Just follow the holy orders."
"I understand."
Li Qiao was busy bowing.
He stayed in Gongyuan today and knew nothing about the outside world. He didn't know Zhou Zhao, but judging from the seventh prince's attitude, he really had evidence that was enough to finish the third prince, right?
Yes.
The seventh prince really caught the evidence.
Peng Zhiye was tough at first and refused to admit it, saying that this was Dong Daizhuan's personal behavior and that he had no knowledge of it.
He also plausibly explained that Dong Daizhuan's talents were mediocre. After the death of the fifth prince, the group of literati raised by Lu Wenrong came to seek refuge with him. Dong Daizhuan was among them inconspicuous. He didn't even know when this Dong Daizhuan came from him. Leaving the bottom.
He has raised so many literati. Even if he really wanted to commit fraud, he would definitely be looking for someone with outstanding literary talents. How could he find Dong Daizhuan?
But these sophistry could not cope with the seventh prince.
The seventh prince was directly put on the torture device at Peng's house.
Although the Peng family is the maternal family of the current queen, the Peng family itself has little influence. Although some people serve as officials in the court, their official positions are not high.
Moreover, the Seventh Prince had already mastered the evidence of various illegal activities of the Peng family. Therefore, even though the Peng family clamored to go to the palace to complain to the emperor, the Seventh Prince refused to give up and interrogated Peng Zhiye himself.
At the beginning, Peng Zhiye could still rely on his reason and warned himself that as long as the third prince was not killed, the Peng family would be saved, and the worst he could do was die!
But when the soldering iron is applied to the body, severe pain fills every pore, and the brain can no longer feel anything except pain. In that situation, how can a person like Peng Zhiye, who has never suffered any hardship, endure it?
When the iron fell on Peng Zhiye for the second time, he tried everything.
Peng Zhiye's two uncles and brothers were also recruited after being burned with a hot iron.
As far as this fraud case is concerned, the process is actually very simple.
After the third prince entered the Ministry of Civil Affairs, he actively attracted officials from various yamen and localities.
Zhehai Province is the richest province in Dasheng, so the third prince will certainly not miss this place.
But the fifth prince was there before, and the fifth prince was also eyeing Zhehai Province. At that time, the two had mutual scruples and checks and balances, so they could only win over the officials of Songjiang Mansion in a small way.
The position of the prince was not clear yet, so the officials of Songjiang Mansion did not dare to take sides completely, and they only maintained good relations with the two princes.
But last year the fifth prince died because of rebellion.
The other princes were unable to compete with the third prince. Now the officials of the Songjiang Mansion no longer had two boats. They were completely on the side of the third prince.
If you stand in line, then you have to give up.
Huang, Bao and Li dared to take action against the meeting.
The Peng family was already as arrogant and arrogant as the Lu family. After the death of the fifth prince, the Peng family expanded even more. Didn't they just know how to try?
From now on, the entire Dasheng will belong to the third prince, and now there is no problem in intervening in Xiaohui Trial.
The third prince also had this intention.
If you want to win over the officials in the imperial court, you have to do it as early as possible, otherwise, after those candidates become Jinshi, they will only be loyal to their father and will not give up on him.
Just like that Li Qiao.
So, if you want to develop your own power, you have to start from the examination.
The Songjiang Mansion was eyeing the conference, and the third prince and the Peng family were also eyeing the conference. The two parties hit it off and decided to take advantage of this conference to test the waters first and gain experience.
So the direct descendants of Huang, Bao and Li went to Beijing to take the exam.
These three families and the Peng family have agreed on secret codes. The Peng family has sent people to guard the gate of Shengjing. Once the three families of Huang, Bao and Li enter the capital, the Peng family will know immediately.
The third prince originally wanted to be a deputy examiner and cheat by leaking questions.
But who knew that Sheng Hong asked him to serve as the examiner for this session, and by donating labor and materials to the Grand Canal construction site and providing disaster relief, his reputation was growing day by day, so he became a little bolder.
He decided to arrange another way besides leaking the questions: sending cheat sheets.
A two-pronged approach can ensure nothing goes wrong.
However, the position of prince has not yet fallen to him, so he is very cautious. The method of sending cheat sheets only arranges people to explore the way, and will not actually take action.
Putting it into action is to disclose the problem in advance.
After he got the test paper questions, he gave them directly to the Peng family. The Peng family was responsible for finding someone to write the answers and giving them to Huang, Bao, and Li. They only sent them once, and only contacted them in a single line this time. It didn't matter whether it was successful or not, anyway, it was just Contact once.
Then the person who wrote the answer and the person who sent the answer all died.
All correspondence with Songjiang Prefecture were also destroyed.
This time it is just a test of the waters, a small fight, only success is allowed, no failure is allowed.
The third prince felt that his arrangement was perfect. Even if Huang, Bao and Li were found out, he would not be involved.
To put it bluntly, if the Peng family was really involved, the Peng family would never accuse him.
But they never expected that the Peng family would boast to the Huang, Bao, and Li families behind the back of the third prince. As long as the three families offered enough money, the three of them would definitely pass the Jinshi examination.
What was even more unexpected was that Huang, Bao, and Li were such useless people. They already had the answer and still had to make cheat sheets.
So the Peng family started sending cheat sheets without his knowledge.
Of course, this is no longer the point.
The point is that the Peng family turned a single, single line of contact into a double contact behind his back.
If it weren't for the Peng family's own initiative, then Zhou Zhao would not have been able to trace Concubine Mei's annex and draw a portrait of Dong Daizhuan, and then the three idiots Huang, Bao and Li would have failed.
In this way, even if Zhou Zhao publicly reported the inside story of Songjiang Mansion's examination room, he would not be implicated.
So, it’s all the Peng family’s fault.
Peng family!
The third prince stood in front of Sheng Hong's case. Although he wished he could cut into pieces the several Peng family members who were kneeling beside him, he could only show an innocent look on his face and knelt down with a plop: "Father, My son is wronged! My son has no idea what the Peng family has done!"
"The situation is so good, how could my son end his career?"
The tortured members of the Peng family knelt crookedly in front of Sheng Hong's imperial case, with their hair disheveled. Their faces showed fear, pain, and even annoyance.
Although the pain in my body was still severe at this time, my reason had outweighed the pain.
They shouldn't have surrendered the third prince!
"Holy, Your Majesty, it was the guilty minister who spoke nonsense and said the wrong things before. This matter indeed has nothing to do with the third prince. It was all the fault of the Peng family."
The person with the highest official position in the Peng family, Peng Zhiye's uncle, the uncle of the third prince, Peng Hezhong, the minister of Dali Temple, spoke.
When the third prince heard this, his eyes lit up and he immediately said: "Father, did you hear that? My son really didn't know that the Peng family was so cowardly that they would do such a thing behind his back! My son was wronged!"
Sheng Hong sat behind the imperial desk and looked at the third prince expressionlessly without speaking.
He had always been kind in front of several princes, but now his eyes suddenly became sharp, and he couldn't find the kindness in the past. The third prince's heart tightened when he stared at him, and he swallowed back the excuses on his lips.
The seventh prince was standing next to the third prince. Seeing this, he lifted up the hem of his clothes with both hands and slowly knelt down: "Father, my son has something important to say."
"Say." Sheng Hong turned his eyes to the seventh prince, and his tone was not gentle.
This means he is in a terrible mood.
The seventh prince, who had not made any mistakes and was even said to have been making meritorious deeds, was implicated.
The seventh prince was not intimidated by Sheng Hong's attitude. He faced Sheng Hong's sharp gaze, straightened his back, and said in a deep voice: "Back then, the emperor's grandfather led a group of people to hunt in Dongjing Mountain. The eldest brother fell off his horse. My right leg was broken, and outsiders thought it was an accident.”
"Not really."
"At that time, the third brother and Peng Zhiye suddenly emerged from behind the bushes and appeared behind the eldest brother's horse. They did not know who shot an arrow at the butt of the eldest brother's horse, so the horse was frightened and the eldest brother was knocked down."
"My son's father witnessed that scene with his own eyes. But not long after he entered the palace, he was not favored and had no prince to live with him. In addition, the eldest brother also lost his mother and queen, but the Peng family had a new queen, so Dad chose to shut up."
"My father has kept his mouth shut for so many years. Now that the Peng family is about to be destroyed, my son thinks it's time to give his elder brother justice."
The third prince: "!"
His pupils shrank and he stared at the seventh prince in disbelief.
Several members of the Peng family who were in annoyance and wanted to take out the third prince were suddenly startled and looked at the seventh prince in disbelief.
Peng Zhiye and Peng Hezhong instantly lost all color on their faces.
Sheng Hong also narrowed his eyes, suddenly grasped the armrests of the chair with both hands, leaned forward, and said in a voiceless voice: "Do you know what you are talking about?!"
"My son knows that he is willing to take responsibility for every word he just said. You can call dad to the temple and ask what happened."
"There is also Marquis Wu'an. He was there back then. Dad said he should have seen it, but he didn't tell the truth at the time."
"Now that the Peng family is about to end, he should dare to speak out."
"Of course there is also the eldest brother. The eldest brother knows what happened at that time best."
Facing Sheng Hong's suspicious and shocked eyes, the seventh prince did not dodge and found witnesses one by one in a clear and logical manner.
Sheng Hong: "..."
He was stunned for a few seconds, and then suddenly looked at Qian San: "Quick, go to Xuanren, go there in person and bring Jian'er."
The eldest prince's name is Sheng Zhijian.
At this time, the third prince's face also turned pale. He suddenly looked at Peng Zhiye, but Peng Zhiye did not look at him. Peng Zhiye was looking at Peng Hezhong with fear and bewilderment.
Peng Hezhong's face was extremely ugly, and his brain was working rapidly.
That arrow was shot by the third prince!
But the third prince was young at the time, so he shot the eldest prince with an arrow just out of jealousy, without any ill intentions.
Who would have thought that the horse was so frightened that it knocked the eldest prince down and broke his leg!
Now the Seventh Prince suddenly brings up old matters again, and also involves Zhiye in an unknown way. If Zhiye agrees to this matter, what awaits the Peng family will definitely be to kill everyone!
