Everyone has weaknesses, and officials are human too.
Jinyiwei is good at seizing the weaknesses of officials and threatening them.
His son Zhao Ruihu is Zhao Xiangfo's weakness.
Chang Feng ordered Zhao Ruihu to be sent to his duty room first. He was waiting for Zhao Xiangfo at the Qianhu Station.
After escorting Zhao Ruihu away, Chang Feng said to Fatty Xu, "We'll see Zhao Xiangfo here soon. It seems like he has something wrong with him."
Fatty Xu asked: "What's missing? A shackle, a chain, or a torture instrument? I'll get it."
Chang Feng shook his head slightly: "None of them. There are blood stains on the ground."
Fatty Xu was confused: "What do you mean?"
Chang Feng asked: "Is there a ruffian who killed his mother and his father and was imprisoned in the imperial prison?"
Fatty Xu replied: "Yes. That bastard should have been imprisoned in the Shuntian Mansion Prison. When the emperor heard about the case, he was so angry that he dropped all his coins, and he was lucky enough to be imprisoned in the imperial prison."
Chang Feng nodded: "Anyone who kills his father and his mother will be punished by heaven and earth. We Jin Yiwei will not torture him too much."
"Go to the imperial prison and bleed some blood for him. Just put two tea cups in it. Don't bleed him to death. It will be Ling Chi in a few days."
Fatty Xu asked: "Master Chang, what do you want with that beast's dirty blood?"
Chang Feng said: "You don't have to worry about this, just go and get it."
Fatty Xu took the order and left. After a few sticks of incense, he walked up to Chang Feng with a small copper basin in his hand.
Chang Feng asked: "Why did you release so many? Didn't you let him die?"
Fatty Xu replied: "Don't worry, he's not dead, he just fainted."
Chang Feng took the small copper basin and poured the blood on the ground.
The lobby of the Qianhu Office was immediately filled with the smell of blood.
Fatty Xu asked: "Master Chang, what on earth are you going to do? Sprinkle blood on a good bluestone. It will be hard for the warriors who will sweep it tomorrow morning to clean it up!"
Chang Feng smiled and said, "You will know when Zhao Xiangfo comes."
Not long after, Zhao Xiangfo came to the lobby.
Zhao Xiangfo keenly discovered that the ten warriors standing on both sides of the hall had scorpion crossbows hanging from their waists. Their eyes were fixed on him.
Zhao Xiangfo looked at Chang Feng pretending to be calm: "Master Chang, you called me here late at night, right?"
When saying this, Zhao Xiangfo rubbed his nose. He smelled a strong smell of blood. When he looked down, he saw a large pool of blood at his feet.
Chang Fengfeng said calmly: "I just chopped off three fingers of your son Zhao Ruihu."
Zhao Xiangfo's expression changed, and he lost all his calm expression: "Chang Feng, I'm going to fuck your mother! Why do you chop off Ruihu's fingers?"
"I dare to touch my son, I."
Zhao Xiangfo made a gesture to pull out the Xiuchun knife from his waist. Ten strong men raised their scorpion crossbows and surrounded him.
As long as he draws the knife, he will be shot into a hedgehog immediately.
Chang Feng said: "Senior Zhao, don't be impulsive."
Fatty Xu stepped forward and took off the embroidered spring knife from Zhao Xiangfo's waist.
Zhao Xiangfo was furious: "Chang Feng, I have lived and died for Jin Yiwei for so many years. But you want to sever my heir?"
"If I had known this, I should have found a way to kill you when you were the commander-in-chief!"
Chang Feng smiled slightly: "I'm not going to kill you. If Zhao Ruihu eats everything, I will naturally chop off his fingers."
"You don't know yet. He colluded with the eunuch Li Guang and the foreign minister Liu Zhang to frame Li Dongyang and Xie Qian."
"What's the point of chopping off his fingers? Tomorrow I will disembowel him in front of the brothers on the school grounds to see what kind of heart he has!"
Chang Feng's expression was relaxed and his tone was calm when he said this.
Fatty Xu felt his scalp numb when he heard this: disembowell him? Chang Feng is becoming more and more cruel now.
Zhao Xiangfo said angrily: "You are talking nonsense. When did he collude with Li Guang and Liu Zhang?"
Chang Feng laughed and said: "He confessed when he cut off his third finger. He put the fake documents of Li Dongyang and Xie Qian into the private document box."
"The waiter Lao Tang's attempt to murder Gao Wenze, who was in charge of the stalls, was also instigated by him. He also silenced Lao Tang."
"He said that all the things had nothing to do with you, his father. It was all his fault."
Zhao Xiangfo froze on the spot. His son was his life. He took refuge in Li Guang and sought a high position. In addition to being angry at not being promoted, another part of the reason was to find a good future for his son.
Chang Feng said: "The son is the son, and the father is the father. If the son makes a mistake, I will not hold me accountable."
"Tomorrow I will disembowel him and warn Wei Nei Pao Ze, and you can continue to be your Nansi Qianhu."
Zhao Xiangfo closed his eyes and said desperately: "Don't kill him. It was all my fault for colluding with Li Guang and Liu Zhang, and framing Li Dongyang and Xie Qian."
"He is just following my orders, running errands and passing on messages."
Chang Feng ordered in a loud voice: "Record confessions from hundreds of households and start writing!"
"Zhao Xiangfo, do you admit that you brought the two fake documents of Li and Xie into the stall?"
Zhao Xiangfo answered truthfully: "I brought him into the stall in the name of adding his name to the hidden pile list."
"When I was stuffing fake food into the two-person food box, I was caught by Gao Wenze, and he became murderous. He ordered the waiter Lao Tang to send him poisonous tea."
"After the poisoning attempt failed, I killed Lao Tang and threw him in a mass grave in the south of the city."
"I did everything. It has nothing to do with Tiggo. If you want to kill, just kill me."
Chang Feng asked: "Why did you betray Jin Yiwei? When you were in Uzang Snow Mountain, you almost lost your life many times, but you never took refuge in those snow mountain kings."
Zhao Xiangfo's nine years of dissatisfaction broke out in an instant: "Why do you think it is?"
"In terms of qualifications, who can catch up with me, you, Qian Ning, or Shi Wenyi?"
"Now all three of you are my bosses."
"My former colleagues, Sun Guishou and Wang Miaoxin, have also become my superiors."
"Even my former subordinates, Shen Zhou who only knows how to draw portraits, Taoist Zhang who only knows how to drink and go crazy, and Fatty Xu who only knows how to prostitute girls, are now on an equal footing with me!"
Fatty Xu smiled awkwardly: "Master Zhao, if you hit someone, don't slap him in the face, and if you expose someone, don't expose your shortcomings."
Zhao Xiangfo ignored Fatty Xu and yelled at Chang Feng: "You are unkind to me, of course I will be unjust!"
Chang Feng sighed: "It's my fault that you were not promoted."
"I am now in charge of Jinyiwei as Zuo Tongzhi. When an official reaches this level, it is inevitable that he will favor one over the other."
"The lords are all my brothers. But there are only a few of them with official positions. If you treat this one well, you must treat that one badly."
"I thought you were a Buddhist and wouldn't care about your official position."
Zhao Xiangfo said angrily: "Who is going to be an official and doesn't want to be promoted? Don't you want to be promoted?"
Changfeng was speechless. You two idiots don't want to be promoted.
Zhao Xiangfo said: "I acknowledge everything I have done. I just ask you to let my son go for the sake of the merits I have made over the years and the blood I have shed."
Chang Feng nodded: "Sure. I will let him go. Has the confession recording been completed?"
Hundreds of households were recorded and replied: "The recording has been completed."
Chang Feng said: "Senior Zhao, please sign and stamp with your fingerprints."
Zhao Xiangfo signed the confession and stamped his fingerprint.
With the fingerprints stamped on the confession, the complete clearing of Li Dongyang and Xie Qian's charges has been completed.
The question now is how to deal with this matter in a low-key manner. It can not only protect virtuous ministers, but also eliminate the need to pursue Li Guang and Liu Zhang openly.
Zhao Xiangfo said: "Changfeng, if you want to torture me, disembowel me, or even torture me with bamboo, I won't say a word."
"But please let my son go. Also, where is the broken finger? Doctor Wang from Bian Que Lane knows how to reattach broken fingers."
Reattachment of severed fingers is not something that only modern medicine can do.
Such an incident was recorded in the Ming Dynasty book "Ear Talk".
Jiang Wei, a hundred households in Huangpi, was ordered to escort the money to Beijing. In winter, when passing through Zhending Mansion, I met a robber and had two fingers chopped off.
The doctor at Zhending Mansion could only do simple bandaging.
But the doctor told him that there was a doctor in the capital who could reattach severed fingers.
He endured the pain and went to the capital, and after handing over the money, he found the famous doctor.
The famous doctor connected the severed finger to the fracture, applied iceberg, musk and other medicinal materials, and then fixed it with a thin splint.
Twenty-one days later, after removing the thin plywood, Jiang Wei found that the severed finger had been reattached, leaving only a red line at the joint.
In a word, Chinese medicine is broad and profound.
Think about the old mediocre Wan'an who was unable to do what he wanted. Ni Jinxian helped him wash the bird with a recipe, and he was able to transform from an earthworm into a living dragon.
Back to business.
Zhao Xiangfo and Chang Feng asked for the severed finger.
Chang Feng smiled slightly: "Come on, bring Zhao Ruihu up."
Not long after, Zhao Ruihu was brought to the lobby.
Zhao Xiangfo looked at his son's hands. Both hands were intact. Where were three fingers cut off?
Zhao Xiangfo asked Chang Feng: "Are you deceiving me?"
Chang Feng sighed: "I can't bear to torture an old man who has made great achievements, nor can I bear to hurt his son."
"I have no choice but to trick you."
Zhao Xiangfo did not scold Chang Feng, but instead said, "Thank you! What are you going to do with me?"
Chang Feng said: "Jin Yiwei has always been disloyal once, but not a hundred times. You have colluded with outsiders, and the guards cannot keep you."
"So be it. I have a good relationship with Shi Wenzhong, the commander-in-chief of the Left Army, and Ma Wensheng, the former Minister of War."
"I will ask them to jointly submit a letter of recommendation to the Ministry of War, recommending that you be transferred to the Datong Border Army and become a commander of the border army."
"Although the status of the frontier army is far lower than that of the Jin Yiwei, you can still be considered a promotion."
Zhao Xiangfo was stunned: "You won't kill me?"
Chang Feng said: "I can't leave you in Jinyiwei anymore, but I won't kill you either."
"To be honest, I'm showing mercy to you not only because of your past achievements, but also for my own sake."
"If I kill an old Feiyu from Jinyiwei who has made great achievements, the brothers in Paoze will be heartbroken."
"As a big shopkeeper, the most taboo thing is to touch the hearts of the people below you."
Zhao Xiangfo said: "But if you don't punish me openly, the grievances of Li Dongyang and Xie Qian will not be washed away."
"How are you going to explain those two framed secret documents to the government and the opposition?"
Chang Feng said: "You don't have to worry about it. I have my own way."
Zhao Xiangfo raised his hands towards Chang Feng and bowed deeply: "Master Chang, I owe you once. If there is a chance in the future, I will definitely repay you."
Chang Feng said: "You, father and son, will go to Nansi to check in and rest first. You are not allowed to leave Jin Yiwei even half a step before tomorrow morning."
After the Zhao family and his son left, Fatty Xu said meaningfully: "Compassion cannot control soldiers, and righteousness cannot support wealth. Mr. Chang, you are letting the tiger return to the mountain."
Chang Feng laughed and said: "I only heard that most of the Yihong buildings are Datong aunts, but I haven't heard of Yangzhou thin horses!"
"Which literate little thin horse did Mr. Xu learn from recently? He always talks in four words and four words?"
Fatty Xu was a little anxious: "Master Chang, when is this already, do you still have the heart to joke?"
"It will be early morning in two and a half hours. If you don't investigate Zhao Xiangfo, you can't explain how the fake private documents appeared in the stall."
Chang Feng said: "Fat man, don't worry. Let's see if I set up a Hongmen Banquet. No, it should be called the Mud Banquet."
In the middle of the night, at midnight, Yihong Tower.
A banquet was placed in the private room of Yihong Building.
Chang Feng sat at the wine table and took a nap.
Not long after, Li Guang and Liu Zhang entered the private room under the guidance of Fatty Xu.
Both of them were sleepy-eyed.
In the middle of the night, it is naturally not that easy to invite a supervisor of etiquette and a winter officer from the Ministry of Industry to come to Fireworks Willow Alley.
Fatty Xu showed them copies of the confessions of Liu Ping and Zhao Xiangfo. The two came reluctantly.
Chang Feng opened his eyes. Li Guang cursed: "Invite a rootless person to the brothel. You can't think of it!"
"What, you want to ask me to prostitute a girl? I don't have anything like that!"
Chang Feng smiled and held his hand towards Li Guangyi: "Eunuch Li, don't blame me. You said it's midnight. All the restaurants in the capital are closed."
"Only places like Yihong Building can hold banquets."
When saying this, Chang Feng glanced at Liu Zhang. I saw Liu Zhang looking guilty.
Chang Feng said: "You two, please sit down. Fatty, you go out first."
Chang Feng, Li Guang, and Liu Zhang were the only three people left in the elegant room.
A three-person rivalry drama begins.
Chang Feng smiled and said: "You two, you have read the copies of the confessions of Liu Ping and Zhao Xiangfo."
"Your frame-up methods are not clever. To be honest, when it comes to frame-up, we have to look at our Jin Yiwei. Our frame-up is the one who framed him."
Li Guang slapped the table: "Chang Feng, don't take off your pants and fart! Now the two of us have something in your hands. Tell me, what do you want?"
Liu Zhang said tremblingly: "Liu Ping is talking nonsense. Zhao Xiangfo is also talking nonsense. We will not recognize those two confessions."
Chang Feng said: "Okay! Then tomorrow morning I will make the two confessions public. Let the officials judge the authenticity of the confessions!"
Liu Zhang said quickly: "It's better to say goodbye."
Li Guang also relaxed his tone and got close to Chang Feng: "Chang Feng, when it comes to talking about it, we are both the Queen's empress. Why should we be at odds with each other?"
"No matter who of us loses in this fight, it will be the Queen who loses her face!"
"Pa!" Chang Feng clapped his hands, startling Li Guang and Liu Zhang.
Chang Feng said: "Eunuch Li's words are insightful! That's what I think! We are both descendants of the queen, just like half brothers!"
"It's really unnecessary to fight against those two bastards Li Dongyang and Xie Qian!"
A smile appeared on Li Guang's face: "As expected of the emperor's celebrity. He sees things clearly."
Chang Feng changed the subject: "But the emperor asked me to protect Li Dongyang and Xie Qian. This is the emperor's order."
"Let me tell you two, the emperor is determined to let those two bastards join the cabinet. It is hard to disobey the emperor's order."
Li Guangdao: "If you want to protect them, you have to investigate us! Or you have to break up with us!"
Chang Feng drank a glass of wine and spoke slowly, showing his skill.
Chang Feng said: "Liu Butang. Are you seventy-one this year? Isn't it good for people in their seventies to go home and take care of themselves?"
"In my opinion, you should report your illness first and avoid the limelight of the cabinet dispute. How about waiting a year and a half before you deliver a formal memorial to the emperor?"
Liu Zhang was surprised: "You want me to resign?"
Chang Feng suppressed his smile and said seriously: "Someone must pay some price for this framed case! I have left you with dignity. It is your own business whether you want this dignity or not!"
Li Guang and Liu Zhang looked at each other.
Liu Zhang gritted his teeth: "Okay, I resign."
"Records of Xiaozong" records that in the eighth year of Hongzhi, Liu Zhang, the minister of the Ministry of Industry, fell ill. In the ninth year of Hongzhi, Zhang became an official.
Chang Feng said again: "Eunuch Li, I know that Sun Chunbin, the censor who was invited by Li Dongyang and Xie Qian, is one of yours."
"We will finish drinking later and you go find him. Ask him to change his story in the morning and tell the officials that there is no record of them fawning over Shang Ming in Li and Xie's private files."
"In addition, you ask him to tell the ministers that after a day of investigation, he found that Li Dongyang and Xie Qian are both noble and virtuous ministers."
Li Guangdao: "As a censor, if he betrays his record in the early court, his career will be over."
Chang Feng smiled slightly: "It is better to lose your career than to lose your life. He is just a small person, just a chess piece on the chessboard."
"There is no need for the career of a chess piece to cause internal strife among the Queen's people and hurt the relationship between our brothers."
Li Guang thought for a long time: "Okay. I promise you. What's the explanation for the jade horse? You can't let me admit in front of all the officials that I asked Liu Ping to find someone to carve the jade horse."
Chang Feng smiled and said: "It's easier. The eunuchs you have are not five thousand but three thousand. Just find a scapegoat."
"It was said that he hated Liu Jin. He also heard about Sun Chunbin's impeachment. So he immediately left the palace and bought a jade horse and had those words engraved on it."
"The purpose is to frame Liu Jin for stealing the palace treasures. You learned about the young eunuch's treacherous plot and went to arrest him. The young eunuch committed suicide out of fear of guilt."
Li Guangdao: "This lie you made up is full of loopholes. Can all the officials believe it?"
Chang Feng said: "It doesn't matter whether the officials believe it or not. As long as you two stop attacking Li Dongyang and Xie Qian, the emperor will not investigate further."
Li Guang proposed: "We can do all the things you said. But you have to burn the original confessions of Liu Ping and Zhao Xiangfo!"
The confessions of Liu and Zhao are ironclad evidence that Li Guang framed important officials. After being left in Chang Feng's hands for one day, Li Guang would have a handle on Chang Feng's hands.
With lightning speed, Chang Feng took out two sheets of paper from his sleeve and placed them directly on the candle flame to ignite them. After a while it was reduced to ashes.
Li Guang looked at Chang Feng suspiciously: "Is this the original confession? Don't fool us with two blank pieces of paper!"
Chang Feng covered his chest with his left hand and pointed to the sky with his right hand: "The conscience of heaven and earth! This is indeed the original confession! If I tell lies, I will let thunder from the sky strike my father's grave!"
He is indeed a filial son.
Li Guang sneered: "Oh, only God knows whether the confession is original or not!"
Changfeng burned only two blank pieces of paper. He also knew that Li Guang would not believe it.
As long as the two confessions are not made public, they are in his hands. He tightened his grip on Li Guang's pigtails.
Not only can you not break your face, but you can also hold on to the pigtails of the Supervisor of Ceremonies, so why not do it?
Li Guang raised his wine glass: "Chang Feng, I admit that I can't beat you! I understand why you were able to rise from an unknown general banner to the top boss of Jinyiwei in just ten years."
Chang Feng smiled and said: "Don't say that. What's the point of fighting? The three of us are all brothers! It's too late, why should we fight?"
Li Guang and Liu Zhang smiled awkwardly: "Yes, we are all brothers."
Fatty Xu at the door heard laughter coming from the private room.
"Second brother, third brother."
"Eldest brother, third brother."
"Eldest brother, second brother."
"Ah ha ha!"
(End of chapter)
