He insisted that the emperor was an ally.
Gu Zhengchen's attitude was very firm, saying that I had taken something that I shouldn't have taken. Firstly, you didn't find witnesses, secondly, you didn't fix the physical evidence, and thirdly, you didn't bring your accomplices. What kind of interrogation is this?
The courtiers and officials in charge of judicial torture have no common sense about court trials, so they want to force themselves to plead guilty by relying on their words and momentum?
Facing Gu Zhengchen who was dragging the emperor into trouble, Li Yan was a little at a loss and looked at Chen Ning. Chen Ning wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and immediately shouted: "Gu Zhengchen, you are the one who is interrogating this case. Other matters are related to This case has nothing to do with it! Since you admitted to corruption, it is enough to sentence you to death!"
Gu Zhengchen looked at Chen Ning and asked coldly: "Which of your ears heard that I admitted corruption?"
Chen Ning suddenly stood up and said sternly: "You just made it clear that you took money from Buddhism! The recruitment list is written in black and white, can you deny it?"
Gu Zhengchen laughed, raised his hand and pointed at Chen Ning: "Then you received your salary from the Ministry of Household Affairs, and you also committed corruption. Everyone here has committed corruption! According to Ming Dynasty laws, are we going to be stripped hand in hand? Take off the skin bag, stuff it with straw, and hang it in the earth temple as a warning to the world?"
Snapped!
Li Yan took his hand away from the gavel tree and scolded: "The Ministry of Household Affairs issues salaries to officials. It is the righteousness of the court. It protects our lives, drives us to handle official duties, and govern the people. Why is there such a thing as corruption? It's such nonsense." , you are such a naughty person, sophistry, I don’t think you can be made to plead guilty without being punished!”
Wang Guangyang glanced at Li Yan and knocked on the table: "Li Shangshu, he is a man from Quanzhou County and holds a title. If you want to torture him, you must ask for an order."
Li Yan glared at Wang Guangyang fiercely, "Sister, I need you to remind me of this. Do you know what it means to scare him?"
Chen Ning also glared at Wang Guangyang, "If you don't do anything, why don't you do bad things?"
Gu Zhengchen glanced at Wang Guangyang, raised his hand as a gift, and then looked at Li Yan: "According to Li Shangshu's words, the Ministry of Household Affairs pays salaries, and the imperial court actually hires you to do things. Is this true?"
"That's natural!"
Li Yan said quietly.
Gu Zhengchen asked, "In that case, if Buddhism gives me money to repay my kindness for helping them, what kind of corruption is that?"
Li Yan sneered: "We are dealing with state affairs, but you are doing it for private reasons, pretending to be public for personal gain, and corruption is the same in the world! If you follow your sophistry, officials can accept anyone's money, and you are doing evil!"
Gu Zhengchen nodded slightly, his words were true, except: "Buddhist money and Taoist money are all gifts. The recipient of the gift is the Jurong County Government, and the account is entered into the Jurong County treasury general ledger. This amount Not a cent of the money was moved to the Gu family's house. Dare I ask Li Shangshu, is this considered corruption? Ask Li Shangshu again, if the Buddhist and Taoist sects provided money, what did the Jurong County government do for them that violated the court's laws and harmed the people? ?”
How did Li Yan know such details? He said: "Collecting money to do evil may not lead to success. It is impossible for you to help the Buddhist and Taoist families open the back door. I heard that Chongming Temple and Maoshan Taoist Temple in Jurong are very popular. This must be related to bribing you." !”
Gu Zhengchen was speechless. There was only one temple in Jurong County. How could this monk live without lighting incense? Besides, if the eminent monk of Tianjie Temple goes to Jurong from time to time, and the people go to listen to his chanting, what does it have to do with him?
Tianjie Temple is even more prosperous. Lao Zhu has been there. Why don’t you say that Lao Zhu opened the door for monks to make things convenient for them? As for Maoshan Taoist Temple, as an important place for Taoism, does it still need to open a back door?
Gu Zhengchen smiled bitterly. He was afraid that this guy would not stop unless he was convicted of corruption. He sighed: "In that case, why don't you tell the monk Zong Lai of Tianjie Temple, Zhang Xunjing and Yu Pingsheng of Longhu Mountain? ?”
Li Yan looked at Chen Ning, who nodded slightly.
"Chuan Zong Lai!"
Li Yan gave the order, and the government officials quickly ran to Tianjie Temple.
As for the two people from Longhu Mountain, this is not easy to tell. By the time they arrive in Jinling, Gu Zhengchen will probably be able to live in a small dungeon room for a month.
Above the lobby, it's boring.
Gu Zhengchen was really tired from standing, so he sat down and took a nap. He didn't know how long it took, but the gavel wood crackled loudly, and Gu Zhengchen got up, and then he saw his old acquaintance Zong Li who was wearing a monk's robe.
Zong Lai knew that Gu Zhengchen had returned to Jinling and was entrusted with the important task of serving as the deputy director of the Baochao Lifting Department, but he did not expect that he would be assigned to the dungeon and become a prisoner...
When Li Yan saw Zong Lai coming, he immediately asked: "Zong Lai, you are a monk and a Buddhist eminent monk. You would never lie in front of the hall. Please tell me why the Buddhist monks gave Gu Zhengchen 4,000 guan of money. What's the matter, what's the secret?"
Zong Yi was stunned for a moment and looked at Gu Zhengchen: "Did you get arrested because of this?"
Gu Zhengchen was quite helpless: "It seems that the Buddha's money is easy to collect but not easy to spend."
"You are not allowed to collude in confession! Say it!"
Chen Ning urged sharply.
Zong Li was a little embarrassed and looked at Gu Zhengchen.
Gu Zhengchen smiled and said, "Just say whatever you want."
Seeing this, Zong Lai nodded slightly and recited the Buddha's name: "Buddhism did not give Gu Zhengchen four thousand guans, but gave two thousand guans and four thousand guans to the royal family and Jurong County government respectively. As for the reason, it was Tianjie Temple for It is a gift from Buddhism to repay the royal family and Jurong County Government for their help in finding the relics, and it is specially used by Jurong County Government to improve people's livelihood..."
"Looking for relics?"
Li Yan was stunned and looked at Chen Ning and others.
A large number of relics were found in Tianjie Temple, and its reputation was at its peak, attracting eminent monks from the north to go south, bringing great prosperity to Buddhism in the north and south, and attracting countless believers.
Everyone in Jinling knows this, but few people know that the appearance of these relics is related to the royal family and the Jurong County government!
The flesh on Chen Ning's cheeks trembled unnaturally. If Buddhism doesn't testify, it will be impossible to prove Gu Zhengchen's corruption!
In the Hongwu Dynasty, anyone who was corrupt would basically have no way out once they were established. As for Gu Zhengchen's other problems, he would be dismissed from his post, investigated, exiled and sent to the army, so as not to lose his head.
Liu Weiqian stood up at this time and said seriously: "Although it is a gift from Buddhism, it does not mean that you, Gu Zhengchen, have not enriched your own pockets!"
Gu Zhengchen cast his sharp eyes at Liu Weiqian: "Have you taken the Jurong County Government's accounts and looked at every record in it, but you still insist that I took the money? Everyone, you are all important officials of the imperial court, and you have to speak carefully. Talk about evidence. If you don’t have evidence, you dare to talk nonsense——"
Boom!
Gu Zhengchen made a palm with his left hand and pushed his right fist, making a continuous sound of joints.
"What do you want to do?"
Chen Ning became nervous.
Is this guy trying to hit someone?
Gu Zhengchen sneered: "You have no evidence to frame the imperial court and the county man, how brave you are! If all officials are like you, how can honest officials exist between heaven and earth? The day of the Ming Dynasty will be like night, and there will be no one under the sun and the moon." Guangming! What you have done is harming the foundation of the Ming Dynasty. Do I, Gu Zhengchen, still want to sit back and do nothing and let you talk nonsense here? "
Li Yan and Chen Ning didn't know how to deal with it.
Judging from the current situation, Zong Long said that it was a gift, and Gu Zhengchen said that he did not touch the money. The money donated to the court cannot be said to be corruption. Every time there is a disaster, the court will ask large households to donate money and food. This is a good deed, and no one dares to label it as corruption.
Corruption requires taking it into your own hands and doing things for others. This is corruption.
The money was confiscated and the work was not done. It really has nothing to do with corruption. For example, Fei Zhen, who was released not long ago, and now Baochao Si Tiju, although he did something, it was not something illegal or disciplinary, but something as trivial as helping someone write an epitaph. He confiscated the money, but they gave him The money was directly converted into food and given to the people. Lao Zhu said that he was not corrupt and was a good official.
Referring to the Fei Zhen case, if the Jurong County government's accounts are clear, the ins and outs are clear at a glance, and there are no problems, then Gu Zhengchen does not have corruption.
Wang Guangyang laughed and said: "What Gu Zhengchen said makes sense. Since Buddhism says it is a gift, as long as Jurong's accounts are clean, then he is innocent. The two ministers, before the accounts are obtained, , I’ll discuss this later.”
Li Yan looked at Chen Ning.
Chen Ning's face was very ugly, but he also knew that the power of Yushitai was not enough to influence the Buddhist monk Zong Lai to give false testimony. This guy only gave face to the Buddha and the emperor, not to Yushitai.
"The corruption matter will be slowly investigated, but how do you defend the other charges! How do you explain the whipping of craftsmen, the abuse of national laws, and the use of craftsmen as slaves?"
Chen Ning took a step back and took action again.
Li Yan slapped the alarm: "Pass Zhang Jiujiu."
The craftsman Zhang Jiujiu arrived at the hall, knelt down, wailed twice, and began to identify: "The official has to make the decision for me. He relies on his status as deputy promoter, just because I have been working for ten hours and I am really sleepy. He He actually whipped me and almost beat me to death! If such a vicious thief is not eliminated, more people will surely suffer from his murderous hands!"
With a cold smile on his lips, Li Yan stared at Gu Zhengchen: "Can you plead guilty to such evil deeds?"
Gu Zhengchen looked at Zhang Jiujiu. This man was indeed a craftsman from the Baochao Lifting Department and was responsible for the production of mulberry paper. However, he only met him once and had no further contact with him.
Obviously, he was bribed and used as someone else's sword to stab himself.
Gu Zhengchen sighed: "Although I don't know why you came forward, and I don't know whose instructions or bribes you received, but have you ever thought that falsely accusing others is a serious crime and should be punished severely, not to mention you falsely accusing others?" It refers to a man from the Imperial County. According to the laws of the Ming Dynasty, you are likely to be permanently exiled to the army. Of course, you may also die on the way to the army."
Zhang Jiujiu's heart trembled. He raised his head slightly and looked at Chen Ning. Seeing Chen Ning's cold eyes, he lowered his head again: "You whipped me, I didn't make false accusations."
Gu Zhengchen chuckled: "Well, in that case, then take off your clothes and let everyone see the whip marks on your body!"
Without any hesitation, Zhang Jiujiu unbuttoned his clothes, exposed his upper body, and then knelt on the ground. On his back, terrible whip marks were exposed. Even after many days, the whip marks still did not disappear.
Seeing this, Li Yan yelled angrily: "Gu Zhengchen, you are so cruel!"
