The clouds covered the sun, making the second hall much darker.
Gu Zhengchen looked at Gao Hui and smiled calmly: "Enforce the law according to the law and suffer punishment with a stick. Yang Baiju can't bear it. How can I be derelict in my duty?"
Gao Hui said coldly with a straight face: "The cane punishment is meant to be a punishment, and it has to kill people. What's more, Yang Baiju is a general judge and a high official in the government. How can he just find some excuse to beat him to death? If so, I will Can we also punish you for privately recruiting officials and servants with the intention of controlling the government?"
Gu Zhengchen stared, stood up and said, "I have to hand over the seal of the prefect today even if you don't want to hand over it?"
Gao Hui picked up the tea bowl, and the lid touched the bowl, making a tinkling sound: "Prefect Gu, I have arranged this for your own good. After the court has the result of your death sentence, it will be yours." The power seal is still yours. If you hand over the magistrate's seal now, you can still stay in the magistrate's house."
The hidden meaning is:
If you don't pay, I can let you live somewhere else.
Gu Zhengchen was filled with bitterness and told Xiao Cheng: "Take out the seal."
Xiao Cheng suddenly became angry, looked at Gu Zhengchen and shouted: "How can you hand it over? Without the seal of power, you are still a prefect! Now you have arrested so many people and offended so many people. Once you lose the protection of this seal of power, ,You can……"
"Take the seal!"
Gu Zhengchen interrupted Xiao Cheng with a gloomy expression.
Xiao Cheng had no choice but to take out a copper seal from the bag hanging on his waist.
The Ming Dynasty was different from the later Qing Dynasty. The Qing Dynasty adopted the double-printing system of the palm-printing officer, that is, there was one seal in the yamen, which could not be left out of the office, and the palm-printing officer gave another line of seals, which could be used when going out.
There was only one official seal in the Ming Dynasty, and the prefect was the official who held the seal. As long as he did not leave the area governed by the prefecture, the seal could be carried with him or left in the yamen.
No matter where the seal is, it is basically beside the seal official.
Gu Zhengchen didn't like to carry the official's seal with him. It was too heavy to put in his sleeves and too heavy to put on his chest. It was a two-inch-and-a-half-inch square copper plate with a stick as thick as the middle finger stuck on it, which was not aesthetically pleasing at all. It can be said that I don’t know how to get a tiger or a turtle or something...
At the bottom of the seal are the four words "Quanzhou Prefecture Seal" engraved in nine-fold seal script.
Nine-fold seal script is a font that was popular in the Song Dynasty as the "official seal of the state and dynasty". The strokes are folded evenly and the layout of the strokes is square, which can fill the seal surface. The number of folds for each character depends on the complexity of the strokes, which can be divided into five, six, seven, eight, nine and ten folds. Because "nine is the end of the number, it means there are many", so "nine stacks" are generally used.
Most of the official seals in the Ming Dynasty were in nine-fold seal script, but the curses were different. The supervisory censor used eight-fold seal script. The fewer stacks, I don’t know whether it meant saying a few words less, or it was a lucky number...
Gu Zhengchen examined the seal. After handing it over, although he was still the prefect, he no longer had the power to handle government affairs. Notices without seals were false, documents without seals could not be sent out, and money and food could not be transferred out without seals. It’s even more impossible to pass on hook cards...
"Gao Shenzheng, if you hand over this seal, who do you plan to use to take charge of it?"
Gu Zhengchen looked at Gao Hui.
Gao Hui stood up and walked towards Gu Zhengchen, extending his hand: "I don't need you to worry about this."
Gu Zhengchen placed the seal in Gao Hui's hand, took a step back, and said easily: "In that case, I will rest for a while."
Gao Hui checked the seal and nodded slightly.
Gu Zhengchen didn't have the seal, so there was no need to stay in the second hall. He walked towards the door, stopped again, took out a document bag from his arms, turned around and handed it to Gao Hui: "This is a memorial written by me to the court. Ma please Gao Hui." Participate in politics and let the person who takes over the house send it out."
Gao Hui looked at the document bag. Although it was sealed, it was not sealed, so he waved his hand and asked Gu Zhengchen to leave.
It was very quiet in the second hall.
Gao Hui tapped his fingers on his document bag and asked the Confucian scholar on the side: "Shi Su, what do you think of this person?"
Shi Su bent over and said in a hoarse voice: "Yang Baiju is dead, Tang Xian is in jail, and the government officials who went to arrest Wu Kang haven't come back yet. He can turn the Quanzhou government office into chaos in a short period of time. He is a very powerful person." A young man with good means is like a tiger among sheep. However, now that he has lost his seal of power, he has lost his fangs. No matter how good he is, he will never be able to overturn the world."
Gao Hui sighed: "This person has sharp methods. If he is allowed to rule Quanzhou, many years of management will be destroyed. But now his investigation is too deep, and it is difficult for us to handle it."
Shi Su nodded in agreement.
If Gu Zhengchen had just grabbed a little bit of the tail, found some excuse at random, changed the black to white, and changed the crooked to straight, the matter would have been over. However, so much money was found in Yang Baiju's home, Tang Xian's property was also confiscated, and there were a large stack of recruitment records. There were complete witnesses and evidence, and it would be difficult to cleanse these people even if they were kicked into the sea.
But they can't ignore it. If they don't take action, if they scream twice before dying, the court will give them a back-up...
"Let Qin Xin come over and find a way to keep Wu Kang."
Gao Hui looked at his follower Zhuang Bing. Zhuang Bing understood and walked out of the second hall.
The magistrate's house.
Gu Zhengchen lay in a wicker chair, looking at the uncertain sky without saying a word.
Xiao Cheng kept pacing, and Zhang Pei also looked sad.
Master Li Chengyi was busy sorting out the people's petitions and finding out the problems. He did not appear in the lobby today. He did not know that Gu Zhengchen's actions were so big. He not only arrested Tang Xian, but also killed Tang Hu and 16 others!
Li Chengyi took a stack of pleadings and planned to explain the situation to Gu Zhengchen so that the case could be heard tomorrow: "Master, there are two pleadings here involving the government offices, one about the Taxation Bureau, one about the Hebo Office, and three more. The petition paper is for the people who have been wronged to apply for a retrial of the case in order to clear their innocence..."
Xiao Cheng glanced at Gu Zhengchen, who was motionless, and snorted to Li Chengyi: "Hand over all these papers. The governor has been sealed by Gao Shenzheng. Now he is idle in the prefect's house and can't do anything. If the case is tried tomorrow, it will be tried by someone else."
Li Chengyi was shocked. He had been delayed for so long, but such a big thing happened?
Zhang Pei told Li Chengyi the whole story, and Li Chengyi shouted angrily: "Officials protect each other! If Gao Shenzheng comes at this time, wouldn't all the previous efforts of the governor be in vain! The official Wang Xinqian and the general judge Tang Xian are not allowed to be released. ! I’m afraid Wu Kang won’t be able to enter the prison cell!”
Gu Zhengchen looked at Zhang Pei: "Go buy some fish and come back, and buy some wine as well."
Zhang Pei looked at Gu Zhengchen who was calm and composed, felt relieved, agreed and left the government office.
Xiao Cheng and Li Chengyi couldn't understand. How long has it been since then to still think about drinking and eating meat?
Hufang Huang Fei, soldier Liang Hua, executioner Xu Lan, squad leader Zhao Sanqi and others hurried over, panicking and not knowing what to do.
Zhao Sanqi felt chills all over. He had offended Tang Xian and others to death. Now that Gao Hui had joined the government, Gu Zhifu was directly removed from his official seal, and Qin Xin became the agent for government affairs. He still had a way to survive. ?
"Master Fu, what should we do?"
Zhao Sanqi has lost his backbone.
Gu Zhengchen looked at the flustered people and said with a smile: "You come to the government office, naturally you are doing things for the government office. If you are clean and innocent, can they still punish you? No matter who is the prefect or who is in charge Government officials, you are doing your duty with all your heart, you just need to do your part."
Huang Fei frowned slightly and helped Zhao Sanqi and others express what was on their mind: "Let's join the government first. Qin Tongzhi will probably kick us out. As for Zhao Sanqi, Huang Ke, Wei Jingzhi and others, He will become a thorn in their side, and will definitely try his best to retaliate, in order to warn everyone of the consequences of going against them..."
Zhao Sanqi, Huang Ke, Lin Wei and others nodded repeatedly.
Although Huang Ke and Lin Wei have not fallen out with this group of people, they have not followed them or been bribed by them. They are "unsocial" in themselves. Now they are following Gu Zhengchen and have been promoted to important positions. After Qin Xin took charge of the government office, , shouldn’t you step on it?
Gu Zhengchen understood their concerns, suppressed his smile, and said seriously: "Although I have lost my seal of power, I am still the prefect of Quanzhou. No matter whether it is Gao Shenzhen or others, as long as I am still here, you are not at fault. They won't make things too difficult for you. Besides, they don't have the energy to cause trouble for you in a short period of time. The person they need to deal with is me."
Zhao Sanqi, Huang Fei and others were deeply worried.
Indeed, for Qin Xin, Wu Kang and others, they and these people are just small people and can be dealt with at any time without any effort. And Magistrate Gu was the one who could kill them. If Magistrate Gu didn't leave, they would be uneasy.
Gu Zhengchen clapped his hands and said sincerely: "The dark night before dawn is the most difficult. Only after you get through it can you see the light of day. Just disperse and do whatever you have to do."
When Zhao Sanqi, Huang Fei and others saw this, they had no choice but to leave.
Prison cell.
Qin Xin walked into the cell, looked at Tang Xian who was squatting in the corner, and lamented: "Two pieces of news, Gao Shenzheng came and accepted Gu Zhengchen's seal, and now I am in charge of the government office."
Tang Xian came out of the darkness and asked with a sad face: "Gao Shenzheng is here, where is my son?"
Qin Xin lowered his head: "Tang Hu left. Gao Shenzheng personally came to stop them, and Gu Zhengchen used a dirty trick to accuse them of being pirates in the name of the navy..."
"Gu Zhengchen!"
Tang Xian gritted his teeth and looked at Qin Xin, his deep voice full of murderous intent: "I want him to die, do you hear that? I want to be buried with my son!"
Qin Xin looked at the angry Tang Xian and raised his hand to grab Tang Xian's shoulders: "Calm down, Gao Shenzheng said, we will try our best to fish you out and regain control of the government office. Gu Zhengchen's document to the court He was stopped by Gao Shenzheng, and what happened here will not spread to Jinling. In order to avoid future troubles, Gu Zhengchen must die. But how to make his death an accident without arousing suspicion from the court, I need your advice!"
Tang Xian was grieved that his son was killed and hated Gu Zhengchen's ruthless methods. He gritted his teeth and said, "Let Zhang Jiujing take Gao Shenzheng to find Bu Shou and ask him to take action."
Qin Xin frowned slightly: "The price of trouble him once is not small."
Tang Xian turned around sadly: "The price? What price does he dare to ask for at this time! We are all people in the same boat. If the boat sinks, they will all die."
