Shipwreck? !
Outside the second hall door, Li Chengyi's heart trembled and his hands trembled slightly.
In the second hall.
Gu Zhengchen stared at Li Zongfeng with his sharp eyes. Li Zongfeng did not dare to look directly, his eyes were a little wandering, and he said uneasily: "What did Governor Gu say? The shipwreck case has nothing to do with me!"
"No, the shipwreck case is not only related to you, but also arranged by you!"
Gu Zhengchen shouted confidently!
Li Zongfeng shook his head: "It's better not to tell such a joke."
Gu Zhengchen took a step forward and said sternly: "Hu Benmo left the government office and went to Fuzhou suddenly. This kind of thing cannot be predicted in advance. Hu Benmo is a member of the household, so he probably knew that Zhou Yushou was on Wan'an Bridge. As he cannot pass by to avoid exposing his whereabouts, the fastest way for him to get to Fuzhou is to take a boat into Luoyang Town and continue north."
"But he doesn't know that there are fishermen in Luoyang Town, and he doesn't know that all the boats on the Luoyang River are obeying your orders. At the critical moment, you received news from the Bu family, ordering you to leave Hu Benmo behind and take away the account books! So, you took action. . The result was that Hu Benmo was strangled to death, the account books were taken away, and 21 people fell into the water and drowned! But some unknown things happened during the period, and Li Chengyi’s wife Zhao Yingying was implicated and died! Am I right? "
Li Zongfeng took two steps back, looked at Gu Zhengchen in front of him, and denied: "The deaths of Hu Benmo, Zhao Yingying and others have nothing to do with me. Magistrate Gu should not slander anyone. You must know that Zhao Yingying is my daughter-in-law. If I knew that she was Whoever harms her will definitely be killed!"
Gu Zhengchen stopped and put his hands behind his back: "Zhao Yingying's death was probably an accident, but Hu Benmo's death must be related to you."
"Where is the evidence? If there is no evidence, why would you dare to talk such nonsense?"
Li Zongfeng reached out and asked for evidence.
Gu Zhengchen shook his head: "The shipwreck occurred in July of the fifth year of Hongwu. It has been more than two years ago. Those who deserved to die and those who did not deserve to die are all dead. Those who are lucky enough to survive must be uninformed people. If they want to To find the evidence, I'm afraid we need to fish the boat out from the bottom of the river. But the Luoyang River is so wide and the water is so deep that no one can do it."
Li Zongfeng looked at Gu Zhengchen calmly: "You can make speculations without evidence, but you should not say them out easily, especially if you are a prefect!"
Gu Zhengchen raised his hand and snapped his fingers: "Although there is no evidence, if you conduct an in-depth investigation, you may not be able to find clues. But in this way, you will go from being a good person in the hearts of the people of Luoyang Town to a bad person in an instant. I am the official After looking through the files of the shipwreck case, crew member Sun Si provided testimony, saying that Hu Benmo was killed after uneven distribution of the spoils with others, and that the murderer also killed anyone who saw his appearance and scuttled the ship."
"Such a file is full of loopholes. How did a crew member hear the conversation between Hu Benmo and the murderer? Why were the others drowned and Hu Benmo strangled, but Zhao Yingying and the other two were brutally murdered? The most important thing is, Zhao Yingying suffered Why is the injury on the chest, while the injuries of the other two are on the back of the chest!"
"Obviously, Zhao Yingying knows the perpetrator and has no defense against him! Who would let a woman have no defense at all? In the entire Luoyang Town, besides Li Chengyi, you are probably the only one, right?"
Li Zongfeng smiled disdainfully: "It's ridiculous, not to mention that I didn't appear there that day. How could I have harmed my daughter-in-law if I took ten thousand steps back!"
"Wouldn't it be possible?"
"Prefect Gu, please be careful what you say!"
Gu Zhengchen said seriously: "The motive is not without. According to my investigation, you are an arrogant person with a strong desire to control your destiny. You long to become an official and become the god of a region! In other words, you want to stand Standing on top of a group of people, enjoy the feeling of controlling other people's life and death! This is how everyone in Luoyang Town respects you!"..??m
"But you have all the skills, but not much knowledge. The Four Books and Five Classics are not what you are good at. So you place all your hopes on Li Chengyi, hoping that Li Chengyi can become an official through the imperial examination and find an official position, so that The Li family became another Bu family! However, after Li Chengyi married Zhao Yingying, Li Chengyi turned all his knowledge into romance and became obsessed with Zhao Yingying."
"Zhao Yingying is a Hui'an girl. According to custom, she often needs to return to her parents' home. And you saw every parting between Li Chengyi and Zhao Yingying, including Li Chengyi standing on the bank of Luoyang River in despair and watching Zhao Yingying leave, and the joy of welcoming Zhao Yingying back! Li Chengyi gave up After learning, I also gave up the imperial examination!"
As Gu Zhengchen spoke, he took out a document from his sleeve and handed it to Li Zongfeng: "In the third year of Hongwu, the imperial examination was held. In that year, Li Chengyi became a scholar. In the fourth year of Hongwu, Li Chengyi took part in the provincial examination and failed. In July of the fifth year of Hongwu, Li Chengyi gave up the August provincial examination!"
Li Zongfeng opened the document and frowned as he looked at the imperial examination status of Quanzhou Prefecture that Gu Zhengchen had called up.
Gu Zhengchen said in a deep voice: "The provincial examination requires students to go to Fuzhou to take the exam. Quanzhou Prefectural Government attaches great importance to it and catalogs all the candidates in a book. The government officials will also do enough to encourage and win over, but only on this book Write it clearly, Li Chengyi - give up the exam!"
Li Zongfeng's face was gloomy: "What exactly do you want to say?"
Gu Zhengchen said with a cold face, "What I want to say is ready to be spoken. You are a smart man and you should understand! For the sake of Li Chengyi's future, for the Li family to gain a foothold in the officialdom, and for you to be on an equal footing with Bu Shou! You chose Li Chengyi's official career , kill Zhao Yingying with your own hands!"
"You're talking nonsense!"
Li Zongfeng scolded sternly.
Gu Zhengchen shook his head: "Li Zongfeng, this matter may have been impromptu, but you think this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, which not only solves Hu Benmo, but also solves the biggest obstacle to Li Chengyi's official career! It's just that you have countless calculations, I didn’t expect that in the sixth year of Hongwu’s reign, the emperor suddenly stopped the imperial examination! Zhao Yingying’s death was in vain.”
Li Zongfeng clenched his fists and shouted: "That's enough!"
Gu Zhengchen took two steps back and continued: "The mystery of Zhao Yingying's death has been solved. Let's go back to the crew member Sun Si. You should know what his fate was. Drunk and fell into the river. There is another sentence in the file. : Sun Si fell into the river and struggled hard, but did not cry out for help! This unspeakable method is exactly the same as Wang Chi's death!"
"Li Zongfeng, do you want me to investigate and investigate how Wang Chi's family and Sun Si's family are doing? Have they received a sum of money to comfort them? This method of killing his people and benefiting his family is what you think you are doing. Kind!"
Li Zongfeng gritted his teeth and shouted: "I've said enough, don't say any more!"
Gu Zhengchen sighed helplessly: "Many of these things are my own speculation, and there is indeed lack of evidence to convict you. But you can't clean up the deaths of Lin Zhuo and Wang Chi. In addition, the shipwreck case If you don't tell the truth, the fortune teller will tell you. If the fortune teller doesn't tell you, the fortune teller will tell you. Who is the person who sent you the message back then? You can bet on whether he will tell you."
Li Zongfeng looked at Gu Zhengchen with a ferocious look on his face.
Gu Zhengchen turned around and went back to the desk, sat down, and slapped the copper coins on the table: "Fisherman, let me tell you that last night, Bu Shou was imprisoned, Wei Hong was imprisoned, and even Gao Hui, who participated in provincial politics, was also imprisoned. Caught!"
"What?"
Li Zongfeng was shocked.
Gu Zhengchen took a sip from the tea bowl and said softly: "You are just a selfish little person who wants to control everything. After tearing away the disguise and veil, only a cold and ruthless face is left, as well as a pair of blood-stained eyes. Hand! What would Li Chengyi think if he knew that his revered father was like this?"
Li Zongfeng trembled and took a step forward: "I can explain everything, as long as Li Chengyi doesn't know about it."
Bang!
The door was violently knocked open.
Li Chengyi looked at Li Zongfeng and walked in with an angry look on his face.
Gu Zhengchen looked surprised: "Why are you here?"
Li Zongfeng looked at Li Chengyi approaching and asked quickly: "What did you hear?"
Li Chengyi stopped, his eyes were red, and he said in a cold tone: "Is Yingying's death related to my abandonment of the imperial examination? Was it your fault?"
Li Zongfeng shook his head quickly: "It wasn't me. I was in the restaurant that day. The shopkeeper can testify -"
Li Chengyi gritted his teeth and shouted heartbreakingly: "Don't lie to me again! I went to the restaurant that day, and the owner of the restaurant said you were out. I waited there for half an hour and you didn't come back!"
Li Zongfeng thought of something and continued: "I went to the next street. As you know, it was Mr. Huang's birthday..."
Li Chengyi took a step forward and shouted: "That day, I originally wanted to go to the ferry with my father to pick up Yingying, but I waited for you for a long time and didn't arrive, so I went to the ferry alone. At that time, I saw a boat leaving the ferry , I saw people wearing coir raincoats on the boat, and I saw a fisherman! And that fisherman boarded Yingying’s boat in the middle of the river!"
Li Zongfeng's face turned pale.
Li Chengyi looked at Li Zongfeng, tears welling up in his eyes. He shook his head and said, "Don't you want to know why I gave up the exam? Because Yingying was pregnant! She wanted to tell you the good news on your birthday!"
Li Zongfeng opened his mouth, unable to speak. My birthday falls during the autumn period.
Yingying is pregnant?
this--
With a pair of sad eyes, he let the blood flow from the wound, and used his last strength to touch his lower abdomen with his hands.
Perhaps before she died, she was comforting another life.
Li Zongfeng sat slumped on the ground, his body couldn't stop shaking, and tears fell from his eyes.
Gu Zhengchen raised his hand, supported his forehead, looked at the remorseful Li Zongfeng, looked at the desperate and lifeless Li Chengyi, sighed secretly, stood up and walked out of the second hall.
Zhang Pei and Xiao Cheng followed, listening to the low crying in the second hall, the two looked at each other.
Gu Zhengchen walked into the sunshine.
At this time, the rising sun rises in the east.
Gu Zhengchen put aside his thoughts, strode into the lobby, and ordered: "Ascend to the hall for trial and divination. It has taken us too much time to rectify the officialdom, and it is time to end."
