Since the late emperor suddenly fainted on the throne during an early court meeting three years ago, Dayan's civil and military officials began to secretly search for candidates for the next emperor, preparing to invest first and earn a fortune from the dragon.
After careful and careful analysis, most officials determined that King Cheng, who was sealed in Fengcheng, Lingzhou at that time, had the best chance to aspire to the throne after His Majesty's death.
But I don’t know if King Cheng who was far away in Lingzhou had a seizure, or if he had been suffering for too long and lost his patience, and he actually started to plot to usurp the throne. After a chief historian of Prince Cheng's palace learned that Prince Cheng was plotting to usurp the throne, he knew that the matter would never succeed. He sent a secret letter to Kyoto with the intention of killing the prince and immortalizing the chief historian.
Five days later, the left guards of Lingzhou stationed outside Fengcheng surrounded Prince Cheng's palace. King Cheng knew that the matter was exposed, cooked a pot of poison, and took more than 200 people from the palace to the underworld to continue his grand plan to usurp the throne. .
When King Cheng died, the officials secretly cursed idiots in their hearts and began to re-study investment candidates non-stop.
After choosing among the remaining ten princes, it was decided that the fourth prince Zhu Cheng, who had not yet been crowned king at that time, was the most promising, so they all expressed their allegiance in private.
The late emperor passed away half a year ago. The officials who were woken up from their sleep pretended to cry bitterly on the surface, but they were already happy in their hearts.
The success of the dragon is accomplished!
But when they rushed to the palace in mourning to celebrate the enthronement of the fourth prince Zhu Cheng, Liu Chuanfang, the chief minister of the cabinet, read out a letter of succession written by the late emperor before his death.
The sixth prince Zhu Sheng, who had been a secretive person before, succeeded to the throne and became a great treasure.
Recalling the shocked expressions on the faces of the civil and military officials and Zhu Cheng when Liu Chuanfang read out the throne announcement, Emperor Yan Zhu Sheng felt much more comfortable.
In the Imperial Ancestral Temple, Zhu Sheng put his hands behind his back and scanned the tablets of emperors enshrined in the mourning hall one by one, finally stopping at the last tablet.
That is the tablet of his father, the previous Emperor Yan.
"Father, if you had let the fourth brother take up the fiefdom earlier, probably what happened today would not have happened. Or do you prefer that the fourth brother be the emperor?"
Zhu Sheng's eyes were complicated and he heard a murmur in his mouth.
"Your Majesty, Old Wei sent someone to send news that Mr. Yu has been arrested."
Ma Hong, the eunuch of Bingbi, stood outside the threshold and said respectfully.
Zhu Sheng's eyes flashed with joy when he heard this, but his expression and tone of voice did not change at all, and he asked without looking back.
"But is there a way?"
"Back to Your Majesty, the messenger said that Mr. Yu came back with a young man named Rong Fei and a little girl. After explaining to Old Wei, he took the little girl out of the palace and went to the house in Xuanwu Hutong, calling him Rong Fei. The slave was left in the care of Old Wei. He said that Rongfei was a catcher from Fencheng County, Lizhou, who came to look for the jade seal, and was now following Old Wei around the palace. The old slave had just gone to the Ministry of Personnel and the Ministry of Punishment to check There is no mention of this person in the records of Fencheng County."
After listening to Ma Hong's words, the joy in Zhu Sheng's eyes was replaced by disappointment, and after a long time he sighed softly.
"Mr. Yu is commendable for his loyalty, but he is too calm-tempered and doesn't know what to do. He probably sought medical treatment because of his illness. Forget it, I didn't expect him to do anything. How is the matter you were asked to do?"
"Back to Your Majesty, I have already found an experienced jade carver in Qingzhou, and I am rushing to Kyoto. I think I will arrive tonight. I have also found a rough stone with the same material as the jade seal and prepared three pieces of it. To prevent accidents, we will start carving it as soon as the craftsman arrives, and tomorrow night we should be able to make a jade seal that can look real."
Mahon replied in a low voice.
"I can rest assured that you are doing your job. You don't have to wait by my side for these two days. You can focus on that matter and make sure that it is done flawlessly, leaving no trace behind."
"Old slave, I obey."
Ma Hong followed the order and left. Zhu Sheng took a deep look at the tablet of the late emperor, then turned around and strode out of the Ancestral Temple.
"Zhu Cheng, I'm waiting for you to attack. This time, I will still win!"
…
The music is melodious and the smoke is curling up.
A burst of rapid footsteps broke the elegance and tranquility.
King Yong Zhu Cheng stopped holding down the vibrating strings and looked towards the closed door.
"Enter."
The door opened, and Chang Shimushiqi stepped forward and whispered.
"There was news from the palace that Yu Qingzhi had returned with an agent named Rong Fei, and there was also a pretty woman with him. At this time, Yu Qingzhi took the woman back to Xuanwu Hutong, and the agent named Rong Fei was I am following Wei Lin to find the whereabouts of Yuxi."
"Captain? What's so special about you?"
Zhu Cheng asked, stroking the beard on his lips.
"I have asked people from the Ministry of Personnel and the Ministry of Justice to check, but there is no information about this person."
Mushki replied.
"What is that woman's relationship with Yu Qingzhi?"
"I don't know."
"That's fine, they're just two trash fish that appeared out of nowhere. It's no big deal. Just follow the plan and go down."
Mu Shiqi took the order and left. The sound of the piano sounded again, but the artistic conception was much worse than before.
Zhu Cheng was upset.
The inexplicable loss in that battle half a year ago almost made him collapse and sink.
Now a God-given opportunity, after planning and planning, Zhu Cheng felt that he was sure of victory this time.
But there was still a trace of panic in my heart.
It should be that he cares too much, and care will lead to chaos, Zhu Cheng thought.
Smiling slightly, calming his mind, he strummed the strings with his fingers again, and the melodious sound of the piano resounded through the elegant room again.
…
Xie Zhonghe's nine imperial guardsmen had already been punished once before, but they were just a little mean-spirited and more intimidating.
But at this moment, listening to the voice next door, I am afraid that he is already preparing to kill him.
Xie Zhong's complexion was pale and green, and whenever the sound of whips or screams reached his ears, his body would tremble uncontrollably.
Most of the imperial troops stationed in the palace were selected from the nobles' children. Xie Zhong's ancestor was once awarded the title of earl. Although it was not a hereditary title, his family background was well-off due to the good fortune of the successive heads of the family.
As the eldest son of the family, Xie Zhong has been pampered since he was a child. Relying on the shadow of his ancestors, he entered the Forbidden Army and started directly from a small flag officer. He had never suffered such torture and intimidation. Being able to resist peeing his pants was already his greatest stubbornness.
"Sir...sir, don't you want to ask me something?"
Xie Zhong shivered and sat down on the small bench, looked up at Rong Fei and asked in vain.
"I'm not an adult, I'm just a young detective from the Ji Xian Division."
Rong Fei said in a peaceful tone.
"It's different, it's different. The detectives of the Ji Xian Division are different from those of ordinary yamen. They are considered to be His Majesty's confidants and deserve to be called Your Excellency."
"Haha, you are very sweet-tongued. In fact, you already know what I want to ask, so you might as well say it yourself to save me from wasting my time."
"Yes, yes, the villain must tell everything he knows and tell everything he knows."
Xie Zhong nodded and bowed.
At this moment, the sound of whips and screams coming from next door suddenly became denser and louder.
"I'm going to attack... I'm going to attack... I'm going to attack them all... Father-in-law, please don't fight again... I... I really can't stand it anymore... Wuwuwu... It's all under Xie Zhong's instigation. He has already secretly taken refuge with His Highness King Yong..."
"Keep your voice down, are you going to deafen the ears of the miscellaneous family?"
Wei Lin's high-pitched voice sounded, and then she couldn't hear clearly what was being said next door.
But it was no longer important, because Xie Zhong was so frightened that three souls left his body, seven souls left his body, and his whole body became limp.
"Big, big, big, big... Sir, I, I, I, I... I am wronged..."
Xie Zhong barely controlled himself from crying and stammered.
"What you say whether you are wronged or not does not count, and what I say does not count either. In the end, evidence has to speak for itself. Since you say you are wronged, then provide evidence to prove it."
"I...I didn't do anything. Where is the evidence?"
"Then tell us in detail what happened that day, and I will make some inferences."
"After His Majesty and the two father-in-laws left that day, I and my brothers stayed in front of the imperial study room and didn't go anywhere until His Majesty and the two father-in-laws came back. Then Eunuch Wei went to arrest Mr. Yu, and Mr. Yu arrested him After entering the imperial study room for a while, he came out and asked us brothers to go do some things with him, and then he was locked up here. I really didn’t steal the jade seal. Think about it, sir. You can’t eat or drink that thing. If you don’t have a place to sell it and pay for it, what’s the point of stealing it? Instead, it will get you into trouble.”
"Well, I think what you said makes sense."
Rong Fei nodded in agreement, thought for a moment and asked again.
"What was your position at that time?"
"ah?"
"It's the formation, who's standing on the left, who's standing on the right, who's in front, who's behind."
"Oh oh oh, that's what you're asking, sir. We stood like this at that time, Zhang San was first on the left, Li Si was first on the right, and behind them were... I was leading..."
"Wait a minute, what's the weather like that day?"
Rong Fei suddenly interrupted Xie Zhong and asked an irrelevant question.
"Hmm... It's a sunny day, and it's a little windy. It seems to be a northerly wind."
"Okay, continue talking about your position."
"I took Hou Qi and the three of them to patrol the front and back of the yard..."
"Which side does Wang Wu stand on, first or third?"
Rong Fei interrupted again.
Every time he was interrupted mid-sentence, Xie Zhong felt extremely uncomfortable, but he didn't dare to lose his temper. He could only close his mouth and think about it before answering.
In the following time, Xie Zhong answered over and over again various seemingly unrelated and trivial questions, and had to endure being interrupted from time to time, and he would turn to answer another unrelated question, which made Xie Zhong suffer. Unspeakable.
After struggling like this for half an hour, Xie Zhong had already answered clearly how many steps he had taken while inspecting the front and back yards that day, which foot he walked first, the left foot or the right foot, as well as the location, weather, and the types of flowers planted in the flower beds in the yard. , what color are they and other complicated materials are countless.
After answering, Xie Zhong even felt that it would be more satisfying to go next door and get whipped than to answer questions in this room.
The interrogation of Xie Zhong came to an end, Rong Fei escorted Xie Zhong back and asked another forbidden soldier to return to the room.
Wei Lin, who had rested for a while in the next room, started a new round of performance, and Rong Fei also started a new round of interrogation according to the previous routine.
The two of them kept tossing in this way until midnight, and finally completed the interrogation of all ten forbidden soldiers.
When she walked out of the inner library, Wei Lin's legs were shaking and her lips were sore and swollen.
"I said that your boy has tortured the Za family like this, but I wonder if there are any clues."
Wei Lin asked, rubbing her cheeks.
The ambiguous words combined with Wei Lin's actions at this time made Rong Fei feel a chill in his heart. He covered his mouth with his fist and coughed before saying.
"The loss of the jade seal should have nothing to do with them."
