Youdu Yushi Lian Zining kowtowed heavily, with a resolute expression on his face, and said in a deep voice: "Zhou Wubei impeached Wang Wentao, a fellow magistrate of Kaifeng, for colluding with the vassal king. He was just performing his duties. What crime could lead to imprisonment? I ask the emperor to show mercy. After investigation, Then torture and jail.”
Zhu Yunwen looked at Lian Zining, sighed, and said, "Whether Zhou Wubei has a problem or not, he needs to prove it himself. You can go on."
Lian Zining raised his head slightly and said without giving in: "I am in charge of the Metropolitan Procuratorate. If there is a problem with Zhou Wubei, the censor, and I have also done so, then please ask the emperor to put the officials in prison as well!"
Tit-for-tat without bowing!
Lian Zining doesn't think Zhou Wubei is guilty of any crime. A censor performs the duty of impeachment. Even if the impeachment is wrong, he should investigate clearly before imposing punishment.
However, the right and wrong of Zhou Wubei's impeachment has not yet been determined, and he is imprisoned "not guilty". This is a very bad start for the court.
Once the mouth is opened, whoever the emperor wants to investigate in the future, with just one sentence, the Security Bureau will have the power to arrest and torture. There is no need for the cooperation of the cabinet, the Ministry of Punishment and other departments. In the future, the Security Bureau will evolve into a Jin Yiwei, dark and terror will once again envelope the court.
Therefore, whether it was to protect the censor of the Metropolitan Procuratorate or to consider the future of the court, Lian Zining had no way out.
Zhu Yunwen knew that Lian Zining was an official with integrity. He had his own will and opinions. Seeing his persistence, he ordered Shuangxi beside him: "Go and bring out the recent impeachment memorial from Kaifeng Mansion."
Shuangxi agreed, took the memorial, handed it to Lian Zining, and said, "Master Lian, what the emperor is thinking and worrying is certainly reasonable."
Lian Zining ignored Shuang Xi and only took the sixteen memorials. He looked at them briefly and then put them down. Zhu Yunwen said: "Your Majesty, I have seen these memorials before. They are all memorials to impeach Kaifeng officials. I wonder what these memorials have to do with Yushi Zhou Wubei’s imprisonment?”
Zhu Yunwen stood up and said: "There are problems with the officials in Kaifeng Prefecture. You know it, and the whole court knows it. It's just a big or small problem. Most of the time, there are only a few memorials to impeach Kaifeng officials. After a year, there are about forty. There are no more than three or four memorials a month, and most of them are small matters."
"And now, in less than a month, sixteen, no, seventeen memorials have appeared so densely. As the censor of the right capital of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, you don't think there is a problem?"
Lian Zining looked at Zhu Yunwen in shock, feeling a little uncomfortable.
The emperor's way of looking at problems seems to be very unusual. He is good at using data to look at problems. For Lian Zining and the court ministers, no matter how many local memorials they have, they will not attract much attention. They will only think that someone is responding to the problem. There's a problem there, and it's time to investigate and fix it.
I have never thought deeply about the problems of so many memorials popping up in a short period of time.
Lian Zining did not doubt the data given by Zhu Yunwen. He lowered his head and looked at the sixteen memorials in his hand. There was still one memorial that he had not taken out. It was the memorial from Zhou Wubei, the censor, and Lian Zining also knew the contents of the memorial.
In less than a month, seventeen memorials came out, which is indeed a bit abnormal.
"Your Majesty, this may be related to Yu Ge's inspection in Kaifeng Mansion."
Lian Zining said somewhat unconfidently.
Zhu Yunwen sneered and said: "Is this really true? Yu Xin went to Dingyuan and Huaiyuan, why didn't Fengyang Mansion?
So many impeachment memorials? Now that I've been to Kaifeng, the number of impeachment memorials suddenly increased? It is understandable that there are a few more copies than in the past, but now it is four times more than usual. Do you really want to think about what is hidden behind this? "
Lian Zining was a little worried.
As a court minister, Lian Zining is not a rookie entering the official career. He is aware of the rules and twists and turns. If there are officials in the capital, it does not necessarily mean that several officials impeach a certain person on the same day or immediately afterwards. Are they in sync with each other, or are they just trying to gain popularity? The most likely reason is that they are being instigated by someone else!
Lian Zining is very familiar with this method, because he has used it himself, and the Metropolitan Procuratorate is a master of this method of impeachment.
As long as they dislike someone or need to punish someone, the Metropolitan Procuratorate will arrange for the censor to either submit a letter on the same day or one after another. In short, they will not give up until there is a result.
Liu Ji, Li Shanchang, Hu Weiyong... the demise of countless predecessors all had impeachment under a "conspiracy" behind them.
Lian Zining didn't pay much attention to the impeachment memorials of local officials like Kaifeng Mansion. Now that he was awakened by Zhu Yunwen, he realized that the impeachment methods of these officials one after another seemed more like these officials had received instructions from someone.
"this……"
Lian Zining did not expect that what seemed like just catching a censor Zhou Wubei would turn out to be a terrifying pit, and he was standing on the edge of the pit at this time.
"Your Majesty, King Yue of Dongchang wishes to see you."
Huang Men stood at the door and reported.
Zhu Yunwen waved his sleeves and sat back, saying: "Let him come in."
Wang Yue hurriedly walked into the hall, saluted, and said loudly: "Your Majesty, Tang Qing, the magistrate of Zhuxian Town, Henan Province, has written a letter to impeach Ren Yi, the magistrate of Kaifeng, and the King of Zhou!"
Zhu Yunwen said to Lian Zining with a cold face: "Look, this is their method. Now you tell me, Zhou Wubei is innocent? Is Tang Qing innocent? I don't believe in such a coincidence!"
Lian Zining felt cold all over, someone actually wanted to mess up Kaifeng's officialdom! This is definitely a conspiracy and a man-made arrangement!
"Your Majesty, speculation is not enough to convict!"
Lian Zining gritted his teeth and said.
Whether it was Zhou Wubei, the censor, or Tang Qing, the county magistrate, although they were suspected of being impeached, this was not their crime and they could not be jailed for this reason.
Zhu Yunwen looked at Lian Zining coldly and said: "I just arranged for the Security Bureau to imprison Zhou Wubei to investigate whether there was a gap between him and the King of Zhou. If his impeachment is true and it is not a false accusation, the Security Bureau will report it. At that time, he He will be reinstated as censor."
Lian Zining sighed secretly, it seemed that Zhou Wubei needed to stay in prison for a while.
Zhu Yunwen received the memorial, and the impeachment content of Tang Qing, the magistrate of Zhuxian Town, was very simple, just one item, corruption.
Tang Qing not only impeached Ren Yi, the prefect of Kaifeng, for corruption, but also impeached the King of Zhou for corruption. He believed that the two were colluding and collaborating. He also attached the tax account books of Zhuxian Town over the years, hoping that the court could investigate clearly.
In normal times, Zhu Yunwen would have been dealt with as a corruption case, but the drama currently unfolding in Kaifeng Mansion is like "seeing the truth behind the scenes".
First, a group of officials wrote a letter to impeach Kaifeng officials, unfolded the map, and saw that the map was over, so Zhou Wu came north, took out a dagger, and stabbed Wang Wentao, a fellow magistrate of Kaifeng, at the same time as he stabbed the king of Zhou.
Now that Zhou Wubei was caught, a second man appeared, took the dagger and continued stabbing.
This time the targets were Kaifeng Magistrate Ren Yi and the King of Zhou.
This result made Zhu Yunwen a little puzzled.
If the culprit of the Dingyuan White Lotus Rebellion is the King of Zhou, then the King of Zhou should have the strength and power. At least he is a vassal king who can control the officialdom in Kaifeng and suppress the news. But now there is an impeachment memorial. , either pointing at the officials in Kaifeng City, or at the King of Zhou, but rather telling Zhu Yunwen that if there is a problem with the King of Zhou, he should deal with it quickly.
There must be someone behind the scenes who is leading and arranging, but this person is definitely not the King of Zhou.
King Zhou can light fires and play with fire, but he will never be stupid enough to jump into the fire. He is not a bird and cannot be reborn from the fire.
So here comes the question, if it’s not the King of Zhou who is manipulating all this, who could it be?
Who can have the energy to mobilize so many Kaifeng officials?
Who could have such ambition and directly aim at the feudal king?
Zhu Yunwen couldn't see through the fog, but it was clear that there seemed to be another force hidden behind Zhou Wubei, Tang Qing and others, and this force was truly fearful and disturbing.
"Plan your strategy and make your moves. Even though I don't know who you are, you will eventually show your flaws!"
Zhu Yunwen whispered to himself.
Just like that, not long after, Lian Zining received news that the Security Bureau had received an order to investigate Tang Qing, the magistrate of Zhuxian Town.
Lian Zining did not come forward again this time. Qi Tai, the Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, wanted to object, but was pulled out by Xie Jin. After talking for a long time, Qi Tai put away the memorial and returned to the Ministry of Personnel.
Xie Jin, like Zhu Yunwen, felt pressure. This pressure was not because of how powerful the hidden enemy was, but because of the unknown.
Things in Kaifeng Mansion are very sensitive now. Anyone who dares to involve King Zhou at this time will be listed as the target of investigation. Only by finding out who the orders behind these people come from can it be possible to find the hidden hidden hands.
Xie Jin did not want Qi Tai, Lian Zining and other ministers to get involved too much. If they got involved too much and acted too fiercely, they would most likely get involved.
"Yuge's report has arrived."
Zhang Yan pointed to the memorial on the table and said seriously to Xie Jin who came back.
Jie Jin stepped forward quickly, picked up the memorial and looked at it. The more he looked at it, the more gloomy his face became. At the end, his eyes were full of anger and he shouted: "What do the people from the Security Bureau do for food? They let the old boatman run away." Got it!"
Zhang Yan looked at the angry Jie Jin, picked up a cup of tea, and drank it calmly until Jie Jin put down the memorial and looked over. Fang said: "The Security Bureau cannot be completely blamed for this matter. Yu Ge said in the memorial It is very clear that a fire broke out in the house where Yu Xin was staying, and the security bureau arranged for everyone to get water for the safety of Yu Pavilion."
"Even so, the Security Bureau did not evacuate the manpower monitoring the old boatman. They just put out the fire and made noise. The old boatman looked for an opportunity to break the window and leave during the chaos. Fortunately, Yuge was not seriously injured. The security bureau was already looking for the old boatman. Look The memorial should have its results by now."
Jie Jin sat down, his eyes full of worry, and said: "The protection around Yu Pavilion is so tight, why did the fire break out? There must be something fishy in this. The old boatman pointed out that the Yellow River seized power in the 24th year of Hongwu. If something goes wrong with the most critical person in Huai, wouldn't this investigation end in vain?"
Zhang Yan put down the tea bowl calmly and said meaningfully: "I haven't seen Gu Sanchen for a few days..."
