After leaving the side gate of the imperial city, take a carriage along the main street of Jingshi City for a quarter of an hour, and then you will arrive at a long street that crosses the main street, which is the Chang'an Street of Jingshi City. Chang'an Avenue is divided into two places, one is West Chang'an Avenue and the other is East Chang'an Avenue. It connects the east and west urban areas of Beijing, and is known as the "ten-mile long street" and "the first street in China".

The six departments of Haoguo are lined up on this street.

The Criminal Department is located on East Chang'an Avenue, just a wall away from Xuanzheng Street. Haoguo set up a criminal department to review and approve various laws, review criminal cases sent to the ministry in various localities, and to hear death penalty cases in "prison await" in conjunction with Jiuqing, and directly try cases in Gyeonggi area above the level of being convicted. In addition to sub-checking the criminal names of their own provinces, each department is responsible for sending and receiving some documents and some daily government affairs in other provinces and yamen.

Before Cai Kun was imprisoned, he was a servant of the Ministry of Officials, as an official, according to the general process, the Criminal Department, the Metropolitan Procuratorate and the Dali Temple were tried, and the case was finalized in a few days, but because this case was handled by the Dongchang and the Procuratorate, and typeset by Emperor Hao, this process was ignored, but also because it was the Dongchang and the Procuratorate, the prisons of the three divisions did not dare to keep Cai Kun's father and son, and the two families could not hold each other for a long time, and there was no way, so in the end they could only let the Criminal Department take it hard.

But fortunately, Cai Kun's father and son don't have much time, and His Majesty decided early to ask Cai Kun and his son to behead Cai Kun and his son after the scientific examination, which also made the officials of the Criminal Department breathe a sigh of relief. Those people are not something they can afford to provoke, if the two meet, I am afraid that the criminal department will suffer an unwarranted disaster.

To get back to the point, the Criminal Department is actually not far from the project, and it will arrive in two or three minutes. As soon as I got out of the carriage, there were two stone lions sitting quietly, facing the skylight, with deep eyes, staring at the people who came and went. Speechless, but people can't help but be stunned. is not as good as the two outside the door of ordinary people, the two stone lions of the Criminal Department, although the size is a little smaller, but the momentum contained in it is by no means what the former can have, especially the indescribable solemnity in it, which echoes with the open door of the Criminal Department.

shook the dust on his boots, sighed a little at the solemnity of the Haoguo Criminal Department, and arched his hand at Xu Sheng, and said with a smile: "Today, I am tired of Gonggong Xu." ”

Xu Sheng laughed, bowed slightly, and returned the salute with a smile: "Li Gongzi is polite, it's just a gesture." He looked at the gate of the Criminal Department, it was because of the afternoon, the officials of the Criminal Department who were originally standing on both sides of the gate were leaning on the carved mahogany pillars behind him at this time, holding their hands on their chests, and falling asleep gently, looking extremely lazy.

There was a touch of displeasure on Father-in-law Xu's face, although it was easy to make people sleepy in a summer afternoon, and there were no pedestrians even walking on the street, but this was in the Criminal Department, eating official food and being lazy. Fortunately, it was him who came today, not Xu Youzhen from Dongchang, otherwise I am afraid that these two sleeping officials would have to fall asleep forever. He coughed vigorously, raised his hand lightly towards the inner courtyard of the Criminal Department, and said, "Li Gongzi, please come inside, you have just woken up, and you still have to rest, this is ...... It is also the meaning of His Majesty. ”

He paused, as if on purpose.

Li Xiao nodded, did not speak, but walked inside with Xu Sheng. He glanced at the little official who was awakened by Xu Sheng's coughing, and was a little funny. The appearance of these two little officials is quite like when they were napping in class, they were woken up by the teacher who was lecturing, their sleepy eyes were still worried, their minds were blank, and they were in a state of confusion for a long time.

The little official on the right was the first to react, and recognized that the leader was the eunuch in charge of rice paper who often came to the Criminal Department, and he was busy wiping the saliva dripping from the corner of his mouth and running to the inner courtyard.

This is Li Xiao's first time in the Criminal Department, and his feeling when he enters the East Factory is completely different, the former is not as gloomy as the latter, although there is also a big prison, Xu is like Xu Sheng said, because there are not many prisoners left, there is no unpleasant smell of blood in the air, which is somewhat similar to Jingzhao Yin Mansion. However, the difference is that the Jingzhao Yin Mansion is because there are no cases and no prisoners, and the Criminal Department is now a more prosperous department in the DPRK and China.

It seems to be because of the recent battle with the procuratorate in Dongchang. The Criminal Department, Dali Temple and the Metropolitan Procuratorate have been busy for a while.

"Oh, Gonggong Xu, what kind of wind blew you to me." The person who came in front of him was Cui Tianmin, the secretary of the Criminal Department, with a sneer.

Xu Sheng is now the closest eunuch to Emperor Hao in addition to Wangcai, the so-called ability is not overpowering, even if His Majesty the Emperor does not favor the eunuchs, but he can't bear to mention the eunuch next to him, the competition in the criminal department is already big, he finally climbed to this position, but he can't lose his official position because of this small problem.

Xu Sheng also smiled in return, Cui Tianmin needs him, and he also needs the latter. It's a relationship. The other party is a scholar, an official of the third grade. Mix ...... in Jingshi City For official affairs, the relationship between the palace and the palace is indispensable, for example, now, if he and Cui Tianmin have some acquaintance, otherwise he just entered the criminal department without notification, if he is not familiar, I am afraid that he and Li Xiao will suffer a little crime. Not only the officials of the Criminal Department, but also the officials above and below have to be familiar.

"Master Cui, what's the wind, our family is here to accompany Li Gongzi for something." He pointed to Li Xiao beside him and said.

"Li Gongzi?" Cui Tianmin looked over, and from just now he noticed Li Xiao beside Xu Sheng, he naturally knew that at last night's birthday banquet, the little poet fairy Li Xiao was out of the limelight. Cui Shangshu, who was born as a civil official, admired the poetry of the little poet, and the three amazing works really shocked him, and the most important thing was that the little poet was born handsome, which was recognizable at a glance. "It turned out to be a little poet, I said why is it so familiar, last night's birthday banquet little poet fairy can really make people sigh, a few words made the Liang envoy speechless, and a poem made the Liang envoy say the words of the Buddha statue with a poem."

"Two more poems, a stunning work, for the heroic meaning, the last poem 'Raise a glass to invite the bright moon, the shadow into three people' contains sentimental feelings that people can't help but be moved, if the old man is twenty or thirty years younger, he will definitely pull Li Gongzi to worship."

Cui Shangshu is nearly half a hundred, approaching half a hundred years old, there is a lot of gorgeous hair hidden in the dark beard, it is very obvious, there are a lot of wrinkles on the round face, the traces of time are spontaneously up, the eyes have sunk into a lot, quite profound, and when he laughs, it seems to be a ravine, but it is a little round, and at a glance, he knows that he is an old fritter who has been in the officialdom all year round.

Li Xiaohui arched his hand, no matter what the other party said, he was also a scholar of the dynasty, and his network status was definitely in this huge Beijing City. Although he didn't like Cui Shangshu's style, at this moment, he still had to be polite on the surface.

Cui Shangshu is not from the army, but a serious liberal arts tanhualang, as for what year it is, it is unknown. But I have to say that decades of tempering in Beijing have indeed smoothed out the once high-spirited edges and corners, leaving behind such a sleek and sophisticated, and similarly, he also has a lot of foundation in this huge Beijing City.

On a certain level, Cui Tianmin was successful, but he was also a failure. But there is no way, the capital city is very big, so big that it is easy to lose oneself, so big that you can only throw away the pride you once had, and then lower your body to make the people above look more comfortable, so that you can be less obstructed. Especially for people like Cui Tianmin, there is no backer behind him, and the family is not a famous family, everything he gets today is on his own.

Do you regret it, naturally you regret it, the young man himself at that time has already passed away, but if Cui Shangshu is asked to choose again, he will still choose the current path again, the young man's temperament is only a temporary matter after all.

In the face of such a person, Li Xiao naturally did not dare to underestimate it, it can be said that every Shangshu in the six departments has its own merits, don't look at Cui Tianmin's squinting and smiling attitude, in fact, he is not weaker than ordinary people, the criminal department is not big, but it is not small, it is not a simple matter to be able to control it in such an orderly manner.

"What's the matter, what is Li Gongzi going to do in this criminal department?" Cui Tianmin asked, still smiling, harmless to humans and animals.

Xu Sheng waved his hand and laughed: "Isn't this Wen Cheng's case over, Li Gongzi, as appointed by His Majesty this time, naturally came to see who the person who planned the assassination was." Of course, although the case has been closed under the auspices of those two, it is still necessary to take a look, after all, ......"

He stopped talking, glanced at Li Xiao, and then said, "Naturally, this is also what Your Majesty meant. ”

Having said so much, the most important thing is the last sentence, without the emperor's permission, even if Li Xiao is the censor of the case on Wencheng Street, he does not dare to let him go directly. Because they are not going to a small place like Yonghe Yamen, a prison, but they can only enter it with the permission of the Privy Council. But since His Majesty the Emperor has spoken, there is no need for the elders of the Privy Council to speak.

Cui Tianmin stroked his beard and smiled, understanding the meaning hidden between the lines, "Since it is what Your Majesty means, then it should be okay, but there has been no one inside for many years, and the people under his hands do not often clean up, Li Gongzi is a scholar, I am afraid that his identity does not match." ”

What kind of scholar is it...... Li Xiao was embarrassed, he was a shameless copyist, and he became a scholar when he made a few famous works of others, he really couldn't afford this name, so he had to smile and thank Cui Shangshu.

Cui Tianmin didn't stay any longer, hugged his fists and arched his hands, and then found an idle civil official in the house to lead the way, and he said that he was busy with government affairs, and turned to leave.

The civil official was unhappy for a while, and he was always uncomfortable staying with the eunuchs in the palace, but when he knew the identity of Li Xiao's little poet, he was busy stepping forward, the poems were good, and the people were also good.

"Li Gongzi." It was just that the document had not yet come down, and few people knew that Li Xiao had joined the army in Jingzhao Yin Mansion, and so did this civil official, so did he point ahead and said: "This is the prison, Gong Mou will not accompany him much, there is an old man inside, and the son will go in by himself." ”

Along the look, in front of it, is a silent I don't know a few years of ancient buildings, on the top of the two magnificent characters on it, here, is one of the four major prisons of Haoguo - the Criminal Department Prison.