The more the case is investigated, more and more people are implicated, the scholars are applauded, but the scholars and scholars of the various ministries and courtyards are panicked, and the court is in turmoil, Wen Xiangzheng is worried about it, and he received bad news from Su Song Taidao Xue Huan.

Because the news was sent by someone privately, he didn't dare to play rashly, so he could only come to Nanyuan to discuss with Han Xiufeng first, and see how we could go down.

Coincidentally, in the past two months, Han Xiufeng found an excuse to go to Tianjin first, and then to Gu'an, and just came back from Gu'an yesterday afternoon, so he was arrested.

Thinking that Wen Xiang would not go to the Three Treasures Hall for nothing, Han Xiufeng retreated left and right, and while beckoning him to drink tea, he said meaningfully: "Brother Bochuan, you are different from Bowen, as the Minister of Military Aircraft, it is not a trivial matter for you to go out of Beijing without permission, especially at this juncture!" ”

"Come to Nanyuan to calculate the capital, at most you will count out of the city." Wen Xiang took out a letter from his sleeve, thought about it and sighed: "It is not easy to live in the capital, and the ministries and institutes don't know how many officials can't afford to rent a house in the city, so they can only rent outside the city. It is said that many Beijing officials were so poor that they could not even afford to rent a house outside the city, so they had to find a place to build a shack. ”

"It's not good, but you're even more different from them."

"Don't worry, the emperor knows about my coming here."

Han Xiufeng looked at the letter and asked, "The emperor knows?" ”

"I'm here to see the Eight Banners and the Chahar Horse Team stationed here."

"It's good that you're ordered to come and make the round." Han Xiufeng was finally relieved about coming to Nanyuan, but the letter he brought made people not know what to say.

The foreigners only suspected that the imperial court was "openly and covertly", but although some evidence was later collected, Huang Zonghan, the governor of Liangguang, and Gui Liang and He Guiqing, who negotiated with the British minister Erjin in Shanghai, could also push it off, saying that it was all the gentry and common people in Guangdong who were "acting recklessly", but now the foreigners actually have the actual evidence that the imperial court instructed.

The three-person committee of Pa Xiali, who occupied Guangzhou, uncovered a secret edict from the emperor encouraging the gentry of Guangdong to attack Xiyi when they cleared the militia group!

One of the passages is clearly written: The minister Luo Xuanyan and others should rely on their bodies and hearts, secretly plan for planning, secretly lead the townships, conduct extensive group training, contact and encouragement, and communicate with each other, so as to thwart the trend of foreign raiders and boost the prestige of China. There is no need for officials to be enemies, and the people are not to be enemies. That is, the provincial officials and local officials do not need to close the meeting, so as to keep it confidential and avoid leakage. In this way, the victory can be demonstrated, and defeat will not lead to the start of the army, the enemy in the past few years of foreign troubles, temporarily on Yi'an, Yi Di and respect China, in one fell swoop.

Seeing this, Han Xiufeng raised his head and smiled bitterly: "Brother Bochuan, I can't hide it, I have seen this secret message." ”

Wen Xiang was stunned, stared at him for a long time before asking in a low voice: "Have you seen it, so this secret edict is not forged by foreigners?" ”

"That's a bad thing, and it's not necessarily true that I've seen it. Since it is a secret message, how could it fall into the hands of foreigners, so this must be fake, it must be forged by foreigners. ”

"But ......"

"Brother Bochuan, don't do it, I understand what you mean, you just know this matter in your heart, and everything will wait for Gui Liang and He Guiqing's performance to report."

Wen Xiang asked eagerly: "Zhixing, aren't you worried about foreigners turning their faces?" ”

"If I'm not worried, can I run to Tianjin twice in three days?" Han Xiufeng asked rhetorically, and continued: "Brother Bochuan, what do you think Monk Greenqin is doing, do you think Su Shun will catch one today and two tomorrow, and I can't wait to send all the Langzhong officials and officials of the household yamen to the vegetable market!" ”

"The emperor has made up his mind, and the emperor is not afraid of another war?"

"This is what we said, the emperor is not afraid, but Xiyi is aggressive, deceiving people too much, and forcing the emperor to retreat."

"Understood," Wen Xiang realized that the secret message fell into the hands of foreigners, even if the emperor knew about it, it was nothing, and he couldn't help but ask after thinking about it: "Zhixing, I want to ask again, if there is really a war, what are our chances of winning this time?" ”

"I don't know."

"I don't know!"

"It's still the same sentence, you don't know until you finish fighting." Thinking of the dignified Minister of Military Aircraft, who knew very little about the imperial court's strategy for dealing with Xiyi, Han Xiufeng really didn't want to talk about this topic anymore, because the more he talked, the more uncomfortable he felt in his heart, so he simply changed his words and asked curiously: "Brother Bochuan, how is the investigation of the case, can the case be closed before the end of the year?" ”

"Pull out the radish and bring out the mud, the more you investigate, the more you implicate it, many of the candidates involved in the case have returned to their hometowns, and the families of some of the officials involved in the case have either donated their official releases, or they have gone out of Beijing with other officials to take up their posts, and they want to close the case before the end of the year, I see it hanging."

"How do you pull out the radish and bring out the puree?"

"During the interrogation of Pu Yasu's transfer to Bai Zhongtang to take Luo Hongyi, Pu Yasu confessed that he had heard that Cheng Tinggui, the deputy chief examiner, had burned a strip when he was in the examination room. The emperor was furious and ordered Prince Zheng to interrogate Cheng Tinggui and find out that Cheng Bingcai, the son of Cheng Tinggui, wantonly passed on the joint traffic instructions and cheated on the case. ”

Wen Xiang put down the teacup and continued in a somewhat playful tone: "At the beginning, it was Chen Fuen, the secretary of the Ministry of War, who interrogated Cheng Bingcai, but Cheng Bingcai refused to confess in the public court, and when he saw that Chen Fuen was going to torture him, he confessed in front of so many people that Chen Fuen's son Chen Jingyan had asked him to hand over the note. ”

Han Xiufeng really didn't know this, and asked with a smile: "Chen Fuen is investigating it in a hurry, and he has found his son after checking it!" ”

"So the more this case is investigated, the bigger it gets."

"Later, did it verify?"

Chen Fuen didn't believe it at first, and he may have believed it in his heart but didn't dare and couldn't accept it, so he asked Cheng Bingcai if he had any evidence, and Cheng Bingcai said that it was burned outside the examination room and was not sent to the middle school. Although there is no evidence, so many people have heard it, including your fellow countryman. Chen Fuen didn't dare to settle the case so hastily, so he hurried home to question his son, but found out that it was indeed true. ”

"And later?"

"With so many people staring at it, he can only kill his relatives in righteousness." Wen Xiang picked up the teacup and said gloatingly: "He figured out the ins and outs of the matter, and quickly pleaded with the emperor to dismiss his son who was an alternate member of the official residence and criminal department, and bring the case to justice." He asked the emperor to hand him over to the ministry and allowed him to recuse himself. ”

"What did the emperor say?" Han Xiufeng asked.

"The emperor allowed him to play and dismissed Chen Jingyan from his post and brought him to the case, in view of Chen Fuen's lack of knowledge in advance, he first handed it over to the ministry and ordered him to try it impartially except for the place where Chen Jingyan was involved in the case as usual."

Looking at Han Xiufeng's thoughtful appearance, Wen Xiang continued: "Not only Cheng Bingcai, the son of Cheng Tinggui, and Chen Jingyan, the son of Chen Fuen, are collecting slips outside, but Pan Zutong, the son of Pan Zengying, the servant of the Ministry of Works, Li Danhua, the son of Li Qingfeng, the servant of the Criminal Department, and Pan Dunyan, the son of Pan Duo, the political envoy of Hunan, are also privately receiving and sending slips in their father's name, one by one, which is shocking. ”

Han Xiufeng had expected that this matter would not be simple, but he didn't expect a group of Second Ancestors to be so bold, and he was silent for a while before asking in a low voice, "What about Bai Zhongtang?" ”

"It is said that Prince Zheng thought that Bai Zhongtang would not be clean, so he investigated desperately, but it turned out that Bai Zhongtang was entrusted by Pu An to take Luo Hongyi, confiscated the strips, and confiscated how much silver. What is strange is that the person who first found out about the fraud in the field actually died in prison in vain, and the family member Jin Xiang, who was entrusted by Puyasu, actually died on the way back to Beijing without knowing it. ”

"It's too late for Bai Zhongtang to prove his innocence, how can he harm them. Besides, after the incident, Bai Zhongtang didn't know how many people were staring at, and even if he had this heart, he couldn't act. ”

"Don't get me wrong, I just said that those two died unexplained, but I didn't say that their deaths had anything to do with Bai Zhongtang."

"Prince Zheng and Prince Yi have the chance to win, there is no need to do something, and if you don't do it, you will give someone a handle."

As soon as Han Xiufeng's words fell, Wen Xiang muttered: "According to this, there is only one possibility left, someone wanted to save Bai Zhongtang, but it turned out to be kind and did the wrong thing." ”

Hearing Wen Xiang say this, Han Xiufeng couldn't help but think of a person in his mind, thinking that only that person with high power but inconspicuous in the court could do it, but this kind of unfounded thing can only be thought about.