Xikou Qianyanzhou has been quiet for a hundred years, and the folk customs are simple, but now it has been broken, people's hearts are floating, and there is an atmosphere of chasing the wind and catching shadows in the invisible.

Since the arrival of the great prince Youqi in Jin'an City, it has become extremely calm, and everyone knows that during the extraordinary period, the ghosts and spirits have obediently stopped, and the three watches are lit up and the five watches are peaceful.

The fraud case that shook Gyeonggi has been traced for more than ten years, and more than 100 people have been arrested in Taikang and Jin'an, and it is said that the children of the Yunlin Jiang family are implicated, and the clan is shocked, and the ancestral hall was opened overnight, and the guilty letter was written, and it was expelled from the family tree after the discussion of the elders in the clan.

It is said that the posture of the saint family is so low, it has surprised the world, and Taizu made a promise with the people of the world when he first opened the imperial examination, and he did his best, and now he is so embarrassed, how should the court deal with its own face?

I thought that the matter would end here, but who knew that the evolution of the situation was beyond everyone's expectations, and it was rumored that Jin Yuwei of the inner court found out that the officials of the Ministry of Rites had leaked the question, and the fire had burned to the Yamen of the Ministry of Rites, and now everyone is in danger.

Since Cui Hanzhang was held by the officials of Jin'an Mansion, everyone rode their horses and galloped back, and they kept thinking about the bits and pieces of this big exam in their minds along the way, and they couldn't figure it out, what was the problem? was inexplicably implicated in this shocking case. It is said that after the eldest prince Youqi and others came to Jin'an, they first prayed for blessings in Yunshen, and then hunted in Shenxiu Peak, and it was not pleasant to visit the mountains and rivers every day, but they did not take the investigation of the fraud case in the department to heart, and the group was puzzled, and provoked Youkang to ask: "The imperial brother is so unconcerned, how can he go back and make a difference?" ”

"Who doesn't care, Brother Xian's words are wrong, didn't you see that I sent someone to Jianyang to arrest the suspect overnight yesterday?" The eldest prince put down the fishing rod in his hand, sprinkled a handful of bait, and returned to the pavilion to eat a grape from the Western Regions.

"His Royal Highness the Thirteenth doesn't know, although the three divisions were sent to try the fraud case in the department, but the inner court Jin Yuwei is the most relied on by the saint today, hasn't the Jiang family already written to ask for guilt? It is said that Jin Yuwei has found out to the Ministry of Rites, and the threshold of this matter is still in Taikang, not Jin'an. ”

After a few days of observation and the integration of many clues, Sima Li cautiously said his conjecture, and at the same time looked at the side of the eldest prince Youqi.

"Sima has always been thoughtful, and this conjecture is not unreasonable." You Qi pulled You Kang to sit down and eat grapes together, in fact, when the king entered the palace to receive the order, he wondered, since the incident happened Taikang, why did his father pay so much attention to Jin An,

"Brother Xian, let's see that Jin'an Moon Lake is beautiful and beautiful, but how can it be stable? How have you and I ever known the calm surface of the lake and the scenery below the water? Looking back now, you and I came to Jin'an this time, not seeking merit but no fault. "Although you said so, but did not inform the inner palace about the message, when the order was hurriedly in the future and into the palace to resign to worship the mother, to the palace maid Rong Yi with a message saying that the Jin'an business must be cautious, peace is a blessing.

"Although the vice capital is a rumor, but most of the famous families of Taikang are from Jin'an, and they are intertwined with each other. Stabilize Jin'an first, Taikang set off a huge wave, the court will also be as stable as Mount Tai, the imperial examination fraud is widely implicated, both to eliminate the poison and eliminate the influence invisible, the candidate to suppress the situation in Jin'an is none other than the prince, His Royal Highness's mother is the head of the Jin'an family. ”

Jiang Yun often drank a cup of September frost and said jokingly, everyone was silent and quietly digested the words of a few people just now, this trip to Jin'an Today, everyone really sat down to talk about the situation.

"We are in the same boat through thick and thin, and I have to bother you to walk around and touch the bottom of Jin'an again." Youqi made the final decision, in fact, he was still waiting for the opportunity to visit his grandfather, and if he didn't do his filial piety for so long, he would be discussed. As a result, after the eldest prince left the Xiao Mansion that night, he asked Xiao Liu, a close attendant, to send a message saying: "A total of 56 people have been arrested this time for the case of fraud in the imperial examination, and the matter of Jin'an is over."

It is said that since Cui Hanzhang was taken and imprisoned, Cui Mingtang saw Hanling and his mother washing their faces with tears all day long. The originally happy little family, because of the bitter wind and rain that was tossed because of this matter, he couldn't help and was in a hurry, so he went to the ancestral hall to kneel and beg the old lady many times, and finally got the approval, and hurriedly rushed to Jin'an with Hanzhang's father to plan to save people.

Cui Hanzhang finally figured out a little bit after he was imprisoned, it turned out that Feng Yu of Qingyuan Mansion was also in prison at the same time, and his tortured eyes had been dull in just a few days of prison life, and his beard looked decadent. There are two large prisons in the north and south of Jin'an Mansion, and most of the people in the south prison are fighting and brawling, and most of them are frequent visitors; However, the North Prison mostly imprisons serious offenders such as conspiracy and murder, and there is no return.

Many people rumored that the smell of the North Prison cell was very strange, because the perennial rainy season was mixed with the smell of prisoners' blood. The entire cell space was cramped and dim, and the shadow of death was everywhere, except for a few oil seals on either side that shone faintly. The yin wind blows, and the flames flicker, like an old man in the last years of the wind and candle, extinguished at any time.

There is no day all year round, and the air is filled with a turbid rotten smell, and a normal person can't stand it for a while. Anyone who is sent to this northern prison will be stripped of his skin if he doesn't die, and there are few people who can get out with good arms and legs, and they all say that the people who are locked up here are accountable in this life. In fact, there is not only the smell of dampness and blood, but also the smell of death, which not only corrodes the body, but also slowly erodes the spirit until it completely collapses. Feng Yu was already on the verge of collapse, or that day when Hanzhang was thrown into the North Prison, he suddenly refreshed a little after catching a glimpse of an acquaintance, and asked vigorously:

"Brother Hanzhang, why did you get it too?"

Hanzhang carefully looked at it for a while, and then confirmed that it was Feng Yu who was waiting in line outside the examination room to pass the gate and chatting about it.

"The little brother has nowhere to cry out for injustice, and I still don't know why he was taken." Cui Hanzhang was also very excited to see an acquaintance in prison.

Although the two of them are separated by a cell aisle, but it does not hinder the conversation, the two chatted a lot under the dim oil lamp, so far Hanzhang combined his own speculation almost figured out the context of some things, in the words of Feng Yu's brother, they are all crying injustice and imprisoned, but followed Qingyuan Mansion Zuo Shiqi to Taikang to participate in the grammar gathering of the three mansions and two Huai students on the field, Zuo Shiqi is called Qingyuan Xiao Meng, with strong financial resources and good charity, during which he made a wide range of friends, I don't know where to get the question of this year's big exam, and pulled Feng Yu and others to discuss secretly, Who would have thought that Zuo Shiqi would be wild and uninhibited, and when he returned to Jin Anzhi, he was satisfied, and at a drinking party, he mysteriously said that he held a secret weapon in his hand, and he must be admitted to the department this year. As a result, someone in the Taikang examination room was reported to have cheated, and the trouble came out, and now Feng Yu, who had followed the grammar party, was put in prison, and the son of the giant was imprisoned in the first cell on the left side of the entrance, and he was already crazy and inhuman.

In this way, isn't Cui Hanzhang even more wronged, Feng Yu participated in the meeting with him and said something about chasing after wind and shadows, could it be because he had a long chat with Feng Yu outside the gate on the day of the exam, just because of the suspicion of Li Xia in this melon field, he was reported that the two knew each other and conspired, and were implicated in this monstrous disaster. After chatting, Feng Yu just muttered:

"I hurt you, I hurt you." Then he fell into a state of confusion again.

Cui Hanzhang looked around the cell in the darkness, and couldn't help but feel sad and indignant, it was really a person sitting at home, and disaster came from heaven. Since the fraud case is now occurring, from Taikang to Jin'an, some people will naturally not be able to escape if they take risks. But how unfair fate is, what does it have to do with oneself, there is still an octogenarian grandmother in the family, and Gao Tang Mingjing is sad and white-haired, is he going to die unjustly in this dark cell?

On the day of the end of the big exam, the files in the examination room of the Jiangnan Gongyuan have all been sealed and sent to the Taikang City Taiyuan, even if the current scientific examination fraud case is full of trouble, the Taiyuan is light, the marking work is still as usual, at the beginning of the ten masters of the marking group did have a fierce dispute, until the head of the Xiao Yuan took out the holy message, "the selection of talents and talents is the foundation of the country, I can trust the master of the Taiyuan" before returning to normal.

After Mingtang and Cui's father rushed to Jin'an, they spent a lot of silver taels up and down, but they still failed to see Cui Hanzhang. How can Jin'an North Prison allow people to visit at will, Pan Huan inquired about it for two days, and only then did he know that it was the current Great Prince Youqi His Royal Highness the commander of the Third Division Yamen who sat in Jin'an to investigate the matter, but unfortunately the Great Prince and the Third Division Chief returned to Taikang early this morning.

Cui Mingtang hurried up overnight and rushed to Taikang to join his sister, fortunately, Cui Mingwei had already received a letter from Xikou and already understood what happened, although she had a bad impression of Cui Hanzhang, but the priorities were urgent, and it was all the juvenile absurdity that Mingtang did back then, and more importantly, she trusted Mr. Lou's comment on Cui Hanzhang: "Puyu".

When Cui Mingwei saw the two of them, she told them that after inquiring about the operation, the situation had become clear, and now they were imprisoned in the North Prison of Jin'an Mansion, and there was no need to worry about their lives for the time being, but the pain of flesh and skin was inevitable. The eldest prince and the three directors have not yet arrived in Taikang, and there is still room for things to turn around, and now the top priority is to quickly stop the twists and turns of the eldest prince, Jin'an North Prison is notorious, and the people who go in are mentally tortured and collapsed, and there are countless people who are beaten to death in prison. After hearing this, Cui's father felt like falling into an ice cellar, thinking that it was unknown whether the child's thin little body could resist the pain of flesh and skin, and I am afraid that most people would not be able to hold on to being tortured. Mingwei immediately handed over the prepared silver and soft and a change of clothes to Mingtang and Cui's father to let him take a fast boat from the Longyuan River down the river to rush back to Jin'an, take the letter from Taikang Cui Shangshu to see Jin'an Xu Futai, first find a way to see someone to explain clearly, the Qing self-Qing let him hold on, and everyone is trying their best to help him wash away his grievances.

Wearing stars and moons, the two went back and forth between Jin'an and Taikang, and finally disguised themselves as a food delivery man and sneaked into the cell, and finally met Cui Hanzhang. When the old father saw his son lying on the ground like a dead dog, his hair like withered grass was scattered on his face, and the whip marks on his tattered coat were stained red with blood, and the old tears were all over him, and he rushed forward.

"My son......."

Fortunately, Cui Mingtang followed closely by his side, and hurriedly pulled the jailer to hide aside, and a call was indispensable. Cui Hanzhang's state of wandering in the world was interrupted by the old father's suppressed voice, he opened his eyes with difficulty and saw his anxious father, who instinctively wanted to open his mouth to speak, but couldn't make a sound.

Even Cui Mingtang couldn't help but clench his fists when he saw him being beaten into this tragic scene, and his heart was really angry. But they all knew that the situation was urgent, and the North Prison could not tolerate two people to stay, so they could only temporarily buy the jailer to take care of one or two, and the old jailer was familiar with the way, and he promised well, but his hands kept stuffing things into his long sleeves. Cui Mingtang knew that the key to the matter was still in Taikang, since the fraud case began in Taikang, the crux of the matter should be solved in Taikang, and no matter how bad the situation in Jin'an Mansion was, it would be like this. Cui's father was worried about his son, and said that he would wait for Hanzhang to be released from prison in Jin'an, so he could only arrange for him to stay here first, while Mingtang turned his horse's head and rushed back to Taikang at a gallop.

But on the other side, Cui Mingwei finally waited for His Royal Highness the eldest prince Youqi and the others to return to Taikang, and Cui Yun had just entered the mansion with her front foot, and she followed with her back foot. After seeing the third lady of Cui Mansion, she told the truth about Cui Hanzhang, a student of Qianyanzhou in Xikou, and euphemistically explained that before she came back, she had asked for a letter from Cui Mansion and sent it to Jin'an Mansion, and Cui Yunzhi frowned when she heard the second half of the sentence, Cui Mingwei, as the eldest daughter of the Cui family in Xikou, was only sent to Taikang to be cast under the door of Shangshu Mansion since she was a child.

Two hundred years ago, the ancestor of Taikang Cui Mansion was the three-room concubine who ran away from Xikou Qianyanzhou, and it was naturally difficult and abnormal to leave his hometown to beg for a living, and the era of war and chaos often did not have enough to eat, but he also gritted his teeth and survived, but the contact with Xikou was cut off, and it was passed to the third generation, who would have thought that Fengyun would get acquainted with the undeveloped Shenguang Taizu, and the next thing was logical, more than ten years of fighting on the battlefield to become a minister of the dragon, and was edicted to build a tooth in Taikang Kaifu, and he was extremely honored.

Later generations are also Xikou Cui's in the dedication of the founding treasure into Taikang City to re-connect with this line, feng shui turns, the country's important minister Taikang Cui Mansion naturally looks down on Xikou's potter, although the blood relationship has been thin, but the fact of the same origin can not be changed, this is why Xikou Cui's eldest daughter sent the eldest daughter of the long house to Taikang since she was a child, speaking of the children of the wealthy family not only can not be the master of marriage, even the identity mission is not at all. If it weren't for the Xikou Qianyanzhou Cui Hanzhang who was implicated in the imperial examination fraud case, I am afraid that these clan secrets Mingtang would not have been able to know, now it seems that the eldest sister is really miserable, and she must have suffered a lot of cold eyes and grievances when she joined the Taikang Cui Mansion since she was a child. Not only did he not get the slightest love and care from his mother, but he also had to walk carefully in this Taikang Cui Mansion since he was a child, which really made this younger brother feel aggrieved, and he couldn't help but have red eyes, and scolded himself for all kinds of bastard behaviors.

Cui Mingwei did not do much pretentiousness for her children, but enlightened her younger brother not to think too much, and now the top priority is how to rescue Cui Hanzhang from prison. After Wei 1510 informed Cui Yun of the details, the latter went to see his father, Cui Shangshu had been an official in the court for many years and was well versed in the treacherous situation of the court......

When the month of Vila, the ordinal number is cold. The fifteenth moon is not only sixteen round, tonight the sky is lonely and the stars are lonely, the full moon is hanging high, this night is unusually cold, Mingwei is pacing in the outer hall and thinking about Cui Hanzhang's countermeasures, they are all Xikou Cui's surname, if it is not related, I am afraid that I will be unconvinced, at this time, I am most afraid of chasing the wind and catching shadows, and a word that is not necessary is enough to make people speechless.

Before Mingwei came to Cui's Mansion, she didn't have confidence in her heart, so she asked someone to send a letter to Mr. Lou of Taishi Lou Qintianjian Lou, although Mr. Lou repeatedly explained that there was no life-and-death matter, but this matter was his disciple who was killed and couldn't take care of it, but there has been no response until now.

Cui Yun interrupted Mingwei's contemplation, and relayed Cui Shangshu's meaning, whether it is Taikang Cui's Mansion or Xikou Cui's family, Cui Yun changed his clothes and took Mingwei to see His Royal Highness the eldest prince Youqi, speaking of which, after the news of Youqi's return to Beijing was leaked, all kinds of intercession have broken through the threshold of this Pingkang Palace. If it weren't for Cui Yun leading the way, I'm afraid no one would be able to find the eldest prince Youqi who was just about to fall asleep in the Beijing suburb courtyard, Cui Yun handed over a handwritten letter from his father and explained the reason for Cui Hanzhang's matter in Xikou Qianyanzhou, hoping that His Royal Highness Youqi could be extrajudicial and gracious, Cui Hanzhang walked out of Xikou to participate in the imperial examination for the first time in his life, Mo said that he was colluded with everyone in Qingyuan Mansion, that is, Feng Yu was also the first acquaintance outside the examination room that day, just chatting, if it was because of it, it was judged that he participated in the imperial examination fraud case. is purely a trumped-up charge, Cui Mingwei is not ambiguous in the matter, and at this time she mustered up the courage to say: "If Your Highness doesn't believe it, you can open the file for inspection, and call up the relevant people and other files to confirm it one by one." ”

You Qi listened to the narration quietly in a golden fur, pacing back and forth twice, he could ignore his friendship with Cui Yun, but he couldn't ignore Cui Shangshu's handwriting, and said with a heavy face:

"If this matter is safe and easy to handle in Jin'an, I am afraid that the first chapter has already been submitted to the palace, and it will be really troublesome. The two of you will go back first, let me think about it, and discuss it tomorrow. ”