Xiaozhou arrived at Fuxing Platform in a blink of an eye, and it was already dark on the platform. There was a maid standing in front of the steps downstairs, and when she saw Zhu Zhitong and Su Xiaochen, she greeted her and whispered, "Your Highness, please come with me." ”

The palace maid led the two of them through the side door of the hall, left and right, and arrived in front of a small three-story building.

"This is the Tibetan Scroll Pavilion, which is full of important files and documents. The things that His Highness wants to see have been placed on the desk on the second floor, and the slaves and maids are guarding in front of this building. ”

Su Xiaochen thought to himself, this must be an important place for political officials, and Zhu Zhiling was relieved that such a foreign minister would come in. followed Zhu Zhitong upstairs only to find that all the boxes where the files were placed were locked, and only a single volume of documents was placed on the case.

Zhu Zhitong lit the lamp, sat down and rolled up lightly, and spread it on the desk. The paper of the dossier has been yellowed and looks very old, but the vermilion seals on the frontispiece and tail are still clearly textured and bright.

Su Xiaochen was born in a family of eunuchs since he was a child, and he knew the power of these confidential documents, and he didn't want to put himself in the old cases of other countries, so he deliberately said, this is the file of the Bihai Kingdom, you read it first, and then relay it to me after you finish reading.

Seeing that he was cautious, Zhu Zhitong nodded and began to bury his head in the papers.

Su Xiaochen turned around to look at the boxes with the files, most of the boxes were black and shiny, like wood instead of wood. Although Su Xiaochen is young, Cangwu Country is rich in all kinds of wood, he has seen a lot since he was a child, and when he looked at the texture of the box, he knew that it was a fireproof high-grade heavy iron wood.

Some of those boxes are locked, and some of them have the seal of the Ming Emperor in addition to the locks.

The boxes in the corner of the east head are the oldest, and the locks on the boxes are cast into an orchid, Su Xiaochen thought that there was the word "Lanchun" in the name of the Ming Emperor at the beginning, and estimated that this was about the emblem used by the founding Ming Emperor. Looking at the boxes in the south head again, the boxes are slightly new, and the lock has become a lotus. Looking at the lock of the box in the west, it was the appearance of a cluster of waves, and Su Xiaochen thought that it was probably because the three generations of Ming Emperors had used the title of Princess Jinquan. Finally, when I saw the box at the north head, the lock had become two intersecting koi. Su Xiaochen secretly thought, when he saw Zhu Zhiling in the palace that day, he was also wearing a Pisces gold silk crown, could this be the reason? Speaking of which, although she is a prisoner, she has not yet ascended the throne, how can she replace the emblem used by her mother, isn't it disrespectful?

He slowly circled around those boxes again, and it was almost certain that the pattern of each lock was the emblem of each generation of Ming Emperor. But Zhu Zhiling is not the Ming Emperor yet, what the hell is this .......

While pondering, Zhu Zhitong stretched and said, "But after reading it, this matter is really interesting." Seeing that Su Xiaochen didn't hear her speak at all, he only stared at those boxes and boxes, and asked him a little curiously, "What are you looking at?" ”

"Dare to ask if your imperial grandmother's name or the title she used has the words lotus or something like lotus." Su Xiaochen did not answer the rhetorical question.

Zhu Zhitong thought about it for a while, shook his head and said, "There is no name and title. But...... I remember my mother saying that the golden crown she wore was a lotus crown. What does this do, you ask? ”

So it sees, it seems that the pattern of the lock is really related to the Ming Emperors of the past dynasties.

Su Xiaochen pointed to the lock and said, "You see that the locks of these boxes have various patterns, I guess it should be the emblem patterns used by your emperors in previous dynasties." ”

Zhu Zhitong laughed when she heard this: "So you mean this." That's right, starting with my great-great-grandmother, these emblems were used. In chronological order, it should be Orchid, Lotus, Fountain and Pisces. ”

"But your sister hasn't ascended the throne yet......"

"It's not that you have to ascend the throne to be usable, my mother has already started to use the spring pattern when she was the princess of the prison country, but I heard that there is a rule for the emblem of these locks, as long as the new emblem is used, the old emblem will no longer be used, and the mold of the old lock will be destroyed. It is said that it is to facilitate archiving and sealing in the future, so as to distinguish which Ming Emperor handled it. Zhu Zhitong explained.

Su Xiaochen was still skeptical: "What if it is obviously a case from the previous generation, but the case is overturned by the next generation?" ”

"The lock of the file box is destroyed when it is opened, which generation of Ming Emperor passes through the hand, if you want to lock it again, you can only use a new lock, in order to be traceable to the bottom and be clear." Zhu Zhitong said that it is indeed the truth, the successive empresses of the Bihai Kingdom have been meticulous and have always been meticulous in these things.

Su Xiaochen suddenly had a thought, walked to the front of the case, picked up the box containing the Nanhua gold case, and asked while looking at it, "When did your sister start using the Pisces lock?" ”

Zhu Zhitong thought about it for a while, and said with confidence: "It should be two years ago, although the eldest sister has been in charge of the country for six or seven years, she started to use the Pisces lock I remember it was not long after her wedding. Well, that's right! ”

Su Xiaochen pointed to the lock, "I heard you say that this is an old case from twenty years ago, why did your sister suddenly reopen the file two years ago." Twenty years ago, your sister would have been a child, right? ”

Zhu Zhitong saw that the double fish on the lock reflected each other under the lamp, which was clearly a new lock. After thinking about it carefully, Fang sighed and said, "I probably know. At the moment, the relationship between the former household secretary Zhao Yu, sister Zhu Zhiling and the concubine Zhao Wuyun was roughly explained.

"Back then, my brother-in-law rushed into my mother in the Yufang Palace, in order to cry out for my father, thanks to my sister's best efforts to protect him. I heard the mother and the emperor talk about it, and the brother-in-law has always slandered the old case that the imperial grandmother broke off, presumably because of him, my sister opened the file sealed by the imperial grandmother. But I guess I didn't find anything suspicious, so I had to take a new lock and seal it. ”

I see...... Su Xiaochen understood a little in his heart. Zhu Zhiling probably wanted to overturn the case for her husband, but she didn't want to conflict with her mother, knowing that there was something suspicious about the old case back then, but she deliberately stayed out of the matter and let her sister and herself, the minister, investigate. If something is found, her sister will come out. If she doesn't find anything, she's fine. No wonder she consulted the files, dismissed the guards, and was so attentive to everything in this matter.

But how to say that Xiao Tong also accepted the matter of Nanhua Island for herself, and she didn't believe her sister's thoughts even if she said them, but she was annoyed. It's better to silently accompany her to explore Nanhua Island, and take care of her.

Thinking of this, he smiled at Zhu Zhitong and said, "Forget it, don't worry about this." What does it say in the dossier? What's going on with this gold sale case? ”

Zhu Zhitong nodded and said: "The dossier said that twenty years ago, several mines were discovered on Nanhua Island, among which there was a gold mine, which was quite abundant. At that time, Zhao Yu, the secretary of the household department, and Lu Wenchi, the head of the household department, personally went to Nanhua Island to investigate the field, and a total of ten days before and after. After excavation, beneficiation, and sampling, it was found that it was a high-quality mine, so it was played and listened to. Emperor Ming ordered the Baotai Bureau of the Ministry of Household and the Baorong Bureau of the Ministry of Industry to send miners to investigate together, and found that 100 catties of ore can refine about six or seven taels of gold, which is really a rare mine. After that, it was handed over to the Baotai Bureau of the Ministry of Households to open gold mining and smelt on the spot. ”

"And then?"

But half a year later, Lu Wenchi suddenly wrote a letter to impeach Zhao Yu for privately enriching his pockets, the evidence is that although the amount of mining in the past six months is abundant, the amount of gold obtained after smelting is far less than the amount obtained during the original inspection. It is understandable that it is inevitable to lose money during smelting, but according to Lu Wenchi, the ore put into the furnace before smelting is a selected good mineral, and the gold obtained from 100 catties of ore after smelting is less than two or three taels, which is far from the same. There is also a foreman of the Baotai Bureau who is responsible for casting the minecart testified that it was Zhao Yu who instructed the minecart to be changed to two sizes, using a small car on weekdays, and using a large cart if there are officials inspecting, and the large and small carts are weighed as 100 catties. On weekdays, the ore that Rick withheld was hidden in the cave and smelted again at a later date. ”

"In this way, the human and physical evidence are complete, and the facts of the case are very clear?" Su Xiaochen asked. "Just rely on the testimony of a foreman to decide the case, in case the foreman lies ......"

Zhu Zhitong shook his head and said: "In Bihai Country, where ore is mined, ore is melted into gold, and gold is melted into ingots, each step has a different person to record and file it. Among the physical evidence handed over by Lu Wenchi, the quantity of all ores and gold ingots in the past six months has been verified. There were forty-two people who counted and made the books at that time, and if the words of a single foreman are not credible, then how can the books made by these forty-two people be explained? It is written in the dossier that my imperial grandmother carefully examined these books and found that there were great discrepancies in the number before she was finally convicted. ”

"I see. So did Zhao Yu himself admit his guilt? ”

"The file said that after Zhao Yu was put in prison, he did not make too many defenses, and after he was imprisoned, he also washed his face with tears every day, confessed to the charges presented by the Criminal Department, Dali Temple, and the Metropolitan Procuratorate, and was taken to the execution ground three days later to be punished."

Su Xiaochen's chest was a little stuffy when he heard this, and he turned to look out the window, it was pitch black all around, only the towering Fuxing Platform was still lit up a little.

As described in the dossier, this Nanhua gold sale case is clear and unquestionable.

But what does this seemingly ordinary case of embezzlement have to do with the civil uprising on Nanhua Island?

After reading the file and going downstairs, the maid was still guarding the front of the building, and when she saw the two of them coming down, she said in a low voice: "The slave maid should go upstairs to seal the file first, please wait a while, Her Royal Highness the Princess." He turned around and entered the Tibetan Scroll Pavilion.

Su Xiaochen saw the silence all around, and occasionally there were a few partridge calls, which sounded a little crazy, and couldn't help but move a few steps to the bright place under the moon.

Seeing his reaction like this, Zhu Zhitong secretly laughed at him for being timid, and deliberately asked, "Do you believe the ghosts and gods in this world?" ”

"I don't believe in any ghosts and gods in this world." Su Xiaochen was still stubborn.

"If there really are ghosts, are you afraid?" Zhu Zhitong still asked, but in fact, he refused to let go of this opportunity to tease him, and began to collect some legends of ghosts and monsters in his mind.

"Alas...... That's not a good thing, and I wish there were ghosts. Su Xiaochen sighed faintly.