At the beginning of its establishment, the "Imperial Horse Division under the jurisdiction of the celebrant supervisor" was just a small yamen in charge of the use of horses in the imperial city.

Like the Huanyi Bureau and the Cloak Bureau, they are all bottom-level institutions that others don't care much about.

But today, in the thirty-first year of Wuwei of the Great Wei Dynasty, this institution has unexpectedly become the existence of the palace second only to the celebrant in the palace.

Even in terms of awe-inspiring alone, the Imperial Horse Division may be a few points higher than its superior yamen.

The main reason for this situation is that the Emperor has been granted the power to supervise hundreds of officials since the Emperor, and his power is so great that it can bypass judicial institutions such as the Dali Temple and the Criminal Department and directly detain and convict the relevant criminals.

It can be said that except for the emperor who is responsible, the rest of the people do not care.

Perhaps the average person would ask, is it too hasty to entrust such important power to a group of eunuchs? But in fact, it is not difficult for those who are familiar with history to find that there are not a few institutions similar to the Imperial Horse Division in the past dynasties.

You must know that since ancient times, how to deal with the relationship between monarchs and ministers has always been one of the important topics for monarchs.

If the emperor wants to govern the country, it is obviously impossible to rely on himself alone, and he must distribute power reasonably, and the main object of distribution must be civil and military officials.

If it is properly distributed, it will naturally be a situation in which the monarch and the ministers are harmonious and govern the world together, but once the distribution is excessive, a few powerful ministers like Sima Yi will be born if they are not even, and Liu Yu, the Wei Emperor who is a usurper himself, naturally understands this deeply.

Therefore, an emperor like him who has done a little bit will try to raise another force to check and balance the hundred officials, so as to ensure that his power can be passed on to all generations.

Since it is necessary to cultivate power, then of course it is necessary to choose those who are close and loyal as much as possible, so that there are only two types of people left who are eligible, relatives and eunuchs.

Originally, there was no big problem in choosing either of these two types of people, purely depending on the emperor's personal preferences, but with the frequent appearance of relatives usurped by Wang Mang and Yang Jian, it was enough to prove that relatives were absolutely unreliable.

Therefore, only the eunuchs who have completely cut off their roots and descendants, are homeless, and can only rely on the imperial power are the most suitable candidates.

The Royal Horse is the product of this natural choice.

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"Yo, Zhao Ye? Why are you here? I don't know if your boss is here, the small one is far away, please don't be surprised by Zhao Ye! ”

In the Imperial Horse Zhao Prison, several solemn-looking armored warriors surrounded a young eunuch in a bright red brocade robe and slowly walked down a blood-stained staircase.

The young eunuch who was called "Zhao Ye" by the head of the criminal squad was named Zhao Quan, and he was none other than Xiao Quanzi, the godson of Cao Yuxiang, the chief eunuch of the ceremonial eunuch.

Before he entered the palace, his real name was called Zhao Quan, so after entering the palace, he was given the nickname of Xiao Quanzi, but as his status in the palace became higher and higher, there were only a handful of people who could call him this nickname, and he himself didn't like this title very much, so he simply changed his name to Zhao Quan.

Zhao Quan nodded slightly at the head of the criminal squad, and casually stuffed a piece of silver into the hand of the head of the criminal squad, and said with a smile:

"Brother Xing is outside, they are all from their own family, there is no need to be so polite, our family is here to interrogate the two important criminals who were escorted yesterday."

The head of the criminal squad only felt a chill in his hand, and immediately reacted, bowed and saluted again and again, and said more and more respectfully:

"The little one is going to bring the prisoner out."

"No need, our family will go to the cell in person to interrogate, and you will lead the way."

"Yes, Zhao Ye waits, wait for the little one to get the cell key first."

Seeing Zhao Quan's order, the head of the criminal squad immediately returned to the duty room to get the key.

After a while, the head of the criminal squad and two jailers walked out of the duty room again, holding a large set of keys in their hands, and walked up to Zhao Quan and said respectfully:

"Master Zhao, please come here."

With that, he led the group to the deepest part of the prison.

The Imperial Horse Prison is notorious among the people of the Great Wei Dynasty.

For ordinary people, the name itself symbolizes the harsh conditions of hell, the most brutal and varied punishments, and the never-ending despair.

Therefore, there is often a saying in the market that "nine deaths in heaven and one life in prison, and ten deaths and no life in Zhaojiao".

Although Zhao Prison is only responsible for imprisoning some prominent figures, the grass people in the market do not even deserve to be sent to death.

But their groundless speculations about Zhao Prison are surprisingly in line with the truth.

Regarding this point, Zhao Quan, who often goes in and out of Zhao Prison, can testify for them.

Zhao Quan, under the leadership of the head of the criminal team, was passing through a large and small torture room at this time.

As the group continued to go deeper, there were bursts of terrible wails and whimpering sounds all around.

The pungent smell of blood and the stench of excrement are disgusting.

There were even a few severed limbs left on the clean torture instruments that had not yet had time to be cleaned up, and blood and thick water were dripping down intermittently, indescribably weird and disgusting.

It is hard to imagine how a normal person can maintain his sanity after being in such an environment for a long time.

Sure enough, when Zhao Quan and his party arrived at the death row where felons were held in the deepest part of Zhao Prison, the original painful howls no longer existed.

In its place were countless laughs that bordered on madness.

When those death row inmates who looked like evil ghosts saw Zhao Quan appear, they immediately became excited, and they all pressed their hideous faces, which were no longer human, against the cracks in the wooden fence.

The mouth is even more ridiculous:

"Little eunuch, who has fine skin and tender meat, come in and play with your master."

"The eunuch who killed a thousand knives, there is a kind of Lao Tzu to come out, haha, by the way, Lao Tzu almost forgot, where did the eunuch come from?"

I have to admit that Zhao Quan's psychological quality is indeed far from being comparable.

In the face of these foul words, he was not only annoyed, but seemed to enjoy quite a lot, and a smile hung on his white face from beginning to end.

The head of the criminal squad next to him felt a little unbearable at this time, after all, he was in charge of this place today, if he allowed these dogs to abuse the poor wantonly, wouldn't it be a disguised proof of his poor discipline.

So he scolded angrily with a straight face:

"Shut up! Something like a dog! You are already an unforgivable sin, and today before driving, An dares to speak wildly?! Come on, slap mouth! ”

The head of the criminal squad just wanted the jailer on the side to teach these unknown guys some lessons, but Zhao Quan waved his hand to stop him.

"It's okay, let them go, our family has something important to do, don't delay."

As soon as these words came out, the originally fierce expression of the head of the criminal squad immediately changed one hundred and eighty degrees like a trick, and with infinite admiration on his face, he gave Zhao Quan a thumbs up.

"Master Zhao, you are really a bodhisattva, and you are ashamed of yourself!!"

Zhao Quan was not disgusted by those death row inmates, but he was almost disgusted by the head of the criminal squad at this moment.

He coughed lightly and motioned for the other party to lead the way.

After a few moments, the group came to the door of one of the innermost death rows.

Here are the two prisoners who openly assassinated His Royal Highness the Third Prince on the street yesterday.

It was the pair of "grandfather and grandson" who were holding crossbow machines.

At this time, they were closing their eyes in the corner of the cell, and they did not react to Zhao Quan's arrival, but judging from the mottled blood stains on their prison uniforms, they should have been punished a lot before this.

"Open the door."

The head of the squad hurriedly selected a key from the keychain and opened the prison door.

He originally wanted to enter the cell before Zhao Quan and wake up the two pretending prisoners first, so that he could behave in front of Zhao Quan and save some face.

Who knew that Zhao Quan didn't give him a chance to behave, and walked straight into the cell without hesitation, not only that, but the guards around Zhao Quan also blocked him out of the cell with a serious face.

After Zhao Quan stepped into the cell, he didn't look back and said:

"Brother has worked hard, go down."

The head of the torture squad felt a little embarrassed, and he hesitated for a long time, but finally he didn't dare to speak, so he turned around and left with his jailers.

"Bang!"

After leaving with the head of the torture team, the guards brought a seat from the corridor, wiped it a little and placed it behind Zhao Quan, and then closed the door of the cell completely.

The two prisoners had already opened their eyes at this time, and they didn't say anything when they saw Zhao Quan and his party, just waiting for someone to speak first.

Zhao Quan straightened his clothes, sat down elegantly, and introduced himself with a smile:

"I am the eunuch Zhao Quan, who is the eunuch of the court, and I am ordered to interrogate you."

“......”

Seeing that these two people didn't mean to speak at all, Zhao Quan was not in a hurry, leaned back in the chair and said lazily:

"It's okay if you don't want to speak, listen to it, the two of you stabbed the prince on the street, and according to the law of the Great Wei, you should have been executed by Ling Chi and sat down in the nine clans. However, relying on the virtue of the saints as heaven today, if you two sincerely repent and recruit the people behind the scenes, it is not impossible to surround your life. ”

The two men had different reactions when they heard this.

The old man was still silent, but the child-like man did not hold back for a moment, and said angrily:

"Hmph, you want to disturb my mind, since the two of us are determined to assassinate, we have already had the will to die, if you want to kill or chop, give me a good time!"

As soon as he opened his mouth, the old man secretly said that it was not good, and his expression suddenly changed.

You must know that the interrogator is not afraid of anything else, and the person being tried is most afraid that the person being tried will not say a word, because as long as the other party does not speak, he will not be able to do it. Once the person on trial is willing to speak, then no matter what he says, he has the opportunity to take advantage of the situation and finally get the information he wants from his words and actions.

Zhao Quan is obviously a very experienced interrogator, he saw that the other party reacted at this time, and the corners of his mouth instantly showed an imperceptible sneer, and then immediately changed to a sincere face, and said quite movingly:

"There is no fear of death, let alone life? This strong man, if our family guesses well, you must be the same as our family, and you must be the poor person who is congenitally deficient. ”

As soon as these words came out, the old man could no longer stand by coldly, and he shouted at the "child":

"Cheng Xu, shut up!"

The "childish" named Cheng Xu was poked to the sore spot by Zhao Quan's words, and he was furious for a while, he completely ignored the old man's reminder, and cursed:

"Fart! Lao Tzu is congenitally deficient, that is God's blindness! You, eunuch, are practicing yourself by yourself, and you dare to compare Lao Tzu with you!? ”

Zhao Quan seemed to be quite aggrieved by being scolded, and he also raised his voice together, and said-for-tat:

"Yes, I did it myself! You are nothing remarkable, the Great Wei is now rich and strong, the sun is in full swing, and the people live and work in peace and contentment! If you want to blame God! Why assassinate the Third Highness, and spoil me in a peaceful and prosperous world?! Da Wei is a little sorry for you? Rats like you, just because of congenital deficiencies, complain and act recklessly! Lao Tzu is not on par with you! ”

Cheng Xu was completely angry, he only felt that his blood was surging, and he couldn't care about anything else, so he blurted out:

"What's sorry for me? If it weren't for your dog emperor usurping me......"

Before Cheng Xu finished speaking, the old man on the side had already thrown him to the ground like crazy, covering his mouth and nose.

It's a pity that it was too late, and I saw that the excited look on Zhao Quan's face suddenly swept away at this time, and then he smiled again.

He bowed his head and muttered for a moment, then turned to the guard behind him and commanded:

"Go and check, there are descendants of dwarfs among the nobles of the Liang Kingdom in the past."

"Yes!"

After speaking, Zhao Quan stood up, stood with his hands in his hands, and glanced condescendingly at Cheng Xu, who was stunned on the ground.

"You're not afraid of death, but you don't know, are you afraid that your family and friends will die because of you?"