In a place more than a mile south of the imperial city, there is a courtyard with a wall of more than two zhang. The walls of the courtyard are covered with sharp wires, iron sheets and sharp porcelain tiles. The walls made of large stones are painted blue-black, which is both heavy and strange.

The entrance to the courtyard was only five feet wide, with only a thick iron gate. At the bolt, there is a small opening that is only square, covered with an iron sheet, which is used to transmit messages. Except for this small gate, the whole courtyard is airtight.

Although this rebuilt courtyard has not been built for a long time, it has become very famous in Jiangning City. Because in just one month, three prefectures and two counties were imprisoned. Although there is no plaque in the courtyard, the people have already named him: "Corrupt Prison" because it is full of corrupt officials.

The night was dark, and the tall walls blocked the light inside. The silence of those who passed by the courtyard was deathly, except for the occasional scream from inside.

At that time, the greedy prison welcomed two new "customers": Zhu Xiyi in the Ministry of Langzhong, and Fang An, a member of the Ministry of Households. The former impeached the Right Division for perverting the law, arresting middle- and upper-class officials in the assessment without authorization, and contempt for the national system, and Song Zheng, the head of the Right Division, should be beheaded. The latter impeached Song Zheng for taking advantage of the arrest to collect thousands of taels of money, fill his own pockets, and disregard the lives of officials, force officials to death, and should be beheaded and whipped.

Among these two people, Zhu Xiyi and Song Zheng have heard of it, and like the third uncle Song Yu, he is one of the eight meritorious examiners. As for Fang An, he didn't know that there was such a person at all. Whether he had heard of them or not, Song Zheng had never dealt with them. However, the language of these two people's impeachment of Song Zheng is more "indignant" than the other, and the other is more vicious than the other, which is even more heinous than killing his son and harming his mother.

When Zhu Xiyi was arrested, this guy was drinking flower wine in Yuxiang Building, and he was sitting in a precarious position, but he was drinking a glass of wine with a flower sister. And Fang An fooled around with a concubine he secretly accepted, and when he caught him, he was working hard.

The door to the prison opened, and the two were pushed in by the neck. Both of them had their hands tied, their mouths covered with broken skin, and their heads covered with black hoods. Zhu Xiyi was better, but Fang An had already wet his underwear, and in the process of being sent to the dungeon, he was dripping along the way, so angry that the pawn behind him kicked him twice in the ass from time to time.

Daqi is not like the previous dynasty, he was so polite to civil officials, and he was not a doctor. Taizu Dalai paid attention to winning over literati to become officials, but he was very ruthless to officials who committed crimes. Especially corrupt officials, although they are not as good as Zhu Yuanzhang's "peeling skin and grass" in later generations, they will never give good fruits to eat. Otherwise, when Song Zheng was in Yuanzhou, he would have dared to punch and kick Lu Bingxuan.

The hood was removed, and the flickering light of the fire caused the two men to squint involuntarily. When the two finally got used to the light, they finally saw the room clearly. The room was six or seven zhang wide, with two torches stuck in the wall on one side, and a row of shelves on the other, on which were hung iron drills, steel brushes, wooden stakes, and other torture instruments. Next to the shelf is a large wooden box, I don't know what to put in it.

A young man in white was sitting across from them, his face carefree. Next to it was a table, and on the plate on the table were purple grapes. The boy was leisurely holding a toothpick and bringing grapes to his mouth. His movements were graceful, and he even spit out the skin and the child, covering it with his hands, and did not make a sound.

After a long time, the young man finished eating the last grape, took the towel handed over to him, wiped his hands, and then raised his head and swept around the two of them.

"Let me introduce, my surname is Song, that is, the one you should have beheaded two days ago." Song Zheng said lightly, and then turned around and ordered, "Go, take out the things in the mouths of the two adults." ”

Xiao Mi stepped forward and pulled out the cloth from the mouths of the two, and the two of them coughed violently together.

"Song Zheng, you are not small, dare to arrest me?" Zhu Xiyi's cough and wheezing were settled, and he straightened up. The donkey did not fall, and although he still smelled of alcohol, he now regained his composure. Fang An was like a sifting chaff, trembling, and had to lean on the torture rack behind him.

"You are also a five-grade official, why can't I catch it? Do you need me to repeat the authority of the right division? ”

Zhu Xiyi snorted coldly and turned his head away.

"I wish Langzhong is really arrogant!" Song Zheng clapped his hands, "I don't know if you were so arrogant when you received Lin Han's two hundred taels of silver?" ”

The corners of Zhu Xiyi's mouth twitched, ignoring Song Zheng.

Song Zheng laughed and snapped his fingers behind him, "Go, show Lord Zhu." Cai Yong took a piece of paper, walked up to Zhu Xiyi, twisted his neck with one hand, and put the paper under his nose.

"I wish you, sir, take a good look at your masterpiece. Even when I saw it for the first time, I was surprised, if Zhizhou wants to get a medium, it costs fifty taels; upper-middle, two hundred taels; superior, three hundred taels; Excellent, five hundred taels. What a big appetite! If you are allowed to work for a few more years, I am afraid that the money you collect will be able to build another Xizhai building. ”

"You're spreading rumors!"

"Look closely, what is written on it! Have I wronged you once? ”

"What evidence do you have?"

"Tsk, it's really the latest chapter of the ups and downs of the master of the other world who doesn't cry when I don't see the coffin. Well, in a moment, I will let my brothers work hard and dig out the silver you have hidden in the latrine. ”

Zhu Xiyi's face turned pale. He didn't understand how Song Zheng knew that he had gone to great lengths to hide the silver in such a private place.

Song Zheng turned his gaze and stared at Fang An, who was trembling, "I wish Lord Zhu that he still knows how to restrain himself and put the silver in the pit." It's good that you directly let people deposit in Chase Trading Bank, and use your own name. You're so stupid, you can use your son's or your concubine's name. ”

"I ...... I'm afraid they'll steal it. Fang An was also honest, as soon as he saw the torture tools next to him, he fainted. Whatever Song Zheng asked, he answered.

Song Zheng shook his head in disappointment, "I really don't know how you are a Beijing official, even the level of corruption and bribery is so low, it is not as good as the officials below." Forget it, I won't punish you anymore, tell me, why impeach me? I didn't hook up with your wife, why do you have to curse me to death? ”

Zhu Xiyi kept his face silent, Fang An raised his head and glanced at Song Zheng quickly, and hurriedly lowered his head.

After waiting for a while, Song Zheng saw that the two of them were still not moving, and couldn't help but curl the corners of his mouth, "Don't say yes?" It's okay, I'm tired of playing with tiger chairs and stuff. Tianqiao, I just invented a very interesting thing called 'fairy pants', and I will try it on for the two of you. I also hope that the two of you can give some advice, so that I can improve. ”

He hooked his hand, and one of the guards bowed down and answered "yes", then walked to the side, opened the large box with the torture rack stretched out, and took out a strange-looking thing, with a thick mouth on the top, like a horn facing upwards, and two slightly thinner mouths below, which looked like a model of pants, but much larger. The whole fairy pants are made of two pieces of iron, one piece of iron pressing the other, which looks very tightly connected.

Song Zheng took the "fairy pants" and waved them at the two. "Two adults, take a look, this fairy pants are beautiful? After putting it on, as long as you tie the two cow tendon ropes underneath, this person's fairy pants will stick to you. However, from the crotch upwards, it looks like a bucket with a wide mouth. Enough for your butt and lower body to have room to move. When the time comes, I'll catch a mouse, a snake or something, and often when I release it, I can definitely surprise the two adults. Think about it, what will happen to the fluffy rat and the lifeblood of the two adults? Either put the cool snake in, it is definitely willing to get close to the two adult snakes. ”

With such an explanation, Zhu Xiyi shuddered and almost collapsed on the ground. As for Fang An, he rolled his eyes and had already fainted. Song Zheng grinned at the corners of his mouth, "I haven't asked you to give your opinion, why are you dizzy." ”

He turned his head helplessly, and was about to tell Cai Yong to splash Fang An awake with cold water, but found that several guards had taken two steps back, and some were still leaning on the cell door behind him. Obviously, they've just figured out what this thing does. This "fairy pants" can make people's scalp tingle just thinking about it.

Song Zheng said secretly, I really despise you, I just wanted you to do such a thing on a whim, just to scare people. Catch a snake or a mouse or something, you don't feel disgusting, I'm disgusting.

When Fang An woke up, he knelt on the ground on the spot and put the matter aside. However, the answer surprised him a little, the person who instructed him was actually Xu Mingsu.

It's okay, I only planned to knock the Xu family for 50,000 taels of silver, but now I can knock more. Well, no matter how much black silver they have, they can't be cheapened, so they have to let Xu Mingxuan pass the word and give Xu Mingxuan a personal favor, and Xu Yinshun of the province doesn't take Xu Mingxuan seriously because of that old man.

Zhu Xiyi took a little effort, and when Cai Yong and Xiao Qi took off his shirt and put on the fairy pants, this guy was recruited, and the person who instructed him was Huang Song. As for whether it means Huang Yuandu, it's really hard to guess. Huang Song also hooked up with the Guogong Mansion, and Xiao Tong was used to turning a few corners to harm people, so it may be the meaning of the Guogong Mansion.

No matter who it meant, Song Zheng couldn't pursue Huang Song, after all, Huang Song was the uncle of the country, and just based on Zhu Xiyi's confession, he couldn't move Huang Song. Song Zheng can only keep the accounts in his heart, and he will have the opportunity to settle them together in the future.

Coming out of the greedy prison, Song Zheng went directly to Xu Mingxuan's private residence. directly told Xu Mingxuan about the matter of Fuzhou and Fang An's confession and put forward conditions to make up the difference between the granary and the treasury of Fuzhou, and then take out 100,000 taels of silver. Otherwise, the fate of the Ji family is the fate of the Xu family. There are also excuses, now that Daqi is short of military spending, presumably the royal palace and the prime minister's mansion are willing to open up their financial resources.

Xu Mingxuan hated the Xu family to the core, so naturally he would not only play cards according to Song Zheng's bottom line, but the extra benefits were Xu Mingxuan's personal offer. Of course, it is impossible for Xu Mingxuan to enter the Xu family with this alone, and he can't even kill Xu Mingsu. However, the meal has to be eaten one bite at a time, Xu Mingxuan is still young, and there is time.

That night, Mu Yu, Cai Yong and others, who were responsible for raiding Zhu Xiyi and Fang An, had a great harvest. Lang Zhong and Yuanwai Lang are just petty officials in Jiangning City, but they can't stand the fat of the two departments of the Ministry of Officials and the Ministry of Households. Zhu Xiyi is the test of the Ministry of Officials, the fat difference in the fat difference; Fang An is a member of the household department, and he is also fat. The two families found 47,148 taels of cash and deposit receipts alone. In addition, the total value of land products, jewelry and jade is more than 80,000 taels of silver.

Song Zheng looked at the dazzling array of gold and silver treasures, and wiped the saliva from the corner of his mouth, "Cai Yong, you take someone to put things away, and follow me into the palace in a while, and carry these things to the Taiji Palace!" ”