Late at night, the prison of the criminal department.

A gentle breeze blew through the willows outside the walls of the prison, and a dark shadow followed the wind.

Within the walls, a group of soldiers walked with their spears in neat steps, and black shadows flew over the willow trees, landed like dragonflies, and then traveled in a straight line and lightning into the shadow of the cell building.

After five breaths, another group of armor soldiers walked outside the cell building, and when the armor soldiers were far away, the footsteps gradually disappeared, and the black shadow came out of the shadows and looked up at the roof, and suddenly crouched down and jumped up to the roof.

The sound of insects kept coming from outside, and above the courtyard of the cell building, a black shadow appeared on the edge, and then spread its arms and flew down.

The circle of houses next to the circular patio was the guard's quarters and officials' offices for the prison, and there was also a guard room where the keys to all the cells were located.

All iron doors leading to all cells are locked at nightfall and are never opened without special reasons, and must be opened with the warden's signature.

The man in black passed by the door of the ear room, and there were several jailers drinking and gambling inside, and this man walked unhurriedly to the entrance of the passage of the No. A prison, and an iron gate was blocked, and the thick iron chains were entwined on it, and there was an iron general to guard the door, and each iron bar on the iron gate was as thick as a baby's arm, and the distance between the two iron rods was only the size of a fist, even a child would never get through.

I didn't see any other movements from the man in black, but he just crashed directly into the iron gate, but he forced himself through between the two iron bars, and the iron stripes did not move.

There were three iron doors in the corridor from the patio to the cell, but there was no obstacle to the man in black, who was as weak and boneless as he easily passed through the gap between the iron bars of the iron gate and entered the corridor of the cell.

It was late at night, and there were painful moans from prisoners in some cells, but the man in black moved steadily forward in the corridor without noticing the slightest sound, and soon came to a stop at the door of a cell, and easily slipped into the cell through the gap in the fence.

The prisoner in the cell didn't seem to be asleep yet, and when he felt an extra person, he immediately got up and looked at the man in black and asked, "You mean?" ”

The man in black slowly squatted down and said in a changed voice: "Jing Min, if you want to save the lives of your family, when Huang Dezhong comes to interrogate you early tomorrow morning, you will tell him that there is a brocade box buried under the big locust tree outside your courtyard outside Tianshui City, which contains the letters written to you by the prince!" ”

Jing Min's face was shocked: "You······ What do you want to do? This is framing ······"

The man in black said in a calm tone: "Do you want to save the lives of your family?" If there is no person with a higher status to convict this case, your family will definitely be punished by the three clans, but if you just act on orders, the situation will be very different! ”

Jing Min pondered for a moment and asked again, "Are you in the same group as Huang Dezhong?" You're all planned, right? ”

"That's all you say, it's up to you to decide whether to do it or not!" After saying that, the man in black got up and jumped out of the cell, and disappeared in a blink of an eye.

Jing Min didn't sleep all night, he was tortured, his appearance was already miserable, and the haggard on his face couldn't be seen.

After dawn, the jailer brought some food, Jing Min ate some casually, and was soon escorted to the interrogation room and tied to a wooden frame.

It didn't take long for Huang Dezhong to walk in with his hands behind his back, he came to Jing Min and asked with a smile, "Jing Taishou, have you thought about it?" ”

Jing Min asked, "Where is my family?" ”

"In this cell, their life and death are at your fingertips!"

Jing Min said: "Lord Huang, even if I say that I was instructed by the prince, what can I do? O prince, the prince of a country, can bring him down with the testimony of one of my little taishou and Sogdian merchant Shi Dayou? Lord Huang is too naïve! Without ironclad evidence, no one would want to touch a single hair of the prince! I'm not afraid to tell you the truth, Lord Huang, I have evidence in my hands! ”

"What? Do you have proof? Where is it? Huang Dezhong was immediately overjoyed and immediately asked.

Jing Min looked at Huang Dezhong silently.

Huang Dezhong's face gradually turned cold, "Jing Min, you have to weigh it clearly!" Give me the evidence, and I'll keep your family safe! ”

Jing Min said in a calm tone: "Lord Huang, it's not that I don't believe you, it's that your official position is too low, let the master behind you come over!" ”

"You ······" Huang Dezhong just wanted to be angry, but suddenly remembered what Zhao Ping said yesterday, and he quickly calmed down.

"Okay, you wait!"

Huang Dezhong left, Jing Min fell into deep thought, he found from Huang Dezhong's reaction just now that the man in black last night was definitely not Huang Dezhong's gang, otherwise Huang Dezhong would not have this expression and reaction, which means that it is not only the people behind Huang Dezhong who want to deal with the prince, and there are also people who want the prince to fall.

An hour later, Zhao Ping, accompanied by Huang Dezhong, went to the interrogation room.

"It turned out to be His Royal Highness the King of Shu!" Jing Min was not surprised when he found out that it was Huang Dezhong, and the person behind it was Zhao Ping.

Zhao Ping asked: "I heard that you have evidence that the crown prince instructed you to shelter and collude with the Sogdians?" ”

"Yes!"

"How can I get you to hand over the evidence?"

Jing Min said: "Let go of my wife and children, let them go now!" If His Royal Highness the King of Shu wants to achieve great things, he should not use the lives of other people's relatives as a means of coercion. ”

Zhao Ping said: "When did this king coerce you with the lives of your family? Your family members were arrested purely because of you, and if you weren't the mastermind, they would have been acquitted! Now that your case has not yet been decided, even this king has no right to release them. If the prince knew that you had his handle, what would they do? This king thinks that it is safest for your family to be locked up here, and this king can promise you that as long as this case is over, this king will ensure that they will have no worries for the rest of their lives! ”

Jing Min struggled inwardly, he didn't want to betray and frame the prince, but he didn't want his three clans to be punished.

"Okay, I will hand over the evidence to His Highness, and I hope His Highness will keep his promise! I have a set of annexes outside Tianshui City, and there is a brocade box buried under the big locust tree in front of the courtyard, which contains letters written to me by the prince, among which there is evidence related to Sogdian merchants! ”

Zhao Ping stretched out his hand and patted Jing Min's shoulder: "Very good, your choice is very wise!" Huang Dezhong".

"In!" Huang Dezhong hurriedly agreed.

"Send more manpower to protect Jing Taishou, he can't have an accident, otherwise we won't have much effect on getting evidence, without Jing Taishou as a witness, the role of evidence will be greatly reduced!"

"Your Highness, rest assured, the lower official will live here in the future, and personally lead people to guard it day and night!"

Zhao Ping came out of the prison and instructed Huang Dezhong: "This case is re-investigated by the Criminal Department, this king is not easy to come forward, you quickly send a competent and reliable person to get the evidence, you must remember to block the news, don't be the first to get there!" This king will send people from the Imperial City Division to secretly assist! ”

"Understood, the next official will arrange it!"

Four days later, the people sent by Huang Dezhong to Tianshui City brought back a wooden box wrapped in oilcloth.

Zhao Ping opened the wooden box and took out a few letters from it, which he opened and looked at one by one.

"This is indeed the handwriting of my prince's brother!"

Zhao Ping quickly read through several letters, one of which was related to Sogdian merchants, and it was determined that Jing Min was instructed by the crown prince to shield and collude with the Sogdians.

"I didn't expect the prince's brother to really do such a thing, I don't want to believe it, he grew up with me, I know his personality very well, how did he become like this?" Zhao Ping muttered to himself.

Wang Fu Zhan Shizhuo persuaded him: "Your Highness doesn't have to be like this, you need to know that people will change!" ”

It took Zhao Ping a long time to calm down his emotions, and he handed the letter to Huang Dezhong: "You know what to do next, right?" ”

Huang Dezhong hurriedly took the letter and bowed down and said: "Your Highness, rest assured, the lower officials know how to do it, you can take a look!" ”

The next morning.

Zhao Junsheng was fishing by the Weishui River, surrounded by imperial guards and forbidden soldiers standing guard, his fishing skills were not bad, and he caught a lot of fish in an hour.

Kang Yide came over and reported: "Your Majesty, Ye Jun, the left attendant of the Criminal Department, asked to see him, saying that he had something important to report!" ”

Zhao Junsheng turned his head: "Something important?" What can the Criminal Department do? I have to be disturbed to take a break from fishing? ”

Kang Yide trembled: "That······ Why don't the old slaves let Ye Jun go back first, and then go to see him after His Majesty returns to the palace? ”

Zhao Junsheng asked, "What does he have to report?" ”

"This old slave doesn't know, he only says that there is something important."

"Alright, you go and call him!"

"No!"

Ye Jun was led over by Kang Yide, "Ye Jun, the left attendant of the Ministry of Punishment and Punishment, see Your Majesty!" ”

"What's burning your ass? Could it be that someone rebelled? Someone wants to kill me? ”

A cold sweat broke out on Ye Jun's forehead, "This ······ Your Majesty, the minister wants to report the case of the former Tianshui County Taishou Jing Min, after the investigation of the criminal department, this case involves the prince, the minister did not dare to slack off, I wanted to enter the palace tomorrow to report to His Majesty, but tomorrow is the court meeting, if it is reported at the court meeting, there is no room for the matter to turn around! ”

Zhao Junsheng asked casually: "You don't mean to tell me that Jing Min disobeyed the will and sheltered the Sogdian merchants to collude with him because he was instructed by the crown prince, right?" ”

"Huh? This ······ Your Majesty knows all about it? Ye Jun's mouth opened wide in shock.

Zhao Junsheng heard his surprise and turned his head to look at Ye Jun's expression, his face changed: "I said it?" ”

"Yes······"

Zhao Junsheng got up and said with a serious face: "What about the evidence?" ”

"Back to Your Majesty, Jing Min and Shi Dayou have both personally confessed that they were instructed by the prince, this is their confession!" Ye Jun took out the file and handed it over.

Zhao Junsheng took the file and took out the confession, looked at it, looked up and asked, "Based on these alone, do you think that Jing Min's case involves the crown prince?" If someone says that you have been beaten and fabricated accusations, how do you explain it? A confession is just a confession! ”