Chapter 378: The Matter Is Revealed

At this time, it is time to start eating.

Li Shimin looked at the soldiers who were busy making rice in pots, and couldn't help but show a smile on his face: "Come, everyone, I'll eat in this camp today!" ”

Seeing that Li Shimin was in high spirits, the ministers could not say the word "no", and they all said with a smile: "Your Majesty and the soldiers share weal and woe, eat in one pot, and deserve to be the famous general of the world back then!" ”

The Tang Dynasty came from the Sui Dynasty, and almost all systems inherited the Sui system, so when it comes to Wenzhi, it is already good for him to get the name of a benevolent monarch. Therefore, what Li Shimin values most is martial arts. From the defeat of Xue Ju's father and son, to the defeat of Wang Shichong and Dou Jiande, and now to the destruction of the Turks, Gaochang, and Pingtu Guhun, such martial arts have indeed made him have enough capital to be proud.

Now that he hears these ministers call him a "famous general", how can Li Shimin not be happy?

Sitting in the big tent, nibbling on the browned pancakes on both sides, with broth and jerky, and eating it in a big gulp, this is lunch.

"Hehe, I haven't tasted these breads for a long time, and when I taste them again today, I can't help but think back to the Rong Ma Gang back then!" Li Shimin sat at the top of the big tent, nibbled on two and a half pounds of large cakes, drank a bowl of broth, and touched his stomach and said.

As soon as Li Shimin's voice fell, Cheng Yanjin smiled and said: "The situation has been much better over the years, this military food is much better than when we gnawed on the nest, at least there is no bran and wild vegetables in it!" ”

Several other generals also followed Cheng Yanjin's words, recalling the appearance of Rong Ma on the battlefield back then.

Li Shimin smiled and looked at Hou Junji: "Hou Aiqing, you have made a great contribution to Gaochang this time!" This 100,000-strong army conquered Gaochang, and less than 1,000 people were killed in the battle. ”

Hou Junji thought that this was a precursor to Li Shimin's meritorious deeds, so he went out on the spot, half-knelt on the ground, and said excitedly: "This battle in Gaochang, the road is far away, when the expedition was made, the cold wind was fierce, and now when I returned, the cold wind rose again." In the past half a year, I have indeed suffered a lot of brothers! ”

Li Shimin nodded: "Yes, it is true that those Han family sons and daughters who are fighting are suffering!" I will be rewarded for my deeds. But Hou Qing's family, I heard two things about you in the court! ”

Hou Junji suddenly felt bad in his heart, raised his head, and looked at Li Shimin: "I don't know what Your Majesty said about those two things?" ”

Li Shimin smiled, stood up, slowly paced in the big tent, and said leisurely: "The first thing is that Hou Aiqing snatched a large amount of gold and silver from the Gaochang Palace when you attacked Gaochang. Unfortunately, after being seen by the soldiers, those soldiers followed suit and robbed the civilians in Gaochang City. Hmm, I wonder if that's the case? ”

Hou Junji suddenly shook his head resolutely: "Your Majesty misunderstood at that time!" General Lu Yunlang of the gendarmerie battalion also looked for Weichen later, and Weichen told him that the contents of those boxes were century-old wine! If you don't believe it, you can ask Your Majesty to check it! ”

Li Shimin waved his hand: "When Hou Aiqing entered the Gaochang Palace, why was he so tightly guarded?" Why does a box containing a wine urn need four big men to carry it? There is also Gaochang City, which was attacked by the Turks during the Kaihuang period, and with the temperament of the Turks, will there be any century-old wine left? I'm afraid that the tiles don't exist, it's almost the same! After speaking, Li Shimin's tone gradually became stiff, and the smile on his face gradually disappeared.

Hou Junji lowered his head, a trace of ruthlessness flashed in his eyes, slowly raised his head, and said softly: "Your Majesty, you have wronged Weichen." When he first entered the Gaochang Palace, who knew if there was an ambush inside, Weichen should be cautious. As for the box that needed to be carried by four people, it was Wei Chen who was afraid that the wine urn in the box would overturn, so he asked four people to carry it, but it was to maintain balance. And these fine wines were found by Wei Chen who searched for a day in the palace and opened an extremely secret cellar! ”

When Li Shimin heard this, his face changed slightly: "Although Hou Aiqing said this, I still have to investigate carefully to see if this matter is true!" ”

A trace of panic flashed in Hou Junji's face, flashed, and then calmed down.

Li Shi continued: "This second thing is Hou Aiqing's acceptance of your official position!" Hou Aiqing had neither the approval of the Ministry nor the edict of the Ministry in his hands at that time, how could you accept the official position, and most of the people who accepted the order were still Gaochang people? ”

Hou Junji said: "At that time, the situation changed, and the Turkic army of 20,000 went straight to Gaochang and killed Luntai. Under such circumstances, Weichen appointed the lords of each city without authorization. These city lords were all officials of the former Gaochang, and their positions were not high and their prestige was not enough. The reason why Weichen sent them as the city lord was because he had the idea of abandoning them when he ran out. This matter is from power, and I hope that Your Majesty will forgive you! ”

After listening to this explanation, Li Shimin was slightly satisfied, and said: "Although this is the case, you have indeed exceeded the rules of the Hou Qing family. I'm still going to be punished! Well, well, write this down in advance, and wait until your first thing is clear. If you bring wine out of the palace on that day, you can stop it; But if you bring out of the Gaochang Palace is property, then the two things will be punished together! ”

Listening to Li Shimin's words, Hou Junji's heart suddenly flashed a trace of unease, but if he didn't agree, wouldn't he not admit himself, so he had to hug his fists and say: "Weichen obeys!" ”

Seeing this, Li Shimin didn't say anything to Hou Junji anymore, and waved his hand: "Let's go, all the Qing family will follow me to see the drills of the soldiers!" ”

An investigation team was formed by the Criminal Department and Dali Temple, which was specially responsible for investigating whether Hou Junji had really looted property from the Gaochang Imperial Palace.

Since Hou Junji at this time was the general of the Left Guard and the secretary of the military department, and he was in a high position, in order to facilitate the investigation, Li Shimin specially gave the investigation team a handwritten edict.

The investigation team extensively interviewed the soldiers who had participated in the looting in Gaochang City and the soldiers of the gendarmerie battalion, and finally asked Lu Yun, who said: "I haven't seen those big boxes with my own eyes, so how can I know what they contain." At that time, the situation was in crisis, and General Hou's words were adopted to stabilize the situation that was almost collapsing at that time! ”

More than 10 days have passed, and the investigation team has not found any convincing testimony that the boxes contained belongings.

Just as the members of the investigation team were about to make a deal like this, something unexpected happened.

Hou Junji's subordinate general, the confidant general named Xin Fang'er, was drinking in a restaurant, got into a fight, and injured a general of the Yulin Army. When the guards arrived, only the man was lying on the ground with his head bleeding.

That night, the Jinwu guards rushed into Xin Fang'er's mansion and arrested him. I don't know if that Xin Fang'er has not yet woken up from alcohol, but he openly resisted arrest and fought with Jin Wuwei's soldiers. In the midst of the scuffle, a cabinet was broken, revealing a gold brick

One of the Jinwu guards had sharp eyes, and at a glance he saw that the words engraved on the gold bricks were not Chinese characters, but some of them were Turkic.

So, this gold brick was presented to the investigation team by the soldiers of Jin Wuwei.

In less than half a day, the Jinwu guards came to Xin Fang'er's mansion, searched for a long time, and finally dug out a large box under the roots of the tree in the courtyard.

When I opened it, I saw that there were piles of gold brick jewels inside, and it was full of boxes. On these gold bricks, they are all engraved with Turkic characters, and the jewelry is mostly opal, emerald and other Western Regions jewelry.

So this Xin Fang'er was directly taken down from the prison of the Criminal Department.

Faced with the forced confession of the jailers, this Xin Fang'er insisted on not saying anything at the beginning. However, after three consecutive days and three nights of mental torture by the jailers, the lieutenant general finally summoned the matter as it was.

This so-called mental torture was not allowed to sleep for three days and three nights in a row, and every moment, the jailers were repeating the same line: "Where did you get those things?" ”

Of course, this mentally destructive torture technique was taught to them by Zhang Yunwen. The reason is that above the court meeting, the criminal department in the investigation team complained about Xin Fang'er's hard mouth.

When a confession was presented in front of Li Shimin, Li Shimin's face gradually turned pale, and finally he let out a long sigh and showed a very sad expression.

On the second day of the court meeting, Li Shimin threw this confession in Hou Junji's face.

After reading the confession, Hou Junji's face changed greatly, his eyes rolled for a moment, and he gritted his teeth and looked at the confession in his hand, and finally lowered his head and stopped arguing.

Seeing Hou Junji confess, Li Shimin sighed and waved his hand, asking the guards to send him to the prison of the Criminal Department.