Two or three waves of people failed to identify the true or false of the prince, and the incident fell into confusion again. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

On November 15, Dai Ying played in the middle of the incident: "The true and false princes from the south have not been distinguished, please ask multiple officials to interrogate." Zhu Youhua agreed to file the case for trial as soon as possible.

The next day, Zhu Youhua officially ordered the prince to be tried outside the Daming Gate. Before the trial began, Zhu Youhua first summoned the former Zuo Chunfang, Zuo Zhongyun, Liu Zhengzong, and the Right Chunfang, Right Zhongyun, and Li Jinglian to talk to Wuyingdian.

As soon as they met, Zhu Youhua said to the two of them very seriously: "Although the two Aiqing are the prince's former speakers, are you sure you can distinguish the true and false prince?" ”

Liu Zhengzong immediately said: "If the prince is really fine, if it is false, the minister will definitely ask him speechless!" ”

Zhu Youhua was very satisfied with this reply.

The ministers met the young man who claimed to be the crown prince in Feng Kezong's mansion, and one of the courtiers took out a map of the Forbidden City and put it in front of the young man and began to ask questions.

"Where's this picture?"

"This is a map of the palace in the northern capital."

Then the official pointed to Chenghua Palace and asked where this is? The young man smiled: "This is where the main palace lives. ”

Pointing to Kunning Palace again, the young man said, "This is the residence of the queen mother." ”

After the map recognition question is asked, the accuracy rate is 100%.

At this time, another courtier stepped forward and asked, "Where is the princess (that is, the famous Princess Changping) now?" ”

The young man's face was slightly sad, and he sighed: "I don't know, it must be more than lucky." ”

On the eve of the city break, although Chongzhen cut off Princess Changping with a sword, the princess did not die, but was rescued in time, and has been placed in Beijing since then. Therefore, although the ordinary gentry did not know about the princess's life, many officials from the south knew it.

When an official from the south saw that the young man had answered incorrectly, he stood up and said, "The princess fled to Uncle Zhou's (Zhou Kui) house with the people of the capital (referring to the palace maid)." ”

The implication is: If you don't even know this, don't pretend to be honest.

Unexpectedly, the young man's answer made the official at a loss: "At that time, the people who fled to Zhou Guo's uncle's house with the people of Tongdu were not princesses but the main palace. ”

It's no fun to argue any longer, anyway, there was a shortage of war at that time, and there were all kinds of theories, but none of them were recognized by everyone. So at this time, Liu Zhengzong came on as a killer weapon.

"I was originally a lecturer in the East Palace, do you know me?"

"I don't know."

"Where does the prince listen to classes on weekdays?"

"Mandarin Palace."

"How does the prince usually practice calligraphy?"

"Verse."

"How many lines do you usually write?"

"Write ten lines."

"What's in the precedence of the lectures?"

"Forget."

Liu Zhengzong wanted to continue asking. found that the young man no longer answered, but just smiled at Liu Zhengzong.

Liu Zhengzong was laughed at by the teenager until he was furious, so he stopped questioning.

The young man said mockingly: "If you think this palace is fake, it's fake." The palace never thought of competing for the throne with the emperor's uncle. ”

With this sentence, the court officials present stopped talking, and it was pointless to ask further questions at this point, so the ministers decided to call it a day and return to work.

Liu Zhengzong replied: "The eyebrows are not similar at all. The lecture and the imitation book are all wrong, and the minister thinks that the prince from the south is fake. ”

Dai Ying also replied to the military department: The young man pretended to be the prince, and did not mention that the first emperor had asked him to observe the trial at the Zhongzuo Gate, and he did not answer when he asked him the name of Jiadingbo. Therefore, Dai Ying's final conclusion is that the prince is fake!

At the same time, he also raised a major question: it is impossible for a young man to do this, and there must be a great traitor behind this false prince who is plotting evil. Therefore, Dai Ying strongly suggested that the main messenger behind the scenes must be found out and handed over to Yousi for severe punishment.

It is necessary to briefly mention the matter of the trial of the central left door mentioned by Dai Ying. At that time, Chongzhen publicly interrogated a criminal minister named Wu Chang in the court, and at the same time, in order to allow the prince to accumulate some experience in governing the country and learn from it, Chongzhen specially called the prince to go to the court with him, and let him listen to the central left gate, so there were many ministers who were able to see the prince at that time.

And that incident happened in the sixteenth year of Chongzhen, only about a year away from now, so Dai Ying thinks that if the person under him is the real prince, he will definitely have an impression of this matter. However, during the questioning, Dai Ying asked the teenager this question in public. The boy couldn't answer, and it was obvious that there was a problem.

However, this is still only speculation, not strong evidence, and it is difficult to convince the public.

On the second day, new clues appeared in the case again, and a chamberlain who had worked as an errand in the East Palace sent Zhu Youhua a secret note, saying that the real prince's calf and leg bones were abnormal, and each bone was a double bone, so no one could fake it.

So Zhu Youhua combined the physical characteristics of the prince's eyebrows that were longer than the purpose provided by Liu Zhengzong and Li Jinglian the day before yesterday, and the three typical characteristics of the tiger teeth and black moles under the feet provided by Concubine Yuan of Chongzhen when the Qing court tried the fake prince case almost at the same time, and sent people to the juvenile's residence to check them one by one.

Soon Zhu Youhua got a reply, and through careful inspection, the boy's physical characteristics did not meet any of these points.

Zhu Youhua was very pleased, informed the ministers of this result, and ordered a retrial tomorrow. The truth seems to be coming out.

The next day, the Prince's case was heard at noon. In order to fully demonstrate fairness, openness and impartiality in the trial process, Zhu Youhua specially recruited Fang Gonggan, another key witness who had served as a lecturer in the East Palace, to participate in the identification.

Fang Gonggan was previously implicated in the "Shun case" because of his defection and went to prison, because the circumstances were not serious, he was not sentenced to heavy punishments such as beheading and exile.

Fang Gonggan is different from Liu Zhengzong and Li Jinglian in front of him, he has served as the young Zhan Shi of Zhan Shifu for a long time and is the chief lecturer of the prince, so he must be quite familiar with the specific situation of the prince. Now at a critical moment, Zhu Youhua also had to release Fang Gonggan so that he could give an explanation to the ministers of the Southern Capital and the people who cared about this matter.

When everything was ready, the officials were all there.

The presiding judge, Wang Duo, pointed at Fang Gong and said, "Do you know who this is?" ”

When the young man turned around and saw that it was Fang Gonggan, he immediately said excitedly: "Mr. Fang is here." ”

At this time, Fang Gonggan did not speak, after seeing the young man, he looked frightened and uneasy as if he had seen a ghost, and then he didn't say anything, and the person refused to take another step forward, but turned around and drilled into the crowd with all his might. As soon as he slipped through the smoke, he disappeared.

Everyone present who witnessed this scene was stunned.

Zhang Sunzhen, the servant of the imperial history, ran to intercept Fang Gonggan, who suddenly ran away like crazy, and said to the young man who was squatting under the hall: "Fang Zhan Shi reacts like this, you must be a fake prince!" ”

The young man replied: "I came to the south because Li Jizhou came to recruit me with the emperor's edict, not on my own initiative." If you don't admit it, why slander me? Didn't you Zhang Sun Zhen also once served as an official in the Imperial Examination (Chongzhen) Dynasty! Why did it become this virtue all of a sudden? ”

As soon as the young man's words came out, the audience immediately discussed.

Seeing that Fang Gonggan couldn't find it for a while, and the case could no longer be tried, Wang Duo stepped forward to take a curtain call: "Thousands of fakes, always one fake." It is the official who undertakes the responsibility, and there is no need to retry it! "Send someone to send the boy back to Feng Kezong's mansion again.

Originally, all the big and small officials in Nanjing were recruited to prove that the prince was fake in public, and to calm the unfavorable public opinion pressure in the whole city, but he didn't expect Fang Gonggan to go crazy on the spot, and Wang Duo was quite depressed, so he had to take the initiative to speak and promise to bear the black pot, which barely stabilized the situation.

The court trial failed, and after Ruan Dacheng summed up the facts of the case, he was keenly aware of the cats that existed, so he raised three questions to the emperor overnight: First, Fang Gonggan went crazy on the spot, he must have learned some unknown things, or he did know this young man, but because there was a huge conspiracy hidden in it, Fang Gonggan pretended to be crazy and escaped from the court trial, and did not dare to make the truth public.

Second, I heard that the prince is dignified and doesn't talk much, but why is this young man extremely good at witty?

Third, Beijing also has a crown prince, and it should be true that he knows things in the palace very well.

Based on these three points, Ruan Dacheng came to the conclusion that the prince who came from the south must be a fake.

Therefore, Ruan Dacheng immediately requested that the young man and Fang Gonggan, who was crazy on the spot, all go to the prison of the Terracotta Division in Zhongcheng for interrogation.

Zhu Youhua agreed, so he ordered Fang Gonggan to be arrested, and secretly carried him to the prison in Zhongcheng at night while the boy was drunk.

After several interrogations, Fang Gonggan confessed that the young man was the nephew of Wang Yu, the commander of the horse, his name was Wang Zhiming, not the prince, but no matter how he was tortured, Fang Gonggan did not confess who the real mastermind behind the scenes was, and the young man also admitted that he was Wang Zhiming, not the prince.

During this period, there were many discussions among the outsiders, and the people of Nanjing believed that the prince was real, and thought that the emperor was afraid that the prince would seize the throne and deliberately make it fake, and everyone did not believe in the conclusion of the interrogation, and the interrogation was just a formality, and the prince would eventually be executed. And the name "Wang Zhiming" is in turn "King of Ming", which tactfully proves that this person is the crown prince.

Huang Degong, Marquis of Jingnan, expressed concern about the fairness of the interrogation process, and he believed that "all officials welcome" the emperor, so he did not dare to tell the truth, and "the East Palace may not be fake", so he wrote to request that the prince should not be punished during the interrogation, let alone be executed.

Zhu Youhua smiled bitterly after receiving the report, and secretly sighed at the cleverness of this conspiracy made by the Donglin party.

Absolutely perfect psychological tactics!

The more the court said that the prince was fake, the more the people believed that the prince was real, and the more sympathetic they were to the young man. Sympathy for the weak is a common human trait.

It's just that the imperial court can't move the punishment yet, and once the punishment is moved, it will become a trick to torture! On the contrary, it shows that the prince is real.

If the punishment is not moved, Fang Gonggan and the others do not cooperate, and there is no way to confirm that the prince is fake!

The historical Hongguang monarch and ministers unconsciously fell into the trap set by Donglin, Hongguang knew that the prince was fake, and desperately wanted to prove to everyone that the prince was fake, the people believed that the prince was real, and then in the secret of the Donglin Party, fanning the flames, the crowd was surging, and the inside and outside of Nanjing demanded that Hongguang step down, but the call for the prince to ascend the throne was getting higher and higher day by day, Hongguang unconsciously occupied the opposite side of the people, and gave Donglin the excuse to lead the town into Beijing to seize power.

Zhu Youhua is now facing the same situation as Hongguang.

If you don't want to repeat the tragedy of Hongguang, the prince's case can't be tried any longer, and it's basically impossible to solve the case in a short period of time.

After Zhu Youhua pondered deeply, he decided to treat the prince's case coldly.

No longer say that the prince is fake, nor that the prince is real.

The case was put on hold for the first time.

At the same time, he also told the ministers and people of Nanjing: No matter whether the young man is the prince or not, he will treat him as the prince of the clan and ensure that he is prosperous and wealthy, and has no worries about food and clothing. ”

After the proclamation came out, the turbulent public opinion of the people in the city gradually subsided.

Although the current situation is still quite unfavorable to Zhu Youhua, Zhu Youhua is not very worried, as long as he can find a breakthrough from elsewhere and get the evidence of Donglin's rebellion, then all the dirty water can be poured on Donglin, and then the "prince case" can become another powerful evidence of Donglin's rebellion.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youhua summoned Feng Kezong and asked him to send more capable men, and he must make every effort to keep an eye on Hou Fangyu's family and all checkpoints inside and outside Nanjing, and never lose anything.

Foreknowledge is the greatest benefit of the traverser, whether Zhu Youhua can reverse the unfavorable situation depends on whether this foreknowledge is accurate, if the Hou family really colludes with Zuo Zhen to rebel, all troubles can be solved at that time!