On this day, the envoys sent by the imperial court and the Confucian Temple have arrived, and there are two envoys sent by the imperial court, one is Sui Xi of the Ministry of Rites, and the other is Zhang Lie, the left deputy of the Imperial Palace. The envoys sent by the Temple of Literature were Confucian Ling, who had always been known for his fairness.

On the same day, the three envoys arrived at the Jinling City Tribute Courtyard in two batches, Guo Ling arrived first, the first thing he did when he entered the Tribute Yuan was to investigate the cause of death of Feng Xuanqing, the former attendant of the Ministry of Rites, after noon, Sui Xi and Zhang Lie's carriage had also arrived in front of the Tribute Courtyard, and Sui Xi and Zhang Lie came together, as well as Li Jing, the prefect of Jinling. After all, Li Jing had inspected the scene and inspected Feng Xuanqing's body before, and now that Feng Xuanqing had been dead for more than ten days, the corpse had begun to decompose, and the first-hand information was no longer available, and the clues could only be found from the records.

This also shows that Zhang Lie and Sui Xi are very cautious about this case, and what they shoulder is the responsibility of the imperial court to investigate the case and return justice to Jiangnan scholars.

In the main hall of the Gongyuan, there are sixteen large boxes, all of which are sealed, and the seals are put on by the Yamen of the Jinling Prefect and Jiang Song, another chief examiner of the current township examination, and the boxes are the original examination papers of all the candidates in the current township examination.

Although the imperial court sent a Ministry of Rites Langzhong and the left deputy capital of the Imperial Palace, but in terms of official position, the official position of Zhang Lie, the left deputy imperial history, is higher, and the task of the Imperial Court is to thoroughly investigate whether the incumbent officials are corrupt and pervert the law, so he has more say in this case than Sui Xi, as for the envoy of the Confucian Temple, although he has a high status and is a great Confucian admired by everyone, but after all, this case is led by the imperial court. This resulted in Zhang Lielai as the presiding judge in this case, with Sui Xi and Kuang Ling assisting, and the results of both sides would be reported to the Ministry of Rites and the Temple of Literature respectively.

“…… When several officials and subordinates inspected the body of Feng Lao Shilang before, they found that Feng Lao Shilang had indeed committed suicide by taking poison, and the poisonous water penetrated deep into his abdomen, indicating that he was not drugged after death, and he had left a suicide note before he died, and the content of the suicide note was indeed written by Feng Lao Shilang himself. Feng Lao Lang said that this case was his confusion for a while, and he would bear it alone, as for the people suspected of bribery, they are all on the list, and please check it! ”

Li Jing handed over the file of Feng Xuanqing's death, and Jiang Song, who was behind him, also acquiesced to Li Jing's statement, Zhang Lie, Sui Xi and Guo Ling had personally inspected Feng Xuanqing's body before, and there was no objection to this, in this case, although the Jinling Prefect's Yamen may not have done perfectly, but at least Zhang Lie and others could not find fault.

Zhang Lie first looked at the file, then looked at Jing Ling and Sui Xi next to him, and said, "Both, what do you think?" ”

Sui Xi said with a cautious attitude: "In this way, Feng Xuanqing committed suicide in fear of crime, you should have no objections, right?" ”

Before Feng Xuanqing died, it was a great Confucian who was admired by everyone, and he was still one of the main exams of the township examination, and after he died, because he was not convicted, others did not dare to be rude to him, but now the case has basically been confirmed as Feng Xuanqing's "suicide in fear of crime", then Feng Xuanqing suddenly became a sinner of the Great Yong Dynasty, even if he died, he would not get peace, and the Feng family would be questioned all over the house.

Several people present, including Li Jing and Jiang Song, had no objection to Feng Xuanqing's death. Jiang Song thought secretly in his heart: "Since Feng Xuanqing, the old horseman, likes beauty and died on a woman's belly, this case should also be confirmed, and the things that the prince confessed before have also been completed, and the next step is to see how to rely on the five princes for this case." But I can't come out myself and say that Feng Xuanqing has had dealings with the five princes, but I want to use Li Jing, or some rumors, to gradually confirm this matter! ”

Zhang Lie finally said: "After the preliminary inspection of the Jinling Prefect's Yamen, as well as the investigation of the officials, as well as the state bachelor and Sui Langzhong, they unanimously investigated that Feng Xuanqing's death was suicide, and as for whether he committed suicide in fear of crime, it still needs to be verified." Today, all the files will be sealed, and tomorrow morning the files of all the people who will be lifted will be retrieved, and then the examination papers of these people will be reviewed to see if there is any situation that is not worthy of the name! ”

Zhang Lie wanted to transfer out all the examination papers of the middle lift at one time to investigate thoroughly, which made Jiang Song and several fellow examiners behind him a little uneasy, Jiang Song said: "Zhang Vice Xian, the list of candidates who may be involved in the case is already in this list, involving Xie Yuan Ji Ning selected by Feng Xuanqing, and the thirty-two people recorded, why do you have to read the files of all the people who won the lift at one time?" That's not unavoidable...... It will make other middle school candidates dissatisfied! ”

The same examiners behind him all agreed, also because they felt that the workload was too great, and there were many people admitted to the township examination in Jinling City this time, and more than 260 people were admitted at one time, and it was very complicated to thoroughly investigate whether these 260 people were not worthy of their names. Zhang Lie said: "As a minister of the Son of Heaven, what we do is to share the worries of the Son of Heaven, are you still troublesome?" The official will come to check the file with you, Jiang Xuezheng said that the person who is in this case may not be convinced, so if someone is involved in bribery, but it is not in the rumors, will he be fished in troubled waters? ”

Li Jing said: "Vice Chairman Zhang's words are reasonable, and the lower officials also think that it should be so!" ”

Jiang Song glared at Li Jing viciously, as if to say, what are you Li Jing, we are talking about military affairs here, you are a local prefect, and you dare to casually express your opinions on the side?

Although Li Jing's official position is not low, because he is the prefect of Jinling City, and Jinling City is the capital of the Dayong Dynasty, there are many large and small yamen here, which makes the status of the Jinling prefect's yamen very low.

"In this case, we will first move all the files into the warehouse, I will wait for the first arrival, rest for one night, and start a thorough investigation of the files tomorrow morning, and then find the candidates involved in the case two days later to personally check their knowledge, who is really worthy of the name, and who is not worthy of the name involved in the bribery examination, at a glance!" After Zhang Lie finished speaking, he yawned, it was obvious that he was very tired from the capital these days.

The official in charge of the reception of Jinling City next to him stepped forward and said: "Several adults have come from afar, the journey is tiring, I will wait for a banquet for you in the post station, please move!" ”

"Banquet?" Zhang Lie seemed to have some disdain on his face.

The official who received it smiled and said: "There are also singing and dancing performances, all of which are singers and dancers raised by dignitaries and dignitaries in Jinling City. ”

Besides, Ling is a great Confucian, and he will not go to this kind of banquet because of his identity, but Zhang Lie and Sui Xi glanced at each other, and received this kind of sad errand and came from afar, if they can't reflect their "privileges" as a messenger, then it will be in vain. Zhang Lie said: "Then work hard, prepare the carriage and horses, and then go to the bed!" ”