Guo Yunhou, the secretary of the household department, did find Zhou Zuo, the imperial historian of the left capital, and Zhang Junning, the left waiter of the criminal department, and both of them also promised Guo Yunhou to negotiate with Dongchang and transfer Yin Qiu Maohua of Shuntian Mansion to the prison of the criminal department. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

But it was obvious that Dongchang's action was faster, and before the Metropolitan Procuratorate and the Criminal Department could act, Yin Qiu Maohua of Shuntian Mansion confessed to him, the head of the household department, and a businessman named Lan Duo.

In addition, Wu Youke directly mentioned in front of Zhu Youxiao that the whereabouts of a batch of medicinal materials in the imperial pharmacy were unknown, so that Zou Yingquan, the young eunuch of the imperial pharmacy, was arrested by Dongchang in advance and taken into prison, and Li Mingyun did not have time to inform Zou Yingquan, the young eunuch of the imperial pharmacy, that Yin Qiu Maohua of Shuntian Mansion was dismissed and sent to prison.

As a result, the reaction of these reformist officials who tried to take advantage of the cholera outbreak to make a windfall was significantly slower than that of Emperor Zhu Youxiao's minions, even if Li Mingrui was not directly involved in this matter, and he was not even very aware of it, but after knowing the news that Guo Yunhou, the head of the household department, was summoned to the palace, he already had a feeling that the mountain rain was about to come and the wind was full of buildings.

Even Guo Yunhou, the secretary of the household department, was implicated, and he, a cabinet scholar, was afraid that he would not be able to escape the involvement, and for a while, Li Mingrui couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat.

Zhu Youxiao looked at Guo Yunhou, the head of the household who was prostrate on the ground under the Danbi, and asked coldly: "Tell me, what's going on, who is that businessman named Lan Duo, and how did you hook up with Yin Qiu Maohua of Shuntian Mansion and Zou Yingquan, the young eunuch of the Imperial Pharmacy, I don't want to use the soldering iron of Dongchang to force you, an old minister of the Three Dynasties, to tell the truth!" ”

Guo Yunhou was very calm at this time, the old minister who could come from the era of Wei Zongxian had already been in full swing, and without Zhu Youxiao saying it, he had already guessed that it must be Qiu Maohua or the father-in-law of the imperial pharmacy that had betrayed him, and His Majesty had already made it clear that if he quibbled again, it would undoubtedly be futile for him to quibble, but he could also be sure that now His Majesty should not know that this matter has something to do with Pavilion Elder Li Mingrui, and he doesn't even know that this businessman named Lan Duo is the brother of Pavilion Elder Li Mingrui.

Thinking about the situation in the imperial court again, Guo Yunhou quickly decided to sacrifice himself to protect Li Mingrui, in order to achieve the point that the strength of the reformists would not be greatly damaged because of this, so he heard Guo Yunhou say: "Your Majesty is benevolent, the criminal minister is very guilty, this matter is indeed caused by the criminal's stupidity and greed, the criminal minister saw the outbreak of the epidemic, and the price of all kinds of medicinal materials skyrocketed, so he wanted to unite with Zou Yingquan, the young eunuch of the imperial pharmacy, to let Yin Qiu Maohua of Shuntian Mansion transfer this batch of medicinal materials to a businessman named Lan Duo, Then he used the criminal minister to use the official silver to buy back this medicinal material at a high price, so as to achieve the silver of greedy ink! ”

As soon as Guo Yunhou's words were finished, Zhu Youxiao directly threw out the jade Ruyi next to him and smashed it heavily on Guo Yunhou: "You are so bold!" I have given you a lot of benefits to the Guo family, why are you still so greedy! You are not only old and faint, you are simply blind to the law of the court! ”

Guo Yunhou naturally didn't dare to say a big word at this time, and he wasn't sure what kind of punishment His Majesty the Emperor Zhu Youxiao would take against his Guo family in anger, he could only kneel on the ground as humbly as possible now, kowtowing: "Yes, the guilty minister is guilty, please give the minister the death penalty!" ”

"Hmph, I can't help you how I want to punish you, I will ask you, is there anyone else involved, you had better recruit it truthfully, and what is the origin of that person named Lan Duo?" Zhu Youxiao didn't think that this matter only implicated Guo Yunhou, a household secretary, because Zhu Youxiao knew that Guo Yunhou and Li Mingrui had a lot to do with it, so it was difficult for Zhu Youxiao not to think that this Li Mingrui would have nothing to do with this matter.

"The criminal minister does not dare to hide His Majesty, this matter is the criminal minister and the Zou Gonggong of the Imperial Pharmacy and Yin Qiu Maohua of the Shuntian Mansion, the merchant named Lan Duo is a medicinal herb merchant known to the criminal minister, but a native of Wutai Mountain, Shanxi", before Guo Yunhou finished speaking, Zhu Youxiao stood up first and scolded Guo Yunhou angrily: "You are already deceiving me!" Do you really think I'm blind and don't know what you people are doing with me behind my back? Since you don't say it, then okay, I will help you say that the businessman named Lan Duo is Li Mingyun, the third brother of Li Mingrui, a scholar of the Middle Pole Temple, and you say yes and no! ”

As soon as Guo Yunhou heard Zhu Youxiao say this, he suddenly looked up at Zhu Youxiao, he didn't expect His Majesty to already know this, and he also knew what to say for a while.

"Let me ask you, does this matter have anything to do with Li Mingrui", Zhu Youxiao also knew that this Guo Yunhou couldn't say anything or didn't dare to say anything at this time, so he took the initiative to ask him, he hoped that this Guo Yunhou could understand that all he cared about now was whether Li Mingrui was involved in this.

And Guo Yunhou also knew that His Majesty Zhu Youxiao asked him what he wanted to get, he didn't dare or didn't want to pull Li Mingrui into the water, so he immediately shook his head like a rattle: "No, absolutely not, Li Ge Lao has no idea about this matter, these are all things done by a few criminal ministers, and they really have nothing to do with Li Ge Lao, Your Majesty!" ”

Zhu Youxiao couldn't help but snort angrily, and sneered: "Okay, Guo Yunhou, you are really a dead pig who is not afraid of boiling water, and you have to take the blame for Li Mingrui when you are dying, are you really not afraid that I will torture you?" ”

Guo Yunhou couldn't help but tremble, and just shook his head and was about to say that he was not afraid, but as soon as he saw His Majesty Zhu Youxiao's terrible eyes, he immediately nodded again: "The sinner is afraid, but the sinner is even more afraid of deceiving Your Majesty!" ”

Zhu Youxiao laughed when he obeyed, although he deliberately showed great anger, but he was still very willing to see Guo Yunhou's behavior of protecting Li Mingrui to the death, because this can indeed make the strength of the reformists not be greatly damaged, after all, once Guo Yunhou admits that Li Mingrui is involved in this big corruption case, he must remove this Li Mingrui from his position.

But the superficial work that should be done still has to be done, at least the officials of the old school can not see that they are partial, and they can't let other officials mistakenly think that they are easy to fool as an emperor, Zhu Youxiao still ordered angrily: "Come on, bring Guo Yunhou to the edict and prison, and beat the forty boards!" ”

Guo Yunhou obviously guessed what his majesty wanted, so in order to cooperate with Zhu Youxiao, he still deliberately made a very painful appearance and cried: "Your Majesty is wronged, Li Ge Lao really has no case, it is all the fault of the criminal minister!" ”

Although in fact, Li Mingrui did not participate in this matter.

On the second day, when Li Mingrui and others came to the Xinuan Pavilion of the Qianqing Palace, Zhu Youxiao informed the cabinet members of Guo Yunhou, Zou Yingquan, Qiu Maohua, Li Mingyun and other officials of the case of embezzlement of ink, and said that Guo Yunhou, the head of the household department, had committed suicide in fear of crime in the edict, Qiu Maohua also committed suicide in fear of crime, and Zou Yingquan was shown to the public, and Li Mingyun was also sentenced to be executed, and Li Mingrui was guilty of lax supervision of his younger brother, and was fined for one year, and his title of prince Taibao was removed, and Wang Chengen was also demoted to the eunuch of the imperial horse eunuch.