After returning to Beijing, when he learned that Tang Feng had been accused of stealing treasures, and was finally imprisoned and tortured to death, Yang Zhen was sure that this must be a poisonous plan set up by Liu Shouyou and Feng Bao, who held a grudge against him. Pen ~ Fun ~ Pavilion www.biquge.info It was only because there was no evidence to prove his inference that Yang Zhen could only stand still for the time being, pretending not to know anything and not wanting to do anything.

Even if Deng Ting's former colleagues secretly came to him to help rehabilitate Tang Feng, Yang Zhen only verbally promised these people, but he didn't really do anything. Because he knew that his every move had already been under Liu Shou's attention, and it would be easy for them to find any evidence that Tang Feng had been wronged.

It wasn't until the Xiangshan case that he finally made this decision after he asked some clues from the mouth of Taining Hou Chen-Liangbi and was convinced that all this was instructed and arranged by Feng Bao. However, Yang Zhen didn't plan to follow this clue to investigate, because with his current identity, it was impossible to find out the truth from those powerful people without alarming Liu Shouyou or Feng Bao, and it was impossible for them to risk offending Feng Bao to reveal the truth to themselves.

But if Yang Zhen followed the clue of the edict to find out some strange things, and then asked them to inquire about the truth, then they couldn't help but tell the truth. So today, Yang Zhen came to the terrible place where no one in the Jinyi Guard dared to approach for this purpose, and went inside to check it out.

Normally, when an unfamiliar official enters a cell, he will inevitably attract the attention of the prisoners, and soon some people will cry out for wrongs, hoping to clear their own grievances. This is the nature of human self-preservation, even if the prisoner has no grievances, he will struggle at such times. But in front of him, when Yang Zhen entered the depths of the Imperial Prison, and walked slowly through the cells where there was only a square inch of land under the dim candlelight, but there was a scrawny prisoner with some scars and blood stains on his body, those prisoners only looked at him with a dull gaze without the slightest emotion, just like looking at the Jinyi guards who patrolled here on weekdays.

"It is said that nine times out of ten the prisoners in the edict prison have been wronged, and almost no one will cry out for injustice, and it is indeed true." Yang Zhen had a thought in his heart, but his steps did not mean to slow down, but his eyes kept scanning the face of the prisoner, as if he wanted to imprint all their appearances into his mind.

Seeing him behave like this, Yuan Taidong, who followed closely, also felt a trace of vigilance in his heart: "What does he want to do?" Do you want to find out what went wrong? But I haven't been in charge of this edict for a day or two, everything is done according to the rules, and he shouldn't be asked to find any fault, right? ”

It seems that under the influence of the harsh environment and oppressive atmosphere here, in the process of shuttling through the prison rooms densely arranged like pigeon cages, everyone did not speak, but just followed behind Yang Zhen with solemn expressions, all of them with thoughtful expressions.

It wasn't until after walking around like this and returning to the top that many people looked relieved on their faces, that is, Cai Yingyang, who has always been bold and careless, also exhaled a few breaths, looking like he had palpitations. He had never thought that there was such a terrible place in this world, and compared to there, the county jail cell he had seen before was too comfortable.

After taking a few breaths of fresh air and removing the foul smell that had just been inhaled into his lungs, Yang Zhen looked at Yuan Taidong on the side with a smile: "Yuan Qianhu has some skills, and he manages the edict prison in an orderly manner, which is good." ”

"My lord praised it falsely, and the lower officials just did their duty. Since he has the trust of Governor Liu and is in charge of the most important affairs of the edict in my brocade guard, the subordinate officials should handle things carefully and not cause trouble to the adults. Yuan Taidong saw Yang Zhen commenting on himself like this, and finally let go of the mood he had been carrying, and at the same time said modestly.

Yang Zhen nodded with satisfaction: "Yuan Qianhu is really a reassuring subordinate, and the official is very pleased." However, are you sure that you will not make any mistakes in the management of the edict? ”

"Of course, the lower officials don't dare to have any negligence, even if it is a one-person offense, the lower officials don't dare to indulge easily." Yuan Taidong hurriedly emphasized.

"Of course it's impossible to indulge, but what if it's too much?" Seeing that he had slowly entered his own chamber, Yang Zhen's voice became softer and softer.

"What do you mean by that, sir?" Yuan Taidong asked a little inexplicably.

"Bring the stuff." As soon as Yang Zhen spread his hand, a subordinate handed him something like an account book. I saw him put it in front of Yuan Taidong and said: "This is the details of the prisoners who entered and exited the imperial prison recorded in my Zhenfu Division, you can take a look." ”

"Huh?" Yuan Taidong's heart sank suddenly, but he still took the booklet with both hands and flipped through it hastily. I saw that most of the books in this booklet were written on a certain year, month and day, and a certain person was imprisoned for a certain crime, and only a few names would be added to the end to write a record of his release from prison, and the others would be circled on the back, indicating that the prisoner had died in the edict.

After a few quick pages, Yuan Taidong stopped and asked a little strangely, "I don't know the purpose of Lord Zhenfu to let the lower officials read this booklet?" ”

"Why, don't you understand? Then let the official tell you. Yang Zhen stared at Yuan Taidong with a calm gaze: "I have checked before, according to this booklet, there should be thirty-seven prisoners in the edict prison now." If I had checked it today, it would have been a number, or one or two less, because no one could have been sure if someone had died in a cell in those two days.

"But after checking the edict today, the conclusion I came to is very problematic. At present, there are as many as 77 prisoners in the Imperial Prison. Then the official is going to ask you Yuan Qianhu, where did the extra forty prisoners come from, are all the prisoners who died before come back to life? ”

"Huh?" Yang Zhen's question immediately made Yuan Taidong stammer, and he couldn't come back to his senses for a long time. No matter how much he guarded, he couldn't have imagined that Yang Zhen would count the number of prisoners in the cell all the way and realize that there were so many more people. It turned out that he walked slowly through the inside of the Imperial Prison, not to check for any flaws or omissions there, but to count the number of people.

Yang Zhen didn't plan to give Yuan Taidong more time to think about countermeasures, and said with a straight face: "The edict prison is the prison granted by the Son of Heaven to our Jinyiwei, and it is where our Jinyiwei was ordered to run errands, and now there are so many more prisoners who shouldn't be there, you Yuan Qianhu, the person in charge of this place, can't say that you don't know anything, right?" ”

"Xiaguan...... Xiaguan ......" Under the coercion of Yang Zhen's gaze, Yuan Taidong hesitated for a while, and could only grit his teeth and say: "Back to Yang Zhenfu, Xiaguan is just acting on orders!" ”

"On orders? Whose order did you take to dare to put a prisoner in my edict at will, don't you know that this is an edict, and it is not something that anyone can enter if they want to? Yang Zhen squinted at him slightly and said, "Or do you want to say that all this is from Liu Dudu?" Well? ”

In fact, Yuan Taidong really wanted to push the matter on Liu Shouyou, but when Yang Zhen asked this, his heart was tight, and he suddenly thought of the contradiction between Liu Shouyou and Yang Zhen. So, as soon as he thought about it, he brought up a target that even fewer people dared to provoke: "Actually, these criminals were all let us be detained by Dongchang." ”

This time, Yuan Taidong told the truth. Although Dongchang also has its own prison, Feng Bao has always liked to be thorough and doesn't want to offend people too much, so that his reputation is as bad as those previous eunuchs such as Wang Zhi, Liu Jin, etc., so even if the officials in the court have conflicts with him, he will not instruct Dongchang's minions to attack these officials.

What he most often uses is to act according to the rules of officialdom and eliminate dissidents through the officials under him. But there are always some enemies that he can't deal with through formal means, so Gonggong Feng, who attaches great importance to reputation, hit the idea on the head of Jinyiwei, and let them take action to deal with people, and he himself can stay out of the matter.

Although in terms of facts, everyone can still understand that all this comes from Feng Gonggong's meaning, Feng Bao still likes to play this hand. Liu Shouyou also knows this, and he also knows that Jinyiwei can still have a little status, relying on this role, so he admits it, and naturally resigns himself to this kind of thing, so that Yuan Taidong can obey Feng Bao's will in everything.

Unexpectedly, this unspoken rule of the tacit understanding in the past actually became a handle to deal with Yuan Taidong after being replaced by Yang Zhen, the new suppressor, which made him, a thousand households under Yang Zhen, a little overwhelmed, and could only take out Dongchang and Feng Bao as shields.

It's a pity that Yang Zhen was not intimidated by this statement at all, and had the idea of stopping at all, but laughed: "This official is really strange, when did our Jinyiwei become the affiliated yamen of Dongchang, and actually have to help them take people and lock them up?" Can't they arrest people themselves? Are you deceiving the official and not understanding anything? Come on, take Yuan Taidong down for me, I will judge this person strictly! ”

With Yang Zhen's order, several cronies rushed up, and immediately twisted the stunned Yuan Qianhu and tied his arms!