Linqing knew that Li Tai was dead, and he was dead. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

When the handyman of the Qinglou found the dead body of the red strip in the barrel, he exclaimed in surprise.

Immediately afterwards, the entire Linqing knew the terrible news.

Gu Dingchen is naturally too. When he learned the news of Li Tai's assassination, he was first shocked, then angry, and then ordered Zhao Mengqing, the governor of the prefecture, to investigate the matter strictly, and set a ten-day deadline for Zhao Zhizhou.

Within ten days, if Zhao Mengqing can't find out the truth and catch the murderer, then he will be punished together.

Zhao Zhizhou patted his chest as a guarantee, saying that he would definitely follow the orders of Lord Qincha and arrest the murderer.

He did show great enthusiasm for his work, and ordered the third class of officials to search the whole city, and finally captured a blacksmith with a scar on his face.

According to Zhao Zhizhou's words, all clues point to this person, and he must be the murderer of Li Tongzhi.

Gu Dingchen immediately went to the prison for arraignment, and the blacksmith naturally kept shouting injustice. Gu Dingchen felt that this matter was full of suspicions, so he asked Zhao Mengqing what was going on.

Zhao Zhizhou cried and said: "If Lord Qincha doesn't believe in the lower officials, then dismiss the lower officials and investigate them." But please don't doubt the professional ethics of your subordinates. ”

Gu Dingchen: "......"

"This official doesn't suspect you, but you said that a blacksmith assassinated Li Tongzhi, you have to come up with some evidence, right?"

"What Lord Qincha said is that the lower officials dared to ask the officials to take people, so naturally they found evidence. According to the old bustard of the Qinglou, the blacksmith Chen San did go to the Qinglou that night and ordered a few girls......"

"Pick up the important ones!"

Gu Dingchen was not angry and arrogant.

"Yes, yes."

Zhao Mengqing continued: "Lord Qincha, you think, it is extremely unusual for a blacksmith to enter and leave the Qinglou. With his financial resources, if he wants to spend one night in the Qinglou, I'm afraid he will have to lose a piece of meat if he doesn't go bankrupt. So why did he suddenly appear in the Qinglou? ”

Zhao Mengqing's inducement obviously played a role, Gu Dingchen pondered for a moment and said, "According to what you say, this person is indeed very suspicious. ”

As for the blacksmith's crying out, it doesn't really mean anything. Any murderer will desperately cry out after the crime, which is more of a means of self-protection.

"But why would a blacksmith have a grudge against Li Tongzhi?"

Gu Dingchen was still very skeptical of the blacksmith's motives.

"This, I'm afraid I can only be tortured to make him spit out the truth. However, Xia Guan heard some rumors, and it seemed that Li Tongzhi had an affair with this Chen blacksmith's mother-in-law. ”

Of course, the blacksmith captured by Zhao Mengqing was just a substitute for the dead, but he was not caught from the street casually.

The reason why he chose this person was naturally to do some research into his identity.

This blacksmith Chen San is a native of Linqing, three generations of grandparents and grandchildren have made a living by striking iron, and married a mother-in-law Sun, although it is not a beautiful lady, but it is better to bear hardships and stand hard work, and the ass is very good to give birth to.

Sun gave birth to two sons and a daughter to Chen San. The family is happy, and although the life is hard, there is also hope.

But everything changed a month ago, when Sun, who had just given birth to a daughter for Chen San, was called by Master Li Taili, a fellow acquaintance in Honshu, to be a wet nurse for his little son.

This is a very common thing, the wives of official eunuchs are generally reluctant to breastfeed in person, so they find a lactating woman from the common people's family to be a wet nurse and breastfeed on their behalf.

In this regard, blacksmith Chen San did not object. After all, wet nurses can receive a lot of money, which is very important for poor families like them.

But tragedy struck.

Sun went to Li Tong's prefect's mansion and ran back two days later, closed the door and ignored anyone.

Blacksmith Chen felt sorry for his daughter-in-law, so he brought the prepared meal to his daughter-in-law's house. But no one opened the door after several inquiries.

Blacksmith Chen was in a hurry, so he kicked open the door.

As soon as he entered the house, Blacksmith Chen was completely stupid. The daughter-in-law kicked over the stool and hanged herself!

A good mother-in-law died like this, and Blacksmith Chen was naturally grief-stricken.

After grief, he naturally hated Li Tongzhi to the core.

Her mother-in-law couldn't think of committing suicide after she went to Li's house to be a nurse, even a fool knew that Li Tongzhi must have done something unbearable to her.

Blacksmith Chen did think so, but he had no evidence and couldn't do anything to Li Tongzhi.

Before sending someone to assassinate Li Tai, Zhao Mengqing already knew about this matter and made a plan. Once Lord Qin Cha ordered him to solve the case, he arrested Blacksmith Chen and brought him to the top cylinder.

No one knows better than Zhao Mengqing that the murderer is not Chen San. But all he wanted was Chen San's motives.

No man with a bloody nature would allow his wife to be defiled by another man, even if this person was an official of the imperial court.

Chen San had enough motivation to do this.

As for Chen San's going to the Qinglou to buy spring, it was naturally Zhao Mengqing's perjury to force the old bustard.

If you say it's true, it's true. If you say it's fake, he's fake, and there's no conclusive conclusion at all.

Zhao Mengqing controlled everything in the palm of his hand, and even Qin Cha could not immediately see the flaws.

Gu Dingchen's face turned blue and purple for a while, and finally flicked his sleeves and said: "If this thing is true, then it is not strange that this blacksmith Chen assassinated Li Tai." ”

After saying that, he interrogated Blacksmith Chen again.

This time, the poor blacksmith Chen didn't know the inside story and admitted that Li Tongzhi had done indecent things to his mother-in-law.

Gu Dingchen was furious, and when he wanted to convict Chen San, thinking that he was taking revenge on Li Tongzhi, he sneaked into the Qinglou and killed Li Tongzhi while he was bathing.

Everything is so logical, there is nothing unreasonable at all.

In Gu Dingchen's opinion, Li Tongzhi was of course wrong to insult Chen Blacksmith's wife, but Chen Blacksmith used violent means to kill Li Tongzhi because of this, which was also an atrocity.

It is not possible to conclude that Blacksmith Chen's murderous behavior is correct just because he has been wronged before.

Killing an official of the imperial court is, of course, a capital offense.

Gu Dingchen immediately sentenced Chen San to beheading.

Of course, this also needs to be reported to the Criminal Department, and approved by the Criminal Department, and the Son of Heaven can only commit a canonical punishment against a person.

Zhao Mengqing saw it in his eyes and was happy in his heart.

As long as Blacksmith Chen is executed, the case will be closed. It is very rare for the Ming Dynasty to overturn the case, not to mention that this is a case personally tried by Lord Qincha, who dares to overturn the case?

Gu Dingchen's excerpt arrived in Beijing and was naturally delivered to the General Political Envoy. It is classified by the General Secretary and sent to the Cabinet.

Xie Shen and Li Dongyang were the first to see this letter.

Both of them were puzzled, why did Gu Dingchen die in Linqing as soon as he arrived in Linqing, or Tongzhi was such a second-in-command.

What's even more strange is that the one who assassinated Tongzhi was a blacksmith.

Although Gu Dingchen described the background of the matter, Xie Shen still felt that it was very unusual.

"Xiya Gong, in my opinion, there must be something strange about this matter."

Xie Shen said in a deep voice: "Linqing is where the banknote customs are located, the place where the Yellow River Canal meets, and the status and position are extremely important. To be an official in such a place must be very capable. I watched the evaluation of Li Tai's officials, and it has always been in the middle and upper. So, why would he only be a deputy official in Linqing? ”

"This ...... It's a little weird indeed. ”

In fact, what Li Dongyang wants to ask is what does this have to do with this case? But it didn't come out.

"In my opinion, it must be Li Tai who has taken a fancy to the position of Linqing Zhizhou and wants to replace him."

Xie Shen said unhurriedly: "Don't look at the Zhizhou, there are only five grades, but this Linqing Zhizhou is the same as the prefect of Suzhou, which is actually one level higher than other prefectures." After working in Linqing for three years, I am afraid that the money for the pension has been enough. ”

Although Xie Shen's words were a bit blunt, they were true.

Anyone who has anything to do with the canal must have a good gray income.

"So I suspect that this matter is not as simple as the blacksmith assassinating Li Tongzhi, I am afraid that it is a battle within the Linqing official office."

The reason why Xie Shen was so sure was not because he was superfluous, but because it was all too coincidental.

As soon as Gu Dingchen arrived in Linqing with his front foot, he knew that Li Tai died violently on his back foot, and then Zhao Mengqing, the governor of Zhouzhou, immediately arrested the murderer Chen Blacksmith. Everything was like a pre-rehearsal and just went through the process.

More importantly, Xie Shen did not believe in Blacksmith Chen's assertion that he had assassinated Li Tongzhi.

If Blacksmith Chen really wanted to assassinate Li Tongzhi to avenge his wife, he could do it a month ago, why wait until a month later, wait until Gu Dingchen arrived in Linqing before doing it?

Doesn't that make sense, right? In this case, either choose to kill the dog official immediately and become a real man, or simply swallow his anger and break his teeth and swallow it in his stomach to be the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. There is absolutely no possibility of enduring it for a month before doing it.

There is only one explanation, and that is that it was all deliberately arranged.

Maybe Blacksmith Chen's wife was indeed insulted by Li Tongzhi, but since this guy didn't do it at the time, it is more likely that he will be a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle.

Xie Shen prefers to believe that Li Tongzhi's death was due to a power struggle, and the person who wants him to shut up the most must be someone with whom he has a direct conflict of interest.

After turning over and over, Xie Shen could only lock his eyes on Zhizhou Zhao Mengqing.

There was another reason that prompted him to make this judgment, that is, Gu Dingchen mentioned that he mentioned it intentionally or unintentionally in the recital, saying that a small official had previously reported that Zhao Mengqing, Zhizhou, had robbed the people's daughters and raised courtesans.

Later, the matter was settled, but Zhizhou and Tongzhi fought hard, and even cried in front of Gu Dingchen, asking for an umpire.

That's intriguing.

Xie Shen knows better than anyone about the power struggle.

Compared with the imperial cabinet, the local power struggle can only be regarded as a play at best.

Xie Shen can see through these little tricks at a glance.

If Xie Shen didn't guess wrong, then the driving force behind the little official's report of Zhizhou Zhao Mengqing must be Li Tai.

After Li Tai and Zhao Mengqing tore their faces, Zhao Mengqing decided to buy a murderer, killed Li Tai and blamed the matter on the blacksmith Chen San.

In this way, things are much more reasonable.

Of course, this is just Xie Shen's inference. He told his thoughts to Li Dongyang, a scholar of Shoufu University, and Li Shoufu pondered for a moment after hearing it: "Human life is a matter of heaven, and we really shouldn't jump to conclusions." Let's talk to Your Majesty about this matter first. ”

"Well, according to what Xiya Gong said, I'll go to the leopard room now."

I have to say that after this incident, Xie Shen wanted to re-evaluate Gu Dingchen's ability.

Originally, he thought that Gu Dingchen was a famous minister in history, and his ability should be very outstanding, so he handed over the matter of canal dredging to him, and guaranteed him to go to Linqing as a messenger.

Who would have thought that Gu Dingchen would be so careless that he would be easily coaxed. As long as you're not a nerd, you can see the clues to this kind of thing.

It's a pity that Gu Dingchen is such a nerd. It is true that he is the champion, but after winning the champion, he has been compiling books in the Hanlin Academy to improve his qualifications, and then he went to the East Palace, and after becoming the deputy examiner of the Enke Examination, he jumped directly to the Ministry of Rites, and he has no experience in local office.

For these Confucian scholars, who turned their ears to what was going on outside the window and only read the books of the sages, the experience of local service was particularly crucial.

This can make up for the lack of more than ten years of their lives and give them a clear understanding of human nature.

It's a pity that Gu Dingchen is too smooth, and he has no chance to release all the way.

This is tantamount to his death.

In fact, if you look at the bachelors of the Ming Dynasty, most of them are mouth cannon parties, and the so-called ability is to be muddy, and Zhang Ju is an exception in this regard. But Zhang Juzheng also served in the Beijing Yamen, and he can't be regarded as a complete stunned scholar. As for Xie Shen, needless to say, he is a traverser, and his vision is higher than that of these Ming Dynasty people.

After Xie Shen came to the leopard room, he was soon received by the Son of Heaven.

Zhu Houzhao has been sullen these days, because his favorite concubine, Mrs. Liu, has contracted a strange disease, and her body is covered with red spots, which is unbearable.

The imperial doctors of the Tai Hospital were helpless, and Zhu Hou was anxious in his eyes.

After seeing Xie Shen, Zhu Houzhao urged: "Sir, can you ask Divine Doctor Li to take a look at my concubine?" ”

Xie Shen said in his heart, the divine doctor Li in the mouth of His Majesty the Emperor must be Li Shizhen, his father Li Yanwen.

It should be said that this person also served in the Tai Hospital for a short time, but because he did not adapt to the cramped environment of the Tai Hospital, he finally resigned and left the Beijing Division and began to practice medicine.

But Li Yanwen has always been in contact with Xie Shen, and he should be in Hejian Mansion now.

If Xie Shen wrote a letter, he really couldn't say that he would be able to invite Li Yanwen back.

"Obey. However, this Doctor Li had a strange temper, and the minister could only write a letter to persuade him to return to Beijing. As for his reaction when he saw the letter, the minister could not guarantee it. ”

Zhu Houzhao was overjoyed when he heard this, as long as there is a glimmer of hope, it is good, where will he be demanding. What's more, Doctor Li and Mr. Xie have a very personal relationship, if Mr. Li doesn't move, then I'm afraid no one in the world can invite this doctor to move.

"Your Majesty, the minister is here for the sake of Linqing."

Zhu Houzhao frowned and said, "Linqing? Didn't Gu Qing just go to Linqing some time ago? Why did this happen? ”

"Your Majesty is wise, this matter was sent to the cabinet by Master Gu Chen Shuxuan."

"Oh? The gentleman said to take a look. ”

Zhu Houzhao waved his hand.

"Obey."

Xie Shen saluted Zhu Houzhao respectfully, and then recited the recital.

Zhu Houzhao was silent for a moment and said: "It's another murder case, this bold Diao people dare to assassinate the court officials, what are you waiting for, he should be punished to warn the world." ”

Xie Shen almost spurted out a mouthful of blood.

His Majesty the Emperor can have a little ability to think independently, if everything is so casual, the process of approving the execution of death row prisoners is really just a formality.

"Your Majesty, I'm afraid this matter is not as simple as it seems on the surface, and I'm afraid there is something else hidden in my opinion." Xie Shen then repeated the inferences he and Li Dongyang's analysis to Zhu Houzhao, causing Zhu Houzhao to clapped his hands and said angrily: "They are bullying the king, bullying the king." What does the sir think about this? ”

......

......