The two house slaves on both sides of the sedan chair saw that the man had knocked down the person in front of them, and hurriedly rushed forward to stop him, so as not to collide with Wen Tiren in the sedan chair. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 info but didn't want the man's fast steps to be scary, two steps forward and a roar jumped into the air is a whip down, just hit a person's neck, the man screamed, suddenly his head tilted to the side, seeing that he was not alive, another house slave saw the red and white on the stick in the man's hand, his feet suddenly became soft, fell to the side of the road, fainted, the two sedan chair drivers couldn't put down the sedan chair for a while, and there was no more obstruction between the reckless man and the sedan chair.

Wen Tiren heard the movement outside in the sedan chair, and hurriedly opened the sedan curtain, wanting to see what was going on, but he didn't want to just probe it, and saw a stick coming, he instinctively shrank into the sedan chair, so he avoided the stick. Almost at the same time, Wen Tiren heard a scream, the sedan chair tilted to the right, and he almost fell out of the sedan chair first. It turned out that the stick did not let him avoid it, but it happened to hit the shoulder of the sedan chair man in front of him, and the sedan chair man was in pain, so he lost the sedan chair and fell to the ground, and took the sedan chair with him, and almost brought down Wen Tiren inside.

The man saw that he didn't hit Wen Tiren, he didn't do anything, picked up the long stick in his hand and swept over, only to hear a click, and swept half of the top of the sedan chair, Wen Tiren was in a hurry, picked up the front placket of the robe and jumped out, but he didn't want to step on the air, and his ankle sprained and fell to the ground. The man was very fast, and he grabbed a step to hit the head, Wen Tiren instinctively reached out to block it, only to hear a muffled sound, and his right arm had been broken into two.

Wen Tiren had suffered such a thing, and he almost fainted with a scream, and the stick man picked up the stick and waited for Wen Tiren's life, but he was pounced on by the sedan chair man behind, and the two twisted together. Seeing this, the sedan chair driver who was injured and fell to the ground hurriedly stepped forward to help, while shouting for help from the assassin, and Wen Tiren also shouted together. Although the reckless man is powerful, the two sedan chair drivers are also born with strength, and they are all tired and bones on weekdays, and this kind of scuffle can't be fought for a while. It's only two streets away from Duanmen, and on weekdays, there are people from Beizhen Fusi patrolling back and forth, and they hurriedly ran over when they heard the shouting. The leader was a small banner who saw the situation in front of him, and couldn't help but be shocked, and hurriedly sent his subordinates to hold the reckless man, stepped forward to help Wen Tiren, and pleaded guiltily: "The villain is late, causing the elder to be injured, and the death penalty is a capital crime!" ”

Wen Tiren was already in a cold sweat at this time, but he was still conscious, and said to the little flag: "You quickly send someone to search nearby to see if there are any accomplices, you must be careful to guard this person, and you must not let him escape or die, otherwise you will be asked!" ”

That Xiaoqi is just an official, the size of an ant, how can he stand the inquiry of Wen Tiren and other eunuchs of the dynasty, and hurriedly knelt down and replied categorically: "Elder Ge, please rest assured, the small one must be strictly arrested, and the traitor will never be allowed to slip through the net!" ”

"Ridiculous, ridiculous!" Chongzhen Huo stood up from the chair suddenly, and pointed at Wu Mengming, the commander of the Jinyi Guards on duty, with trembling fingers, and shouted: "On the way to the early dynasty, the second assistant of this dynasty was actually injured with a wooden stick, are there all dead people in the Fusi of Beizhen?" ”

"Damn the sinner!" Wu Mengming hurriedly kowtowed again and again, but at this time he was full of panic, when he was at the end of the door to arrange the morning dynasty when he relied on, after learning that Wen Tiren was attacked, his first reaction was fear, he instinctively linked this matter with the "attack case" in the three major cases of Wanli (interested in learning about the book friends can Baidu) linked, they are all half-crazy and half-stupid reckless men, all with wooden sticks trying to hurt people, the only difference is that this time the target is not the prince of the dynasty, but the second assistant Wen Tiren, and the location of the murder is not in the deep palace, but on the streets outside the Forbidden City. As we all know, the "Attack Case" was heavily shady, involving the dispute between Emperor Wanli and the "Prince", and I don't know how many famous ministers and eunuchs, royal relatives and dignitaries were involved, and even Emperor Wanli himself only executed the parties and two eunuchs in the end. Although he is the commander of the Jinyi Guard, he seems to be a great figure in the eyes of outsiders, but in the eyes of those big people behind the scenes, he is slightly stronger than Xiao Xiaomi, and if he is not careful, he will be killed.

"Stop kowtowing, of course you should be damned!" Chongzhen scolded hatefully, if it weren't for the good news that he had just received from the Ming army to capture Helinger, capture Yue Tuo, and kill Kong Youde, he would be in a good mood, but I was afraid that he would have already beaten this Wu Mengming with dozens of canes first: "I will give you a half-month deadline to find out about this case, if not, take off this clothes and go to the prison to retire!" ”

"The sinner obeys!" Wu Mengming kowtowed two more heads, raised his head cautiously and said in a low voice: "Your Majesty, there is still a sentence that the criminal minister does not know whether to say or not!" ”

"Say whatever you want!" Chongzhen waved his hand impatiently, encountering such things early in the morning made this young man, who was already quite temperamental, more and more impatient.

"Yes, Your Majesty! The criminal thinks that there are many strange things in this case, but I am afraid that there must be a hidden secret behind it, and the minister's official position is humble, I am afraid that I can't do it, and I am afraid that I can't bear the heavy responsibility of His Majesty! “

"How?" Chongzhen frowned and asked.

"Your Majesty, according to Lord Wen's palanquin man, the murderer used a jujube stick. Although according to the law of the Ming Dynasty, showing the blade is the murderer, but in cases like this, the murderer is a dead end anyway, but the murderer uses a wooden stick instead of a sharp weapon to hurt people? ”

Chongzhen was attracted by Wu Mengming's answer, he thought for a moment, and asked in a low voice, "You mean, the assassin didn't actually want to kill Mr. Wen?" ”

"The minister doesn't dare to say anything!" Wu Mengming said in a deep voice: "Of course, this may also be because he doesn't want the government to find clues from the murder weapon afterwards, after all, compared to swords, a jujube stick is everywhere, and it is difficult to track it down!" ”

Chongzhen nodded, he looked at Wu Mengming who was kneeling on the ground, and the anger in his chest disappeared by a few points, it seems that the assassination of Wen Tiren is not as simple as it seems, and his subordinates are not incompetent, he looked at Hu Kejian behind him: "What you said also makes sense, so let's do it, Hu Daban, this matter will be handed over to you, together with Dali Temple and Jinyiwei, we must find out the truth of the matter!" ”

"Slaves obey!"

"Obey the order!"

Hu Kejian and Wu Mengming walked out of the study, Wu Mengming didn't wait for Hu Kejian to speak, and hurriedly smiled: "This matter depends on Gonggong Hu!" ”

"Hey, Lord Wu, why are you dragging me into the water?" Hu Kejian sighed and said, "I haven't offended you on weekdays, have I?" ”

"What did my father-in-law say!" Wu Mengming hurriedly smiled and said, "Isn't there really no way for the villain?" I have to tell the truth, it was His Majesty's trust in his father-in-law that handed over this matter to his father-in-law, and this is not to blame on the villain. ”

Hu Kejian thought about it, sighed and said: "Okay, what you said is also reasonable, this case is very strange, and I don't know how many things are behind it, it's not that you can take on it as a brocade guard, but I'm afraid that I may not be able to take it!" ”

"Father-in-law laughed, you are investigating the case on behalf of the sky, except for the emperor, who else can be bigger than you? What is there that is not responsible? Besides, this kind of thing is to put it bluntly, it can't be understood and confused, and it is enough to get a satisfactory answer to the saint, otherwise it will really tear the sky apart, and the saint will not be happy! ”

"Lord Wu, look at what you said, aren't there still Dali Temple them? Besides, Mr. Zhou is afraid that he will not sit idly by, right? ”

"Oh, Grandpa Hu, why don't you still understand!" Wu Mengming patted his thigh, he looked around at no one, and explained in a low voice: "I don't have to say anything about Dali Temple, all of them are like monkeys, how can they get into this kind of trouble, I bet they must just nod their heads, and they won't say more than half a word, as for Mr. Zhou, let alone mention, how can he care about this matter now!" ”

"What's wrong? Mr. Zhou, what's the trouble with him? Why didn't I know? ”

"Hey, Gonggong Hu, do you think that Yang Wenqiao won a big victory this time when he went out of Beijing to supervise the division, and even the big Baylor of Donglu was captured alive, except for the battle of Ningyuan, has there ever been such a big victory since the battle with Dongyu? Originally, Yang Wen's weak saint was quite long, he returned to Beijing this time, do you think the position of the first assistant under Mr. Zhou's ass is still sitting safely? ”

Hu Kejian was stunned for a moment, and then smiled and said: "Okay, you Wu Mengming, you dare to use all your thoughts here, no wonder you caused such a catastrophe." But what you said is also true, if I am that Zhou Yanru, I am also panicked now! ”

"Besides, there is another reason, Zhou Shoufu will definitely stay away from this matter!"

"One more thing?"

"Yes, Gonggong Hu, do you think what is the official position of the injured Lord Wen?"

"What official position? The Ministry of Rites, the scholar of the East Pavilion University, the second assistant of the dynasty!

"Yes, then do you think that if Lord Wen has three advantages and two shortcomings, who will get the most benefits?"

"This-" When Hu Kejian heard this, he couldn't help but shudder, and his voice suddenly lowered an octave: "Do you mean that the person behind the command is Zhou Yanru?" ”

"I didn't say that!" Wu Mengming laughed: "Let's put it this way, I think it is very unlikely that Lord Zhou has anything to do with this matter, after all, this method is too rough, not like the methods of the ministers of this dynasty." However, with Lord Zhou's mind, he should know to avoid suspicion. ”

"Not bad!" Hu Kejian nodded, he had been in the palace for many years, and he was naturally very clear about the unspoken rules of the high-level political struggle in the imperial court. Since the Song Dynasty, the Shu landlord intellectuals produced by the imperial examination have gradually replaced the scholar landlord intellectuals as the main force of the imperial bureaucracy, and Confucianism, especially science, has gradually become the main criterion for selecting officials, and all political acts must be smeared by Confucianism in order to have legitimacy. Therefore, there are many conventions within the empire, such as if the minister of Zaifu is impeached by the officials, before the Son of Heaven expresses his support, he must give up his power and write a letter of apology at home, which is actually a means of checks and balances of the monarchy, because if the Son of Heaven does not want Zaifu to be suspended, he can completely dismiss the impeachment or leave it unresolved. A minister like Wen Tiren was stabbed, and if Zhou Yanru dared to put his beak in his beak, he would be immediately impeached and forced to leave his post.

While the two were talking, they walked out of the palace gate, and Wu Mengming was about to invite Hu Kejian to go to Jinyiwei's place to interrogate the prisoner together, but he saw a cronie running towards him quickly, looking frightened. An ominous premonition rose in his heart, and he asked, "Is something wrong?" ”

"Damn it!" The cronie knelt down and kowtowed: "That prisoner is dead!" ”

"Dead?" Wu Mengming was shocked when he heard this: "What's the matter, haven't I already ordered him to be carefully guarded, no one is allowed to see him without my order, and he has to wait for me to interrogate him personally?" ”

"My lord, my subordinates did do what you ordered, locked him in the innermost cell, and sent two down-to-earth little flags to keep an eye on him, so as not to let him commit suicide, but-"

"Just what?" Wu Mengming saw the appearance of his subordinates, his heart became more and more angry, if it weren't for the fact that there were many people in the big house, he would have whipped it down a long time ago, but at this time, he could only suppress the anger in his heart and asked in a deep voice: "You tell me carefully, as long as it is not your responsibility, this official will never be angry with you!" ”

"Thank you, sir!" Hearing Wu Mengming say this, the cronie seemed to be relieved, and his speech became a lot more eloquent: "My lord, I took care of it according to your orders, and I also sent gruel and steamed buns into it for lunch, but that man vomited blood and died after just two bites!" ”

"Damn, what about gruel and steamed buns?" Wu Mengming paused.

"No problem with gruel and steamed buns!" The cronie smiled bitterly: "At first, the subordinates thought it was a problem with porridge and steamed buns, but after trying it with the dog, they found that there was no problem with the dog, and the remaining porridge and steamed buns have been sealed, please go and check it!" ”

Wu Mengming glanced at Hu Kejian and said in a pleading tone: "Father-in-law Hu, why don't you go with me to have a look?" ”

"It's good!" Hu Kejian secretly thought that when he went to see it anyway, the prisoner was already a dead man, and Wu Mengming couldn't blame him for it, so if Chongzhen asked, he would have something to say.

This was the first time Hu Kejian had entered the Imperial Prison, and he couldn't help but glance around with a curious gaze. In the imagination of many people, the prison cell of Beizhen Fusi, that is, the Imperial Prison, should be an extremely eerie place, full of blood, torture, torture instruments and screams. But in fact, this is just a misunderstanding, the Ming Dynasty Imperial Prison is located at No. 28, Dongchang Hutong in today's Beijing, from the appearance of the past and a solid courtyard is not much different, but because of the lack of popularity, a little gloomy. Since most of the prisoners here are high-ranking officials, and most of the reasons for being imprisoned are politics rather than really committing serious crimes, and there may be a chance to make a comeback, the environment in the prison is actually much better than most prisons at that time, and the jailer's attitude towards the prisoners is also quite respectful, otherwise even if the prisoners die in prison, the old words of their protégés can make these little minions suffer a catastrophe. (To be continued.) )