"What's wrong with Xiao Shangshu to make you so in such a hurry?" Just as Xiao Dezhao walked into the Zichen Palace, Le Yanwei asked.

Xiao Dezhao was about to salute Gaozong and Empress Wu, but was stopped by Gaozong, because he was already tired, he said a little impatiently, "Xiao Aiqing is down to business!" ”

"I understand." Xiao Dezhao bowed down to receive the order, and said, "Your Majesty, Niangniang, Xishi Cheng Wei Ling is dead. ”

"Nishishi?" Gaozong was puzzled, this unpopular official died, as for making the criminal department Shangshu so nervous? asked in an unhappy tone, "Who is Wei Ling?" ”

"Wei Ling is Xishi Cheng!" Xiao Dezhao explained.

Li Hong almost laughed when he heard the conversation between Gaozong and Xiao Dezhao, but he couldn't help but laugh.

Xu Jingzong on the side frowned, glanced at Empress Wu, and saw that Empress Wu also looked confused, so he explained, "Back to Your Majesty, Niangniang, Xishi Cheng is the official who manages the order of Chang'an City, and belongs to the sixth-grade petty officials who have been outflowed from the ninth grade. ”

After listening to Xu Jingzong's explanation, without waiting for Gaozong to speak, she scolded angrily, "Xiao Dezhao, are you too idle as a scholar of the Criminal Department?" Is there nothing to do? Is it worth such a fuss to bother Your Majesty when a petty official who is not in the stream dies? ”

"Please atone for your sins, this Wei Ling is an unpopular petty official, but his death is too strange. Not to mention that he was beheaded, and the officials of Chang'an County also found 20,000 copper coins in his house... The thieves didn't kill him for money, but also took away his head, which makes people very puzzled, and Wei Ling is just a petty official who is not in the middle of the class, and he is not from the scholar clan, how can he have so much money? Wei Chen felt that there must be a problem here, and it would..."Xiao Dezhao hurriedly explained.

It's just that before he finished speaking, Gaozong asked in surprise, "A petty official who is not in the stream, and he actually found 20,000 copper coins at home?" ”

Li Tingrui in the Song Dynasty had a poem: wrapped around his waist for 100,000 yuan, and rode a crane to Yangzhou. The economy of the Song Dynasty was more developed than that of the Tang Dynasty, and because of the policy of hiding the wealth from the people, the common people were even richer, even so, as long as a person had 100,000 yuan, he was already a rich gentry.

So in the Tang Dynasty, during the reign of Gaozong, you can imagine how many 20,000 guan there were.

"Well, there are a few jewels and jade in addition to that——!" Xiao Dezhao replied respectfully.

"What do you think about this?" Gaozong asked with a somewhat cold gaze.

Because of the years of war, the money accumulated by the "Zhenguan Zhizhi" is not much, and the treasury has become very empty, and at this time, a petty official who is not in the stream can accumulate so much money, who would believe that the way of this money will be above board? If you don't believe it, there can only be one explanation, this Xishi Cheng Wei Ling is suspected of corruption.

Li Ji still closed his eyes, looking like he didn't care about himself.

Xu Jingzong, Dou Dexuan, and Jiang Ke didn't speak when they saw that Wu Hou didn't speak, so they didn't prepare to speak.

Only Dai Zhide, Le Yanwei, and Sun Zhiyu glanced at each other, and saw Dai Zhide speak, "Back to Your Majesty, a person who has hidden so much wealth from the family of a minor official of Jiupin must be from the wrong way, and this matter must be investigated in detail." ”

"Your Majesty, Weichen also means this, although the official position of the West City is small, but the West City is prosperous, it is not impossible for him to embezzle money with his position." Le Yanwei said loudly, "Moreover, he is a petty official who is not in the stream, if there is no one behind him, would he dare to take advantage of his position so boldly to embezzle so much money?" ”

After Le Yanwei finished speaking, he had already characterized Xishi Cheng Wei Ling as an official who embezzled money.

And what Li Hong is most afraid of is this, if it is really like Le Yanwei said, Gaozong and Empress Wu both think that Wei Ling is corrupt in Xishi, and the cause of Wei Ling's death is worth discussing, and someone will be sent to investigate in detail at that time, but the key is that such a large array of investigations may not be able to be used, because there are Helan Minzhi and Yang from the left, and there are people hidden behind them, such a large-scale investigation, most of the results will be to find a few scapegoats to close the case.

Li Hong believes that corruption cases like the East and West Cities involve more than just corruption in the East and West Cities, so it is necessary to quietly and slowly investigate in detail, so that the big people behind the hidden scenes can relax their vigilance, thinking that no matter how they are investigated, they will not be found, and then they will be investigated in one fell swoop.

As soon as Le Yanwei spoke, Empress Wu couldn't help it, and said lightly, "Your Majesty, it's too early to say that Wei Ling is corrupt in this matter, right?" ”

"Niangniang-" Le Yanwei was just about to argue, Xu Jingzong on the side had already spoken, "Your Majesty, Niangniang, Wei Ling is a small petty official, the cause of his death is no matter how strange it is, and it will not be so popular with the imperial court, so Weichen's suggestion is that it is more appropriate to hand over this case to the Chang'an County Ya." ”

"Xu Xiang's words are wrong!" As soon as Xu Jingzong's voice fell, Sun Chuyue on the side opened his mouth and retorted, "If I remember correctly, the tax revenue of the West City can only be handed over to the household department through the Chang'an County Ya, since Wei Ling is suspected of corruption, it cannot be ruled out that the Chang'an County Ya has no accomplices, if this case is really handed over to the Chang'an County Ya, I am afraid that nothing will be found at that time." This case involves the issue of embezzlement of commercial taxes, and we cannot but consider it carefully. ”

As soon as Sun said this, Wei Ling's case was once again convicted as a major case of embezzlement of commercial taxes in the West Market, and the nature of the case became even more serious.

"Your Majesty, Niangniang, the minister disagrees with Sun Shilang's opinion." Jiang Ke said out loud, "It's true that Cheng Wei Ling is dead in Xishi, and it is not false that the people of Chang'an County Ya have found a huge amount of money in his house, but it is just a guess to say that he used his power for personal gain to embezzle Xishi commercial taxes, and it is still impossible to count, let alone that Chang'an County Ya has his accomplices." Therefore, Weichen believes that Xu Xiang's suggestion is good, and it is safer to hand over the case to the Chang'an County Ya. ”

Dou Dexuan, who was on the side, also agreed with Xu Jingzong's suggestion and denied the speculation of Le Yanwei and Sun Chuyu.

In this way, the cause of the official Wei Ling's death and which yamen was handed over to find out, and everyone's opinions were divided again. To put it bluntly, the struggle between Gaozong and Empress Wu began again...

Seeing that the two sides were at a stalemate, Le Yanwei moved his gaze to Li Hong.

Because it was Li Hong's support for Gaozong just now, he didn't let Gaozong lose in the battle with Empress Wu, so he put his hope on Li Hong, "What does Your Highness think about this matter?" ”

Li Hong didn't want to stay out of this matter, but he didn't want to show his attitude so early, because there was another person who didn't speak, and this person was Li Ji.

What Li Hong is most unaccustomed to is that Li Ji is now relying on the old and selling the old, his eyes are closed, the old god is there, but as the prime minister, he looks like he has nothing to do with himself, so he opened his mouth and asked Li Ji, "British duke, what do you think of this matter?" ”

Li Ji didn't expect Li Hong to ask his opinion directly, when he opened his eyes suddenly, a look of vigilance flashed in his eyes that was difficult for outsiders to detect, and he pondered for a while before saying, "Wei Ling is a petty official who doesn't care about the stream, there is no need to let the imperial court mobilize the people to investigate him, it is better to hand it over to the Chang'an County Ya." ”

Seeing Li Ji on her side again, Empress Wu's heart blossomed, is this the Li Ji she needs?

In fact, this is because of Li Hong, otherwise with Li Ji's temperament, even if he surrendered to Empress Wu, he would not have made such a clear statement of his position.

"Your Highness, what do you think?" After Li Ji finished speaking, he still didn't forget to ask Li Hong's opinion.

Obviously, Li Hong did not give Li Jiliu face in the two deliberations today, and Li Ji was very dissatisfied with Li Hong's attitude towards him. Because Li Ji felt that Gaozong and Empress Wu were polite to Li Ji, Li Hong was just a prince, what qualifications did he dare to take him so seriously.

"Wei Ling's death is indeed strange, but we can't determine the cause of his death now, so your speculation just now is meaningless, and you can only figure it out after checking..." ”

"What about His Highness's opinion?" Just as Li Hong finished speaking, Sun Chuyue couldn't help but ask.

"Leave this matter to the Chang'an County Ya." Li Hong said in a resolute tone.

"This-" Sun Chuyue and Le Yanwei were stunned, even Dai Zhide didn't expect the prince to say this, only Gaozong and Empress Wu stared at Li Hong with curiosity, because they knew that their son had said so much, it couldn't be just for such a conclusion.

"However, even if this matter is handed over to the Chang'an County Ya, the sons are not very relieved, so they implore the father and the queen mother to hand over this case to the sons and daughters!" Li Hong suddenly asked Gaozong and Empress Wu for advice.

No matter how downplayed this case is, with the additional factors of the "emperor and queen" controversy in it, the investigation will not be too pure, so he has to make such a decision.

Because handing over the case to the Chang'an County Ya is considered to be a good face for Empress Wu, he wants to participate in this case in order to save Gaozong's face.

If he did this, he might make Gaozong and Empress Wu's eyes all move to him, and he would expose his abilities to them prematurely, but others would no longer suspect that he would have other purposes in intervening in this case.

There are pros and cons to his decision.

But in order to find out the corruption case in Dongxi City, as well as the more complicated issue about the Datang tax corruption case behind this corruption case, he had to make such a choice!

The seven prime ministers in the Zichen Palace didn't expect the prince to say this, so they could only move their eyes to Gaozong and Empress Wu, because they had decided on the question of the prince.

Gaozong glanced at Empress Wu and asked, "Why don't you let the prince go and exercise!" What does the queen think? ”

Empress Wu didn't answer Gaozong immediately, but glanced at Li Hong deeply, and then nodded slightly, "Prince, the investigation of the case is different from the government affairs you have handled, you have to pay attention to proportion!" ”

When Li Hong heard Empress Wu say this, his body couldn't help but tremble, because he knew that Empress Wu said this more than just teaching him! Pay attention to proportion, isn't there something in this? He hurriedly bowed down and said, "Thank you Empress Wu, the sons will remember the teachings of the Queen Mother!" ”

Empress Wu ordered the crown prince Li Hong to be in charge of the case of Cheng Wei Ling in Xishi, and left with Gaozong after letting the Criminal Department assist Li Hong. It's just that she didn't have a very gloomy expression when she left, only Gaozong glanced at Li Hong with relief.