Wanli Emperor Zhu Yijun ascended the throne at the age of ten, when Zhang Juzheng was in power, all political affairs, irrelevant white, the respect of the Ninety-Five, like a puppet, and even living and eating, are not free, the young Wanli Emperor was very angry, so there was a great liquidation after Zhang Juzheng's death, and since then he has hated the power of his subordinates, and the election of ministers deliberately picks some soft and familiar ones, such as Zhang Siwei, Zhao Zhigao, Zhu Geng, these people, loyal and good advice are not used, and the cabinet has completely become the emperor's secretarial body, and the power is not as good as before - but there is no dare to take responsibility, talented cabinet ministers, All government affairs must be pressed on the head of Emperor Wanli, and Emperor Wanli does not have the talent of Zhang Juzheng, and there is no better governance measures after the abolition of Zhang Juzheng's new policy, and it is impossible to balance various political forces, so that the government is bad, and the party disputes arise - in the past ten years, Emperor Wanli has mastered a good way to deal with his subordinates, that is, to stay in the middle and not to reply, in addition to incompetence, laziness and paranoia, is to use the so-called "rule by inaction" to weaken and restrict the pressure of the cabinet and the outer court on the imperial power, anyway, the sky will not fall, On the evening of 27 February, Wu Daonan, the second assistant of the cabinet, sent a note to the chief eunuch on the case of fraud in the imperial examination, and the eunuch Lu Shou, who was in charge of the seal of the eunuch, did not dare to slack off, and went to the Hongde Hall of the Qianqing Palace overnight to report to Emperor Wanli, and Emperor Wanli said: "There is no hurry, stay in the middle to wait for approval, and see how the outer court reacts." ”

Sure enough, on the evening of the 28th, there were Li Song, the imperial history of Guangdong Province, Zhou Shidan, the imperial history of Zhejiang Province, Yao Zongwen in the official department, and Liu Wenbing in the engineering department, who impeached Wu Daonan, and criticized Wu Daonan for arbitrarily and arbitrarily appropriating the examination papers that should have been dethroned when he presided over the examination. The reason for forcibly recommending an examination paper that violated the temple of the first emperor was that Zhang Yuan and Xu Guangqi were both disciples of Jiao Hong.

Emperor Wanli continued to wait and see - on the first day of the first month of March, Liu Chuxian, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, He Zongyan, the right attendant of the Ministry of Rites, Yao Yongji in the Ministry of Rites, and Zhu Jie, the inspector of the Ministry of Households, asked the emperor to order the Ministry of Rites to join the Kedao to conduct a re-examination of Shen Tonghe, the seventh Zhao Mingyang, and one hundred and fifteen candidates who burned the ink scroll due to the fire of the Gongyuan Academy, so as to calm the grievances of the candidates - the Wanli Emperor saw that the time had arrived, and first approved the re-examination, only one exam, and made five eight-strand essays, three of the four book questions, and two of the scriptures. The reason for the sixth candidate Zhang in this subject is very controversial, and he also has to participate in the re-examination, and if the craftsmanship is sloppy, he will also be degraded.

The reply was sent to the cabinet, the first assistant Fang Congzhe breathed a sigh of relief, the emperor did not immediately ask for a strict investigation of the imperial examination case is a great wisdom, many things are more and more chaotic, confused, calm things is the best policy, of course, this is just Fang Congzhe's idea, Wu Daonan is very disapproving, Wu Daonan feels that it is unfair to let Zhang Yuan participate in the retest, which is tantamount to not investigating the sin of framing the cheater, but making it difficult for the victim, but this is the emperor's will, only obey, with Zhang Yuan's talent, there is no problem in passing the retest, This can also clear up Yao Zongwen's accusation of Xu Guangqi and Zhang Yuan's secret joint, which is also good for him Wu Daonan, because the impeachment of the officials has put Wu Daonan under great pressure - today is the second day of the first month of March, according to the convention, the palace examination will be held on March 15, and the time is very urgent, Fang Congzhe and Wu Daonan immediately went to the lobby of the Ministry of Rites, and convened Liu Chuxian, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, He Chengyan, the right attendant, and the Taoist officials to discuss the re-examination, and agreed that the re-examination period was the eighth day of the first month of March, and the location was in the lobby of the Ministry of Rites, Shen Tonghe, Zhao Mingyang, Zhang Yuan's three people will be the three of the examination officials are not allowed to serve as the re-examination examiner, the sealing officer, the transcription officer is also replaced, five questions and eight shares will be temporarily drawn during the examination, the examination time from the beginning of the morning to the beginning of the afternoon unitary hour, no follow-up candles, the marking officer must be read overnight, the ninth day of the first month of March will be dismantled, roll call, announced the list of six re-examination Chinese candidates, as for Zhang Yuan, Shen Tonghe, Zhao Mingyang three, as long as the level of craftsmanship is equivalent to the time of the examination, will not be dethroned - after the re-examination is agreed, it is already the time to hold the lamp, The officials were waiting to disperse, at this time, a shocking news came: a corpse was found in the villa of Dong Qichang of Zhishi Hanlin, and the corpse was suspected to be the fugitive transcription student Zhuo Xiaosheng, which was discovered by the candidates, and now there are thousands of candidates gathered on the bank of the Paozi River, no wonder it is so quiet outside the yamen of the Ministry of Rites today!

…… There is an observatory abandoned by Qin Tianjian on the east side of the Baozi River, the platform is 100 feet high, less than a mile away from Dong Qichang's villa, Neng Liang and Mingyan were ordered by Zhang Dai to use a clairvoyant mirror to monitor the movement of Dong Mansion on the observatory early in the morning of February 28, it is raining lightly, two people wear hats and wear robes, at first it is very fresh, when looking down with this clairvoyant mirror, Dong Mansion is like being on the side of the observatory one mile away, you can step in a few steps, the peach blossoms of Dong Mansion bloom well, a large piece of red and gorgeous, the pavilions and pavilions hidden among the flowers and trees, As long as there is no place to cover, you can see clearly, there are a lot of Dong's female dependents, walking around in red, green, and green on the ring corridor, Neng Liang and Mingyan grabbed the clairvoyant mirror to see, they saw that there were two carriages in Dong's house went out, and they came back after about an hour, and the people who came down from the car because of the trees blocked them, they couldn't see clearly, and the people went directly into the house, and they didn't see anyone in and out of the house for a whole day, and they didn't see anything abnormal in the house - Nengliang and Mingyan were tired of it after only being fresh for half a day, but the young master of Zongzi had a life, and he had no choice but to be in this miscellaneous trees and grass, Stay on the desolate platform infested by foxtails, two people, you monitor for half an hour, I monitor for half an hour, someone sends food and drink, but it is idle, just stuffy, two people in the night in the first half of the night and the second half of the night, the clairlife mirror is too lazy to look, just look at it casually with your eyes, it is late at night, the lights in Dong's house are out, what else to monitor!

On the 29th, this day is even more boring, Dong Mansion does not see anyone in and out for a day, and at the end of the night, the people on both sides of the Baozi River are almost out of the lights, and they can sleep on the ground in the middle of the night, and they wear a long jacket with a cigarette smoke, sit cross-legged on the edge of the observatory, drink Yanjing yellow rice wine with a wine gourd to keep out the cold, and glance in the direction of Dong Mansion from time to time, thinking that it is okay if it doesn't rain today, they are bored and sit down, and softly hum the "West Building" that the young master of Zongzi loves to sing these days:

"My heart trembled, and I saw the cold soaked blue lake, which was a shadow of tears, and Yingying shook her dream eyes. Dressed up, busy looking for a pen inkstone, a curtain of flower shadows and half a bed book, hugging knees and moaning Fu Suoju, tonight the moon should have a dream, and there are many untried dreams. I, Yu Juan, want to be a little small, I only want to die of illness, and I have broken this marriage-"

Mingyan suddenly closed his mouth, he saw the lights on in Dong's house a mile away, and when he picked up the clairvoyant mirror to look at it, the lights went out again, Mingyan didn't care, and continued to sing, and when the half-gourd wine was drunk, it was already the second half of the night, with three or four points of alcohol, drowsiness also hit, so he went to call Nengliang up to take over - Nengliang took the telescope in a daze, looked at Dong's villa, and muttered: "Why is there still someone who hasn't slept?" Suddenly, his voice tightened, and he said, "Mingyan, come and see, what are the people in Dong's house doing?" ”

Mingyan squinted and only saw that there seemed to be a little light in Dong's house, and he could see clearly after taking the clairvoyant mirror, under the peach blossom tree in the back garden, there seemed to be three people in the dark, one carrying a lantern, and two people seemed to be digging something, and said strangely: "What are you digging in the middle of the night, hiding treasure?" I stared at it for a while, and saw that the two people had been digging for a long time, and the pit should have been dug very deep, and I hadn't found the treasure yet, so I couldn't help yawning - Neng Liang said: "You go to sleep, I'll star." When he took the clairvoyant mirror and looked at it, he said "Huh" again, and said: "They don't dig anymore, fill the pit with soil." ”

Mingyan yawned and said, "I guess I didn't dig anything." "I went to sleep, and when I woke up the next day and asked Nengliang if he saw anything later, Nengliang shook his head.

After two days and two nights, I only saw that the matter of digging a pit in the middle of the night was more strange, so I naturally wanted to report to the young master of Zongzi, Zhang Dai listened to it, and felt that there was a lot of secret, so he immediately rushed to the East Fourth Archway to see Zhang Yuan, and said his conjecture: "Could it be that the Dong family is killing people and destroying mouths?" ”

Zhang Yuan said: "The dog jumped over the wall in a hurry, there is nothing that can't be done, and the one who is killed is either the framer in the Gongyuan or the transcription——"

Zhang Dai said excitedly: "If this is the case, then the imperial examination case that framed you can be easily solved, and the Dong father and son will kill themselves if they do too much injustice." ”

Zhang Yuan said: "Now it's just a guess, I'm not sure, if you rashly report the case to the Five Soldiers and Horses Division, Dong Qichang is a well-known gentry, and the people of the Soldiers and Horses Division will not break into Dong's house to search just based on our report, and it's not good to startle the snake——"

Zhang Dai frowned and said, "Then how to verify?" ”

Zhang Yuan said resolutely: "Unite some movers and rush in, just say that it is indignant to investigate the evidence of Dong Qichang and the imperial examination case, I am the leader, I am the victim, it doesn't matter if the behavior is excessive, it will never be good for the Dong family to dig a pit in the backyard in the middle of the night." ”

Zhang Dai waved his fist and said: "Yes, that's it, Neng Liang originally followed Uncle Zhong to Dong's house, and roughly knew the location of the digging pit, so he directly asked someone to carry a hoe to dig." ”

Zhang Yuan said: "Big brother, don't make a noise first, wait for me to discuss it with my brother-in-law." ”

When Shang Zhouzuo came back in the evening, Zhang Yuan explained the situation to his brother-in-law, and Shang Zhouzuo frowned and said, "Is this appropriate?" ”

Zhang Yuan said: "If you can't do it, you can't break through the dangerous chess, and I can't go to Fengtian Temple to take the exam with grievances." ”

Shang Zhouzuo saw that Zhang Yuan was resolute, and he was not easy to stop, so he only told Zhang Yuan to be careful and not to cause casualties among the sincere and benevolent soldiers, Zhang Yuan said: "Don't worry, eldest brother, I have a strategy to avoid frontal conflicts." ”

On the first day of the first month of March, Zhang Yuan and Zhang Dai went separately to contact Zhujuzi, of course, with the members of the Han Society as the main force, and then made an appointment with some of the lifters of Suzhou Mansion, and agreed to gather on the bank of the Baozi River in the morning, at the same time, Nengliang and Mingyan continued to stare at the observatory - at the end of the morning of the second day of the first month of March, more than 50 of the Hanshe lifters gathered on the bank of the Baozi River, and more than 30 Suzhou Mansions, headed by Zhang Yuan, went to the front gate of Dong Qichang's villa and shouted to invite Dong Xuanzai to come out to meet, Dong's father and son were like great enemies, and dozens of slaves gathered in the front yard. Waiting for the battle, Zhang Yuanyi severely condemned Dong Qichang for framing him, and asked Dong Qichang to take the initiative to surrender, confess leniently, resist strictly, etc., etc., and so on, and after talking a lot of nonsense, the members of the Han Society felt strange: Zhang Sheshou has always spoken sharply, why is he so verbose today, what is the use of saying these innocuous words?

At the same time that Zhang Yuan negotiated the theory with Dong Qichang and his son at the main gate of Dong Mansion, Neng Liang took Wang Da Hammer, Laifu and Feng Hu to the back door of Dong's villa, and saw that there was no one to guard, so he climbed over the wall and entered, all four of them carried hoes, and quickly found the peach forest in the back garden, carefully debated the ground, and did not see any traces of new soil. Immediately asked Wang Dazhui and Feng Hu to carefully move the flowerpot shelf, and sure enough, they found that the ground here was freshly turned——...... Zhang Yuan, who was outside the main gate of Dong Zhai, was still using diplomatic rhetoric to deal with Dong Qichang's father and son, and when he talked for a full two moments, he was clichéd and talked endlessly, and Dong Qichang, who was across the wooden gate, was impatient to listen to it, and sneered: "The old man doesn't have time to talk nonsense with you, if there is anything, you can go to the Soldiers and Horses Division and the Criminal Department to talk about it." "Turn around and go back.

Zhang Yuan was unmoved, and said politely: "Dong Hanlin is slow, listen to me again, where did Dong Hanlin invite that framer, it's really a good skill, the spliced exam paper has been hidden from the eyes of most people, if I say that the framer is in my hands, does Dong Hanlin believe it?" ”

Dong Qichang looked up to the sky and snorted, saying, "I believe it, you go and call him-" and sneered: "Zhang Yuan, the so-called cheating in the field is your own game to frame you for others." ”

Zhang Yuan instructed Wu Ling next to him, and Wu Ling left in response, which made Dong's father and son suspicious, although he knew that the framer had left the capital half a month ago, but he was still uneasy, just waiting, to see what tricks Zhang Yuan could play - Zhang Yuan didn't bother to talk now, thinking that they would dig almost as much as they wanted, if there was no us, they would be scattered, and they would look at each other silently with Dong's father and son and a group of house slaves, and the scene was extremely strange.

After waiting for another moment, Dong Qichang was impatient again, his old legs were sore, he no longer paid attention to Zhang Yuan, and ordered the house slaves to guard the front and back doors, he wanted to go back to rest, at this moment, he heard a person shouting and ran out of the back garden: "There are really dead bodies, Young Master Zongzi, Young Master Jie Zi, Dong Qichang has killed someone." ”

When Dong's father and son heard this, their faces suddenly turned pale, and then Dong Qichang understood why Zhang Yuan had been talking nonsense with him for so long, this is to divert the tiger from the mountain and attack the west, but how could Zhang Yuan know that there was a corpse in the back garden!

Neng Liang was in front, Laifu and Feng Hu were carrying hoes in the back, and then looking at the sledgehammer, dragging the muddy corpses over, these four people were really excessive, they didn't take a detour, and came directly from the back door to the front door.

Dong Qichang took a few steps back, staggered, if he hadn't been supported by the servants, he would have collapsed to the ground, he knew that the Huating Dong family was completely finished this time.

When the people from the Five Cities Soldiers and Horses Division arrived, Dong Zuchang had been beaten half to death, and Dong Qichang was old because no one beat him, but he was also paralyzed on the ground like a dead dog.

(To be continued)