Hu Shixiang in the Criminal Department, Lao Yongjia and others interrogated Zhang Cha several times, and also used torture instruments, but Zhang Cha turned over and over again and only said that he came to Beijing to redress his grievances and accidentally broke into the palace, and the confession was also mixed with some crazy words about eating and begging for seals, eating and wearing, and this time the Zhejiang Party officials were mainly ordered to retry the case, and the Zhejiang Party had the closest relationship with the Zheng family, of course, they did not want to implicate the Zheng family, Zhang Cha's confession was of course right in the middle for Hu Shixiang and others of the Zhejiang Party, so he wrote the retrial case file and submitted it to the emperor, as long as the Dali Temple review was correct, The Metropolitan Procuratorate has no objections, so a sensational attack case can be concluded, but unexpectedly, at this moment, Wang Zhiyu, the director of the prison, showed the post in front of the court to retract his confession!

The party struggles in the late Ming Dynasty were mainly concentrated in the yamen of the capital, and each yamen had both Donglin officials and three party officials, just like the Criminal Department, Hu Shixiang, Yue Junsheng, and Lao Yongjia of the Criminal Department, who belonged to the three parties, and Lu Menglong, the director of the Criminal Department, Fu Mei, and Wang Zhihuan, belonged to Donglin, and now Wang Zhihuan, an official of Donglin, retracted his confession, involving the internal officials and eunuchs, obviously to point the finger at Zheng Guifei, and also implicitly threatened the officials of the three parties-

Hu Shixiang, Lao Yongjia and others said that they were ordered to investigate the case, and the results of the retrial had been submitted, but the emperor had not yet approved it, and they could not continue the trial, unless the emperor had another will to request a trial.

In the afternoon, Wang Zhihuan's unveiling post was sent to the cabinet, Fang Congzhe and Wu Daonan's two auxiliary ministers were secretly frightened when they saw the unveiling post, the attack case really can't be good, the stakes are very high, Fang and Wu two votes plan to be retried by the Metropolitan Procuratorate and Dali Temple and the officials of the Criminal Department to retry the striking, and in the evening they will send the celebrant to the emperor to judge -

The palm print of the master of ceremonies Li En looked at the unveiling post and felt a chill on his back, the case of the attack case really involved the internal officials, and he did not dare to let the unveiling post stay in the ceremonial supervisor overnight, and immediately sent it to Qixiang Palace in person, and the next morning he asked the two books of the ceremonial supervisor to go to Qixiang Palace to wait for the decree, to see if the Wanli Emperor had a reply, and the two books waited until the beginning of the time, and brought back a few replies of the chapters, among which there was no Wang Zhihuan's unveiling post, Li En knew that the long-lived master was going to stay in the middle again-

Emperor Wanli did not post on Wang Zhihuan's unveiling post, but the content of the unveiling post has been circulated, and the officials discussed more and more intensely, in the third day after Wang Zhihuan presented the unveiling post, that is, on May 24, Lu Da, the head of the Zhejiang Department of the Ministry of Households, raised three doubts, questioning that since Zhang Cha confessed that there was a eunuch looking for him, then who was the eunuch? confessed to having been to a big mansion in the capital, so where is this mansion? confessed that a eunuch instigated him to break into the palace, who is this eunuch? Shuzhong also insinuated that Zheng Guifei and his party were the main messengers of this case, and by the way, the Zhejiang party spokesmen involved in the case were pushed to Zheng Guifei's party on the charge of covering up, which was equivalent to converting the surname of the dispute between friends into a dispute over the country's capital, so that the Donglin Party could attack the opponent in the name of supporting the crown prince-

In the same year, Lu Dashou's Zhang Ting, the head of the household department, also said that "the prince's power is in danger of accumulating eggs, the monarch is hiding and annihilating, and the upper and lower are blinded", and implored the emperor to issue an order to let the three legal divisions of Jiuqing Kedao try the case, so that the East Palace can be stable.

Although Shangshu is only the three Donglin Party officials who are the main triage, but this is also the general voice of the officials and gentlemen in Beijing, the Donglin officials in Shangshu are quite restrained, and do not explicitly refer to Zheng Guifei and Zheng Guoshu as the masterminds behind the attack case, just hints and insinuations, but what do the people in the market say, the rumors that the relatives Zheng conspired to kill the prince to serve the blessed king as the prince are very loud, and you can hear such remarks on the streets of the capital casually, although Zheng Guotai is one of the five major governors, the left governor of the Zuojun Governor's Mansion, His son Zheng Yang's surname is also Yulin Wei Qianhu, and his power is not small, but he is far from reaching the point of clamping down on words and making the people shut up, and all he can do is to release rumors, and fight rumors with rumors, saying that the criminal Zhang Cha's retraction of his confession was entirely due to the instigation of Wang Zhihuan, the director of the Criminal Department, Wang Zhihuan learned the names of the internal officials Pang Bao and Liu Cheng from Zhang Cha's previous confession, so he instigated Zhang Cha to say "Beat the East Palace to eat and wear" These words, Wang Zhihuan, as an official of the Criminal Department, bent the law on the verge of the case, and the crime was extremely heinous-

Public opinion in Beijing was fiercely divided, and Wang Shichang, the left Shaoqing of Dali, who was in charge of reviewing the attack case, and Zhang Wenda, the right capital of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, who was responsible for supervision, were under great pressure. Who is the master? What is Zhang Cha? Dare to break into the ground, as if walking in a no-man's land, call, but terrifying. "It is also requested that the case be interrogated in detail—

Wang Shichang belongs to the Zhejiang Party, and the people of the Zhejiang Party seconded the Donglin Wang Zhiyu, Lu Dashou and others, which is extremely intriguing, which shows that the call of the government and the opposition to find out the truth of the attack case is rising, as the official of the Dali Temple, Wang Shichang can't withstand the pressure, in order to get rid of himself, the responsibility is pushed to the criminal department, which may also have Zheng Guotai's instructions, Zheng Guotai has contacted his sister Zheng Guifei, Zheng Guifei categorically denied that it has anything to do with the case, so Zheng Guotai also asked for a strict investigation of the case to restore Zheng's innocence, but he didn't know that they had fallen into the trap arranged by the Donglin Party, The more I struggle, the more I fall, the charcoal is getting darker and darker, and the pit is getting more and more smelly-

Or the Wanli Emperor was calm, and turned a deaf ear to those performances, and all of them were left behind, but many things were not eliminated if the emperor stayed or not, and the Metropolitan Procuratorate, Dali Temple, and the Criminal Department took action, and the Dali Temple asked the Criminal Department to retry on the grounds that there were loopholes in the retrial results of the shooting case reported by the Criminal Department and that the prisoner's confession was inconsistent, so the Three Law Divisions put the Wanli Emperor aside, and ordered Hu Shixiang, Lao Yongjia, Zhao Huizhen, Lu Menglong, Fu Mei, Wang Zhihuan and Zou Shaoguang to interrogate Zhang Cha again, Zhang Wenda, an official of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, and Wang Shichang, an official of Dali Temple, Li Jun, an official of the Criminal Department, listened to the supervision——

On 28 May, the trial of the attack case was again held in the prison hall of the Criminal Department, and Hu Shixiang, Lao Yongjia, Zhao Huizhen, and Zou Shaoguang, who belonged to the three parties, were silent. Torture! ”

Zhang Cha under the hall shouted: "Don't use torture, don't use torture, the villain is all recruited." He soon confessed that he was introduced by Li Ziqiang and Li Wancang, who were from his hometown, and were brought to the capital by his two husbands, Pang Bao and Liu Cheng, who were well fed and drunk, and gave him some gold utensils-

Lu Menglong asked: "Where did Pang and Liu lead you into Beijing to live?" ”

Zhang Cha replied: "The villain is illiterate, and he doesn't know what street it is, but he knows that it is a big mansion, so it is not spacious and magnificent." ”

Lu Menglong asked, "Since I gave you a lot of gold objects, where are the gold tools?" ”

Zhang Cha replied: "The villain is afraid that people will steal it, so he hides in the underground of the big mansion." ”

Lu Menglong asked: "Now let you out, can you find that big mansion?" ”

Zhang Cha rolled his eyes and thought for a while, shook his head and said: "This capital is too big, where can the villain be found, unless the old man leads the villain to the door of the big mansion." ”

Hu Shixiang, Lao Yongjia and others all laughed sarcastically.

Lu Menglong said quietly: "With the size of the capital, it is not surprising that an illiterate country rough man can't recognize the road, and since Pang Bao and Liu Cheng have been recruited, then they will naturally be able to find that big mansion." ”

Lu Menglong asked again: "Pang and Liu's husbands led you in Beijing, and they will support you with good food and drink, but for what?" ”

Zhang Cha blurted out: "Hit the master." ”

As soon as this confession came out, the hall was quiet, everyone changed color, and Hu Shixiang, who was in charge of the trial, immediately pushed the case and said to the officials of the three law divisions: "Three adults, this case can not be tried by the lower officials, unless the emperor has another edict." "Arch your hands and leave the prison hall.

Lao Yongjia, Zhao Huizhen, and Zou Shaoguang also left with Hu Shixiang, and the trial of the three law divisions could not be carried out, and the case involved Pang Bao and Liu Cheng, the two internal officials, if there was no emperor's will, the three law divisions would not have the right to arrest the palace officials to confront and interrogate-

Wang Shichang's face was sweating, he was the one who advocated the trial, but he didn't expect to directly interrogate the amazing confession of "beating the master", and now he can't clean it up, what should I do?

The confession of Zhang Cha was quickly leaked by the three law divisions, and the government and the opposition were shocked, Pang Bao and Liu Cheng were Zheng Guifei's cronies and eunuchs, Zhang Cha was from Jizhou, and Pang and Liu happened to be in Jizhou to repair the iron tile hall for Zheng Guifei, and the suspicion was extremely great.

In order to defend his innocence, he presented a post to the Wanli Emperor on May 30 to wash himself up. What is the master's cause? What is the Yin Raising Dead? Crazy and rebellious is not only the heart does not dare to sprout, that is, the mouth does not dare to speak, and the ears cannot bear to listen. "Youyun" is "wiped out, infamous for all generations, there is no trace, and the words are ghostly", and finally said disdainfully, "In the Qingming world, the ears and eyes are the truest, and the ministers don't seem to have to argue." ”

He Shijin was the first to learn the content of Zheng Guotai's unveiling post, and he was overjoyed, "dumping the reserve, the main envoy, and raising the dead" This is the Donglin Party wants to impeach Zheng but has no solid evidence and does not dare to issue it, and now Zheng Guotai himself jumped out to defend himself, isn't this not three hundred taels of silver here, He Shijin and Hu Ke gave Yang Lian a little discussion in the matter, that is, he went to the emperor and grasped the flaws in Zheng Guotai's defense, saying that the trial of the criminal department only involved the names of two internal officials, Zhang Cha did not have a confession, and the criminal department did not complete the investigation, and did not directly point out that Zheng Guotai was the mastermind, Why is Zheng Guotai weak-hearted, can't he be calm and less treated, so he is in a hurry to defend himself?

The new account and the old account are calculated together, He Shijin from the dispute over the country, the discussion of the three kings, the "Boudoir Fan Diagram", and the poison of the demon book, analyze and ask layer by layer, and can't help but make people not believe that Zheng has a lot to do with the attack case, the more Zheng Guotai argues, the dirtier he becomes, and he can't wash it by jumping into the Yellow River, and now Zhang Cha has confessed to Pang Bao and Liu Cheng, and it stands to reason that these two people will confront them, but this must be approved by Emperor Wanli, and Emperor Wanli's attitude is very important-

At the time of Zheng Guotai's post, Qi Yanling, the governor of Jizhou, wrote to the Criminal Department, reporting that Zhang Cha was crazy, Qi Yanling's report was roughly the same as the retrial results of Hu Shixiang and Liu Tingyuan, which was the greatest effort made by Liu Tingyuan, the leader of the Zhejiang Party, to quell the attack case, but because Zheng Guotai couldn't hold his breath and fell into an extremely passive situation, now it depends on how Emperor Wanli expresses his position, things have come to this point, and it is impossible for Emperor Wanli to rule by doing nothing and staying in China.

(To be continued)