The emperor also fell into deep thought, and waved away the inner supervisor who was waiting in the imperial study for a while, and said: "Li Aiqing said why, there is no one else here, you just say it." ”

"Lord Cheng has always been cautious, and the spring festival is once every three years, which is the top priority, and Lord Cheng should not be careless enough to leak the exam questions to his own servants. And buying and selling exam questions is the crime of cutting off heads, Wei Chen didn't dare to conclude that this servant would not see the intention of getting rich, but he dared to conclude that any person who got the exam questions would not tell others, increasing his risk in vain. ”

Seeing that the emperor was deep in thought, Li Xiang gritted his teeth and said what he had been thinking in the past few days: "Therefore, although the conclusion is incredible, it is the only conclusion, that is, this question Xu Juren must be leaked to Tang Jieyuan, and the one who made this request cannot, of course, be a servant, it can only be Master Cheng." ”

The emperor frowned and said, "He is a chief examiner, what is the purpose of leaking questions?" Is he also short of money to spend? ”

"Lord Cheng was born into a family, at the age of fifteen he was enrolled, and at the age of twenty-two, he married the eldest daughter of the head of the dynasty. But the emperor might as well think about it, what is the most prominent thing in the whole incident? What is the most valuable? ”

"Value?" The emperor repeated.

"According to Weichen, the most valuable thing in the whole case is the talent of this Tang Jieyuan."

The emperor remembered the beautiful poem, and although he didn't want to admit it, he also snorted coldly.

"Therefore, it is not difficult to guess the purpose of Lord Cheng, the reason why he leaked the question to Tang Jieyuan through his servants and Xu Juren was because he took a fancy to this Tang Jieyuan's talent."

"You are the same examiner as him, and this year's Jinshi will worship under your door, why should he take this risk?"

"Holy See! If it is just an ordinary officialdom care, Lord Cheng can help a little in the future, but if you want to completely recruit someone, of course, you need extraordinary favors. Presumably Master Cheng also knows this. ”

The emperor frowned and said, "What do you mean by this?" ”

"Master Cheng was a first-class scholar in high school when he was twenty years old, and the chief examiner that year was Yang Shoufu."

The emperor squinted his eyes and said: "There were such rumors back then, and there were rumors that the imperial history impeached Yang Xiang and leaked the question, but there was no evidence in the imperial history. ”

"Weichen is only trusted by the emperor, so he dares to guess."

"Then Li Aiqing continues to guess, what is Lord Cheng, or Yang Xiang, so desperate to recruit talents? Is this how loyalty to the court is done? Hmph, are these new science and technology scholars and protégés of the Son of Heaven all his first assistants? Yang Xiang's protégé? How many daughters does he Yang Xiang have? ”

"It's hard to say how many daughters Yang Shoufu has, but Yang Shoufu has two granddaughters, one is the main concubine of King Qin, and the other is the side concubine of King Qin." After Li Xiang finished speaking, he bowed his head and refused to say half a word.

The corners of the emperor's mouth twitched slightly, and he threw the pen in his hand into the pen wash, throwing out a string of ink: "No king, no father!" ”

After a while, the emperor picked up Mr. Qin Chuan's article on the desk again, and asked as if unintentionally: "Mr. Qin Chuan has not asked about court affairs for many years, but I heard that the prince and Mr. Qin Chuan are very close, I don't know if the prince has read this article?" ”

Li Xiang tried his best to restrain his urge to wipe his sweat, and replied: "After Mr. Qin Chuan's article was written, it was widely circulated, and everyone in this capital knew about it, and Weichen thought that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince should have read it." I heard that the prince did persuade Mr. Qin Chuan to come out many times, but Mr. has always shirked, and the other ministers don't know. As for Mr. mentioned in this article "Treatise on Scholars", scholars should be national scholars, courtiers, not family scholars, and people who die for their confidants, Weichen agrees. ”

The emperor's finger lightly tapped on the table and said: "Now Yang Xiang's protégés are also all over the six departments. ”

Li Xiang finally couldn't help it, raised his sleeve and wiped the sweat on his head and said: "The world is so big, it is not the king's land, the shore of the land, it is not the king's minister." Above the court, there are all His Majesty's courtiers, and the ministers have never heard of the courtiers who can't move. It's just that, in order to avoid the shock of people's hearts, the saint still slowly plans it. ”

After Li Xiang finished speaking, he peeked at the emperor on the dragon chair, he had already opened another book and was reading, after listening to Li Xiang's words, his eyelids were not raised, "Hmm", I don't know if I heard it, and waved his hand to let Li Xiang go down.

The candle flame in the Kunning Palace is always bright. The ice cubes next to the candles are steaming white, and they are reflected by the candlelight, making them look crystal clear.

In front of the queen sat Princess Qin, who was wearing a lot of makeup. The queen is satisfied with this princess, not long after Yang Liuniang entered the house, she cleaned up the backyard with a few small things, which shows that she is a child with means.

Yang Liuniang treats people and things at a glance is a qualified woman cultivated by everyone, not only can not find any mistakes in etiquette, but also knows how to advance and retreat, whose wife is in charge, whose aunt is favored, it is difficult for her to remember everything, and it took a lot of effort to welcome and send her to the inside.

If the only thing that is lacking is that King Qin has not yet completed the house on the grounds that she is still young, so there is no news on the heirs. However, the queen was not too anxious at this point, and there was no news from the prince's side.

The prince was obsessed with the girl of the Xue family before, and the recent news was also thrown away, and he also entered the inner garden every month, but those Zhaoyi were sent by the queen before, and she knew in her heart that there was no way to conceive a child.

"Now that the weather is hot, Que'er's child has always had a bitter summer, I don't know how this year will be?"

"After returning to my mother, the prince is okay this year, the concubine looks at her appetite is okay, and she used an extra bowl of sour noodle soup after eating the main meal in the next dynasty today."

"Hmmm! This is also your careful service and proper care! Liuniang, you are a good child, I heard that Siniang is not very peaceful in the house, although she was your sister when she was in her mother's house, but when she entered the palace, you are the main concubine, she is the side concubine, the rules cannot be abolished, and you can't blindly be soft-hearted. ”

"The Queen Mother taught. Although Siniang is a little stronger in the house, she is infatuated with the prince in the end, and she also invites her mother Haihan. ”

The queen nodded indifferently, in fact, as long as King Qin likes it, she doesn't care if the side concubine is about the rules or not, saying this is nothing more than to show her support for the main concubine's position.

"Liuniang, announcing your entry into the palace today is for the sake of scientific research."

Princess Qin knew in her heart that this was the focus of tonight's conversation, and it involved the Yang family, so she couldn't help but sit more straight.

"The Holy One has already made up his mind about this matter." As she spoke, the queen motioned to Aunt Rong on the side to bring a piece of paper and hand it to Princess Qin.

Princess Qin took the note, only to see the eight words on it: "Fold its wings and protect its face". My heart couldn't help but sink, and I asked, "Where did this note come from?" ”

The queen picked up the red date soup on the side and nodded to Aunt Rong, and Aunt Rong came one by one.

The inner supervisor of the imperial study was originally selected layer by layer before being sent to the imperial front, and it took the queen many years of effort to buy a sprinkler eunuch. And these sprinkler eunuchs can only go in when the emperor is not there, and they don't know how to read, but the person selected by the queen has a good memory, although he doesn't know words, but he can write down the words on the paper in his mind and draw them according to the same. Today, he drew these eight characters and sent them to Kunning Palace.

"This is what the emperor threw aside after he finished writing, the emperor's meaning is already very clear, the sour Confucians in front of the end door are going to give an explanation, the court will inevitably launch one or two people, otherwise it will not be able to calm the people's opinion, but the emperor will not affect the first assistant, the first assistant is the face of the court, and the emperor will still take care of it."

The queen took a mouthful of soup and nodded the corners of her mouth with a handkerchief: "According to the palace, the most that is to punish the Cheng chief official, so the palace is looking for you to let you go back to pass the word, if the saint wants to deal with the Cheng chief official, you let the first assistant not have to stalemate, after all, the overall situation is important." ”

"Then Uncle Cheng doesn't know what will happen? Besides, if the court gave up the Cheng family, how did the other courtiers think of the Yang family? What if that villain continues to attack the Yang family? Yang Liuniang felt that it was inappropriate, so she said her questions.

The queen was naturally a little displeased, she finally got the news, who knew that Princess Qin was a little ignorant, and said with a sinking face: "You are a Yang family, uncle of the Cheng family, don't forget, you are the princess of Qin first!" If the matter is deadlocked, do you let King Qin face his father or Shoufu in the court? Is this to embarrass King Qin? ”

As soon as Princess Qin heard this, she immediately got up and knelt down to plead guilty. The queen snorted and said, "Do you understand the meaning of this palace?" You go back and bring the words to Yang Shoufu, and tell him that the holy will has been decided, don't make more entanglements in the matter of Master Cheng. Princess Qin said yes and got up to leave the palace.

It is not clear how Princess Qin brought the words to Yang Shoufu, but after that, the situation in the court saw that Yang Shoufu listened to these eight words passed by the queen.

When the emperor announced the dismissal of Lord Cheng and a thorough investigation, Yang Xiang did not have much opposition. Although in private, Yang Xiang's faction is also a lot of voices, after all, Master Cheng has been in the court for many years, and he has dealings with everyone deep or shallow, Yang Xiang gave up him like this, first, everyone is a little cold, and second, who knows what Lord Cheng will confess?

After all, Master Cheng is already white, and now there is a new group of people to preside over the trial, if he talks more, who knows if he will get into trouble? But Yang Shoufu has made up his mind, and they are helpless.

Jin Yiwei's prison is actually a little more spacious than the prison of the Criminal Department, at least each prisoner is isolated, unlike the prison of the Criminal Department, there are several people locked up in one room, and the sound of torture, shouting injustice, and begging for mercy next door is clearly audible, but the purity here makes the former Cheng Zhuguan feel even more frightened.

Yang Xiang also asked someone to pass in the eight words that were said to have been copied from the emperor's imperial case, "fold his wings", he smiled bitterly in his heart, although he was unwilling to become a broken wing, but in the face of his mentor and father-in-law, he couldn't say half a word.

He has been all the way since he entered the office, and at the age of less than forty, he is already a scholar of the Ministry of Rites, and in private terms, he is also Yang Xiang's most proud disciple, and he also has the most virtuous wife, and all of this is due to Yang Xiang's grace, and now Yang Xiang needs him to stand up as a matter of course.

What's more, Tang Xie Yuan was originally sponsored by him in front of Yang Xiang after he fell in love, but he didn't expect that his talent was also good and his temperament was crazy.

What he doesn't understand is why his case went from the Criminal Department to Jinyiwei, if the emperor just wants to give an explanation to those gathered scholars, he can close the case in the Criminal Department, although the result of the previous trial in the Criminal Department is a little vague, but since Yang Xiang handed him out, he will inevitably give a result that can calm the people's discussion, and the emperor should also know this, why hand him over to Jinyiwei?

Unless, unless the emperor doesn't want to maintain any face at all, what if the emperor moves his heart to deal with Yang Shoufu?

Thinking of this, Chief Officer Cheng suddenly sweated, what if they had guessed the emperor's mind wrong at the beginning? If the emperor wants to investigate Yang Shoufu, who else in the Manchu Dynasty knows more and has deeper contact with him?

Although he had been in the prison for a period of time, and his clothes were dirty, he had always tried to maintain his demeanor and the demeanor of a scholar, but just now, this sudden doubt repelled all his confidence, and he sat on the ground, his body trembling involuntarily.

There was a palm-sized window above the head in the single room of Jinyi Prison, which was open to the window, and Chief Cheng guessed that it was probably the third watch in the middle of the night. The more he thought about it, the brighter it became, but he hated that he couldn't tell his mentor what he wanted to do in the future.

He couldn't help but think of his parents and his wife, and couldn't help shedding a few tears, and seeing that the sky was about to dawn, he gritted his teeth and pulled out his belt, and his hands trembled a few times, and finally hung the belt on the horizontal edge of the window, and just as he tied the knot, he heard the door of the room open.

His heart sank, and he slammed directly into the wall, but unfortunately the people who came had already taken precautions, and there were already two brocade guards hugging him.

"Why can't Master Cheng think about it? I just came to our Jinyi Guard Prison, and I haven't tasted Ji's methods yet, why do I want to leave? ”

The commander of Jinyiwei is surnamed Ji, who originally inherited his father's position and stayed in Jinyiwei, and it is said that the Ji family has ancestral craftsmanship, which can make people suffer eighteen punishments without losing their lives.

Jin Yiwei has never been in contact with courtiers, nor has he been to the court, so the fame of this Ji commander is outside, and he has not seen much.

The courtiers privately gave him the nickname "Yama Gongzi", and Master Cheng only realized it when he saw it today, it turned out that this Ji Commander looked no more than twenty-seven or eighteen years old, with a white complexion, and a flying fish suit of Jinyiwei, but he looked like a beautiful son.

"I didn't expect Cheng to have the opportunity to meet Master Ji, it's an honor."

Commander Ji looked at the person who was held up by the two brocade guards, but he was a little arrogant, and couldn't help but feel a little interested, his handsome cold face suddenly laughed, and suddenly people felt that the prison of the brocade guards also had a bit of a sense of brilliance, and the brocade guards on the side couldn't help but look at Chief Officer Cheng, and inexplicably nervous for him.

"Lord Cheng doesn't know the rules of our Jinyiwei, we usually take people to visit the side of the torture room first, and most of the time we don't need Ji to make a move, many people change their minds after visiting, and even the father's aunt cheats carefully, of course, there are people who are willing to give it a try, and Ji is also welcome. But, Master Cheng, Ji is a little reluctant to let you stain your eyes, you know, sometimes frightened people are always two points less than when they are punished, why don't we skip this step and just come and play? ”

"Thanks to Master Ji, Cheng doesn't dare to spoil the fun."