Seeing that Zhou Dongping opened his mouth to refute, Zhao Liang stretched out his hand to stop him and continued: "After Lianniang left, the official summoned several candidates, and they all learned from them that what Lianniang said was true. ”

"The imperial examination is to select talents for the country. When the official came, His Majesty repeatedly instructed us to strictly supervise and report the slightest malpractice or injustice to the local officials, and not to follow personal gains. I will play the court impartially with your behavior, and I only hope that you will no longer be obsessed with making it difficult for the candidate I summoned today and the girl named Lian Niang. ”

Before Zhou Dongping came, he had already checked the situation of the first two exams. The reason why Zhou Dongping was called was to reconfirm the matter, and secondly, to beat Zhou Dongping, lest Zhou Dongping take revenge on several candidates after he left here.

Zhou Dongping was completely stunned.

"No, my lord......" he stood up, sincerely afraid, "Your Excellency ......"

Zhao Liang waved his hand: "You don't have to say it anymore." When the court sends someone down to investigate, you can tell them again. ”

……

Du Jinning, as a party, was of course one of the targets of Zhao Liang's interrogation. When Zhou Dongping came out of Zhou's mansion, she had already returned to the small courtyard.

"Young master, do you think Lord Zhao will let Zhou Dongping go? After all, officials protect each other, as long as Zhou Dongping says more good things and even a little benefit, Lord Zhao will inevitably raise it high, put it down gently, and no longer hold Zhou Dongping responsible. Yao Shuqi said worriedly.

Things have come to this point, if Zhou Dongping has not been demoted, it is estimated that their life will not be easy.

Du Jinning's expression was calm: "Don't worry, it won't." You only know that officials protect each other, but you don't know how fierce the party struggle is. Officials from different camps are very happy to see each other demoted, and even do not hesitate to fall into the trap to make room for their camp. Zhou Dongping is the prefect of a province and four products, how many people are staring at his position. He always complained that the Wang family didn't help him soar, but without the Wang family, he couldn't sit in this position at all. Because he belongs to the clear stream that is praised for his literary name, this kind of person values fame the most. On the charge of unfair science and technology, his teacher is too late to cut off relations with him, where will he help? And now that the Wang family is heartbroken, Lord Zhao is very willing to dig out a pit and let the people from his camp come to fill the pit. It is a foregone conclusion that he will be demoted and transferred. ”

Qi Bokun's return to his hometown, the open and secret struggle between the Yan family and the Guan family, may be just an officialdom promotion in the eyes of others, and life is varied, but in the eyes of Du Jinning, it is a political game, and she can see the current political situation in Beijing through this small microcosm. Now the old emperor is dying, the battle between the princes is becoming more and more intense, and it is not an exaggeration to describe it as life and death, it is a bit of the scene of the nine sons of the Qing Dynasty seizing the heir. What candidates are embarrassed and the invigilator is late, these two points are just a fulcrum for Zhao Liang, and the main reason for determining Zhou Dongping's fate is still party struggle.

And she, Du Jinning, just saw the situation clearly and took advantage of the situation.

She didn't enter the house, but stood in the courtyard, looking through the layers of sunset, looking to the north.

She is not interested in competing for power, but that does not prevent her from using these political struggles to achieve her own ends. It is now, and it will be in the future.

Yao Shuqi and Lu Xiaobei stood behind her, looking at her thin figure, with an unprecedented awe in their eyes.

Du Jinning knows the truth, and Zhou Dongping, who has been up and down in officialdom for more than ten years, is naturally very clear. He consciously begged Zhao Liang to be useless, and when he came out of Zhao Liang, he hurried home and went straight to the inner courtyard: "Madam, madam, something has happened, something has happened." ”

Wang was sitting in the pavilion feeding the fish, and when she heard Zhou Dongping's cry, she didn't even raise her eyelids, and continued to sprinkle food into the lake without turning a deaf ear.

"Madam, somehow what we said when we quarreled was known by Lianniang and sued Lord Zhao, and now Lord Zhao wants to impeach me." Zhou Dongping didn't care about her or not, and said directly, "Madam, I know you're angry with me, but we are husband and wife, I'm going to be demoted, and you won't be able to live a good life, right?" When you return to Beijing, I don't know how many people will laugh at you, and how many cold eyes you will have to suffer. So ma'am, you have to help me. ”

"Lianniang?" Hearing these two words, Wang's eyelids finally raised.

She looked at Zhou Dongping and smiled mockingly: "You killed her sister, and she came to ask for your life, shouldn't she be?" Now it's just a demotion and demotion, and it's not a life-threatening request, what are you afraid of? ”

This Lianniang has a sister named Lan Niang, who is very beautiful, and was taken by Zhou Dongping, who had just come here to take office. Zhou Dongping had just become the prefect, and it was when he was full of ambition, and his courage was fattened, thinking that he could not put the Wang family and the Wang family in his eyes, so he wanted to directly cut it first and then play it, and put Lan Niang as an outer room, and then move back to the house to be an aunt when she was pregnant and gave birth to a child. But Lan Niang was originally engaged, and she was in love with her fiancé, and the marriage date was approaching, where would she be willing to make Zhou Dongping's outer room?

So Zhou Dongping instructed Zhong An to set up a bureau and arrested Lan Niang's fiancé on the charge of murder and put him in prison, so as to force him. Lan Niang was helpless, begged in front of Zhou Dongping, and lived in a small house that Zhou Dongping asked Zhong An to buy.

never thought that Lan Niang's fiancé contracted an illness in prison and died soon after being released. After Lan Niang found out, she hanged herself directly in the small mansion.

Lianniang and Lan Niang's parents died, and she was raised by her sister doing embroidery. Seeing that her sister and future brother-in-law died one after another, and her brother-in-law's mother also died of illness soon after, she was bent on seeking revenge.

Helplessly, Zhou Dongping is the prefect and the biggest official in this realm, and Lianniang has no way to ask for help, so she has been waiting for an opportunity. In order to worry that Zhou Dongping would kill her, she also sold herself and sold herself to a family where someone in her family was an official in Beijing and became a maid.

Because the matter was a little big, two or three lives were taken at once, and after the Wang family learned about it, they made a fuss at home, and the Wang family also gave him a dismissal in the evaluation of Zhou Dongping's first year in office, and Zhou Dongping did not dare to come out again.

This incident made Wang quite chilled with him.

At this time, I heard that Lianniang had sued Zhou Dongping, not only was she not in a hurry, but there was a faint joy in her heart.

"Madam, don't talk about it anymore, it's important to save your husband." Zhou Dongping said helplessly.

"The court is very concerned about the imperial examination, don't you know? I'd rather risk being demoted than embarrass that Guan Shanchang's disciple, which shows how important that Miss Gu is in your heart! So, do you beg her to go? Isn't her father a celebrity in front of the king? You persuaded Miss Gu to go down the mountain and marry her, are you still afraid that no one will help you? ”

Wang said, stood up with a sneer, walked back to his house along the corridor, and instructed a few strong women: "Watch the door." If anyone lets the master in, see that I don't lift my feet and sell her. ”