There was an eerie silence in the crowd.

Then Du Jing knelt down in front of the threshold, bowed his head to the ground and said: "Weichen knocks on Your Majesty, long live my emperor, long live, long live!" ”

When the Qian family behind him heard this, he also knelt down in a panic.

"Your Majesty, Weichen's words are all deceitful, even if he borrows a hundred courageous Weichen, he doesn't dare to exchange death row prisoners privately!" Du Jing lay on the ground and cried out.

He said it sincerely, and even the Qian family behind him looked at him with some suspicion.

Ye Tianhuai looked at Du Jing's figure, his expression sank, and he seemed to have some regret.

"You get up first." Ye said.

Du Jing raised his head and looked at Ye Tianhuai's eyes full of vigilance, the beads of sweat on his sideburns were clearly visible, but his eyes were extremely firm.

"People are still on the execution ground, so let's go and ask together to find out if it's true or not." After speaking, Ye Tianhuai turned around and left.

Behind her, Du Jing and Gu Shihai briefly glanced at each other.

When Ye Tianhuai and his party returned to the execution ground, there were more onlookers in the audience, and several roads around them were blocked in three layers inside and three layers outside.

It was past three o'clock in the afternoon, and it was impossible to behead today.

Du Zhengen, who was in the center of the execution ground, was taken to the prison platform.

Ye Tianhuai sat on the main seat of the prison platform, Gu Shihai sat on her left hand side, and Du Jing stood aside, facing the two of them to reply.

"I remember that according to the laws of our dynasty, before the execution, the body must be verified. Where is the person who has been examined? ”

A small official in a blue official uniform stood up from the crowd, made a big salute in front of Ye Tianhuai, and said, "Back to Your Majesty, it is the villain." ”

Ye Tianhuai looked at Du Zhengen and said, "You go to test him as Du Zhengen." ”

The little official received the order, walked up to the death row prisoner who did not say a word, and began to carefully examine it, from the mouth, nose and nose to the limbs, there was no mistake or omission.

Du Zhengen's gaze was dilated, at his mercy. Du Jing hung his head and did not look back at his son.

After half an hour, the little official walked up to Ye Tianhuai, knelt down and said, "Back to Your Majesty, this person is indeed the prisoner Du Zhengen." ”

For his answer, several people on the stage were surprised. Even Ye Qianhuai just asked with a normal face: "You can see clearly, there will be no mistake?" ”

The little official replied categorically: "The villain has been doing this for eight years, and there will be no mistake, this person is Du Zhengen." ”

Ye Tianhuai paused, looked at Qin Yang, and said, "Go and bring someone up." ”

Qin Yang, who had been standing behind her, responded to the order and walked quickly down the prison platform.

In a short time, he returned with two forbidden soldiers, followed by a diminutive man wearing the cloth robe of a palace attendant, and his expression was a little frightened like a bird's bow.

After he was taken to the middle of the prison beheading platform, a pair of small round eyes turned around, quickly looked at the people around him, and then immediately knelt down and said, "Your Majesty, long live my emperor, long live long live." ”

"Liu Chunming, Gu Ge Lao and Du Shangshu may not know each other yet, you should report yourself first." Ye Qianhuai said to him.

Liu Chunming knelt up straight and said, "Liu Chunming, the attendant of the Lower Officials and Punishment Division, meet Gu Ge Lao and Master Du." ”

Ye Qianhuai asked again, "Do you know why you are summoned here?" ”

"Back to Your Majesty, the lower officials know. Xia Guan was originally the head of the Shen Criminal Division, and Concubine Lan Niangniang died on the day of the Shen Criminal Division, and it was Xia Guan who was on duty, and Xia Guan had witnessed Du Zhengen take Concubine Lan to prison for execution. ”

"Nonsense!" Du Jing, who was standing on the side, couldn't listen anymore, and interrupted him sharply, saying, "The seven people on duty in the Prudent Criminal Division that day have all died under Chu Dingguo's hands, and all the corpses are in the Criminal Department. Who are you? Dare to borrow the corpse to resurrect the soul and impersonate the king? ”

Ye Tianhuai raised his eyes to look at him quietly, feeling that his angry appearance did not look like he was pretending, and his words were also quite confident, and he seemed to be sure that those people had been killed.

Liu Chunming took off an official ribbon from his waist, raised his hands and said: "This is the nameplate of the official ribbon, and there is no possibility of counterfeiting." If Lord Du doesn't believe it, there are still documents and coupons in the lower officials' homes, and they can also prove their identity. ”

The official ribbon and the coupons were both made by the imperial court, and it was impossible to counterfeit them, Du Jing was blocked by Liu Chunming for a while, and he couldn't answer for a while, so he just looked at him in disbelief, looking like a ghost.

Ye Tianhuai looked at him like this, and said leisurely: "Du Qing is so sure that there is no living mouth left in the Prudential Criminal Division, it was reported by your subordinates, right?" It's just that who the seven corpses were, Du Qing must not have verified them one by one. ”

Du Jing frowned slightly, as if he had thought of something, and subconsciously cast his suspicious gaze on the head of the criminal department who was standing on the other side of the prison platform.

Ye Tianhuai glanced at the main matter with a flustered look on his face, and said, "The officials of my Dajing are all from a school background, and they are the fastest to learn something. I have seen a lot of people above stealing beams and changing pillars, and the people below have also learned a few points. ”

After speaking, she glanced at Du Jing meaningfully.

At this time, Du Jing's face was no longer as firm as before, he lowered his eyes, and he didn't know what he was thinking in his heart.

Ye Tianhuai retracted his gaze and said to Liu Chunming: "Liu Chunming, go and see if this person is the Du Zhengen who took Concubine Lan to the Shen Criminal Division that day." ”

Liu Chunming received the order and stood up. He walked up to the prisoner and checked him with his hands and feet.

After a while, he turned around and said to Ye Qianhuai: "Back to Your Majesty, although this person is seven or eight points similar to Du Zhengen's appearance, the lower officials think that this person is not Du Zhengen. ”

"Why?" Ye Qianhuai asked.

"There are two suspicions about this person. First, the person's tongue was cut off by a knife, so he could not make a sound, and he could not judge the authenticity by his voice. But Du Zhengen, who Xia Guan saw that day, spoke as usual and did not break his tongue. The strange thing is that from that day on, Du Zhengen was successively detained and interrogated by the Right Yafu Department and the Criminal Department, and since he was awaiting trial as a suspect, Xia Guan couldn't think of anyone who would cut off his tongue and didn't want him to speak. ”

Ye Qianhuai turned his questioning gaze to Du Jing and asked, "Du Jing, I have read the case file submitted by the Criminal Department, and it seems that there is no mention of Du Zhengen's broken tongue." ”

Du Jing hung his head, thought for a while, and replied: "That's because the person has already broken his tongue when he arrives at the Criminal Department, presumably in the Right Yafu Division, so there is no record in the case file of the Criminal Department." ”

Ye Tianhuai glanced at him, didn't ask more, turned to Liu Chunming and asked, "Is there another doubt?" ”

And a little bit more on his right ear. On the day Du Zhengen was in the Shen Criminal Division, he was bitten off half of his ear by Concubine Lan, and the lower officials had picked up that half of his ear when he was cleaning the torture room. ”

As he spoke, Liu Chunming walked up to the prisoner and lifted the hair that fell from his ear, revealing half of his right ear.

"But the cut on his right ear was neat, and it was clearly cut off with a knife, not bitten off."

(End of chapter)