In fact, the emperor's words somewhat covered up for the crown prince, and the courtiers did not dare to intervene at will.

Only Su Huaixiao ignored this mountain of pressure from the imperial power, "Your Majesty, since both the minister and the crown prince suspect that An Guogong is suspicious, it is better to immediately summon him to the palace for interrogation." ”

The emperor narrowed his eyes slightly, "Are you sure that Prince Xiao wants to interrogate An Guogong?" ”

Su Huaixiao's expression was indifferent, and he really confirmed the four words of iron mask's selflessness.

"When it comes to the murder and the materials of the embezzlement of the Mexican treasury, even if the suspect is a relative of the minister, it cannot be tolerated."

"Hmm." The emperor nodded approvingly, "Come on, pass on the Duke of Anguo." ”

It didn't take long for An Guogong to kneel on the Golden Hall with a worried and confused expression.

"Minister, knock to see my emperor, long live my emperor, long live."

Looking at his flattering posture, the emperor's eyelids couldn't help jumping a few times.

"An Guogong, do you know why I summoned you to meet you on the day of the Great Dynasty Meeting?"

An Guogong did not answer immediately, but first looked around at the courtiers around him with a weak heart, and then shook his head tremblingly.

"The minister is stupid."

Who knew that the prince suddenly reprimanded loudly, "Still pretending!" Say, did you kill Liang Fu, the director of the Ministry of Works!? Dare to murder the court officials, you are so bold! ”

"Huh!?"

An Guogong was asked by him, and he was directly frightened from kneeling to stumbling.

"Wronged, wronged, wronged! The minister didn't kill Liang Fu! ”

The prince snorted coldly and asked, "The criminal department has investigated clearly, Liang Fu went to the restaurant for a banquet at your request before he died, and then he died of poison when he returned home. The shopkeeper and the servant of the restaurant can also prove that you have a dispute in the private room.

Say, did you poison Liangfu to death? ”

An Guogong almost shook his head into a rattle, "No, there is no thing." The minister did have a banquet for Director Liang in the restaurant, but that was just a normal exchange between colleagues. I, why did I poison him? ”

"Because you have taken advantage of your position to steal the goods of the treasury in the repair of the granary. And Liang Fu found out your secret, got into an argument with you, and then you poisoned him! ”

After the prince finished speaking, he glared at An Guogong sternly, and his sharp eyes seemed to burn holes in the other party's body.

In such a tense and depressing atmosphere, An Guogong suddenly hiccuped loudly.

"Hiccup——!

“……”

After An Guogong came back to his senses, his face was red with nervousness, and he fell to the ground trembling and begging for mercy.

"Your Majesty, hiccup, minister, minister wronged! Ministers, hiccup, absolutely no corrupt treasury materials. Hiccup, not to mention killing Principal Liang, Hiccup ......"

Seeing An Guogong, he was frightened because of just a few questions, and he lost his honor in front of the palace in front of the Manchu Dynasty civil and military in public. On the contrary, the courtiers at the scene weakened their vigilance and suspicion of him, and instead lamented that he was as timid as a mouse and could not be used.

The emperor also despised An Guogong's cowardice and incompetence in his heart, and the disgust in his tone during the interrogation was greater than the anger.

"An Guogong, the prince reported that you resold a batch of high-quality pine wood when you applied for treasury materials. Tell me, is there such a thing? ”

"Never! It was not easy for the minister to get the grace of heaven and be able to enter the Ministry of Industry. Every day is trembling, for fear that he will fail the emperor's grace by messing up his errand. Minister, how dare the minister ......"

"So how do you interpret the evidence?"

The prince made a look, and a eunuch presented the official document prepared in advance.

An Guogong recognized at a glance that these were the application documents that Su Huaixiao and An Yueli had shown him before, and he lost his expression by looking at it with his eyes down, and shook his head vigorously pretending to be shocked.

"No, no, the minister has not claimed these things."

"You're lying!" The prince pressed forward step by step, eager to pry his mouth open with an iron rod, "There is clearly your signature and seal on the paperwork, and you dare to deny it!?" ”

An Guogong took a closer look at the document again, and pointed to a few of the details and retorted.

"Your Majesty, this document has been modified, and these lines are not the handwriting of the minister!"

As he spoke, he stood up regardless of etiquette and took the initiative to show the paperwork to several colleagues in the Ministry of Works.

"Lord Shangshu, you all know my handwriting. Look, is this my handwriting? ”

The Ministry of Works, Shangshu, Shilang and others surrounded and inspected, all of them showing doubts.

"Like, it's been altered."

"Although the handwriting on the above part about applying for pine wood is very similar to the whole, it is indeed not from An Guogong's hand when you look closely."

As soon as these words came out, the scene was in an uproar again.

"Someone else has the paperwork been altered?"

"So someone deliberately framed him?"

"Then Liang Fu was killed by An Guogong?"

Just when the interrogation stalled because of new testimony, the great eunuch who had gone to the cabinet to find the transcript finally returned.

I saw that he was escorted by two royal guards and personally presented a wooden box to the royal case.

"Emperor Qi, the servant found the transcript of Prince Xiao in the cabinet. In addition, the recital of the director of the Ministry of Works Liang was also mixed in the recital of the invitation. ”

"Liangfu's notebook?"

The emperor opened the book full of doubts, and after reading the contents, his face suddenly became extremely gloomy. I saw that he first closed the notebook again, and then slammed it into the prince's feet.

"Prince, you'd better explain it to me!"

The crown prince, who was still menacing, was startled by the emperor's sudden anger, and after he picked up the notebook to check it, he was even more busy kneeling down to explain.

"Father, this is someone deliberately framed!"

"Framed?" The emperor's eyes were as deep as a torch, as if he wanted to see into the bone marrow of the crown prince, "Liang Fu, the director of the Ministry of Works, reported that you coerced and enticed him to tamper with the application documents for the treasury materials. The black and white words are clear, and you say who framed you? ”

"What?"

"It was actually His Royal Highness the Crown Prince who did it!"

"Liang Fu reported His Royal Highness the Prince, then his death ......"

In the skeptical eyes of everyone, the emperor once again threw out new physical evidence.

"And Prince Xiao also reported it as soon as he noticed that someone was corrupting the treasury materials, but this transcript was mixed up in the excerpt of the invitation. Was it a mistake on the part of the Cabinet, or was someone doing it on purpose? ”

The crown prince couldn't withstand the emperor's oppressive scrutiny, and the whole person sweated like rain.

"Wronged, father! Two days ago, he went to the cabinet on your orders, and he did not dare to touch any of the books from beginning to end, except for verbal conversations with a few cabinet scholars. Please also ask the emperor to take a look! ”

"Of course I will see it!"

The appearance of these two pieces of evidence not only transferred the suspicion to the crown prince, but also successfully provoked the emperor's suspicion of him.

If this is really the prince's doing, it means that the prince has the ability to control the cabinet beyond the emperor. For the emperor, this is tantamount to shaking his imperial power.