Li Zhen walked quickly to his official room, walked the room, and saw a Taoist aunt sitting in the outer room, it was Xie Ying, the leader of Shangqing Building, seeing Li Zhen come in, Xie Ying quickly stood up and smiled: "I'm really sorry to disturb Commander Li so late." ”

Li Zhen knew that she must have something important when she came at this time, so he nodded and asked with concern, "How is Auntie's injury?"

"Fortunately, the injuries are not serious, they are all flesh and skin injuries, and they will heal after a while. ”

The two sat down, and Xie Ying said in a low voice: "I just came from the palace and reported some information to Sheren, and Sheren asked me to tell you this information as well." ”

"But it has something to do with Lai Junchen?"

Xie Ying nodded, Li Zhen thought about it, got up and walked outside the door, and ordered someone to find Jiuzhi, and after a while, Jiuzhi hurried over, "Lao Li, are you looking for me?"

"I'll let you know someone. ”

Li Zhen introduced him with a smile: "This Aunt Xie is the leader of Shangqing Tower, you should know about Shangqing Tower."

Of course, Jiuzhi knew that Shangqinglou was a secret organization founded by Shangguan Wan'er, and it was as famous as the Taiping Mansion, the Wujiangtang, and the black officials, and it turned out that its leader turned out to be a Taoist aunt, so he hurriedly bowed and saluted, "Jiuzhi see Aunt Xie"

Li Zhen said to Xie Ying again: "This is my brother Jiuzhi, who is currently in charge of intelligence in the internal guard and serves as an adjutant. ”

Xie Ying smiled slightly, "I heard that Qianniuwei has a 'wine brother,

Jiuzhi blushed, "That was the love that my brothers gave me in the past, and I am now doing things with Lao Li." ”

Of course, Xie Ying knew that Li Zhen brought Jiuzhi to let him also participate in the matter of Lai Junchen, and since he was in charge of intelligence, he should have heard about it.

The three of them sat down again, and Xie Ying smiled at Jiu Zhi: "Deputy Lieutenant Jiu should know what happened today, Su was arrested by Lai Junchen." ”

Jiuzhi nodded, he was not to be outdone: "I know that Su's arrest has something to do with his son, and he was actually betrayed by his son." ”

"Not bad" Xie Ying praised: "The wine lieutenant is indeed well-informed, Su's arrest is indeed related to his son, his son fell into the trap of Lai Junchen, and in order to save his life, he betrayed his father." ”

Li Zhen pondered and asked, "Su Zhen has something to do with the Xingtang Society?"

Xie Ying nodded, "Su is the periphery of the Xingtang Society, and like Yang Pei, his son stole some secret letters from the study, which became evidence for Lai Junchen to arrest Su. ”

"Whose correspondence with whom, does Auntie know?" Li Zhen asked the key point.

Xie Ying sighed, "It's a letter to Li Yuanjia, the king of Guangling, Li Yuanjia is one of the backbones of the Xingtang Society, but Su was not convicted for his dealings with Li Yuanjia, but when he was the governor of Wei, he had a close relationship with Li Chong, the king of Langya, and Su should have joined the Xingtang Society at that time." ”

Li Zhen was not interested in Li Chong, it was many years ago, he only cared about Li Yuanjia, the king of Guangling, and asked, "Where is Li Yuanjia now?"

"He is now in Yangzhou. ”

Xie Ying was silent for a while and said: "Su's case may not only involve Li Yuanjia alone, Su is actually the person of Princess Taiping, it was Princess Taiping who strongly recommended it, Su Cai was promoted from Governor Shi of Wei to the Ministry of Rites, and then promoted to the Ministry of Works, in addition, Su is also a brother of Su Wei, and he and his subordinate servant Cui Yuanzong are sons and daughters, and Lai Junchen chose him as a breakthrough, and he is also very discerning. ”

"Then what does the Shangguan Sheren want me to do?" Li Zhen asked again.

"She said you should know what you have to do. ”

The two said a few more words, Xie Ying got up and said goodbye, Li Zhen sent her out of the official office, and returned to his room, Jiu Zhi hurriedly asked: "Lao Li, what do you mean by Shangguan Sheren? I mean, what should we do?"

Li Zhen knew very well what Shangguan Wan'er meant, he shook his head slightly, "Let's not do anything, wait and see."

"Ahh

There were heart-rending screams from the dungeon of Yushitai, in a cold and terrifying torture room, the walls around it were covered with hundreds of intact human skins, a middle-aged man who had been stripped naked hung upside down on a huge iron hook, he had just been tortured, the little finger bones of his two feet were completely crushed, he couldn't help but feel severe pain, fainted.

This person is the Ministry of Industry Shangshu Su who was arrested in prison, Lai Junchen's torture against him has just started an hour, and he began to execute, Lai Junchen is very confident that Su will be completely defeated, in Chengdu his conditions are insufficient, and he has not been able to conquer Yang Pei, so that he has been haunted, but in the capital, he has no worries.

This torture chamber covered with human skins alone was enough to destroy the will of most people to resist, and when Lai Junchen saw that Su had fainted, he ordered: "Wake him up."

"Wow, a bucket of ice water that had just thawed was splashed from his feet to his head, and the strong stimulation made Su slowly wake up, Lai Junchen gently gestured on Su's ankle with a cold and sharp dagger, and sneered: "Do you know what I'm going to do next?

Lai Junchen grabbed his hair and made him look at the wall, "Do you see what's on the wall?"

A big man hurriedly raised the lamp to the wall, and the wall suddenly flashed with a snowy white light, and Lai Junchen said with a hideous face: "See, these are women's skins, and your wife's skins will also hang here, as for you, it's too cheap to peel you, I will chop you piece by piece and feed it to the dogs."

Su's eyes showed a look of extreme fear, his teeth clicked, Lai Junchen could see clearly, he knew that there was still one step before Su completely collapsed, he knocked on a round bronze cover beside him with a dagger, and ordered left and right: "Open it"

The two big men split the bronze cover into two and opened it, inside was a swarthy hole, Lai Junchen smiled: "This hole is five feet deep, there are snakes and scorpions in it, we call it the hell mouth, and more importantly, it is very small, you can't move after you go in, I will put you in for two days, let you taste this kind of hell mouth first?"

Lai Junchen waved his hand, "Put him in"

Several big men hung Su upside down, tied his hands and feet, and slowly put his head down into the hole, but only put it in less than a zhang, and the great horror brought by the dark claustrophobia made Su completely collapse, and he cried loudly: "I recruit me"

Lai Junchen smiled proudly, he had a total of more than 100 kinds of torture, and only then did he give Su three kinds of torture: broken fingers, skinning and claustrophobia, Su couldn't bear it, it seemed that he still looked down on him.

"Pull him up"

The big man twisted his wheels and pulled Su up, Su was lying on the ground, his whole body convulsed, and Lai Junchen smiled in front of him: "You are very smart, you will suffer a little less if you move early." ”

"You...... What should I recruit?" Sue asked weakly.

"I need materials for the Xingtang Society. Lai Junchen looked at him and said.

"But I'm ...... Not much is known. ”

"It doesn't matter, you can say as much as you know, and I'll do the rest. ”

Lai Junchen returned to the mansion, he was going to sort out the torture materials and report them to Wu Zetian, at this time, a subordinate stepped forward and whispered a few words to him, Lai Junchen suddenly smiled, and walked quickly to the east house.

The east house is the place where Junchen comes to the beauty pageant, all the beauties who are scavenged must be sent here first, and after being selected by Junchen, they will be sent to Luming Villa, and he will go to Luming Villa to have fun when he has a little time.

In the room, a young and beautiful woman was crying bitterly, her name is Liu Bizhu, she is the newly married wife of Qiao Zhizhi in the right Shilang, Qiao Zhizhi was arrested by Su confessed, Lai Junchen led someone to search his mansion, not only searched the Qiao family's heirloom Xueyu, but also Lai Junchen had already taken a fancy to Qiao Zhizhi's wife Liu Bizhu, and took this opportunity to snatch her up.

Liu Bizhu was worried about her husband's life and death, and she didn't know her fate, and when she was crying sadly, the door opened, and she saw Lai Junchen walking in slowly with a lewd smile on his face.

Liu Bizhu was so frightened that she hurriedly got up, took a few steps back, and hit the screen around the bed, and came to Junchen to look at this beautiful woman, and liked it very much, so he pretended to say: "Your husband has committed a capital crime, and the Holy Lord ordered me to execute him, it is very difficult for me to do it."

"Nonsense"

Liu Bizhu scolded: "My husband was arrested in the morning, is he going to be executed now? No matter how stupid the saint is, he won't be so messy, it's obvious that you want to blackmail me."

"Oh, you actually scolded the saint for being mediocre, presumably your husband usually taught you, and I got another charge, and I will torture him again tomorrow"

"Shameless"

Lai Junchen didn't care, he knew how to deal with these strong women, he took out a small leather bag from his arms, and poured out an object from it, it turned out to be a human finger, and there was a ring on it, Lai Junchen said coldly: "You should know this ring."

Liu Bizhu recognized the ring, this. It was her husband's finger, and she threw herself on the table and cried.

Lai Junchen still had a confession on the table, "This is your husband's confession, admitting that he joined the Xingtang Society, I have a holy secret decree, I can execute your husband at any time, now I am giving you a finger, if you make me unhappy, it will be a hand or even a human head immediately, you can watch it"

"You...... What do you want?" asked Liu Bizhu slowly gritting her teeth.

"It's very simple, if you obey me now, I will burn this confession and spare your husband's life, otherwise, he will be tortured to death tonight, and there is not even a complete body"

Liu Bizhu slowly closed her eyes, couldn't help tears like rain, Lai Junchen was so proud, stepped forward to hug her, and tore her corset

Just when Lai Junchen bowed his head, Liu Bizhu seized the opportunity and bit his shoulder fiercely, Lai Junchen screamed in pain, he was annoyed, pulled out a dagger from his boot, and stabbed Liu Bizhu in the chest.

In the imperial study, Lai Junchen held back the pain in his shoulder and presented a thick stack of materials to Wu Zetian, "Your Majesty, this is Su's complete confession, written and drawn by him himself." ”

Wu Zetian took the confession and looked through it, then took out a leather bag from under the imperial case, poured the items in the leather bag on the table, a few letters and a silver medal of the Xingtang Society, these evidences plus the confession are relatively complete and can be convincing.

Wu Zetian took out a letter from it and asked: "This letter faintly reveals that Li Yuanjia is recruiting troops in Yangzhou, is there anything in his confession?"

"Yes" Lai Junchen hurriedly said: "Your Majesty, on the third page, the confession is very clear that Li Yuanjia, the king of Guangling, secretly recruited troops and horses in Yangzhou, and there were thousands of people. ”

Wu Zetian turned to the third page of the confession and looked at it, and couldn't help but snort coldly, "The light of the fireflies dares to compare with the light of the bright moon, something that is beyond its strength." ”

She asked Lai Junchen again: "How many people besides you know the content of this letter and confession?"

"Your Majesty, there are two copies of the main book"

"No one but you can know about this matter, and no copies are allowed to be kept, understand?"

Wechen understood. ”

Lai Junchen understood what Wu Zetian meant, and he had to kill the two master books who knew the contents, so he couldn't startle the snake and leak the news in advance.

Wu Zetian took a few more steps, pondered for a moment, and said coldly: "I believe that he is not the only high-ranking official in the Xingtang Society in the imperial court, and a few more will be arrested." ”

"Obey the Order"

Just as Li Zhen worried, Su's case gradually expanded, and Su confessed to more than a dozen members of the Xingtang Dynasty, including Xiangguo Su Wei, Xue Yuanzong, Zhou Yunyuan, Zhongshu Lang, Sun Yuanli, and dozens of middle and low-level officials.

He personally led hundreds of black officials and warriors to search from house to house, nominally searching for evidence, but in fact searching their belongings, and collecting a large amount of gold and silver as rebel assets.

A few days have passed, and instead of stopping, the Su case has become more and more intense, and the situation has become more and more serious, Zhou Yunyuan, the Chinese scholar, could not endure the torture, and died of illness in prison, and even the high-ranking and powerful Xiangguo Li Dezhao was also implicated, and was pointed out by Su Wei as a member of the same party, Wu Zetian immediately issued an order to remove Li Dezhao from the post of Xiangguo, and put him under house arrest for interrogation in the Yushitai.

In the liquor store on the left bank, Li Zhen, Di Yan and Sun Li sat in a private room on the third floor to discuss countermeasures, Li Zhen did not want to participate in the Xingtang Hui case concocted by Lai Junchen, but Sun Li's father Sun Yuanli was implicated and imprisoned, if convicted, I am afraid that Sun Li's official position in Dali Temple will not be kept.

Sun Li sighed, "I can see through it, when today's son doesn't treat the minister as a person at all, today you will be promoted to Xiangguo, and tomorrow you will be imprisoned, even a smooth person like Su Wei is difficult to protect himself, not to mention others, it doesn't matter if I am a lowly official or not, the key is to hope that my father can be safe and sound, and not to die in prison like Zhou Yunyuan." ”

Li Zhen knew that Sun Liyan was insincere, he attached great importance to his official position, and it took so many years to climb up little by little, where did he want to lose his official position, but he had no choice but to say such indifferent words.

Li Zhen knew it, but he couldn't say it clearly, so he had to comfort him and said: "Zhou Yunyuan is because he is too upright and usually offends Lai Junchen, so he will be taken advantage of by Lai Junchen to take revenge and be tortured to death, and Ling Zun and Lai Junchen have no holiday, I think there should be nothing wrong." ”

At this time, Di Yan said angrily on the side: "It's just nonsense, I heard that even Li Xiangguo was arrested, although he is a clan, will he be a member of the Xingtang Society? and Su Moleng, everyone knows that he is a turtle with a shrunken head, and even he has been designated as the Xingtang Society, then the Manchu Dynasty is civil and military, what else does it need to be judged, just serve it in one pot." ”

Sun Li smiled bitterly and said: "Actually, Miss Di is right, it is not for any Xingtang Association at all, my father is obviously from the Wu Sansi faction, and he was also designated as the Xingtang Society, as well as Li Dezhao, he was arrested because his power was too great, threatening the monarchy, Su Wei is Li Dezhao's hardcore henchman, so they are eradicated together, in fact, everyone knows in their hearts that the Xingtang Society is just a basket, and anything can be loaded into it." ”

Li Zhen was silent on the side, he now somewhat understands why Shangguan Wan'er asked him to remain silent, this is actually a big cleanup of officialdom that took advantage of the Xingtang Society rebellion, no wonder Wu Sansi impeached Lai Junchen uselessly, just because Lai Junchen is still useful.

However, Li Zhen still felt that Wu Zetian's use of the Xingtang Society to attack Li Dezhao and others was actually a smoke, and in order to hide her true purpose, her real purpose should still be the Xingtang Society.

"Tell me about my father, what do you think I can do to save him?" Sun Li looked at Li Zhen expectantly, he and Li Zhen had done a lot of things, and he had always admired his eyes and mind, and he had no choice but to ask Li Zhen for help.

Li Zhen thought for a while and asked, "Can you see Ling Zun?"

Sun Li nodded, "I'm going to visit the prison tonight and send him something, this is to come to Junchen to give us a little face in Dali Temple before agreeing." ”

"If you can see Ling Zun, you can persuade him not to have a hard fight with Lai Junchen, save his life first, and admit that he will have dealings with Xingtang. ”

"But...... If you want to testify against others, how does my father know about the people of the Xingtang Society?

Li Zhen smiled slightly, "There is no need to identify indiscriminately, as long as you identify Li Yuanjia, the king of Guangling, at least any correspondence, just say that it has been burned, in short, about Li Yuanjia's matter, come to Junchen to ask your father to say anything, let him confess anything, so that at least he can save his life and not have to suffer too much." ”

"I see, thank you Commander Li for your kind words. ”

Sun Li looked at the sky, got up and saluted, "I have to go back and prepare, go first." ”

"Brother Sun is casual"

Sun Li hurriedly bowed and left, leaving only Li Zhen and Di Yan in the elegant room, Di Yan asked in a low voice: "Do you think we can really stay out of this matter of the Xingtang Meeting?"

Li Zhen shook his head, "I don't know how to answer you, according to my original intention, of course I don't want to get involved in this case, but when are we not forced to get involved? In fact, I can't help myself, I shot Yang Pei in Chengdu, we have already been involved in the Xingtang Hui case, the only thing I don't know now is the time when we are involved again."

Di Yan also sighed, "The female emperor is always so tossed, I don't know when it will be the head?"

Li Zhen smiled: "Maybe after this toss, your father will be transferred back." ”

"What news did you get?"

Di Yan asked anxiously, their family's biggest hope is to be reunited, it doesn't matter if his father can be reinstated, the important thing is that his father can be transferred back to the capital, they are looking forward to it every day, Li Zhen suddenly said this, how can Di Yan not be excited?

"Did the Shangguan Sheren tell you?"

Li Zhen smiled, "She didn't tell me this kind of thing, it's just a kind of intuition on my part." ”

Di Yan suddenly became listless, and gave him an angry look and said: "It's better not to talk nonsense about this kind of unfounded words, I don't care, but it will hurt the hearts of my mother and grandmother, who are looking forward to my father's return every day." ”

"Actually, it's not unfounded, Shangguan Sheren told me before that the female emperor will recall your father sooner or later, the key is when, it will definitely be a node, now that Li Dezhao and Su Wei are being questioned, the node has appeared, so will your father be recalled soon?"

Li Zhen's words gave Di Yan a glimmer of hope, her eyes became extraordinarily bright, and at this moment she really hoped to be said by Li Zhen.