The pavilion is an octagonal structure, facing a pond in the Lin Garden, the breeze blows on the pond, and the lotus leaves are fragrant.

There was a pen, ink, paper and inkstone on the stone table in the pavilion, and before they came, Mu Jingxu was writing the dossier, Rong Tang glanced at it casually, and saw that it was written [Jiangnan Governor Lu Junxian].

He withdrew his gaze and didn't look any further.

Ke Hongxue beckoned them to sit down, and asked with a smile: "Today's Qixi Festival, what arrangements does the prince and the princess have?" ”

Rong Tang suddenly wilted a little, didn't want to speak, sat on the side and picked up a lotus pod and peeled it to play, pulling the lotus pod meat piece by piece to decompress.

Su Huaijing shook his head: "Not yet, does Young Master Ke have any recommendations?" ”

Ke Hongxue said regretfully: "If you come to Jiangnan in the past, I can find a hundred places for you to play on Qixi Festival, but now that the flood has been flooded, I am afraid that everyone will not have the heart to have fun." ”

"It's a pity." Su Huaijing followed, and asked again after a change of voice: "How long does an adult plan to stay in Jiangnan this time?" ”

Ke Hongxue said: "I originally wanted to return to Beijing after the trial of Lu Junxian, but my senior brother's old illness recurred and he couldn't be affected, so I asked a prince to help hand back a fold and asked my senior brother for a long vacation." He raised his chin, "No, after writing this dossier and sending it back to the capital, you can take a vacation." ”

Su Huaijing asked: "But the investigation of the Jiangnan governor's crimes?" ”

"Exactly."

Su Huaijing: "But I heard that Governor Lu is quite trusted by His Majesty, and there are powerful ministers like Zhang Ge Lao as backers in the court, so he is not afraid of anything, and he must be silent in front of the interrogation, but I don't know how Mu Shaoqing pried open his mouth and confessed so much information?" ”

In addition to Lu Junxian's life experience, Mu Jingxu's file also includes the bribery records and account books of subordinate officials in various places in Jiangnan over the years, the amount of gold and silver that Lu Junxian sent to Beijing, the major and minor cases that he has concealed over the years, and even the records of frequent harassment by Japanese pirates in the coastal areas of Jiangnan......

The list of accusations and ironclad evidence is too numerous to mention.

Being able to pry this information out of the mouth of a high-ranking official of the imperial court, Mu Jingxu was by no means so cold and harmless as he looked on his face.

Su Huaijing looked at the young secretary of Dali Temple quietly, but Ke Hongxue laughed softly on the side, did not speak, and spread the folding fan and shook it slowly.

Rong Tang froze the lotus room, frowned and looked at Su Huaijing, feeling that he seemed to have put his intention too obvious.

When he was in Songyuan, Su Huaijing didn't quite want Lakemu to join alone, and it was more like a mutually beneficial and win-win cooperation than a partner.

Su Huaijing provided them with favorable information, and they reciprocated by concealing Sheng Chengli's framing of Queen Wang.

But this time, if Lu Jiaxi asks it, it can be regarded as a doubt, but Su Huaijing has this question, it must not be just curiosity, and everyone present knows it.

Ke Hongxue didn't respond for a long time, just when Rong Tang just thought that Su Huaijing's question might have touched some taboo, Mu Jingxu opened his mouth and asked, "Has Su Gongzi ever learned torture methods?" ”

Su Huaijing shook his head: "No." ”

Mu Jingxu: "Then do you know what kind of torture can leave no traces on the body, but make people feel painful?" ”

Su Huaijing chuckled: "Then I don't know." ”

The summer morning breeze is crisp, birds

The finch is leisurely, the dragonfly falls on the tip of the lotus leaf, and the mayfly lives and dies in the water.

Mu Jingxu's voice was very soft, without emotion, without the slightest ups and downs, just calmly recounting a fact: "Buried alive, sticking to the official." ”

"The former takes a wooden barrel that is one person high, carries a few buckets of sand, puts the person in the barrel, slowly pours sand into the bucket, and tells the other party in advance that if he is afraid when he reaches his chest, he will not be able to save it if he wants to, and it usually does not take long."

Mu Jingxu's voice was cold and unemotional, and he narrated without emotion: "The latter takes a long bench, ties people to it, and binds their limbs...... But I usually tie one leg less. Then I dipped rice paper in water, took the thinnest and lightest kind, and covered the prisoner's face layer by layer, the feeling of suffocation and drowning would make the other party struggle desperately, but he only had one leg to move, I would hang a lantern frame with a bamboo pole above the leg, and if I wanted to recruit him, I would reach it myself to kick it down, and the jailer would uncover the rice paper on his face for him. ”

Su Huaijing's eyes lit up slightly, and he asked with a smile: "What if he can't kick it down?" ”

"Have you ever seen the death row inmates in the prison, sometimes their theories are very magical, but I think they can be applied to themselves." Mu Jingxu said softly.

Su Huaijing asked, "How do you say it?" ”

Mu Jingxu: "The penistor asked him why he killed someone, and he said he just wanted to kill; When asked what kind of grievances he had with the deceased, he said that there was no grievance or hatred; When asked why the deceased was chosen, he said, 'It's only her bad luck to blame'. ”

Mu Jingxu looked at Su Huaijing quietly and repeated softly: "It's only because of his bad luck that he couldn't save himself." ”

He did not give them a way to live, and the prisoners who could use these two kinds of torture were all incriminated and irrefutable, and the reason why there was a trial was so that they could confess more details and convict them better.

It doesn't matter if he doesn't confess, Mu Jingxu is the champion of the seventh year of Qingzheng, one of the most intelligent and exquisite people in the Dayu dynasty.

He had countless ways to write a dossier that could not find any fault, and what the prisoner said to him was nothing more than an examination of human nature.

Rong Tang's action of peeling the lotus room was inexplicably in a trance.

He had seen Mu Jingxu's interrogation.

He changed his snow-like clothes, put on the crimson court clothes of Shaoqing of Dali Temple, and stood in the dark cell, surrounded by countless prisoners wailing, rats gnawing at carrion in the corners, and the smell was fishy and sticky. Mu Jingxu took a red-hot iron hook and pasted it on the prisoner, not sad, joyful, or happy, but calmly and calmly hooked off a piece of bright red meat from the other party, with a flick of his wrist, the mouse had a meal, and there was another high movement in the countless howls.

And after a torture, there was still no blood on the crimson court clothes, but it made people feel that he was a terrible ghost who climbed up from hell, cold and ruthless.

Burying him alive and sticking to the official can already be called a gentle torture, and suffocating in despair on the punishment book of Dali Temple is definitely not an excessively terrible means, but Mu Jingxu only talked about these two.

Su Huaijing raised his eyebrows and said with a slight smile: "Dare to ask which one Lord Mu used on Lu Junxian?" ”

Mu Jingxu said: "Xuan paper is expensive, and there is little dry sand after the disaster. ”

Su Huaijing was slightly stunned, then suddenly smiled, and bent a pair of beautiful phoenix eyes to stare at him: "In that case, is Master Mu fooling me?" ”

"It's not." Mu Jingxu shook his head, "I only."

It tells you that there are many methods of punishment in this world, some of which will not leave a trace, and some of which will be found out sooner or later once they are put into action. ”

Ke Hongxue bent down and took out a lotus pod from the bamboo basket at Rong Tang's feet, peeled it slowly, and separated the lotus heart and lotus seeds, a small dish of green bitter leaves, and a small bowl of sweet pulp.

Rong Tang frowned, and looked at Mu Jingxu a little inexplicably.

The latter's expression did not change at all, his emotions never leaked, Su Huaijing looked at him, and he also looked at each other quietly, without saying a word or dodging.

Gradually, Su Huaijing's expression changed, his happy smile was replaced by a shallow vigilance, he leaned back slightly, his eyes were lowered, and said, "Mu Shaoqing, I don't understand what this means." ”

Mu Jingxu was silent for a moment, picked up the brush again, lowered his head and continued to write the dossier, and said lightly: "There is no meaning." ”

The sleeves of his shirt rolled up during the action, and Rong Tang inadvertently caught a glimpse of several eye-catching scratches on his right wrist, each of which was very fresh, and the color of the condensed scab was bright red and light, which was clearly a freshly wound.

He was stunned, and he didn't react for a moment who could still leave a wound on Shaoqing in Dali Temple, but in a blink of an eye, his sleeves swept down, covering all traces.

Rong Tang frowned and thought about it, Ke Hongxue laughed at the right time, and said: "Senior brother is afraid that talking too much will scare you, an important person like Governor Lu, ordinary punishment methods on him will inevitably seem too unimportant." ”

Rong Tang suppressed the question in his heart, and took his words: "Then what kind of means do you pay attention to?" ”

"Tietong, tied to the belly, put two mice in the bucket, and the torch keeps heating the barrel surface." Ke Hongxue squinted her eyes and smiled, and said slowly, I don't know if it's true or not, but it just makes people feel a chill inexplicably.

Rong Tang thought about the picture he described and the final result, and couldn't help but shudder.

There was a rustling sound when the tip of the pen fell on the paper, Ke Hongxue peeled the lotus seeds and naturally studied the ink for Su Huaijing, Rong Tang recalled the conversation between Su Huaijing and Mu Jingxu just now, and couldn't tell if it was a psychological effect or what was going on, but always felt that Mu Jingxu's words had something to say.

But no one mentioned it again, and the words were not explained, Sheng Chengming took Lu Jiaxi with him, and went out for disaster relief with the silver sent by Ke Hongxue, they sat in the pavilion blowing the wind on the pool, chatting casually, and basking in the morning sun for a while.

It wasn't until the sun was getting stronger and stronger that Rong Tang was a little dizzy that Su Huaijing got up and wanted to take him back.

Ke Hongxue got up to see off the guests, and Mu Jingxuan wrote the file in the middle.

Su Huaijing stepped down the steps, but stopped at the moment when he was about to step out, looked back at Mu Jingxu, and asked casually: "There is one thing that I am very confused about, please ask Mu Shaoqing to answer." It stands to reason that the crime of corruption and bribery will not lead to death, Lu Junxian has been by His Majesty's side for so many years, so he naturally knows what His Majesty dislikes and what he rebellious. I can understand that he confessed to corruption, and it is normal for him to confess to being an accomplice, and even to re-report the infestation of the Japanese who he once concealed. ”

Su Huaijing paused, Mu Jingxu's pen stopped slightly, looked up at him, and said bluntly: "What is wrong with Master Su?" ”

Su Huaijing said: "Life experience. ”

Rong Tang's heart froze, and he listened to Su Huaijing say slowly: "Your Majesty has been on the throne for nine years, and the former royalist officials in the past nine years have either been executed or exiled, and the only one who can be regarded as a good treatment is probably only Ke Wenrui Ke Taifu." ”

He glanced at Ke Hongxue, who was calm and unchanged, and even heard him mention his grandfather, and shook his fan with a smile.

Su Huaijing: "If other charges are not enough to make Lu Junxian die, but a single brother of Concubine Xiande and uncle of the second prince is enough for His Majesty Long Yan to be angry, and he will be beheaded, how could he confess this matter?" ”

The sun gradually climbed overhead, and Su Huaijing stood on the steps of the gazebo, the dazzling light outside not falling on him at all.

He stared at Mu Jingxu and asked softly, "Or, Mu Shaoqing, where did you learn this secret in order to induce Lu Junxian to confess?" ”

There was silence in the pavilion for a long time, and Mu Jingxu said: "Dali Temple is confidential and cannot be passed on. ”

"Really?" Su Huaijing laughed lightly and bowed his head to apologize: "It's me who overstepped the rules." ”

Then he turned around, took Rong Tang's hand and left, as if the question just now was really just a sudden and casual question.!