While he was talking, the door was kicked open with a "bang", and I saw that the two officials who were pointed by Chen Wenqi led several people, holding a torch in one hand and a bright waist knife in the other, and broke into the room, pointing at Chen Wenqi and shouting:

"Lord Lou, that's him. ”

When he was clicking on the acupoints, Chen Wenqi thought that the temperature was low on the autumn night, and he couldn't bear to be cold for a long time, and he wouldn't talk to Du Ping for too long, so he only lightly clicked on the sleeping points of the two officials, and he could solve himself after holding it for an hour. How do you know that Yinian Zhiren brought trouble to himself, and after the two officials woke up, they quickly ran to report Lou Zitong, which attracted Lou Zitong to come and arrest people with the catchers who were on duty at night in the county government. As soon as he entered the door, Lou Zitong couldn't help but say, "Take down the assassin for me." ”

Du Ping hurriedly stood in front of Chen Wenqi and said, "Brother Lou, don't misunderstand, he is Du Mou......"

Lou Zitong intercepted Du Ping's words and said coldly: "Lord Du don't need to panic, forgive this little thief for not being able to hold you hostage." After speaking, he shouted to the officials: "Don't do it yet?"

"Wait. Chen Wenqi gently pushed Du Ping to the side, walked up to Lou Zitong, and asked:

"Zunjia is Lou Zitong who is in charge of Huanggang County?"

"Bold, you dare to call Ben...... The name of the man?"

"Hehe, the name is meant to be called, since you don't want people to call you directly, why bother with the name?"

"Bold thief, death is still so fast as his tongue, it is better to be caught with his hands tied to avoid the pain of flesh and skin. ”

"Your Excellency is here to stay a guest? There is nowhere to go in the middle of the night, and it stands to reason that the county government is indeed a good place to rest. However, I am entangled in trivial matters, so I will not thank you for your hospitality today, and I will definitely come to meet you after I am done. ”

As soon as the words fell, the catchers standing indoors felt a strong bump, and involuntarily retreated to both sides, making way for a passage, and a figure flashed in the dimness, and in the blink of an eye, they had arrived in the courtyard, and when Lou Zitong and others chased them out, Chen Wenqi's figure had long since disappeared.

Lou Zitong returned to Du Ping's room and asked Du Ping with "concern", "Lord Du, the assassin didn't hurt you, did he?"

Du Ping waved his hand and lied: "No." He wasn't an assassin, he was ...... is a distant relative of the lower officials. Before leaving, Chen Wenqi used the "sound transmission into the secret" to say two words to Du Ping, one of which was to tell him not to reveal his true identity.

"Is it?" Lou Zitong said suspiciously, "That's the ...... People are abrupt. Since he is a relative of Lord Du, he will no longer pursue it, so Lord Du should rest early. With a wave of his hand, he said to the officials, "Let's go." ”

When he came to the courtyard, Lou Zitong called the two original officials, pointed his hand to the room where Du Ping lived, and commanded in a low voice: "Be vigilant, if he has any movements, report it immediately." After speaking, he opened his mouth and yawned, and left with a few catchers.

At dawn the next day, the Yali of Huanggang County was as usual, the time of the "point of the mao" was the time, the time of the promotion of the hall, the guard of the door was still guarding the door, and the patrol was still patrolling, as if nothing had happened last night. Lou Zitong still delivered the decoction to Du Ping's room on time at the three hours of Chen, Wei, and Xu, personally served him to drink, and then left.

The winter solstice is short, the summer solstice turns, at this time the cold dew has passed, and the night comes relatively early. When Lou Zitong sent the decoction for the third time, it was already a golden wuxi, and the twilight was getting thicker.

Du Ping drank the last mouthful of medicinal soup in the bowl and thanked Lou Zitong: "Thank you, Brother Lou." ”

Lou Zitong took the empty bowl in Du Ping's hand and said, "Lord Du, don't be polite, I'm going to say goodbye." After saying that, he turned and walked out of the room, with a strange smile on his face.

Bypassing the west wing, Lou Zitong came to a locked side door, took out a key from his waist to open the door, looked left and right, and saw that there was no one around, so he flashed into the room and closed the door with his backhand.

The furnishings in the room are very simple, only a table, a cabinet and a copper stove, and a clay pot is placed on the copper stove, which is the place where he decocted medicine for Du Ping.

Lou Zitong walked to the table, put the medicine bowl in his hand upside down on the table, turned around and picked up the clay pot on the copper stove, went out to a Yangtai (in the local dialect, the pit where the garbage is dumped, and the garbage can be used as fertilizer after the pit rots - author's note), picked up a shovel on the edge of the tai, cut open the garbage, poured out the medicine residue in the crockpot, and then covered it with the garbage next to it. After doing all this, he took the crockpot back to the side room and put it away, locked the door and left.

Lou Zitong walked with his front foot, and Chen Wenqi's back foot turned out from behind the wall of the west wing, quickly went down to Yangtai, and slowly cut away the covered garbage with an iron shovel, and a pile of medicinal residue appeared in front of him.

He picked up a short stick and carefully flicked through it, as if to identify the compatibility of the prescription. After three times of torment, almost all of the herbs were crispy, and when the short stick was flicked, it immediately split into pieces. Suddenly, Chen Wenqi's eyes lit up, he threw down the short stick in his hand, reached out and picked out a piece of medicinal herbs in good shape, looked at it carefully for a while, lifted the placket of his clothes and wiped the dirt on the tablets, sent it to the tip of his tongue and licked it, frowned and nodded slightly, and then jumped up to Yangtai and sneaked out of the county office.

In the middle of the night, Du Ping was drowsy and suddenly felt movement in the room. He opened his eyes to see a figure standing in front of the bed, bending over and gently tapping on the edge of the bed. Du Ping was startled and was about to shout, only to hear the figure whisper: "Lord Du, it's me." ”

When Du Ping heard that it was Chen Wenqi, his heart was relieved, he let out a long breath, and said, "I'm scared to death." Then he got up and lit the lamp.

Chen Wenqi held him down and said, "You don't have to get up, let's just say a few words." ”

"Lord Chen, please speak. ”

"Lord Du, from tomorrow onwards, you can no longer drink the decoction sent by Lou Zitong. Chen Wenqi explained softly.

"Why?" asked Du Ping.

"Do as I say, I promise that Lord Du's spirit will get better day by day. As for why, it will naturally be understood later. However, you can't let Lou Zitong know that you didn't drink medicine, how to hide it from him, you can figure it out yourself. ”

Although Du Ping was puzzled, he still nodded in agreement.

"Master Du, you abolished the marriage contract between Zhong Lilan and Situ Jiao back then, where is that contract now?" Although Chen Wenqi was almost sure that the marriage contract was on Situ Jiao, he still couldn't help but ask.

"It's been sealed in the yellow book vault of the county government. ”

"Apart from the marriage contract, what evidence remains in this case?"

There are also cross-examination records drawn by Situ Jiao and Zhong Lilan. ”

"Just these two?" Chen Wenqi didn't seem to believe.

Du Ping nodded: "That's it." What does the champion want?"

"Master Du, didn't you have a judgment when you abolished the marriage contract? It stands to reason that this judgment should not only be kept together with the supporting evidence for future reference, but should also be copied to the parties concerned for receipt?"

Du Ping said: "At that time, after the two sides agreed to the mediation plan, the scribe presented the cross-examination record to Lao Yu, who wrote the draft judgment on the reverse side of the cross-examination record, and after reading the judgment, Situ Jiao and Zhong Lilan quickly left the county office. Seeing that the mediation was successfully concluded, the old man was happy, and he didn't bother to ask the scribe to copy the judgment again. ”

Chen Wenqi secretly complained when he heard it, and as expected, there was no judgment in the hands of the parties. I never thought that one of Du Ping's omissions would lose key evidence.

"Zhuangyuangong, are you going to fight a lawsuit with Mo Renxing?" Seeing that Chen Wenqi didn't speak for a long time, Du Ping asked with concern.

"I'm not a party to the case, so how can I fight this lawsuit? I'm just looking for evidence. ”

"The case that Lao Yu personally handled back then is naturally the most powerful witness, so why do you need to find any other evidence?" Du Ping said confidently.

"It's great that Master Du is willing to testify. But Mo Renxing is cunning and cunning, if you don't accept the testimony of the adult, how will you treat it?"

Du Ping was embarrassed when he heard this, and secretly thought that there was no evidence for his empty words, and the old thief would definitely deny it, so he said to Chen Wenqi: "In this case, the champion will take out the case file." Although the old man has been leaving his post for more than a year, the master bookkeeper and these people are still willing to listen to the greetings, and the old man writes a note, you take it and go to the master book at night, and let him take out the case file. Du Ping very much hoped that the Fang family would win the lawsuit, so that he would have a great chance of making a comeback, so he enthusiastically offered advice to Chen Wenqi.

Chen Wenqi said in his heart, to this day, I still don't know why Mo Renxing asked you to leave your job to recuperate, but he said: "It's late, I'm afraid that the case file has already been placed on the case in the study of Huangzhou Mansion." ”

Du Ping was puzzled at first, but after thinking about it carefully, Fang Shi understood the reason why Mo Renxing was "under house arrest", and he was angry and annoyed for a while, and he couldn't speak for a long time.

Chen Wenqi looked out the window, and there was already a trace of morning light penetrating into the room, so he stood up and said goodbye to Du Ping, "Lord Du, please take care, we will have a date later." ”

The sky is twilight, and the early risers are busy with their livelihoods for the new day.

Chen Wenqi had something in his heart, and after leaving the county office, he walked to the suburbs. The cross-examination records and verdicts in Huanggang County are the key evidence to abolish the contract between Zhong Lilan and Situ Jiao, and the real purpose of Mo Renxing's letting Du Ping leave his post to recuperate is to destroy this evidence. Chen Wenqi was convinced of this, so he didn't plan to go to the county government's yellow book library to check the "verification".

However, without these documentary evidences, how could Fang Yanjie and Zhong Lilan confront Situ Jiao in court? Even if Du Pingken appeared in court to testify, unless both parties jointly admitted it, it would be impossible for this kind of lone evidence to be used as the basis for adjudicating the case.

What to do?

Since the scientific expedition, Chen Wenqi can be said to have experienced too many things: Shen Lingshan's kidnapping, Juyongguan's assassination, Yu Ye's absurd contract, Guo Village's headless murder, Zhan Jingzhou, the collection of the "Three Guards", and the three murderers in Lingnan alone in Xifengling, etc., each case is either extremely dangerous or clueless, but he can deal with it calmly and calmly. Today, however, for the first time, he felt at a loss.

Of course, Chen Wenqi never thought of giving up. This is not only about the personal fate of Zhong Lilan and Fang Yanjie, but also to expose the dirty deeds between Mo Renxing and Situ Jiao, cut off evil and traitors for the court and the people, and eliminate old evils. As he walked, he searched for the classic cases of his predecessors in his memory, walked and walked, suddenly stopped for a moment, and then walked quickly to the riverside wharf, hired a small boat, traced the river, and soon disappeared into the mist of the river.

......

Wuchang City Gaoguan Mountain South Foothills, there is a huge building complex, which is all over the palace pavilion and the water pavilion courtyard, the house pavilion is gilded with vermilion lacquer, the momentum is magnificent; the surrounding stone is the city, the city opens four gates, the city wall above the main gate of the south side is engraved with three bright red characters - Zhen Chu Gate. This place, which occupies most of the Wuchang City, is one of the 26 palaces of the Ming Dynasty - the Chu Palace.

In the third year of Hongwu, Emperor Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang canonized the six-year-old emperor's sixth son Zhu Zhen as the king of Chu, and eleven years later, the seventeen-year-old Zhu Zhen left the capital to conquer Wuchang, opening the rule of the six rooms and one line of Chu. After more than 100 years of hereditary replacement, this palace-like palace is owned by the fifth Chu King Zhu Junjun.

Zhu Junjun's entry into the Chu Palace, which can be described as the luck of luck.

At the beginning of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, in order to establish the special identity and status of his descendants, Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang implemented a feudal system for the royal family, canonized 26 sons as princes, and stipulated that the eldest son of the canonized prince was the heir to the throne, and was hereditary and replaceable; if the prince had no son-in-law, the concubine would inherit the throne in the order of eldest and youngest.

Six rooms and one line, when it was passed to the third king of Chu, it confirmed the "foresight" of the great grandfather early. Zhu Jikun, the great-grandson of Taizu, inherited the throne in the fourth year of orthodoxy as the eldest son of the concubine and became the third king of Chu. But in less than four years, he left the west, because he had no heirs behind him, and his younger brother Zhu Jiqi became the fourth king of Chu. It is a pity that despite the large number of wives and concubines, in the nineteen years that Zhu Jiqi was in charge of the Chu Wangcheng, many princesses and wives did not leave him heirs, just like his brother Zhu Jikun, leaving behind a huge palace and an empty throne.

has no heirs, so naturally he is still a brother and a brother. According to the order of eldest and youngest, the crown of the king of Chu was on the head of Zhu Jiyan, the third son of the ancestor Zhu Mengyan. But for some reason, Zhu Jiyan was still in his Dong'an County Palace, and he did not enter the palace of Chu Wang. In this way, the throne of Chu was empty for three years, and it was not until the first year of Chenghua that Zhu Junjun, who was the first son of Zhu Jiyanshu, the king of Dong'an County, sat on the dusty throne.

From the king of the county to the prince, Zhu Junjun was overjoyed and surprised. Perhaps it was not easy to gain, but for more than 20 years in the palace, he has always been humble and modest, not interfering in the government at the top, not overriding the locality, and maintaining a good relationship with the emperor and local officials.

At noon on this day, Zhu Junjun was strolling in the back garden of the Chu Palace, admiring the flowers, when he saw the boy hurriedly running over with a greeting post in his hand, panting and saying: "Lord, there are people outside the palace who ask to see." With that, he presented the prayer post to Zhu Junjun with both hands.

Zhu Junjun took the prayer post, only to see that it was written: Hanlin Academy took the bachelor of the academy, General Wude, Hu Guangqi, and Chen Wenqi bowed.

Chen Wenqi and Zhu Junjun felt that this name was very familiar, but he couldn't remember who it was for a while, so he asked the waiter: "How old is this person?

"Back to the prince, the man was about twenty, and he said that he had seen the prince at the martial arts banquet of the Qionglin Society two years ago. ”

"Is it him?" Zhu Junjun remembered all of a sudden, isn't this the new champion who talked about "three yuan and first" at the martial arts banquet of the Qionglin Society? I heard that he had seen through the formation of the Tatars and earned back the three cities of Hetao, which had been robbed by the Tatars 20 years ago. However, this king didn't say a word to him, what is he doing today?

"Lord Wang, do you see or don't see?" The boy saw that the prince had not spoken for a long time, and asked carefully.

"See, lead him to the temple of the heart for a while, and the king will pass by. After Zhu Junjun finished speaking, he walked out of the back garden unhurriedly.

Weichen Chen Wenqi knocked to see the prince. The prince is a thousand years old, a thousand years old!" Chen Wenqi prostrated on the ground and bowed to Zhu Junjun.

"General Chen, please get up and take a seat. Zhu Junjun said politely.

After Chen Wenqi thanked him, he sat down on the first chair under Zhu Junjun.

"Lord, Weichen took the liberty to pay homage and beg for forgiveness. After sitting down, Chen Wenqi first made a polite remark.

"It's okay, this king is in a panic, and I wish someone would come and talk. Zhu Junjun smiled generously, and then said: "General Chen recited poems at the Qionglin Martial Arts Banquet that day, and his mouth was like a river, and this king was very impressed, and he appreciated it very much. ”

Chen Wenqi arched his hand and said: "The prince praises falsely. Weichen did not choose to say anything that day, vainly commented on the old emperor of Taizong, and asked the prince to forgive his sins. ”

For Chen Wenqi, the Qionglin banquet was really unbearable. At this time, I heard Zhu Junjun's old things mentioned again, so he casually "reviewed" a sentence.

Zhu Junjun is not a descendant of the fourth room, and Chen Wenqi is also telling the truth, so after hearing Chen Wenqi's words that day, he was not as angry as the princes of the four-room family. Now seeing that Chen Wenqi was a little restrained, he shook his hand and said:

"General Chen is telling the truth, what is the crime?" After saying this, he changed his words and continued: "After the martial arts banquet of the Qionglin Meeting, this king left Beijing and returned to the palace. Later, I heard that when the Tatar Jinong Abahai paid tribute, there was a strange formation, and none of the Manchu generals could know it. ”

"Where is it? Since Grandmaster Tai obtained the Divine Machine Gun Technique and set up a special Divine Machine Battalion in the army, those ancient formations have been vulnerable, who still wants to study such useless things? Compared with those generals who are civil and military and can fight habitually, Weichen is really not worth talking about. Chen Wenqi said humbly.

"Humanity is young and frivolous, and it doesn't seem to be true. General Chen has such a mind and insight, it is rare, rare!" Zhu Junjun praised.

Chen Wenqi was a little embarrassed, and quickly changed the topic: "Lord Wang, Weichen has nothing to do but go to the Three Treasures Palace." ”

Only then did Zhu Junjun realize that Chen Wenqi must have something to do when he came to visit the palace, so he smiled apologetically and said, "Yes, this king forgot." What is the matter with General Chen? Tell me about it. ”

"Lord Wang, the emperor has sent a holy decree, and the edict has ordered Weichen to mobilize soldiers and horses nearby to recruit the mob Fang Haoyu......"

Without waiting for Chen Wenqi to finish speaking, Zhu Junjun asked in surprise: "There are mobs in Huguang? General Chen came to see this king, could it be that Huguang Dusi refused to transfer troops?"

"Definitely. Lord Wang of Huguang was refreshed, and handed over all the Huangzhou guards to Weichen for dispatch. It's just ......"

"What's just that? Could it be that Fang Haoyu is very tough, you can't beat others?" asked Zhu Junjun nervously.

Chen Wenqi shook his head and said, "That's not it. Counting the old, young, sick and disabled, Fangjiazhai is only a few hundred people, how can he defeat the tiger and wolf army of the imperial court? Although Weichen brought more than 100 people to the mountain immediately, he did not engage in battle with them, but persuaded Fang Haoyu to stop the army and make a truce without blood. ”

"This is a great thing, why is General Chen still ......" Zhu Junjun looked at Chen Wenqi suspiciously, with a puzzled expression.

Chen Wenqi arched his hand towards Zhu Junjun, bowed and said: "Lord, Weichen was ordered to recruit Fang Haoyu this time, and found out that the accusations against him were many untrue, and after Weichen knew about it, he took the initiative to withdraw the formation, dismissed the mountain people, and was willing to call off the army and truce. Therefore, Wechen withdrew his three false charges of 'bewitching the foolish, gathering mountains and forests, and disturbing the locality'. Because of this 'forcible robbery', the matter involves a litigation dispute and has to go through the litigation procedure, so Weichen instructed the Fang family to go to Huangzhou Mansion to appear in court to respond to the lawsuit. ”

Zhu Junjun saw that Chen Wenqi stopped saying this, and asked, "That's it?"

"That's all. ”

"It's strange, General Chen came all the way to the palace and told this king about this?

"The emperor ordered Weichen to recruit Fang Haoyu, naturally he wanted Weichen to find out and punish Fang Haoyu's four accusations one by one, and now Weichen has exonerated his three crimes, but left a 'robbery**' unresolved, if the Huangzhou Mansion is not properly handled, and the unjust case or the people are stirred up, it is the crime of Weichen. ”

Zhu Junjun looked at Chen Wenqi in a daze, and did not squeak for a long time. The smile that had been hanging on his face gradually faded, and finally his face sank, and he said with a "hum": "Chen Wenqi, Chen Wenqi, I didn't expect you to become so sleek and sophisticated in less than three years, you really read the book of sages in vain." ”

Chen Wenqi knew why Zhu Junjun was angry, but it was inconvenient to say what he thought in his heart, so he could only act at the opportunity and try to make the King of Chu understand the purpose of his trip. He pretended to be sincerely frightened, bowed from his seat and said:

"How can Weichen be sleek and sophisticated? ”

Zhu Junjun "hummed" again: "Isn't it? I think that at the Qionglin Martial Arts Banquet, you Chen Zhuangyuan's cloth clothes have not been changed into court clothes, so you dare to direct Chen Taizong's 'inconsiderateness'." What about now? You talk and talk with mysteries, do you think this king can't understand? You have doubts about the Huangzhou Mansion, but you don't know what to say, so you play dumb riddles and let this king guess, yes or no?"

When Chen Wenqi heard this, the opportunity came, so he bowed down and replied: "The prince is wise." Yin Mo Renxing of Huangzhou Prefecture did have many abnormalities, and the case was handed over to him to handle the case, and the results were not optimistic. But this is only Weichen's suspicion, and there is no real evidence, so he didn't dare to speak in front of the prince and ask the prince to forgive him. ”

After listening to Chen Wenqi's explanation, Zhu Junqi's face softened a little, but he still didn't completely let go: "Since you believe him, why don't you ask the case yourself and make a decision? You are the envoy of the imperial seal, and you have this power!"

"Lord Yu, Weichen has a little to do with the Fang family and this case, according to the law of the Ming Dynasty, he should be avoided. After that, Fang Haoyu saved his father Shen Qing and designed to cancel the marriage contract between Situ Jiao and Zhong Lilan and told Zhu Junjun about things.

After Zhu Junjun heard this, his expression began to recover, he motioned for Chen Wenqi to sit back in his place, twisted his beard and said: "Huangzhou Mansion can't believe it, you have to avoid suspicion yourself, then this case ...... Uh, General Chen, then you should go to the Yamen of the Political Envoy Division, what are you doing here to this king?"

"Weichen is just doing things according to orders, and he has no intersection with the political envoys. With the rank of a micro-minister, how could he speak out to the political envoy department? Moreover, the political envoy department of Huguang was completely unaware of the 'mob' in the Huangzhou Mansion, and if the Huangzhou Mansion dared to go beyond the ranks, there must be someone behind him, and besides, the higher-level yamen would not interfere in the handling of the case by the lower levels for no reason. So Weichen can only meet the prince. ”

Zhu Junjun smiled dumbly and said, "General Chen, you are asking Yu Blind - you have found the wrong person." If this matter was put in the past, naturally there would be no problem, but now, this king can't help you. ”

Zhu Junjun is right. At the beginning of the founding of the country, the feudal kings who were divided into various places did have the responsibility of controlling the guards and being ordered to conquer, but after the "Battle of Jingyan", the military and political power of the feudal kings was gradually deprived.

Of course, Chen Wenqi knew this, so he said respectfully: "How dare you alarm the prince in a trivial matter? Since Weichen has been ordered by the Holy Order, he should do his best to share the worries of the court. ”

Zhu Junjun listened, and then he knew Chen Wenqi's true intention to go to the palace. He thought for a moment, then smiled and said, "General Chen's pure heart is admirable. Huangzhou Mansion is not far from here, and the wind and grass there are blowing, and this king should know. ”

Chen Wenqi was overjoyed when he heard this, and his heart was worth the trip, and he talked with Zhu Junjun in a whisper, then left his seat and retired, and quickly left the Chu Palace.