General, you should rest now; the lady is even more ruthless.

The Minister of Justice raised his gavel: "Very well, since that's the case, then this official..."

"Wait!" Chen Chengwu spoke again.

Although he prevented the letters and other physical evidence from entering the Ministry of Justice ahead of time, he couldn't control the witness testimonies.

Cui Zhi was immediately escorted to the Ministry of Justice upon arriving in Beijing, and a day and a night have passed since the trial began.

With so much time, they could easily collude with Cui Zhi.

The Minister of Justice, who was originally going to sentence Cui Zhi to immediate execution, was silenced by the Second Prince's shout.

This time, the Third Prince spoke up: "Second Brother, since Cui Zhi has admitted that he did everything by himself, I think we can close the case now."

“Third brother,” Chen Chengwu narrowed his eyes, which were adorned with dark circles, and said disapprovingly, “Have you forgotten the letters we saw at the General’s Mansion yesterday? Those were all written by Wang Liang to Cui Zhi. Now Cui Zhi has changed his story and says that he was the mastermind from beginning to end. How do you explain those letters?”

Chen Chengfeng wanted to get away with it, but he wouldn't let him have his way.

“Yesterday, a letter clearly stated that Wang Liang told Cui Zhi to leave at least 700,000 taels of silver from the disaster relief funds and to give it to him, and threatened to dismiss Cui Zhi from his post if he did not comply.”

Chen Chengwu felt that his all-nighter last night had not been in vain, and he spoke with much more confidence now.

"Third brother, what do you have to say about this?"

Chen Chengfeng didn't take his words seriously at all. He stood up and looked around the room with an arrogant expression: "I thought Second Brother was talking about something else. It's simple, Cui Zhi directed and acted it all himself."

“Cui Zhi was greedy and embezzled disaster relief funds. Fearing that his crimes would be exposed in the future, he forged many letters, intending to shift all the blame onto Wang Liang, the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue.”

Chen Chengfeng said smugly.

"Unfortunately, he did not foresee that he would come directly to the main hall of the Ministry of Justice for trial, and that I, the prince, and the General of the State would be here to jointly supervise the trial."

"He knew that no matter how much he plotted, he couldn't hide it from my and the general's discerning eyes, so he simply told the truth, thus avoiding physical pain and getting a quick end to his suffering."

“Nonsense,” Chen Chengwu retorted. “Letters can be forged, but handwriting cannot. Just have a few colleagues examine it, and the truth will be revealed whether it was written by Wang Liang.”

"You're just making excuses..." Chen Chengfeng said, but then sat down.

The reason is simple: the emperor also recognized Wang Liang's handwriting.

The second attempt at immediate execution also ended in failure.

"Aren't there other witnesses?" Shen Luo, who was usually very sparing with words, finally spoke his first words since arriving at the Ministry of Justice.

Chen Chengwu: "?"

Chen Chengfeng: "?"

Are there any witnesses?

Chen Chengfeng looked at the Minister of Justice, his questioning eyes full of doubt: Why don't you speak up when there are other witnesses?

Chen Chengwu was delighted: "Minister of Justice, since there are other witnesses, why don't you bring them to court as well?"

"Your Highness, that man is merely one of Cui Zhi's subordinates, without any official rank or position. I thought he was of little use." The Minister of Justice automatically ignored him; if the General of the State hadn't mentioned him, he would have forgotten that such a person even existed.

Chen Chengfeng's face turned ashen.

Chen Chengwu, barely able to contain his smirk, said, "Since they are witnesses, they should be interrogated together. Why aren't you summoning them yet!"

Under immense pressure, the Minister of Justice sat back down, his face contorted with grief, and slapped Xiangmu on the shoulder: "Bring the prisoner Wu Ming to the court."

That's right, there's another witness, Wu Ming, who was eager to rise in rank but was caught by Jiang Qiqi and the others.

……

Wu Ming has also been feeling unwell these past few days.

He was still dreaming of getting promoted and making a fortune, but suddenly he was thrown from heaven to hell.

He's been arrested for several days now, and he still can't accept it.

The important person who was supposed to help him turned out to be a fake, and the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity he thought he had was also a fake.

He went from being the second most powerful local bully in Longcheng to a prisoner in the Ministry of Justice, at the mercy of others.

The only consolation is that he was just an accomplice, and his crime wouldn't implicate his family; at most, he would only face the death penalty.

If they perform well, they might even be able to secure an exile.

Therefore, he was very proactive in his efforts to atone for his crimes.

"Greetings, Your Excellency. Your Excellency, all my actions have been in accordance with Cui Zhi's orders. I have absolutely no intention of harming anyone, Your Excellency..."

The Minister of Justice rebuked Wu Ming: "I haven't even asked you a question yet, what are you saying!"

Beads of sweat had already formed on his forehead: Oh no, if this witness says something detrimental to Wang Liang, His Highness will definitely blame him for his incompetence.

He coughed twice:

"Guards, this man is showing contempt for the court. Drag him away and give him twenty strokes of the cane."

If someone with a weak constitution were to receive twenty strokes of the cane, they might be unable to speak.

"No need." The second prince waved his hand, and the guards who had just stepped forward retreated again.

"Neither I nor my third brother said anything, Minister of Justice, how dare you act so arrogantly?" he said, his tone unfriendly.

The Minister of Justice swallowed hard, lowered his head, and said cautiously, "Your Highness, I was afraid he would disturb the two princes by making such a racket as soon as he came up..."

"No, let him continue! And Minister of Justice, if you are always so incompetent in handling cases, then Father should perhaps consider replacing you in this position."

Chen Chengwu threatened.

"Your Highness is right; I am foolish."

The Minister of Justice wiped his sweat, thinking to himself, "What a terrible fate! Why do I have to suffer this injustice when the two princes are fighting?"

"Wu Ming, right? Go on," he sighed and said. "Remember, tell me everything you know. You must not lie or hide anything."

Wu Ming looked around, glancing here and there.

He wasn't stupid; he realized that the people sitting next to him were probably not important figures.

"My lords, I am Wu Ming, and I was once the right-hand man of Cui Zhi, the prefect of Longcheng. I have recorded everything that Cui Zhi did over the years that I participated in."

"Oh? Recorded?" Chen Chengwu's eyes lit up. "Where?"

“Here it is.” Shen Luo slowly took out two notebooks from his sleeve. One was the notebook containing evidence of Cui Zhi’s crimes that Wu Ming had given to Jiang Qiqi that day, and the other was the notebook containing evidence collected by Zheng Yanshu.

"What? There's other evidence? Why didn't you produce it sooner?"

Chen Chengwu berated Shen Luo.

"Oh, I forgot," Shen Luo replied simply.

……

Never mind, let's look at the evidence first.

Two notebooks were handed to Chen Chengwu, who carefully flipped through them page by page, while Chen Chengfeng also leaned closer.

The two of them watched each other's hearts beat faster and faster, one from excitement and the other from fear.

This notebook records the time and place in great detail, making it much more useful than those letters.