Chongzhen Sunset Song

?one

In the evening, Chongzhen knew about someone surrendering himself.He held Feng Ying's memorial in his hand, thought about it, and then turned his eyes to Xi Zhao.

"What do you think about this matter... Who is right?"

Xi Zhao pursed her lips, avoided answering, and only asked with a smile: "Who does the Emperor believe?"

"Who do you believe..." Chongzhen remained silent, as if he had really weighed things up, before he said after a while: "Both of them believe, but not all of them."

"Oh? What did the emperor say?"

Chongzhen thought for a while, and said: "No wind, no waves, there must be some reason for this to happen. But if you believe in Wen Qing completely, Wang Chengen will accept bribes privately, disturb the court, and confuse the public; if you believe in Wang Chengen completely, Then Wen Qing fabricated the crime, deliberately framed it, and secretly sent perjury evidence. Whichever side you believe in, you must put the other side in a place of great treachery. Hey..." Chongzhen sighed, leaning on the back of the chair, Pulling the tassel on the waist pendant with his hand, "Although the nature of the two is not sincere and loyal, I still can't believe in my heart that either of them would really be so evil. That's why they are so hesitant." Chongzhen paused for a while, He raised his eyes to look at Xi Zhao again, "If it were you, who would you trust?"

"The emperor is still hesitating about such a difficult matter, how can the villain explain it clearly." Xi Zhao smiled gently and said, "Don't worry about it, the emperor, why don't you call the prince over here first, and listen to his remarks for now. Make another plan."

"Hey, that's fine."

"What is the emperor's order?" Wang Chengen's legs and feet were very fast, and he came here in less than a stick of incense.The truth was unknown, Chongzhen was neither happy nor angry when facing Wang Chengen, he only raised his eyes slightly, and asked calmly:

"Do you know someone named Wang Fan?"

"Wang Fan...?" Wang Chengen frowned slightly and thought about it, then shook his head and said, "I have no impression."

"Then Wang Fan went to the lobby of the Ministry of Criminal Justice today and said that he personally handed over Qian Qianyi's 4 taels of bribe money to you. Is that just nonsense?" Chongzhen looked Wang Chengen straight in the eyes and said again.

Wang Chengen's eyes widened, he was taken aback, immediately knelt down, and hastily argued: "Your Majesty, the servant has never done such a thing, and I don't know who Wang Fan is! This Wang Fan must have framed the servant maliciously, or someone instructed him to do so. The servant girl is really wronged!" After speaking, he bent down suddenly and knocked his head on the ground with a loud noise.

"Okay, okay, why are you bothering, get up quickly." Wang Chengen's sudden and violent reaction made Chongzhen feel a little guilty. If you don't believe it, I just asked you to ask, since you don't know him, then ignore this matter."

"The emperor is holy!" Hearing Chongzhen's words, Wang Chengen bowed deeply, and then stood up with support on the ground, with red and purple blood marks on his forehead.I saw him straightening his clothes, with a sad expression on his face, and before Chongzhen could speak again, he said sadly: "Hey... the servant also understands that the emperor will naturally be suspicious if this happens, and if you change the servant, you will definitely Be suspicious. But the maidservant has never received money from Qian Qianyi."

"Cough...that's not what I meant." Chongzhen coughed unnaturally and waved his hands.

"Yes, the emperor is willing to trust the slaves, and the slaves are really grateful. But people's words are terrible. Now there are discussions in the court, saying that the slaves have done a lot of evil, but the emperor is covering up and deliberately protecting his shortcomings. The emperor's wiseness was arrested because of this ridiculous rumor. People misunderstand that slaves are the ones who are to blame for death." Wang Chengen lifted his skirt and knelt down again, arching his hands high, very solemnly, "Therefore, slaves implore the emperor, and immediately order Jinyi Weiche Investigate this case, find out the truth, return the innocence of the servants as soon as possible, and put aside everyone's suspicion, so as not to cause further troubles and damage the emperor's holy name."

"Jinyiwei... is indeed more capable than the Ministry of Punishment." Chongzhen pondered for a moment, and when he raised his head, Wang Chengen's earnest expression met his face.Chongzhen couldn't hold back his heart softened, nodded, and said:

"Since there have been discussions in the court, it is inappropriate to delay the matter of Qian Qianyi like this... Well, then, as you said, finish this matter as soon as possible. Come." Chongzhen pulled out the copy from the pile of memorials Uncovering the post anonymously, he responded to the eunuch who came in and said, "Bring this to Jin Yiwei's fellow acquaintance, Wu Mengming, and tell him to find out the result within ten days."

two

"Eunuch, how are you?"

As soon as Wang Chengen stepped into the gate of the Prison of Rituals, he saw Li Quanying come up to ask.

"What else can I do?" Wang Chengen seemed to be in a bad mood, walked straight into the room with his hands behind his back, and sat down on the upper armchair.

"What did the emperor say?" Li Quan caught a glimpse of Wang Chengen's bruised forehead, followed him and asked again.

"The emperor only asked about Wang Fan's matter that we heard about before, but he didn't say anything." Wang Chengen closed his eyes, resting his mind lazily.

"The emperor must trust the father-in-law." Li Quan nodded, feeling a little relieved, "Can the emperor ask Jin Yiwei to investigate according to what the father-in-law said?"

"Hmph." Wang Chengen sneered, "The emperor ordered Wu Mengming."

Li Quan's eyes lit up, then he lowered his head and smiled slightly. "The emperor actually ordered him, now the father-in-law can rest easy." As he spoke, he looked towards Wang Chengen, only to see that Wang Chengen still had a gloomy expression on his face.The corner of Li Quan's mouth twitched, he stood up and walked to the tea table, opened a blue and white teapot, twisted a pinch of Longjing and sprinkled it on the bottom of the pot, poured hot water on it, covered it, and poured it into the teacup. A cup was brought back and placed softly on the coffee table beside Wang Chengen, and then he said: "The emperor does not doubt the father-in-law, and ordered a thorough investigation according to the father-in-law's suggestion, and the person who thoroughly investigated the case is the father-in-law's close friend. , this game of chess is already in the hands of the winner, I don't know why the father-in-law is still in a bad mood and sees no joy?"

"Hey... it's because the winning ticket is in my hands, and my heart is relaxed. I come back this way and think about many old things." Hearing this, Wang Chengen sighed, picked up the tea from Li Quan, lifted the lid of the cup and blew, and blew again. Put it down slowly. "Seven years... After all, our family has been in contact with that Wen Tiren for seven years. Although it is a friendly acquaintance, we treat him well. Even if our family is not used to seeing him first, it has not really harmed him." He, he is so stubborn, trying his best to put our family to death, without any remembrance of old feelings... I knew this person was vicious, but when it was my turn, I realized how vicious he was. Sigh. "

"My father-in-law has been in the officialdom for many years. He has gone through thousands of things and met all kinds of people. Parting and reunion are impermanent, and good and evil coexist. In the end, everything is not the same, so why bother to sigh for this person?" Li Quan said with a smile. .

"That's what I said, but people are not grass and trees. If it's my turn, I'll be somewhat chilled..." Wang Chengen sighed, with a helpless expression on his face.

"People's hearts are unpredictable, which is the most anticipated thing." Li Quan's eyes were calm, and he said softly, "The matter has come to this point, if we don't end him, the father-in-law will be hard to protect himself, the father-in-law only needs to think about this point, Other idle emotions are just disturbing the state of mind, it is better to have a little less."

"Hey, what you said, our family doesn't know..."

"That's it." Li Quan smiled leisurely, "Wang Fan's early bird fell into the hands of Jin Yiwei, and his behind-the-scenes pusher will not be stable. Shoufu is smart, but this time his abnormal moves are all dizzy Trick, I'm afraid God sees that he is approaching seventy years old, so I want to use the father-in-law's hand to drive him back to retire. The father-in-law just wants to do so, and there is really no need to feel too much."

Hearing this, Wang Chengen glanced at Li Quan, and said nothing, but a knowing smile flashed across his mouth.

three

That night, Jin Yiwei brought Wang Fan who was imprisoned in the Ministry of Criminal Justice, and interrogated Wang Zhixin, the king of Dongchangchang, all night long.This time, Wang Cheng'en was determined to do everything right. Jinyiwei and Dongchang worked together, and their methods of extorting a confession were far more brutal and ruthless than that of the Ministry of Criminal Affairs, which is in charge of civil servants.When Wang Fan accepted the job of his employer, he thought that at most he would die. Most of the officials in the prison of the Ministry of Punishment knew him well, and they would not suffer any crimes. Who knows that now it is Wang Chengen who has turned around. In the hands of Dongchang, if he didn't finish three sentences, he would be sentenced to death.He was not mentally prepared for the situation in front of him, and he had never experienced such suffering. Before he had been tortured a few times, he recruited Chen Luqian who arranged for him to surrender himself.

So before dawn, Wu Mengming and Wang Zhixin took Chen Luqian, who was still in a daze, to the East Factory, and continued to do the same.Chen Luqian was a weak scholar, and he couldn't stand the punishment, so Wen Tiren ordered him to write an anonymous post, how to find someone to turn himself in and frame Wang Chengen, how to teach him to falsely accuse Qian Qianyi, how to instruct his party officials to go to court Fold the public opinion, see it, hear it, some people don't have it, and all of them are recruited.Seeing that the useless scholar had cleaned up almost everything he knew, Wang Zhixin chuckled, exchanged glances with Wu Mengming secretly, and asked Chen Luqian to fingerprint the two confessions, and Wu Mengming handed one to him. Your Majesty, the other copy was quietly sent to Wang Chengen, the chief inspector of ceremonies.

Naturally, Wen Tiren could not have imagined that in this one night, in a place where the eyes and ears could not see, there would be such a sudden change that hit his deathbed. Even Wang Chengen was a little surprised. Get there quickly.When Chen Lvqian's confession was delivered to the Supervisor of Rituals, Wang Chengen happened to be holding a memorial to Wen Tiren to ask for sick leave in his hand. Hearing the sender's intention, he hurriedly put down the memorial, took it over and read it briefly, with a frown. , A winner's smile instantly appeared on his face.

"Okay, okay." He nodded and handed the confession to Li Quan who was beside him.Zhou Xi, who was also working in the room, stopped and sneaked over to look at it. After reading a few sentences, he hurriedly withdrew his head as if he had been burned, and stepped aside politely.After Li Quan finished reading, An Anran smiled, folded the confession neatly, stood up unhurriedly, flicked his clothes, arched his hands, and bowed.

"Congratulations, father-in-law, you are finally innocent."

"Hey, no courtesy." Wang Chengen waved his hands cheerfully, obviously in a good mood, "Now we have all the things that our family should do, and then, let's make a pot of good tea and wait for the show. gone."

Zhou Xi listened restlessly, and seeing the messenger leave, only Wang Chengen and Li Quan were left in the room, so he bent over and leaned forward, and asked cautiously, "Is Mr. Shoufu this time...?"

"Hmph." Wang Chengen shook his fan slowly, with a look of contempt on his face, and said word by word, "If you don't die, you will lose a layer of skin."

"Elder-in-law is really clever, Mr. Shoufu wants to fight with you, but he is really looking for a dead end." Zhou Xi hurriedly smiled and complimented, but secretly his heart was beating violently.Even if he is not very experienced in political affairs, Zhou Xi can feel that the stakes are not small after looking at the charges in the confession - for Shoufu, something really happened this time.Mr. Wen has been sitting in the cabinet for so many years, and the prince twirled his fingers, and he easily grasped the vital point. This made Zhou Xi lament the high power of the prince, but his heart was inexplicably throbbing. The panic of feeling small and powerless, and the excitement that seemed to be sure that he was following the right master and embarked on the right path.But Wang Chengen ignored Zhou Xi's compliment, just responded with a casual smile, reached out to pick up Wen Tiren's new memorial on the table, and handed it to Li Quan.

"I'm sick, please rest... the first assistant has started to shrink his head and avoid things again." After reading it, Li Quan said with a smile, "Master Wu and the others are meticulous in their actions, and the sky above their heads is about to collapse. I'm afraid the first assistant doesn't know yet. How does the father-in-law plan to deal with this book?"

"Squeeze it for a while. Let's submit it after Wu Mengming's work is over." Wang Chengen smiled sinisterly and closed his fan with a snap, "This time, let's see if he can avoid it!"

At the same time as the Supervisor of Rituals chatted and laughed leisurely, in the Hall of Martial Ying, Chongzhen also received the confession that had been drawn.The summer is scorching hot and the sun is shining brightly. Even the banks of the lotus pond and willows are hard to find a trace of coolness.However, the atmosphere in the Wuying Hall was as cold as winter in March and September. The maids and eunuchs who were serving, the sunset beside the dragon chair, and Wu Mengming who came to deliver the letter all dared not move or vent their anger, as if they were caught by the harshness in Chongzhen's eyes. In the cold, Qi Qi froze into an iceman. ?