Suzaku Fury

【31 Audit】

The Ministry of Justice, which is usually gloomy and terrifying, is surprisingly lively today.

However, the front hall of the Ministry of Punishment was brightly lit, and the sound of flipping through the files was endless, and the people who checked the files were whispering to each other, very busy.

There was one person among them, who seemed to have nothing to do with the busy meal.

Li Shurui, Shangshu of the Ministry of Punishments, sat upright in the hall, pinching a white jade cup with two fingers in his left hand. The content in the cup was the freshly fried Crane Tongue tea this spring.The person who tasted the tea took a sip, and his mouth was full of fragrance, as if he was still full of meaning. He took another sip, but before he drank it, he spit it all out.

I saw Dali Temple Minister Yuchi Zhenjin, who was wearing a blue and purple official uniform, leading several subordinates, coming from the gate of the Ministry of Punishment.

"Xiaguan Dali Temple Minister Yuchi Zhenjin pays homage to Your Excellency." Although Yuchi Zhenjin bowed, he did not bow his head.

Li Shurui quickly wiped the tea from his mouth with his sleeve, and changed his expression sarcastically: "Why did Lord Yuchi not go to investigate the case, but came to my criminal department instead? Could it be that he knew the law and broke the law, so he was arrested?"

Yuchi Zhenjin sneered, and said: "Master Li's words are wrong. As a civil servant in Dali Temple, it is his duty to search files and interrogate punishments. But fortunately, he was promoted and appreciated by the Queen of Heaven, which invisibly made him feel inferior to his humble servants." The responsibilities have been reversed, and I, Yuchi Zhenjin, have the honor to step over and take over."

Li Shurui couldn't tell that there was something in his words. On the surface, he heard that he was belittling himself, but didn't the meaning of these words still refer to Sang and scold Huai, saying that he was disqualified? !The Shangshu of the Ministry of Punishment was so angry that his face was red and his neck was thick. A white jade cup was smashed on the case, and he pointed at Yuchi Zhenjin with a bloody finger and cursed: "There is no reason for that!" One word.

Yuchi Zhenjin looked at the bloody fingers lying on the tip of his nose, and continued to smile and said, "Lord Li, don't get angry. Today's humble post is ordered by the Queen of Heaven to come to check the accounts, and there is no ulterior motive. Moreover, the Ministry of Punishment and Dali Temple complement each other, and it should be based on harmony." Expensive. If the humble official makes a slip of the tongue, please forgive me. Besides, the injury on the hand of the lord should be bandaged as soon as possible."

Hearing this, Li Shurui glanced at his finger, it seemed to be bleeding, it was shocking, his heart felt like a knife was twisted, but in fact, his fingers were connected to his heart, it really hurt his heart, but he just didn't realize it when he was angry.Even so, it was not easy to put on a miserable face on the bright side, so he flicked his sleeves, put his hands behind his back, and strode away.Unexpectedly, as soon as he walked away, there was a burst of laughter behind him.Li Shurui was overwhelmed with anger, he paused, turned his head and glanced at Yuchi and his party angrily.

Yuchi Zhenjin knew where the murderous intent was coming from without even looking at him, so he raised his hand to stop him: "Smiling, how can you wait for me here? Hurry up and check the accounts!"

"Yes! I'm under orders." Several people clasped their fists together and retreated.

"Kuang Zhao!" Yuchi Zhenjin called to stop Kuang Zhao, then looked at the seat where there were officials from the three ministries and said, "Go and get me all the records of Fan Gong in Linyi, and I will check it myself." The voice was incongruent Not too small, just enough for everyone in the front hall to hear.

"Yes!" Kuang Zhao took the order to retreat.

Yuchi Zhenjin found a seat and sat down by himself.He must have remembered what Di Renjie explained before he and Di Renjie parted ways.Although Di Renjie was ambiguous, since Di Renjie emphasized his duty as an official so much, he put on airs and came to the Ministry of Punishment to perform his duty as the Minister of Dali Temple.

Although Di Renjie only served as the prime minister of Liupin Temple, he made a big splash in the Shendu Dragon King case a year ago, and his position was low.And working with him for a year, I know that Di Renjie really deserves his name. As a senior minister of Dali Temple, he is duty-bound to use talents.Besides, he also gradually realized that it is really rare to meet such a like-minded bosom friend as Di Renjie in the whole world.

It is undeniable that since Di Renjie joined Dali Temple as the Temple Chancellor, he has given Yuchi Zhenjin a lot of impact several times.Yuchi Zhenjin himself can't tell whether this impact is good or bad, but as long as Dali Temple can handle more unjust, false and wrong cases without changing its purpose, it will be more valued by the court and loved and trusted by the people. enough.

Unlike the Dragon King case a year ago, now that the strange case has reappeared, he firmly believes that Di Renjie will be able to figure out the ins and outs of the case, but he has no time to elaborate at this time.He worked with him to investigate the case. Although he had made a rough estimate, he did not dare to jump to conclusions.

In this way, all you need is to cooperate with Di Renjie from the inside out.

"My lord, this is from the Ministry of Rites and the Ministry of Household Affairs." Kuang Zhao put down the account book, took a step back, and stood by for orders.

Yuchi Zhenjin came back to his senses, raised his hand and waved back.Stretching out his hand to touch a thick stack of ledgers, he looked up for a moment, his blue eyes were sharp, and he just glanced around in silence. The three officials, including the Dali Temple officials he brought with him, all had different expressions and had their own plans in their hearts.

Yuchi Zhenjin snorted coldly, pressed the stack of account books with two fingers and pulled it to the front of him, picked a book out of the stack as if he had a purpose, and looked through the pages one by one attentively.

The Mingmu in this account book is really well done, it seems that what Di Renjie said is true.

However, soldiers never tire of cheating.

Yuchi Zhenjin raised his head and glanced at the group of auditing officials in a serious manner. Unexpectedly, there were actually a few heads of the Ministry of Rites who looked flustered and wiped their sweat frequently. They happened to meet Yuchi Zhenjin's eyes, and then hurriedly lowered their heads to look at the Ministry of Punishment in front of them. The official reconciles the account, and the hand holding the pen shakes like sifting chaff.

Yuchi Zhenjin twitched his mouth, closed the account book in his hand, and clapped his hands: "Kuang Zhao!"

"I am humble!"

Yuchi Zhenjin walked out from behind the wooden case, walked up to the group of officials, looked down at them, and handed the account book in his hand to Kuang Zhao: "I think this file is suspicious, so I will take it back to Dali Temple for thorough investigation."

"Yes!"

"Master Yuchi!" One of the principals hurriedly stood up from the group of officials, staggered to Yuchi Zhenjin, knelt down and begged: "Master Yuchi, you Dali Temple can't get this account book!"

"Why?" Yuchi Zhenjin handed over the account book to Kuang Zhao, but he squatted down on one knee, still looking down at the principal in front of him, "Could it be that there is something tricky in it, so you can't explain it to outsiders?"

The chief was so frightened that he took a few steps back, and this time he simply fell to the ground: "The humble official is terrified, sir, don't talk about it, if such rumors are spread, the humble official will lose his head."

"Then tell me, why don't you let me take this volume away?"

"That's right, that's the servant's life. You have to bring back as many copies as you want to take out. If any copy is missing, the humble official will be blamed. I hope you will forgive me. Don't embarrass the humble official... "

"Ridiculous!" Yuchi Zhenjin scolded angrily, stood up quickly again, walked quickly to the desk where he sat down just now, pointed to the account book left on the table and said angrily: "I was ordered by the Queen of Heaven to check the account book, how could there be any?" The reason why you don’t take suspicious account books away?! I just looked through the tribute records of Linyi in the past years. On the surface, they are decent, but in fact they are full of loopholes! Among them, the amount of agarwood that was paid for the tribute is particularly important. Don't you think I can't see it? If you still want to cover it up like this, don't you want to cover it up!"

"My lord, don't spout blood!" The head of the Ministry of Rites turned pale.

"Whether it's my seat who spouted blood, you can find out after checking." Yuchi Zhenjin walked back to the case with a flick of his sleeves, and continued to check the accounts.

Yuchi Zhenjin picked up another account book and was about to look through it, but saw Li Shurui with a dark face walking back with his hands behind his back.

Yuchi withdrew his gaze and smiled to himself, the timing was good, to deal with Li Shurui's inaction and overconfident idiot, the provocative method is really good.As for whether the head of the Ministry of Rites just now was involved in corruption of ink and whether there were any mistakes in the account books, this remains to be verified.

But now the fishing net has been cast, just wait for the time to catch the fish!

At the same time, Xuanzheng Hall——

"It is said that Cui Qianpei, the envoy of Guangfu City in Lingnan, entered the palace to have an audience."

Cui Qianpei, who was dressed in a black official robe with dark flowers, climbed up the stairs together with the rhyming tribute Shangjing. When they arrived at the front of the hall, they all knelt down and shouted three times long live the emperor and thousand years the queen.

"Pingshen." Gaozong slightly raised his hand to invite.

"Thank you, Your Majesty." Cui Qianpei lifted the hem of his robe and stood aside with his head bowed.

"Come here, give me a seat." Empress Wu stood up from the phoenix chair, and was assisted down by Lao Taiyi, "Aiqing's journey has been difficult, and she has suffered a lot."

Cui Qianpei hurriedly got down from his seat and knelt down, made a big salute, then folded his fists and bowed his head, saying: "The criminal has neglected his duty, I beg the Queen of Heaven to grant me my sin!"

"Aiqing is serious. You traveled thousands of miles to go to the capital with the rhyme of Fangong, so what is your crime? Get up."

"I'm guilty... Lingnan Jiedu envoy Mr. Zhang... suffered bad luck and died young. As a colleague, the guilty minister failed to rescue him in time. It was really negligence."

"Natural disaster* is something I can control? Mr. Zhang died in his duty, devoted himself to his duty, and dedicated his life to the Tang Dynasty. He was on the saddle, and now he died well. The emperor will forgive his merits and demerits and give him an explanation. Ai Qing doesn't have to Too much self-blame, let’s get on with your life. Wait for me to order someone to hold a banquet, and I will wash you off."

Cui Qianpei kowtowed again and shouted: "Thank you, Emperor and Empress Long En."

"Let's go to the side hall first to rest for a while." Empress Wu paused, and said again: "Lao Taiyi."

"The slave is here."

"Order someone to lead Master Cui to the side hall to rest for a while, don't be negligent!"

Lao Taiyi bowed his head and replied: "Your servant obeys." At the end, he winked at the internal guard who was waiting at the side, and someone immediately came forward to respectfully invite Cui Qianpei and others.

After Cui Qianpei and his party left the Xuanzheng Hall, Empress Wu went up the steps and sat back on the phoenix chair.

"Queen, I have also heard a little about Zhang Yun's death for no reason."

Empress Wu was unstable and almost fell off the phoenix chair, but fortunately Lao Taiyi secretly supported her, otherwise she would have sat on the ground.

"Oh? How can the emperor hear such gossip?" As soon as Empress Wu sat down, Feng Shun pressed down and swept across the court ladies and eunuchs who were serving.

Gao Zong remained silent, twirling the beard on his chin, and said: "Zhang Yun is a second-rank member of my Great Tang no matter what, so he was burned to death at the feet of the emperor, it is inevitable that people will panic, and some rumors are inevitable. "

Empress Wu smiled and touched the back of Gaozong's hand, and then patted it lightly as a comfort.He smiled again and said: "Your Majesty, don't worry, the concubine has ordered people to quickly and thoroughly investigate the cause, and there must be a conclusion in a few days."

Hearing this, Emperor Gaozong breathed a sigh of relief, and said: "It's good that way, and the truth will come out as soon as possible, so as not to be criticized and slandered by those who care about it, and damage our Tang Dynasty's prestige."

"The emperor should not worry about this time, just leave it to his concubines, and the emperor can rest assured to recuperate."

Gaozong laughed and said, "I'm relieved to have the queen here." After that, he asked someone to help him back to the palace.

As soon as the emperor left the Xuanzheng Hall, Empress Wu suppressed her smile and stood up from the phoenix chair.

"Lao Taiyi."

"The slave is here."

"Pass down the oral order of the palace, and order Yuchi Zhenjin, the Minister of Dali Temple, to solve the case as soon as possible, find out the reason, and arrest the culprit. Otherwise, come and see me!" After saying that, he walked away in a huff.

"The slave obeys."