The imperial study room was filled with silence. Emperor Yanxi sat on the dragon chair and looked at the memorials of Prime Minister Zuo and Jun Chengrong again, with a serious expression obviously not planning to procrastinate any longer.
After closing the papers, Emperor Yanxi said to Prime Minister Zuo, "When did Jun Chengxi start selling private salt?"
"Return to the emperor. I don't know the exact time. I only know that Zhao Qingnan, the magistrate of Huaifeng, was the first to discover this incident and was silenced three years ago. The cooperation with the government has made huge profits of more than ten million taels in three years." Prime Minister Zuo said truthfully.
"Huaifeng Chen's family," Emperor Yanxi frowned and thought.
"My Majesty, Huaifeng Chen's family is the mother's family of General Rong's wife." Prime Minister You said. As everyone knows, General Rong and his wife have a very good relationship. Madam Rong is not the daughter of an official family, but the daughter of a wealthy businessman. At that time, General Rong was only seventeen or eighteen years old. A mistake in decision-making caused him to be ambushed and injured. Just happened to be seen by the Miss Chen family who came back from the pilgrimage, and rescued him. After General Rong won the victory, he found a matchmaker to give a dowry, and married Ms. Chen back home as Mrs. Rong.
"So, General Rong's Mansion is also involved?" Emperor Yanxi asked.
Prime Minister Zuo said truthfully: "Your Majesty, after investigation, General Rong's House was not involved."
"Even if he didn't participate, I don't believe that Jun Chengxi can connect to the line of the Chen family without knowing it." After all, selling private salt is a serious crime of beheading. If you don't have full connections, you would not be willing to take the risk if you want to come to the Chen family. risk.
"Your majesty is wise." Everyone responded.
"Give me a good investigation. Anyone who is involved should be investigated thoroughly. Don't wrong them, and you must not let them go!" Emperor Yanxi said resoundingly, and then asked several princes, "What do you think?"
Jun Chengyan stood up first, and said: "I never thought that the fifth brother would do such a thing, and I am really terrified. But as a prince, the fifth brother has no worries about food and clothing, so why would he sell private salt? Yes Could it be someone instigated or deliberately framed?"
"He's such an adult. If he really has no brains and was instigated by others, it can only mean that he didn't take me seriously at all. He knew that it was a capital crime, but he still collude with others. As for the intentional frame, I will find out. "Speaking of this, Emperor Yanxi glanced at Jun Chengyan again, and said: "The Gonglianhou Mansion is the natal family of your mother and concubine. I am a little relieved that you did not participate in it. But you still have to avoid suspicion in this matter. Before the matter is over, you should stay in the mansion and don't run around."
"Yes." Jun Chengyan replied in a low voice. His lowered eyes narrowed, and he didn't know whether he was dissatisfied with Emperor Yanxi's words, or angry that the Gonglianhou's mansion had implicated him, or both.
"What about you?" Emperor Yanxi asked the others.
Jun Lixuan saluted and said: "Father, I do have a question in my mind."
"Speak." Emperor Yanxi looked at him.
"The Fifth Emperor's mansion is not considered luxurious, and he usually does not have any hobbies for spending money. Although the expenses in the mansion are high, they have not surpassed his prince's role. So I am thinking, what is the profit of tens of millions of taels of silver? Where are you going?" Jun Lixuan asked in a low voice.
This question surprised everyone present. This is indeed a problem. Not only did so much money not allow the fifth prince to spend money like water, but he was relatively frugal. Is it because the fifth prince likes to count money for fun, or is the money just a matter of earning money? In fact, it has already been used elsewhere
"Father, what Li Xuan said makes sense. With so much money, Rong Erchen said something disrespectful. Unless it is to raise an army, why is it so expensive?" Jun Liche said with a salute.
Emperor Yanxi looked at his six sons, and it was only Jun Liche who said this, so he would not feel angry, otherwise, if anyone else mentioned the private army, he would be furious, this is definitely a rebellion!
"I agree with Lord Chong and Lord Lin." Prime Minister You said.
Then all the ministers reconsidered.
Emperor Yanxi thought for a moment, and said: "This matter needs to be investigated thoroughly, so I will leave it to Yuan'er to handle it. Yuan'er is mature and fair, and I can trust it."
"Yes, I must do my best to find out the truth." Jun Liyuan replied.
After talking about the private salt, Emperor Yanxi said to the eldest prince again: "You said earlier that Jun Chengxi colluded with Gu Masters and murdered the emperor's heir, so what happened?"
Jun Chengrong took a step forward, knelt on the ground, and said, "Report to my father, this matter is more complicated, please let Rong Erchen explain it slowly. Erchen went out with the Seventh Brother that day, but for some reason, he never left the capital. , the body has been unwell, often fever and headache, and even sleepwalking hurt people once. But the strange thing is that the imperial physicians did not find out the symptoms, only said that the children may not be acclimated to the soil and caused by being too tired. Until one day, the son was in the On the battlefield, he almost died because of a sudden pain in his heart, only to realize that the matter was not that simple. Later, he was fortunate enough to be advised by an expert, who said that the minister might have been infected by a Gu, and the Gu insect should have been planted in Beijing. Only by finding the person who made the Gu can you save your life." Jun Chengrong said sincerely, because he didn't want Jun Lixuan to share his credit, so he deliberately concealed the news of the corpse thread Gu from him by the medical sage and Ling Qiyang.
"Is this serious?" Emperor Yanxi glanced at Jun Lixuan calmly.
Jun Lixuan replied: "Yes. Brother Dahuang has been unwell since he left Beijing, otherwise he would not be willing to invite him back to the palace. And the symptoms are the same as those in the army before, Qi Yang also has doubts. But Brother Dahuang has always been sick. It was inconvenient for Qi Yang to intervene in the imperial physician who was accompanying him, and even though the elder brother was sleepwalking and hurting others, he was safe and sound, and there was no danger of his life, so Qi Yang felt that he might be overwhelmed." Regarding the matter of Xia Yaokeng Jun Chengrong, he was It will never be admitted, and it has never been verified anyway.
"Go ahead." Emperor Yanxi nodded and continued to ask Jun Chengrong.
"Yes. After I returned to Beijing, I asked people to look around for suspicious people, and I also read a lot of books. No matter how you look at it, it really looks like I have been poisoned. The hard work pays off, and finally I found the suspicious person. People. But this person has been in and out of Wuhuangdi's house over the wall. My son thought that he might be trying to kill Wuhuangdi, so I sent more people to follow this person, but I didn't want to find that Wuhuangdi not only knew the existence of this person, The two often chatted in secret in the study. For some reason, when they chatted secretly, they never closed the door. Once my son heard the news from his subordinates, he rushed over and saw the two talking happily. And the man's dress The tone and tone of voice are similar to people from the south, not from Ye country at all." Jun Chengrong spoke very carefully, and what he said was beneficial to himself.
"That person didn't notice?" Emperor Yanxi asked.
"My son knows that the guards in the mansion are not good at martial arts, so he can only use a stupid way to arrange different people to follow him at different times every day, so that even if he wants to, he will never see the same face. This rotation will last about a month. It will only be repeated once, at that time he has long forgotten what he looked like before, and he didn't find anything." Jun Chengrong was still very proud of his own approach.
"Are you sure you can catch that person?" Emperor Yanxi was obviously not at ease with Jun Chengrong's arrangements, but the corpse thread Gu matter really needs to be clarified.
"Yes. Although the fifth emperor's brother was grounded, that person still went in and out of the fifth emperor's mansion, and the fifth emperor's younger brother was also leisurely all day long. He didn't seem to be affected, and he didn't feel sad for the imperial concubine's bereavement." Jun Chengrong said truthfully, "The imperial concubine had a miscarriage that day, and the concubine mother felt a little strange, so I asked my son to pay more attention. The next morning, before dawn, the guards at the son's mansion followed the fifth prince's mansion. The sundry truck went to the burning site, and among the sundries thrown out of the fifth prince's mansion, they found soaked safflower, three-edged fruit, motherwort, and some herbal medicines that were swollen and silted." After finishing speaking, the eldest prince asked himself The personal attendant brought up the evidence. The cloth bag containing the herbal medicine had been soaked in color, but the sign of the Fifth Prince's Mansion was still very clear. It seemed that the bag was not going to be used anymore, so it was left there along with the herbs.
Jun Chengyan looked at all this with no expression, neither surprised nor panic, nor did he defend the Fifth Prince.
Jun Lixuan and the three of them were also silent. Anyway, since this matter was borrowed from Jun Chengrong, let’s borrow it until the end. It is a deliberate murder of the imperial concubine and his ministers, and he is willing to ask the father to be the master of the ministers, and don't let the vicious people go." Jun Chengrong kowtowed.
Emperor Yanxi nodded, and called the imperial physician, who confirmed that the medicine stain was indeed stained by the imperial concubine before and after the miscarriage, judging from the smell and color.
"Okay, very good. This is the son I raised!" Emperor Yanxi laughed back angrily, then withdrew his smile, and said loudly: "Come on! Go to Jun Chengxi's mansion and put everyone in the mansion into the Ministry of Punishment The big prison will be presided over by the minister of punishment. If you find that Gu master, you will also be tied up. If you are not in the mansion, you must ask about his whereabouts and the abortion medicine. The medical sage said that the medicine was made by a novice, so I will I have some doubts, but today I want to see how new this novice is!"
Then Emperor Yanxi said to his personal attendant: "Let the commander of the internal army lead people to search Gonglianhou's mansion to see if he can find any other evidence of illegal salt trafficking, and seal it up with Chen's house in Huaifeng, and wait for his release."
After the ministers received their orders, Emperor Yanxi sighed, "The matter must be investigated as soon as possible, and these people must be eliminated before the birth of my emperor's grandson."
"The minister waits to obey the order." After everyone saluted, they withdrew.
All of a sudden, the capital moved around. Gonglianhou's mansion was seized, and the fifth prince's mansion was also in chaos... The common people watched from a distance, some thought that the crime deserved it, while others said that the royal family had no father and son.
When Jun Lixuan returned to the mansion, Ling Qiyang was sitting at the table eating dumplings. Today is not a new year's day, but he suddenly wants to eat.
Seeing Ling Qiyang eating happily, Jun Lixuan felt that the fatigue of the day was swept away. For the peace of the child's life, he must remove all obstacles in the way ahead.
Seeing him coming back, Ling Qiyang waved to him with a smile, "You have just cooked dumplings, come and eat a few too, it's still early to leave the meal."
"Yeah." Jun Lixuan sat down with a smile, he wasn't hungry, but just wanted to be with Ling Qiyang.
Ling Qiyang took a dumpling and brought it to Jun Lixuan's mouth, just as Jun Lixuan opened his mouth to bite, Ling Qiyang snorted, and with a shake of his hand, the chopsticks and dumpling had already landed on the table.
"What's wrong?" Jun Lixuan jumped and quickly supported him.
Ling Qiyang raised the corner of his mouth, and put Jun Lixuan's hand on his stomach. Jun Lixuan only felt his skin twitch, as if he had been kicked by something.
Jun Lixuan looked at Ling Qiyang in surprise.
Ling Qiyang smiled and said: "The child moved, which shocked me." This was the first time the child moved, and as a father, Ling Qiyang was also very pleasantly surprised.
"Well, it's moving..." Jun Lixuan was a little dazed, but the surprise in his eyes was obvious. For the first time, he felt that this life was so close to him, and he needed to be careful to protect and love him. Bowing his head and kissing Ling Qiyang's forehead, Jun Lixuan whispered: "Thank you..."
Ling Qiyang raised his eyes to look at him, and said with a light smile: "Fool..."