Mrs. Chen did produce evidence.
It was already evening when Gao Ping returned home from the yamen. He pounded his waist and walked out of the yamen. He got into the sedan tiredly. It took him a long time to come back to his senses. After the sedan had gone a distance, he rang the bell from the sedan. When he heard his confidant approaching, he coughed and said, "Let's go to Baoding Tower."
The people below responded hastily, and after a while they led the sedan chair in a different direction and headed for Baoding Tower on Zhengyang Street.
For some reason, the usually bustling Zhengyang Street was particularly deserted today. For a long time, he could not hear the hawkers' cries and noise outside. Gao Ping could not help but feel that something was wrong. When the sedan chair landed, he looked towards the street suspiciously when he got out of the sedan chair - the street was empty, completely different from the bustling scene before.
There's something wrong with this.
Dongsi Street and Zhengyang Street have always been among the busiest streets in Beijing. As the evening progresses, vendors crowd these streets more and more. But now, the streets are unusually deserted.
As if seeing his confusion, the guard beside him hurriedly answered his questions.
"What?" Gao Ping was a little surprised. He had been busy trying this case recently and had been living and eating in the Ministry of Justice. He was so busy that he didn't even have time to eat, so he was a little late in hearing the news. Now he heard that Princess Chun'an had fallen off a mad horse and died, he couldn't help but find it a little strange.
Since the founding of the Great Zhou Dynasty, there has been only one princess who died from falling off a horse due to being startled. Her death was quite unique.
He shook his head and went up to the second floor, which had been prepared long ago. He pushed open the door and saw the person sitting in front of him. He immediately became serious, straightened his robe and stepped forward to salute: "Prime Minister!"
"Sit down!" Yang Shoufu waved his hand. Seeing him sit down, he asked slowly, "How is it going? How is the investigation going?"
"I was just about to tell you, Yuan Fu." Gao Ping took a deep breath as he spoke of this, as if he felt like there was a thousand-pound stone pressing down on him. He lowered his head and gritted his teeth as he spoke, "This is so ridiculous! She has evidence in her hands! Before Chen Chong died, he let his confidant take his seal and escape, and left a handwritten letter stating that the people chasing him were officials disguised as bandits!"
It turned out that the imperial official was really trying to seek justice for his daughter who was abducted, but he ended up offending someone even more powerful and was silenced.
If this matter were to be made known to others, it would simply shock people to their core.
In particular, it shows how messed up the entire officialdom in Hunan and Lingnan is. It is really outrageous!
Yang Bo snorted coldly. Even though he was never angry, he couldn't help but show a bit of indifference and coldness at this moment: "How absurd! These people... are really jumping up and down more and more, and they don't know what they are talking about!"
Gao Ping felt as if he was in a cloud after hearing this and couldn't help but shout "Yuan Fu".
From what Prime Minister Yang said, it seemed that he knew who these people were
Yang Bo was unwilling to continue, and just tapped his fingers on the table: "You said that Mrs. Chen left Chen Chong's suicide note, which proves that the Liancheng prefect Xu Fengqing condoned the bandits, colluded with profiteers and wealthy families, abducted and sold young girls, and hired killers to kill people?"
Gao Ping hummed, and turned the topic back to the topic with a lingering fear: "Yuan Fu, there is more... Do you know where these girls end up?"
Prime Minister Yang raised his head and looked at him calmly.
This glance made Gao Ping's heart skip a beat. He didn't dare to keep it a secret any longer and said in a low voice, "It's Juhai Manor..."
Juhai Village!
In recent years, Juhai Manor has been very prosperous in the capital. Who doesn't know that Juhai Manor is a place where the rich and powerful gather? Even among the various departments in the capital, who hasn't benefited from Juhai Manor
He is a good person and knows how to get things done, but there are countless bad things happening underneath.
Gao Ping hesitated: "Yuan Fu, this case..."
"This case should be tried as it should be." Yang Bo turned his head and looked at him coldly: "This case is watched by everyone from the common people to the Queen Mother. You must be careful."
Gao Ping immediately shuddered. Thinking of the people who came to ask about the case and the piles of gifts delivered to his door, he immediately broke out in a sweat and hurriedly replied, "Yes, I was too complacent. Yuan Fu, teach me!"
Because this case involved a very large number of people, when the Ministry of Justice opened the court the next day, the area was packed with people who came to watch the fun. People who arrived late didn't even have room to stand.
Mrs. Chen was still wearing coarse linen mourning clothes and kneeling in front of the hall holding Chen Chong's spirit tablet.
In fact, the trial had already been conducted in the past few days, but because this case caused such a big stir, in order to stop the rumors outside, the Ministry of Justice, with the permission of the cabinet, deliberately moved the court outside the yamen and did not prevent the people from watching.
Suddenly, the Ministry of Justice was crowded with people.
Mrs. Chen knelt on the ground and told the whole story again while crying.
How she lost her daughter when she was returning to her mother's home in Fujian, how she reported the case to the local authorities but was heavily obstructed, and how she returned to Xiangtan County to tell Chen Chong, how Chen Chong interrogated a kidnapper at the time, and how she followed the kidnapper to find out a gang that specialized in trafficking young girls in Hunan, Hubei, Guangdong, Guangxi, Jiangxi and Fujian.
Speaking of Chen Chong's attempt to communicate with the Quanzhou government in Fujian and discuss arresting someone, the news was leaked in advance, causing the kidnapper to disappear.
Mrs. Chen's tears fell one after another.
The people watching nearby couldn't help but burst into tears out of anxiety.
It’s so miserable and so difficult.
Hearing that Chen Chong had such a hard time as a county magistrate, the people couldn't help but feel horrified and scared - if this was the case for the powerful, what if it was their own daughter
How can they fight against those officials
Mrs. Chen fell to the ground crying and fainted temporarily.
For a moment, the people were very excited and all stood up for Mrs. Chen.
Even though Gao Ping was mentally prepared, he was still frightened by the public outrage and shook his head in fear.
Yes, Madam Chen was really too bold. She took the right step. She cried all the way from the most prosperous street in the capital to here in front of so many people. Otherwise, who would take such a case
No government office will accept it.
He banged the gavel to quiet down the surroundings, then had someone help Madam Chen up and brought a stool to her. He waited until Madam Chen woke up before letting her continue speaking.
Mrs. Chen gritted her teeth and said, "Seeing those people run away without a trace, the prefect of Quanzhou insisted that my husband had no evidence and was framing us, and said that we were hysterical. Our daughter clearly died of illness. My master was so angry that he wrote a memorial to impeach them, but..."