A few days later, the chief officers of the three divisions presented the results of the joint investigation to the imperial court. There were three examiners involved in the case, and eight tribute officials were involved.
The method of cheating is not clever, and the agreed words are placed in the broken questions, and the examiner will keep the paper when he sees it, and recommend it to the chief examiner. Although it is up to the chief examiner to decide whether to take it or not, if the same examiner gives a good comment, the chief examiner will probably give it a face-saving choice, not to mention that these eight people have made it to the stage of the examination, so they naturally have real talents. Yes, bribing the examiner is nothing more than buying insurance. There are nearly 500 tribute scholars in the current examination, and the papers of these eight people are mixed in it.
And among these eight people, three were from noble families in Beijing, and the remaining five were from wealthy families in the south.
The Minister of Criminal Affairs reported: "According to their account, one quota is fifteen ingots of gold, which is three thousand taels of silver. The three fellow examiners will each share 20% and the remaining 40% will be given to... the chief examiner, Mr. Yan Ge."
Hearing this, Zhu Yunxuan frowned fiercely, looked at Dali Siqing, and asked in a deep voice: "Yan Shixue also accepted bribes? But is it true?"
The Minister of Dali Temple bit the bullet and replied: "The minister has already interrogated carefully, and the three fellow examiners have all pleaded guilty. As for Mr. Yan Ge, he refused to admit it to death, and only said that he was negligent and did not find those papers. He refused to admit that he had accepted bribes, and the minister sent people to investigate his cronies, and found that his wife and brother had collected the money in his name. His wife also knew about it, and there are all witnesses. His Majesty decides."
Zhu Yunxuan slammed his fist on the case, annoyed.
Liang Zhen walked into the hall slowly after all the officials who reported the matter had retreated. With a smug smile on his lips, he looked at Zhu Yunxuan: "Your Majesty, can you believe this? I didn't slander Mr. Yan Ge with nonsense. , He really did it, even if he didn't do it himself, what his wife and his brother-in-law did in his name are not wronged him."
Zhu Yunxuan looked at him coldly: "...you already knew, why make such a big circle?"
"The minister knows, but His Majesty has to trust the minister."
Zhu Yunxuan closed his eyes and said with patience, "I have made my own decision on this matter, so I don't need King Zhao to worry about it."
Liang Zhen reminded him with a smile: "I also hope that Your Majesty will set an example for the people of the world, and don't show favoritism."
Zhu Yunxuan didn't want to say any more, he was angry, but more disappointed. He promoted and reused Yan Shixue not only because he was his future head of state, but he really had expectations for this old Yan Ge, but it was a pity that the other party was still betrayed his trust.
In the early morning of the next day, the chief officials of the third division read out the results of the trial of the fraud case in the general examination in public. Everyone had all the evidence and evidence, and the courtiers talked a lot, and then silently shut up at the same time. In two months, something like this happened suddenly to the future patriarch. The emperor had the final say on how to deal with it. No matter what the other people were thinking at this time, they would not talk about it. Make a fishy body.
After a brief silence, Zhu Yunxuan issued a decree in a deep voice: "The chief examiner Yan Shi learned the Dharma, and the three examiners were hanged immediately. The wives of the officials involved in the case were confiscated. Parents, brothers, and wives fled into the army, those who took bribes in the name of examiners, and those who bluffed and deceived were all hanged and had no property, and their families were exiled."
Then he decreed that the test will be reopened half a month later, with Zeng Huai as the examiner, and the best will be selected.
"Your Majesty is wise!" Someone yelled, and all the officials of the court knelt down and kowtowed to the king.
Liang Zhen raised the corners of his lips lightly, and a smile sank into his eyes.
This kind of treatment is not insignificant, everyone in the court seems to understand the emperor's meaning, and on the same day, there was another report in the imperial history, saying that the daughter of a guilty minister is not worthy of being a mother. Count, please Your Majesty make a clear decision.
In fact, since Zhu Yunxuan had decreed to take Yan Shixue's wife and children as official slaves, and the daughter of Yan's family hadn't entered the palace yet, it was naturally included. It's just that this marriage was ordered by the late emperor, so there was a reason for it. Seeing that Zhu Yunxuan dealt with Yan Shixue and others vigorously and vigorously, the civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty thought that he didn't want to marry the daughter of Yan's family anymore, and of course he wanted to rush to help the emperor solve his problems. For a while, the request to cancel the marriage was like snowflakes Like a piece of paper, it flies to the imperial case, and there are many followers.
Zhu Yunxuan did not express his opinion immediately, but only summoned Zeng Huai to the imperial study and asked him what to do.
Zeng Huai shook his head, obviously he was also very disappointed with Yan Shixue: "Your Majesty, the old minister thinks that since the marriage was ordered by the first emperor, it is not appropriate to let it go, but this daughter of the Yan family has been burdened by Yan Shixue, and it is also true that she is really a queen. No, why not make a compromise and still accept her into the palace and make a concubine with a lower status."
"What the teacher said is, let's do this..."
Zhu Yunxuan himself didn't care much about whether to accept Yan's daughter or not, but he just didn't want anyone to make a fuss about it. Zeng Huai's proposal was indeed a solution.
I thought the matter would be settled, but no one thought that within two days, the daughter of the Yan family would hang herself to death. Yan's house had been ransacked, and she was taken to live temporarily by a family uncle because of her special status, and then hanged to death on the beam in the house.
When he heard the news, Zhu Yunxuan was reviewing the memorabilia, and Liang Zhen, who came uninvited, helped him sharpen the ink. Zhu Yunxuan stopped holding the pen, and seemed to have no reaction, and subconsciously repeated: "Dead?"
The official who came to report the matter lowered his head and said, "Yes, he hanged himself."
Zhu Yunxuan was speechless for a while, but Liang Zhen didn't seem to be surprised, and said disapprovingly: "If you die, you will die. Tell Yan's family to bury him quickly. They will say that he died of illness. Let them control their mouths."
After dismissing the reporting officials, Zhu Yunxuan's face darkened, and he looked at Liang Zhen warily: "What did you do again?"
Liang Zhen sighed: "Your Majesty, you have never believed in your ministers."
"Then you should make it clear, does the death of Yan's daughter have anything to do with you?!"
"Your Majesty really wants to know? I'm afraid I will spoil your ears."
Liang Zhen's eyes showed disdain, and he said that just as the city gate opened early yesterday morning, one of his generals from the Jingwei Army was at the gate of Nancheng, and found two sneaky girls disguised as men who wanted to go out of the city. With gold and silver in his hands, after some cross-examination, he found out that the two were actually the young lady of the Yan family who almost became a queen, and her maid. here.
"The daughter of the Yan family has a childhood sweetheart. After she was accused of being married to His Majesty, she still has no ties with others. In the past, she secretly gave away many things from the other's daughter's house. The day before yesterday, she received a gift from her lover. The sachet and a letter from my lover, saying that I want to take her out of here, and I made an appointment with her to meet at a place ten miles outside the city yesterday morning, so I have the following things."
Zhu Yunxuan frowned more and more, and Liang Zhen continued: "I told her not to implicate the rest of the family and her lover by doing such things again, so he let her go back, and she hanged herself at night."
"Is it just like that?" Zhu Yunxuan said coldly, "When did King Zhao be so kind, and when he caught such a trick, he just gave him a warning and let him go back. You must have threatened her with her lover and hinted that she would die. That's what you did, didn't you?"
Liang Zhen didn't deny it: "Your Majesty, why should you sympathize with her? She already has a marriage contract with His Majesty, but she has an affair with others behind your back. She deserves to die."
"What else did you do? Was it you who urged the officials of the Manchu Dynasty to present her to the officials to treat her as the same as the rest of the Yan family?"
Liang Zhen's eyes darkened, and he smiled contemptuously: "So what, if His Majesty hadn't been so soft-hearted and insisted on letting her into the palace, she might still be able to save her life."
"you!"
"Your Majesty don't need to get angry. It's not worth getting angry about such a shameless woman who has an affair with others."
"She eloped with someone, was it also planned by you?!"
Liang Zhen disagreed and said: "Then I must have this opportunity. Her lover is unreliable. I asked someone to scare him, so I sold her and gave all the things she gave me to the minister. Only the minister can trick her out, and if she doesn't have the intention, she will just burn the letter when she receives it, and enter the palace in peace. If she can't be a queen, she can still be a beauty Jieyu. Minister He You?"
"Hello... good..." Zhu Yunxuan was very angry. He didn't feel pity for the daughter of the Yan family, but he hated Liang Zhen's deliberate and exhaustive means in order to prevent him from marrying a wife.
Liang Zhen's various behaviors made him very difficult to accept. Liang Zhen wanted to control him, but he just wanted to break free.
Liang Zhen reminded him in a deep voice: "As I said, Yan Shixue deserves what he deserves, and the daughters of the Yan family are to blame. If they can keep their duties, I can't move them if I want to."
"You can't touch anyone you want?! Even if they haven't done anything, you can find thousands of excuses to deal with them. Why say those high-sounding beautiful words?!"
"Is this how your majesty sees me?" Liang Zhen's pupils shrank fiercely, "Are you accusing me of such a bitch?"
"She is a slut, so what is I?! What is the relationship between me and you?! What right do you have to say about others?! Do you think you are a gentleman?! The most shameless person is obviously You! It's me!"
Zhu Yunxuan's eyes were red, and she was very angry: "Without the daughter of Yan's family, there will be others. I will become queen sooner or later. Even if you can cover the sky with one hand, you can't stop it!"
Hearing this, Liang Zhen's eyes became darker. He stared at him for a long time without saying a word. There seemed to be a storm building up in his gloomy eyes. The intense emotions kept surging, but finally returned to calm. He only heard him say in a hoarse voice. : "Your Majesty is right. If there is no one, there will be another one. Why should I bother."