The season of early autumn was still in the third twilight period, but Du Hanfei was covered in a thin layer of cold sweat.
"Yes, Mr. Zheng was indeed recommended by an old minister, but the old minister only saw that Mr. Ju and Concubine Lian had differences and were unhappy, so he thought of his friendship and helped out." Du Hanfei He tried his best to suppress the fear in his heart, but there was still a tremor in his voice when he spoke.
The emperor lowered his eyelids and pondered. Du Hanfei's words were perfect and he could not find any faults.
Therefore, the emperor turned to look at Xue Xiuguo and signaled him to continue.
Xue Xiuguo was used to seeing the look and naturally knew what the emperor meant: "When Zheng Zhongguang succeeded, the minister was still the governor of Guwan. He was ordered by Prime Minister Du to entertain Master Zheng well. He must be gentle and fragrant to make him fall into trouble. The power of money cannot be extricated. But apart from being greedy for money, Mr. Zheng did not follow and was not very obedient in other matters. In order to better control him, Prime Minister Du forced Wei Chen to marry his daughter Xue Leying to him. In order to appease Wei Chen specially promoted Wei Chen to be the governor of Wanzhou, and asked Wei Chen to support Zheng Zhongguang and become the governor of Gu Wan after me. Your Majesty, I am also forced to have no choice... "
When Xue Xiuguo said this, he took advantage of the opportunity and expressed his helplessness. He could not escape the blame for opening this mouth today, but he had to get rid of the pot first to maybe save his life.
Sure enough, the emperor pinched his brows and said calmly: "Please finish telling the story first. If it is all true, I will give you a lighter sentence in the hope that you will report meritoriously."
After hearing this, Xue Xiuguo kowtowed three times and shouted: "Your Majesty is wise."
The emperor waved his hand to signal him to stop talking nonsense, and Xue Xiuguo quickly continued: "Originally, the affairs of Anhui Province were within the control of Wei Chen, but who would have thought that His Highness the Seventh Prince suddenly went to ancient Anhui privately to travel. It happened to be this time There was a famine in ancient Anhui for several years, and Prime Minister Du ordered Wei Chen to take advantage of this opportunity to make money. Wei Chen naturally despised this matter, but Wei Chen did not dare to disobey Prime Minister Du's order. However, Zheng Zhongguang was not even willing to increase taxes by 10%. As an official, Wei Chen had no choice but to kill his subordinates and do some tricks behind his back."
Xiao Zimu spoke at the right time and asked Lu Zhongfu to come up to talk.
The emperor looked at Xiao Zimu in confusion, and Xiao Zimu replied in a deep voice: "These hands and feet are a bit strange. I want my father to hear it in person."
The emperor raised his eyebrows and looked at Lu Zhongfu. Lu Zhongfu then recounted to the emperor the whole story of how Mao Xianchun forced him to change things and add paper to the paper.
Everyone was shocked when they heard this. They had seen many corrupt officials, but they didn't expect that they could be so corrupt. It was really strange.
Xiao Zimu saw Du Hanfei blushing and looking like he wanted to speak. He smiled and said to him, "Does Prime Minister Du want me to blame this matter on him while Prime Minister Mao is away?"
Du Hanfei nodded heavily after hearing this, that was exactly what he meant.
Xiao Zimu took out Mao Xianchun's letter from his arms and handed it to the emperor: "This is Mao Fucheng's personal confession. Father will know it as soon as he sees it."
Du Hanfei's eyes darkened after hearing this. Unexpectedly, Mao Xianchun also rebelled. He gasped for breath. Princess Yirou beside him held his hand and gave him a reassuring look.
Even if Du Hanfei really did these things, the worst he could do would be to be dismissed from office, but he was still the consort, and Kun'er had already married Shi Jiaying. Even if Du Hanfei was no longer the prime minister, who would really dare to treat him as a white man
Du Hanfei looked at Princess Yirou with very complicated eyes, but he did not push away her covering hand.
After the emperor finished reading the letter, he asked the two people kneeling below: "Have you finished explaining?"
Xue Xiuguo kowtowed and continued: "Originally, His Highness the Seventh Highness solved the famine issue in ancient Anhui, raided Master Zheng's residence, and detained him in prison until the case was finally concluded. However, Prime Minister Du Feige sent a letter, asking me to persuade Zheng. Your Excellency escaped from prison privately."
"So Zheng Zhongguang escaped after listening to your words?" The emperor raised his eyebrows and looked at Xue Xiuguo.
"No, Zheng Zhongguang refused at first. Finally, Wei Chen took out Prime Minister Du's handwriting. He believed that Prime Minister Du had other plans, so he acted out a show with Wei Chen and pretended to kidnap Wei Chen and abscond." Xue Xiuguo leaned forward. Report back.
"Where is Prime Minister Du's handwriting?" the emperor asked.
"This... is always destroyed after reading it." Xue Xiuguo looked embarrassed.
Du Hanfei was finally able to snort coldly, white teeth in vain, burned the handwriting, Zheng Zhongguang was dead, what could he use to identify him
"Father, why don't you listen to him first?" Xiao Zimu said from the side.
Xue Xiuguo saw that the emperor nodded in agreement, his face calmed, and he kowtowed before continuing: "Prime Minister Du really has other arrangements for Lord Zheng, but this arrangement is to order the ministers to kill and silence, and the private soldiers he raised in Wanzhou can be sent I will use it to kill His Majesty the Seventh Prince on his way back to Beijing, and then blame Zheng Zhongguang for this matter."
Everyone was shocked when they heard this. Isn't this the memorial that was delivered to the court a few days ago
It turns out that the Seventh Prince's ambush actually had a hidden agenda.
It had nothing to do with Zheng Zhongguang, and the man behind this incident was actually the Prime Minister Du Hanfei.
Everyone looked at Du Hanfei with complicated and disbelieving eyes, thinking that he was already in a high position and powerful, so why would he act so viciously and put himself in such a situation.
The emperor thought that the matter would end here, but he did not expect that it was Du Hanfei who almost died tragically in another place.
Over the years, he had treated Du Hanfei well, thinking of his assistance and the brother-sister relationship with Yirou, giving him tremendous power, and turning a blind eye to his methods of amassing money.
The people in the court were also very protective of him. Today, only a handful of people in Xiao Guo dared to speak loudly to him.
What else could Du Hanfei be dissatisfied with, why he actually killed his son
He just deprived Du Hanfei of some of his power this year and assigned the position of Chunwei examiner to Xiao Zimu, so that he could take revenge like this because of the hatred in his heart
"Father, I went to General Zhao's Mansion today to discuss the art of war. I followed Zhao Xingwen to review the Zhao army stationed in the northern suburbs of the city, but unexpectedly captured a private army." Xiao Mubai was furious when he saw the emperor. It was almost done, and he immediately opened his mouth to add more firewood.
Old General Zhao nodded to the emperor: "I did discuss the art of war with His Highness King Mo this morning. He then excitedly said that he wanted to visit the camp where he was stationed, so I asked Xingwen to lead His Highness King Mo there."
General Zhao didn't know anything about what happened next, so he looked at his grandson in surprise at this moment.
After listening to what General Zhao said, Zhao Xingwen came out and reported: "Fortunately, grandpa brought back 30,000 troops and stationed them in the northern suburbs of the city. Otherwise, it would be difficult to capture the 20,000 private soldiers."
Xiao Zimu spoke at the right time and poured another bucket of oil on the firewood.
"Father, do you still remember that I was ambushed by private soldiers in the suburbs of Beijing..."
(End of chapter)