The large group of people and horses had a lot of baggage, and it took three days for all of them to arrive at the hunting ground. By then, Deputy Commander Jing had already found out all the people related to the assassins. The 78 assassins entered the hunting ground in batches with lower-ranking officials, and these officials cried out for injustice, saying that they had nothing to do with these assassins. The assassins had simply killed their original guards and sneaked in, and they knew nothing about it.
Even if such words were true, Emperor Jingren would not easily believe them. However, he did not interrogate these officials directly at the hunting grounds. Instead, he detained these officials, their families, and the personnel responsible for guarding the hunting grounds separately, waiting to interrogate them after returning to Beijing.
During the detention, Jing Xixian did not torture them, but he used psychological tactics. Separate detention did not allow these people to discuss, and he kept hinting to them that the one who confessed first could be spared. Now, in fact, someone had already confessed, but since they didn't know much, there was still a chance.
Emperor Jingren agreed with this strategy. Jingxixian looked a little gloomy, and he was not a good person at first glance. But Yan Xu had thick eyebrows and big eyes, and looked righteous, which made people feel at ease.
But after using these two people, Emperor Jingren found that Jing Xixian was more like him. Jing Xixian did things by any means necessary and was extremely vicious. If he became the leader of the Jinyiwei, I am afraid that all the people under him would be skinned alive. However, Yan Xu was kind-hearted and rarely tortured people. In the years when he served as the leader of the Jinyiwei, the torture instruments in the Zhenfusi prison had grown hair.
Logically speaking, a benevolent emperor should like to employ people like Yan Xu, but Emperor Jingren was tolerant, but that only meant people who were innocent or whose crimes were minor enough to be forgiven. For these people with ulterior motives, Emperor Jingren knew that kindness would only be his own death warrant. Jingxi Xian was a good knife, and a good knife could hurt people, but how to use this knife depended on the person who used it.
Emperor Jingren felt that he needed a ruthless and merciless leader of the Embroidered Uniform Guard.
After the arrival of the Imperial Guards, the ministers trapped in the palace were able to return home. Emperor Jingren sent people to send those who had no problems home, while those who had problems were directly sent to the prison of the Pacification Department, including Su Huailing.
However, the others were there to be punished, while Su Huailing went there to visit.
Emperor Jingren originally planned to find a few people from the Ministry of Justice to teach her criminal law, but later changed his mind after seeing Jing Xixian doing things. No matter how serious it is, it is not as good as seeing it with your own eyes. Let Su Huailing see it with her own eyes and see what it means to be implicated.
He was not worried that Su Huailing would run away. Emperor Jingren ordered the Jinyiwei who were guarding Su Huailing to tell her that her brother was still in the palace. If she ran for an hour, he would knock off one of her brother's fingers. If she did not come back, he would cut her brother into a human stick and plant it in the soil to see how long he could survive.
Of course, Emperor Jingren's original words were not so horrifying. What he meant was to think of his sworn brother when running. However, because Emperor Jingren instructed him to be more ferocious, the Jinyiwei man gave a more detailed description.
Su Huailing was obedient and followed Jing Xixian all the way to the prison of the Zhenfu Division. Emperor Jingren returned to the palace as if nothing had happened and attended court as usual, no different from before.
The vacancies of those problematic officials were naturally filled, and Emperor Jingren removed Yan Xu's part-time position as the commander of the Imperial Guard and replaced him with Jing Xixian. Although Yan Xu was still the commander of the Imperial Guard, his rank and salary did not change, but everyone knew that Yan Xu had lost the emperor's favor. The Imperial Guard was the emperor's eyes and ears, and the commander of the Imperial Guard must be someone the emperor trusted very much. It used to be Yan Xu, but now it has been replaced. Although he is still the commander of the Imperial Guard, it is not good for Emperor Jingren to remove all his official titles at once. After some time, he will find another excuse, and I am afraid that he will no longer be the commander of the Imperial Guard.
"The Queen is really good at what she does!" When several concubines were having a small gathering at Concubine De's place, Concubine Liang changed her gentle and virtuous demeanor and said with a twisted face, "She has eliminated all the people we can use, and we have no connections in the palace. Originally, there was Yan Xu who could inquire about the Emperor's recent situation, but now even Yan Xu is about to be eliminated!"
Eunuch Lian stood aside and listened, looking at his nose and mouth, without saying a word, just listening silently.
"Yan Xu is nothing," De Fei sneered, "Being able to put Su Huailing in the prison of the Pacification Division is a means. You know, according to normal development, Your Majesty should now cherish Su Huailing very much, and the woman who saved the emperor should be named Su Guipin. But now, our Guipin is staying in prison. Not only did she not have the merit of saving the emperor, but she was involved with the assassin. This kind of means is really beyond the reach of ordinary people."
"Eunuch Lian," Concubine Xian frowned and asked, "You were there at the time, do you know what exactly happened? I heard that the Imperial Guards arrived after the assassination attempt, and there was only one guard guarding His Majesty at the time. How could he hold out until the Imperial Guards arrived? What happened?"
Eunuch Lian had no choice but to speak up. He stood up and answered, "When I arrived, the assassin had been subdued and Su Huailing was among the dead. I don't know why he became like this."
Eunuch Lian did not lie, but he did not say how many people were there when he arrived, and how many people subdued the assassin. Such a vague answer gave several concubines the wrong answer.
"It seems that the Queen selected the most skilled person in the Imperial Guard to protect the Emperor in advance, and this repelled the assassin." De Fei analyzed, "Are we just going to watch the Queen and the others being eliminated one by one?"
"I don't want you to just sit there and wait for death." The silent concubine suddenly stood up and said, "I find that I can't accomplish anything by following a bunch of you cobblers. I might as well find a way myself."
"What do you want to do?" Concubine Xian had a bad feeling.
"Hmph," Concubine Shu snorted coldly, "Even if the Queen is favored, he is a man pretending to be a woman. Does he dare to have sex with His Majesty? I used to think that there was no need to have anything happen with the mission object, so I kept using incense. But now think about it, this is not my body, not even a physical body, I will just treat it as a dream, what does it matter? Anyway, Emperor Jingren is not bad looking. You all say that I have big breasts and no brains, but this man, he likes this!"
After saying that, she stood up and left, with her beautiful white neck raised high, no longer paying attention to the women behind her.
Concubine Liang took a deep breath and sighed, "She really gave it her all."
"With her looks, even if she can't dance, I'm afraid she can..." Concubine Xian didn't say anything else, but instead tightly clenched the handkerchief in her palm.
Several women lowered their heads in thought, while Eunuch Lian still kept his eyes drooped and said nothing.
When these people dispersed, Eunuch Lian ordered his confidant to deliver a small note to the Queen.
"Shufei..." The Queen threw the note into the inkstone and watched the soft rice paper being stained black by ink, and the original handwriting could no longer be seen.
He is the master of the harem, but when Cheng Taiyi diagnosed Emperor Jingren's pulse and said that Emperor Jingren no longer needed to abstain from sex, the queen had no way to stop Emperor Jingren from going to other palaces. He is a man, and because of his status, people are very sure that he is a woman, but this certainty is gone after taking off his clothes, so he also has incense. If you really want to have sex with Emperor Jingren, you can only use incense. But he is unwilling to use incense and has never used it on Emperor Jingren. In the past, he just pushed Emperor Jingren to other palaces, but now he is unwilling to do so.
And because of that idiot Lin Boyuan, Emperor Jingren has already discovered the incense's flaws. He can't even return the incense to Concubine Shu, otherwise Emperor Jingren will become suspicious.
This is a difficult situation.
The empress was in deep thought until Emperor Jingren came back from court. Seeing that the little emperor did not go anywhere else and came to Qifeng Hall again, she smiled slightly. Since the little emperor hit his head, he has been resting in Qifeng Hall. The two get along like ordinary couples. Emperor Jingren no longer has other concubines in his eyes. The empress always felt that there was something different between Emperor Jingren before and after he hit his head. Thinking of her special mission, she gave the pendant to Emperor Jingren. Who knew that Emperor Jingren was not the target of the mission, and she also lost an important prop. It was really a loss of both the wife and the army.
Even though she thought so, when she saw Emperor Jingren coming back, the Queen couldn't help but stand up, undress him, and take the little emperor, who looked a little unwell, to the inner room to rest.
"Your Majesty looks a little tired." The Queen asked with concern.
Emperor Jingren was not tired at all, his face was livid. After dismissing all the palace servants, he finally stopped hiding in front of the queen, slapped the table and said angrily: "The mastermind behind the assassination of me turned out to be the Prince of Huainan, my younger brother from the same mother!"