The pavilion is octagonal in structure, facing a pond in Lin Garden. A breeze blows over the pond, and the lotus leaves are fragrant.
There were pens, ink, paper and inkstone on the stone table in the pavilion. Before they came, Mu Jingxu was writing a file. Rong Tang glanced at it casually and saw [Jiangnan Governor Lu Junxian] written on it.
He withdrew his gaze and didn't look at it any further.
Ke Hongxue asked them to sit down and asked with a smile: "Today is the Qixi Festival, do you have any plans, Master and Consort?"
Rong Tang suddenly felt a little listless and didn't want to talk much. He sat aside and picked up a lotus pod to peel it for fun, pulling off small pieces of the lotus flesh to relieve stress.
Su Huaijing shook his head and said, "Not yet. Does Master Ke have any recommendations?"
Ke Hongxue said regretfully, "If you had come to Jiangnan in the past, I could have found you a hundred places to visit on the Qixi Festival, but now that the flood has hit, I'm afraid no one will be in the mood to have fun."
"What a pity." Su Huaijing said, and then changed the subject and asked: "How long do you two adults plan to stay in Jiangnan this time?"
Ke Hongxue said, "I originally wanted to return to the capital after examining Lu Junxian, but my old illness relapsed and he couldn't bear the burden, so I asked the second prince to help me pass a letter back to ask for a long vacation for my senior brother." He raised his chin, "Okay, you can take a vacation after you finish writing this file and send it back to the capital."
Su Huaijing then asked, "Is it an investigation into the crimes of the Jiangnan Governor?"
"Exactly."
Su Huaijing: "But I heard that Governor Lu is quite trusted by His Majesty, and he has a powerful minister like Zhang Gelao as his backer. I think he is not afraid of anything and will definitely keep silent during the interrogation. I wonder how Mu Shaoqing managed to pry open his mouth and confess so much information?"
In addition to Lv Junxian's life story, Mu Jingxu's file also includes the bribery records and account books of subordinate officials in various places in Jiangnan over the years, the amount of gold and silver Lv Junxian bribed the capital, the major and minor cases in various places that were concealed over the years, and even the records of frequent harassment by Japanese pirates in the coastal areas of Jiangnan...
The charges against him are numerous and the evidence is overwhelming.
Being able to pry such information out of the mouth of a high-ranking official of the imperial court, Mu Jingxu is definitely not as cold and harmless as he appears.
Su Huaijing looked at the Junior Official of the Dali Temple calmly, but Ke Hongxue chuckled softly and said nothing. He unfolded his folding fan and waved it slowly.
Rong Tang paused in peeling the lotus pod, frowned and looked at Su Huaijing, feeling that he seemed to have made his intentions a little too obvious.
When in Songyuan, Su Huaijing had not yet completely wanted to recruit Ke Mu and the other two to join his group. Rather than forming a partnership, it was more like a mutually beneficial cooperation.
Su Huaijing provided them with information that was beneficial to them, and they reciprocated by concealing Sheng Chengli's frame-up of Queen Wang.
But if Lu Jiaxi asked this question this time, it could be regarded as a doubt, but when Su Huaijing asked this question, it was definitely not just out of curiosity, and everyone present knew it.
Ke Hongxue was slow to respond. Just when Rong Tang thought that Su Huaijing's question might have touched on some taboo, Mu Jingxu spoke up and asked, "Mr. Su, have you ever learned torture techniques?"
Su Huaijing shook his head: "No."
Mu Jingxu: "Then do you know any tortures that can make people suffer excruciating pain without leaving any marks on the body?"
Su Huaijing chuckled: "Then I don't know."
The summer morning breeze is refreshing, birds are flying leisurely, dragonflies are landing on the tips of lotus leaves, and mayflies are living and dying in the water.
Mu Jingxu's voice was very soft, without any emotion or ups and downs. He just calmly stated a fact: "Buried alive, and given a promotion."
"The former takes a wooden barrel as tall as a person, and then carries a few buckets of sand, places the person in the barrel, and slowly pours the sand into the barrel. Tell the person in advance that if he gets scared when the sand reaches his chest, then he can't be saved even if he wants to. It usually doesn't take long."
Mu Jingxu's voice was cold and emotionless as he narrated: "The latter would take a long bench, tie the person to it, and tie up his limbs... But I would usually tie one leg less. Then I would soak rice paper in water, using the thinnest and lightest kind, and cover the prisoner's face layer by layer. The feeling of suffocation and drowning would make the prisoner struggle desperately, but he could only move one leg. I would hang a lantern frame on a bamboo pole above his leg. If he wanted to confess, he would reach it and kick it off, and the jailer would peel off the rice paper for him."
Su Huaijing's eyes lit up slightly, and he asked with a smile: "What if he fails to kick it down?"
"Mr. Su, have you ever seen the death row prisoners in the Sky Prison? Sometimes their theories are very magical, but I think they can be applied to themselves." Mu Jingxu said softly.
Su Huaijing asked, "How do you say that?"
Mu Jingxu: "The criminal officer asked him why he killed someone, he said he just wanted to kill; asked him if he had any grudge against the deceased, he said he had no grudge; asked again why he chose the deceased, he said 'it's just her bad luck'."
Mu Jingxu looked at Su Huaijing quietly and repeated softly: "It's just his bad luck that he couldn't save himself."
It's not that he doesn't want to give them a chance to live. The prisoners who can be tortured with these two methods all have overwhelming evidence of guilt that cannot be denied. The reason for interrogation is to make them confess more details so as to better convict them.
It doesn't matter even if he doesn't confess. Mu Jingxu was the top scholar in the seventh year of Qingzheng, and one of the most intelligent and capable people in the Dayu dynasty.
He had countless ways to write files that could not be faulted in any way, and the words spoken by the criminals were nothing more than an insight into human nature for him.
Rong Tang paused in peeling the lotus pod, feeling inexplicably dazed.
He changed his snow-white clothes and put on the scarlet court robes of the Dali Temple Shaoqing. He stood in the dark cell, surrounded by countless prisoners wailing and rats gnawing at rotten meat in the corners. The smell was fishy and sticky. Mu Jingxu took a red-hot iron hook and stuck it to the prisoner. He was neither sad nor happy, nor was he happy. He just calmly and calmly hooked a piece of bright red meat from the other party. With a slight turn of his wrist, the rats had a snack, and there was another high-pitched movement in the countless howlings.
Even after the torture, there was still no trace of blood on his scarlet court robe, but he made people feel that he was a ghost crawling out of hell, cold and heartless.
Burying an official alive could be considered a gentle torture, and suffocating him in despair was definitely not an overly terrible method in the Dali Temple's punishment book, but Mu Jingxu only talked about these two.
Su Huaijing raised his eyebrows and smiled slightly, "May I ask which one Lord Mu used on Lu Junxian?"
Mu Jingxu said: "Xuan paper is expensive, and there is little dry sand after the disaster."
Su Huaijing was slightly stunned, then suddenly burst into laughter, and stared at him with a pair of beautiful phoenix eyes: "If so, Master Mu is deceiving me?"
"No." Mu Jingxu shook his head. "I'm just telling you that there are many ways of punishment in this world. Some will leave no traces, while others will be discovered sooner or later once they are put into action."
Ke Hongxue bent down and took out a lotus pod from the bamboo basket beside Rong Tang's feet. He peeled it slowly, separating the lotus core and seeds, revealing a small dish of green bitter leaves and a small bowl of sweet flesh.
Rong Tang frowned and looked at Mu Jingxu in some confusion.
The latter's expression did not change at all, and he never revealed his emotions. When Su Huaijing looked at him, he also looked back quietly, without saying a word or avoiding glances.
Gradually, Su Huaijing's expression changed, and his cheerful smile was replaced by a slight wariness. He leaned back slightly, lowered his eyes, and said, "What do you mean, Mu Shaoqing? I don't understand."
Mu Jingxu was silent for a moment, picked up the brush again, lowered his head and continued to write the file, saying in a calm voice: "It has no meaning."
His sleeves rolled up during the movement, and Rong Tang inadvertently caught a glimpse of several eye-catching scratches on his right wrist. Each one was very fresh, and the scabs were bright red and light in color, clearly new wounds.
He was stunned, unable to react for a moment as to who could leave wounds on the body of the Shaoqing of the Dali Temple, but in the blink of an eye he swept his sleeves down to cover all traces.
Rong Tang frowned in thought, and Ke Hongxue laughed at the right time and said, "Senior brother is afraid that if I say too much, it will scare you. For an important person like Governor Lu, it would be too light to use ordinary punishment methods on him."
Rong Tang suppressed his doubts and replied, "What kind of method would make you look serious?"
"Tie an iron barrel around your belly, put two mice in the barrel, and use a torch to heat the barrel surface continuously." Ke Hongxue smiled with his eyes narrowed and spoke slowly. No one knew whether it was true or not, but it made people feel a chill for some reason.
Rong Tang thought about the scene he described and the final result, and couldn't help but shudder.
There was a rustling sound as the pen tip hit the paper. After peeling the lotus seeds, Ke Hongxue naturally started to grind ink for Su Huaijing. Rong Tang recalled the conversation between Su Huaijing and Mu Jingxu just now. He couldn't tell whether it was psychological effect or what, but he always felt that Mu Jingxu's words were full of hidden meaning and meant something.
But no one mentioned it again, and no one explained it. Sheng Chengming took Lu Jiaxi with him and went out to provide disaster relief with the silver that Ke Hongxue had sent him. They sat in the pavilion, enjoying the breeze from the pond, chatting casually, and basking in the morning sun for a while.
It was not until the sun grew hotter and Rong Tang felt a little dizzy that Su Huaijing stood up and wanted to take him back.
Ke Hongxue stood up to see the guest off, and Mu Jingxu was halfway through writing the preface to the file.
Su Huaijing walked down the stairs, but stopped at the moment he was about to step out. He looked back at Mu Jingxu and asked casually, "There is one thing I am very confused about. Please explain it to Mu Shaoqing. In theory, corruption and bribery are not punishable by death. Lu Junxian has been with your majesty for so many years, so he naturally knows what your majesty hates and what your majesty hates. I can understand him admitting to corruption, and it is normal to give out his accomplices. It is also normal to re-report the Japanese pirate invasion that was once concealed."
Su Huaijing paused, and Mu Jingxu paused writing. He looked up at him and said bluntly, "Mr. Su, what is it that you don't understand?"
Su Huaijing said: "Life experience."
Rong Tang's heart sank, and he heard Su Huaijing say slowly: "Your Majesty has been on the throne for nine years. During these nine years, all the former royalist officials were either executed or exiled. The only one who was treated well was probably the Imperial Tutor Ke Wenrui."
He glanced at Ke Hongxue, who was calm and expressionless, and even smiled and fanned herself when he mentioned her grandfather.
Su Huaijing: "Even if all the other charges are not enough to get Lu Junxian killed, the fact that he is the younger brother of the late Concubine De and the uncle of the late Third Prince is enough to anger His Majesty and confiscate his property and execute him. How could he confess this?"
The sun gradually climbed overhead. Su Huaijing stood on the steps of the pavilion. The dazzling light outside did not fall on him at all.
He stared at Mu Jingxu and asked softly, "In other words, where did you get this secret from, Mu Shaoqing, to induce Lu Junxian to confess?"
The pavilion was silent for a long time, and Mu Jingxu said, "The secrets of the Dali Temple cannot be passed on to others."
"Really?" Su Huaijing laughed softly and bowed his head to apologize: "I overstepped the line."
Then he turned around, took Rong Tang's hand and left, as if the question he had just asked was just a sudden thought and a casual question.
(End of this chapter)