Jiang Miao has a talent for storytelling. The long investigation process was boring, but when it came to him, it sounded as exciting as the plots of those strange stories.
It's a pity that the emperor never had the opportunity to listen to storytelling in restaurants and teahouses like ordinary people outside. He enjoyed it very much when he heard it occasionally. When Jiang Miao was dry-mouthed, he finally talked about yesterday's speculation, and Emperor Liang Ping still felt a little unsatisfied.
"So, that's how you speculated. However, I just heard you say that in addition to Prince An's men, there is another group of people. Who are these people?" Emperor Liang Ping listened carefully and quickly found the ambiguous parts and asked questions.
Jiang Miao was surprised. This emperor was quite sensitive. He was just a little blurry but he was picked out.
"We haven't found out about this group of people." This case involves the virtuous concubine in the palace, who is said to be quite favored. If she is implicated, it is possible that Emperor Liang Ping deliberately suppressed the matter to protect him. Jiang Miao decided to keep it secret for the time being.
Emperor Liang Ping's face darkened. "Since there are still doubts that have not been found out, how did you come to this conclusion? I think this person has a close relationship with you, so you deliberately concealed it."
"Your Majesty, this matter concerns the great hatred of my parents. Even if it is someone with whom I have a close relationship, I will not conceal it. It's just that this person has a special status. Although this matter was caused by her, she is not the one who did it after all, so I will not mention it." Pei Che said. He also hated that vicious woman, but if there was evidence, no one could prove that she had done it except Zhao Wei who overheard the truth. Even if Zhao Wei stood up and pointed the finger, she could just say that Zhao Wei had turned his love into hatred and deliberately wronged her. Since she couldn't be convicted, what did it matter whether she said it or not.
"Special status?" Emperor Liang Ping looked at the two people with their heads bowed below, feeling a little uneasy. There were probably two possibilities for hiding the truth from an emperor like him.
One is that this person has a close relationship with them, and they concealed the truth in order to protect him. The other is that this person has a close relationship with the royal family, and they were afraid that he would protect this person, so they concealed the truth. Judging from what they said, it should be the latter.
Logically speaking, they had already passed it over, and Emperor Liang Ping should have pretended not to know about this whitewashing. But he could not allow such a self-willed person to be around him. That person could have secretly harmed the pillars of the court for him in the past, and in the future, he might also secretly harm him for others.
Who doesn't have some suspicion when he becomes an emperor? Emperor Liang Ping decided to get to the bottom of it. He would never allow an unknown force to lurk around him.
"You can speak freely, no matter how special this person's status is." Emperor Liang Ping said.
Seeing that the two were silent, Emperor Liang Ping emphasized again: "I will never pursue your offense, and your words are not joking."
Since he said so, Jiang Miao had nothing to hide, and he told the story of Concubine Xian's plot to recruit Pei Shijie and his wife, and if the recruitment failed, she would kill Pei Shijie and his wife. However, he concealed the fact that Zhao Wei was married to Concubine Xian and that Concubine Xian had someone else in her heart.
However, the above alone was enough to make Emperor Liang Ping angry. No matter how he guessed before, he never thought that this person would be a female member of his harem. Since entering his mansion, Concubine Xian has always been gentle and polite, which makes him feel at ease.
It was just that after the incident between An Rou and Pei Che two years ago, Emperor Liang Ping felt that she was not strict in managing the palace and treated her coldly for a long time. Later, when he saw that she did not complain and helped An Rou find a good husband again, he was no longer angry. In addition, Concubine Xian also gave birth to two children for him, the Sixth Prince and the Ninth Princess. On weekdays, when he went to her palace, he saw a loving mother and filial son, and a harmonious scene. How could he believe that she had hired a killer to kill someone
Seeing Emperor Liang Ping's expression of shock, anger and disbelief, Jiang Miao couldn't help but sigh. He had already been told that he wouldn't believe it, so why did he insist on listening
After a brief shock, Emperor Liang Ping calmed down. After all, he had seen so many ups and downs over the years and was not about to lose his composure.
"You said that Concubine Xian was the mastermind of the other group of people back then. Do you have any evidence?"
Jiang Miao shook his head: "Your Majesty, if you want written evidence, we naturally don't have it. But if you want to find a witness, then Zhao Wei, the wealthy businessman in the east of the city, is it. It was Concubine Xian who asked him to persuade Pei Che's father. They are cousins."
"Zhao Wei? Someone, go and bring Zhao Wei to the palace for me! Also, accompany the Crown Prince's wife back to the Duke Zhongguo's Mansion and bring all the confessions to me. In addition, invite Prince An to the palace as well and tell them that I have something to tell you." After Emperor Liang Ping gave an order, everyone had to do as it was told. The palace servants divided into three groups and set out from the palace at the same time.
"Pei Che, come here and play a game of chess with me, how about that?" While waiting, Emperor Liang Ping ordered someone to set up the chessboard and asked Pei Che to play chess with him.
"yes."
Pei Che responded and walked over, only to find that what was in front of him was actually a chess game.
"Master Feng is obsessed with this, so naturally the ministers in the court are yearning for it. I was also a little curious, so I followed him to learn. I didn't expect it to be quite interesting." Emperor Liang Ping took the initiative to explain.
Pei Che nodded in agreement. His grandfather really liked chess. Now that it was hard to find an opponent in the court, he would sometimes wear casual clothes and go to the streets to play chess with the old man under the tree in the bridge hole.
People like to make bets when playing chess. Most of the time, his grandfather could win a dozen or twenty coins, and add some to treat everyone to tea. Occasionally, he would be defeated by others' magic moves. Playing chess was much more interesting than playing in the court.
The two of them played chess back and forth on the chessboard, and neither of them considered carefully. They basically just followed their heart and made whatever move they thought of.
"Check!" Pei Che moved the cannon on the chessboard behind the horse. Even though there were many chess pieces around Emperor Liang Ping, it was of no use.
Emperor Liang Ping laughed loudly: "I have been playing chess for many days and have never met an opponent. I didn't expect you to defeat me so easily today."
Pei Che smiled but said nothing. Who doesn't know the reason behind this
After the game, everyone who was supposed to come arrived. Emperor Liang Ping ordered the chessboard to be removed, sat down at the head of the table again, and called Zhao Wei in.
"Are you Zhao Wei?"
Zhao Wei knelt down with a thud and kowtowed firmly: "In reply to your Majesty, I am Zhao Wei."
Zhao Wei nodded timidly and said, "My mother is indeed the sibling of the father of the Concubine Xian."
"Since you are a relative, just stand up and answer. There is no need to be restrained." Emperor Liang Ping had a gentle expression, as if all his previous anger had disappeared.
Zhao Wei hurriedly said, "Thank you for your kindness, Your Majesty. I dare not do that."
"Why not? Stand up and answer."
"Thank you, Your Majesty!" Zhao Wei climbed up, stood there with his head down, looking very weak and pitiful.
"Do you know why I summoned you to the palace today?"
Zhao Wei first shook his head, and then nodded.
"Oh? Are you aware of this or not?"
Zhao Wei said, "In reply to your Majesty, I... didn't know at first, but when I saw Prince Pei standing here, I... understood." He stole a glance at Pei Che, whose face was as gloomy as water not far away, and guessed that he might have some evidence and reported the matter to your Majesty.
"In that case, then you should tell us everything that happened back then."
Zhao Wei swallowed his saliva. When he told Pei Che last time, he had already thought of today, but he didn't expect that the emperor would interrogate him personally. He cheered up and repeated what he had said to Pei Che before.
"How dare you!" Emperor Liang Ping slammed the table. After listening to what Zhao Wei said, he realized that Jiang Miao had concealed something before. The virtuous concubine did not send people to recruit Pei Shijie for him. She was clearly just for her own glory and wealth. She could even be cruel to the person she had admired in the past.
Zhao Wei was startled, thinking he was talking about him. He immediately trembled with fear and knelt down again: "I deserve death, Your Majesty, please forgive me."
"Here he comes, take him away first!" Emperor Liang Ping didn't know how to deal with this person for the time being, but at this moment, he really didn't want to see him.
Jiang Miao was standing outside the palace waiting to be summoned when he suddenly saw someone being led out. He looked closely and found it was Zhao Wei. Zhao Wei seemed not to have even seen him and was led away with lifeless eyes.
Hearing the eunuch's message, Jiang Miao hurried inside. Once he entered the palace, he handed over the confessions in his hand. Emperor Liang Ping flipped through them one by one with a dark face. When he saw the last one, he sighed and said, "It turns out that there are so many hidden secrets about what happened back then. However, I have never found any confession that personally identified Prince An as the mastermind behind the scenes. What's going on?"
"Your Majesty, Cheng Kaihua is the key to this case. However, his hometown is thousands of miles away from Liangjing, so it is difficult to confirm. And Prince An's maternal family, the Wu family, were all exiled, so it is impossible to ask them clearly. The only one who knew the inside story of this case was Prince An." Pei Che said. With Prince An's current status as a bird in a cage, he was not afraid of alerting the enemy. Instead, he hoped to stimulate Prince An to make desperate moves, so that they could obtain evidence at that time.
Emperor Liang Ping was in a dilemma. The evidence in this case was unclear. If he summoned Prince An to question him rashly, it would seem that he was trying to eliminate dissidents by any means. It would be better to follow Pei Che's previous suggestion and let him investigate the matter himself before making a decision.
However, Prince An was already waiting in the side hall. If he was allowed to go back, who knows what rumors would spread tomorrow.
Pei Che saw that Emperor Liang Ping had been silent all the time. After thinking carefully, he knew what he was worried about. He stepped forward and said, "Your Majesty, please let Prince An come out to confront me. All the consequences will be borne by Pei Che alone."
"Even if someone reports you for false accusations, does that not matter?"
"As long as the truth of what happened back then is revealed, it doesn't matter if I am reported. Even if I lose my official hat and title, I will accept it."
"Okay, in that case, I will allow you to confront Prince An." Emperor Liang Ping looked at Pei Che in front of him, and the figure of another person emerged in his mind. Both of them were equally handsome and upright.
Prince An had been sitting in the side hall for a long time and had almost finished his cup of tea, but the Emperor had not summoned him yet, so he felt a little strange.
This morning, his eyelids kept twitching, and his heart was inexplicably panicked, as if something was about to happen. In order to calm down, he ordered people to grind ink and spread paper, but before he finished writing a piece of calligraphy, someone outside rushed into the room, saying that the emperor had summoned him to the palace.
A good calligraphy was ruined by a stroke that fell suddenly, but Prince An calmed down. The worst thing has already happened, and it is useless to think about it, so it is better to face it calmly. After all, it is not a festival, and the emperor suddenly summoned him, so nothing good will happen.
"Your Highness Prince An, please come with us. The Emperor is waiting for you." A eunuch came forward to announce the arrival. Prince An put down the teacup in his hand, stood up, and patted his hem.
"Let's go."
(End of this chapter)