Jingniang came from Xiao Chuo and checked Li Yueji's palace again, because they were all from outside the Great Wall. Every day, a large number of people searched Li Xianfei's palace and asked various questions.
A group of eunuchs were rummaging through the boxes and cabinets inside, wishing they could dig deep into the ground.
Jingniang said coldly: Li Xianfei, if you did that, you should have known that you could not escape from this palace. Just confess it, why bother pretending
Li Yueji looked haggard, looked at her and shook her head, saying: Jingniang, I am now the Imperial Concubine of Daxu, and I used to be the Princess of Pingxia. How could a noble family teach their daughter to do such sinister things since she was a child
Jingniang was stunned after hearing this, and felt that it made some sense. People like Li Yueji who are used to a good life are mostly extravagant and lazy, and few are good at scheming.
Eunuch Yang Shiliang was in the Wansui Palace, leading a group of eunuchs from the inner factory to search for clues at the scene of the incident. One eunuch was holding a teacup that the emperor usually used and looking at it carefully, his eyes almost pressed against the cup, and he even put it in front of his nose to sniff; another eunuch was checking an ivory comb. A group of eunuchs and palace maids stood trembling by the wall, all of whom were slaves who often worked in the Wansui Palace.
Yang Shiliang was also looking around. He walked out of the bedroom and looked around in front of a desk. He picked up a copy of Zuo Zhuan that was piled on the corner of the desk and flipped through it. He didn't find anything unusual. He was a little confused. He picked up a thread-bound copy of the Book of Changes and when he flipped through it, he suddenly saw faint fingerprints on the paper.
Yang Shiliang's eyes lit up
He thought to himself: There are dozens of people on duty in Wansui Palace at any time to serve the emperor. The emperor does not do any work here, so how could his hands get dirty? And this Book of Changes is one of the most difficult books to read. I don't believe that any servant would flip through it except the emperor.
Yang Shiliang put his nose close to the faint fingerprint and smelled it. Suddenly, without any warning, he turned his head and quickly glanced at the group of people standing by the wall. Suddenly, he saw a palace maid hurriedly lowering her head.
Yang Shiliang stared coldly at the man who made the noise, and then he continued to look up and down the desk without saying a word. His eyes stayed on a jade-colored brush on the pen holder. It was the brush of the Han emperor, and it looked similar to the description in the unofficial history, but it was probably a fake.
Such things were placed in the Wansui Hall, and Yang Shiliang judged that they must be things that the emperor liked to use. He picked up the pen and looked at it carefully against the light from the window. While looking at it, he smelled an indescribable bland smell, the same as the smell on the pages of the book.
Yang Shiliang closed his eyes slightly, as if he saw a scene: the official was sitting alone at the desk, putting the brush on the inkstone, reading a book intently, while putting his finger on the tip of his tongue to pick up a little saliva and turning the pages; so the poison smeared on the pen tube was simultaneously on the official's tongue and the pages of the book, and fingerprints accumulated on the pages.
Yang Shiliang carefully placed the Han Emperor's pen on the pen holder, turned around and walked towards the crowd by the wall, and stood directly in front of the palace maid. The palace maid in front of him still had a childish face, probably only in her teens. If Yang Shiliang was not shrewd, he probably would not have doubted this young girl.
The maid's entire body began to tremble, and it was a visible tremor that she certainly didn't want to, but at this moment she probably couldn't control herself.
Yang Shiliang suddenly grabbed her hands and looked at her fingers carefully for a while. Although he found nothing strange, he stared at her calmly and suddenly ordered: Take her down!
The maid's body went limp when she heard this. She didn't say a word, only the sound of her teeth clashing could be heard. Yang Shiliang suddenly noticed water stains under her skirt, so he calmly took out a handkerchief from his sleeve pocket and pressed it to his nose. "How dare you do such a thing? Do you know how many people will die?" Then he turned around and walked to Li Shanggong: "You are the one who is in charge of the maids here, right?"
Li Shanggong turned pale and fell to her knees: "It's none of my business. I am loyal to the emperor. The emperor is closer to me than my father."
Yang Shiliang sneered when he heard this.
Li Shanggong said anxiously: "That slave girl is called Li Erniang. Although her surname is Li, she has nothing to do with me. Oh, there is one thing. That year, it was this slave girl who tried to seduce the emperor in the bathhouse. I beat her up and was about to go to clean the toilet to set an example. Unexpectedly, the emperor took the initiative to ask about her. Out of pity, he personally ordered her to stay on duty in the Wansui Palace. Who knew that this slave girl was actually a person with great evil in mind?"
Eunuch Yang, if I were an accomplice, why would you want to send her away
Yang Shiliang said: I will verify your words myself.
An eunuch next to him reminded him: "Mr. Yang, I will take people to search the slave's residence and we will definitely catch the slave red-handed."
No, Yang Shiliang said decisively. For such a big thing, what evidence is needed to prevent alerting the enemy? He observed the timid behavior of the little palace maid and said in a positive tone, there must be accomplices. How can we succeed with just such a servant
Several eunuchs had grabbed the young palace maid, stuffed a piece of cloth into her mouth, and dragged her away without saying anything. Yang Shiliang followed them and turned back to point at the rest of the people, saying: No one is allowed to leave.
A group of people came to a room in the Wansui Palace where ceremonial objects were stored in a disorderly manner. The weak little palace maid was immediately tied to a chair by a group of people. The people around her were all ferocious.
Two other eunuchs brought up a chopping board and placed a pack of sharp bamboo sticks on it. Yang Shiliang looked at the little palace maid expressionlessly and said, "From ancient times to the present, there have been too many tortures. Let's start with the lightest ones. I guarantee that you will not die even if you try them all."
The eunuchs around her cooperated tacitly, pressed the maid's hands on the chopping board, and first stabbed the bamboo stick into the gaps between her five fingers on her left hand. After a while, she struggled hard, kicking her tied legs on the floor. Several eunuchs struggled to hold her down, but they didn't expect that this young girl was quite strong.
Yang Shiliang stretched out his hand to pinch her mouth, pulled out the cloth ball, and said coldly: Who are the accomplices
Please spare my life, please spare my life! The little palace maid kept saying it over and over again with tears on her face and a pale expression.
Yang Shiliang stopped talking, picked up the cloth and put it towards her mouth.
I said I, the palace maid, was very anxious.
Yang Shiliang pulled back the cloth and asked, "Who are the accomplices?"
Feng Xian from the Imperial Household Department, his original surname was Li, and he was my brother. The little palace maid burst into tears when she spoke of this. My father was originally the commander of the Imperial Guards, but he was implicated by Zhao Kuangyin and was tortured to death by the current emperor.
Yang Shiliang turned around and asked, "When someone enters the palace, officials check their origins. Since you are the descendants of traitors, how did you get into the palace? Who helped you?"
The young palace maid cried bitterly and said, "The Zhao family of Xuzhou asked us to avenge our father and his brothers. If we don't agree, they will kill our whole family and all our relatives."
Yang Shiliang, a member of Zhao Kuangyin's family who was under guard in Xuzhou, asked.
The little maid nodded.
Yang Shiliang said: "From now on, if you want to say whether it is Zhao's family or not, there are special people to supervise it. How can you contact the old subordinates? The officials in Xuzhou were bribed. Who bribed them?"
I don’t know, I really don’t know. The little palace maid’s face looked like she had not been washed but wiped, and she kept shaking her head.
Yang Shiliang asked again: If the thieves only arranged for you two, how can we know that you can definitely get close to the official? Who are the other people in the palace
The little palace maid kept shaking her head: I don’t know, I really don’t know
Yang Shiliang said coldly: I haven't tasted enough
The little palace maid cried: I have even given away my brother, why should I hide it from others
When Yang Shiliang heard it, he believed it immediately.
At this time, an eunuch behind him picked up a piece of paper and blew it carefully. Yang Shiliang waved his hand, and the eunuch came over with the paper and put it on the chopping board. Yang Shiliang grabbed the little palace maid's left hand and pulled out the bamboo stick from her index finger. She screamed, then grabbed the palace maid's hand and pressed a blood mark on the paper.
Send him to Jinxiang Palace immediately to report to Empress Dowager Yang Shiliang.
Fu Jinzhan was in the study room of the East Palace. After reading the confession with bloody fingerprints, he suppressed his anger and said, "Pass the order and have the Inner Palace Commander Du Chenggui come to see me immediately."
I will obey your order.
Fu Jinzhan calmed down and thought for a while, then called the cabinet assistant Huang Binglian who was outside the screen to come in and showed him the confession.
Huang Binglian clasped his fists and said, "I think we should send people to Xuzhou as soon as possible to interrogate the officials there in Zhao's mansion and find out the truth quickly."
Jinzhan said: I have summoned Envoy Dudu and asked him to bring the imperial guards and cavalry to accompany you to Xuzhou.
Huang Binglian added: "In addition, please ask the Ministry of Internal Affairs to find out when the prisoners entered the palace, and check the officials who were responsible for selecting the prisoners that year." He immediately stated without hesitation that the remaining remnants should be cleared up and no more toleration should be allowed.
Jinzhan nodded and said: "For this matter, Huang Fuzheng Dudu, the person in charge of criminal law, will dispatch troops to assist Yang Shiliang in investigating the palace information. The three of you will be fully responsible for this matter. Find out the thief behind the scenes as soon as possible and force him to tell you the antidote. There is no time to waste."
I, Huang Binglian, bow deeply in obedience to your order.
Jinzhan rubbed his temples with his hands, thinking of Wang Pu's speculation that the suspects were the old party of the previous dynasty or the Liao Kingdom. Now it seems that Wang Pu's speculation is somewhat reasonable. The old party of the previous dynasty and the remnants of the Zhao family are two groups of people. The foreign aid that the remnants of the Zhao family colluded with may be the Liao Kingdom; the poison naturally came from the Liao Kingdom.
This huge conspiracy not only requires a lot of manpower, but also requires bribing some big officials, which will inevitably require huge wealth and backing. Only the Liao Kingdom has such strength.
She thought more deeply and decided that the crisis facing the Great Xu Dynasty now might not only be internal. If the Liao Kingdom was the mastermind behind the situation, it might have been prepared and had some plans.
The windows of the study in the East Palace were crackling in the wind. Jinzhan looked out from the window lattice and saw that the sky above the huge palace was covered with dark clouds, making her feel as if she couldn't breathe. Now was not the time to be sad and afraid. She was sitting behind the imperial desk and couldn't bend down even if the sky fell.
Because, a bigger storm is hidden behind this gale