Criminal investigation in ancient times

In Kyoto, Zhou Yin received a letter from Zhang Rui and read it more than ten times, rubbing his fingers word by word on the letter, as if seeing people outside Youzhou City through the letter.

Soon, we will meet!They called the hidden guards and asked them to send He Xiangru and his children and Lin Xiaoze out of the capital together.Looking outside the mansion, the emperor sent more and more guards to watch these princes, Zhou Yin chuckled, sure enough he was scared.

Zhou Yongzheng was sitting in the imperial study at the moment, looking at the memorial, when suddenly a gust of wind blew in and swayed the lamp on the table back and forth.

He frowned and said, "Come here, close the window."

— Quietly, without a single sound.

"Come here! Damn it! Where did everyone go?" Zhou Yongzheng got up and closed the window, and when he turned around, he was startled, only to see a person sitting on the dragon chair.He walked over tremblingly and said: "Big... bold, who are you to sit in my seat!"

The man raised his head and scared Zhou Yongzheng so much that he almost lost his breath. It was clearly the dead old emperor!

"Plop..." Zhou Yongzheng knelt on the ground and said, "Father...?"

The old emperor put down the memorial in his hand, stood up and looked at him and said: "I passed the throne to you, but look what you did? You are unkind, unrighteous, unfaithful and unfilial!"

Zhou Yongzheng hurriedly said: "Father, I don't have it, Father, you can't blame me, who made you too partial at that time, I had no choice but to get involved with the Xiongnu!"

The old emperor sighed heavily and said angrily: "I ask you, where is your elder brother?"

Zhou Yongzheng murmured: "The First Prince...he...he, I don't know where he is either."

The old emperor grabbed him and said, "What did I tell you before I died? Why are you so cruel!"

Zhou Yongzheng stared blankly at the old emperor, his eyes widened and his father's face gradually fell off, and the eyeballs "grunt" fell off, half hanging on his face.A rotten smell filled his mouth and nose, and he couldn't help but vomit.

"What's the use of keeping something like you! I shouldn't have let you take over in the first place!" As he said, he grabbed Zhou Yongzheng's neck with both hands, and gradually tightened.

"No, don't!... I am the emperor, I am the emperor!"

"Your Majesty, Your Majesty wake up..."

Zhou Yongzheng got up from the table violently, looked around and found that he had a nightmare, wiped the sweat off his face, and panted, "What time is it?"

The little eunuch brought over the brewed hot tea and said, "It's past Xu time, the emperor should rest."

Zhou Yongzheng remembered that his father was going to strangle him to death in his dream, so he stretched out his hand to touch his neck, felt some inexplicable pain, waved his hand and said, "Go down and wait, I'll take a look later." He took a sip of tea, and continued with the memorial. He looked at it, but his thoughts were no longer on the memorial, and he thought of the scene just now repeatedly in his mind, only to feel sad and a little chilled, his father actually wanted to strangle him after his death.

The little eunuch exited the study room, closed the door with both hands, and raised the corners of his lips slightly.

After drinking tea, Zhou Yongzheng felt a little dizzy. Suddenly, a gust of cold wind blew in, making the lamp on the table shake back and forth like a ghost.

"Come here, close the window..." After speaking, Zhou Yongzheng was startled, his heart "thumped", he got up and walked slowly to the window, reached out to close the window, and when he turned around, "Ah!!!!" When it was dark, he passed out.

When he woke up again, he had already been sent back to the dormitory, surrounded by three or four imperial doctors, who took his pulse and said: "Your Majesty, you have been too worried these days, I am afraid it will not be good for your health."

Zhou Yongzheng shook his head with staring eyes and said: "No, no, no... I saw my father, I really saw my father!"

The imperial physicians looked at each other, shook their heads and said, "Your Majesty, don't be too tired these few days."

"You guys don't understand anything! Don't joke, I really saw Father...he...he wants to strangle me to death! I didn't harm the eldest prince, I really didn't!" As he said, he clutched the quilt tightly with both hands, Shaking his head desperately.

Seeing this, the imperial physician hurriedly said: "Go quickly and bring the medicine to calm the nerves and feed it to the emperor."

Several young eunuchs rushed to fetch the medicine, fed him the medicine hurriedly, and gradually calmed down.Only then did the imperial doctors wipe off their sweat and retreat.

Zhou Yongzheng was lying on his back on the bed, panting heavily, opened his eyes slightly, and said with a sneer: "I am the emperor, you are nothing! Even if I die, I will drag you to be buried with me!"

In the afternoon, Jingzhong received an urgent report that Youzhou had fallen, please the emperor to hunt south!

All the ministers were rushed into the hall, and the princes looked at the man on the throne worriedly.

"Hehe, why, can't wait? Nanshou, this country belongs to me, and the whole world belongs to me. You old men don't care where I go!"

The ministers kneeling on the ground felt uneasy, the emperor was fine a few days ago, what happened now?It looked a little crazy.

"Uncle Three Emperors."

The third prince was suddenly called out by him, his heart sank, he hurried out and said: "The minister is here."

"You said why did you help me log in to this position?" As soon as these words came out, there was an uproar.

Zhou Yin raised his head to look at Zhou Yongzheng, only to see that his face was blue and his eyes were slack, as if he had some signs of being drugged.

The third prince looked at Zhou Yongzheng for a while and said, "I don't know what the emperor is talking about."

"Hahahaha, I know you, you, you are all coveting my position!" He pointed out in front of several princes.

"Even if I die, I won't let you do what you want! Someone, put all the princes into prison!"

"Think twice, Your Majesty!" "Your Majesty, you can't do this, this is your uncle!"

The guards rushed into the hall and took the princes down. Zhou Yongzheng pinched the bridge of his nose and said with a smile, "Since I said that I killed my brother and my father, it would not be too much to add a few uncles."

All civil and military officials knelt on the ground and trembled, for fear of being taken down together by accident.

Suddenly an old minister trembled and cursed angrily: "Foolish Lord! How dare you do this, the century-old foundation of the Great Zhou will be destroyed by you! No wonder the Northwest Army rose up, I hope they attack the imperial city as soon as possible, and kill you, a yellow-mouthed man!" Get off, kid!" After speaking, he turned around and slammed into the pillar next to him, blood spattering all over the place.Several palace men ran up and dragged the corpse down, and several eunuchs wiped the pillar with rags.

Zhou Yongzheng picked his ears and said: "Just now that was the Minister of the Ministry of Punishment? Insulting the emperor, disrespectful, punishing the nine clans. Is there any more? Come on, continue."

This time, I really dare not say another word...

"If you don't have one, retreat." He said and got up and left the hall.

Zhou Yin never thought that Zhou Yongzheng would stop playing tricks with them, and he said it directly, I just want to shut you up, what's wrong?Shall I give another glass of poisoned wine next?

The six princes were separated and locked in prison, staring at each other. The thirteenth prince was the youngest, but he also understood that this time was different, so he coughed twice and said, "Brother Twelfth, are you feeling better these days? "

Zhou Yin turned his head to look at Xiao Shisan in the cell next to him and said with a smile, "It's much better. My body is like this now. I'm just earning money every day."

Hearing what he said, the thirteenth prince felt a little sad, and sighed, "I don't know what happened to Yongzheng, but he locked us up all of a sudden."

The Eighth Prince sneered: "Isn't it that I was implicated by some people."

The third prince closed his eyes and rested his mind, pretending to be an old god, pretending that he couldn't hear anything.

Seeing this, the brothers had no interest, and they all leaned against the wall without speaking.

Suddenly the fifth prince said: "It's probably the first time for us brothers to gather together like this except in the main hall."

Hearing what he said, Xiao Shisan's eyes suddenly turned red. He is the posthumous son of Emperor Taizu. Brother Huang has a feeling of admiration.

Zhou Yin smiled and said: "Fifth Brother is wrong, I remember that one year, Third Brother was seriously ill, and our brothers all went to his house and stayed there for a long time.

Fifth Prince: "Oh, I'm getting old, and I actually forgot about this matter."

The third prince's eyelids twitched, recalling all the past, when he was still their humble eldest brother, he treated every prince equally and loved them equally.

Since entering the dungeon, the Ninth Prince took out a scroll from his sleeve to look at it. He put down the scroll when he heard them mentioning this matter, and said, "Third Brother, what benefits did the Huns promise you?"

—It was very quiet in the cell.

The third prince is suddenly ten years old at this moment, his hair is not as neat as before, and his clothes are all wrinkled. "Since everything has already happened, it's useless to say anything. If you guys hate it, then hate me."

Hearing what he said, Zhou Yin was moved in his heart and said, "Third brother, you did all those things before?"

The third prince closed his eyes: "Little Twelve, Third Brother, I'm sorry."

In fact, the reason why the third prince did this was in the final analysis, it was just for power and profit. Since the eldest prince and the second prince died at birth, he accidentally became the eldest son of the emperor.

But the status of his mother's family is low, and he, the eldest prince, has never been noticed from the very beginning. That position is too dazzling, but whoever is ambitious would not want to sit in that position? !

He's fed up with playing brother-in-law Gong!After so many years of bearing the burden of humiliation, he finally waited until this day. He was just ascending to that position, but now there is nothing... Zhou Yongzheng said those words in the hall, he must be thinking of fighting them to the death.

Fortunately, he sent his two sons to the fief in his early years, and he has earned a lot of money from Jiangzhou salt merchants for so many years. The two brothers may not be able to spend all their lives there.

"Boom..." There was a sound of iron chains, and the princes looked up and were stunned: "How come you were arrested!"

Well, the emperor is completely crazy, look at the old acquaintances in front of him, Jiang Bozhong, Mr. Wen, Mr. Li Ge, Mr. Lu, Mr. Shen... This is to set up another court in the sky prison ?

The little guards in the prison didn't see a few adults that day, but today is good, even the prince and the officials are alive.

A few ministers are not treated as well as the princes, there is not enough space, a group of people rushed into a compartment, the jailer locked the door and said: "You guys, stay here."

The fifth prince got up and grabbed the railing: "Why did you come in too?!"

Jiang Bozhong cupped his hands with a wry smile and said: "After the princes were imprisoned, I brought the other adults to meet the emperor. Who would have thought that we would be stopped before we reached the Imperial Study Room? , and then was ordered by the emperor to be sent to prison."

The Eighth Prince clenched his fists and smiled lowly on his lips. I'm afraid these adults are still in the dark, and they were thrown into the sky prison because of their ignorance.

When the fifth prince heard that these people were imprisoned by them, he immediately sighed and said: "It's hard for Brother Bozhong, but there is no one in the court at the moment, and the emperor... has such a temper, if the Northwest Army comes, But what should I do?" There was something in his words, basically Zhou Yongzheng would run away early when the Northwest Army called, and these people would probably die when they ran, and with Zhou Yongzheng's temperament, he would definitely give him a drink before he left. Poisoned wine for everyone.

Taifu Wen stroked his chin and said, "I don't know if it works or not, but I have a method."

Chen Taiwei wiped the sweat off his face and hurriedly said: "It's already at this time, so don't let it go?!"

Wen Taifu glanced at him and said: "Now all the people who can talk in the court have been imprisoned by the emperor, and the other officials are low-key, I am afraid they can't save everyone, but I just think of a person who still has some money in his hand." Power, but I don’t know if I can help.”

As soon as he said it, everyone else immediately realized that anyone who can get to the top of power is not a refined old fox.The complexion was different and he became pensive.

Jiang Bozhong laughed dryly: "Master Wen, this...you know me and him... who knows if he will help us."

Master Wen stroked his beard and said, "It's hard to say, but now I can only ask him to see."

Zhou Yin listened to them and his heart moved, he was probably going to beg that old fox Li Qian.Just how to spread the letter now?

At noon, the prison guards came to deliver food, a bowl of gruel with little water in the soup and a hard steamed bun.When did these princes and ministers eat this thing, they lost their appetite just by looking at it.

The jailer smiled and said, "You guys, don't be too disgusted. After three days of being locked up, the rotten buns are delicious."

Jiang Bozhong suddenly said: "Brother jailer, come here."

The jailer swallowed his saliva looking at those smiling weasel-like people, "What are you doing?"

Master Wen stretched out his arms from the railing and waved at him: "Come here, come here." The jailer walked up to him.

Jiang Bozhong took out a piece of silver from his sleeve pocket and handed it to him, "Please..."

Before he could say anything about me, the jailer shook his head like a rattle: "No, no, no, this is a matter of losing your head. My lords, I'd better hire someone else." He raised his legs and was about to leave.

Seeing this, Taifu Wen hurriedly said: "Hey, don't go, don't go." As he said that, he untied the jade pendant from his waist, Taiwei Shen pulled his finger from his hand, and Master Lu took out a bank note from the sole of his shoe? !

Master Lu chuckled twice and said, "Private money, private money."

The jailer looked at such a pile of things, swallowed his saliva and looked around, hesitated for a while, then took it from his hand and said, "What does your lord want me to do?"

Jiang Bozhong pulled the jailer over and whispered a few words in his ear: "This matter must be done well. If it succeeds, everyone will reward you after they go out."

The jailer nodded hurriedly, hid everything, and left the prison with a heavy heart.