Jiang Qing

Hearing Chen Qiyun's confession of Yan Shuo, Qi Rong murmured in his heart that it was not good, Fan Hongxin might not be able to keep it going like this.But seeing Bai Bingchen's face, he didn't seem to want to stop him at all, and let Chen Qiyun talk about the case in front of the hall.

"Father and the steward of the Yan Mansion are sworn brothers because they are doing a business together for Lord Yan. My father works as a ghost merchant in the ghost market, doing ghost marriage business transactions. The population in Pingdu is compiled, and life and death are married , Lord Yan, who is the prefect of Jingzhao, knows everything well. He provided the tombs of the innocent girls, and sent people to dig out their bodies at night, and his father bought and sold them in the ghost market.

There was silence in the hall, only Chen Qiyun's voice echoed on their heartstrings.The early death of a child is a pain in the heart of the parents, but it is really frightening to start such a business that hurts the shade with such a little love.

"With these two profits, my father's status in the ghost market has risen even higher. The Yan family is greedy for profit, forcing my father to do a ghost marriage with a higher price."

"Ghost marriage of living people?" Even Guo Huan, who is idle and knows how to play Fengyue in Pingdu, has never heard such a statement.

"Some powerful and wealthy families, even if they seek wives in the dark for their dead sons, they still want to find the right ones, but there are so many women who die early. Therefore...so they will secretly send some rogues , Pretending to be a kidnapper, lurking near the house of the girl the man is looking for, finding an opportunity to tie her up, and directly burying her alive in the tomb. This kind of business is risky, and there must be someone behind it, and the money is higher than ordinary ghost marriages A lot."

Chen Qiyun glanced at the pale and white faces of the adults in the hall, and continued: "Father also made a fortune because of this, and he can be regarded as a small rich family in our village. But at this moment, my brother has taken a fancy to Lan The boss of Weige, all the officials and gentlemen also know, how can Boss Lin take a fancy to us, a small wealthy businessman, for such a big business as Weige. My brother spent a lot of money in it, and bought an errand in the patrol camp , can barely be regarded as half of the official family, that's why she let go."

"She knew a lot of high-ranking officials in Pingdu. In order not to lose face when they got married, she proposed a lot of gifts. At this time, the little money in the family was almost consumed, so my father sold me and gave it to the Jiang family. I took the money to buy a bride price for my brother." Chen Qiyun's eyes showed complaints.

"Marriage in the dark?" Wen Cheng, who has always been rigorous, caught this word and asked, "I remember that the eunuch of Jiang's family is still alive."

Speaking of this, Chen Qiyun blushed with shame and indignation: "It is said that I married him, but in fact I was bought by him to marry his dead master. His master was married from the middle palace in the year His Majesty ascended the throne. The old eunuch released from the palace died of illness not long after leaving the palace."

"Zhonggong? Do you have any impression of Bai Xiang?" Guo Huan asked.

For a while, Bai Bingchen didn't realize that there was such a connection, so he frowned and thought for a while: "It's been a long time, I really can't remember clearly, but the queen has indeed released a group of palace people not long after she took office. To find out this It's not difficult for people, there are records of people coming and going in the palace."

Seeing him cooperate so much, Guo Huan's doubts faded a little. He looked at Bai Bingchen probingly, then turned to Chen Qiyun and said, "Isn't Yan Changsi in love with you? He can't get this amount of money as a child of an official family. As for your family going to sell you to collect the gift money? The three divisions will have a joint trial, and this case will be heard by Datian, so why don't you try nonsense again?"

"Mr. Yan and I were originally in love with each other, but he betrayed me." Chen Qiyun said bitterly, "The vows of the old vows in the past have become empty in a blink of an eye. Naturally, he will not spend any more on me. It is I who hold the Yan family and My father had done a dark marriage business, and used it as a threat to force him to meet. Unexpectedly, the Yan family had a guilty conscience, thinking that my father had told me this secret, and a dispute arose between the two parties on the spot. In order to silence, Yan Changsi killed My father and brother, I survived by sneaking away while they were fighting."

"What kind of secret?" Guo Huan asked.

"Last year's Lantern Festival, I ran into a ghost marriage. Fan Hongxin, Minister of the Ministry of War, bought a living ghost marriage for his dead son. The one he bought was Uncle Qin Yuan's granddaughter, Lu Yan." Chen Qiyun became emotional, "At that time Only then did I know how a governor of the Jingzhao government could intervene in the patrol of Pingdu, how could he promise his brother a promotion in the patrol battalion, it turns out that the backer of the dark marriage business is Fan Hongxin, Minister of the Ministry of War!"

Until Bai Bingchen walked out of Dali Temple, Chen Qiyun's loud accusation still echoed in his ears.

Seeing that he was a little out of his mind, and tripped over the threshold the moment he walked out of the gate, Qi Rong hurriedly stabilized his body: "Bai Xiang, are you alright?"

Taking a deep breath, Bai Bingchen looked at Qi Rong with burning eyes: "Do you know what Fan Hongxin did behind his back?"

In the words, he was secretly asking Qi Rong whether he participated in the ghost marriage incident, which made Qi Rong stutter.

"No... Absolutely not! Bai Xiang, you know that I am timid, and I dare not do things that risk my life."

He is a minister of the Ministry of punishment, and he is actually afraid of blood on his hands. No one will believe such nonsense.Forgive him for not daring to lie in front of himself, Bai Bingchen ignored his exaggerated words.

Qi Rong, who hadn't recovered from being stared at by Bai Bingchen for a while, struggled for a while, and asked, "Can Fan Shangshu be rescued?"

"Is this your first day in the officialdom of Pingdu? You don't know what status Uncle Qin Yuan has? Fan Hongxin is useless." Bai Bingchen suddenly thought of something, and reminded, "Let's not take part in this dirty thing." Everyone with a little head, don't get dizzy, go to plead for mercy, and get yourself involved."

"The vacant position of Minister..." Qi Rong asked tentatively.

"Anyway, he is also my subordinate. His Majesty will not let my people take that position for the time being."

Qi Rong became anxious: "Isn't that Xiang just reaping the benefits of the fisherman?"

"What are you afraid of? I have the map of stationing troops in my hand, and the Ministry of War is just an empty shelf. It doesn't hurt to give it to him."

Qi Rong couldn't imagine how Fan Hongxin begged Bai Bingchen when he had no other way out, and even handed over the map of stationing troops, but he still couldn't exchange his life.

He looked at Bai Bingchen's indistinguishable side face, and felt a chill in his heart.

Qi Rong is indeed not afraid of getting blood on his hands, what he is afraid of is the indifferent and ruthless high-ranking person beside him, as long as he has no use value, he will be kicked away without hesitation.

It seems that there is nothing in this world that can hold Bai Bingchen forward and make him stay, even for a moment.

Looking at Bai Bingchen's leaving back with his hands behind his back, Guo Huan tugged at the official uniforms of the people around him: "Have you finished reading?"

Wen Cheng closed the roster, with surprise in his eyes: "Where did you get this roster?"

"Tell me first, is the handwriting on it Bai Bingchen's?"

"No." Wen Cheng answered decisively, reassuring Guo Huan's heart.

Wen Cheng loves calligraphy very much, and spends every day pondering the fonts in the pile of ancient characters, and has developed a good ability to debate characters.Since he said no, this roster really has nothing to do with Bai Bingchen, Guo Huan thought, but there was a Wen Cheng rambling voice in his ears.

"You can see that the strokes of this word are slightly floating, at first glance there is no difference, but upon closer inspection..."

Guo Huan blocked his mouth with one sentence: "It's Mei Shao."

"what?"

"The reason why I came late today is that Mei Shao blocked the door of my house and gave me this roster. I saw that the handwriting on it was exactly like that written by Bai Bingchen, and I also had doubts in my heart, so I tested him in front of the hall. It’s as if you really don’t know anything.”

After a long silence, Wen Cheng asked, "Then who do you trust, the two of them?"

Guo Huan bit his nails, and spoke in a vague way: "I don't believe anyone. Anyway, I have tried everything that should be tried. Now I even bring the case list to the palace and submit it to the palace. Such a thankless job is still a headache for your majesty." Go ahead, I'll just take that little salary, so I can't worry too much about it."

He took back the roster from Wen Cheng, and waved his hand behind him: "Let's go, go to the palace quickly, and you can still catch up with my night cruise."

Before the confession of the three divisions was presented to the imperial court, a white-haired old man stepped into the Hall of Qinzheng first.

Uncle Qin Yuan, who was over seventy years old, knelt in front of Zhao Zhen, weeping, and shocked Zhao Zhen, who was critiquing papers, at a loss.

"What's the matter?" Zhao Zhen felt a little uneasy as he signaled Fushun to help Uncle Qin Yuan up.

Uncle Qinyuan is an old man who has gone through three dynasties. He became an official during the time of the first emperor. The late emperor treated him kindly and granted him the title of Uncle Qinyuan.

What's more, for Zhao Zhen, Uncle Qin Yuan has been kind to him.When Zhao Zhen ascended the throne, King Jing didn't believe in the imperial decree and rebelled against Pingdu. Most of the officials in the capital fled with King Jing, causing panic.It was Uncle Qin Yuan who came forward to inspect the imperial decree and was willing to pledge his lifelong name as a guarantee to help Zhao Zhen sit on the throne and settle down in the court, so he had the energy to pursue King Jing.

Thinking of this, Zhao Zhen got up and sent the old man to the seat beside him, poured tea for him with his own hands, and comforted him: "If you have anything to do, just tell me."

Qin Yuanbo didn't drink tea, and his face was sad: "Your Majesty, you know that the old minister's granddaughter Lu Yan was lost at the Lantern Festival last year. She was favored by the emperor. His Majesty sent someone to look for it, but she has never been found. The old minister is suffering. I feel guilty all the time, but I found out her whereabouts today."

"Where is the person?"

Uncle Qin Yuan stretched out a skinny hand, took out a letter from his bosom, handed it to Zhao Zhen's hand, and knelt down on the spot: "The old minister begged His Majesty to thoroughly investigate the case of the Chen family and give my granddaughter justice. "

Being kneeled down by Uncle Qin Yuan, before Zhao Zhen had time to think about what he said, he subconsciously wanted to help him up, but the old man refused to get up.

"The old minister is old, and he has served the country all his life, so he dare not complain. But who can imagine that just above the court, there are wolf-hearted people who do dirty things in secret and ruin the life of the old minister's granddaughter. How can you not feel pain, how can you not complain, how can you not be angry!"

Accompanied by Uncle Qin Yuan crying softly on the ground, Zhao Zhen opened the letter, and a bloody earring fell out.

He recognized that it was the earring given to Lu Yan by the empress, but after only staying outside the palace for a year, it was already worn out.

It's like stepping out of the palace gate, and there is a dragon's pool and a tiger's den outside, which cannot accommodate such a small daughter's ornament.Just like at the feet of the emperor, there is still no room for women to settle down.