Rong Xuan

On July 16, the [-]th year of Chao Jingchu, the case of Sima Kun, the heir of Qing Xu, who raped and murdered Wei Zhenqing, the fifth daughter of Wei Haizhou, Earl of Wenchang, was to be raised on time at the end of the day.

At three o'clock in the morning, Zhong Youzhi, the Shaoqing of Dali Temple who rushed over from Dali Temple, came to Tianlao to pick him up in person. Under the watchful eyes of Sima Xuan, the 17-year-old Sima Kun, the heir king of Qingxu, was imprisoned in shackles and imprisoned in iron sheets. security prison van.

After Sima Kun was escorted into the prison cart, Zhong Youzhi, whose official robes and Usha were soaked by the torrential rain, stood in front of his carriage, facing the Marquis of Jingling who stood on nearly a hundred steps in front of the prison gate. He gave a salute.

Standing in front of the prison gate, Sima Xuan quietly looked at all the people in the heavy rain, with a distant and indifferent expression on his sickly face, showing no emotion at all.

A group of armored guards led by Zhong Youzhi escorted Sima Kun away, and Shen Shaoqing who stayed behind raised his hands and took a tentative look at Sima Xuan who was standing behind his back.

For a certain moment, Shen Shaoqing felt in a trance that the person standing in front of him was not Sima Xuan, Marquis of Jingling, but Sima Dezu, the king of Qingxu who once planned a decisive victory for thousands of miles.

Seeing that Sima Xuanli had no intention of leaving for a while, Shen Shaoqing, who had been choked by Sima Xuan, did not dare to say any more, so he silently gave the prince a push hand salute, then turned around and knocked open the prison door. The door flashed again and walked in.

The procedure for the transfer of criminals was complicated. Sima Kun handed over to Dali Temple for interrogation. Dali Temple had to make various connections and confirmations with the Heavenly Prison. Shen Shaoqing shook off his wide sleeves, which were wet by the heavy rain, and strode towards another part of the Heavenly Prison. Go—he is busy, how can he care about whether Sima Xuan looks like his father, Sima Xiu?

At the heavy and solemn gate of the prison made of metal, Sima Xuan's eyes still fell on the windy and rainy midair, and she stood motionless under the eaves of the prison, which could shelter a little rain, with half of her body covered. Wet by the rain blown in by the strong wind.

On both sides of the gate of the prison, on the high steps, two bronze-cast divine beasts guarding the prison gate are so majestic and immovable.

A cloak was draped on her body from the side, and Sima Xuan came back to her senses as if she had just woken up from a dream—she seemed to have been frozen to death by the sudden cold rainstorm.

The handsome person blinked, and slowly relieved the stiff expression on her face. She looked at the visitor, somewhat in disbelief: "Why did you come here in such a heavy wind and rain?"

Cao Hui put the umbrella on Sima Xuan's head to keep out the wind and rain, and wrapped her cloak around her with the other hand: "The prison is not clean, you are still seriously ill, I'm afraid you will stay in it I feel uncomfortable for a long time, the prison car is far away, let's go, no matter where you go, I will accompany you."

The wind and rain were so loud that Sima Xuan thought she had heard it wrong. She stared at the person in front of her with a plain veil and was silent for a moment. Finally, she raised the corners of her mouth and nodded, obediently following Cao Hui down the steps in front of the prison gate. .

A moment later, a tall and burly coachman in a coir raincoat stood at the front of the cart and waved his whip. The carriage of Prince Qingxu's Mansion broke through the raging rain and galloped away.

Today's sky is like being leaked by someone, with strong winds and torrential rain, like a wild waterfall in the mountains.

There is no one on the endless Xuanwu Long Street, only the buildings stand coldly and ruthlessly on both sides of the street, and the four carriages run steadily on the street like a solitary boat, even if the wheels fly A foot-high water splash, but it still looks small and fragile, as if there is no dregs left that will be swallowed by the storm at any time.

"Are you afraid?" Sima Xuan asked.

Cao Hui smiled and wiped the rain from the face of the gentle man, "Although there are tens of millions of people, I will go."

……

Dali Temple:

Trial Tribunal.

Wei Haohao, the top official of the three ministries, was sitting upright in the hall. Behind the cabinet jury, Xun Run, who was also sitting upright, was quietly holding a cup of tea and warming his always lukewarm hands.

Today's weather changed suddenly, with violent storms and a sudden drop in temperature, his old problem recurred. Although he had taken medicine before coming here, the cold and windy Dali Temple court still made him a little unbearable.

"Pa" sounded a gavel, and Xun Run was startled.

I just heard that Lu Siqing, the Minister of Dali Temple in the middle of the three halls, was very angry: "Sima Kun, the witnesses and evidences of all parties have been re-investigated and compared with you in court, and you all admit it without a doubt. Wait until the female messenger Magpie accuses you of murdering Wei Zhenqing with solid evidence that cannot be denied, Sima Kun and Qingtian Haohao are in compliance with the law, and you will not tell the truth about your crime process!"

Under the courtroom, there was a sound of rattling shackles and iron chains, and Sima Kun, who was kneeling on the ground, broke away from the two guards on the left and right and stood up from the ground.

"Bold Sima Kun, you are not allowed to be presumptuous in the courtroom, kneel down!" Yushi Zhongcheng, the highest officer of Yushitai, raised his hand and slapped the second gavel—this is what Yushi Yanguan hates the most. Such an unreasonable and rebellious person.

"Kneel down?" Sima Kun, who had not yet grown in stature, used his thin body to prop up the iron chains and shackles weighing dozens of catties on his body, and the corner of his mouth slightly hooked. A sneer of extreme contempt and sarcasm emerged, "Since ancient times, only murderers are unworthy of standing under the high plaque of the mirror. I, Sima Kun, have a clear conscience."

"Zhuzi is presumptuous!" Yushi Taibu Zhongcheng slapped his palm on the table, and stood up abruptly: "The evidence in this case is convincing, I advise you to confess as soon as possible, lest one mistake will drag the family down again!"

After a pause, Bu Zhongcheng's stern voice was replaced by earnest and sincere words: "Little son, think about it carefully, your father and king who was nearly fifty years old, your mother who loved the son eagerly, and your Fang Xuxian Soon brother, which one of them do you have the heart to drag?!"

Sima Xiu, who was standing outside the courtroom and listening to the trial in the heavy rain, remained cold and expressionless, but the veins in his fists were already bulging. If his daughter Sima Ying hadn't stopped him, he might have already rushed into the courtroom. Go, send that bullshit censor Zhongcheng three punches who turned black and white to the palace of the king of hell.

Dog official, a dog official who flatters his superiors and bullies his subordinates!

"Ahem!" Under the stalemate, Cheng Shangshu, Minister of the Criminal Ministry, cleared his throat and asked Sima Kun: "The reason why I persuaded the prince to confess is because the evidence of the case is solid. Since the prince has spoken out in the courtroom, then please also It is the prince who comes up with evidence to prove his innocence."

"I have to confront the Yin of Chang'an Mansion in person." Sima Kun stood there with his back straight, his proud and unyielding appearance unexpectedly brought a bit of stubbornness similar to Sima Xuan's.

Yushi Taibu Zhongcheng raised his hand as if he wanted to say something, but he was cut off by Lu Siqing of Dali Temple as soon as he opened his mouth.

Lu Siqing said: "Come on, pass on Zhang Bojian, governor of Chang'an Prefecture, to Santang!"

"Hey!" The armored guards of Dali Temple standing on both sides of the court hall uniformly struck the ground with their startling sticks, and the voices of thirty men merged into one, breathtaking: "Biography—Zhang Bojian, Governor of Chang'an— — go to court!"

A while later, Zhang Bojian, who was waiting in Dali Temple, was invited to the court.

"The next official, Zhang Bojian, the governor of Chang'an Prefecture, pays his respects to the Minister of Dali Temple, to the Secretary of the Ministry of Punishment, to the Yushi Zhongcheng, and to the Minister of the First Assistant." Zhang Bojian, the governor of Chang'an Prefecture in green robe Wusha, had a very serious old face covered with wrinkles, Give salutes to the people in the court one by one.

At the end, he turned half sideways again, and respectfully bowed to Sima Kun: "Your Majesty has seen the Prince."

In the courtroom, Censor Zhongcheng Bu Zhongcheng frowned a little miscalculated, and reprimanded Sima Kun in a deep voice: "The Governor of Chang'an has arrived, and I will give you a chance to argue!"

Zhang Bojian nodded to the good officials above, then turned to face Sima Kun with his hands folded.

"Thank you, Governor Zhang," Sima Kun took advantage of the gap to return the salute, and took a peek at the crowd outside the courtroom who hadn't come yet.

With deep black eyes, Sima Kun looked directly at Zhang Bojian with burning eyes, and said as loudly as possible: "There are people who want to be alone to death, and they can't abandon Gaotang's parents and obediently submit. Zhangfu Yin, I hope you can be honest with me." Alone against the last couple."

Zhang Bojian nodded: "Your Majesty, please tell me."

Sima Kun forced himself to be quiet for two breaths, then let out a long breath, and asked Zhang Bojian, "Kun dare to ask Governor Zhang, when, where, and who's petition was accepted by your government before deciding to lead the government?" The government sent to arrest Gu? After arriving at the Yunyun Pavilion, how did the governor find Gu in the nearly [-] rooms in the Yunyun Pavilion?"

Zhang Bojian bowed his hands to Sima Kun, bowed to the third secretary and the cabinet, and said truthfully: "On the night of July [-], the lower officials rested in the back hall of the government office. Suideng immediately summoned people to open the mansion to accept it."

Speaking of this, Zhang Bojian glanced intentionally or unintentionally at the little maid who was kneeling not far away, "After the mansion was opened, the second-class envoy of Wenchang Earl's mansion, Xi Que, held a complaint and reported the case to the lower officials with her face covered in blood—— It was the eldest son who murdered the fifth daughter of her family in the Yunyun Pavilion, and she is the witness, so I beg the officials to handle the case impartially."

Zhang Bojian turned to face the Third Division, and Hong Sheng said: "The third trial petition of the Chang'an Mansion is undoubtedly a fraud, and because it involves the nobles of the court and middle school, the lower officials personally took people to the Yunyun Pavilion to arrest them."

Sima Kun nodded, this was exactly the same as what he knew, and the faces of senior officials such as San Si and Xun Run were also normal at this time, and there was no abnormality.

Zhang Bojian raised his hands to the crowd: "After the lower official brought people to the Yunyun Pavilion, he was about to ask where Qing Xu's son was, when a tortoise slave came forward to guide the lower official, and the lower official followed the tortoise slave to find Qingxu The prince's room, according to the law, took down the prince himself."

"What else is there to ask about these upside-down things!" Bu Zhongcheng waved his sleeves impatiently, leaning his upper body forward slightly, urging: "Sima Yuanzhi, the heir of Qing Xu, don't procrastinate and procrastinate." , Yu Shitai advises you..."

"Bu Zhongcheng," Xun Run, who hadn't made a sound since the opening of the trial, suddenly said in a deep and steady voice, "Even the condemned prisoners who are going to be sent to the guillotine to be beheaded are allowed to take a bath before they die. Let’s change clothes and have a full meal, and the case of Prince Qing Xusi is still under trial, so let’s be more patient.”

When Zhongcheng was slightly stunned on the Yushi table cloth, a dazzling light flashed from the sky suddenly, and then, there was a loud "crack", and a series of "rumbling" thunder suddenly rolled over his head.

Heaven, earth, people and gods all trembled.

Bu Zhongcheng was also taken aback, and cold sweat rolled down his forehead, so he had no choice but to bow his hands to Xun Run, signaling to the people in the hall to continue to testify.

Sima Kun was also frightened by Hu Lei, and by turning his head to look at Tian Lei outside the hall, he glanced at the crowd outside the hall again - he hadn't come yet.

"What about the victim's body?" Sima Kun weighed the heavy iron lock in his hand, and lightly licked the protruding canine tooth with the tip of his tongue. There was nothing superfluous on his pale and bloodless face. "Have you asked Mr. Wu Zuo to inspect the body that Fu Yin found in the house?"

"You damned beast!"

A heart-piercing cry sounded suddenly, and before everyone could react, a middle-aged woman in plain clothes rushed in from the outside like a firecracker, and knocked the thin Sima Kun away.

Zhang Boyan subconsciously stopped him, but failed, Sima Kun couldn't dodge in time, he was used to go far away, fell to the ground, and hit the back of his head on the hard floor tiles.

There was a flurry of panic in the courtroom where the three divisions were interrogating—the one who rushed out from the crowd outside the hall and knocked Sima Kun to the ground was the Countess Xiong, the Countess of Wenchang Earl's Mansion.

Sima Kun was already thin, but these few days of fear and anxiety made the child almost skinny. Mrs. Xiong bumped and smashed desperately, and Sima Kun covered him alive. He curled his head on the ground for a while and couldn't recover.

Although there was a life lawsuit, but since Sima Kun's canon of Qingxu King was still there, the third division decided to let Sima Kun, who had his head smashed, go down to bandage the wound.

The joint trial of the three divisions was suspended for a moment.

After a cup of tea, the third division beat the drum for the second time and passed the testimonies of the suspect Sima Kun and other witnesses.

Sima Xuan stood there, facing Countess Wenchang's weeping and begging for life, the child straightened his back from the pain, and asked Zhang Bozhen in a weak voice: "Wu Zuo, Wu Zuo, the second class in Wenchang Earl's Mansion The female envoy, Magpie, sued the orphan to your place for the crime of defilement and murder, but after the governor found the body, he passed the inspection by the officials of the Chang'an Mansion, and confirmed that the deceased died of...the death of rape Did you kill it?"

"Heaven! This world is so cruel! My girl!!" Countess Wenchang struggled and screamed in the hall, the pain of losing her daughter made her want to die after hearing Sima Kun's questioning——Autopsy , post-mortem, what an insult to her poor daughter!

"Returning to my son, the official took the body back to Chang'an Mansion that night, and before he could pass it on to the incumbent, someone from the Earl Wenchang's mansion forcibly took away the body of the deceased." Mr. Zhu Xi's chief disciple, in the position of Governor of Chang'an, has handled cases for many years, so he naturally knows that Sima Kun's case seems to have solid evidence, but in fact it cannot withstand any careful scrutiny.

"Since ancient times, the dead are so big!" Yushi Taibu Zhongcheng patted the table again, he stood up, blew his beard and stared, "Miss Wei is not a child of ordinary people's family, can't she leave a safe place for others after death?" Do you want to kill all of them? Sima Yuanzhi! I, I want you to confess, confess, why do you want to spoil a poor deceased child here!"

In the courtroom, Bu Zhongcheng's questioning sounded so upright and upright that no one could use that poor child as an excuse to argue the slightest bit.

"If it's so simple, I wouldn't chase after this—" Sima Kun, who was kneeling in the earl's mansion not far away, raised her chin, "That girl, what do you think you are?" Seeing Gu in Pianyun Pavilion with my own eyes...and hurting your girl——Gu ask you, how did your girl meet Gu? And how did she go to a man like Pianyun Pavilion to eat flower wine in the middle of the night? Where did you meet Gu? Is it possible that you want to say that your girl was snatched from your Earl's mansion by Gu? "

Seeing the trembling magpie, Bu Zhongcheng sat back in his chair a little uneasy, and wiped the cold sweat from his hands on the hem of his official robe back and forth.

——Didn't you say, didn't you say that this Sima Kun was just a dead man?Didn't it mean that the three trials were just going through the motions in the face of Prince Qingxu and Marquis Jingling?No, didn't you still say that Xun...Xun Shoufu is a person from here?

Cocoa, but what's the situation now?

However, although the magpie was trembling with fright at the posture of the three-room interrogation, she still remembered what she should say.

"More than a month ago, Jingling Hou got married. Several young masters of my family were invited to the Jingling Hou's mansion for a wedding banquet. My daughter also went with her. Shi, the prince and my daughter met at that time," he said. She pointed at Sima Kun, trembling and sobbing: "Your Majesty, Your Majesty's status is as high as in the sky, yes, he is a person who turns his hands into clouds and rains his hands. His Majesty forced my girl, forced my girl... ..."

What happened later might not be very good. The magpie, who was devoted to the Lord, fell to the ground and wept uncontrollably. The only thing left in his mouth was "I beg the Lord Qingtian to avenge my girl's grievance".

The magpie's remarks were perfect and almost impeccable - the terrible thing is that Sima Kun had indeed met her girl a few times, and for some reason, the envoy of the magpie added fuel to the story and turned the matter into a completely different scene .

"The thief, Sima Yuanzhi, give back my girl's life!" Under the court, Wenchang Bowei Haizhou pulled out his guard's saber and rushed to kill Qingxu King Sima Xiu.

Everyone's attention was instantly attracted to the dispute outside the courtroom.

Naturally, Wei Haizhou couldn't get close to Sima Xiu—before he took the knife to point at Sima Xiu, he was pinned to the ground by the sword-wielding guards of Prince Qingxu's mansion.

"If you kill, kill and silence, shouldn't it be coming towards me?" Sima Kun tilted his head and took two small steps back, with a bitter smile weakly pulled from the corner of his mouth.

Zhang Bozhen turned his head to look at Sima Kun, only to see the child muttering in a low voice: "The prison in Chang'an Mansion, the dungeon in Dali Temple, including the Heavenly Prison affiliated to the imperial court, I dare not even drink my saliva after repeated actions and feet. If it wasn't for the second elder brother and me to bring food, I'm afraid, I'm afraid I'd be as cold as that child from the Wei family..."

"Outside the hall!" Amidst the chaos, Lu Siqing, the Minister of Dali Temple, slapped the gavel for the third time, and yelled, Wen Changbo and his wife were immediately stopped by the armor guards of Dali Temple.

The chaotic scene hadn't completely calmed down, and the grievance drum outside Dali Temple was sounded without hesitation in the torrential rain.

"My lord—my lord—Master Lu!" the gate guard shouted to his lord, rushing in from the outside despite the wind and rain.

He ran too fast, and when he knelt down on one knee, he jumped a short distance because he didn't stop and stepped on the wet sole of his shoe: "My lord, the Jinglinghou couple beat the drum of grievances and sued Uncle Wenchang for committing murder in the street! "

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