Hu Shixiang, a doctor in the Ministry of Punishment, Lao Yongjia, a foreign minister, and others interrogated Zhang Cha several times, and torture instruments were also used. However, Zhang Cha kept saying that he came to the capital to redress his grievances and broke into the palace by mistake. Some people are saying crazy things. The Zhejiang Party officials who are ordered to re-examine the assault case this time are mainly Zhejiang Party officials. The Zhejiang Party has the closest relationship with Zheng, a relative of the family. Of course, they do not want the assault case to implicate the Zheng family. Zhang Cha’s confession has a negative impact on the Zhejiang Party. Of course, this was what Hu Shixiang and others wanted, so they wrote a retrial case file and submitted it to the emperor. As long as the Dali Temple review was correct and the Metropolitan Procuratorate had no objections, then a major assassination case that shocked the government and the public would be settled. Unexpectedly, at this moment, , Wang Zhicai, the prison chief, showed the evidence in front of the court and demanded to retract his confession!
The party struggles in the late Ming Dynasty were mainly concentrated in various yamen in the capital. Each yamen had both Donglin officials and officials from the Three Parties, such as the Ministry of Punishment. Hu Shixiang, Yue Junsheng, Yue Junsheng, Yuanwailang Lao Yongjia and others belonged to the Three Parties, while Lu Menglong, a member of the Ministry of Punishment, was in charge. Fu Mei and Wang Zhicai belong to Donglin. Now Donglin official Wang Zhicai proposes to retract his confession and involves the eunuchs. It is obvious that he wants to point the finger at Concubine Zheng, and also implicitly threatens the officials of the three parties——
Hu Shixiang, Lao Yongjia and others stated that they were ordered to investigate the case, and the results of the retrial had been submitted. The emperor had not yet approved, and they could not continue the trial unless the emperor had other decrees requesting a joint trial. Although Hu Shixiang and others were angry at Wang Zhicai for causing trouble, they did not There is no way to stop Wang Zhicai from submitting the disclosure. Wang Zhicai is the prison director of the Ministry of Punishment. As long as it is a case of the Ministry of Punishment, he has the right to speak.
In the afternoon of the same day, Wang Zhicai's announcement was sent to the cabinet. Fang Congzhe and Wu Daonan, the two assistant ministers, were secretly frightened after reading the announcement. The assault case was really not going away. It was a matter of great importance. Fang Congzhe and Wu were voted by the Metropolitan Procuratorate. , Dali Temple sent people to re-examine the assault case together with officials from the Ministry of Punishment, and in the evening, it was sent to the Clerk of Ceremonies for judgment by the emperor——
Li En, the chief seal officer of the Supervisor of Ceremonies, felt a chill run down his spine after reading the post. The assault case indeed involved an internal official. He did not dare to let the post of the post be left in the Supervisor of Ceremonies overnight, so he immediately sent it to Qixiang Palace in person. The next morning, he asked the Supervisor to The two books of the Supervisor of Rites went to Qixiang Palace to wait for the decree to see if Emperor Wanli had approved it. The two books waited until the beginning of the year and brought back several approved memorials, among which Wang Zhicai's unveiling was not included. Li En knew that Long live the Lord has to stay in the middle and not make a move again——
Emperor Wanli did not publish Wang Zhicai's unveiling, but the content of the unveiling had been circulated, and the discussions among officials became more intense. On May 24, the third day after Wang Zhicai submitted the unveiling, the Ministry of Household Affairs of Zhejiang Province Lu Dashu, the doctor in charge of the Department, raised three doubts. He questioned that since Zhang Cha had admitted that a eunuch was looking for him, who was the eunuch? He admitted that he had visited a large house in the capital, so where was this house? He admitted that there was an eunuch who encouraged him. Breaking into the palace, who is this eunuch? The book also insinuates that Zheng Guifei's party is the main instigator of the case. By the way, the Zhejiang Party spokesperson involved in the case is accused of shielding Zheng Guifei's party, which is tantamount to the nature of the crony dispute. Converting it to a national-based dispute allowed the Donglin Party to attack its opponents in the name of supporting the crown prince——
On the same day, in the same year that Lu Da was elected, Zhang Ting, the head of the Ministry of Household Affairs, also went to court and said that "the prince's power is in danger, the emperor is hiding traitors, and everyone is deceived." He implored the emperor to issue an order to let the Jiuqing, Kedao and Sanfa Divisions jointly review this matter. The case made the East Palace stable.
Although only three Donglin Party officials were presided over by Shangshu for the joint trial, this was also the general voice of the officials in the capital. The Donglin officials at Shangshu were quite restrained and did not explicitly accuse Concubine Zheng and Guoji Zheng. The mastermind behind the case is just a hint and an insinuation, but the people in the city are talking about it. Rumors that the maternal relative Zheng conspired to kill the prince and make Prince Fu the crown prince are rampant. You can hear it just walking on the streets of the capital. For such remarks, although Zheng Guotai is the Left Governor of the Zuojun Governorate, one of the five major governors, and his son Zheng Yangxing is also a member of the Yulin Guard Qianhu. He has considerable power, but it is far from the level of suppressing speech and shutting up the people. , the only thing they can do is to spread rumors and fight rumors with rumors, saying that the criminal Zhang Cha's retraction of his confession was entirely at the instigation of Wang Zhicai, the head of the Criminal Department. Wang Zhicai learned the names of internal officials Pang Bao and Liu Cheng from Zhang Cha's previous confession. Therefore, Wang Zhicai instigated Zhang Cha to say these words: "Beat the Eastern Palace, eat and clothe him." Wang Zhicai, as an official of the Ministry of Punishment, violated the law and committed a heinous crime——
Public opinions in Beijing were fierce. Wang Shichang, the left Shaoqing of Dali who was responsible for reviewing the assault case, and Zhang Wenda, the censor of the right capital of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, who was responsible for supervision, were under great pressure. On May 26, Wang Shichang, as the person in charge of the judiciary, went to court and said: "Where does Chen live? Who is in charge? What is Zhang Chao? He dares to break in with a stile, as if he were in an uninhabited place. It's scary." He also demanded that the case be investigated. Detailed interrogation——
Wang Shichang belonged to the Zhejiang Party, and people from the Zhejiang Party seconded Wang Zhicai of Donglin. The memorials by Lu Dasheng and others are very thought-provoking. This shows that the government and the public are clamoring to find out the truth about the attack case. Wang Shichang, who is a Dali temple official, supports Unable to resist the pressure, in order to clear himself up, he shifted the responsibility to the Ministry of Justice, perhaps with the instruction of Zheng Guotai. Zheng Guotai had contacted his sister Zheng Guitai, who flatly denied being involved in the case, so Zheng Guotai also demanded a strict investigation. Fortunately, the Zheng family was innocent of this case, but they didn't know that they had fallen into a trap set by the Donglin Party. The more they struggled, the more they fell, the more the charcoal was washed, the darker it became, and the more the manhole was dug out, the smellier it became...
Emperor Wanli remained calm and turned a deaf ear to those memorials, leaving them all undisclosed. However, many things could not be eliminated without being announced by the emperor. The Imperial Procuratorate, Dali Temple, and the Ministry of Punishment took action. Dali Temple responded with the reports reported by the Ministry of Punishment. The result of the retrial of the case was flawed, and the prisoner's confession was inconsistent, so the Ministry of Punishment was requested to retrial, so the Three Justices Department put Emperor Wanli aside and ordered Hu Shixiang, Lao Yongjia, Zhao Huizhen, Lu Menglong, Fu Mei, Wang Zhicai and Zou Shaoguang to interrogate Zhang Cha again. , Zhang Wenda, the official of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, Wang Shichang, the official of Dali Temple, and Li Rong, the official of the Ministry of Punishment, attended and supervised——
On May 28, the assault case was tried again in the Prison Department of the Ministry of Punishment. Hu Shixiang, Lao Yongjia, Zhao Huizhen, and Zou Shaoguang, all members of the three parties, remained silent. , then Lu Menglong, a member of the Criminal Department from the fifth rank, did his duty, attacked the case and shouted: "Torture! Torture!"
Zhang Cha, who was in the audience, shouted: "Don't use torture, don't use torture, I'll kill all the villains." He quickly admitted that he was brought to the capital by his two husbands, Pang Bao and Liu Cheng, on the recommendation of local people Li Ziqiang and Li Wanchang. He was well fed and nourished, and some gold items were given to him——
Lu Menglong asked: "Pang, where will Liu and you take you to the capital to live?"
Zhang Cha replied: "The villain is illiterate and doesn't know what street it is. He only knows that it is a big house. It is very spacious and elegant."
Lu Menglong asked: "Since I gave you a lot of gold objects, where are the gold objects?"
Zhang Cha replied: "The villain was afraid that someone would steal it, so he hid it underground in that big house."
Lu Menglong asked: "Let you go out now. Can you find the big house?"
Zhang Cha rolled his eyes and thought for a while, then shook his head and said: "This capital is too big, so where can I find this villain unless I lead the villain to the door of the big house?"
Hu Shixiang, Lao Yongjia and others all laughed sarcastically.
Lu Menglong said calmly: "Given the size of the capital, it is not surprising that an illiterate country man cannot recognize the road. Now that we have recruited Pang Bao and Liu Cheng, we can naturally find the big house."
Lu Menglong asked again: "Pang, Liu and your two husbands brought you to the capital to support you with good food and drink, but for what reason?"
Zhang Cha blurted out: "Hit me."
As soon as this confession came out, the whole hall fell silent, and everyone changed their expressions. Hu Shixiang, who was presiding over the trial, immediately pushed forward the case and said to the officials of the Sanfa Division: "My lords, this case cannot be tried by a lower official, unless the emperor has other edicts." ." He cupped his hands and left the prison hall.
Lao Yongjia, Zhao Huizhen, and Zou Shaoguang also left with Hu Shixiang. The joint trial of the Three Law Divisions could not proceed. Moreover, the case involved two internal officials, Pang Bao and Liu Cheng. Without the emperor's will, the Three Law Divisions had no right to arrest palace officials.
To confront, to interrogate—
Wang Shichang's face was sweating. He advocated a joint trial, but he didn't expect that the shocking confession of "beating the young master" was directly brought out. Now it's impossible to deal with it. What should I do?
The confession of Zhang Chai who was interrogated by the Three Laws Division was quickly leaked, and the government and the public were shocked. Pang Bao and Liu Cheng were eunuchs who were close to Concubine Zheng. Zhang Cha was from Jizhou, and Pang and Liu happened to be repairing ironwork for Concubine Zheng in Jizhou.
Tile Dian is extremely suspicious. Now not only the common people are directly talking about the Zheng family's conspiracy to save money, but officials in the DPRK and China are also talking about it. Zheng Guotai, Zheng Yangxing and his son are under huge pressure from public opinion——
It's like Go. It's easy to make mistakes when you're under too much pressure. The frustrated Zheng Guotai finally made a mistake. In order to prove his innocence, he presented a letter to Emperor Wanli on May 30 to clear himself up.
What's Chu's plan? What's his mission? What's the point of raising a dead man in secret? He's crazy and rebellious, but his heart doesn't dare to be cute, even his mouth doesn't dare to speak, and his ears can't bear to listen." It also goes like this: "The whole family is wiped out, and the family is infamy for all eternity.
There is no trace, and the words are just ghosts." Finally, he said disdainfully, "In the Qingming era, the ears and eyes are the most true, and I don't seem to have to babble and argue."
During the incident, He Shijin from the Engineering Department was the first to learn the content of Zheng Guotai's post. He was overjoyed. "Spend money, take charge, secretly support the dead." This is what the Donglin Party members wanted to impeach Zheng, but they did not dare to make it without any evidence.
Now Zheng Guotai himself has jumped out to defend himself. Doesn't this mean that there is no 300 taels of silver here? He Shijin and Hu Ke discussed the matter with Yang Lianlue, and immediately reported it to the emperor, seizing the flaws in Zheng Guotai's defense, and asked the Ministry of Punishment to review the case.
Only the names of two internal officials were involved. Zhang Chai’s oral confession was not made, the investigation by the Ministry of Justice was not completed, and Zheng Guotai was not directly pointed out as the mastermind. Why was Zheng Guotai so guilty and timid? Couldn’t he have been more patient and rushed to defend himself?
New accounts and old accounts are settled together, He Shijin's dispute over the origin of the country, the discussion of the three kings, "The Illustrated Description of the Girlfriend", the poison of the demon book, the details are analyzed, and the questioning is layer upon layer. People can't help but believe that the Zheng family is closely related to the case of the attack.
The more Cathay defends himself, the dirtier he becomes. Even if he jumped into the Yellow River, he could not be cleansed. Now that Zhang Chai has confessed Pang Bao and Liu Cheng, it stands to reason that they should confront each other, but this must be done with the permission of Emperor Wanli.
Attitude is crucial——
On the day when Zheng Guotai published the post, Qi Yanling, the magistrate of Jizhou, wrote to the Ministry of Punishments, reporting the whole story of Zhang Cha's madness. Qi Yanling's report was roughly the same as the retrial results of Hu Shixiang and Liu Tingyuan. This was done by Liu Tingyuan, the leader of the Zhejiang Party, to quell the assault case.
He tried his best, but because Zheng Guotai couldn't calm down, he fell into an extremely passive situation. Now it depends on how Emperor Wanli expresses his position. When the matter has reached this point, it is impossible for Emperor Wanli to rule by inaction and stay in the middle.
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Tomorrow I will finish writing the case of the attack in one go. Zhang Jiezi still has a lot of things to do, so he can't get too entangled in the case.
Also, let me reprimand someone who advertises in the book review section. It’s just advertising, but there’s a sentence in front of it that rewards the author with 10,000 starting coins. It’s disgusting, but also funny. (To be continued)
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