When the daughter of the Master of the Ministry of Etiquette walked into the hall, everyone present looked surprised.
Especially Feng Guangjin, who had been calm just now, was dumbfounded as he looked at the changes in the situation, and shouted in his heart that something was wrong:
Why is Wu Zhaokun's wife, no, Yu Zicai's daughter here? Who brought her to Beijing? How did she fall into the hands of people from Dali Temple?
Damn it, this woman has never spoken to me, if she says something...
"My lords, this woman lived with Magistrate Wu Zhaokun during the imperial examination fraud case. She knew some of the facts of the case that were not recorded in the files of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, so she went to Dali Temple to surrender the day before yesterday." Wan Shengwei finished explaining the cause and effect and spoke sternly.
He asked, "Let me ask you, why did you surrender? Tell the facts of the case you stated to Dali Temple in front of all of you. There must be no mistakes!"
"Returning to your lord, in my house... When Wu Zhaokun was serving as the prefect of Jiangdu, the convict's wife was always with him. Although she could not enter the yamen, she was very familiar with the guests that the prefect welcomed and sent away, and the distinguished guests who were treated generously, as well as the guests at home.
I also know a little bit about the money collected."
The eyes of everyone in the Sanfa Division were so intense that Yu Shuli felt as if his throat was boiling.
They all want to know, will what she says next lead to a reversal of the case?
"It was at the beginning of last year, a distinguished guest from the Jianghuai Chamber of Commerce came to visit my home, gave me many gifts, and asked the prefect for help, etc...
"When my father, Mr. Yu, the Minister of Rites, passed away his birthday, I saw the prefect counting the bills, which recorded the gold and silver treasures given by several wealthy businessmen...
"On the night of the ninth day of November, I was in the same room with the prefect, and suddenly I heard something moving outside. The prefect asked me to hide in the closet, and he hid under the bed..."
Yu Shuli could not help but widen his eyes as he spoke, looking frightened.
"A man broke into our bedroom and told the prefect... that a woman named Xu Ling'er was killed by the prefect..."
"Slow down." Feng Guangjin finally couldn't sit still, "What does this have to do with the imperial examination fraud case?"
Zhao Xuan, who was kneeling on the ground, sneered and said, "Yes, that's what I asked just now."
Wan Shengwei cleared his throat and said: "This woman has lived in a boudoir for a long time and has never seen such a scene. There may be errors and omissions in her words. Our Dali Temple has compiled her previous testimony into a file and submitted it to the Metropolitan Procuratorate without wasting your time.
, I will briefly summarize the contents..."
The file submitted by Dali Temple... Feng Guangjin gently tapped the handle of the seat and slowly thought about it. There was indeed such a thing, but the Metropolitan Procuratorate did not even open it for inspection, and directly threw it into the pile of documents.
Originally, the hearing of the case all depended on the attitude of the Supervisor. How could Dali Temple dare to provoke the eunuchs? The files they submitted to the Metropolitan Procuratorate were taken for granted as routine matters and nonsensical nonsense. No one might take a closer look.
.
Who would have thought that Dali Temple would send such a shocking testimony!
He sat up straight and listened carefully to Wan Shengwei's testimony.
"...The above. Your Excellencies must have made up their minds."
OMG...
Feng Guangjin fell silently on the back of his chair.
Wan Shengwei just relayed it without making any judgment, but everyone present had been working in the Sanfa Division for half a lifetime, and they were able to connect various clues together and organize them into the following four:
Someone wanted to bribe Yu Zicai through Wu Zhaokun.
The Jianghuai Chamber of Commerce has too frequent contacts with Wu Zhaokun.
Wu Zhaokun was involved in the death of a prostitute named Xu Ling'er.
The relationship between Wu Zhaokun and Yu Shuli is not good.
...ignoring the last item, there are still a few missing links in the key evidence. Feng Guangjin was secretly glad that these could not directly point to Yu Zicai and Wu Zhaokun as the masterminds of the imperial examination fraud case, as long as...
At this time, Zhao Sixian gave him a meaningful look.
What do you mean? Could it be that... Feng Guangjin's face twitched because he suspected that the Metropolitan Procuratorate secretly collected this testimony and did not communicate with the Supervisor!
He immediately discovered a problem that was more fatal than this testimony - the file that the Supervisor of Ceremonies was about to hand over to the Emperor for inspection was a file from the Metropolitan Procuratorate, and it did not mention the testimony that Dali Temple had handed over to the Metropolitan Procuratorate!
No matter how he explained it, in the eyes of the Supervisor, it was all because of the Metropolitan Procuratorate's negligence or even intentionality, which almost caused them to submit a problematic file to the emperor, committing the crime of deceiving the emperor!
Even if the matter can be undone, since the emperor has not actually seen the files of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, this will also lead to a gap between the Metropolitan Procuratorate and the Department of Ceremonies, or in other words, the princelings and the eunuchs.
Feng Guangjin gritted his teeth and tried his best to at least let Yu Zicai escape from the case. The princelings could still benefit from the Yu party, and they would be offended if they offended the eunuch party.
Wan Shengwei's questioning brought him back to reality, and he heard the Dali Temple Prime Minister pointing at Zhao Xuan and asking:
"Prisoner Zhao Xuan, you said that you privately entered Magistrate Wu Zhaokun's home to search. Is this consistent with Yu's testimony?"
"Consistent."
"But you concealed the matter before and only confessed that you later led a team to search the prefect's residence."
"Yes...how did I know you could find the prefect's wife?" Zhao Xuan chuckled, "I'm sorry, Mrs. Yu, I didn't know you were there that night, so I offended you so much."
"Ahem." Feng Guangjin suddenly said, "It seems that there is more evidence in this case. We should suspend the trial according to the law and focus on the investigation before talking about it."
After assessing the situation, he felt that the most urgent task now was to buy time and postpone the trial so that they could have the opportunity to discuss the next step with the Celebrant.
In addition, when he returns, he must ask his subordinates to open all the official documents sent and read them again, so as not to have any surprises from the sky disrupt his plan!
"slow!"
Xiong Linghong, the Minister of Punishment, finally couldn't sit still anymore. He stood up and said loudly:
"My lords, since the trial of this case is going to be extended, it is better to put all the evidence on display. I have a dossier submitted by the suspect Zhao Xuan. Although Eunuch Zhao said that the suspect's dossier is of no value, what is recorded on it is
Some situations overlap with Mrs. Yu’s testimony, so I think we might as well leave it to your Lordships to make a decision!”
"Don't let the criminal's files come out to confuse the public."
Zhao Siqian still wanted to block it, but since Dali Temple had taken the first step to refute the ceremonial director once, Xiong Linghong didn't have to worry too much and directly showed his trump card:
"This file has records of Wu Zhaokun's interaction with the Jianghuai Chamber of Commerce and the discovery of a large amount of stolen money through the Xu Ling'er case, which can be corroborated with the testimony!"
Feng Guangjin slowly collapsed on the chair, as if falling into a bottomless abyss.
Outside the hall, a heavy downpour finally fell from the dark clouded sky. The raindrops hit the water in front of the steps, like thousands of troops stepping through.
There was a flash of light in the rolling clouds, as if a thunderbolt was brewing.
…
After the golden light in front of his eyes dimmed, Zhou Shi found it difficult to adapt to the dim environment.
"What you just said was, the golden light that escapes the earth?"
I heard Mr. Mo say that this is an orthodox Taoist technique, and it doesn't look like it was performed by Luan Chongxiang... This is what a member of the Kowloon Hall should have.
"This is the shopkeeper of Yinmen Zhou. He has passed our assessment and is here to attend this gathering." Luan Chongxiang said.
Only then did Zhou Shi get used to the darkness. He was about to introduce himself, but was shocked by the sight in front of him and was speechless for a moment.
In a dark, long and narrow room, about ten people sat on both sides of a long table, illuminated only by a candle in front of each person.
In the center of the long table, there is a statue of the God of Wealth, which looks like the one enshrined in ordinary shops.