When Zhao Hongrun led the clan guards to the scene where the body of Zhou Yan, the Minister of Punishment, was found, the place was already overcrowded.
The soldiers who arrived a step ahead have cordoned off the surrounding area and are sending people around to look for witnesses.
"you……"
Noticing Zhao Hongrun and his group walking straight towards them, a guard captain frowned, probably intending to step forward to stop them.
But before he could speak, Zongwei Chief Wei Jiao had already taken the initiative and presented a token with the three characters "Prince Su's Mansion" engraved on it, which frightened the soldiers and guards into quickly giving way and retreating to both sides.
"..."
Zhao Hongrun stopped and looked around, with a trace of suspicion appearing between his brows.
He instinctively realized that there was a 90% chance that this place would be the place where Zhou Yan, the Minister of Punishment, was murdered.
Because the social classes in Daliang are clearly divided, it is obvious from the distribution area - the northernmost part is the imperial palace, and to the south are the noble residence areas and imperial offices. A horizontal street that runs from east to west divides the entire royal city into two parts, the North City and the South City.
Generally speaking, the north part of the city belongs to the princes, nobles, dignitaries and celebrities, while the south part is where the common people live.
Within the scope of Nancheng, most wealthy families are concentrated in the southeast, while ordinary civilians are concentrated in the southwest.
But now the location of the body of Zhou Yan, Minister of the Ministry of Punishment, is found to be in the southwest of Daliang City. This is not in line with common sense.
You must know that Zhou Yan is the Minister of Criminal Affairs of the imperial court, a first-class important minister of the imperial court. Not to mention that he comes from a famous family, even if he is a commoner, with his status, he is qualified to own a mansion in the north of the city, and he belongs to the upper nobles.
Then the question arises, what does such a well-born minister, who is also the chief official of the imperial court's criminal department, do in the west of the city?
Holding the suspicion in his heart, Zhao Hongrun stepped forward.
In the distance, I saw several court officials in official uniforms gathering together and arguing about something.
Zhao Hongrun vaguely saw a body lying at the feet of these officials.
"As expected, it is Master Zhou Yan, the Minister of the Ministry of Punishment..."
Ignoring anyone, Zhao Hongrun went straight to the corpse. Under the surprised and stunned eyes of the officials, he first roughly inspected the corpse.
"You...are you His Royal Highness Prince Su?" Among the officials, a middle-aged official in his forties recognized Zhao Hongrun's identity and quickly bowed to him.
Zhao Hongrun glanced at the other party, and then he recognized that the other party was "Tang Zheng", the left minister of the Ministry of Justice, whom he had met several times, and the capable subordinate of Zhou Yan, the Minister of the Ministry of Justice.
At this time, an official beside Tang Zheng, the left minister of the Ministry of Punishment, also bowed his hands in salute to Zhao Hongrun.
This person, Zhao Hongrun, is no stranger to him. He is also the chief of the Ministry of Punishment and the right servant Shan Yiming. It is said that he was once a selfless judge in Dali Temple. Zhou Yan recommended him because of his talent. Forty
Although he was a civil servant for many years, he looked quite majestic. His eyes were as sharp as knives, and they glanced at people's faces as if they were being scraped by knives.
I also heard from the gossip that Shan Ming, the right servant, had good martial arts skills, so he sometimes acted as the head catcher of the Criminal Department and personally led the guards of the Criminal Department to capture important criminals. He was not a civil servant in the simple sense.
In addition to these two senior officials of the Ministry of Justice, there was also an official who was about fifty years old and then bowed his hand to Zhao Hongrun. However, this person was relatively unfamiliar and Zhao Hongrun did not recognize him.
It wasn't until Tang Zheng, the left minister of the Ministry of Punishment, introduced him that Zhao Hongrun suddenly realized: It turned out that the old man was Chu Shuli, the head of the "Daliang Mansion".
The so-called "Daliang Mansion" is the government office in charge of people's livelihood and public security in the capital of Daliang and the capital. The types of government offices are similar to county government offices, but its levels are higher than county government offices and county government offices.
In a sense, there is a certain degree of power conflict between "Daliang Mansion" and "Bingwei". However, in normal times, Daliang Mansion is in charge of people's livelihood and Bingwei is in charge of public security.
And now that the top priority event of "the murder of the Minister of Punishment" has occurred, the Daliang Mansion will inevitably be implicated. This is not surprising.
Zhao Hongrun also bowed his hand towards Lord Chu, the head of the "Daliang Mansion", "Chu Shuli".
Only then did he notice that one of these officials was still arrogantly clasping his hands behind his back, showing no intention of greeting His Royal Highness, Prince Su. What's more, there was a hint of hostility in the other person's eyes.
Perhaps sensing the awkwardness of the atmosphere, Tang Zheng, the left minister of the Ministry of Justice, quickly pointed to the official and introduced: "Your Highness, this is the superior officer of the 'Shangjiang Mansion', General Chao Lidong, Lord Chao... Lord Chao, this is Lord Chao..." …”
Before Tang Zheng could finish his words, Chao Lidong looked at Zhao Hongrun and sneered, saying lightly: "I recognize you, Your Highness Prince Su... Hello, His Highness Prince Su."
"..."
Zhao Hongrun and the Zongwei behind him couldn't help but frown when they heard this. The former was fine, but the faces of the Zongwei behind him showed angry looks.
After all, this way of greeting is really too rude, even if the other person is a general in the general's palace!
Perhaps because he knew the relationship between the clan guards too well, Zhao Hongrun stretched out his hand to stop the angry-looking Wei Jiao and others, and looked puzzledly at Chao Lidong, the general of the newly-established general's mansion in the imperial court, or the governor - —After all, this Chao Lidong is wearing the clothes of a civil servant.
"Have I ever offended this guy?"
Zhao Hongrun recalled it secretly, but unfortunately, he had no impression of this at all - he was very sure that this was the first time he had met the other party.
Because of this, Zhao Hongrun was actually very puzzled as to why the other party was so cold towards him, even with a hint of hostility. However, since the other party had put on such a bad face, he naturally would not ask what happened.
Anyway, if you have too many lice, you won't be itchy, if you have too many debts, you won't have to worry. Zhao Hongrun has offended many people so far, and he doesn't care about adding one more.
So what about the governor of the General's Mansion? It's just a newly established government office that hasn't even straightened out its internal affairs.
Thinking of this, Zhao Hongrun was too lazy to pay attention to this person. He turned to Tang Zheng, the left minister of the Ministry of Punishment, and asked: "Have you ever ordered the widower to inspect the body of Mr. Zhou?"
Tang Zheng shook his head, and said with a somewhat sad and embarrassed expression: "We are here to wait for Mr. Xu Rongxu, the Minister of Dali Temple... His Majesty has ordered that the relevant personnel of our Criminal Department only need to assist in this case, and Dali Temple has full authority. Come and investigate."
Zhao Hongrun was slightly startled when he heard this, a little confused.
Because in a sense, Dali Temple is a subordinate government office of the Ministry of Punishment. Why is it that the Ministry of Punishment is not responsible but Dali Temple is responsible?
However, after a second thought, Zhao Hongrun realized that the person who was killed this time was Zhou Yan, the Minister of the Ministry of Punishment. Therefore, the officials of the Ministry of Punishment should avoid it in order to avoid suspicion.
From this, it is not difficult to understand why Tang Zheng showed an embarrassed expression just now: because he and Shan Ming are also suspects.
Thinking of this, Zhao Hongrun stopped questioning Tang Zheng. After all, the latter was in an awkward situation with Shan Ming and might not know more than him.
And just when Zhao Hongrun squatted down and was about to inspect Zhou Yan's body, he heard Chao Lidong saying strangely: "Your Highness, King Su, this case is very important. If you don't know much about autopsies, you'd better not make trouble.
Who can afford it if the evidence of the crime is accidentally destroyed?"
After that, he waved his hand to summon a few guards and said calmly: "Here, please escort His Royal Highness Prince Su out."
You must know that the General's Mansion is now a military in a certain sense. In name, it is even higher than the sixth garrison battalion. Therefore, the nearby soldiers and guards dare not disobey Chao Lidong's words.
At this time, the Zongwei took the first two steps and shouted back the soldiers. Wei Jiao, the Zongwei leader, even shouted loudly: "How outrageous!"
Chao Lidong's eyebrows twitched slightly, and he glanced at Wei Jiao and other clan guards with a sinister expression, but in the end, the cruel look in his eyes gradually faded away.
Because he knew that these people were not ordinary guards, they were the clan guards from the clan. Except for the clan, according to regulations, no government officials were allowed to use force against these clan guards, otherwise it would be contempt for the clan.
To put it bluntly, it is not Chao Lidong who can beat people like Wei Jiao or scold them whenever he wants.
So, he sneered in a somewhat mocking tone: "Lords of Zongwei, I am doing this for His Highness King Su. Your Highness is still young. If you are frightened by seeing Lord Zhou's body, you will have trouble sleeping all night."
, what should we do?"
"Do you think my Highness is a three-year-old?" Wei Jiao scolded with a gloomy face: "Master Chao, I respect you as the Chief of the General's Mansion, but if you are rude to His Highness again, don't blame me.
You're welcome."
"Oh?" Chao Lidong also showed a bit of anger in his eyes, and sneered: "How can you be so rude, Mr. Zong Wei?"
At this moment, Dali Temple Qingzheng Xu Rong led a group of people to this place.
I saw this old man cupping his hands towards several people present, and said with a smile: "I am old and have inconvenient legs and feet. I hope all my colleagues will not blame you... Huh? This is..."
He may have seen Zhao Hongrun.
Seeing this, Zhao Hongrun stood up and saluted the minister of Dali Temple.
To be honest, Xu Rong, the official of Dali Temple, is also a veteran of the DPRK who is about to retire.
And it is said that this old man has not been in charge of the affairs of Dali Temple in the past two years. The affairs in Dali Temple are all handled by the official in his prime, the Young Minister of Dali Temple "Yang Yu".
Therefore, almost no one in the court would offend the old man and would give him some face.
Even Chao Lidong, the head of the General's Mansion, snorted coldly and did not interrupt when he saw Xu Rong and Zhao Hongrun talking.
As a result, an intensified conflict was invisibly resolved by the arrival of Dali Temple Qingzheng Xu Rong.
While the priests of Dali Temple were inspecting the body of Zhou Yan, Minister of the Ministry of Punishment, Zhao Hongrun winked at Tang Zheng, the left minister of the Ministry of Punishment.
Tang Zheng understood, pretended to be watching the autopsy process, and walked quietly to Zhao Hongrun.
"What's wrong with that guy?" Seeing Tang Zheng approaching, Zhao Hongrun pursed his lips in the direction of Chao Lidong.
Tang Zheng smiled bitterly when he heard this and said in a low voice: "Your Highness, don't you know this person? He is from the East Palace, and his family has a long-standing marriage relationship with the Wang family in Zhengcheng..."
After hearing this, Zhao Hongrun suddenly realized.