"It turns out that he is from the side of Hongli, the crown prince of the East Palace, and he is also a married family of the Wang family in Zhengcheng, so it is not surprising..."
Zhao Hongrun nodded in sudden realization, finally able to understand why the newly appointed general, Chao Lidong, was hostile to him - the camps were in opposition.
You should know that although Zhao Hongrun himself has never participated in the overt and covert struggle for the throne, and has not clearly expressed his intention to support his second brother Yong Wang Hongyu so far, it is undeniable that Zhao Hongrun has indeed done a lot of things to oppose the Prince of the East Palace.
.
Of course, Zhao Hongrun did not admit that he was helping King Yong Hongyu. He just felt that the Prince of the East Palace sometimes needed to be dealt with, and he had to slap him in the face from time to time, otherwise he would slap him in the face.
However, in the eyes of the outside world, Zhao Hongrun has been labeled as Yong Wang Hongyu. Who made him target the Prince of the East Palace many times?
In this case, how could the people of the East Palace Prince Hongli and his family look down upon Zhao Hongrun?
What's more, Chao Lidong's family is also a married family of the Wang family in Zhengcheng.
Last year, Wang Ting, the youngest son of the Wang family in Zhengcheng, the younger brother of the current queen, and the younger uncle of Prince Hongli of the East Palace, was killed by the riding bandit Huanhu. Although this incident cannot be entirely blamed on Zhao Hongrun, it can only be said that Huan
Hu is really a bold and powerful bandit who goes his own way, but most people who believe in the Wang family in Zhengcheng will not think so.
They would only think that Zhao Hongrun deliberately did not want to rescue Wang Ting, or simply gave up rescuing Wang Ting.
Because of this incident, the relationship between Zhao Hongrun and the Wang family of Zhengcheng was very tense for a time. However, later on, the two factions of the East Palace Prince Hongli and Yong Wang Hongyu fought openly and secretly, and then the war in Northern Xinjiang broke out, so that the Wang family of Zhengcheng disappeared.
It's just that I took care of a certain Prince Su, but it doesn't mean that this grudge is over.
No, Zhao Hongrun could clearly feel the hostility towards him from the Zhengcheng Wang family and their alliance forces from the attitude of Chao Lidong, the newly appointed chief of the general's palace.
"Thank you, Master Tang, for informing me." Zhao Hongrun thanked Tang Zheng, the left minister of the Ministry of Punishment.
Tang Zheng shook his head slightly to express his gratitude. Then he apologized in a low voice and walked away.
Obviously, Tang Zheng didn't want to offend Chao Lidong and the huge forces behind him, but Zhao Hongrun didn't care about it. After all, Tang Zheng had shown enough goodwill to him.
"I am also confused. The plan to go to the General's Mansion was proposed by Zhou Min to the East Palace. How could the East Palace hand over this important position to others..."
Zhao Hongrun smiled mockingly to himself, and then focused his attention on the autopsy process of the Dali Temple monks.
As for Chao Lidong's eager gaze, Zhao Hongrun pretended not to notice it at all.
According to Zhao Hongrun's visual inspection and the autopsy results of the gangsters, Zhou Yan, the Minister of Punishment, should have been thrown into a nearby ditch after his death, because when a gangster squeezed the stomach of the corpse, there was no trace of blood in the body's abdomen.
How much water accumulates, which basically eliminates the possibility of drowning.
Furthermore, judging from the official uniform on Zhou Yan's body, there was no fierce fight before the minister was killed, and he was most likely killed by a sneak attack.
Of course, this is only the most preliminary judgment, and the specific results will have to wait until the Dali Temple's official official moves the body to Dali Temple, where a few of the Dali Temple's widows will conduct a more in-depth autopsy.
Not long after, the soldiers who were sent around to look for witnesses came back, and they also brought back several women and men.
Those women were said to be the discoverers of the body.
According to what those women said, they discovered the body of Zhou Yan, the Minister of Punishment, while washing clothes in this canal.
They were so frightened that they hurriedly called their men without caring about the laundry.
When those men saw Zhou Yan wearing official uniforms, they were so frightened that they quickly reported it to the officials. Only then did the court learn of the bad news.
"Wait, do you wash your clothes in this canal every day?" Zheng Xurong, the seemingly elderly minister of Dali Temple, kindly asked the women.
What he asked was exactly what Zhao Hongrun also wanted to know.
"Reporting to this gentleman, women and others come to this canal to wash their clothes every day..."
Perhaps it was due to the friendly attitude of Dali Temple Minister Xu Rong that the women were not very panicked. Although their stuttering was a little unclear, they were able to get the words right and their answers were not completely inaccurate.
"Oh... did you find any foreign objects in the ditch in the past two days?" Xu Rong deliberately emphasized the word "foreign object", and the meaning is self-evident.
"No... never." One of the women said, and then the other women shook their heads.
"Are you sure? Don't worry, think about it carefully." Xu Rong asked kindly.
The women thought about it carefully, but finally shook their heads.
"Oh, I understand..." A glimmer of light flashed in Xu Rong's seemingly cloudy eyes.
And Zhao Hongrun, who was listening clearly, also caught something from the stories of those women.
"That's not quite right..." Chu Shuli, the governor of Daliang Mansion, walked up to Xu Rong and whispered: "According to Mrs. Zhou, Zhou Shangshu did not return home two days ago. If Zhou Shangshu had been killed at that time, this would
Doesn’t it mean…”
Xu Rong shook his head and signaled Chu Shuli to stop talking, and then ordered the nearby guards: "Search the surroundings carefully. If you find anyone acting suspiciously, you can take them down!"
Zhao Hongrun could understand what this old man meant: Zhou Yan, the Minister of Punishment, disappeared two days ago, or he might have been killed at that time, but the murderer was still hesitant about how to dispose of Zhou Yan's body.
After all, Zhou Yan is the Minister of the Ministry of Punishment. If his whereabouts are lost, neither the imperial court nor the Chui Gong Palace will give up the investigation. They will see the person alive and the corpse after death. Otherwise, they will search the whole city until they find him.
And this means that the murderer of Zhou Yan was very familiar with the operation of the imperial court, so he did not destroy the body or destroy any traces.
Otherwise, how would the murderer dare to dump his body after killing an important minister like Zhou Yan? According to common ideals, it would be better to bury him somewhere casually than to leave him in a place like this, right?
In other words, the murderer who dumped the body of Zhou Yan, the Minister of Punishment, in this canal was probably frightened by Emperor Wei's state of martial law throughout the city.
"There is not much soil on Zhou Shangshu's body. It doesn't look like it was dug up after being buried... This means that either Zhou Shangshu was killed not long ago, or the murderer placed Zhou Shangshu's body somewhere."
For two days... This is unreasonable. After killing someone, shouldn't the body be disposed of quickly? Why is the murderer hesitating?"
Zhao Hongrun shook his head slightly. No matter how he looked at it, he felt that the murderer behind the scenes was too hasty in killing Zhou Yan. It seemed that even the murderer did not know how to deal with the body of Zhou Shangshu, so he placed it somewhere for two days and wanted to see it.
Watch what's going on in the court.
But today, seeing that Emperor Wei was furious, he blocked all entrances and exits of the royal city, and sent troops to search the whole city, so he hurriedly dumped the body of Zhou Shangshu in this canal.
"This is not a premeditated assassination... more like a hasty murder."
Zhao Hongrun frowned and thought.
At this time, the monks at Dali Temple were examining Zhou Yan's hands, because the latter's hands were clenched into fists for some reason, as if he had subconsciously clenched his fists due to some stimulation before he died.
"Huh?"
A trace of surprise flashed in Zhao Hongrun's eyes, because he discovered that Zhou Yan's body was clenching fists with both hands, but the way the two hands clenched the fists were different.
It is a very common way to make a fist with the left hand, with the thumb outside; while with the right hand, the thumb is pinched inside by the other four fingers.
However, there is nothing in Zhou Yan's hands - not only his hands, but so far the cooperators have not found any suspicious items on Zhou Yan's body.
"Why... Zhou Shangshu's right hand is clenched in that weird posture? It's as if he is... protecting his thumb..."
Under the surprised gazes of several gangsters, Zhao Hongrun pushed aside the others and stepped forward, grabbed Zhou Yan's right hand and examined the thumb carefully.
Only then did he discover that there was a very thin piece of wood hidden between the nails of Zhou Yan's thumb. It was roughly complete, and judging from its position, it seemed that Zhou Yan had deliberately dug it out and embedded it inside.
"What...what does this mean?"
Even Zhao Hongrun was a little confused.
From the side, a clerk also discovered the trace of wood wool between Zhou Yan's right thumb and quickly reported it to the adults present.
"This His Highness Prince Su..."
Chu Shuli, the chief minister of Daliang Mansion, Xu Rong, the chief minister of Dali Temple, as well as Tang Zheng, the left minister of the Ministry of Justice, and Shan Ming, the right minister of the Ministry of Justice, all showed a little surprise on their faces when they saw the scene just now.
Because even they did not expect that those experienced workers had checked once before and found nothing useful, but these His Highness Prince Su actually found a clue - although they did not know the trace of wood.
What exactly does it mean.
At this time, after Chao Lidong looked around for a few times, he curled his lips in disdain: "I thought I found something, but it turned out to be just a trace of sawdust... What's the use of this? Maybe it was Zhou Shangshu who was abandoned in the ditch.
It was glued on."
"Clench your fist in that way, can you show it to me?"
Zhao Hongrun glanced at Chao Lidong displeasedly. He knew very well that the other party didn't understand, but was just targeting him deliberately.
"I ignored you, but you still slapped your face?"
Thinking of this, Zhao Hongrun said deliberately: "If there are any sawdust in the ditch, pick them up and let me take a look."
Upon hearing this, several adults present were a little confused. After all, the ditch in front of them was not very clean. Of course, there would be some debris floating on it.
Chao Lidong seemed to have grasped something about Zhao Hongrun. After making a few sarcastic remarks, he walked to the ditch and bent over to pick up the broken wood residue in the water.
At this time, Zhao Hongrun started to run quietly, and then he kicked Chao Lidong on the buttocks, and kicked him into the ditch.
There was a pop and water splashed everywhere.
Beside, Xu Rong, Chu Shuli, Tang Zheng, Shan Ming and other court ministers as well as many soldiers and guards took a breath of air and looked at each other, dumbfounded.
"Someone is here to carry Zhou Shangshu's body to Dali Temple for further inspection."
Under the stunned gaze of everyone, Zhao Hongrun straightened his clothes and walked back to his place as if nothing had happened.
Regardless of the situation in the ditch, the head of the general's palace was still shouting for help.