A big official like Du Shangshu has a deeper understanding of officialdom than ordinary people imagine.
Du Changshi said at that time, "Brother, why didn't you tell me earlier?" As soon as he finished speaking, he looked like he was biting his tongue. Sure enough, Du Shangshu said, "I didn't know that the case you were investigating was related to old news.
.”
Du Changshi said to Mu Anzhi embarrassedly, "I never told my brother about the military ration case."
"This is not wrong, this is what should be done. Major court cases must be kept strictly confidential. This is our duty."
Du Shangshu has an honest word to say, even in the capital of Mu'an, it must be said that the first of the six ministers under Prime Minister Pei indeed distinguishes between public and private matters, and has extraordinary knowledge.
Based solely on the assassination of Du Changshi, it is not surprising to find out the story of Xuanyin Tower. It directly points out the suspicious aspects of Liu Chong's promotion at that time. This is not something that just anyone can do.
Based on the meticulousness of Du Shangshu, although there is no conclusive evidence, I must be 50 to 60% certain.
Of course, with Du Shangshu's cautiousness, he must have been extremely angry about Du Changshi's assassination. Otherwise, he had no friendship with Mu Anzhi, so there would be no need to say so much.
The two brothers of the Du family knew how their relationship was going by seeing how quickly Du Shangshu arrived as soon as something happened to Du Changshi.
While Mu Anzhi was still at Du Changshi's place, the palace servants came in a hurry, and His Highness Xuan San came to the palace to see him.
"Xiao Du, you recover from your injuries first, don't worry about the rest."
Zheng Shangshu said, "I will send it to Your Highness."
"No, please stay with Xiao Du. Let him go to the Yamen after he recovers from his injury. Everything else is more important than his health."
"Yes." Du Shangshu stood up to see him off, and Mu Anzhi greeted him politely.
The chamberlain at Bian'er said cautiously, "Your Highness, Your Majesty is in urgent need of help."
"Why are you so anxious? I don't know how to catch assassins. Li Shangshu has not entered the palace."
Du Shan wrote, "Your Majesty, please enter the palace quickly. Don't keep your Majesty waiting."
"There is nothing to wait for. I made all the arrangements when I came here. I also sent orders to Jiumen. Now we are searching around the assassination place. Even if I go, I will just repeat those clichés."
Du Shangshu finally understood why the worthless things in his family fell in love with this His Highness. They were the kind of people who didn't know how to talk well.
By the way, His Highness the Third Highness was not like this when his reputation was good in the past. What kind of disease is this?
Du Shangshu sent Mu Anzhi out in a good voice, but Mu Anzhi did not delay on purpose and rode into the palace.
Emperor Mu Xuan was only accompanied by the prince. The prince was leaning down to listen to what Emperor Mu Xuan said. When he saw Mu Anzhi coming in, Emperor Mu Xuan became a little angry, "I thought you didn't want to enter the palace."
"Xiao Du was seriously injured and half of his life was gone. The Yamen made arrangements. I saw that Li Shangshu was going to the palace but didn't come, so I went to check on Xiao Du." Mu Anzhi said without any fear.
Seeing Du Changshi's injury, I couldn't help but feel a little worried.
"Injured so badly?"
"More than a dozen stab wounds. There are bones all over the chest." Mu Anzhi saw a chair next to him, so he went over and sat on it.
The prince said, "Has the imperial doctor gone to see you?"
"I called Dr. Zhang over to take a look and prescribed medicine. I asked him to take good care of himself at home and not to worry about errands." He looked around and said, "I didn't even give me a cup of tea. I've been struggling so early in the morning.
Come on, I didn’t even drink any water.”
Emperor Mu Xuan waved his hand, and the chamberlain brought the tea. When Mu Anzhi took two sips, he drank a cup of tea, knowing that he was really thirsty. Brother Mu's unhappiness in waiting subsided a little, "You let Li Shangshu enter the palace,
But this time it is your subordinate officer who is injured, and the person who died is someone related to the Zhou family case, and you know better than others."
Emperor Mu Xuan asked, "What is going on?"
"Your Majesty and the Crown Prince, please keep it a secret for the time being. The identity of the Zhou family manager is a bit strange. It turned out to be just a test. Du Changshi noticed something strange during the interrogation. When the jade smuggled by the Zhou family from Yunnan and Guizhou was sold in the imperial capital,
I found several businesses that I took over, all with very clever backgrounds. One was the He family, His Majesty’s aunt. The other was the Li family, a member of Li Shangshu’s family. At that time, even Zhou Laotu did not have anything like this.
See, it was Manager Song who did all these things to connect people."
"Looking deeper, he found that although his parents were related, the family had no members and they fled to the imperial capital. In terms of knowledge and knowledge, as soon as he saw Du Changshi, he could smell the ambergris that Du Changshi often used, and then interrogated him carefully.
, Yixiang's fragrance book is absolutely correct." Mu An said, "He is just an ordinary steward of the Zhou family. It's not that I am mean, I'm afraid no one in the Zhou family has such ability."
"He refused to recruit him, so we simply used the trick to alienate his family members. We were usually close to him, but it was just for outsiders to see. When he was in the prison of the Ministry of Punishment, he was assassinated five or six times. Let me ask you.
If he was just taking care of things, who would come to kill him?"
"This time I wanted to use him for fishing. There were more than a dozen guards around. I didn't expect that the assassin who came was so powerful that Du Changshi almost had an accident." Mu An said, "I was negligent."
It was nearly noon, the sun was blazing and sharp, and the ice in the ice basin began to melt, bringing a hint of fruity coolness.
Emperor Mu Xuan and the prince both looked very serious. Mu Anzhi said it the simplest way, but this matter was extremely complicated.
"What's going on now?" Emperor Mu Xuan continued to ask.
"I just met Du Shangshu at Du Changshi's home, and I happened to know something about the situation."
Mu Anzhi had nothing to hide and just said it directly.
The prince said, "Du Shangshu has always been steady and rarely said anything uncertain. This time he has revealed some of his old speculations. It can be seen that he is also worried about the assassination of Chief Du."
"Brothers, how can we not be in a hurry?" Mu Anzhi said casually.
The prince smiled and said, "That's right, third brother."
Mu Anzhi was immediately disgusted.
Seeing him looking like he was about to vomit, the prince smiled again and said, "There is one more thing. I think the third brother has also thought of it. The identity of the assassin must be concealed, including some people in the world, who often do some unscrupulous things.
When things come to light, identities and names are often hidden. Just like the Xuanyin Pavilion mentioned by Du Shangshu, if the assassins hadn't called each other's names at that time, Xunxiang, Zhuifeng, and Kuangdao would still not know about them at this time.
’s identity and title.”
"Look at what he did. Since there are bows and arrows, there must be a certain scale. In the Taiping Street assassination, except for the manager, both the municipal committee arranged by the third brother and the surrounding people were injured or killed."
"This shows that first, they are not desperadoes. Second, they are well-trained and it is easy to kill, but it is difficult to injure without dying. Third, such well-trained assassins should not make such low-level mistakes. Calling names is the same.
To expose one’s identity.”
The prince looked into Mu Anzhi's eyes and said, "What do you think, third brother?"
"Actually, there is another thing that I still can't figure out. For an important person like Song Guan, once they suspect that he may defect to the government, they will not hesitate to send out top assassins, even if they assassinate court officials, they will kill him with a knife and take his life.
.But if he is such a person, why did he waste all these years in the Zhou family?" Mu Anzhi frowned slightly, and his fingertips unconsciously circled the tassel pendant under the jade pendant, "I turned the Zhou family over and over again, and found out that
I didn’t realize that the Zhou family was so important.”
The prince couldn't help but frown. Yes, even the prince seemed to think that the Zhou family was just a vulgar and violent family relying on the Nan'an Marquis Mansion.
Looking at what the Zhou family has done over the years, anyone with some knowledge will know that it is difficult for this family to handle big things.
The prince's eyes suddenly lit up, "Not necessarily. Don't forget the previous position Mr. Zhou held."
"Grain transport envoy?" Mu Anzhi pondered, "All the open and secret accounts during his tenure were brought back to the Ministry of Punishments and specially assigned to calculate them, that is, new grains were replaced with old grains, and refined grains were replaced with coarse grains. Or grain transport ships.
There are some private goods hidden in it to avoid paying taxes."
Emperor Mu Xuan said coldly, "Re-trial the Zhou family, re-trial!"
"Father, is the Tongzhou Terminal Transshipment Department sending more manpower?" the prince said, "There is a possibility of using the Zhou family as a cover to operate privately."
Emperor Mu Xuan asked Mu Anzhi, "Have any news come back from Xiaobao and the others?"
"They are checking the accounts related to the Zhou family, daily business transactions, and the flow of money in the bank."
"Grain merchants." Emperor Mu Xuan said, "Focus on the investigation of grain merchants and silver houses. As long as anything in the world is done, there will be traces left."
"Yes." Mu Anzhi nodded in agreement.
Emperor Mu Xuan said to the prince, "Let the imperial edict office draw up a decree and order He Ling, the Tongzhou Transportation Department, to thoroughly investigate the tax evasion at Tongzhou Wharf!"
"yes."
Emperor Mu Xuan made an explanation and ordered the prince and Mu Anzhi to retreat.
The two of them left the imperial study together, and there was a rare hint of worry on the prince's handsome face.
Mu Anzhi glanced at the prince's sullen face, and felt a little gloating in his heart, thinking that if he could make this guy die of sorrow, he would be doing good to the people.
The prince looked at Mu Anzhi who was walking on the inner side of the corridor in confusion, then took two quick steps and moved to the inner side.
Mu Anzhi looked at the sunlight outside, and took two quick steps to pass the prince. The prince suddenly stretched out his foot, and Mu Anzhi tripped over him. He raised his foot and stepped on the prince's foot. The prince smiled and turned around.
The feet come forward and occupy the position on the inside of the front head.
Mu Anzhi asked him, "Do you want to fight again?"
The prince smiled, "Do you feel very happy when you see me worrying?"
"I'm not particularly happy, I just feel a little relieved."
"Since I became like a human being, it has become much more interesting than before." The prince said leisurely.
"You look like a human being as always," Mu Anzhi said sarcastically, "Aren't you tired of always pretending like this?"
"I'm used to it." The prince spoke shamelessly and dignifiedly, "To tell you the truth, I've been pretending like this since I was young, and I'm really not used to it if I'm not allowed to pretend."
Mu Anzhi couldn't stand this shamelessness and threw down his sleeves to leave. The prince suddenly said, "You used to like to pretend, why don't you pretend anymore?"
"I'm disgusted by you."
The prince smiled and called, "Third brother."
Mu An looked like you're not sick, and the prince said slowly, "Then I'll make you sick again."
Watching Mu Anzhi striding away, the prince walked leisurely and gracefully with the prince's graceful steps. This case is a bit troublesome, and it is not easy to sort out the secretive affairs.
However, as my father ordered, we can take this opportunity to investigate the tax evasion in the wharf market, and we can also take a crack at it to see if we can scare out a few snakes.
As for what Mu Anzhi said about Manager Song, Mu Anzhi probably did not tell the truth.
The usual gentleness on the prince's face gradually disappeared. In addition to the long corridor, through a small black door, there was the imperial edict hall.