roccoschili Chapter 242 Little People
Chapter 242 Little People
After listening to Deputy Commander Huang's report, Li Ce was silent for a moment.
"Since we can't pry him open, then we can post notices and offer a reward. There must be someone in this huge city who knows him."
Things like posting notices and offering rewards are the responsibility of the Ministry of Justice.
It happened that the Minister of Justice was still in the palace today, so Li Ce directly asked someone to invite Minister Feng over.
Because of the wedding of Prince Dingbei and Princess Qixia, there were a lot of people in the capital during this period. Although there was a mix of good and bad people, it was easy to find out information.
A few days after the notice was posted, someone went to the Ministry of Justice to claim the reward.
In the next few days, several people came one after another.
Following the clues provided by these people, the Ministry of Justice quickly found out the origins of the man in black.
That night, the gate of the Duke of Lu's mansion was broken open by the imperial guards, and the old Duke of Lu and his children and grandchildren were all escorted away.
The young ladies in the Duke of Lu's mansion were frightened and panicked.
The Crown Prince's wife was also extremely anxious, and she immediately called her confidants and relatives for help.
It was not until noon of the next day that the Duke of Lu's Mansion received a few vague replies. No one knew why the emperor suddenly ordered all the men in the Duke of Lu's Mansion to be arrested.
The grand court meeting ended that day, and the ministers left the Taiji Hall one after another. The Minister of the Dali Temple quickly caught up with Commander Fan.
"General Fan."
He bowed and was friendly.
Fan Dong looked back at him and bowed casually.
"Master Qi, is there something wrong?"
The Dali Temple Minister knew Fan Dong's personality, so he asked directly without testing him.
"I heard that the general took people to the Duke of Lu's mansion yesterday? I wonder what it was for?"
He paused, and suddenly lowered his voice.
"I wonder if it has anything to do with the Crown Prince? General Fan also knows that I investigated the case of the Crown Prince's Mansion with Minister Feng some time ago, so maybe I can help."
General Fan scratched his beard and said, "Well, I don't know why. Anyway, the emperor asked me to arrest someone, so I went to arrest him."
The Dali Temple Minister was somewhat stunned: "Didn't the emperor tell you the reason?"
"The emperor has his reasons. Why are you asking so many questions? But the emperor has instructed us to treat Duke Lu well. He is staying well in the Northern Yamen now!"
The Dali Temple Minister lowered his head, thinking about something.
Soon he raised his head again and his usual smile returned to his face.
"In that case, I think it has nothing to do with the Crown Prince's Mansion. It seems that my worries were in vain. By the way, I got two boxes of top-quality donkey-hide gelatin in the past few days. The Crown Princess was frightened and is recovering, so I also want to show my gratitude."
Fan Dong laughed loudly and patted the Dali Temple Minister's shoulder hard.
"I'm glad you have this intention. The Crown Princess doesn't need these. The Emperor and Empress sent a lot of supplements to the palace. She is much better now."
As the two talked, they walked out and soon arrived outside the palace gate. After saying goodbye to each other, they got on their horses and left in different directions.
Less than half an hour later.
The side door on the west side of the palace opened, and several female officials led a long team into the palace through this door.
They walked along the Qianbu Corridor, and when they passed a tributary of the Neiyuan Yuhe River, they heard bursts of laughter and joy from not far away. The leading female official stopped everyone and ordered them to step aside until the playful concubines had gone far away before they continued on their way.
The spring sun is shining brightly and the weather is excellent today. The river is sparkling and flower petals and leaves are flowing slowly from time to time.
There was a small flower bud swaying on the river, and gradually drifted downstream.
Then, it was caught by the palace servants who were responsible for salvaging it downstream.
In order to keep the river water clear, these eunuchs carefully salvage things that fall into the river every day.
This job is tiring and unprofitable, and the eunuchs who do it are all miserable.
They are not as good as the group of people who are responsible for pouring out the night incense!
Although the job of dealing night incense is dirty and smelly, there are people who collect night incense. After the transaction goes back and forth, the money earned every day is not a small sum.
The eunuchs sighed and complained, scooped up the things in the river and threw them into buckets nearby, then slipped away and hid away to rest.
Only an old and lame eunuch remained there, rummaging through the contents of the barrel.
The lazy eunuchs in the distance pointed at him and laughed.
"This old man is stupid. What good things can be in that bucket? Even if the masters dropped something, they can't keep it to themselves!"
"You know what? I heard that last month, a master lost a valuable item and couldn't find it anywhere. Finally, he found it in the room of a small steward. The steward was beaten to death and thrown into a mass grave."
"Are you talking about Lao Xu? That's not what I heard! It was said that Lao Xu found a lady's handkerchief and hid it secretly. He wanted to take it out of the palace to give it to his aunt's daughter as a dowry, but he was discovered and beaten to death."
"No, no, what he picked up was clearly a hairpin. The hairpin was shaped like a peach blossom, and it looked just like the real thing..."
Several eunuchs started arguing, and each believed that what they heard was the truth.
When they were not paying attention, the old and lame eunuch suddenly grabbed something from the bucket and quickly stuffed it into his sleeve.
It was a tightly closed bud.
The flower bud was tightly held in this scarred and wrinkled hand.
After a while, it was handed to a hand with mud between the fingernails.
After that, it fell into a swollen hand that had been soaked in water for a long time.
Finally, it was wrapped in a handkerchief scented with sandalwood and handed into a white hand with fingers as white as scallions.
at the same time.
In Fenglai Palace, all the palace servants were busy, and Mi'er, who had a rare moment of free time, sat with Jiang Wanyue.
Jiang Wanyue is looking through the list of personnel changes in the past few moon palaces.
There are more than 2,000 palace maids in the palace, including the front yard, back garden, Ye Ting, and East Palace. This is because Jiang Wanyue has released some palace maids out of the palace in recent years. Otherwise, there would be even more people.
Over the years, there have always been birth, aging, sickness and death, or offending the master, doing the job wrong, being schemed against and excluded, so naturally, there have been frequent changes.
She started watching it in February, and has almost finished it since she had breakfast.
Snapped!
Jiang Wanyue closed the book, closed her eyes, and raised her hands to rub her temples.
Mi'er hurriedly handed over the Cassia seed tea that could improve eyesight.
Jiang Wanyue took two sips and opened her eyes.
"You read this booklet before me, but did you find anything wrong?"
Mi'er bit her lip and slowly shook her head.
"I am stupid and didn't notice anything wrong."
"On March 19th, a eunuch named Xu made a mistake and was beaten to death. Don't you find it unusual?" Jiang Wanyue flipped through the booklet and soon came to the day of March 19th.
Honey took a look.
"I have asked, and this eunuch would only be punished if he stole something. He is not an important eunuch, so what could be wrong with him?"
Mi'er was very confused.
Jiang Wanyue chuckled.
"This kind of low-level eunuchs are the easiest to bribe and the hardest to be discovered. This eunuch was beaten to death for his mistakes, which is not a big deal in itself. At most, the punishment was a bit too severe, but the reason recorded above is vague. 'He stole property, refused to confess his crime, was caned, was too weak to bear it, and died during the execution', just these few words, nothing is written clearly at all! What did he steal? Whose things did he steal? Who discovered it? What was the interrogation process? Who ordered the caning? Who carried out the punishment? None of it is written."
Mi'er is no longer the little palace maid she used to be. She blinked her eyes and immediately understood.
"Madam, what you mean is that someone told the people who were beating the man with the stick to beat him to death? To silence him? Because of what he stole?"
As she spoke, she became more confused.
"What did he steal?"
Jiang Wanyue flicked the booklet with her fingers.
"I'm afraid he didn't steal it. He probably found it. Otherwise he wouldn't have pleaded not guilty."
"Go and call Gong Zhengsi's people over."