Chapter 78 Interrogation

The Minister of Justice Zhao Juqing strode into the warm room, took off his cloak and threw it to his attendant, his face looking quite gloomy. The Left Censor-in-Chief, who had been waiting in the pavilion for a long time, the former Left Censor-in-Chief Ouyang Jin, immediately came forward with an anxious look:

"What was the result?"

"What else can we do?" Zhao Juqing said unhappily, "The emperor issued an edict on the spot, letting the surname Mu take charge of the manufacture of muskets and military training, and even the Ministry of War is not allowed to interfere!"

Ouyang Jin cried out, feeling extremely disappointed; but on second thought, he was not surprised. Although he was scolded by the emperor, stripped of all his posts and placed under house arrest after being beaten in court, he was still able to rely on his connections to find out all the details of today's military exercise, and immediately realized that something was wrong - they were all fox spirits with a history of thousands of years, so of course they knew the tricks of officialdom at a glance; as the saying goes, if you lose something in one place, you gain something in another; Feixuan Zhenjun Wanshou Emperor would never let the loyal ministers who voluntarily gave up their military power suffer in vain, and would definitely compensate his base greatly in other aspects; but the cake of government was only so big, and if the emperor cut an extra piece for his own people, wouldn't the other factions be left in the lurch?

Damn it! A group of people worked so hard to plan and plot, with all the conspiracies and plots in place, but in the end, it all fell into the hands of the Mu guy!

——Yes, as the power of the Duke Mu's Mansion grew, the Duke Mu's son began to use the power of the emperor to flex his muscles, the stagnant government was in turmoil, and the changes in the situation were unprecedentedly drastic. Some bureaucrats whose interests were affected gradually became unable to tolerate it, and of course they secretly formed a group to oppose the prince's radical and irritating behavior. Among them, former Left Censor-in-Chief Ouyang Jin and Minister of Justice Zhao Juqing were the most determined core of the anti-Mu faction - one of them was dismissed for impeaching Mu, and the other was publicly humiliated when his power was seized in the cabinet. It was truly a hatred that spread like wildfire, and the resentment was deep-rooted and unforgettable. They had to be dealt with to the utmost and could never be forgotten.

However, the development of things is always beyond human control. The campaign to overthrow Mu has been going on for such a long time, with both internal and external pressures. In the end, the progress cannot be said to be smooth, at least it is of no use. After several months of hard work, even the training in firearms manufacturing was taken away from us. I feel so discouraged when I think about it.

Ouyang Jin's expression changed several times, but he could only sit down slowly. After thinking about it, he was still unwilling to give in, so he said:

"Master Zhao, what can we do about this?"

Zhao Juqing snorted, his expression unchanged. He and Ouyang Jin were from the Qingliu faction and Yan party respectively, and their aspirations and goals were completely different. If their common enemy was not too powerful, they would never condescend to eat from the same pot. But even though the situation was pressing, he still looked down on his allies' anxious behavior:

"Look, you're in a hurry again! You have to do things slowly. You can't expect to see results in just one or two days."

"My Lord Zhao, you are a second-rank official and you are not in a hurry. I am just a commoner and am still waiting for my reinstatement!" Ouyang Jin was very unhappy: "What should I do if I am not in a hurry? Do I really have to wait and learn from Xu Shaohu of Qingliu, who endured for three years without fighting, and finally outlasted his opponent? Lord Zhao, you are going to be fifty this year, can you outlast a guy of seventeen or eighteen? You and I are not thousand-year-old turtles!"

Zhao Juqing: …………

Zhao Juqing regretted for the hundredth time in his life, hating himself for choosing such a resentful ally!

He could only take a deep breath and speak reluctantly:

"Don't worry, given the current situation, we have a chance of winning..."

"What are the odds?"

Ouyang Jin exhaled a breath of foul air from his nose. He didn't believe this assurance at all - when the two of them had just started working together, he had been so excited and excited by Zhao Juqing's insightful analysis of the situation that he believed that the dawn of victory was just around the corner. But after spending such a long time together, Ouyang Jin also saw clearly that what Zhao Juqing, this old fox, is best at is making big promises, inciting people and shifting the blame. You go and die while I take the benefits. Not to mention political struggles, even the toilet paper used to wipe the emperor's butt can be analyzed into subtle meanings and ten wins and ten losses. If you believe this kind of bullshit, you'd be seeing a ghost!

"Lord Zhao, things have come to this point, how can you find a chance of winning? Why, this time the court battle is fifty years old against eighteen years old, the advantage is on me?"

Zhao Juqing's face was distorted!

Maybe he did too many sins and abused his power in the first half of his life, so he had to face such an ally in the second half of his life! Minister Zhao was exhausted and furious, and he almost doubted whether there was something wrong with his vision in choosing the camp. Unfortunately, there were only two people sitting alone in the warm room, and there were no other servants to help. If they got angry and fought offline, the fifty-year-old Shangshu would not be able to defeat the forty-year-old Du Yushi. He endured for a moment and could only speak angrily:

"Why don't you have a chance of winning? The bigger Mu's moves, the more people he will offend. He is making a big fuss about the clan and vassal states, and he is interfering in other people's affairs. How can the Grand Master of the Imperial Clan and the Ministry of Rites tolerate this? He is practicing muskets and artillery to curry favor, but the Ministry of War has only so much money. If the emperor believes him, he will cut the expenses of the Beijing Army. Will those who make a living from him let him go? You have to have a long-term vision. Even if you can't do anything to him for a while, won't you wait for later!"

After all, it's a non-stick pan that has turned into a fox spirit. No matter how slippery and insidious he is in normal times, when it comes to a real power struggle, his level is still quite clear. Even though Ouyang Jin had some reservations, he couldn't help but admire her after hearing her words and spoke from the bottom of his heart:

"Master Zhao, your opinion is great!"

There was nothing wrong with this sentence, but Lord Zhao frowned unconsciously, feeling that something was wrong.

...Why do I feel like I've heard this somewhere before?

·

The anti-Mu team was probably still planning something in secret, but Mu Qi had no time to care about them. After the military exercise, news also came from the maritime merchants. On November 23, Mu Qi personally went to Tianjin Port to welcome the fleet escorted by Ru Wang, and checked the timber and tens of thousands of stones of various grains one by one. It was not easy for maritime merchants to make a trip, and of course it was impossible to just deliver a few large pieces of wood. Therefore, Mu Qi had already made an appointment with Ru Wang to fill the remaining transport capacity with rice and grains, which was also to explore the way for large-scale grain trade in the future.

After watching the grain enter the warehouse with his own eyes (especially inspecting the warehouse's reserves), Mu Qi didn't even have time to rest in Tianjin Wei, and was immediately summoned back to the capital by a secret order. After confirming that the musketeers were available and easy to use, Feixuan Zhenjun Wanshou Emperor, whose back suddenly became strong, quickly regained his courage. He no longer had to play the miserable role of a month ago who had to swallow his grievances and had to eat and vomit. Instead, he decided to teach his relatives a lesson with a big club.

If I don't beat you up so hard that your faces are covered with peach blossoms, you will really think that the current emperor is a sage and benevolent ruler who can turn the other cheek when he is slapped on the left.

After all, there was the example of Emperor Jianwen, so one had to have a legitimate reason to deal with relatives, especially to avoid being branded as a person who mistreats relatives and is cruel to one's own flesh and blood. Master Feixuan was very attentive in this regard, and specially sent people to Zhejiang to announce the imperial decree, ordering Hai Gangfeng, who had just taken office as the prefect, and Wang Runlian, the censor of the Censorate, to escort the imperial prisoner and witnesses to Beijing on fast horses to the Ministry of Justice for trial. He also issued a secret decree to order the prince of Duke Mu, the deputy commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, and Yang Deshui, the eunuch who was also the chief executive of the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau, to attend the trial, but they were not allowed to contact the presiding judge or disclose their whereabouts. They were only allowed to secretly record the details of the trial and send them to the court for verification.

The civil officials, nobles, Jinyiwei and eunuchs worked together, isolated and restrained each other, and they were the most reliable and best-use interrogation team that Master Feixuan could come up with. Under the balance of the four parties, selfish thoughts were offset to the greatest extent, and every word that came out of the interrogation could be regarded as ironclad evidence that was difficult to question, and could completely clear the emperor of the suspicion of false accusation. This was truly a layout carefully considered by Master Feixuan, and it fully demonstrated Lao Deng's political level of maneuvering.

However, the main force of this interrogation still fell on Hai Gangfeng and Wang Runlian. The interrogation was conducted in the imperial prison, while Mu Qi and Eunuch Yang and others only stayed in a secret room specially built by the Ministry of Justice to listen in secret, guarding against the chief judge's various evil deeds of inducing, forcing, or tampering with confessions. This task is important, but it does not require much effort to audit, so it is a very easy and pleasant job. The prince of Duke Mu was still a green hand, but Eunuch Yang, who often arrested and interrogated people in Jiangnan, was well aware of the routine, so after entering the secret room, he took the initiative to greet them, took out the good tea he brought with him and asked the clerk of the Ministry of Justice to make tea for them, and also gave each of them a booklet:

"These are gifts from the children below. They are rare even in the capital. These crude little things are really not respectful, not respectful at all!"

Zhang Zhu, the deputy commander of the Imperial Guard, took the book, flipped through it and exclaimed in amazement:

"'A Mortal's Journey to Immortality'!"

Mu Qi: ...Ah? !

He silently opened the title page and saw the familiar title of the book, with a line of small words below it: Collector's Edition.

...Well, only 600 copies of the collector's edition with the special extra chapter were printed in total. It was sold out immediately after it was released. It is rare to see it on the market, so it is reasonable to say that it is rare. I just didn't expect that this small miscellaneous book would become so popular that even the eunuch far away in Jiangnan could...

Mu Qi rubbed the title page and suddenly frowned:

Why is this paper so rough?

His first job after traveling through time was to reform the printing and papermaking techniques. He managed to select paper chemicals and raw materials, and produced cheap paper that was light, thin, smooth and of much higher quality than products on the market. Only through such subtle and long-term efforts could he drive out the bad with the good, occupy more than 90% of the printing market in the capital and its surroundings, becoming the first choice for literati and scholars preparing for imperial examinations, and greatly enriching people's cultural enjoyment. Up to now, which printing house doesn’t use the good paper from the Duke’s Mansion? Not to mention that the cultivation of immortals by mortals is a key project that he personally oversees, so the paper used should be of higher quality!

——Damn it, this is a pirated product!

To be honest, with Da'an's current copyright awareness, no one cares whether it is pirated or not (Mu Qi once saw five versions of "Journey to the West" on the bookstalls in the market). Even if the pirates come to him, the original author, he can't do anything morally condemning except rolling on the ground and holding his breath to drop the little pearl. In fact, in front of such a sensitive person like Yang Deshui, the prince has to go home and drop the little pearl secretly, otherwise Old Deng will find out something and make trouble in front of Duke Mu and his wife after returning to Jiangnan. Then, will Mu Qi still be alive? !

——Oh my, your big baby is writing a storybook!

In the conservative, closed and stagnant circle of nobles over 40 years old, the lethality of this sentence is definitely ten thousand times more terrifying than that of Feixuan Zhenjun No. 2. Its effect is roughly equivalent to stripping Mu Qi naked and parading him through the streets, and slapping his buttocks loudly. It is truly an indelible monument of shame and a weapon of social death - as long as there are such words hanging in the air, Duke Mu will immediately come all the way from Jinling with a rattan stick and beat him like a top!

So, no matter how many complaints he had in his mind, Mu Qi just let out a long breath, put the booklet on the table, and leaned back in the recliner with three parts of disdain, three parts of casualness, three parts of contempt, and ninety-one parts of suppressed fear, trying his best to show an attitude of "I'm not familiar with this thing at all."

Unfortunately, the other two jurors could not see this elegant and tactful behavior. After flipping through the pages of the book, the two book friends quickly exchanged secret codes, smiled at each other, and began to chat very familiarly.

"What a bastard!" Zhang Zhu was the first to sigh: "The old bastard Wu You who wrote "A Mortal's Journey to Immortality" is really a character! Speaking of which, I have been doing things in the capital for more than ten years. I don't know how many big and small storybooks and songs I have read on weekdays. I don't care about them anymore. Who would have thought that I got such a book last month, and I actually read it all night, and I was almost blocked by the head of the book! This thing is really amazing, it is so vulgar, but I can't forget it after reading it once..."

At this point, Zhang Zhu smacked his lips repeatedly, as if the enjoyable taste of "A Mortal's Journey to Immortality" that made him linger was still lingering between his lips and teeth:

"I really don't know who this old villain Wu You is. Although vulgarity is elegance, to be able to be so vulgar and yet be so attractive is really a skill."

"The guests we keep have read this book." Eunuch Yang said with a smile, "They all say they despise it, saying that they can only read it when they go to the toilet, but they are more and more good at hiding the book in private. They are really scholars who pretend to be noble. However, these gentlemen who invited us also said that Wu Youzi, who wrote "Mortal Cultivation of Immortality", was probably a poor scholar who had no livelihood and was forced to do this low-class business. Otherwise, why did they always say "Don't despise the poor young man" and write the children of famous families as despicable and sinister bullies? This is because they are depressed and frustrated, and they blame the heaven and the earth and go crazy..."

The prince of Duke Mu, who took charge of the overall situation and drew up the outline, and whose pen name was "Wu Youzi" or "Mr. Zixu": …………

Ah, yes, yes, yes. You literary critics should understand all the principles of the world, right?

Of course, this is actually nothing. Although the lower-class market has gradually become more open, the middle and upper-class intellectuals are still quite conservative and do not think highly of the words of the lower-class novelists. Even if you are so dazed and confused that you have dark circles under your eyes in private, when you talk about it in public you must criticize this low-level stuff with vulgar language, straightforward plot and bad ideas. It is the culprit that corrupts children and is definitely not worthy of being shown in public.

He is both a hypocrite and a hypocrite. Those who understand will understand.

Mu Qi was used to such behavior, so he just sat there drinking tea. But Eunuch Yang was in high spirits and suddenly changed the subject:

"But this Wu Youzi is really abominable! Since he makes a living by writing storybooks, he should at least be diligent. I just finished reading the fifth volume, and asked someone to go to the capital to inquire, only to find out that the sixth volume has not yet been published - how shameful! He fishes for three days and dries the nets for two days, he is as lazy as a dog!"

Mu Qi almost choked and spit out a mouthful of water onto the table. He had to quickly cover it up with a cough, while trying to suppress the anger in his chest - even though he was entangled in trivial matters and couldn't help himself, he basically worked three thousand times without interruption, so how could he be considered "lazy"! ——Besides, doesn’t typesetting take time? Doesn’t printing take time? Doesn’t distribution take time? Six volumes have to be published in less than a year. Even the donkeys in the production team are not used like this!

The evil feudal eunuch!

He was still sulking, but Zhang Zhu felt sympathetic and nodded repeatedly:

"Don't say that the father-in-law is angry. We are in the capital, so it's not easy to grab a new book. Often we have to wait for someone to finish reading before we can borrow it. It's really disappointing."

"Since it's such a bummer, can't you think of a solution?" Eunuch Yang said with a smile, "I'm not saying anything, but since he's just a poor scholar, you can secretly find out his identity, put him in jail and starve him for two meals, put an iron brazier in front of him, and tie a thin dog next to him. I'm sure this old thief Wu You will be scared to death and never dare to be lazy again..."

He is indeed a eunuch with sores on his head and pus oozing from the soles of his feet, and he is so evil that his heart and liver have become black! It turns out that every literary and artistic work in this dynasty must have a villainous force of eunuchs! I really underestimated you old wall lamps!

Mu Qi cursed countless times in his heart, but he didn't dare to show it on his face. He picked up the teacup and looked around, only to see Zhang Zhu's eyes wandering, and even revealed a hint of longing.

—Damn it, you’re not really going to do this, are you? !

·

No matter how depressed the prince was, he just kept a straight face and said nothing, listening to the two spy chiefs beside him talking about a hundred ways of thinking about violent chasing and their various thoughts on mortals' cultivation of immortals (some of them were quite inspiring, you know what). Fortunately, after the trial next door got on track, the two of them shut up and started listening attentively.

The one who was escorted to the capital this time was the son of a prince. He had a noble status and was closely related to Lao Deng by blood, so he was arrogant and domineering, and was quite stubborn even after entering the prison. The judge of the Ministry of Justice tried for a long time but failed to get any truth out of him. The chief judge, Hai Gangfeng, was ordered to come out. He spoke after the slam of the gavel in a calm tone:

"We have just received an imperial decree authorizing the execution. It would be best if the criminal does not make mistakes."

The prince was stunned for a moment, then became furious:

"I am a descendant of the royal family, the great-grandson of Emperor Yingzong! Emperor Gaozu's ancestral precept states that treacherous officials are not allowed to alienate family members, and you dare to attack me!"

"As an official, we must follow the instructions of Emperor Gaozu." Hai Gangfeng said calmly, "According to the Great Edict of Emperor Gaozu, even if a relative plots rebellion, he cannot be tortured or injured. So I ordered people to prepare light instruments of torture. Whether it is a clamp, salt water, or a standing cage, it will not cause any serious damage. The imperial physician invited by the Ministry of Justice is also waiting outside, but he will stop immediately if there is anything wrong. Clerk, bring up the instruments of torture for everyone to see."

I heard a clanging sound coming from next door, and it was obvious that a lot of equipment had been thrown down. The bloody torture instruments were before his eyes, and the voice of that prince finally faded away:

"You really want to ask? Lord Hai, how will this benefit you?"

"This is the duty assigned by the Emperor. I have to fulfill my duty. There is no need to be ambiguous." Hai Gangfeng said, "Just tell me what I ask. Clerk, record this."

As if angered by such a calm tone, the prince's voice suddenly became high-pitched:

"How shameless! Then let me tell you, the palace has been involved with the palace and the higher-ups for so many years, and there are countless things, big and small! If you say so, does that mean I will expose whoever is involved, and I will tell them everything? Lord Hai, I dare to say these things, but do you dare to listen?"

A moment’s silence. Hai Gangfeng spoke again:

"If the criminal wants to speak, the presiding judge must listen. Clerk, record this statement."

The last four words were spoken calmly, and with a clang, Eunuch Yang stood up suddenly and overturned all the teacups to the ground!

·

To be honest, those who can get into the secret hearing are all smart people and certainly can read the atmosphere. So everyone looked at Eunuch Yang, with some embarrassment on their faces.

Eunuch Yang was silent for a while, and finally spoke reluctantly:

"I'm sorry, the tea is a little hot, I really didn't hold it firmly..."

They all wisely shut their mouths and silently watched Eunuch Yang bend down to pick up the teacup. But at this moment, Hai Gangfeng asked the second question:

"According to the account of the royal attendant, you once went out to sea in plain clothes and secretly met with the foreigners in Portugal. But Emperor Gaozu once made a rule that the princes and relatives of the vassal states were not allowed to leave the vassal states without the emperor's order, and all affairs were handled by the eunuchs in charge. Since you didn't have the permission of the eunuchs in charge, how did you go out to sea?"

As soon as he finished speaking, Eunuch Yang, who was about to return to his seat, felt his legs go limp and he sat down on the ground.

Prince Mu, who was watching coldly, raised his eyebrows, turned around and called to the clerk who was also writing furiously beside him - there was also a clerk in the secret room, helping the nobles take notes:

"Remember, he fell off the stool."