Chapter 251 Confession

King Liang laughed particularly happily, as if he wanted to vent all the frustration he had been feeling for a while.

Looking at the crazy Prince of Liang, the servants in the palace couldn't help but wonder, could such a person really become the crown prince again? Then they thought, once the crown prince died, the emperor would only have the prince of Liang as his son. Who else could the prince be if not the crown prince?

The servants in the palace also perked up and sincerely advised: "Your Highness, the more this happens, the more you should calm down. The Emperor will be relieved to know that you are sad for the Crown Prince..."

King Liang blinked and listened: "You are right."

Hope is just around the corner, so he can still endure this little bit.

"Fourth brother——" Prince Liang covered his face and burst into tears.

Needless to say, the funeral for the prince was carried out step by step. After three days of digging deep underground, the suspected murderer of the prince was finally found.

Emperor Tai'an had already ordered that once this person was found, he should be brought directly to him.

"Kneel down!" Cheng Maoming kicked the man in the knee.

The man fell to his knees with a thud, and the heavy sound of his knees hitting the ground made one's scalp tighten.

Emperor Tai'an stared down at the man with a cold expression.

"It was you who pretended to be Yang Zhe and killed the prince?" When asking this question, Emperor Tai'an tried his best to keep his voice steady.

"Killing the prince?" The man was shocked and shouted in injustice, "I am innocent. Even if I had the courage of heaven, I would not dare to harm the prince—"

Cheng Maoming kicked him without mercy: "You're still pretending! You slipped out of Wuweizhai before the prince got into trouble. Did you think no one saw you?"

The man's voice trembled, and he looked extremely frightened. "Wuweizhai is a famous restaurant in the capital. I went there to try their delicious food because of its reputation. How can you accuse me of harming the prince?"

Cheng Maoming stared at him and suddenly sneered, "You may not know that most of the people who go to Wuweizhai are regular customers. If you are a new face, the waiters will be more impressed. We asked a long time ago, and you were not among the guests drinking that day!"

After hearing this, the man's eyes rolled slightly and his eyelids trembled.

Emperor Tai'an couldn't bear it any longer and stood up suddenly: "Let him speak the truth. I'll wait."

Cheng Maoming understood what he meant and took the man to the interrogation room, where he tortured him without a word.

Thanks to the rich torture methods accumulated by generations of predecessors, even among trained people, only one in a hundred can truly endure all kinds of torture.

Screams echoed through the airtight interrogation room. The whip lashed against his body again and again, and pepper spray seeped into his hideous, twisting wounds, bringing soul-piercing pain. Shortly after the third round of torture began, the man finally gave up.

"I said—"

Cheng Maoming raised his hand and the torturer stopped.

With a sigh, Minister Shen couldn't help but let out a breath of foul air.

Meeting Cheng Maoming's puzzled gaze, Minister Shen smiled awkwardly.

He was an old man and could hardly bear such a bloody scene.

"Yes... Yang Zhe ordered me to do it..." The man spoke with difficulty, and his forehead was covered with sweat due to the pain.

When these words were spoken, Cheng Maoming and Minister Shen were both surprised.

"Yang Xiuzhuan?" Minister Shen stared at the man and asked again, fearing that he had heard it wrongly.

The man twitched his lips: "Yes..."

Cheng Maoming calmed down and regained his composure. "You said it was Yang Zhe who ordered this. Then tell me who you are and why you did this."

The man's face was troubled for a moment, then he gritted his teeth and said, "We are all from Qi."

"What!" Minister Shen was so shocked that he almost couldn't breathe. He pointed at the man and asked, "Are you from Qi?"

The man nodded.

"Is Yang Xiuzhuan also from Qi?"

The man smiled, not knowing what he was thinking about. "Why else would we kill the Crown Prince of Da Zhou?"

Minister Shen stared, his beard trembling as he gritted his teeth.

Yang Zhuangyuan is actually from Qi. This, this is too bizarre!

But if he was not from Qi, considering how much the prince valued Yang Zhe, he would have no reason to kill the prince.

Minister Shen believed the man's words almost instantly, but Cheng Maoming, after the initial shock, felt something in his heart.

wrong!

Others didn't know, but he knew clearly that this person's disguise technique and level of skill were exactly the same as Yu Liu's maid's, clearly the work of the same person. Furthermore, these people were clearly remnants of Emperor Pingle, not Qi people.

After receiving such a severe punishment, why did this man lie and say that he and Yang Zhe were from Qi?

Cheng Maoming had his suspicions, but to avoid alerting the enemy, he remained calm. "So, you and Yang Zhe are both spies trained by the State of Qi, and Yang Zhe is your superior?"

"Um."

Cheng Maoming looked the man up and down. "You're fine, but Yang Zhe is the top scholar. From the beginning of the Tongshi exam, he had to prove his identity through personal confession, mutual agreement, and pledge. Could it be that the State of Qi has been planning this since his ancestors?"

It is not difficult to impersonate an ordinary person, but once you take part in the imperial examination, the circumstances of your parents and grandparents must be clear, and you must also have proof from local people. People of unknown origin cannot even pass the Tongshi test, let alone the future.

The man's face turned pale, and he didn't shy away from Cheng Maoming's questioning. "Then I don't know. I'm just someone who follows orders. My only mission is to cooperate with Yang Zhe to kill the Crown Prince of Da Zhou. The higher-ups won't tell me any further information."

"Then where did you get your mask?"

"Yang Zhe gave it to me." The man said without hesitation.

"To be able to set up such a big scheme, there must be more than just you two, right?"

The man lowered his eyes, looking exhausted and resigned to his fate. "Like I said, I'm just a pawn following orders. The only people I know about are Yang Zhe and the superior who told me to contact Yang Zhe. As for how many of our people are still in the capital, or what their plans are for the future, I have no idea."

"Where is your superior?"

The man shook his head, the movement pulling at the wound, making his face even paler. "He always contacted me through code."

"You pushed it quite cleanly." Cheng Maoming clicked his tongue.

The man weakly raised his eyelids: "I, I have told you everything I know. If you don't believe me, then there is nothing I can do..."

"You'd better not hide anything, otherwise you will be dealt with more than this." After Cheng Maoming gave the warning, he walked out of the interrogation room with Minister Shen.

The emperor had been waiting, so the two of them didn't dare to delay and went straight to see him.

"What did you find out?" Emperor Tai'an asked immediately when he saw the two of them.

Cheng Maoming and Minister Shen looked at each other.

"Speak, Lord Shen."

Minister Shen took a deep breath and told the man what he had said with his eyes downcast.

Emperor Tai'an listened quietly to Minister Shen's words, then cast a gaze as deep as a pool of water at Cheng Maoming: "Send someone to Yang Zhe's hometown to thoroughly investigate his background."

"yes."

After a moment of silence, Emperor Tai'an suddenly asked, "What do you two think of this man's confession?"

Minister Shen was stunned.

From what the emperor said, do you still have doubts about this person's explanation?

Under the emperor's gaze, he spoke carefully: "I believe that this man's confession under severe torture should be credible."