Wei Minzhong knelt on the ground with a look of fear on his face, not knowing what he had done to anger Emperor Mingzheng.

The other court officials looked at the little piece of land under their feet in silence, as if it had nothing to do with them.

"Is this how the Dali Temple handles cases?" Emperor Mingzheng said in a deep voice, "I think you eat too many pig brains on a daily basis!"

Wei Minzhong knelt on the ground, at a loss, and said, "I am terrified. I don't know what I did wrong to anger the emperor...?"

"Have you recovered the stolen silver? Is the evidence solid? You dare to blatantly accuse a third-rank official of the imperial court. You are really competent as the Chief Justice of the Dali Temple!" Emperor Mingzheng said sarcastically.

"This..." Wei Minzhong really didn't understand why the Emperor had this attitude. He quietly raised his eyes and looked at the Prime Minister Shen Tian, ​​with a look of help in his eyes.

His closing of the case this time should have been in accordance with the emperor's wishes. He not only helped Prime Minister Shen, but also pleased Emperor Cheng, and helped the emperor to cover up the truth. So how could something go wrong?

Could it be that Empress Feng guessed wrongly...

Before Wei Minzhong could figure out what was going on, Emperor Mingzheng snorted heavily and scolded him again, "What the hell? You handled the case carelessly, and you dared to close the case and convict without the confession of the criminal and the evidence and stolen goods. I think you can't keep your official hat as the Dali Temple Minister, otherwise I don't know how many unjust, false and wrongful cases there will be!"

Wei Minzhong panicked and quickly explained, "The main suspect in this case, Li Xiu, the deputy minister of the Ministry of Works, confessed that the mastermind behind this case was none other than the Minister of Works Xu Youzhi. Xu Youzhi's third daughter used the official silver from the Yongle period for dredging the river north to buy fabric. I led people to find a box of official silver from the Yongle period at Xu's house, as well as letters between Xu Youzhi and Li Xiu. Although Xu Youzhi has not confessed yet, the evidence is solid."

"Ridiculous! The evidence you mentioned could all be fabricated, and your confession could be a frame-up by someone with ulterior motives. Do you need me to teach you this?" Emperor Mingzheng stood up and pointed at Wei Minzhong, saying, "You are a dignified Dali Temple official, but you are not as good as Gu Yun in handling cases. Do you know that the main culprit in this case was captured by Young Marquis Gu last night? Although the 1.5 million taels of official silver that was embezzled were melted down and recast into new silver, they were also recovered by Young Marquis Gu."

Wei Minzhong was in a mess. How come Gu Yun recovered the government silver and captured the main culprit in just one day?

Wei Minzhong glanced behind him, wanting to see who had not attended the court today. He realized belatedly that Qin Huaiyuan was not among the ministers who attended the court, and no one had sent him a message. What should he do now?

In a hurry, Wei Minzhong had to confess his guilt, "I...I am wrong. I was not thoughtful enough and did not handle the case rigorously, which caused the Jiangbei silt removal case to cause panic among the people. The Jiangbei flood was just when the people were in a state of panic. I want to close the case as soon as possible to appease the people. I hope Your Majesty can understand my painstaking efforts."

Geng Changyuan, the Minister of the Imperial Household, stood up. He also secretly supported Empress Feng and the Crown Prince's party and said, "Although Lord Wei acted too hastily and made some mistakes, he did so because he cared about the people and had good intentions. This case is of great importance, and the Dali Temple is inevitably overwhelmed. Lord Wei has been working hard for this case, working day and night, and we have seen it all. Although the Dali Temple has no credit for this case, it has made great efforts."

The anger on Emperor Mingzheng's face subsided a little. He sat down on the dragon throne and said, "I will give you a chance to redeem yourself and make meritorious contributions. The main culprit of corruption, Qin Huaiyuan, is still detained by Gu Yun in the Wucheng Bingma Division. There is also dirty silver. You, the Dali Temple, will take him over. After the silver is counted, it will be deposited into the national treasury. If anything goes wrong again, I will take off your official hat!"

Wei Minzhong wiped the cold sweat from his head, realizing that Emperor Mingzheng was not going to punish him but was just pretending. He couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, and his heart was finally at ease.

"Your Majesty, I'm afraid this is inappropriate!" Gu Yun, who had been standing there without saying a word, suddenly spoke up, "The Dali Temple was so eager to close the case that it disregarded human lives and almost made a false and wrongful conviction. If they don't punish them, it would be disgraceful!"

Wei Minzhong knelt on the ground and looked at Gu Yun with a bitter expression on his face. "When the emperor ordered the Dali Temple to preside over this case, Young Marquis Gu knew that the criminal was someone else. Why didn't he tell me? If Young Marquis Gu had told me the clues earlier, I would have investigated carefully and would not have fallen into the trap set by the criminal. I would not have mistaken the Minister of Works Xu as a thief and almost made a big mistake."

With these words, he put all the blame on Gu Yun, accusing him of intentionally concealing the truth, not reporting it, and using any means necessary to steal the credit from the Dali Temple.

What annoyed Gu Yun the most was that these officials always had hidden thoughts and spoke in a roundabout way every time.

Normally he just didn't bother to pay attention to these people, and no one in the court was bored enough to provoke him. If they really had to argue, he had learned a lot from listening to them in court every day.

Gu Yun crossed his arms and looked at Wei Minzhong coldly, with a hint of coldness on the corner of his lips. "As far as I know, Li Xu, the deputy minister of the Ministry of Works, changed his confession in the Dali Temple, and the confession he changed was related to Qin Huaiyuan. But you insisted on taking his first confession to prove Xu Youzhi's guilt. Who instructed you to do that? Lord Wei, are you also involved in the Qin Huaiyuan case?"

"Thinking about it carefully, how could the Dali Temple handle the case so carelessly? Moreover, this case involves a third-rank official of the court, and Lord Wei is very suspicious." Gu Yun turned his gaze to the palace, looked at Emperor Mingzheng, and said, "Your Majesty, I think this case should be transferred to the Ministry of Justice for trial. Wei Minzhong neglected his duties and did not investigate the case. His innocence needs to be verified. He should be suspended from his official position. After it is clear whether he is involved in this case, he should be punished according to the crime."

Emperor Mingzheng frowned. The reason why he scolded Wei Minzhong so much was that he had no intention of punishing Wei Minzhong at all. He just wanted to give him a light punishment. Wei Minzhong was really an idiot. He failed to drag Gu Yun into the water and instead got himself into trouble.

Emperor Mingzheng pondered for a while, then glanced at his ministers and said, "What do you think, my dear ministers?"

"What Young Marquis Gu said is all speculation. It is absurd to say that Lord Wei is involved in this case without any evidence." Geng Changyuan, the Minister of Imperial Household, said, "The Dali Temple is not handling the case well, so it is right to transfer the case to the Ministry of Justice for trial. However, it is inappropriate to suspend Lord Wei. Lord Wei is handling the case with a sincere heart. If he is dismissed because of a momentary negligence, and he is also investigated, it will hurt the feelings of the ministers."

Sun Youyan, the Prince's tutor who was over 60 years old, also spoke up, "Master Geng is right. I hope Your Majesty will sympathize with Master Wei's efforts to appease the people of Jiangbei."

Emperor Mingzheng's eyebrows relaxed slightly. "The people's will is the most important thing. Grand Tutor Sun did remind me. Well..." He looked at Wei Minzhong and said, "It's not appropriate to dismiss you from your post, but I ordered you to preside over this case, but something went wrong. If you are not punished, there will be endless false and wrongful convictions in the future. I will fine you three months' salary as a warning to others."