"It's good that you don't blame me. How much silver you have at home has nothing to do with what Lord Liu reported."

If Lord Liu's report is true, then there is no need for punishment.

The remaining task is to find out the origin of that batch of treasury silver.

I believe that you did not steal this silver.

But such a large sum of money suddenly appearing in your household couldn't have gone unnoticed. It's even possible that someone in your household conspired with someone else to frame you. Therefore, this matter must be thoroughly investigated.

Marquis Zhongyong's voice trembled as he said, "Your Majesty is wise!"

As a result, everyone in the Marquis of Zhongyong's household was imprisoned, and the Marquis of Zhongyong was surrounded by the Imperial Guards. He was also kept in the palace and forbidden from leaving.

However, after two days of severe torture, the source of the national treasury's silver was not found, but a secret from several years ago was uncovered!

"Your Majesty, the steward of the Marquis of Zhongyong's mansion confessed that five years ago, the Duke of Dingguo's mansion was exiled to the north by the previous emperor. He went to Zhangzishan on his master's orders to bribe Ye Dehai, intending to kill the entire Chu family. Ye Dehai demanded an exorbitant deposit of 100,000 taels of silver, which was the official silver of the previous dynasty."

And the one who instigated this is none other than the current Imperial Concubine Qiong!

General Tie really knelt down this time!

He felt incredibly wronged, but had no way to defend himself. His daughter had indeed tampered with things, but what she wanted was for Mu Yuan to lose her innocence so that she would have a chance to become empress in the future. How could it have turned into killing all the Chu family members?

He was certain that someone was trying to frame him regarding the matter of the former dynasty's official silver!

His daughter is eight hundred times smarter than him, how could she possibly use a batch of marked silver to do something bad?

Or is she trying to frame someone for not marrying well?

But this person is too ruthless. He started laying the wiring five years ago, and then suddenly attacked today, catching him completely off guard.

But how exactly did that huge sum of government silver lost in the previous dynasty end up in his residence?

Lord Tie couldn't understand it, and of course, he never had the chance to understand it. Why take the lives of the Chu family?

What, are you and your daughter planning a rebellion?

Then, General Tie Zhongyong was also thrown into prison.

In the inner palace, Consort Tie Qiongrui was arrested by the Empress Dowager.

At this moment, she was kneeling in the Empress Dowager's palace. At first, she was very flustered, but as time passed, her heart miraculously calmed down.

After kneeling for an unknown amount of time, footsteps finally came.

Tie Qiongrui looked up and met Mu Yuan's smiling face.

"Tsk, has Consort Qiong forgotten all the rules? She doesn't even know how to bow to me anymore."

Tie Qiongrui snorted coldly, "Does the Empress Dowager intend to use torture in private? I am innocent. I have never seen any official silver from the previous dynasty, much less bribed any bandits..."

Mu Yuan suddenly laughed, a wild and loud laugh, "Tie Qiongrui, do you know how afraid I was just now that you would confess your guilt directly?"

Tie Qiongrui suddenly had a bad feeling.

"Guards, bring on the finger-crushing torture!"

After waiting for five years, she can finally take care of this bitch in a comfortable way and make her taste all kinds of torture!

"Mu Yuan, do you dare?"

The head palace maid shouted sternly, "How dare you! How dare you, a criminal woman, call the Empress Dowager by her name? Guards, slap her!"

Before the torture of finger-crushing even began, Tie Qiongrui was slapped more than twenty times.

This slap wasn't delivered with a hand; that would have hurt your hand so much.

They used a wooden board to whip her, and after that, Tie Qiongrui had hardly any good teeth left. The worst part was that no one could understand her anymore.

Next came the finger-crushing torture, which caused Tie Qiongrui excruciating pain as her ten fingers were connected to her heart.

Soon, all ten of her fingers were pinched and deformed!

However, Mu Yuan was not soft-hearted at all, nor did she think she was cruel; this was all Tie Qiongrui's due.

Killing someone is just a matter of beheading them, but how could she, a woman herself, come up with such a harmful method to deal with her? Tie Qiongrui deserves to die!

The screams from Cixi Palace carried far and wide, and the concubines who remained in the inner palace trembled with fear.

Someone passed the message to Empress Ning Yan, hoping she would go and persuade her. Ning Yan chuckled, but she still went anyway.

"Why has the Empress come?"

“Someone came to my palace to deliver a message, asking me to come and take a look, so I came.”

"What, are you trying to persuade me?" The Empress Dowager had tea served to Ning Yan, her tone carrying a hint of teasing.

Ning Yan said, "I really have to say a few words of advice. Fighting like this is too boring; you might accidentally kill someone."

I have a way to guarantee you'll have a blast!

"Oh, what is it? Tell me."

"Throw the person out onto the ground, cut a hundred or so small cuts in them, then sprinkle honey on them. Ants are so tiny, they can't hurt Consort Qiong."

Everyone in the hall, from top to bottom, including Tie Qiongrui who had temporarily caught her breath because of her arrival, shivered.

"No, you can't do this!" She struggled violently, trying to escape the punishment to come.

However, nobody paid any attention to her.

Ning Yan continued, "We can also fulfill her wish. Doesn't she want to ruin other people's reputations and take over their status and identity?"

You can find her several men, and once she's pregnant, cut open her belly, take out the baby, sew her belly back up, and let her continue pregnant.

"I've also heard of a fish called a piranha. Why don't you have someone look for it and catch her in the water, let those fish bite off her flesh? That way you can play with her for a while longer, and if she gets hurt, you can always treat her later."

"There is another way, which is to gouge out her eyes, cut off her ears and nose, chop off her limbs, and put her in a jar to raise. This is called human pig."

The palace maids and eunuchs all looked at the Empress. "The most poisonous heart is a woman's heart," the ancients were right. "But isn't she afraid that the Empress Dowager will become wary of her?"

As a result, the Empress Dowager grabbed Ning Yan's hand and said, "Yan Yan, you understand me best! Guards, go and prepare as Her Majesty the Empress just said."

The eunuchs and palace maids hurried off to their tasks.

This is terrifying! It's true what they say, birds of a feather flock together. This mother-in-law and daughter-in-law are truly horrible!

Tie Qiongrui was so frightened that she begged for mercy repeatedly. She wanted to plead for mercy and confess her guilt, but no one gave her a chance. More than half of her teeth had been knocked out, her face was still swollen, all ten of her hands were useless, and her buttocks were rotten. She wanted to struggle but couldn't move at all, but she was still trying to die. Yes, she was trying to die.

"Empress Dowager, I was wrong. I was bewitched. I was malicious. I confess my sins. Please, give me a quick death..."

Wooden Kite: I won't listen! I won't listen! I won't listen!

Tie Qiongrui has no right to demand a quick end!

Tie Qiongrui experienced all of the punishments Ning Yan mentioned, except for being turned into a human pig.

Because the Empress Dowager was so fond of playing with her, Tie Qiongrui was not dead yet, but she was no longer recognizable as human.

...

In prison, General Tie finally came to his senses.

No wonder the Emperor said so resolutely that he believed him, because only the person who wronged you knows how wronged you really are.

The official silver that was lost from the national treasury was stolen by the Chu family.

It was even done by the current emperor.

That kid started plotting five years ago, all to find the person who harmed the Empress.

Perhaps he had known all along who had harmed the current Empress Dowager, but he had been biding his time until the late emperor passed away and his backer fell from power. Only then did he begin to exert his influence, first by transferring him back from the western front and letting the Duke of Cheng take over his 200,000-strong army.

After finding out about his own financial situation, he decided to deliver a fatal blow to himself.

Without a doubt, my daughter must have also met with an accident.

The Tie family is finished!

He had considered stopping his daughter when she first made the suggestion, but the huge profits that followed made him tempted.

They were just a bunch of convicts, so killing them shouldn't have been too difficult. But to everyone's surprise, the bandits actually failed!

Fortunately, Ye Dehai was beheaded on the spot, so he had no worries about the future. Unexpectedly, this matter was brought up again five years later.

Heaven is going to destroy the Tie family!

By the end of November, all the evidence against the Tie family had been collected. It was revealed that Tie Qiongrui was the one who had targeted the Chu family. Therefore, Chu Yu did not fabricate charges against General Tie.

But the embezzlement alone was enough to lead to the Tie family's property being confiscated and them being exiled.

Wei Xiang's suggestion was exactly what Chu Yu wanted: to let General Tie and his family walk the route of exile. (End of Chapter)