"Let them all go. These people are too brave to handle such a situation."
"yes."
The Grand Tutor reported, "Today, Lin Siye informed me that the Zhou family seems to be making moves. They intend to reopen a case, colluding with the censors, and repeating their previous strategy of investigating false charges. I suspect they intend to hinder Lin Siye and the Dali Temple."
The Zhou family wanted to overturn not this small case, but the cases of the Minister of Personnel, the Minister of Revenue, and Zhou Huai. These cases were all handled by Lou Yunchun, but Lou Yunchun was a very secretive person and it was difficult to find any evidence against him. Now that they had finally caught someone related to him, they naturally would not let him go.
What's more, the person involved in the case has close ties with Lin Qinnian and the Imperial College. If the matter is successful, he will inevitably be blamed.
The sage asked curiously, "What does this have to do with the Dali Temple and Lin Siye?"
The Grand Tutor said, "The person involved in the case is Lin Siye's adopted daughter and Lou Shaoqing's fiancée."
"Oh—" The sage suddenly realized. Lou Yunchun actually had a fiancée. Then, remembering that Lou Yunchun had asked him for a favor, a favor for a woman, he asked, "But who was the woman who discovered the siltation of the Leyou River? I remember her surname was Xu, and she owned a bookshop. She's now under the supervision of the Imperial Academy."
The Minister of the Chancellery nodded, "It's her, Xu Jiang." Then he looked at the set of books on the imperial desk and said, "She is also the disciple of Xu Yuan, the author of this set of 'Tracing the Origins of Literary Traces'. This set of books was donated by her."
"Really?" the sage exclaimed. "She must be an extraordinary woman."
Seeing that the two were about to veer off topic, the Grand Tutor continued, "This matter has been suppressed by the Wannian County Magistrate and has not yet erupted. However, the Zhou family cannot be allowed to remain here any longer."
The Minister of the Chancellery agreed, "Your Majesty was initially pressured by the entrenched power of the aristocratic families to punish Zhou Huai severely. Now that the sword has been torn apart, it shows that peace is achieved, so we should not show any mercy."
Besides, the Zhou family was too close to Prince Ying. They were involved when the Saint fell into the water during the Lesser Heat period. However, they were ruthless and left no evidence, so we couldn't find any evidence against them. Otherwise, they would have been wiped out long ago.
"Then let's take advantage of this opportunity to deal with them all at once." The Saint paused and asked, "Is there any movement over at Liuyuan?"
The last time Leyou River flooded, when Lou Yunchun went to check, he found that it was built by Liu Sizhen with quarried stones and it was not an ordinary garden. The Hexi Jiedushi intercepted the box of jewelry that was transported to Beiting and verified that it was from Liu Garden.
After the Ministry of Justice unraveled the mystery, it was discovered that all the gold, silver and jewelry were used to purchase weapons, and Liu Sizhen and others expanded Liu Garden in order to create another armory.
The Shangshu Ling said: "Liu Sizhen is currently being held in the Ministry of Justice. They dare not act rashly."
"Keep someone watching." The real boss of Liu Garden isn't just Liu Sizhen. Now that he's 'deadly ill', some people can't sit still and will reveal their true colors. "Have the Ministry of Justice hold off on Liu Sizhen's case for now. Don't rush to close it. We can settle all the cases later."
"Yes." Shangshu Ling looked at the saint with satisfaction. After this incident, he became more decisive and steady.
The two men then reported other court affairs to the sage and did not leave until noon.
After the two of them left, the sage took up the set of "Wen Mai Origin" and began to read. Halfway through, he called the eunuch and asked him to send a set of "School of Literature" tributed from Shezhou to the Lou family as a reward for Xu Jiang's contribution of the book.
"Remember not to make it public."
"yes."
After receiving the order, the eunuch told someone to do it.
The sage, with a pair of black eyes from long-lasting sleep, clapped his hands in praise of Xu Yuan's book, saying, "What a good book! What a good book!"
In the county jail, Xu Si and Xu Wu stared at each other for a long time before they spoke and asked, "What the hell is going on? Didn't we say we were working together, with you guys changing your confessions inside and me protesting outside? Why were they arresting me too?"
Xu Wu hesitated and said, "I... am imprisoned here, how would I know?"
Seeing his guilty look, Xu Si knew something was wrong. He then pulled Xu Twelve over and interrogated him, "Tell me!"
Xu Twelve Zeshen tried to hide but failed, and he knew he couldn't hide it from him. Anyway, he would be killed whether he stuck his head out or not, so he just confessed everything.
After hearing this, Xu Si was so angry that he almost collapsed. He punched Xu Twelve hard, then rushed over and pinned Xu Wu against the wall. Holding Xu Wu by the collar, he angrily demanded, "I'm your brother, how dare you sell me out!"
"This...how can you sell this? This is to save you. Do you know what that Wu Guanshi is doing?" Xu Wu lowered his voice and said, "They are doing things that will confiscate property, exterminate clans, and kill people. Even if you get Xu Jiang's money, I'm afraid you won't be able to spend it."
"Fool! You believe everything that bastard says? With her temper, if she swallows her anger and begs for peace with you and redeems you, do you think anything good will come of it? By then, you will be in her hands, like dough, at her mercy!"
"It's better than losing my head. Besides, I don't want to stay in this prison anymore, let alone dig a canal. Fourth brother, do you know whose body we dug up while digging the canal? Feng Miao!"
"Feng Miao?" Didn't he die in Qingque Garden?
"You didn't see what he looked like. His body was swollen and smelled bad. There were two holes in his neck. The coroner said he was stabbed in the neck with a dagger and bled to death." Thinking of Feng Miao's death, Xu Wu shuddered. "I heard that he was your fourth brother who was with you. He died like this. Aren't you afraid?"
Xu Si remembered that Feng Miao had asked him to go with him to monitor someone, but he refused because he didn't want to get too involved with the people from Qingque Garden. It was after that separation that Feng Miao died.
He couldn't help but shudder. If he had gone with him at that time, wouldn't he have died too?
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