Chapter 485: Many Doubts
The Emperor of Northern Qi was the first to learn the news.
After the Tongpan and the secret guard on duty that night died, Li Leshan immediately wrote a letter to the secret guard of the Northern Qi Emperor and asked the secret guard to deliver it to the desk of the Northern Qi Emperor at an urgent speed of 800 miles.
After reading the letter, the Northern Qi Emperor slammed it on the table and said to the secret guard who had delivered it, "The Tongpan clearly didn't commit suicide by taking poison; he was poisoned. The person behind this used the same method to kill my secret guards, and even fabricated the illusion that the secret guards had killed the Tongpan, and then, fearing exposure, they took their own lives by taking poison."
The secret guard explained, "Your Majesty, after the Tongpan died, An San has been staying in the secret cell in the prefectural governor's mansion and has not left. During this time, no one else has approached the study."
This sentence undoubtedly rules out homicide.
Upon hearing this, the Emperor of Northern Qi was furious.
If it wasn't homicide, could it really be suicide?
Perhaps due to his intense anger, the Northern Qi Emperor felt a dull headache. After a while, the pain intensified, and he felt the pain in his blood vessels and tendons stretching throughout his head, turning his face pale in an instant.
Trembling, he took out a porcelain bottle, poured out a few pills and swallowed them.
"Your Majesty, please calm down." Seeing the Northern Qi Emperor suffering from a headache due to his rage, Eunuch Liu quickly put down his whisk and began massaging his solar plexus. "Should I send for the imperial physician?"
The Emperor of Northern Qi leaned back in his chair, closed his eyes, and relaxed for a quarter of an hour. The symptoms of his headache seemed to ease a little.
He said weakly, "No need, I'm fine."
Eunuch Liu understood the Northern Qi Emperor's thoughts. It would not be of much use to invite an imperial physician to treat his headache. Apart from prescribing some painkillers, the physician would also tell him to rest and not get angry.
If the imperial physician is invited too often, it will cause the court officials to have other thoughts.
Eunuch Liu carefully examined the Northern Qi Emperor's face, and found it was not as pale as before, so he felt relieved a little.
He glanced at the kneeling secret guard and asked, "Your Majesty, now that An San is dead, doesn't that mean the death of Tongpan has become an unsolved case?"
The Emperor of Northern Qi frowned.
If An San had not died, he could be sure that the murderer was Prince Guangling.
After all, before the judge was executed, only the Prince of Guangling's men had contact with him.
It is very likely that Prince Guangling made a deal with the Tongpan, giving him poison in advance and asking him to confess the virtuous prince on the execution ground and then commit suicide by swallowing the poison, so that the virtuous prince could be convicted.
"Even if An San is dead, I will find the murderer. A passing goose leaves traces, a passing wind leaves sounds. Whatever has been done will always leave traces." The Northern Qi Emperor had other guesses in his mind: "I started with the secret guards, and I have two other guesses."
"The first possibility is that I once issued a secret order, instructing the secret guards to assassinate the Tongpan. Due to their mistake, they failed to silence the Tongpan before the beheading, which gave the Tongpan the opportunity to betray the virtuous king on the execution ground."
"In order to clear the virtuous king's name, Li Leshan re-detained the Tongpan. An San, however, was incapable of adapting, and even less aware of the extent to which the Tongpan's death would harm the virtuous king. He only remembered my secret order and took advantage of a break in his duty to poison the Tongpan."
"After the judge died, An San realized he had made a grave mistake, so he took poison and committed suicide to atone for his sins."
"The second possibility is that An San betrayed me and was bribed to kill the judge."
But the second possibility is very small.
The secret guards are orphans and have no ties in this world, so they can never be bribed.
The Northern Qi emperor preferred the first option.
However, if An San wants to apologize, he should go back to the capital to plead guilty and ask for his death penalty.
The Emperor of Northern Qi felt that this case was full of doubts.
The murderer is no more than three parties.
He, the virtuous king, or the king of Guangling.
There is no one else besides this.
At this point, it doesn’t matter who the real murderer is.
What is important is how to resolve public opinion.
The Northern Qi Emperor temporarily put the case aside and ordered his secret guards: "Convey my oral instructions to Li Leshan and suppress public opinion by any means necessary..."
At this time, the anxious voice of the eunuchs rang out from outside the door: "Your Majesty, this is bad. The public opinion that the virtuous prince abuses his power for personal gain, sells official positions and titles, extorts and accepts bribes, and persecutes the people of Yongqing County has spread throughout the capital."
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