Chapter 125: Zhou Feng's Inducement Couldn't Be Kept Secret at All
Zhang Sheng, who was waiting outside the hall, had been preparing for a long time and entered the hall with the guards.
Several guards were escorting a plainly dressed woman.
Zhao Liangxu did not peek out like the other ministers. They had been crowding together and indistinguishable from one another, but now that the hall was safe, Zhao Liangxu quietly distanced herself from the ministers. However, she had already observed what she should have observed earlier.
Now she turned her attention to the group of ministers.
As for the person outside the door, she already knew who it was.
He was just Lu Ming, a subordinate of Zhao Chengxin.
Anhe said, "General Zhou seems to know this person, or perhaps you could say you are familiar with him, right, General Zhou?"
He then asked Lu Ming, a man who was quite a troublemaker even in prison.
According to his subordinates, this man was extremely stubborn, and he not only mocked his identity all day long.
In the following days, she began to talk nonsense, sometimes admitting to colluding with Zhou Feng, and then denying it the next moment.
The details in the conversation are of unknown veracity.
"Lu Ming, you must be very familiar with General Zhou."
It's funny, though. Lu Ming was unwilling to reveal anything related to Zhao Chengxin, but as for Zhou Feng, she mocked him just as much.
Lu Ming lowered her head, turned her face to look at Zhou Feng, and said with a smile, "I know him, of course I know him. I have a long history with General Zhou."
Lu Ming's words were not very clear, but her familiar tone made it easy to suspect.
Zhou Feng was initially terrified, wanting to know what witnesses An He had.
But upon seeing Lu Ming, he felt a slight sense of relief, even though Lu Ming's words seemed ambiguous.
He looked at Lu Ming, who had been brought to his side, and sneered: "This is your witness? Utterly absurd! I have fought for Southern Zhou for many years, and I even have countless wounds on my body from fighting against Northern Zhou. You say that I colluded with Northern Zhou? That's utter nonsense!"
“Eunuch An, everyone knows you are ruthless. Now that you have captured this person, it is quite possible that you could use all sorts of insidious means to force her to collude with you!”
Even if Lu Ming identifies him based solely on her words, how much use will it be?
He was a traitor from an enemy country. Even if the ministers looked at him with suspicion, the confession obtained by the corrupt eunuch under torture was more credible than his impassioned words as a general.
One mouth can tell the truth or it can tell lies.
Zhou Feng thought that Lu Ming was indeed the most credible witness that An He could use. Unfortunately, without other evidence, witness testimony is the easiest thing to forge.
The men he sent out have committed suicide, and no further clues can be found.
After hearing Zhou Feng's words, everyone's hearts began to lean towards him.
The feud between Zhou Feng and An He was never kept secret; the entire court and even the capital knew that the two were at odds. If An He harbored malicious intentions and wanted to frame Zhou Feng, it was quite possible.
Seeing the slightly calmer expression on Zhou Feng's face, An He found it laughable: "General Zhou, do you think we only have witnesses? Do you think we've served the late Emperor and His Majesty for so long just to do nothing?"
Upon hearing this, Zhang Sheng took out a stack of light-colored paper from his sleeve and presented it to Li Ying.
Li Ying took it and looked at it curiously. After flipping through it a few times, her expression changed. When she looked up, her relaxed expression disappeared, leaving only a frown.
He turned to An He and asked, "Eunuch An, is this... is this really true?"
Anhe nodded, leaned over beside him and said, "It's real, it couldn't be more real. We're very meticulous in our work, and we were even worried that someone might have forged it, so we specifically compared the handwriting."
Anhe's voice was neither too loud nor too soft, just loud enough for everyone in the hall to hear.
It aroused great curiosity, so someone asked, "Eunuch An, what is this?"
Anhe did not answer him yet, but the shock and confusion on Li Ying's face had turned into anger.
Li Ying looked at Zhou Feng, her previous dignified and authoritative demeanor now overshadowed by her usual eccentric temper. Suppressing her anger, Li Ying said, "Well, I never imagined General Zhou was so capable!"
Zhou Feng was even more puzzled. Why had Li Ying suddenly become so angry? What exactly was written on that stack of papers in her hand?
An He straightened up, took the few thin sheets of paper from Li Ying's hand, and carefully and slowly flipped through them.
He glanced sideways at the person who had asked the question, and then replied, "What else could there be? With witnesses, physical evidence is naturally indispensable."
"What is the physical evidence? What is written on it?"
Everyone saw the change in Li Ying's expression, but Li Ying did not explain what was written on the paper. An He simply twirled the paper slowly, glancing at Zhou Feng with considerable confidence.
It was as if, having this item, Zhou Feng had already been sentenced to treason.
So what exactly was written on that piece of paper?
It looks like a letter.
Everyone wanted to know, and Zhou Feng wanted to know too.
He couldn't help but recall whether he had exchanged letters with Zhao Chengxin, Lu Ming, and others.
He had only exchanged letters with Zhao Chengxin once, but even if Zhou Feng was arrogant and conceited, he wasn't stupid. How could he have left such obvious evidence? He had destroyed that letter long ago!
The letter was written to him by Zhao Chengxin, and he had never given any letters to the Northern Zhou people, so it could not possibly be evidence left by them...
What if the transaction was revealed in correspondence between the other party and someone else?
Zhou Feng was starting to have doubts.
That damned Anhe, with that treacherous expression, is truly hateful!
After observing the subtle changes in Zhou Feng's facial expressions, An He finally showed some compassion and said, "General Zhou, do you remember who wrote you a letter?"
Of course he remembered, but he had already burned the only copy! Zhou Feng thought hatefully.
"Or, who did you write to? General Zhou, think about it again."
Who should it be given to? Who should it be given to exactly?
Could he possibly be so careless as to leave such an obvious weakness?
Anhe raised an eyebrow, shook his head, and said, "It seems that important people really have bad memories."
These words made Zhou Feng even more suspicious and puzzled.
It was those civil officials.
"I've always enjoyed doing this kind of work for His Majesty. I've already mastered the art of confiscating property; when it comes to uncovering shady dealings, I'd probably be considered an expert. I've thoroughly studied the hiding places and intricate designs within those houses..."
Anhe paused, not in a hurry to continue.
But Zhou Feng was anxious.
Could it be that those people leaked the news while secretly communicating with Zhao Chengxin's men?
He knew that civil officials were useless!
It was Lu Ming who suggested using civil officials as a cover. She even said it was a feint, because firstly, the inconspicuous and idle civil officials would not be easily discovered, and secondly, even if they were discovered, people would think that the ministers and vice ministers above had evil intentions and sent their subordinate civil officials to do the dirty work.
It's difficult to trace the problem back to him as a general, since he didn't think much of useless literati who dabbled in writing.
Could it be that these people made a mistake?
He's not even as good as a mere martial artist!
Zhou Feng was furious.
Anhe continued, "General Zhou, we discovered that you secretly used the Treasure Shop to communicate with those traitors, allowing them to contact Zhao Chengxin's people. These letters were found in their homes, and there are quite a few of them."
What did those civil officials do? So, is it really true that the civil officials had poor relations with Zhao Chengxin's people? Zhou Feng was uneasy.
"It's all clearly written here, in your own handwriting. It details how you instructed them to contact Zhao Chengxin's people, and what benefits you promised them. After searching several houses, we found several pieces of evidence—ironclad proof of your treason..."
These words sounded utterly absurd to Zhou Feng.
He said the wrong thing.
Zhou Feng suddenly realized that An He was doing it on purpose.
Anhe exclaimed, "General Zhou, you really are something. You can bluff so easily. You truly live up to your reputation."
He smiled, took a few steps toward Zhou Feng, and then threw the stack of letters in front of him.
The words on the paper are written in black and white, and are very clear.
Where is his grand plan? There's solid evidence…
It was just a handwritten storybook, tales that Zhao Liangxu brought in from outside the palace.
The story is full of ups and downs, so melodramatic that it makes your expression unpredictable.
Li Ying's expression was obviously feigned; the letter was a melodramatic plot he had specially copied down last night, which was quite exciting.
The ministers in the hall were speechless. It was clear that they were merely spectators who had been arranged to watch. Anhe had planned everything long ago.
They even keenly noticed that, even if they didn't want to admit it, Anhe hadn't done anything sinister today; in fact, he could be considered to have done a good deed.
After all, Zhou Feng himself admitted that he had colluded with the Northern Zhou people.
Zhou Feng was furious, his heart suddenly turned cold and trembled, and then he felt a surge of anger at being completely manipulated.
Since that's the case...
He simply laid his cards on the table: "Anhe, I am a general of the Southern Zhou!"
Anhe appeared to be listening attentively.
"Do you know that I fought alongside those soldiers for years? If I hadn't returned from court, my confidants would have been prepared long ago, surely believing that His Majesty had been deceived and that it had come to the point where it was necessary to purge the court of corrupt officials..."
"You're launching this attack without considering that I've already prepared a way out for this situation?"
He made thorough preparations, and force was, of course, an indispensable part of his plan.
If he makes a mistake here, his confidants will lead elite troops and storm the palace under the pretext of "purging the emperor's inner circle".
Even if Anhe has some Imperial Guards under his command, so what? Working for a eunuch will inevitably make them feel resentful, and they are probably not as useful as the soldiers he personally trained!
However, Zhou Feng did not see the expected panic on An He's face.
Anhe tapped the jade at the end of the whisk with his fingers, and slowly returned to Li Ying's side.
Why isn't he in a hurry?
The scene Zhou Feng had hoped for did not appear, and his anger felt like a punch hitting empty air, which only made him angrier.
Some people were already panicked after hearing Zhou Feng's words. If what Zhou Feng said was true, then this main hall must be the most chaotic place. Zhou Feng's soldiers were no ordinary people!
“Alas, why doesn’t General Zhou understand?” An He’s smooth, slippery tone stopped the people in the hall from speculating.
"What?"
“Those soldiers are not your soldiers, but His Majesty’s soldiers.”
Anhe said, "Where would so many people do something that would make you infamous for eternity? His Majesty sent people out of the city long ago to talk to your good soldiers. Otherwise, do you think that exposing your crimes today was just a spur-of-the-moment thing to play along with you?"
Anhe's voice carried its usual disdain: "You won't get anything from this."
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