Early morning, Qianqing Palace.
The Qianqing Palace has two warm rooms, the east and the west, divided into two floors. There are five small warm rooms on the lower floor and four small warm rooms on the upper floor.
There are three beds in each small warm room, for a total of twenty-seven beds. The emperor can choose any bed he wants when sleeping.
When the emperor chose a bed to sleep in, the eunuchs in charge would lower the curtains of the other beds, so that people outside would not know which bed the emperor slept in, thus avoiding the problem of assassination at night as much as possible.
Chongzhen, who was sleeping soundly in the east warm room, was awakened by a very soft snore.
"Your Majesty...Your Majesty...The Prime Minister, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice, and the Governor of Shuntian are in urgent need of an audience."
"Your Majesty, Your Majesty!"
Chongzhen opened his eyes reluctantly and found Wang Chengen standing outside the curtain and shouting.
He asked angrily, "What time is it?"
"Replying to Your Majesty, it is the beginning of the Mao hour."
The emperors of the Ming Dynasty began their morning court sessions at around five in the morning. When the Jingyang Bell rang, the palace gates opened, and all officials entered in turn, crossed the Jinshui Bridge, and lined up in the square.
Yesterday, the Prime Minister was killed, the nobles were arrested, and the prince was arranged to move south. In order to issue the decree as soon as possible, Chongzhen ordered yesterday that there would be no early court today, and that any matters could be submitted to the cabinet.
It's normal to feel a little annoyed when you want to have a good sleep but are disturbed.
"Tell them to wait in the West Warm Pavilion and come over to change my clothes."
"As you wish."
With the help of Wang Chengen, Chongzhen once again put on the armor he wore when he was assassinated yesterday.
He wanted to wear it in front of everyone so that they would always think about the assassination of the emperor.
When they arrived at the West Warm Pavilion, the Chief Minister of the Cabinet Li Banghua, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice Zhang Xin, and the Prefect of Shuntian Prefecture Wang Tingmei knelt down and saluted.
Li Banghua's eyes were red and his face was haggard as he said, "Your Majesty, last night the homes of Guang Shiheng, the military secretary, and Chen Yan, the former chief minister of the cabinet, were attacked. The entire family was slaughtered and all their property was looted."
Chongzhen stood up suddenly.
He looked at Li Banghua with shock on his face and asked, "Are you serious?"
"It's absolutely true! In the capital of the Ming Dynasty, right under the feet of the emperor, a family massacre actually happened. It's really shocking."
Wang Tingmei's face was solemn.
People died every day in the capital. Death from plague was one thing, and death by accident was another. One of the two families that were exterminated was the former prime minister of the cabinet, and the other was the current official of the court.
Whether the case is solved or not, he has the responsibility.
If the opponent finds evidence of this, the best outcome would be to solve the case within a certain period of time while serving a sentence, or lose his job and his life.
If he was not accompanied by the Prime Minister, he would never dare to come and report.
Now he is very glad that he chose Li Banghua when he chose the team.
Chongzhen took two steps back and forth, muttering, "There are bad guys in the capital!"
Li Banghua, Zhang Xin and Wang Tingmei nodded in agreement.
"First they tried to assassinate me, then when that failed they tried to assassinate an official of the imperial court. What do they think this place is? A place for us to be slaughtered?"
Seeing Chongzhen was furious, Wang Tingmei kowtowed and confessed: "Your Majesty, please calm down. It was my negligence that allowed the bandits to cause chaos in the capital. When I return, I will immediately search for the whole place and bring the bandits to justice."
The capital was his own territory, and he was responsible for any problems that arose. Although Chongzhen did not intend to blame him directly, the blame in his words was self-evident.
Chongzhen waved his hand to signal Wang Tingmei to stand up, and then asked: "What do you think?"
Li Banghua frowned and said, "I don't think the murderer was after money, nor was it revenge."
"Oh? Tell me about it." Chongzhen looked calm on the surface, but he was actually looking forward to it in his heart.
Li Banghua is quite capable. I hope he can carry out his plan according to his plan.
"Although Chen Yan and Guang Shiheng's families were wealthy, they were not extremely rich. It was unreasonable for the murderer to kill the entire family for money."
“Secondly, although the two of them have enemies in the court, they are not enemies with deep hatred, and they have no motive to destroy the whole family.”
After Li Banghua finished speaking, he looked at Zhang Xin, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice.
In the first month of the year, the Minister of Justice Xu Shilin went to western Zhejiang to train troops, and the affairs of the Ministry of Justice were in charge of the Left Vice Minister Zhang Xin.
Zhang Xin bowed and saluted: "Your Majesty, I have been to the scene to check. The scene was very chaotic. Based on the footprints, I guess there were many murderers. Most of them were killed by a single knife, and a few were shot by crossbows and choked to death. The knife edge was smooth and the arrow was accurate. It was not done by ordinary bandits."
"Based on the injuries on the body, we can tell that the murderer used two types of weapons: a crossbow and a short knife."
After saying that, Zhang Xin looked at Wang Tingmei.
Wang Tingmei added: "I asked the police to visit the neighbors. There was a strong wind last night and no one heard any movement. So I concluded that the murderer was a group of well-trained and powerful bandits."
Chongzhen waved his hand impatiently: "I don't want to hear this. I just want to know if this case is related to the assassination attempt on me? When can you solve the case?"
"Your servants don't know..." Li Banghua said helplessly.
Last night, the patrol battalion, the Embroidered Uniform Guard, and the Eastern Depot were all transferred to garrison near the imperial city. Not to mention any clues, they were even the last to know about the murder.
How to solve the case without clues?
"Waste! All of you are waste!" Chongzhen clenched his fist angrily and smashed the table. "The people were killed, the house was robbed, and there is no clue at all. What do you do for a living?"
With a thud, Wang Tingmei and Zhang Xin were so scared that they immediately knelt down and begged for mercy.
"I don't care if you have any clues or not. I give you two days to solve the case. If you can't solve the case, you all go home and farm!"
Seeing that he was not angry, Li Banghua knelt down again with his hunched body: "Your Majesty, calm down. This incident happened suddenly, and it happened that the capital was under martial law. The three major camps, the patrol camp, the East Factory, and the Jinyiwei were all stationed near the imperial city. The city was empty, which gave the thieves an opportunity to take advantage of it."
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