Chapter 153 Cage and Cry (3) Multiple Connections, Towards the Law...
In front of the dilapidated thatched hut, a few withered yellow grass leaves were swept by the wind and landed on a bulging burlap sack in the courtyard. The person inside the sack stirred and made a "whooshing" struggle sound. He was tightly bound with hemp rope and rolled around on the ground, raising a cloud of dust.
Cheng Ruihui looked down at his disheveled state and said to the servant behind him, "Pour it out."
Two servants stepped forward and pulled the tall, thin scholar out of the sack. The scholar was tightly bound with hemp rope and his mouth was gagged with a rag. He continued to make "mmm" sounds, signaling the servants to untie him.
The servant glanced at Cheng Ruihui, and after receiving instructions, removed the gag from his mouth. The tall, thin scholar let out a long sigh, sat on the ground, and looked at Cheng Ruihui. "You bitch, I'll fuck your mother's head!"
Feng Tan, who had just pushed open the wooden door of the courtyard, was startled by the voice and stepped forward with a slightly puzzled look in her eyes.
The tall, thin scholar's cursing tone was all too familiar. Feng Tan stepped forward, squinted at his unfamiliar face, touched the edge of his cheek with her finger, and after removing the human skin mask, said in a clear voice, "Gao Zhizhen."
Caught off guard, Gao Zhizhen's mask was removed. Unexpectedly, Feng Tan recognized his voice immediately. After a moment of stunned silence, hatred surged within him. He abandoned his scholarly facade and unleashed his pent-up resentment at Feng Tan for years of hardship in the harsh Northwest, roaring and sneering, "You son of a bitch! I'm back to take your dog's life! Back then, you killed my father to save your master, forcing me into exile in the Northwest, all for this damned reform! A bunch of stinking women, what are you doing in the court? You should all rot in the backyard!"
He cursed viciously, and Feng Tan, seeing his crazed state, smiled and said, "The hysteria of a spendthrift is the most laughable."
Before he could finish speaking, Feng Tan kicked him in the head, shoving his half-risen body back to the ground. He pressed his boot against the ground, grinding it in a humiliating gesture. "Gao Zhizhen, Prince Jing brought you back from the Northwest not just to incite public outrage. What else does he want from you?"
Gao Zhizhen's face was contorted as he pressed against the ground, his veins bulging as he struggled desperately. After failing to do so, he gasped for breath on the ground, and a word burst from his throat: "I... I... won't tell you."
Cheng Ruihui stood to the side, coldly observing his disheveled state. Upon hearing this, he exchanged a glance with Feng Tan and spoke to Gao Zhizhen with his head bowed, "Lord Feng, in my opinion, the Prince of Jing sent such a rootless wretch just to annoy you. He won't accomplish anything significant."
Gao Zhizhen sneered upon hearing this. Feng Tan and Cheng Ruihui's eyes met again. She moved her foot away from Gao Zhizhen and said, "It seems there really is another mission?"
Back when Gao Zhizhen was in the capital, he was just as foolish and wicked as Feng Daijie. After many years, he still hasn't improved at all. It's also because Gao Yu protected his son too well, completely unaware that he was being used and even had to help the other party count the money.
Yu Ruxi rode over at this moment, her tall horse kicking up a dust storm. She nimbly dismounted and immediately lashed the whip at Gao Zhizhen, saying, "Gao Zhizhen, if you look down on women like this, don't beg for mercy when you get beaten to a pulp!"
Yu Ruxi was strong; with one lash, she tore Gao Zhizhen's skin open. Gao Zhizhen rolled uncontrollably on the ground, blood and sand seeping into his broken skin. "Stop hitting me! Stop hitting me! I'll talk, I'll talk!"
This is why Feng Tan came directly to his hometown in the capital to interrogate him. Gao Zhizhen was spoiled since childhood and couldn't stand even the slightest scratch. A few lashes would make him confess everything, so there was no need to make a special trip to the Ministry of Justice prison.
Gao Zhizhen lay panting on the ground, his vision blurred as he saw three venomous women looking down at him. His heart bled with hatred, and he gritted his teeth, saying, "Prince Jing said, 'Women have been turning the world upside down for long enough. If men don't step in, the world will be overturned.' He wants us to use the Liu E case as a pretext to corner you at the Vice Minister's residence. If we force you to hurt or kill people, it will solidify your reputation for cruelty. At that time, half of the censors will surely die for their cause. It doesn't matter if a few commoners die, but if most of the censors die, it will be a major event in history. More importantly, you will lose the support of your officials, and your army will collapse like a house of cards."
This was a truly insidious trick, but Yu Ruxi, oblivious to the main point, tilted her head and asked, "Are you a man?"
Gao Zhizhen's manhood was broken by Feng Tan's kick. Feng Tan was imprisoned for this incident. Yu Ruxi held a grudge against him, and when she asked about it now, Gao Zhizhen was so angry that his face turned red.
This matter caused quite a stir back then, and it even reached the Imperial Dragon Camp in Linzhou. Cheng Ruihui had heard about it, glanced at Gao Zhizhen's crotch, and said, "According to your logic, men should do men's things, and women should do women's things. You are a eunuch, so you should do what a eunuch should do."
Gao Zhizhen was so angered by them that he finally lost his temper, his blood rushed to his head, and he collapsed to the ground, unconscious.
Yu Ruxi tentatively kicked him, but seeing no reaction, she asked Feng Tan, "Yongle, what should we do with him?"
Feng Tan said, "Simply defending will only allow the enemy to advance again and again. It's time for us to counterattack."
“Exactly,” Cheng Ruihui was not a conservative reformer; on the contrary, she had always been radical, but this radicalism was hidden beneath her calm demeanor and not easily noticed. “I have a plan; would you like to hear it, sir?”
Feng Tan said, "Tell me about it."
Behind the dilapidated house stretched a vast, continuous mountain range. As the sun set, twilight fell upon Cheng Ruihui's shoulders and neck, giving her skin a soft glow. A youthful, upward-looking energy suddenly burst forth. "Since Your Excellency wishes to reform the law through domestic violence cases, the officials in the court alone are far from sufficient. This is precisely the principle of 'using a short rope to draw a deep well.' This is a reform that concerns the interests of everyone, so in matters of combat, all women of Dahuang... no one can stand idly by."
Feng Tan looked intently at Cheng Ruihui; her thoughts coincided with Xiao Changgeng's.
Yu Ruxi frowned and said, "I didn't understand."
“There are so many women in the world. We should let the women at the bottom of Dahua fight violence with violence, let the women with literary talent control public opinion, and even let the women who have remained silent from beginning to end and are indifferent to the matter be brought into the game.” Cheng Ruihui explained, a not-so-friendly smile curving his lips. “They should all come and help.”
Yu Ruxi's eyes brightened slightly, and she put her arm around Cheng Ruihui's shoulder like a good friend, "I say, Lord Cheng, how come I never noticed before? You're quite cunning... Although you always have a stern face, you're actually quite fun..."
Feng Tan flicked Yu Ruxi's forehead with her hand, saying, "Stop teasing her."
Cheng Ruihui ignored Yu Ruxi's comment and began analyzing the situation to Feng Tan, "Your Excellency is currently serving in the Ministry of Rites, and the Minister of Rites, Gong Yibin, is obstructing you in everything you do, mainly because he and the interest group behind him will not allow Your Excellency to move forward. Even now, he is probably plotting how to bring you down."
He might incite public anger and use the pretext of "disrupting ancestral customs" to unite the three judicial departments to prosecute you. Before he makes a move, we need to deal with him first.
Cheng Ruihui stared intently into Feng Tan's eyes. "Yes, assassinate him, and break Prince Jing's biggest henchman in the Ministry of Rites."
Yu Ruxi suddenly squatted down, checked Gao Zhizhen's breathing, and said, "He's not feeling well."
Feng Tan immediately addressed the people outside the courtyard, saying, "Uncle Meng."
Meng Henabur entered the hospital, checked Gao Zhizhen's pulse, and after a moment said to Feng Tan, "He... he was poisoned and died."
At the same time, a large number of armed guards poured in from outside the courtyard, led by Wei Shengxian, the deputy commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard.
The crimson brocade, adorned with flying fish patterns woven with gold thread, shimmered faintly in the sunlight. Wei Shengxian, his hand gripping the embroidered spring knife, glanced at the lifeless Gao Zhizhen, then looked up at Feng Tan and said, "Lord Feng, someone has secretly reported that you disregard the law and abuse your power. Is that it?"
It goes without saying who this person is.
Prince Jing anticipated that Feng Tan would remain calm and not take action against the Censorate; this was merely a pretext he used to deceive Gao Zhizhen. What he truly desired was for Feng Tan to bear the blame for the attack.
What he wanted was to frame Feng Tan.
Wei Shengxian looked at Feng Tan, whose demeanor remained cold and composed, and sneered with a sinister smile, "Lord Feng, come with me."
Yu Ruxi immediately stepped in front of Feng Tan, her long whip pointed at Wei Shengxian, "Feng Tan is a third-rank official of the current court. How can he be taken away without an imperial edict?!"
Wei Shengxian looked at her without fear and smiled, "Don't worry, Lady Feng is of noble birth. How could the Imperial Guards dare to torture her? They will only serve her good food and drink."
Feng Tan grasped Yu Ruxi's arm, which was poised to strike, signaling her to calm down. He turned his head and glanced at Wei Shengxian, saying, "He wouldn't dare to torture me. It's just the imperial prison; I could go there before, and I can go there now."
*
That day, Liu E was taken from Feng Tan's residence to the Ministry of Justice's Futu Prison by Cheng Ruihui. She had committed a serious crime and was therefore imprisoned on the ninth floor.
It was late spring, and the nights were still a bit chilly. Liu'e huddled on a bundle of straw, her eyes tightly shut.
Suddenly, the jailer's footsteps sounded, mixed with his voice speaking to someone, "I'm making an exception to let you in. Speak quickly, and remember not to harm the prisoner. Whether she lives or dies is up to the law."
The jailer weighed the purse the old woman had just handed him, grinned, and said, "Go on, go on."
The old woman had given her enough money and pulled some strings, so it wouldn't hurt to let her visit the prison.
The old woman walked to Liu'e's cell and called out to her, "Xiao'e."
Liu E was somewhat taken aback and said, "...Mother-in-law."
During her three years in the Li family, she suffered endless humiliation and abuse. If there was anything that made Liu E hesitate when she raised her knife to kill Li Ting, it was her mother-in-law, who had always been kind to her.
Before Liu E could speak, tears streamed down her face. "I'm sorry."
“I’m sorry, but you don’t regret it,” the old woman squatted down and looked Liu’e in the eye through the iron bars. “If I had to apologize, it would be him who beat you for three years. I listened to your cries at night, but I could only pretend not to hear them. I should be the one apologizing for giving birth to such a wretched child.”
The old woman burst into tears as she spoke. Her son had inherited his father's violent nature. Liu E had been beaten for three years, but she had been beaten for almost twenty three-year periods.
Liu E's eyes trembled slightly, tears welling up in them. "Mother-in-law...you...you don't resent me?"
The old woman's eyes were etched with tear tracks. She shook her head and pulled a neatly folded piece of paper from her sleeve. "This is my testimony. It details his years of violence and I even got the neighbors to sign it. They all agreed."
Liu E took the testimony; the paper seemed to still carry the warmth of the old woman.
A sarcastic smile played on her lips. Her own mother treated her like trash, while her mother-in-law was willing to rescue her from her cage.
The old woman said, "I can't read. This is how Lord Feng taught me, stroke by stroke. But my handwriting is still ugly. However, she said it doesn't matter if my handwriting is bad, as long as it can save you."
Tears welled up in Liu'e's eyes and streamed down her face. "But mother-in-law, aren't you afraid..."
Knowing what she was going to say, the old woman patted Liu'e's hand through the iron bars and said, "Although I'm old, I still have some backbone. Besides, my husband has lost his son, so he won't bother to hit me..."
Footsteps sounded again in the passageway outside the prison. Cheng Ruihui walked in, looked at the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law who were in tears, paused for a moment, bowed to the old woman, and said: "Madam, you are so righteous, thank you for your help."
The old woman quickly waved her hand and said, "This old woman cannot accept Lord Cheng's courtesy."
Liu E handed the testimony to Cheng Ruihui, thanked him, and then asked curiously, "Lord Cheng, what are you planning to do?"
Cheng Ruihui stood upright, like an immovable pine tree. "Using confessions as a gimmick, he regarded palace ladies and noblewomen as the first line, scholars and officials as the second line, and ordinary people as the third line, linking multiple lines to put pressure on the injustices of the law."
She didn't understand how to manipulate Liu E, but looking at Cheng Ruihui, she felt a strange sense of security and said, "If you have any orders, just do as I say."
Liu E was a clever woman. She wasn't sure if Feng Tan would face a backlash from his opponents after she had used him. Her face was full of restraint and emotion as she asked, "Lord Cheng, how is Lord Feng?"
Cheng Ruihui's expression was indifferent, and Liu E could not discern any emotion from it.
“During the seven days when public opinion was raging in the capital, she was in the imperial prison.” Cheng Ruihui turned around, her voice filled with a firm trust in her ally. “No matter how difficult it was, she would not let anything happen to herself.”
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