female concubine

Chapter 264

Xiao Youqing sat on the wooden couch in the Duo Hall of the Chuigong Hall, and two servants walked into the Duo Hall with the help of the purple robe and jade belt. Li Shiji waved to the two servants, then limped forward and knelt down and said, "My minister Li Shiji kowtowed Your Highness the Queen, Your Highness the Queen for thousands of years."

Xiao Youqing quickly got up from his seat, walked to the old general and helped him up, "General Li, please get up quickly."

Li Shiji trembled his hands, "The old minister has relapsed and cannot serve His Majesty. Please forgive me."

Xiao Youqing supported the old general and said gratefully: "The old general has lived and died for the country and made great contributions to the recovery of Hexi. He is the most important general of His Majesty and the loyal pillar of the country." .”

Li Shiji stopped and knelt down again, "His Royal Highness!"

"Why, old general?"

"My son-in-law is absolutely impossible to treason the country and cooperate with the enemy. Their Fang family has been loyal and good for generations. This is why I married my youngest daughter as my wife. I knew him well. When I was young, I was full of ambitions. I watched the Central Plains full of barrenness but was unable to turn the tide. The previous emperor's reforms were not enough He died two years ago, and he was also one of those implicated. For this reason, he was always depressed, until now, the perseverance of reforming the law and striving for strength is far better than that of the previous emperor. He never hated the king but did not hate the country. You have won the trust of the emperor, why do you want to cooperate with others?"

"It's not that I don't know Fang Shumi's loyalty, but the situation in the court is really helpless. This move is just to stabilize those people first. Please rest assured, the old general. I will definitely investigate this matter and return Fang Shumi's innocence."

Li Shiji knelt down again, "His Royal Highness understands righteousness, and I am ashamed."

Then Xiao Youqing personally helped Li Shiji up and sent him out of the Chuigong Palace, watched him leave the palace before turning back, "I don't hate the king, I don't hate the country..." Li Shiji's words seemed to wake up Xiao Youqing.

"Saint, Xue Jin and Xue Bian are back." Zhao Ping cupped his hands.

The servant stepped into the Chuigong Hall, entered the Duo Hall, knelt down and said: "The minister, Xue Jin, who is the official of the Imperial City, kowtowed to Her Highness the Queen, and wished her a long life."

Xiao Youqing stepped on the step bed, turned around and sat down slowly, raised her head and said urgently with Danfeng eyes shining: "But there is news?"

Xue Jin got up and bowed and walked to Xiao Youqing, and presented some rolled up yellow paper from his sleeve, "Check the records of personnel exchanges at the palace gate by Neidongmensi in the past few months. The Ministry of War is in Shangshu Province. They are in charge of military affairs together, so they have close contacts, and the minister sent the investigation department all the way to the southwest from Gyeonggi-do. For the time being, the Minister of the Ministry of War..." Xue Jin bowed his head, "These two ministers are His Majesty's most trusted courtiers."

"Xue Jin."

"The little guy is here."

Xiao Youqing turned down coldly, "How did I tell you back then?"

Xue Jin raised his head in surprise, then stepped back and knelt heavily, "Your Highness..."

Xiao Youqing stood up and said, "Did I say that all the cases should be investigated without exception?"

Xue Jin kowtowed again, "The villain knows his mistake."

"Detain all the horses and horses in the Ministry of War, and Kui Guang will inform the crown prince to go to the imperial city to take care of him."

"Yes."

Xue Jin raised his head and immediately bowed down, "Yes."

The crown prince who learned that he was going to interrogate his mentor did not go directly to the Imperial City Division but hurried to the inner court.

The crown prince hurriedly walked to the front of the hall and stopped. After straightening his head, he rolled up his wide sleeves and folded them in front of his abdomen, then entered the hall and knelt down in front of his mother.

Xiao Youqing looked down at the crown prince who bowed his head, "If you come here in a hurry, don't force yourself to perform unnecessary salutes."

The crown prince raised his head, "It's not that my mother doesn't know about Master's character. Master will never do such a thing, my mother..."

"Enough!" Xiao Youqing was cold again, staring straight at the Crown Prince, "Fang Zhiyan has been besieged by those ministers and sent to prison, the matter happened in the Ministry of War, do you still want Han Bang to go to prison along with him? "

"The minister is stupid," the crown prince said again.

Xiao Youqing got up and helped him up and said earnestly: "He will understand, as a scholar, it is better to let him suffer at the hands of his own people than to go to prison and leave a disgraceful one."

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The emperor expanded the Imperial City Division, and established a separate punishment hall under the Imperial City Division.

The crown prince sat upright in the execution hall, with his hands clasped in front of his abdomen, and the guards of the imperial city brought the Minister of the Ministry of War into him. When he was about to make him kneel down, the crown prince waved quickly, "Master, you don't have to kneel down to my palace." Retire the guard.

On both sides were the officials of the Imperial City Division and the jury officials and courtiers of the East Palace. After being loosened, Han Si bent his sleeves and knelt down.

The crown prince held up his hand for a moment of stalemate, then frowned and put it down, "His Royal Highness ordered this Palace to interrogate Master. Southwest military affairs have always been assigned to the Ministry of War, and its deployment is also issued by the Ministry of War. Now that the Southwest War has begun... the Ministry of War is the most suspicious, Master. It is the Minister of the Ministry of War, please tell me the truth, does this matter have anything to do with the Ministry of War?"

"I have been serving officials for more than twenty years, and I have served in the Ministry of War and Privy Council for more than ten years. I have never done anything that I am ashamed of. I have never dared to decide on border affairs, no matter how big or small. I was born in the country and grew up in the country. For more than ten years, what is flowing in the body is the blood of the Han people, what is the reason for such stealing of the country, and what is the reason for it?"

The two master generals sitting in front of the low tables on the left and right of the punishment hall recorded the words and deeds of the interrogation one by one, and the crown prince asked again: "The investigation from the Imperial City Division to Gyeonggi Province and the Southwest Official Road shows that the documents of the Ministry of War have the most exchanges."

"His Royal Highness, if you really want to treason the country and cooperate with the enemy, why do you need to use documents? Isn't it ridiculous that such a state secret is deceiving your ears and stealing your bell?"

The Crown Prince raised his brows again, "No matter what Shang Shu said, this matter has nothing to do with the Ministry of War, so I have to ask Shang Shu, besides Shang Shu and the Minister, is there anyone else who knows these secrets?"

"The secrets of the Ministry of War will be locked in the cabinet, and the keys are all on the subject..." Han Bang suddenly stopped, remembering the clothes his wife sent a few months ago. He was in a hurry to change clothes and forgot to pick up the keys. They were sent back to the Han residence together.

"Master, what did you remember?"

Han Bang lowered his head, "It shouldn't be."

"The matters involving the country are no small matter. If the master is unwilling to confess and tell the truth..." the crown prince raised his hand to take the criminal law plaque, "then I can only use torture."

Han Bang frowned, his heart was full of doubts and incomprehensions, "Until the matter is clarified, I can't speculate about her..."

"Others?" The crown prince leaned over and asked, "Who is it?"

"It's me!" Several imperial guards escorted a woman into the room.

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The servant walked and ran from the right door into the palace corridor, and hurried into the Chuigong Hall, knelt down and said: "Your Highness, the person who leaked the secret has been found out."

Xiao Youqing patted the official document in his hand on the table, got up and asked, "Who is it?"

"It's a female officer under the Minister of War."

The female officer was connected with leaking secrets, almost causing Xiao Youqing to fall back on the seat, and immediately stepped forward and asked, "Are you sure?"

"She confessed it herself."

Xiao Youqing looked around, and there was only one servant who was always by his side, "You must not tell the officials about this matter."

"People have already taken the initiative to go to the torture hall, paper can't suppress the fire..."

"It's only a moment if you can hide it for a moment. If the matter is found out and it is proved that the female officer did it, do you know what it means?"

Selecting a woman as an official leaks state secrets and causes the enemy to invade. This will give the conservatives a reason to besiege and destroy everything the emperor has worked so hard to build.

Xiao Youqing turned around, "Kui Guang immediately went to Kunning Hall to tell Princess Fuqing, and another person was sent to guard the door of the hall, and no one else was allowed to enter, and the things brought in by the Six Shang Bureau had to be forwarded by his own people."

"Yes."

In the Imperial City Criminal Hall on the south side of the right-moving door, the crown prince and the jury officials all blushed.

"It was I who peeked at the defense of the Ministry of War in the southwest. It was I who colluded with the enemy generals. I arranged for the internal response to open the city gate at night. I didn't expect the seal of the Ministry of War to be so useful. Some people make power and some people make money. It's really tempting to get promoted and get rich. Very much."

Han Si looked at her very puzzled, "You..."

The woman's official hat was taken off by herself, and her eyes were full of contempt and disdain, "I don't care about the position of female minister and your stinky official uniform at all!"

"Presumptuous, is there any reason for the sinners in your country to speak out here?"

"You people, who think about the monarch and ministers all day long, and think about serving the country and the people, are you not full of thoughts, jealousy, exclusion, and vying to flatter the emperor? You only think that what you do is right, and you only think about yourself. People who care, say that they are the father of all people in the world," the woman laughed wildly, "this is the biggest joke in the world!"

The woman looked at everyone with a smile, "You regard him as a king and a father, but he will only treat you as worthless and ants."

Han Bang choked, and then walked up to the woman step by step, "You and the official family..."

"I have a sworn feud with him."

Xiao Youqing came out of the Chuigong Hall and walked quickly in the palace corridor, Xue Jin followed cautiously, "After she confessed, I immediately sent someone to check her file and household registration. It is indeed from Kaifeng. There is a younger sister in the family, but it is too late She died of illness a few years ago, and then she was selected as a female officer in vain."

Xiao Youqing suddenly stopped, "Household registration..."

"Your Highness, do you think there is something wrong?"

"Detain all the officials in charge of household registration from the household department and take them to the punishment hall."

"Yes."

The interrogation was still going on in the torture hall, but it seemed that the woman was alone without asking questions, and yelled loudly in the hall, and several attempts to stop the torture failed to silence her.

The female officer's hair was disheveled, she touched the blood spilling from the corner of her mouth, and opened her scary eyes, "What does the emperor care about, the more I want to destroy what he cares about, isn't this just according to your wishes, His Royal Highness, the emperor is dizzy , you will gain the power to supervise the country, if the emperor dies because of this..."

Before the crown prince on the seat could speak to reprimand, the female officer was slapped by the woman who drove in.

--Snapped! ——The voice resounded through the execution hall, covering the female officer's voice.

Everyone got up from their seats and raised their folded sleeves and bowed, "Your Highness the Queen."

But Xiao Youqing's extremely forceful slap didn't seem to wake the female officer up, but instead made her laugh even more wildly, "Yes, yes, yes, it's this kind of look, caring, helpless, angry, Her Royal Highness, as the person standing at the top of the country, Women will also have helpless and regretful eyes, and will do things beyond their power."