The Hanlin Academy is located to the east of Hongwen Hall. In addition to an administrative hall for offices, there are also five large bookstores.
The establishment of the academy consists of one senior academician of the third rank, two deputy academicians of the fifth rank, six senior Hanlin bachelors of the sixth rank, and more than a dozen senior Hanlin academicians of the seventh rank.
Because the Hanlin Academy is an idle government office, there is little work all year round. The deputy director of the Academy has been vacant for a long time, and all Hanlin bachelors are part-time and have other serious jobs.
For example, Pei Xingjian, the Minister of Civil Affairs who was just impeached, also holds the title of Hanlin bachelor.
The real main force of the Hanlin Academy is the Hanlin editors. They go to work at the Hanlin Academy every day and are responsible for sorting and classifying the classics and history books in the library, and are also responsible for correcting erroneous annotations and texts.
When Wu Chengsi arrived at the Hanlin Academy, he saw a group of Qianniu Guards guarding the door. A young officer in the middle saw him, stepped forward quickly, cupped his hands and said: "Qianniu Guards General Li Duozuo, who has seen Wu Chengsi
Lord."
Wu Chengsi thought to himself: "Meet another famous person!" His heart was calm, and he waved his hand and said: "No need to be polite, General Li, the Queen has asked me to investigate this case. I wonder where the murder scene is?"
"It's in the Political Affairs Hall of the Hanlin Academy. Sir, please follow me."
Following Li Duozuo, he entered the political hall. Looking up, he saw that the hall was very spacious. There were five desks on the left and right, arranged in two rows. Each desk was piled with books.
On the table on the left, lay the body of an official in green official uniform, who was about forty years old. On the other side of the table, on the ground, lay the body of an official in his thirties.
Both of them had very frightened expressions before they died, especially the official in his thirties, whose face was twisted and frightened, and his eyeballs protruded, as if he had seen a ghost.
However, after putting on gloves and checking, they could not find any wounds on their bodies.
Li Duozuo explained from the side: "Master, these two people died of poisoning."
At this moment, footsteps came from behind, but it was Princess Taiping and Wu Youji who followed them. Princess Taiping walked to the body, not afraid of the expression of the deceased, and lowered her head to look at it.
Wu Youji asked Li Duozuo.
After experiencing Ye Yuqiu's case, Princess Taiping became more interested in solving the case. After observing carefully, she clapped her hands and said, "I guess these two people must have died of poisoning!"
Wu Youji laughed and said: "Cousin, didn't General Li just say that these two people died of poisoning? Do you still have to guess?"
Princess Taiping was furious: "I didn't listen to what you said!"
Wu Youji smiled faintly, with a look of disbelief.
As a mystery fan, Wu Chengsi could understand Princess Taiping's mood at this moment. He deliberately frowned and asked: "Cousin, if you hadn't heard what General Li said, how would you have known that they were poisoned to death?"
Princess Taiping pointed to the table and said impatiently: "Second cousin, look, there is a pot of wine and a wine glass here. It means that the two of them were drinking at each other's table, right?"
"Not bad!" Wu Chengsi nodded. There were two tall bronze wine glasses on the table, which were different from the popular round wine glasses.
"There are no wounds on their bodies, and they happened to be drinking. Looking at the expressions on their faces, they must have died of poisoned wine!" Princess Taiping put one hand on her arm and pointed to the wine glass with the other.
"Well, my cousin's analysis is reasonable." Wu Chengsi encouraged him.
Wu Chengsi turned to Li Duozuo and asked about the identities of the two people, but found that he was a little lost in thought. He asked twice before coming back to his senses and answered: "Reporting to the Lord, one of these two people is the Hanlin editor Lu Zhining, and the other is a worker."
The head of the department is Gao Lan."
"Who discovered the crime scene?" Wu Chengsi asked again.
"Another editor of the Hanlin Academy, Xue Ji!"
"Where are the others? Why don't you wait here for our interrogation?" Princess Taiping frowned.
"The young general ordered people to lock them up in the west wing." Li Duozuo hurriedly explained: "At the time of the incident, in addition to him, there were four civil servants and two envoys to the Tang Dynasty in the Hanlin Academy. I locked them all up. If Your Highness the Princess wants to ask anything, the young general will call them over immediately."
"Wait a minute, did you just say that you would send an envoy to the Tang Dynasty?" Wu Chengsi was surprised.
"Yes, at the time of the incident, Japan sent Tang envoys to guard Daishi, and Silla sent Tang envoys Cui Baosheng to the Hanlin Academy to make copies of essays."
Princess Taiping smiled and said: "Second cousin, you don't know something. These barbarians admire our culture of the Tang Dynasty and want to copy the important classics in the Hongwen Hall. My father does not allow it and only allows them to copy the essays of the Hanlin Academy."
Wu Chengsi remained silent. The so-called essays were books other than poetry, books, rituals, music, and paintings, including books on architecture, smelting, agriculture, clothing, food, etc.
These books were not valued by people at the time, but they contained the most practical aspects of Tang Dynasty culture and contained many of the most advanced technologies of this era.
It can only be said that the ancients really lacked foresight in terms of keeping technology secrets. It didn't matter that Silla would perish sooner or later, but the Japanese were different. They learned almost all their culture and technology from the Tang Dynasty, and they would use these to deal with China in the future.
For example, the Japanese sword was learned from the Tang Dynasty Hengdao. During the Ming Dynasty, many technologies from the Tang Dynasty were lost, which led to Japan's smelting technology surpassing China's and Japanese pirates causing trouble, which seriously harmed the people along the coast.
Thinking of this, Wu Chengsi waved his hand and said: "Let's go and watch them go!"
…
In a wing of the Hanlin Academy, Xue Ji was sitting leisurely on a table, copying Wang Xizhi's "Changfeng Tie". Behind him, in addition to the eight literary officials from the Hanlin Academy, there was also Cui Baosheng, the envoy from Silla to the Tang Dynasty. .
The envoy to the Tang Dynasty was wearing a green shirt, tall and shoulder-length, and had a mustache. He watched and applauded constantly.
Not far away from the group of people, Dashi, the envoy sent by Japan to the Tang Dynasty, knelt down next to a small table, copying a book on food and drink, and said with bright eyes: "Oh, oh, oh, I didn't expect that fish can be cut into sashimi." Come and eat it, it’s amazing! It’s amazing! It’s worthy of the Tang Dynasty!”
Not far away from him, Xue Ji smiled and said: "You are an island country, don't you know how to eat it?"
Shou Dashi bowed and said: "Yes, our country has not learned this advanced way of eating!"
Cui Baosheng sneered and said, "You barbarians can just eat your hair and drink your blood. This way of eating is not suitable for you. It's too degrading to be polite."
If there were only two people, Shou Dashi would have jumped forward with a loud bang. But here, he did not dare to make a mistake, a cold light flashed in his eyes, and he continued to immerse himself in copying.
At this moment, there was a sound of footsteps outside the door, and Wu Chengsi and others pushed the door open and entered.
Xue Ji stood up in a hurry, but Shou Dashi reacted faster than him and stood up straight almost instantly. He was already extremely short, and bowing made him look even smaller.
Li Duozuo said coldly: "This is the Duke of Zhou sent by the Queen to investigate the case. Please tell me the details of the case. You must not hide anything!"
Xue Ji took a step forward and said loudly: "My lord, Xia Guan Xue Ji is the editor of the Hanlin Academy. It was Xia Guan who first discovered the bodies of editor Lu and Director Gao."
As he spoke, he explained the situation in detail.
The Hanlin Academy originally had six bachelors, fifteen editors, and eight literary officials.
Six of the bachelors are on duty in other departments. Among the fifteen editors, one's father died and he is worried at home, and two were loaned to the East Palace.
Another ten people were transferred away by Wu Mei, leaving only Lu Zhining, Xue Ji and eight civil servants so that Wu Chengsi could reorganize the Hanlin Academy."
Lu Zhining was in charge of managing the political affairs hall, while Xue Ji was in charge of the five bookstores. They both went to the Yamen at four quarters of the hour (8 o'clock), and at the beginning of Sishi (9 o'clock), Shou Dashi and Cui Baosheng entered the library to copy copies, with Xue Ji supervising.
At three o'clock in the afternoon (9:45), Xue Ji heard the official's report that Gao Lan was visiting. He knew that Gao Lan had a good relationship with Lu Zhining, so he didn't take it to heart.
At the end of Si Shi, he was about to go over and say hello to Gao Lan. When he entered the lobby through the ear door, he found the bodies of the two people and immediately notified Qianniu Guard.
In other words, the time of death of the two people can be determined to be between a quarter past three o'clock (9:45) and the end of past time (11 o'clock).
"Did anyone enter the Hanlin Academy during this period?" Wu Chengsi asked.
A civil servant said: "I saw General Hei Te Changzhi coming here!"
"When?" Li Duozuo asked anxiously.
"It's about five o'clock in the morning (10:15)." The official replied.