After reading a lot of testimonies, the next file was titled [Military Punishment Record for the Defeat at Xifengkou]. He Qizhou knew that most of the 10,000 cavalry were surrounded and annihilated when they retreated to Xifengkou. Originally, at least
It was a battle of even strength, but ended in a disastrous defeat. The elite accumulated over the past ten years were destroyed overnight!
After the commander Jiang Gui learned that only 30,000 enemy troops finally joined the battle group, he asked for death. He Qizhou also saw the emperor's "accurate" Zhu approval on the apology letter, but it was later erased with Zhu ink, but the handwriting
It is vaguely debatable. It seems that the emperor was angry for a moment and had no choice but to wipe it out afterwards.
Since many testimonies showed that the enemy force that was reported to Jiang Gui's ears was indeed 60,000. If they did not defend the city, with the strength of the Qi army, even a sneak attack would inevitably annihilate the entire army. Therefore, it was finally determined that the military order was correct, but it was just
Demoted two levels of military rank, from first-grade marshal to second-grade general.
Because of self-blame, Jiang Gui soon resigned from all his official positions, leaving only a third-grade weapon at the Military Academy.
Xu Xuan also escaped death. He was a close confidant of Jiang Cong. The emperor believed that he suggested retreat in order to preserve the elite of the imperial army, so he was demoted to two ranks in the inner palace and never sent him to supervise the army again.
The generals and deputy generals who were in charge of the rear were not so lucky, and they were all cut off from the waist to calm Manchu's anger.
The three detectives who relayed the message were all questioned and executed after three years of fruitless investigation. The execution letter also included many letters pleading for mercy. He Qizhou found many familiar names: Zhang Luyao, Lin Yan,
Lingfeng, Zhang Zhiren...
He Qizhou knew that his adoptive father had already died at this time, otherwise he might be able to save the three of them and continue the investigation.
The files at the back are all case-closing information reported by various yamen. Most of the hundreds of soldiers who escaped death in the vanguard army have been in a thick stack after some questioning, but they still can't find the information they need.
"Huh? Why does it seem to be missing?" He Qizhou muttered to himself, looking through the [Punishment Record] again and again, but still couldn't find what he was looking for.
Suddenly, the footsteps of two people came from the question. He Qizhou felt guilty. He didn't expect someone to come over in the middle of the night. He hurriedly stuffed the pile of files into the quilt and picked up a book on the case.
The door to the mailroom was pushed open, and the two people went straight to the dormitory where there was no door. He Qizhou looked up and saw that it was Zhang Zhiren and Hua Zhu.
"Do you feel like you're missing something?" Zhang Zhiren asked with a livid face.
"What's missing?" He Qizhou tried his best to keep his heartbeat from beating too fast.
Zhang Zhiren said expressionlessly: "Do you know what the crime of hiding military secrets is? This is the Privy Council!"
"I - how did you know?" He Qizhou knew that he could no longer hide it, so he might as well confess it frankly.
"Who do you think can get into the Privy Council? Even the people in the mail room are all human beings!" Zhang Zhiren said angrily.
Huazhu smiled awkwardly and said, "Sir, let's see what you said..."
Zhang Zhiren pointed at Huazhu and said: "He is the best among men! Tianxi's top pick in the 28th year of Tianxi! He has been struggling in this Privy Council for 12 years. His greatest skill is his photographic memory. What is your best ability?"
Can you hide it from him with some caution?"
Huazhu said: "Little Marquis, the IOU I sent you stated ten years of war. You moved a lot of them in. Something is obviously wrong."
"How did you know that I moved a lot of things in?" He Qizhou asked.
"Of course I heard it from others. Very few people move things here, and I rarely send out two tasks at once." Huazhu said.
He Qizhou understood that the two people in the room were suspicious of him and informed Hua Zhu. Hua Zhu immediately became suspicious and reported it to Zhang Zhiren. It seemed that he was still too imprudent.
"I just want to quietly look at the files on the Xifengkou defeat. I know that 'Yang Zheng' is a very sensitive word in the court. If I want to look at it, no one will pay attention to me." He Qizhou opened the quilt and exposed half of his clothes.
Bed file.
Zhang Zhiren said: "Fortunately you met me. I know you didn't have any good intentions!" After saying that, he took out a volume of documents from his arms and gently threw it on the bed.
"What is this?" He Qizhou asked suspiciously.
Zhang Zhiren said: "These are the missing things. After an hour, you move all these things to my place. I asked Huazhu to change the IOU and asked you to pick up all the files. After that, everyone pretended that it never happened.
This is what happened. Huazhu, please go back."
"Yes, sir." Huazhu bowed and left.
He Qizhou said anxiously: "Master Hua..."
"Why, you still want to kill people and silence them? Don't worry, he is from the Zhang family." Zhang Zhiren said.
"Goodbye, Mr. Hua! Mr. Zhang, how can I be that kind of person..." He Qizhou immediately put on a smiling face.
Seeing Huazhu leave, Zhang Zhiren said: "What kind of person are you? Do you think I don't know? You kill more ruthlessly than anyone else! Is Shi Lan so easy to mess with? Believe it or not, even if you argue in court that day
You won, but at least half of the people in the court still think you killed those two people!"
"Xiaoxue told you everything?"
"Yeah." Zhang Zhiren nodded slightly, and when he turned to leave, you whispered: "But that kind of person really deserves to be killed, and he should be killed well! Especially the person named Gan, killing him a hundred times is too little! He should be killed well!"
He Qizhou's racing heart gradually calmed down. His little cleverness sometimes failed, but fortunately it was all his own! The file left by Zhang Zhiren was indeed what he cared about most, and it was also the source of several doubts about the whole process. Because it was missing from the judgment.
A key figure - Ye Xu and several other important personnel.
Ye Xu, the most critical figure, was tried by the Metropolitan Procuratorate, the Privy Council, and the Ministry of Punishment. Two of the presiding officers were known to He Qizhou, Liu Jinan from the Privy Council and Hu Mao from the Ministry of Punishment. After several tortures, Ye Xu still did not change his story.
All the witnesses claimed that the number reported to the relay detectives was 30,000. They were later detained by the Metropolitan Procuratorate and interrogated without further explanation.
Liu Bozhou and Wang Zhiyi were investigated by the Metropolitan Procuratorate and the Criminal Department respectively. Their testimonies were consistent, and they were detained for half a month and released without charge.
He Qizhou carefully checked the closed case files of the Metropolitan Procuratorate and the Ministry of Criminal Justice on the two men. The contents were similar and there was nothing special about them.
After reading this, He Qizhou did not dare to be careless and picked up all the files and sent them to Zhang Zhiren's office.
Zhang Zhiren still looked at the letter in his hand and asked, "Did you see anything?"
He Qizhou said: "Three questions."
"Ask." Zhang Zhiren still didn't raise his head.
"Where is Ye Xu now?"
"The Metropolitan Procuratorate Prison."
"Second question, why did the enemy force rush into ten miles north of Shangmapo so quickly, but our army had to rely on the reconnaissance cavalry of the rear army to discover the enemy's traces? Would the vanguard army not notice it?" He Qizhou asked.
"Good question, you can ask the third question first." Zhang Zhiren finally put down the letter in his hand and raised his head.
"Third question, where is the second batch of reconnaissance cavalry sent by Wenting?" He Qizhou asked.
Zhang Zhiren said: "Your second and third questions actually have an answer. Since the vanguard army did not discover in advance the sudden outflanking of a small group of enemy troops, which cut off the reconnaissance cavalry, Wenting sent the second batch of reconnaissance cavalry.
They also failed to send a message, which also led to the accelerated retreat of the rear army! In fact, the response team of 3,000 people would not have much effect even if they did not withdraw."
"Sir, do you believe this explanation?" He Qizhou asked.
Zhang Zhiren said: "I don't believe it."
He Qizhou asked: "So you have been investigating this case?"
Zhang Zhiren said: "Yes, at least one-third of this stack of files was made up by me. With Yang Zheng and He Qingshan's use of troops, plus the terrain at that time, it was impossible to easily silence so many enemy troops."
Most of the soldiers who escaped said that they were heavily surrounded near the mouth of the west wind. Of course, another explanation is that the few Zhouqi who broke in were just to prevent our vanguard army from collapsing from the two wings until they were close.
He only joined the battle group at the mouth of the west wind."
"This is also possible. But someone must have lied in this series of information transmission!" He Qizhou said.
"That's true." Zhang Zhiren nodded.
"Although the most likely ones to lie are the three scouts in the relay, I know that to become a scout, you must be someone the general trusts. There are three of them, so it is difficult to ensure that everyone keeps the secret. What is the promise?
How much benefit can I get from them before they all rebel?"
"Keep talking." Zhang Zhiren nodded.
"I saw your name in the documents pleading for them, and many other soldiers who escaped, so many people believe them. If they are not lying, then they have not really found out what the problem is."
Zhang Zhiren sighed and said: "Yes! If we can't find out the problem, we will lose inexplicably in the future, so I have been looking for the answer for the past ten years."
He Qizhou said:
"In the first round, it is possible that Wen Ting was the one who lied, but he himself was killed in the battle, and his motive for lying cannot be explained in any case;
In the second round, the one who is most likely to lie is Ye Xu. His testimony is inconsistent with that of the relay detectives, but the three relay detectives indirectly proved that Ye Xu arrived at the same time as the six others. In other words, if
Ye Xu lied, so the order the six of them received was indeed that the enemy came with 60,000 cavalry, which pushed the suspicion to Wenting;
In the third link, the three relay men lied, regardless of the mutual trust between comrades. This is the most reasonable explanation, and it is also the conclusion currently recognized by the authorities, but it is inconsistent with both emotion and reason.
In the fourth ring, the rear army notified the vanguard that Liu Bozhou and Wang Zhiyi were breaking out. The fact that they encountered the enemy's vanguard was somewhat suspicious. If they had not issued a withdrawal notice as ordered, they could have killed the vanguard!"
Zhang Zhiren said: "Boy, you are right. I have thought of all these. First, Wen Ting's direct superior was He Qingshan. A large number of people in the court believed that He Qingshan instructed Wen Ting to lie. However, Wen Ting died in the battle.
On the battlefield, the royal family had to reward him, so it was impossible to identify him as a traitor without evidence;
Secondly, if this case is to be settled, the heads of the three detectives must also be brought to the ground, and the case involves many royal family members and nobles, so it must be settled as soon as possible, so - so no matter how much we plead for mercy, we cannot save those three brothers.
.
Thirdly, Liu Bozhou and Wang Zhiyi made their statements conclusively, but there is really no evidence to prove that they lied. Therefore, even though there are many doubts, they still cannot find out the truth behind it.
Maybe the truth is that the three people in the relay were bribed at the same time, alas, but I’m just not willing to do it.”