It was night, and the Milky Way outlined by the bright stars in the night sky was particularly beautiful. The Gongyuan in Kyoto was very quiet, but some candidates were answering questions or double-checking by candlelight.
At this moment, a gust of breeze came to the northern main courtyard, causing the young master sitting in a certain dormitory, lying on the table and snoring, to shiver. Shen Yunchu slowly raised his head and stretched out his hand to rub his eyes. , looking sideways at the candles that were about to burn out and the Chu Gong card standing on the table, showing doubts.
How long has he been standing in the Gong Pai Dudu? Why hasn't the answer to the political commentary been delivered yet?
Soon, a patrolling Forbidden Army passed in front of him. Shen Yunchu quickly stopped him: "Hey, Brother Forbidden Army, I want to show my respect."
"I know, just wait." The tall Imperial Guard replied casually, walked all the way to the side door, and told Tang Ji and Su Qing about the incident.
Tang Ji yawned and turned to look at Su Qing: "Old Su, how are you?"
According to the observation of the Forbidden Army soldiers last night and the clues sent by Tianxuan to investigate, Tang Ji has been able to determine the opponent's cheating methods. First, the nineteen officials' sons set up the respectful cards, and the clerk hid the answer in the chamber pot and put it in the chamber pot. After the answer was passed in, the group of people had to wait for it to be copied and then collect it early the next morning. Therefore, not long after Shen Yunchu set up the Gong card, a clerk sent the chamber pot over, but in the end he sent someone to make excuses. The purpose of holding them apart and holding them down is to wait for the answers to be passed to the other eighteen people, so that they can be caught in one fell swoop.
"Wait a little longer." Su Qing looked at the path in the distance, her fingers holding on to the wall waving regularly.
Not long after, a Forbidden Army soldier wearing armor trotted over, raised his hands and said, "Master Tang, Colonel Su, those eighteen people have already used the chamber pot once."
Tang Ji raised the corner of his mouth slightly, waved his hand and said: "Act as planned!"
The soldiers standing beside him nodded silently and quickly dispersed.
Tang Jize took Su Qing into the southern main courtyard.
...
Shen Yunchu was lying on the table, tossing around, looking extremely irritable. He had already been filling out the paper at this time two days ago. Why didn't it arrive for a long time today? He didn't think much about the topic of the political essay. If the reference analysis was not delivered in time, Come in.
When the time comes, let alone the top 100 in the B list, whether you can be on the list or not is a question!
Thinking of this, he couldn't help but stretch his neck and look back and forth on the road in front of the house.
Soon, a Forbidden Army soldier came over with a petty official.
"What are you looking at so secretly? Are you trying to cheat?"
Hearing the word "fraud" from the Forbidden Army, Shen Yunchu couldn't help but trembled. He hurriedly sat down and said with a silly smile: "Brother the Forbidden Army, I can't hold it in any longer. Don't I want you to come over sometime?"
The soldier hummed softly and waved his hand to the clerk to open the chamber pot. After casual inspection, he asked the clerk to hand it to Shen Yunchu.
"Hey, thank you so much, Brother Forbidden Army." Shen Yunchu smiled politely and quickly took the chamber pot.
The soldiers didn't pay much attention and left one after another with the petty officials.
Looking at the backs of the two of them, Shen Yunchu felt a little strange, but he couldn't tell what was wrong. Considering that it was already late, he didn't think much about it. He glanced left and right, then stood up and walked to the back to cover the small area with a wooden board. Place, touch the base of the chamber pot, and after gently turning it, the small diamond-shaped piece below will slowly fall, and two small pieces of rice paper sandwiched in it will appear.
He couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, and raised the corners of his mouth slightly, but just as he took out the two pieces of rice paper, a fire suddenly lit up outside the cell.
"Master Shen, what are you doing?" Tang Ji asked with a smile.
Shen Yunchu quickly held the paper in his hand, stood up and replied: "I, I want to pay my respects. Is there anything wrong, Mr. Tang?"
Tang Ji nodded slightly, stood there for a few seconds, and asked, "What is that in your hand?"
Hearing this, Shen Yunchu suddenly felt a chill in his back, swallowed a mouthful of saliva, and hesitated not knowing how to answer.
Tang Ji had no ink marks either, and waved his hand to signal the Imperial Guards around him to go in and search.
Seeing this, Shen Yunchu became nervous. Without thinking, he stuffed the paper in his hand into his mouth and chewed it hard.
Tang Ji chuckled lightly: "Mr. Shen, you are the eldest son of the capital and come from a famous family. You should know the methods of the Xingchen Division. I have already found you, but you swallowed the evidence of your crime. Do you want to be disemboweled? ?”
After listening to his words, Shen Yunchu quickly bowed and spit out all the shredded paper that he was about to swallow. He raised his eyes to look at Tang Ji and said anxiously: "Master Tang, I beg you, don't do this." Let the matter be told, I can give you whatever you want!"
But it was obviously too late to say this. The candidates around him became energetic when they saw the light of the fire, and the invigilator in charge of this dormitory also quickly walked over.
Tang Ji was too lazy to talk nonsense and raised his hand to signal the imperial army to bring Shen Yunchu and the chamber pot out.
When the chamber pot was turned upside down on the ground, Tang Ji used the light of the torch to see clearly the structure of the base. He took out the two real test paper answers from his sleeve and stuffed them between the small diamond-shaped pieces. He gently turned the base and saw that the small pieces slowly shrank. He went back and merged with the square groove. He couldn't help but be surprised. He raised his eyes to look at Shen Yunchu and gave a thumbs up: "I will obey you even if I don't support the wall!"
In order to cheat, he even installed a mechanism under the urine bucket. Li Xian is really hardworking!
The invigilator standing aside saw the mechanism clearly and his eyes widened: "Master Tang, this?"
At this moment, Su Qing, who had been silent, took a small step forward and said coldly: "After investigation by the Star Guards, the candidate Shen Yunchu is suspected of fraud and is temporarily detained until His Majesty takes action and takes him away!"
On the other side, in the east main courtyard.
Zhang Xiuhao was sitting at the table in the rest area, his head drooping from time to time, looking extremely sleepy.
"Master Zhang, go to bed if you feel sleepy."
Hearing the sound, Zhang Xiuhao woke up for a while. He looked up and found Shen Di, who was wearing white clothes and a brown cloak. He raised his hands and asked, "Why is Prime Minister Shen here?"
"As people get older, they get up more often at night, so they want to walk around before going back to sleep." Shen Di explained a few words while stroking his beard, coughed slightly, and continued: "Mr. Zhang, you need to pay attention to your rest. , don’t collapse from exhaustion.”
"Thank you, Mr. Shen, for thinking about me." Zhang Xiuhao thanked him again and turned to look at the dormitory not far away. As long as he could spend the night smoothly, he would not have to worry and could sleep well.
But just as he was speaking, fire suddenly lit up in several places in the courtyard, followed by a burst of noisy footsteps.
Zhang Xiuhao's heart skipped a beat, he jumped up from his seat, and asked loudly: "What happened?"
An invigilator ran over in three steps at a time, raised his hands and said: "Reporting to the Secretary Zhang, the Star Guards have discovered that someone has committed fraud, and the suspect has been arrested."
Before Zhang Xiuhao could react, a Forbidden Army soldier came over: "Reporting to Prime Minister Shen, Mr. Zhang, the Xingchen Division has now identified the candidates Shen Yunchu, Han Mingcheng, Huo Honglang, Lu Xiu... .Nineteen people were suspected of participating in provincial examination fraud. With the approval of Xingchen Division Governor Tianxuan, Xingchen Division Chief Tang Ji and Yunxiao Guards Su Qing arrested them and temporarily detained them in Xingchen Division until the truth was found out and handed over to His Majesty."
Hearing this, Zhang Xiuhao fell on the chair again.
When Shen Di heard Shen Yunchu's name, he became uneasy. Seeing Zhang Xiuhao's performance, he understood something. He waved his hand to signal the imperial soldiers to retreat. When no one was around, he said in a deep voice: "Zhang Xiuhao." Sir, does this matter have anything to do with you?"
"Xiaguan..." Zhang Xiuhao looked panicked, clenched his hands into fists, forced himself to calm down, and continued: "Prime Minister Shen, this official is also thinking about Yunchu's future. It's too late to say this now, we still have to say Go and apologize to His Majesty as soon as possible."
Hearing this, Shen Di showed an angry expression: "You are so courageous. Yun Chu's future must be fought for by himself, not by such dirty methods!"
Zhang Xiuhao's eyes were empty and he sneered: "Prime Minister Shen should know the consequences of being found out for fraud. If you don't help me, Yun Chu's life will be ruined. If you make His Majesty angry, he won't even be able to save his life." !”
The cloak on Shen Di's shoulders slowly fell to the ground, and he frowned slightly: "What? You think you can make me stand on your side by dragging Yun Chu into the water? But don't forget, I come from a poor family. What I hate is also cheating. If I exonerate them, how can I be worthy of the nearly three thousand candidates taking the provincial examination in Gongyuan today, and how can I be worthy of the scholars all over the world? In this provincial examination, as a supervisor, I failed It was a breach of duty to find out that Shen Yunchu had committed fraud. As for how the court would punish him, he would have to bear it, even if it cost his life. And you, for organizing fraud, think carefully about how to explain it to His Majesty! "
"Humph!" Shen Di waved his sleeves heavily, then turned and left.
Zhang Xiuhao didn't expect Shen Di's attitude to be so resolute, and his eyes became panicked. Just when he was about to get up to confirm how far the Xingchen Division had gone in the investigation, a charming voice suddenly came from behind him.
"Master Zhang, Your Majesty invites you!" Tianxuan twisted her seductive body and walked out of the darkness, smiling and not forgetting to lick her red lips after speaking.