Tomorrow there will be a second court meeting on the Huo Tao and Maixiang case, and Xia Yan, the Minister of Rites, returned to his residence uneasy.
The emperor is already impatient and wants the courtiers to come up with the results tomorrow. He can't let Huo Tao stay in Linqing Prefecture to recuperate, right?
But what should be done, I still don’t have a clue. The reason is that Feng En’s confession last time made everyone I don’t know what to do.
If you don't have clear ideas, how can you go to court and fight with your opponent?
As the saying goes, to untie a bell, one must tie it. Thinking of this, Xia Yan asked the matron at home: "Have you sent anyone to the Sanwu Guild Hall to invite Qin Dewei today?"
The curtainman replied with a strange expression: "Qin Dewei was turned away by the passing Jinyi Guards School to the Ministry of Punishment today because he was occupying the road outside the right gate of Chang'an to make a living, blocking traffic and obstructing the view of the imperial city."
Xia Yan: "..."
What the hell is this horse-riding thing? Could there be more flaws? That’s outrageous!
The curtainman continued to explain: "So Qin Dewei is in the Penal Department Prison now. It is impossible to invite him over."
Of course it's impossible. If Qin Dewei could really come over, wouldn't it be a prison break?
Xia Yan hesitated for a while, then gritted his teeth and said, "Then I'll go visit the prisoner!"
Since the proud Master Xia became the Minister of Rites, he never expected that he would deign to visit a certain scholar one day, although this situation was quite special.
After Feng En, a huge creditor of 1,500 taels, was admitted to the prison, he never even visited it!
Of course, the situations of Feng En and Qin Dewei are indeed different.
The Feng En case is a political case, and the person is an imperial prisoner. If Xia Yan goes to see Feng En, that is forming a party. In the current harsh political environment, it can easily be used as a basis for attack.
If it aroused Emperor Jiajing's sensitive suspicion again, it would be a disaster, so Xia Yan did not dare to see Feng En.
But it doesn't matter if he goes to see Qin Dewei. Qin Dewei is not even a criminal, he is just a suspect in public security issues, without any political risk.
In the Tianlu Prison of the Ministry of Punishment, Zhao Chun, the prison chief, finally did not give Qin Dewei any pen and ink.
It's not that he's afraid of Qin Dewei's scribbling, but that Mr. Feng across from him is not emotionally stable and he's afraid of being provoked and causing an accident again.
This made Qin Dewei, who looked at the three walls, very sad. Who can describe such a great wall?
It's rare to spend two days in jail, and you can't even write down dozens of poems, so isn't it all in vain?
He looked at his fingers again and again, really unable to speak.
Those ruthless characters in the history books dared to bite off their fingers to write, but Qin Dewei was not ruthless enough to himself.
Perhaps those who should agree to share the same cell with Mr. Feng may be able to borrow Mr. Feng’s blood.
The layout of their prison is like this. There is a corridor in the middle, and there are three cells on both sides of the corridor.
Each cell is exactly the same, with walls on three sides and an arm-thick iron fence and small door on one side.
Each shift of four jailers stands on the corridor and passes the iron fence, which is enough to monitor all cells.
This place is relatively deserted now, and only three people, Feng En and his son, and Qin Dewei are locked up.
Moreover, because of the presence of the jailer, Qin Dewei could not stand across the street from Mr. Feng and say something that was inconvenient for outsiders to hear.
Suddenly, for some unknown reason, the four jailers on duty got the order and evacuated from the corridor to the outside. As a result, the crowd in the sky jail became even more deserted.
The young boy Feng Xingke was a little scared. He thought of some legends about unexplained sudden deaths in prison. Could this be the clearing out before the murder was silenced?
He asked his father tremblingly: "Dad, what's going on?"
Feng En had already gained experience living in Tianlao, and comforted his son by saying, "My son does not need to be afraid, probably someone important is coming to visit his father.
And I was afraid that a few words would be leaked, so in order to keep it confidential, the non-related personnel went out first.”
Feng Xingke felt relieved and looked outside, wondering what kind of important person he was.
Not long after, I saw a middle-aged and elderly man with a clear face walking alone into the aisle and entering the prison.
Feng En smiled and said to his son: "Look, this is Uncle Xia Dazong from the Ministry of Rites. He is my father's friend for many years and he is also a student of our Mr. Lu family in Songjiang Prefecture."
During the Zhengde twelfth-year examination, the examiner who admitted Xia Yan was named Lu Shen. He was from Shanghai County, Songjiang Prefecture, and matched Xia Yan's teachers and students.
Later, in the early years of Jiajing, Lu Shen became an imperial lecturer on classics and principles, but he had a bad relationship with Gui E, the hero of the Dali Conference, and was released.
Lu Shen is still working as an official in other places, which is one of the reasons why Xia Yan and Dali Yi are enemies.
Of course, in history, this Lu Shen was not very famous, except that the place where his family farmed and lived was named Lujiazui...
In other words, Xia Yan's teacher is the master of Lujiazui, Shanghai.
In addition to Lu Shen, there is also an imperial physician named Gu Dingfang, who is also from Songjiang Prefecture and has a close friendship with Xia Yan.
Historically, after Xia Yan was beheaded, it was Gu Dingfang who asked his son Gu Congli to collect Xia Yan's body, which shows their friendship.
In addition, Gu Congli, who collected Xia Yan's body, was related to Xu Jie.
All in all, Xia Yan and Songjiang Mansion have a very deep connection.
Therefore, when Feng En, a novice from the officialdom from Songjiang Prefecture, was able to hang out with Xia Yan and drink wine, and borrow a thousand and five hundred taels of debt after drinking too much, it was all because of his network of connections.
It’s not that Mr. Feng was so lucky that he met a future boss out of thin air like a deus ex machina.
If we have to analyze the deus ex machina, Feng En’s encounter with Qin Dewei is a completely unreasonable deus ex machina...
When he saw Xia Yan coming in, Feng En stood up with his son, straightened his clothes a little, and prepared to greet his old friend Xia Shangshu.
Xia Yan stood in the aisle, glanced around expressionlessly, then turned around, his back to Feng En.
Then he said to the other side of the cell: "Xia Guizhou is here to visit Qin Dewei, my poet friend!"
Feng En: "..."
Damn it! I, Feng Nanjiang, attacked political opponents because of your Xia Yan, and I have been in jail and prison for four months, and you, Xia Yan, have not even come to see me!
Qin Dewei has never done anything for you. On the first day he entered the prison, you, Xia Yan, came to visit him in person!
Doesn’t your conscience hurt? Can you still be more fond of the new and dislike the old?
The child is still here watching, can't you give me a little respect?
At this time, Qin Dewei was lying on the straw mat when he suddenly heard Xia Yan's voice. He sat up and turned around to see Master Xia.
He quickly got up and walked to the iron fence to salute, and asked in surprise through the iron fence: "Sir, do you need to catch a knife in the late life again?"
Tomorrow's court meeting was imminent. Xia Yan asked a little impatiently: "What do you intend to do by manipulating Feng En, the puppet, to recommend Huo Tao? What will happen next?"
Master Feng is dissatisfied again. Brother Xia, can you be more polite when you talk behind others' backs?
Qin Dewei was also surprised: "Wan Sheng thought that because of your wisdom, sir, you don't need me to say anything..."
Feng En felt that Brother Xia still didn’t know how to deal with Qin Dewei, so he took the initiative to shout in the cell on the other side:
"Qin Dewei, if you keep trying to hide yourself, Uncle Xia will let you sit in jail until the next Chinese New Year!"