In Qian'an Palace, Zhao Yanxun was sitting in the side hall, holding a pen and thinking hard.
The examination was about to begin, but the topics had not yet been decided, and the cabinet and the Ministry of Rites had drafted some, but he felt unsatisfied.
"Nowadays, times have changed, and the exam questions must be closely related to the current situation. What I want is not a rotten scholar with a poor academic background!"
"The most important thing at the moment is to inventory the land and re-establish taxation as the first priority!"
"This matter involves the whole country. If you throw it out to these students, you can see what they think!"
After muttering a few words, Zhao Yanxun settled on his idea. Just as he was about to start writing, there was a warning sound coming from outside.
"Your Majesty, Mr. Wen and Mr. Cai from the Ministry of Punishment are here to see you!"
It's only been half a day, what are these two doing here again?
With doubts in his heart, Zhao Yanxun put down his imperial pen and said, "Let them in!"
On this day, he was either meeting with officials or reviewing memorials, so he really had no time to spare.
After a while, Wen Zongguo and his two men came to the side hall.
"I'm waiting to see you, Your Majesty!"
"No gift!"
After the two of them stood up, Zhao Yanxun immediately asked: "My dearest ladies, what's the important matter?"
The two ministers looked at each other before hearing Wen Zongguo's report: "Your Majesty, the Wannian County Government has reported that Wu Zhongchun, the official of Dianshi, was beaten to death when he was leading an officer to arrest someone!"
Although the official historian was young, he was an upright official of the court. Being beaten to death was no small matter.
Wannian County is located to the east of the capital, at the feet of the serious emperor, but now something like this happened.
"Who would be so bold!" Zhao Yanxun said angrily.
At this time, Cai Xinghai replied: "Reporting to the Emperor, Wanshan County Government reported that Wu Zhongchun went to Taoyang Bo's farm to get someone, and was attacked and killed by the farmers!"
The crime of tax evasion was assigned to the village head below, so the county government went to interrogate these people.
"In addition to Wu Zhongchun's death, one of the eighteen officers accompanying him was killed, and three others were seriously injured..."
Speaking of the last sentence, even Cai Xinghai, an old man in Prince Yong's Mansion, felt extremely uneasy. The emperor's anger was no joke.
"Such a thing happened in Taoyang Bofu's farm?" Zhao Yanxun said in a heavy tone.
At this moment, he felt a little regretful. If he had handed the case over to the Editorial Supervisor in the morning, it might not have ended up like this.
Beating a court official to death is equivalent to treason according to law.
This matter was reported to the county government and then to the Ministry of Justice. It could never be hidden from the court, which meant that it had to be dealt with seriously.
You must not hide it at this time, otherwise it will greatly weaken the authority of the government.
"This case...the Ministry of Punishment has ordered a special person to conduct a strict investigation, and we must find out the inside story!"
"According to the order!"
Zhao Yanxun said with a gloomy face: "You go!"
"yes!"
When the two people left, Zhao Yanxun's face became increasingly ugly.
He has not been having a good time these days. All aspects of the imperial court are already annoying enough, but now Uncle Tao Yang's house has caused such trouble.
That's right, even if someone on the farm beats an official to death, the Cao family will have nothing to do with it. It's not just a matter of lax control of the subordinates.
"Tea!"
Zhao Yanxun scolded him, and Wu Hong quickly came in from outside the side hall, holding a bright yellow glaze tea bowl in his hands.
"Your Majesty, please have some tea!"
Taking the teacup, Zhao Yanxun asked: "Did you hear what happened just now?"
Wu Hong was waiting outside the palace, and anyone who was not deaf could hear him.
"Report to the Emperor, I heard some things!"
"Send an order to Lin Quan and ask him to send out capable personnel to investigate this matter!"
"yes!"
The incident happened suddenly, and now that he thought about it carefully, Zhao Yanxun always felt that something was wrong.
It is basically known to everyone that killing an official is tantamount to rebellion, and it is a serious crime to confiscate the family and exterminate the clan.
The people on the bank account must have so much courage to dare to kill people from the government.
Sitting on the dragon chair, Zhao Yanxun thought quietly for a few minutes before murmuring: "In the past few months, he has suppressed local wealthy families and inspected the fields in various places. All he has done is to offend people, but he is just killing people.
They lowered their heads!"
"Recently, during the tax inspection, people from various government offices of wealthy families were involved. This further infringed on the direct interests of these people. They finally couldn't bear it anymore!"
Since the people did not have the courage to kill officials and rebel, it meant that someone must be instigating and deceiving him, so Zhao Yanxun had such speculation.
But Zhao Yanxun had no clear suspicion of who was instigating the deception, because all civil servants and landowners were suspected.
This also means that if the case is investigated by the Tribunal of Justice and the local government, the truth cannot be found at all, so Zhao Yanxun has to ask the Editorial Supervisor to investigate.
"These bastards used the Cao family to bridge the gap and lead the conflict to me and the Queen Mother..."
After being silent for nearly a minute, Zhao Yanxun swept away the anger in his heart and his whole mind returned to clarity.
Slowly walking out of the side hall, Zhao Yanxun came to the study and took off the black iron knife from the shelf.
"This is a great move. It depends on what move I make next. I don't know...whether these bastards can catch it!"
At the end of the sentence, Zhao Yanxun drew his sword out of its sheath, his eyes filled with cold light.
…………
Beijing, Taoyang Bofu.
Someone was beaten to death on the farm, Cao Yunhui had just received the news, and then he was completely stunned.
I only found out the news at noon that the trouble at home was over, but I didn't know that such a big thing would happen now.
That's right, in Cao Yunhui's view, cheating on taxes is not a big deal, but killing Dian Shi is a big deal.
This shows how deeply rooted in people’s hearts in today’s world, killing officials is equivalent to rebellion.
After a brief period of confusion, Cao Yunhui immediately ordered the news to be blocked.
He was really afraid that his father would be furious to death if he found out about this.
After arranging this matter, the next step is to consider how to deal with it.
Cao Yunhui sent a trusted tribesman to the farm where the accident occurred to understand the situation.
And he himself was not idle, he immediately asked his family to prepare generous gifts, and he was going to Wanshan County Government Office to inquire about the news.
But before he could walk out of the Yamen, a servant reported that someone from the government was coming, so Cao Yunhui immediately went to greet him.
The person who came was Ying Tianfu Yamen, and by hearing his name, he knew that he was here to investigate the case.
Cao Yunhui did not dare to neglect at all and introduced Judge Wu Tong into the palace.
"Master Wu, you just said hello again, why bother coming here in person?"
"Come here, serve tea!"
Although Cao Yunhui was smiling, Wu Kexuan kept a straight face and said, "There's no need to serve tea. I'm here to ask Uncle Tao Yang something!"
"My father is seriously ill and has fainted. Now I am in charge of the house. Mr. Wu, you can ask me if you have anything!"
It was precisely because he knew that Uncle Tao Yang was seriously ill that Wu Kexuan came to the door in person, otherwise Yingtian Mansion would have summoned him directly.
"Are you in charge?"
"Exactly!" Cao Yunhui replied with a smile. This calmness was really well pretended.
Instructing his subordinates to start recording, Wu Kexuan continued: "Let me ask you, do you know that someone from your farm beat Wannian Dianshi to death?"
Cao Yunhui looked surprised: "Is this true? I just received the news and thought it was a rumor, so I ordered my family to go and verify it!"
"Those unruly people in Zhuangzi are really lawless. They dared to evade taxes before, but now they are attacking the government... My family is really going to be killed by those untouchables!"
Seeing Cao Yunhui bursting into tears, Wu Kexuan's heart stopped and he asked again: "Who appoints the head of your farm?"
"It's me!"
"When will it be appointed?"
"What do you know about this person?"
A series of questions made Cao Yunhui dizzy, and he couldn't even answer some questions.
Wu Kexuan pressed forward step by step, which made him feel more deeply the seriousness of this incident.