Chapter 32 Stay

In the afternoon of the next day, the inside and outside of the Wannian County Government Hall were blocked.

Originally, Wannian County, as the base of the capital, was densely populated and could not be compared with remoteness. Before the Wannian county magistrate brought the elders and suffering masters in the county to kowtow to the imperial court, it had already attracted the attention of all parties. Even though the period from kowtowing to the public trial was only a day and a night, there were idlers from all directions traveling starry night to watch.

Because there were too many people, the body search took a lot of time, so that the entrance to the hall, which was originally scheduled for the afternoon, was delayed for more than half an hour.

According to the previous promise, Yun Fenghuang took off the step-by-step pearl hairpin, and only used a red gold silk lantern hairpin to tie up the bun, and then changed the concubine's fancy dress, wearing a water-green dress similar to a court lady, confirming that the whole body There was nothing burdensome to disturb the public trial, so under the guidance of the servant, Shi Shi ran out.

There is only a screen away from Emperor Chunjia who is sitting in the courtroom, and a small table with embroidered stools has already been placed. There are tea, fruit and pastries on the small table, ready for the concubine who is suspected of being favored to eavesdrop and peep Comfortable.

Because she was asked by the emperor not to go out together, she came a little late. At this moment, the opening scene has already been finished, and the sufferer and the defendant have been brought. According to the statement of the Wannian county magistrate, the three generations of the sufferer's family are all dead. Extinct ones, including the little granddaughter who was taken away and two little grandsons under the age of ten, the ones who came forward to sue at this moment are the tribe of the suffering master, and the closest blood relative is the brother of the suffering master, Chen Jinde, who is responding to the lawsuit on his behalf .

The defendant, apart from Zheng Fengfen, was taken to court with several other people, probably his accomplices.

Yun Fenghuang sat down behind the screen, just as he was hearing Chen Jinde's sobbing closing speech: "...Your Majesty, Cao Min's elder brother's family died so tragically! I beg Your Majesty to avenge Cao Min's elder brother! I beg Your Majesty to see clearly and return Cao Min's elder brother A fair one!"

After that, I was crying so hard that I couldn't make a sound.

Emperor Chunjia seemed to be a little moved. Through the screen, Yun Fenghuang saw his figure move slightly, as if he leaned down from the main seat, and Wen Yan comforted the Chen family, probably saying a few words, "I must "Administrate justice" or something like that, waited for Chen Jinde to sob and thank the Son of Heaven for his compassion, then turned to Zheng Fengfen and asked him to do it honestly!

"Your Majesty, this troublemaker is really hateful!" As one of Zheng Gu's adoptive sons, his righteous brother Zheng Fengfu was also the emperor's companion. Naturally, he had a face-to-face encounter with a conceited temperament. Obviously, he didn't have much for Emperor Chunjia, who had just been in charge. Yun Fenghuang saw him kneeling on the ground through the gap of the screen, but his face was full of dissatisfaction.

Hearing the words at this moment, he couldn't wait to say, "It is true that the minister brought Chen Jinxing's granddaughter into the house, but that was also sold to the minister by the Chen family themselves. The money and the goods are both paid. How can there be any robbery?! As for It would be even more nonsense to talk about trampling young crops. Weichen went out of the city that day to relax, and saw the young crops in the fields of the Chen family. So he took the horse and watched it by the field, but he didn't go to the field at all! The Chen family saw The minister was dressed gorgeously, and he took the initiative to strike up a conversation, and after learning about the identity of the minister's father and brother, he even licked his face and offered to recommend a pillow mat for his granddaughter..."

"You're talking nonsense!!!" Chen Jinde shouted excitedly when he heard this, "Although Caomin's family has been in decline in recent years, they were also educated in the early years, how could they do such things that corrupt the family style?! You It's just spitting blood!"

Zheng Fengxuan snorted, ignored him, and only said to the emperor: "Your Majesty, there is no proof for what you say, there is a contract of the Chen family's prostitution here, and there are fingerprints, which can be proved!"

As he spoke, he took out a contract from his arms and raised his hands above his head.

Emperor Chunjia said "Yes", and Yan Yin, who was standing by the side, waved the whisk, went down to take the contract and checked it carefully before handing it over to the emperor.

The emperor looked at it for a while, and motioned for all the ministers who were listening and the people below to pass it on.

This is indeed a contract to voluntarily sell a daughter. It says that because the family is poor, she voluntarily sells her granddaughter Chen's little girl to the Zheng family for ten taels of gold.

When the contract was read, Zheng Fengzhen had already recited the content. Hearing that the monarchs and ministers in the hall didn't matter, the common people gathered at the gate of the yamen immediately started discussing: "Ten taels of gold to buy a little girl? I'm afraid the girl won't last long. Like a fairy?!"

"What kind of immortals are all from the folks in the village. If Mrs. Chen really has such stunning beauty, she would have entered the palace to be a concubine a few months ago, why would she stay at home? At most, she is thin and beautiful! "

"I'm afraid it wasn't because General Zheng was born rich and young, so he deliberately killed him?"

"That's right. Although this little general has a good background, he is indeed young. How do you know that daily necessities are expensive?"

"Not to mention anything else, just talking about the price of these twelve taels of gold shows that the Chen family is not that kind."

"Yes, yes, why does the little girl want ten taels of gold, and how much money does the leader of Chunfenglou need to redeem himself?"

Of course, occasionally some people raised questions: "Chen Jinxing is known to my parents and they say he is a decent person, how could he sell his granddaughter to the rich and powerful?"

"That's right, and it's been rumored that Chen's daughter was married to a certain family since she was a child. Even if she wants to curry favor with the powerful, she can't ignore her in-laws?"

"The whole family surnamed Chen is dead, who knows if this contract is true or not..."

It’s just that the rhetoric behind it was quickly refuted by many people: “There is a way to know people’s faces but not their hearts. Some people are kind on the outside, but they are dirty on the inside. How can I know that Chen Jinxing is not such a duplicity? ?”

"Besides, if he can use his granddaughter to match up with this little general, will his in-laws dare to ask for someone from the great general?!"

"What are you talking about about whether the contract is true or not? Right now, the Holy Son of Heaven is sitting in the Ming Hall in person, borrowing General Zheng Xiao's ten guts, dare to bully the emperor in public?!"

Behind the screen, Yun Fenghuang shook his round fan and listened to these words, smiled, thinking that Zheng Ju's hands and feet are really fast.

Naturally, she is not qualified to participate in the transmission of the contract. I don't know if it is true or not, but the words outside to excuse Zheng Fengyi sound like they are doing things for money.

The most important thing is that although Wannian County is adjacent to the Imperial Capital, their accents are somewhat different.

The discussions that came out of Li Shuli's hair seemed to be ordinary people, but the few voices who led Zheng Feng's defense... Although they had concealed it, it might be because of the haste, they still revealed a Beijing accent.

Even if the Son of Heaven's personal trial attracted many spectators, many of them came from the Imperial Capital overnight, but it's impossible that everyone from the Imperial Capital has a good impression and confidence in Zheng Fengfen and is willing to speak for him?

Don't forget that General Zheng Xiao is one of the three evils in the imperial capital, how can ordinary people in the imperial capital feel about him?

I don't know who started this incident, is it aimed at Zheng Gu?

Before Yun Fenghuang finished his thoughts, the contract had already been circulated and read. The handprint on it was compared with the contract of Chen Jinxing when he bought the property, which proved that it was indeed from the same person.

"It's impossible!" Hearing this conclusion, Chen Jinde was stunned for a moment, and then he said angrily, "Caomin dares to use his head as a guarantee, Caomin's elder brother will definitely..."

"Bold and unreasonable!" Seeing this, Zheng Fengyi rolled his eyes, suddenly pointed at him and yelled, "Converting black and white and planting innocent people in the front, roaring at the court and despising His Majesty in the back, it is an unforgivable crime! How dare you be presumptuous here!"

Immediately, he cupped his hands in the court, "Your Majesty, I think that such troublesome people must..."

"A mere contract can be written at any time, and handprints can be affixed regardless of life or death!" Zheng Fengzhen was about to take advantage of the victory to pursue and urge the emperor to determine the matter. The robe knelt down and said loudly, "Your Majesty, this evidence alone is not enough to be trusted! I implore Your Majesty to investigate thoroughly! I would like to use the black yarn on the top and the head on the neck to jointly guarantee the character of Chen Jinxing's family. Despicable words!"

At the same time, among the ministers sitting beside him, Cui Wan's face was livid, if it wasn't for the presence of the emperor and other important ministers, she would have grabbed the tea bowl at hand and smashed it down!

"Young man, you just have energy." Taking a deep breath, the regent happened to be stroking his short beard, and said with a half-smile of approval, "Regardless of the truth of this matter, this Du Qinghui is not afraid of the rich and powerful, and pleads for the people. , After all, it’s a good intention.”

Wannian County Magistrate Du Langu, courtesy name Qinghui, was one of Cui Wan's disciples.

At the moment when the regent said this, Cui Wan forced a smile even though he was annoyed in his heart, and bowed his hands to the regent: "Your lord, this disciple is a bit young and impulsive after all."

While they were chatting in low voices, the emperor on the other side had already agreed to investigate to the end—interrogated the time and place when Zheng Fengyi went out of the city and bumped into the Chen family, and asked the Imperial City Secretary to interrogate all the witnesses and the situation of the Chen family that day. , Comprehensive evidence from all sides to learn from good and evil.

Of course, these cannot be found out in a short while, so after the emperor promised not to close the case because of a paper contract, he announced a temporary suspension of the court, and continued after the results came out.

"Empress Mother, since my son has promised to uphold justice for all the subjects, I should wait for the truth to come to light before setting off for the palace." After leaving the hall, the emperor immediately went to see the Empress Dowager Ji and said, "But the weather is hot and the county Worse than in the palace, how can the empress and the imperial grandmother and concubines wait here for this matter? It is better to let the empress and concubines follow the empress and the imperial grandmother to take a step first, and the sons and ministers take care of this matter before pursuing up?"

The conditions in the county are of course far worse than those in the palace, especially the emperor had never planned to stay in the county government office before, and there was no preparation for receiving the emperor's driver here.

Although they arrived last night, it's only been one night now. Empress Dowager Ji is already in all kinds of troubles. Even if the emperor doesn't mention letting them leave early, she doesn't want to stay longer.

But because Ji was worried about the emperor, she pondered for a while, but didn't agree immediately, she only said that she was going to ask the empress dowager for instructions and discuss with the queen.

After a while like this, Empress Dowager Ji asked the emperor to come to her, saying that she felt that the emperor's consideration was right, because the empress dowager really couldn't bear it, so she had to go to the palace early.

"But it doesn't look good for the emperor to stay alone." The queen mother said immediately, "After all, he is a majestic emperor, so he must leave some people to serve him."

The emperor was not surprised by this, he smiled, and said something to thank the empress dowager for caring about him, and finally hinted that it was a trivial matter, so let the empress dowager have any plans to say it.

Empress Dowager Ji nodded and said: "If there are too many people staying, I'm afraid it will delay the emperor's itinerary after the matter is over. How about letting Mao Jieyu, Ji Pin and Yi Fengyi stay and serve?"

"I listen to the queen mother." Yun Fenghuang is the emperor's new favorite recently, concubine Ji is a member of the Ji family, and Yi Xingen is very beautiful... The emperor guessed the intentions of the empress dowager aunt and nephew's arrangement, and smiled , Wen Yan said, "I have to worry about my mother!"