Chapter 247: To Protect the Crown Prince, Duke Jiang Hits His Head Against a Pillar and Dies

In one sentence, he was scolding the emperor, but everyone present panicked.

Especially Chu Lingxiu, who quickly stepped forward and gave Jiang Guogong a hard slap, and scolded him sternly: "Jiang Guogong, do you know what you are talking about? Are you out of your mind and crazy!"

Zhou Xian lifted the psychedelic spell on Jiang Guogong. The latter's eyes were empty, and it took him a while to come back to his senses. He looked at Chu Lingxiu in front of him with a confused expression, "What are you doing, Your Highness, grabbing my clothes?"

Jiang Guogong obviously knew nothing about what had just happened.

At this point, Zhou Xian no longer needed to say anything, and all the ministers already knew that what Zhou Xian said was true.

Wang Huai took a few steps forward, fearing that Zhou Xian's magic would hurt the emperor.

Qin Luan looked at the panicked Jiang Guogong with a sad face. Because her father was defined by the world as a worm in the country without knowing anything about it, so he would rather die in the imperial study room. On the pillar, he will never admit this unfounded crime.

Qin Luan could not imagine how desperate Qin Mingqi felt at that time, being misunderstood by the most trusted king, questioned by his former colleagues, and scolded by relatives who regarded him as brothers.

The emperor's eyes were full of solemnity, "Zhou Xian, how did you control Duke Jiang's mind?"

This method was unheard of even by him, the emperor.

Zhou Xian raised his finger, and a small stick insect emerged from it. Its skin was slightly wrinkled and its color was much darker than before.

It has been two months since Zhou Xian was arrested for the second time. During these two months, the toxins in his body have continued to spread, and the suppression medicine that Rong Heng refined for him has gradually lost its effectiveness, so his blood The Gu insects that feed on them are also getting weaker and weaker.

"Gu worm."

The two words he spat out slightly caused the expressions of everyone present to change drastically.

Gu insect? !

Isn’t that something unique to southern Xinjiang? How could it spread to the mainland again?

And the comeback of southern Xinjiang means that... the tragedy of two hundred years ago is about to happen again.

Thinking of this, even the emperor couldn't help but pursed his lips, "Are you from southern Xinjiang?"

Zhou Xian shook his head, "No, I'm from Da Chu."

Having said this, Zhou Xian simply told everything he knew, including that his village was massacred by Jiang Guogong's people, and that the Qiandu Sect had done a lot for Jiang Guogong over the years, except for Qin In addition to the family case, there was also drought in the Bashu land and heavy snowfall in the Beiyuan area. Zhou Xian was responsible for pulling those officials into the water, while Jiang Guogong secretly took the disaster relief property for himself.

In the past ten years, Jiang Guogong used the same method to eliminate many officials from the non-prince party, and he also made a lot of money.

It can be said that most of the money Jiang Guogong used to pave the way for Chu Lingxiu over the years was national crisis money.

As for the massacre of Zhou Xian's village, Zhou Xian found out about Jiang Guogong very early. However, Jiang Guogong never met him in person, so Zhou Xian had no chance to take action. Now that the opportunity finally came, Zhou Xian naturally wanted to Drag Jiang Guogong into the water.

The emperor became more and more angry as he listened. It happened that at this time the Imperial Guards who went out to search Duke Jiang's Mansion and the Prince's Mansion brought back the news——

Most of the treasures involved in the account books were found in the warehouse of Jiang Guogong's house. At the same time, several other account books were found in the secret room of Jiang Guogong's study, which recorded the silver items sent by officials from various places and every disaster over the years. The income recorded in the account books is completely consistent with what Ningzhou, Qingzhou and Huaizhou handed over.

At this point, Jiang Guogong's crime can be nailed to death.

As for the Prince's Mansion, no relevant items were found. Even the warehouse contained only a few silver items, which was completely consistent with the integrity that Chu Lingxiu had shown over the years.

However, Chu Lingxiu's body still trembled violently, as if he had been hit by something. After a while, he took two steps forward and grabbed Jiang Guogong's sleeve, and said with a face full of pain: "Uncle, you are confused!"

Jiang Guogong knew that Chu Lingxiu was preparing to push himself out to block everything.

Although a little chilling, Jiang Guogong also knew that this was the only way at the moment.

As long as the queen is still there, as long as Jiang Li is still there, the Jiang family is not completely finished.

Wanting to understand all this, Jiang Guogong closed his eyes, then gently pushed Chu Lingxiu away, took a step forward and knelt down in front of the emperor, "Your Majesty, the Qin family's affairs, the account books of Qingzhou, Ningzhou, Huaizhou, the drought in Bashu, and the heavy snow in Beiyuan. All these things were done by the old minister, and now that the evidence is conclusive, the old minister is willing to plead guilty. "

The supervisory censor Qiu Ming couldn't bear to see Jiang Guogong and Xini, "Does Jiang Guogong want to bear everything on his own? The prefects of Qingzhou, Ningzhou, and Huaizhou have confessed, and these gifts are clearly for the prince!"

Jiang Guogong was heartbroken, "If I don't act in the name of the prince, do you think they will send the things over willingly? And hasn't your majesty already checked that there is no stolen money at all in the prince's mansion!"

In the eyes of the officials below, the prince, the crown prince of a country, will be the future monarch as long as the emperor abdicates, so this gift of money is certainly worth it.

Qiu Ming's expression choked up. The people below were responsible for accepting the money. Now Jiang Guogong insists on taking all the charges on himself. Nothing was found in the Prince's Mansion, so it is impossible to prove that Chu Lingxiu was also involved in this matter. .

Chu Lingxiu didn't defend himself, he just kept saying that Jiang Guogong was confused, and the pain in his eyes seemed to overflow.

Duke Jiang Guo has confessed his crime, but the emperor still has no intention of announcing punishment because the Minister of Civil Affairs has not returned yet.

The emperor sat at the head of the table, flipping through the account books found in the mansion of Duke Jiang. One of the books recorded the details of the gifts given by officials in the court.

After flipping through it from the beginning, the emperor could not help but snort coldly. Nearly half of the officials in the court had secretly given gifts to Duke Jiang, especially after Chu Lingyuan disappeared and Chu Lingxi lost power.

At this time, Wang Huai, who had just gone out to negotiate with the imperial guards, came back again. With a complicated look on his face, he whispered to the emperor: "Your Majesty, when the imperial guards searched the mansion of Duke Jiang just now, they also found a crazy man in the secret cell of Duke Jiang. He was tortured to the point of being unrecognizable, but he kept saying that he was wrong and shouldn't be so bold... to force the princess."

In the last few months, Wang Huai almost cried out from his throat.

If this is true, it is a humiliation for the royal family.

The emperor was shocked, "Who is that man?"

"I heard from the imperial guards that he was the son of the Duke of Jiang's mansion, but he died of illness three years ago."

The man who should have died of illness appeared in the secret cell in the mansion, so what he said made people suspicious.

If he hadn't committed a big mistake, why would Duke Jiang humiliate him like this?

"Go check!" The emperor's eyes were cold. The only princess involved in the Duke of Jiang's mansion was Chu Qingyi, who had just married the second son of the Shangshu Mansion two months ago and moved to the newly built princess mansion.

Wang Huai agreed and hurried out again.

I couldn't help but secretly mutter in my heart: I don't know what day it is today, how can so many things happen at once?

The Duke of Jiang's mansion is finished. If Chu Qingyi gets into trouble again, won't the queen go crazy?

Seeing Wang Huai coming in and out, Chu Lingxiu couldn't help but have a bad premonition in his heart. He wanted to go forward and ask what messes were left in the Jiang Guogong Mansion, but in the end he suppressed his mind.

No, he couldn't panic. The Jiang Guogong Mansion was already ruined, and he couldn't get himself involved.

The Minister of Personnel spent a lot of time to finally find out the results, which were exactly the same as what was written in the report.

In the imperial examination that year, the eldest son of the Jiang family had already failed. It was the Duke of Jiang who picked a few poor children with no family background in front of him and found an excuse to disqualify them. The eldest son of the Jiang family was selected as the last one.

Later, the Duke of Jiang used his own power to pave the way for the eldest son of the Jiang family, so that now he is only 25 years old, and he has taken the position of the right assistant minister of the Ministry of Personnel.

The matter has been fully investigated, and it is time for the emperor to punish.

Duke Jiang colluded with underworld forces, framed Shangshu Qin Mingqi, embezzled disaster relief money, and caused hundreds of thousands of people to die tragically. The nine clans of the Qin family were exterminated. This was a serious crime of confiscation of property and extermination of the family. Later, he colluded with local officials in the name of the prince and obtained more than one million taels of stolen silver. This was another serious crime of confiscation of property and extermination of the family. Abusing power, disrupting the imperial examination, burying talents, and pushing his incompetent son to the throne were also not minor crimes. The three crimes explained that not only the officials who had given gifts to Duke Jiang’s mansion were panicked, but even the nine clans of the Jiang family were afraid.

With such a large number of crimes stacked together, the emperor would not exterminate the nine clans of the Jiang family, right?

Duke Jiang’s face was pale. He had already anticipated the end of the Jiang family. In order not to expose more things, Duke Jiang could only make up his mind again and hit the pillar beside him.

That determination was just like Qin Mingqi in the past.

However, Qin Mingqi was trying to prove his innocence, while Duke Jiang was trying to protect Chu Lingxiu.

He didn't know much about the Thousand Poison Sect, so he couldn't explain it clearly. The best way was to eliminate this force along with his own death.

"Bang!"

When everyone came to their senses, Duke Jiang's body had already slowly slid down.

Chu Lingxiu ran towards Duke Jiang, but not to save him, but to see if he could still survive.

Feeling that Duke Jiang's breath was very weak, Chu Lingxiu's heart finally fell to the ground.

With Duke Jiang dying for him, he could be safe.

Seeing that Duke Jiang had something to say, Chu Lingxiu quickly put his ear over, "Today I will take on everything, please... treat Li'er well."

Jiang Li was a married woman, and a crown princess who was included in the royal family tree. The affairs of the Jiang family would not affect her.

Chu Lingxiu nodded to Duke Jiang with red eyes, and the latter left with peace of mind.

However, although Duke Jiang was dead, the sins of the Jiang family could not be erased. The male members were beheaded and the female members were sent to brothels to atone for their sins, which was very similar to the Qin family in the past, except that only three clans of the Jiang family were raided.

In the past, the Qin family case did not actually implicate the nine clans, but the people's resentment was too deep, and countless people knelt down to plead for mercy, so the emperor had to increase the punishment of the Qin family to nine clans.

Because the Qin family is not destroyed, the people's resentment is difficult to settle.

At the same time, all the officials recorded in the account books, those who gave gifts of more than 1,000 taels were demoted, those who gave gifts of more than 10,000 taels were thoroughly investigated, and those who gave gifts of more than 20,000 taels or more were directly imprisoned and investigated.

Coincidentally, He Tao, the assistant minister of the Ministry of Revenue, belongs to the last category.