King Luhuang of the Ming Dynasty: My father, Ming Taizu

Cheng Minzheng's body was trembling slightly. He was very angry because he saw the person who accused him.

He was a third-rank official, and he was so angry at being treated like a seventh-rank official that he told Zhu Youtang the whole story without waiting for him to speak.

The most important thing is that what Cheng Minzheng said makes sense, and he has not been in prison, so he knows more.

He knew that his boss, Li Dongyang, had cancelled dozens of promising papers to avoid criticism, which made him more confident.

From the time he became the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice, to his current position as the Deputy Examiner, and to what happened later, everything was thrown out by him.

Xu Jing, I remember Tang Yin’s paper never won a prize!

Moreover, it’s not like no one has ever done his obscure questions before!

Xu Jing and Tang Yin always boasted about themselves, saying that they were university scholars and would definitely pass the imperial examination. What did it have to do with him?

Hua Chang was prepared for this, and waited until Cheng Minzheng finished speaking before speaking:

"I am the Imperial Censor, so I naturally know what happened."

Hua Chang's ability to curse is really unique, which almost made Cheng Minzheng spit out blood.

Xu Jing and Tang Yin also spoke up. They all understood that Zhu Tan and Ma Wensheng would definitely help.

She was seriously injured in Zhaoyu, but she never blamed Cheng Minzheng.

When Xu Jinggeng was at the Meridian Gate, he immediately changed his words and said that he and Tang Yin were treated unfairly in the East Depot. Although he had no wounds on his body, the East Depot used a despicable method, namely water torture.

He finally couldn't stand the torture anymore, and someone from the East Factory hinted that his master Cheng Minzheng had accepted a huge gift and sold the test questions to him.

Tang Yin immediately responded, "Although there are no tiger chairs, pepper powder, branding irons or anything like that, this water torture is unbearable."

Chu Qingqing on the side suddenly realized something. His understanding of water punishment came from Guantanamo Bay in the United States.

Hearing this, any criminal would confess. It is absolutely torture.

Tang Yin and Xu Jing also understood that if they involved the East Factory, Zhu Tan would be in trouble, so they returned to the imperial examination case.

Xu Jing is very eloquent.

"Tang Yin and I went to the capital to take the exam together. Mr. Cheng Minzheng was my examiner for the provincial exam. I admired Mr. Cheng's knowledge very much, so I donated a sum of money and wanted to learn from him. At that time, Mr. Cheng was not yet the left minister, nor was he the master, so he gave us some hints, and Tang Yin and I started from those aspects."

Tang Yin added:
"I didn't expect this news to get out. It just so happens that Mr. Cheng is the deputy examiner for this term, and the questions he set are similar to ours, so some people questioned whether Mr. Cheng sold the test questions to us. In fact, it's ridiculous. We came to study first, and then Mr. Cheng. Moreover, I didn't bribe Mr. Cheng. What I said before was simply a torture. In order to survive, we can only sacrifice ourselves."

Cheng Minzheng and the other two explained it very clearly that Tang Yin and Xu Jing accepted him as disciples first, and they did not buy the questions, so Cheng Minzheng never gave any questions at all.

Cheng Minzheng and others were talking excitedly, but when they were in front of Hua Chang, Hua Chang remained the same.

"I heard about it. Is there anything wrong with this?"

Not to mention Cheng Minzheng and the other two, even Zhu Youtang felt a stomachache.

While the four were discussing, Wang Sui revealed a shocking piece of information.

Cheng Minzheng's servant, Cheng Minzheng's servant, went to Shuntian Palace and confessed that he was sold to Cheng Minzheng.

He is now temporarily imprisoned in the Ministry of Justice and is being interrogated personally by Peng Shao.

This was undoubtedly a decisive blow, and it was something no one had expected.

Even Cheng Minzheng could not guarantee that he would not be suspected, because this boy was his closest servant.

Even if he didn't know, he would be accused of leaking secrets.

When Zhu Youtang realized that something was not right, he asked his men to put the matter of the Meridian Gate aside for the time being and wait until the interrogation was completed before he left.

Zhu Tan didn't have time to say anything more. He just nodded to Tang Bohu and Xu Jing, then followed Zhu Youtang out.

From the moment he noticed that his brother-in-law was in a bad mood, he felt a little pressure.

Moreover, he had slept with Wang Yan last night. He would be lying if he said he was not nervous at all!
This time, Zhu Youtang did not let Zhu Tan go again. Instead, after returning to the Qianqing Palace, he seemed to be talking to himself.

"The person who suits my heart is really hard to use!"

Zhu Tan understood from his tone that Zhu Youtang was referring to Cheng Minzheng. It seemed that his high regard for Cheng Minzheng had made Cheng Minzheng the target of public criticism.

Zhu Tan didn't care about Cheng Minzheng's life or death. He came here for Tang Bohu, so he said, "Brother-in-law, I apologize to you. Before the exam, there were rumors that someone was selling the test papers. I was worried that Tang Bohu would be implicated, so I secretly took a copy of the test paper and gave it to the Minister of Rites."

Zhu Youtang waved his hand, turned and looked in the direction of Zhu Tan.

"Marquis Jianchang, you don't know that the imperial examination is just an excuse. My original plan was to let Ma Wensheng be the Minister of Revenue and Cheng Minzheng be the Minister of Rites. However, this time, during the planning process, I encountered obstacles, so I pushed Ma Wensheng to Cheng Minzheng's position and made him the Right Prime Minister of Rites. I didn't expect that it would cause an unprovoked disaster. I'm afraid Cheng Minzheng will be dismissed!"

Zhu Tan was stunned. Ma Wensheng was previously complaining about the fact that he was not transferred to the position of Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel.

Who knew that the brother-in-law was not unwilling, but just encountered a big obstacle.

"Are you in a difficult situation? He is the emperor!"

Zhu Youtang shook his head bitterly.

"After the Three Yangs came to power, we experienced the Tumu Rebellion. The power of the cabinet grew stronger and stronger, and it was called the 'Renxuan Kingdom', but the royal power was strictly restricted. Especially later, the situation became more serious. Even for me, it is impossible to get everyone to respond to my call!"

Zhu Tan rarely had the opportunity to discuss state affairs with Zhu Youtang, but he was also greatly restricted. He was not even the head of a county before, but at most the head of a department, so his vision was not broad. So he told Zhu Youtang everything he knew.

Zhu Youtang also knew some things. He was in charge of the East and West departments, not a member of the court, so his sources of information were quite well-informed.

However, there were some things that Zhu Youtang was unclear about. Just as Zhu Tan had once guessed, this imperial examination case was related to Qi Shaoxi, and even Concubine Shao was involved.

Although Zhu Tan admitted that he was a ridiculous person, Zhu Youtang thought that there was a hole but no wind.

Judging from his cleansing of the Beijing camp and his crackdown on the nobles, the civil officials seemed calm on the surface, but secretly, there was turmoil.

Zhu Youtang did not explain in detail to Zhu Tan the pain in his heart.

Zhu Youtang's trust in the eunuch Li Guang finally awakened after being deceived by Li Guang and he restarted his career.

But when he looked back, he found that the good situation created in the early years of Hongzhi had begun to show signs of disintegration.

Not only were the nobles and relatives of the emperor difficult to control, but even the ministers in the court seemed to be colluding with each other. At the slightest sign of trouble, even he, the emperor, found it troublesome and difficult to deal with.

"Brother-in-law, what should we do now?"

Zhu Tan's vision was not very far-sighted, but Zhu Youtang was an important emperor of the revival of the country. He had been an emperor for more than ten years, so naturally he would not be much better than someone like him who had just come from another world.

"Delay time! In the Battle of Meridian Gate, all the blame was directed at Cheng Minzheng. Someone will come forward. Once this matter is over, it will be over."

Zhu Youtang's words clearly underestimated Cheng Minzheng's strength and decisiveness.

On this day, the discussion in the court was in full swing, and the scholars were also talking about it. It seemed that this matter could not wait until the storm had passed.

Of course, there were also people who helped Cheng Minzheng, such as Wu Kuan, who was from the same village as Tang Bohu, so he sympathized with Tang Bohu very much.

The memorial said that Tang Bohu was slandered by others because of jealousy when he went to Cheng Minzheng's house, which was really wrong.

In addition, the chief examiner Wang Ao also said that Tang Yin and Xu Jing were both outspoken and boastful, but neither of them had done anything major wrong.

However, all they talked about were the crimes committed in the imperial examinations, without explaining the reasons behind them. Therefore, they were unable to fundamentally solve the problem.

Chu Tian was a little worried. He saw his brother-in-law's embarrassment and the situation of Cheng Minzheng, Tang Bohu, Xu Jing and others.

If things had developed to this point, Cheng Minzheng would have been beaten to death, and Tang Bohu and Xu Jing would have died of poverty.

Therefore, Zhu Tan is very eager to become a little butterfly and try her best to bring some changes to the lives of Tang Bohu and others.

This was like a shot of adrenaline for him. If he could not change Tang Bohu's fate, then he would become a ghost under the hands of Emperor Jiajing!
To solve this problem, we must dig to the root of the problem and go to the graves of our ancestors.

Zhu Tan knew very well that he was implicated in the imperial examination crime not because he was targeted by others, but because he was protected by his brother-in-law.

Perhaps because he had suffered enough, the other party did not focus on him, but instead focused their attention on Cheng Minzheng and others. They would deal with him after they had dealt with Cheng Minzheng.

After witnessing the sinister nature of this intrigue, Zhu Tan thought he had learned a lesson.

After returning home, he took out his anger on those thugs, wanting to kill all those who took the exam and then cut them into pieces.

Zhang Wei's face was now swollen! She could also see that Chu Deng was very angry.

He couldn't speak for these hooligans, but what he said was a plea for mercy on their behalf.

"Second Master, those monkeys deserve to die. I really want to kill them myself, but they know that Second Master might be useful. Otherwise, should I go meet Second Master?"

Everyone has his own way. Zhu Tan did not drive away the recruited thugs because he knew that he could not stop them by doing so.

If he doesn't do this, someone else will naturally take over. From now on, all he has to do is to strengthen his rule.

Zhu Tan nodded. He agreed with Zhang Wei's proposal.

Soon, four or five people came over. One of them had taken the exam before and wanted to make up for his mistake, so he repeated what he had heard.

"My Lord, I wanted to go back last night, but I ran into Yang Jia, the nephew of Yang Peng, the chief eunuch of the Eastern Depot. My Lord told me to keep an eye on the Eastern Depot, so I followed him. I saw Yang Jia enter the residence of Zhou Yu, the Earl of Changning, and stayed there for more than half an hour. I was so cold."

Zhu Tan frowned. Yang Peng definitely treated his nephew as his own son. Yang Jia was still waiting for him to pay homage!
However, it is not surprising that Dongchang colluded with Zhou Yu!
Without waiting for Zhu Tan to ask, the man continued, "I originally thought that Yang Jia would go back to his house, but he didn't. Instead, he ran to an alley outside the Drum Tower, where there was a very famous brothel. He was flirting with a brothel girl there. I happened to know her name, Man Cang'er, the most famous courtesan in this area, so Yang Jia hurriedly took Yang Jia away and brought him to his residence."

Zhu Tan was confused. What did this mean?
However, he also understood that if it was not a big deal, his people would not wait here for several hours, so he nodded and let him continue.

"I returned home and found something strange, so I ran to the brothel to ask, and sure enough, something had happened. Mancang'er was the daughter of Changning Earl Zhou Yu. Her mother and brother came and said that her father sold her shop and then resold it several times."

Zhu Tan almost choked up. Zhou Yu was also involved? Interesting!

"In the end, the matchmaker sold all the shops to a man named Yuan Lin. Yuan Lin was good at boasting and soon became very successful in the capital and became a famous courtesan in the capital."

"Man Cang'er's father, Wu Neng, was a low-ranking military commander. He sold his daughter to others, and his wife, Nie, naturally did not stop him. But soon after, Wu Neng died. Nie thought about her own child, so she took her child, Wu Yong, to look for Man Cang'er. Finally, she found Man Cang'er in a brothel, but Man Cang'er refused to acknowledge Nie.

"Mrs. Nie couldn't bear to see her daughter living on the streets, so she wanted to kidnap Mancang'er. But the tenant named Yuan Lin refused. He had already spent a lot of money on Mancang'er, and because he sympathized with Mrs. Nie, he agreed to take out ten taels and buy her again. However, Mrs. Nie refused and insisted on taking Mancang'er away. In a rage, Yuan Lin sent Mrs. Nie to the Ministry of Justice."

"The case was tried by Si Kou Ding Zhe and Si Nong Lang Wang Jue. Ding Zhe was sentenced to force Liang to be a prostitute. Yuan Lin argued with reason and punished Yuan Lin on the spot. Unexpectedly, Yuan Lin returned home and died suddenly a few days later. Yushitai Chen Yu and the head of the Ministry of Justice Kong Qi went to see the body and thought it was fine, so they gave Mancangzi to Nie."

But Mancang'er had a lover, Yang Peng's nephew Yang Jia, and Yang Peng saw the people in the Ministry of Justice, especially Ding Zhe, so he asked Yang Jia to take his wife to the East Factory to file a complaint. "

Zhu Tan stood up suddenly. He finally understood why his subordinates thought that this matter would definitely concern him, because he had sensed a hint of something unusual. (End of this chapter)