Eagle-eyed and wolf-watching

Chapter 1495 Everyone is evil!

When Zhang Yufeng said this, Ye Mingsheng narrowed his eyes slightly, but was not too surprised.

When the Internal Security Bureau found out that Zhuang Shanhe was involved in the case, they also found out that Zhuang Shanhe had an accomplice!
This accomplice is Chen Chaozhong, a captain of the Coordination Office!

It was with the help of Chen Chaozhong, an insider in the Coordination Office, that Zhuang Shanhe formulated a plan to use Zhao Zibo to get rid of Wang Xuecheng, wanting to disguise the incident as a murder of passion caused by PX!

As the biggest spy chief in Daqian, the reason why Wang Xuecheng was killed without receiving any news was largely because of the interference of the traitor Chen Chaozhong!
When he ordered the arrest of Zhuang Shanhe, Ye Mingsheng wanted to take Chen Chaozhong with him as well. But later because of Li Jian, Ye Mingsheng temporarily spared the lives of Chen Chaozhong and others, wanting to use him to test Li Jian and others!
That day, Ye Mingsheng ordered Li Jian to be imprisoned in the prison of the Coordination Office, just to test how these people would react!
Therefore, Li Jian’s assassination was completely within Ye Mingsheng’s expectations, and since it has already happened, it is time to close the net!

Thinking of this, Ye Mingsheng asked Zhang Yufeng:
"Where is Ji Xian?"

"Your Majesty, Director Ji is waiting in the attendant department!"

"Call him!"

"Yes!"

After a cup of tea, Ye Mingsheng met the current deputy director of the Coordination Office in the study room of the palace. After greeting, Ye Mingsheng got straight to the point:

"Tell me about it!"

After hearing these words, feeling the calm attitude in Ye Mingsheng's words, Ji Xian seemed to realize something, a strange look flashed across his face, and he spoke directly:

"Your Majesty, just this afternoon, Wei Zhen, an officer from the Coordination Office, attempted to assassinate Li Jian in prison, but was stopped in time by the officers in the prison. According to the account of the arrested officer, he was the one who arranged the assassination of Li Jian by Chen Jinnian, the eldest son of Chen Chaozhong..."

At this point, Ji Xian paused and glanced at Ye Mingsheng, as if he wanted to observe Ye Mingsheng's attitude. Ye Mingsheng was leaning back in his chair with no expression on his face. When he saw Ji Xian looking at him, he just waved his hand to signal Ji Xian to continue.

Ji Xian also continued:

"After getting Wei Zhen's confession, I immediately arranged for Captain Zeng Dalei to go to Chen's house to arrest Chen Jinnian. However, Chen Jinnian had heard some rumors beforehand and wanted to escape from Yijing City, but we finally caught him at the East City Gate!"

"Chen Jinnian confessed that he sent Wei Zhen to get rid of Li Jian, and his purpose in doing so was to silence Li Jian. Director Wang's death was originally planned by Zhuang Shanhe and his father Chen Chaozhong!"

Hearing this, Ye Mingsheng said:
"Tell me everything you know!"

Hearing Ye Mingsheng say this, Ji Xian, not knowing whether Ye Mingsheng was referring to something, was startled. However, in order to prevent Ye Mingsheng from seeing anything, he quickly organized his words and continued to speak:

"According to Chen Jinnian's confession, his father Chen Chaozhong had colluded with a businessman named Wang Dexian. Wang Dexian was nominally a businessman in Youyan who dealt in cloth and porcelain, but he was actually engaged in high-interest loans and house sales!"

“The specific operation is that Chen Chaozhong uses his identity as a thousand households in the unified mediation office to help Wang Dexian get low-interest loans from the banknote exchange for Wang Dexian to lend at high interest rates and buy and sell houses. Chen Chaozhong will use his identity as a unified mediation office to help Wang Dexian buy houses at low prices, and then sell them at high prices when developing the streets…”

"Through this collusion, Chen Chaozhong and Wang Dexian made a lot of money. But just when the two were determined to expand their business, Wang Xuecheng became the director of the Coordination Office. Not long after Wang Xuecheng took office, he arrested Wang Dexian."

"Originally, Chen Chaozhong wanted to get Wang Dexian out, but Wang Xuecheng confronted Chen Chaozhong directly, saying that he knew all the dirty deeds between you and Wang Dexian!
You, Chen Chaozhong, are a veteran of the Coordination Office. You know the consequences of doing this. Wang Dexian will definitely die, but I think of you, Chen Chaozhong, as a veteran of the Coordination Office and am willing to give you a chance to reform. That’s why I only arrested Wang Dexian and not you. However, you can’t escape the death penalty even if you’re punished alive. You have to be aware of this!
Although Wang Xuecheng did not say it explicitly, Chen Chaozhong knew what he meant. At the same time, he also knew that Wang Xuecheng did this on the one hand because he was greedy for money, and on the other hand because he wanted to control him as a new official!
So Chen Chaozhong admitted defeat at that time, gave Wang Xuecheng 20,000 taels of silver, and also joined Wang Xuecheng.

At that time, the 20,000 taels of silver were almost all the silver that Chen Chaozhong earned from Wang Dexian, so this matter was equivalent to Chen Chaozhong working for Wang Xuecheng after working for a long time. At the same time, Chen Chaozhong also found that Wang Xuecheng's ability to make money was far superior to his, so he felt even more unbalanced and had some complaints about Wang Xuecheng...
After joining Wang Xuecheng, Chen Chaozhong discovered that although Wang Xuecheng no longer targeted him, Wang Xuecheng still did not trust him!

This resulted in Chen Chaozhong having to do all the dirty, tiring and difficult work in the Coordination Office, but Wang Xuecheng only assigned the lucrative and easy-to-produce tasks to his confidant Ge Xiong. After this situation continued for a while, Chen Chaozhong felt even more unbalanced when he saw that there was no hope of change!

Although Chen Chaozhong wanted to talk to Wang Xuecheng about it, he did not have the courage to do so because he was worried that Wang Xuecheng would punish him after he did so.

This led to Chen Chaozhong not daring to say anything on the surface, but deep down he resented Wang Xuecheng and Ge Xiong even more. For this reason, Chen Chaozhong even hired a quack to perform a "ritual" on these two people!

But unfortunately it had no effect. Just when Chen Chaozhong was disappointed, Zhuang Shanhe found him!
Although Chen Chaozhong resented Wang Xuecheng and Ge Xiong, he was also afraid of Wang Xuecheng, so he rejected Zhuang Shanhe's request at first.

But Zhuang Shanhe was well prepared. He pulled out some leverage over Chen Chaozhong, saying that if you don't cooperate with me, I will prosecute you and you will be dead in the end. If you follow me now, I have the support of Minister Li behind me. As long as Wang Xuecheng is killed, you, Chen Chaozhong, can become the director of the Coordination Office and enjoy endless wealth and glory...

Although Chen Chaozhong was still a little afraid of Wang Xuecheng, when he heard Zhuang Shanhe say that he had the support of Minister Li, he finally chose to collude with Zhuang Shan.

The two men began to formulate a plan on how to get rid of Wang Xuecheng. They originally wanted to use the remnants of the Great Zhou to kill someone with a borrowed knife, but unfortunately they had no way to contact the remnants of the Great Zhou so they were eventually forced to give up.

Secondly, they planned to poison Wang Xuecheng, but this was too difficult and would be easily discovered, so they gave up the plan.

However, just when they were at a loss, Zhuang Shanhe and Chen Chaozhong heard that Wang Xuecheng was working on PX with Yang, the wife of Zhao Zibo, a centurion of the Coordination Office, and wanted to get rid of Zhao Zibo and take Yang's place. The two of them immediately hit it off and thought this was a good entry point, so they began to make a plan.

After listening to Ji Xian's long story, Ye Mingsheng understood the whole story and some of his doubts about the case were resolved. However, Ye Mingsheng still had one last doubt in his mind, and he needed Ji Xian to solve it for him!

“Is Li Jian involved?”

Although Ji Xian had expected Ye Mingsheng's question, when he really heard Ye Mingsheng ask this, Ji Xian still didn't know how to answer.

Seeing Ji Xian frowning and unable to speak, Ye Mingsheng asked calmly:

"Is there anything wrong with this question?" Ji Xian finally spoke up after hearing this:
"Your Majesty, there is nothing wrong with this question, but the key to this question is that according to Chen Jinnian's confession, he and Chen Chaozhong have not figured out whether Li Jian was involved in this matter..."

Hearing Ji Xian's words, Ye Mingsheng couldn't help but become interested and asked:
"This is quite interesting! Tell me what is going on here!"

"Your Majesty, according to Chen Jinnian's confession, the entire court was well aware of the conflict between the Central Coordination Office, the Ministry of Justice, and the Censorate. In addition, Zhuang Shanhe and Li Jian had a close relationship, so when Zhuang Shanhe first said that he had Li Jian's support, Chen Chaozhong and Chen Jinnian believed it without a doubt!"

"However, as the plan progressed and was being implemented, Chen and his son discovered that the Ministry of Justice did not help at all in some areas where they needed help. This made them suspicious, and they had a conversation with Zhuang Shanhe about this!"

"When questioned, Zhuang Shanhe insisted that he had the support of Li Jian, and that it was Li Jian who instructed him to consult with Chen and his son about getting rid of Wang Xuecheng. The reason why the Ministry of Justice did not provide help was also because they did not want to alert Wang Xuecheng!"

"Chen Jinnian confessed that he and his father were somewhat skeptical about Zhuang Shanhe's explanation, so Chen Jinnian proposed the idea of ​​meeting Li Jian, but Zhuang Shanhe found an excuse to refuse!"

“The Chen father and son were becoming more and more suspicious about this, and they were also thinking of backing out. However, the plan had already begun, and Zhuang Shanhe had leverage over them. They could no longer get off the boat, so in the end they gritted their teeth and carried out the plan with Zhuang Shanhe…”

"Although Chen Jinnian had some doubts about whether Li Jian supported Zhuang Shanhe's plan, after hearing that Li Jian was imprisoned and knowing that the matter might be exposed, they chose to silence Li Jian just in case!"

Hearing Ji Xian's words, Ye Mingsheng hesitated for a moment and said:
"You mean to say that Zhuang Shanhe lied to the Chen father and son and said that he had Li Jian's support, but in fact he didn't?"

Ji Xian heard this and said:

Read the error-free version at 69shuba! 6=9+shu_ba is the first to publish this novel.

"This was the idea of ​​the Chen father and son, but Zhuang Shanhe has always insisted that he has the support of Li Jian. When we searched Li Jian's home, we found some correspondence between him and Zhuang Shanhe. In the letters, the two mentioned how to investigate the scandal of the Coordination Office!"

Ye Mingsheng asked with a smile:
"Is there any dirt on you, Ji Xian?"

Seeing Ye Mingsheng asking this, Ji Xian's expression immediately became awkward. After hesitating for a moment, he nodded and said:
"Yes! I have a cousin who is quite honest, but he is neither high nor low, and he doesn't have any great ability. My uncle and aunt want me to arrange for him to work in the Coordination Office and eat a bowl of court rice, which is a guaranteed income!"

"Because the Coordination Office is a special department, I did not assign him to the Coordination Office. Instead, I assigned him a job in Yuyang. This matter was also dug up by Zhuang Shanhe, recorded, and reported to Li Jian!"

After saying this, Ji Xian also knelt down and apologized to Ye Mingsheng:

"Your Majesty, please punish me for abusing my public power for personal gain!"

Ye Mingsheng waved his hand and said:
"Get up!"

Under Ye Mingsheng's order, Ji Xian also stood up from the ground, but he lowered his head with a guilty look on his face!

At this time, Ye Mingsheng said leisurely:
"No one is perfect. It's human nature for you to do this. There are many royal family members in the court and the army. I can understand you, as long as you don't do anything that disregards the grace of the emperor..."

Although Ye Mingsheng said the last sentence lightly, it sounded like a thousand pounds of weight to Ji Xian's ears, frightening him so much that he knelt on the ground and kowtowed:

"I have always been loyal to the court and to Your Majesty. The heavens can bear witness to this!"

"Okay, okay! Get up! Ji Xian, I believe in you!"

When Ji Xian stood up trembling with fear, Ye Mingsheng pondered for a while and asked:

"How is Li Jian doing in prison?"

Ji Xian answered without hesitation:

"Li Jian doesn't make any noise or trouble in prison. He lives a very peaceful life!"

"calm?"

"Yes! Li Jian is very calm. He usually closes his eyes and meditates in prison. No one knows what he is thinking about!"

Ye Mingsheng nodded slightly when he heard this and then ordered:
"Okay! It's getting late now, you should go back and rest early!"

"Yes! Your Majesty, please take care of yourself!"

After a while, Ji Xian left the room. Ye Mingsheng also asked the palace maid to prepare hot water for him. He wanted to take a hot bath. Ye Mingsheng planned to take this hot bath when he came back from running in the imperial garden. After three laps, Ye Mingsheng was sweating all over, so taking a hot bath would help him feel cleaner, but because of Ji Xian's report, some time was wasted.

Sitting in the bathtub with his whole body wrapped in hot water, Ye Mingsheng felt that his day's fatigue was relieved. Leaning against the wall of the tub, Emperor Daqian began to think.

To be honest, Ye Mingsheng was still very conflicted about how to deal with Li Jian.

After all, now is the time to recruit people. Ye Mingsheng wants to deepen the reform, but most of the court officials are very secretive about the reform. Although they dare not oppose it openly, they use silence to express their attitude. The two most powerful ministers of Daqian, Cui Shao and Gu Sansi, are among them!

Only Li Jian has always supported the reform. However, for some reasons, Li Jian, the Minister of Justice, was constrained. Therefore, the power in his hands was too great. In addition, he did not have many followers. Therefore, he always seemed lonely in the court.