Eagle-eyed and wolf-watching

Chapter 1633 Conspiracy?

There were only a few dozen words on the note. Ye Mingsheng only took a quick glance and took in all the contents.

Although there are few words, the amount of information is very large, which shocked Ye Mingsheng!
Ye Mingsheng looked at the contents of the note again with some disbelief, then looked at the man in gray and said:

“Are these real?”

"Your Majesty, this is absolutely true!"

Although he knew in his heart that if such a thing was not true, the inner guards would not dare to report it to him, but after getting confirmation from the gray-clothed man again, Ye Mingsheng still couldn't believe it.

After a moment of silence, Ye Mingsheng waved his hand, and the man in gray immediately bowed and left.

After the gray-clothed man left, Ye Mingsheng took another look at the contents of the note. His anger was still difficult to calm down, so he immediately ordered:

"Somebody come!"

"exist!"

"Bring Ji Xian here!"

"Yes!"

Following Ye Mingsheng's order, Ji Xian hurried to the palace half an incense stick later. However, after arriving at the palace, Ji Xian did not immediately enter the imperial study to meet Ye Mingsheng. Outside the imperial study, he found the first-class attendant Zhang Yufeng, and then asked softly:
"Attendant Zhang, do you know why His Majesty wants me here?"

Facing Ji Xian's question, Zhang Yufeng looked a little hesitant, but facing Ji Xian's gaze, Zhang Yufeng gritted his teeth and said:

"Master Ji! Take care of yourself!"

After saying this, Zhang Yufeng didn't care whether Ji Xian could understand what he meant or not. He turned around and left and returned to the Attendant's Office. When Ji Xian heard what Zhang Yufeng said, after carefully savoring these words, he seemed to realize something and his heart sank!
Looking in the direction of the imperial study, Ji Xian showed a helpless bitter smile on his face. Although he didn't know what kind of storm was waiting for him, since ancient times, thunder and rain were all grace from the emperor. At this moment, if he stretched his head out, he would be cut by the sword, and if he withdrew his head, he would still be cut by the sword...
He, Ji Xian, had no other choice but to leave it to fate!

Ji Xian straightened his clothes and walked into the imperial study resolutely as if he was going to the execution ground.

"Your Majesty, I, Ji Xian, pay my respects to you!"

Ye Mingsheng, who was leaning back in a chair with his eyes closed in the imperial study, did not ask Ji Xian to stand up as usual after hearing Ji Xian's voice. Instead, he spoke calmly:

"How is Zeng Yang now?"

Although Ji Xian had already vaguely realized from Zhang Yufeng's hint just now that His Majesty summoned him this time most likely because of Zeng Yang's matter, but when Ye Mingsheng really said it, Ji Xian still felt despair!
When Ye Mingsheng handed over the task of investigating those censors in the Censorate to Ji Xian a few days ago, Ji Xian could be said to be quite happy!
Not long after the establishment of the Censorate, the censors in the Censorate began to gradually find trouble with the United Coordination Office, believing that the United Coordination Office was a cancer of the Daqian court, a den of filth and corruption that persecuted court loyalists, so they always wanted Ye Mingsheng to dissolve the United Coordination Office!
The spies headed by Wang Xuecheng from the Coordination Office felt very aggrieved about this. In their opinion, everything they did was in accordance with Ye Mingsheng's orders. They would investigate whoever Ye Mingsheng told them to investigate, arrest whoever Ye Mingsheng told them to arrest, and kill whoever Ye Mingsheng told them to kill!
Everything was arranged by Ye Mingsheng!
They never arrested, investigated, or killed anyone that Ye Mingsheng didn’t allow to be arrested, investigated, or killed...
You, the civil service group, are very aware of this, so if you have any questions, go to His Majesty. Why are you troubled by our Coordination Office?

Wang Xuecheng had such doubts at first, but later he gradually understood. He knew that the reason why the civil officials knew that it was His Majesty who was instructing all this, but still made trouble for their Coordination Office was because they could not afford to offend His Majesty, so they came to pick on the Coordination Office, which was a soft persimmon!
Although Wang Xuecheng understood that the Coordination Office was there to protect His Majesty, he was helpless. After all, the Coordination Office itself was the court's lackey, Ye Mingsheng's lackey, and was there to do all the dirty work for Ye Mingsheng!

So even though Wang Xuecheng felt helpless, he had no choice but to start a dog-eat-dog fight with the Censorate!
At that time, Wang Xuecheng was still the director of the Coordination Office, and Ji Xian was the deputy director. Wang Xuecheng held great power in the Coordination Office and was responsible for all business matters. Ji Xian's daily work basically did not involve business, and he was even somewhat marginalized. He played a more supervisory role in Wang Xuecheng!
So at that time, Ji Xian watched Wang Xuecheng and the Censorate fighting each other. Although on the surface he shared the same hatred for the enemy as other spies in the Coordination Office, he was actually laughing secretly. After all, because of Wang Xuecheng's existence, he, Ji Xian, was called the deputy director, but in fact he was a benchwarmer in the Coordination Office...
But all this changed after Wang Xuecheng was killed for his conspiracy. After Wang Xuecheng's death, Ji Xian, as the deputy director, naturally became the acting director and was temporarily in charge of all actions of the Coordination Office. Under his command, the unrest in various places was effectively controlled. As a reward, Ye Mingsheng also made Ji Xian a regular employee!

Although Ji Xian obtained the coveted power of the Coordination Office after his promotion, he also became the target of the Censorate and experienced the pain that Wang Xuecheng once felt!

Because of some of the methods he used to suppress riots in various places, Ji Xian was impeached several times by the Censorate. However, with Ye Mingsheng's intentional protection, Ji Xian managed to get through the difficulties safely. However, this also made Ji Xian more and more disgusted with the Censorate!

Therefore, after receiving Ye Mingsheng's order a few days ago to investigate several censors who opposed the reform, including Zeng Yang, Ji Xian was very sad. This biggest spy chief in Daqian also regarded this matter as a good opportunity to retaliate against the Censorate!

And because Zeng Yang had been the most active and radical in the impeachment process of the Coordination Office in the past, he was regarded as a thorn in the side by the Coordination Office. For this reason, although the Coordination Office had not received Ye Mingsheng's order before, it had actually investigated Zeng Yang and grasped some of the problems Zeng Yang had when he was the prefect of Qilu!
However, since there was no order from Ye Mingsheng at the time and it was not a particularly good opportunity, the Coordination Office had been holding back!
This time, seeing that Ye Mingsheng had given the order, the Coordination Office immediately found evidence against Zeng Yang. This is why the results of Zeng Yang’s case were found so quickly!

After presenting Zeng Yang's evidence to Ye Mingsheng, the Coordination Office successfully obtained Ye Mingsheng's arrest order...

Although he really wanted to kill Zeng Yang and the other bastards who had been causing trouble for the Coordination Office, Ji Xian also knew that this required Ye Mingsheng's order. If he acted on his own without Ye Mingsheng's order, he would make a mistake! So Ji Xian specifically emphasized to his men not to kill Zeng Yang!

However, what Ji Xian did not expect was that Zeng Yang eventually died in the prison of the Coordination Office. When he heard the news, Ji Xian was furious, but he also knew in his heart that there was trouble!
He had originally hoped to let Zeng Yang expose all those censors who had been targeting the Coordination Office in prison. However, with Zeng Yang's death, this plan not only completely failed, but also led to a crisis!
While he was furious, he was also very confused. The person in charge of interrogating Zeng Yang was Captain Wang Yaopeng, who was his confidant. Although he was young, he was very capable. Ji Xian gave him the task of interrogating Zeng Yang with the intention of training him!

When Ji Xian told him not to kill Zeng Yang, Wang Yaopeng did not object and said he would follow your orders. However, Zeng Yang eventually died in the prison of the Coordination Office.

According to Wang Yaopeng's later account, after receiving Ji Xian's order, in order to ensure that nothing serious could happen, he did not use any harsh means against Zeng Yang. He only used several methods to humiliate Zeng Yang in retaliation for his impeachment of the Coordination Office.

But no one expected that Zeng Yang would die in prison. Wang Yaopeng believed that Zeng Yang committed suicide out of fear of punishment!

From Wang Yaopeng's story, Ji Xian sensed a hint of conspiracy, so he immediately asked someone to examine Zeng Yang's body. The final result was that Zeng Yang died of poison, but it was unknown what the specific poison was!

After learning about this situation, Ji Xian felt more and more that he was being plotted against, so he launched an internal investigation, hoping to get to the bottom of the matter before it leaked out!
But before he could finish his investigation, Ye Mingsheng called him over. Facing Ye Mingsheng's question, Ji Xian knew that Ye Mingsheng must know that Zeng Yang was dead, so after a moment of silence, Ji Xian, who was kneeling on the ground, spoke:
"Your Majesty, I have a report that Censor Zeng Yang died in the prison of the Central Coordination Office a few days ago!"

As soon as Ji Xian finished speaking, Ye Mingsheng opened his eyes, picked up the pen holder on the table and threw it at Ji Xian.

Facing the pen holder thrown by Ye Mingsheng, although Ji Xian had the ability to dodge it, he did not dare to dodge at all. He could only take the blow hard. A cut immediately appeared on Ji Xian's cheekbone from the pen holder, and blood immediately flowed out.

At this time, Ji Xian heard Ye Mingsheng's angry voice.

"Ji Xian, you are so bold! It's fine that you didn't give Zeng Yang food, but you also stripped him naked and forced him to drink N and eat S. Do you still have the law in your eyes?"

Facing Ye Mingsheng's angry questioning, Ji Xian felt a little relieved. He had followed Ye Mingsheng for many years and understood Ye Mingsheng's style of doing things!

Based on his understanding of Ye Mingsheng, Ji Xian knew that if Ye Mingsheng continued to be as cold and emotionless as he was at the beginning, it would mean that in Ye Mingsheng's eyes, he was already a dead man...
And now that Ye Mingsheng has given him this pen holder, it means that His Majesty has not completely given up on him. This is good news for Ji Xian now!

As for what Ye Mingsheng said, stripping Zeng Yang of his clothes and forcing him to drink N and eat S, these were all within Ji Xian's expectations. He had already learned about it during the internal investigation!

All of what happened to Zeng Yang was within Ji Xian's expectations. He originally instructed Wang Yaopeng not to kill Zeng Yang. Apart from the literal meaning of this sentence, the subtext was that he condoned some of Wang Yaopeng's methods!
After all, Zeng Yang had caused a lot of trouble for their Coordination Office. Now that he has fallen into the hands of their Coordination Office, it is natural for them to take revenge!
But Zeng Yang is old and not in good health, so those methods cannot be used. Otherwise, it would be a problem if he was killed directly. Wang Yaopeng got the instruction from Ji Xian and did not dare to take risks, so there was basically no too much physical abuse!

Wang Yaopeng dealt with Zeng Yang mainly by mentally humiliating him, such as stripping him of his clothes and forcing him to drink N and eat S!

It stands to reason that Zeng Yang would not be able to bear such humiliation and might have sought suicide!

This is also Wang Yaopeng's opinion, but Wang Yaopeng believes that Zeng Yang committed suicide out of fear of punishment and completely shirked his responsibility!

But Ji Xian didn't think so. He felt that since Wang Yaopeng died of poison, there were two questions!
The first question is when did Zeng Yang take poison?

The second question is whether Zeng Yang committed suicide or was murdered...
The first question can be divided into two situations, that is, whether Zeng Yang took poison at home or in the prison of the Coordination Office.

According to Ji Xian's investigation over the past two days, Zhang Li went to Zeng Yang's home and arrested him suddenly. Zeng Yang was caught off guard. During the arrest, Zeng Yang was always within Zhang Li's sight and he had no chance to take poison!

And if Zeng Yang did not take poison at home, then he took poison in the prison of the Coordination Office, which means there is a traitor in the Coordination Office!
This also brings us to the second question: did Zeng Yang commit suicide or was murdered?

Thinking of this, Ji Xian, who was kneeling on the ground, raised his head and looked at Ye Mingsheng and said:
"Zeng Yang's death was indeed caused by my failure to control my subordinates and let them do whatever they wanted. I apologize to Your Majesty!"

After saying that, Ji Xian kowtowed three times to Ye Mingsheng. Looking at Ji Xian whose face was bleeding and still kowtowed loudly, Ye Mingsheng did not show any mercy at all.

Ye Mingsheng was not unaware of the methods used by the Coordination Office. He had also heard about them. He was also aware of the grudge between Zeng Yang and the Coordination Office.

In fact, a few days ago, when Ye Mingsheng ordered the Coordination Office to arrest Zeng Yang, he knew that Zeng Yang would be in trouble once he entered the Coordination Office!

However, Ye Mingsheng did not expect that the Coordination Office would not only humiliate Zeng Yang, but also kill him. Ye Mingsheng had expected that Zeng Yang would be beaten at most when he went to the Coordination Office. After all, he did not give any orders. Secondly, Zeng Yang was an imperial censor and a veteran of the Fengwu Army!
For a person of such status, the Coordination Office humiliated him so much and killed him without any hesitation. This was really too much and crossed the line. It can be seen that the Coordination Office's methods were even worse than the rumors...