Damn it, I'm in the garbage book I wrote

Chapter 666 The Wind Comes from the Mountains

Anzi went, and the list of his crimes was a full ten feet long. All the backlogged cases on his hands were sent back for retrial. Unsurprisingly, most of these people were released without charge, and their explanation to the outside world was that they were implicated in the factional purging.

But no matter how much they talk, the people understand what really happened. Those corrupt officials were just released like that, how could they not understand?

But what could they do? They could only watch from afar as the people of the An family, dressed in mourning clothes, returned to their mansion to greet the corpse of their family's pillar.

“Of course we can’t let him get away with this. We’ll take some men and, under the pretext of searching for evidence, raid his house.”

Those who had been taken in by Anzi were already holding their breath. When Anzi was alive, they couldn't afford to offend him, but now that he was dead, and in a very bad way, they had to teach him a lesson.
They say that once a person dies, the tea cools down. But this isn't just about someone dying; it's about a person's death in its purest form. In that case, it's not just a matter of the tea cooling down. Confiscating the property is just the appetizer; there's more to come.

So they made up some excuse and brought their people over.

Having just gained power, they were even more arrogant than before, walking down the street with an air of superiority. Although the people on the roadside pointed and whispered, they never dared to take a step forward.

A group of more than a dozen people, carrying a newly issued edict from the Ministry of Justice and some "evidence" of Anzi's crimes, swaggered into the mansion and kicked open the door.

Their imagined scenario was that the house was full of the elderly, women, and children. They would first overturn Anzi's coffin, then search the house, and finally see if there were any beautiful relatives in his family, hoping to come up with some exciting tricks.

However, just as they kicked the door open, they were met by the old inspectors and the new Censorate's Operations Division, which was the group led by Luo Shixin.

Behind the screen wall sat Zhang Zhongchun, the newly appointed third-rank official of the Secretariat.

"Searching the house?" Old Zhang slightly raised his eyelids: "Who gave you the order? Let me see it."

Those people felt a buzzing in their ears and instinctively tried to back away, but the officers from the Operations Division had already closed the door.

Luo Shixin put down his rifle, picked up a wooden stick, and rolled up his sleeves: "Since we're here, let's cry a few times to liven things up."

After they finished speaking, the new and old police officers surrounded them. These people were professional spies who knew how to beat people without causing serious injury. They surrounded the group and launched a series of attacks, beating them until their cries were louder than those of Anzi's family inside.

About an hour later, they were released. The order to search and confiscate their property had already fallen into Old Zhang's hands. They limped away and returned to the Ministry of Justice, where they informed the current Minister of Justice, Fang Qinglong.

He himself was not from a prominent family, but he was the son-in-law of one. He was quite shocked to see his man returning in such a limping manner.

"Why are you so embarrassed?"

"My lord...my lord, you must stand up for us..."

"Speak!" Minister Fang's face turned ashen with rage. "How dare you be so audacious?"

His subordinates recounted everything that had happened that day, and Minister Fang was naturally furious. He immediately filed a complaint with Emperor Jingtai.

"Your Majesty..." Minister Fang knelt on the ground, feigning sobs, "I beg Your Majesty to do me justice! I acted in accordance with the law, yet I was driven away by Attendant-in-Ordinary Zhang, who even injured the Ministry of Justice's men! Your Majesty..."

Emperor Jingtai was "furious." He stood up and shouted, "Outrageous! Tell Zhang Zhongchun to get in here. Minister Fang, step back and calm down. I will reprimand him."

"Thank you, Your Majesty."

After Minister Fang left, Old Zhang was summoned. Before he could even bow, Emperor Jingtai stood up and hurriedly asked, "How is it? How long has the fighting lasted?"

"The screaming was so terrible that it disturbed the neighbors for an hour."

"No injuries, right?"

"Don't worry, the cotton wrapped around the copper rod can't be detected or tested."

Emperor Jingtai paced back and forth in his study with his hands behind his back: "But this isn't enough. We need to find a way to do something big."

"This is all just a momentary pleasure."

"A moment of pleasure is still pleasure." Emperor Jingtai clenched his fist: "Here's what we'll do: think of a way to do it again."

"Don't worry, there will be plenty of opportunities."

However, the matter still needed to be resolved. Emperor Jingtai quickly summoned both parties involved and ordered Lao Zhang to apologize to the Ministry of Justice, which Lao Zhang complied with.

This was a glorious victory for the Ministry of Justice, but the people from the Court of Judicial Review stood up to protest.

"Your Majesty, according to the laws of the Great Wei, whether Zhang Shizhong condoned his subordinate's assault and violation of the law still requires legal basis."

The speaker was Zeng Jing, the acting Minister of the Court of Judicial Review. He was the grandson of Zeng Ming, the former Grand Censor of the Censorate. At this moment, he wore a deadpan expression and answered meticulously, "In addition to witness testimony, we also need legal evidence."

"Lord Zeng, isn't that inappropriate? It's a fact that my subordinates have been bullied and beaten; why do we need to verify that?"

"According to the laws of the Great Wei Dynasty, an assault must result in injury; without injury, there is no punishment. Is Minister Fang afraid to commit an assault, or is he deliberately defying the law?"

He rolled his eyes, his gaze filled with murderous intent. All the officials from the Dali Temple stepped forward in unison, as if a full-blown brawl between the Dali Temple and the Ministry of Justice was about to erupt if BYD were to utter another word of nonsense.

"Go ahead and investigate!"

"Very well, then we shall proceed as Minister Zeng has suggested and investigate!"

This whole ordeal caused the few people in the Ministry of Justice who had been beaten to cry and wail once again, because for the so-called examination of injuries, they were not qualified to be imperial physicians. The proper examination required coroners from the Court of Judicial Review and the Ministry of Justice, and it had to be done in a completely official and impartial manner.

One side claims there was injury, the other claims there was no injury; if each side sticks to their own version of events, the examination needs to be repeated.

The coroner's examination of injuries was anything but gentle; he could fabricate injuries even if there were none. After several such examinations, the men were left barely breathing, begging for mercy and saying they were unharmed and that they had only had a verbal altercation, not been beaten.

That would be tantamount to betraying the Minister of Justice. Emperor Jingtai slammed his fist on the table, shouting, "Fang Qinglong, this is deceiving the emperor! Don't you understand what deceiving the emperor means?!"

Minister Fang was completely dumbfounded. He never expected things to turn out this way. The problem was that he couldn't even see those people himself. They were being directly supervised by the neutral Zongzheng Temple. A group of imperial relatives didn't care about that. They would just report whatever these people said.

"Your Majesty's mercy has deceived me..."

"It seems your reign as a muddle-headed official is over." Emperor Jingtai sat back down, his hair and beard bristling. "You've made such a mess of things, and this is the result you've given me. Tell me, what should be done?"

"I deserve to die ten thousand times..."

Emperor Jingtai waved his hand dismissively: "Go back and reflect on your actions in seclusion for seven days!" "Thank you for your great kindness, Your Majesty."

Even after all this was done, Emperor Jingtai was still furious. This act of picking them up high and then letting them go lightly was just a smokescreen; what he really wanted was for all of them to lose their heads.

He simply had no other choice at the moment, so he could only resort to this method to annoy people.

But now he also saw something clearly: the people of the Dali Temple were truly bloodthirsty, and the court would soon see the most severe legal battle in history, until one side was wiped out and could no longer beg for mercy or be forced to back down by another means.

If that's the case, then it will be time for Anmus to overturn his conviction.

Emperor Jingtai did not say whether or not Anmusi's house would be confiscated. Logically, it would have been confiscated, but after this incident, no one dared to provoke him again. However, the An family's mansion could no longer be inhabited.

But what will become of such a large family? Countless people wanted to see them make a fool of themselves, but suddenly the Dugu family had a property for urgent sale. A courtyard of one acre could be bought for just three taels of silver, but the head of the family decreed that it could only be sold to someone whose birth date and time perfectly matched, and even their birthplace had to be a perfect match. In the end, an interview was also required.

In the end, only Anmus's eldest son met the requirements, and after being evicted from the An family mansion, they successfully moved into the Dugu family's vacant property.

Since everyone here comes from a prominent family, some people are bound to feel resentful. So, someone secretly went to find the Dugu family's manager in Jinling City.

The person in charge simply said, "If you're so capable, go and talk to my master," and all of them shut up.

In fact, by this point, everyone had formed a clear division, and they also realized that even if Anmus died, there were still people on his side.

Whether it's Xia Lin's wordless book, Zhang Zhongchun's forced separation of the couple, or Dugu Han's luxurious mansion, their attitudes have already explained everything.

So now each family has already warned their children not to provoke them these days, and that once things have calmed down, they will have their turn to deal with that family.

Time flew by and the day of Anzi's funeral arrived. Although no one stopped them along the way, there were young men from prominent families walking and singing, dancing and setting off firecrackers to celebrate.

Because Anzi was a criminal, his family was not allowed to attend his funeral. Instead, a servant pulled him to the mass grave outside the city in a cart. The firecrackers thrown by the people there would even "accidentally" land on Anzi's body. The servant silently wept and endured the bullying from those wicked people all the way.

"Fun, fun, so much fun! Damn it, damn it, so much fun! A petty official, how dare he not know the heavens above him!"

Those spoiled brats made up songs to mock him from the side. The tattered straw mat covering Anzi's body was blown open, revealing his pale, grayish corpse inside.

Many of the bystanders looked on with pity, and some even began to shed tears secretly.

Anzi was a good official. He never showed mercy in judging cases and was known as a just and upright official. Now that he has come to such an end, many people are even cursing the Great Wei Dynasty in private, saying that it should have been destroyed sooner.

Suddenly, someone in the crowd shouted, "Beat him up!"

The two words immediately ignited the emotions of the people. Regardless of whether they were young or old, they grabbed their belongings and rushed forward. At first, the spoiled brats didn't take it seriously, but when they saw the surging crowd rushing towards them, they began to feel afraid and then ran away.

But two of them were a step too slow and were immediately squeezed into the middle of the crowd. At first, they introduced themselves, saying, "My father is so-and-so" and "My uncle is so-and-so," but seeing that no one around them showed any fear, they really chickened out and started kneeling down to beg for mercy.

But as I said before, their posture doesn't mean they know they're wrong; it means they know they're going to die.

The people's anger was completely ignited, and hundreds of people began to brutally beat the two men. The yamen runners from the Jingzhao Yin Yamen had actually been patrolling the streets here long ago, but when the people went to chase those men, they chose to chase the thief in a small alley next door.

Finally, the thief escaped, and they returned "disgruntled," while the two spoiled brats had already been beaten for a full quarter of an hour.

Just then, they arrived late and blew their bamboo whistles. Upon hearing the constables' whistles, someone in the crowd shouted "Get out of here!" and the entire street dispersed instantly.

However, the two scions of noble families who had been kicked were already unrecognizable, and it was unknown when they had stopped breathing.

After a while, the guy who had shouted "Beat him up!" had run into a quiet alley with his companion. He took off his mask and leaned against the wall, panting, "That felt good! Damn, that felt good!"

The commotion was none other than Emperor Jingtai himself. Beside him stood Yang Guodong, the newly appointed top scholar known for his literary and martial talents and bestowed with the courtesy name Guodong, who was also Xia Lin's only disciple.

Another person was squatting on the ground, panting heavily. He was holding a bloodstained short hoe in his hand; the fatal blow had come from his hand.

"Zhongchun, you're no good. You're not even as good as Guodong."

"How old is he? How old am I?" Old Zhang said, then began to retch. "I'm exhausted, Your Majesty... Don't resort to such underhanded tricks anymore. We must deal with them openly and fairly. Using such low-down methods will only make Daosheng curse me when he returns."

"You think he won't curse me?" Emperor Jingtai said, rubbing his aching back. "But I'll still do it, because it feels good! Tell me, isn't it good!"

"Cool."

Emperor Jingtai turned to look outside: "Did you say those two are dead or not?"

"Even leeches would die; I ripped their skulls off."

"You're ruthless, Zhongchun. I never knew you, the Immortal Painter of Luoshui, were so cruel. Your painting skills are just as ruthless when it comes to killing."

"Your Majesty, I have been in charge of the Investigation Department for five years."

"That's good. On the outside, he's a dashing and romantic scholar, but on the inside, he's a ruthless and vicious imperial spy."

"He also served as prime minister on the side." Old Zhang sat down on a large rock to rest.

Just then, the surveillance team followed the bloodstains into this alley. As soon as they entered, they saw three people sitting there, one of whom was holding a weapon that matched the shape of the murder weapon. They thought they had caught a big fish, but after their eyes adjusted to the change from light to darkness, they felt like they were fucking crazy. Why were they chasing bloodstains?

At this point, it's not good to greet them or even to see them; basically, there's not much chance left for them to survive.

But at that moment, one of them, quick-witted as ever, grabbed his companion, stared intently at the end of the alley, and shouted, "Quick, chase him! The murderer is right ahead! We can't let him get away!"

As they spoke, the guards, brandishing their knives, ran past Old Zhang and Emperor Jingtai as if the three men didn't exist.

"Hey? I'll promote this guy to be an inner guard."

The man was overjoyed upon hearing this and turned around to bow and say "Thank you...", but he immediately realized what he had said and turned back to say, "Catch the murderer, quick!"

Emperor Jingtai laughed, but Yang Guodong said in a deep voice, "Your Majesty, the court may descend into chaos tomorrow."

"Let it be chaotic! I've already written to Daosheng, ordering him to return immediately after dealing with Shanhaiguan, without any delay. My trusted minister can't just die like this! Damn it, when my sword returns, let's see if they still dare to sing and set off firecrackers!"

(End of this chapter)