Tang Dynasty, my wife Wu Zetian

Chapter 74: Jingzhao Du Family
The rain is still falling.

Di Renjie came to the outside of Dali Prison and looked around, but could not see Bai Xiaojie.

"Where is Bai Xiaojie?" he asked the jailer.

The jailers hesitated and said nothing.

Just then, a man came from a distance in the rain. He was about twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old, thin and pale.

"My name is Bai Xiaojie, nice to meet Di Shaoqing." The man bowed.

Di Renjie stared at him for a while and found that his expression was ugly and his wrist was shaking slightly. Without saying much, he took Bai Xiaojie into the prison.

After arriving at the interrogation room, Bai Xiaojie and Cui Wenhan looked at each other in silence.

Di Renjie said, "Master Bai, I am under the command of the Holy Lord to thoroughly investigate the case of Cui Wenhan. One of the matters involves you, and I hope you will cooperate."

Bai Xiaojie nodded.

Di Renjie asked, "In the third year of Yonghui, did you take the imperial examination?"

"Yes."

"You had a literary competition with Gao Youdao, and lost to him?"

"good."

"Did you or your family send anyone to cripple Gao Youdao's fingers?"

Bai Xiaojie said, "I did it."

After hearing this, Cui Wenhan breathed a sigh of relief.

Di Renjie laughed instead of being surprised, saying, "So he called you over just now. He threatened you, didn't he?"

Bai Xiaojie's face changed drastically: "What did you say?"

Di Renjie glanced at Cui Wenhan and said, "Just now, after Xin Siqing transferred me away, a jailer told you to blame Bai Xiaojie for Gao Youdao's injury, is that correct?"

Cui Wenhan's face changed drastically.

Di Renjie looked at the dark-faced jailer, who smiled and said, "Sir Di, what do you think I'm doing?"

Di Renjie said, "Before I left, your shoulders were dry, but now they're wet, and there's even some wet dirt on your shoes. This means that when I left, you left too."

The jailer's face turned pale and he said, "I... I..."

Di Renjie walked up to Cui Wenhan, searched his body for a long time, and finally found a five-inch long needle in his hair.

Di Renjie said calmly, "This is the tool he gave you to commit suicide with."

Cui Wenhan closed his eyes and said nothing.

The jailer looked as pale as death and suddenly rushed out the door. Di Renjie just glanced at him and ignored him.

Unexpectedly, a sound of "ouch" was heard from outside.

With the sound of dense footsteps, more than a dozen Qianniu Guards walked in.

The first man was a burly man holding the jailer in his hand. It was Xue Rengui.

"Shaoqing Di, His Majesty has ordered me to come here to assist you in solving the case." Xue Rengui said loudly.

Di Renjie was overjoyed and said, "General Xue, you've arrived at the perfect time. Please keep an eye on the jailer."

He turned his gaze to Bai Xiaojie and said, "Master Bai, now that things have come to this, can you tell the truth?"

Bai Xiaojie glanced at Xue Rengui, sighed, and said, "He is very powerful in Chang'an, and our Bai family cannot compete with him, so I lied. Please forgive me, Di Shaoqing."

Di Renjie asked, "Who is he?"

Bai Xiaojie swallowed his saliva and said, "Jingzhao Du family, Du Chong."

……

The next day, in the Imperial Palace, Ganlu Hall.

Li Zhi sat behind his desk, looking at Di Renjie in surprise, and asked, "Wasn't Bai Xiaojie responsible for Gao Youdao's case?"

Di Renjie bowed and said, "Your Majesty, it was definitely not Bai Xiaojie who did this. The person who actually ordered the killing of Gao Youdao was the head of the Jingzhao Du family, Du Chong."

Li Zhi frowned: "Du Chong?"

Although the Jingzhao Du family is not the top family in the Guanlong Group, it has a huge influence in Chang'an City.

There is a folk saying that goes, "Weidu in the south of the city is five feet away from the sky."

What this means is that the prominence of these two families is almost reaching the sky.

Having said that, Du cannot be compared with Zhangsun Wuji, Chu Suiliang and others after all.

When Du Ruhui was still alive, the Du family was indeed at its peak. Unfortunately, Du Ruhui died early, and his descendants were not ambitious enough and participated in Li Chengqian's rebellion.

As a result, after a purge, the power of the Du family in officialdom was uprooted, leaving only some inherited noble titles.

Li Zhi thought of this and frowned, "Why would the Du family do this? Doesn't this matter have anything to do with them?"

Di Renjie said, "Your Majesty, in the list of successful candidates that year, Du Chong's son Du Fu was ranked first."

Li Zhi was stunned and asked, "Is it because of this reason?"

Di Renjie said, "Your Majesty, you may not know that Gao Youdao was quite flamboyant back then. When he defeated Bai Xiaojie in a literary duel, it caused quite a stir, even causing many people to question the official list."

Li Zhi finally understood. Gao Youdao's actions had seriously violated the interests of the aristocratic families on the list. The Du family had suffered the most, so they took revenge.

This is the behavior of the powerful and wealthy families. When they face other powerful and wealthy people, they may care about some decency.

However, when facing ordinary people, he will never show any mercy.

If Li Zhi had not suddenly wanted to use Gao Youdao to promote the imperial examination, Gao Youdao would probably not know until his death that the person who really harmed him was not Bai Xiaojie, but the Jingzhao Du family.

Then again, even if Gao Youdao knew about this, he would be unable to do anything about a behemoth like the Du family.

Li Zhi said in a deep voice, "You came to me to ask for permission to arrest Du Chong?"

Di Renjie said, "I have two orders, but I don't know which one to ask for."

Li Zhi was surprised and asked, "What do you mean?"

Di Renjie said, "The first order is to arrest Du Chong. This matter ends here, and the case of Cui Wenhan also ends here."

Li Zhi stared at him and asked, "What about the second decree?"

Di Renjie said, "Let's not arrest Du Chong for now. We can use Du Chong to get Cui Wenhan to speak."

Li Zhi's eyes flickered as he asked, "Can you use Du Chong to get Cui Wenhan to speak?"

Di Renjie took out a thin needle from his sleeve and handed it to Li Zhi, saying, "Your Majesty, please look. This is a jailer who put it in Cui Wenhan's hair when I wasn't paying attention."

Li Zhi took it and took a look at it, then pondered, "They gave this to Cui Wenhan, hoping he would use it to commit suicide?"

Di Renjie said, "That's right. The jailer also sent a message to Cui Wenhan, asking him to put the blame for Gao Youdao's crime on Bai Xiaojie and not mention Du Chong."

Li Zhi pondered and said, "If that's the case, then the jailer must be Du Chong's man. Wait, if it was Du Chong, why did he kill Cui Wenhan?"

Di Renjie smiled and said, "Your Majesty is wise. Du Chong has already sent a message to Cui Wenhan, asking him to put the blame on Bai Xiaojie. Given his position, there is no need to kill Cui Wenhan."

Li Zhi nodded and said, "So the jailer was actually commissioned by two people. One was Du Chong, who told him to deliver a message to Cui Wenhan. The other was to give Cui Wenhan a needle and help him commit suicide."

Di Renjie said, "That's right. The other man was extremely cunning. If Cui Wenhan had committed suicide, we would have only traced the case back to Du Chong and thus overlooked him."

Li Zhi was silent.

He had already guessed who that person was. Apart from Changsun Wuji, no one dared to kill Cui Wenhan at this moment.

The reason why Di Renjie asked for two imperial edicts was that he couldn't figure out whether he intended to deal with Zhangsun Wuji.

At this point, since Changsun Wuji has become so unscrupulous, Li Zhi will never tolerate it again.

"You just said you wanted to use Du Chong to get Cui Wenhan to speak?"

"Yes, I am 80% sure."

"Tell me your plan."

Di Renjie took a deep breath and said, "First, we must pin the charge of Cui Wenhan's murder on Du Chong..."

I explained the plan to Li Zhi in detail.

After listening to this, Li Zhi nodded and said, "Alright, go ahead. I will issue an order later, allowing you to act at your discretion. This should make things much easier for you."

Di Renjie was overjoyed and said, "Thank you, Your Majesty." He bowed and took his leave.

Li Zhi continued to deal with official documents, and after more than an hour, he finally finished processing all the memorials.

The imperial examinations these days have consumed a lot of his energy, and now that they are finally over, he can finally take a break.

After Li Zhi left Ganlu Palace, he strolled slowly in the harem.

Before I knew it, attracted by the fragrance of flowers, I arrived at the plum garden near Penglai Palace.

When Li Zhi was walking on the path in the garden, he suddenly heard a woman's laughter coming from deep in the garden.

He walked over in the direction of the sound and saw a swing not far away. A woman was sitting on it and swinging, with a group of palace maids pushing it.

Xu Jin sat in a pavilion in the distance, looking at the woman with a smile.

Li Zhi took a closer look and saw that the woman had a round face and big eyes, and was about eighteen or nineteen years old. When she smiled, her eyebrows and eyes curved, and she was full of energy.

When Li Zhi was looking at the woman, Xu Jin also noticed him, and hurriedly lifted her skirt and trotted over to greet him.

The woman was also surprised, and quickly got off the swing and followed to greet him.

Li Zhi helped Xu Jin up and smiled at the woman, "Do you like playing on the swing?"

The woman blushed slightly and said nothing.

Xu Jin smiled and reminded, "It's almost Cold Food Festival, have you forgotten?"

Li Zhi was slightly stunned before he reacted.

The Cold Food Festival is the day before Qingming Festival. During the Tang Dynasty, Qingming Festival was also called Spring Festival. It was connected with the Cold Food Festival, and the whole country had a four-day holiday.

During this period, swings were not only a tool for entertainment, but also a ritual for praying for blessings. Swinging around the Qingming Festival was a custom.

Li Zhi smiled and said, "I've been so busy lately that I really forgot. Who is that woman? Is she a relative of yours?"

Xu Jin glanced at her and said with a smile: "Everyone, she is your niece."

The woman stepped forward and said softly, "My name is Du Rong, and I pay my respects to Your Majesty."

(End of this chapter)