Daming: Internship also counts as work experience

Chapter 26 Difficulties
The crown prince had not yet ascended the throne, so it was not appropriate for him to govern in the main hall. Zhu Zhanji handled various matters in a wing room at the southern end of the Qianqing Palace.

He spent most of the day half-leaning on the brocade-cushioned couch, dressed in mourning clothes. His right shoulder was bulging, probably because he had the wound treated again after returning to the palace.

On the day Zhu Zhanji received the news that the Huangluling patrol officers had been murdered by bandits, he was reclining on his couch. He pulled out a piece of gold-edged paper from the memorials beside him, handed it to Yang Shiqi, and said, "Here are some reign titles proposed by the Hanlin Academy. I haven't had time to choose yet..."

At this moment, Zhu Zhanji was still in a calm mood, but the next moment, a young eunuch came in with a new memorial and handed it to him. After he read it, his already weak face became even paler.

Just as Yang Shiqi was about to ask, Zhu Zhanji waved his hand. The young eunuch raised his arm, and Zhu Zhanji helped him stand up. He seemed to say to Yang Shiqi, but also to himself: "I'm going to get some fresh air."

Zhu Zhanji walked out of the Qianqing Gate, took a deep breath and looked at the empty construction site in front of him. This matter was somewhat metaphysical.

When Zhu Di was preparing to move the capital to Beijing, he built three large halls, namely Fengtian, Jinshen and Huagai, in the Forbidden City, imitating the imperial city of Nanjing. They were used for court ceremonies and sacrifices. The original design was extremely grand and awe-inspiring.

The construction of these three halls began in the 15th year of Yongle and was completed in the 18th year of Yongle. However, before their first birthday, a huge thunder struck from the sky and the three halls suffered a disaster of lightning and fire. The fire was so big that no one could get close to it, let alone put out the fire.

The fire burned for a whole day, and all three halls were burned down, turning into a white land.

Logically speaking, this was a natural disaster, but some people exaggerated it and attributed it all to Zhu Di's usurpation of the throne, which angered God.

How could Zhu Di not be annoyed? But he couldn't stop the gossip, so he could only order the Ministry of Works to rebuild as soon as possible.

The three main halls all have double eaves, with nine eaves horizontally and five eaves vertically. They were so large that Zhu Di passed away before the completion of the project. The fat Zhu Gaochi was determined to move the capital back to Nanjing, so he did not supervise the project, so that Zhu Zhanji still saw a large construction site.

Zhu Zhanji gazed at the halted construction site and pondered for a long time. Was it necessary to kill all the people from the Inspection Office? Who should he send? At this time, he needed help everywhere, and not everyone could be trusted. The memorial was sent by Dongzhao County, and some of the statements on it must have come from that young man.

He's fine, that's good, let him investigate first. This matter may not be as simple as we thought before, so the method we thought of before is not applicable.

"Go and find Xu Gong." Zhu Zhanji let out a long sigh and said this.

……

Jia Chuan looked at the bloodstains left on the trampled weeds and various green plants in front of him, and he had an idea in his mind. He squatted down and carefully searched for the complete footprints left behind.

This place is different from the open space in front of the house. It is covered with weeds and trees. Although the soil is soft after the heavy rain, the patterns on the soles of shoes cannot be seen clearly. It is difficult for Jia Chuan to tell the number of people based on the differences in the edges and corners of the shoe prints. He thought: This requires the cooperation of trace examination. Using those equipment, perhaps the number of people can be calculated.

Jia Chuan looked carefully for a while, and apart from the number of people, he had a rough idea of ​​everything else.

Gao Yuntian saw Jia Chuan squatting on the ground with his face almost touching the ground. He asked in confusion, "What can you see?"

"Your boots must be different from the county magistrate's shoes, and also different from those of the poor people." Jia Chuan said as he looked.

Gao Yuntian understood immediately and squatted down to watch, but Jia Chuan had already seen it. When Gao Yuntian squatted down, Jia Chuan just stood up.

Jia Chuan looked at Gao Yuntian who was sticking his butt out, and said nothing, but waited patiently. He had thought about making a mold that night, and this was evidence, but it was impossible to do it in this place, so it would be good to have someone like this to help him prove it.

While Jia Chuan was teaching his apprentice here, Dong Shuben calmed down and took Shunzi back to the house. When Jia Chuan and the others came back, Dong Shuben and Shunzi had not returned yet.

Jia Chuan felt that he had checked enough, so he led everyone back to the house, and saw Dong Shuben sitting on the ground in front of the house with a look of despair on his face.

Shunzi, who was standing nearby, came over and whispered to Jia Chuan, "The banknotes and silver that the inspector had hidden are gone."

Jia Chuan wasn't surprised. He just nodded and asked, "Let me ask you to think about it. When you buried the bodies that day, did you find anyone's body...wrong?"

"I thought about it, and to be honest, I can't tell at all. Some of the guys are shirtless, so it's even harder to tell. I can only look at who they look like, and I don't dare to look too much. I just feel that whoever it is is who it is."

Jia Chuan didn't ask any more questions. He also remembered that day, when the only reference points were height and... intuition.

But what Jia Chuan couldn't understand was how they would dare to leave the bodies of the patrol officers behind if there was an outsider among them? The fact that a corpse would show signs of giantism after two or three days required personal experience. Even the coroner couldn't guarantee a certain timeframe, as it was directly related to temperature...

Besides, how would they know when the inspector and the two clerks would return?

"I'm thinking of saving enough money for my daughter's dowry." Dong Shuben suddenly muttered.

The salary of the Inspection Office was not paid monthly. After receiving it, Jia Chuan would always find time to go to the city to buy groceries in accordance with the principle of "one person's food feeds the whole family". Others would also send money home.

Dong Shuben was different. His monthly salary would be sent home. His family lived in Dongguang County, Lin County of Dongzhao County. He would secretly keep some of the public silver allocated to the Inspection Office for daily use. Everyone in the Inspection Office knew about it. It seemed like it was a habit. All the previous Inspection Offices would do the same. Otherwise, what else would they do as officials?
Therefore, it was difficult for other people to have money and silver around. Only Dong Shuben had hidden some and never brought it home. Jia Chuan had heard others talk about this before. They said that Dong Shuben had a son and a daughter, the daughter was two years older than the son, and his wife was partial to him, giving all the good things to the son. This made Dong Shuben very upset. He could only secretly treat his daughter better when he was on vacation at home. So he never sent the money and silver back home, hoping to secretly add to his daughter's dowry. Unexpectedly, it was all gone.

"Why do you want to come and see me today?" Jia Chuan walked up to Dong Shuben and asked.

"You suddenly saw that everyone around you was dead, and you could still think of these things?" Dong Shuben asked angrily, looking up.

Jia Chuan sighed. He knew that Dong Shuben was indeed frightened. He had been nervously analyzing whether he could escape this time. In addition, hiding money was not something he did often, and the place he hid it in was very covert, so he unconsciously put it in a subtle place in his heart.

"Who among us do you think knows where you hid the banknotes and silver?" Jia Chuan asked as he sat next to Dong Shuben.

Gao Yuntian got anxious when he saw this and said quickly, "Can't we talk about it back at the government office? Look at the sky. If we don't leave now, it will be dark by the time we get out of the forest!"

Jia Chuan looked up at Gao Yuntian, lowered his head and thought for a moment, then slapped his thigh and said, "Let's bury that pit of corpses and go back!"

Gao Yuntian's face suddenly became extremely ugly.

……

Jia Chuan rode on his donkey, feeling the hot wind on his face, the fading light, and Gao Yuntian's noisy voice...

Dong Shuben was listless, sitting on the donkey with slumped shoulders and not saying a word.

Shunzi saw that none of the people he knew spoke, so he didn't dare to speak either.

Gao Yuntian chatted with his men about all sorts of things.

Old Zheng didn't want to pay any attention to Gao Yuntian. He rode to Jia Chuan's side and wanted to ask him the questions in his heart several times, but when he saw that Jia Chuan didn't seem to be able to hear him, he held back and didn't ask.

Jia Chuan was calm at the moment. Because he was calm and thought clearly about every aspect, he would not do that at all.

In his previous life, when he was investigating a case, he must have been so happy to return to the scene and find such an important clue. The case analysis meeting would definitely last half the night. But in this life, investigating the case would involve his life, and would affect the rest of his life and even his descendants, although he hasn't done that yet.

The same people had been at the Inspection Office since he arrived three years ago, with no replacements. If there was a traitor, and this person had always been there, how could Dong Shuben be blameless? Even though he had appeared resourceful in front of Zhu Zhanji, saving the supreme leader's life twice, his statement that "the Inspection Office could not be bribed" would have planted a seed of doubt in the leader's mind. Forget about promotion or wealth, he would be lucky if he wasn't found guilty and exiled to Ningguta one day.

In an era of intense struggle for imperial power, treason was naturally taboo. To serve as a warning to future generations, if discovered, those involved would be punished with the punishment of three clans, which was considered a light punishment. But how many of those three clans were innocent? Was this simply to teach future generations that honor and disgrace are shared?

What's more, they were involved in this traitor, who not only recruited criminals to kill all the people in the Inspection Office, but also gave the weapons and bows and arrows in the Inspection Office to the last group of bandits in order to save his own life. Such a serious crime, even if he was finally caught and it was made clear that he, Dong Shuben and Shunzi had never been involved, would not have a good result because they had been colleagues for many years and had not discovered it. At least there would be no chance of promotion.

What if it wasn't explained clearly? Or what if the person is already dead?

Jia Chuan smiled bitterly. He had come to a place like this, without air conditioning or heating, unable to enjoy the delicious food he longed for. He had a stick to poop on, his nose was freezing in the winter, and he was so hot in the summer that he wanted to peel his skin off. He tried hard to survive while trying to convince himself, but now, he thought he had ushered in a world of wealth...

Is it possible not to mention this traitor?
Jia Chuan shook his head. Regardless of whether this person was dead or not, as long as the case was finally solved, a character like him would definitely come to light, not to mention that he would confess something after being caught alive. Zhu Zhanji would never allow others to fool around with this case. If he found out later, he would still have heard it from others... Jia Chuan couldn't help but smile bitterly.

Seeing Jia Chuan sighing, smiling bitterly, and shaking his head, Old Zheng couldn't help but say, "Tell me what you're thinking about."

Jia Chuan looked back at Dong Shuben and said, "Old Dong, don't be too anxious and upset yet. The real hardship is yet to come. You should save some strength. There's an old saying: There's no worst, only worse."

After saying this, Dong Shuben immediately perked up. He urged his donkey forward and asked with a look of fear in his eyes, "What do you mean by that?"

"Haven't you heard of losing money to avoid disaster?"

Dong Shuben stared at Jia Chuan with wide eyes, deeply understanding the meaning of Jia Chuan's words.

No matter what, Dong Shuben's spirit has returned a little.

……

　I missed a little today because I was not feeling well. I will make up for it later.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)