The imperial court.
The emperor sat on the high dais, while civil and military officials stood below.
Just when everyone thought there would be no business today, Prime Minister Sima stepped forward and said loudly, "Your Majesty, I have something to report!"
The emperor's gaze met Prime Minister Sima's, and he was quite surprised. "What is it? Prime Minister, speak quickly."
"I have three things to report. First, Minister of Personnel Cui Zhengping accepted 90,000 taels of silver from Du Yunqian, the magistrate of Qingyuan County, and promised to help him get transferred to the capital."
"Second, the entire family of Minister of Personnel Cui Zhengping died violently. That fire was not an accident, but a deliberate act of arson to massacre the entire Cui family."
When it came to the third point, Prime Minister Sima deliberately paused.
When the officials heard the first point, their reactions varied. Some felt sad. It had been less than three days since Minister Cui's death, and now someone was bringing up this matter. How could the soul of the deceased rest in peace?
There were also officials who had been at odds with Cui Zhengping. They were secretly delighted. It seemed that heaven had opened its eyes. Not only had this scourge been taken away, but his crimes were now made public. Truly, evil would be punished.
But when they heard the second point, everyone was shocked.
Cui Zhengping held a high - ranking official position, even higher than most. For such a high - ranking official to be deliberately retaliated against and his entire family to die miserably, when they thought of themselves, they couldn't help but feel extremely nervous.
Only some smart officials were a bit puzzled.
When they heard about the fire at the Cui family, they all thought it was the emperor's intention to get rid of the Cui family. After all, the fire was strange. Only the entire Cui family was harmed, and even some servants who ran fast managed to escape. Could there be another hidden story?
Prime Minister Sima gave the officials enough time, and some officials who knew the truth in advance began to stir up trouble.
Take Imperial Censor Zhang, for example. He held a fourth - rank official position, and beside him stood a secretary surnamed Tie from the Ministry of Revenue.
Imperial Censor Zhang gently poked Secretary Tie. "Hey, it seems from the prime minister's words that someone deliberately killed Minister Cui."
Secretary Tie hung his head. He was also curious, but since the emperor was sitting on the dais, he kept silent.
Seeing that he didn't say a word, Imperial Censor Zhang poked him a few more times. "I have some inside information. Do you want to know?"
The whispering around grew louder. Secretary Tie stole a glance at the emperor above. Seeing that the emperor didn't scold them, he finally couldn't hold back his curiosity and asked, "What inside information?"
Imperial Censor Zhang told Secretary Tie the rumor he had fabricated last night.
Secretary Tie gasped. "What? Shen Qingshan set fire to the Cui family? But... but... what was the motive?"
"Because of an old matter. Do you remember the embezzlement case many years ago? It's related to Shen Qingshan, and Cui Zhengping found out about it!" Imperial Censor Zhang's voice grew softer.
In that embezzlement case back then, almost all the well - known officials in the Ministry of Revenue had died. Not only did Secretary Tie remember, but even the vice - minister of the Ministry of Revenue in front of him leaned over to listen.
After the officials cultivated by the emperor had laid the groundwork, Prime Minister Sima finally spoke. "Third, former Prime Minister Shen Qingshan embezzled disaster relief supplies. Afraid that the matter would be exposed, he first hunted down the surviving members of the Zhang family and then set fire to the Cui family!"
With the preconceived groundwork, the officials had already had expectations. Even if some of Shen Qingshan's students stood up to defend him, the other officials calmly waited for Prime Minister Sima to present the evidence.
Prime Minister Sima had both a witness and material evidence. The witness was Zhang Yun, and the material evidence was a last letter left by the former Minister of Revenue. The letter mentioned Shen Qingshan, some names, and a few key numbers. If there had been no embezzlement, no one could have known these details.
With both witness and material evidence, Prime Minister Sima argued with several people alone and requested the emperor to immediately detain the Shen family to restore justice to the world.
Shen Qingshan was a meritorious official left by the previous emperor. The emperor was in a dilemma. He could only first order the Minister of Justice and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court to thoroughly investigate the matter. Before the matter was clarified, the members of the Shen family were not allowed to leave their residence.
This punishment was not severe. In fact, it could be said to be lenient towards the Shen family, which left Shen Qingshan's students speechless.
Among them, the one with the highest official position was Cui Zhengping. Now that something had happened to Cui Zhengping, they couldn't help but feel a sense of sorrow for the death of a comrade. For the time being, they didn't have the energy to defend the Shen family.
This matter was temporarily settled.
Then, Father Yin stepped forward, knelt on the ground with a thud, and said emotionally, "Your Majesty! I have been wronged!"
Everyone was still thinking about the previous matter and was startled by Father Yin.
"Shen Qingshan is as ambitious as a wolf. He colluded with the Cui family to harm the legitimate son of the empress. Please punish him severely, Your Majesty!" Father Yin was originally just acting, but suddenly he thought of his nephew being switched, his sister crying every day, and his daughter suffering from psychological trauma. Overwhelmed by grief, he truly burst into tears.
The emperor pretended not to understand. "The Third Prince is doing very well in the palace. What harm did Shen Qingshan and the Cui family do?"
Father Yin raised his voice and cried loudly, "It's not the Third Prince, but the Fourth Prince. Shen Qingshan, together with the Cui family, switched the Third and Fourth Princes. The Fourth Prince, who was raised by the Cui family, is the real legitimate son of the empress. The Third Prince in the empress's palace is actually the son of the Cui family."
This statement caused quite a stir. It was even more explosive than the previous news.
You should know that the Third Prince was once the crown prince. This was a matter related to the succession of the throne!
Officer Yan understood. No wonder Officer Yin had advocated for the removal of the crown prince. It turned out that the Third Prince was not his real nephew. Presumably, he had known about the switch of the princes at that time.
The emperor continued to feign surprise. "What? Is this true? Do you have any evidence?"
Father Yin presented the witness and material evidence given to him by the emperor and proposed to hold a sacrifice to heaven to let heaven prove the Fourth Prince's true identity.
With sufficient evidence and a perfect plan, just like the case of the Shen family, the emperor agreed, and then the court was adjourned.
As the officials walked out of the court, they always felt something was off. Everything had gone too smoothly today, as if it had been pre - arranged.
Among the crowd, the military commander quickened his pace. He asked for leave and rushed home.
...
The Wu family.
Grandma Wu was looking at the hungry grandchildren in front of her and smiling as she distributed the pastries. "Don't be impatient. Everyone will get some. This one with the most complete pattern is for Yu'er, who loves beauty. This biggest one is for Song'er, who loves to eat... There's one last, most broken piece left. Since Ming'er is at home, let's secretly save it for him."
Just then, the military commander suddenly pushed open the door and rushed in. He pulled Grandma Wu towards the armory.
Grandma Wu staggered as she was being pulled. She was reluctant to leave the ice cubes in the house and her grandchildren, but since the military commander was not young, thinking of giving him some face, she didn't shake him off in front of the grandchildren.
When they reached the armory, the military commander accurately picked out a whip from among the many weapons.
He handed the whip to Grandma Wu and took a long spear for himself. His voice was full of excitement. "My dear, I'll take you to the Shen family. I'll capture Shen Qingshan, and you can give him a good beating!"
"Shen Qingshan? Why do you want to beat that old fool? Besides, he has a grudge against you. Why should I go and beat him?" Grandma Wu was too lazy to bother with the military commander and turned to leave.
The military commander remembered that he hadn't told her the whole story yet and quickly grabbed Grandma Wu. "We do have a grudge. He has a grudge against both of us!"
"Do you remember our betrothal token? It was embezzled by this scoundrel!"
The military commander and Grandma Wu had been childhood sweethearts. Their betrothal token was the long spear that Grandma Wu had bought at a high price. That long spear was the military commander's favorite weapon. He loved it so much that he couldn't put it down all day, and that's why General Mu had taken notice of it and used it as a bet in a competition.
Because he lost the competition and had to engrave words on the long spear, the military commander was severely scolded by Grandma Wu. Since then, the military commander had disliked General Mu.
Later, there was a serious natural disaster. Coincidentally, the military commander and Grandma Wu's grandson was sick. All the family's money was spent on the grandson's treatment. In a moment of impulse, the military commander donated the long spear.
Although Grandma Wu was heart - broken, it was a good deed after all, so she didn't blame the military commander. It wasn't until there was an assassination in the palace and the news of embezzlement spread that she belatedly realized that the long spear must have been embezzled.
Now that the military commander knew that it was Shen Qingshan who had embezzled it, he immediately dragged Grandma Wu along, planning to beat Shen Qingshan up before the officers and soldiers arrived.