Chapter 117

Lin Jiaojiao was shocked: Bringing a pregnant wife to the Ministry of Justice, is this something a human would do!?

She instantly understood why the Ministry of Justice could handle cases so quickly!

No matter who it was, as long as they were subjected to unconventional interrogation methods, they would confess!

How many unjust and false cases would this cause!

If Wuding hadn't really killed Qin Liuye, Lin Jiaojiao might have felt a trace of sympathy for someone who confessed under torture.

The Minister of Justice Wen Yushu continued to report to the Emperor: "According to Wuding's confession, although Xu Xiao was poisoned and paralyzed and could not take care of himself, he still had the ability to act, so he gave death orders to four dead soldiers, and the four orders were different."

Qin Yuan couldn't believe it when he heard this: "He actually raised four dead soldiers?"

The ministers were in another slight commotion, also feeling incredible.

"Yes," the Minister of Justice Wen Yushu nodded, "His four dead soldiers, Wujia and Wuyi, were not in the capital, so Xu Xiao asked his son Xu Chengpeng to write a letter on his behalf, sending it by carrier pigeon. The content of the letter is unknown. And Wubing and Wuding in the capital were responsible for destroying all the evidence of his crimes back then."

Qin Yuan asked, "Then there is still a Wubing in the capital who has not been brought to justice?"

"Emperor, although Wubing is on the run, I believe he will be brought to justice soon. When General Lu learned that there was still a dead soldier in the capital, he immediately set out to pursue the fugitive, and I also sent men to ambush the places Wubing usually frequents."

The words of the Minister of Justice Wen Yushu made the Emperor, Lin Jiaojiao, and a group of officials understand why General Lu did not attend court today.

"So that's it. With General Lu taking action, that dead soldier surely won't be able to escape far." Qin Yuan nodded in approval, "Then what evidence did Wuding confess to?"

"Wuding's evidence is all in the confession document." The Minister of Justice Wen Yushu said. At this time, the confession document had already been passed down from Prime Minister Su's hands. Many ministers had already read it, and all of them were filled with hatred for the evidence on it.

"I didn't expect Xu Xiao to kill so many people through the hands of dead soldiers!" Remonstrance Official Cheng Jing took the confession document and shook his head, "It's truly outrageous!"

Lin Jiaojiao looked over and saw Remonstrance Official Cheng Jing frowning and shaking his head. She also wanted to get the confession document quickly to see what was going on.

At this time, Prime Minister Su stepped forward two steps and kowtowed to the Emperor, "Emperor, this subject has an important matter to report."

"Oh? Prime Minister Su, what important matter do you have?" Qin Yuan leaned forward slightly, looking at Prime Minister Su with eyes like torches, "Is what you are saying related to the case? I remember, the Lin family's injustice of embezzling military pay from the previous dynasty was reported by you, right?"

A group of ministers turned their eyes to Su Hongtu, but this time his students were much more well-behaved, and no one stood out to "support" their teacher Su Hongtu like last time.

Lin Jiaojiao also looked at Su Hongtu, trying her best to suppress the hatred in her heart, mainly to see what tricks he was playing this time.

"Emperor, this subject listened to Xu Xiao's slander back then and mistakenly thought that Lin Ye had embezzled military pay. Plus, that scoundrel Xu Xiao provided forged evidence. For the sake of the country and the soldiers on the front line, I reported Lin Ye, the then Minister of Revenue!" Su Hongtu said very sincerely, and his words contained unquestionable loyalty, which made all the ministers believe him.

Only Lin Jiaojiao kept staring at him, not believing a word he said!

"It wasn't until Lin Guniang came to court to beat the drum and complain that I began to slow down and consider the doubts in the case back then!" Prime Minister Su said, looking at Lin Jiaojiao, but his eyes quickly moved away from her and lowered back to the ground, "Regarding the matter back then, this subject was deceived by Xu Xiao, which led to the harm of the Lin family!"

Lin Jiaojiao looked at Prime Minister Su coldly, only feeling that this old fox was really good at pretending!

Prime Minister Su continued to kneel and said: "This subject feels deeply guilty for the Lin family's surviving daughter, and at the same time, I have started to investigate the case to see if there is any other evidence that can help Lin Guniang clear her family's injustice!"

As he spoke, he reached out to wipe away non-existent tears.

Lin Jiaojiao looked at him coldly. She didn't believe a word of Su Hongtu's!

This was clearly crocodile tears!

She remembered Qin Liuye's tearful complaint yesterday: Prime Minister Su came to ask me, Dali Temple Minister Song Shijie came to investigate! And Brocade Guard Xiao Yifei also came to find me!

Su Hongtu was the first to visit Qin!

Just as Lin Jiaojiao was about to speak, Su Hongtu snatched the words and said: "After the pufferfish poisoning incident occurred, Xu Xiao's daughter Xu Yuanzhi—that is, Yu Fei Niangniang, she thought it was the incompetence of the servants, so she sold all the servants and started to replace them with a new batch."

"Yu Fei was also involved?" Qin Yuan's brows furrowed even deeper: "That day, I considered the father-daughter relationship between her and Xu Xiao and allowed her to return home to visit her relatives. I didn't expect her... Prime Minister Su, continue."

"Yes, Emperor." Su Hongtu kowtowed again and stopped wiping those non-existent tears.

"Among the servants sold by Yu Fei Niangniang, there was a relative of my mansion's steward. After the steward obtained my consent, he went to the human trafficker and bought his relative back, along with several other servants. Through the interrogation of these servants who were bought back, I learned the whereabouts of the stolen military pay embezzled by Xu Xiao back then."

Qin Yuan leaned forward again, "Where did the stolen military pay go?"

"Those military pay embezzled by Xu Xiao were all used by him to bribe officials in various places and help his family relatives buy official positions!" Speaking of this, Su Hongtu suddenly raised his head, his eyes bursting with traces of hatred, "The silver recorded in the account book alone amounted to more than five million taels!"

"Used to buy official positions?" Qin Yuan was furious! He slammed the dragon chair, "Outrageous!"

"Yes!" Su Hongtu responded, "Emperor, everything he did was to buy official positions and increase the Xu family's power, so that one day when Yu Fei Niangniang became pregnant and gave birth to a son, she could support him as the Crown Prince!"

Hearing this, the civil and military officials looked at each other and began to talk about it.

"No wonder he tried so hard to send his daughter into the harem back then—"

"But this layout is too early!"

"Isn't it? This is a case from fifteen years ago. His daughter should have been no more than five years old at the time, right? How could he predict that his daughter would definitely succeed in the selection and enter the court as a concubine?"

"Even if she didn't enter the court as a concubine, he still had a son, Xu Chengpeng. As long as Xu Chengpeng had the merit of following the dragon, he would surely be able to stand firm in the court, right?"

"Yes, when the Emperor was still the Crown Prince of the Eastern Palace, he was repeatedly assassinated by other princes. I remember Xu Chengpeng was guarding his side at that time..."

"Now that you mention it, Xu Chengpeng can be considered a meritorious official who followed the dragon. He is now serving as the Inspector of the Two Rivers. The location of the Two Rivers is so important, so his power as the Inspector of the Two Rivers is occupying half the country. Xu Xiao is really calculating..."

The more Qin Yuan heard the ministers' discussion, the more he felt a chill down his spine at Xu Xiao's actions!

Although he was the Emperor above ten thousand people, he still couldn't escape the shackles of being used by others!

In his fury, he ordered: "Someone, go and summon Xu Chengpeng to see me!"