The Empress's First Running Dog

Chapter 96: Reversal! The Eight Investigation Divisions jointly ask for a halt, Zhao Duan conquers Lihua Hall
Deliberate revenge?

A look of confusion emerged on Qian Kerou's palm-sized face. The single-minded "confidential secretary" couldn't figure out the key.

Zhao Duan stood with his hands behind his back under the large ink painting, leaving only his back to her, and said quietly:
"Why did you come at this time, not earlier or later? Is it a coincidence? Not necessarily."

He used Li Lang to establish his authority. Anyone with a discerning eye could see this purpose, and Princess Yunyang must have understood it.

Today he opened the door wide and demanded a bribe to redeem the person. The prince consort took the opportunity to visit him and wanted to take the person away in public.

If Zhao Duan agreed, the authority he had worked so hard to build would be severely weakened.

It would be interpreted that he dared to hit Li Lang that day because he had Mo Chou's support.

Today, when Mo Chou is not around, a recognized "coward" in the Beijing circle, "Cuckold" can make him give in.

Especially, today, I don’t know that the officials in Lihua Hall and half of the officials in the capital are watching from afar.

Both of them were about redeeming people, but she demanded bribes from the families of minor officials, but did it for free to the prince consort. The difference in treatment was obvious, and Princess Yunyang only needed to spread the word a little.

Zhao Duan's behavior of bullying the weak and fearing the strong, and taking advantage of others' power will spread.

The dignity is gone and all previous efforts are wasted.

Of course, this speculation may not be true.

But no matter whether Princess Yunyang had such intention or not, at this critical juncture, the prince consort came to her house and asked for the woman for free, which was just to flatter him.

Zhao Duan had to, and had no choice but to fight back hard.

"I don't understand."

Qian Kerou said honestly that the female official felt that the minds of the important figures in the court were very complicated.

It's like there are deep pits at every step. If you are not careful, you will make a mistake.

Unconsciously, she admired her boss more and more and thought that he was really awesome.

"You don't have to understand. Thinking too much can cause heart problems. It's better to be simple."

Zhao Duan laughed at himself:
"Go ahead and call the next one."

After the female secretary left, he touched his heart, feeling lost in thought.

I don't know when it started, but I became such a vicious and mean person.

……

After the little episode, the bribery process continued.

In the afternoon, perhaps as the news spread, more family members came to offer bribes.

The box under Zhao Duan's desk was full, so he had to replace it with a bigger one.

The accumulated stolen money was about to reach the 30,000 taels of silver mark.

The work will not be suspended until the evening.

On that day, as expected, a big disturbance occurred at the morning court.

The collective imprisonment of fifty-eight officials was enough to attract the attention of all the ministers.

The Empress Xu Zhenguan of Dayu sat on the dragon throne, quietly listening to the ministers' impeachment. She was silent for a long time, and finally said calmly:
"I will check it out and discuss it again after understanding the whole story."

Then, the eunuch raised his whip high and lashed it on the shiny floor of the Golden Palace, shouting:
"Retreat—"

The ministers left in anger.

The students of the Imperial College discussed the matter heatedly, denouncing the treacherous and corrupt officials for causing chaos and saying that the country would no longer be a country.

the next morning.

Zhao Duan continued to accept bribes, and no one visited the Prince Consort's residence during this period, and Princess Yunyang had no reaction.

This instead made Zhao Duan look up to this woman who was notorious for her "dissolute" reputation.

"Sir, I'm afraid no one will come today."

evening.

Qian Kerou walked in holding a list that listed the people who had given bribes and the amounts of the gifts.

Two days have passed, and the time is indeed almost up... Zhao Duan said "yes" and asked:

"Is everything complete?"

Qian Kerou flipped through the list and said:

"There are fifty-eight criminal officials, and the families of fifty-seven of them have sent gifts."

"What about the other one?" Zhao Duan raised his eyebrows.

Qian Kerou explained with a complicated expression:
"The remaining one is Lu Zhi, a seventh-rank judge in the Dali Temple. He... comes from a poor family, so I'm afraid he can't make it."

"Oh? Tell me carefully."

"Yes. As far as I know, this person was born in a poor family. After passing the imperial examination, he was arranged to work as a judge in the Dali Temple.

This official position was the starting point for Jinshi candidates. Logically, he would be promoted quickly, but Lu Zhi was as his name suggested, upright and incorruptible, and seemed to have a bad relationship with his colleagues.

He had refuted his superiors many times, and even criticized the late emperor in a letter, but he did not make friends with cliques... Therefore, he sat in this position for ten years.

Qian Kerou couldn't hide her admiration and said:
"But this person has a good reputation in the community. It is said that he is fair in judging cases and has the nickname 'Little Justice'."

Tsk...sounds like a decent person like Hai Rui...

So, your intention in impeaching me is to eliminate harm to the people?
Zhao Duan complained.

In fact, he had a rough idea of ​​these fifty-eight people.

When they learned that most of them were just following the trend to curry favor with Li Yanfu, they flocked over.

Most of them are from the lower levels of the "Li Party".

This is also the reason why he felt at ease arresting people, but it seems that Lu Zhi is an exception.

"Did he say anything in prison?" Zhao Duan asked.

Qian Kerou hesitated and said, "I dare not say it."

"explain."

"Oh. He cursed you in prison, saying that you were a treacherous villain, a lawless traitor who was undermining the government. He would never yield to you or give you even a penny..."

The female secretary spoke in a lower and lower voice and glanced at Zhao Duan.

However, this domineering and overbearing superior was not angry at all. Instead, he listened with great interest.

"He's a very temperamental person," Zhao Duan chuckled and ordered:

"Pass the order down, release Lu Zhi, and keep the rest of the people in custody."

At this time, the other three subordinates also came in, and were all stunned when they heard the order.

I suspect I heard it wrong.

"Sir... are you talking about rebellion? Shouldn't we release those fifty-seven people and only keep Lu Zhi?" Shen Juan was stunned and asked.

Hou Renmeng also looked puzzled.

Zhao Duan raised the corner of his mouth, sat at the head, and said with a smile:

"I have already said that I only want them to go to jail to cooperate with the investigation. Since Lu Zhi has nothing to do with the rebels, he should be sent back. As for the other fifty-seven people..."

After a pause, he restrained his smile:
“Although they have nothing to do with the rebels, but… they dared to bribe the imperial officials in public, which has violated the Great Yu Law, and they still want to get out of prison?

As the Chief of Police, I have the duty to supervise all officials. I will personally draft a memorial to Your Majesty. As for the nearly 30,000 taels of stolen money…"

He bent down and moved two large boxes of gold, silver and jade articles from under the table onto the table.

He casually picked out a pile of silver ingots and put them aside.

Pointing to the remaining two boxes, he changed his words:

"As for the remaining 20,000 taels of stolen money, wrap them in a seal and send them to the palace along with the memorial."

He pushed the allocated silver ingot forward again:
"My brothers have worked hard these past few days, so I will pay for it myself. I will clearly distinguish rewards and punishments when distributing this money, and I will never treat my own people unfairly. Do you understand?"

The four people in the hall were stunned.

No one answered for a moment.

Zhao Duan was too lazy to care about his subordinates' emotions. After thinking for a while, he said:
"Oh, there's one more thing. I want you to activate the channels and spread another message.

Let me say that the reason why I took the money but didn’t do anything, and instead bit back and used fishing enforcement, was because I was targeted by the other eight gangs and couldn’t get the case, so I resented the supervisor for being biased and unfair. I was worried that I would not pass the evaluation this month, so I resorted to this bad idea. "

Chain plan!
At this moment, Zheng Laojiu, who was holding a celadon teacup and holding a court newspaper under his arm, was the first to understand.

I finally understood the real purpose of Zhao Duan's mysterious operation.

Retaliation?

This is just a matter of convenience!
His real purpose was to make things bigger and attract the attention of the entire court.

It is conceivable that once Zhao Duan delivered the memorial and the "stolen money" to the palace, the criticism against him in the court would be temporarily muted.

Although sting operation is shameful, the fact of bribery is right in front of us, which provides reasons for argument and smoothing things over.

Zhao Duan can completely explain it as:

They only arrested people for "cooperating with the investigation" and would have released them after a day or two of investigation.

But he can't be blamed for a group of corrupt officials coming to him for bribery.

In this way, if the Empress and Yuan Li take sides a little more, this matter can be raised high and put down easily.

The most Zhao Duan received as punishment was a salary deduction, which was not a serious penalty.

But he took severe revenge on a group of parasites.

At the same time, Li's party would also argue that they did not intend to bribe, but were misled by rumors, which is understandable.

Even if it is just to save face, they will try their best to rescue the fifty-eight people.

At this time, Zhao Duan spread the news that he was wronged and was targeted by the eight halls.

With Ma Yan's intelligence, he will definitely understand his intention.

All he had to do was to go with the flow and force the Eight Halls to surrender and hand over the case.

There is no doubt that Ma Yan and Zhao Duan are in the same group.

At the same time, Zhao Duan's actions not only demonstrated his skill and dominance, but also destroyed the blockade of the eight halls. He also secretly took out some of the dirty money to reward his subordinates and win people's hearts.

Give both grace and power.

How could the officials in Lihuatang not be convinced?

Do you agree to follow him as the police officer?
Three birds with one stone.

Although Zheng Laojiu and others could not guess the entire plan, just seeing a small part of the iceberg was enough to scare them.

I felt awe for this young superior.

"I understand, sir, don't worry, I will do it right away."

Shen Juan, who was lazy but smart, also reacted. He looked at Zhao Duan deeply, bowed and left.

At this point, I was completely convinced in my heart, and it was not until this moment that the title of "Sir" truly came into being.

It only took Zhao Duan three days from showing off his power to taming the troublemaker in Lihua Hall.

Wait for the four subordinates to leave.

Zhao Duan closed his eyes again and listened to the rustling sound of the big pear tree with lush branches and leaves in the yard.

Meditate quietly.

The four subordinates thought that this was the end of the series of schemes.

But the truth is, up to now, everything Zhao Duan has been doing is just a prelude.

“The next step should be put on the agenda.”

Do you want to challenge yourself to find the traitor within a week?
Give Zhenbao a surprise?
Zhao Duan thought it was worth a try.

……

……

That night.

A memorial and two boxes of gold, silver and treasures were urgently sent into the palace with the help of Zhao Duan's special privileges as "Lord of the White Horse Guards".

The next day, morning.

When all the officials were filled with anger and were ready to question the empress about the "investigation results", the eunuch read out Zhao Duan's memorial on the spot.

All the ministers were silent for a while.

The subsequent developments were exactly the same as Zhao Duan’s deduction.

Amid the tug of war in the court, the pressure was finally directed to Ma Yan.

Under pressure from the empress, Duke Du was forced to convene a meeting of eight officials and became furious.

The detectives who had been waiting and watching the situation, hoping for Zhao Duan's downfall, were scolded and criticized. After the meeting, everyone was confused.

Only then did he realize that he and others seemed to have been plotted against.

They were angry but helpless as the governor had already issued a death order, asking them to "take care of it", appease Zhao Duan and release the officials.

Stop this farce.

The eight of them had no choice but to swallow their anger and go to Lihua Hall together to pay a visit.

But I was turned away.

……

"My master is taking a nap and please don't disturb him. You can go to the flower hall and wait." Qian Kerou said seriously.

His cheeks turned slightly red from lying.

"...?"

Haitang, the tall chief officer of Narcissus Hall with a ponytail and teardrop moles at the corners of her eyes, raised her head and glanced at the setting sun.

He said expressionlessly, "Are you sure Zhao Jisi is taking a 'nap'?"

The heroic female inspector almost gritted her teeth, biting the word "午" very hard.

Tie Sha Guan, who had well-developed muscles and a beard as hard as steel needles, had his cheeks twitching and clenched his hands, making a "crunching" sound from his joints.

Resist the urge to break the door.

"Haitang, there's no need to embarrass the subordinates."

Zhang Han spoke calmly. This middle-aged man with a paralyzed face, who looked like a great general, said:

"Let's go to the flower hall and wait."

Just three days later, the situation reversed.

From when Zhao Duan sent someone to visit and was refused, to when this group of chief officers were turned away.

"The Zhao guy really holds a grudge!"

Haitang was so indignant that she wanted to poke a few holes in him with a flying knife.

I waited for more than an hour.

Just when it was getting dark and everyone's patience was almost exhausted.

Outside the flower hall, in the crimson twilight that looked like a flaming cloud, a dark silhouette slowly walked in.

Zhao Duan, wearing a black uniform embroidered with flying fish, with a straight figure and handsome appearance, came leisurely, with a hint of sleepiness on his face.

Ironically, although they had been working in the same office for several days, this was the first time they met each other.

What a nice appearance!
The heroic Haitang's eyes lit up, and the urge to cut him off with a flying knife weakened a little.

However, soon after the two sides exchanged greetings and Zhao Duan spoke loudly, her slight good impression disappeared.

"It's very simple to calm this matter down," Zhao Duan looked around at everyone and said with a smile:

"I want all the clues you have about the rebels to be shared with Lihua Hall unconditionally."

After a brief pause, he added: "Each person will talk to me individually."

No matter how much the Eight Halls ate, Zhao Duan would make them spit out double the amount.

PS: The plot of these chapters is relatively "big", so it seems a bit empty, with many characters, and the protagonist is always giving orders. The only way to increase the readability is to keep briefly advancing the plot. But this is also to pave the way for the later part, and now the basic foreshadowing is done.

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(End of this chapter)