Chapter 19 Chapter 19 The Substitute Murderer

It was April of the second year when the demon book case was closed. The thing is also like Chen Ju's experience: When encountering a case that is really difficult to solve but must be solved, he will take a scapegoat who is not high in status, has little influence, and will least attract public attention, and treat him as the "true murderer". Because of Emperor Wanli's repeated decree that the real culprit must be captured in the demon book case, the factory guard who undertook it couldn't bear the pressure, so he lost his conscience. A scholar named Lu Shengguang became an innocent wronged soul and became a scapegoat——

It turned out that Dongchang had seized a suspicious man named Pao Shengcai who had been reported by others in November; there was no evidence, but if he was tortured, he would be able to have a confession. Jiao Shengcai confessed that he had done nothing, and the reason why he was reported may have something to do with his brother Shengguang, because he was a scholar in Shuntian Prefecture and often interacted with book engraving workshops. This is the confession "related to publishing"—— Therefore, the factory guards immediately dispatched troops to search and arrest Lu Shengguang, and together with his wife, concubine and son, he was taken into Dongchang for questioning.

However, after asking for a long time, I couldn't find out why; I simply went to arrest the people from the book engraving workshop who had contacts with Lu Shengguang. The engraver Xu Chenghui was interrogated. Xu Chenghui exhausted his brains to think through and list the manuscripts that Yan Shengguang had entrusted to him for engraving over the years, but there was not a single word about the demon book in it. The "true murderer" was caught like a treasure, and the group of people were excited for several days, but now they were completely chilled by Xu Chenghui's confession, which was like cold water pouring on their heads.

And Emperor Wanli kept sending people to urge to solve the case as soon as possible—— Jin Yiwei Zuo Dudu Wang Zhizhen couldn't resist, so he took the initiative to discuss with Chen Ju. However, before he opened his mouth, he decided that Lu Shengguang was the real culprit; therefore, after the greetings were over, his first sentence was to say angrily: "This troublemaker is really disgusting! I broke my leg!" You don’t even want to tell the truth, it’s really pissing me off!” Chen Ju responded with his gentle words: "I'm so angry, I can't do it! Take your time, you can always ask the truth!"

However, Wang Zhizhen's basic attitude was different from his. He shook his head vigorously and said, "Don't be slow, this troublemaker will not be recruited. It has been a long time, and he is fine. We will let the Lord Long Live issue a decree for crimes!" This is also the truth, and Chen Ju has nothing to say; but Wang Zhizhen said further: "I just came to you to discuss this matter - I have to figure out a way to get this unscrupulous person to confess; or else, talk to someone else A few of you do some work, no matter whether he recruits or not, this is how the case is closed, right?"

What he meant was very clear. No matter whether Lu Sheng was recruited or not, the factory guards would write the confession for him, and it would be counted as fingerprints; "At this moment, I don't know who Long Live Lord is going to send here. It's just the government department's Jiuqing Kedao. It's probably not impossible!" When Chen Ju heard it, he secretly scolded in his heart: "You said you came to discuss with me, but in fact, didn't you decide everything? The discussion is false, and it is true to ask me to act according to your proposal!"

However, he didn't want to hurt the superficial friendship with Wang Zhizhen, so he deliberately put on a look of deep thought: "Well——this matter must be carefully calculated!" Wang Zhizhen laughed and said: "What else is there to add up? Close this case early, so everyone can go home and sleep!" Chen Ju said with a sullen face: "To close a case, there must be complete evidence—this time, not to mention Lu Shengguang's death, even other people's confessions are not enough to convict, let alone insufficient evidence—" Wang Zhizhen smiled again: "It is not difficult to have complete evidence!"

Of course, Chen Ju understood that forging some evidence is really easy, but he disagreed, so he simply stopped talking and asked Wang Zhizhen to continue talking in a muffled voice. Wang Zhizhen had no quarrel with him at all, but he didn't care about slight differences of opinion; however, Wang Zhizhen also understood that Chen Ju was more important than him in terms of position or in front of Emperor Wanli——Chen Ju At present, the eunuch Bingbi, the supervisor of ceremonies, is also the eunuch of the East Factory. To the eunuch, he is already an "extremely human minister", so it is better to let him speak.

So, a smile appeared on his face: "No matter what, the factory guards always follow Chen Sili's lead. Everyone will do what you say!" As soon as this good word was said, Chen Ju's expression eased as expected, but he still murmured and said: "In our opinion, this life is just wronged!" However, after saying the words, I immediately regretted it a bit, and simply changed the subject to Wang Zhizhen, saying: "There is a saying that has been passed around secretly, saying that Mr. Shen Ge paid a large sum of money to ask Lu Shengguang to falsely accuse Guo Shilang. ?”

He intended to change the focus, but unexpectedly, Wang Zhizhen was shocked when he heard it, and immediately whispered in his ear: "Why don't you know, the crown prince blocked you back! I heard people say, the crown prince The crown prince sent someone to send a message to the cabinet, saying that he had begged Guo Shilang for forgiveness—with such words, even if Shen Ge wanted to go on alone, no one would be willing to be a helper!" Hearing these words, Chen Ju's heart thumped, but he also reminded Chen Ju that he was also entrusted with protecting Guo Zhengyu - considering the two, of course he would pick Guo Zhengyu.So he nodded.

The next day, Wang Zhizhen reported to Emperor Wanli himself, insisting that Lu Shengguang was the real murderer.A few days later, Emperor Wanli ruled that Lu Shengguang would be tried—this was just a procedure. Lu Shengguang has long since been tortured and confessed to all the crimes. However, he has a lot of backbone and does not falsely accuse others. He only said that he did everything by himself, including writing, engraving, and even distributing it overnight. tens of thousands of copies. The confession was ridiculous—all the officials in the interrogation snickered: “Tens of thousands of books were distributed overnight, and one copy was placed at the door of each house—if this person can really do it, he will be a god!” However, no one said this out of their mouths—on the surface, every official in the interrogation put on an upright and honest face, said a few words of benevolence and morality, and then made a conclusion, wrote a memorial, and reported it to Emperor Wanli : "I wrote demon poems before I was born, and then spread demon books. The evidence of the crime is very clear, and I admit that I have no words—" The merit has been completed. Next, Lu Shengguang was sent to the Third Law Department according to certain procedures, and the Three Law Departments drafted the punishment that should be punished. In mid-April, Xiao Daheng, Minister of the Ministry of Punishment, made a complete compilation of the case, wrote it into a memorial of ten thousand words, and reported it To Emperor Wanli. On the dragon bed, after listening to the eunuchs recite such a lengthy memorial, Emperor Wanli began to feel annoyed in the middle of it; however, he was not confused. After listening to the full text, he immediately gave instructions: "On The beheading is too light, and the order will be changed to Ling Chi to death, and the family members will be sent to the frontier to serve as soldiers!" This was the last sentence he said for the Yaoshu case. The case was finally settled, and it was easy to explain to the subjects of the world. After so long, he was already impatient. After a while, he fell into a deep sleep, accompanied by only the fragrance of drug ointment, no one knew what was going on in his heart, and of course no one knew whether his heart felt some very special power moving rapidly. Growth, including Mongolia outside the Great Wall, Jurchen, and even some scholars in the Ming Dynasty who are far away from the capital——