dungeon.

It was dark and gloomy.

The bronze animal head lamp flickered on and off, and the screams sounded from time to time, as if entering the underworld from the underworld.

Since the opening of the Yamen, the Supervision Department has not repaired the facade, nor built the main hall, but first dug a huge dungeon, which is enough to detain hundreds of people.

It is not yet completed, and there are still people digging.

According to Zhou Dugong, there are so many corrupt officials in Daqing, it is impossible to catch them all!

"hurry up."

"Go in!"

Shouts came from the entrance of the dungeon, and Fanzi kicked and kicked, driving a series of scholars into the dungeon.

Most of the scholars came from rich and noble families, at least from poor families with hundreds of acres of land. They could read, write, and listen to music on a daily basis. They had never faced bloody massacres!

The screams of the classmates were still in my ears, and each of them was so frightened that they were delirious and walked stiffly.

In the middle of the dungeon.

Zhou Yi sat on the grand teacher's chair, and there were a dozen black-clothed fans standing on the left and right.

All of them have high temples and good martial arts.

The members of the Supervision Department are recruited masters of the rivers and lakes, who are either murdered or murdered by the devil.

As soon as these people heard that they could work for the imperial court and had a formal establishment, they rushed to join the Supervision Department.

Putting on the tiger skin of the imperial court, you will not be afraid to meet righteous masters again. If you dare to say anything about eliminating demons and defending the way, you will slap the imperial court in the face and be suspected of treason!

All the masters of the righteous way have families and businesses, but they dare not provoke the court.

Next to him, Wen Tongzhi was sitting on a chair, wearing a second-grade golden pheasant official robe. According to the regulations of the Zhenfu Division, the Supervision Department should belong to the military officer.

"Duke, you shouldn't go to the academy to arrest people yourself, and send a godson there, so you can drag it afterwards."

The implication is that if the academy rebounds sharply, then push the godson to blame, behead his head and accept another one.

Zhou Yi blew on the heat of the tea: "Our family's majestic fourth supervisor, admiral, can't help but a few nerds?"

"Yuntai Academy is unusual. Nowadays, officials such as Cui Shangshu from the Ministry of Rites and Li Shilang from the Ministry of Households, as well as officials of all sizes in the capital, and local county magistrates, at least dozens of officials have studied in the academy."

Wen Tongzhi reminded: "Once they play together, even if His Majesty intends to take sides, he will be angry with the Duke and cause trouble."

"Jie jie jie..."

Zhou Yi's strange laughter echoed in the dungeon and reached the ears of the prisoners, many of them wet their pants in fright.

"Our family is waiting for them to play together!"

While talking.

Fanzi escorted the scholars over, chained together, kneeling on the ground dying.

Wen Tongzhi thought about it carefully, and with a faint sense of comprehension, he said in a low voice, "Duke Gong, are you planning to fabricate cronies?"

"What is fabrication?"

Zhou Yi said: "In this world, can there be an official who does not form a party?"

Wen Tongzhi breathed a sigh of relief. Ever since he supported Zhou Yi to take down the prison guard, he has been a die-hard supporter, a "eunuch" who is both prosperous and ruined.

"Don't worry, duke. Our family has transferred a few old jailers from the sky prison. They have been passed down for generations. They are proficient in various tortures. They will definitely get confessions from cronies."

"Our family handles the case according to the law, and won't torture into tricks!"

Zhou Yi pointed to one of the scholars, who immediately unchained and dragged him closer.

"May I have your name?"

The scholar was so frightened that he didn't know what to do, his eyes were dull and dazed, and he didn't answer when he was asked.

Clap!

Fanzi slapped his mouth hard a few times, and the severe pain brought the scholar back to his senses. Seeing a dozen pairs of eyes staring at him, he was so frightened that his legs limp and knelt on the ground.

"The villain's name is Cui Ke, and his family is in Wannian County."

Zhou Yi tutted his tongue and said, "Our family is really destined to be with someone surnamed Cui. A few months ago, we copied Cui's family who made dim sum. Dozens of members of our family were exiled to mine in northern Xinjiang."

Wen Tongzhi cheered at the right time and said: "Governor, news came from the north a few days ago that the mine collapsed and all the Cui family members died!"

"This is God's retribution!"

With a compassionate expression, Zhou Yi cupped his hands towards the dungeon and continued.

"Cui Ke, you should be married at this age, do you have children? How old are you? The northern border is extremely cold, so you might as well strangle your children to death, so as not to suffer from freezing to death and starving to death!"

Cui Ke was terrified, weeping and kowtowing repeatedly.

"My lord, spare my life, my lord, spare my life!"

"You foolishly talk about the Holy Majesty, you should have ransacked your home and exiled..."

Zhou Yi's voice changed: "However, our family has a kind heart, and we will give you the opportunity to take the blame and make meritorious deeds. You just need to tell who secretly instigated you to oppose the New Deal."

Cui Ke showed doubts on his face. He received a summons from the director, and gathered spontaneously out of boycotting land measurement and tax payment. He didn't hear of anyone behind the scenes.

"Don't tell me?"

Zhou Yi sighed: "That's such a pity...someone, go and arrest Cui Ke's family!"

Several fans came out and bowed to accept orders, all showing cruel smiles.

In less than three months since the establishment of the Supervision Department, more than a dozen companies have been ransacked. These gangsters are bloodthirsty and easy to kill, let alone ordered to ransack their homes and kill people.

In a short period of time, the black-clothed fanzi's notoriety spread throughout Daqing.

"My lord, you are wronged!"

Cui Ke was so frightened that he screamed. He had just passed through several dungeons and saw the miserable appearance of the prisoners inside.

When life and death were at stake, a flash of inspiration suddenly occurred, and he wanted to understand what Zhou Yi wanted to ask.

"My lord, I said I said... We were indeed instigated by others, and we just gathered in the academy, and wanted to jointly write a letter against His Majesty's New Deal."

Zhou Yi winked, and Fanzi stopped.

"Who is behind the scenes?"

"have……"

Cui Ke's mind turned, and he didn't know who to talk about for a while, but suddenly heard a reminder from his ear.

"Who gets closer to Yuanzheng on weekdays?"

"Cui Shangshu!"

Cui Ke said hastily: "Not long ago, Cui Shangshu played chess with Yuanzheng and talked about many things. Later, Yuanzheng summoned scholars from all over the world to discuss politics..."

"good very good!"

Zhou Yi praised repeatedly, and then asked: "Mr. Cui and Cui Shangshu are relatives?"

Cui Ke replied: "The ancestors are all Nanyang Cui family, but they have been separated for nearly a hundred years, and they have not moved around in private, so there is no relationship."

Zhou Yi narrowed his eyes slightly, and turned to look at the scribe.

"Have you remembered everything?"

"take note of it."

The scribe bowed and agreed, and put the written testimony in front of Cui Ke, asking him to sign it.

Cui Ke glanced at the testimony, on which "playing chess" was written as "conspiracy", and made up the dialogue vividly, including words such as "faint king" and "reciting ancestors".

And below it wrote "Nanyang Cui family", saying that the person behind the scenes may be a family from the south of the Yangtze River!

"this……"

Cui Ke was dizzy with fright, but for the sake of his family's life, he pressed his fingerprints on the testimony after all.

"Don't worry about the Nanyang Cui family, our family will definitely save your life. If you fail the imperial examination in the future, you can come to the Supervision Department to be on duty!"

Zhou Yi ordered his followers to drag Cui Ke down, and pointed at a scholar at random.

"May I have your name?"

"Bah, you dog!"

The scholar had recovered from the panic, stood straight opposite Zhou Yi, opened his mouth to spit thick phlegm, and scolded righteously.

"My generation of scholars is not afraid of life and death, don't let me frame the sages of the academy!"

"Okay!"

Zhou Yi wiped the saliva off his face, with viciousness flashing in his eyes, and said in a cold voice: "Master Wen, our family wants to see the interrogation methods of the prison guards."

"As ordered."

Wen Tongzhi felt a chill in his heart, knowing that Zhou Yi was angry, and immediately went to find the executioner himself.

After a while.

The four fans carried a large tank filled with clean water, and there were people behind them carrying a lot of charcoal fire.

Wen Tongzhi was followed by a servant in soap clothes, who looked no more than seventeen or eighteen years old, with a pale and thin face, kneeling in front of Zhou Yi and kowtowed nine times.

"The villain Li Chao, the jailer of the five generations of ancestors, pay homage to Duke Du!"

Zhou Yi nodded slightly: "Our family asked you to interrogate the prisoner, what are you doing with a water tank?"

Li Chao replied: "This is the punishment that villains study. Put people in the water to cook, keep adding firewood to the fire, and the people inside will just watch themselves cook!"

"Jie Jie Jie! As the old saying goes, what you do makes you the number one scholar. You are really capable if you can figure out such a punishment."

Zhou Yi smiled and said: "If you are good at using it, if it is useful, our family will reward you a lot!"

"Thank you Duchess."

Li Chao took off the scholar's clothes, threw them naked into the jar, the water was just up to his neck, and his head was exposed on the water.

A charcoal fire was lit under the water tank, and the water was quickly heated to a warm temperature.

The scholar lost his stamina just now, and felt the water temperature was rising, his skin was hot and red, and he couldn't help making a shrill scream, struggling hard in the water tank.

"My lord, forgive me, forgive me, I confess, I confess..."

Li Chao showed joy, and asked for instructions: "My lord, this fellow is willing to make a confession, do you want to come forward for questioning?"

Zhou Yi drank tea slowly, looked at the bubbling water tank, and said slowly.

"This guy has a stinky mouth, cook it to get rid of the smell!"

A quarter of an hour passed.

The scholar's screams gradually died down, and there was almost no good meat on his body, and the smell of cooked meat wafted in the dungeon.

Zhou Yi just ordered: "Take it out."

Fanzi fished out the half-dead scholar and kept them in front of the other prisoners. They were so frightened that they all fell to their knees. Such torture was unheard of.

"One by one, who instigated the academy's discussion of politics?"

Zhou Yi said in a cold voice: "Don't gossip, our family pays attention to orderly handling of cases and based on factual evidence!"

"I said I said I said..."

Immediately, a scholar shouted: "My lord, Sun Jijiu, the son of the country, is an old friend of the court official. He held a banquet at home half a month ago and openly criticized the new policy of the imperial court, saying that your majesty's land measurement is a tyranny!"

"Sun Jijiu is definitely instigating behind the scenes for this academy discussion!"

"This person once wrote the book "Shang Li", in which he praised the laws and etiquette of the great business, and it is very likely that it has something to do with the remnants of the previous dynasty..."

This time there is no need for scribes to fabricate, the scholar has straightened out the evidence before and after, and signed it happily.

Zhou Yi asked, "What's your name?"

The scholar replied, "My lord, the younger one's surname is Lin Mingfu."

"Our family sees you pleasing to the eye, would you like to be on duty in the Supervision Department?"

Zhou Yi said: "The head of the Criminal Interrogation Department started out as a sixth-grade man, and specially fabricated crimes for prisoners in the prison. The bigger the crime, the better. Our family is not afraid of big cases, but no cases!"

Lin Fu was overjoyed when he heard the words. He had studied for more than ten years before he passed the Juren examination, and it will take him an unknown number of years before he can pass the Jinshi examination.

Even if one wins Jinshi, it will take many years to be promoted to rank six!

"Meet the Dugong, the next official will make a good appointment!"

Zhou Yi said: "Don't untie Master Lin yet."

Lin Fu bent over and came up behind Zhou Yi, looked at his former classmates viciously, and said in a low voice: "Grand Du, that is Lu Ling, a distant relative of the Lu family in the south of the Yangtze River..."

"That's Xu Jing, my sister married Li Shilang from the household department as a concubine, and the two families often move around..."

"That Pei Yun is a wealthy businessman in the capital, who is in the business of medicinal materials. I drank with him last year and boasted after getting drunk that he sold the medicinal materials to the north..."

Lin Fu narrated one by one, betraying his classmate's background, whether it is true or false, it can be charged as a crime.

When the scholars saw this, how could they dare to hesitate, scrambling to confess.

"Master Lin is worthy of being a pillar of the imperial court!"

Zhou Yi praised repeatedly, holding a large stack of confessions, anyone would have to say that Yuntai Academy was suspected of cronyism.

At this time.

A servant hurried into the dungeon and reported to Zhou Yi with his ear.

"Eunuch Li, who is on duty in the Hall of Qinzheng, summoned a message. Dozens of people wrote letters to participate in the performance, and Cui Shangshu led the way and knelt outside the hall. Please Your Majesty clean up the traitors and punish the country's thieves!"

"It took us half a day to arrest talents, and dozens of people even wrote letters, saying that they are not cronies?"

Zhou Yi put the confession in his cuffs, ordered Haosheng to guard the scholars, and went straight to the palace with a dozen of them.

...

Palace of Qinzheng.

In the cold winter wind, dozens of officials kneeling,

Cui Shangshu, who was the leader, heard the footsteps, turned around and saw Zhou Yi who was in a hurry, and couldn't help shouting.

"National traitor, everyone gets it and kills him!"

"A country thief? Our family can't afford it."

Zhou Yi said coldly: "Your Majesty measures the acres of land for the sake of the common people. Master Cui, out of selfish desires, actually ordered the scholars to object. Our family sees you as a national traitor!"

Cui Shangshu said angrily: "Why did the old man instruct the scholars?"

"You can tell your majesty about this."

Zhou Yi shook the confession in his hand, waited for his father-in-law to report, then bowed into the hall, slid and knelt all the way to the Emperor Zhengtong, kowtowed nine times and shouted long live.

"You are so brave!"

Emperor Zhengtong scolded sharply, grabbed the inkstone at the corner of the table and threw it at it.

Zhou Yi didn't dare to use his true energy to resist, and he didn't dodge or dodge. He let the inkstone smash his forehead, and blood flowed immediately.

"The slave is guilty!"

His Majesty must not refute what he said. Even if Zhou Yi had a confession in hand, he would plead guilty first, kowtowing and dyeing the ground in a large area of ​​bright red blood.

Seeing this situation, Emperor Zhengtong calmed down a little: "Tell me, why did you slaughter the scholars?"

"Reporting to Your Majesty, the spy from the Supervision Department learned that someone secretly formed a party for personal gain, trying to instruct scholars to gather outside the palace gate, and force His Majesty to retract the decree of measuring land."

Zhou Yi held up his confession with both hands high, and he said that seven parts were false and three parts were true.

"When the servants heard the news, they immediately led people to surround Yuntai Academy. They never thought that the academy would lead scholars to attack the officials of the Supervision Department when the matter was exposed."

"Bleeding out of desperation is due to lax discipline of slaves. Your Majesty, please punish me!"

Eunuch Yuan took the confession and took a deep look at Zhou Yi.

The supervisor of ceremonies kept an eye on Zhou Yi and his henchmen all the time. The three supervisors and one division had installed a lot of internal support. The reason why the academy murder case spread quickly to the court was that Eunuch Yuan secretly contributed to the flames.

In the past two years, the rise of Zhouyi has been too fast, and it is not certain that he will fall in love with the Supervisor of Rites someday, so it is better to act first!

The Internal Servant has so much power, one point more for Eunuch Yi, and one point less for Eunuch Yuan.

Emperor Zhengtong took the confession and flipped through it page by page, his face becoming more and more gloomy.

"Forming a party for personal gain will bring disaster to the country and the people!"

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