The torture room, the fire flickering.

After Lin Haoran left, an old man wearing a red official robe with a crane-shaped pattern walked out of the side room, looking like he was in his fifties, and he was in good spirits, but his thin old face had a dignified look.

If Lin Haoran was still here, he would definitely be able to recognize this person, it was Xu Jie, who had a relationship with him, and the second assistant of the current Ming Dynasty.

"Elder Xu Ge, this teacher is famous, the boy won the small three yuan in the exam, and he is also among the best in the scientific examination, and he is still a famous talent, I am afraid that things really have nothing to do with him!" Lu Shan watched Xu Jie come out, and said with a wry smile on the information in his hand.

At the beginning, he was most suspicious of this young Guangdong Xie Yuan, but after contacting and checking the other party's profile, he found that this young Xie Yuan's dislike was the least.

Xu Jie didn't answer his words, looked at the direction of the door and said lightly: "You send someone to check if this son has had contact with Wu Shangshu before the exam!" ”

When Lu Shan heard this, his brows furrowed and said, "It's not necessary, right?" ”

"I'm afraid you've misunderstood, I'm not going to drag Wu Shangshu into the water, I just want to know more about this son's temperament!" Xu Jie turned his head to look at him and said with a dumb smile.

Lu Shan's heart was full of contempt, and he naturally didn't believe this nonsense. The current situation is actually not good for Xu Jie himself, and it is in his best interest if he can muddy the water.

However, he has always been obedient, this time the emperor asked him to assist Yu Xu Gelao, then he should obey Xu Gelao, so he nodded and agreed: "No problem, will Guangdong continue to be arraigned?" ”

"Don't worry, let's dry them first!" Xu Jie shook his head slowly, as if he had other plans in his heart.

After a while, Duan Qianhu walked in and said that the person had been brought.

This time he came in with a handsome young man in his twenties, from Fujian, but his body kept trembling, looking at Lu Shan, who was standing in this torture room, and before Lu Shanshan could speak, he knelt down and said: "I beg the adults to let the villain go, the villain is willing to make cattle and horses for the adults, and beg the adults to forgive their sins." ”

"Fan Yuanming, are you planning to confide in this official about your crimes?" Lu Shan, however, was indifferent, and asked coldly with his back turned his back.

"I ......" Fan Yuanming was stunned, his eyes were a little wandering, and he seemed to be hesitating about something.

Lu Shan turned around slowly, and snorted coldly: "Actually, it doesn't matter if you admit it or not, because your classmate and friend Zhu Ziliang has confessed and confessed all his crimes, what else do you have to say?" ”

"My lord, I was confused for a while, please spare my life! Please spare your life! After Fan Yuanming heard this, the trace of luck in his heart was gone, and he immediately kowtowed vigorously and begged for mercy.

Lu Zhi gave his subordinates a look, and then said coldly: "If you want to be less charged, recruit all the accomplices you know, the more the better, otherwise you will wait to be questioned!" ”

Fan Yuanming's tears kept dripping to the ground, but he knew in his heart that he had really planted it this time. There is no need to look forward to the results of the examination, and there is no need to think about the beauty of the title of the gold list.

It's just that people are like this, and after falling from heaven to hell, they will try their best to crawl back to the world. So let the tears flow down his cheeks, trembling on the paper to confess, and write down the names of his accomplices.

I didn't expect that I went north to take the exam in high spirits, but in the end, I didn't have the title of the gold list, but ended up in prison.

Lu Zhi didn't have the slightest sympathy, and looked at all this indifferently, but there was not too much joy on his face, and his brows were still tightly locked.

This time, the court worked so hard to mobilize the people, naturally not for trivial matters, but to involve a major fraud case.

Things have to start with the Enke Township trial last year. Due to the rush of time, the imperial court let the Nanjing Ministry of Rites assume part of the responsibility of presiding over the township examination, and the chief examiners of many provinces were also served by Nanjing officials.

In Fujian's township test, the search army searched for an entrainment cheat sheet from a candidate.

This is a very normal phenomenon, cheating has been repeatedly banned since ancient times, and a batch of entrainment can be found every year. It's just that the thousands of households in Jinyi unexpectedly discovered afterwards that the content of this entrainment cheat sheet was the same as the township test questions.

Obviously, there is no such thing as a coincidence.

The local Jinyi Wei immediately started from the candidate, and soon discovered an astonishing truth, the exam questions of the township examination were leaked in advance, and the spearhead was naturally pointed at the chief examiner of the township examination, Nanjing Taichang Temple Qing Ruan Jing.

If the matter comes here, I am afraid that it will not come to the capital, and the head of the third-grade official who is retired in Nanjing will be beheaded.

It's just that when Jin Yiwei continued to track down the source of the leak, he was surprised to find that the evidence did not point to the chief examiner Ruan Jing, but directly to Wang Yongbin, the Shangshu of the Nanjing Ministry of Rites.

According to the usual practice, Ruan Jinghui first left the prepared township examination questions at the Nanjing Ministry of Rites, and he went south with the sealed test papers to Fujian to preside over the township examination.

It is precisely in this way that the first person who can know the test questions of Enke Township, Fujian in advance, the first is Ruan Jing of Nanjing Taichang Temple, and the second is Wang Yongbin, the Shangshu of Nanjing Ministry of Rites.

Now that the evidence suggests that it was Wang Yongbin's subject, the matter suddenly became more complicated.

Guangdong, Fujian, Huguang, Nanzhili, etc., the township examination questions are all kept by the Nanjing Ministry of Rites Shangshu Wang Yongbin, if the Fujian township examination questions are leaked out by him, who knows if he will also leak the questions to other provinces to profit?

In particular, there are rumors of fraud in township tests in Guangdong, Nanzhili, and Huguang, and even Jinyiwei has found evidence of fraud in township tests in Guangdong and Nanzhili, which makes Wang Yongbin's suspicion even greater.

A township test fraud is a shocking case, and this time it has involved as many provinces as many as possible at once, which is unheard of.

Now that the matter has stabbed Jiajing, Jiajing is also very angry, and immediately ordered a thorough investigation of the matter. In his ad hoc Enko, there was such a big fraud case, how could he bear it?

The good-faced Emperor Jiajing simply wanted to stab these people to death with his own hands, which was too much of a slap in his face.

It is precisely because of this that the second assistant Xu Jie, who also went out in person, trying to get to the bottom of this fraud case and give Emperor Jiajing a clear explanation.

Needless to say, the Enkeju people in Fujian, Guangdong, Nanzhili, and Huguang involved were also branded as suspicious, and Jinyiwei tried to find a breakthrough from them.

Lin Haoran was naturally unlucky, although he did not cheat, let alone know the questions of the township exam in advance, but he was in the disgust area. And he is not only young, but also Xie Yuanlang of Guangdong, so he dislikes it greatly.