After the coffin was opened and the autopsy was conducted, Li Yuntian consulted with Wang Zhen, Chen Zhi and others, and pronounced the verdict on the He murder case in the lobby of the Metropolitan Procuratorate.

Since Commander Zhao Tongzhi died of a hidden disease and had nothing to do with poisoning, He did not poison his husband, and Yue was falsely accused.

Originally, according to the laws of the Ming Dynasty, the Yue family should have sat back, but considering that there was a reason for the incident, first Ye Er secretly hid arsenic, and then a liar pretended to be Jinyi Wei and instigated it, so Li Yuntian was lightly punished, sentenced to 20 canes and handed over to the He family for strict care.

As for Ye'er, although it was unintentional to hide arsenic privately, concealing the truth caused the Zhao family to be discordant, and the staff punished the thirties to work as a miscellaneous worker in the dyeing workshop of the Xiaowu Army for three years.

So, with the announcement of Li Yuntian's verdict, the He family's murder case, which had caused a lot of trouble in the capital, came to an uneventful end.

It took Li Yuntian only three days to conclude this case of mutual prevarication between the three legal divisions, which was really surprising to the outside world, and his reputation also rose to a new height.

Zheng Xiang and the unlucky principal of the Criminal Department were also punished for their ineffective trial, and the two were respectively detained for half a year as punishment.

This is simply insignificant to Zheng Xiang and the head of the Criminal Department, but the officials of the Metropolitan Procuratorate and the Criminal Department have additional income, and they don't point to that little bit of life at all.

The two naturally knew that Li Yuntian was an extrajudicial favor, otherwise they could easily take their black gauze hats, so they were very grateful to Li Yuntian in their hearts.

Although He was found not guilty, she remained in the prison of the Metropolitan Procuratorate because she was involved in Xue Xuan's bribery case, and she could not be freed until the case was clarified.

Xue Xuan's bribery case originated from the He family's murder case, and the reason why the Fusi of Jinyi Weibei Town arrested Xue Xuan was that he accepted 500 taels of gold from the Zhao family, so that Xue Xuan was imprisoned.

The reason why Jinyiwei's people dared to do this was because the housekeeper of the Zhao family testified that he took the gold from the account office and sent it to Xue Xuan, begging him to save He's life.

Of course, the person who took the gold from the Zhao family's housekeeper was not Xue Xuan, and the status of the Zhao family's housekeeper was too low to reach the dignified Dali Temple Zuo Shaoqing.

According to the "confession" of the Zhao family's housekeeper, after the He family was convicted by Zheng Xiang, in order to save the He family, he took the line of an old servant of Xue Xuan's family through several twists and turns through an intermediary, and gave 500 taels of gold to the old servant, and then Xue Xuan began to question He's case.

From a logical point of view, there is nothing wrong with what the Zhao family's housekeeper said, which makes Xue Xuan's bribery also seem reasonable, and Jinyi Weibei Zhenfu Si is also justified when he arrests people.

However, the people of Jinyiwei did not find the five hundred taels of gold from the Xue family, according to the "confession" of the Zhao family, Xue Xuan hid all the money he received secretly on weekdays, and no one knew the place except Xue Xuan.

In fact, Wang Zhen originally wanted to send someone to frame Xue Xuan with five hundred taels of gold when Jinyiwei arrested him, but then he gave up after thinking about it.

Besides, Xue Xuan's family background is ordinary, and the family relies on his money to live, if the family has an extra five hundred taels of gold, it will be too abrupt, is it not possible for Xue Xuan to just bribe the He family's money?

So after thinking about it, Wang Zhen felt that it was better not to find out the money, and made up a lie that Xue Xuan hid the bribed money, which made Xue Xuan's bribery seem logical this time, and Xue Xuan's failure to truthfully "confess" where he hid the bribed money shows that he is "stubborn", and the Fusi of Jinyi Weibei Town can resentence him.

As for whether he could find the five hundred taels of gold, Wang Zhen was not worried at all, all he needed was an excuse to convict Xue Xuan.

A few days later, in the evening, Jinyi Weibei Zhenfu Si was imprisoned.

Li Yuntian walked into the prison under the guidance of Ma Shun, and Yun Na, who followed behind, was carrying a food box in her hand, it was obvious that Li Yuntian had come to see someone in the prison, and this person was undoubtedly Xue Xuan.

Since Xue Xuan was imprisoned, due to the Jinyi Guard's obstruction, no civil and military officials in the court and the central government have been able to see him, and Li Yuntian is the first.

It's not that Li Yuntian can't come to see Xue Xuan, if he wants to see Xue Xuan, the people of Jinyiwei will not stop him at all, and they will not dare to stop him, after all, the power of the prince with a different surname in the Ming Dynasty is not something that the people of Jinyiwei can afford.

"Lord Wang, Xue Shaoqing is inside." In front of a solitary cell, Ma Shun bowed down and said to Li Yuntian.

"Open." Li Yuntian bowed slightly, and two words lightly spit out from his mouth.

Ma Shun didn't dare to slack off, and hurriedly asked people to open the door of the cell, Li Yuntian took the food box from Yun Na's hand, pushed the door and walked in, and the rest of the people waited outside.

In the cramped cell, a man in a four-grade official robe was sitting at the table with his back to the cell door, reading "Zhou Yi" by the light of the oil lamp on the table, looking calm and calm, without showing the slightest panic because he was in prison.

"Brother Devon is so Yaxing, he can even read books here."

The person who read "Zhou Yi" safely was naturally Xue Xuan, Zuo Shaoqing of Dali Temple, Li Yuntian saw that Xue Xuan was unmoved by the people who came in, and knew that he was not afraid of those people in Jinyiwei at all, so he said with a smile.

Dewen is Xue Xuan's character, although Li Yuntian is a prince, he has the same friendship with Xue Xuan, so he is called Xue Xuan's character, indicating that the relationship between the two is close.

"Resurrection?" Hearing Li Yuntian's words, Xue Xuan was stunned for a moment, then put down the book in his hand and turned around, when he saw Li Yuntian, he couldn't help but show a look of surprise on his face, and hurriedly got up to greet him, bowed to Li Yuntian and asked, "Lord Wang, which wind blew you here?" ”

"Naturally, it's the wind of the flatland." Li Yuntian smiled, opened the food box, took out the wine and food inside, and put it on the table, and said as he swayed, "The junior brother has long wanted to come to see Brother Dewen, but because he was busy trying the case of He's murder some time ago, it was delayed for a while. ”

"He's murder case?" Xue Xuan was stunned for a moment when he heard this, and then asked urgently, "Lord Wang, how was the case judged?" ”

"The maid took arsenic back to her hometown privately, and Yue's family was falsely accused after being instigated by the adulterer." Li Yuntian knew that Xue Xuan was concerned about He's case, and after pouring him a glass of wine, he smiled and explained the general details of the case.

"Lord Wang, is that adulterer really a liar pretending to be a brocade guard?" After listening to the facts of the case, Xue Xuan's brows furrowed, and he looked at Li Yuntian suspiciously, he had worked in the Metropolitan Procuratorate and Dali Temple for so many years, so he naturally felt that the identity of the adulterer was suspicious.

"Who cares who that liar is? Now that everyone has accepted this result, and the He family has been rehabilitated, isn't everyone happy? Li Yuntian smiled, picked up the wine glass in front of him and raised it to Xue Xuan, "Junior brother is different from Brother Dewen, he is burdened by too many mundane things, and he can't achieve Brother Dewin's open-mindedness. ”

"The prince laughed, if it weren't for the prince's maneuvering, the He family's grievances would not be cleared." Xue Xuan heard it, Li Yuntian knew the identity of the adulterer but it was inconvenient to say it, there seemed to be something unspeakable, so he picked up the wine glass and touched it with Li Yuntian, and after drinking the wine in the cup, he said without self-deprecation, "Unlike the lower officials, he is too serious in doing things, so that he has today's situation." ”

Li Yuntian knew that Xue Xuan was now aggrieved in his heart, and he was locked up in the edict prison even though he had not accepted bribes, so he smiled and drank the wine dry.

Although Xue Xuan is high, he also knows etiquette and humility, he didn't let Li Yuntian pour wine this time, and picked up the wine jug and filled it for Li Yuntian and himself.

"Lord Wang, I am very happy that you can come here to see me." After pouring wine for Li Yuntian, Xue Xuan raised his wine glass and saluted Li Yuntian, "Lord Wang, I know that those eunuchs in the inner court want to use me to kill chickens and monkeys to deter hundreds of officials, so I will never admit those trumped-up charges." ”

"Brother Devon, you're still so upright." Li Yuntian couldn't help but smile when he heard this, obviously Xue Xuan thought that he was here to persuade him to accept the charge of accepting bribes, so he touched a glass of wine with Xue Xuan and said with a smile, "If the junior brother suspects that Brother Dewen is a person, he will not come to visit Brother Dewen at this time." ”

As he spoke, Li Yuntian raised his head and drank the wine in his hand.

"Lord Wang, to be honest, I also spare my life, but death is heavier than Mount Tai and lighter than Hongmao, I can't lose the reputation of a scribe because I am afraid of death!"

Xue Xuan was stunned for a moment, knowing that he had misunderstood Li Yuntian's meaning, so after drinking the wine in the cup, he poured wine for Li Yuntian and said, "It's not lonely to have Ting Zhen with me over there, wouldn't it be nice to be able to play chess and chat with him in my spare time?" ”

Ting Zhen is Liu Qiu's word, Li Yuntian, Yu Qian, Liu Qiu and Xue Xuan are all Jinshi in Yongle for 19 years, this year's Jinshi can be described as the golden generation in the officialdom, and a large number of pillars of the Ming Dynasty have emerged, becoming the ******** in the cabinet and the six ministries.

Among them, there are two of the three Qingliu heroes of the Orthodox Dynasty who are from this session of Jinshi, one is Liu Qiu, who has died in the Imperial Prison, and the other is Xue Xuan, who is in prison in the Imperial Prison.

"Brother Dewen, the younger brother of Ting Zhen regrets that he didn't have time to rescue him from the edict." At the mention of Liu Qiu, Li Yuntian couldn't help but feel a little sad in his heart, and drank the wine in the cup in one gulp, he never expected that Liu Qiu would die in the edict so soon, which became a big regret for him.

"I don't blame the prince for this, it's the eunuchs who are too ruthless, they know that the prince will definitely save Ting Zhen when he comes back from Tianjin Wei, so they preemptively kill him." Xue Xuan heard that Li Yuntian was full of wine, sighed and said, "It's a pity that the emperor was deceived by the eunuchs at a young age, and the Ming Dynasty will be in danger in the long run!" ”

The corners of Li Yuntian's mouth squirmed when he heard this, and he wanted to say something, but in the end he couldn't say it, and he and Xue Xuan chatted while drinking, recalling some old events.

The reason why he swallowed back the words that came to his lips was because the inner court and the civil official clique were hostile to each other, and the contradiction had been a long time, and the inner court believed that the civilian clique was aggressive towards the orthodox emperor in state affairs, so it wanted to crack down on and restrict it, while the civilian clique believed that the civil affairs in the DPRK and China should be controlled by the civilian officials, and the intervention of the eunuchs was interfering with the government affairs.

Therefore, one of the two sides represents the power of the monarch and the other represents the power of the ministers, and their personal grievances are deep, and their contradictions cannot be reconciled at all, and Li Yuntian has no way to open his mouth even if he wants to persuade them.

"Brother Dewen, the younger brother came here this time to tell you something, the younger brother will try Brother Dewin's case in two days, and I hope Brother Dewen can be considerate if there is any offense at that time." After three rounds of wine and five flavors of food, Li Yuntian bowed his hand to Xue Xuan and opened his mouth to apologize.

In order to ensure that Xue Xuan's case can be successfully concluded, and at the same time to save Xue Xuan's life, Li Yuntian will definitely involve the five hundred taels of bribes when trying Xue Xuan's case, so Li Yuntian has to say hello in advance.

"Lord Wang, you can clear the grievances of the He family, it is already the greatest support for me." Xue Xuan knew Li Yuntian's difficulty, his case was caused by the eunuch party, and it was not so easy to turn it over, so he smiled disapprovingly, "If the prince comes to try it, it is much better than those young people." ”

"Brother Dewen, the ancients had clouds, and we don't have to worry about running out of firewood to stay in the green mountains, Brother Dewen must not care about temporary gains and losses, and it is our duty to serve the emperor wholeheartedly and seek benefits for the people." Li Yuntian knew that Xue Xuan was not afraid of death at all, and seeing that he understood his difficulties, he shook his head with a wry smile and comforted.

"Lord Wang, you know me, I will never admit the five hundred taels of bribes." Xue Xuan naturally knew Li Yuntian's kindness, and being able to wash away the grievances of the He family was already the greatest help to him, and when he heard this, he put down the wine glass in his hand and said that he would not lose his reputation in order to survive.

"How can the little brother ruin Brother Dewin's reputation, just to wronged Brother Dewin." Li Yuntian looked at Xue Xuan, who was solemn, and couldn't help laughing, and raised the wine glass in his hand at Xue Xuan.

Xue Xuan also had a smile on his face when he heard this, he knew that Li Yuntian would not let him bear the infamy of accepting bribes, so he picked up the wine glass and touched it with Li Yuntian, and the two drank it all.

After leaving Xue Xuan's cell, Li Yuntian did not walk out of the cell, but went to another single cell under the guidance of Ma Shun, where an old man with gray hair and bruises was locked in the cell.

"The villain knocks on the prince." The old man had obviously seen Li Yuntian, and when he saw Li Yuntian coming in, he hurriedly knelt down to greet him.

"You are an old servant of the Xue family, how many years have you been in the Xue family?" Li Yuntian glanced at the old man with scars on his face and asked quietly.

"Back to the prince, counting from the old lady's generation, the old servant has been in the Xue family for more than forty years." This old servant is the servant in Xue Xuan's family who was pointed out by the housekeeper of the Liu family as having accepted five hundred taels of gold, named Xue Laohan.

"You tell this king, did your master let you accept bribes from the Liu family?" Li Yuntian stared at Xue Laohan and asked expressionlessly, wanting to hear what Xue Laohan would say.