"Xue Laohan, this king is giving you a chance now, where is the five hundred taels of bribes that you honestly tell this king now? At this time, confess that this king counts you as a surrender, and you can be punished lightly, if this king finds out that you are lying, then you will be severely punished! ”

Li Yuntian was very satisfied with the tense and depressing atmosphere in the lobby, especially the eyes of everyone looking at Xue Laohan were full of suspicion, and after a deep groan, he slapped the startled wood hard, and shouted to Xue Laohan who was kneeling there expressionlessly.

"Wang ...... Lord Wang, little ...... The villain wishes...... Willing to move! Hearing this, Xue Laohan, who was lying on the ground, couldn't help but shiver, raised his head and looked at Li Yuntian with a panicked expression, "Yes...... It's my lord who makes the little ...... The villain put ...... Hide those bribes ...... Hidden. ”

With a bang, Xue Laohan's words couldn't help but stir in the lobby, although Xue Laohan didn't say where the five hundred taels of gold were, but the officials present still understood from the previous words, Xue Laohan hid it from the tavern owner in the town outside the city.

And from Xue Laohan's mouth, Xue Xuan's crime was further implemented, as long as Xue Laohan insisted that he was instructed by Xue Xuan, then it would be difficult for Xue Xuan to get out of it, after all, only the two of them knew about it.

"It's nonsense, when did this official ask you to accept money? And when did you hide it? Xue Xuan's face became extremely ugly, and he couldn't help but scold Xue Laohan, he regarded his reputation as more important than life and death, how could he let Xue Laohan splash dirty water on his body?

"The prince is aware that my lord is worried that the bribery will fail, and he doesn't dare to hide the bribes at home, so he asked the villain to place them in his in-laws' house outside the city, and then take them out to buy properties in Jiangnan after the rumors have passed." In the face of Xue Xuan's reprimand, Xue Laohan's eyes flashed with a look of pain, and he gritted his teeth and pleaded loudly to Li Yuntian.

"In this way, your master trusts you very much, and he will let you do any private things?" Li Yuntian glanced at Xue Xuan, who was a little excited, and then looked at Xue Laohan quietly.

"Back to the prince, the villain has served the Xue family for many years, so my lord trusts the villain very much, if it weren't for my lord's explanation, how would the villain dare to accept those bribes?" Xue Laohan nodded again and again when he heard this, and put the blame for accepting bribes on Xue Xuan's body.

"Since your lord is so greedy, he must have accepted a lot of bribes on a regular basis?" Li Yuntian seemed to agree with Xue Laohan's words, and asked after bowing slightly.

"My lord is in an important position in Dali Temple, and naturally someone comes to bribe him to handle the case on weekdays." Xue Laohan did not hesitate at all, and replied with an affirmative face.

Hearing this, many people in the lobby shook their heads and sighed, no one could have imagined that Xue Xuan, who had always been as honest as water, turned out to be a hypocrite and accepted bribes from others in private.

Xue Xuan's face was blue and white for a while, and he wanted to open his mouth to refute Xue Laohan, but after his lips moved, he swallowed the words that came to his mouth, because Xue Laohan was a person next to him, so he had no good way to get out in the face of Xue Laohan's false accusations, and forcibly justifying would only make things darker and darker.

"Old man Xue, since your lord accepted those bribes, then you tell this king where your lord hid them?" Li Yuntian glanced around at the people present, and saw that most of the officials showed a sigh at Xue Xuan's bribery, and a subtle smile suddenly flashed at the corner of his mouth, and then asked Xue Laohan in a deep voice with an expressionless face.

"Back to the prince, my lord acted cautiously, and personally arranged those bribes in order to avoid the exposure of bribes." Xue Laohan shook his head and replied solemnly.

"If that's the case, why did your lord hand over the five hundred taels of bribes to you for safekeeping this time?" Li Yuntian's eyes flashed coldly when he heard this, and he slapped the shocked wood hard, pointing at Xue Laohan and asking coldly.

"This ......" Xue Laohan was speechless for a while, and he didn't know how to answer for a while, he had already said that Xue Xuan had hidden the bribed money in a place he didn't know, and now Li Yuntian had confirmed it, which made it naturally difficult for him to explain the matter of the five hundred taels of bribes.

"I see!" Looking at Xue Laohan, who was at a loss there, all the officials present finally understood that Xue Laohan was framing Xue Xuan just now, so that what he said was inconsistent and could not justify himself.

Xue Xuan secretly breathed a sigh of relief, and at the same time admired Li Yuntian in his heart, and debunked Xue Laohan's lies in just a few words.

Among the civil and military officials in the lobby, in addition to Wang Zhen, who was calm and relaxed, Hu Ying, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, was sipping tea there slowly and methodically, with a faint smile on the corner of his mouth, he had already guessed that Li Yuntian would not let Xue Xuan be wronged, and now it seems that this is indeed the case, after the interrogation of Xue Laohan just now, Xue Xuan's charge of accepting bribes has undoubtedly been cleared.

There is no doubt that exposing Xue Laohan's lie of "framing" Xue Xuan is far better than Xue Laohan directly admitting that he accepted the bribe of 500 taels of gold privately.

"Back to ...... Back to the prince, villain...... The villain doesn't know either...... Why did my lord do this, the five hundred taels of bribe money was indeed given by him to the villain. Xue Laohan didn't seem to give up, and after coming back to his senses, he opened his mouth to defend Li Yuntian under the gaze of everyone in the lobby.

"Ridiculous, five hundred taels of gold is not a small amount, according to what you said, if your lord did not hand over the bribe money he received to you, then why should he let you keep five hundred taels of gold?" Li Yuntian sneered when he heard this, and asked in a fierce voice, "Do you think that this king is a three-year-old child and let you talk about it." ”

"Little ...... The villain doesn't dare, the villain doesn't dare! Xue Laohan was startled, and hurriedly fell to the ground in a panic.

"Lord Yu, Xia Guan and the others found five hundred taels of gold in the tavern in the town outside the city, and buried it in the flower garden in the backyard of the tavern."

At this moment, several officials walked in quickly from outside the hall, judging from the costumes, there were people from the Jinyi Guard and people from the Three Law Divisions, and the leader was an eight-rank civil official from the Metropolitan Procuratorate, who came to the front of the hall and bowed to Li Yuntian and said, "The gold and the shopkeeper have been brought and are waiting outside the hall." ”

"Biography!" Hearing this, Li Yuntian glanced at Xue Laohan and gave an order in a deep voice.

These officials had already been sent by Li Yuntian to search the tavern in the town outside the city before the court trial began, and it was just the right time to return.

Xue Laohan couldn't help but tremble when he heard this, his face became extremely ugly, and he couldn't help but tremble.

Soon, under the gaze of everyone, two messengers walked in carrying a wooden box, followed by a middle-aged man, who knelt beside Xue Laohan in fear, this person was Xue Laohan's in-laws, and the shopkeeper of the tavern in the town outside the city.

With Li Yuntian's gesture, an errand officer opened the wooden box that he had brought in, and it was neatly filled with gold nuggets, which were standard gold bars issued by the Jiangwutang Qian Zhuang, and each gold nugget was printed with the logo of the Jiangwu Tang Qian Zhuang.

"Old man Xue, this king asked you, but you got a bribe from the Zhao family's housekeeper for these gold nuggets?" Li Yuntian looked at the gold nuggets in the box and asked Xue Laohan expressionlessly.

"Positive...... Precisely! Xue Laohan stammered and replied, looking very nervous.

"You are Xue Laohan's in-laws, you tell this king, why did Xue Laohan hide these gold nuggets in your house?" After receiving Xue Laohan's affirmative reply, Li Yuntian's eyes fell on the shopkeeper Zhang, and said coldly, "Before that, this king has one thing to remind you, you deliberately concealed money from unknown sources, and you have committed the crime of harboring and harboring, if you don't honestly tell the truth, then you will be punished according to the conspiracy!" ”

"Wang ...... Wang Ye Mingjian, Xiao ...... The villain must confess truthfully and truthfully. Shopkeeper Zhang nodded again and again, wiped the sweat on his forehead and said nervously, thinking that he was a small flat-headed common man who had experienced this kind of formation in front of him, and was facing all the high-ranking officials and dignitaries in the Ming Dynasty.

"Lord Wang, the villain has received the favor of Brother Xue before, so this time when Brother Xue said that there was a sum of money to be placed here by the villain, the villain did not shirk it, where would he have thought that these were bribes." Then, Shopkeeper Zhang stabilized his mind and replied with a sad face.

"Is what he said true?" Hearing this, Li Yuntian looked at Xue Laohan who was kneeling beside him.

"Exactly." Xue Laohan replied with a dismal face, barely squeezing out a smile on his face that was more ugly than crying.

"Do you know where this money came from?" Li Yuntian bowed slightly, and then asked the shopkeeper.

"Back to the prince, the villain doesn't know the origin of this money, Brother Xue only said that he would take it away after putting it here for a period of time, so that the villain must keep it secret." Shopkeeper Zhang's Adam's apple moved, swallowed a large mouthful of saliva, and replied nervously.

"Do you want to exonerate yourself with the phrase 'I don't know'?" Li Yuntian sneered when he heard this, "This is five hundred taels of gold, you don't know its origin and dare to hide it at home, this courage is too big, the crime of fleeing complicity!" ”

"Lord Wang, villain...... The villain was wronged, and the villain also asked Brother Xue, but he said that the money was very important, so it was better for the villain to not know its details. ”

Hearing this, Shopkeeper Zhang couldn't help but fight a cold war, and was involved in a big bribery case of five hundred taels of gold at the feet of the Son of Heaven, once he was convicted of being an accomplice, he would not die and would take off his skin, so he hurriedly touched his head to the ground, and said in a panic:

"Therefore, the villain didn't dare to ask more, but when the villain was drinking with Brother Xue, I heard him say some strange things, saying that after the villain's daughter got married, he would go to Jiangnan and buy some properties there to live a good life."

"What's so strange about these words?" Li Yuntian asked with a calm face, Jiangnan is a prosperous and rich place in the world, so it is understandable that Xue Laohan's son will go to Jiangnan after getting married.

"The prince doesn't know, Brother Xue has no relatives in Jiangnan, how can he let his little daughter and son-in-law make a living there if he is not familiar with the place? How to live a good life. ”

Shopkeeper Zhang raised his head and looked at Li Yuntian with a frightened expression, "But the villain listens to the meaning of Brother Xue's words, he seems to have arranged everything, don't worry about the villain." ”

"Xue Laohan, this king asks you, what arrangements do you make for your son and daughter-in-law in Jiangnan?" Li Yuntian's face sank when he heard this, and he glared at Xue Laohan coldly and said, "As far as this king knows, your financial resources are limited, and I want to know what you use to buy Jiangnan's industry!" ”