A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Emperor Yuan Cong

Chapter 1274 The truth comes to light
Qizhou,

Jiucheng Palace.

The emperor has not looked well these days. He no longer has the joyful atmosphere he used to have with his old ministers. He has not gone hunting or played polo for several days, and he has not even gone swimming as he usually does twice a day.

As the sun sets,

The sky is full of red clouds,

In the pavilion of the lotus pond, Li Shimin summoned Dou Chenggui. On the surface, this eunuch's position was a fifth-rank internal official, who was responsible for receiving imperial orders and handling provincial affairs. In fact, he was also the assistant of the secret agency, the Imperial City Department. Zhang Ananda was in charge of the affairs of the Imperial City Department, and he was in charge of the affairs of the Imperial City Department.

The palace affairs are under his control.

"Have you checked it out?"

The emperor asked the eunuch who came from Chang'an,

Dou Chenggui was very ugly, but he was as tough as Zhang Ananda. He had also repeatedly charged into battle wearing armor and holding a spear to defeat the enemy, and had been ordered to visit soldiers on the front line many times.

His most remarkable achievement was when he fought against the Qiang tribes in western Sichuan in his early years. He was ordered to visit and comfort the troops, but was attacked by the Qiang people. Dou Chenggui annihilated all the Qiang people who attacked him, and then interrogated the captives to find out the location of their tribe. He led more than a hundred people to attack the enemy camp at night and broke through the Qiang camp in one fell swoop.
This is not over yet,

He also borrowed troops from Songzhou Military Governor's Office and destroyed more than 30 Qiang villages in a row, frightening the Qiang people so much that they surrendered one after another.

He led his troops to inspect the Qiang villages on the border and showed them the heads of the Qiang people he had chopped off.

"The source of Su Shuren's arsenic has not been found."

Li Shimin had a dark face and remained silent.

Dou Chenggui was in charge of the official business of the Imperial City and also directly commanded the Inspection Office under the Imperial City Administration. Even Zhang Ananda, who was in charge of the official business of the Imperial City, could not interfere with this Inspection Office.

"No one around Su Shu Ren knew about the poisoning."

The emperor closed his eyes and leaned there.

During Dou Chenggui's trip to Chang'an, he secretly investigated a lot of things. There were too many suspicious points in the Su poisoning case.

The emperor had noticed it long ago, but he still quickly made a decision on the case and demoted Su to a commoner.

This is also to calm the matter down as soon as possible.

It is possible that Su was wronged, but under the current circumstances, the emperor could no longer protect his daughter-in-law. The prince has always disliked her and she has no children. Now that such a thing has happened, there is no point in protecting her by force.

For the emperor, even if Su was really wronged, sometimes it didn’t matter.

But what needs to be investigated must be investigated, the emperor will not allow himself to be deceived.

But Dou Chenggui didn't find much useful information yet.

The only thing that can be confirmed is that Su may have been wronged, and she and the people around her were not the poisoners.

But it is hard to say who is the real poisoner.

Put aside the evidence and so on.

If it's just an inference,

Li Shimin now has two suspects who are the biggest beneficiaries of this case.

The first is Han Liangyuan, Ma Zhou’s stepdaughter. She ranked third in the Eastern Palace harem and was second only to Wu Liangdi in favor. She also gave birth to two sons and two daughters for the prince.

Suppose Han planned this incident, poisoned Wu Liangdi, and then put the blame on Su, then she killed two birds with one stone. In the end, Wu was poisoned to death and Su was deposed. Then Han would naturally become the Crown Princess, and the eldest son of the Eastern Palace born to her would become the legitimate heir.

She benefited the most, so she is naturally the most suspicious.

But now Dou Chenggui brought back the latest investigation results, showing that the amount of poison that day was not large, and it would not kill people directly. This was indeed the case. Although Wu Liangdi drank a small amount and was not seriously poisoned, the wet nurse drank a large bowl and was not poisoned.

This made the emperor wonder again. If it was really Han who did it, then it would be best to poison Wu Liangdi to death. This way, she could put the blame on Su and get rid of Wu, thus clearing the way for her to become the Crown Princess.

There is no reason to keep Wu Liangdi. Otherwise, if Su is deposed, Wu will become the Crown Princess in the end, and Han will become a wedding gift for others.

Li Shimin was also quite familiar with Han Liangyuan, and even once praised the prince and Han as good children and good wives in front of Ma Zhou and Wu Huaiyu.

She was a very gentle and virtuous daughter-in-law. Although she was not the prince's wife, Li Shimin was very satisfied with her.

In his heart, he didn't quite believe that Han was the mastermind behind this.

"Have you found out that Wu Liangdi is involved in this matter?" asked the emperor.

"Not yet."

Li Shimin frowned even deeper.

"Have you checked?"

"I investigated it secretly, but found nothing."

Li Shimin stood up in annoyance. He didn't find anything, but became more suspicious. He didn't quite believe that Su could do such a thing, nor did he believe that Han Liangyuan could do such a cruel thing.

On the contrary, it was Wu Liangdi who gave the emperor the impression of being smart and decisive, not inferior to men. There was one thing that left a deep impression on him: when Wu entered the palace at a young age, the empress kept her by her side.

He had a horse named Lion, which was fat and willful, and no one could tame it. Wu was serving the empress at the time and said that he could tame it, but he needed three things: an iron whip, an iron rod, and a dagger. If it didn't obey, he would hit it on the head with the iron rod. If it still didn't obey, he would cut its throat with the dagger.

This is what a teenager said.

In fact, she really used this trick to tame the lion horse. She tamed the horse with just an iron whip and iron stick, without even using a dagger. The horse breeders in the palace knew that the emperor liked the horse, so they did not dare to tame it so roughly.

He recalled what Wu Liangdi, who was only a teenager at the time, had said, and his brows furrowed even more.

In this incident, Wu Liangdi was poisoned, the Prince of Longxi was poisoned, and the wet nurse was also poisoned. But even though it was arsenic, a highly toxic substance, the amount was very small and would not kill people.

This is the biggest doubt.

The emperor therefore concluded that Wu Liangdi was highly suspected. She was poisoned, her fetus was aborted, her son was also poisoned, and her wet nurse was almost poisoned to death. Everyone would first think that she was the victim.
Su was the most suspected, and it was difficult for her to escape. But Li Shimin still hesitated to make this judgment, because although Wu was not seriously poisoned, she had aborted the fetus. Could a mother really be so cruel?

But if it is really that cruel, it would be terrible.

"You continue to investigate, but do it in secret. Don't alert the enemy. You must get to the bottom of it."

Li Shimin said to Dou Chenggui, "Focus on investigating Wu Liangdi and Han Liangyuan."

The emperor believed that if it was really them who did it, he would be able to find some clues.

"Do you know where the Grand Commandant went and who he met after returning to the capital?"

"The Inspection Office has been monitoring the whereabouts of General Wu," Dou Chenggui immediately began to report the intelligence of the Inspection Office's surveillance of Wu Huaiyu.

The emperor closed his eyes and listened.

Dou Chenggui finished his report and left.
The emperor paced alone in the palace. His suspicion towards Wu Liangdi grew stronger and stronger, and he had to start considering another problem.

If it was really Wu Liangdi who planned this, how should he deal with it?

Wu Liangdi had Wu Huaiyu behind her, and she gave birth to two children for the prince, the Princess of Taiyuan and the Prince of Longxi. She was not like Su, who could be abandoned at will.

Even if evidence can be found by then, it will be difficult to deal with it lightly as it could affect the entire body.

But he had to deal with it.

If Wu is really so cruel and ruthless, there will be endless troubles and she must not be allowed to stay.

But he had to consider the Wu family and Crown Prince Chengqian.

He must first obtain solid evidence from the Wu family.

Chang'an,

Qujiang Academy, Wu Huaiyu came to the academy today to visit the teachers and students in the academy. He brought a lot of food, meat and vegetables to the academy, and also donated a lot of paper, pens, ink and books.

In a hidden corner of the academy,
Wu Huaiyu meets Li Wujie.

This former fortune-teller is now doing very well. Secretly, she is a member of the Criminal Justice Department, and openly, she has become the owner of a famous restaurant in Chang'an.

At this time, she was dressed as a maid, wearing cloth clothes and a straw hairpin, and her face was old.

Wu Huaiyu had a secret meeting with this old subordinate, mainly to give her a task, asking her to use her spies in the palace to investigate the poisoning case.

He also suspected that Wu Meiniang was the real person who poisoned her, but he still needed evidence.

We cannot rely on guesswork or inference.
Although Wu Huaiyu was able to take targeted action through inference, he still needed evidence before the final action.

Li Wujie was just a swindling fortune-teller in the past, and she even deceived the Prince of Yan, Li Yan. Later, when the Six Gates were first built, Wu Huaiyu was ordered to capture Li Yi, and he first captured this fortune-teller.

Although Wu Huaiyu had long left the Six Gates over the years, Li Wujie had always maintained secret dealings with him, mainly acting as an insider for him in the Six Gates.

And Wu Huaiyu naturally did not treat her and her family badly.

"Arsenic was secretly brought into the palace by Liangdi's sister,"

When Li Wujie was still a fortune teller, she could go in and out of the backyard of the princes' mansions and fool a group of princes' wives.
With her current status, she also has many spies in the palace.

This time, she actually found out some things.

For example, she found out where the most critical arsenic came from. She found out that it was brought into the palace secretly by Wu Liangdi's half-sister.

"How did you find out?"

"Since I suspect Wu Liangdi, it's easier to investigate. I checked everyone around her and her relatives. When I finally found Madam Guo, I found out that one of her maids had secretly bought arsenic. Although it was still relatively secretive, it couldn't escape my investigation..."

Wu Meiniang's mother married Wu Shihuo and gave birth to many children. Historically, she only gave birth to three daughters. But in this time and space, Wu Shihuo died later, and he even took some medicines such as Wu Huaiyu's Wu Zi Yan Zong Wan. After the two gave birth to three daughters, they gave birth to three sons.

Wu Meiniang's sister Shunniang married Ma Zai, the eldest son of Ma Zhou and his first wife, while her third sister Rouniang married Guo Xiaoshen, the younger brother of Guo Xiaoke.

Wu Meiniang's two sisters and her mother Yang also often went in and out of the Eastern Palace, which was relatively convenient.

"Are you sure that the maidservant beside Wu Rouniang secretly bought the arsenic? Are you sure that Wu Sanniang brought the arsenic into the East Palace and gave it to Wu Liangdi?"

"Sure," Li Wujie was very sure that these were all found out by tracing the clues.

“How many people know about this?”

“Not many people.”

Wu Huaiyu frowned, and Li Wujie continued, "A few people knew part of the situation, but the only ones who knew the whole thing were me and the general."

She was not worried that Wu Huaiyu would silence her, and Wu Huaiyu indeed had no such intention.

Otherwise, there would be no need for him to dig deeper.

Li Wujie is also an old friend who has worked with him for many years. His mind is now focused on this result which is both expected and shocking.

It turned out that Wu Meiniang was the one who directed and acted out the murder of the Crown Princess by poisoning.

What should he do now?
Things can't be exposed.

But we can't pretend we don't know.

Wu Meiniang is too dangerous.

Maybe he should learn from Li Ji.

(End of this chapter)