Father can be an enemy country

Chapter 1379 Confession
The Ministry of Criminal Justice was located in the imperial city, opposite the Six Ministries, and had the same low status but great power.

In the previous Guo Huan case, the Criminal Court under the leadership of Wu Yong demonstrated its power that was superior to the three judicial courts.

Unfortunately, the case was stopped halfway through, before there was time to investigate further, by the Emperor on the grounds that "the war was imminent and the prison was inauspicious".

When the war was over, although Boss Zhu did not explicitly say that the Guo Huan case would be dropped, he also had no intention of continuing the investigation.

The officials who escaped the disaster naturally celebrated and thanked the Lord for His grace. But the people in the Criminal Court were depressed. Not only did they work in vain, but they also offended the six ministries and nine officials. Even the six departments regarded them as thorns in their eyes.

According to reliable information, the censors are planning to write a petition together, asking Boss Zhu to abolish the Criminal Court and return judicial power to the Three Judicial Departments on the grounds that the establishment of the Criminal Court is an obstacle to the administration of justice.

Although Wu Yong didn't believe that the emperor would slap himself in the face so quickly and abolish the agency he personally established, everyone in the Criminal Court still felt a strong sense of crisis and was eager to do something to prove their worth and completely consolidate their position.

But they are useless in ordinary cases, and there is no need for them to take action in ordinary cases. Only major cases such as the Guo Huan case can meet their needs.

But such a case would not happen for several years, so Wu Yong and others could only burn incense and pray to Buddha, hoping that a big case would fall from the sky soon.

I don’t know if it was the Buddha’s blessing, but at this moment, the Hu Weiyong case, which had lasted for seven years, had actually started its second half!
One can imagine the excitement of Wu Yong and the others. They were like people who had been given an injection of chicken blood, and they put all their efforts into making a big splash in this case and completely shutting up those censors.

After prying open Feng Ji's mouth, Wu Yong excitedly took the confession to report to Boss Zhu, and asked for permission to arrest Li Cunyi, Fei Ju, Lu Zhongheng and others who were confessed by Feng Ji... After weighing the pros and cons, Boss Zhu decided to be cautious and arrest their families first, and then take further action after obtaining enough evidence.

This is what happened to Zhu Zhen earlier...

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Wu Yong fully agreed with Boss Zhu's decision. He was a little scared to face those arrogant nobles right from the start... Without the emperor's order, he didn't dare to torture them, so what he could get out of them was naturally limited, and he had to repeatedly ask about the female elders in his family.

It would be easier to interrogate their servants first. You can torture these people without any scruples, and you will definitely be able to get a lot more out of them.

"Listen up!" Wu Yong shouted to all his officials in the Criminal Court, "This case is related to the survival of the Criminal Court! Whether we will soar to the sky and become the Supreme Court of the Ming Dynasty, or be a flash in the pan like the four assistant officials and be swept into the garbage dump, all depends on our performance in this case."

The officials of the Criminal Court stared at their superior without blinking, listening to him continue to roar: "I only have one request, make them confess completely! No matter what means you use, no matter who they are against, you must dig out his internal organs and expose them to the public. Don't let them hide anything! Do you understand?!"

"Understood!" the officials responded in unison.

"Let's go!" Wu Yong waved his hand heavily and rushed to the imperial prison with all his men in a menacing manner.

The officials passing by were stunned and wondered what was going on. Are they going to start a fight?

But they didn't go there to fight; they went there to beat people up.

They accumulated rich experience in torture in the Guo Huan case, established their own torture styles, and many of them even found their own unique skills. So it is said that knowledge is power. When scholars began to study how to use torture, there would be no place for those crude officers.

As soon as they entered the imperial prison, the people from the Criminal Court began to work separately. They used all their powers to torture their interrogation subjects all night long.

Those noble servants had all been in the battlefield and were quite tough. However, no matter how tough they were, they were no match for the iron chisels, hammers, head hoops, clamps, finger tortures, branding irons, tiger benches and the like... Under the crazy torture of the Criminal Court, many of them had their mouths pried open.

Starting from the next morning, confessions were continuously placed on Boss Zhu's desk, and Zhu Yuanzhang ordered someone to copy them to the crown prince.

If the crown prince saw it, it meant that Zhu Zhen saw it, too. The two of them looked at the confessions that were specially selected by the Criminal Court, and although it was still February, they all broke out in a sweat.

Just look at the confession related to Li Shanchang——

Sun Benzhao, a servant of Li Cunyi's mansion, said: In July of the ninth year of Hongwu, Li Taishi said to the Marquis of Yan'an: "I did not build a palace for Fengyang Mansion, and the superiors blamed me and left me with nowhere to live."

Another person who was in charge of the ceremonial staff of the Grand Tutor's Mansion heard Bao'er's report: In March of the tenth year, Prime Minister Hu said to Grand Tutor Li Shanchang: "Your Majesty has been a little annoyed these days. Building a palace for Fengyang is not in accordance with the law."

The Grand Master said, "How can I be taught this?"

The Prime Minister said: "Master, I don't think much of this matter."

The above are just Li Shanchang’s resentful words towards Zhu Yuanzhang, and there are even more explosive ones later.

There was also a man named Huo from the Imperial Tutor's house who came to Xingzhao and said: In June of the ninth year of Hongwu, Prime Minister Hu asked someone to send a cabinet of banknotes to the Imperial Tutor.

The Prime Minister said: "I am carrying this money, not giving it to others. Please pack some good things for me."

The Grand Master said: "Don't let anyone know about me and your companion."

On that day, the Grand Master sent 40 people including Chen Jinxing and Geng Zizhong to escort Prime Minister Hu. The Prime Minister said, "You will always follow me until the first day of February in the twelfth year. Then we can start the action."

Another call: In March of the sixth year, Hu Zuocheng asked the Grand Master: "What happened to what I told you?"

The Grand Master said, "I know. Tomorrow, the Marquis of Huai'an will be in charge of each gate, and on April 12th, he will select the troops and horses to start the operation."

These are the confessions made by Hu Weiyong before the incident.

For example, Zhao Zhugou, a member of the household of Marquis Yan'an, said: In June of the 16th year, the Grand Master invited Marquis Yan'an to drink. Marquis Yan'an said: "We are all guilty people, so when we come before the upper position, we should be careful."

The Grand Master said: "We must all be careful. If we are angry with the upper position and start a Hu party affair, we may cause trouble for the dukes and marquises."

Fei Qian, a member of the Pingliang family, confessed: In the first month of the fourteenth year, Pingliang Hou invited the Grand Tutor to drink. Pingliang Hou said: "We are all Prime Minister Hu's rebels. If he comes to power, our lives will be in vain."

The Grand Master said, "You didn't come to look for me earlier."

Pingliang Hou said: "If we are lucky enough to fail to find him, we will just hide and not show our faces."

All of the above moves were made by Li Shanchang after the Hu Party case broke out, and he was afraid of disaster. Although he only said a few words, he vividly described how he warned his accomplices, told his servants, and covered their ears with his feet, as if he was in constant fear.

Moreover, the confessions of the slaves from each family could corroborate each other, forcing people to believe it.

(End of this chapter)