Ping An Biography

The color of Yin is gray every day, and I don't know if the weather has affected Zhang Ning's mood, or the gloomy mood has affected his vision of seeing things.The color of Beijing city in winter is very monotonous, the vegetation is withered and withered, except for gray, brown and other dull colors in the residential areas of the imperial city, which are the most common, even people don't like colorful clothes as much as Nanjing.

However, the bleakness of autumn and winter can only be felt more clearly in the north.

When Zhang Ning returned home, he was in a low mood and said little.Wang Zhen met him several times with a reticent look, but it seemed that he had something to say, and Zhang Ning didn't bother to ask him.

Old man He made the dinner. He made up the leftovers from yesterday and fried a very unpalatable vegetarian dish.The host and guest ate in silence, when Wang Zhen said, "Brother Pingan, can you lend me some money?"

"How much do you want?" Zhang Ning asked immediately, wondering if he had other plans, and he would go away if he borrowed the money, so he couldn't help asking, "What do you want, Brother Wang?"

Zhang Ning admits that he is a relatively secular person, and he is still unable to dare to love and hate. He can pretend to call "Brother Wang" to those he hates, but he can only keep silent to those who want to love him.How many people can achieve true nature in life?

"Five taels..." Wang Zhen lowered his head and said, Zhang Ning understood the feeling of borrowing money from others.But this guy can also speak, and it costs me two months' salary to speak.

Wang Zhen paused and then said: "To tell you the truth, I have already thought about it when I was at home, and I wanted to go to the palace to seek food. According to the court's law of selecting eunuchs, I have already passed my age, and I have several brothers." It’s okay, so I can’t go this way; the only solution now is to find someone to do it yourself.”

Zhang Ning was stunned after hearing this: Is this Wang Zhen really going to be an eunuch? !Could he become that famous eunuch in history?

"A few days ago I was reading "Law of the Ming Dynasty". Isn't the law prohibiting people from entering the palace?" Zhang Ning asked.

Wang Zhendao: "The law stipulates this, but it's just written on paper. No one cares about it. It's just that you may not be elected into the palace."

Zhang Ning persuaded: "Brother Wang has fame, a family and a family, should you think about it again, there is no other way out?"

Wang Zhen shook his head and said coldly: "I am self-aware of talent and learning, and now there are more than [-] students who have reached the end of their careers, and they can't even pass the exam. There is no hope for the imperial examination, and they have gotten into a lawsuit again; Besides, keeping those things is nothing more than carrying on the family line and playing with|playing|women.

It's true that it's just that, but it's not completely boring. How dare the neighbors rumor that he is a god, and they didn't wrong him?If it's really a heavenly eunuch, it wouldn't be a loss to cut off the future.

The Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang ruled that eunuchs and the harem should not be involved in politics, but since Emperor Yongle, eunuchs have been heavily used and the cabinet has gradually participated in decision-making. The system has developed into a pattern of "separation of powers": monarchy, persuasion, and eunuch power.Interdependence checks and balances each other.

Judging from the way out for the masses to climb up, monarchy should not be considered, unless the rebellion is successful, the country is in the early and mid-term, which is extremely difficult and almost violates the laws of history; After decades of study, how many people can get a Jinshi, and there are not many who become officials after that. Those who have power, but in comparison, the threshold for eunuch power is very low, and if you cut it off, you will have a chance, which is easier than staying for decades?

In fact, the utilitarian nature of Chinese people is very important. Glory to the ancestors, power and power are the pursuit of most people.

"As a neighbor from the same town, I just want to persuade you. If Brother Wang has made up his mind, of course I can lend you money." Zhang Ning didn't want to cry in front of him. , The Ministry of Officials sent 50 taels of relocation fee to the bank before, and he had [-] taels, so he said happily, "Now the bank is closed, brother Wang will go out with me tomorrow morning, take it out and give it to you."

Unexpectedly, when Wang Zhen agreed, he looked a little impatient: "Silver notes are also acceptable."

Zhang Ning said in his heart: The bank notes I deposited are in ten taels. Didn't you borrow five taels and give me change if you have money?He pondered for a moment and then said: "That's fine, I'll go get the bank note."

After Zhang Ning came over with a ten tael bank note, he said, "This is a bank note from the Shishi Datong Bank. Brother Wang will buy some tonics by the way... I just happen to only have a ten tael bank note."

He intentionally added the last sentence, thinking that Wang Zhen is also a student, and he always knows how to deal with things.Unexpectedly, Wang Zhentian was shameless and inconsiderate of the difficulties of the so-called "brothers", and said cheekily: "Forget about supplements, I'm afraid I won't be selected into the palace in the future, it's always right to be a little bit prepared. Brother Pingan helped me generously, I will never forget it .”

Forget it, just give him an extra five taels of silver, just want him to get out of the house as soon as possible. Zhang Ning really doesn't like to associate with people like Wang Zhen.

……

The difficulty of escaping alone depends on how much manpower and material resources the hunter invests. Setting a fire like Wang Zhen looks serious, but it’s really nothing. It's killing someone, I'm afraid I'm not so calm; there are more serious things than murder, just like the Qin case that Zhang Ning may be involved in, it will be very difficult to escape.

So he didn't intend to escape from the beginning, and he went to the office of Jinyiwei Yamen as usual the next day.

Hu Butang also came to the Jinyiwei Yamen soon, met Wang Qinian and Zhang Ning, and said straight to the point: "The key person in this case is the court lady Zhou, we must first find out her identity before we can make further arrangements. The identity registered when entering the palace must be false, and the surname and first name are also false. How can a person who has no place of origin, name, and acquaintances to check know where she is from?"

Wang Qinian seriously replied: "Unless she said it herself... Mrs. Zhou spoke yesterday, can you tell her hometown from her accent?"

Hu Ying murmured, "The accent is a very formal Huai dialect, so there's no way to check it. Even if you guess she is from Jianghuai, where do you start?"

Zhang Ning stood there dumbfounded and didn't speak. He was of the lowest rank, so he seemed polite by not speaking.

At this time, Hu Ying said again: "I thought about it last night. Her phrase 'indiscriminately killing innocent women and insulting women' has a lot of meaning. From this, we can boldly speculate before verifying that this woman's parents were convicted and killed. death, and it is not a case of murder, such as Jianwen's survivor, Fang Yuan Zhou hated the emperor and wholeheartedly avenged her parents; otherwise, why did she assassinate the emperor of Ming Dynasty at a young age regardless of life and death? Of course, this is speculation It cannot be used as a basis, what we have to do now is to try to verify it."

Wang Qinian nodded and said yes: "What Hu Butang said is very true. Now that I have no clue, start with this aspect first, maybe we can find a hole."

Hu Ying sighed slightly: "I can only try. I don't want to order her to be tortured for the time being. If she accidentally dies, I will have to take the blame. I can only try torture when there is really no other way. The current direction of the case I haven't figured it out yet, there are many things, sooner rather than later, the two of you will go to this matter today: check the files."

The chubby Wang Qinian was not slow at all, and said right away: "Generally, the case files that have been sentenced to death and executed must go through the Dali Temple for reexamination, and almost all the files can be found in Dali Temple; If you want to be imprisoned and executed, you will go through Beizhen Fusi Prison. The files can be checked in Guanbai Benwei. We can start from these two places. The files of Dali Temple can be consulted by the Minister of Dali Temple, but Jinyiwei We foreign ministers have no right to review Benwei's files, we have to ask for an order first."

Hu Ying said: "In this way, the old man is writing books in Dali Temple. Today, Donghai will bring a few clerks and Jinyiwei to the three judicial departments in the west of the city to supervise and review the files. Narrowing down the scope, the old man listed a few conditions: first, the cases from the eighth year of Yongle to March 20th of Yongle (if they were sentenced to death earlier, they would not be able to give birth to the Zhou family); First, murder and arson can be ruled out; third, there is a woman under her knee who is estimated to be about the same age as Zhou."

Wang Qinian and Zhang Ning both surrendered their orders. Wang Qinian said: "A lot of Jianwen survivors were killed at the beginning of Yongle, but not many after eight years of Yongle. With the third restriction, the scope will not be too large. This matter There is a lot to do. If you add the native place of Jianghuai, it will be even less."

Hu Ying said: "Let's not rule out the places of origin other than Jianghuai, we can pick them out and focus on them."

When the two sang together, they simply wanted to blame Jianwen's survivors, or they suspected it in this way, but there was no evidence to support it.Zhang Ning pondered: Suspecting that Jianwen's survivors might be the emperor's thoughts, that's why Hu Butang and the others were so enthusiastic.

If it is confirmed that this incident was done by the survivor of Jianwen, then from another aspect, it will be exonerated for the King of Han, and Zhang Ning finally understands his value in this incident.If there is no real evidence, Hu Ying would not dare to plant his blame on the mysterious Emperor Jianwen casually, otherwise he would be suspected of colluding with the King of Han.

Hu Ying left after ordering the errand, Wang Qinian also rushed to run the errand, Zhang Ning had to wait, and officials with no imperial decree did not have the right to check Jin Yiwei.

Zhang Ning pretended to be very busy, brewed a bowl of tea and read the dossier while roasting high-quality smokeless charcoal in the office building.It is best not to do anything now, we have to wait to see if the Peach Blossom Villa is related to the Qin case; after all, Hu Ying wants to rely on real evidence, if there is no evidence to implicate the relationship, the plot of the Peach Blossom Poetry is a fool, what should I do Just do it yourself.

According to the known information, Peach Blossom Villa is a group of private salt dealers. It may not be related to Jianwen's survivor and the Qin case. The speculation and inference cannot be regarded as facts for the time being.Zhang Ning reminded himself: keep calm.