The Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty, Chapter 16: The Count of Yingcheng, The Sun Family and Zheng Sun a maiden from the the Sun Family

The Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty. 《成化十四年》Chengnian Shisi Nian
The Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty, Chapter 16: The Count of Yingcheng, The Sun Family and Zheng Sun a maiden from the the Sun Family

Sui Zhou had just stepped into this official house when he saw Tang Fan smiling sweetly to himself.


Sui Zhou: "......."

Tang Fan rose and greeted him: "Guangchuan, I have a favor to ask of you. I heard that the Northern Administrative Court Division has a record of all years, yes?"

Sui Zhou: "It is not bad."

Tang Fan: "Can I have a look?"

Sui Zhou nodded and added, “The last time Eastern Depot started a fire, something has come up."

Tang Fan was in high spirits: "How so?"

Sui Zhou: “The guard on duty that day was named Meng Qishan, a man from the Jinyiwei, whose family had been a military family for generations, and whose fathers and grandfathers had all served under the former Count of Yingcheng."

Although the Eastern Depot was run by eunuchs, the people underneath weren't necessarily all eunuchs, and there were a lot of people who were seconded from the Jinyiwei side, so it was easier for Sui Zhou to find things if he want to check something.

Tang Fan murmured, "Count of Yingcheng, Count of Yingcheng of the Sun Clan?"

Suddenly his eyes lit up.

Sui Zhou nodded.

Tang Fan couldn't wait for half a moment, tugged on his sleeve and walked out: “Take me to see the file of the Northern Administrative Court Chenghua's first year, I have some ideas!"

The files in the Northern Administrative Court Division are really much more complete than the Shuntian Prefecture, this is the advantage of the secret service, many of the Shuntian Prefecture files are not completed because of the relations and the nature of the work, in the Northern Administrative Court Division however he can still see the complete cause and effect and some unknown secret.

But at this moment Tang Fan naturally did not have the heart to explore the irrelevant gossip and secrets of the case, he directly found the file of the first year of Chenghua reign, then took it out to look through, and told Sui Zhou about his search for the Feng Family.

Sui Zhou: "Are you suspecting that the Feng Family is also related to Count of Yingcheng?"

Tang Fan nodded, "I have this thought, but specifically we still have to find evidence, otherwise it will be difficult for us to convict the Eastern Depot of the incident that started the fire alone!"

Sui Zhou also could not make nonsense of it, and directly bowed his head and picked up a dossier and started looking through it.

Tang Fan had not slept all night and was tired, but since Sui Zhou had come with one more major clue, he was now in high spirits, reading things very quickly, almost at a glance, and quickly turning the page.

In fact, the Chenghua Emperor had already ascended to the throne one year before the first year of Chenghua reign, but at that time, the old name of the former Emperor was still used, and it was not until after the year had passed that the official change was made, but in that year, many things still happened.

After the Tumu Forts Rebellion, the trust in the Imperial court was severely damaged, the Imperial capital army was almost completely destroyed, and there were many natural disasters. Many accumulated evils finally broke out. In that year, there were at least four internal rebellions, although they were finally extinguished. It can still hurt the health of the court workers. Not only that, but the White Lotus Sect also took the opportunity to mess up, confuse the villagers, and cause the fight against the Imperial court under the banner of obeying the gods...






So that year's dossier was destined to be thick enough for two people to look at for most of the day.

In the first month of the first year of Chenghua reign, the Yao people of Daitouxia led a rebellion, successively......

No, not this one.

He continued to look down.

In March of the first year of Chenghua reign, Sichuan, Shandu, in charge of the Miao rebellion, occupied Jiang'an and Hejiang counties, ordered Licheng Zhengyi, Xiangcheng's uncle, and Eunuch Liu Heng to supervise the army......

Not this one either.

In May of the first year of Chenghua reign, the rebel Zhao Duo falsely called himself Emperor Zhao......

Not this one either.

In March of the first year of Chenghua reign, Liu Tong, Shi Long and Feng Zilong, the refugees of Jingxiang, gathered together under false pretenses of looking for livehood and gathered hundreds of thousands of people to invade Hanzhong, and won a total victory.

Tang Fan's gaze froze, and the finger that pressed on the dossier stopped abruptly.

"Guangchuan, you come and see this!"

Sui Zhou took over, eyes sweeping over the place Tang Fan indicated. "Feng Zilong?"

Tang Fan: "Exactly, is it possible that your Northern Administrative Court division has found out about this Feng Zilong's relationship with the Feng Family?"

Sui Zhou nodded, "Yes, a rebel like Feng Zilong would normally have a record of being executed."

He quickly found a copy: “There you have it. Feng Zilong, a native of Jingxiang, had just joined the rebellion in the first year of Chenghua reign, and had not yet been caught by the Imperial court when it ordered all the male members of Liu Tong, Shi Long and Feng Zilong's Clans to be arrested and exiled to force the rebels to surrender. They were supposed to flow in the river, but it just so happened that the Yellow River was flooding in Henan at that time, and Henan officials petitioned the court to send someone to build the riverbank, and the Feng Family's people happened to be in that group of people sent."

Tang Fan: "Exactly where?"

Sui Zhou word for word: "Henan Weihui Prefecture!"

Tang Fan was shocked: “That missing apothecary clerk fellow from the Huichun Hall earlier was also the origin of the Weihui Prefecture in Henan!"

Sui Zhou: "Not only that, but the place where the former Count of Yingcheng was stationed was Henan."

Tang Fan gently puffed out his breath: “This way, everything is connected. We were right in guessing that there were two groups of people who killed Zheng Cheng, one was Madam Hui and Zheng Zhi, and the other group was probably Feng Qingzi, who was supported by Zheng Sun. Madam Hui they may not be aware of Zheng Sun's actions, but Zheng Sun is aware of Madam Hui’s movements, so it's not hard to let that medicine shop fellow push the envelope."

Sui Zhou said, “There are two people missing from the Feng Family's poker throne, one is Feng Qingzi, the other one should be the one in third place, judging from Feng Qingzi's actions, that one should be alive and protected by the Count of Yingcheng, that's why Feng Qingzi helped Zheng Sun to kill, and she didn't hesitate to commit suicide to protect Zheng Sun after her defeat, because she knew her brother would be taken care of, but if she confessed Zheng Sun, she herself would be equally unlikely to escape death, and Zheng Sun would take revenge on her brother."

[1] I need to clarify something here the Marquis of Wu’an is a title of nobility held by the Zheng Family, the Count of Yingcheng was an actual title held by the Sun Family in the Ming Dynasty when I say family in Chinese Family is like a clan, Zheng Sun is Zheng Cheng wife but in this book Zheng Sun name is two parts the Sun part is her Family name or maiden name Sun is not her actual name is the maiden name kinda like the woman surname before marriage , Zheng Sun is from the Sun Family, which holds the Count of Yingcheng title. I don’t know what it means but I smell a plot.

He said so much in one breath, but his expression did not change, Tang Fan wanted to laugh a little, but still held back, nodding his head seriously: "Not bad, from the point of view of time, it should be Madam Hui they sent to do their plan first, but Zheng Sun may think that the effect was too slow, so he pushed it again secretly. But all of this, for now, is just speculation, if we can find Feng Qingzi’s brother, or that fellow, it's only proof of what we think."




Sui Zhou frowned, “That medicine shop fellow cannot be found, he is such an insignificant figure, I'm afraid that the Sun family would have silenced long ago, but Feng Qingzi's brother, is a person we can still look for, Zheng Sun in order to blackmail Feng Qingzi, she will certainly put her brother in a place where she can see and put Feng Qingzi at ease."

Tang Fan said, "Now we can hide the first news that Feng Qingzi has died, and only let the outside know that people are here in the Northern Administrative Court Division, and then keep an eye on the people in the Marquis of Wu’an Mansion, Feng Qingzi is not here, someone will definitely be worried that she will say something she should not say, thus revealing her scheme."

Sui Zhou gave an emphatic, no nonsense look, and got up and went straight out to order his men to do their work.

The Jinyiwei and the Eastern Depot were everywhere, secretly arranging manpower in all parts of the capital to keep an eye on the hundreds of officials so that they could report to the emperor whenever he needed to, and this was an old rule passed down from the Chengzu.

By the time he returned, he saw Tang Fan was already lying on the table and sleeping over.

Tang Fan had been sleepless all night and had barely lifted his spirits to check the files, but now he was relaxed and immediately fell asleep.

Sui Zhou wanted to ask him about something related to the case, but seeing Tang Fan like this, he didn't want to go over and pat him awake, so he sat down next to him and rearranged the file that the two of them had just turned over in disarray.

He took the dossier and walked to the cabinet, his eyes unintentionally glanced through Tang Fan's face, the light shone in from outside and spread warmly on him, revealing even the slightest detail and making his face jade and without a single flaw.

On normal days, Sui Zhou doesn’t think of looking at the light and angle at random, but if he takes a casual look at the light and the angle, it's not hard to see that Tang Fan’s eyelashes are long, thick, and slightly curled, so he can tell that the man didn't get enough sleep last night.

Watching for a moment, Sui Zhou moved out of sight, put the file back in its place, and locked it.

Author notes

It's a busy time, so if you're interested, let's take a look at some of the interesting facts about the history of the Ming Dynasty in 818

Note.

1. Feng Zilong's rebellion is a historical fact, but the execution of Feng and his family is pure fiction and there is no need to look deeper into that.











- The Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty -



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