The Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty, Chapter 40: The Repentant Murder

The Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty. 《成化十四年》Chengnian Shisi Nian
The Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty, Chapter 40: The Repentant Murder

Tang Fan was silent for a long time and asked: "Why did you kill Han Zao when you wanted to avenge Concubine Ji?”


Yun Liang sighed: "I am with the Crown Prince now, no matter what I do, it will always involve the Crown Prince in the end, so I can do nothing. Even if I hated the Noble Consort Wan to the bone, I had to bear it. But then one day, Fu Ru, the Noble Consort Wan's maiden, approached me and asked me if I still wanted to avenge the consort's death, and I said yes, and she said she could persuade the Noble Consort Wan to send soup to the Crown Prince, and that it was up to me to decide what to do then."

"Wait!" Tang Fan interrupted him, "Why did Fu Ru betray the Noble Consort Wan? And, if she was also unhappy with the Noble Consort Wan, why didn't she just poison her herself? Given the conditions of her service to the Noble Consort Wan, it should be easy for her to do so."

Yun Liang shook his head: "I don't know, Fu Ru is a very strange person. Before His Highness was born, she was the one who came to help Sister Ji give birth on the order of Her Highness. She was supposed to beat Concubine Ji with a club and beat her to death, but she only gave her medicine, which was only half a bowl, so that she survived. Fu Ru was also kind to His Majesty, so I believe her words. Her Highness often scolded the palace staff, although Fu Ru is the first lady of the palace, she was not spared, but only punished a few times, maybe she had a grudge in her heart, but for the sake of her own life, she did not dare to do it herself, so she needed to use me, in such a roundabout way."

Tang Fan hmmed, "You keep talking."

Yun Liang said: "At that time, I thought this was a good opportunity, but the Crown Prince must not have any problems falling back to him, the best person to die is someone close to him, and this person must also have a certain status, otherwise it is not enough to attract His Majesty's attention, so that the Crown Prince's master teacher Han Zao had to die."

"There are many masters who teach to the Crown Prince, headed by the Master of the Wenhua Temple, and the Empress Dowager Zhou, and so on, who take turns to lecture to His Majesty every day, and His Majesty often brings them food to show his respect, but it is all prepared and sent by the dining room, and has nothing to do with the Noble Consort Wan, and if I had to choose a day to do it, it would be Han Zao, who stays by the Crown Prince's side every day, because His Majesty and Han Zao are close, and they often share food, and the Empress Dowager Zhou gives food, and often prepares two portions. So I finally chose Han Zao."

"But poisoning is too simple and easy to detect, so it doesn't matter if I die myself, it would be bad for His Highness to be involved. When I sent Han Zao to the palace, I would hear him talk about his mother's ill treatment of his adopted brother. Han Zao was kind and respected his brother. He felt that his mother was not doing him any good and was powerless to dissuade him.

"After hearing this, I knew that unless Han Hui was a saint, he would never hold a grudge against his adoptive mother, so I approached Han Hui and told him that if Han Zao died, he would be the only heir to the second house, and that he would be able to break his adoptive mother's heart, so that his revenge would be avenged. Han Hui was frightened at first, didn't send Han Zao over for a few days, I wasn't worried, because he didn't contradict me directly at that time, which shows that he still had this idea in his heart, took a step back, even if he didn't want to in the end, naturally I had another way."

"After a while, Han Hui really came to me, agreed to my earlier proposal, and... Afterwards, you all know about it..."

When he finished this paragraph, his face got worse and worse, and the sound of gasping from his throat was like a broken wind box being pulled hard, very hard to hear.

Tang Fan could not resist the anger and said: "You can kill a completely innocent person just to avenge the death of Concubine Ji? Han Zao had nothing to do with what happened back then, what's the point of killing him! Was he a pain to you!"

Yun Liang laughed and wept, "I know Han Zao is innocent, but I'm forced to do nothing about it! I'm just a crippled man, I was poisoned twice when I was testing the poison for Sister Ji, I was lucky to survive, but my body was also ruined. But I couldn't kill the Noble Consort Wan myself, so I had to resort to such a roundabout way of doing it! If Han Zao dies, the Noble Consort Wan will be suspected, and everyone will think she's trying to kill the Crown Prince, and that plotting to kill the Crown Prince is a big crime, and the Noble Consort Wan will be abolished! Wan-shi has made many enemies in the palace, as long as she loses the throne of the Consort and His Majesty's favor, there will be many who want her dead, and there will be no need for me to do so!"

Wang Zhi was silent, but he couldn't help but say in a cold voice: "It is indeed a big crime to murder the Crown Prince, if your plan had been put in the hands of Emperor Taizu, or even the late Emperor, the Noble Consort Wan could have been abolished as you said, but your mistake was to oveerstimating the importance of the Crown Prince in His Majesty's heart! He could even abolish the Empress for the sake of the Noble Consort even the Empress Dowager wouldn't dare to say a word. I'm afraid the Crown Prince doesn't carry as much weight in his heart as you think."

"But it's not that light...?" Yun Liang had a deep weariness on his face: "I heard that His Majesty had a big fight with the Noble Consort Wan after Han Zao's death, yes or no?"

Wang Zhi stopped talking.




Yun Liang laughed: "If you don't say anything, then it's true. In fact, many things are are gamble, when we helped hide the Crown Prince's existence, it was also a gamble, later the Crown Prince's identity was revealed, we didn't know what His Majesty would do to him, it was also a gamble, now I am just gambling with my life, if I can really pull Wan-shi off the horse, then the Crown Prince's future will be tamed one, and I don't have to worry about being assassinated anymore, it's just a pity that I made a mistake."

"It's all right, as long as you don't implicate the Crown Prince, I'll be happy even if I die, Han Zao is innocent, and I'll be happy to pay for my sins, and I'll repay them to him. His Highness is a good man and will be a good man, but I'll never see that day when he is on top of the world again."

Wang Zhi coldly laughed: "Aren't you afraid that I will shake out all of this in front of Her Highness the Noble Consort!

Yun Liang shook his head: "I know you won't, otherwise you wouldn't have come to ask me beforehand. Thanks to you, Inner Palace Eunuch Wang, I've never looked down on you because you're the one who's close to her, but now it seems, you still have righteousness in your heart."

Wang Zhi pooh-poohed: "You've killed Han Zao, and you're not talking about righteousness to me! Besides, I'm not doing it for you, but for the Crown Prince!"

Yun Liang looked gloomy: "Yes, that's why I'm giving my life to him now. The protection you gave His Majesty, I can't repay it."

Tang Fan saw his voice getting lower and lower, blood spilled from the corners of his mouth, so he took a few steps closer, grabbed him and asked: "What about Fu Ru, do you know what Fu Ru is all about! Is she really just trying to trip her up because she's not happy with the Noble Consort Wan?”

Yun Liang shook his head, his face became more and more confused, his eyes gradually lost focus, his expression became more and more distorted due to the pain, and finally lost his breath in a groan.

Tang Fan let go of him, and put Yun Liang on the bed.

This man was so hateful, in order to avenge the Consort Wan, he framed the Noble Consort Wan, and dragged the innocent Han Zao into the water, finally proving that all his efforts were in vain, the Noble Consort Wan was bound to get away, and Han Zao died in vain.

But this man was miserable, all he did was not for himself, nor for his desire for fame and fortune, but for a reapy to a dead concubine. How many people have received favors from other people in their lives, but how many people still remember them? Yun Liang not only remembered, but also engraved it in his heart, for which he risked his life.

Wang Zhi said:" Yun Liang died of a sudden and urgent illness, even the doctor couldn't help him, it was a pity".




Tang Fan's heart moved and he understood his meaning: "What about Fu Ru, where is he?

Wang Zhi's face was expressionless: "She was upset because she was scolded and scolded by the Consort, so she encouraged the Consort to bring soup to the Crown Prince and framed her for Han Zao's death."

This is tantamount to eliminating Yun Liang's role in it directly.

Tang Fan shook his head: "No way, it's not easy. Don't forget Han Hui over there, Fu Ru is in the palace, how can she be related to Han Hui? Yun Liang's role must be in the middle".

Wang Zhi thought about it, and clapped his hands, "Then let's do it! Let's say Fu Ru was reprimanded by Her Highness, but dared not take revenge, Yun Liang was Fu Ru's rival, and after hearing Fu Ru's complaint, Han Hui had the intention to kill his brother, so he came up with this idea, let Fu Ru persuade Her Highness to send soup, and then let Han Hui kill Han Zao in advance, and the three conspired to stage such a play, so as to frame Her Highness."

He took the trouble to remove the Crown Prince's suspicion.

Tang Fan was silent for a moment, saying: "If you say so, will His Majesty and yHer Highness believe it?"

Wang Zhi asked back: "Why don't you believe it? Now that Yun Liang is dead, and there is no proof of his death, the fact that Fu Ru and Han Hui are linked with each other, no matter how much they deny it, it won't cause any trouble. I'll be honest with you, this matter is not something His Majesty would like to raise any judgement on, in his mind, now that the Crown Prince is old and his son is hard-earned, even if he doesn't think it's as important as the Noble Consort, there's still a place for him, and he wouldn't want the Crown Prince to be implicated. The key now was the nNoble Consort's side, and as long as there was no evidence, the Noble Consort could not use it as an excuse for her to have any more problems with the Crown Prince."

He paused, regretting: "If I had blamed it on Little Zhou-shi in the first place, why did I have to go through all this trouble? Tang Fan, I shouldn't have listened to your nonsense, I wanted to make a good relationship with the Crown Prince, but now I'm fine, I can't get off the boat, I can only go down in the dark. I was on your side, but now I'm helping you to deceive her, and if she finds out, I'll be no better off than Yun Liang!"

Tang Fan was also disturbed by Yun Liang's incident and could only say in a sour voice, "Not necessarily. In this case, I always feel that Fu Ru's intention is not that simple, a person who has a grudge against the Consort, knowing that both right and left are dead, would just take a dagger and assassinate her at close range, why would he go around in a big way to frame her? If we can get anything more out of Fu Ru, we may be able to get rid of the Crown Prince suspicion involvement."

Wang Zhi grunted coldly: "You think too simply, just because Yun Liang is the Crown Prince's man, that's enough, no matter what other motives, it won't erase the Noble Consort's suspicions about the Crown Prince, but you need reasons to like someone, and hate someone, do you need reasons too? You need a reason to like a person, you need a reason to hate a person, do you need a reason?"




Tang Fan did not understand the Noble Consort Wan's scruples about the Crown Prince, in this regard, Wang Zhi obviously understood better than him.

In fact, the two did not say a few words to each other. Soon after Yun Liang's death, Wang Zhi left the Eastern Palace, went to the Western Depot to interrogate Fu Ru.

Tang Fan looked at Yun Liang's corpse for a while, and then he left the palace, saying goodbye to the Crown Prince.

Today, the Crown Prince didn't need to study, he was sitting alone in the inner hall, and when Tang Fan came in, he retreated from his attendants, and immediately asked: "Mr. Tang, the inner attendant Yun Liang....."

Tang Fan arched his hand and said, "Inner chamberlain Yuan was seriously ill and died just now." Wang Zhi's plan just now...

The Crown Prince's eyes were red at once.

Tang Fan said: "Her Highness I am sorry..."

He looked calm on the surface and his mind was also in a state of confusion.

According to Tang Fan's principle, everything should be handled justly, how did Yun Liang die, how did it happen from the beginning to the end, it should have been reported in its entirety, it should have been dealt with by the law of the land, how could Han Zao, who was innocent, be put to rest in this way?

But he also knew that if the Noble Consort Wan knew what Yun Liang wanted to do to avenge Concubine Ji's death, he would think that the Crown Prince was surrounded by such people and would think that the Crown Prince had a grudge against her because of his mother's death.

Who would be so kind to keep someone who hates himself all the time, let alone the Noble Consort Wan? It would be nice if the Noble Consort Wan didn't encourage the Emperor to abolish the Crown Prince.

So Tang Fan's principle of "impartiality", was tantamount to giving the Noble Consort Wan an excuse to cleanse the harem.

Seeking for fairness in one thing, but more lives will be lost.

In this case, how to choose?

It is because he knows this, he is very conflicted.

In such a world, it is very difficult to be an honest and impartial official to enforce the law.

Only to hear the Crown Prince say: "I know, everything the inner courtier did, and the fact that it was for my mother."

Tang Fan asked, "How much does His Highness know?"

The Crown Prince said: "I know that Han Zao died unjustly, and that the case has nothing to do with the Noble Consort Wan, and the chamberlain won't tell me, but I guessed it. He thought I had forgotten about my mother's death, but I didn't. I knew her death had something to do with the Noble Consort Wan, I just didn't want revenge."

He sucked on his nose and choked: "I know that if I take revenge, someone will die, I don't want anyone to die, isn't it good for everyone to be nice like this, why must I take revenge? My mother is in the heavens, I must also hope that the inner chamberlain is alive and well, I do not want him to kill Little Zao for himself!

Tang Fan sighed: "From the moment you were born, Her Highness has been destined for an extraordinary future, everyone has great expectations for you, everyone expects you to become an Emperor in the future, so they hope to use their lives to pave the way for you first, so that when you ascend in the future, it won't be too difficult."

The Crown Prince said in tears, "That shouldn't have been for human life either, should it?"

Tang Fan was silent for a moment, nodded: "Right."

The world is never complicated, only the heart is complicated.

Tang Fan said: "But since the inner courtier has already died in exchange for His Highness not being involved, please don't let His Highness disappoint the dead man wish, and let's leave it at that, no matter who asks, they will say that the inner courtier died of an acute illness.”

Coming out of the East Palace, Tang Fan felt as if he had been back and forth in and out of the palace that day, his body and mind were exhausted.




Yun Liang's body was ready to be disposed of, the Eastern Palace side was always strict and loyal, Yun Liang's death was only known by the Crown Prince. Tang Fan. Wang Zhi, as long as the Crown Prince kept his mouth shut, and say Yun Liang reported an urgent illness, he was sent out of the palace to be buried.

But what Tang Fan didn't expect, the next day he got the news: Fu Ru died.

The author has something to say:

Yesterday I saw some of my friends said they thought the case was too complicated, but it's not really complicated, come, I'll sort it out for you:

Han Zao is dead, the killer is his brother.

Han Zao died just after drinking mung bean soup, so someone in the palace must have cooperated with his brother, so he can frame the Noble Consort Wan.

But his brother can't directly contact the Noble Consort Wan, so we can implicate Yun Liang… the Crown Prince's side.

Fu Ru went to Yun Liang for an unknown purpose, saying that he wanted to help him frame the Noble Consort Wan, Yun Liang hated the Noble Consort Wan and couldn't kill her himself, so he agreed to do so.

At that time, Yun Liang heard about his brother's feud with his mother from Han Zao's mouth, so he used his brother to kill him, and cleaned up the mess himself.

It's that simple!





- The Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty -

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