Chapter 2322
After dinner, Li Xie walked slowly in the palace garden with his hands behind his back. There was no one around, and it seemed quite deserted.
Qian Tiandun had already left the palace at this time, leaving a company of troops here to serve as guards. Although there are not many troops, they are only used to frighten the small gangsters who may be lurking in the dark in the city. One kill is enough.
The chamberlains, maids, and guards who were originally in the palace have all been ordered by Qian Tiandun to be placed under house arrest at a settlement outside the city in order to conduct subsequent investigations into what happened in the palace during the coup. Of course, there is another very important reason, that is, Qian Tiandun believes that these people are unreliable, and for the sake of Li Xie's personal safety, it is better to replace them all. Even the cooks who cook have been replaced by people from the Haihan Army.
Therefore, except for the few personal guards Li Xie brought with him when he entered the palace, there is currently no one in the palace to take care of his daily life. However, Li Zhi obviously doesn't care about these trivial matters now. He is about to ascend the throne and he needs to spend more time thinking about how to deal with the current situation and how to govern the country.
With Haihan's support behind him, Li Zhi no longer worried about his personal safety at this time. He knew that from the moment Haihan's army successfully entered the city, it already meant that the rebellious parties in the city had chosen to compromise. At this time, if they take any action that is detrimental to themselves, it will be tantamount to seeking death. Therefore, Li Zhi can also focus his energy on the numerous information received after entering the city today to see if he can analyze some valuable intelligence from it.
Although Li Zhi did not believe the events described by Jin Sangxian like Qian Tiandun, he could also realize that there were indeed many details in Jin Sangxian's words that could not withstand scrutiny. For example, since the coup was initiated by his opponent Cui Mingji, and Cui Mingji did not even spare the king, why did he let his old enemy Kim Sang-heon survive and give him a chance to make a comeback? If Cui Mingji was only at this level, how could he have fought with Kim Sang-heon in the officialdom for half his life? The grass on his grave would be three feet high.
As for Cui Mingji's secret collusion with the Manchus, Kim Sang-heon has not produced any strong personal or material evidence to support his statement, so the credibility is really limited. Li Zhi couldn't think of any need for a big man like Cui Mingji, who was a highly respected official, to collude with foreign enemies to rebel. If he wanted to become king, he obviously had a month to do it after he succeeded, but nothing happened during that period.
There is of course only one answer to why Kim Sang-hyun had these inaccurate descriptions, but Li Zhi still did not want to think about it in this direction. After all, before he went abroad, Kim Sang-hyun was the minister who gave him the most support. The "Princeling" logo is affixed to his forehead. It was really difficult for Li Zhi to accept that such an important court official who once stood behind him was also involved in this coup.
However, considering Kim Sang-heon's influence in the DPRK, it is inconvenient for Li Zhen to take any coercive measures against him, otherwise many official agencies may quickly fall into a state of shutdown. In order for the country to continue to operate normally, Li Zhi could only pretend to be deaf and dumb and wait for Haihan to make further conclusions on the investigation of this coup.
Fortunately, this time the Haihan people took the initiative to take over all the dirty work that Li Xie couldn't speak out, saving him a lot of trouble. For example, if there are still people in the court who oppose his ascension to the throne, the Haihan people will probably find any crime to pull him down and deal with it. Haihan will take the initiative to clear out anyone who stands in his way. Perhaps at this moment, Qian Tiandun was directing a secret arrest mission somewhere in the city, imprisoning those ministers who were unwilling to be loyal to him.
However, this guess made by Li Zhi was not accurate. Qian Tiandun was busy in the city at this time, but he was not directing the arrest mission. He now wants to check several very important pieces of evidence to deduce whether what happened in the city during this period is consistent with what Kim Sang-hyun said.
To be precise, Qian Tiandun was going to conduct an autopsy, and there were more than one corpses, a total of three corpses.
Qian Tiandun believes that the deaths of the assassinated King Li Zhu, his assassin, and Cui Mingji who committed suicide by taking poison are some important doubts in the series of chaos in Seoul, and the real cause of their death may be revealed. Provide more clues for subsequent investigations.
Qian Tiandun specially brought two senior military doctors to serve as temporary assistants. This is not too difficult for military doctors. They deal with various traumas caused by fighting all year round and are very familiar with the injuries caused by various weapons. The only one who is more troublesome is probably Cui Mingji. At present, North Korea does not have any technology to detect deadly poisons, and can only infer whether he died of poisoning based on the general appearance.
With Li Zhi's identity, it was naturally inconvenient for him to inspect these special exhibits in person, so Qian Tiandun did not arrange for Li Zhi to participate in this matter.
According to Kim Sang-hyun, the bodies of King Li Zhu and the assassins were quietly transported out of the city after the incident and buried in the mountains north of the city. After today's conversation at Qinzheng Palace, Kim Sang-hyun responded to Qian Tiandun's request and immediately sent people to the burial site to dig out the two coffins and quietly transport them back to the city. As for Cui Mingji, he had just died and the body had not yet been processed. In order to facilitate the autopsy, Kim Sangxian also sent someone to transport it out of Cui's house and put it together with the other two corpses for inspection.
Qian Tiandun walked into the house that had been taken over by the Haihan Army. Kim Sang-hyun was waiting inside. After briefly introducing the situation, Qian Tiandun led the military doctor into the house to inspect the three corpses placed in the coffins. .
There were no less than thirty lanterns lit in the room, but the visibility was still not ideal, and it looked a bit shadowy. The lids of the three coffins have been opened, and the air is filled with the smell of decay. According to the time mentioned by Jin Sangxian, the bodies of the king and the assassin have been buried underground for a month, which is when they are severely decayed. The smell is naturally very unpleasant.
Although Qian Tiandun covered his mouth and nose with cotton cloth before coming in, he still couldn't isolate the putrid smell that made people dizzy. If it were someone else, he might have turned around and left, but Qian Tiandun knew that the matter was related to the Communist Party, so he still managed to gather his energy and walked to the coffin to observe the condition of the corpse.
The first thing Qian Tiandun saw was the body of King Li Zhu. According to the account given by Kim Sang-hyun, King Li Jie was suddenly broken into and assassinated by an assassin disguised as a chamberlain in the royal study, and the weapon used was a dagger. The dagger that killed King Li Zhu and the assassin himself is also one of the most important evidences in this incident.
The corpse in the coffin had been severely decomposed, and the original facial features on the face were almost unrecognizable. Qian Tiandun could only judge from his height, which was almost the same as King Li Zhu. The corpse was wearing a yellow robe, so the specific injuries could not be seen. Qian Tiandun did not intend to touch the corpse with his own hands, so the dirty work could only be completed by two military doctors later.
Qian Tiandun was about to walk away when he suddenly noticed another detail on the corpse. He stopped and looked at it carefully before walking to the second coffin.
Compared to the large coffin made of fine wood where King Li Zhu lay, the quality of the thin-skinned coffin where the second corpse lay was really perfunctory. If he hadn't kept the body as evidence, I'm afraid the officials wouldn't even have provided him with a coffin. They would have just wrapped it in rotten bamboo mats and thrown it into a mass grave outside the city.
The assassin's body was also severely decomposed, but there was a very deep sharp knife cut on the neck. It seemed that this was what Kim Sang-hyun said. The assassin chose to commit suicide because there was no hope of escape. As for whether his identity is a spy sent by the Manchu Qing Dynasty, it remains to be tested later.
Qian Tiandun just looked at it briefly and walked to the third coffin. He had few direct interactions with Cui Mingji, but he recognized at a glance that the person lying in the coffin was indeed Cui Mingji. As for the cause of Cui Mingji's death, and whether he really committed suicide by taking poison, Qian Tiandun, as a layman, couldn't tell any clues. "The next work will be hard for you two!" After Qian Tiandun took a quick look at the three corpses, he asked the two military doctors he brought to take over the autopsy work.
This place to temporarily park the coffin was chosen by Jin Sangxian. He had already asked his servants to boil hot water. When Qian Tiandun came out, he quickly had hot water brought to him for him to wash his hands and face. His attitude was very attentive.
"Let's talk somewhere else." Qian Tiandun simply cleaned the exposed parts of his body and then motioned to Jin Sangxian to find a place convenient for conversation.
Jin Sangxian took Qian Tiandun to the third courtyard of the house. There was a simply furnished study room. Although there seemed to be a trace of corruption in the air, it was already better than the air in the previous courtyard. The quality is much better.
"Where are the assassin's weapons?" After Qian Tiandun sat down, he asked the question he was concerned about straight to the point.
Kim Sang-hyun seemed to be prepared for this, and immediately had the evidence brought in.
This is a dagger only half a foot long, without a scabbard, simple in shape, with a straight copper handle and a non-slip pattern engraved on the handle. It can be seen that the material on the blade has faint rust, and the hand-made traces of the blade are obvious. It is just an extremely ordinary self-defense weapon.
But Qian Tiandun had seen similar weapons. After last year's anti-Qing war, Haihan seized a large number of weapons and equipment while chasing the Qing army, including portable daggers of this shape.
Sure enough, Kim Sang-hyun said next to him: "It was found that this kind of dagger is a standard weapon issued by the Qing army to the forward battalion, so we think this assassin should be a spy sent by the Manchu Qing."
Qian Tiandun muttered: "A lot of these daggers were seized during the battle with the Qing army last year. There are at least 180 daggers in stock at the Datong River base alone. If we can identify the assassin with just this piece of evidence, Identity, that’s a bit too hasty, right?”
Jin Shangxian said: "We also found a large amount of property in this person's residence that is not consistent with his income level. There is reason to suspect that it was a reward for his assassination mission. Among them were gold coins minted by the Manchu Qing Dynasty. This gold coin is said to be Huang Taiji Tokens specially used to reward warriors are not in circulation at all. It should not appear among the assassins' items by chance."
Looking at the gold coins presented by Jin Shangxian, Qian Tiandun was also a little surprised. He didn't expect that the other party could actually produce other evidence. It seemed that he was well prepared to set up this trap. However, Qian Tiandun had no way to confirm the authenticity of this gold coin at the moment. He would have to send it back to the Military Intelligence Bureau for identification.
The main purpose of Qian Tiandun's autopsy was to find loopholes in these corpses that could overturn Kim Sang-heon's statement, so as to find out the true situation that happened in Seoul in the past month. But from the current point of view, although the story told by Kim Sang-heon is full of loopholes, a lot of preparation work has been done around this story. If Qian Tiandun hadn't suspected that there was something wrong with Deposit Shangxian's statement from the beginning, he would probably have been fooled by this evidence.
Qian Tiandun said: "How did this assassin enter the palace and how did he maintain contact with the Manchus? Has Mr. Jin found out?"
Jin Sangxian smiled bitterly and said: "I am just the chief minister responsible for supervising the officials of the DPRK and China. I am not an expert in investigating cases, so this case has been handed over to the Yijin Mansion for investigation. If I can find clues in the future, I will definitely report it to General Qian."
The Yijin Mansion is a special agency under the Bingcao Yamen, which combines the functions of prosecutorial investigation, detention and trial, and its most important function is to investigate cases related to national rebellion. There are specialties in the art, and the Yijin Mansion is only responsible to the king, and its action authority is quite high. It is indeed more efficient to investigate such cases than ordinary government detectives.
Qian Tiandun paused and continued to ask: "When Cui Mingji committed suicide by taking poison, was Mr. Jin also at the scene?"
Jin Sangxian shook his head and said: "I am only a civil servant. When we besieged Cui Mansion, I could not go to the front line to fight. I did not enter Cui Mansion until the battle was over, and Cui Mingji had already committed suicide by that time."
Qian Tiandun said: "Cui Mingji is already a highly respected minister. Even if he joins the Manchu Qing Dynasty, it will be difficult for him to move up. What does Master Jin think of his motivation for rebellion?"
Cui Mingji's motivation for rebellion has always been one of the doubtful points in this incident. His cooperation with the Manchus did not seem to have any special benefits for him personally.
But Kim Sang-hyun seems to have been prepared for this problem: "I think his main purpose is to push the second prince to the throne, but the king obviously prefers the crown prince, and he is the only chance for the second prince to take over the throne. , that is, to cook the rice while the prince is studying abroad. This assassin was able to lurk in the palace for a long time as a servant. I suspect that Cui Mingji may have provided convenience. "
Jin Sangxian's words were half true and half false. Even though Qian Tiandun listened very carefully, it was difficult to fully confirm which information in his words was true and which information was false.
(End of chapter)