Chapter 2327
Cui Mingji's mansion in the city is not large in scale, nor can it be said to be luxurious. From Fu Li's perspective, its quality is far inferior to those private estates built by big businessmen in Sanya, not to mention the mansions of high-ranking officials in Haihan. However, considering the actual social conditions of North Korea, having such two acres of land to build a house in the capital is indeed a treatment that only important officials of the imperial court can enjoy.
There were still North Korean soldiers guarding the gate of Cui Mansion. After Fu Li asked, he found out that they were not guards of Cui Mansion, but were arranged here to prevent idlers from entering. However, the Haihan army that entered the city had limited strength and only took over key areas for city defense, not taking care of such locations.
Under normal circumstances, of course no one would dare to break into the empty door of the Lord Councilor's house, but after the chaos in Seoul, Cui Mingji was accused of being the mastermind behind the scenes, and all his family and servants were detained. Now this place has long been When the house is empty, it is natural to arrange for someone to guard it.
Fu Li holds Li Xie's handwriting and is accompanied by Pu Hongye, who was sent by Li Xie to assist in investigating the case. There is no problem in entering the Cui Mansion. However, after they entered Cui Mansion, they quickly felt disappointed.
The Cui Mansion was in a mess, with various household items scattered everywhere. It seemed that this place had been completely ransacked, perhaps more than once.
After taking a quick look around, they quickly focused their attention on the study. It is said that Cui Mingji usually handles government affairs in this study. If there are any relevant evidence about the palace coup, it will most likely be stored in this study.
But when they entered the study, they had to face another disappointment. This place was even more searched. Several bookshelves were completely emptied. In such a large room, not even half a piece of paper was found.
"Looks like we're late." Fu Li's heart sank when he saw the situation in the study. It was obvious that the people who searched here didn't intend to miss anything, so they simply moved the study completely.
Pu Hongye walked over and slowly stared at the empty bookshelf for a while before he said, "Judging from the dust on the bookshelf, there must have been a lot of books here. The person who directed the search here must have liked reading."< br>
Fu Li ignored his joke and slowly shook his head and said: "Even if Cui Mingji left any written records before his accident, I'm afraid all of them have been copied. There is no need to turn over these things recorded on paper at all. Check, just a fire will destroy them all.”
Pu Hongye said: "Maybe we can check again who sent the people here to ransack the house."
"It doesn't make much sense." Fu Li has obviously considered this approach and understands the purpose of Pu Hongye's idea: "Even if we can be sure that Da Si Xian is behind the command to confiscate the house, it will be of no use. What we have to do is To find out the truth about the assassination, it will be difficult for us to convict Da Si Xian without ironclad evidence.”
In fact, Fu Li already understood after receiving the new investigation order from Qian Tiandun that for some objective reasons, the superiors did not want to break up with Kim Sang-hyun now, so if there is no credible evidence to prove that Kim Sang-hyun is here He is guilty of the role he played in the chaos, and it is basically impossible to bring him down.
Given Kim Sang-heon's current influence in the court, it is not an exaggeration to say that he can cover the sky with one hand. He wants to destroy the personal and material evidence that is detrimental to him, but it is much easier than Fu Li to pursue the matter.
However, the road was not completely blocked. After the autopsy the day before yesterday, Qian Tiandun mentioned to him a detail on Li Zhu's remains that might be used as an investigation clue. But before that, he still needed to find a way to verify that detail.
"Lord Park, is there any way to find out the records of the late king's daily life? The more detailed the better!"
Pu Hongye was a little surprised when he heard that Fu Li suddenly made such a request, but he still nodded and said: "The Chamber of Commerce should be able to find the relevant records, but this is a matter of royal family secrets, so we may have to ask the king for permission first. ”
"No need to ask for permission, the king has given the authority to investigate... Let's go to the Chamberlain's Mansion immediately!" Fu Li made a decisive decision.
At this time, there were fewer and fewer directions to pursue, and Fu Li didn't want to miss any more clues. If you move slowly, the other party may cut off the clues in advance. This detail he has may not be decisive in finding out the truth, but if it can be verified, more details about the assassination of the king may be known.
Hurrying to the chamberlain, Fu Li showed Li Xie's handwriting to the steward here and asked for access to relevant files. Seeing that it was the king's order, the steward didn't dare to neglect it at the moment and hurriedly followed Fu Li's request to adjust the relevant files.
"My two lords, this is the information you want." The person in charge of the Chamberlain's Mansion handed over the files they wanted to check. There were two thick stacks of books, which together were five or six feet thick. Some of the books were obviously old enough to turn yellow, and they did look like they had seen some age.
Fu Lidao: "We are here to access the files, and we must keep it secret. If the news leaks out, you can only ask. This matter involves the assassination of the late king, and anyone who obstructs the investigation will be punished by death. The steward must not know!"
The steward quickly responded: "Please rest assured, sir, I have always been strict with my words and will never mention this matter to anyone!"
After the steward exited, Pu Hongye also called his men in and asked them to surround the chamberlain first. No one was allowed to come or go at will until they completed the investigation.
"The words these eunuchs say cannot be trusted. It is better to be careful and not leave any channels for them to pass on the news to the outside world." Pu Hongye immediately explained the reason for doing this.
The chamberlains in the Joseon palace were actually eunuchs, and the same was true for these people in the chamberlain palace. Pu Hongye is a popular person under the new king and has a bright future. He naturally looks down on these servants and does not believe in the reliability and integrity of this group.
Fu Li didn't have many ideas. Haihan didn't have such a deformed existence as eunuchs, so it was difficult for him to understand and imagine the thoughts of this group. Park Hongye's approach was equivalent to adding a layer of insurance to the investigation, and Fu Li would naturally not object to this.
What Fu Li wants to check is all the records starting from the year when the late king Li Zhu was born. There is a special person in the palace who records the king's words, deeds and living conditions, and there may be details that Fu Li wants to investigate.
Of course, asking Li Zhen directly is also a way, but Li Zhen may not know this detail, and asking may mislead the conclusion of the investigation. So Fu Li decided to dig through the pile of old papers. These first-hand information should be able to reflect the objective facts.
Of course, the records about the late king's private life are non-public information. In addition, the details Fu Li wants to check are relatively secretive, and it is inconvenient to find more people to look through the information together. The two of them can only handle it in person.
"Master Fu, so what exactly are we looking for?" Before starting to flip through the pile of books, Park Hongye finally couldn't help but ask the question. Fu Li then explained to him: "When we examined the remains of the late king that day, we found that his right arm had signs of fracture and injury, and it was an old injury. Later, General Qian also asked the king about this, intentionally or unintentionally. But the king doesn’t seem to know that the late king’s right arm had suffered such an injury, so I plan to check if there is any record of the late king’s injury in the early years. If there is, I think it should be found in this daily note.”
Pu Hongye is also a man with a quick mind. After hearing this, he immediately thought of what Fu Li really wanted to confirm: "Master Fu, you mean that if there is no record of injuries, it is probably a fake remains of the late king?"
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Fu Li nodded slightly and said: "If even the remains are fake, then naturally what Da Si Xian said about what happened is also fake. It is very likely that even the assassination case has problems."
Park Hongye was shocked and began to look through these old files with Fu Li. Li Zhu was born in the 23rd year of Wanli, that is, 1595. Records have been recorded every day since his birth until the assassination. Over the past forty years, there have been about 15,000 days of records. Even if the injury status was taken into account and the last few years were excluded, it would still be a huge workload to go through these files.
This is almost the last clue that Fu Li can actively investigate at present. If the result is consistent with the objective facts, then there will be no evidence to doubt Kim Sang-hyun.
Both of them knew that the matter was of great importance, and they did not dare to slack off. They plunged into the pile of old papers and never stopped. Even if you share half of it, you still have to browse hundreds of thousands of words of content, which is really not an easy task.
The two entered the Chamberlain's Mansion in the afternoon, and it was not until the early morning of the next day that they completed sorting out the relevant files with red eyes. The result was just as Fu Li had hypothesized. In all the records, there was no record of the late King Li Zhu being seriously injured on his right arm.
The two of them didn't feel any excitement about this result. Apart from the fatigue caused by staying up late reading, more importantly, they knew what this result meant.
"Since the remains of the late king are fake, it means that someone didn't want the true cause of death of the late king to be exposed, so they found a fake corpse to pretend to be someone else."
"But Skynet is very careful and meticulous. The faker can only find a corpse with the same body shape as the late king, but they don't know that after the corpse rots, the old wounds on the body will reveal the identity."
"According to Da Si Xian, the late king was assassinated in the royal study. The fake remains did have the injuries he said, but this just proves that the real cause of the late king's death was not an assassination."
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"If it was another cause of death, it would not be difficult to disguise it as an assassination. After all, it has been buried for more than a month. After the body decomposes, there will be basically no trace of anything."
"Then there are only two possibilities. One is that the actual cause of the death of the late king was a special situation that could not even be covered up by decay. The other is that the late king was not dead at all at that time, but some people wanted to find a reason to control the government, so the imperial court appeared. The assassination in the study, and the fake remains to make it look real."
"No matter what the possibility is, Mr. Jin, who had entered the imperial study room with Cui Mingji after the incident, obviously concealed the truth from the outside world!"
Although Fu Li and Park Hongye were very tired, they still derived incredible conclusions step by step based on the information they now had. They can no longer think about it in depth, which is likely to lead to even more shocking conclusions.
Once the case has been investigated to this extent, what they can do next is beyond their authority. Even if it was confirmed that Kim Sang-hyun was a major suspect, they could not arrest him because doing so would most likely cause Seoul to fall into another chaos.
"This is really...exciting!" Park Hongye didn't know what words to use to describe his current complex mood.
Some clues that have been previously verified can confirm that Cui Mingji did play a disgraceful role after the assassination. For example, the army who obeyed his orders entered the palace and took away all the insiders. But now none of these insiders can be found. It is very difficult. Maybe he was silenced. It is precisely because of this that Kim Sang-heon's claim that Cui Mingji and the Manchu assassins cooperated inside and outside seemed quite credible.
In the story described by Kim Sang-hyun, Cui Ming-gil was the mastermind behind the scenes, planning and implementing a series of actions such as assassinating the king, destroying evidence, and seizing power. However, he himself had to endure the humiliation for a month before finally finding the opportunity to organize The great hero who counterattacked and wiped out the chaos in one fell swoop.
But the evidence now found proves that Kim Sang-hyun did not confess the truth in the part about the assassination, and the subsequent series of events are naturally unacceptable.
When the two most influential ministers in the court have evil intentions, what can the king do to change the situation? Li Zhu obviously failed to detect this crisis in time, so there was chaos that lasted for more than a month.
"This is probably the only thing we can find. If we want to continue, we have to report the results of the investigation first." Fu Li stood up slowly while holding the desk, and said with a tired look: "Let's go, go back and resume your life!"
Qian Tiandun just woke up in the morning and heard that Fu Li and Pu Hongye were waiting outside. When he came out, he saw that both of them had dark circles under their eyes. They had obviously not slept all night. He immediately ordered: "Eat breakfast first. If you need anything, we'll talk about it after dinner."
After breakfast, Qian Tiandun asked people to remove the bowls and chopsticks, and then asked them: "Did you find anything?"
Fu Li nodded and replied: "Fortunately, I did not disgrace my order. Just as the general expected, there is indeed something wrong with the remains!"
Fu Li briefly told Qian Tiandun how the two of them went to the Chamberlain's Mansion to check on the daily life all night long.
After hearing this, Qian Tiandun thought for a moment and then said to them: "This matter has too great an impact, so don't spread it to the outside world for the time being. You go back and have a rest first, catch up on your sleep, and then report to me in the afternoon. I will go with you then. Meet the king and discuss how to handle this matter."
The two of them looked at each other, knowing that Qian Tiandun would probably have to make some arrangements during this period. They wisely did not ask any more questions at the moment, and hurriedly said goodbye and left to rest.
(End of chapter)