Chapter 178 Cabinet Changes

Time passed in the blink of an eye, and it was the fourth day of the first lunar month.

The death of the Shangshu seemed to have ended in vain. The investigation in Zhaoyu lasted less than two days, and Lu Wenyu also investigated for four days. But the result was the same, nothing was found.

In a restaurant not far from Zhaoyu, Zhao Jue and Lu Wenyu, who had stayed up all night, each received the same news: everything was normal, nothing was wrong!

Looking at Zhao Jue who was frequently dozing off, Lu Wenyu pushed a cup of hot tea over to him, "It's past half past the Mao hour, and there's still nothing to find out. Man proposes, God disposes. I think we shouldn't wait any longer, just cut the Gordian knot, the emperor has me..."

"Hmm" Zhao Jue replied weakly, and then watched Lu Wenyu go downstairs, his figure gradually disappeared in the morning light.

To be honest, Zhao Jue didn't want to investigate these troublesome things at all, he just had to get the job done, why was he so serious? Why bother with a few taels of silver a month?

He was happy about the assassination he encountered on New Year's Eve! Zhao Jue had always had a hunch that the Shangshu's death was closely related to the person who assassinated him. If he didn't find out who was behind it and why, he might never have a peaceful life.

"Maybe the assassination that night was just a delay..."

As if he had thought of something, Zhao Jue held his chin and murmured. This was the result of his calculation based on his own experience. If he were to do it himself, the biggest chance would be on New Year's Eve.

But there was a grandmaster in Zhaoyu. It would be difficult to kill someone without the grandmaster's knowledge! At least Zhao Jue asked himself if he didn't have this ability.

"So you carefully designed a poisoning?"

He took a sip of hot tea to wake up and sorted out the thoughts in his mind in detail. Although he couldn't figure out the process no matter how hard he thought about it, the time was almost right, it should be the night he was assassinated.

After drinking a cup of tea, it was already half light. He simply stopped thinking about these messy things. Anyway, there was no difference between poisoning and beheading, it was nothing more than death. As long as Lu Wenyu was willing to conceal it, everything would be fine.

He got up and walked downstairs to the Zhaoyu duty room. Inside, the burly executioner and Yu Jielin, who had just woken up and was rubbing his sleepy eyes, were waiting.

"Sir Zhao, this is the executioner Kong Ba, who is in charge of beheading the Shangshu today." Yu Jielin introduced Zhao Jue with a smile when he saw him walk in. It can be seen that the two are old acquaintances.

Kong Ba immediately stood up and saluted, "Sir Zhao, I am Kong Ba. I wonder what your instructions are."

It was not until he walked to the table and sat down that Zhao Jue asked Yu Jielin, "Have you explained everything clearly?"

"I have said it, Kong Ba is willing to cooperate."

"Don't worry, sir, I have a sharp knife, I promise you can't see it!" Kong Ba patted his chest, quite confident.

Zhao Jue was not polite either, he took out fifty taels of silver and put it on the table, and said with a smile, "Then I'll trouble Master Kong. The silver is not much, take it and drink."

"Thank you for the reward!"

......

Just like the last time, the execution ground was built at the corner of the street. After the Jinyiwei verified their identities, they escorted the six people to the platform.

But there were especially many people who came today, not only because they hated evil, but also because many people came for Kong Ba's unique skills.

It is said that the executioner Kong Ba's knife fell very quickly, and you could not see the head fall to the ground or the blood splashing after he chopped it off. At the end, when the neck was wrapped with white cloth, you could see the blood slowly dyeing the white cloth red, which was very magical.

Some people gave Kong Ba's unique skill a literary name, called Zhu Ran Ya. It has a bit of romantic atmosphere.

"Hey, why are you here? Didn't you say you couldn't stand seeing blood splatter?"

"Splash? Haven't you heard of Zhu Ransha? Today, the Shangshu will be executed, and the one holding the knife is Master Kong Ba!"

"Master Kong Ba! Didn't you say Master Kong Ba stopped using the knife?"

"Master Kong Ba heard that the Shangshu had embezzled hundreds of thousands of taels of people's money, so he took the precious sword to the Jinyiwei and begged for seven days before he got this opportunity."

"Master Ba is really..."

"The Shangshu got a bargain!"

The crowd was noisy under the execution platform. Kong Ba walked forward with a big knife with an expressionless face and stood behind the pale Shangshu. The crowd immediately burst into cheers.

After Kong Ba saluted the crowd with the knife, he stared at the precious sword in his hand with an expressionless face.

Soon, Zheng Rongqing, who was in charge of supervising the execution, gave an impassioned speech, and waved his hand, "In accordance with the emperor's order, the execution will begin!"

Soon, several executioners' swords fell, and only Kong Ba quickly wrapped the Shangshu's neck with the white cloth around his waist. As expected, in the blink of an eye, the white cloth was gradually dyed red, and the crowd was noisy and cheering again.

"Red-dyed yarn! It's real!"

"There is such a unique skill in the world!"

"It's eye-opening! It's eye-opening!"

After scanning the crowd that kept shouting, Kong Ba held the blood-stained knife and stood straight. Although he knew what was going on, it didn't affect his pretense at all.

Seeing that the execution was successfully completed, Lu Wenyu and Zhao Jue in the distant restaurant breathed a sigh of relief at the same time. It's good to be able to deceive without any mistakes!

The two smiled at each other, each picked up a glass and drank it all. There was an indescribable ease on their faces, and even the sleepiness after staying up all night subsided a lot.

"Muzhi, take a good rest in the next ten days and prepare more for leaving the capital. The heavy burden is on you!" Patting Zhao Jue's shoulder, Lu Wenyu said with a smile.

Zhao just shook his head and smiled tiredly, "You definitely need to rest. You've been working non-stop these past few days, and your back and waist are sore. It's really not easy."

"Hahaha, it's hard for you. You'll be tired even if you leave the capital."

"That's right, making money is tiring."

"Okay, I won't disturb your rest, stay."

Lu Wenyu stood up and walked downstairs. After walking a few steps, he seemed to suddenly remember something and turned around to remind him, "The emperor said that Jiang Fengji is a veteran minister of three dynasties and has made great contributions. If you have any problems involving Jiang Fengji after you leave Beijing, you will be treated leniently."

"Ah?" Zhao didn't understand what he meant. What does lenient mean? Ignore or make a big deal out of it?

"The emperor means that if you can avoid involving Jiang Fengji, don't involve him. If you can't avoid it, just kill a few insignificant people and get it over with." Lu Wenyu explained in a deep voice with his hands behind his back.

Zhao nodded, then threw the pot back, "If it involves Jiang Fengji, I will definitely write a letter. What do you say? What should I do!"

"Hey, that's right, this is to care about the world!"

Time passed in a blink of an eye. The New Year's atmosphere seemed to be much lighter after the fifteenth day, and even the places with bright lights at night were much less.

In the cabinet duty room, five cabinet members sat idly waiting for Jiang Fengji. Today is the first day of work after the New Year, so of course they can't be late.

As for the Prime Minister Jiang, it's normal for him to be late because he's old and has difficulty walking. No one can understand.

But he didn't expect that Jiang didn't come, but Feng Gong, who was holding the imperial edict, came instead.

Feng Gong, who walked into the door, didn't want to waste time, "Several ministers, please accept the edict."

"Eunuch Feng, Jiang Gong hasn't arrived yet, do you want to wait for Jiang Gong?" Li Shou, who was closest to Feng Gong, reminded softly.

"Li Gong, Jiang Gong has retired and returned home. Li Gong should visit our family more often in the future. One of us belongs to the cabinet and the other belongs to the Imperial Household Department. We must be close and loyal to the emperor."

Listening to Feng Gong's words, Li Xun was a little confused. What is going on? He is a cabinet member who has just entered the cabinet, and it's not his turn to visit!

Although Yang Ming's face was expressionless, his eyes were already smiling, and he stared at Xu Zhifu, who had a dark face.

"The cabinet received the order! By the will of heaven... The position of the prime minister is related to the foundation of the country, and requires wisdom and intelligence... Promote cabinet member Li Shou to be the prime minister of the cabinet..."

Yang Ming, Xu Zhifu and Li Shou stared with their eyes wide open, and they couldn't believe the content of the imperial edict. It was not until Eunuch Feng said "Lord Li, congratulations from our family" that they came back to their senses.

Li Shou took the imperial edict tremblingly, and Eunuch Feng nodded and left the duty room.

The remaining five people looked at each other in bewilderment. The cabinet was about to change...

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