Chapter 1224 Murong gives birth!

Huainan, Shouchun

In the Censorate, Gao Zhenji, who was promoted by Ye Mingsheng from the position of Kangyin prefect to temporarily take over the post of Huainan Censor, was pacing back and forth in the room. He looked very anxious, as if he was waiting for something...

After walking back and forth for about half an incense stick of time, Gao Zhenji could no longer sit still and ordered:

"Go ask the prisoner if he has confessed!"

"Yes!"

After a cup of tea, footsteps were heard outside the door. Hearing the footsteps, Gao Zhenji immediately looked towards the door. Under his gaze, the door was pushed open and the current Censor Wu Jia pushed the door open and walked in.

Looking at Wu Jia's solemn expression, Gao Zhenji immediately had a bad premonition in his heart, and at this moment, facing Gao Zhenji's gaze, Wu Jia shook his head helplessly.

Seeing this, Gao Zhenji was also very disappointed and preached:

"How did this happen? Didn't you tell me that you could definitely pry his mouth open?"

Feeling the anger in Gao Zhenji's words, Wu Jia also sighed and said:

"I really miscalculated. I didn't expect that this guy, who appears to be such a coward on the surface, is actually so tough!"

Gao Zhenji waved his hand and said in a deep voice:
"Since he won't talk, then increase the intensity! Use all your methods on him!"

"Don't you claim to be men of steel? Can you make him obey you?"

Facing Gao Zhenji's series of questions, Wu Jia also spoke with a guilty conscience:
“We have already made arrangements for all possible means. Now this kid is half dead. If he is tortured, I’m afraid he won’t be able to stand it…”

After hearing this, Gao Zhenji was extremely disappointed. He immediately picked up the teacup on the table and smashed it to the ground. Hearing the sound of the teacup breaking, Wu Jia lowered his head even more. At this time, Gao Zhenji sat on the chair weakly, with his eyes closed as if he wanted to get a moment of peace.

Gao Zhenji believed that he had never been a gambler, and he had never even been to a gambling house in his life!
But ten days ago, when faced with an important opportunity in his career, Gao Zhenji, after some thought, decided to gamble his future career!
When meeting Ye Mingsheng that time, Gao Zhenji understood Ye Mingsheng's hint and metaphor not to exaggerate. He also knew that if he did not make any mistakes in the next year, he would most likely be able to remove the word "temporary" from his title and become the real Huainan Censor!

However, as the investigation into Sun Xiuquan turned out to be thorough, Gao Zhenji also obtained a lot of evidence about Ma Jingui's crimes, and this discovery made Gao Zhenji hesitant!
As a new official who grew up in the Fengwu Army system, Gao Zhenji has some understanding of Ye Mingsheng's style of doing things!

Based on his understanding of Ye Mingsheng, Gao Zhenji believed that although Ye Mingsheng hinted that he should not involve Ma Jingui, this did not mean that Ye Mingsheng wanted to protect Ma Jingui. Rather, it meant that Ye Mingsheng had to consider the impact and turmoil that killing Sun Xiuquan and Ma Jingui together would cause in Huainan, so he made a delaying tactic!
The Marshal will definitely want to deal with Ma Jingui, the big parasite who sucks the blood of the people, and clear away these stumbling blocks that hinder the development of Huainan...

It’s just that the Marshal is now more conservative and has considered things more carefully. In order to prevent Ma Jingui and Sun Xiuquan from joining forces and doing something desperate, he decided to deal with Sun Xiuquan first and then Ma Jingui.

Therefore, when an opportunity to deal with Ma Jingui and Sun Xiuquan was presented to Gao Zhenji, this new official who grew up under the Fengwu Army system had to admit that he was somewhat tempted!

Gao Zhenji is currently in his early thirties, and he has already become a third-rank Censor. There is no doubt that he is a rising star in the political arena of the Great Zhou Dynasty, and his future is limitless. After a few more years of settling down and gaining experience in the position of Censor, it is not impossible for him to be transferred to the central government and become a prime minister!
However, family members know their own business. Although Gao Zhenji is not very old, his health is not very good. He often has headaches and fevers. In addition, modern medicine is not very developed, so Gao Zhenji is very worried that he will die young without fulfilling his ambitions!
In addition, although Gao Zhengji held a high position at a young age, he was not the most outstanding among his group of officials. Zhu Xiaowen, who was a few years older than him, was already the Minister of Dali Temple, and Zhang Zhiwen was also the Governor of Youyan. Even Zhao Wanxian, who became a councilor a year later than him, is now the Governor of Hebei and Henan!

So compared with others, Gao Zhenji was ahead, but compared with Zhu Xiaowen, Zhang Zhiwen, and Zhao Wanxian, he, Gao Zhenji, had fallen behind by more than one step. It could even be said that if the Marshal had not promoted him to the Huainan Censor this time, he, Gao Zhenji, would have been completely left behind as the prefect of Kangyin...

Gao Zhenji believed that he was no worse than Zhu Xiaowen, Zhang Zhiwen and Zhao Wanxian in terms of talent, family background and other aspects, and could even be said to have the upper hand!

Therefore, Gao Zhenji was unwilling to fall behind these three people in the competition in officialdom. Although he had never revealed his true thoughts in front of outsiders, Gao Zhenji was really holding his breath and wanted to prove his ability in front of Ye Mingsheng, so that the Marshal and his colleagues would look at him with admiration!
So when an opportunity to deal with Ma Jingui was presented before him, Gao Zhenji could be said to be very tempted. If he could deal with Ma Jingui beautifully, he would undoubtedly be able to show off in front of the Marshal. Not only that, when Gao Zhenji promoted reforms in Kangyin, he was also targeted by Ma Jingui because it touched upon many of Ma Jingui's interests!

If Zhao Wentao, a captain of the Coordination Office, had not come to the rescue at that time, the situation might have caused a civil unrest. If it caused irreversible consequences, it would become an indelible stain on Gao Zhenji's career, and even completely ruin his career!

Therefore, Gao Zhenji also hated Ma Jingui in his heart, and thought that if he had the chance in the future, he would return double the money to make Ma Jingui pay the price!
Therefore, on the whole, Gao Zhenji dealt with Ma Jingui to avenge his personal vengeance on the one hand, and on the other hand, he also had such political needs!
If Ye Mingsheng hadn't hinted, Gao Zhenji would have dealt with Ma Jingui and his followers without hesitation, but unfortunately, there is no if in reality.

Although Ye Mingsheng did not directly order Gao Zhenji to let Ma Jingui go for the time being, Gao Zhenji also knew that if he dealt with Ma Jingui now, it would be contrary to Ye Mingsheng's orders. Therefore, even if he completed this vote very beautifully, Ye Mingsheng might not appreciate his actions, and it might even have some opposite effects! Because of this, although Gao Zhenji had evidence of Ma Jingui's guilt, he was hesitant and looked back, and it was at this juncture that Ma Jingui found Gao Zhenji.

Ma Jingui told Gao Zhengji that he knew Gao Zhengji was investigating him, so he wanted Gao Zhengji to immediately stop the investigation against him and release all the people related to him, and the evidence of his crimes found by the Censorate must also be destroyed immediately. If Gao Zhengji did not agree, he would make Gao Zhengji disgraced and suffer the consequences!
Ma Jingui warned Gao Zhenji that a strong dragon cannot defeat a local snake, and that he had been lucky once in Kangyin, and he would not be lucky the second time!
Ma Jingui's arrogant attitude also made Gao Zhenji very angry, so Gao Zhenji flatly rejected his request. He knew very well that Ye Mingsheng would take action against Ma Jingui sooner or later, so if he made peace with Ma Jingui now, then when Ma Jingui got into trouble, it would be a huge stain on him!

After being rejected by Gao Zhenji again, Ma Jingui also left some harsh words. Because of the previous experience in the Kangyin struggle, Gao Zhenji knew that Ma Jingui would definitely take action, so there were only two paths left in front of him!
The first way is to passively accept the attack!

The second way is to take the initiative and strike first...
Gao Zhenji had already experienced Ma Jingui's methods in Kangyin, so he was very wary of him. He absolutely did not want to passively accept the attack and put himself in a very passive situation, so the only way left for him was to take the initiative and strike first!

Even though he knew that this would go against Ye Mingsheng's orders, Gao Zhenji had no other choice under the threat of Ma Jingui, so he asked Wu Jia to conduct an in-depth investigation based on the existing evidence and arrest Ma Jingui's followers!
The conflict between Gao Zhenji and Ma Jingui thus came to the fore. If Ma Jingui could still use his advantage as a local boss to stir up trouble underwater, it would make Gao Zhenji very embarrassed!
Then as the conflict between the two became public, Gao Zhenji, who had subdued Wu Jia and controlled the Anchasi system, gradually gained the upper hand in the struggle. He arrested many of Ma Jingui's followers and dug up many old accounts!

Originally, everything was going smoothly, but Ma Jingui's legal advisor Zhao Teng was unwilling to identify Ma Jingui. He insisted that Ma Jingui was not aware of the crimes committed by the Ma family, and that the Ma family had done them without Ma Jingui's knowledge. Ma Jingui was innocent!
Although everyone knew that this was impossible, Zhao Teng insisted that Ma Jingui had nothing to do with the matter. No matter how severely the Censor tortured him, he just kept this excuse and refused to sign!
And this also made the matter change. Gao Zhenji knew that the Marshal did not want to punish Ma Jingui now, so the Marshal promoted Ma Jingui to temporarily serve as the governor...

In a sense, what he is doing now with Ma Jingui is to prove that Ye Mingsheng's move to promote Ma Jingui was wrong and is smearing Ye Mingsheng's wise and brave image!

This is also what Gao Zhenji is most worried about now. As a rising star who grew up under the Fengwu Army system, he can be said to have grown up under the promotion of Ye Mingsheng all the way. Therefore, he is also grateful and loyal to Ye Mingsheng!
But Gao Zhenji knew very well that if he failed to kill the tiger, he would suffer the chaos from it. If he could not beat Ma Jingui to death this time and make Ma Jingui unable to make a comeback, then he would be in great danger!

Just as Gao Zhenji was pondering what to do next, Wu Jia at the side hesitated and said:
"Master Gao, although Zhao Teng is unwilling to identify Ma Jingui, with the evidence we have now, we can already accuse Ma Jingui. And if we really want Zhao Teng's identification, it is actually very simple!"

After listening to Wu Jia's last meaningful words, Gao Zhenji also understood his thoughts. He immediately said to Wu Jia in a deep voice:

"Don't torture Zhao Teng anymore! You must make sure he's alive. He can't die now!"

Wu Jia asked with some doubt:
"Master Gao, why are you doing this?"

Gao Zhenji said coldly:

"If Zhao Teng dies, Ma Jingui will turn against us and frame us. That would be more trouble than gain!"

"I'm going to Jiangnan in person to meet the Marshal and explain. Wu Jia, you keep an eye on Ma Jingui during this time..."

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June, 21st, Yin hour
Yijing, Ye Mansion,
An Miaoyi, who was sleeping in bed, heard someone calling her in her ear and immediately opened her eyes with some unhappiness. She found an opportunity to talk to Gu Sansi about Jingren's education yesterday afternoon, but unfortunately, the child's mother and the child's teacher did not reach any consensus on the child's education.

It can even be said that An Miaoyi was very dissatisfied and disgusted with Gu Sansi's attitude and tendency. An Miaoyi even thought that Gu Sansi, as a minister, did not show enough respect to her, the mistress of the Fengwu Army!
Her anger towards Gu Sansi also affected An Miaoyi's sleep. She tossed and turned for several hours before she could barely fall asleep tonight. Therefore, even though it was Qiqige, who was as close to her as a sister, who woke her up, An Miaoyi was still a little angry.

Under An Miaoyi's unhappy gaze, Qi Qige also spoke in a low voice:

"Madam, Murong Qingwu has given birth!"

As soon as these words came out, An Miaoyi lost all her sleepiness and woke up immediately. After a moment of hesitation, she asked:
"How is she doing?"

"It's said that it went smoothly, and the baby is in the right position!"

An Miaoyi's expression changed slightly when she heard the news. Qiqige noticed this and a hint of ruthlessness flashed in her eyes as she whispered:

"Madam, would you like to take this opportunity to settle this matter once and for all?"

Faced with Qiqige's proposal, An Miaoyi did not reject it immediately. After a few seconds of silence, she said quietly:

“Don’t do anything! Let God decide whether she lives or dies…”

(End of this chapter)