Take control of Wei Zhongxian at the start and confiscate 100 million from him!

Chapter 56 My rules are rules
The emperor's voice was not loud, but every word was like thunder, resounding loudly in the spacious hall that symbolized civil administration!

The sound made Wang Ji and the others' ears ring, and their hearts churned!

They never imagined that someone would use such a blatant method to tear apart, crush, and trample the veil of benevolence and morality that covered the law!

"Therefore, I need a new law."

Zhu Youjian straightened up and slowly walked back to his desk.

His gaze returned to its deep and calm state, as if his previous thunderous rage had been nothing but an illusion.

"I need a knife sharp enough, a knife that can cut through all this rotten flesh and bone, a knife that obeys only my command."

Zhu Youjian paused, his gaze sharp as he swept over the pale and shocked faces of the prince.

"After looking at you two, I think you are a good match."

“You are talented, well-versed in the law, and know how to make evidence irrefutable.”

“You have been oppressed for many years, and you harbor resentment and hatred in your hearts. You yearn for revenge and want to personally send those who trampled on you to the guillotine.”

“You do not belong to the Donglin Party, the eunuch faction, the Chu Party, or any other party. You are loyal subjects, useless sons, and clean.”

"the most important is……"

The emperor leaned forward slightly and said, word by word, in an almost seductive voice, "You are all people who have been abandoned by the old rules, which is why you are not bound by them."

Wang Ji suddenly raised his head, his eyes filled with disbelief.

He finally understood.

The emperor retrieved these long-forgotten, useless sons from the dustbin of history, not out of pity or charity.

Instead, he wanted to forge them into a knife that belonged only to him!

A knife specifically designed to kill!

“Your Majesty…” Wang Ji’s throat was so dry it felt like it was about to burst into flames. He wanted to say something, but found that he couldn’t utter a single word.

"I have decided to establish a government office."

The emperor ignored him and continued speaking as if announcing an unquestionable result.

“Let’s call it ‘Imperial Inquiry Office’.”

"This office is not under the jurisdiction of the Grand Secretariat, nor under the supervision of the Directorate of Ceremonial, nor under the jurisdiction of the Three Judicial Offices. It is only responsible to me, and its location is in the Western Garden."

"I will hand over all the criminals, confessions, account books, and evidence of crimes seized in this operation to you."

"I grant you the power to interrogate any prisoner, whether he is a high-ranking official like Zhou Yanru, a wealthy merchant, or a commoner."

"I grant you the right to access any relevant files in the Cabinet, the Six Ministries, and even the Imperial Archives."

"I hereby grant you the authority to mobilize the Western Depot's elite guards and the Embroidered Uniform Guard to assist you in arresting people and investigating cases!"

With each word the emperor spoke, Wang Ji and the others felt their hearts sink a little deeper, while at the same time, a burning yet unfamiliar feeling rose from the depths of their hearts.

This is no longer about power.

This is the power of life and death!
It was an unparalleled power that could make the entire Ming Dynasty officialdom tremble!
"I have only one request for you."

The emperor looked at them, his eyes becoming sharper than ever before, like two drawn swords.

"Make sure that every case I assign to you from now on is an ironclad case!"

"Verify every single piece of evidence for me, clearly and thoroughly! Witness testimony, physical evidence, and circumstantial evidence—not a single one can be missing!"

"I will silence everyone in the world! I will shut up those so-called upright officials kneeling outside the Meridian Gate! I will make them watch with their own eyes how those gentlemen they uphold will be nailed to the pillar of historical shame by the laws of the land they believe in!"

He paused at this point.

You could hear a pin drop in the entire hall.

Zhu Youjian looked at Wang Ji, at his face, which was slightly distorted by extreme shock and fear, and a hint of barely suppressed excitement.

He slowly uttered the words that brought today's audience to a close.

That sentence was spoken very softly and lightly.

It was heavier than a thunderbolt! "I grant you power."

Zhu Youjian paused, a cold smile curling at the corner of his lips.

"You, give me the truth."

"The truth, my lord!"

……

The night is as black as ink.

The Imperial Inquiry Office, a temporary government office set up for the "Shanxi Merchants Case," is the thickest point in this huge inkstone.

It was originally the private residence of a disgraced eunuch from the previous dynasty. It was not large and had a gloomy, old atmosphere. Several old locust trees in the courtyard stretched out their gnarled branches on windless nights, like ghostly hands reaching towards the sky.

At this moment, the main hall of the house was brightly lit.

It's less about clarity and more about struggle.

A dozen or so thick tallow candles were placed in various corners, but the flames did not flicker; they simply burned stubbornly, fixing the light firmly within a foot of their own perimeter, beyond which lay an even deeper darkness.

The boundary between light and shadow is sharply defined here, like the Chu River and Han border, clearly distinct and imposing.

A complex and unpleasant smell filled the air.

The greasy smell of burning butter, the musty smell of damp old paper, the sour smell of sweat rising from people's bodies, and the slightly acrid smell of ink left after it has been quickly ground and dried.

All the smells mingled together, making the air in the room feel like solidified gel, requiring each breath to fall heavily into the lungs.

Wang Ji sat in the middle of this frozen air.

On the long table in front of him lay a mountain of files, and his eyes were bloodshot, like a spider web spreading from the corners of his eyes to the edges of his pupils, making his normally sharp eyes appear somewhat turbid and crazed.

Wang Ji had lost count of how many nights this was.

Three days? Four days?
Time loses its meaning here; only the burning and replacement of candles remind them that life is still passing.

His colleagues, those "borrowed" from various corners of the Ministry of Justice, the Court of Judicial Review, and the Censorate, who had been sitting on the sidelines in their respective offices for many years, were in no different state from him at this moment.

They are all forgotten people.

Wang Ji's thoughts drifted; the mountain of evidence before him seemed to transform into a series of mocking faces.

He recalled how, over the years, his daily work consisted of sorting through countless old files and categorizing the cases of criminals who had turned to dust.

His life, like those files, was stamped with an archiving seal and sealed away in a dark warehouse, never to see the light of day.

To be humble and subservient, to be inferior to others.

These eight words are an accurate reflection of their lives over the past ten or twenty years.

They had seen too many younger generations riding high on their success, enjoying the sights of Chang'an in a single day.

They can only stay in the corner, using humble smiles and modest postures to earn a little space to survive and avoid being bullied.

They've had enough!
When the young emperor handed this crucial case to them, everyone knew it was their last chance in their lives.

It wasn't for the sake of making a name for oneself in history, or even for the sake of clearing one's name. The initial motivation was simply for one's own future, for the sake of being able to live with one's head held high like a human being!

However, everything changed when evidence from the capital, Datong, Xuanfu, and even the Jurchen camps outside the Great Wall flooded into this small house.

Wang Ji picked up a confession from the side of his hand. It was signed by an inconspicuous little merchant in Guihua City. The merchant was illiterate, and his fingerprint was so dark and heavy that it almost soaked through the thin straw paper.

The confession was written by someone else; the handwriting was crooked and messy, yet it recorded the most shocking facts.

"...Every year at the end of winter, the Fan family caravan would depart from the north gate of Datong, exchanging 100 shi of refined iron and 500 shi of top-quality Sichuan salt for pearls and ginseng from the Jurchens. The carts they used had ruts four inches deep and required twenty strong mules to pull them. Wherever they went, the border troops not only did not inspect them, but they were also escorted by scouts, and their journey was unimpeded..."

Wang Ji's fingers traced the four characters "Border Army Escort," and a cool sensation came from his fingertips.

He could almost see the Ming Dynasty's border troops, those soldiers who should have formed a defensive line with their flesh and blood, escorting cartloads of fine iron—enough to forge thousands of steel swords—into the enemy's armory, just like servants in the biting cold wind.

Their enemies used these irons to forge sharp weapons, and then turned around to cut off the heads of their comrades!

The rising sun!
(End of this chapter)