Today, the emperor's inspection of the factory has been circulating in Xianyang City.

Some insider information about the fires on the construction site were quickly spread. The son of Shang Tu, the son of the left middle school of Jiangzuo Shaofu, secretly instructed people to set fire on the construction site, and it was soon well known among all officials. The result was that some people were terrified, some were watching coldly, some were gritting their teeth, and some were gloating.

Everyone could almost see one result, that is, Zuozhong Hou Shangtu was about to be finished, and when he was finished, he would pull out the radish and bring out the mud, and a large group of officials would definitely be unlucky.

Because at this time, Yin Wu of the Tingwei Mansion had issued countless orders in the government office. As these orders were transmitted, groups of soldiers from the Tingwei Mansion began to search the whole city with weapons. Whether it was kings, princes, nobles, wealthy merchants, or ordinary people, as long as the involved people were arrested, according to the news from well-informed people, there were already six or seven officials arrested and taken down from the Tingwei Prison. With the interrogation and explanation of the arrested personnel, more people might be involved, and for a moment, the entire Xianyang was panicked.

When Chen Xu returned to the Qinghe Marquis Mansion, Huangfu Que, the manager who had already been waiting at the gate of the Marquis Mansion, and Sun Shujiong, the financial manager, quickly came to meet him together.

"It's good that the Marquis will return safely. I heard that a fire broke out in the factory. We have been waiting for half a day!" The two of them bowed with surprise and greeted each other.

"Your Majesty and I are heading in the same car, I'm very scared! Go in and cook the fire quickly, you're going to freeze to death!" Chen Xu stomped his feet for a few times after getting off the car, then rubbed his hands and walked towards the living room.

"Hurry up, prepare to wash the hot water Marquis!" The butler watched Chen Xu return and quickly arranged for a few maids to pour hot water and get linen.

After Chen Xu entered the door, he washed his face and then sat on the kang. The two little maids brought a basin of hot water, helped him take off his shoes and put his cold feet into the basin to soak them. Two pairs of gentle little hands grabbed one of his feet and washed them gently. There were also a few little maids who brought hot tea, some brought snacks, and some knelt on the kang to help him knock on his back with soft shoulders.

Chen Xu drank the fragrant hot tea, ate the snacks brought into his mouth by the little maid, felt the knocking of his little hands and the gentle kneading of his feet, and couldn't help but close his eyes and let out a long breath, "Comfortable~~"

Yu Wuya, who was sitting next to him drinking tea, looked at Chen Xu's comfortable and unrestrained look, and couldn't help but curl his lips and said, "My benefactor, you are depraved!"

"It is my body, not my heart! When singing with wine, how much life is, like morning dew, the past is full of suffering, born from suffering, and died from happiness!" Chen Xu closed his eyes and said a few words of flattery.

"What is life like when it comes to wine and singing? Good poems!" Yu Wuya recalled it, his eyes were a little shiny, but his face looked at Chen Xu with a strange look and said, "This poem was not written by Mencius, how could it be brought together?"

"These two sentences were written by a man named Cao Cao. By the way, why has Ma Teng not been moving these two days? Arranged someone to secretly find him!" Chen Xu suddenly remembered that he would go to court tomorrow to solve Ao Ping and Shang Tu, and Ma Teng was still the most important witness to stain.

"Mr. Marquis~ The beggar who came two times ago is here again!"

Just as Chen Xu was talking, Huangfu Que, the manager, hurriedly ran in.

"Say Cao Cao, Cao Cao, bring him in! You all go down!" Chen Xu opened his eyes, all the little maids who served him bowed and then withdrew. After a while, Huangfu Que brought Ma Teng, who was still wearing beggar's clothes, in.

"Please sit down by Mr. Ma!" Chen Xu pointed at the chair casually.

"The Marquis is not good. The soldiers from the Tingwei Mansion just broke into my house to arrest me!" Ma Teng said anxiously after sitting down.

"It's okay, you'll stay in my mansion today and go to court with me tomorrow. At that time, tell me everything you know as I arranged last time, but remember not to say anything!" Chen Xu waved his hand.

"Don't worry, Master!" Looking at Chen Xu's relaxed expression, Ma Teng's panicked heart slowly calmed down.

Next, Chen Xu asked in detail about the news that Ma Teng had found in the past few days, and asked the butler in the mansion to take Ma Teng to wash and change into clean clothes.

The next morning, Chen Xu took Ma Teng to court after breakfast.

The sky was covered with clouds, and the whistling cold wind blew on my face like an ice skate. It seemed that another heavy snow was about to fall at any time.

"Damn, why is Xianyang full of this kind of ghost weather?"

Chen Xu curled up speechlessly and sat on the carriage. Even though the carriage was covered with thick curtains, he still felt the biting cold wind.

"Mr. Marquis, Xianyang is pretty good. I originally wanted to ask someone to go to Yanmen County to find out about my uncle's situation, but I heard that it had already been snowy and blocked the roads and could not pass through, and even merchants cut off contact!" Ma Teng sat next to him and said carefully.

"Well, don't be nervous soon. Speak everything you hear from Shang Qi later. Follow me from now on. I promise Zhao Gao won't dare to touch you again!" Chen Xu couldn't help but remind him again.

"Thank you, Marquis!" Ma Teng's eyes were red with excitement.

When they came to the square outside the court hall, all the civil and military officials who attended the court had arrived one after another.

However, the atmosphere today is a bit heavy, and everyone seems to have their own thoughts. After seeing Chen Xu, many people greeted each other with a smile, and many people avoided Chen Xu and did not dare to look up, and placed Ma Teng outside the court to wait. Chen Xu and a group of ministers walked into the hall and waited quietly.

Chen Shi Huang came, and as the envoy shouted, Qin Shihuang walked out of the back hall in a group of guards and palace servants, put his big sleeves on the dragon throne, and sat on the dragon throne after all the civil and military officials saluted and greeted him. Then he said with a serious expression: "Where is the Tingwei?"

"I'm here?" Tingwei Yinwu stood up with a tablet in his hand.

“How is the review of yesterday?”

"Return to Your Majesty, according to Shang Qi's confession, yesterday, the ministers arrested a total of 23 people, including eight officials, seven officials, and three officials, all of whom were children of ministers. The reason was found out after the interrogation overnight. Shang Qi was secretly replaced by the Iron Furniture of the Academy of Sciences. Six people participated. The arson instructor was also Shang Qi, but Shang Qi bluntly stated that he accepted a person named Ma Teng's bribe of tens of thousands of dollars and secretly destroyed the arrangement of the Qinghe Hou!" Yin Wu replied.

"Ma Teng? Who?" Qin Shihuang showed a look of confusion on his face.

"Your Majesty, Ma Teng is the young man who had a conflict with Qinghe Hou a few days ago. He is the eldest grandson of the former Taifu Ma Teng and the nephew of Ma Boyuan, the former governor of Nanyang County!" Jiang Heng, who was standing next to him, whispered.

"So quickly arrest the horse and go to the palace, I will interrogate it myself!"

"Your Majesty, yesterday I arranged for the imperial guards to search the Ma Mansion, but did not find Ma Teng. I guess he had already hidden and fled and might be no longer in Xianyang City!" Yin Wu said quickly.

"It's outrageous. I'll quickly arrange the imperial guards to arrest him..." Qin Shihuang stood up in anger.

"His Majesty, I have brought it with you!" Chen Xu stood up and bowed.

"Ah!?" A sound of surprise sounded from the quiet hall. Even Qin Shihuang, who was angry, turned his head to look at Chen Xu, and his angry face slowly turned into a kind of confusion.

"Your Majesty, Ma Teng was originally a chess piece specially arranged by me. He secretly interacted with Shang Qi and others to find out the collapse of the iron furnace. Late yesterday, Ma Teng joined our mansion and told me about the inquiry. The matter of Shang Qi's several instructing people to destroy the factory was not that simple, but there were conspirators and instructors behind the scenes. As for whom, he is now in the court, with a high position and a heavy weight. Your Majesty will call him in and ask him!" Chen Xu said.

"What?" There was a burst of exclamation and an uproar on the hall. Some people looked frightened and pale, some people were serious and silent, and many ministers whispered, and then almost everyone's eyes slowly fell on Zuozhong Hou Shangtu.

"Your Majesty, don't listen to anyone's false accusation. My son Shang Qi..." Shang Tu walked out with a pale face and shouted.

"Stop!" Qin Shihuang looked like Hanbing, staring at Shang Tu and said word by word: "I am not a foolish person. If you are falsely accused, you will know that you are so frightened. Could it be that the envoy behind the scenes is you!"

"Puu~" Shang Tu trembled all over and fell to his knees. Although the weather was cold, cold sweat on his forehead had already rolled down.

"Bring Ma Teng into the hall!" Qin Shihuang waved his sleeves and sat down again.

"Take Ma Teng into the hall~" With Jiang Heng shouting, soon, under the leadership of the two envoys, Ma Teng, who had a little purple face, followed in tremblingly, but he still knelt down and kowtowed as Chen Xu's instructions, "Master Ma Teng pays homage to Your Majesty!"

"Ma Teng, Shang Qiyan, you bribe him with money and have someone exchange the drawings of the iron smelting furnace and arson to disrupt the factory. Is this a matter?" Qin Shihuang asked sternly.

"Your Majesty, Caomin did not bribe Shang Qi. He just spent money to invite Shang Qi to eat, drink and play in order to inquire about Shang Qi's replacement of the factory's iron smelting furnace drawings. After Shang Qi got drunk, he said that as long as I help destroy the Academy of Sciences, they could find a way to avenge me for being beaten by the Hou of Qinghe in Liuxiangyuan. He also said... and said..."

"What else did he say?" Qin Shihuang's face turned pale.

"He also said that as long as this matter is successful, Lord Ao, the Order of the Jiangzuo Shaofu, will arrange an official position for me in the future and transfer me to the Jiangzuo Shaofu as an official!"

“Wow…”

There was a sudden noise in the court, and everyone's eyes enveloped Ao Ping, the marshal's mansion.

Ao Ping suddenly felt like a ray of light on his back, and he stood up without any time to think about it and said, "Your Majesty, don't listen to Ma Teng's nonsense. Ma Teng and the Hou Qinghe, had an old grudge. On that day, he was humiliated and beaten by the Hou Qinghe in public at Liuxiang Garden. Hundreds of people saw it with their own eyes. Shang Qi and Ma Teng met since childhood, so it was reasonable to be deceived by Ma Teng to seek revenge. I heard that Ma Teng spent tens of thousands of dollars to invite the children of the ministers to eat, drink and have fun in the past few days, and insulted the Hou Qinghe everywhere in an attempt to seek revenge..."

“Wow~”

It would be fine if Ao Ping didn't come forward to explain, but this explanation was like a 300 taels of silver. He suddenly exposed himself in public.

Ao Ping immediately woke up halfway through his speech, but it was too late.

Sure enough, Qin Shihuang's cold eyes slowly looked Ao Ping: "Ao Ping, you are in the position of the Nine Ministers, why are you so clear about the whereabouts of an unknown junior?"

"I...I..." Ao Ping's forehead was sweating rolling, but he was still self-reliant and calm and bowed, "I only paid attention to it when I heard that the iron furnace collapsed in the factory. After all, all the craftsmen who built the iron furnace were appointed by my craftsman's Shaofu."

Chen Xu walked to the center of the hall with a calm expression, looked at Ao Ping and said lightly: "I have strictly ordered the news of the collapse of the iron furnace on the construction site. Even His Majesty doesn't know about this. I would like to ask Lord Ao, how did you know about it?"

"Yes, we don't know about the collapse of the iron furnace!"

"Yes, dozens of people were killed or injured, and even His Majesty didn't know. I don't know how the Ao Mansion Order knew?"

"That's it!"

Countless ministers in the court began to whisper, and even Li Si and Feng Quji looked at each other and looked at each other, they looked solemn. Chen Xu blocked this matter very closely, and as the left and right ministers of the Qin Dynasty, he did not hear any news. It can be seen that Ao Ping's forced explanation is even more suspicious.
Chapter completed!