With a “thud,” a small object fell from the black-clad man onto the ground.
I didn’t pursue him. I was still wary of the Eastern Depot.
What kind of place is the Eastern Depot? It was a privileged supervisory institution, a secret service, and a secret police agency during the Ming Dynasty. It was only responsible to the emperor and could arbitrarily supervise and arrest subjects without the approval of judicial organs.
I picked up the small object from the ground. It turned out to be a wooden tag, more precisely, the kind of waist tag used by the Embroidered Uniform Guard.
On the front of the tag were the words “Lieutenant” and “Those on night duty should wear this tag; it is not needed when exiting the four gates of the Imperial City.” The back was plain and without any markings.
The Embroidered Uniform Guard were the emperor’s personal guards and honor guard. They were also engaged in reconnaissance, arrest, and interrogation activities.
The waist tags used by Embroidered Uniform Guards of different ranks varied greatly.
The Embroidered Uniform Guards of the rank of commander, warden, and centurion used gold, silver, and copper waist tags respectively, and only the lowest-ranking strongmen and lieutenants used wooden waist tags.
During the morning court session today, I reported what happened last night to Emperor Zhu Youxiao and handed over the stone figure and the Embroidered Uniform Guard’s waist tag to the civil and military officials for circulation.
“This stone figure is a token of Xu Hongru,” said one minister.
When the stone figure and the Embroidered Uniform Guard’s waist tag were passed to Li Jinzhong (Wei Zhongxian), he was also taken aback.
“How could the token of Xu Hongru, the White Lotus rebel, be in the hands of the Embroidered Uniform Guard?” Zhu Youxiao immediately ordered a thorough investigation.
“Your Majesty, I believe that since this case involves the Embroidered Uniform Guard, it should also be jointly investigated by the Northern Garrison Command, the Court of Revision, and the Duke Who Pacifies the Nation,” one minister advised.
Zhu Youxiao thought it made sense, so he ordered me, the Northern Garrison Command, and the Court of Revision to jointly investigate the case.
The case was solved very smoothly. Our reasoning was simple: whichever Embroidered Uniform Guard lost his waist tag was the biggest suspect.
We quickly found the Embroidered Uniform Guard who had lost his waist tag. He confessed that he was an undercover agent of the White Lotus sect.
He said that Xu Hongru wanted to use this riot to win over and instigate a group of ministers in the court, and I was also one of the targets they wanted to win over and instigate.
Recently, I had nothing to do, and I have been very interested in criminal investigation since I was a child. After discussing it with Old Lin, Old Zhang and Wen Rourou, I told Zhu Youxiao that I wanted to join the Northern Garrison Command and participate in criminal investigation.
Zhu Youxiao was very happy to hear this. He said that what the Great Ming lacked now was criminal investigation talent.
After I joined the Northern Garrison Command, a new garrison was established. I was responsible for managing this garrison, and the personnel consisted of Old Lin, Old Zhang and Wen Rourou. We could arrest, interrogate, execute, and execute on our own without the approval of general judicial authorities.
Later, after solving a case, we realized that the “Embroidered Uniform Guard Internal Ghost Case” we had handled last time was too hasty, and the logic of solving the case was too simple, allowing the real mastermind behind the scenes to escape justice.
The Ming Dynasty produced many detectives, including Zhu Han in the Chenghua period, Yin Yunji in the Zhengde period, and Song Qing in the Jiajing period…
Of course, the real crime-solving masters were Hai Rui, who served in the Jiajing, Longqing, and Wanli dynasties as a state judge, chief of the Ministry of Revenue, chief of the Ministry of War, and Right Vice Censor-in-Chief; and Yuan Keli, who served under the four emperors of Wanli, Taichang, Tianqi, and Chongzhen, and successively served as Denglai Governor, Minister of War, and Junior Guardian of the Heir Apparent.
After I crossed over to the Tianqi period of the Ming Dynasty, I had no interaction with Yuan Keli.
After I went to the Northern Garrison Command to be responsible for solving cases, Yuan Keli had already gone to Denglai.
The cases received by the Northern Garrison Command were all personally appointed by the emperor.
If the phrase “piled up like a mountain” is used to describe the number of cases accumulated in the Northern Garrison Command, it may be a bit of an exaggeration.
But the oldest case I saw happened in the first year of Wanli, and it has been more than fifty years. I estimate that the people involved in the case are mostly dead.
“Emperor Wanli and Emperor Taichang have both passed away. Let’s slow down on the cases they personally appointed first,” I said to Old Lin, Old Zhang and Wen Rourou.
Then, Old Lin, Old Zhang, and Wen Rourou brought one or twenty case files from the archives and placed them on the four desks in the hall.
“There are ten cases personally appointed by Emperor Zhu Youxiao of the Taichang and Tianqi years,” said Wen Rourou.
“Okay, our job these two days is to look at the case files. After everyone has read the case files, we will exchange opinions on the case investigation,” I said, looking at Old Lin, Old Zhang and Wen Rourou.
“I have a question here. The cases in the Taichang years should be personally appointed by Emperor Taichang. How did they become personally appointed by Emperor Tianqi?” Wen Rourou asked with confusion.
“In July of the forty-eighth year of Wanli (1620), Emperor Wanli died. On the first day of August, Crown Prince Zhu Changluo succeeded to the throne and changed the second year to the first year of Taichang. But just one month after he ascended the throne, on the first day of September in the forty-eighth year of Wanli (1620), Emperor Taichang Zhu Changluo also died. After Emperor Taichang died, the eldest son of the emperor, Zhu Youxiao, succeeded to the throne. According to the Ming system, when a new emperor ascends the throne, he should change the era name of the following year to show the orderly inheritance of the imperial lineage. But Emperor Taichang had already changed the following year to the first year of Taichang when he ascended the throne. Now Emperor Taichang has only been on the throne for one month and has passed away. If Zhu Youxiao changes the era name again, he must wait until the year after next, because next year is the first year of Taichang according to the system. But there is no rule that the new emperor cannot use his own era name until two years later. This also damages the dignity of the imperial power. Therefore, Zhu Youxiao issued an edict that from August of the forty-eighth year of Wanli to the end of that year, it would be the first year of Taichang, and next year it would be changed to the first year of Tianqi,” Old Zhang patiently explained to Wen Rourou.
“Oh, I understand. The first year of Taichang is actually the period from August to December of the forty-eighth year of Wanli. Emperor Taichang only ruled for one month, and the following four months were ruled by Emperor Zhu Youxiao of Tianqi, so there was the case of Emperor Tianqi personally appointing cases that occurred in the first year of Taichang,” Wen Rourou said with a smile.
The next morning, the four of us finished reading all the case files of the ten cases.
“Please everyone express your opinions on these ten cases,” I said, sitting in front of the desk, looking at Old Lin, Old Zhang and Wen Rourou.
“Among these ten cases, there is one case of a missing eunuch, two cases of theft, three cases of attempted murder, and four cases of homicide,” Wen Rourou summarized very well.
“I don’t know if everyone has noticed, these ten cases all happened at night,” Old Zhang said jokingly.
“Dark and windy night, time to steal chickens and dogs,” Wen Rourou said with a smile.
“I feel like there is some kind of connection between these ten cases,” Old Lin said with a dazed look.
“Yes, the strangeness of these ten cases lies in the fact that the modus operandi seems to be from the same person,” I said thoughtfully.
Old Lin, Old Zhang and Wen Rourou all opened their mouths wide and looked at me in surprise.