Chapter 192: Chapter 188: Jiang Cheng, Do You Know Your Crime?
 

The Emperor of Liang had no direct administrative power, only the right to veto.

Therefore, even with the death of Prince Liang Chu, the Emperor could not directly order The Ministry of Justice and other institutions to investigate the case.

However, the Emperor could write a letter to the Prime Minister, allowing the Prime Minister to command the civil and military officials.

If the Prime Minister did not accept the Emperor’s suggestion, then the Emperor might intentionally use his veto power to make things difficult for the Cabinet in future administrative and judicial matters.

“If you don’t give me face, naturally I see no need to give you face”

Moreover, the death of a prince was no small matter; even without the Emperor’s suggestion, the Cabinet could not simply turn a blind eye.

Under the “Emperor of Liang”‘s suggestion, the Cabinet, in response to the incident involving Prince Liang Chu, rapidly convened officials from The Ministry of Punishments, The Ministry of Justice, and The Censorate to form a joint investigation team, implementing the highest level of judicial review in the court known as “Three Ministries Joint Trial”.

From the palace side, a peak Core Formation member of the Imperial Army’s Deputy Commander was dispatched to “protect” the investigation team officials.

For the investigation team officials, investigating the case, analyzing the circumstances, and determining guilt were all part of their job and not difficult.

The difficulty lay in pinning the crime on someone.

Prince Liang Chu’s reputation was not very good; he had offended a fair number of people.

And he had also offended his brothers, who were also princes.

If it turned out that a certain prince intentionally caused Prince Liang Chu’s death in order to fight for the throne,

Would they want this result, or not?

Prince Liang Chu was already dead and couldn’t become Emperor, but the prince who hadn’t died could potentially become the Emperor.

Once he became Emperor, he could veto the Cabinet’s personnel appointments. He could even threaten the Prime Minister, forcing him to replace officials.

He could even arrange assassinations, and as Emperor, he would have the power to veto the verdict of his own case.

These were the special privileges that the royal family had traded for during the “Constitutional Monarchy”.

“This job is too difficult,” said Pang Yuan, Minister of The Ministry of Justice, with a sigh.

“If it were easy, they wouldn’t have called on us deputies,” Wei Chenhan from The Censorate complained.

“Speak cautiously; the Deputy Commander of the Imperial Army is still waiting in the room,” Wang Weien of The Ministry of Punishments reminded in a low voice.

“It’s best to find a mastermind with a clean identity, and then this matter can come to an end. We all have elders above and children below, there’s no need to dig too deep.”

“Hmm.”

“Alright.”

The three swiftly reached a consensus.

In the current bureaucratic atmosphere of Liang Kingdom, it was hard enough to protect oneself.

Wanting to accomplish something significant was too difficult; it was simply not possible.

As for digging deeper, that was purely suicidal behavior.

Because if you dig deep enough, you will always uncover someone you should not provoke.

The three main members of the investigation team returned to the temporary office constructed for the “Three Ministries Joint Trial” at the court.

The arrest officers from Six Fan Gate were responsible for the actual gathering of evidence and solving the case.

At this point, quite a few case-related files had been placed on the desks of the investigation team’s office.

Among them were statements from several of Prince Liang Chu’s concubines.

There were also many witness statements and testimonies from maids and servants within the Prince Mansion.

Upon reading the concubines’ statements, Pang Yuan of The Ministry of Justice took in a cold breath.

“Damn, Willpower Empowerment Talismans are this powerful? Almost complete firepower suppression. Do you know where they’re sold? I want to make my own contribution to solving the case.”

Wang Weien of The Ministry of Punishments reminded in a low voice, “Ahem. We can talk about this after work. There’s a historian nearby.”

The three nodded in understanding and returned to their work.

The situation pieced together from the statements roughly went as follows: Prince Liang Chu obtained many Willpower Empowerment Talismans from a “friend” and, armed with the talismans, waged daylight warfare with several of his concubines until eight o’clock at night. He had not left his room during that time, and all concubines could attest to this. Buoyed by his remarkable military achievements, Prince Liang Chu grew increasingly confident. Thus, he left his chambers, and, based on the estimates of his concubines and the maids of the Prince Mansion, he most likely went to the Jiaofang Division.

In the end, Prince Liang Chu was indeed found in the Jiaofang Division.

Otherwise, the news could not have spread throughout the Capital so quickly.

Further, according to the autopsy report on Prince Liang Chu’s body by the coroner, it was determined that he did indeed die from exhaustion.

With the above information, one could easily construct a narrative for the case:

Prince Liang Chu obtained talismans that could improve his virility from a friend, then, relying on the talismans, he gained an excessive amount of confidence. In the end, he exhausted himself to death in the Jiaofang Division.

Undoubtedly, the key to the issue lies with the “friend” and the “friend’s” provided talismans!

The identity of Prince Liang Chu’s “friend” is still under investigation, but the creator of the Willpower Empowerment Talisman has already been identified.

According to the file information, the creator of the Willpower Empowerment Talisman is——a freshman from Lotus Cloud University, a resident of Wuyue in Xiang State, an 18-year-old young man, male, unmarried, Jiang Cheng!

Such pristine information was ideal for the investigation team, portraying the perfect “person responsible for the case”.

The main blame was placed on the head of the university student with the surname Jiang, while the accessory blame was reserved for the “friend”.

Case solved! Everyone is happy!

“Summon Jiang Cheng! I, myself, will interrogate him!”

At Lotus University, in the Talisman Drawing Class 1 sketch course.

“Jiang Cheng, is Jiang Cheng here? If he’s absent, it’ll be marked as a missed class,” the teacher said.

Ding Guangming: “Eh? Where’s Cheng? He’s never missed a class.”

Song Junsheng responded, “Jiang Cheng has been quite busy recently. He ordered a batch of talismans from my family’s shop, and it was a sizeable amount.”

“College students should focus on studying and enjoying life; making money is just a side hustle,” Zhu Hongcai said scornfully.

Ding Guangming retorted, “Hong Cai, but you haven’t been studying well either, have you?”

Zhu Hongcai angrily shot back, “Just mentioning that makes me angry. Did I not study well? People always say, ‘establish a family and a career.’ Haven’t I not yet established a family?”