Chapter 167 It’s a mess
The office of the Observatory of Astronomy is located in the public housing on the fifth floor.

When Zhao Guanxiang left the prison with a lot of anger and came here to meet General Qi.

Just as I went upstairs and before I knocked on the door, I heard an angry curse coming from inside the house:
“It is hard to reason with a coward without courage! How can this be justified!”

The door opened with a bang, and an elderly official in a purple robe and holding a goldfish bag walked out angrily.

Zhao Guanxiang made way, but he never expected that the purple-robed official glared at him, snorted heavily, and left in a huff.

Did I provoke him or offend him?

Zhao Guanxiang watched the man leave in confusion, then remembered his own business, looked away and quickly walked into the public housing.

In the public room, Qi Lianzhi was sitting behind his desk, holding his forehead and closing his eyes, looking like he had a headache. When he heard someone coming in, he didn’t even open his eyes and said, “What are you doing here again? I have already made my words very clear!”

“Sir, it’s me.”

Hearing this familiar voice, Qi Lianzhi opened his eyes and saw Zhao Guanxiang standing in front of him.

Zhao Guanxiang came up to him, saluted, and asked with a glance outside, “Sir, what is the Minister You from the Ministry of Justice doing here?”

“What else can I do? I’ll ask for mercy from the Gao family.”

Qi Lianzhi had a terrible headache and said, “This is already the sixth wave of people in the past few days. I never thought that something happened to the Gao family and so many people came to beg for mercy.”

He sighed and said, “After all, he is the Third Prince’s ‘right-hand man’. It is normal for a high-ranking official to plead for him.”

“Not only military officers in the capital, but also many high-ranking civil officials came to intercede… It’s not really an intercede, they just hope that the Gao family’s case can be transferred to the Sansi Yamen. These bastards think that now that the matter is done, they want to grab a share of the credit, right?”

Zhao Guanxiang asked: “What do you say?”

Qi Lianzhi cursed impatiently: “What else can I say? Tell them to go back to where they came from. This is the Observatory, not a market for bargaining!”

Then he looked at Zhao Guanxiang and asked, “What are you doing here?”

Zhao Guanxiang’s face suddenly turned unhappy, and he snorted: “I just got out of prison.”

“Did you go to see Gao Linxiang?”

“Yes.”

“So you come to me to complain?”

“What do you mean by complaining… Sir, this is not the way to handle a case!”

Zhao Guanxiang was immediately furious when he thought of Gao Linxiang’s comfortable life in the prison of Xuntian Prison. “He has wine and meat, good food and drink… How can this be called an interrogation? How can we get Gao Linxiang to talk like this? If you are not good at interrogation, I know an expert in this field and I can ask him to help.”

Qi Lianzhi glared at him angrily and cursed, “Come on, doesn’t the Patrol of Astronomy have anyone who is good at interrogation? Do we need to hire someone? Can’t you see that the eunuch from the East Factory is guarding our prison?”

Zhao Guanxiang slammed the table and said, “When will the people from the East Factory be able to interfere in the case of the Astronomical Observatory?”

Qi Lianzhi said helplessly: “After all, the Astronomical Inspection Bureau and the Eastern Depot are both directly under the Emperor’s orders. This time the Eastern Depot sent someone to supervise the execution with the approval of His Majesty.”

He paused for a moment and said, “On the day Gao Linxiang was arrested, the Third Prince went to the palace overnight and pleaded for mercy in front of the emperor… The Gao family is so small that it is not worthy of your majesty’s attention, but the Third Prince offered a precious treasure to save him.”

“Heavy treasure?”

“I heard it was a painting, but I don’t know what it is specifically.” Qi Lianzhi shook his head, looking somewhat helpless. “But no matter what, His Majesty was very pleased and agreed to the Third Prince’s request with a wave of his hand.”

Zhao Guanxiang clenched his fists hidden under his sleeves, his eyes almost spitting fire. Qi Lianzhi waved his hands and said, “Don’t be too angry. His Majesty did not completely listen to the Third Prince and protect the Gao family. He just ordered the East Factory to attach criminal officers to supervise the punishment. Unless the Gao family’s guilt is proven, no punishment can be carried out without authorization. That’s all.”

Zhao Guanxiang said unhappily, “I rescued so many witnesses from Yifenghuangzhuang? And there are also the account books of Zongzheng Temple and those hooligans I arrested… all these things, one by one, aren’t they ironclad evidence?”

Qi Lianzhi shook his head and said, “Gao Linxiang is very smart. These things were all done by his subordinates. He was interrogated several times. Sometimes he said that Wang Ping did these things behind his back, and sometimes he said that it was done by a manager named Lin Yu. Anyway, these two people are dead and cannot be dead anymore. Dead people cannot refute it.”

Zhao Guanxiang was shocked and angry: “Could it be that they really let him go?”

Qi Lianzhi sneered: “Oh, there is no such thing as a cheap thing.”

He stood up, walked out from behind the documents, came to Zhao Guanxiang, patted his shoulder, and said in a low voice: “The Gao family kidnapped civilians and sold private slaves, not just the women in Yifeng Royal Farm. Among the women you rescued, I have found out that several of them know where their fellow villagers were sold to. Once everything is clear, Gao Linxiang will not be allowed to quibble!”

The spies that Zhao Qi’an had planted among those women did come in handy.

Gou Xiangxi’s reminder to Qilianzhi also worked.

However, Qi Lianzhi himself has not yet had a clear understanding of what it means to investigate this case in depth.

He was still immersed in the joy of the progress in the case. Even now, seeing Zhao Guanxiang’s frustrated look, he felt that this guy was still too young and impatient.

He looked at Zhao Guanxiang’s discontented and angry expression, and poked his head with his finger: “I’m taking over this matter, and you have nothing to do with it from now on. You should go back and rest for a few days. Do you hear me?”

It sounds like the subordinates have made achievements and the boss is trying to take credit for them.

Because Zhao Guanxiang was apparently doing the most difficult and tiring part of the case, Qi Lianzhi only had to arrest and convict the Gao family members.

But in fact, the really difficult thing was what happened after Gao Linxiang went to prison.

Qi Lianzhi had to withstand a lot of pressure, and sending people to investigate the pawnshops in the south these days also made him vaguely feel that there was a “big fish” behind the Gao family.

In this case, the troublemaker Cub Tiger cannot be involved anymore.
Now that Zhao Guanxiang has broken through the realm of heaven and man, he has become even more precious in Qilianzhi’s eyes, and he is afraid that he will die because of these things.

Qi Lianzhi was worried that sooner or later he would not be able to protect Zhao Guanxiang, and he felt sorry that the Imperial Master had no intention of keeping him…

Since Zhao Guanxiang does not have the opportunity to stay with the National Master, the person in the Astronomical Survey who is most capable of protecting his growth is General Ling.

“Rest for a few days, then report to Jingzhou! Did you hear me?”

Qi Lianzhi’s tone did not allow for argument, and his saliva was almost flying onto Zhao Guanxiang’s face.

Zhao Guanxiang had originally intended to go to Jingzhou, so he did not dare to talk back and just accepted the scolding obediently.

Just at this moment, the bell outside the public housing rang loudly.

A subordinate quickly entered the public house, interrupted Qi Lianzhi’s lecture, and said:

“General Qi, His Majesty has ordered that the Minister of Justice You Jianfang be arrested for corruption and bribery, and the Patrol of Astronomy should arrest him immediately!”

Inside the public housing unit, both of them were stunned.

Zhao Guanxiang was stunned for a long time. If he remembered correctly, the person who had just quarreled in front of General Qi was Lord You from the Ministry of Justice, right?
He had just left when the imperial edict came to arrest him?
Qi Lianzhi was even more confused: “You Jianfang is corrupt? Did someone in the court accuse Wu Xiang of corruption in front of his favorite student? Whose army is this brave? Is he Qin Tianguan’s man?”

“No, it’s not Qin Tianguan!” The subordinate who came to report the news bowed his head and saluted, “It’s Prime Minister Wu! Today’s court meeting is in chaos! Prime Minister Wu is targeting his own people!”

“what?”

(End of this chapter)