12dz Chapter 383 Buried Alive
Chapter 383 Buried Alive
After Lu Xuan said this, Sun Songnian lost his balance and fell off the chair with a loud bang.
His hands began to tremble, and he looked around the room, his whole body showing some abnormal nervousness.
Jiang Xing glanced sideways and frowned, "Could it be that Minister Sun has really done something sinister?"
Sun Songnian sat back in the chair, trembling, and wanted to drink some tea, but his hands were shaking so much that the teacup made a tinkling sound.
After finally drinking some water to moisten his throat, he said, "My Lord, Princess, you two are great benefactors of my Sun family, so I won't hide anything from you. As for murder, I, Old Sun, have only done that one thing over the years."
He raised a finger and looked around with some fear, as if he knew that God was watching him, and he was a little cautious about everything he did.
"Originally, this matter was a court secret. I, under the Emperor's orders, cannot reveal it even if I am beaten to death! But now that it has affected the foundation of my Sun family's fortune, it seems I have no choice but to inform the princess."
Madam Sun immediately glared at him, "Why are you being so fussy? If you have something to say, just speak up. While the prince and princess are here, they can help us come up with a solution to this problem. Otherwise, if this continues, what will we do?!"
Hearing this, Lu Xuan quickly shook his head. "I'm also being judged by Heaven, so I can't just help you without knowing right from wrong. If you did it unintentionally, I can still save you. But if you have bad intentions from the beginning and do something that harms Heaven and Earth, even the God of Heaven can't save you."
"Dad, tell the princess about this as soon as possible!" Sun Jialin urged anxiously.
Minister Sun then said, "Fifteen years ago, I did commit a sin that resulted in the murder of many people. I buried more than five hundred of them alive."
"More than five hundred people?!"
Lu Xuan only paid attention to the sentence fifteen years ago. However, the other people in the room were frightened by his words. More than five hundred people shouted out in unison.
Sun Songnian licked his lips, his eyes flickering with embarrassment before he sighed. "At the time, I wasn't even the Vice Minister of Works. I was just a Doctor of the Ministry of Works' Office of Construction and Cleaning. The Emperor ordered the construction of a palace road, and the requirements were said to be extremely strict. The people in charge at the time were the Minister of Works and the left and right Vice Ministers. I watched them revise the blueprints dozens of times."
"The Emperor had just ascended the throne at that time and attached great importance to this matter, so the Minister and the left and right assistant ministers often rushed to complete the work. However, the matter was highly confidential, so I didn't know the details. At that time, the most I could do was help the assistant ministers and others recruit more people when they were short of manpower."
"The palace road was under construction for a year. Suddenly, for unknown reasons, the Minister of State and the two Vice Ministers on both sides fell ill and died one after another. Then the Emperor inspected the road and found it a complete mess. In a rage, he demanded the execution of all the craftsmen who had worked on it."
"But the Shangshu and Shilang who were in charge of this matter at the time had all passed away. No one knew what had happened, and everyone was in a state of panic. The emperor had met with me before, and he ordered me to execute all the craftsmen who had built the palace roads. So at that time, I followed the emperor's order and took the over 500 craftsmen who had been brought out of the palace to the mass grave and buried them alive..."
"Buried alive?!"
The atmosphere in the room became increasingly solemn, until Lu Xuan shouted this sentence loudly, and everyone's shock was fully exposed.
Sun Songnian nodded, glanced at Jiang Xing cautiously, and breathed heavily. "It was because of this incident that I gained the emperor's trust and was promoted to the position of Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Works."
Jiang Xing ignored his expression and nervously asked another question: "Do you know where this palace road was built? Have you ever seen it with your own eyes?"
When he came back this time, he didn't see any newly built palace roads in the palace.
He now doubted that the palace road that Sun Songnian mentioned, which was built fifteen years ago, might be the secret passage under the Prince's Eastern Palace, or it might be the tunnel that Huai Ling mentioned, where Jiang Yuanfeng met the emperor!
Minister Sun shook his head. "I have never seen that palace road. Back then, only my superiors, the Minister of State, and the Ministers knew where it was. The craftsmen knew it, but I ordered them to be taken away and executed..."
News flashed through his mind, and Lu Xuan quickly said, "Wait!"
"I want to ask you, after you executed these craftsmen, wasn't it during a period of time in the capital when there were many missing persons cases?"
Fifteen years ago, she was only four years old and actually didn't know these things. She just wrote down the information when the ghosts from her previous life cried in her ears.
Surprised for a moment, Sun Songnian lowered his head, then nodded heavily.
"Yes, after those people were buried alive, people from the Twelve Wards of the Capital frequently reported to the police, saying that their husbands had disappeared since they were recruited to build some kind of palace road."
"Then what happened in the first place? Why did you disappear without a trace after repairing the palace?"
The person who spoke was Jiang Xing. He held a teacup in his hand, looked at Sun Songnian with cold eyes, and his voice was chilling and murderous.
Sun Songnian rubbed his hands on his legs helplessly. "Actually, I still don't know anything about this. I only heard from the families of the missing people that their husbands haven't returned home since the construction of the palace road began. I was only recruiting people at the time and didn't realize that they were not allowed to go home..."
He stammered a few times, his eyes filled with panic and suspicion. "Besides, it was the Emperor who ordered me to deal with these people. He was furious and specifically instructed that no one should be spared and that those parasites who took the emperor's money but did nothing to help must be completely eliminated."
With the corners of his mouth curled up coldly, Jiang Xing already had a rough guess in his mind.
Lu Xuan looked at him, and they both understood each other tacitly.
Pointing at the table, Lu Xuan looked at Sun Songnian, "So, all these years, you think you've done nothing wrong?"
Panic flashed across his face as Minister Sun hurriedly defended himself, "I certainly did something wrong. After all, so many lives were at stake. But I was acting under the Emperor's orders. I didn't mean to kill them! But God, why is it that I am being punished?"
His face was wrinkled with worry, his hands were clasped together, and he was so scared that he was about to cry.
Lu Xuan looked at him intently, his eyes frankly saying, "Because you are the only one who benefited from this."
His old face flushed red as Minister Sun muttered in dissatisfaction, "That's the Emperor! How could this old minister dare to disobey His Majesty's order? Besides, it was not long after the new Emperor ascended the throne, and everyone was busy trying to win over the new Emperor. Who would be so foolish as to offend the Emperor..."
Lu Xuan nodded. "Then you, do you really not know why those people were executed?"
"How could he not know? The Emperor was furious because of the perfunctory and shoddy work. After all, the money used was from the people, so the Emperor's anger is justified. But... killing them all is indeed a bit cruel..."
Seeing that he really didn't know, Lu Xuan didn't ask any more questions.
The most important thing now is that she has to find the time to find the wronged souls in the mass grave and ask them whether they are related to this incident.
After all, in the previous life, a large number of ghosts in the mass grave said that they were killed by unscrupulous people who destroyed their homes after crossing the river, and it was the same person who killed them. Now she feels that it seems to be related to the matter of Minister Sun.
That heartless person might be Sun Songnian!
Madam Sun realized that everything had been explained, and that her husband's actions were justified by the emperor's orders. She hurriedly asked, "Princess, in your opinion, is our family's current situation caused by the burial of over 500 people?"
Lu Xuan glanced at her and said, "This must be it."
The three members of the Sun family immediately looked at her hopefully: "Then Princess, do you have any way to resolve this?"