A tribute theft case twenty-two years ago.

Zhao Zhen suddenly left such a clue and returned to the palace.

There is no such a large record of a case in the Dragon Pattern Volume, nor in various historical materials. However, twenty-two years is not a very out of reach, indicating that the person responsible for investigating the theft at that time should still be alive.

Zhan Zhao and others went back to Kaifeng Mansion first and asked Lord Bao.

Lord Bao thought for a while and said, "Twenty-two years ago... I was not the prefect of Kaifeng at that time. Besides, the tribute money stolen should not be reported to the yamen. This matter has something to do with the military."

Zhao Pu thought for a while, "Do you want to ask the veteran general in the army?"

Lord Bao shook his head, "It should be the matter of the Imperial City Army... It's better to ask Pang Ji for inquiries."

Pang Yu was curious, "Ask my dad again?"

"The Taishi used to be an Imperial City Army, with a wide connection. If something happens to the Imperial City Army, someone will tell him." Bao Daren said, "Instead of asking everywhere with headless flies, why not ask him directly. He might tell you who you should ask."

Everyone squinted their eyes - the Grand Master was indeed not an ordinary person.

It was a coincidence that everyone was about to go to the Taishi Mansion, and guards came to report that Taishi Pang and the Eighth Prince came together.

Lord Bao was stunned and said he had an invitation, but he just couldn't understand why these two people came to the door.

After a while, the Grand Master and the Eighth Prince in casual clothes walked in slowly.

Everyone looked at them, and they were speechless.

The Grand Master was still chubby, holding two exquisite walnuts in his hand, and the Eighth Prince shook his little fan. Compared with the people busy investigating the case, these two people were so idle that they came to have fun.

Sure enough, the Grand Master asked when he entered the door, "Old Bao! Is the Fourth Academy a competition even better? Today, the emperor went to see the previous battle in person?"

"I just came from the palace, and the emperor seemed very satisfied." The Eighth Prince was also curious, "Where are those military flags? Tell me to see!"

Everyone thought that the Eighth Prince must not know about Zhao Zhen’s assassination, otherwise he would still be able to laugh.

The Eight King also helped Zhao Zhen pass on a message, saying that if there was something wrong, Lord Bao would come to the palace, so Lord took the people away first, leaving everyone to entertain the two of them.

Zhao Pu winked at everyone, that meaning - don't let the Eighth Prince know about the attack on the emperor, otherwise he will not be able to sleep again.

Everyone knew it.

Pang Yu went over and pulled his father, "Dad, you're here just right! Ask you something!"

Pang Ji touched his beard and said, "I said Yu'er!"

Pang Yu blinked.

"Is there any part in the competition in the Fourth Hospital?"

When the Taishi said that, the little marquis despised his face. That's what it means - your son just left the ranks of candids, and you want me to fight those talented men alone? How is that possible!

All the students of the Imperial Academy looked at him gloatingly, and Bao Yan suggested, "It's better to let him take the martial arts exam."

The little marquis' mouth twitched straight.

The Grand Master looked at his son, looked at everyone again, and pointed his fingers, "Speaking of this, you are all honest people. They have played so many things and took advantage of them. Why don't you think about counterattacking? You have to take the initiative! You can't be too real. If the other party is raped, you have to play with evil things..."

As soon as the Taishi finished speaking, he felt that someone was pulling his clothes... When he looked down, Xiao Sizi raised his face and was grabbing his clothes.

"Yeah." The Grand Master hurriedly kicked his own son away with his hand, squatted down and hugged Xiao Sizi, "I just said I didn't see you when I entered the door, where did I go?"

The little Sizi just went to the stable and looked at the pony. When he returned to the yard, he was hearing the Grand Master talking.

So, Xiao Sizi hugged the Grand Master's neck and said seriously, "Little Pangpang, do you have any good ideas?"

The Master raised his eyebrows, "What...

The little fourth son immediately acted coquettishly, "Tell me! Xiaopangpang is the smartest!"

The Taishi was so beautiful that he smiled at the sky...

Everyone had no choice but to look at the Grand Master, and then leaned back and was about to fold their necks.

Hou Yin and Tianzun also came over to listen to Master Pang’s opinions. Everyone knew that he had many ideas.

Before the Grand Master could speak, Gongsun came over and stuffed the little four son into Yin Hou and Tianzun's hands. That's what he meant - come in line and ask about the case first. After asking about the case, he will belong to you!

The Grand Master and the Eighth Prince sat down at the table, and the rest of the people sat at the same table. While drinking tea, they asked about the case of theft of tribute more than 20 years ago.

"Oh!" The Grand Master touched his beard, "This old man knows."

The Eighth Prince also nodded, "I lost 100,000 taels of gold. At that time, the matter could not be spread, and most people didn't know it. It was the time for me to know it!"

The Grand Master also nodded, "Yes!"

"Why did he send so many tributes to the palace all at once?" Zhan Zhao was puzzled, "And there are military escorts to send tributes. Who can take away the tributes with such ability?"

"The stolen gold is indeed as much as 100,000 taels." The Grand Master looked at the outsiders and said in a low voice, "But that batch of gold is not tax, nor is it a tribute from somewhere. He was just afraid that the news would cause greater trouble if it leaked, and lied that it was a tribute."

Everyone frowned.

Zhao Pu was puzzled, "It's not taxes or tributes, how could he send so much 100,000 taels of gold at once? What's the money?"

The Eighth Prince smiled, "It's Black Gold!"

Everyone was surprised - Black Gold? Could it be that there is something that is not right and shameful about gold?

"This is a long story!" said the Taishi, "More than 20 years ago, the border was not peaceful at that time. The old emperor wanted to secretly allocate a batch of military expenses and secretly train a group of troops. In fact, this is also the earliest prototype of the Zhao family army."

Zhao Pu nodded. He led his troops to war at the age of sixteen. It was indeed a bit surprising at that time. There were so many soldiers and horses... In fact, the most important thing was not people, but horses. There were plenty of weapons and armor, which were all good things! Otherwise, no matter how powerful he was, he would not be able to win a battle easily. Moreover, the shrewdness of the late emperor was that he did it silently, and the enemy did not expect that the Song Dynasty would hide so many people.

"At that time, I don't know how many detailed works were made by each province and the ministries!" The Eight King smiled, "The Emperor was worried. How could he raise so much money? He still couldn't find out the origin."

Everyone nodded, there was indeed difficulties

"Such coincidence, the prefect of Hangzhou sent a secret memorial at that time." The Eight King said, "It was said that it was a wealthy place in Suzhou, Hangzhou and Lake, and a group of very powerful liars came out!"

"Scammer?" Zhan Zhao frowned.

"These people should be from the martial arts world. They may be from a certain sect. Most of them cheat in places with dense crowds such as temples, gambling workshops, clinics, etc. The way of cheating is similar, including pretending to be a doctor, drugged, fortune teller, and monk... There are all kinds of things, which have deceived many people."

The Taishi said, "I can't find out about this, but there are too many people who were deceived later! Think about it, the yamen would have received 100 fraud cases a year, but suddenly turned into 500 this year. Isn't that strange?"

Zhan Zhao nodded, "Indeed, if five hundred were reported, there would actually be one thousand. Many people didn't know if they were deceived, or some people were afraid of trouble, so they simply didn't report to the official."

The Grand Master nodded and said, "The Prefect of Hangzhou is a sensible person." As he said, he asked Lin Xiao, "You should know that you are from Hangzhou, just the former governor Pei."

Lin Xiao seemed to have some impression, "It seems that I stepped down before I was born? I heard Master Chen talk about it."

The Grand Master nodded, "He stepped down after he investigated the case! I don't know what the situation is today."

"The emperor asked the Hangzhou Prefecture Prime Minister to secretly capture those scammers. That 100,000 taels of gold is the money that the scammers cheated on?" Zhan Zhao asked.

The Grand Master shook his fingers gently, "It's not a hundred thousand taels, but a total of 200,000 taels of gold!"

Everyone was shocked.

Bai Yutang frowned, "So much?"

Zhan Zhao held back and looked at him with a smile - you actually sighed that you had more money all day!

Gongsun calculated, "How many people have to be deceived? Have these scammers committed the crime for a long time?"

"This is the problem." The Eighth Prince shook his head and said, "It took a long time for the Hangzhou Prefecture to catch all those people. When he arrived at the old house, he didn't expect that he had found so much gold. The Hangzhou Prefecture sent it to the palace to the emperor in two batches. Unexpectedly, one group was robbed on the way, and the other group arrived safely."

Everyone frowned - so that's it.

"The emperor did not say that Zhang Gongjin was stolen, and then used another group of people secretly for military expenses?" Zhan Zhao asked, "Didn't compensate those who were cheated?"

The Eighth Prince shook his head and said, "Don't worry about this. The emperor allocated additional funds to the local area in the name of flood prevention and dam building. Then the Hangzhou Prefecture will arrange them uniformly to compensate those who have reported the case."

Everyone nodded. The Emperor did not say that he was short of money and had no military expenses, but needed a huge sum of money that could not be found and no one knew about it to secretly raise arms. He was afraid that he would find out the information in detail and spread it to Liao and Xixia.

"The prefect of Hangzhou has made great contributions." Zhao Pu was a little puzzled, "Why didn't he be promoted? With his ability to do things, he probably has become the prime minister now."

"The Emperor of the First Emperor did want to promote him back then, but he stepped down because he was not old." said the Grand Master, "The Emperor of the First Emperor also felt it was a pity."

Everyone was puzzled - are there some things related?

"Who is the one who robbed the gold?" Gongsun was curious, "Is it the remnants of those scammers in the past?"

"The same speculation was also true at that time, but later the group of people disappeared with gold." The Grand Master shook his head, "I was indeed nervous for a while at first, but then nothing happened, so it was left alone."

"It is not easy to transport 100,000 taels of gold from Hangzhou Prefecture to Kaifeng in secret." Bai Yutang asked, "Are you going on the water route?"

"Right!" the Grand Master nodded, "Those thieves robbed gold through the robbery of the ship. All the people and the ship disappeared!"

Zhan Zhao looked at Bai Yutang, saw him frowning, and asked, "Did you think of something?"

Bai Yutang said, "It takes a fleet of large ships to carry 100,000 taels of gold, maybe an official ship or a merchant ship. In short, there must be officers and soldiers on it. Hangzhou Prefecture goes to Kaifeng in the inland river and not the outer sea. It is not easy to make such a large fleet disappear out of thin air? Unless..."

"Unless what?" everyone asked.

Bai Yutang looked at everyone, "Unless there is a big water gang, the dock will assist you from the side!"

Everyone looked at each other.

"You mean..." Zhao Pu asked, "Hidden those ships into a large dock?"

"The people on the boat can be killed, and gold can be stolen, but what should I do with such a big ship?" Bai Yutang asked, "So put it in the dock, transform it, wait for the limelight to come out and use it openly, or simply sell it, without any knowledge."

"Maybe those ships are still in use now." Zhan Zhao said.

"It should be still in use, and it may have been scrapped." Bai Yutang nodded.
To be continued...