Mr. Huo was wearing a white round-necked robe embroidered with purple bamboo, sitting at his desk writing quickly.
Banxia was boiling water and ordering tea in front of the tea table on the left. When she raised her eyes and saw Bai Zeqing, she said "Huh" first and then said with a sweet smile: "Our three ladies are very discerning. The doctor lady is so pretty!"
When Mr. Huo heard the sound and raised his head, he saw Bai Zeqing wearing a silver-red coat and skirt, covered with a moon-white boudoir shawl, which made her skin as white as jade. Her black hair was simply tied into a bun, and half of it was neatly draped over her vest. Her figure was light and slender.
Mr. Huo's eyes lit up, but the next second, he saw Bai Zeqing picking up her skirt and striding through the door. He was slightly stunned, the corner of his mouth twitched, and he simply lowered his head and continued writing.
As soon as Bai Zeqing entered the study, he went to the Banxia tea table unceremoniously, picked up the teapot, poured a full cup of tea and drank it down. Then he walked to the desk, bowed politely and asked: "Second Master,
How is the situation at Bingshan warehouse?"
"Come on, come on, I'm telling you," Ban Xia waved to her with a charming smile, "Don't disturb the second master from writing the book."
"Write a book?" Bai Zeqing was a little surprised: Businessman, write a book?
"Yes, the Huo family is the royal merchant of the world given by the emperor, and has the power and responsibility to reach heaven." Banxia added tea to the teacup opposite, pointed at it, and said, "What do you want to ask?"
Bai Zeqing pulled up the hem of her skirt and walked towards Banxia. As she walked, she said: "We all envy the emperors and merchants in the world, who have direct access to heaven. But I don't know, this official warehouse supervisor is not easy to supervise. Since he is not a member of the officialdom, others are afraid of avoiding him.
Not as good as."
Mr. Huo raised his wrist slightly, glanced at her, frowned slightly and was stunned for a moment, but did not speak or write.
Bai Zeqing had already sat across from Banxia and asked: "Can we keep the food supply at Yushan warehouse? How long will the food at Bingshan warehouse be enough for the porridge factory to provide relief?"
Banxia took a sip of tea and said angrily: "Little beauty, the questions have to be asked one by one. How can I answer them if you do this?"
Bai Zeqing couldn't help scolding her for being pretentious in his heart, and he was not polite and said: "If you like to talk, don't talk. If you don't talk, I will pester the second master."
Mr. Huo shook his head and calmed down before continuing to write. He was afraid that his hands would shake and the words would be useless.
Ban Xia snorted and said: "You are dressed like a girl, but you are still so shameless when talking." Seeing Bai Zeqing making gestures to get up, he hurriedly called her and said: "Yu Shancang is completely burned.
The captured soldiers all said that there was a fire dragon. After interrogation, no one dared to say that they heard the explosion."
"Fire dragon? You can really make it up!" Bai Zeqing curled his lips, suddenly paused, thought for a moment, and said, "No, someone deliberately guided it. When the fire started, I seemed to hear someone shouting that the fire dragon is coming."
"Yes, the Second Master said the same thing." Banxia nodded heavily, "Someone deliberately misled Cang Bing."
"What should we do?" Bai Zeqing asked. She didn't believe that the second master didn't have a way to deal with it.
"There was a warehouse manager in Yushan warehouse whose brother-in-law was a gambler. He owed us hundreds of taels from Xicheng Gambling House. In order to make up for the loss, he took out another loan. After all, he owed us several thousand taels. The amount on the IOU
The guarantee is the warehouse manager."
Bai Zeqing was speechless. The Huo family also opened a gambling house and borrowed loan sharks? In previous years, I heard rumors that the Huo family was in charge of the black market, which was probably true. She blinked and asked: "The warehouse manager's confession must also be a fire dragon, right?"
"The warehouse manager knew that it was a capital crime, so of course he insisted that the fire dragon burned down the warehouse. In order to protect himself, his brother-in-law first confessed, saying that what was stored in the Yushan warehouse was simply moldy rice and would eat people!"
"That's why you want to burn down the warehouse! You bastard!" Bai Zeqing punched the tea table, causing the tea cups on it to jump. Mr. Huo stopped writing again, closed his eyes for a moment, and then continued writing.
Bai Zeqing didn't pay attention at all, and just said angrily: "Twelve warehouses! These warehouse managers, the food in the warehouses is their life! How dare they?"
"The twelve warehouses and prisons have all been replaced with moldy rice. Their lives have been staked in them for a long time." Banxia said, "We will get the testimony of his wife and brother here, and then interrogate the warehouse manager.
It was confirmed: nine of the twelve warehouses contained moldy rice. The other three were simply empty warehouses."
"You can plead guilty after reading a testimony?" Bai Zeqing didn't believe it.
"Oh, of course I refused to admit it at first." Banxia said perfunctorily, "Of course I used some tricks."
Bai Zeqing looked at Banxia suspiciously.
Banxia glanced at the second master secretly, then cleared her throat and lowered her voice: "It's not me who taught the children bad things. You have to ask."
"She still uses you to teach her bad things?" Mr. Huo finally couldn't help but speak.
It didn't sound like a good thing to say. Bai Zeqing rolled his eyes and cursed in his heart: Yes, yes, I am bad to begin with, but in front of the second master, I really do my best.
Banxia laughed and said: "Actually, it's nothing. The warehouse manager has twins, a son and a daughter. People from the Xicheng gambling house went to his house to collect debts last night. How could his family come up with thousands of taels? From the gambling house?
They arrested her wife and children, saying they wanted to sell them to Panyue Tower to pay off debts. They also deliberately let her brother-in-law go. Guess what?"
Bai Zeqing said: "As long as his wife's brother brings him a letter, and the interrogator promises that as long as he is willing to confess, he will buy and sell the debt and save the lives of his wife and children, he will be able to tell the truth."
Banxia was slightly surprised, but still said: "That's exactly the case. But..." Banxia frowned, not knowing what to say.
Bai Zeqing said: "I'm afraid the testimony of the Yushan warehouse manager is that the mold was ordered by the mastermind of Magistrate Sun, right? As for the burning of the granary, I'm afraid he still doesn't admit it."
Banxia slapped the case and said: "Yes, this is the most annoying thing. It's just a matter of moldy rice. I'm afraid our second master will have to bear the responsibility of negligence. The burning of the warehouse by the fire dragon is even more outrageous, but now there is no evidence and no evidence can be found.
The mastermind behind the scenes.”
"Moldy rice. Burn the warehouse." Bai Zeqing dipped his finger in tea and drew a line on the table, then said: "The most important thing at the moment is to find out where the warehouse rice was transported. The second is to find Magistrate Sun and commit suicide.
The one who first discovered him that day. The third thing is to protect the warehouse manager well and not to be silenced."
Banxia's eyes brightened when she saw Bai Zeqing. She glanced at Mr. Huo again, and then said with some admiration: "The second Mr. Huo said the same thing. The second Mr. Huo has already ordered someone to copy the portrait you painted and send it to him.
Search hidden stakes everywhere in the city. The third lady is investigating the whereabouts of Cangmi."
"Prefect Sun had been slow to open the warehouse door earlier. I'm afraid he would have known about it..." Bai Zeqing didn't pay attention to Banxia's expression. He dipped his hands in tea and wrote the word "Sun", circled it, and said:
"No, Magistrate Sun must have been involved in this matter. It's just that the city of Ningzhou was suddenly destroyed, and no one could have expected that all three passes would be lost overnight, and so many refugees suddenly came to Yuanzhou City. Moldy rice will eat people to death.
No matter how courageous Magistrate Sun is, he would not dare to give moldy rice to the refugees. He suddenly hid in Tingquan Temple, and he must be buying himself time to find a way to mobilize rice from other places for emergency response. Therefore, you can check
All the documents and orders of Magistrate Sun in the three days before his death. It would be best to also check the private correspondence between Magistrate Sun."