In the days that followed, Bai Zeqing spent time in the Huo Mansion in the name of recuperating from his injuries, and devoted himself to trying to communicate with the spiritual power of the Jiao-tailed Bird to practice the puppet spirit technique.
And Huo Yuncheng was not idle either. He traveled between water transportation and government offices almost every day. He was caught up in the huge commercial affairs of the Huo family and another grain case that had not yet been completed in Yuanzhou and could not get out.
In the Bingshan warehouse case, the coolie king Daniu, who had previously reported grain fraud and had one of his legs broken and was imprisoned, was fished out by Wen Jinnuo himself and left in his house to recuperate. Coupled with the testimonies of several coolies,
As well as a set of documents and ten thousand taels of silver found in the secret room of Jietui Mansion.
Lu Jietui knew that he could not deny it, so he confessed all the people involved in the case, just to be able to bear the punishment alone and not to harm the nine tribes.
Of course, it is not that Lu Jietui had not made a last-ditch effort to defeat the enemy.
On the first day of the trial, he bribed killers to sneak into the Bingshan warehouse to kill the coolies and silence them. However, as soon as he entered the Bingshan warehouse, he was restrained by Wen Jinnuo and Huo Yuncheng's people. There was no need to force a confession. These "killers" had just
After being pressed, he hurriedly confessed - Lu Jietui was so desperate that he was not looking for a professional killer who was willing to pay for his life, but a ruffian from the Xijiekou Huntang. He took the money, but he didn't know it at all.
What is loyalty?
Since then, Bingshancang alone has involved more than 30 officials at all levels including the experience department, prison department, official room, household room, ceremony room, military room, execution room, and work room.
In fact, through the interrogation of these people that lasted for a month, more things were involved.
In recent years, officials led by Magistrate Sun and Lu Jietui have worked together to mix sand, water, and white ash in the Bingshan warehouse, causing the official rice to drop in price.
They made their own rice line.
These dozens of people have three rice shops in Yuanzhou Prefecture. Tongzhou, Jianzhou, Ningzhou, Jinzhou, Yunzhou, Shuzhou and other prefectures have rice shops where the Yuan River flows smoothly. However, these rice shops are sold in large quantities every year.
All the silver was sent to the capital.
Once the case has been tried here, it is difficult to continue the trial, and it is also a matter beyond the four of them's authority.
This case covers three counties in the northwest and must involve Governor Shen. Of course, it is inseparable from water transportation, and the Huo family is destined to take the blame this time.
As for how to write a joint memorial and how to grasp the scale, the four of them had their own opinions and could not reach a consensus for the time being.
This continued for half a month before the memorial was immediately submitted.
When the emperor saw the document, he overturned the document. The joint meeting and the morning court couldn't wait, and immediately ordered the governor of grain transportation to personally inspect the grain warehouses in various places, starting from the granary in the capital, and started taking action that day.
He quickly issued an order to order Shen Yicheng, the governor of the three northwest counties, to inspect the three northwest counties.
Wen Jinnuo, Lu Yu, and even the imperial merchant Huo Yuncheng who were in Yuanzhou City received sharp and angry imperial edicts. While scolding the Yuanzhou officials, they also reprimanded these few.
Ichiban. made it clear that the Yuanzhou food crisis and the refugee resettlement issues could not be properly resolved, so neither Wen nor Lu needed to return to Beijing.
In order to find a turning point, several people who were troubled by the Bingshan Cang Grain Case, under Huo Yuncheng's suggestion, had to devote their energy to another case closely related to the Two Cang Grain Case - the case of Sun Zhengtong's suicide.
The four robbers involved in the magistrate's suicide case refused to plead guilty. However, Bai Zeqing provided portraits of the five people, and people from Wen and Huo followed the clues and found an extremely inconspicuous house in Xicheng.
A group of government officials kicked in the door and entered the house and arrested two women dressed as peasant women. However, they looked fair and pretty, with green and white fingers. At first glance, they were definitely not peasant women.
After a search, nothing was found in the house except weapons and disguise props.
But Bai Zeqing, who was hiding outside with Ban Xia to peek, was not willing to give in. After checking with his senses, he picked up a big stone and smashed the kitchen water tank. Now, the officials looked for the sound of dripping water.
, pried open the tunnel and found a whole cellar of stolen goods.
The two peasant women who had pretended to be panic were actually so frightened that they fell to the ground.
At this point, the four robbers and the two "peasant women" were interrogated separately, and a pair of testimonies were obtained. The truth about the magistrate's suicide case came to light, and they were unable to defend themselves.
It turns out that the prefect Sun Zhengtong was a big corrupt man. Not only was he involved in the two warehouses of grain case, but he was also involved in the price-selling of officials from Yuanzhou to large, and countless properties were embezzled and bribed.
However, Sun Zhengtong was extremely tactful and had been operating in Yuanzhou official circles for decades. He was like a fish in water. He was also very good at specializing in business and had interests involved with officials in the capital and surrounding areas. Therefore, although he had been corrupt for many years, he was able to survive.
This group of thieves were originally hired by Sun Zhengtong to help him deal with some shady matters. This time they also came to collect money after going to Yuanzhou for Sun Zhengtong. Unexpectedly, Sun Zhengtong was bothered by the incident of the refugee granary.
He was very dissatisfied with the results of these people's work this time, so he ordered the housekeeper to give them a banknote to get rid of the problem, and he had no intention of paying attention to them.
However, these people had a dispute with the housekeeper because Sun Zhengtong failed to pay off the money as agreed in advance. They injured the housekeeper and tried to rush into the Sun Mansion to cause trouble. However, they were beaten out by the guards of the Sun Mansion. Sun Zhengtong also threatened them if they didn't go away.
, they were caught in prison and held accountable.
Therefore, this group of thieves had a grudge against Sun Zhengtong, thinking that he was not upholding justice and knowing that he was a corrupt official, so they gave themselves the name of "chivalrous thieves" and prepared to go to Magistrate Sun's house to "rob the rich and give to the poor".
Little did they know that Sun Zhengtong loved money and cherished his life very much. His home was heavily guarded and the bandits could not get in despite several attempts.
Just when they thought there was no way out and were ready to give up, Sun Zhengtong didn't know what was going on in his head and hid in Tingquan Temple because of the refugee issue.
This was a God-given opportunity for them. So, the brother among them who was the best at disguise knocked out a pure man in the temple who had just come up the mountain, pretended to be him, and lurked in the temple, looking for an opportunity to strike.
That day, the refugees happened to be causing trouble, and the bandits thought it was a God-given opportunity. They immediately kidnapped Sun Zhengtong, and after asking for his property and keys, they strangled Sun Zhengtong, stole the keys, hung him from the beam, and then shouted to commit suicide.
Using the art of disguise, he took advantage of the chaos and escaped among the refugees.
Originally, if this group of robbers escaped back to Tongzhou, nothing would happen, but they were unwilling to let go of the Sun Mansion's large amount of treasure without the prefect Sun Zhengtong in charge.
So, they kept lurking in the city and took turns monitoring the Sun Mansion.
The first operation was to take the people from the Sun Mansion to the government office to cause trouble and sneak into the Sun Mansion. However, they were discovered shortly after entering the treasure house as soon as they opened the treasure house. Therefore, they only had time to steal a white jade Guanyin statue at the entrance of the treasure house and hurriedly
escape.
Having seen the vast amount of treasure in the treasure house, they were even more unwilling to return to Tongzhou. They only waited for an opportunity to steal more treasures.
I originally thought that the trip to Tingquan Temple would be the best opportunity for the Sun family members, but during that robbery, they happened to meet someone from the Huo family looking for clues, and they were almost blocked in the house and were completely wiped out.
The second update is here.
But I had a fever and a splitting headache. I couldn't continue to look at the screen.
Therefore, the first update tomorrow will probably be in the afternoon, and the second update will be in the evening.
