"I'm going to be the official, I'm going to be the official..." Zhao Youde was caught in a conflict. If he were to be tried first, there would be nothing to say. According to Mr. Futai's wishes, just hold on. But now Mr. Futai has fainted from fright, what should he do?
Is that good? How about I faint from fear?
Seeing Zhao Youde's eyes flickering and his expression tangled, Wang Xian continued to use his contagious voice: "You heard it just now. Is the evidence in my hand now enough to convict you?"
"Here, what is the crime of the lower official?" Zhao Youde said in surprise: "The lower official is a small county magistrate, but he doesn't know anything."
"You're smart!" Wang Xian sneered and said: "If you don't know anything, how did Yangqu County make up for its huge deficit overnight? If you didn't participate in anything, why would anyone take the risk?"
I'll take the military rations I stole and use them to make up for your shortfall."
"This..." Wang Xian is worthy of being a member of the Zhuhui Society. He can always get to the point and leave the other party speechless. Zhao Youde suddenly felt sweat on his forehead, but he was chosen as a pioneer by Prefect He, which naturally has his own merits.
After a while, he organized his speech and said: "Thank you, this county is Fuguo County. Many expenses of the government, the province, and even the prince's government have to be diverted from this county. Therefore, many of the deficits in the county's accounts are
It's the debt owed by the yamen above. Because next year is the year of external inspection, if the deficit is not made up, the lower officials will be doomed. The lower officials appealed to them in every possible way. Fortunately, the upper officials were considerate and paid back the money in time. This county has
We just settled the account." After Zhao Youde said this, he secretly breathed a sigh of relief and thought to himself, now you have nothing to do, right?
"You are really smart." Unexpectedly, Wang Xian slapped the table and said with a cold voice: "You said that the deficit was made up because the superiors paid back the debt. Well, please show us the details of the debt repayment?"
"How can this official remember..." Zhao Youde said sarcastically.
"It doesn't matter if you can't remember," Wang Xian said with a trace of teasing on his lips, "I have sent people to your county government office and sealed all the accounts."
"What?" Zhao Youde was stunned immediately.
Wang Xian smiled lightly and said: "Master Zhao can't remember it, so I have to put in more effort."
"Yes, yes." Zhao Youde felt a panic in his heart. Just now, he was next door and had already heard Wang Xian's sensational accounting ability... He Province's accounts could be checked in three days. It would definitely not take even half a day for a mere Yangqu County.
…
"Let's talk about this for today." Wang Xian seemed to have taken the initiative to end the conversation and said, "We can continue the conversation after checking the accounts."
"Okay." Zhao Youde wiped his sweat. No matter what, he would go through the hurdle in front of him first and then say, "Can I leave, sir?"
"Wait a minute." Wang Xian coughed lightly and said, "Here comes someone." Wu Wei then stepped out from behind the screen, holding a wooden tray in his hand. On the tray was a stack of paper, with pens and ink pads on the side.
Zhao Zhixian was very familiar with this routine. This was to ask him to sign and deposit the confession after recording it. He couldn't help swallowing and secretly cursing this guy for being so insidious... He kept saying it was not an interrogation.
"Lord Zhao, relax, this is not a confession." Wang Xian finally showed a smile and said: "It's just a conversation, but as an imperial envoy, I am questioning you on behalf of the emperor, so we must keep our conversation complete.
Submit it with the correct wording. Please take a closer look at this conversation record, Mr. Zhao. If there is no untruth, we will sign it and I will send it to the emperor in a hurry for eight hundred miles."
Isn’t this still a confession?, Zhao Zhixian yelled in his heart. He was finally convinced that the young man in front of him was more difficult to deal with than a poisonous snake. Every move seemed to be an understatement, but in fact he attacked people’s vital points. He tried his best to avoid it, but was still beaten.
Forced into a corner.
Seeing that he was still reluctant to write, Wang Xian asked with concern: "What, is there something untrue in the transcript?"
"No, no." Zhao Zhixian shook his head with difficulty, looking longingly at Wang Xian.
"Then why don't you sign it?" Wang Xian said slowly: "Is it possible that your confession itself deceived the Holy Spirit?
"No, no..." Zhao Zhixian felt guilty and short of breath, sweating like rain.
"That's strange. Since you didn't lie and the transcript is correct, why didn't you sign it?" Wang Xian narrowed his eyes and stared at him with a cold light.
"I, I." How dare County Magistrate Zhao sign a pledge here? Once signed, it cannot be changed. Wang Xian only needs to submit the found account books to the Holy Ting, and his lies will be exposed immediately, which is the crime of deceiving the emperor.
After thinking about it, he found that he had reached a dead end. If he stretched out his head, it would be a knife, and if he retracted his head, it would be a knife.
Magistrate Zhao finally understood what Magistrate He was feeling just now. He sighed helplessly, lifted up the pen tremblingly, and hung his wrist in the air for a while. Suddenly he rolled his eyes and fainted...
"Okay..." Wang Xian, Zhou Yong and others were stunned, "Another one fainted..."
"Master Zhao," Wang Xian poked Magistrate Zhao with his toes. The magistrate was as motionless as a dead pig. He could only sigh and said, "Carry it down."
The guards dragged the motionless Zhao Zhixian out again.
"Did you see it?" Wang Xian took off his black gauze hat, threw it on the table and said, "You will faint when you are forced to do nothing. Believe it or not, if the trial continues, you will still faint."
"Haha, they still have illusions about the backstage boss, thinking that if they delay this, things will turn around." Wu Wei carefully collected the notes and said with a smile, "Unless adults can make them lose their illusions."
"Yes, it's not enough to just swat the flies without the tigers," Wang Xian paced for two steps with his hands behind his hands: "But we have to do it step by step, hit the younger ones first, so that we can scare the older ones and prevent them from jumping out.
How do we fight?"
"What do we do next?"
"Continue to interrogate, lock up a few more, and see how they react."
That afternoon, three more officials were interrogated. As expected, they were questioned again by Wang Xian until they were speechless. They either fainted or turned into gourds. In fact, Wang Xian had many ways to make them talk, but he was not in a hurry.
He seems to want to keep playing this cat and mouse game.
He was not in a hurry here, but the officials in Taiyuan over there couldn't stand it. No matter how old the officials were, once they entered the prison, they couldn't get out. Who would dare to go in again? They all ran to the Fantai Yamen and begged Zhang Chun.
"Uncle Fang, you have to take care of it. Wang Xian is making such a big fuss. He dares to arrest people at will just because he is an imperial envoy." The officials surrounded Zhang Fantai and said, "Congratulations."
Futai is a fourth-rank official, and as a rule, even an imperial envoy has to request an order to detain him. But Wang Xian did not ask for an order, so he detained Futai. I don’t know if he was tortured to extract a confession." "Yes.
Ah, even if he is an imperial envoy, he cannot act recklessly. Uncle Fang, you can take care of this matter and do it with integrity."
Zhang Chun was already suffering from a headache, but when everyone made a noise, he felt like his head was going to split open. He raised his hand to signal everyone to shut up and said: "Our Shanxi officials are the subject of investigation, and I am not in a good position either."
Come forward." Everyone looked disappointed, and when they were about to speak, they heard him change the topic and said: "But in order to prevent him from unfairly deciding the case, I have asked the prince to come forward and invited the imperial envoys from Xuanda and Dalu to come to Taiyuan to jointly investigate the case.
The imperial envoy will arrive soon, so please be patient for a few days."
"In the past few days, I don't know how many people have been arrested, and I don't know how many more crimes the people inside will suffer?" All the officials were happy at first, and then said in panic.
"Go back, you won't die." Zhang Chun said with a smile: "Just think of it as a kind of experience, harden your mind, don't mess with your actions." Zhang Fantai said good things, and then all the officials left in dismay.
After everyone left, Zhang Fantai called Zhang An over and asked, "Is Lao Zhou ready?"
"It's ready." Zhang An said: "He came out of the camp in the afternoon and didn't go back. He was at home waiting for the master's instructions."
"What does it have to do with me?" Zhang Chun said displeasedly: "This is a matter between him and the palace, and I didn't know about it from beginning to end."
"Yes." Zhang An said with a smile: "I am still worried because I am so young. I sent Lao Zhou's only son to Fenyang a few days ago. If the old boy dares to reveal even a word, his family will be killed."
The ultimate success."
"Yeah." Zhang Chun sighed softly and said, "What a sin."
"It's worth sacrificing a little girl for the sake of the wealth of officials across the province," Zhang An hurriedly comforted the adults.
"Go." Zhang Chun waved his hand and recited the rebirth mantra with his eyes closed.
Zhang An cursed in his heart, "A cat cries and a mouse pretends to be compassionate." He quickly took the order and went out, making a circle from Lao Zhou's house to the palace, then hid in the restaurant opposite the imperial envoy's quarters, ordered a table of food and wine, poured and drank by himself, and waited.
Watch the show
When it got dark, I saw a group of royal guards coming from the north. The fire dragon made of torches was so long that it looked like there were hundreds of people, surrounding the imperial envoy's carriage.
The guards in the camp were also alerted. In a blink of an eye, they set up defenses everywhere, confronting the uninvited guests through the courtyard wall.
The focus of the confrontation was naturally at the camp gate. The two sides were at war with each other through the gate. The fire illuminated the ground, and the figures were chaotic. The atmosphere was extremely tense.
"Take another step forward and kill without mercy." The imperial guard fired a row of crossbow arrows at the ground, drawing the bottom line of patience, and then stopped the opponent for a moment. At this time, Zhou Yong rushed to the door after hearing the news, and angrily shouted: "Who dares to attack the imperial envoy?
Why don’t you retreat quickly?”
"Can't you tell, we are the bodyguards of Prince Jin's Palace?" An officer wearing Qianhu uniform came out of the crowd and whipped the armor of the soldiers around him with his horse whip.
"Prince's guards? We don't offend the river," Zhou Yong said in a deep voice, "Why did you suddenly come to provoke him?
"If the well water does not offend the river water, of course we will not come." The Qianhu said coldly: "But now your well water has greatly offended the river water, so that's another matter."
"Please tell me clearly why the well water is invading the river water," Zhou Yong said with a serious look on his face.
"Of course I have to explain myself clearly," the Qianhu said angrily, cupping their hands in the direction of the palace, "one of my prince's concubines has disappeared, and the brothers have been unable to find her. Today we received a secret report that she has actually fallen into the hands of the imperial envoy.
I have been brutally ravaged in your hands." As soon as these words came out, the whole place was in an uproar. Not only Zhou Yong and others were in an uproar, but even the palace guards were shocked.