In the afternoon, several people came from the machinery factory, bringing gas machines, water pumps, and water pipes. [No pop-up novel website] After the gas generator was running for an hour, the diesel engine finally started, and the water pump began to continuously pump out the well water and drain it directly into the moat.
In less than two hours, the water in the well was drained. 1u showed the dark bottom. Several powerful police flashlights were shining down together, and the iron box that Gou Er had sunk on the night of D-Day suddenly appeared in the light of the powerful flashlights. It was intact and sank to the bottom of the well upright.
"Get it out quickly!" Lin Baiguang said excitedly.
Wu Xiang agreed, and after installing the rope, he was about to climb down. Mu Min stopped him:
"After a while! The water has just been drained out now, and there is probably a lack of oxygen down there."
After waiting for a while, he lowered the burning candle and tried it again, and then let Wu Xiang slide down the rope. Then an indigenous worker came down and helped tie the box with a rope buckle, and then lifted it up bit by bit with a hand hoist.
The box was extremely heavy, and Lin Baiguang estimated that there was a lot of property inside, so he asked the caregiver to pull the person up first to avoid dragging the box and falling down - the underground space was so small that there was no place to hide, which would have resulted in death.
After being careful all the way, he finally picked up the box and placed it securely next to the well. Lin Baiguang inspected it carefully - it was said to be an iron box, but it was actually made of hardwood and iron, and the outside of the box was intact. The hanging lock is good,
However, since this box is just soaked in water, it's probably just gold and silver inside, and it can't be anything like letters. Otherwise, it would be weird if it wasn't soaked to pieces...
Thinking of this, he was slightly disappointed. Although the treasure was good, it was not what he wanted.
Having said that, let's transport the box back first. The box was immediately loaded into the car and hauled back.
The box was opened in a special room of the Internal Affairs Committee. Mu Min was very curious and had long wanted to see what this ancient treasure was. So he took a hammer and smashed the lock three times, five by two, and opened it. When I looked at the box, I saw that it was well sealed with oilcloth and grease. The box itself was also made very tightly and was lined with a thick layer of animal skin, which was rough and prickly.
"It's a wolf skin." Mu Min had handled the case of illegal trade protection of animal leather and recognized it at a glance. "Gou Er is really careful about insulating it from cold and moisture."
After opening the wolf skin, there was no box full of golden treasures. Instead, there were packages of various sizes carefully sealed with oil paper. Mu Min was about to open it when Lin Baiguang suddenly stopped him:
"Don't tear it down."
"?" Mu Min was confused.
"It's better to invite people from the Planning Commission to be present." Lin Baiguang said, "Register while opening the seal, and have a voucher."
Mu Min was reminded by him that there was no one else here except her and Lin Baiguang. If there was any trouble in the future, it would be hard to explain.
"My hands are quick. I should have smashed the lock after the people from the planning committee arrived."
"It's not a big problem, it's too late now."
Immediately I called the Planning Commission. After a while, Sun Xiao came. He brought special documents to count the loot.
Now I opened the sealed oil paper packages one by one, counted them, and took out a variety of things, including gold and silver ingots of different sizes, stacks of gold leaves, Spanish silver wrapped in columns, and all kinds of pure gold. And jewel-inlaid ornaments, jewel-inlaid utensils and weapons - some have an obvious exotic feel. Sun Xiao took photos one by one, numbered them, and registered them.
There was a little water and moisture in the box, but the items were well preserved. This made Lin Baiguang feel relieved - even if there were paper documents, the loss would not be too great.
After cleaning all the way to the end, there were two more small iron boxes inside. These were real iron boxes. The outside was wrapped and sealed with several layers of oilcloth. Lin Baiguang's heart moved - if you pay so much attention to moisture-proofing, there is a high chance that it will be a document.
Pry open the box, and there is another oil paper package inside. Lin Baiguang opened one of them and found a stack of letter envelopes inside. He said excitedly:
"found it!"
Sun Xiao and Mu Min both leaned over to take a look. Sun Xiao smiled and said, "It's really strange. I haven't seen you so excited in a box of gold, silver and jewelry. A few letters have made you so high!"
"You don't understand this. A piece of paper is much more valuable than these boxes of gold and silver." Lin Baiguang patted the small iron box, "I dare say that Gou Er would rather lose all the treasure here. I don’t want to throw away this little box.”
After the registration was completed, the gold and silver treasures were picked up and transported away by vehicles sent by the Planning Commission, and the seized documents and materials were returned to the Political Security Administration. He called several indigenous interns from the General Security Administration to catalog these documents.
In addition to letters, there are many important things, starting with many account books. Lin Baiguang looked through it and didn't quite understand the system, so he decided to ask Sun Xiao to help. Although financial regulations are different in ancient and modern times, accountants are always much more sensitive to numbers and organization.
Because there were too many things, we invited a few time travelers who were good at ancient literature to help clean them up. First, he registered the letters. These letters were sorted and bundled into bundles according to the name of the letter writer. Lin Baiguang reviewed the documents on the Gou family's situation from the archives that had been captured and interrogated after the annihilation of Goujiazhuang. To verify the identity of the sender.
Regrettably, except for some letters, most letters either do not have the upper and lower headings, or are replaced by secret codes, either "Nanhai Liweng" or "Qiongshan Yisou", or "Zhimei Hall" or "Wuxixuan". class, some simply have only one monogram. I really couldn't tell who was who, but after comparing them, I found that many names appeared in Gou Da's correspondence.
If only we could know who these names refer to - at least we could send someone to inquire. Lin Baiguang estimated that judging from Gou Dagou'er's mobility, most of these people were in the Qiongzhou Prefecture and Leizhou areas and would not go too far.
He ordered that all the documents and materials seized from Goujiazhuang be brought over and merged for analysis.
Lin Baiguang couldn't help much for the time being. He asked people to add carbide lamps in the conference room, bring tea and food, and enough ice cubes. He was studying the information he had already obtained in his office, trying to piece it together and figure out the trajectory of Gou Er's activities in Qiongshan.
Every hour, he called the correspondent into the conference room to inquire about the progress, and always replied: "Nothing special has been discovered yet."
At around ten o'clock in the evening, we finally made our first major discovery: Sun Xiao brought a ledger.
"If this book is thrown into Guangzhou, there will probably be an earthquake in Qiongzhou's officialdom."
"What good stuff?"
"It's a bribe account." Sun Xiao said, giving him the account book.
It turns out that it is an account book used for giving favors and gifts, which is the same thing as the "gift account" that state and county magistrates usually have to bargain with when handing over to their masters. It is nothing more than the information of various official figures that need to be managed and the amount of various regular silver gifts given during the "Three Festivals". The Gou brothers can't do this kind of business without the government's care. Even if there is no collusion, they still have to manage it as usual to buy peace of mind.
Gou Er's "Human Accounts" are very detailed. Lin Baiguang took a quick look and found that there were five teams from Lingao County, Chengmai County, Danzhou, Qiongshan County, Qiongzhou Prefecture in Hainan, and one Xuwen from Leizhou. A list of all officials in the county. Each official has personal information such as place of birth, family name, and birthday. In addition to the official himself, there is also information about their family members and children. It is written in great detail. There are many changes in this account book, and some names have been crossed out. Not only the time of resignation is noted at the back, but also the reasons for resignation: promotion, resignation, transfer, death, conviction, etc.
At a glance, the trends and bribery prices in local and surrounding official circles from the first year of Apocalypse to the seventh year of Apocalypse are clear at a glance.
Above, the information on Wu Mingjin, Wu Ya and other major figures in high-level official circles is also available. There is also a gift standard of three festivals and one birthday.
Lin Baiguang was not as excited as Sun Xiao. He had seen something similar to this before.
"No, because this is just a booklet of the unspoken rules of officialdom." Lin Baiguang said, "Gifts such as three festivals and one birthday, ice and coal and two tributes were considered legitimate income for officials in the Ming and Qing dynasties. The emperor and I all knew the following There is this thing about an official - one who cannot make waves. I want a record of real large-scale bribery."
"I thought it was a time bomb..."
"This is nothing in this time and space, it's useless." Lin Baiguang thought, but this thing is still very useful, at least it is an information sheet that can be used in officialdom. It will be of great significance for future intelligence personnel to break into the officialdom of the Ming Dynasty.
"Is there a genuine record of bribery?" Lin Baiguang was more concerned about this.
"It seems there is, but it's useless. It's all code." Sun Xiao took out another booklet.
This is the real bribe account. The years, months and days, the amount of money and property given to someone for something, what the plan is to do, and what the result is, are written clearly. But the names of so and so above are all codes used when writing letters. Can't tell who it is.
Lin Baiguang noticed that the last bribery was in April of the seventh year of Tianqi. Gou Er bribed someone and asked him to tell Wu Mingjin not to write about his son Gou Chengxuan's cheating in the county school routine examination. Thus preserving the scholar's reputation.
"What a pity." Lin Baiguang did some research, "But judging from the tasks entrusted to us, these people should be officials - at least they are people who are very close to officials."
"It's a pity that we don't know who it is. Otherwise, if we have this set of information, they will have to obey us."
"Haha, things are not that simple." Lin Baiguang has been involved in official circles for many years and knows that this thing can be useful or useless depending on the situation at the time. "But we can use it. The key is to know who is who!~ !
