Hearing that Chen Xiaomu said that he wanted to destroy the Sanqing Temple, the three of them couldn't help being surprised. Wei Yushang asked cautiously: "Teacher, do you know the background behind the Sanqing Temple?"
Chen Xiaomu nodded heavily and said, "I don't care who he is, as long as he breaks the law on Zheng's territory, he must be punished!"
Magistrate Bai sighed and smiled bitterly: "Prince-in-law, to tell you the truth, everyone had the same idea as you at first, but now I'm afraid you can't even pass the emperor's test!"
"Oh! How do you say this?" Chen Xiaomu asked knowingly.
Magistrate Bai glanced at Jia Gui. Jia Gui immediately walked to the table, picked up an envelope and handed it to Chen Xiaomu, saying, "Prince-in-law, please take a look at this first."
Chen Xiaomu took the envelope and looked at the words on the cover first. It was actually a letter written by a Taoist named Zhengyang in Sanqing Temple to Magistrate Bai. Chen Xiaomu took out the letterhead and read it briefly. The tone of the words on the letterhead was very strong. , the general meaning is to accuse the Xinjing government office and Bai Zhifu of not doing enough to maintain public security, causing robbers to come to Sanqingguanli many times to rob, causing huge losses to Sanqingguanli, and the Xinjing government office must compensate according to the price, otherwise, Sanqingguan reported the matter to the imperial court, requesting the emperor to punish the officials in the Xinjing government office who had not done anything. The bottom of the letter also listed the list and prices of the items lost in Sanqingguan, and finally summarized a detailed plan. The total price is a total of thirteen thousand eight hundred and fifty-two taels of silver! "
Chen Xiaomu laughed at this. He shook the letter in his hand and said to Magistrate Bai and Jia Gui with a smile: "According to what this letter says, you two have committed a big crime! If you don't even return the capital before you return it, In less than a month since then, Sanqingguan has been robbed four times by robbers, and the robbers have not been caught yet, which is really embarrassing!"
Magistrate Bai became anxious when he heard this. He turned pale and said: "Prince Consort Chen, don't listen to the nonsense they said in this letter! In fact, the robberies they said were all done by their own people. !”
"Oh!" Chen Xiaomu said in surprise: "This is the first time in my life that I have heard of someone robbing me. But what's the point of them doing this? Is it just to claim some money from the government? But as far as I know, this Sanqing Temple They have quite a lot of assets, so they don’t have to go to such trouble for these three melons and two dates!”
Magistrate Bai sighed with a frown on his face: "Prince-in-law, you don't know something. The robberies mentioned in this letter were indeed committed by the Sanqingguan Taoist group. Jia Tongpan and I were just discussing this." Focus on this!"
Chen Xiaomu said: "Can you two adults speak more clearly?"
Magistrate Bai glanced at Jia Gui, who immediately stepped forward and said, "Prince-in-law, this case is handled by me, and I know the reasons quite clearly, so let me explain it to you, right?" "
Chen Xiaomu nodded, "Okay."
Jia Gui paused for a moment and said: "There is a big town called Guanshan Town at the foot of Mangdang Mountain. Because it is the only way to the new capital of Zhengdu, at its most prosperous time, there were nearly three thousand residents in the town. Every household, plus some merchants traveling from north to south, the population of the town at its peak was larger than the population of most counties in Zheng State. It was known as Little Xinjing! But since the Sanqing Temple was built on the mountain Since then, robberies have often occurred in this town, and the strange thing is that most of these robberies involve robbing women, especially beautiful women. They often disappear for no reason, but money is rarely lost."
''How many cases like this are there? Are there any case files that I can take a look at? "Chen Xiaomu interjected and asked with interest.
"No." Bai Zhifu continued to explain: "I asked the previous Zhifu, and he said that because of the intense fighting ahead, he was urgently transferred by the emperor to Cicada City to defend the enemy. He did not have time to hand over. Later, because the new capital city was captured by the Chu army, the government Most of the files in the Yamen were burned by the Chu army, so these have become unsolved cases!"
Chen Xiaomu waved the letter in his hand and said helplessly: "Then let's talk about the robberies that happened in Sanqingguan after you took office!"
Bai Zhifu smiled bitterly and said: "Prince-in-law, how many cases are there? In fact, only one case occurred. Those cases were all said by the Taoist priests in Sanqing Temple themselves. They never came to report the case, and the government office actually accepted the case. There is only one person in Youguanshan Town who is reporting the crime!"
After hearing this, Chen Xiaomu said in shock: "So that's it! Then tell me about this case?"
Magistrate Bai nodded and said: "Five days ago, a married woman in Guanshan Town returned to her natal home to visit her parents. Because of her beautiful appearance, when she was shopping on the street in Guanshan Town, she was spotted by two Taoist priests wearing Taoist robes. They were attracted by it, so they stepped forward and pretended that there had been a bloody disaster recently, and encouraged the woman to follow them to the temple to do magic for her to eliminate evil spirits and save her from the bloody disaster. At first, the woman seemed to believe it, but the two Taoists sang in harmony. , talked about it in a very colorful way, and told her that if he brought it to her, he would be able to remove the evil spirits from her body in at most two hours. It was the time of morning, so the woman briefly calculated the time, and followed the two Taoists to the mountain. Sanqingguan was performing rituals, but she never looked back. When the woman's family came out to find the store where she bought things, they heard from the store clerk that the woman had left with two Taoist priests, and also heard from the store clerk that the woman had left with two Taoist priests. He said that the two Taoist priests said they wanted to perform a ritual for the woman to remove the disaster of blood and light. They could do it in just two hours. After returning home, the family heard about it and immediately went to the Sanqing Temple on the mountain to look for it. They happened to meet each other on the way. A familiar vegetable vendor told me that on his way back from delivering vegetables to Sanqing Temple, he took a photo with these three people from a distance, because these two Taoists were mainly responsible for serving the temple in Sanqing Temple. He went out to buy grain, grass and vegetables, so he was quite familiar with the two Taoists. According to the vegetable seller, the two Taoists were named Zizhen and Ziyang, and they were fellow disciples of the same master. It was just because they were walking on two roads going up and down the mountain, and there was a long distance between them, so I didn’t go up to say hello to them.”
After the woman's family heard about it, they were slightly relieved. In order to prevent accidents, they found Li Zheng from Guanshan Town, who was somewhat related to them, and begged him to go with them to Sanqingguan to find someone. Li Zheng could not refuse because of his relatives' reputation. , they came to the gate of Sanqing Temple on the mountain with them. Unexpectedly, after they knocked on the gate and explained their purpose of coming, the Taoist priests in the temple did not admit that a woman with the appearance they described had ever come to the temple to offer incense. Not to mention the rituals. As for the two Taoist priests they mentioned, Zizhen and Ziyang, the Taoist priests in Sanqing Temple did not admit that there were Taoists with this name in the temple. The woman's family members were furious and anxious after hearing this. They started fighting with the Taoist priests in Guanli, but they were no match for the Taoist priests in Guanshan. In the end, including Li Zheng from Guanshan Town, they were beaten by the Taoist priests in Sanqing Guanli until their noses were bruised and their faces were swollen, and they rolled over because they tried to break up the fight. After they came down the mountain, they entrusted Li Zheng to come forward, handed a piece of complaint to the Xinjing government office, and sued all the Taoist priests in Sanqing Temple! "
After Jia Tongpan received the complaint, he immediately sent Chief Wang from the government office and several detectives to Sanqing Temple to investigate the case, haha! Unexpectedly, the Sanqing Temple was very arrogant. Not only did they not cooperate with the investigation, they sent Taoist priests from the temple to drive Wang Baotou and others down the mountain! After Wang Captou came back and reported the matter to Judge Jia Tong, Judge Jia Tong came to discuss with me. Considering that there are nearly 300 Taoist priests in Sanqing Temple, and everyone is good at martial arts, these 100 yamen servants in our government office are basically useless. It was not enough, so we decided to write a memorial to report the matter to the emperor, requesting the emperor to send some of the Imperial Guard troops to support us! Unexpectedly, not long after the memorial was handed over, the emperor sent Wang Gonggong, the eunuch in charge of the palace, to come to the government office in person to deliver his oral instructions. There were only four words to put an end to the trouble! "
At that time, Jia Tongpan and I were stunned after hearing this. We never expected that the emperor could actually give in to a small Sanqingguan Taoist priest. At this time, I suddenly thought of why the former prefect would use the hands of the Chu army to disappear. After destroying all the case files related to Sanqing Temple during his tenure, I specially prepared a heavy gift to visit him. After inquiring about him, it turned out that as I expected, the abbot of Sanqing Temple turned out to be Qi Qi. The prince who had been deposed was the emperor who had given the land to the Sanqing Monastery and had given him the name of the temple, so he knew the relationship! "
"Since the Emperor has issued an oral message asking you to settle the matter, why did this happen again?" Chen Xiaomu asked, shaking the letter in his hand.
Magistrate Bai's face was instantly full of resentment, and he said angrily: "Those Taoists from Sanqingguan are simply bullying people too much. Jia Tongpan and I were trying to find ways to appease the suffering master after receiving the emperor's oral instructions, but we didn't expect this Sanqing Temple became restless first. Last night they had this letter sent over and stated in the letter that the family members of the woman who went to Sanqing Temple to look for the missing woman that day were all robbers. They were in Sanqing Temple at that time. They robbed a lot of property in their temple, and also fabricated several fictitious robberies in the letter. They also asked the messenger to give us a message, saying that it was entirely because of the Xinjing government office's failure to maintain public security that led to their temple. Our property has been robbed by robbers over and over again. If we cannot pay them compensation first, then their abbot will have to go down the mountain to find the emperor himself to ask for the money!"
"Haha," Chen Xiaomu sneered, "Can your office now find this money to give to these thieves?"
Magistrate Bai hesitated for a moment, looked at Chen Xiaomu and said with a wry smile: "Now the entire Xinjing government office has less than one thousand taels of silver, so there is still money to pay for this debt to the King of Hell!" But his voice changed again, Then he said: "If the Prince Consort also feels that we should give this money, Jia Tongpan and I can go out separately to borrow some money and bring it back together, and send it to Sanqing Temple together, in order to achieve the emperor's decree to calm the matter!"
Chen Xiaomu suddenly stared at Magistrate Bai for a long time with strange eyes. It was not until Magistrate Bai felt uncomfortable that he said in a deep voice: "Master Magistrate, you are quite naive. You are just collecting all the money now." I sent it to Sanqingguan. If Sanqingguan writes again every three days in the future, saying that they have been robbed or stolen again, and ask you for money again, what should you do?"
"This..." Magistrate Bai was blocked by Chen Xiaomu and was speechless for a moment.
At this time, Jia Gui hurriedly came up to take over the conversation. He cupped his hand at Chen Xiaomu and said, "It would be better to ask the prince-in-law to show the official and Lord Bai a clear path!"
"You all listen to me?" Chen Xiaomu asked, looking at the two people in front of him with a half-smile.
Magistrate Bai and Jia Gui seemed to have suddenly found a life-saving straw, and they quickly nodded together.
Chen Xiaomu said: "Okay, you should write a reply to Sanqing Temple now, saying that according to the tip, it has been confirmed that the robbers are pretending to be Taoists and hiding in Sanqing Temple, and asking the Taoists in Sanqing Temple to cooperate with the government Search the temple!"
Before Chen Xiaomu finished speaking, Magistrate Bai shook his head and said: "Prince Prince Consort, we don't have any real evidence in our hands right now. We just rely on empty words and a letter. Sanqing Temple will never let us enter the temple for search! It can't be done. , If they really bring this matter to the emperor, then we really won’t be able to eat, and we’ll just walk away!”
Chen Xiaomu smiled secretly: "Who said it was empty talk?"
Magistrate Bai said in confusion: "What evidence do we have in hand to prove that there are robbers hiding in Sanqing Temple?"
Chen Xiaomu smiled and said: "If there is no evidence, can't we create evidence? For example, you, the prefect, can find a painter now, and then go to the prison of the government to find a few felons at random and let him paint, and Take several false names and put them on them. After they are done, these portraits will be made into arrest warrants. Of course, in order to make them more realistic, you can ask the painter to draw a few more copies to mark the four gates of the new capital. Post one at every intersection in the city, and then send these arrest warrants and letters to Sanqing Temple, and then I’ll see what other reasons they can come up with to prevent you from going in and searching!”
At this time, Jia Gui said worriedly: "Prince-in-law, if we go in and find nothing, what will happen if we find nothing?"
Chen Xiaomu smiled and said: "Master Jia, do you think that with these, the abbot of Sanqing Temple can allow the government to go in and search? Don't forget, since Sanqing Temple established itself on Mangdang Mountain, dozens of incidents have happened How many cases of missing women have been solved? I believe that as long as the abbot still has some sense in his mind, he will find ways to prevent the government from conducting investigations! "
Hearing Chen Xiaomu's words, Jia Gui and Bai Zhifu couldn't help but look at each other with doubts on their faces.
Wei Yushang couldn't help but ask: "Teacher, you made Uncle Bai and Master Jia go through so much trouble, but in the end you still couldn't enter Sanqing Temple to search. Do you really know what the meaning of this is?"
Chen Xiaomu raised the letter in his hand and sneered: "There are robbers on Mangdang Mountain, but Sanqing Temple itself can tell it, right? Now we have found out that the robbers are among the Taoists in the temple, but they are blocking them. Let's catch them, so what if the robbers kill them all in the end? The emperor can't hold the responsibility to the government office, right?"
When Chen Xiaomu said this, he almost made his intentions clear. Magistrate Bai, Jia Gui, and Wei Yushang all suddenly realized that their hearts were like mirrors, but Magistrate Bai still frowned. As if there was still something unsolved, Chen Xiaomu looked at him and smiled: "Master Bai, do you have any concerns?"
Magistrate Bai cupped his hands at him and said: "Prince-in-law, as far as I know, there are more than 300 Taoist priests in Sanqing Temple alone, and all of them are very skilled. If we want to deal with them, we can only rely on our strength." I’m afraid manpower will be of no use!”
Chen Xiaomu couldn't help but laugh and said: "Master Bai, you don't have to worry about this. Since Sanqingguan can turn Taoist priests into bandits, I can also turn soldiers into bandits! Let's give these thieves Taoism a black light, and the black will eat the black. ,what do you think?"
