The seemingly unintentional words between the two made Shao Xi have some new thoughts in his heart. However, these thoughts were not yet mature. Shao Xi didn't know if what he was thinking was right, so he kept it in his heart for the time being. .
Liang Daoqian's residence was not far away. When Shao Xi and Chief Liu arrived, they saw Lao Wu directing everyone to search through all the accounts related to the treasury in the house. There were several scribes from the treasury standing aside, waiting for Old Wu to ask questions.
"How's it going? Did you find anything?" Shao Xi asked Old Wu as soon as he walked into the room.
Lao Wu handed a booklet in his hand to Shao Xi and said loudly: "Take a look at this! I think there should be no problem."
Shao Xi stretched out his hand to take the book in his hand and took a look. It turned out to be a detailed record of money entering and leaving the warehouse. It recorded the specific time and quantity of money entering and leaving the warehouse, including the supervisor and receiver in charge on that day, and even The escorts were recorded extremely carefully, and no traces were left out.
After looking at it, Shao Xi turned to Director Liu and asked: "Besides the normal annual tax payment and money and grain allocation, are there any other income and expenditures?"
Master Liu bowed and replied: "Except for the above normal money in and out, whenever there are large-scale celebrations, sacrifices or temporary recruitment, there are not many miscellaneous things on weekdays. In order to allow the people of Qingshan County to live and work in peace and contentment, the county governor strictly ordered that no Adding exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes in any name will cause the people to bear additional tax burdens."
Shao Xi smiled and said: "In this way, Mr. Chen is really a parent official who loves his people like his own son."
"What Mr. Shao said is exactly what Mr. Shao said. Mr. County Sheriff really works hard every day so that the people of Qingshan County can live and work in peace and have enough food and clothing!"
"Speaking of which, Mr. Liu is also a diligent official who fulfills his duties."
"Master Shao has given me a great compliment. I dare not accept this compliment. I will also go and help to see if there are any clues that may help Master Shao solve the case."
After saying that, Master Liu also started searching in Liang Dao's dry room with others.
Lao Wu asked Shao Xi in a low voice: "Do you think something is wrong?"
Shao Xi smiled and replied in a low voice: "Of course there is. From the records, it can be seen that the money comes in and out so frequently, and the amount is not small. It is completely beyond the normal money dispatch of a local county government. Such frequent money dispatch What is it used for?"
"I also find it very strange. If it was Liang Daoqian who embezzled treasury funds privately and altered the account books privately, it shouldn't be so frequent, and there shouldn't even be such detailed entry and exit records."
"It's not that there shouldn't be, but he didn't expect that this book would fall into our hands now, and it's just a record of entries and exits. There should be another account book that matches this. This account book should be the key to the whole thing, but it seems You haven't found it."
"Has it been destroyed?"
Shao Xi nodded slightly, "It's very possible. We'll discuss this when we go back. Put this booklet away and we'll take it back."
Old Wu took the booklet from Shao Xi's hand and stuffed it directly into his arms. His movements were so small that no one around him noticed at all.
While the two were talking in a low voice, they suddenly heard Xiong Dutou shout: "I found an account book. I wonder if it will help this case?"
Shao Xi took over the account book and looked through it carefully and found that what was recorded in the account book was the details of how Liang Daoqian misappropriated treasury money and changed the public accounts privately.
"Xiong Dutou, where did you find this account book?"
"My lord, it's buried among many documents and account books. It's really hard to find out if you don't check it carefully. It seems that Liang Daoqian's crime of misappropriating money from the treasury, plus the crime of setting fire to the armory and murder is a certainty, no matter what There is no way to escape."
I really wanted to take a nap and came to the pillow. What a coincidence. As a result, Liang Daoqian had no chance to turn around, and he was certain to die, but the matter was resolved so smoothly.
Shao Xi turned over the account book in his hand and read it carefully from the inside out, then handed it to Master Liu and said: "Master Liu, please take this account book back to the government office and hand it over to the county governor for future interrogation." For the purpose of evidence."
Master Liu took the account book and put it into his arms, bowed and said: "It seems that the theft of treasury money in the past few days must also be related to Liang Daoqian. In addition, there are several cases of embezzlement of treasury money and arson and murder in Jiaku." The investigation is all thanks to the intervention of these two adults. The adults of the 'Jingcheng Division' are worthy of being trusted by the Holy One. They are indeed very good at investigating the case, and I deeply admire them."
"Okay, Mr. Liu, please go back to the government office first! Mr. Cai and Xiong are leading the people to continue searching here to see if there are any other clues. Mr. Wu and I will go back first. If we find anything new, Xiong You can go to the post house to find us two."
After hearing this, Chief Liu, Cai Cheng, and Xiong Dutou quickly bowed and said yes, respectfully sent Shao Xi and the others out of the treasury, and then went about their business.
As soon as he returned to the post house room, Old Wu asked Shao Xi, "Master, what do you think of today's events?"
"What do I think? Lao Wu, don't you think it's going too well?"
"It's really going too smoothly. We can find whatever we want, and whoever we want to die must die. It seems like someone is deliberately cooperating with us. I'm afraid we won't be able to find out the results."
"Wouldn't it be better to cooperate with us? Since they want to sing, we will set up a stage for them. The stage we set up is for them to perform well on it. As they perform, their tails will show. Everyone understands it."
"Master, tell me what you are thinking now!"
Shao Xi held his chin and thought for a moment, then said: "First of all, Liang Daoqian's behavior is very unreasonable. He took the initiative to expose his identity even though I have no solid proof. How could such a cunning person make such an impulsive move? The only explanation is One way, he has to do this, maybe there is a way to survive if he does this, but if he doesn't do this, he may die, so who can let him die?"
"Don't ask questions if you know the answer. I'm not an idiot."
"Well, let me put it simply, Liang Daoqian took the initiative to stand up and take the blame because I found too many doubts about him. Rather than letting me continue to investigate, it would be better for him to jump out on his own initiative. But at that time, we couldn't be sure in the end. His motive for committing the crime, so I just raised a suspicion at that time, and this suspicion was quickly confirmed as fact. Mr. Chen fainted; Chief Liu volunteered to accompany me to investigate the case; and the easy book The account books found seemed to have been arranged in advance."
Old Wu rubbed his head and said, "Don't be simplistic, please be more detailed!"
Shao Xi rolled his eyes at Old Wu, "To put it bluntly, Liang Daoqian was a pawn crossing the river. His initiative to sacrifice was to protect the handsome man behind him. Since all our doubts are on him, we might as well push him away." Come out and die.”
"Yeah, I understand that."
"Since we already know that he is a dead pawn, it is very unreasonable for Mr. Chen to faint. The only explanation is that he was pretending. The purpose should be to get out of our sight in time to make the next arrangement, so that's why Chief Secretary Liu chased me out of the government office and wanted to accompany me to the treasury to investigate the case."
"Master, you mean..."
"That's right, it's that account book. Master Liu's appearance is just to make that account book appear in front of us and make us guilty of Liang Daoqian's crime. I have read that account book carefully. It is very new. It is not a book that is often read. , the old account book with shabby corners looks like a carefully prepared and well-kept backup account book for emergencies.”
"Want to close the case in time?"
"Yes, they don't want us to continue the investigation, because if we continue the investigation, we may find some other things."
At this point, both of them suddenly realized and said in unison: "The real account book!"
Shao Xi said excitedly: "Yes, that account book must contain something ulterior, and Liang Daoqian set fire to the Jiaku just to cover up the existence of the real account book."
"Can you cover up that account book by burning the Jiaku? How to cover it up?"
"The account books of the government treasury are checked, sorted and stored in the first warehouse by Master Liu, and then reported to the Department of Accounts. If there is a problem with the account books of the government treasury, it is impossible for Master Liu not to discover it. Since he has discovered that there is a problem, why bother? Organizing it into the treasury? It can only mean that Master Liu conspired with them to make false accounts and put them into the treasury, because if there were no problems with the account books in the treasury, there would be no need for Liang Daoqian to burn the Jiaku."
Old Wu twirled his beard and asked in confusion: "Even if the accounts are false, there is no need to burn the armor warehouse, right? Isn't this unnecessary? On the contrary, it will attract other people's attention."
"Under normal circumstances, there is indeed no need for this, but now that an accident has occurred, the account book is likely to be out of their control. At this time, if you compare the account book reported to the Accounts Department, you will find that there is There are many problems, so if the account book cannot be retrieved in the short term, the easiest way is to destroy the account book in Jiaku, and of course, make it an accident."
Old Wu nodded in agreement: "Well, that makes sense. Judging from the current situation, this is the most likely possibility. So how did the account books lose control?"
The two of them said in unison: "Theft of silver from the treasury!"
Before the other party could react, the two said at the same time again: "Ye Ziyuan!"
Shao Xi was a little anxious now, walking up and down on the ground mumbling.
"No wonder, no wonder! No wonder everyone in the Qingshan County government was so nervous after the treasure was stolen by her; no wonder Liang Daoqian hated her so much that he gnashed his teeth; no wonder she showed up when there was a fire in the warehouse last night; no wonder she said she wanted to help Qingshan City before she left. It turned out that what she said was to report the matter to the people of Qingshan County and get rid of these corrupt officials."
At this time, Old Wu also became nervous, "This matter is not trivial. This girl is going to stir up a hornet's nest! Since ancient times, people have not fought with officials!"
"No, I'm going to go find her now and tell her that this can't be done. Even if I do, I have to do it. She can't take the risk."
"I asked you to calm down a little bit. Isn't it too obvious for you to go to Lan Xiufang in broad daylight? Go after nightfall and get the account book back from the girl, plus the records of the money in and out of the treasury in our hands. , should be regarded as complete physical evidence, and then you can just go to the state capital or go directly to the Ministry of Accounts to file a complaint according to the contents in the account book."
"She must not do anything wrong."
