Huzhou government office.
An Ying followed Su Huangzhe and his party to station at the Huzhou government office. Mr. Su threw a lot of confessions and materials at her, and she worked hard to sort them out every day. Xiao Yi had taken great care of her since the last incident, bringing tea and snacks at one time. The other maids and servants in the government office thought that Xiao Yi was attracted to her, so they always made Xiao Yi convenient.
Today, Mr. Chen Dong also came from the capital, and Su Huangzhe called An Ying to speak.
Su Huangzhe waved to her and said, "Tell me what you find first. By the way, this is Chen Dong, Chen Shilang. This is your first time meeting him." As he said that, he raised his finger and pointed at the man next to him, An Ying. Look, Chen Shilang is only in his twenties. He has handsome features and a face as white as a scholar. The crimson official uniform makes his face even more delicate. Unfortunately, his face is serious. Compared with Su Huangzhe's gentle feeling, Chen Shilang looks... It's not easy to talk.
Su Huangzhe tapped his fingers on the table and asked, "Have you discovered anything new after reading that pile of materials?".
An Ying was slightly nervous, carefully sitting on the chair at the far end, and said, "My little girl is stupid and has made some progress."
"Master Su gave me the financial and tax situation of Shuanglin Town in the past few years. I guess you want to use the flow of money to deduce who is involved in the private tea case."
Su Huangzhe nodded approvingly. He didn't say anything to the girl. He just asked someone to throw a bunch of files to her. Sure enough, she knew the purpose of arranging her viewing.
Su Huangzhe said: "A total of thirteen thieves were captured in Shuanglin Mountain that time. After several days of interrogation, no other people were involved. I only knew that the Luo family paid them to take care of the tea trees and make tea cakes. What about the rest? No explanation."
Chen Dong answered coldly: "These are enough to be punished by hanging. What else do you need to explain?"
Su Huangzhe rolled his eyes at him angrily, "Luo Shi said she put poison in the mold. This step is to put the steamed tea cake in the mold to remove the yellowing, and the poison is slowly baked into the tea cake. She has to There is a place to test this. This thing will definitely not be successful in one go. Didn't Xiao Yi discover the two huts where they make tea? The molds and tea leaves have been tested and they are not poisonous. What I want to check is poisoning, poisoning , the private tea case is incidental!"
Chen Dong glanced at him: "A lot of things were indeed found in the hut and were transported to the Huzhou government office for inspection. However, nothing special was found. They were just daily tools for tea farmers. As for Man Yin, there is no trace."
It turns out that they have such a good relationship, An Ying thought silently, but couldn't help but interrupt.
"Well, I haven't finished speaking yet."
Chen Dong glanced at her again, "Tell me, did I stop you?"
An Ying thought to himself, Mr. Chen feels a little convulsive, just like the lawyer he taught back then. From time to time he would say "What, you are mute?" "What? I stopped you from talking?"
"The old accounts of the Luo family that Mr. Su gave me over the years seemed strange in some places. I didn't think much about it at first, but then I thought about it more carefully. Shuanglin Town, also known as Shuanglin Village, has always been a relatively wealthy village nearby. But if If we check further, all the villages nearby are similar, only a few villages in the mountains are poorer."
Chen Dong took a sip of kumquat and said, "I've seen Huzhou's taxation. Shuanglin Town is just average. It's not as good as nearby Zhili or Wukang."
"I'm not looking at the taxes from the government, but the account books of the Shen family's bank." An Ying said: "Everything purchased for weddings in nearby villages and towns goes to the Shen's shop. Shuanglin Village originally had only thirteen households, and their heads looked like Li's. To get rich, they moved to six families in the city one after another, leaving only seven families." An Ying took out the piece of paper he had prepared before, handed it to Huang Suzhe to look at, and continued: "There are five families in these seven families. A girl in the household has gotten married in the past three years. I checked and they all spent about 200 taels on fine four-season clothes, fabrics and jewelry from the Shen family shop, and from the nearby Zhili and Xiaokang in Wukang Town. People are reluctant to spend so much money on these items.”
At this time, Chen Dong nodded and said: "You have a unique perspective on the problem. But if you think about it carefully, how can the money obtained from secretly selling private tea be taxed? But no matter how these villagers hide their wealth, the marriage will still be done to some extent. Look at the family background. You mean, these seven families may be the ones involved in the tea-making case? There are indeed a lot of people involved. "
"This is a case of murdering the royal family." An Ying said: "It was originally a big enough case. It was just Luo Shi's confession that made the whole case trivial. Didn't you originally treat it as a major case of treason? Come and do it?”
At this time, Chen Dong raised his eyes and saw An Ying, who was no more than a teenage girl, even a little childish. He was originally very disdainful that Su Huangzhe liked to discuss the case with this teahouse girl. If Su Huangzhe hadn't always been a womanizer, otherwise He even suspected that Su Huangzhe had fallen in love with this girl. What a big deal it was to investigate the case like this. Now it seemed that this girl was indeed suitable for the case.
Su Huangzhe nodded secretly: "I understand what you mean."
An Ying stood up and said: "Mr. Su must have thought of this too, but it's just because it involves too much and he has some scruples. But back to the case itself, this is a shocking case. If you continue to break up, you should be subject to chaos."
Chen Dong smiled and put down his cup and said, "You think he is a good person." He then said to An Ying, "Miss An, we will send someone to Shuanglin Village to pick up the person. I think we will go to interrogate the person later in the afternoon. Are you there?" Just listen." Su Huangzhe looked at An Ying a little hesitantly and said, "If you don't want to worry, girl, you should read the prepared confession later."
Chen Dong just glanced at Su Huangzhe and said, "Come if you want to come, I don't have time to wait." After that, he strode away. An Ying didn't quite understand what was going on, but felt that if he didn't follow, he would Mr. Chen seemed to be unwilling to let himself get involved in the case, so he said to Su Huangzhe: "Mr. Su, I'd better go and listen together, otherwise it will take half a day to wait until the confession is compiled." Su Huangzhe frowned and said No more words.
About two or three hours later, someone came over to report that a total of forty-seven people from seven families related to Shuanglin Village had been arrested and were all taken to the military prison outside the city. At this time, Su Huangzhe and others went to the government prison.
An Ying found that the entire atmosphere in the interrogation room with Chen Dong was different. Although he was sitting in the corner behind the screen, the smell of blood permeated his whole body, making people feel cold from the soles of his feet to the top of his head.
Luo Youde was tied up and thrown to the ground, covered in blood. Chen Dong walked over and stepped on Luo Youde's arm wound with his black soap shoes. He saw An Ying quietly touching his arm, as if the foot was stepping on him. Luo Youde seemed to be in so much pain that he couldn't tell. As he spoke, his face was filled with tears or sweat, and he said in a hoarse voice: "Mr. Chen, I have told you everything I know. I really don't know the rest."
Chen Dong grabbed Luo Youde's hair and said, "Luo Youde, your new concubine has given you a son, which has solved the knot in your heart for so many years."
"Sir, what are you going to do? Are you using my son's life to extract a confession? Do you have any other methods?!" Luo Youde's face was full of horror, and he cried and looked at Su Huangzhe and Guo Langzhong, dumbfounded. He shouted at the top of his voice: "Master Su, don't you dare to say something fair? My son is only five years old, is this what a human being does?" Su Huangzhe's expression did not change, but Dai Chang, who was beside him, looked intolerable, and Luo Youde saw it. He struggled to crawl towards Dai Chang and shouted: "Master Yuan Wailang, please, you can deal with me however you want, just let my little son go."
Guo Langzhong glanced at Luo Youde and said, "Luo Youde, let me ask you again what happened to the tea trees behind Shuanglin Mountain?"
"Sir, I really don't know." Luo Youde vomited blood and said: "Sir, even if I die, I still don't know what happened to the tea leaves in the middle of the mountain. Please be kind and forgive me. Let’s take care of my kid.”
Chen Dong chuckled and said, "Luo Youde, do you think I would attack a five-year-old child?"
As soon as these words came out, Luo Youde was stunned, but Dai Chang answered: "That's right, Mr. Chen would do such a thing. It would be convenient for everyone if you explain the matter honestly and you will suffer less."
"You think that if you just carry it with you, even if you die in prison, you can still save more than a dozen people in the Luo family, or about a hundred people in Shuanglin Village. I think it's worth it if you trade this deal with me." Chen Dong knelt down as he spoke, "But what you don't know is that the villagers in Shuanglin Village recognize your younger brother more. But your eldest brother, the head of the village, they think he is not as generous as Luo Youcai, and he is always reserved on weekdays. They are not allowed to spend money here, and are not allowed to play there. Even the girls at home are not allowed to have more dowry, and it is your good brother who secretly covers it up so that they can enjoy this blessing. "
An Ying saw that although Luo Youde was tortured horribly, there was a sense of perseverance in his eyes. He was basically determined to die and wanted to use himself to protect the hundreds of people involved in the case.
Chen Dong continued: "Do you know that your eldest wife hates your concubine and your little son? To be honest, if I hadn't ordered you to take care of your little son, your little son would have died long ago without my doing anything. Now." Chen Dong threw down a stack of oral confession papers and asked Luo Youde to read them for himself. Luo Youde's hands were tied, so he had to lie on the ground and read. After reading one page, Chen Dong took it away. Luo Youde had both hands. His eyes were about to burst and he was howling without knowing what to say. After only five or six pages, Luo Youde spat out a mouthful of blood and lay on the ground without moving for a long time. An Ying even thought that Luo Youde was dead. Youde lay on the ground, tilted his head, and looked at the confession paper with his eyes and said: "The more than a thousand tea trees in Shuanglin Mountain were planted by my father Luo Mao. In the first year of Yongkang, he discovered those few wild tea trees and began to use them. Tea trees were grown from tea seeds. At first, he just liked it and made tea for himself. One day, He Qing, the newly arrived county magistrate, passed by Shuanglin Village and came to my house to have tea and started chatting with my father. My father also Without thinking much, I told him about the wild tea trees on the mountain. Later, my father went to participate in the Tea King Competition in Huzhou, and the governor of the state at that time classified these tea trees as tribute. Now my father I was so worried. I couldn’t drink the tribute and sell it, and I had to pay for labor and firewood. This was really dragging my family to death. When He Qing found out, he came over and discussed with my father for a long time. He asked Zheng Ping to buy the twelve wild tea plants, and asked my father to continue planting tea in the back mountain. He gave my father a lot of money to buy the tea cakes. Later, there were more and more tea trees, and He Qing wanted more and more tea cakes. More and more people came, and my father and the rest of us could no longer handle it, so we discussed with He Qing whether we could do it. He Qing checked other families in the village and tried to move out the ones that were difficult to control, leaving only seven households and my family. They have good relationships and are easy to control."
As he spoke, Luo Youde vomited blood again, and just as he was about to struggle to continue speaking, Su Huangzhe said: "Xiao Yi, go and call a doctor. Luo Youde, please take it easy first."
