Guo Langzhong immediately signaled the guards to go get it, and here he heard An Ying say: "How did you ask Secretary Cheng about Daqilu? On what occasion, how you asked, and how he answered, you should pay attention to it carefully." In detail, the more detailed the better.”
Guo Lang secretly praised in his heart that Miss An was smart and agile, and her partnership with him just now was a perfect match.
"Secretary Cheng often came to my shop to have tea. After all, he was from the government, so I gave him more care, and we became familiar with each other. One time he brought a baggage, and he carefully placed it beside him and told him Guys, don't get dirty, so I asked out of curiosity what was inside, and he said it was the Great Law of Qi. He told me that the previous dynasty perished because the laws were too strict, so when we founded our country, Emperor Gaozu issued the Great Law. Qi Law. That year the Da Qi Law was revised and promulgated. He had just gotten the new code and went back to copy it. What he copied was the Tea and Salt Law. I wanted to know at that time how our private tea would be judged, so I asked him Can you copy it and lend it to me to read?"
Luo Qiaoniang said slowly: "After about ten days, when he came to have tea again, he gave me a copy of the law book. I asked him while I was reading it. I remember it very clearly. He pointed to the book and said to me, The tea smuggler should be punished, and the accomplice should be exiled. He also told me that there are great evil crimes in the Daqi Law. The tea smuggler must be punished if he is planning to do great evil. If he is coerced, he can be reduced to one or two degrees of crime. If he is exposed, he will be punished. , minus one more.”
"I brought these five volumes home to read that day. When my husband Zheng Ping saw them that day, I also listened to Secretary Cheng's words. He also said that the law now aims to be lenient, even for serious crimes. There is little implication, unlike the previous dynasty where all three and five tribes were destroyed."
"You believed it so easily, and you still committed such a big case?" An Ying couldn't help but wonder. From the beginning to now, Luo Qiaoniang has been shrewd, cunning and determined. It's hard to believe that these few words made her dare to take risks.
"Of course not. I heard my father say that smuggling tea is a great evil. If the government finds out, all three of our clans will be killed. So I am very strange. If the law has been changed, why should we be threatened by He Qing like this? After all, the main culprit was He Qing. On the day I returned the law, I specially invited Secretary Cheng to have a meal in the tea house. During the dinner, Secretary Cheng had a drink and said a few words. He used to be the boss of Qiantang Mansion. Xing Xiaoli once encountered the case of smuggling tea. At that time, he received one hundred taels of silver from the family members, and with this money he bought a house in such an expensive land in Qiantang Mansion. The tea seller was eventually sentenced to exile. Zhangzhou. Nowadays, the criminal law has been relaxed a lot. At that time, the case may be fined now. I asked carefully when I heard it. The tea seller was from Jiangxi. He had been smuggling tea for five years, and it was at least several hundred kilograms. Later, he collected it After I quit working, I bought a house in Qiantang Mansion and settled down. I cleared my name and started a medicine business. Later, I was reported to the police and found out by the government."
"I thought that this tea seller was in a similar situation to my family. Although my family has been smuggling tea for a long time, my family was blackmailed by He Qing." Luo Qiaoniang continued: "I'm afraid that these things are just Secretary Cheng's drunken lies, and he secretly sent People investigated Secretary Cheng and this case. He did have a small house in Gongchenqiao, Qiantang Fucheng. Secretary Cheng's family could never afford it. After investigating the tea smuggling case, it was also clear that the Jiangxi tea seller's surname was Wang Mingste, a family of thirty-six, was fined two thousand silver and exiled to Zhangzhou, which is pretty much what Secretary Cheng said."
"So, you believed Secretary Cheng and decided to commit this poisoning case?" Guo Langzhong asked.
"That's not the case. After I found out, I didn't think much about it at the time. I just felt that things were a little easier and not as scary as my father said. Later, several things happened, which forced me to think about how to pull He Qing down. .”
"Are you talking about your sister Pingniang?"
"My father must have told me that Ping Niang was not sold, but snatched away by He Qing. On the fifth day of every month, I secretly met her at the back door of He's house. Everything was fine for several years, and He Qing made so much money. A lot of money, at least it won't cost her food and drink. Unexpectedly, when Ping Niang was thirteen years old, she told me that she was taken in by He Qing and became He Qing's concubine. I went crazy at that time. He Qing's age He is almost the same as my dad. He is a beast! I went back and told my dad that he would expose He Qing. The worst possible outcome would be to lose everything. But my dad said that if a daughter from our peasant family could be a concubine to the magistrate, it would be like smoke rising from the ancestral grave. , If I give birth to a son and a half daughters in the future, I will also enjoy happiness in the future. At that time, my father was only thinking about having a son, and didn’t care about the few of us. From then on, I began to think about my own revenge. "
"Don't your husband, Zheng Ping, know about these things?"
"He has no idea at all. When He Qing set his sights on the Zheng family's property, he asked my father to marry me to the Zheng family because he wanted me to find a way to take over the Zheng family teahouse in the future, so that the flow of our private tea could be secretly obtained from the Zheng family tea house. After all, the Zheng family is the largest tea shop in Huzhou. My father originally refused. Zheng Ping is much older than me. He is a profligate person who fills houses. He also has a powerful eldest daughter. No matter how you look at it, It's not a good marriage. But I checked with Zheng Ping myself. His previous wife was not in good health, so he invited a famous doctor in the capital to come over. His wife's natal family lost money in business, and he secretly helped to make things right. If I had listened At least I can often inquire about He Qing's arrangements. If I really find a suitable person to marry like my father, with the temperament of my father and my uncle, our Luo family will be in He Qing's hands for several lifetimes. So. I took it upon myself to tell He Qing that I was going to get married, and he tried to find a way for me and Zheng Ping to meet by chance in a tofu shop, and then Zheng Ping came to propose marriage as a matter of course. He didn't know about these things. He Qing asked me to give birth to my son as soon as possible. In this way, the Zheng family’s tea mountains and workshops can be owned by us in the future, so that our private tea in Shuanglin Village can slowly get on the right track.”
"Then how did you ask Zheng Ping about Da Qi Lu?"
"I pretended to talk about the case in Qiantang Mansion during the dinner, saying that these smuggled tea cakes don't need to be beheaded now? My father said that in the past, people had to beheaded. I remember very clearly, my husband said that beheading was the ancestor of Emperor Gaozu. It was a matter of the emperor's time. Nowadays, the law is lenient. If the penalty for crimes such as smuggling tea cakes can be paid up to the fine, he will be sentenced to thousands of miles of exile. However, for such a heinous crime, future generations will not be able to take the imperial examination. I He also asked, what if such a heinous crime was caused by coercion, such as being coerced to kill someone, steal money, etc. He said that such coercion depends on the specific circumstances, and the crime is usually reduced. Is my husband also lying to me? Are the cases in Qiantang Mansion all fake? It’s impossible. I’ve asked several people about these things, and it’s true. I really don’t know what’s wrong with it.”
An Ying said: "We will investigate these matters. Let me ask you again, you just found out that the penalty for illegal tea is lower than you thought, then you can just go and expose He Qing? Why do you still have to do it? Poisoning, don’t you know that this batch of tea cakes is tribute tea, and if you poison it, it will be a felony to murder the royal family?”
"It's not that I haven't thought about directly exposing He Qing, but the magistrate of Huzhou is headed by the transfer envoy from Zhejiang and Zhejiang. How can we see him in such a short time? And I often pay attention to the movements of Huzhou's officialdom. The Shaoyin and Fuyin in Huzhou are at odds. But He Qing made arrangements before the two of them. Both of them believed in He Qing, so it was impossible for me to find them. I couldn't directly expose such a big official. My husband is the manager of Huzhou Tea Company. He often said that if something went wrong with the tribute tea, neither the transfer envoy nor the magistrate would be able to carry it. It was something the nobles in the palace drank, so they had to be careful. I just wanted to do something about the tribute tea. Under the tribute tea Poison is very difficult. Ordinary poisons have a smell. Once contaminated, the tribute tea will definitely not be taken away. I experimented many times and later discovered that a poison left by my grandfather is colorless and odorless and can be baked. Entering the cake. I deliberately told He Qing that this year my husband was very good at getting molds from Min. If they entered the palace and the nobles liked them, then the sales in Xia Kingdom would be very good. As expected, He Qing asked my husband to get the molds. Take it and distribute it to the tea farmers in Huzhou."
"I thought that when the palace found out and traced it, He Qing would not be able to escape the connection, because the suggestion to adopt the new model was his idea. Then I deliberately said that I framed the Zheng family for revenge, so that my husband and my daughter would I can get away with it. When I get to prison, I will expose He Qing's affairs to the officials from the capital, so that He Qing will not escape death. Our Luo family is just exiled thousands of miles away, and I secretly hid a lot of money, even if my father is exiled They can also start from scratch, but at least they are not threatened by He Qing. I forgot to mention just now that after He Qing took my little sister as a concubine, he asked her to accompany the big merchants of Xia Kingdom, and even got pregnant with a child, because My father is unknown, and I was aborted by the eldest lady of the He family. The big businessman from the Xia Kingdom likes my little sister very much, and has asked He Qing for it several times. He Qing did not intend to send her away before, but this year I don’t know why He Qing agreed to take my little sister away when the merchants from Xia Kingdom come this time. If we don't do anything this year, I'm afraid my little sister will be taken away to Xia Kingdom and our family will never see her again."
An Ying thought for a while and then asked: "The baggage you brought home secretly was full of items for dressing up. I originally thought you were planning to escape on your own, but now it seems that you prepared them for Ping Niang?"
Luo Qiaoniang nodded and said: "The day I received the news that you had taken Zheng Ping away, I knew that I was about to be arrested. I definitely couldn't leave, but I wanted to take advantage of the last chance to take Pingniang away from the He family. But I couldn't contact Pingniang that day, so I had no choice but to go back to Luo's house to see what happened."
