A group of people knelt down to thank him, their foreheads all red.
Gu Zhengchen shouted several times before everyone stood up. Just as he was about to ask everyone their names, a cry of surprise came from behind them.
"Sanmu! Are you Sanmu?"
Shock, doubt, longing, and complex emotions merged into one sentence.
Lin Sishi stepped forward and grabbed the rough hand of a middle-aged man, his eyes moistening.
"You are Brother Sishi!"
Lin Sanmu recognized it, wiped her tears, and quickly shouted sideways: "Uncle Sancai, four o'clock, four o'clock is here!"
Lin Sancai walked out from behind and looked at the familiar Lin Sishi. The three of them hugged each other and cried.
Gu Zhengchen looked at the crowd and frowned slightly.
Among the hunters in Zhexi, except for Lin Sishi who escaped, seven others were arrested. However, only two people came out now. The others did not move, obviously they did not recognize Lin Sishi.
Gu Zhengchen ordered Zhang Pei to find paper and pen, and asked the miners to line up and record in order their names, place of origin, age, the specific time when they were caught mining, and whether they were robbed or sold by the county government. Ask clearly one by one.
"Next."
Gu Zhengchen shouted.
A burly young man stepped forward and spoke in a low voice.
Gu Zhengchen didn't listen to the truth and looked up. The guy was strong and tough, but he talked like a mosquito. The old miner on the side reminded him: "Second man, the county magistrate is not a supervisor. It doesn't matter if you speak louder."
"Futakuchi?"
Gu Zhengchen stared.
The young man cleared his throat and raised his voice: "Master, Sun Erkou, a grassroots man, is from Zhishui, Yifeng Township, Jurong. He is the eighteenth year of this year and was plundered in March."
"Are you Sun Erkou?"
A smile appeared on Gu Zhengchen's face, he nodded slightly, lowered his head and finished writing, then asked: "Your father is Sun Yiyi, right? Is he here?"
Sun Erkou was a little surprised and said quickly: "Master, my father is Sun Yikou, but he died in an accident in the fourth year of Hongwu."
"Sun Yiyi isn't here?"
Gu Zhengchen's face was slightly cold, he stood up and shouted: "Sun Yiyi, are you here?"
The crowd looked at each other, but no one responded.
Sun Erkou looked at the strange county magistrate. He didn't know what he was thinking. He was already dead and his father was dead, but you kept asking questions.
Gu Zhengchen sat down with a gloomy expression. After recording the information of the sixty-two miners and looking at the roster, Gu Zhengchen stood up and walked into the mountain room. He looked at the tied up Guo Baijin and asked seriously: " There are only sixty-two miners here, where are the others?”
Guo Baijin raised his head and tilted his mouth: "Others, what other people?"
Gu Zhengchen pressed the sword on his waist and his eyes became cold: "Don't pretend to be confused. Judging from the account books, you can sell up to three thousand kilograms of lime a month. With just a few dozen people, it may not be enough to even start a mine, let alone There are still people burning rocks! Don’t tell me that what you shipped out was ore instead of quicklime. This is absolutely impossible!”
The limestone mine is so big. How can you sell it without burning quicklime? If you sell the stone directly, you have to burn it yourself. What a joke. You can only buy quicklime, dig a hole, throw it in, and add water to make hydrated lime.
The number of people does not match the output, and the number of people does not match the known missing persons, those sentenced to exile, and those in prison.
Seeing that Gu Zhengchen was anxious, Guo Baijin said jokingly: "The others - of course they are all dead. There are no immortals in mining. The county magistrate wants to find them. He will dig a few collapsed mines and he will definitely find them." Here comes the bones.”
"you!"
Gu Zhengchen was furious.
Seeing that Gu Zhengchen could be so restrained when angry, Guo Baijin thought that Gu Zhengchen was worried about the risks behind him and did not want to make the matter a big deal. He was afraid, so he smiled sinisterly and said: "There are just a few dead ants on the left and right, so why be so angry. If you The county magistrate is willing to let us go, and we will be grateful in the future."
Gu Zhengchen stared at Guo Baijin and suppressed his anger: "In your eyes, they are ants, you can crush them to death, right?"
"That's right."
Guo Baijin answered simply and neatly.
Gu Zhengchen pressed the pressure spring and stirred it with his thumb.
The sword's edge was slightly unsheathed.
Guo Baijin glanced at it and said disdainfully: "You are a civil servant. If you catch me, you can only deal with it according to the law. If you dare to be lynched, your official career will be over. In addition, Gu Zhengchen, have you ever thought about it? The crime is so serious that you have no authority to deal with it, haha, you should at least send it to the Ying government for trial first, haha."
Gu Zhengchen slowly drew out his sword and walked towards Guo Baijin step by step: "Yingfu? Ha, this should be a good thing for you. You will be released someday, right?"
Guo Baijin was not worried about his own safety. He chuckled: "This is a whirlpool. Letting us go is your last chance to escape from the whirlpool. Otherwise, you will not end well. I would like to ask, do you still have family members alive?" "
Gu Zhengchen stopped, his eyes full of murderous intent, he moved his wrist, threw out the long sword, and said in a deep voice: "Guo Cheng, Guo Baijin is blind!"
Zhao Hailou raised his hand to catch the sword, glanced at Gu Zhengchen, and responded: "Mr. Gu, Guo Chenghui, Guo Baijin is a one-armed man, just like his daughter."
Gu Zhengchen glanced at Zhao Hailou, nodded slightly, turned and left.
Guo Baijin looked at the approaching Zhao Hailou and suddenly became panicked: "Gu Zhengchen, Gu Zhixian, you can't do this - ah! My eyes!"
As the screams came out, Wang Liang walked in. After taking a look, he pretended not to have seen it.
Yao Zhen found a shovel and burned it in the fire.
Gu Zhengchen stood at the entrance of the cave, looking down at his hands.
Guo Baijin was right. As an official, he couldn't torture people casually. But Zhao Hailou and others are not. They are rough people, warriors, not officials. Even if the incident comes to Lao Zhu's ears, they can only complain.
What's more, this is the information provided by Guo Cheng.
It's just that Guo Cheng died outside Dachaling, so he probably won't be able to testify in court.
It was late at night, and Gu Zhengchen fell asleep due to sleepiness.
But Wang Liang, Zhao Hailou and a group of miners couldn't sleep. Wang Liang organized the miners to help the anchor build a large cage that was half wood and half iron. The iron was directly removed from the iron fence, and the wood was some shovels and hardwood. Spliced together, there is no shortage of rope in the mine. To ensure safety, crossbars were added to each side of the large cage, and the ends of the crossbars were tied together.
When Gu Zhengchen woke up in the morning, a strong cage had been built. Although the process of luring the tiger out was thrilling, there was no risk. He opened a door of the cage at the entrance of the fence, used a spear to force the tiger to retreat, and opened the entrance of the fence. People retreated far away.
In this way, the tiger can only move towards the cage when walking outside. Leave a piece of meat in the cage. After the tiger enters, pull the rope and close the cage door.
Although it took zero time, the tiger was hungry after all, so overall it went smoothly.
Gu Zhengchen sent people to check everywhere again, and after making sure nothing was missing, he took the people to eat and left the mine.
There were miners helping to carry tigers, boxes, grain, etc. The Beijing troops brought by Zhao Hailou and Wang Liang were not used. These people were not idle either and were responsible for escorting the prisoners.
Gu Zhengchen followed unhurriedly in the middle of the team.
Zhang Pei followed Gu Zhengchen. Seeing that Gu Zheng was worried, he reached out and took out a copper coin from his arms and handed it over: "I often see masters playing with copper coins. This is an ancient coin I found yesterday when I was searching for a mine. I'll give it to you as a gift." Use it as a plaything for the master."
Gu Zhengchen took it and looked at it. He saw the words "Taiping Tongbao" written on the copper coin. He couldn't help but smile and said, "It's still a Song Dynasty coin."
Zhang Pei felt much more relaxed when he saw Gu Zhengchen smiling.
Gu Zhengchen looked at Zhang Pei as he kept flipping the coins between his fingers: "Are there any more?"
Zhang Pei shook his head repeatedly: "This is the only one I found beside the lime pit. Don't worry, sir, we won't reach out to anything we shouldn't take."
Gu Zhengchen held the Taiping Tongbao and looked up at Dachaling with a solemn look on his face: "After leaving Wucheng Mountain, we must act with caution. The energy behind this mine cannot be ignored."
Zhang Pei disagreed: "No matter what, I will never be able to defeat the master."
Behind Gu Zhengchen is not an official, but Mu Ying, the prince, and the emperor. No matter how big the case is, can it be bigger than these few people?
Zhang Pei was very optimistic, but Gu Zhengchen felt a little troubled or worried:
First, the Yin and Yang files involve the Jurong County Government. Will Lao Zhu be furious because of this? While purging the officials in the Jurong County Government, he will take his whole family with him.
Secondly, behind Guo Baijin and others, there is likely to be an issue of profit sharing, involving the Ministry of Industry and Jinling City Wall. Will it cause a bloody storm and involve too many people?
Thirdly, the Wuchengshan Mine incident also involves the remnants of Zhang Shicheng. Will this irritate Lao Zhu and cause unpredictable consequences?
Fourth, although the relationship between Guo Baijin and the Guo family has not been clearly investigated, judging from the fact that Guo Jie once cut off Yang Gugang's legs at the mine, and Sun Er confessed that it was Guo Jie who robbed him into the mine, The Guo family must have something to do with this matter.
But the problem is that the Guo family is huge and has many branches. Without clear evidence, he cannot convict Guo Dian, Guo Shan, Guo Liu, etc. If the incident is reported, will Lao Zhu be too lazy to investigate? One sentence: "I would rather kill than let go, and chop them all down"?
Summing up to one point, the result Gu Zhengchen hopes is:
Those who deserve to die shall die, and those who do not deserve to die shall not be killed unjustly.
Relying on hatred and emotions to expand the killing will not help much in the matter itself.
But Lao Zhu has an impatient temper, and Zhu Dalang may not be able to hold him back when his temper rises. Once the decree is issued, Gu Zhengchen can only sit back and watch the heads roll, unable to do anything.
Along the way, Gu Zhengchen thought about it for a long time, looking for the best strategy. After much deliberation, he knew that it was impossible to hide it, so he could only report everything in detail. The only thing he could strive for was to send the document to Jinling as soon as possible a few days later. Find out the ins and outs, identify the culprit and the perpetrators, and completely close the case.
And this means that there is not much time left for himself. Lao Zhu is not an emperor who is very patient with his ministers.
After breaking the mine, the case seemed to be close to being closed, but Gu Zhengchen always felt that something was missing and there were still some puzzling aspects in the whole case.
Especially the old guys from the Guo family who beat themselves up several times, they must be involved, but judging from the clues currently available, these people are completely out of the matter and have nothing to do with the mine.
Gu Zhengchen looked solemnly in the direction of the mountain pass and said to himself: "It can't be so innocent. There must be something missing."
