Late at night, Wang Shaocheng's study.
As the water conservancy supervisor of Lu'an County, his official position is the eighth rank, and he has authority over the county's water affairs. Whether it is the construction of reservoirs, dams, rivers, or water use in the county, he cannot avoid his place. He belongs to the same river yamen as the water conservancy magistrate, and the two of them work together. First and second, equivalent to the deputy director of the Water Conservancy Bureau.
Because Lu'an has a branch of the Yangtze River flowing through it, water services are particularly important. Therefore, after the world was settled, many water conservancy projects were built here.
Lu'an Dam is just one of them. It originally also included river dredging, water diversion and flood discharge, flood control and drought relief, as well as some reservoir bridges, etc.
These miscellaneous projects were put together, and the county magistrate took the lead, approved the official documents, and the director personally went to the county to apply. After verification, a total of 600,000 taels of silver were allocated.
Approximately 180 million copper coins.
With current purchasing power, this is a huge fortune.
Several people received this grant, and the flash of free money made their eyes hurt, which also gave them the idea of corruption and fraud.
In the end, Lu'an County Magistrate, County Magistrate, Zhu Bo, Water Conservancy Magistrate, and Wang Shaocheng reached an agreement and divided the court allocation equally. Each of them received 30 million, leaving only 30 million for doing things. Superficial articles.
180 million is the result of the above estimate based on the actual situation, but they used 30 million to build the water conservancy in the entire county. How can it be used? Even if they demolish the east and repair the west, the final result will naturally be cutting corners. A shoddy project.
These five people are all powerful lords in the county. As long as one of them is not corrupt, this matter cannot be fooled. However, they are colluding together, which makes it impossible for anyone to detect it.
Wang Shaocheng regretted it afterwards. This regret came much earlier than Guo Baode and others. He had been entangled in his heart several times and wanted to surrender, but he procrastinated and lacked the courage. This time the embankment burst incident made him finally Made up my mind.
Seeing mourning everywhere, Wang Shaocheng felt regretful and self-blame. After turning on the lamp in his study and sharpening his inkstone, he could not help but murmur to himself: "It was I who harmed the people of Liu'an, it was I who harmed the people of Liu'an."
"How can we make up for this heinous crime?"
His heart was so painful that he twisted it. In this mood, he unfolded the official paper, dipped his brush in ink, and started to write without thinking much.
This is a memorial submitted to the imperial court. The letter first accuses oneself of crimes, and then accuses Guo Baode and other county officials. It records all things clearly, including the materials they used to build the dam, the recruitment of civilians to dredge the river, and how He deceived his superiors and deceived his subordinates, and so on. Finally, he said that he was full of regrets and had failed His Majesty's holy grace. Even if he died nine times, he was still to blame.
He wrote very quickly, and he wrote smoothly. If one piece of paper was not enough, he would add another. He had no idea that the roof tiles had been quietly opened, and a small bamboo tube came in silently, with the opening facing the book case.
Just as he was writing furiously, there was a whoosh, and a small needle as thin as hair shot out of the bamboo tube and hit his brain.
This is a hidden weapon that can be used over a very short distance and does not have much lethality. Its main function is to hit key acupuncture points to make people faint, or to quench poison on small needles.
Wang Shaocheng didn't react at all. He only felt numbness on the back of his neck, followed by a blackout in front of his eyes, and he fell down on his desk.
The tiles on the roof were re-covered and their positions were carefully corrected.
After a moment, a man in black opened the door softly and jumped in. Then shut it down.
After he came in, he first looked around, then took out a hemp rope and wrapped it around the beam. He also moved a stool to test the height. Then he took off the small needle on Wang Shaocheng's back neck and picked him up. Hang the rope.
After doing this, the man in black very carefully used Wang Shaocheng's feet to kick off the chair, deliberately leaving his footprints.
The chair fell to the ground, Wang Shaocheng's body was hit hard, and his neck was instantly tightened by the rope.
The previous silver needle was just a precise strike that temporarily knocked him into a coma, but did not kill him directly, otherwise he would have been detected as having died from poisoning.
At this time, the trachea was strangled, breathing was blocked, and a strong feeling of discomfort surged into his heart. Wang Shaocheng, who was just in a drowsy state, woke up immediately, but it was too late.
You must know that a person who hangs himself cannot save himself because the carotid artery is compressed and the brain will be deprived of oxygen for an instant. At this time, you will find that except for subconscious struggle, there is not enough resistance at all. At the same time, the entire weight of the body is also It will be concentrated in the cervical spine.
Wang Shaocheng was in this situation right now. His survival instinct made him struggle constantly, kicking his feet in an attempt to gain strength. But the more he did, the tighter his neck became, and soon his face turned purple.
His eyes widened, and he tried to make something out of his throat, but all he could hear was a hard whooshing sound.
The men in black stood below and watched quietly. This was the effect they wanted, the effect of hanging themselves.
After a while, there was no movement from Wang Shaocheng. He hung up the rope and his body hung under the beam.
The man in black waited cautiously for a while, then walked to the desk, picked up the letter Wang Shaocheng had written before, scanned it roughly, and took it all away.
Immediately, he took out another forged confession letter from his arms and placed it, making it look like he committed suicide out of fear of sin.
After doing all this, he followed the county magistrate's instructions and rummaged through the bookshelves again. After searching for a long time, he finally found what he needed. Then he quickly left, closed the door softly, hunched over and glanced left and right. Jump up the courtyard wall and disappear into the night.
On the other side, the home of the prime minister in Lu'an County.
The light in his study was also on, and he was pacing back and forth, anxiously waiting for news.
Not long after, there was a loud knocking on the door, and the county magistrate was shocked. He quickly stepped forward to open it, and then locked it. Before the visitor could speak, he already asked, "How is it?"
The person who came was the man in black from before. At this time, he had changed into ordinary clothes and had a very ordinary appearance. He chuckled and said, "Don't worry, sir, the trouble has been solved."
While talking, he also took out Wang Shaocheng's memorial.
The county magistrate took it, glanced at it, his face turned pale instantly, and he said with fear: "Sure enough, he is going to put us all to death! If this letter reaches the top, the consequences will be disastrous, but fortunately it was in time , near miss but no danger.”
After saying that, he lit the letter on fire and said, "Is there anything else I asked you to find?"
They were two thread-bound books, which contained information related to water conservancy construction in Lu'an County, which was extremely important to the four of them.
The man in black shook his head and said, "I searched through his study, but I didn't find what you mentioned."
"How is that possible?" The county magistrate frowned: "Did he hide it somewhere else?"
"I don't know, I don't know, but time is tight and I can't stay in his study for a long time." The man in black said.
The county magistrate thought for a moment and then said after a while: "Ignore this for now. The most important thing right now is whether you have done everything cleanly."
"My lord, please be assured. He is definitely committing suicide out of fear of crime. There is no flaw. I even watched Wang Shaocheng struggle to death with my own eyes." The man in black patted his chest and said.
"That's good, that's good." The county magistrate secretly breathed a sigh of relief, and immediately threw a bag of silver to the man in black: "This money is enough for you to be happy, take him and leave quickly, and disappear from Lu'an County. "
"I understand, I understand, the villain will leave immediately and will not stay for a moment." (End of Chapter)
