This is really the first time I have heard of it, and when I was eating and drinking before leaving, Master Sun didn't say anything about it, so I don't know how much credibility there is.

"As long as Secretary Yang is in the city, don't worry that they will mess around, how dare they move the officials who came out of the front of the palace." Meng Zhizhou added.

Yang Congyi said: "If that's the case, then it's easy to do." ”

Meng Zhizhou continued: "This case seems to be easy to handle, arrest the person behind the scenes of Renhe Pharmacy, and then catch the bandits and dig out the accomplices." But in fact, the people behind the scenes are ruthless, and it is very likely to use a broken tail to protect themselves. If we press too hard, the murderers of the 23 murders may be killed by those behind the scenes, and the case will only be solved halfway. ”

"The lower officials thought that they would not, if they really wanted to exterminate their mouths, after the twelve bandits failed to rob and revealed their identities, it would not be easier to exterminate them, so why should they exterminate twenty-three people in the city and cause this incident, provoke the state government yamen, and cause trouble." Yang Congyi did not agree with Meng Zhizhou's statement, this case needs to be solved as soon as possible, and the chaos in Nanjian Prefecture must be calmed down as soon as possible, and it will not be good for him to drag it on.

Meng Zhizhou thought about it for a while, nodded and said: "Secretary Yang's words are reasonable, since they didn't attack their own people at the beginning, then they shouldn't be able to do it in the future, after all, it's not so easy to kill twenty-three of their own people." ”

"Lord Meng, in fact, the lower officials still don't understand this case, those bandits have an extraordinary background, they have a lot to do with them, and there are many crimes, why don't you look for them directly? If they had been given some warnings, perhaps they would not have been so arrogant. Yang Congyi asked cautiously.

Meng Zhizhou replied: "Secretary Yang doesn't know, there have been many major cases of looting caravans before, and I suspect that they did it, but I can't find evidence, just like the bandits who often appeared near the silver mine a few years ago, I can't find much evidence related to them, and the bandits can't catch them, even if they are suspicious, the state government yamen can't do anything about them, and they look for them without evidence, which is not in line with the rules." ”

If you don't agree with the rules, Yang Congyi has nothing to say, after all, it's really hard to say anything about officialdom, who dares to easily leave the handle in the hands of others.

"But now it's different, we already have the portrait of that gang of bandits, if we catch them and prove that there is a relationship between them, they will have to restrain one or two in Nanjianzhou in the future, otherwise they will make trouble in Fuzhou or the imperial court, and then if they want to calm down, it will not be solved by one or two heads." Meng Zhizhou seems to be confident.

Yang Congyi looked at the other party's expression, and faintly felt that he seemed to have fallen into a trap, but he drew the portrait of the bandit and handed it to the state government, and it was impossible to get out again.

"Secretary Yang is fortunate to be in trouble, go back to rest first, and when the state government finds out the people behind the scenes, arrest them, and then leave with peace of mind."

"Okay, Lord Meng is busy first, if there is any place that can be used by the upper and lower officials, the lord can just command."

After Yang Congyi finished speaking, he gave a light salute, left quickly, and walked towards the accommodation arranged for him.

So far, he has very little knowledge about this case, and he can't guess how many people and how big officials will be involved. But there are several silver mines in Nanjianzhou, and it is definitely not something that can be completely controlled by a command, even if it is added to the Zhizhou Yamen, it is impossible, the water in it should be very deep, but he is just a passer-by by by chance, and there is no entanglement of interests here, even if something really happens, it should not have much to do with him.

When I returned to my accommodation, I was already sweating, so I simply wiped it and sat down to rest.

It is not easy for an outsider to interfere in the affairs of the Zhizhou Yamen, and he also needs him to intervene, and after painting the portrait of the bandits, his task is over.

In fact, he doesn't care who has the upper hand in this open and secret battle between the garrison of the Southern Jianzhou Forbidden Army and the Zhizhou Yamen, he just hopes to learn about the murder as soon as possible, the murder is over, and someone is responsible for the robbery, so his witness will not matter, and he can leave with confidence.

According to Lord Meng's arrangement, the yamen should soon solve the case, as for whether he will catch the real mastermind behind the scenes, it depends on Lord Meng's mood, if he wants to fight to the end, he will dig deeper, if it is enough to stop, only take the murderer, it is not impossible, as long as he can get enough benefits.

Yang Congyi is an outsider in Nanjianzhou, he just wants to solve the case now, he quickly took 30,000 taels of silver and left, and hid far away in Quanzhou.

There were no acquaintances in the city, and he didn't want to go out, meditating and resting in his room became one of the few things he could do after the lockdown.

On the other side, Liu Zhutou rushed to Renhe Pharmacy with Catcher, but saw that the door of the pharmacy was really closed, and finally opened the door, and only Mr. Lu was in charge of the entire pharmacy, and no one else was there, including Shopkeeper Lin.

Mr. Lui already knew what was going on in the city, and the pensions of the twenty-three deceased had been sent out by him not long ago, and he was also terrified when the arrester came to the door again.

Without waiting for the catcher to ask more, he said sadly: "Liu Zhutou, such a big thing happened in the city, it is the trouble of the Yamen, and it is the misfortune of Renhe Pharmacy, it is our people who died, so many people died at once, people panicked, I am afraid that it will not be able to open in a short time, and the transportation and acquisition of medicinal materials have also stopped, and the loss is difficult to estimate." If there is anything else in the yamen that needs the help of Renhe Pharmacy, even if the head catcher speaks, we also want to put an end to this human tragedy as soon as possible. After speaking, the corners of his eyes were already moist.

Liu Zhutou said: "No one wants this kind of disaster to happen, but since it has happened, if we don't catch the murderer and give justice to the deceased, the family of the deceased can't be at ease, and I can't be at ease, I believe Mr. Lu is the same." ”

Mr. Lu raised his sleeve and wiped his tears, and replied: "If the head catcher has something to say, just say it, Renhe Pharmacy must do its best to assist the Yamen to capture the murderer, otherwise my old Lu will not be able to explain to the rest of the pharmacy, and I will not be able to sleep peacefully from now on." ”

Liu Zhutou said: "Then I'll say it bluntly, today I came to invite all the directors of Renhe Pharmacy to go to the Yamen to help solve twenty-three murders." How many directors are in charge of the pharmacy, Mr. Lu should know, right? I also hope that Mr. Lu will cooperate well and help us find them. ”

Mr. Lu replied: "This is natural. The business of Renhe Pharmacy is not small, there are two branches in the city, plus Shopkeeper Lin and me, a total of six directors, I will ask someone to take you to find it. ”

Subsequently, Mr. Lu informed Liu Zhutou of the names and addresses of the other four principals, and personally led the way.

After more than half an hour, a group of hunters returned to the yamen sweating profusely, and with them came the six directors of Renhe Pharmacy.

As soon as the people arrived at the Yamen, Meng Zhizhou heard the news and immediately took them one by one to the lobby for interrogation.

The first to be arraigned was Mr. Lui.

As soon as he went to the lobby, he immediately knelt on the ground and reported his identity without waiting for Lord Zhizhou's question: "The villain Lu Cheng is the Mr. Renhe Pharmacy Bookkeeper, who is in charge of the accounts of the Jianpu General Store and the two branches, and is very familiar with the financial transactions and the entry and exit of the accounts. ”

"Okay, in that case, that's going to be easy." Meng Zhizhou let go of the startled wood in his hand, and then asked: "When the official asks, you have to answer truthfully, but if there is any falsehood, you will never be spared!" ”

"The villain doesn't dare! The villain also wants to solve the case as soon as possible and return the deceased to Renhe Pharmacy a fair deal. Excuse me, adult. Mr. Lu hurriedly replied.

Meng Zhizhou stared at the other party and said, "This official will ask you, how much is the annual turnover of Renhe Pharmacy, and what is the annual profit?" ”

Mr. Lu was obviously shocked when he heard this, but he quickly calmed down and immediately replied: "The villains in other places don't know that the three pharmacies in Jianpu City have a turnover of about three million guan a year, and their annual profit is around 100,000 guan. ”

Meng Zhizhou's brows narrowed slightly, as if he had doubts, and before he could think about it, he immediately asked: "There is a huge turnover of three million guan, why is the profit only one hundred thousand?" What makes sense. ”

"My lord doesn't know, most of this flow of water is offset by the cost of purchasing medicinal materials, the cost of medicinal materials is very high, about two million guan will be accounted for in three million guan, and the remaining one million guan will be minus various daily expenses, minus the remuneration paid to everyone, minus the taxes and fees to be paid, and then pay the rent of the shop, and in the end the money left is really not much. If there is an accident in the convoy transporting medicinal materials, the pharmacy will not only not make money this year, but also lose money, and it is already a lot to earn 100,000 yuan. Mr. Lu explained in detail.

After thinking about it, Meng Zhizhou continued to ask: "Making 100,000 yuan a year is not a small amount, you just said that these flows and profits are not from other places?" Where are the other places and how many pharmacies are there? ”

Mr. Lu replied: "As far as the villain knows, except for Jianpu County in Nanjian Prefecture, there is a branch shop in other counties, and the villain doesn't know if there is a pharmacy outside Nanjian Prefecture." ”

"What is the relationship between the other county pharmacies and the Renhe pharmacies in Jianpu County?" Meng Zhizhou continued to ask.

"The medicinal materials of the pharmacies in other counties are all issued from Jianpu County. Due to the fact that there are a lot of medicinal materials purchased from other places, the good and the bad are uneven, even if the quality of the same medicinal material is different, we will re-sort all the medicinal materials in Jianpu, and some special medicinal materials have to be dealt with. "Mr. Lu knew that Lord Zhizhou didn't know about these things about doing business, and he said everything very carefully, lest Lord Zhizhou blame him.

"In this way, Renhe Pharmacy's business in Nanjian Prefecture is not small, and the annual profit should be more than 200,000 yuan, right?"

"The villain only knows the accounts of Jianpu, and the revenue and profits in the field are not under the control of the villain, and the villain is not clear."

"Then ask me again, do you know, how many pharmacies in Nanjian Prefecture are comparable to Renhe Pharmacy? How are they now? Is it operating normally and can it make a profit? ”

Mr. Lu didn't understand why Lord Zhizhou would ask such a question that was completely unrelated to the case, but he couldn't refute it, and he was anxious, but he had to answer.