"Ten haves ** is like this," Song Youliang said, "especially in the case of wind, the fire goes with the wind, the more it burns, the fire at the fire point is blown by the wind and extends along the wind direction, so the burning degree of combustibles near the initial fire point is relatively lighter than that of the back, because the burning degree of the fire point and the wood in other places behind it is different, so their cracks are different." You can find the ignition point based on this~"

Wang Zilin nodded with understanding, and said happily: "I see, Brother Song just asked the old official if there was any wind and what the wind direction was, just to judge the point of fire. ”

"Exactly~" Song Youliang smiled, "Actually, I said it for a long time just to make one thing clear~" Song Youliang pointed to a half-collapsed granary in the north: "Tongzhi, please see, this granary was not burned, but artificially demolished." Everyone looked at it, and sure enough, although most of the granary was blackened, the northern half of the granary was still relatively intact. I didn't know what was going on, and looked at Song Youliang questioningly.

Song Youliang walked to the bottom of the log in the second granary, pointed to the carbon wood that had not been completely burned in the few sections just now, and said, "Tongzhi, please see, this is the most important evidence to prove arson." ”

Wang Zilin and the others looked at Song Youliang puzzled, how could the burnt wood that had not been burned for a few minutes prove that it was arson?

Song Youliang said: "The granary is farming, fireworks are strictly prohibited, what are these small logs for?" ”

Song Youliang picked up a piece and handed it to the old officer, "Have you ever seen this before?" ”

After the old servant took it, he looked at it several times, then leaned to his nose and sniffed it, and replied: "Back to my lord, as you said, fireworks are strictly forbidden in our warehouse, and it is impossible to put this kind of pine wood with a lot of pine resin here." This kind of pine branch is a common thing on the stove in the countryside~~"

Although Wang Zilin had never been in the kitchen, listening to the old officer's words, he suddenly realized that in a place like the granary, where fireworks are strictly prohibited, there is such a small pile of fireworks, what is it used to set fire? It seems that this is the ignition point of deliberate arson.

"Could that be the one who brought it in that day?" Wang Zilin thought for a while, "Didn't you say that those Kuding lit a fire in the warehouse to cause the fire?" ”

"It's dry, it's summer, and it's too much to drink even if you're soaked in water, who will be around the fire?" Song Youliang said with a smile: "Besides, scones are not barbecue, they can be baked on the shelf by lighting a bonfire~ At least there must be a pan for pancakes, right?" ”

"That's the case~" The gentleman is far away from cooking, Wang Zilin is used to eating ready-made, and he doesn't know anything about things in the kitchen, "Who is the person who set the fire, and what is the purpose?" ”

Song Youliang smiled: "This is not clear for the time being, but one thing that can tell Wang Tongzhi is that there is no food at all in several rooms in this warehouse~"

"Brother Song, don't laugh~" Wang Zilin said seriously: "That day, Wang personally watched Wu Qianshi's grain into storage, and all the warehouses were full~~"

"But Wang Tongzhi you see, the treasury in the north does have ashes after the grain has been burned~~ You can start from the middle room and face the south, but there are ashes?" Song Youliang swiped his fingers

Wang Zilin gasped, the disaster relief food was gone, and he was deliberately set on fire to destroy the incriminating evidence. It seems that this matter is not as simple as arson~~~

"Brother Song, originally Wang only knew that Brother Song was good at management, but he didn't expect to be good at surveying, I really admire~" Wang Tongzhi's recognition of Song Youliang was three more points

Song Youliang smiled and said: "There is a similar case in "The Story of the Concubine", and Song is just drawing inferences~"

"The Story of a Concubine?" Wang Zilin muttered, "There is still someone who writes such a book?" The title of the book is so ~~so ~~ so ~~" Wang Zilin couldn't find a suitable word to describe it at once. He looked at Song Youliang, this young Qianhu is said to have not married a wife yet, why did he think about taking a concubine first? Today's young descendants are really in the world

Song Youliang and Wang Zilin left the ruins of the warehouse, and Song Youliang repeatedly told the warehouse to be set on fire by people to be kept absolutely confidential. Wang Zilin intimidated those officials, if this matter spreads and the real murderer escapes, then use a few of them as scapegoats, scaring the old officials and a few young officials

Back at the prefect's yamen, Song Youliang told Chen Guoying the results of the investigation, and Chen Guoying also felt that there might be a connection between the arson and the rumors that the Dengzhou Mansion was going to open a warehouse to release grain.

At this time, a very bold idea suddenly appeared in Song Youliang's mind. "I heard that Kong Youde crossed the sea from Dengzhou to Houjin, which shows that it is feasible to transport to Liaodong on a large scale by sea. Now that a large amount of grain has been stolen from the warehouse, it has been set on fire to destroy the evidence, is it not a conspiracy of the Dongyu? ”

Chen Guoying and Wang Zilin frowned, they both felt that this was too far, right? In fact, when the Ming Dynasty encountered the Xiaoice River crisis and disasters continued in the north, the Manchu Qing in the further north also encountered the same disastrous weather. So the Qing army conquered grain-producing Korea. However, North Korea itself also suffered a disaster, and in order to pay grain for Houjin, "the eight granaries were all empty, and the country was exhausted" before paying 2,000 stone to Houjin, and it was unlikely that too much grain would be raised for Huang Taiji. There is such a record in the "Records of the Li Dynasty": "The two west are empty, and the six roads have not been cultivated", indicating that Korea itself is also in the midst of a serious famine in the "Xiaoice River Period"; From "the opening date of the market has been set, and there is no one in Beijing and China", it can be seen that the resistance of North Korea at that time was great; And "the new economy and the war are in flames, the wealth and animals are gone, and the opening of the Zhongjiang market is afraid that it will not be able to take shape" shows that the DPRK has begun to disobey the Houjin. At this time, Huang Taiji, who wanted to solve the famine, had only one way to go south to raise food.

In connection with the history of later generations, Song Youliang believed that the theft of grain this time was likely to be a trick made by the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and planned to repeat the scene of Kong Youde's surrender across the sea. First of all, a large number of victims were attracted to Dengzhou Prefecture, then the grain was stolen, the granary was burned, the people revolted, and finally the grain was transported back to Liaodong by sea by sea. If this batch of grain arrives in Liaodong, it is very likely to become the military rations of the Manchu Qing Dynasty when they enter the fortress for the fourth time.

Most of Kong Youde's troops were from Liaodong, and they were familiar with the geography of the Liaodong Peninsula, and there were still many old troops and had a certain influence. After they surrendered, they posed a great threat to the defense of the Ming army from the southern tip of the Liaodong Peninsula to the Shandong Peninsula. In the sixth year of Chongzhen (1633), soon after Kong Youde surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, he seduced the Qing army to the south, conquered Lushun, and controlled the entire Liaodong Peninsula. In the ninth to tenth years of Chongzhen (1636-1637), they acted as the vanguard of the Qing army, leading 150,000 Qing troops to attack Korea, forcing Korea to surrender to the Qing Dynasty, depriving the Ming Dynasty of a reliable neighbor and an important force in the east to contain the Qing army southward. Soon after the surrender of Korea, Kong Youde, Geng Zhongming, Shang Kexi and other former Liaodong rebel generals joined forces with the Qing army to attack Phi Dao, which was defended by 20,000 elite Ming troops, occupied Phi Dao, and invaded Changshan Island from time to time. At this point, the Liaodong Peninsula and the coastal islands were lost, and the Qing army opened the gateway to the south from the sea, and the Shandong coast has become the forefront of the Qing defense.

"Since Kong Youde can cross the sea with three thousand deployments and surrender to the east, it is not impossible to transport away thousands of stones of grain~" Song Youliang said

was said by Song Youliang, Chen Guoying and Wang Zilin also felt that Song Youliang's guess was not completely unreasonable