It took three days for Wu Chaoyue and Zhao Liewen to return to Wuchangfu, the capital of Hubei Province, and it happened that the first snow after winter fell on this day. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

If Emperor Xianfeng could see the current situation in Hubei Province with his own eyes, and he could also see the situation in Hubei Province when Wu Chaoyue first took over as governor of Hubei, then Emperor Xianfeng would definitely not have any dissatisfaction with Wu Chaoyue's performance in the past year.

More than ten months ago, when Wu Chaoyue took over as governor of Hubei, there were still Taiping troops entrenched and rampant outside the city of Hubei Province, and the towns outside the city were completely scorched and black, and not even a single intact house could be found, the ground was full of dead bodies, full of devastation, the fields were barren, the weeds and thorns were overgrown, the hungry people were starving everywhere in the wilderness, selling their sons and daughters, and the misery was innumerable.

And now the Hubei provincial capital, even in the days of wind and snow, there are no more groups of hungry people outside the city, and the castle town that was once completely burned to ruins has also rebuilt a large number of houses and streets, although most of the people are still in rags, but there is no vegetable on their faces, the abandoned fields have basically been reclaimed, and the green wheat seedlings are slowly growing under the snowflakes, even if the overall situation is still not as good as the Hubei provincial town before the war, But it is also many times stronger than other state capitals and provincial cities that have experienced the devastation of war.

It's a pity that Emperor Xianfeng couldn't see Wu Chaoyue's efforts and achievements in restoring the economy and people's livelihood, and Wu Chaoyue himself didn't have the mood and time to appreciate these, and even Wu Chaoyue, who was extremely important to Wu's military finances, didn't have time to learn about the development on the spot.

Huang Sheng, Li Shanlan and Huang Zhisheng, who received the news in advance, and other accomplices were already waiting in the governor's yamen, and when they met, Wu Chaoyue was not polite to these people, so he asked Huang Sheng: "How did the **** named Xiuzhu die, did you find out the specific situation?" ”

"Lord Huifutai, the students are incompetent, and only some fur has been found."

Huang Sheng and the others looked quite embarrassed, saying that although they visited in many ways, they did not have the right to directly enter the Qincha Xingyuan to investigate and interrogate the parties, and only knew that Xiuzhu was preparing to accept the joint second trial of Fu Aji and Yan Jingming, and committed suicide by jumping into the well of the Qin Cha Xingyuan on the way to the court, and shouted that she was sorry Zhao Liewen before jumping into the well, and there were two outsiders present at the time, all of whom were Fu Aji's entourage brought from the capital. Afterwards, both the official document and Li Qinggu intervened to inquire about the reason, and Li Qinggu also went to the scene to investigate on the spot, but did not find any suspicious points.

After listening to the introduction of Huang Sheng and others, he quickly calculated that Wu Chaoyue was about to send someone to invite Li Qinggu to come over to learn about the situation from him, but he didn't think that the news of Li Qinggu's request to see him came from outside the door first, Wu Chaoyue was overjoyed, and hurriedly greeted Li Qinggu out of the door and invited Li Qinggu into the warm pavilion in the backyard. Then after a few polite words, Li Qinggu also took the initiative to take out a stack of documents and said: "Lord Futai, this is the investigation of the case of the woman related to Master Zhao, the confession of the party, the results of the autopsy, and the sketch of the Qin Mission, the lower officials have brought it, please take a look." ”

Wu Chaoyue was even more overjoyed when he heard it, and he hurriedly thanked Li Qinggu, who got along with him quite well, and immediately studied the case with Zhang Dejian, a veteran of the case, while Zhao Liewen did not dare to contact the case investigation report provided by Li Qinggu because he was a party who needed to avoid suspicion.

After studying the investigation of the case brought by Li Qinggu, the well-informed Wu Chaoyue and Zhang Dejian, a veteran of handling cases for many years, inevitably frowned, because the flaws in this case were too few. At the same time, the results of the post-mortem examination also clearly showed that Xiuzhu died of drowning, and there were no other injuries and traces of poisoning, and Xiuzhu was still handcuffed and shackled when she threw herself into the water, and it was reasonable that it was difficult to rescue and drown quickly after falling into the water. If there is any suspicion, the only thing that is suspicious is that the two Fu Aji's entourages who were present when Xiuzhu threw himself into the water were all Fu Aji's domestic slaves, and they were suspected of killing people for Fu Aji.

Seeing that Wu Chaoyue was thinking about not speaking, Li Qinggu, who was left aside, took the initiative to open his mouth and said cautiously: "Lord Wu, can I say a few words to you alone?" ”

At the same time that Wu Chaoyue nodded, Zhang Dejian, Zhao Liewen, Wu Dayuan and others had also taken the initiative to leave the warm pavilion with knowledge and interest, and Li Qinggu also said to Wu Chaoyue: "Lord Wu, the lower officials have carefully asked their veterans in handling cases, and they all suspect that it was Lord Fu's entourage who threw that Xiuzhu directly into the well, and waited for her to drown before shouting for help, and at the same time fabricated his last words and deliberately framed Master Zhao. ”

"Is there a way to get the evidence?" Wu Chaoyue, who was also skeptical, asked.

"The only way is to take down those two entourages for interrogation, and get the confession of the mastermind behind Fuaji from their mouths." Li Qinggu replied truthfully, and said very helplessly: "But I'm sorry, Lord Fu is a messenger, and the lower officials have no right to detain his entourage for interrogation, unless the emperor has a will, or the court sends another messenger, no one can arrest his entourage for interrogation and investigation." ”

"I ask the imperial court to give you this authority or send another envoy to investigate." Wu Chaoyue replied without thinking about it.

"It's ......." Li Qinggu's face was embarrassed, and he hesitated for a moment before whispering: "Lord Futai, forgive the official for saying something that shouldn't be said, why bother to make a small matter big and continue to expand it further?" If this case is not pursued further, and the cause of death of Xiuzhu who commits suicide in fear of guilt is determined, Master Zhao is very guilty of taking bribes and tattooing 100 taels of silver, and he will not be sentenced to a heavy sentence, let him temporarily endure it for a year or two, and the matter will be completely over. ”

"But Lord Futai, if you hold on to it and find out all the truth, then it may be difficult for this matter to end." Li Qinggu's voice was lowered, and he said: "Fu Aji is a banner person, or is he from the Manchu clan Zhang Jia, and he is a Beijing official, serving in the Metropolitan Procuratorate, if you must investigate him, Lord Futai, then his fellow clans will definitely not sit idly by, and when the time comes, it will immediately expand into a dispute between the Manchus and the Han Dynasty, and the Beijing officials and local officials will fight each other, shaking the government and the opposition, and it will be difficult to investigate and deal with the aftermath, and it will definitely affect the harmonious relationship between you and the six departments and three legal divisions of the imperial court, and then affect the future of your career, why bother?" ”

Li Qinggu's persuasion is indeed for the sake of Wu Chaoyue, and he must investigate to the end, not to mention whether he can find out the truth, first of all, he has to trigger a fight between the Han people and the mite parasites, and then coupled with the Fu Aji family and the Metropolitan Procuratorate, who are idle all day long, the imperial history fanned the flames and stirred up the shit, the matter will definitely continue to get bigger, and sooner or later Wu Chaoyue will definitely be involved, maybe it is possible to involve the extremely unclean butt Wu Lao comprador and Wu Chaoyue's cheap father Wu Xiaoping also involved- Because Wu Chaoyue's high salary to hire Zhao Liewen's funds came directly from them. Taking advantage of Zhao Liewen's current crimes, it is undoubtedly a rational choice for a smart official to turn a big thing into a small one and a small one into a small matter.

However, it's a pity, it's still that sentence, Wu Chaoyue can't do without the assistance of the right-hand dog Zhao Liewen, and the Hubei New Army must also maintain cohesion, so after listening to Li Qinggu's words, Wu Chaoyue still shook his head categorically and said: "Li Zhentai, I know that you have good intentions, but I'm sorry, this official never abandons a soldier on the battlefield, and he will never abandon any of his subordinates in the officialdom, so I can only understand your kindness, I must investigate this matter deeply, and I must find out the real culprit behind the scenes, and seek justice for Huifu." ”

Seeing Wu Chaoyue's resolute attitude, Li Qinggu didn't dare to persuade him anymore, but reminded again: "Lord Futai, since you have made up your mind, then the lower officials will not stop you, but the lower officials suggest that before you go to the imperial court, it is best to communicate with the official Taiwan and unify your opinions." ”

After that, Li Qinggu added in a low voice, "The ancestor of the rich man is Yin Jishan, a scholar of Wenhuadian University in the Qianlong Dynasty, and the ancestor of the official platform is old, and the official platform is commensurate with uncle and nephew in private. ”

Thanks to Li Qinggu's kind reminder, cursing in his heart the legacy of the Kanto moth for ten thousand years and the shameless poison of the mite parasite, Wu Chaoyue still seized the time to visit the official document again, and showed the official text that he was determined to investigate to the end, and did not ask the official document to support him, as long as the official document remained neutral.

Like Li Qinggu, the old officialdom official Guan Wen also strongly persuaded Wu Chaoyue to stop at the point, take advantage of the fact that the matter is not too big and make a big deal small, and promised to help Wu Chaoyue intercede with the Manchu court on behalf of Zhao Liewen, so that Zhao Liewen can temporarily leave Wu Chaoyue's shogunate to end the matter. However, Wu Chaoyue still firmly refused, no matter how the official document persuaded him, he insisted on asking the Manchu court to thoroughly investigate the case, and the official document finally had no choice, so he could only say: "Virtuous nephew, since you must seek justice for Master Zhao, then I won't stop you, but don't be in a hurry to go to the table, I will come forward to cooperate with you to investigate this case, try to close the case in Huguang, and try not to make the case into the capital and into the court, this is not good for you, you have to understand your uncle's kindness to you." ”

"Uncle, the little nephew knows that you have good intentions, but can we find out clearly?" Wu Chaoyue said with some annoyance: "The person is already dead, and the two parties are Fu Aji's minions, they insist that Xiuzhu is committing suicide, how can we check?" ”

"But the court sent someone else to investigate, and those two dog minions insisted that the **** was a suicide, and it wasn't the same useless?" The official asked rhetorically, and then persuaded: "Listen to my uncle, let's check first, see if we can find any evidence, it's easy to say anything if you get the evidence, even if you can't get the evidence, even if you ask the court to order a thorough investigation, what use can it be?" ”

Thinking about it, Guan Wen did make some sense, Wu Chaoyue nodded, and promised to join forces with Guan Wen to investigate the case first, Guan Wen breathed a sigh of relief, and discussed some official affairs with Wu Chaoyue in terms of military intelligence and internal affairs, personally sent Wu Chaoyue out of the door, and secretly called Fu Aji to force him to make appropriate concessions without mentioning it.

Early the next morning, under the leadership of Guan Wen, Wu Chaoyue, Li Qinggu and Duoshan and other Hubei officials went to the scene of the crime to investigate the actual situation, but unfortunately, it snowed again after a few days, even the well-informed Wu Chaoyue and Zhang Dejian, who handled the case, could not find any suspicious clues, and the two parties also insisted that Zhao Liewen kept that Xiuzhu because they jumped into the well and committed suicide by jumping off the well when they peed, and shouted that she was sorry for Zhao Liewen before she died. Wu Chaoyue, Zhang Dejian and others interrogated again and again, but they also couldn't find any flaws.

A smile of victory appeared at the corner of Fu Aji's mouth, and the official document also quietly reminded Wu Chaoyue, saying that Fu Aji wanted to impeach Wu Chaoyue regardless of the main force of long hair and still entrenched on the border of Hubei, in order to exonerate Zhao Liewen, he left his post without permission and returned to the provincial capital, but he stopped him and strongly persuaded Wu Chaoyue to give up, so that Zhao Liewen was charged with a small crime of accepting bribes and tattooing 100 taels of silver.

There is an excuse to return to Hankou to personally supervise the manufacture of firearms, and there are two big victories, Wu Chaoyue doesn't care about Fu Aji's impeachment, and at the same time, while looking through the case files, Wu Chaoyue suddenly found an inconspicuous small detail, and immediately looked up and said: "No! Why are you, the rich man, interrogating the deceased Xiuzhu alone? Master Fu, although you are a Qincha, you also have a deputy who is Yan Jingming Yan, why wasn't he there at that time? ”

When asking this question, Wu Chaoyue's triangular eyes were of course staring at Fu Aji, but unfortunately Fu Aji was not afraid, and said with a smile: "Wu Futai, I'm really sorry, Director Yan was not in the provincial capital at that time, and he crossed the Yangtze River to Hankou, and went there to check the accounts related to Yangyi handled by Master Zhao, so there was no way, and the lower officials could only interrogate that Xiuzhu alone." ”

When Wu Chaoyue hurriedly turned his gaze to Yan Jingming, Yan Jingming, who described him as ugly, also smiled and nodded, and said: "Lord Futai, this is indeed the case, at that time, Xiaguan happened to go to Hankou, and when he came back, Xiaguan proposed to interrogate Miss Xiuzhu's confession in person, and Lord Fu also agreed, but he didn't expect such a thing to happen on the way to interrogation. ”

Wu Chaoyue was disappointed, and Fu Aji also smiled even more happily, but he didn't think that Yan Jingming suddenly said: "But Wu Futai, the official system, the lower official felt a little strange that the time when Lord Fu ordered the lifting of people was 3:12 in the afternoon, and the time when the lower official heard the backyard shouting that Miss Xiuzhu committed suicide by throwing herself into the water was 3:38, and the distance between before and after was about twenty-six minutes, is this time too long?" ”

Fu Aji's face changed on the spot, and Wu Chaoyue immediately came to his senses, shouting: "Come on, simulate the scene for me immediately, and see how much time it takes in the middle!" ”

"Lord Wu, there's no need." Yan Jingming smiled and said: "Xia Guan has already secretly simulated the scene, and found that it only takes five minutes at most to walk from the lobby to the firewood room where Xiuzhu girl is being held, even if it is normal walking, and then a woman wearing shackles walks from the firewood room to the well at the scene of the crime, at most it only takes five minutes, and almost sixteen minutes in the middle disappears without a trace. Sixteen minutes is enough time to ensure that a person is drowned. ”

Wu Chaoyue's face was ecstatic, the official text opened his mouth, and Fu Aji jumped up violently, pointed at Yan Jingming and roared: "Yan Jingming, you-!" ”

"What am I?" Yan Jingming smiled extremely calmly on his ugly face, and said: "I am taking the silver of the imperial court, eating the rice of the imperial court, eating the king's Lu, and being loyal to the king, of course, I have to enforce the law impartially and play truthfully!" ”

"You slander! How could you possibly know the exact time at that time? Fuagi roared with red eyes.

Yan Jingming smiled, smiled and took out a pocket watch from his arms, and said, "Master Fu, have you forgotten?" At that time, the lower official told you that I bought a pocket watch from a foreign company there by the way when I was checking the accounts in Hankou, and gave it to you to admire for a long time, can I not know the exact time at that time? At that time, you and my entourage, records, clerks, and errands were all present, but they were all witnesses who knew the time well! ”

Fu Aji's face began to turn pale, Wu Chaoyue smiled fiercely, although the official text still wanted to make a big deal small, he didn't dare to cover Fu Aji in public, so he could only ask Fu Aji: "Master Fu, what's going on?" Why does your escort take so much time? ”

"This ......, this ......." Fu Aji was speechless, so he could only turn his face to the two minions who had already been frightened and tremble, and roared with his eyes: "Say, what's going on?" How did you spend so long escorting prisoners? ”

The two attendants were speechless, their eyes were full of pleading, and Yan Jingming said with a smile: "Two, tell the truth, at least you can avoid death." By the way, casually recruit you to exchange two thousand taels of silver for the rich man's ticket number in Rishengchang, not only can you avoid death, but you can also reduce your guilt according to the laws of the Qing Dynasty. ”

The faces of the two entourages turned even paler, and when Fu Aji looked at Yan Jingming with his mouth stammered, Yan Jingming also smiled more easily, and said, "Lord Fu, the next time you talk to someone, your voice should be quieter, and you must beware of the wall with ears." Also, don't take the bribes and dirty silver with you, let alone hide them directly in your bedroom, isn't that a catch? ”

Fu Aji sat directly on the ground, his face was as pale as paper, Yan Jingming smiled at him first, and then turned to Wu Chaoyue and said: "Lord Wu, if you really want to clear the innocence of Master Zhao, then quickly send someone to seal the Rishengchang ticket number in Wuchang City, and arrest the courtier called Gao Qi there, he is helping your junior brother Li Yuandu bribe the person who handled the cash silver of two thousand taels of silver tattooed by Master Fu, and he is a real witness." ”

"Oh, by the way, if he really can't remember that the noble servants of the rich lord took the cash from them on that day, you can directly remind him that it was around the afternoon of the 19th day of October in the fifth year of Xianfeng, if they deny it, the lower officials and their entourage can be used as witnesses to prove that these two high-ranking servants of the rich lord exchanged the silver from him."

Wu Chaoyue cheered and agreed, and hurriedly sent people to seal the Rishengchang ticket number together with the envoy and the prefect's yamen, arrest the parties and seal the relevant account evidence. Fu Aji was sweating all over there, and quickly hugged Guanwen's thigh and cried, "Uncle save me, uncle save me, my little nephew is confused for a while, confused for a while!" ”

Seeing that Fu Aji had confessed to himself, Wu Chaoyue didn't have any memory, but hurriedly bowed to Yan Jingming and thanked him sincerely, Yan Jingming shook his head and said, "Lord Wu doesn't have to thank me, this is the duty of the lower officials." ”

After that, Yan Jingming said to Wu Chaoyue again: "Lord Wu, please do something, when the matter between Master Zhao and Master Fu is over, can you go to the Tao and ask the imperial court to transfer the lower officials to Hubei to take up posts?" ”

"Of course it's fine." Wu Chaoyue agreed, and then asked curiously: "Lord Yan, why did you suddenly remember to take up a post in Hubei?" ”

"I want to share some of the burden for Wu Futai." Yan Jingming replied calmly: "The adults are highly talented, both civil and military, honest as water, but the political affairs are complicated, and the military affairs are heavy, although there is Zhao Liewen's great talent, but they still need to work hard day and night, and it is rare to have a moment of rest, how can it last long?" Although the lower officials are not talented, they have a little experience in financial management, if the adults do not give up, the lower officials are willing to help the people of Taiwan benefit the people of Hubei. (To be continued.) )