"At that time, this plan was formulated, and only a few people participated in making a profit from it, so it was impossible to leak it!" Tong Guan continued, "It wasn't until after the incident that we realized that something was wrong. The first time I thought it was a coincidence, but it was very wrong to have such a problem several times in a row. ”

"The strangest thing is that no matter how you track it down, you still have no clue, and you basically didn't participate in the next few times, and you are still on guard, and there is still an accident. Therefore, Cai Jing and I concluded that someone had taken the lead, but we didn't know who did it, the DPRK and China were almost in our hands, and who else dared to be our enemy! ”

"Originally, I wanted to continue the investigation, but Cai Jing had an accident, and I was also implicated, and in the end, the matter was closed. Today, when you came out to investigate this matter, you learned that this incident had caused a lot of trouble, and the person behind this incident was even more a mystery, and even I was in the bureau. ”

Zhao Gou asked: "Is it the two of you who resigned and went into hiding, the former head of the household department, Zhu Minzhong?" ”

Tong Guan nodded and said, "Yes, it was the two of us who did it!" He knew so much, and he knew the plans of the two of us, and he didn't know where he knew. It just so happened that he was a political enemy of us, and it was easy to use the power in his hands to force him to go into seclusion. ”

"How do you do that?"

"Zhu Minzhong is worthy of being a famous family, he is upright, he is very thoughtful, and he has to guard against it!" Tong Guan was appreciative, "Cai Jing has a close relationship with Ye Mengde, and he recommended it to the emperor, and he did not live up to Cai Jing's expectations, and entered the household department by coincidence. ”

"After making a plan, I want someone to respond from the side, Ye Mengde trusts Cai Jing very much, and is loyal to the emperor, but he is literary and graceful, but he doesn't know how to conspire and trick, let alone our plan. Let's formulate some things from it, and say a few words in front of the emperor, Zhu Minzhong has a straightforward personality, and he was really deceived, and he quarreled with the emperor in the early dynasty, and finally dismissed the official, and remembered his merits, and did not punish the crime, but let him resign and go into hiding. ”

"As he wished, let Ye Mengde sit on the head of the household, and then use their relationship to inquire about the internal news of the household, he also told the truth, Cai Jing pointed out one or two from the side, Ye Mengde's ability is limited, and he can't control the overall situation, some things are discussed with Cai Jing, and our plan can be launched."

"Thousands of calculations or ignore that someone intervened when we were doing it, so that our efforts came to naught, and a full two million taels fell into the pockets of others, and how could we give up making wedding dresses for others. At that time, we thought it was a mistake in the plan, and we didn't think that anyone was involved. ”

"We decided to strike again, and the same situation happened three times in a row, when we opened the wooden box and found that it was not gold, but an empty box, that we knew that we had been calculated. At that time, we decided to investigate to the end, but found no traces. ”

"Where did you decide to start?" Zhao Gou believed that they would not be so stupid as to do it before they left the capital or when they were sent to the place, and they must have acted halfway, otherwise someone would definitely find out.

"All the stops along the way!" Tong Guan replied, "To distribute this batch of silver taels to the hands of the victims, escort all the way, the escort team is the people of the Yamen of the Criminal Department, it will be tiring to travel and travel, and it is bound to rest and recuperate before moving forward, the road is long as it starts from the middle, it will not cause shock, and then in the hands of the local officials, the silver taels will be less than one-half, as long as the victims do not die." ”

"Presumably there is your internal response in the escort team!"

"There are indeed our people, when we first attacked, Zhu Minzhong was still in office, so he personally selected people from the criminal department to escort us, and we could only intersperse some people, and we didn't pay attention to it if we failed; After a few times, Ye Mengde took office, and the escorts were all arranged by us, but only when something went wrong did I know that things were far more simple than they seemed, making wedding dresses for others! ”

"Dumb people eat coptis, and they can't say it!" At this time, Zhao Gou remembered a sentence, Cai Jing and Tong Guan did not say anything about controlling the government, but also wanted to embezzle the national treasury, their ambitions were inflated, and they asked for hardship. However, Zhao Gou still had a trace of doubt in his heart: "Who is the person behind the scenes?" Why did he know the whole plan of the matter, it should only be known to Cai Jing and Tong Guan, and the officials who participated in the escort knew about it, could it be that ......"

"Have all the officials of the escort team been wiped out?"

Zhao Gou asked bluntly, which made Tong Guan startled and said, "How do you know? They all died, very strangely! ”

"Strange death?"

"All the people who participated in the first time were killed by us, and when they came back, only half of them, saying that they were killed by bandits on the way, and many brothers were killed by them, and the rest were all killed by us; After a few times people also encountered the same situation, no life survived, all died on the way back to Beijing, we also sent people to Shandong and other places to investigate, there are no clues, even the local county guard and others did not know that there would be such a group of outlaws in the jurisdiction, after the failure of this matter, we will no longer pay attention to this. ”

The more Zhao Gou listened, the more he felt that something was wrong, the whole thing was like a bureau, the initiator was actually generalized by someone, and he didn't know who did it, he broke his teeth and blood and swallowed his stomach, making wedding dresses for others. Or maybe this matter was premeditated, and it happened to coincide with the meeting.

Cai Jing and Tong Guan discussed the plan and wanted to make a big profit, but they were the only ones who really knew about it, and the others kept silent, and no third party knew about it at all. The first time something went wrong, they didn't notice it, and it was understandable; The second and third times the same situation occurred, it was not a coincidence, but someone deliberately did it.

All the officials who participated in that year also died, except for the first batch, the other batches were inexplicably removed by a group of bandits on the way back to Beijing. Although bandits were rampant, they did not dare to confront the imperial court, and at that time, there was no such big class contradiction in the Great Song Dynasty, and it was impossible to cause such a big problem.

Therefore, Zhao Gou concluded that the identity of the gang of bandits was suspicious, and it was expected that the people behind the scenes sent them pretended to be bandits and then killed them all after the fact, or they didn't kill them, but just covered up people's eyes. However, among those people, there are Cai Jing and Tong Guan arranged, how could they not find out that something is wrong, these problems are worth considering.

After Zhao Gou got what he wanted, he left the prison and walked on the road, thinking about what happened. Zhao Gou sorted out his thoughts over and over again and found an important clue, that is, what kind of role did Hubu Shangshu Ye Mengde play in it.

When I first saw him, I only felt that this person had a strong bookish anger, a little stupid, not like a person of conspiracies. He is also a pawn of Cai Jing and Tong Guan, and he doesn't have much effect, he is just used by them.

However, Tong Guan's words made him a little strange, he always felt that this Ye Mengde had a lot of secrets that were not known, and it was really impossible to say the specific reason. However, Zhao Gou made up his mind to re-examine this person to see who he was, and he couldn't let go of any clues.