More than half an hour later, a middle-aged man with an ordinary appearance, a slightly chubby figure, and wearing high-quality silk clothes was invited to the court by two government officials. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

You can see it right, it was invited to come up, these two yacha, who have always been arrogant and domineering to the people, were quite polite to this middle-aged man, and they almost bent down to lead the way. Therefore, in addition to the fact that such officials of the yamen treated the defendants so politely, it was not only because their status in the city was not low, but more importantly, because they had received a lot of benefits.

But even so, after coming to the lobby of the mansion, the middle-aged man still knelt down according to the rules after hesitating for a moment: "Xiaomin Li Haichao has seen Lord Futai......

"Huh?" Yao Qingzhi, who was sitting on the top, narrowed his eyes, and his eyes paused on the two messengers, he clearly ordered them to bring Li Xinyin here, but how could such a guy come? But now is not the time to attack, so he snorted: "Tell me who you are!" ”

"The villain is the shopkeeper of the Li family's pharmacy, and he learned that someone from the Xia family's pharmacy came to falsely accuse us of killing and injuring people today, so he came to argue!" Speaking of this, he arched his hand again: "I also hope that the eldest lord Mingjian, the people of our Li family have always listened to the family motto and the teachings of our own lord Li Xinyin, and never dared to violate the royal law, let alone hurt people's lives." The county government had investigated this matter in detail before, but it was the Xia family pharmacy that offended the scoundrels on the street and was beaten, and it really had nothing to do with my Li family pharmacy. ”

Compared with Xia Zhi's trembling performance just now, and he didn't even speak too clearly, this Li Haichao is much more natural, obviously he has seen a lot of the world, and he doesn't have much fear of officials. If it were an ordinary official, seeing these two behaving like this, I was afraid that it would be easy to favor Li Haichao.

But Yao Qingzhi only said lightly: "Really? After a pause, he continued to ask: "Then Xia Zhi said that your Li family has come to the door several times to ask for their ancestral prescription is also false?" ”

"This ......" Li Haichao hesitated for a moment, but still said truthfully: "This is true." It's always good for us to have a few more good recipes in the pharmacy business, and the Xia family's recipes do have their own uniqueness, so the villain sent people to want to buy from them. However, the father and son of the Xia family refused to sell under the pretext of family heirloom, and the villain was naturally helpless. The villain is just a businessman who does his duty, and he definitely doesn't dare to beat people's lives because of this little thing! ”

Seeing that he avoided the important and trivialized, he pushed his sins clean in a few words, and Yao Qingzhi's brows furrowed. If it had been before, even if such a thing had really been reported to him, at this point he would have withdrawn from the court on the pretext of insufficient evidence. But now, he must continue to pursue it!

After thinking for a while, he turned his gaze to Xia Zhi, who was kneeling honestly on the side: "Xia Zhi, come on, is what he said true?" ”

"Huh?" Seeing that the prefect tried the case like this, Li Haichao's heart moved, and he knew that this matter was not simple today. Because if he had to act like a lawsuit just because someone beat the drum and sued, he would have said it to this point, he should have raised his noble hand, why did he ask the plaintiff instead? Isn't that partial?

When he was stunned, Xia Zhi replied in a somewhat trembling voice: "Master, what he said is all a lie, they asked my family to hand over the prescription and was only willing to pay fifty taels of silver - that is an ancient prescription that our Xia family has passed down for three generations, and has cured many patients - we refused, so they sent someone to the door, and my hard-working son reasoned with them, and was beaten by them." As a result......" said that the sadness that reminded him again later, and he immediately began to cry.

Xia Zhi's words were heartfelt and sincere, and even the officials on the side were somewhat moved. And this scene fell in Li Haichao's eyes, but it made him feel even more uneasy, and immediately said: "Master, this is all his Xia Zhi's slander of my Li family, we have never ......"

"Shut up!" Before he could say two words, the prefect Yao above had already stopped his argument: "Bold, how can you be so presumptuous in the court, give me a slap!" ”

As soon as these words came out, everyone in the hall was stunned, but after seeing the solemn appearance of their eldest master, the officials had to take a few steps in front of Li Haichao, picked up the wooden card used for the palm and slapped it on his cheek.

"Papapa......" Ten times in a row, so that Li Haichao's entire face was swollen high, and Yao Qingzhi spoke: "That's it." After saying that, after the people retreated, he looked at the shopkeeper Li who was completely stunned: "This time it's just a small punishment and a big commandment, if you dare to speak at will next time, this official will definitely not spare you!" Do you understand? ”

was swept away by Governor Yao's gaze, and hearing such words in his ears, Li Haichao's body suddenly trembled, knowing that today's things were going to be bad. But at this moment, he was already a little afraid, and he could only say that the calm bearing just now had already been blown away by this beating.

And by this time, even those who no longer have the ability to see have already seen the clues. Today, this prefect is completely going to be the master of the Xia family and punish the Li family severely. This realization made everyone frightened, but also curious, this is really not like the prefect's consistent style.

Xia Zhi on the other side was also so frightened by this move that he stopped crying and looked at the prefect blankly. It took a while to react, and kowtowed to him again: "Lord Qingtian, my son was really beaten to death by them, and many neighbors saw this at that time, and it was the steward of their Li family who brought a group of wicked people to beat them on the street......"

Seeing that he had completely pulled the Li family in, Li Haichao was shocked and anxious, and at the same time a little secretly happy. Originally, he just wanted the government to arbitrarily deduce the case, but now there is an uncontrollable situation. But thinking of his own master Li Xinyin and the backers behind him, he felt that the prefect didn't have the courage to really do a deep investigation.

Yao Qingzhi turned his gaze back to Li Haichao: "Do you have anything to say about this?" ”

"That's mostly...... Most of the time they were wrong. Our Li family has never done anything like this. After hesitation, he decided to deny it. After all, this is a human life lawsuit, and it is better not to get it.

For a while, it became difficult to distinguish between true and false in the public court. After looking left and right, Yao Qingzhi waved his hand: "Come on, take the original defendant to the hall first, and continue the interrogation after the official thinks about it." ”

After a while, Yao Qingzhi turned to the back and came to Yang Zhen with a smile on his face: "Lord Yang, although this case is clear at a glance, I am afraid that it will not be successful without substantive evidence." The Li family is also very famous in my Yangzhou, and if you want to take him down, this testimony is not enough. ”

Yang Zhen smiled, nodded at the other party and said, "How about it, Lord Yao, this official is still comfortable being the master of the people, right?" You don't have to have a clear conscience, you don't have to try to cover it up for others, and your heart will be smooth, right? ”

"Lord Yang, don't make fun of the lower officials. In this situation, I hope you can teach me. Seeing that Yang Zhen was unmoved by his words, Yao Qingzhidu was a little anxious, and asked for help again. Yang Zhen taught him to do this, and he also found the plaintiff or something, so he can't let it go when it comes to a critical moment, right?

Yang Zhen took a sip of the teacup for a long time, and then said slowly: "This matter is actually not difficult, but it just requires a few witnesses." Master Yao, you can just go and find it. ”

"The testimony of those neighbors doesn't work, just to put them under the pressure of possible revenge from the Li family, they may not dare to tell the truth when they go to court." Yao Qingzhi was embarrassed. He had thought about this for a long time, but it was obvious that such a solution was very unrealistic.

Unexpectedly, Yang Zhen shook his head: "That's wrong, I didn't let you go to these witnesses." ”

"That'...... Are there any other witnesses? Yao Qingzhi looked at the calming of this Jinyi guard with some surprise, and didn't understand what kind of medicine he was selling in his gourd.

Yang Zhen smiled hesitantly: "Compared to those who saw the murderer, aren't the words of the perpetrator himself more trustworthy?" ”

"Huh? This...... How is this possible? Yao Qingzhi couldn't help but shake his head. If these guys can really be found, the case will naturally be well judged.

But soon, he thought of something again, and looked at Yang Zhen with some surprise: "Could it be that Lord Yang, you already know their whereabouts?" "With Jin Yiwei's ability, this thing is naturally very simple.

Yang Zhen also stopped selling Guanzi, and nodded affirmatively: "Of course, otherwise I wouldn't use this case to open the gap." ”

"Then please tell the lower officials where they are, and I will send someone to arrest them and come back......" Speaking of this, Yao Qingzhi thought of something again, and his expression was stunned: "Lord Yang, don't tell the lower officials that they are in the Li family, it's really a bit tricky to take people like this." ”

"Don't worry, I won't make you so embarrassed. You can bring them to the court for interrogation right now. Yang Zhen said with a light smile.

"Huh? Where are they? Hearing him say this, Yao Qingzhi's spirit suddenly perked up and hurriedly asked.

"They were in your prison two days ago. Why, Lord Yao, as the prefect of Yangzhou, don't you even know about this? Yang Zhen couldn't help but quip.

At this time, Yao Qingzhi couldn't care about complaining about Yang Zhen's style, and immediately clapped his hands and said, "Great, then this case can continue to be tried." The subordinate is going to interrogate them! So saying, he hurriedly turned around and walked out.

Yang Zhen was still sitting on the chair, looking at his back as he left with a smile: "This is just the beginning, I hope you Lord Yao don't let me down." ”