Yang Qiuchi asked, "How much money has been stolen?" ”

Kang Huai had a bitter face: "More than two thousand taels of silver." ”

More than two thousand taels? Yang Qiuchi was taken aback, two thousand taels is equivalent to two million yuan now. That's a lot of money.

It seems that this Kang Huai doesn't seem to be a corrupt official, if he just relies on Yu Lu to fill this shortfall, he can make up for it in the Year of the Monkey. No wonder Kang Huai was happy and sad when he saw the generous gift he gave just now, because although the gift he gave was heavy, it was still not enough to pay off this huge deficit.

Speaking of this, Kang Huai's heart suddenly moved, remembering what Gu Fuyin of Tianfu said, Yang Qiuchi solved the case like a god, he was only regarded as Gu Fuyin's recommendation, and he didn't particularly care, but now he thinks that if this is true, maybe he can help himself.

Even if he can't solve the case, Yang Qiuchi's gift is so heavy, although he is asking for himself, it can also show that he must have a solid family background, if he can borrow a sum of money from himself to fill the shortfall, it will be good to pay him back slowly in the future.

Kang Huai's heart suddenly ignited hope, and he said this idea in a roundabout way.

After hearing this, Yang Qiuchi thought to himself, it's nothing to lend him some money to help him fill the deficit, now that he has received the property of three rich men in a row, the three thousand taels of silver is a piece of cake for his current self, and he has a few three thousand taels of travel money this time. It's just that, looking at his two sleeves, I'm afraid that this money can't be repaid, so wouldn't it be to pay for the thieves himself, or check first to see if the case can be solved.

Yang Qiuchi said: "That's it, Lord Kang, please tell me what happened first, and see if the lower officials can help solve this case, if you can't solve it, I will lend money to Lord Kang to fill the gap, and you will pay me back slowly in the future." ”

"Great!" Kang Huai was so happy that he thanked him again and again, and then said, "Half a month ago, around four o'clock in the middle of the night, someone came to report that a rope was found on the air window outside the Yamen warehouse, and the air window was also sawn off. The first thing I found was the husband who played the shift. ”

"I hurriedly ran to check, and found that the thief grabbed the iron railing of the gas window with his flying claws, sawed off the railing with a hacksaw, sneaked into the warehouse, and stole the treasury silver. The treasury was turned into a mess, and after counting, it was found that the total amount of silver lost was about 2,000 taels. ”

Yang Qiuchi asked, "What about the people guarding the warehouse?" ”

"There are four warehouse guards, and they are on duty in shifts, two people per shift. But the two men on duty that night said they didn't hear any movement. ”

Yang Qiuchi thought about it, and dared to steal treasury silver in the heavily guarded Prosecutor's Yamen, this person was too bold, so he asked, "Are these four guards reliable?" Have you reviewed it? Could it be that they are guarding and stealing from themselves? ”

Kang Huai shook his head: "My first suspicion is this, the four of them have been searched in detail and the places where the silver may be hidden, but nothing has been found, they have been severely interrogated, and even torture instruments have been used, but no clues have been found." ”

Yang Qiuchi asked, "Is there any destruction at the scene?" ”

"It's still protected, it's not destroyed. Just changed the air window. ”

"Can Lord Kang take the lowly job to the scene to have a look?"

Kang Huai hurriedly got up and said, "Okay, I'll take you there, Lord Yang, please!" ”

The warehouse where the treasury silver was stored was in the yamen of the criminal prosecution, and it was full of silver confiscated from criminal cases from all over the province and silver allocated by the imperial court for the financial operation expenses of the yamen.

When they came to the warehouse, the warehouse guards were still two of the four people, but there was another team of strong guards outside.

The storeroom is a large heavy iron door with two large iron locks hanging from it. Kang Huai introduced: "The two locks in this warehouse are in the hands of two guards, and the warehouse can only be opened if both people's keys are used. Their respective keys were handed over to a fixed guard at the time of the handover, never crossed, and the accommodation was separated. In other words, unless two people conspire to steal from themselves, there is no way to open the door of the warehouse. ”

"When I came that night, the door of this storeroom was well locked, and after waking up the guards, the keys were still in their hands, and there was no trace of outsiders sneaking into the accommodation, so I ruled out the possibility of the guards stealing themselves."

After the warehouse door opened, Yang Qiuchi was not in a hurry to enter, and stood at the door to look at the situation in the warehouse.

The warehouses of the Ming Dynasty were separated, the warehouses were warehouses, the warehouses were warehouses, the warehouses were for grain, grass, equipment and sundries, and the warehouses were specially for silver and silver.

According to the judicial department's treasury, the main purpose is to store the province's fines and confiscated silver taels and financial funds, and the amount is relatively small, so the treasury is not large, only about 30 square meters. There are two rows of silver shelves, more than one person high, and the silver in the silver box is melted into a saddle-shaped silver ingot of fifty taels and one ingots through the Yamen silver pouring room, and then neatly stacked in the box, and it is very convenient to open the lid and count, and it will not take a while to check it clearly.

Yang Qiuchi looked at the ground and frowned: "Has the floor of this warehouse been cleaned?" ”

The two warehouse guards next to him said, "Yes, adults, the little ones have to clean every day to keep the warehouse neat and clean." ”

Neat is neat, and there is no trace of it. Yang Qiuchi sighed secretly and asked again, "Have you sorted out the silver ingots?" ”

The warden replied, "Yes, new ingots are delivered every day, and the silver ingots that have been deposited will be sent away every few days, so they will have to be sorted out every few days." ”

Yang Qiuchi smiled bitterly, this scene was almost destroyed, and he also investigated a fart.

Looking around, I saw that the storehouse was made of thick granite, as was the floor. And the roof is covered with iron plates, which in ancient times can be described as impregnable.

There is a statue of the God of Wealth on the wall in the middle of the storeroom. Putting the God of Wealth in the treasury is not to attract wealth and treasures, but to ask the God of Wealth to take good care of these treasures.

Yang Qiuchi came to the God of Wealth and sneered: "You guy is so lazy and doesn't do anything, you don't do your best to protect the treasury silver, so that the treasure is lost, you should be beaten on the board!" ”

The God of Wealth was not afraid at all, and still looked at him with a smile while holding the big ingot.

Yang Qiuchi continued to look around the warehouse, except for the door, the only thing leading to the outside world was the small air window more than a zhang high near the roof, which was very small, but it could barely get through a person, but there was an iron fence with the thickness of six thumbs densely erected on it.

Kang Huai pointed to the air window and said, "That's it, the thief sawed off the iron fence and got in from there, but the air window was replaced on the same day." ”

"Where's the replaced window?" Yang Qiuchi asked.

Kang Huai pointed to the corner: "There." The case hasn't been solved yet, and I still keep the broken window. ”

Yang Qiuchi walked to the corner of the wall and squatted down to check, the four corners of this air window have crossbars growing out so that they can be fixed in granite, five of the six thumb-thick iron fences erected in the middle have been sawn off, the other one is tied with two long ropes, and there are five broken iron fences on the ground.

Kang Huai also squatted down and explained: "These five roots were found on the ground outside the wall. The rope is probably used by thieves to climb in and out of the wall. ”

Yang Qiuchi picked up the broken fences one by one to look at the broken heads, and then checked the broken heads on the fence frame, and then took an iron fence to his nose and sniffed it, thoughtfully.

Standing up, he walked under the window, looked closely at the wall, and asked, "Have you ever wiped any marks on the wall?" ”

The two guards who followed behind him replied, "No." The adult said that before the case is solved, all traces are not allowed to be moved. ”

Yang Qiuchi looked at Kang Huai with appreciation, after all, this criminal envoy has been engaged in criminal trials for many years, and he is still very aware of evidence.

Yang Qiuchi walked out of the warehouse and went around the window to check on the wall outside, and there were some shallow footprints on the wall. He squatted down again and checked on the ground, stood up and thought about it, and asked Kang Huai: "My lord, do we have a night patrol in this silver vault?" ”

"There was no theft before, because there were guards, and there were guards in the yamen, so they patrolled it once every half an hour."

Yang Qiuchi raised his head and looked at the roof of the warehouse, thought for a while, and said to Kang Huai: "I already know who did it." ”

"Who?" Kang Huai asked, his voice trembling a little with excitement.

"You go and call the other two guards first."

"Okay!"

The other two guards lived in the yamen and were called in a short time.

The four guards stood in a row and looked at Yang Qiuchi nervously.

"Stretch out your hands!" Yang Qiuchi ordered.

The four guards winced and stretched out their hands.

Yang Qiuchi walked in front of them, and suddenly, he grabbed the hand of a guard, looked at it carefully, and said, "It's you!" You and another guard on the same day, you two are thieves who steal the treasury silver! ”

"Wronged! My lord," the guard fell to his knees with a grunt, "I didn't steal. Another guard next to him also fell to his knees with a grunt, even claiming that he had been wronged.

"How did you get the wound on your hand?"

"Yes...... It was I who accidentally fell and was cut by a stone. ”

"Nonsense!" Yang Qiuchi squeezed his hand, "There are no other abrasions next to this wound, the wound is narrow and deep, and the wound is very neat, although it has been several days, it can still be seen that this is an obvious sharp wound, it cannot be a stone scratch." ”

The guard hurriedly changed his words and said, "I remembered wrong, I was accidentally scratched by a knife." ”

Yang Qiuchi didn't bother to mess around with him, and asked, "Don't you admit it?" This theft of treasury silver is a capital crime, and there are so many thefts, if you honestly confess and recover the treasury silver, maybe Master Kang can give you leniency! ”

"I really don't!" The two guards prostrated repeatedly.

Kang Huai looked at Yang Qiuchi suspiciously, he still couldn't figure out what the basis for Yang Qiuchi's identification was.

(To be continued)