After crossing the river to Jiangning County, Yang Yuanqing had stayed in Jiangnan for ten full days, and he was warmly welcomed by county officials and people everywhere he went, from Huiji County in the south to Xuancheng County in the west.

This is a kind of heartfelt support, on the one hand, the officials themselves are Sui officials, appointed by the Sui Dynasty, they recognize the new Sui inheritance of the former Sui Dynasty, and the arrival of Yang Yuanqing is like a lost orphan who has found his parents.

On the other hand, the people of the world are determined, and the people of Jiangnan are no exception.

Although Jiangnan did not suffer the same devastating devastation as the Central Plains and Hebei, it also suffered from rampant bandits and warlord warfare.

But ordinary people, like officials, will never accept the rule of the Wei Dynasty, in the final analysis, the predecessor of the Wei Dynasty was the Wagang Army, the leader of the Central Plains bandits, and the bane of the destruction of the Central Plains, so when the news of the Wei Dynasty being destroyed by the Sui army came, the entire Jiangnan region was boiling, and people spontaneously beat gongs and drums and took to the streets to celebrate.

And when Yang Yuanqing's fleet passed through every village and county, people would spontaneously run to the river, beat gongs and drums, sing and dance to welcome the arrival of the king of Chu, and the support and welcome of the officials and people in the south of the Yangtze River surprised Yang Yuanqing.

Yang Yuanqing's fleet is composed of more than 100 thousand stone boats, there are 1,000 cavalry guards on both sides, the fleet travels slowly along the Jiangnan River, the Jiangnan River is the extension of the Tongji Canal, extending from the mouth of the Yangtze River to Huiji County, the earliest is the Qin Shi Huang excavated, and experienced the repair and dredging of the dynasties, the great cause of six years, Yang Guang ordered to widen and dredge the Jiangnan River, from Jingkou to Yuhang, more than 800 miles long. It is more than ten zhang wide and can be a dragon boat of 5,000 stones.

Yang Yuanqing stood at the bow of the boat, staring at the beautiful scenery of the south of the Yangtze River in the rain and rain, drizzling rain, smoky, clusters of plum blossoms blooming in the smoke and rain, the beautiful scenery on both sides of the strait is picturesque, the pretty Jiangnan girl holding an oil-paper umbrella from the bridge passed by, like the most beautiful scenery in the picture.

At this time, the fleet had temporarily left the Jiangnan Canal. Sail west along a tributary. It belongs to Wucheng County in the south of Wu County, it is called Wuxing County in the Southern Dynasty era, and it is called Huzhou in the era of Emperor Wen of Sui, and it is incorporated into Wu County during the Great Cause period, and it is one of the richest areas in the whole Jiangnan.

However, last year, fierce battles broke out between Li Mi's army and Shen Faxing's army in this area, and it was also ravaged by war. Tens of thousands of people fled to Taihu Lake to escape the fighting, and houses destroyed by the war can still be seen on both sides of the river.

Half an hour later, the flotilla turned south again. It entered a smaller river, but although the river was small, it could accommodate a large ship of a thousand stones to cleave the waves. Gradually, a village appeared in front of the fleet.

Lu Xuanhe, the Taishou of Wu County, who accompanied Yang Yuanqing on the side, pointed to the village in the distance and said, "Your Highness, that is Shenjia Village." ”

Yang Yuanqing nodded, this is Shenjia Village, the hometown of Aunt and Wuchen. He pondered for a while and asked, "Can the Shen family's murder case be investigated?" ”

Lu Xuanhe hurriedly said: "Basically, it has been found out, it was Shen Faxing's pro-soldier captain Li Zhu'er, Li Zhu'er went to the Shen house with Shen Faxing several times, and was more familiar with the situation of the Shen family, after Shen Faxing died in battle, Li Zhu'er took hundreds of deserters all the way to burn and loot, and singled out large households, robbing a total of twenty-three households, eight of which were wiped out, the Shen family was naturally his primary target, and afterwards Weichen came to the Shen family to investigate, and the valuable things were basically robbed, and forty-eight people of the Shen family were killed, None of the men under the age of sixty survived, which is really unfortunate. ”

Yang Yuanqing can understand the robbers robbing money, but why they want to destroy the door, he has never been able to understand, first, there is no need to destroy the door, and secondly, the bandits did not abuse women, which also made him a little puzzled.

"Where is this Li Zhu'er now?"

"It's already dead, I heard that it was unevenly distributed with his subordinates, and he was divided into corpses by random blades, last autumn, the villagers sent his head to the county office, and hung it on the city for a few days, and most of his dozens of henchmen died, fled, and disappeared, and the government began to offer a reward for arrest last year, and there are no clues so far, and this matter can only be closed."

The destruction of the Shen family has always been a very depressed thing for Yang Yuanqing, and the Shen family is also a relative, but he was not able to keep it, which made him very faceless, but the matter has come to this point, and he has no choice but to take a look, condolences to the deceased, and it can be regarded as an explanation to his aunt and the dust.

At this time, the boat had already entered the village, and slowly docked in front of a small wharf, which was already covered with Sui cavalry, and hundreds of villagers heard the news and came to watch from afar, perhaps because of the heavy guard, there was no warm welcome scene.

In fact, the people in the whole village are surnamed Shen, and they are more or less related to the Shen family, but the ancestor of the Shen house has a person who is very good at reading, became a Beijing official, established a family business, and after more than 100 years of continuous development, it gradually formed the county of Wuxing Shen.

Yang Yuanqing got off the boat, and Shen Guang, who had arrived first, quickly greeted him, knelt down on one knee and saluted, "See Your Highness!" ”

Shen Guang came five days ago to help the Shen family solve difficulties and prepare for Yang Yuanqing's upcoming visit, Yang Yuanqing smiled and said, "General Shen has worked hard, please get up!" ”

Shen Guang got up and whispered to Yang Yuanqing: "Your Highness, there is no one in the Shen family anymore, most of the women have returned to their parents' homes, and there are only some old people living in the Shen house, which is very desolate." ”

"How is the investigation into the cause of the destruction?" Yang Yuanqing asked silently.

"I've checked it, it's just ...... It's hard to say here. Shen Guang glanced at the surrounding situation, and was a little embarrassed.

Yang Yuanqing nodded and walked quickly towards the Shen Mansion.

At the gate of the Shen family, more than a dozen old people of the Shen family cried and fell to the ground when they saw Yang Yuanqing coming, Yang Yuanqing hurriedly helped them up, comforted them with kind words, and promised to let the government arrange their lives, so the old people collected their tears and invited Yang Yuanqing into the house.

The Shen Mansion is deep and old, and at this time, more than half a year has passed since the tragedy of the Annihilation Gate, and the mansion has already been cleaned up, and there is no sign of any tragedy.

The Shen Mansion is now supported by two partial brothers, who escaped the catastrophe because they were doing business abroad, and when they returned, they became the pillars of the Shen Mansion, and in fact became the new masters of the Shen Mansion.

appeased the living, and put two incense sticks on the spiritual seat of the deceased, and Yang Yuanqing's trip to the Shen Mansion completed its mission.

In a quiet room, Yang Yuanqing drank tea while quietly listening to Shen Guang's investigation report.

"I have visited the nearby villagers these days, including some survivors that night, and it can be confirmed from their mouths that it was indeed Li Zhu'er who led the bandits, about 400 people, who came by boat, but there are also some strange things in this."

"Go on." Yang Yuanqing put down the teacup, he was a little interested.

"There are two main strange things, one is that these bandits did not touch the women, did not insult the Shen family, but the other big families who were looted were not spared, and the women would be humiliated, which is a bit strange; The second is that they didn't stay long, although they robbed a lot of property, but the Shen family's basement was not excavated, they obviously had time to dig, but they left in a hurry, and the other big households were digging three feet into the ground, giving the feeling of despicability, they robbed money It seems that it is just a cover, killing people is the goal, even the children are killed, this has not happened in other big households, and before that, Li Zhuer is robbing money and not destroying the door, since the Shen family extermination case, there have been seven consecutive cases of extermination, lowly speculation, Other murder cases are just to cover up the truth about the Shen family. ”

Yang Yuanqing nodded, when he heard the news from his aunt, his intuition told him that it was a little unreasonable, and it was only with deep hatred that he would do this, and he would generally rob money and kill a few main characters at most, so the Shen family was destroyed by bandits, and the female dependents were not insulted, which is really unreasonable.

"Does Li Zhu'er have a grudge against the Shen family?"

"There is no enmity, Li Zhu'er has been to the Shen Mansion twice with Shen Faxing in the past, and they have been warmly welcomed by the Shen family, so there should be no personal enmity."

At this time, Yang Yuanqing felt that Li Zhu'er's death was not so simple and unevenly distributed, and it was not possible to kill people.

"Have you found Li Zhu'er's henchmen?" Yang Yuanqing asked again.

"Back to His Royal Highness, I found a person, just thirty miles to the south of Jiang Dun, there is a man named Jiang Balang, he is Shen Faxing's personal soldier, at first he resolutely did not admit to participating in the Shen family's extermination case, and later found the Shen family's property from his home, he admitted to participating in this matter."

"And what did he say?"

"He said that at the beginning, when a brother suggested to ransack the Shen family, Li Zhu'er vetoed this suggestion, because the Shen family had a relationship with the side concubine, and Li Zhu'er was afraid that the Sui Dynasty would not spare him, but on the afternoon of the day of the annihilation, Li Zhu'er suddenly gathered everyone together and said that he was going to attack the Shen family, and this Jiang Balang suspected that someone had contact with Li Zhu'er."

Yang Yuanqing nodded, there will be clues in everything, as long as you are willing to dig, you will have a harvest, that Wujun Taishou seems to want to make trouble, so he makes a confused account.

"Who has been in contact with Li Zhu'er, does Jiang Balang know? Or what could he guess? ”

Shen Xing sighed, his face showed frustration, "The humble position also repeatedly questioned him, and even tortured him to extract a confession, he really didn't know, and Li Zhu'er did take a few votes of business before and after, he was alone, without any entourage, and he didn't even know where he went to talk about business, as soon as Li Zhu'er died, no one knew about this matter, including one of Li Zhu'er's women, who was also killed, and found these henchmen, and there was no clue, if this matter was entrusted by someone, then this client did it very secretly, There is no loophole, Jiang Balang suspects, maybe even Li Zhu'er doesn't know who the person who really entrusted him is? ”

Yang Yuanqing took a few steps behind his back, although he was very interested in this case, but the point was that he didn't have time to continue to stay in Jiangnan, and the battle on Jingxiang's side was imminent.

And he didn't have the strength to track down the trivial matter of the Shen family's annihilation, and even Wu Jun Taishou didn't have time to think about it, let alone him Yang Yuanqing.

Thinking of this, Yang Yuanqing ordered: "You stay for another three days, if you can find it within three days, you will check it, if you can't find it, you will go directly to Jiangning to take office." ”

Shen Guang was appointed as the governor of Jiangnan Dongdao, and he organized 30,000 troops to guard Jiangnan, and he didn't have time to ask about the Shen family.

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