At that time, his mother Xu's family was already in despair, and Li Liniang was left with only a gambling uncle, and there were all servants around except for her half-siblings, and none of them could be consulted with.

She was so frightened that she couldn't do anything.

Since then, every time Li Liniang sees her father Li Chengwei, she has no admiration, only fear.

When she was married to Quanzhou, although Li Chengwei gave an astonishing amount of dowry, she couldn't find the slightest joy except for her panic. The husband was barely able to go out early and return late before, and after learning that she was pregnant, he immediately found a reason to go out to do business, so that it was very difficult for the husband and wife to meet - the husband was not credible, and he was not familiar with the place, and half of the servant women around him were given by his father, Li Liniang had to be more cautious, suppressed all the speculations in her heart, and did not dare to say anything to outsiders.

When she gave birth to a child with dystocia, she was riddled with all kinds of diseases during confinement, because she knew that time was running out, and she knew that her husband's family was unreliable, so she simply put some jewelry at the bottom of the box in Hengtong Building, and made some inconspicuous land deeds, and put them in the place where she could trust the nurse, so that the other party had spare money to take the eldest and younger master, and did not want people to raise crookedly.

The nurse Feng was found by the Xu family, and she watched Li Liniang grow up since she was a child, and the two are like mother and daughter, and they are used to acting thoughtfully, so they are naturally more trustworthy than others.

Li Liniang grew up in a merchant's house, and knew that everything could not only be emotional, because she was afraid that wealth would change people's hearts, she went to put Feng's deed at the end of the letter, preparing to bring it to her son in the future.

Gu Yanzhang finished reading the papers, looked up and asked, "Where is the Feng Clan?" Where is the deed? ”

"We've brought them back to Beijing together...... "The man pointed out, "the Detective Division is interrogating, including her grandson." ”

Gu Yanzhang only felt strange and asked, "What grandson?" ”

And the clerk gave all the things he had found.

"The Feng family is recruiting at home, her husband died early, and her children are gone, only the youngest son has left a grandchild down."

"My grandson has been stubborn since he was a child, he has been in the land of fireworks all the year round, and he is good at gambling and drinking, and he has already owed a lot of gambling debts and wine debts when he was in the capital, all of which were paid back with the help of the Feng family.

"A few days ago, he ate a lot of wine, and because he had no money to give, he told his sister who accompanied him that he had some fire, sulfur, smoke and other things in his place, which could be resold and asked the young lady in the building to help him find a buyer."

"Sister first thought this was nonsense, who knew that it didn't take long for the grandson - called Feng Erlang - to really take a tile and put a lot of things on fire, the young lady was afraid of things, at first it was still hidden, and then I saw that there was hemp boiling in it, I thought about it and felt that it was wrong, and I hurriedly reported the matter to my mother, and my mother was naturally afraid, and reported it to the yamen, and the government took people for interrogation, but I didn't expect that only a little pressing, that Feng Erlang had already confessed, saying that those fire triggers were stolen from their own homes." When the man said this, his words were also quite incredulous, "Because he has no money on him, and he wants to go to the building to drink and have fun, he has to touch things from home to be, and when he comes and goes, the valuable things are collected by the Feng family, and it just so happens that day that he is addicted to alcohol and gambling, and he can't help but pick the lock, turn over the cabinets, and turn out a lot of things caused by fire, sulfur, smoke, and bamboo." ”

"Huizhu and tung oil prices are cheap and heavy, and it is not easy to move, so Feng Erlang took the expensive fire, sulfur, and smoke and nitrate, which were to be sold, but he couldn't find a buyer for a while, and it was not good to go out to peddle, and then it happened that the Wei family was hit by a fire, and the wind outside was very tight, and he didn't dare to move, and now that the limelight has passed, he dared to take it out."

"The fire of the Wei family burned strangely, and the Quanzhou Mansion suspected that someone had set it on fire, not a fire, but the Wei family was unwilling to obey the order to assist in the investigation, so it was easy to get clues. When she went to interrogate the Feng family again, she insisted that the Wei family's fire had nothing to do with her, and she couldn't say the reason why she bought such a fire-causing thing. ”

"When I summoned the former descendants of the Wei family to come to the hall to interrogate, there was a mother-in-law who was sleeping with the Feng family to take care of Li Liniang's son that night, she confessed that she drank the drink given by the Feng family, but for some reason she was suddenly sleepy, and she didn't notice where the Feng family who was holding her hand went, and when she woke up, she was lying on the table outside, and the house was already on fire."

She saw that the curtain on the bed in the inner room was open, as if there was no one in the quilt, and she didn't hear a response when she called, and the fire was burning so badly that she didn't go in to confirm it, she just thought that Feng Shi had taken it out, so she hurriedly followed and fled.

"Who would have expected to wait until he got out of the outer courtyard, but saw that there was only the Feng family, and there was no little master, and none of them had ever brought anyone out."

When the official said this, he was also a little embarrassed, and said: "After the fire was extinguished, no one died, only Li Liniang's child injured his leg and was burned blind in one eye - he rolled under the bed at some point." The mother-in-law was afraid of being responsible, and because she was careless and caused the little master to be burned, she confessed with the Feng family, saying that it was because her brother was sweating, one went to the kitchen to get hot water, and the other went to the thatched house with a stomachache, and when she came back, the house was already burning to the point that she couldn't get in, so she had to come out to find someone to put out the fire. ”

Li Liniang's little child went not long after, and somehow, the Wei family did not pursue it, but just sent away all the people who took care of it that day. The woman's heart was weak, and when she looked back, she only felt that it was wrong, and it happened that the drink that Feng Shi gave her to drink that day was filled with a pot, and the pot was a clay pot, but it was not burned out, so she secretly took it home, and sure enough, she found a lot of things that sank into it. ”

"The Quanzhou Mansion took it to check, and there is no difference between the bottom medicine and the hemp boiling powder found from Feng's house, but it is the same party."

"When I went to interrogate Feng's again, she refused to confess before, and then she was sentenced, and found a lot of Li Liniang's dowry from the pawnshops and gambling houses that Feng Erlang often went to, and it happened that the lower official arrived at this time, and the matter of Hengtonglou was connected together, and asked Feng's and Feng Erlang - Li Liniang's land deed for Feng's son to keep has indeed been secretly resold."

"Na Feng has confessed now, saying that she set the fire that day, originally greedy for Li Liniang's money, and because her grandson owed too much debt, she was afraid that she would be caught and cut off her hands and feet, so she wanted to set the fire and greedily took the land deed given by Li Liniang and sold the rest of the things to pay off the debt."

When Gu Yanzhang heard this, he felt that something was wrong, calculated in his heart, and asked: "Since it is under trial outside, I won't ask, you go to unify how many debts Feng Erlang owed in the capital back then, and how many debts he owed in Quanzhou-if it is said that Quanzhou's debts were repaid by selling them with land deeds, how are the debts in the capital repaid." ”

Feng's is just a nurse, not the steward of the Li family or the Xu family, no matter how generous the Xu family is, the nurse can live more comfortably than ordinary people at most, and she will never owe huge debts, and she can repay it.

But she was able to take her grandson to Quanzhou together, which is enough to show that the gambling houses in the capital have taken enough money.

So, where does the money come from?

When she was in the capital, the Xu family's dowry was managed by Li Chengwei, and the Feng family couldn't intervene at all, could she have any other way to make money?

***

Compared with the matter in Quanzhou, it was much more convenient to inquire about the matter in the capital, and only half a day later, the magistrate of the Criminal Investigation Department came to report the progress of the case to Gu Yanzhang.

Feng's confession was very fast, and she was able to stand up when she was tortured, but when the magistrate of the trial told her that Feng Erlang had a bumpy journey back to Beijing, I don't know if she was not used to being in prison, and now she was suffering from typhoid fever, and after a high fever at this time, she confessed her guilt not long after, just begging to make the case faster, and begging the magistrate to ask Feng Erlang to hire a good doctor.

It turned out that Feng Erlang owed the money in the capital, which was repaid by Li Sheng, the steward of the Li family, and he collected Feng Erlang's IOU, but he didn't ask for anything, as long as the Feng family took care of Li Liniang, and gave her a bottle of pills, telling her to wait for Li Liniang to give birth to a child, and then turn one into a meal every day, and watch Li Liniang eat it.

Feng didn't know that there must be something strange in it, but as soon as she came to the house, she was really short of money, and if she didn't make up the numbers, the only seedling grandson would have her arm cut off, and secondly, she secretly gave the chicken and duck the pill, and there was nothing wrong with it, so she did what Li Sheng said.

Sure enough, after Li Liniang gave birth, she took the medicine she gave, and something happened in the confinement, leaving the child who was less than a month old.

And she set fire to the house, which was also ordered by Li Sheng.

Gu Yanzhang heard the official matter, frowned and asked, "She identified Li Sheng, how did Li Sheng answer?" ”

Tui Guan said: "Then Li Sheng only didn't know, saying that he was just because the eldest girl in the family begged to pay off her debts." ”

"Does Feng have the rest of the evidence?"

"Although there is no evidence in the Feng family, but that Feng Erlang left a lot of cigarettes, fire and other things on hand, which are not usually bought, so I went back to check as it was, and sure enough, it was sold in the Li family's shop, and the shopkeeper got Li Sheng's orders and transferred it out of the warehouse.

Arson is a crime that cannot be pardoned, and instigating arson is even more of a crime, once Li Sheng admits it, it is a dead word, and he naturally refuses to admit it.

What's more, Li Sheng has been with Li Chengwei for many years, and if he can gain the trust of the other party, he naturally has something extraordinary.

Gu Yanzhang thought for a while and said, "Call them and interrogate them first, Li Chengwei has endured it for many years, if there is no reason, he will not be so anxious to ask the Feng family to set fire to the house, and go to find out what kind of money the Li family has used in the past six months." ”

Li Liniang died, and the property was inherited by her husband and son, so she burned everything clean with a fire, and naturally it was impossible to check how many of them were.

If you can find out where the lot of money that was taken out of it went, you can know why Li Chengwei is in such a hurry.

At this time, Gu Yanzhang told the matter once, and he no longer stared at it from time to time, but only asked the next person to report it regularly. However, it has not been two days since then, but progress has been made very quickly.

Since Li Liniang's son was burned, the Li family's silver building urgently transferred a lot of money several times, and the person who raised the money was the younger brother of Princess Ji's mother.

At this time when the case was investigated, there was such a point, although Gu Yanzhang himself was not afraid, but he did not dare not go through the official matter of Hu Quan from above, he took the file, and only then did he call someone to ask if Hu Quan was in the yamen, but the little official sent had not returned, and suddenly there was a yellow gate outside to call the criminal division.

Although the edict was stamped with the seal of the Son of Heaven, the Yellow Gate was from Ciming Palace, and at a glance, it was known that it was summoned by Empress Dowager Zhang.

Gu Yanzhang was still wearing an official uniform, so he only tidied it up slightly, and then followed out of the government office.

The place where I met was in the vertical arch hall, and compared with the past, there were many fewer palace people in the hall this time.

Gu Yanzhang entered the palace gate, and just after saluting, he saw that it was not Cui Yongchen standing in front of Empress Dowager Zhang, but another familiar face.

——Zhu Baoshi, who was deeply respected by Zhao Rui and was in charge of the Imperial City Division.

Empress Dowager Zhang saw that Gu Yanzhang was standing still, and she didn't greet him, but asked bluntly: "How was the trial of the case of killing his mother and wife in the capital?" ”

Gu Yanzhang just wrote an excerpt a few days ago, and there was no progress in this day, so he briefly talked about the situation.

“…… In the humble opinion of the minister, if this case continues to be investigated, that is, Li Chengwei refuses to admit his guilt, and with the human and physical evidence in Dali Temple, it is enough to sentence him to death. ”

After talking about Li Chengwei's murder case, he was about to talk about the whereabouts of Li Liniang's dowry, but he was interrupted by the Empress Dowager Zhang: "That is the case, you look at this case, you don't need to let Hu Quan know, everything must be done yourself, if there is progress, report it directly to the old body." ”

This was said simply, but Gu Yanzhang was slightly stunned when he heard it.

In the past few months, although the number of times he has dealt with Empress Dowager Zhang is not much, it does not prevent him from understanding the meaning.

The so-called "don't let Hu Quan know", Hu Quan in it does not refer to Hu Quan alone.

In this sentence, in fact, the focus is only on the end.

- "Report directly to the old body to know." ”

Although Gu Yanzhang does not have a cool umbrella and is not in the political affairs hall, he is also a serious court official, he is different from the Yellow Gate in the palace, and he is not an ordinary clan, so naturally he will not and cannot be at the mercy of Empress Dowager Zhang.

At this time, the situation between the DPRK and China is unclear, although it seems that the Empress Dowager Zhang holds great power and listens to the government, as long as she has her attention, she can sit firmly in Diaoyutai, but if it is for her attention, she will be at her mercy, and she will have to be crowned with a "courtier" hat in the future.

Gu Yanzhang didn't want to wear such a hat.

The Chinese book is the Chinese book, and the imperial power is the imperial power, and when the two conflicted, he chose to stand on the side of the truth.

After only a pause, he said: "Queen Mother, Hu Gongshi is a minister......

Empress Dowager Zhang glanced at him and said, "This case was personally sent by the old man. ”

"Li Sheng instructed the Feng family to drug and set fire, but it was just for Li Liniang's dowry, synthesized silver money, even if it was not a shop, there were more than 300,000 yuan, and this money was taken away by someone in the Li family's silver building five times...... "Gu Yanzhang solemnly replied, "The surname of the person who came, called Song Qian, is the wife and brother of His Royal Highness King Ji." ”