And so it was. ”

Because of the conjecture in his heart, Xu Chu's eyebrows were completely relaxed. She tugged at the corners of her mouth, looked at Sikong Han and said, "Xia Guan thinks that Lord Sikong should be asked to bring that Peng Xing back for questioning." If it is possible, let the officials search Peng Xing's home, if the lower officials guess correctly, the key evidence in this case should be in Peng Xing's home. ”

When Xiao Qinglang spoke, Sikong Han was still a little stunned, but after listening to his later words, he suddenly realized. can do the position of the waiter of the criminal department, he is naturally not a stupid person, Peng Xing helped the drunk Zhu San home, but why didn't he go to the main room but sent him to the dim and narrow side room?

Moreover, everyone knows that Zhu San, as the dim sum master of Zhou Ji, is considered wealthy in ordinary people, so he should have some family background. But now in the search of his room, there is not a copper plate. This matter, if you think about it carefully, is it weird everywhere?

There is also the official silver they found from Zhu Neng's house, if it is really Zhu San's, and Zhu San inadvertently fell into Zhu Neng's house, how can he still be in the mood to get drunk? After all, such a large sum of silver is enough for him to fly away. Besides, it is still official silver with the seal of the official family, if it flows outside, it will inevitably cause him to get into trouble.

But Zhu San was not only anxiously searching, but also in the mood to go to the tavern to eat and drink after his uncle Zhu Neng was invited to the Criminal Department. Therefore, the most likely thing is that the official silver found in Zhu Neng's house is only a part, and it is a trick used by Zhu San to get out.

So, where did the remaining stolen money in Zhu San's hands go?

With such an idea, where did Sikong Han not understand, he immediately did not delay, and directly turned around and ordered the officials to go to Peng's house to search.

But in a quarter of an hour, the official hurriedly returned and said that a coarse cloth bag had been found in the cellar of Peng Xing's house. And in the baggage, there are four ingots of official silver that have not yet been melted and a little broken silver.

As he spoke, he handed over the burden in his hand.

Xiao Qinglang's brows moved slightly, and he thoughtfully reached out to pick up the official silver, and after checking it, he said, "Look at the mark on it, it should be from the same place as the official silver found in Zhu Neng's house." ”

Although the official silver in the treasury is not numbered, because it was originally collected from various places, there are some discrepancies in its markings. And when distributing the official salaries, most of the silver used was from one place, so for Xiao Qinglang, who knew the details inside, it was not difficult to determine whether the silver also came from the treasury.

In the interrogation room of the Criminal Department, Peng Xing and his wife Peng Su were locked in two separate rooms.

They were suspected of hiding official money, so even if there was no evidence of arson and murder, the two could not escape punishment. Because of this, Xiao Qinglang, Xu Chu, and even Sikong Han did not come forward to interrogate in person.

But it was precisely because the two were separated as soon as they entered the yamen, and they were faced with officials with cold faces and emotionless faces, so even before the interrogation began, the two of them became anxious and panicked.

When the cold iron door was pushed open with a bang, Peng Xing first shuddered in shock, and then fidgeted and stared at the three interrogating officials of the criminal department who entered the door.

And Peng Sushi, who was in the other room, was even more panicked, and before he was questioned harshly, he cried.

However, the officials who came did not show any pity because of this, but coldly threw the torture instrument in their hands on the ground and said, "If you don't say that you don't tell the truth, it is already a felony for you to hide official money at home." What's more, this official silver was used by someone to buy off the stolen silver that assassinated King Jing'an! ”

When Peng Sushi heard them say this, his frightened heartbeat almost stopped, and his whole eyes were black and he almost fainted.

Even if she was prepared, she didn't expect that it was just a matter of stealing some silver, and it was actually involved in the crime of murdering the prince.

She looked anxious, and said softly, "The women really don't know, lord, how can the women have the courage to harm the prince, those silver are my family's money addicts, sneaked in and secretly brought them out after Zhu San's house caught fire."

"Since Zhu San's house is on fire, and he can sneak into Zhu's house, why don't he put out the fire and save people? Say, is the fire of the Zhu family related to Peng Xing, or is it that you husband and wife set fire to Zhu San's silver and then set it on fire? ”

Peng Su, who was already about to become a frightened bird, completely collapsed this time, she shook her head with horror in her eyes, "Back to the official master, although our husband and wife were blinded by lard, they really didn't dare to set fire to others." My family originally wanted to take advantage of Zhu San's drunkenness and send him to the side room, and secretly go to his main house to touch some valuable objects, but who knew that Zhu San disturbed Zhang Bing, the neighbor to the east, when he was drunk. In order to prevent Zhang Bing, my family specially dragged him out of Zhu's house together, and told me to hurry up and cook some sobering soup."

As she spoke, she cried bitterly, and said excitedly, "Official, if you don't believe it, you can ask Zhang Bing." and Mrs. Zhang, who was resting outside at the time, heard the shouting of my family."

At that time, they didn't say anything sour, saying that the two of them were the benefits of licking and grinding Zhu San

On this side, Peng Su's heart collapsed, and on the other side, Peng Xing was not much better. Mo said that he was bluffed, and after seeing the pile of cold torture instruments, he was completely abandoned. It can be said that compared with some Jiangyang thieves who are often interrogated by the Criminal Department, the questioning of the Peng family and his wife was extremely smooth.

"Master Guan, the little one really didn't kill anyone. When the little one was looking for Zhu San before, I happened to see him stepping on the edge of the bed to hide something through the crack in the window, and it was quite valuable, but the little one didn't have any bad intentions at that time. It wasn't until yesterday that the little one saw that he was drunk, so he thought about helping him into the side room to rest first, and then the little one went to see what he was hiding.

When the officials who came to interrogate heard this, they raised their hands and recorded them in the booklet, and only after seeing Peng Xing's snotty appearance did they frown and say, "Don't cry, you should carefully talk about what happened after you helped Zhu San into the room." ”

"Yes, yes," Peng Xing raised his arm and stroked his face with his sleeve, and said with a bitter expression, "The little one deliberately helped Zhu San to sleep in the side room, and then went to his main room, and as soon as he stepped on the edge of the bed, he heard someone shouting at Zhu San outside. ”

Hearing that someone was coming, the little one dared to delay and hurriedly walked out. When I arrived at the door, I happened to see that Zhang Bing had already walked to the door of the side room, and he said that he wanted to find Zhu San to talk about buying a house."

"Where did the little one dare him to wake up Zhu San, and hurriedly stepped forward to coax him out. At that time, Zhang Bing was still a little reluctant"

Then, within a quarter of an hour, smoke rose from Zhu San's house, and by the time we passed, the side house had burned badly. While the big guy was concentrating on fighting the fire, I secretly found an opportunity to steal Zhu Sanzang's baggage out."

Peng Xingsheng burst into tears, which was no different from what Peng Su said.

The officials who came to interrogate sent the confessions to Xiao Qinglang and Xu Chu, and reported the performance of the two to Xiao Qinglang one by one.

Xu Chu pointed his finger to the confession, and said with an unchanged expression, "That's right, Peng Xing and Peng Su shouldn't be lying." So, where did the candlestick that suddenly appeared in the side room of Zhu San's house and ignited the fire come from? ”

"In addition, when I read other people's testimonies, I only mentioned that Peng Xing and Peng Su's always flattered Zhu San for their benefit, so Peng Xing sent Zhu San back that day, and caused a lot of gossip. However, no one mentioned that they had seen Zhang Bing go to Zhu San's house."

"If Zhu San's return home is not much different from the time when Zhang Bing appeared, then it is impossible for the women who are chatting outside his door to pass the time not all notice."

After all, the drunken Zhu San could be regarded as the center of gossip at that time, how could the women who were good at juggling right and wrong outside not pay attention to the door of Zhu San's house?

The only explanation is that Zhang Bing is likely to have been hiding in Zhu San's house for a long time.

Xiao Qinglang saw that although her words were full of doubts, his expression was already clear, and the corners of his mouth immediately raised a shallow arc, and his eyebrows moved slightly to look at Sikong Han and said, "What does Sikong think?" ”

Sikong Han was suddenly named, he was stunned for a moment, then thought about it and said, "The only people who went to Zhu San's house were Peng Xing and Zhang Bing, if Peng Xing didn't lie, then Zhang Bing would be suspicious." ”

Peng Xing once said that there were no candlesticks and candles in the side room of Zhu San's house. However, the candlestick in the main room has not been moved to the side room, so where did the candle that lit the side room and killed Zhu San come from?

The biggest possibility is that the candlestick was brought by the murderer. And the murderer, from the very beginning, planned to fake the scene of the fire and water. In other words, Zhu San's death was premeditated.

"Did the official interrogate Zhang Bing?"

When he found out that Zhu San had been burned to death, the lower officials sent someone to interrogate him. According to him, because the Zhu family and the Zhang family have always been at odds, he and Zhu San are also very hostile to Mai Mang at the tip of the needle. However, recently, he heard that Zhu San was going to sell the house, so he pondered buying the yard of Zhu San's house, so he went to find Zhu San for the first time. Who knows, the matter of the house has not yet been settled, and it has caused a bad luck in human life"

What Sikong Han said was almost what Zhang Bing said, and it didn't sound flawed. After all, buying real estate on the boundaries of the capital, especially the homes of ordinary people like this, is unattainable most of the time. Therefore, it is not impossible for Zhang Bing to abandon his previous suspicions to find Zhu San for the sake of interests.