Huzhou Mansion.

An Ying followed Su Huangzhe and his party to station in Huzhou Mansion. Master Su threw her a lot of confessions and materials, she buried herself in sorting them out every day, Xiao Yi has taken great care of her since the last time, and she will send tea and snacks. provoked the other maids and servants of the government to think that Xiao Yi had taken a fancy to her, and always gave Xiao Yi convenience.

Today, Lord Chen Dong also came from the capital, and Su Huangzhe called An Ying to speak.

Su Huangzhe beckoned to her and said, "If you have any discoveries, let's talk about it first." By the way, this is Chen Dong, Chen Shilang, this is the first time you have seen him. Saying that, he raised his hand and pointed to the man next to him, An Ying saw that Chen Shilang was only in his twenties, his eyebrows and eyes were quite handsome, his face was white like a scholar, and he was dressed in a crimson official uniform, but his face was even more delicate, but unfortunately his face was solemn, compared to Su Huangzhe's gentle feeling, this Chen Shilang was not easy to talk to at first glance.

Su Huangzhe tapped his fingers on the table and asked, "What new discoveries have you made after reading that pile of materials?" ”。

An Ying was a little nervous, carefully sat on the chair at the farthest end, and said, "The little girl is stupid, and she has made a little progress. ”

"What Master Su gave me was the financial and tax situation of Shuanglin Town in recent years. I suspect that the adults are trying to speculate on who was involved in the illicit tea case through the flow of money. ”

Su Huangzhe nodded approvingly, he didn't say anything to this girl, just asked people to throw a bunch of files to her, and sure enough, she knew what the purpose of arranging her to see was there.

Su Huangzhe said: "A total of thirteen thieves were arrested in Shuanglin Mountain that time, and they were interrogated for a few days, but no one else was involved, only that the Luo family paid for them to take care of the tea trees and make tea cakes. They didn't explain the rest. ”

Chen Dong answered coldly: "These are enough to sentence you to death by hanging, what else do you have to confess?" ”

Su Huangzhe rolled his eyes at him angrily, "Luo said that she poisoned the mold, and this step is to put the steamed tea cake in the mold to remove the yellow, and the poison is slowly baked into the tea cake in this way." She had to have a place to experiment with this, and it wasn't going to work out all at once. Didn't Xiao Yi find the two thatched huts where they made tea? The mold and tea have been tested and are not poisonous. What I want to investigate is poisoning, poisoning, and private tea cases, that's incidental! ”

Chen Dong glanced at him: "There are indeed a lot of things found in the thatched hut that have been transported to the Huzhou Mansion and have been inspected, but there is nothing special to find, just the daily tools of the tea households." As for that Manyin, there is no trace of it. ”

It turned out that the relationship between the two of them was so good, An Ying thought silently, and couldn't help but interject.

"Well, I'm not done yet."

Chen Dong glanced at her again, "Say, I stopped you?" ”

An Ying said in his heart, Lord Chen has a little convulsion, did he get rid of his own teaching lawyer back then, and from time to time he said, "What, are you dumb?" "What? Did I stop you from talking? ”

"The old accounts of the Luo family that Master Su gave me, some places feel strange, I didn't think much about it at first, but then I thought about it a lot, Shuanglin Town, that is, Shuanglin Village has always been a relatively wealthy village and town nearby. But if you go back and check the villages around here, they are all about the same, and there are only a few villages in the mountains that are poorer. ”

Chen Dong took a sip of kumquat and said, "I have seen Huzhou's taxation, and this Shuanglin Town is medium, not as good as the nearby Zhili or Wukang." ”

"I don't see the taxes in the government, but the account books of the Shen family's money bank." An Ying said: "The items bought by the nearby villages and towns for marriage and purchase go to the Shen family's shop. Shuanglin Village was originally only thirteen families, and then they moved to six families in the city one after another, and there were only seven families left. Saying that, An Ying took out the piece of paper he had prepared before, handed it to Huang Suzhe, and continued: "Five of these seven families have had girls married in the past three years. I checked that they almost spent about two hundred taels to buy the best four-season clothes, fabrics and jewelry in the Shen family's shop, and the well-off families in the nearby weaving and Wukang town were reluctant to spend so much to buy these items. ”

At this time, Chen Dong nodded and said, "You have a unique perspective on the problem. But think about it, if you steal the money from the sale of illicit tea, how can you pay taxes? However, no matter how these villagers hide their wealth, they will still do their best to marry. What do you mean, these seven families may be the people involved in the tea-making case? There are indeed a lot more people involved. ”

"This is a case of murder against the royal family." An Ying said: "Originally, it was a case that was big enough, but it was nothing more than a confession by the Luo family, and he was stunned to bring the whole case to a small one, didn't you handle it as a big case of rebellion?" ”

Chen Dong raised his eyes at this time and saw that An Ying was only a teenage girl, and even a little childish, originally disdainful of Su Huangzhe's liking to discuss the case with this tea girl, if it weren't for Su Huangzhe, who has never been a woman, otherwise he would have doubted whether Su Huangzhe had taken a fancy to this girl, what is the matter with such a case, now it seems that this girl is indeed suitable for the case.

On the side, Su Huangzhe nodded secretly: "I understand what you mean." ”

An Ying got up and said, "Master Su should also think of this, it's just that it involves too much and has some scruples. But back to the case itself, this is a shocking case. When the interruption continues, when the chaos is followed. ”

Chen Dong smiled, put down the lamp and said, "You look good. He said to An Ying again: "Miss An, this will send someone to Shuanglin Village to get people." I guess we'll go back to the trial in the afternoon, so you can listen to it on the sidelines. Su Huangzhe looked at An Ying a little hesitantly and said, "If you want to be uneasy, the girl should read the sorted out confession later." ”

Chen Dong just glanced at Su Huangzhe and said, "If you want to come, come here, I don't have time to wait." After that, he strode away, An Ying didn't understand what was going on, but felt that if he didn't keep up, this Lord Chen didn't seem to let himself follow the case, so he said to Su Huangzhe: "Master Su, I'd better go and listen together, otherwise it will take half a day to wait until the confession is sorted out." Su Huangzhe frowned, and stopped talking.

About two or three hours later, some people came back and forth, and a total of 47 members of seven families in Shuanglin Village had been arrested and all of them were taken to military prisons outside the city. At this time, Su Huangzhe and others went to the government prison.

An Ying found that the whole atmosphere of the interrogation room with Chen Dong was different, although he was sitting in the corner behind the screen, but the smell of blood permeated the whole body, making people feel cold from the soles of their feet to the top of their heads.

Luo Youde was tied up and thrown on the ground, covered in blood. Chen Dong walked over, the black soap shoes stepped on Luo Youde's arm wound, and saw An Ying quietly touch his arm, as if the foot was stepping on himself, Luo Youde seemed to be speechless in pain, his face was full of tears or sweat, and he said in a dumb voice: "Master Chen, I have said everything I know." I don't really know about the rest. ”

Chen Dong grabbed Luo Youde's hair and said, "Luo Youde, your Xinna's concubine gave birth to a son for you, but it has untied your knot for so many years. ”

"My lord, what are you going to do? Are you using my son's life to extract a confession? Do you still have a royal law?! Luo Youde's face was full of horror, and he cried and shouted while looking at Su Huangzhe and Guo Langzhong, and shouted in a dumb voice: "Don't Lord Su dare to say a fair word?" I'm only five years old, is this a human thing? Su Huangzhe's face did not change, but Dai Chang's face on the side was unbearable, Luo Youde saw this and struggled to crawl towards Dai Chang, and shouted: "Lord Wailang, please, you can deal with me whatever you want, let my little son go." ”

Guo Langzhong glanced at Luo Youde and said, "Luo Youde, let me ask you again what happened to the tea trees behind the Shuanglin Mountain?" ”

"My lord, I really don't know." Luo Youde spit blood out of his mouth and said, "My lord, even if I die, I don't know what happened to the tea leaves in the middle of the mountain." Be kind and spare my child. ”

Chen Dong chuckled and said, "Luo Youde, do you think I'll attack a five-year-old child?" ”

As soon as these words came out, Luo Youde was stunned, but Dai Chang answered: "That's it, how could Lord Chen do such a thing." But if you tell things honestly, you will suffer less, and it will be convenient for everyone. ”

"Do you think that if you don't make a move, even if you die in prison, you can be regarded as saving more than a dozen people from the Luo family, or more than 100 people from Shuanglin Village. I think it's worth it. Chen Dong squatted down as he spoke, "But what you don't know is that those villagers in Shuanglin Village recognize your younger brother better." It's you, the eldest brother, who is the chief, they feel that they are not as generous as Luo Youcai, and they always detain them on weekdays, which does not allow them to spend money, and they do not allow them to play. Even the girls in the family are not allowed to marry more, or your good brother secretly covers it up, so that they can enjoy it. ”

An Ying saw that although Luo Youde was tortured terribly, there was a sense of perseverance in his eyes, and he probably wanted to use himself to protect more than 100 people involved in the case.

Chen Dong continued: "Do you know that your eldest lady hates your concubine and your youngest son. To tell you the truth, if I hadn't told you to take care of your child, I wouldn't have done it, and your child would have died a long time ago. Chen Dong threw down a stack of confession papers, let Luo Youde see for himself, Luo Youde's hands were tied, he had to lie on the ground to look, read a page Chen Dong took away a page, Luo Youde's eyes were split, his mouth whined and didn't know what to howl again, it was only five or six pages, Luo Youde spurted out a mouthful of blood, lay on the ground for a long time and didn't move, An Ying even thought that Luo Youde was dead, Luo Youde lay on the ground, tilted his head sideways, and looked at the confession paper with his eyes like this and said: "More than 1,000 camellia trees in Shuanglin were planted by my father Luo Mao." From the first year of Yongkang, he found those wild tea plants and began to use tea seeds to plant tea trees, at first he just liked it, and he only ate it by himself when he made tea. One day, the newcomer to the county, He Qing, passed by Shuanglin Village and came to my house for tea, so he chatted with my father. My dad didn't think much about it, so he told him about the wild tea plants on the mountain. Later, my father went to participate in the Tea King Contest in Huzhou, and the then Zhizhou classified these tea trees as tribute. Now my father is worried, this is a tribute, I can't drink it and can't sell it, and I have to pay for labor and firewood, which is really going to drag my family to death. After He Qing found out, he came up and discussed with my father for a long time, he asked Zheng Ping to buy the twelve wild teas, and asked my father to continue to grow tea in the back mountain, and he gave my father a lot of silver money to buy the tea cakes. Later, there were more and more tea trees, and He Qing asked for more and more tea cakes, and my father and a few of us couldn't do it anymore, so I discussed with He Qing if we could. He Qing checked other families in the village, and tried to move out the few families that were not easy to control, leaving only seven families who had a good relationship with my family and were easy to control. ”

As he spoke, Luo Youde spat out blood again, and was about to struggle to continue, when Su Huangzhe spoke: "Xiao Yi, you go and call a doctor." Luo Youde, you take a moment for a while. ”