After crossing the river to Jiangning County, Yang Yuanqing had been in Jiangnan for ten days. From Kuaiji County to the south to Xuancheng County to the west, he was warmly welcomed by county officials and people wherever he went.

This is a kind of support from the heart. On the one hand, the officials themselves are Sui officials and appointed by the Sui Dynasty. They recognized the inheritance of the new Sui Dynasty to the former Sui Dynasty. Yang Yuanqing's arrival was like a separated orphan who found his parents.

On the other hand, the people of the world are determined, and the people of Jiangnan are no exception. Since the beginning of the six years of turmoil in Daye, it has been a long time since the beginning of the sixth year of Daye.

Although Jiangnan did not encounter destruction like the Central Plains and Hebei, it was also suffering from the pain of rampant bandits and warlords fighting. Whether it was the major gentry or ordinary farmers, they all yearned for peace and stability in the country and the people and living a stable life.

But ordinary people, like officials, 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 root of the destruction of the Central Plains. Therefore, when the Wei Dynasty was destroyed by the Sui Army, the Sui Army

When the news came, the entire Jiangnan region was in full swing, and people spontaneously beat drums and went to the streets to celebrate.

When Yang Yuanqing's fleet passed through every village and every county, people would spontaneously run to the riverside, beating drums and drums, singing and dancing to welcome the arrival of the King of Chu. Yang Yuanqing was also unexpected.

Yang Yuanqing's fleet consists of more than 100 thousand stone boats, with one thousand cavalry guards on both sides of the shore. The fleet slowly travels along the Jiangnan River, which is the extension of the Tongji Canal, extending from the estuary of the Yangtze River to Kuaiji County.

It was first dug by Emperor Qin Shihuang, and it was repaired and unblocked in the dynasty. In the sixth year of Daye, Yang Guang ordered the expansion and diversion of the Jiangnan River, from Jingkou to Yuhang, which was more than 800 miles long and more than ten feet wide and could be 5,000 stones long.

Yang Yuanqing stood at the bow of the boat, staring at the beautiful scenery of Jiangnan in the misty and rain in March. The drizzle was flying and the smoke was misty. Clusters of plum blossoms bloomed in the misty and rain. The beautiful scenery on both sides was as poetic as picturesque. A pretty Jiangnan girl held an oil paper umbrella from the bridge.

It passed by slowly, like the most beautiful scenery in the painting.

At this time, the fleet had temporarily left the Jiangnan Canal and sailed west along a tributary. This belongs to Wucheng County in the southern part of Wu County. In the Southern Dynasty, it was called Wuxing County, and in the Sui Dynasty, it was called Huzhou. It was incorporated into Wu County during the Daye period.

One of the richest areas in the entire Jiangnan.

However, last year, fierce battles between Li Mi's army and Shen Faxing's army broke out in this area, and were also ravaged by war. Thousands of people fled to Taihu Lake to avoid the war. To this day, houses destroyed by war can be seen on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.

Half an hour later, the fleet turned south again and entered a smaller river channel. However, although the river channel was small, it could accommodate a large ship with thousands of stones of water. Gradually, a village appeared in front of the fleet.

Lu Xuanhe, the prefect of Wu County who accompanied Yang Yuanqing, pointed to the village in the distance and said, "Your Highness, that's Shenjia Village."

Yang Yuanqing nodded. This is Shenjia Village, the hometown of my aunt and Wuchen. He pondered for a while and asked again: "Can the Shen family's family extermination case be investigated?"

Lu Xuanhe hurriedly said: "It's basically clear that it was done by Shen Faxing's personal army captain Li Zhu'er. At that time, Li Zhu'er had been to Shen's house several times and was familiar with the situation of the Shen family. Shen Faxing fought

After his death, Li Zhu'er brought hundreds of deserters to burn, kill and loot all the way, and specially selected big families to attack them. He robbed a total of twenty-three households, of which eight were destroyed. The Shen family was naturally his primary target. Afterwards, the Wei minister came specifically.

According to the investigation by the Shen family, most valuable things were taken away, and forty-eight people in the Shen family were killed, and even men under the age of 60 did not survive. It was really unfortunate."

Yang Yuanqing could understand the robbers of robbers of wealth, but he could never understand why they wanted to destroy the family. First, there was no need to destroy the family, and second, the robbers did not humiliate women, which also made him a little confused.

"Where is this Li Zhuer now?"

"I'm already dead. I heard that it was unevenly divided with my subordinates and I was dismembered by the corpse. Last autumn, the villagers sent his head to the county magistrate and hung it on the city for a few days. His dozens of people were in love with him. Most of them died, and those who fled disappeared. The government has offered rewards to arrest him since last year. There has been no clue yet, so the matter has to be left alone."

Yang Yuanqing has always been a very depressed thing for the Shen family to be destroyed. The Shen family is also a relative of the foreign country, but it is not able to save it. It makes him feel embarrassed, but now that things have come to this point, he has no choice but to come and have no choice but to come and pay his respects. The deceased can be said to give an explanation to my aunt and Chuchen.

At this time, the ship had already entered the village and slowly docked in front of a small pier. The pier was already covered with Sui cavalry, and hundreds of villagers came to watch from afar, perhaps because of their high alert. There was no warm welcome.

In fact, the whole village has the surname Chen, and he has more or less a relative relationship with the Shen family. However, Chen's ancestor, a man with great academic performance, became a Beijing official, established a family business, and went through a hundred After the rest of the years of continuous development, the county of the Shen family in Wuxing gradually formed.

Yang Yuanqing got off the boat, and came to Shen Guang quickly greeted him, knelt down on one knee and saluted, "See Your Highness!"

Chen Guang arrived five days ago to help the Shen family solve their difficulties and prepare for Yang Yuanqing's upcoming visit. Yang Yuanqing smiled and said, "Thank you for your hard work, please get up!"

Chen Guang stood 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. There are only some elderly people living in Chen's house, which is very desolate."

"How is the investigation of the reason for the family being destroyed?" Yang Yuanqing asked without saying a word.

"I've checked it, but... it's hard to say here." Chen Guang looked at the surrounding situation, feeling a little embarrassed.

Yang Yuanqing nodded and walked quickly into the Shen house.

At the gate of the Shen family, more than a dozen elderly people in the Shen family cried to the ground when they saw Yang Yuanqing coming. Yang Yuanqing quickly helped them up, comforted them with kind words, and promised that the government would arrange their lives. The elderly people then cried. Invite Yang Yuanqing to enter the mansion.

The house is deep and old. It has been more than half a year since the massacre of the family extermination. The mansion has already cleaned up and there is no sign of the massacre.

The Chen Mansion is now supported by two children from the side house. These two people escaped because of doing business abroad. After returning, they became the pillars of the Chen Mansion, and in fact they became the new owners of the Chen Mansion.

After comforting the living and giving the dead two incense sticks to the spiritual throne, Yang Yuanqing's trip to the house completed his mission.

In a quiet room, Yang Yuanqing was drinking tea while listening to Chen Guang's investigation report quietly.

"Weizhi visited nearby villagers these days, including some survivors that night. From them, we can confirm that it was indeed caused by Li Zhuer, who led the bandits. About 400 people came by boat, but there were some of them. Something strange."

"Continue talking." Yang Yuanqing put down the teacup, and he became a little interested.

"There are two main things. One is that these bandits did not touch women and did not insult the Shen family. However, none of the other big robbers were spared. Women would be humiliated. This is a bit strange. Secondly, the time they stayed. Not long, although a lot of property was stolen, the Shen family's basement was not dug. They had time to dig, but they hurried away. Other big families dig three feet into the ground, giving the feeling of being humble. The wealth seems to be just a cover, and killing people is the purpose. Even the children are killed. This has not happened in other big families. Before that, Li Zhuer robbed money and never destroyed the family. Since the Shen family's family extermination case, There have only been seven family-killing cases in a row. Bei Zhi speculated that other family-killing cases were just to cover up the truth of the Shen family.”

Yang Yuanqing nodded. When he heard the news from his aunt, he intuition told him that it was a bit unreasonable. It was because of the deep hatred that the family would do this. Generally, robbing money can kill at most a few main characters, so the Shen family It is indeed unreasonable that the family was destroyed by the bandits and the female family was not insulted.

"Does Li Zhuer have a grudge with the Shen family?"

"No grudge. Li Zhu'er and Chen Faxing have been to Chen Mansion twice before, and both were warmly treated by the Shen family. They should have no grudges."

At this time, Yang Yuanqing felt that Li Zhu'er's death was not so simple, and he might have been killed and silenced.

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

"Report to your highness, I found a man, just thirty miles south of Jiang Dun, there was a man named Jiang Balang. He was Chen Faxing's personal soldier. At first, he refused to admit his involvement in the Shen family's family destruction case. Later, he Only when he found the Shen family's property from his home did he admit to participating in this matter."

"What did he say?"

"He said that when a brother suggested looting the Shen family at the beginning, Li Zhu'er rejected the suggestion because the Shen family had something to do with the concubine. Li Zhu'er was afraid that the Sui Dynasty would not forgive him, but on the afternoon of the day when the family was destroyed, Li Zhu'er suddenly became ruthless. He gathered everyone and said he wanted to attack the Shen family. Jiang Balang suspected that someone had contacted Li Zhuer."

Yang Yuanqing nodded. There will be clues in everything. As long as you are willing to dig, you will gain some results. It seems that the prefect of Wujun did not want to cause trouble, so he made a fool of himself.

"Who has ever had contact with Li Zhuer? Does Jiang Balang know? Or can he guess what clues?"

Chen Xing sighed, and his face showed a frustration, "I also repeatedly asked him, even tortured him to confess. He really didn't know, and Li Zhu'er did take on several votes of business, and he was alone, and he didn't No one knows whether he even goes to discuss business. When Li Zhu'er dies, no one knows about this. A woman from Li Zhu'er was also killed. No one finds these confidant soldiers. Clues: If someone entrusts this matter, then the client is doing it very secretly and has no loopholes. Jiang Balang suspects that even Li Zhuer may not know who the person who actually entrusts him?"

Yang Yuanqing took a few steps behind his back. Although he was very interested in this case, the key point was that he had no time to continue in Jiangnan, and the battle in Jingxiang was imminent.

Moreover, he did not have the effort to investigate the trivial matter of the Shen family's destruction. Even the prefect of Wu County did not have time to consider this matter, let alone Yang Yuanqing.

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

Chen Guang was appointed as the head of Jiangnan East Road, and reorganized 30,000 surrendered troops to guard Jiangnan. He had no time and effort to inquire about the Shen family.
Chapter completed!