Chapter 119: The Censorship of the Silver Case

Just as Li Wei promised at the Luo family feast, the law enforcement will be impartial. He immediately sent 220 Jinyiwei to divide the disaster relief grain into 22 groups to investigate the 22 counties including Guangzhou, Huizhou, Chaozhou, Shaozhou, Zhaoqing, etc., which found the disaster relief grain adulteration. Although the investigation results have not been officially announced, only four magistrates and one magistrate were killed for corruption and bribery. The remaining 18 magistrates and prefects were all safe and sound. As for the magistrates who were killed for food adulteration, there was no magistrate. It is obvious that the source of the disaster relief grain adulteration did not come from local governments. Various rumors and speculations directly pointed the finger at the military system.

In the past two days, the commander of Guangdong, Zhang Yi, was restless. He was anxious and confused, like an ant on a hot pan. He received secret news that the Jinyiwei had already captured evidence of the army's adulteration in the grain. A deputy Qianhou surnamed Zhou admitted that it was adulteration in the grain at the time of the food handover, and was secretly taken away by the Jinyiwei at his home in Shunde.

The news was like a mountain collapse to Zhang Yi. He knew that although he eliminated the evidence, there were still too many loopholes. As long as the relevant personnel of the General Food Depot of the Jinyiwei General investigated separately, the truth would be revealed immediately. None of the officials of the Guangdong Commander, including him, could survive.

After two days of continuous development, Zhang Yi locked himself in the room. He was almost completely desperate. Most of his hair turned gray and white in two days, and his cheeks were sunk deep.

"Sir, Wang Tongzhi asked for a meeting!" A personal guard reported outside the door.

After a while, Zhang Yi said in a low voice: "Take him in!"

After a moment, footsteps entered, the door opened, and an official walked into the room lightly. The person who came was Wang Min, the commander-in-chief of the capital, and he was directly under the jurisdiction of Guangdong military rations. If there was any accident in the military rations, he would be the first to bear the brunt.

Like Zhang Yi, Wang Min could not sleep at night, and lost more than ten pounds in a few days. The fear of death torture Wang Min almost collapsed. He racked his brains to the point of countermeasures. Today he came to find Zhang Yi and he thought of a solution.

"Sir, I have thought of a solution." Wang Min said nervously.

"What!" Zhang Yi stood up suddenly, stared at Wang Min and said tremblingly, "Speak quickly, what have you thought of?"

"Sir, my subordinates think about it. In fact, there are not many people who know the details. There are only six people. The rest of the exchange of grain and destroying the warehouse are the works of our personal soldiers. They will not report it to us. Among these six people, I, Yang Qianshi, Zhao Qianhu, who is in charge of the granary, and the chief clerk of the accountant, and the deputy director of Qianhu who was destroyed. I thought that except for the adults, I, Yang Qianshi, the other three people who killed them, would not be afraid of the news leaking."

Zhang Yi sat down dejectedly, killing people to silence people, in fact, he had long thought that the deputy Qianhu, the deputy director of the granary, could be killed with dereliction of duty, but if Zhao Qianhu and the chief clerk of the accountant were killed, the matter would be a big deal, and they were afraid that they would have thought of being killed and silence people, and they had prepared in advance.

Zhang Yi shook his head and sighed long and said, "Have you not thought about it? If it were our internal investigation, maybe we could get rid of it after killing people to silence them. But the person who came to investigate was the Jinyiwei. Do you think they would be fooled? The three related people died bizarrely, so there was obviously a problem. As long as they check the soldiers below and hundreds of households, everything will be revealed, unless..."

Speaking of the word "unless", Zhang Yi narrowed his eyes. What he wanted to say below was that unless Wang Min or one of Yang Clans was willing to take this responsibility. Wang Min was so smart that before Zhang Yi could say it, he fell to the ground: "Sir, I can't bear this responsibility. I can't stand the punishment. As long as the Jinyiwei forced me to confess, I will definitely leak it. Besides, my son knows these details. If I die bizarrely, my son will definitely be unfavorable to the adults. Please think twice."

"Hmph!" Zhang Yi snorted heavily and said, "Chief Yang is unwilling to take this responsibility. Could it be that I will take responsibility? Are you two free and easy?"

"I don't dare to do so, why don't we think of other solutions!"

At this moment, the nervous report from the personal soldiers suddenly came from outside the door, "Sir, the Jinyiwei is here, there are more than 200 people, and the leader is Deputy Qianhu Luo."

"Ah!" Zhang Yi felt a dizzy moment. He grabbed the armrest of the chair tightly to prevent himself from falling down. Wang Min next to him fainted in fear.

"It's over, everything is over." Zhang Yi's thoughts were gone. As long as the Jinyiwei came to the door, it would be too late for him to do anything.

Noisy footsteps came from the yard, and Luo Guang was only hearing the stern shouting outside: "Where is Lord Zhang?"

Zhang Yi sighed and slowly stood up. He opened the door and said calmly to Luo Guangcai: "Deputy Qianhu, I am here."

Luo Guangcai bowed to him and said, "Mr. Zhang, someone reported that the disaster relief grain case also involved the army. We ask Mr. Zhang to come with us and cooperate with our investigation. Please rest assured. This is just a normal investigation, not anything special."

Zhang Yi nodded silently, went back to the house and put on his official uniform. He glanced at Wang Min who was lying on the ground, then shook his head and walked out of the room, "Let's go! I'll go with you."

The Jinyiwei brought Zhang Yi to the station and invited Zhang Yi into a room. As soon as he entered, Zhang Yi was stunned. The room was not the torture room he thought, but a reception room. Li Wei was walking forward with a smile and said, "Mr. Zhang, it's been a long time since we saw him."

Zhang Yi smiled reluctantly, but couldn't find anything to say. Li Wei was asking him to sit down and ordered someone to serve tea. Then he said to him: "There is something I want to say ugly. We have already had definite evidence that the adulteration of disaster relief food came from the army and had nothing to do with the local government. I have reported this to the emperor in the preliminary report."

"You have... reported to the emperor?" Zhang Yi felt his heart stop beating. Since he had reported to the emperor, there was no room for recovery. He sighed helplessly and was about to admit it calmly, but Li Weizheng waved his hand and interrupted his thought of surrendering himself.

"Although I report to the emperor that adulterated food comes from the army, I did not say that it was done by Lord Zhang in private. Do you understand what I mean?"

Zhang Yi looked at Li Weizheng in a bit incredible. Of course, he understood what Li Weizheng meant, that is, this adulteration might be the cause of the person below. If that were the case, Zhang Yi's death penalty would have been escaped. At most, he would be a crime of not being investigated, and was dismissed or demoted. But is Li Weizheng really what he meant?

"Li Qianhu... means..." Zhang Yi stuttered...

Li Weizheng smiled faintly and said, "Actually, I know the truth very well. A total of 30,000 stones of military ration disappeared. Lord Zhang, Tongzhi Lord Wang, and Assistant Lord Yang were all involved in the case. We can check the account books and ask the lower-level soldiers. As long as we want to check, there is nothing that cannot be found clearly. Of course, if we check it a little roughly, the direction may shift. All this is in my hands. I can fully explain it to the emperor. The key is how Lord Zhang hopes I will check it?"

Zhang Yi's heart beat violently, as if he saw a glimmer of hope in front of the god of death. Li Weizheng's meaning was already very clear. He could let himself go. Of course, he must have the conditions. Zhang Yi took a deep breath and asked, "Please tell me directly, what do you need me to do?"

Li Weizheng did not rush to answer. He came to the window with his hands behind his back. Outside the window, a osmanthus tree was blooming brightly, and the golden flowers exuded a refreshing fragrance. After a long time, he slowly said: "Does Lord Zhang really think I am here to investigate the disaster relief grain case?"

"This..." Zhang Yi was a little confused. He was confused. Isn't everything Li Weizheng did to investigate the disaster relief food case? Does he have any other intentions?

Li Wei was slowly turning back and staring into his eyes and said, "To be honest, I just rushed back to Guangzhou in half an hour. Last night, Commander Pan from Guanghaiwei and I fought a battle with the Japanese pirates on Huangpu Island outside Shunde County, killing more than 500 Japanese pirates. Unfortunately, we went one step late and did not catch the 300,000 taels of silver from the King of Qin on the spot."

Zhang Yi suddenly realized that he finally understood that Li Weizheng was actually here to investigate the case of Qin King smuggling silver, and the disaster relief grain case was just a cover. He knew that Li Weizheng had something to look for him, so Zhang Yi didn't say much, waiting for the other party to say something later.

Li Wei glanced at him, smiled and continued, "Mr. Zhang is a smart person. He should know how to protect himself at present and who should be a scapegoat. I only have one condition, which is to arrest Yu Guangqing on the spot and get the handwritten letter from the King of Qin from him. This requires Mr. Zhang and me to go to the military camp. As for whether Yu Guangqing himself dies or lives, it doesn't matter. As a condition, I can promise you that I will investigate the disaster relief grain case according to the clues given by Lord. Do you understand?"

Zhang Yi felt a little weak in his heart. He finally learned about the power of the young Jinyiwei Qianhu in front of him. He had already set up this bureau. Yu Guangqing involved the King of Qin and could not have a living person, so he was the best scapegoat for disaster relief food cases. Then he searched from his home to make the proceeds of embezzlement of military rations. The matter involved the imperial family sack. The emperor would also acquiesce to Yu Guangqing to bear the final blame. He just changed the account book and silenced the relevant persons, creating the illusion of suicide fearing crimes. Everything would be perfect. The earthquake in the officialdom in Guangdong ended unexpectedly.

When Li Wei saw that he understood what he meant, he said coldly: "But there is one thing I have to make clear. I will not wrap myself in this matter. I will report to the emperor in fact. As for why rice bran is mixed in military rations, you can explain it to the emperor yourself."

Zhang Yi wiped his sweat and nodded, "I understand that I will donate all the land to apologize to the emperor, and only beg Qiangu to write a report to the emperor according to my reasons."

Li Wei was silent for a while, and suddenly said to him: "Mr. Zhang, if you really want nothing to do, I advise you to hand over the military power together and retire and return home as soon as possible."

Zhang Yi was shocked all over. He stared at Li Weizheng blankly. After a long time, he sighed and said, "I understand what you mean, I will consider it."

On the official road of Dongguan County, more than 200 cavalry took the lead. Not far behind, a thousand infantry ran in line. This was a thousand navy from Guanghaiwei surrounded the Guangdong Command Center, Zhang Yi was running towards the Nanhaiwei camp. When he reached the camp gate, Yu Guangqing heard that the commander of the commander arrived and hurriedly led a group of subordinates out of the military camp to greet him.

"I am here to see the commander-in-chief." Yu Guangqing knelt down on one knee and saluted respectfully.

Zhang Yi pointed at the horse whip and said, "Take him down for me!"

More than a dozen personal soldiers rushed over and tied him up firmly. Yu Guangqing did not expect Zhang Yi to suddenly attack. He shouted in anger, "Sir, why am I guilty?"

Zhang Yi said coldly: "I received a report that five hundred Japanese pirates rushed straight to Shunde, but you, Nanhaiwei, indulged indifferently, you should be responsible."

Yu Guangqing tried his best to argue: "Sir, we just heard about the Japanese pirates. They entered the country from the jurisdiction of Guanghaiwei. How can I blame me for the Nanhaiwei!"

"I will investigate Guanghaiwei on my own. You can go to the commander's office to explain to me." Zhang Yi waved his hand, "Take him away."

The personal soldiers grabbed him and pushed him back. Yu Guangqing suddenly found Li Weizheng behind Zhang Yi. He immediately realized that the incident of the case of the King of Qin was exposed. He was not willing to be arrested. While struggling hard, he shouted to his subordinates from afar: "What are you kneeling there and doing? Why don't you come and save me!"

When more than 200 personal soldiers saw that the chief general was captured, they immediately drew their swords and rushed up. Zhang Yi was prepared. With a wave of his hand, nearly a thousand Guanghai Guard soldiers were holding weapons and surrounded Yu Guangqing's personal soldiers. They killed more than 20 rebels in a row. Seeing that the situation was hopeless, the rest of the personal soldiers threw down their weapons and bowed their heads to capture them.

The group of deputy generals behind, Qianhu, knelt on the ground, and no one dared to say anything. This is the commander-in-chief, the highest commander of Guangdong. Who dares to offend? After a moment, Yu Guangqing was pushed away and could no longer hear his shouts. Zhang Yi then said to the deputy commander-in-chief Zhou Ying: "From now on, you will be the commander-in-chief of the South China Sea Guard to stabilize the morale of the army. No news about Yu Guangqing is allowed to be revealed."

Zhou Ying saluted a military salute and replied loudly: "Sir, obey the order!"

At this time, Luo Guang hurried forward and whispered in Li Weizheng's ear: "Sir, we have searched Yu Guangqing's whole body and found no letters."

Li Weizheng nodded, and he turned over and got off the horse and walked to the deputy commander. He lit up the Jinyiwei Qianhu's waist sign and said, "We are Jinyiwei. Now he suspects that Yu Guangqing has colluded with Japanese pirates and wants to search his home and camp. Please cooperate!"

The deputy commander nodded repeatedly, "Don't worry, Lord Qianhu, I will definitely cooperate with the Jinyiwei to investigate the case."

Li Weizheng immediately divided into three groups. One by Luo Guangcai, led the 200 Jinyiwei to search Yu Guangqing's house in Dongguan County. The other by Guanghaiwei commander Pan Ning, who led the Guanghaiwei Navy to block the Nanhaiwei Navy Navy's military camp and did not allow silver ships to escape. Li Weizheng personally led the 100 Jinyiwei to search Yu Guangqing's room in the military camp.

There was no one in Yu Guangqing's room. Two clerks and staff had been taken down for interrogation. More than 100 Jinyiwei were veterans in search. His search was very well-organized. He first numbered everything one by one, and then carried it out to disassemble it. Even a large bed was dismantled into more than three hundred parts, and no inch would be spared. The other ten people drew grids on the wall and tapped each grid one by one with a small hammer to find the dark holes on the wall. After the Jinyiwei's careful search, they found many gold, silver and jewelry, but no letters were found.

Li Wei was sitting in Yu Guangqing's seat, imagining where he would put the letter? At this time, Chen Ying, a hundred households, stepped forward and smiled, "Sir, I have asked about the confession from the document. There may be a dark hole under the sir."

Li Wei was standing up quickly, and several Jinyiwei lieutenants immediately moved the chair away. Under the chair was a carpet, lifting up the carpet. The ground was made of bricks, just like elsewhere. An Jinyiwei slammed the ground carefully with a wooden hammer, while carefully distinguishing the difference in sound.

"Finished." The Jinyiwei threw away the hammer, carefully pried one of the bricks with a dagger, and placed them on the table.

Only then did Li Weizheng see clearly that this was not a brick, but a wooden box, with a shape almost the same as a brick, and there was a small lock at the bottom, and no key was needed. The Jinyiwei pried with a dagger and said with a "bang!", the box opened, and waterproof oil paper was laid around the box, and a thick stack of letters was placed inside.

Li Wei flipped through the letter and found four handwritten letters from King Zhu Chuang of Qin, which contained detailed contents of smuggling silver. The exact evidence Zhu Yuanzhang asked for had been found.

Li Wei picked out two letters about the Luo family and collected them. He immediately said to Chen Ying, a hundred households: "Go and tell the commander-in-chief that I have found what I want."

Chen Ying took the order and left. At this time, Zhou Ying, deputy commander of the Nanhai Guard, came in to report: "Master Qianhu, I have interrogated Yu Guangyuan's personal soldiers. Yu Guangyuan transported back fifty large wooden boxes last night, but did not stop in the military camp, but sent people away overnight, and we didn't know where to go."

"Thank you, Lord Zhou, for reporting the message. I already know the situation. In the future, the affairs of the Jinyiwei will have nothing to do with the Nanhaiwei."

Li Weizheng strode out of the room and ordered his subordinates standing outside the door and said, "Go and notify Deputy Qianhu Luo immediately and act according to the original plan."

Qingyuan County is a county north of Guangzhou Prefecture, and to the north are Lechang County and Yizhang County of Shaozhou Prefecture. Going north, you can enter Huguang Province. After crossing Huguang Province, you can pass through Nanyang, Tongguan and Shaanxi, or go west to Hanzhong to reach Xi'an. The journey is about 4,000 miles, and it takes nearly three months for a special cargo mule team to travel.

On the tenth day of September, a transport team consisting of 300 mules and 50 large trucks left Qingyuan County with cargo. Since this team was responsible for transporting military salt made by the Nanhaiwei and had to pass through the mountainous areas where ethnic minorities lived, the commander of the Nanhaiwei Yu Guangqing specially sent 500 soldiers to escort them all the way until the transport team arrived at the Dongting Lake area, which was densely populated by Han people, and the army returned to Guangdong.

The mule and horse team was led by the boss Ma Buyuan himself. There were a total of 100 men under his command, divided into two parts: the team and the mule team. Among them, the little leader of the team was Ji, and he had fifteen brothers under his command. It is said that he was an old man who had always started with the boss. However, most of the other men did not know him, and no one would ask more questions. In the past, the east coach had done a lot of black matters, but who knew what they did.

The team walked along the Beijiang River and arrived in Yingde County, Shaozhou Prefecture two days later. That afternoon, it started to rain. Since it was transporting military salt and could not touch water, the guys covered the goods with the rain cloth. At this time, Ji Gang winked at Ma Buyuan and pointed to the right. Ma Buyuan saw that there was a forest on the right, so he ran to the leader of the soldiers with the team. A deputy Qianhu smiled and said, "General Qin, it's raining, even if it's covered with rain cloth, it's probably not good. Why not hide in the woods for a while."

This deputy Qianhu was Yu Guangqing's confidant. He knew exactly what the freight was transporting, so he waved his hand and said, "Go to the woods to shelter from the rain, and leave after the rain stops."

The mule team and the cart turned around and drove towards the woods two hundred steps away. The soldiers hugged their heads and ran into the woods first. After a while, the carriages and mules hid in the woods. The woods were very large, at least three or four miles long, and everyone hid in a corner that was the westmost.

The rain is getting heavier and heavier, and it seems that I can't leave for a while. Fortunately, the shade is dense and there is no rain in the woods. Everyone sits down by the trees. Some drink water, some eat, and some close their eyes to rest. They are bored. It is late autumn, and the air is humid and cold.

Ji Gang looked into the woods with uneasyness. Yesterday, the subordinates he sent out found out that a team of more than a thousand people had surpassed them. If nothing unexpected happened, the place where they started should be in this forest.

When Ji Gang saw Qin Qianhu eating dry food, he smiled, took out a packet of roast chicken and a pot of wine, walked up to the deputy Qianhu and said, "Do you want to drink wine to protect the cold?"

Qin Qianhu snatched the wine pot from his hand, sniffed it, his eyes lit up. He raised his neck and drank two sips, and praised: "Good wine! You kid still hide this."

Ji Gang smiled and presented the roast chicken. Qin Qianhu was not polite and started chewing. The other hundreds of households smelled the fragrance of the wine and all surrounded them. Everyone talked and snatched the wine pot and started drinking in turn. Ji Gang stood aside with a smile. He thought that only the deputy thousand households were drinking, but now all the hundreds of households came to drink. It would be the best then.

At this time, one of his subordinates came to him and shook his eyes. Ji Gang understood and immediately yawned, "I'll go find a place to sleep for a while, and call me when I leave."

He ran past several big trees, immediately ran out of the woods like an arrow, and his dozens of his men rushed into the rain like frightened rabbits, and ran without a trace after a moment. The guys in the woods didn't know what had happened, and they stood up and watched them run away and disappeared in surprise. At this moment, more than a dozen soldiers sleeping deep in the woods suddenly shouted, and all the sitting people stood up together, looking around in horror, and more than a thousand fully armed soldiers had surrounded them, aiming muskets and bows at everyone, and an officer shouted loudly: "The Jinyiwei will squat down for me when handling the case!"

When they heard that it was the Jinyiwei, the guys were so scared that they knelt down one after another. The soldiers were at a loss and looked at their leader together. Why did the leaders not say a word until now? The scene they saw was shocked. Qin Deputy Qianhu and several Baihu were all lying on the ground, bleeding from their seven orifices, and had been dead for a long time. The owner Ma Buyuan, who was resting in the carriage, was also killed, silently, and he didn't know who was the one who took the action?

The soldiers lost their backbone and squatted down one after another. They were then taken away by the soldiers. At this time, Luo Guangcai led two hundred Jinyiwei to rush to the carriage. He first searched the token of the King of Qin from the dead Ma Buyuan. Then he used a knife to chop off the canopy on the carriage, and took off several bags of salt, revealing a corner of a large wooden box. He pointed to the carriage and said, "Download all the wooden boxes for me."

Everyone started to do something together. Soon, fifty large wooden boxes were filled with the ground. Luo Guang did not dare to be careless. He jumped off the horse and pried open a wooden box. With a "wow!", a pile of white silver ingots rolled out from it. Each piece was the size of a brick, weighing about five kilograms, a total of eighty ingots, which was nearly four hundred kilograms, equivalent to six thousand taels of silver. Then fifty boxes were 300,000 taels of silver.

Luo Guangcai laughed. The Qin King's money had been obtained, and the evidence was conclusive. At this time, the Qin King's aide Tan Yanling, who was accompanying the car, was brought up. His face was extremely cold and he did not say a word, and his eyes were filled with a cold hostility.

"What! Do you think you have a chance to turn around?" Luo Guang saw the disdain in his eyes, so he shook the token of King Qin, and pointed to the silver ingot on the ground and said, "Personal evidence, physical evidence is conclusive, you are dead!"

Suddenly, an Jinyiwei screamed, "Luo Qianhu, no, this is not silver, it is white lead!"

Luo Guangcai was stunned, and he immediately ordered: "Open all the boxes and inspect the goods!"

"Luo Qianhu, here is white lead."
To be continued...