Great Song Dynasty Writer

Chapter 371 Important clues
The iron spades used in ordinary river engineering projects usually have a regular "U" shaped or nearly square shovel-shaped head, which is convenient for digging and backfilling soil.

The spade in front of us has a narrow, slightly arched face with slightly rolled edges on both sides. If you look at its rusted and twisted outline, especially in dim light, it does indeed vaguely resemble the shape of some funerary objects found in tombs.

Cui Taifu handed the spade to Lu Beigu and said in a low voice, "Censor Lu, please take a look. This object does have some unique features. Although it has been soaked in water and buried in mud, and is severely corroded, its general outline can still be discerned."

Lu Beigu took it; it felt heavy in his hand, and the cold rust pressed against his fingertips.

He examined it carefully, turning it over and over, his brows furrowing slightly.

The strangeness of this spade is not due to the craftsman's rough workmanship during processing; rather, it seems to be intentional.

He looked up and asked Judge Li, "Judge Li, you've been in Chanzhou for a long time, have you ever seen a spade of this type? Is it unique to this area, or was it purchased in the unified procurement for last year's project?"

Judge Li leaned closer for a closer look, a look of confusion on his face. He shook his head and said, "Reporting to Imperial Censor Lu, I have never seen such a shovel before. Last year's project was massive, and the sources of the tools and equipment were complex. Some were made by the government, some were requisitioned, and some were purchased locally. Perhaps it was a specially made batch? Or perhaps it was cast by folk craftsmen using their own casting methods?"

His tone was uncertain, and he was clearly surprised by it.

"Search carefully again to see if there are any similar artifact fragments nearby," Lu Beigu instructed.

After searching through the mud for a long time, the group finally found more than a dozen broken baskets and several other rusty shovels with similarly strange shapes.

The weaving methods and edge treatments of those dustpans are also unconventional and almost decorative, which is quite different from the style of dustpans as practical tools for carrying soil, which pursue simplicity and durability.

Cui Taifu pondered and said, "Looking at one or two items, it could be said to be a coincidence, but the discovery of so many with similar characteristics is probably not accidental. This claim of 'resembling funerary objects' does not seem to be entirely unfounded. At least, a batch of uniquely shaped machinery did enter the market during last year's project."

Lu Beigu's expression was solemn.

There is no record of this in the archives of the Liutahe Project, but physical evidence was found during the on-site investigation. The difference between these two is now quite subtle.

Who purchased or authorized the use of this batch of machinery? Was it simply corruption and the substitution of inferior goods, or was there some other motive? If someone is indeed spreading ominous rumors, then the appearance of this batch of machinery undoubtedly provides "physical evidence" for those rumors.

"Carefully wrap these fragments and bring them back as evidence," Lu Beigu ordered.

He then said to Cui Taifu, “Cui Xiangyi, it seems we need to focus our investigation on the officials and craftsmen who participated in the project last year, especially those responsible for the procurement and acceptance of machinery. The source of this batch of special machinery is the key.”

“That’s exactly right,” Cui Taifu nodded.

Upon returning to Puyang City, the two immediately began investigating the origin of these strangely shaped machines.

They first summoned the officials from the state government who had been in charge of purchasing machinery and equipment for the Liuta River project within the territory of Chanzhou last year.

When these officials were taken to a side hall of the prefectural government office and questioned one by one, they all looked terrified.

After all, the Liutahe case involves too much, and a large number of people were sentenced last year. Now, in the entire Chanzhou, no one is not afraid of being involved. For small people like them, it would be a matter of being crushed to pieces.

When Lu Beigu showed them the rusted spade heads and basket fragments and asked about their origin, although these people were questioned individually, their reactions were consistent: they all shook their heads after carefully examining them.

"Reporting to Imperial Censor Lu."

An elderly official with gray hair answered tremblingly: "Last year's project was massive, and the sources of the tools and equipment were varied, but I have never seen a spade of this type before, nor is it recorded in the purchase records."

"Could it be that some craftsmen privately manufactured this batch of non-compliant machinery, and then failed to inspect it carefully during the acceptance process?" Cui Taifu asked seriously.

"Perhaps, perhaps some small workshops privately took on some of the work, but according to the rules, all machinery must be inspected before it is put into storage! If this strange design had been discovered at the time, it would never have been allowed to be used!"

Lu Beigu noticed that none of the officials' confusion seemed feigned.

The summoned officials, under questioning, repeatedly checked their memories and limited written records, but none of them could explain the origin of these strange machines.

Next, the two men summoned the craftsmen who had participated in the Liutahe project last year and questioned them individually as well.

These craftsmen, who deal with various tools year-round, are most familiar with the shapes and forms of machinery. However, when they see those rusty spades, they are equally bewildered.

"Imperial Censor Lu is wise."

A craftsman leader with calloused hands said with certainty, "I've been doing this for over thirty years, traveling all over Hebei and Beijing, and I've never seen a shovel crafted like this before. The curvature and the rolled edges don't seem to be for practicality; they seem... they seem to have been deliberately made this way."

"Could it be a casting method unique to some place?" Cui Taifu asked probingly.

The chief craftsman shook his head in denial.

Subsequent inquiries yielded similar results; almost all the craftsmen stated that even if some remote areas possessed unique techniques, it would be impossible for such techniques to appear in such large-scale imperial projects, with such uniform forms.

The inquiry lasted for two full days.

Lu Beigu and Cui Taifu took turns questioning and meticulously investigated officials, craftsmen, and even warehouse keepers who might have been involved in the production and processing of the machinery, totaling more than 120 people.

However, everyone's testimonies pointed to the same conclusion.

No one knows where these strange machines came from; it's as if they appeared out of thin air.

The investigation into the case has temporarily reached a stalemate.

As night deepened, the candlelight illuminated their faces in the temporary office provided to them by the Chanzhou government.

Lu Beigu and Cui Taifu sat facing each other at the table, with a large stack of interrogation records and several broken pieces of machinery laid out as evidence in front of them.

"Everyone said they didn't know."

Cui Taifu rubbed his throbbing temples, his tone filled with confusion: "The purchasers don't know, the inspectors haven't seen it, and the craftsmen who used it don't recognize it either. Could this batch of goods have truly fallen from the sky?"

"It's not impossible for it to fall from the sky."

Lu Beigu took a sip of tea to refresh himself, and then said, "It's possible that someone deliberately stuffed it into the breach."

"But why are these machines so dilapidated? If they were deliberately stuffed in, the extent of the damage couldn't have been done recently, right? And the rumors have only started circulating recently."

Lu Beigu stared at the flickering candlelight, remained silent for a moment, and then slowly said, "Then it can only mean that someone did this deliberately, and with extremely clever methods, having planned it for a long time before launching it now."

Cui Taifu was an old hand in criminal law. Looking at the objects on the table, he concluded with certainty, "I can guarantee that with this level of rust, it would take at least half a year to soak in mud and water."

"At least half a year ago? That is, after the failure of the Liutahe project, when the dikes on both sides of the Liutahe River were being rebuilt, especially the western dike?" Lu Beigu pondered.

Based on the materials he had previously reviewed, he learned that...

At that time, Li Zhongchang and Li Zhang, the main persons in charge of the Liutahe project, had not yet been purged. Wen Yanbo and Fu Bi, for their own benefit, tried to buy them some time so that they could repair the river embankment as much as possible to reduce losses and atone for their crimes.

At that time, Li Zhongchang and Li Zhang did indeed concentrate all their manpower and resources to try to repair the west dike of the Liuta River. Why repair the west dike and not the east dike? That was because the Liao delegation would come from the west!
We must pay attention to the international perception of this issue.

As for the east dike, because it was much more severely damaged than the west dike, and they lacked manpower and resources, they knew it was impossible to repair it properly, so they only sent people to do a token job.

"We should investigate the laborers who were assigned to the East Embankment at that time!"

Cui Taifu and Lu Beigu thought of this matter almost at the same time.

"That's the idea, but I'm thinking about another problem."

Lu Beigu pondered for a moment, then asked, "So tell me, who exactly is doing this? Someone must be extremely familiar with the engineering process to deliver this batch of customized machinery to the East Bank unnoticed, then 'trap' it beforehand, without anyone noticing, and only launch the operation six months later." "Could it be Li Zhongchang?"

Cui Taifu asked, "Although he was under investigation at the time, he was still in charge of the project and was the most capable of doing this."

Lu Beigu shook his head and said, "Li Zhongchang has already been exiled because of the complete failure of the Liutahe case. If he really was the mastermind, why is no one implicating him? And if he wanted to use such methods, what would his purpose be?"

"Is that Li Zhang?"

"Does he think he has too many brains?"

"what do you mean?"

Cui Taifu seemed to have guessed something.

Lu Beigu said, "I am more inclined to believe that someone else took advantage of the chaos in the project and Li Zhongchang's lack of supervision to secretly sabotage it."

"Who could it be? And what is their purpose?"

Cui Taifu didn't dare to speak, but continued to think along these lines of thought. However, he soon became completely silent.

"You guessed it. The person behind it might have more to do than just spread rumors."

Lu Beigu's gaze deepened as he looked at Cui Taifu and said, "The appearance of this batch of machinery confirms the claim that it 'resembles funerary objects,' providing 'physical evidence' for the baseless rumors and exacerbating public panic and the court's suspicions. This is more like a two-birds-with-one-stone strategy, both striking at the two prime ministers, Wen and Fu, who strongly advocated for the project, and laying the groundwork for future attacks. As for the person behind it all..."

He paused, not saying anything more, but his eyes revealed a stern look.

To be able to tamper with such a major project without leaving a trace requires power and cunning that are far beyond those of ordinary officials.

Although the investigation into this case has made a breakthrough for the time being, for him, the undercurrents beneath the surface are becoming increasingly turbulent and unpredictable.

"Tomorrow, we will begin to investigate which officials and craftsmen were responsible for the repair of the east bank dike."

Lu Beigu said in a deep voice, "Even the most ingenious methods will always leave clues. In addition, we need to expand the scope of the investigation and ask a wide range of laborers who worked near the East Embankment last year to see if anyone has noticed any unusual details."

Cui Taifu nodded, then said, "In that case, I do have an idea."

"Let's talk."

Cui Taifu said without hesitation, "It won't work to just ask questions openly. After all, we don't have the power to use torture. So I think we should investigate this kind of thing in a covert way. You do the open investigation, and I'll do the covert investigation."

After thinking it over, Lu Beigu agreed to Cui Taifu's suggestion.

Although the official methods are tough, because they cannot use torture, those summoned will always subconsciously try to conceal some information and know that they are helpless against them.

The two had reached an agreement and then went their separate ways.

As the chief envoy, Lu Beigu continued to openly review documents in the Chanzhou government office, summoned relevant personnel, and inquired about the list of officials and records of conscription for the repair of the eastern embankment of the Liuta River project, displaying an attitude of checking and verifying in a methodical and routine manner.

Cui Taifu changed into civilian clothes and personally went deep into the city to find the laborers who had been conscripted to repair the East Embankment.

A few days later.

Lu Beigu's investigation is progressing very poorly. While there is still a lot of information available about the Liutahe project itself, there is almost no information available about the repair work after the Liutahe breach.

Because the organization of the repair project after the breach of the Liuta River was in a state of panic, the management was chaotic. Many things were not documented in writing, or were lost due to changes in officials, or were even deliberately destroyed by officials who were afraid of taking responsibility.

The laborers sent to repair the dikes of Liutahe at that time came from a very diverse background. They came from all over Hebei Province. While some were indeed conscripted locally, the vast majority were support personnel urgently transferred from other places.

Now, these people have all returned to their hometowns after the project ended and they will definitely not be found in a short time. As for the relevant records of conscription of laborers, they are even more vague.

The local laborers from Chanzhou who had been temporarily organized to work after the disaster were not in the mood to work. They worked haphazardly and could not remember who was in charge of the repair of the East Dike, what tools were used, or what abnormalities occurred. They simply avoided talking about it.

Many local officials in Chanzhou were implicated in the Liutahe case, and many were arrested or exiled. Those who remained were all in danger. Even if they knew something, they knew that Lu Beigu could not use torture, so they kept quiet about these past events that they did not need to explain, for fear of causing trouble again if they said something carelessly.

Lu Beigu had been questioning people at the prefectural government office for days, but he had only gotten limited information. He had only roughly figured out that the East Embankment repair project was being handled by a temporary team, and the person in charge was a minor official who had temporarily taken over because his original superior had been dismissed. This person was also sentenced to exile shortly after the project was completed. If he wanted to find him, he would probably have to go to Qiongzhou.

Judging from the mortality rate of exiled criminals in the Song Dynasty, it's hard to say whether this person is still alive.

The trail seemed to have gone cold.

However, Cui Taifu's undercover investigation yielded an unexpected breakthrough.

He personally went to the docks in Puyang to carry heavy loads.

Cui Taifu specifically targets those former laborers who seem honest and simple, and who still need to work nearby due to their poor family background. During the conversation, he does not directly ask about the East Embankment and the machinery, but starts by talking about their hardships last year and their current livelihood, gradually closing the distance, and then casually mentioning some details of their work back then.

While chatting with several former laborers, he learned a crucial piece of information.

He then quickly reported this to Lu Beigu.

"Gulp, gulp."

Cui Taifu gulped down a large bowl of tea.

He was dressed as a dockworker, and because his skin was already a bit dark, it had gotten even darker in the past few days, so Lu Beigu almost didn't recognize him.

"There's news! I heard that there weren't many people in charge of repairing the East Dike at the time. They were mainly urgently recruited from the two neighboring prefectures of Daming and Bozhou. Although the written records probably haven't been preserved, it's definitely not wrong."

"Thanks for your hard work."

Lu Beigu gave him some more food, and watching Cui Taifu wolf it down, he began to think.

"Daming Mansion, Bozhou."

Lu Beigu pondered for a moment and said, "The clues point to these two places. It is very likely that the strangely shaped machinery was brought in by laborers from these two places and mixed into the construction of the East Embankment."

Cui Taifu choked, coughing as he said, "Imperial Censor Lu, this matter is becoming increasingly complicated. If we continue to investigate..."

"Whatever responsibility there may be, as the envoy, I will bear it."

Lu Beigu interrupted him with a firm gaze: "Since we are ordered to investigate the case, we should strive to get to the bottom of it. No matter who is involved, we must find out the truth. Cui Xiangyi, your secret investigation has been very helpful. I plan to organize the existing clues now, write a document, and report back on the fact that the history of Zhao Village is clear, the machinery is unique, and there are clues pointing to Daming Prefecture and Bozhou. I will also request permission for us to go to Daming Prefecture and Bozhou to continue our in-depth investigation."

"Okay, then I'll sign my name along with you."

Seeing that Lu Beigu had made up his mind, Cui Taifu also felt eager.

Now that I've already gotten involved and put in so much effort, there's no reason to back down.

Give it a shot, and promotion and wealth are just around the corner.

That same day, Lu Beigu sent men on horseback along the official road to urgently send the documents back to Kaifeng.

At the same time, instead of waiting for a reply, he and Cui Taifu continued to collect evidence and sort out testimonies in Chanzhou, while also starting preparations for their investigation in Daming Prefecture and Bozhou.

(End of this chapter)