Qingyu Case: Female Minister of Dali Temple

Chen Shao didn't trust him, or rather, he didn't trust him to keep his hand from showing off.

The information he provided would indeed save her a lot of effort, but it also made her bear an uncertainty. Unfortunately, she had no way to "get rid of" him. Regardless of whether what he said was true or not, she needed him to restrain Ding Lisheng and prevent him from being the only one in power.

Fortunately, Lei Dehou was also a smart man. He knew that after confessing, he had to surrender to save his life. After he felt relieved, he immediately said, "Your subordinate can ask the Ren family and the Wen family to deal with Ding Lisheng."

Chen Shao looked at him calmly for a moment, then asked slowly, "Qujing Garden is the property of the Zhou and Hu families. What about you? What role do you play in it?"

"No." Knowing that she was asking him whether he had ever killed anyone or bullied the people, Lei Dehou raised his eyes, looked her in the eye, and said with a clear conscience, "I have accepted bribes and used my power to help the Ren, Wen, Zhou, and Hu families. But I have never been to those gardens, and I have no connection with them in the slightest."

Knowing that he couldn't convince her with just a few words, Lei Dehou bowed his head respectfully again, and then opened his heart and said, "I was born in a farming family. I started to study at the age of twelve. At the age of thirty-three, I passed the imperial examination and became a third-class Jinshi. Unfortunately, I failed the imperial examination and needed to be selected to become an official. During the selection process, I was favored by the Zhou family. After becoming the son-in-law of the Zhou family, I was able to work as a clerk in the prefectural government through the operation of the Zhou family. At this point, I can be considered as bringing honor to the family. However, the Zhou family looked down on my origin. To this day, they often use the Zhou family's money and effort to let me work as a clerk to control me. When they want to make things convenient for me, they will naturally act in a domineering manner, but they will never let me get even a little bit of the benefits that come with the convenience.

"On the surface, I am a clerk in the prefectural government, but secretly I am just a puppet of the Zhou family. This situation lasted until September six years ago, that is, September of the fifteenth year of Yuanhe, when it suddenly improved."

"What improvement?" Fu Jiu asked, fascinated.

Lei Dehou glanced at Chen Shao before continuing, "That September, the Ren and Wen families, who had always looked down on others, suddenly became friendly to me. The Zhou family also gave me two small shops and nearly a thousand silver taels for the first time, so that I could use them to honor my parents."

Fu Jiu asked again: "What happened?"

Chen Shao also looked at him.

Li Baozhong was transferred to Lingnan in February of the following year after he was given the sixth-lowest grade in the examination at the end of the 15th year of Yuanhe, which was "rough in job management, and the best is least known". Before the 15th year of Yuanhe, his worst grade in the examination was also above average. If Lei Dehou's statement is true, then his transfer must be related to September of the 15th year of Yuanhe.

Lei Dehou did not answer Fu Jiu, but looked at Chen Shao and said, "Ding Lisheng also received the support of the Gu, Zhu, Fan, and Qi families in September of that year."

In other words, he didn't know what happened in September of that year. Chen Shao thought about it a little bit based on the information in the prince's letter... Well, there are too few clues and nothing can be figured out. After giving up, Chen Shao didn't continue talking about this. He told him roughly what happened in the court between Zhao Letian, Ding Rong, and Ding Fupan and Zhou Zhongtian, and then said: "I asked Ding Lisheng to take away the evidence of the medicine shop run by the Ren and Wen families. Based on your understanding of the Ren and Wen families, how will they fight back after receiving these evidences?"

Lei Dehou's slightly frivolous heart finally came back to reality. Chen Shao asked him this, which meant that he basically believed what he said. After thinking for a while, Lei Dehou's eyes fell on the evidence of those medicine shops, "Young Master has made a big fuss about what happened in those gardens. The Ren family and the Wen family are also one of the murderers. They will not kill them all unless it is absolutely necessary. So according to my understanding of them, they will at most prevent the Ding family from getting the right to operate the official medicine shop."

Chen Shao took over several drugstore certificates belonging to the Ding and Zhao families and handed them to him, saying, "Ding Yichang, Ding Fu, Ding Rong, and Zhao Letian, like Ren Yujie and Wen Gui, will be executed tomorrow. Since the Ren and Wen families have lost their qualifications to compete for the official drugstores because of them, then they should be executed as well."

Coming out of Chengfeng Courtyard with the drugstore certificates of the Ding and Zhao families, Lei Dehou breathed a sigh of relief in the cool breeze. Looking down at the drugstore certificates in his hand, he knew that even if he didn't get angry and reveal those words, these drugstore certificates would fall into his hands at the latest tomorrow. But without those words, he would be just an ordinary chess piece. Now, although he has not completely gained Chen Shao's trust, he has gone beyond the category of a chess piece and is someone who can work for her.

Watching him walk away, Li Tianliu asked, "Do you want someone to keep an eye on him?"

After thinking about it, Chen Shao shook his head and said, "Not for now."

Li Tianliu said: "I would like to hear the details."

"At the beginning, I was also worried. He just couldn't help saying everything he should and shouldn't say when he saw that the evidence from the pharmacy didn't include the Ren and Wen families. He was so impatient that I used the certificate and the silver fish bag to bait him. Would he have spread the news to everyone?" Chen Shao stood up and walked out of the main room. He looked at the direction where Lei Dehou left and said slowly, "Later, he reminded me with one sentence."

Li Tianliu asked: "Which sentence?"

"He said that I made too big a fuss about the gardens, and that the Wen and Ren families were also murderers. Unless it's absolutely necessary, they won't kill Ding Lisheng." Chen Shao retracted his gaze, turned slightly and looked at him, "Before, I just wanted to divide them with interests, and then solve them one by one. Now it seems that if it really comes to the point of being a last resort, it's not impossible to make the case here known to the world and let them kill each other."

Fu Jiu didn't understand. She shrugged her shoulder and bumped into Chan Yi, saying, "What do you mean?"

"The meaning is very simple," Chen Shao smiled, "When the case became known to the world, I only said that the murderer was from the Gu family, the Fan family, the Ren family, the Ding family, and the Zhou family. I only said half and concealed the other half."

Li Tianliu said: "Sowing discord!"

"Yes." Chen Shao nodded. "The noble families and gentry are always growing and shrinking. There are so many noble families and gentry in Jiannan Road and Shu County. Who doesn't want to take advantage of the situation to rob and strengthen themselves? The remaining Zhu family, Qi family, Wen family and the like will not only immediately distance themselves from the murderer in order to protect themselves, but will even become the most vicious robbers. Therefore, the most urgent task is not to watch what he will do, but to quickly find evidence that they are the murderer. Without evidence, all calculations are paper tigers."

Moreover, although this strategy is very lethal, it is just like the story of the boy who cried wolf. It works best the first time, but the effect will be discounted the second time, and it may even backfire the third time. So don't use it unless it is absolutely necessary.

After listening to the explanation, Fu Jiu asked impatiently, "How do we find evidence?"