Qingyu Case: Female Minister of Dali Temple

When the people saw her leaving, they also rushed to follow her and went to the village.

At first, only the villagers from Dashu Village came to watch the excitement. After the news spread, many villagers from the other six villages covered by the village also came. Now following behind her, looking around, the momentum is very huge.

Li Tianliu listened to the voice, looked back a few times, and couldn't help but jokingly said: "The reputation is getting bigger and bigger."

I have been seriously sleep deprived recently, and I didn't even close my eyes last night. After Chen Shao glanced back at him, he also joked, "Are you envious?"

"I don't dare to envy you." Li Tianliu folded his hands and said half-seriously, "You seem to be getting more and more murderous recently."

Chen Shao walked around two fields and went to the cornfield in front of Dashi Village where the villagers were buried alive. The cleaned bones were still outside the mud pit. After walking around, Chen Shao squatted down and checked the bones one by one while asking, "Why do you think so?"

Li Tianliu stood beside her, slightly blocking some of the sunlight for her and said, "You have been furious every day recently. This situation has never occurred when we were investigating the serial murder case."

Chen Shao paused for a moment while examining the corpse, then smiled and said, "It's different."

Li Tianliu raised his eyebrows and asked, "What's the difference?"

"When I first saw the tragic conditions of those gardens, I wanted to investigate the evidence piece by piece, just like investigating a serial murder case. Later, as more and more people, events, and things were involved in these gardens, and the case became more and more complicated, I realized that if I continued to investigate using the previous method, I would probably never be able to find out the truth in my lifetime." Chen Shaoru said slowly, as if speaking at home, "Since the old method can no longer be used, how should we investigate? In other words, why can't the old method be used for the case in front of us?"

"The problem came back all of a sudden, because the people, things and events involved in the gardens became more and more numerous and complicated, and the old method no longer worked, so naturally there was no other way to use it. But why did these gardens involve so many people, things and events?"

Li Tianliu asked cooperatively: "Why?"

Chen Shao replied, "This is the difference between the serial murder case and the case in front of us. The murderer of the serial murder case is an individual. No matter how vicious the individual is, the consequences he can cause are very limited. But the murderer of the case in front of us is a local force. The destructiveness of local forces... you have also seen it, it is like this. If you want to defeat local forces, especially multiple local forces, how can you succeed without killing intent?"

Li Tianliu looked at the skeletons around him and agreed, "That makes sense."

Chen Shao smiled and said nothing more.

Of the thirteen corpses, only one male in his fifties and two males in their thirties showed signs of human injury, while the rest showed no signs of injury at all. This is basically consistent with what Zheng Kun said.

Chen Shao stood up, glanced at the large mud pit that had been dug out, then glanced at the thirteen corpses, then looked back at the people who were watching the excitement from far and near, and said to Chan Yi, "Go and ask someone to bury them."

Chan Yi responded and went among the people, and soon returned with seven or eight people. Chen Shao saw that Zheng Kun's two sons were also among them, and could not help but directly ordered: "Choose a better piece of land to bury them."

After Zheng Kun's two sons nodded, Chen Shao turned back and told Chan Yi: "Take ten taels of silver and buy them coffins."

Zheng Kun's eldest son said, "It doesn't take that much."

"Take it." Chan Yi stuffed the silver into his hand, "This silver was taken from this farm. After burying them, if there is any left, you can divide it up."

Several people immediately couldn't help but said, "Thank you, sir."

Chen Shao said gently: "Bury them properly, that's your way of thanking me."

After several people made promises, they sent two people to buy a coffin, and the rest came to collect the bones. Chen Shao looked for a while, then returned to the manor with peace of mind.

After the Imperial Guards brought the man back, they did not execute him immediately. Seeing this, Chen Shao ordered, "No need to wait, kill him now. The mud pit in the cornfield is empty anyway, so just kill him and throw him in to fill it up."

The imperial guards immediately thrust their white swords in and red swords out. Except for Wen Zhongtian and the few stewards, the people from the Wen family turned into corpses in an instant. Wen Zhongtian, with Ding Lisheng's smelly socks stuffed in his mouth, had been waiting anxiously for support from the other noble families. Seeing the moon set and the sun rise, the noble families could not see even a single person, and they could not help but feel angry, anxious, and afraid. The man who was dragged from the hillside of Dashu Village to this side watched them being killed, and the only hope left in his heart was extinguished, and he fainted.

"Drag him to a cool place, don't let him die so easily." Chen Shao ordered. After the two students dragged him to the shade of the tree and the Yulin Guards dragged the body to the cornfield, Chen Shao ordered Tao Ming and others, "Go get some water to flush this place."

The Yulin Guards were all experienced warriors, and they always killed people by striking directly at vital points, so there wasn't much blood on the ground. After a few buckets of water were flushed over, the scattered traces of blood were quickly washed away.

Chen Shao entered the house, drank a few gulps of well water, and looked at the sun outside. He asked the student who came in, "How much food is left?"

"There's not much left, maybe only about 400 to 500 kilograms." Tao Ming answered quickly.

Chen Shao asked again: "What about rice and noodles?"

Tao Ming still answered: "All these are gone."

"How about this, you guys go and exchange some food for some rice and flour, and then..." Chen Shao suddenly stopped, glanced at everyone, and asked tentatively, "Can you cook?"

"Yes!" more than a dozen people answered.

"That's good." Chen Shao breathed a sigh of relief. "Let's move some food to exchange for some rice and flour, and then you can work hard to make lunch. As for the dishes, you can use whatever is available on the farm."

After everyone answered in unison, they went about their business together.

Chen Shao pinched her brows, leaned back on the chair, closed her eyes and took a short nap. When the students came back after exchanging food and excitedly slaughtered chickens and sheep to cook, she opened her eyes and said, "You don't have to watch over me. You can also take advantage of this free time and find a place to rest."

Everyone was really exhausted, and soon they all fell asleep, sitting on the ground, under the shade of a tree, or against a wall. The students worked frantically for more than an hour, and only came to wake them up after they had hastily prepared the meal. Everyone was very hungry, and they didn't even bother to taste their cooking, and they ate up several large pots of rice and several large pots of dishes.

Some clever students rummaged out a few bags of old tea leaves from the warehouse, boiled a pot of water, poured the tea leaves in, stirred it, and then served a bowl to everyone.

Chen Shao didn't despise him. After drinking a bowl of strong tea, he finally regained some energy. "Where's Ding Lisheng?"

"I'm here!" Ding Lisheng, who was enjoying the cool under the shade of a tree, immediately got up and trotted into the house.

Chen Shao said: "You go back to the county city immediately and arrange for people to guard the Wen family. Before I go back, you are only allowed to enter, not leave!"

"I will be back soon!"

"Don't be impatient, wait for me to finish." Chen Shao stopped him, "Before you go back, ask Hu Qinglu how many households there are in the villages that were oppressed by the Wen family. Compensate each household with five strings of cash and send the money to me. Ask the Wen family for the money and bring the bill that Wen Zhongtian signed last night."

After Ding Lisheng left, Chen Shao took a break and called Luo Ye over again: "Go to a few villages and ask each village to send a few capable people to discuss the return of the land."

After Master Luo left, Chen Shao called Tao Ming and other students back into the room. After scanning everyone, he said slowly, "You haven't had much rest since yesterday. I can see that you are all very tired and need to rest, but I still hope that you can go to the seven villages oppressed by this village and see what kind of life they have lived in the past twenty years of oppression by the Wen family. Of course, I won't force you. Those who are willing to go can go, and those who don't want to go can stay and rest."

"I'll go!" Xu Xianmin said loudly before Tao Ming, then turned around and walked out.

"I'm going too!" Tao Ming, who didn't get the first one, immediately chased after him.

With the two of them taking the lead, everyone soon followed.

After watching them walk away, Chen Shao retracted his gaze and signaled Li Tianliu, "There's nothing to do this afternoon, so let's arrange for the Yulin Guards to take turns to rest."

Li Tianliu responded with a "yes", and went out to arrange for ten Yulin guards to be on duty, and then sent the rest away to rest.

While Mr. Luo hadn't invited anyone back yet, Chen Shao got up and went under the eaves to look in the direction of Dashu Village. Xu Guang hadn't come back yet, not even for lunch. This guy was really obsessed with the coroner. Shaking his head, Chen Shao went back to the house to rest.

Half an hour later.

Representatives from various villages came to the village one after another.

After everyone had arrived, Chen Shao first asked everyone a few polite questions before turning to the main topic: "What fields did each family originally own? You should still remember, right?"

Everyone nodded in unison.

"Since you all remember, it will be easy." Chen Shao said, "Each of you will be responsible for your own village, and divide the land according to your original land."

"What about the crops in the fields?" someone asked cautiously.

"And what about the fields and crops we are planting now?" someone else asked.

Chen Shao said: "The fields you are planting now and the crops in the fields still belong to you, and the crops in your original fields also belong to you. But let me be frank, you can't fight over the crops in your original fields just because they are not as valuable as the crops in other people's original fields. If I find such a phenomenon, I will destroy all the crops in the fields of the people who first provoked the trouble!"

Everyone said no happily.

"That's good." Chen Shao said, "In addition to returning the land, the people in Wenjiazhuangzi have been able to do evil for many years because the government did nothing. According to common sense, you should be exempted from taxes for twenty years to offset the taxes you paid in the past twenty years. But the border has been at war for many years, and food and grass need to be supplied continuously, so I can only temporarily exempt you from taxes for five years."

"Five years is enough!" someone said.

"Yes, five years is enough!" someone else echoed.

After that, the rest of the people responded one after another.

For them, they were already satisfied with the return of their land. Now they were also given the small plots of land in Wen's manor and were exempted from taxes for another five years. This was like pie in the sky. Chen Shao did not understand their thoughts and bowed deeply to them in shame. Chan Yi, Fu Jiu and Li Tianliu also bowed deeply to them after seeing this.

Everyone was so scared that they immediately knelt on the ground.

"Get up." Chen Shao hurried forward to help the two of them up. "While it's still early, everyone should go back and divide the fields."

Watching the people's backs flying away, Chen Shao sighed deeply. When the country prospers, the people suffer; when the country perishes, the people suffer. This sentence seemed to slowly become concrete in their running backs, "Let's go and take a look."

When they heard that they could take back their original land and even the crops in the land, people from several villages, regardless of gender or age, flocked to the fields.

Even though they were just getting back their own land, everyone was so happy that they danced with joy.

The cheers and laughter are brighter than the July sunshine!

Coming out of the farm, Chen Shao couldn't help but curl his lips when he saw the students who had been sent to various villages for observation running towards the fields with some old people and children.

"grown ups."

"grown ups."

"grown ups."

When Chen Shao walked into the fields, the people she met all rushed to greet her. Chen Shao would stop from time to time to chat with them. An afternoon passed quietly in such a lively atmosphere.

When it gets dark.

More than thirty horse-drawn carriages slowly drove into the village.

Ding Lisheng got off the first carriage and walked quickly to meet Chen Shao who was returning from the fields. "Sir, I have brought all the money, and I also took the initiative to bring three carts of snacks. When I give them compensation later, I can give them another box of snacks."

Chen Shao glanced at him, then turned back to Luo Ye and said, "Go and call Hu Qinglu, Tao Ming and others, as well as the people from each village."

"Sir," Ding Lisheng said carefully after watching Master Luo walk away, "I have something else to report."

Chen Shao said: "Speak."

"When I returned to the county, I happened to meet Hanyuan County Magistrate Quan Li'an who came to the prefectural government to look for his granddaughter," Ding Lisheng said while observing her expression. "I didn't dare to act on my own, so I detained him first."

Looking at Wen Zhongtian, who was dying under a tree not far away, Chen Shao said, "I know."

Seeing that she was not angry, Ding Lisheng could not help but breathe a sigh of relief and then secretly became proud. The Wen family was gone, and Quan Li'an continued to make such a fuss, he wanted to see what Lei Dehou could use to compete with him for the position of prefect!

Hu Qinglu, Tao Ming and others came back first.

Hu Qinglu's face was not very good. Ding Lisheng could not help but feel more proud after seeing this. Chen Shao looked at him calmly and asked Hu Qinglu directly, "How is the investigation going?"

"I've almost finished the search." Hu Qinglu handed over the information he had found with shaking hands. He was not afraid, but he was tired after not sleeping for two days and one night.

Chen Shao did not take it. After motioning Ding Lisheng to take it, he said, "When all the villagers come over, you can distribute compensation according to the village and household registration, and then pay five strings of cash to each household."

After he agreed, Chen Shao called Tao Ming and others over and said, "You can divide the tasks among yourselves. Some people will maintain order, and some people will help Mr. Hu distribute subsidies."

Then, he called over the twenty students who had followed Hu Qinglu to look up the household registration information and said, "Follow Lord Ding. Based on the number of casualties or disabled people you have found, cooperate with Lord Ding to distribute subsidies to each person. Each person will also receive five strings of cash."

Ding Lisheng reminded quietly: "Sir, I only brought compensation money for each family."

"There's a small warehouse over there in the accounting office, and there's still a lot of money in it." Chen Shao said, "Just arrange for someone to move some of it out."

When everyone was being accused of being in a mess, Chen Shao looked at Mr. Luo who was idle at the side and called him over again, "If you really have nothing to do, go and count the remaining chickens, ducks, etc. on the farm. When you are done, tell me the number."