Qingyu Case: Female Minister of Dali Temple

Master Wen San subconsciously looked towards Li Tianliu, and when he saw the box he was holding, he said stiffly, "These, these are all from the Wen family..."

Chen Shao said slowly, "Is that right? Master Wen will know after reading it. Or is it that Master Wen's words about climbing mountains of swords and diving into seas of fire are all lies? He can't even do such a small thing?"

This blocked his way out of the excuse he wanted to make. Third Master Wen stepped forward and tentatively took out the first piece of evidence. Seeing that it recorded that Luoyanju was the property of the Wen and Ren families, and especially that it recorded every person who frequently went in and out of Luoyanju, his heart trembled, and he knelt on the ground again, "Master, spare my life. I know I was wrong, and I will never dare to do it again. Please let me live!"

"So, everything recorded here is true?" Chen Shao asked coldly.

Master Wen kowtowed repeatedly and begged for mercy: "Master, please spare my life, Master, please spare my life..."

From his words and actions, there was no trace of the calmness and composure he had shown earlier in the prefectural mansion.

Chen Shao stood up, walked slowly to him, bent down to take the evidence from his hand, read it out, and then looked at the large group of people kneeling in front of him: "Those whose names are read can get out now."

Some people came out on their knees, crying and begging for mercy, some bowed their heads and pretended not to hear, and some were so scared that they stood up and ran away. Without exception, those who stood up and ran away were killed by the Yulin Guards with a single sword. Those who pretended not to hear saw such an end, and they were so scared that they quickly crawled out and begged for mercy in pain.

Chen Shao sat back down and continued to ask Master Wen San: "According to the stewards who followed Wen Zhongtian to the manor, you compiled a list of names for the young men and women who entered Luoyanju. Where is the list?"

"The book, the book is here..." Master Wen looked at his nephews and nephews who were killed by the Yulin Guards, and he had no intention of hiding anything. "The book is in Second Brother's room. I will go get it and give it to you, young master!"

"Go ahead." Chen Shao said.

Master Wen quickly got up and trotted to the backyard, followed by two Yulin guards. While he was taking the booklet, Chen Shao was not idle either. After signaling Li Tianliu to put the wooden box on the coffee table, she took the evidence and read it out one by one. Everyone whose name was read knelt aside. Soon, before Master Wen came back, nearly two hundred people had all changed their positions.

These nearly 200 people, in addition to the Wen family themselves, also include servants who do odd jobs such as kitchen staff, horse feeders, and sweepers. In other words, as long as they are labeled as members of the Wen family, no matter what their identity is, they are bullying others.

Chen Shao did not continue reading. Looking at the people crying and begging for mercy, promising not to do it again, he calmly ordered: "Go and call Ding Lisheng and the executioner."

Ding Lisheng was interrogating the Xue family. When he heard the summons, he left them behind and rushed over with the yamen runners and five executioners. Seeing the Wen family kneeling on the ground, Ding Lisheng walked up to Chen Shao with his heart pounding and said respectfully, "Sir."

Chen Shao said 'hmm' without raising his head, "Wait a moment."

Before he came, Master Wen San had already returned with the roster. There were six rosters in total, each of which recorded about fifty people, and the time span was as long as forty years. Most of the boys and girls had notes behind them about the year, month, day, and reason of death. However, these notes did not record the end of the lives of these boys and girls, but the data of the severity of their various torture experiments. After slowly flipping through all the rosters, Chen Shao's eyes stopped at the last twenty-one names.

These twenty-one people died on the same day, massacred by the Wen and Ren families.

After writing down the names one by one, Chen Shao raised his eyes and said casually: "According to the evidence in this box, anyone involved in human life will be beheaded. No need to wait until tomorrow, execute now."

Ding Lisheng took a look at the box of evidence, then at the kneeling man, his scalp tingling as he asked, "Behead them all?"

Chen Shao looked at him: "Do you have a different opinion?"

Ding Lisheng quickly shook his head: "I don't dare."

"If you don't dare, then hurry up and execute!" Chen Shao said coldly, and then looked at the executioners, "I know you have taboos, two hundred taels of silver, those who are willing to do it can stay, and those who are not willing can leave."

Two hundred taels! The eyes of several executioners began to light up.

"Very good." Chen Shao looked at Ding Lisheng again. Ding Lisheng quickly picked up the box and went to the other side, checking the evidence one by one. Soon, someone was dragged out crying and beheaded.

Where there is one there are two, and when there are two there are three.

The yard outside the main hall of the Wen family soon turned bloody, and corpses gradually piled up.

Hearing the painful pleas for mercy from those who had not yet been beheaded, Chen Shao's eyes were filled with the cries of the boys and girls who were tortured and beaten and abused by them.

When facing those young boys and girls, they could be completely without any sympathy, and even record their deaths as experimental data in the roster. So what she had to do today was to execute them coldly.

Chen Shao's gaze became colder and fiercer.

There was a lot of evidence in the box, but only sixty-three people were actually beheaded. After taking out the last piece of evidence and executing the last person, Ding Lisheng couldn't help shuddering as he looked at the cold blood and piles of corpses in the firelight, and hurried over to report: "Sir, it's done."

The Wen family members and their stewards were all executed, and the ones who were still crying were the servants. When they heard him say, "It's done," the servants stopped crying one after another, and all of them showed expressions of relief.

Chen Shao glanced at them and said, "Go find an unused piece of land outside the city and arrange for them to drag the bodies there and dig a pit to bury them. After disposing of the bodies, take them back to the prefect's mansion."

As the servants looked on in fear, Chen Shao stood up and signaled Li Tianliu, "Search."

The stewards who were still detained in the prison of the prefectural government had long explained that the Wen family had four granaries, three vaults, 130 shops, 36 courtyards, and 52 large and small farms. One of the four granaries was in Wen's residence, one in Daqiao Town, one in Yunhe Town, and one in Hanyuan County. The three vaults were all in Wen's residence, one was the big vault, one was Wen Zhongtian's private vault, and one was the eldest son's vault. The 130 shops, 36 courtyards, and 52 large and small farms were spread throughout Hongyuan County and the three counties under Hongyuan County.

What Chen Shao wants to search now is the Wen family’s granary and treasury.

The stewards had also mentioned the specific location when they explained it. Under the guidance of several servants, the Imperial Guards quickly found the grain storage and three money vaults in the mansion.

The Wen family has been operating in Hongyuan County for many years, and their wealth should not be underestimated. Standing at the door of the big treasury, Chen Shao couldn't take her eyes off the boxes of golden and white gold bars, silver ingots, and piles of jade, porcelain bottles, pearl antiques, silk and brocade, etc. The national treasury was empty, but military supplies were like a bottomless pit, and even the Chen Guogong Mansion was dragged down to the point of almost being unable to make ends meet. In short, she had never seen so much wealth in the two years she had been in the Chen Guogong Mansion.

Li Tianliu was obviously also shocked. He stepped into the big treasury, knocked the gold bars and silver ingots, and admired the jade for a while. He said slowly: "If these money are transported to the border, it will be enough for military supplies for several years."

Chen Shao walked in, picked up a gold bar and thought about it, "Since it is enough for military supplies for several years, let's find a way to send it to the border."

Li Tianliu turned around and looked at her, "Are you willing to give it up?"

Chen Shao threw the gold bars back into the box. "Why, do you still want to keep them for yourself?"

Li Tianliu turned around, looked at the pile of gold bars, and said deliberately: "It's not impossible."

"Your General's Mansion has been transporting supplies to the border for many years," Chen Shao said with a smile, "If you really want it, then arrange for someone to take it away."

Having said that, he walked past him and went deeper into the treasury.

Li Tianliu looked at her back and said loudly, "You bet I don't dare to ask for it, right?"

Chen Shao raised a finger and shook it. "Don't judge others by your own standards. If I tell you to take it away, I'm letting you take it away."

"Okay." Li Tianliu snorted and laughed, "When you send it back to the border, remember to calculate how much money there is. When the border is peaceful, you must return it to me without missing a cent."

Chen Shao didn't even turn his head. "General Li, haven't you heard the old saying 'If you miss this village, you will miss this shop'?"

Li Tianliu followed her steps and said, "I've never heard of it."

Chen Shao stopped in front of several boxes of jade, picked up a piece of jade and said, "Well, you have heard it now."

Li Tianliu also stopped in front of the jade, picked up two pieces of jade in his hand, and said with a sigh: "This is top-grade jade, there are several large boxes of this, piled up here, this is still a big treasury."

Chen Shao rummaged around in the box again, and after seeing that it was all ordinary jade, he looked back. There were porcelain, calligraphy and paintings, silk, brocade, screens, and the like in the back, a large area of ​​black, and the number seemed large. These things obviously could not be transported to the border. Chen Shao thought that after returning to the prefect's mansion, he would have to write a letter to Chen Zhao to ask what to do with these, and then he said, "Let's go and check on the two small money vaults. Have someone guard them here, and pay special attention to fire."

Although the Changfang treasury is only one-third of the big treasury, the gold and silver inside are no less than the big treasury. Although the other items are much less, they are undoubtedly fine products. Wen Zhongtian's private treasury does not have much gold and silver, but there are a lot of jades, and they are all green jade! Green jade raw materials, green jade ornaments, green jade Buddha statues, green jade pendants, green jade landscapes, etc., everything is available. In addition to green jade raw materials, as long as you observe a little, you can see that all green jade objects have lotus patterns or lotus sitting Buddhas. As long as there is a lotus sitting Buddha, the Buddha statue's bun is dagger-shaped.

"Fortunately, Wen Zhongtian is still alive." Li Tianliu said subconsciously as he looked at the jade pendant in his hand.

Chan Yi found a gold-lacquered square gourd lamp in Wen Zhongtian's room, lit it, and held it in front of Chen Shao. Chen Shao used the dim light to distinguish the Buddha statue on the mountain-climbing and worshiping Buddha picture carved from a whole piece of green jade, and replied: "Even if he dies, there are still a few managers here, so it won't delay anything."

Li Tianliu put down the jade pendant and stepped back: "Since it won't delay anything, let's go. I'll come back and think about it after I've interrogated them."

"We can't wait until they are finished interrogating them before coming back," Chen Shao stood up and looked at all the jade objects placed in the treasury. He said slowly and firmly, "Immediately arrange for someone to bring all the jade here back to the prefectural governor's mansion, and then arrange for someone to keep a close watch on it."

Li Tianliu looked at her: "What did you see?"

Chen Shao shook her head. She didn't see anything, but her instinct was to take them all away. If she didn't, something might happen.

Although Li Tianliu thought she was deliberately keeping silent, he still called the Imperial Guards and asked them to take all the green jade in the treasury back to the prefectural governor's mansion. It was not known whether Chen Shao's intuition was wrong or the shock of her massacre of the Wen family was too great, but there were no accidents when the Imperial Guards sent the green jade back to the prefectural governor's mansion.

After leaving Wen Zhongtian’s private treasury, Chen Shao went to the Wen family’s granary.

The Wen family’s reserve granary was very large, at least several times larger than the granary on the farm they had visited a few days ago, and it was also fully stocked.

"Looking at the size of this granary, there are at least 500 dan of grain." Li Tianliu sneered, "Such a small family has so much money and stores so much grain... What do they want to do?"

Chan Yi reminded: "The Wen family has more than one granary. In addition to the four reserve granaries that the stewards have assigned, don't forget that they also have granaries on their farm. The granary on the farm we visited a few days ago was also full."

Li Tianliu said grimly: "This Wen family needs to be thoroughly investigated!"

"We need to investigate thoroughly." Chen Shao looked at the granary in front of him, and Zhao Qiang's words flashed through his mind again: Fenglong Trading Company has been privately dealing with people from other countries at the border in order to obtain precious medicinal materials. What if the private dealings were not for the purpose of obtaining medicinal materials, but for other purposes? For example, those green jades.

"We can investigate," Li Tianliu's grim expression suddenly disappeared, "We can't waste the food. Five hundred dan of food is not a lot. Sending it to the border can help us out for ten days or half a month."

Chan Yi said disdainfully, "You said you've been to the battlefield, but you're so timid. The Wen family doesn't have only this granary. This granary built in the Wen residence can store 500 dan of grain. The other granaries built elsewhere can only be bigger than this one, not smaller. Add to that more than 50 manors, and there are the Gu family, Ren family, Zhu family... If we raid all these mansions, it will definitely be enough to supply food for a year, not to mention a few years."

Li Tianliu said with a sigh, "Like master, like servant. After killing dozens of people from the Wen family, they are already targeting other families."

Chan Yi said disapprovingly: "We only killed a few dozen of them, but they killed more than 300 people in Luoyanju!"

Li Tianliu raised his eyebrows and stopped talking.

After Chen Shao left the granary and told him to send someone to keep an eye on it, he immediately went to the Wen family's reserve granaries in Yunhe Town and Daqiao Town.