Qingyu Case: Female Minister of Dali Temple

The injured students and Liu Zizhuang's brothers, as well as the three dead students and Liu Zizhuang's brothers, have all been taken back to the prefectural government.

Today, only the village chiefs of three villages and the people involved in the incident are left in the huge village.

Ran Yuanfei and his family, the village chief of Dangnan Village, the village chief of Sanwan Village, and the family of Deng Ding's eldest sister-in-law have all arrived and are standing around Deng Ding's family. They are mumbling something. When they see Chen Shao coming back, they kneel down on the ground.

Chen Shao turned over and dismounted, threw away the reins, and walked a few steps forward, kicking Ran Yuanfei and Muramasa of Dangnan Village. The two were caught off guard and were kicked out.

Chen Shao ignored the crowd's exclamations, took two steps forward, stepped on Ran Yuanfei's chest, and said coldly: "Tell me, who ordered you to kill them?"

Ran Yuanfei fell heavily and vomited blood uncontrollably. He answered repeatedly: "It was Shopkeeper Lin and Shopkeeper Qi. They said that if I killed a student, they would give me ten taels of silver!"

Chen Shao's chest choked and he pressed harder with his feet. Amid his painful plea for mercy, he asked, "How much silver did Shopkeeper Lin and Shopkeeper Qi give you?"

"They have already run away, and they didn't even give me a tael of silver!" Ran Yuanfei was angry and afraid.

Chen Shao pressed: "Then, how much silver should they give you?"

Ran Yuanfei blurted out: "Twenty taels, they should give me twenty taels of silver!"

Chen Shao suppressed the urge to stomp him to death and said coldly, "In other words, you killed two people?"

Ran Yuanfei wanted to deny it in a panic, but the words had already been spoken, so he could only shout: "It was Shopkeeper Lin and Shopkeeper Qi, they told me to beat him, not me!"

"It wasn't you?" Chen Shao stepped harder, and after he vomited blood again, he turned back with a gloomy face and looked at Ran Yuanfei's family members who were huddled together, "Do you know that Manager Lin and Manager Qi asked him to beat the student to death?"

Ran Yuanfei's family members avoided her gaze and shook their heads repeatedly.

On the way to the manor, Ran Yuanfei prepared a lot of excuses, but Chen Shao didn't even give him a chance to speak and just started beating him. In extreme fear, seeing his family members denying, Ran Yuanfei couldn't hold back any longer, "They know, they all know, after Shopkeeper Lin and Shopkeeper Qi asked me to beat and kill the students, I told them the first thing I did when I got home!"

When Ran Yuanfei's second brother heard him say this, he also became anxious: "You told us it was good, but we didn't ask you to kill anyone."

"How come you don't have it? You also said that once I get the money, I will demolish several houses in my house and rebuild a few large houses." Ran Yuanfei said without caring, "Earlier, you followed me to Qingxi Town to find Manager Lin and Manager Qi."

"Enough!" Chen Shao no longer had the patience to listen to this kind of quarrel. After stopping them, he asked coldly, "Where are Shopkeeper Lin and Shopkeeper Qi?"

"I don't know, I really don't know," Ran Yuanfei cried, "When we went to get the silver from them, they had already run away."

"In other words, you don't know their whereabouts?" Chen Shao asked.

"I don't know. I really don't know." Ran Yuanfei brought up his second brother again. "My second brother can testify for me that when we went to look for them, they were gone. We also asked people around their home, and they all said that they left an hour or two earlier."

Chen Shao didn't waste time asking his second brother, he retracted his foot and turned to walk towards the village chief of Dangnan Village. The village chief of Dangnan Village had already climbed up and knelt down, and when he saw her coming, he backed away and begged for mercy, "Sir, I already know I was wrong, please forgive me."

Chen Shao stopped and said, "Then tell me, what did you do wrong?"

"My fault was..." said the South Village's Muramasa carefully, "My fault was that I didn't stop the villagers from causing trouble in time."

Chen Shao: "What else?"

"And, and..." When Muramasa of the South Village said cautiously, "Did you find out in time that he came to the house for another purpose."

Chen Shao: "What else?"

And? When Muramasa of the South Village racked his brains and thought again and again, he said, "And after the incident, I didn't take the initiative to explain the situation to the adults."

Chen Shao: "There's more."

And? When Nancun's Muramasa couldn't think of anything else, he kowtowed and begged for her forgiveness.

Chen Shao stood in front of him and looked down at him. "In other words, you didn't know, or didn't see him beat and kill the students?"

When the south village's Muramasa's body froze, he kowtowed frantically and said, "Please spare my life, sir. I know I was wrong. I really know I was wrong."

"I don't need to know whether you know you are wrong or not," Chen Shao said indifferently, "I just want to ask you, did you see him beating and killing those students?"

"My humble servant, I know the whereabouts of Shopkeeper Lin and Shopkeeper Qi!" When Nancun's Muramasa didn't know where she got the news from, he knew that if he didn't answer well, he might lose his life. Driven by a strong desire to survive, when Nancun's Muramasa really thought of a way, when he went home and was really poor, he went to Shopkeeper Lin's shop with a smug face to buy a liter of rice on credit. He heard him coming out of the inner room, talking to someone, speaking Beijing dialect. He couldn't ask for rice on credit directly, so he complimented him that his business had gone to Beijing. Shopkeeper Lin perfunctorily replied that he was a distant relative from Beijing. Later, when he knew that he wanted to buy rice on credit, he scooped a spoonful of rice for him and sent him away.

After all these words were said at once, the village chief of Nancun said hurriedly: "Manager Lin and his men must have gone to the capital to seek refuge with this relative. If you want to catch him, you must send someone to stop them quickly. If you delay any longer, they will run away!"

Went to the capital? Chen Shao subconsciously denied this possibility. She had been in Hongyuan County for almost half a year. The former princelings could not have been unaware of what had happened in the past six months. Since they knew, they could not have been unaware that they dared to expose Manager Lin and Manager Qi, so she would definitely be able to find out their identities. It was obviously not a wise move to lead people to the capital at this time.

However, this also gave her another idea. Since Shopkeeper Lin and Shopkeeper Qi could not return to the capital, the best way for them to escape quickly was to hide. Where to hide? Either in the hiding place of Qiwan Lane in Shipailou, or in the home of an accomplice. Judging from the fact that they took away all their belongings when they left, the former was more likely.

In this way, the arrest methods she had previously arranged were completely suitable.

After interrogating them for a while and making sure that they didn't know any other clues, Chen Shao asked the Yulin Guards to take them all back to the county town.

it's getting dark.

When we rode back to the county town without stopping, the cold wind was already biting.

The families of Wang Qi, Zhang Anmin and Wen Kuo have arrived.

The three families stood in the second hall, some with red eyes, some with tears, and none of them spoke. When they saw Chen Shao coming in, they felt like they had found an outlet to vent their feelings, and several tearful women immediately knelt on the ground, crying loudly.

"Aunts, get up quickly!" Chen Shao's heart ached, and he hurried over. After helping everyone up one by one, he said ashamedly, "It's my fault. I failed to take precautions in time, which led to them suffering this disaster."

Wen Kuo's mother wiped her tears and replied, "It's none of the adults' business. The adults valued him, so they gave him the task. It was his job to try his best to complete the task. No one could have expected this to happen. If we want to blame someone, we can only blame the people in those villages for not knowing what's good for them."

Wang Qi's grandmother cried and cursed, "You ungrateful dogs! When those beasts occupied their land, they were not so tough. What they are doing now is obviously to take advantage of the adults!"

Zhang Anmin's family didn't say anything, but it was obvious that they meant the same thing.

Seeing that they already knew what happened, Chen Shao didn't say anything more. He took a few steps back, bowed deeply to the families, and said with difficulty hiding his self-blame: "Although no one wants to see such a thing happen, the main responsibility for it is still me. Although the Zhu family and the Gu family are gone, I knew they had ill intentions, but I still didn't take any precautions in advance, which led to the tragedy."

"You can't blame the young master for this." Chan Yi's eyes were red. "The young master raided the Zhu and Gu families because they were secretly using the green jade pendant to rebel. The young master only found out a few days ago. He didn't expect them to act so quickly..."

"Do the Zhu family and the Gu family have accomplices?" Wen Kuo's father, Wen Ying, asked.

Wen Ying was a teacher in a private school. Although he had no academic achievements, he had received a lot of education.

After silently apologizing in his heart, Chen Shao explained the whole story of the turmoil in Zhuangzi. After that, he added, "We just found out that the Zhu family, the Gu family, and the Fan family have accomplices."

Wen Ying glanced at Wang Qi and Zhang Anmin's family members and asked carefully, "Are you sure that Shopkeepers Lin and Qi both speak with Beijing accents?"

Chen Shao shook his head: "At present, I only heard people from Qingxi Town say so. Now their whereabouts are unknown, I can't be sure."

Wen Ying hesitated: "If they are from Beijing, then..."

Chen Shao nodded and admitted, "Yes, if they are from the capital, it proves that it is not just the Zhu and Gu families who want to rebel."

"As far as I know," Wen Ying hesitated for a moment before continuing, "the Wen family has business dealings not only in Hongyuan County."

Chen Shao nodded again. "No matter where they have business dealings, the most urgent task is to let the people of Hongyuan County understand the scam of the jade pendant as soon as possible, so that next time they encounter the same thing, they will not be easily provoked to cause such a big mess like today."

"That's right." Wen Ying agreed, "We know you are busy, so we won't bother you any more."

Looking at Chan Yi whose eyes were red, he added, "Your Excellency does not need to take the death of Wen Kuo and the others too seriously. They were mediocre in the Imperial College before, and only because you valued them did so many good things for the country and the people. Although they have met with misfortune now, at least they have exposed the accomplices of the Zhu and Gu families, so it is not in vain to say that they died."

"Not only did their deaths not go in vain, they were also great heroes." Chen Shao finished speaking seriously, and then he remembered that they probably hadn't seen the bodies of their children yet, so he couldn't help but say, "Wang Qi, Zhang Anmin and the others should be in the morgue. I'll take you uncles and aunts over there."

The coffins for several people were already prepared and put aside. Xu Guang and several yamen runners were sewed up the wounds of several people and were washing their bodies. When he saw Chen Shao coming over, he asked "Master, are you back?" and then continued to do his work.

"Stop for a while and wait until they see their families before continuing." Chen Shao ordered.

Only then did Xu Guang notice that there were many people following her. After asking a few yamen runners to put the things aside, they retreated one after another.

Chen Shao stepped aside.

The families of Wang Qi, Zhang Anmin and Wen Kuo filed into the morgue. When they saw their children, they immediately burst into tears and threw themselves on them.

The cold winter wind accompanied by their cries cut Chen Shao's heart like a knife.

"Go back and ask a gentleman to look at the land for them, and then ask a few craftsmen to erect a monument for them. They met with the accident today because they worked for me, and we can't let them die in vain." Chen Shao whispered to Xu Guang.

Xu Guang agreed.

It was already very late. After several rounds of persuasion by Chan Yi and Quan Shu Yu who arrived later, the families of Wang Qi, Zhang An Min and Wen Kuo forced themselves to leave the morgue with grief and temporarily stayed in the prefect's mansion.

When they returned to Chengfeng Courtyard and just sat down, Li Tianliu and Fu Jiu also came back.

Li Tianliu said: "I have had the portraits posted on the streets."

Chen Shao reminded: "Add one more sentence to the notice, asking people from villages and towns to search the mountains or houses that have not been inhabited for a long time."

After Li Tianliu agreed, he asked, "Do you want to continue with Zhuangzi?"

"Of course I have to continue." Chen Shao said, "I already know that it is the princelings of the previous dynasty who are targeting me. How can I admit defeat?"

He then said to Quan Shuyu, "Not only do you have to continue with Zhuangzi's work, but after you finish dealing with Wang Qi and the others' affairs in the next two days, you must also arrange for those teachers to come see me as soon as possible."

Finding Manager Lin and Manager Qi was no easier than finding Shi Xing. She could not think about anything else at the beginning, but now she could not afford to waste time. After thinking about this, Chen Shao drank the hot tea in her cup, and hurried to the study to write an obituary for each of Wang Qi and the other two. She signed the name without any hesitation, and wrote the words "Master: Chen Zhao".

After writing it, he gave it to Fu Jiu, who asked him to take it to Xu Guang, who then asked craftsmen to carve it on the stele.

Fu Jiu was about to leave with the sacrificial text, but Chen Shao stopped him again.

"Don't worry, sir," Fu Jiu answered without waiting for her to ask, "I heard about what happened at the farm and came back to take a look. I have already arranged everything about the house, so there will be no delay."

"Okay, go ahead." Watching his back disappear into the darkness, Chen Shao pondered for a moment, and then instructed Quan Shuyu, "Wang Qi and the others believed in me, so they ignored their own safety and went to mediate when the villages were fighting. Tomorrow, you and Chan Yi will find out a little about the situation of the three families, and then combine their wishes and come up with a compensation plan for me."

After Quan Shuyu and Chan Yi both agreed, Chen Shao asked about the wounded who were sent back and the situation of Liu Deming and others. After learning that they were all fine, he was slightly relieved and said: "Ran Yuanfei maliciously beat and killed others, he will be executed tomorrow to set an example!"

Chan Yi looked at Li Tianliu, and Li Tianliu agreed.

"As for the rest of you..." The cold wind suddenly grew stronger, whistling and rattling the windows. Seeing Quan Shuyu quickly walk over to close the window, Chen Shao hurriedly said, "Forget it, let's leave it at that for now. If there's anything else, we'll talk about it tomorrow."