Qingyu Case: Female Minister of Dali Temple

Zhang Boshan said respectfully: "I have sent someone to Shan State. It will take some time to get there, considering the round trip and the time it takes to select the jade."

Chen Shao agreed, and Zhang Boshan asked her to stay a little longer. Seeing that she had no other instructions, he left.

Li Tianliu looked at his receding back, "He didn't send anyone to Shan State at all, why didn't you expose him?"

Chen Shao smiled and said, "Why expose him? He didn't send anyone to Shan State, but he got back the jade I wanted. Isn't that more interesting?"

Ever since she suspected that there was something wrong with the jade chess piece, Li Tianliu had sent people to secretly monitor him, one to see if he really had a problem, and the other to follow the people he sent out to investigate the origin of the jade. But after so many days, he did not take any action. I wonder if he forgot or had other plans.

Li Tianliu turned his head to look at her. Seeing her calm face, his mind could not help but recall the scene of her squatting in front of Li Ba Wa's corpse with a handkerchief covering her nose. The Yulin Guards couldn't help but feel nauseous, but she seemed to be calm as if she was used to it... Thinking of his grandfather's words before coming to Hongyuan County, he had to keep her safe no matter how much it cost. Li Tianliu suddenly stood up and asked, "Why don't you go to the border but come here? You should know that the border needs you more than here!"

Chen Shao looked at him and asked calmly, "Why does the border need me?"

Li Tianliu placed his hands on the coffee table in front of her, looked directly into her eyes and said, "Because as long as you are here, the army's morale will not be disturbed!"

Chen Shao smiled and asked back: "But what if I die?"

Li Tianliu's pupils shrank fiercely, and then he swore: "As long as I am alive, no one dares to kill you!"

Chen Shao chuckled and shook his head. "People's hearts are unpredictable, and swords have no eyes. If someone really wants me dead, even ten of you can't stop them. And you've also got one thing wrong. The border doesn't need me. The border needs a symbol, a symbol that the Chen Guogong Mansion will always be invincible. They fight at the border to protect the vast mountains and rivers. I'm investigating cases here to protect the people. I've been fighting alongside them, just on different battlefields."

It was the first time that Li Tianliu heard her talk about this. He straightened up, took a few steps back, looked at her for a long while, then turned and left.

Chen Shao did not rest. He picked up the list of hunters and herbalists again and roughly counted them. There were hundreds of hunters and more than seventy herbalists reported by Lao Zhou. These people were distributed in villages, towns or counties under the jurisdiction of Hongyuan County, some of which were quite far away from the county town.

Should we go to the house to investigate, or gather the people in the prefectural governor's mansion? After a little consideration, Chen Shao decided to gather the people in the prefectural governor's mansion, interrogate them roughly first, and then do a key screening.

After taking a look at the knots on the tree, Chen Shao put down the list and went to sleep.

The next day, Zhao Qiang came just after Chen Shao had breakfast.

Following him came the Yulin Guards who had gone to Zhaojia Village to find Zhao Shan last night to ask for ropes to tie up Tao A-mei's hands.

Tao A'mei has not been buried yet.

The rope was still on her hands.

Zhao Shan explained that Tao A'mei was murdered by a villain and that a ritual must be performed to exorcise the evil spirit before she could be buried cleansed.

Fortunately, his plan allowed the knot to be preserved intact.

The knot is almost exactly the same as the tree knot tied by Lao Zhou. The only difference is that the knot tied by Lao Zhou is more beautiful.

Chen Shao looked at the knot and asked Zhao Qiang: "How is the investigation going?"

Zhao Qiang withdrew his gaze from the knot, took a few pages of paper from his arms and handed them over, "Pi Ziyun and the others have all been checked. When Tao A-mei got into trouble, they all had their own problems, and there were also people who could prove it."

Chen Shao put down the knot, took the paper, and asked as he looked at it, "Have the guys from the business not checked yet?"

Zhao Qiang said: "I will go after I report to the adults."

He recorded the investigation of Pi Ziyun and others in great detail. With the Yulin Guards following and supervising, Chen Shao was not worried that he would falsify the information. After handing the paper to Chan Yi to keep, Chen Shao picked up the knot and handed it to him: "Do you know anyone who can tie this kind of knot?"

Zhao Qiang took it and looked at it for a while, then asked uncertainly, "Is this... the rope used to tie Tao A-mei's wrist?"

Chen Shao said 'hmm'.

Zhao Qiang said: "I can fight, basically all escorts can."

Chen Shao said: "Besides the escorts, who else can do it?"

Zhao Qiang: "It's the workers who load goods in the merchant company. Occasionally you can see them tying knots like this, but not often."

Chen Shao: "Do you know their names?"

Zhao Qiang shook his head, "I haven't paid much attention to it."

Chen Shao looked at him and asked, "Do bodyguards know some martial arts?"

Zhao Qiang: “I know a little bit.”

Chen Shao asked again: "Besides escorts, what other professions require people to learn some martial arts?"

Zhao Qiang thought for a moment, "People from the shipping company, the two shopkeepers in the shipping company were former bandit leaders, and most of the boatmen in the shipping company were also former bandits."

Chen Shao asked: "Is a shipping company the same as a cargo company?"

Zhao Qiang nodded: "Yes, they are generally called cargo companies. They mainly make a living by transporting goods for other companies or merchants."

Chen Shao said: "Their intention of using bandits is to pay respects to the pier so that the trip can go smoothly?"

Zhao Qiang didn't expect that she knew all this. He looked at her with a little surprise and answered, "Yes, in the past, there were more bandits robbing on the water than on land. In order to ensure smooth travel, the two big shopkeepers asked someone to invite bandits to take charge. Most bandits rob to survive, and if someone is willing to pay them, they will naturally surrender. And because there are people in charge, the goods store is no longer robbed by bandits, and the business is naturally getting better and better."

Chen Shao was so excited that he couldn't help asking, "Does your company not use water transportation?"

Zhao Qiang said: "We have relatively few businesses, and we only make a trip when we have a lot of goods. Rongfa and Fenglong go more often."

Chen Shao: "Are you companies only escorting your own goods, or are you also escorting other people's goods?"

Zhao Qiang: "I will also take other people's goods, but not much."

Chen Shao: "Hongyuan County doesn't have an independent escort agency?"

Zhao Qiang shook his head: "No. We have several trading companies for land routes, and for water routes, the cargo companies are enough to ensure the safety of the ship, so there is no need."

Chen Shao: "How many trading companies are there in Hongyuan County?"

Zhao Qiang: "There are only two cargo companies, one is Changshun and the other is Yongshun."

After Chen Shao asked for the addresses of two cargo stores, he let him go.

Not long after he left, Manager Tian and the Yulin Army who followed him to investigate the ten men came again.

All ten of them stayed in the villages they were in charge of, and many villagers testified for them. Chen Shao took the results of the investigation from Shopkeeper Tian, ​​took a quick look at them, and suddenly asked him, "I want to go to Rongfa Commercial Bank to take a look. Is it convenient?"

Shopkeeper Tian was flattered and said, "Your Excellency's willingness to go to Rongfa will bring honor and fortune to Rongfa, which I couldn't ask for more."

Chen Shao ordered Fu Jiu, "Change to a humble carriage, and ask the Imperial Guards to change their clothes, so they don't show off too much."

After Fu Jiu left, Chen Shao went back to the inner room and changed into simpler clothes before following Shopkeeper Tian to Rongfa Commercial Bank.