Before the house is confiscated, the enemy's warehouse is emptied and exiled

After those people walked away, Shen Qingge and Xiao Heng both showed deep worry on their faces.

But what they worry about is completely different.

On Shen Qingge's side, the moment the three words "Kongming Lock" reached her ears, her eyebrows were tightly furrowed.

Before this, she had always thought that County Magistrate Zhang was an unreliable person, relying on the power of the Zhang family. When there is no tiger in the mountain, the monkey will become the king. But this man also had his moments of meticulousness and scheming.

In this case, even if she could successfully obtain the wooden box containing the account book, it would be a pipe dream to open it in a short period of time.

After all, she didn't have the ability to open such a complicated lock.

The series of strategies she had carefully planned before - to uncover the forces hidden behind County Magistrate Zhang and then expose his various evil deeds to the people, now had to be put on hold.

Although she could easily pry open the mouths of these people and force them to confess the crimes they had committed, she was not sure that she could make County Magistrate Zhang hand over the account book.

Because the account books have been exposed, he is not the only one exposed, he will also think twice.

If you don't hand it over, you will die. If you hand it over, you will probably die even faster.

As the saying goes, "Catch a thief and seize the stolen goods; catch an adulterer and seize both!" If you don't have solid evidence in your hand, what can you do to him?

Therefore, County Magistrate Zhang will definitely fight to the death to protect the account book.

If she got angry and directly eliminated County Magistrate Zhang, I'm afraid the forces hiding behind the scenes would be secretly delighted.

Without the account book, there would be no restraint, and they would be able to get away with it again. In this way, wouldn't I be making things easier for others?

Thinking of this, Shen Qingge couldn't help but sigh.

After listening to what the people in the secret room had just discussed, Xiao Heng was also very worried. How would the Shen family survive these sieges tomorrow?

He was worried that even though Shen Qingge had the ability to teleport, he wasn't sure if he could take away more than ten family members at once. Even if he could, they wouldn't be able to get far.

If Magistrate Zhang's men discovered someone missing, they would pursue them relentlessly. Thousands of soldiers could pierce a fortress, let alone unarmed women and children.

Even if he wanted to help, it would be difficult.

Not to mention, he also had to deal with County Magistrate Zhang who tried to poison him, and he was already too busy to take care of himself.

Even if he wanted to help, he only had one or two hundred guards and was outnumbered.

Even if you try your best to fight your way out, it is still unknown whether you can escape unscathed.

For a moment, Xiao Heng didn't know how to resolve the current dilemma smoothly, and he looked at Shen Qingge worriedly.

At this time, the soft moonlight shone through the library and fell on Shen Qingge's fair face. She also looked worried.

Xiao Heng immediately thought that she was worried about this matter, and quickly spoke to comfort her:

"Miss Shen, I know that tomorrow's affairs will be very difficult. Don't worry, I will do my best to protect the women and children of the Shen family!

At worst, I can lead everyone to fight my way out!"

But Shen Qingge didn't seem to care about what he said, and replied lightly:

"Thank you, Your Highness. I have already made arrangements for tomorrow's events, so Your Highness need not worry too much. Let's go to that secret room and search for evidence first!"

After she finished speaking, before Xiao Heng could reply, she rolled up his sleeves and slipped into the secret room.

The secret room that Magistrate Zhang mentioned was as impregnable as a rock was easily entered by someone.

After entering the secret room, Shen Qingge began to rummage through various wooden boxes and kept tapping on the wall.

Soon, she found the secret compartment in the secret room and took out a three-layer black lacquer and gold-painted floral pattern handle box with a peculiarly shaped lock on it.

"It seems you've found the account book you were looking for. This is the Kongming lock. This is the most common type of lock, called the 'Badakou'!"

Seeing Shen Qingge's worried look, Xiao Heng stepped forward to answer.

Shen Qingge's hand holding the handle box trembled when she heard this. She asked with surprise on her face:

"Your Majesty, do you know anything about locks?"

Xiao Heng nodded, took the handle box from her hand, sat down, and started fiddling with the Kongming lock.

While fiddling with it, he said leisurely:

"You know, when I was young, I lived in a cold palace with no one to accompany me for long days.

When I was lonely, I liked to tinker with small objects like locks, taking them apart and putting them back together for fun. Over time, the locks I could open became more and more complicated.

Later, by chance, a craftsman in charge of palace repairs saw my interest and took out his private collection of various famous locks and taught me how to crack them. Among them was this 'Kongming Lock'!

As he was talking, in less than an incense stick of time, there was a "click" and the lock opened!

Shen Qingge, filled with anticipation and excitement, could not wait to approach and gently open the box. As expected, there were three thick account books inside!

She carefully opened the account book, which was filled with dense handwriting, recording all the relevant items in detail, and all the income and expenditure were listed clearly one by one.

Moreover, the names of many officials appeared prominently among them.

Among them were Grand Tutor Su Fu, Vice Minister of War Li Di, Imperial Censor Tang Huiwen, and even the powerful Prime Minister Liu Guoxiang...

From top to bottom, from the capital to Anshan County, more than a hundred officials of all ranks were involved. Such a huge number is staggering.

However, that's not all.

After a closer look, the two discovered that County Magistrate Zhang had not only profited enormously from the salt mine's dealings, but had also embezzled tens of thousands of dan of disaster relief grain from the imperial court, and had fabricated various pretexts to increase taxes.

The destination of this money can be roughly divided into two parts.

A full 70% of it was presented to Qin Wang Xiao Mo as a tribute to help him expand his power; and the remaining 30% fell into the pocket of County Magistrate Zhang himself and became the capital for his wanton squandering.

Xiao Heng's knuckles turned white as he held the account book, and the anger in his chest rose rapidly.

He never imagined that the Beiling Kingdom, which his father had worked so hard to govern, was now about to be emptied out by this group of corrupt officials who were as ferocious as wolves and tigers.

What made him even more distressed was that his third brother, in order to fight for the supreme throne of power, could disregard the interests of the country and abandon the people in dire straits.

This kind of behavior is truly intolerable!

Shen Qingge, who was standing by, was in a much better mood. She immediately tried to comfort Xiao Heng:

"Your Highness, it's a blessing to be able to obtain the account books and uncover their true colors. It's much better than being kept in the dark. There's no need to be angry!

Time is running out, so let's take advantage of this opportunity to explore the terrain of the county seat."