Chapter 171 Imperial Envoy (V)

From the second day after Cao De arrived in Xinping City, he began to interrogate the detained Xu family. The Xu family's food business went outside the customs, and only the core members of the Xu family and some confidantes knew about it, and most of the others were unaware. Of course, those insiders are not stupid. It was useless to resist the evidence before. Now there will be a chance. If you don’t retract your confession, you will be a fool.

Xu Bu, the chief steward of the Xu family, even shouted in front of the room: "My lord, the Xu family did not do any illegal activities, let alone colluded with the enemy and treason. These are all fabricated evidences and framed by Yun Qing. My lord, I beg you to give our master It's fair..." After finishing speaking, he knelt on the ground and kowtowed heavily.

Cao De patted Jingmutang and said: "You said Yunqing has enmity with your Xu family? What enmity, you and I will come one by one."

Xu Bu said: "After Yunqing became the chief general of Yucheng, he asked our master to honor him with 500,000 taels of silver. My lord, my master's business has always been clean, and all the property in the family is hard work. As a result, Yunqing Lion asked for 500,000 taels of filial piety, even if our master had so much money in his hand, he would not be willing to give it. Besides, if I gave it this time, it would definitely be endless in the future. But I didn't expect Yunqing Seeing that my master did not give filial piety money, he was so angry that he forbade my master to continue the supply of food and grass business. Your Excellency, the so-called collaborating with the enemy and treason is completely out of thin air, but it is Yun Qing coveting our Xu family's property. My lord, my master was killed that night. The sudden death in prison must be the murderous hand of Yun Qing. In order to obtain our Xu family's property, he will do everything possible."

Cao De patted Jingmutang again, and said, "You said your master has five hundred thousand taels of silver? Is this true?"

Xu Bu said: "500,000 taels of money accumulated by the five generations of the Xu family's business is completely available. It's just that my master doesn't want to fuel Yunqing's arrogance and fill his greed, so he doesn't want to give it. If I knew Yunqing is so frantic, he must persuade my master to give him the five hundred thousand taels of silver." As a confidant butler, Xu Bu has a rough guess about how much the Xu family earns every year. It's just that he doesn't know where the Xu family's money is hidden. This time, in order to survive, I naturally have something to say.

Five hundred thousand taels can be taken out casually, the Xu family has a lot of background. Cao De was really surprised and delighted. What surprised him was that the Xu family had hidden a huge sum of money. If they were happy to recover the money, it would be a great achievement, and the prince would definitely reward him heavily when he returned. Cao De asked seriously: "Is this true? If you dare to lie to the imperial envoy, do you know the consequences?"

Xu Bu prostrated himself on the ground, shivering, and said, "My lord, give me nine courages, and I won't dare to lie!" At this juncture, life-saving is the most important thing, and everything else is secondary.

Cao De asked Tan Tuo: "Master Tan, where is the gold and silver that you confiscated from the Xu family? How much is there?" In fact, Cao De knew that the confiscated gold and silver were in the magistrate's yamen. Although he didn't know how much it was worth, he knew that there were only twenty-nine large wooden boxes in the magistrate's yamen. I also want to know that these are definitely not all the property of the Xu family.

Tan Tuo didn't refute, it would be stupid to confront Cao De at this time, and said: "The gold confiscated from the Xu family is 10,000 taels, and the silver is 127,000 taels. Twenty-three boxes of jewelry, combined There are seven or eight hundred thousand taels of silver! These things are now stored in the magistrate's yamen, and if you want to go, you can go to the magistrate's yamen to see." Tan Tuo's words are obvious, there are no such gold and silver treasures as Xu Bu said.

When Xu Bu heard this, he shouted loudly: "Master Imperial Envoy, the small words are true. Not counting the money my master hid in the secret room, even the gold, silver and jewels in the mansion are not only five or six hundred thousand. Imperial Envoy, Yun Qing The purpose of framing my master to be a traitor to the enemy is to take away the family property and money of the Xu family. The gold and silver must have been stolen by Yunqing."

Tan Tuo stood up and said with a sneer, "Master Cao,

I have interrogated this prisoner a long time ago. Not only did he bear twelve lives, but he also sold hundreds of thousands of dans of government food outside the customs. His crimes are well documented. "

Xu Bu complained to Cao De: "The imperial envoy, the small one was wronged. The small one has never done anything harmful to nature, so why should he bear the responsibility of twelve human lives? Those official rations are not for the small ones."

Tan Tuo showed sarcasm, and said: "The crimes you committed are too numerous to write down. How can you get away with just a few sophistry." After finishing speaking, he turned to look at Cao De and said, "Master Cao, if you don't believe it, you can open it again." Let's see if Tan was tortured to force him to sign a confession?" Xu Bu said that he was wronged, which means that he was beaten into a trick.

All Cao De's attention was on the huge sum of money that disappeared, so he didn't have the interest and time to avenge Xu Bu: "Let's put the matter of Xu Bu's life aside for the time being, what we have to do now is to recover the missing money." Flying huge sums of money." Millions of taels of silver are definitely a huge fortune. It's a pity that you can't keep it for yourself after passing Minglu.

Tan Tuo was also a little suspicious in his heart, but he didn't show it on his face, and said, "It's just that this prisoner is talking nonsense and wants to live two more days."

Cao De believed in Xu Bu's words. Seeing that Tan Tuo didn't cooperate, he decided not to let Tan Tuo participate. He took someone to investigate the matter.

Tan Ming accompanied Tan Tuo back to the government office, entered the room, and asked in a low voice: "My lord, did Yun Qing know that the Xu family has such a huge sum of money, and he actually went for this huge sum of money?" It's not that he wants his family's adults to help with the aftermath, maybe he didn't even tell his adults about copying Xu Jiayunqing. It has to be said that Tan Ming has come to the truth.

Tan Tuo, however, was puzzled, and said, "Xu Bu is the chief steward of the Xu family and the confidant of the head of the Xu family. It is not surprising to know that the Xu family has a huge sum of money. How did Yunqing know that the Xu family had a huge sum of money?" Everyone asked Not a fool, Tan Tuo knew that there was a problem when the house was raided. Not to mention the huge sum of money Xu Bu mentioned, but the accumulation of five generations of the Xu family, which is more than 20 boxes of gold, silver and jewelry. He knew it was wrong when he saw the number at that time, but he just pretended not to know. However, the Xu family has millions of silver, is this true? Did Yunqing take the money? There is no evidence, just relying on the confession of a prisoner, which is not credible.

Tan Ming said, "My lord thinks that Xu Bu framed Yun Qing?"

Tan Tuo shook his head and said, "No, Yunqing is very suspicious. When the house was seized, Yunqing didn't allow us to intervene and only allowed our people to wait outside, and also packed and shipped the Xu family's things, and it was still in the middle of the night. "Only these are enough to prove that Yunqing is suspected.

Tan Tuo really thought that Yunqing was diligent and thrifty before, otherwise why would he even want furniture, but he didn't expect that it was all Yunqing's deception. But even if there is suspicion, there is no evidence, and it is impossible to justify a second-rank general as a crime.

Tan Ming continued: "It is said that military generals are reckless and courageous people, but this General Yun is brave and resourceful." At that time, he still thought that Yunqing was so good at running the house that he didn't even have such small things as mosquito nets. Let go. But I didn't expect that there was a mystery hidden in the house!

Tan Tuo chuckled lightly and said, "It's better to be courageous and resourceful. The more capable Yunqing is, the better things will be in Yucheng." Yucheng is fine, and he, the magistrate, can rest easy.

Tan Ming said: "Yunqing is brave and resourceful, but I think he is a bit too courageous. He dared to swallow so much money by himself. Such a person should be careful."

Tan Tuo said: "He will not and dare not swallow such a large amount of money." It is possible for Yunqing to swallow hundreds of thousands of taels of silver by himself, but if Yunqing dares to swallow the huge sum of millions , will definitely die.

Tan Ming widened his eyes and said, "Could it be that Yunqing is separated from his subordinates?" It's no wonder Tan Ming thought so, it's just that this kind of situation has been seen too much.

Tan Tuo was silent for a while and said: "It may not be divided, maybe it is used for the defense of Yucheng." Tan Tuo felt that Yunqing was not the kind of person who was greedy for money, and besides, Yu Xi had done so many good things, Tan Tuo still Think brighter. However, it will take time to prove whether it is used for the soldiers and defense of Yucheng.

One day later, Cao De made it clear that the huge amount of property that Xu Bu mentioned had been transported to Yucheng by Yunqing. Yucheng is Yunqing's territory, and it is not so difficult to recover this huge sum of money.

Tan Tuo heard rumors outside that Yunqing had embezzled millions of dollars from the Xu family, so he immediately went to Cao De and said, "Master Cao, Yunqing is not an ordinary official. If he makes a mistake, it will shake the morale of the army." , the northern captive army took advantage of the opportunity to attack the city, can you bear the responsibility when the time comes?"

Cao De was not moved at all, and said: "Even if the prince breaks the law and commits the same crime as the common people, he is just a general."

After hearing this, Tan Tuo sneered and said, "Break the law? Dare to ask Mr. Cao, you say that General Yun broke the law, so where is the evidence?" Yun Qing is suspected, but the problem is that Cao De has no evidence.

Cao De said: "Don't bother Mr. Tan to worry about this." Looking at Tan Tuo's appearance, Cao De suspected that Tan Tuo was colluding with Yun Qing. Otherwise, why would Tan Tuo help Yun Qing clean up the ending.

Seeing this, Tan Tuo didn't say anything anymore, he knew very well in his heart that Cao De must have some evidence before he dared to say this. It's just that Cao De is too self-righteous, Yun Qing is not an ordinary official, he is a general in a border city, and he is a general who has won the hearts of the army. It is wishful thinking to use the specious evidence in Tan Tuo's hands to punish Yun Qing.

After three days of investigation, Cao De had sufficient evidence in his hands, and he was ready to go to Yucheng. Jiang Bin, a bachelor of the Hanlin Academy, said: "My lord, since the evidence is convincing, let someone summon Yun Qing for questioning." Jiang Bin was born in the Imperial Academy and looked down on generals the most, even if the generals were much higher than him , is still despised. Now that he is an imperial envoy again, he naturally wants to put on airs.

Xu Chen, the doctor of the Ministry of Justice, didn't want to go to Yucheng either, so he said, "Lord Cao, I'd better send someone to invite Yun Qing over here, let him come here and explain this matter clearly!" Seeing Cao De insisting on going to Yucheng, Xu Chen lowered his voice. The voice said: "My lord, let Yunqing come to Yucheng and clarify this matter! Yucheng is Yunqing's territory, if he kills us in a fit of anger, then we will have no place to ask for help. "Yun Qing has a bad reputation, if he gets angry and jumps over the wall to kill them, he will die unjustly.

Xu Chen didn't even think about it, Xinping City was only two days away from Yucheng, Yunqing really wanted to kill them, there was no difference between Xinping City and Yucheng.

For some unknown reason, Cao De followed Jiang Bin's advice and did not go to Yucheng. Instead, he sent someone to Yucheng to ask Yunqing to come to Xinping City. (to be continued)