Chapter 115
Back at the county magistrate's mansion, without Qiu Zhen's reminder, Tang Yin found Cheng Jin and asked him to investigate the origins of the bullies in the night market and who was behind them.
After hearing this, Cheng Jin responded repeatedly. After thinking for a moment, he asked again: "My lord, it may be inevitable to use some strong methods during the investigation. I wonder if your lord will allow it?"
Tang Yin didn't think twice and replied directly: "If necessary, just go ahead and work on the latest chapter."
Cheng Jin blinked and asked again: "What if someone dies?"
Tang Yin thought for a while and said, "As long as it does not exceed the scope of the investigation, I can ignore it."
Hearing what Tang Yin said, Cheng Jin was completely relieved and said, "I will investigate immediately. I will give you a satisfactory answer within two days."
After saying that, Cheng Jin was about to leave. Tang Yin suddenly remembered something and stopped Cheng Jin again. He said, "There is a teahouse called Chunxiang Pavilion near the night market. Tonight, officers and soldiers will go to seal it. You can check it out by the way." Check which corps those officers and soldiers belong to."
"Yes! Sir!" Cheng Jin agreed, turned around and left quickly.
Tang Yin allowed Cheng Jin to use lynching during the investigation, and this rule was also implemented by secret arrows. The cruel and complicated punishments were one of the reasons why future secret arrows were feared.
It is easy to investigate the bullies in the night market area, and it is not difficult to find out the identities of the officers and soldiers who went to the teahouse to seize the goods. Cheng Jin, Ao Qing, and Jiaxi acted separately and quickly found out the matter.
The bullies in the night market are also well-established. They are all servants of Wang Meng, the lord of Hengcheng City. They confiscate property in the night market area not just in a day or two, but every day, which attracts complaints from the vendors in the night market. However, they are afraid of Wang Meng's power. They all dare to be angry but dare not speak.
As the saying goes, the county magistrate is not as good as the current person in charge. Wang Meng was the lord of Hengcheng and was in charge of the affairs of Hengcheng. He suppressed the forced collection of taxes and fees, and neither Tang Yin nor Shangguan Yuanji, who was in charge of internal affairs, knew about it. In addition, the officers and soldiers who went to seize the teahouse were not from the five corps in Pingyuan County, but officers and soldiers from Hengcheng City. These officers and soldiers were not large in number and were not incorporated into the corps. They did not participate in training or fighting. They were responsible for public security in the city on weekdays. Directly dispatched by the city lord.
The officers and soldiers of Hengcheng went to seize the teahouse, which was naturally the order given by Wang Meng. The drama in the teahouse acted out all the incidents of his forcibly confiscating property. Wang Meng was also afraid that the news would spread and the news would reach the ears of Tang Yin or Shangguan Yuanji, and his situation would not be good. But what he never expected was that what happened that night would happen to Tang Yin who was wandering around in disguise.
After finding out everything, it stands to reason that Cheng Jin should pass the news back to Tang Yin and settle the matter, but he did not do so and planned to continue the investigation.
Ao Qing and Jia Xi were confused and asked, "Why should we continue to investigate?"
"Check Wang Meng!" Cheng Jin said slowly: "We are just finding out roughly now, and we don't have conclusive evidence in hand. What if Wang Meng refuses to admit it when you ask him? What can you do? You can't do it well, sir. They still blame us for not doing things well!"
Ao Qing and Jia Xi thought about it carefully and secretly thought it made sense! Then Ao Qing asked: "What's the matter with King Cha?"
Cheng Jin said solemnly: "Check his family's treasury. Wang Meng secretly collects property from traders, so his family must have a lot of money. He is just a city lord and can't receive much salary every year. As long as we find out his family wealth, we won't be afraid of him denying it anymore."
Hearing this, Ao Qing and Jia Xi looked at each other and smiled, praising Cheng Jin for being smart and thoughtful.
That night, Cheng Jin, Ao Qing, and Jiaxi secretly sneaked into the city lord's mansion. The three of them are all outstanding dark spiritual cultivators. Stealth is perfect for them. Moreover, the City Lord's Mansion is not a dragon's pond and a tiger's den. There are no advanced spiritual warriors in it, which makes the three people's actions smoother. .
The three men of Cheng Jin, wearing pure black spiritual armor, were lying on the roof, motionless, as if they were integrated with the night. If you didn't look carefully, it would be difficult to find three large living people lying on the eaves.
When the two servants on night watch passed by the house, Cheng Jin winked at Ao Qing and Jiaxi, and the three of them used Shadow Drift, and their figures appeared beside the two servants like ghosts.
Before the two servants could react, Jiaxi struck out like lightning and hit one of the servants on the neck. The servant didn't even grunt, his eyes turned white and he fainted. The other servant was frightened when he saw this. His face was pale, and he was about to open his mouth to shout, but found that he couldn't shout a word. It turned out that a big hand had stretched out from behind his back and covered his mouth tightly.
The spiritual armor was so cold that the servant felt as if his mouth was blocked by ice.
"Don't scream! If you dare to say a word, I will move your head!" Cheng Jin covered the servant's mouth, leaned close to his ear, and whispered.
When had the servant encountered such a scene? He was so frightened that his whole body collapsed and his legs trembled into two noodles.
He was speechless, but he could still move his head and nodded repeatedly.
"Take me to Wang Meng's bank room!"
"..."
Seeing that the servant didn't respond, Cheng Jin raised the spirit knife, put it against his face, and said in a ferocious voice: "Don't make me say it a second time!"
Seeing the spiritual knife that shone with a strange light and was extremely sharp, the servant's nose and tears flowed out, and the remaining hesitation disappeared. He nodded repeatedly and responded with a trembling voice.
The silver vault of the City Lord's Mansion is located at the end of the mansion. There is an officer and soldier guarding the outside. For ordinary officers and soldiers, the three of them naturally have no problem. Ao Qing took the lead and knocked out the officers and soldiers, and used the spiritual knife to cut off the door lock of the silver vault. Push the door open and enter.
Entering the silver trousers, the three of them took a closer look. What they saw was neatly arranged boxes. Roughly speaking, there were more than twenty boxes.
I opened a box at random. It contained vases, calligraphy and paintings, which were antique and looked very old.
Cheng Jin and the others didn't know that these were antiques, nor their value. They were disappointed when they saw that they were just vases, and then looked at other boxes. Like the box that was opened just now, most of the other boxes were filled with antiques, cloths, brocades, and the like. As for gold, silver, and jewelry, I didn't even see a single one.
"Damn it!" Cheng Jin cursed in a low voice, grabbed the servant who was almost scared to death, and asked: "Are you sure this is the only bank?"
The servant nodded blankly and responded: "Yes...yes! There is only...this bank room!"
"Where's the damn money? Where did Wang Meng get all the money?" Cheng Jin was close to the servant, and in the dim light, the black mask condensed from the spiritual armor was even more ferocious.
The servant almost peed his pants. He shook his head repeatedly and said, "Uncle, I don't know. I really don't know..."
Cheng Jin nodded, sneered, and said, "I don't think I can beat you!" As he spoke, he pulled a piece of cloth from the servant's body, rolled it twice, and stuffed it into his mouth. , then he stretched his fingers forward, and the long nails formed by the spiritual armor stabbed directly into the servant's eyes.
He wants to force his servant's eyes into him.
At this moment, Ao Qing suddenly said: "Captain, there is a secret room here!"
oh? When Cheng Jin heard this, he became energetic. At the same time, he stopped his fingers and turned his head to look back.
I saw Ao Qing standing in front of the wall in the middle of the bank, tapping lightly, and a hollow sound came from inside. She looked around for the switch in the secret room, but couldn't find it after searching around.
Cheng Jin pushed the servant to Jiaxi, then walked to Ao Qing, pulled her away, and then stabbed the wall with the spirit knife in his hand. If the wall was really stubborn, his spiritual sword wouldn't be able to penetrate deeply, but when he stabbed it with too much force, the entire blade was already submerged in it.
There is indeed something fishy in it! Cheng Jin didn't draw the knife, he just cut horizontally and then vertically. In the blink of an eye, he cut out a half-meter-long square on the wall. Then he drew out his spiritual knife and kicked the wall hard with his leg. With a muffled sound, the wall that he cut into squares fell off inward, and a large square hole suddenly appeared in the wall.
Cheng Jin smiled at Ao Qing and said, "It saves trouble!" As he spoke, he got in already.
The secret room inside the wall is not big, but there is an astonishing amount of silver taels stacked on the panels inside. The shining silver ingots are more than half a person tall. Even if it is conservatively estimated, it must be 1.8 million taels. So much.
In such a poor Pingyuan County and such a desolate Hengcheng, it is unimaginable and incredible that Wang Meng could get so much money.
Looking at the white money, Cheng Jin was dumbfounded, Ao Qing and Jiaxi were dumbfounded, and the servant was equally dumbfounded. Even the servant didn't know that there was a secret room in the silver vault, and that there was such a huge amount of silver in the secret room. .
I don't know how long it took, but Cheng Jin came to his senses first. He picked up a silver ingot, weighed it in his palms, laughed out loud, and said faintly: "What a Hengcheng City Lord, what a greedy dog official!" , he said to Ao Qing: "Xiao Qing, go back to your house immediately to find the master and explain the situation here!"
Before Ao Qing could respond, he said to Jiaxi: "Jiaxi, stay here and don't let anyone in. If anyone breaks in, kill him first and then tell him!"
"Captain, what about you?" Ao Qing and Jiaxi asked in unison.
"Me?" Cheng Jin waved his hand and said, "I'm going to find that dog official Wang Meng!"
The discovery of so much money in the bank of the city lord's mansion was considered conclusive evidence. Cheng Jin stopped hiding his tracks and dragged the servant straight to the bedroom where the city lord Wang Meng was staying.
On the way, the patrolling guards and servants were startled when they saw Cheng Jin, who was wearing spiritual armor, and gathered around him.
Cheng Jin took off his spiritual armor, took out his military tag from his arms, and shouted loudly: "I am the commander of the regiment under the county guard. I came here to investigate. Who dares to come and stop me?" No one knows about the hidden arrow yet. In order to avoid trouble, Cheng Jin could only claim to be Tang Yin's corps commander, and Tang Yin also said that his rank was the same as that of the corps commander.
The commander of the county guard's regiment? The guards and servants of the City Lord's Mansion looked at each other in confusion, and for a moment they didn't know whether to stop him or not.