The Famous Detective of the Red Mansion - Chapter 96

Chapter 96: Fearing Strife, Being Wise and Protecting Oneself, and Mourn for Common People, He Took the Initiative to Plead for his Life

Hearing the word “spy,” Ye Xingmao immediately looked panicked, but in a blink of an eye, he restrained his panic and cried out that he was wronged.

“My Lord, I’m just a young boy. How can I arrange a spy in Lord Xu’s residence? It’s a great injustice!”

According to common sense, how can a small official in green robes, who has no title or grade, put a spy in the Mansion of a senior official of the fourth grade and force Xu Mingtang to have no choice but to fight with his death?

However, his fleeting panic just now has proven Sun Shaozong’s conjecture!

In this way, there were only two possibilities.

Ye Xingmao was an unrivaled hero, so he could manipulate Xu Mingtang, a senior official from the four grades, with his green robe. Or, behind Ye Maoxing, there was a more powerful messenger than Xu Mingtang.

The latter possibility was far greater than the former!

Ye Xingmao also mentioned just now that Xu Mingtang was the Capital’s “River Embankment Ambassador,” and his official position in the River Yamen was only below the Governor and Commander.

This Governor naturally refers to Wang Yan, the Governor of the River; this Commander refers to the two river supervisors in the North and South. The Jiangnan River Supervisor was stationed in Jinling and had no right to intervene in the Northern river affairs. Therefore, the two most suspected were Wang Yan and the Northern River Supervisor!

Naturally, Wang Yan thought of this too. His face seemed as if the bottom of the pot had turned black. After half a while, he squeezed out a sentence from his teeth, “I’m crazy. I’m really crazy! If I don’t find out the truth about this case, I will never stop!”

He then angrily ordered, “Come, take this thief down first!”

From the right and left, a few people immediately rushed up and pressed Ye Xingmao onto the ground with all his hands and feet.

Wang Yan still couldn’t get over his anger. He came forward and gave a kick to his chest. He shouted and asked, “Damn slave, why did you spy on Lord Xu’s Mansion? Tell me the truth!”

“Your Excellency, you have a bright vision. I’m really being wronged!”

But Ye Xingmao still cried out his grievances and refused to tell the truth.

“Well, well, what a thief who doesn’t shed tears when he doesn’t see the coffin!”

Wang Yan laughed angrily several times, but suddenly turned around and said, “Assistant Prefectural Magistrate Sun, since you have seen through this case, I will deal with this thief. Please use thunderous means again to find out the secret!”

Sun Shaozong had been watching at the side as if the old monk had settled down.

Now that Wang Yan, who listened to this case, ordered him to continue with it, he only frowned slightly, calmly arched his hand, and said, “Your Excellency, if it’s the responsibility of a junior official, the junior official is naturally duty bound. But in this case… I’m afraid I need to ask the colleagues in the Riverway Yamen to find out if there are any problems in Mr. Ye’s accounts first.”

“That’s right.”

Without waiting for Wang Yan to declare his position, Jia Yucun nodded in agreement and said, “This case involves officials of the fourth grade. If corruption is found, it should be handled by the Supreme Court or the Department of Supervision according to the rules. I dare not take my place in the Central Judicial Office.”

According to the rules of the Great Zhou Dynasty, ordinary criminal homicides were naturally investigated by the local government or the Ministry of Punishment. However, as long as corruption cases involving more than seven grades were involved, they must be trialed by the Supreme Court and the Department of Supervision. The local government and the Ministry of Punishment could only assist.

Sun Shaozong took over Jia Yucun’s words again and said with a straight face, “Of course, if the Minister determines that this case has nothing to do with official corruption, I will investigate it to the end, even going through fire and water!”

Damn little fox!

In the face of Sun Shaozong’s “upright and unafraid” face, Wang Yan did not know how many dirty words he secretly scolded in his heart. At first glance, Sun Shaozong’s words seemed to leave some room, but what petty official in charge of accounts these days could say that there would be no problems in the accounts?!

Originally, Wang Yan thought that Sun Shaozong called Jia Yucun together out of respect for his superiors, but now it seemed that Sun Shaozong had the intention of retreating long ago, so he specially invited Jia Yucun to sing a song!

Although Jia Yucun was inferior to Wang Yan, he was at least a big official, unlike Sun Shaozong, who was a small official of six grades and could be rounded and flattened at will.

Therefore, although Wang Yan was unhappy, he had no choice but to say in a muffled voice, “In that case, I will first mobilize some personnel from the Ministry of Public Work to thoroughly investigate all the accounts of Xu Mingtang during his tenure!”

After that, he took his eyes to see Sun Shaozong and Jia Yucun, only to see that the two of them were looking like none of their business again and that foreign affairs were not their own business.

Indeed, they were birds of the same feather!

Wang Yan was indignant, threw his sleeves up, and left.

As soon as he took his first step, Sun Shaozong reminded him, “Your Excellency, the most important thing at present is not to audit the accounts but to protect the dikes ”built by Lord Xu.”

When Wang Yan heard his words, he felt a thump in his heart.

Just now, fearing that this “corruption case” would affect him, Wang Yan was inevitably a little concerned and chaotic. At this time, Sun Shaozong reminded him of the great crisis behind Xu Mingtang’s suicide!

If he didn’t have the obstacles he couldn’t overcome, how would it be easy to force a fourth-grade official to commit suicide?

As the Ambassador of the Yongding River Embankment, Xu Mingtang’s heart must be on the Yongding River Embankment!

And if something went wrong with the Embankment…

He was in a panic, and Sun Shaozong continued, “Please make preparations for the people along the river…”

However, before Sun Shaozong finished speaking this time, Jia Yucun suddenly cut him off and said with a straight face, “Please rest assured, I will organize the people to guard the North Embankment and work with the River Yamen to ensure that the Capital is safe!”

Hearing this, Sun Shaozong and Wang Yan were shocked.

Sun Shaozong wanted Wang Yan to organize the evacuation of the people along the river. But the meaning of Jia Yucun’s words was all in the sentence “defend the North Embankment!”

Although Jia Yucun didn’t say it, how could Sun Shaozong and Wang Yan not understand what he meant? In fact, they were trying to persuade Wang Yan to give up the South Embankment when necessary, or even destroy the South Embankment altogether, to lead the flood to the border of Hebei Province to keep Kaifeng Prefecture intact!

Wang Yan looked struggled and hesitated, “The autumn flood of Yongding River always comes rapidly. I’m afraid that the flood peak will enter the boundary of the Capital in a few days. How… How can it be in time…”

Jia Yucun, however, still looked indignant and said solemnly, “It’s my duty to evacuate the people before it’s too late. I’ll try my best. Otherwise, if I can’t protect the North Embankment and the flood comes and alarms the Emperor, even if I were to die for it, it cannot wash off my crime!”

Wang Yan was afraid that it would be too late to evacuate the people on the South bank. Jia Yucun kept talking about “gathering the strong citizens,” but in fact, he was still persuading Wang Yan to give up the South Embankment and even the citizens on the South bank!

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Seeing the hesitation on Wang Yan’s face gradually fade, Sun Shaozong’s heart grew colder and colder. He just wanted to remind Wang Yan, but who would have thought that they would discuss such insane countermeasures in the end?

Biting his teeth, he could not help but arch his hands and say, “My Lord, I would like to go to the South bank to organize the evacuation of the people…”

“Nonsense!”

Without waiting for him to finish, Jia Yucun angrily scolded, “You and I are both protectors of the land. How can we go to Hebei without the Emperor’s order to act recklessly? Besides, this matter is handled by the Ministers and Hebei Officials at their discretion. Why should you do something that is completely superfluous?!”

Wang Yan also sighed and then ordered, “Assistant Prefectural Magistrate Sun, you needn’t bother about this matter. The most important thing at present is to temporarily block this matter so as not to shake the morale of the army. When you go back to the back hall later, you can only say that Xu Mingtang committed suicide because of family discord.”