History of Women in the Wei Dynasty

Chapter 419 The Injustice of the Xue Family
Wei Yao was almost always busy. Instead of waiting for the results of the investigation and confiscation of Xue Laizi's family at the Sizhou office, she hurriedly returned to the Tingwei Prison with Kou Meng, Gu Kai, and Lu Gongzhi.

A businessman with a non-local accent looked at her back with envy and said, "Look, that official is a woman. How impressive!"

"Ha, is she the one who's impressive? It's the official robes that's impressive! Tsk tsk, even the people clearing the way for her are officials."

"You've been drinking a vat of vinegar, haven't you? Your words are so sour."

A young man dressed in silk robes and with powdered face stopped with a flick of his finger: "Are you talking about the female official who rode past on horseback just now? I know her. Her mother's surname is Zhao, and she's even more formidable. I heard she's leading troops in battle against Liang."

Zhao Cao, who was passing by, heard someone mention "Liang" and pretended to step off his shoe, squatting down to listen.

His assassination attempt on Wei Yao failed last night, and with no new missions assigned, he disguised himself as a commoner scholar and loitered near the ruins of the Imperial Academy. He saw Wei Yao pass by; in that fleeting moment, he truly wanted to disregard orders and smash her to death with whatever object he could find!

"Hey Du, don't try to be clever and turn something that could be solved with a single arrow into a huge problem," he muttered, continuing to listen.

Du Sichong was the leader who deployed the "assassination of the woman" operation.

Merchants who travel far and wide always like to inquire about things, so they asked the young man in silk, "A woman leading troops? Is it true? Did she win?"

"It's not just a victory, they've even entered Liang territory! I've also heard... never mind, I dare not say."

"Hey, don't just say half of what you mean! Quick, tell me quietly."

"Alright, then you must forget it as soon as you hear it and not spread rumors. I heard that Emperor Liang sent an envoy to the battlefield to encourage General Zhao to delay the war, and that he would give two cities to General Zhao."

Among the people who had stopped to listen to the gossip was a peddler who interjected, "I thought you were hearing the same rumors as me, but it turns out they are two different things."

The businessman quickly asked him, "What did you hear? Tell me quietly."

The peddler shook his head.

The merchant grabbed five copper coins and stuffed them into his hand.

The peddler's eyes crinkled with laughter, revealing the veins of leaves as he said, "Do you know someone named Zhao Xiu? He used to be a powerful figure in the palace. Suddenly one day, Zhao Xiu disappeared. I heard that Zhao Xiu was extremely skilled in martial arts, and there weren't many people who could kill him without anyone noticing."

"You mean... General Zhao killed Zhao Xiu?"

"I didn't say that! You're the one who said that!"

A strong wind whipped up the dust on the ground, and two overwhelming rumors, carried by the cold wind, spread throughout Luoyang from the central street of the city.

Zhao Cao, a military officer of the second rank, was ruthless yet intelligent, far from being a reckless brute! He suspected that the merchant, the silk-clad gentleman, and the peddler were deliberately spreading rumors. If one of them was a spy from the Great Liang, was he, like Zhao Cao, under the command of the newly appointed governor of Yingzhou, Cao Jingzong? Or was it the work of the spy network that Minister Wei Rui had been cultivating in Luoyang? Furthermore, were there any Wei officials who were at odds with Zhao Zhi and her daughter seizing this rare opportunity to profit from it?

In fact, Zhao Cao disliked Cao Jingzong, and by extension, his confidant Du Sichong. Zhao Cao had a habit of talking to himself, muttering, "They all think they're smart," before chasing after the peddler in the direction he had gone.

A caravan of camels briefly blocked his gaze from the peddler. In just a few breaths, only the carrying pole and basket remained on the ground; the peddler had vanished!
Zhao Cao didn't panic. The fact that the other party was avoiding him proved that he had guessed correctly; the other party was no ordinary peddler. So he didn't risk continuing to follow him. The "peddler" was Wei Yao's own confidant, named Guan Zhenkuan. He was the son of Shi Guanxian, the clerk of the Sizhou Tax Bureau, and a cousin of the prison officials and stewards.

Guan Zhenkuan was skilled in martial arts, but not as good as Zhao Cao. He did not realize that he was being followed. Fortunately, he was familiar with the terrain and threw away the cargo basket as a way to avoid being followed. If Zhao Cao continued to chase him with the appearance of being a searcher, he would end up in the place with the strictest patrol by the Sizhou soldiers.

Guan Zhenkuan remembered the instructions: if you encounter anyone spreading rumors about General Zhao or Attendant-in-Ordinary on the street, approach them and mention "Zhao Xiu" a couple of times, but be vague in your wording so as not to give others any grounds to spread rumors. As for why to do this, he knew he couldn't ask.

The sun set behind the city walls, and darkness fell.

Yuan Mao's cousin Yuan Yu and Cavalry Officer Erzhu Maizhen came to the Imperial Prison of the Court of Justice to find Wei Yao and told her that they had dug up several urns of mutilated corpses in the Xue family's courtyard and that they had opened the coffins to examine the remains of Xue Laizi's family.

Despite his young age, Yuan Yu was not afraid of bloody murder cases from a young age, and he was eloquent. He recounted in detail: "The jailers visited the neighborhood and they all said that three of Xue Laizi's family members who were infected with the plague were buried at the time. Indeed, three people were found in the coffins in the Santu grave, but they did not die from the disease. They were all killed by having their necks broken."

"Seven urns were buried under the wall of Xue Laizi's courtyard, containing mutilated corpses covered with fish sauce. The corpses were missing their hands and their faces were disfigured. Because they had been covered with fish sauce for a long time, they could barely be pieced together to make out that they were human. The coroner could not determine when the person died."

"All the neighbors around here said that Xue Laizi had a bad temper and an ugly face. They didn't want to associate with him and never looked him in the eye when they spoke to him in the past two years. If the real Xue Laizi had died and was being impersonated, those neighbors wouldn't be able to tell the difference."

"Xue Laizi's hands are covered in sores, showing no signs of archery practice. Like my sister-in-law, I suspect he's the assassin who jumped into the canal last night to escape, but right now we can only interrogate him to see if he knows about the burial of the body in the yard. It's the dead of winter, so we can't torture him. Do you have any ideas on how to handle this case?"

To deal with a cunning and desperate criminal, one must clarify the approach to the case from the very beginning; otherwise, if the criminal keeps repeating himself and we are completely unaware of the hidden truth, the Xue family's injustice will have to be buried again.

Wei Yao pondered for a moment and said, "Assuming the mutilated corpse in the jar is indeed Xue Laizi, and he was impersonated by a stranger, he must have been impersonated for a very long time. What was the imposter's original purpose in torturing himself, infecting himself with festering sores, disfiguring himself, and ruining his hands?"

All the officials in the office followed her hypothesis and pondered it together.

She continued, "The initial purpose was definitely not to assassinate me."

Everyone nodded.

"Then why? Was it because he was already wanted by the authorities and wanted to change his appearance to gain the identity of an ordinary citizen?" Wei Yao suddenly thought of a question and asked, "Can the coroner find out what disease the three members of the Xue family contracted?"

Yuan Yu understood immediately: "Have the coroner re-examine the remains in the urn to see if they can identify the same disease. If they are, the remains are very likely Xue Laizi. To be on the safe side, have the physician examine the person in prison; it may not be a scar left by the same disease."

Yuan Yu took his leave, but Wei Yao had another mysterious idea pop into her mind. She asked Yuan Yu to wait a moment, then took out a portrait of Xue Zhixiao from the case file and instructed him, "Give the portrait to the registrar. He has seen Xue Zhixiao. Have the registrar compare it with Xue Laizi."

"The case file says this person is dead, but your sister-in-law suspects he faked his death?"

"I have a slight idea, and comparing them isn't too difficult... Wait a minute!"

Wei Yao came up with a wicked idea. She asked Gu Kai, "I heard Yuan Mao mention a case where you and Guan Xian teamed up to interrogate the nun Lin Yin. You used flour paste and dye to cover your face and pretended to be the corpse of Seng Zhi. You did a very good job of it."

Gu Kai: "Yes."

Everyone in the room looked bewildered, unable to follow her train of thought for a moment.