The Heavens Begin with Dream of the Red Chamber

Chapter 37: Not the Gourd Monk, Still the Gourd Case
"It's unfair..."

"We have nothing to do with Xue Zhong..."

"Young Master, please spare my life..."

Various miserable cries and pleas for mercy were heard in front of the Xue family’s shops.

Zhan Ershisi finally succeeded in prying open the mouth of Shopkeeper Xue and obtained the key account book. Then, he did not deal with these matters privately, but handed the account book to the government office, using the information in the account book to prove that these shopkeepers and Xue Zhong were in cahoots!
These shopkeepers really had no way of saying their grievances, because the records in the account books were all true. They had indeed been in cahoots with Xue Zhong over the years, secretly embezzling public funds for their own benefit and making a lot of money.

But that was all. This time, Xue Zhong secretly colluded with gangsters to defraud various families of their money, which had nothing to do with them at all.

Moreover, these shopkeepers are not fools. They know that the account book should have been in Xue Zhong's hands, but now it is in Zhan Ershisi's hands. It is easy to imagine where Xue Zhong is.

But even if they knew, what could they do?

They could only beg Xue Pan to let them go.

But this matter was originally planned by Zhan Ershisi, and one of the additional small goals was to uproot these shopkeepers. How could he let them go?

Xue Pan angrily spat on the ground and cursed fiercely:
"These are dogs!"

"My Xue family has always treated them well and trusted them, but these people are so evil that they dare to collude with others to steal our property!"

"How shameless!"

"No wonder Xue Zhong knew the withdrawal passwords of all the stores. It turns out that these shopkeepers are the traitors!"

"Chief Inspector Jiang, I'm leaving this matter up to you. Please pry open their mouths and find out where Xue Zhong has put the money he stole!"

"I don't care what means you use. In short, as long as my Xue family sees the silver back in the warehouse, everything will be fine and Shuntian Prefecture will be able to successfully close the case."

"I only want the result, not the process. Do you understand me?"

Chief Constable Jiang beside him bowed hurriedly and said with a smile:

"Don't worry! I will definitely handle this case to your satisfaction, and not a penny of your lost silver will be lost!"

This major case involves hundreds of thousands of taels of silver. Both the Rongguo Mansion and the Baoling Marquis Mansion are paying close attention to it. Moreover, the Xue family is an imperial merchant. The case has almost been known to everyone, and maybe even the cabinet and the palace know about it.

Although Xue Zhong was found as a scapegoat as the minimum guarantee and the official hat was saved, the Shuntian Prefecture could not be exempted from responsibility as long as the hundreds of thousands of taels of silver were not returned.

Han, the governor of Shuntian Prefecture, had been reprimanded many times by all parties. Moreover, the eunuch in the palace sent someone to tell him to be loyal to his duties and not to be perfunctory. The implication of his words really frightened him.

Nowadays, people in Shuntian Prefecture have met with almost all the well-known white gloves in the surrounding area, and have also informed the people behind the scenes. Any clues must be reported to Shuntian Prefecture, otherwise Prefecture Governor Han will let these white gloves know what it means that the law is as strict as the furnace.

Of course, in fact, Prefect Han hoped that there would be someone so blind as to conceal the news, so that once it was discovered, he could put all the blame on the powerful people behind that person and clear himself from the matter.

A dead Taoist friend should not die a poor Taoist!

Unfortunately, no one who can move around in the capital is blind. They are all very alert and no one will feel uncomfortable at this critical moment.

But the problem is that the people who committed the crime this time are not making a living in the capital area at all. They are bandits, or a group of people who have carefully studied guerrilla tactics. They move from one place to another after each shot, and now they have returned to their hometown with the money. They have not come to your area to sell the stolen goods at all.

As for the batch of spices, Xue Pan would send people to other places to "buy" them, and then transport them to Beijing through the Xue family's regular channels. These people in Shuntian Prefecture worked hard for more than half a month, but still didn't catch anyone.

The account book provided by Zhan Ershisi helped them a lot!

Zhan Ershisi also asked Xue Pan to talk to Chief Constable Jiang in private, and "hinted" to him that the Xue family only wanted money and didn't care about anything else.

As long as they can "find" the lost hundreds of thousands of taels of silver from these shopkeepers and return them to the Xue family, the eunuchs in the palace will naturally stop targeting Shuntian Prefecture.

At that time, if they want to hand these people over as accomplices of the thieves, or deal with them in any other way, it is up to them. The Xue family cannot and does not want to interfere.

Originally, this group of people in Shuntian Prefecture were skilled in various methods of substituting someone else for a dead person, and were best at finding scapegoats. All major cases that could not be solved were often handled in this way.

Now that even the victim has expressed his opinion, why should they bother? They can just torture him to get a confession, and then search his house and be done with it.

These shopkeepers have been entrenched in the capital for many years, and have engaged in various acts of embezzlement for personal gain. Now, each of them is a wealthy man. It cannot be said how wealthy they are, but it is not a problem for each of them to get 18,000 taels of silver.

If they are forced to sell their houses and land, they can probably get more.

When the time comes, we will first return the money to the Xue family, and then divide the remaining money among the people in the third shift and sixth room. Everyone will benefit equally, and a bad thing will be turned into a good thing. Isn't that wonderful?
After reaching this consensus, the rest of the matter became simple. Everything followed the familiar procedures of Shuntian Prefecture, and Zhan Ershisi and others did not need to worry about it anymore.

After Zhan Ershisi waited patiently for a few days, he saw Chief Constable Jiang and his men coming to pay a visit.

"Congratulations, Master Xue, congratulations, Master Zhan, those thieves finally confessed!"

"All the silver from your house has been recovered, totaling two hundred thousand taels, and is now temporarily stored in the Shuntian government office. When you two are free, you may go and count the silver and take it home."

It turned out that Chief Constable Jiang was an old captain of the police and a man who knew how to behave. Clearly, the amount of silver lost by the Xue family was only a few hundred thousand taels, but when it came to him, he managed to collect some more and made a total of 200,000 taels.

This was mainly thanks to Xue Pan for giving Shuntian Prefecture a way out and not investigating the case further, but turning a blind eye and closing the case.

On the other hand, it also means to pay hush money. Everyone will share the wealth of these shop owners, and no one will be held accountable in the future.

After hearing this, Xue Pan was of course happy. He could earn twice as much from one piece of silver. It really shows that one cannot get rich without external wealth!

The Xue family had been in a tight financial situation in recent years, but this situation relieved them a lot. As expected, the brother-in-law was a member of the Jinyi Tiqi family. This relationship was very strong and could do anything!

He patted Chief Constable Jiang on the shoulder and praised:

"Old Jiang is really good at this. We should get closer to him in the future!"

He immediately took his men to the government office, took the silver back, and signed his name on the case closing document, officially declaring that the case was solved and closed.

However, Zhan Ershisi knew in his heart that this matter would not end so easily.

Because from Xue Zhong, everyone learned that the real culprit who was secretly plotting against the Xue family and digging into the Xue family's corners was none other than the son of the Supreme Lord and the younger brother of the Current Lord.

Prince Zhongshun!

Thanks to book friends "Madagascar's Black and White Penguins" and "Book Friend 20240424173123172" for the reward of 100 coins!
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(End of this chapter)