The Sui Dynasty's chess game

Chapter 830 Confusing
The next morning, Shi Xiaozhen met with Prefect Wang Younan. Wang Younan was about fifty years old and thin. It was clear that he was under a lot of psychological pressure. Upon seeing Shi Xiaozhen, he asked, "General Shi, what was the final opinion of the Censor?"

Shi Xiaozhen handed him a copy of the censor's impeachment letter, saying, "Take a look for yourself!"

Holding the impeachment document, Wang Younan trembled and muttered under his breath, "How could they do this? That's not what they said. They said they would give me a fair explanation. Is this their fairness?"

"Does Magistrate Wang believe the censor's opinion is unfair?"

"Of course it's unfair. I told them all the facts, and they said they would check it and then left without giving me a clear answer."

Shi Xiaozhen suddenly frowned. Qi Pei said that the censor did not believe Prefect Wang's explanation at all? But even Prefect Wang himself did not know the result, so how could Qi Pei know?

"Do you know that the censor doesn't believe your explanation?"

Wang Younan quickly shook his head, "They took notes very carefully, but only said they would verify it. They didn't tell me the results of the verification at all. Otherwise, what am I waiting for? In the end, they didn't tell me anything."

"I'd like to hear Governor Wang's explanation?"

Wang Younan sighed and said, "I was framed in this matter. I have no way of verifying the truth. No wonder the Censorate doesn't believe me. They simply cannot verify the truth I'm telling the story."

"Then tell me the truth?"

"The truth is that a group of wealthy landowners threw out 320 old slaves, all of whom were over 50 years old and most of them had lost their ability to work. So I ordered the cancellation of their application for civilian status and allowed their masters to continue to take care of them and provide for their old age."

"Not deportation?"

"No, they didn't leave the manor. A scholar represented them to submit an application to the county government. Because it involved several counties, the county government submitted it to the prefectural government. I sent people to investigate and found that they were all old people. They didn't want to leave the master's house. It was the master's house that wanted to drive them away."

Shi Xiaozhen frowned. The slaves investigated in the Censorate records were not old people, but young slaves. Although only a dozen or so people were investigated, they were all around twenty years old.

There wasn't a single elderly person in their fifties or sixties.

"What does Governor Wang mean by saying he was framed?"

Wang Younan shook his head and said, "The subordinate I sent to investigate has disappeared. His investigation records are gone, and even the lists of the main families are nowhere to be found. The old man's testimony that I mentioned has no basis at all."

When did you realize you'd been framed?

“Just a few days ago, the investigator asked me for leave to go home, and then he disappeared. His family said that he never came back. When I went to check the files, I found that the visit records and the roster were missing. I couldn’t even make a replacement. That’s when I knew that I had been framed.”

Shi Xiaozhen understood. Governor Wang was preventing the abolition of slavery because he discovered that all the slaves were old, but in fact, the slaves were not old.

This was a scheme of yin and yang, a trap set for Governor Wang to fall into. Now there are no witnesses or physical evidence, and he has no way to defend himself.

The only way to find out the truth is to find the scholar who organized it.

Shi Xiaozhen vaguely guessed that this trap must be related to Prefect Qi Pei.

This case actually had nothing to do with the abolition of slavery. It was just that someone used the abolition of slavery to get rid of Governor Wang Younan. This was a very vicious move. If Wang Younan was innocent, it would set a very bad example for the whole country. Local officials all over the country could use this case to send slaves back to their masters.

If Wang Younan is guilty, then he is actually innocent.

Of course, this is all Prefect Wang Younan's side of the story; it may be true, or it may be false. The truth will only be known once evidence is obtained. Shi Xiaozhen nodded. "I need to prove you're telling the truth. Don't you have even a single clue to save yourself?"

Wang Younan took out a slip of paper from his pocket and handed it to Shi Xiaozhen. "This was found on my desk early yesterday morning. Please take a look, General."

Shi Xiaozhen took the note; it contained only one sentence: 'The scholar is not dead; he is hiding in Wei County.'

Whether this clue exists or not is the same thing. Wei County is so big, where are they supposed to look for it?

However, the fact that the scholar survived shows that this path is viable.

Since the person who left the note said that the scholar was not dead, it means that this person saw the scholar.

As Shi Xiaozhen walked out of the prefectural government office, he turned to his subordinates and said, "Send men to keep watch on Governor Wang's residence tonight. If anyone sneaks in, arrest them immediately."

Shi Xiaozhen returned to the inn, and the registrar Qin Fang stepped forward and said, "Reporting to the commander, this morning I went to the county government to inquire, and the county magistrate said that because the case involved multiple counties, it was inconvenient for them to handle it, so they directly pushed it to the prefectural government. The prefectural government handled the case from beginning to end, and the county government was completely unaware of it!"

After a pause, Qin Fang added, "I've also discovered something strange!"

"What's so strange?"

Qin Fang entered the room, took out all the documents from the Censorate's file folder, spread them out on the table, and pointed to the confessions among them, saying, "These confessions are the key to conviction, but they only contain the slaves' names, not the masters' information, and there's not even a register of masters. Doesn't the Commander find this strange? The Censorate doesn't even have a register of masters."

Shi Xiaozhen nodded. "They took away the register of the main family members, and the county government couldn't find it either. It seems there's a big problem with this register! Even the Censorate has to recuse themselves from it."

At that moment, a guard reported from the courtyard, "General Yu has arrived!"

"Invite him in!"

Yu Feipeng strode in, holding a stack of documents in his hand, and said with a smile, "These are what I found in the Inner Guard's archives. There are many documents of unknown origin in the Inner Guard's archives. Since they are not within the Inner Guard's authority, we usually keep them on the shelf. One of my subordinates said that our Inner Guard also received an unnamed document about a slave case. We searched all night and found it."

Shi Xiaozhen was overjoyed and quickly took the document bag, emptying all the documents inside to search carefully. After a moment, Qin Fang exclaimed in surprise, "Found it!"

He pulled out a roster, a list that matched the generals and slaves one by one.

Shi Xiaozhen quickly took it and examined it closely. The names of the hosts were all very ordinary, and there were no famous people among them. What was there to hide?
He suddenly had a gut feeling that the number of people was not right. He immediately counted them twice and there were only 250 people, a full 70 people short.

"This list is incomplete; key figures have probably been omitted."

By now, everyone had a vague idea that neither the governor nor the prefectural magistrate had told the truth. It wasn't that the governor claimed the slaves were old, nor that the prefectural magistrate claimed the slaves were unwilling to leave their masters. The real reason was that the roster contained people they couldn't afford to offend. Even the Censorate ultimately avoided the truth and simply impeached the official in charge.

At this point, Qin Fang suggested, "Why don't we investigate the slaves according to this list? Let's find out who the 250 slaves are and see if we can find the real clues."

Shi Xiaozhen nodded. This was a solution, albeit a less-than-ideal one.

Shi Xiaozhen then said to Yu Feipeng, “At first I thought this was a power struggle trap, very complicated. Now I realize that it may not be complicated at all, and it has nothing to do with power struggle. It’s just a simple slave incident. It’s just that the entire officialdom is hiding the list. The key is the scholar in that organization. Someone must know him. You should find the lower-level clerks and runners to investigate and see if you can find out the scholar’s ​​identity and family.”

"I'll investigate immediately!"

(End of this chapter)