Damn it, I'm in the garbage book I wrote

Chapter 194 Strict investigation!

After talking around for a long time, the kid didn't reveal any useful information. Finally, Xia Lin had no choice but to drag the kid to the charity cemetery, and then asked Dong Niang to sew up the body bit by bit in front of him.

The dormitory leader, who had refused to speak despite threats and inducements, finally gave in after watching the corpse being sewn up and not allowed to close his eyes. He told everyone he knew.

The matter was actually not complicated. After the envoy arrived, the head manager of a business inside the pass frequently invited him, but later the manager seemed to have a falling out with the envoy, and then no news was heard until a few days before the incident, when the manager found the dormitory head, gave him some money and asked him to keep an eye on the envoy's movements and who he had contacted with, and to tell him any news as soon as possible.

The dormitory leader himself had to communicate with envoys from various countries every day to see what their needs were or what troubles they encountered, so he had more opportunities to come into contact with them. That day, he accidentally overheard the conversation between him and the president of the Huguang Chamber of Commerce, which was about going to the inn to find him at a certain time on a certain day to discuss and make the final decision.

Then he told the news to the manager of the business, and said nothing else.

After hearing this, Xia Lin didn't need to think too much and just arrested him. Anyway, his arrests were all done in secret and the interrogation was extremely fast. As a big shopkeeper of a business, it would be difficult for him to escape.

Soon, the soldiers surrounded a place called Gongsun Commercial House. Xia Lin personally led people in and knocked on the table: "Where is your chief manager?"

The waiter pointed to the backyard tremblingly. At this moment, the shopkeeper came out from inside. He was surprised when he came out: "What are these soldiers doing?"

Xia Lin looked him up and down and asked, "Are you the head manager of the Gongsun family business?"

"Exactly. May I ask..."

"take away."

The shopkeeper was not even given a chance to speak. With a gesture from Xia Lin, he was taken down, a rag was stuffed in his mouth, a bag was put on his head, and he was dragged into the carriage.

They returned to the government office. Xia Lin brought the roommaster out and brought him before the chief treasury manager. "Is it him?"

The dormitory head nodded hurriedly: "It's him, it's him!"

Xia Lin nodded: "Okay, get out of here, and stay in there for three days before you can get out."

"Thank you very much for your kindness, sir... Thank you very much for your kindness, sir."

He didn't bother to deal with this little Karamishalin, so he waved his hand and told him to get out. Then he covered his nose and went to the interrogation room to have the sack on the head of the shopkeeper taken off.

The shopkeeper looked to be in his 50s, a little fat, and at first glance he looked like a dissolute man whose body was hollowed out by alcohol and sex. In sitcoms, you would know that such a person would be a villain as soon as he appeared on the stage. It was a complete stereotype.

"Recruit or not?" Xia Lin crossed his legs. "Don't make me ask. You are the boss now. You shouldn't act crazy or stupid with such a smart head, right?"

"I don't know, sir, I know nothing..."

Xia Lin raised his hand and said, "Okay, you don't know, right? Then you can make something up for me. I have to report to you. Do you understand?"

The chief shopkeeper was still shaking his head like a rattle: "Please spare my life, sir. I really don't know anything."

"Don't know? It's better not to know." Xia Lin was too lazy to talk nonsense, and just raised his hand: "Go, soak in the water dungeon."

This water dungeon, in movies and TV shows, is just a pool of water with a person soaking in it, but in reality, a water dungeon is simply a nightmare, because people in the water dungeon cannot sit down to rest, let alone sleep. Within a few days, the body can no longer support it and will fall into the water and drown. Moreover, the water dungeon stinks extremely, with feces and urine, and stinky water. Although there are no leeches in the cold winter, even a strong body cannot withstand a quarter of an hour in the water dungeon in this cold weather.

Going to the water dungeon at this point would mean death, so the shopkeeper started crying and begging Xia Lin to spare his life, but Xia Lin just covered his nose and turned his back, ignoring him the whole time.

It wasn't until the cages in the water dungeon made a creaking sound that the chief innkeeper finally let out a sigh of relief: "Sir... I confess... I confess everything."

"Waste." Xia Lin cursed in a low voice: "I thought you were so brave, bring you here."

This shopkeeper was a big fish, and the information coming out of his mouth was much more important than that of a dormitory leader. The shopkeeper was really afraid of death, so he revealed everything in detail.

"The real boss behind the Gongsun family's business is the Minister of Revenue, Cheng Jucheng. A few days ago, the superiors sent a few people down to discuss the transportation of spices from the Kingdom of Daqin. They asked me to find out the route of their envoys. I really just inquired about it. I didn't do anything else. I didn't know that the envoy would die."

The shopkeeper burst into tears as he spoke: "Sir, please spare my life, sir. The lives of my family are in their hands. I beg you, sir."

"Now is not the time to cry. Tell me in detail where those people are now." "I don't know, I really don't know... They left within two days of their arrival, and the messenger also died on the same day they left. I guess it has something to do with them, but I'm just a shopkeeper, how dare I say anything more."

Xia Lin stroked his chin and pondered. After a while, he smacked his lips and said, "The Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, right? Is he in charge of the salt transport?"

"No, the salt transport is managed by the River Administration Office, which is jointly managed by the Ministry of Works and the Ministry of Revenue..."

Xia Lin's eyes rolled and he immediately laughed. He nodded and said, "Okay, okay, you caught a big fish for me."

He was really excited now, because if he wanted to get his job back, he had to thoroughly muddy the waters of the Wei Dynasty. The more he stirred up trouble, the more restless those first- and second-rank officials in the court would become. If they were restless, they would have to find a way to deal with Xia Lin, either get him down or get him up.

I'm afraid it won't work if we continue to do this, because there are at least three people behind his actions. One is Zeng Ming, the Chief Censor of the Censorate, one is Guo Da, the governor of Jiangnan Province, and the other is the current emperor.

Although he knew that the other two barriers except for Guo Dad were not particularly reliable, if he could make a big noise and shock the whole world, then the pawn that crossed the river would be the chariot.

Xia Lin pursed her lips and smiled: "I understand."

After saying that, he stood up, selected twenty elite soldiers and headed straight for the Yanmen Pass's Salt Transport Office. Although Yanmen Pass had no rivers, it had checkpoints, and the Salt Transport Office actually still had some of the responsibilities of a logistics company.

However, the Salt and Transport Bureau was very small. After all, it was a third-level government office, and the person in charge was just an eighth-rank assistant official. But don't underestimate this small eighth-rank government office. The food and clothing of millions of water transport workers depended on them. No imperial envoy in history dared to touch the Salt and Transport Bureau, let alone the River Channel Government Office. It's not that no one has investigated it, but basically, either their boats capsized on the road or they encountered banditry. After investigation, it was found that there were only a few imperial envoys left alive.

But Xia Lin didn't care about that and ran over with his men. After they arrived, the salt transport official didn't know what had happened and even reached out to stop Xia Lin.

"Hey, hey, hey, Salt Administration Office, who are you and how can you force your way in?"

Xia Lin glanced at the salt transport officer, smiled, raised his hand and waved: "Capture them all!"

The salt transport officer was stunned. When he was pinned down by the soldiers, he was still shouting: "Where did this bold lunatic come from? How dare he act wildly in the Salt Transport Office? Did you know that this Salt Transport Office is under the control of the imperial court?"

Xia Lin stood there with his hands behind his back: "Please ask twenty accountants to come and check for me!"

Soon, twenty accountants arrived, and they sat in the Yan Canal Office and started to calculate the accounts. This incident caused a big fuss, which was completely different from the previous arrest of a roommate or a big manager.

Basically, Guo Ying was directly alarmed, but after Guo Ying received the news, he just frowned but did not show up. He just raised his hand and said, "Let him do whatever he wants."

At this moment, the lieutenant general beside Guo Ying came up and whispered, "General, it's against the rules to check the salt transport account right away, isn't it?"

"What do you mean by checking the accounts? That's to investigate the truth behind the envoy's death!" Guo Ying's eyes slowly showed a cold light: "It seems that your majesty's sword is going to hit the court. Go, send more people to protect Xia Lin."

"I obey my orders."

The accounts were being checked here and the case was being tried there. Although the salt transport official kept accusing Xia Lin and said he would report him to the court, Xia Lin still ordered his men to beat him with a stick until his mouth was swollen.

On the second day after the Salt Transport Office was sealed off, someone came from Hedong Province. It was Fu Qing, the Revenue Envoy of Hedong Province. He first came to Guo Ying to ask for an explanation.

"General, although the border military affairs are not under the jurisdiction of the Dao, you have no right to interfere in the political affairs. Now that something like this has happened, you need to give an explanation to the commander, right?"

"Confess?" Guo Ying was Lao Guo's younger brother. He glared at him like an angry leopard: "You, a mere envoy, dare to come to me and ask for a confession? You are so brave. Ask Chen Qi to come to me and tell me in person."

The Chen Qi he mentioned was the commander of Hedong Road. Because of the Guo family's garrison there, Chen Qi had the lowest presence among the ten frontier officials. But he was still the head of a road after all, and his official position was still there.

"General Guo, the court has its own laws. If you insist on doing what you want, don't blame Lord Chen for reporting you to His Majesty."

"Get lost." Guo Ying was too lazy to even answer him. "If I hadn't seen that you were the son of an old friend, I would have had someone beat you up with a military stick. You had to explain to me that you were wearing open-crotch pants when I was protecting the law. And I have to tell you, I didn't instigate this. It was someone from your court who personally investigated it. If you want to find him, go find him yourself."

The Duzhi envoy frowned and asked, "Someone from the imperial court?"

(End of this chapter)