Top Scholar

Chapter 151 Confiscating the house
So Magistrate Lu summoned the other drinkers, but they all said it was impossible for anyone to have drunk that much, fearing they would get into trouble.

One of the guys, a straight man, shouted, "That stingy Su Youma won't even serve a plate of edamame. Who can drink two jin of that liquor? That's flammable liquor! It could kill someone on the spot. Why wait to go home?"

"..." Although it was said that they were trying to clear Su Youma's name, he felt ashamed and embarrassed, as if he were being publicly executed.

"Ah, that was a mistake on my part..." The witness tried to correct himself, but it was too late.

Magistrate Lu slammed his gavel down and roared, "Utter nonsense! You've made a mistake remembering three cups as five! But to say one ounce is two pounds is pure slander!"

He tossed out a black stick and said, "Take him aside and put him in the clamps!"

The witness was terrified when he heard this. Usually, the cangue is only used when hitting the board is ineffective. How could they use such a powerful method right away?
“I’ve got it wrong! I only had an ounce! They wouldn’t give me another cup, not even if they scratched my head!” He hurriedly kowtowed repeatedly, confessing completely before the instruments of torture even touched him. “The people from the Hejiang Wine Shop gave me money to lie! Otherwise, they would have beaten me to death and thrown me into the Yangtze River…”

"..." Upon hearing this, the uncle felt relieved, knowing that his innocence had been proven.

However, his reputation was completely ruined... It turns out that people weren't fooled by his tricks, and they still criticized him.

"A mere ounce of wine could kill Boss Han?" Magistrate Lu asked in a deep voice. "How come you all drank such potent poison and remained unharmed?"

"Well, people's physical constitutions cannot be generalized..." The witness's statement was exactly the same as that of Wang Bantou.

"That's a matter of physical constitution, not the alcohol. Knowing full well that one's body is not suited for drinking, yet still forcing oneself to drink, is tantamount to suicide!" Magistrate Lu sneered. "He only has himself to blame, no one else!"

The magistrate then asked the second witness, "Are you a worker at the Heshun Distillery?"

"Yes, my dear parents." The witness nodded hurriedly.

"How many years have you followed Boss Han?" Magistrate Lu asked again.

“Eight years,” the witness replied. “I started as an apprentice and have been the boss’s personal attendant ever since.”

"How can he drink?"

“Very good.” The witness said without hesitation, “Our boss has been drinking for decades, how could he not be a good drinker? Even now that he’s older, he can drink two jin of baijiu without getting drunk.”

"Oh?" Magistrate Lu raised an eyebrow and said coldly, "That's strange. How could someone who can drink a thousand cups without getting drunk die after just one or two drinks?"

~~
"Since there's nothing wrong with the wine and her physical condition, what exactly is the problem?" Magistrate Lu's cold gaze returned to Madam Han.

"This, this humble woman doesn't know either..." Han Zhaoshi said, shivering.

"You're lying!" Magistrate Lu slammed his gavel down again and said in a deep voice, "Summon the coroner!"

The county coroner was then shoved forward; his face and body were covered in injuries, clearly indicating that he had already received the treatment from Ari.

After the coroner kowtowed, Magistrate Lu snorted coldly: "Tell us the true details of the body of the deceased, Han Duo!"

"Yes..." The coroner, with a mournful face, picked up the body compartment and read aloud, "My examination of the body revealed that the deceased had no bleeding from the seven orifices, his lips were cyanotic, and his ten fingers were in a scratching motion, which is a sign of suffocation."

"His stomach was full of undigested food and alcohol, and it smelled of numbing drugs, which shows that he drank a large amount of strong liquor mixed with sleeping potion before he died."

"Furthermore, the deceased's throat was obstructed with filth, and although there were signs of pressure on the mouth and nose, it was difficult to determine whether the death was due to airway obstruction caused by vomit after drinking, or whether the person was suffocated..."

"Did you hear that, Madam Han?" Magistrate Lu questioned in a deep voice, "Your husband drank a lot of wine after leaving the Su family! Why don't you mention that, but instead keep focusing on Erlang wine?"

"Because he drank our own wine when he came back at night, and our wine is definitely safe..." Han Zhao said in a panic.

"Then why would he put sleeping pills in his own wine?" Magistrate Lu asked sternly. "Was drinking wine not enough for him, and did he need to drink sleeping pills too?"

"Yes..." Han Zhao was led into the ditch by Magistrate Lu, and nodded in agreement with his words.

"Bullshit!" Magistrate Lu slammed his gavel down: "Give this poisonous woman who murdered her husband a finger-crushing punishment!"

The bailiff then put finger-crushing devices on all ten of Han Zhao's fingers, twisted them with force from both sides, and tightened the clamps, causing Han Zhao to scream in agony without a sound!

This was pain that no ordinary person could bear. In no time, she was crying and screaming, "I confess! I confess! It was Ma Qing, the second-in-command of my family's distillery, who instructed me to put the drug in the wine!"

"Why did Ma Qing do this?" Magistrate Lu pressed.

"He said the master had discovered our affair and we had to strike first!" Han Zhaoshi said, her hair disheveled and panting, "After I drugged him, he came in and smothered Han Duo with a pillow..."

Ma Qing was also brought along and waited in the corridor for his summons. Upon seeing the scene, he was terrified and tried to sneak away.

But the officers grabbed him and dragged him into the courtroom, where he was subjected to another round of torture!
Under Miki's command, he confessed that he had been instructed by Hejiang Wine Shop to kill his boss and frame Erlang Wine Shop!
Su Youma lay on the stretcher, dumbfounded, never imagining that simply inviting someone to taste some wine would lead to such a terrible scheme...

~~
At that moment, with a snap, Magistrate Lu shouted again, "Bring Gongsun You!"

"The criminal Gongsun You kowtows to the righteous and just heaven." Gongsun You was wearing a prison uniform with the character "prisoner" written on it, indicating that he had already been brought to justice.

Those who rise to the position of head of a guild are all extraordinary individuals. He had calculated the stakes carefully, and as soon as the government offices opened today, he rushed to turn himself in.

"Gongsun You, do you admit that you instructed Han Zhao to frame Su Youma and Erlangjiu?" Magistrate Lu asked in a deep voice.

"Yes," Gongsun You said with a pained expression, "I was momentarily blinded by greed and actually tried to use such despicable means to eliminate my competitors. I truly regret it now." "Then why did you kill the He brothers?" Magistrate Lu asked again.

"I'm innocent, my dear parents! I only... Ah?!" Gongsun You was only halfway through reciting his lines when he realized with horror that Magistrate Lu was asking about last year's case!

Terrified, he hurriedly denied it, saying, "I'm innocent, my dear parents! I have no grudge against the He brothers, I've never even met them, how could I have killed them?"

"If that's the case, why did you bribe Wang Xijie, the head of the fast-track team, to ask them not to be too careful when investigating the scene?!" Magistrate Lu asked quietly.

"I didn't..." Gongsun You still denied it.

Magistrate Lu slammed his gavel down and shouted, "Bring Wang Xijie here!"

Wang Xijie was also carried up. His entire back and thighs were a bloody mess, a patch of red and black! Some areas had scabbed over, while others were still dripping blood, making him more than ten times worse off than Su Youma.

It took Su Youma a while to recognize him; this was Wang, the foreman who had ordered him to be whipped the day before yesterday. He felt as if he were in a dream; the changes in the world were completely beyond his imagination…

"Wang Xijie!" Magistrate Lu shouted, "Repeat what Gongsun You asked you to do last year, or you'll suffer physical pain again!"

"Yes..." Wang, the foreman, weakly recounted how he and the Fourth Master had accepted a bribe of fifty taels of silver from Gongsun, the head of the guild, the night before they went to the scene, as well as the request made to him.

In fact, as soon as Wang Bantou was brought up, Gongsun You's head exploded—Jiang Dianshi had clearly misjudged the situation. He thought Lu Zhaoye was giving him a chance to clean up his mess, but he didn't expect that the other party wanted his head!
Of course, there's also my own.

Gongsun You would rather die than confess; there was no other way, because confessing would mean the death of his entire family...

Seeing that he was beaten to the point of near death but still refused to give in, Magistrate Lu sneered:
"Does Gongsun think we can't do anything just because he won't tell us? Let me tell you, we've already commissioned Commander Ma of Yongning Guard to confiscate your wine shop and house to see what kind of precious stones you're hiding!"

Despair finally appeared on Gongsun You's pale face. If it had been county officials who went, he could still hold onto a sliver of hope.

But Lu Zhaoye didn't use the county's manpower; instead, he sent an outside army to search his house. What couldn't they find now?
This shows that Lu Zhaoye has made up his mind to eliminate Shangbaisha...

~~
That afternoon, Commander Ma led his troops, escorting ten large carts, into the county government office, making the officials green with envy...

Ransom raids were always a cushy job, so the soldiers were naturally full of energy. They no longer complained about being forced to go on official business during the New Year; instead, they were glad they had come.

"Hahaha..." Commander Ma walked into the inner signing room with a beaming smile, slammed the seizure list on the table, and laughed loudly, "Congratulations, brother, you've made a fortune this time!"

"Oh?" Magistrate Lu picked up the list and was overjoyed: "Hejiang Wine Shop is so rich?!"

"We've just been lucky!" Ma Qianhu explained with a smile, "All the wine produced by the distilleries and brewing rooms in Hejiang County, not counting retail sales, is sold through Hejiang Wine Company and settled at the end of the year."

"I've heard that they have a feast and split the bill on the Little New Year's Day, and it's always a big commotion," Magistrate Lu nodded.

"This piece alone has over four thousand taels!" Commander Ma pointed to the largest number on the list and said excitedly, "It was confiscated before it could even be distributed!"

"The other big cut was the sale of stolen goods to river bandits, which also amounted to over two thousand taels. It was also due at the end of the year, and we caught it all!" Commander Ma continued excitedly.
"I've brought back all the stolen goods that I didn't have time to sell—antiques, paintings, silks, animal hides, salt, medicinal herbs... everything, all looted by river bandits! This is enough to convict Gongsun You!"

“That’s enough,” Magistrate Lu sighed. “I’d heard long ago that this fellow was in charge of selling stolen goods for the river bandits, and now it’s completely confirmed.”

As he spoke, he cupped his hands in a salute to Commander Ma and said with a smile, "This time, thanks to Brother Ma, we were able to seize these nine thousand taels of silver!"

"It's six thousand taels," Commander Ma corrected.

"Hehe, there are no outsiders here, why are you playing games with me, your brother?" Magistrate Lu said with a smile.

"I'll just allocate a thousand taels as a start-up fee for the brothers," Commander Ma said sheepishly.

"Hehe..." Magistrate Lu remained silent, still smiling. Besides the money, there were also accounts; those soldiers couldn't hide anything from him.

"Alright, alright, it's two thousand taels." Commander Ma had no choice but to surrender. "But it's really not three thousand taels. If I lied, I'd be your servant!"

“Then I’ll give you three thousand taels.” But then Magistrate Lu said slowly, “And I’ll wash it clean for you, so you can take it with peace of mind.”

"What do you want me to do?" Commander Ma asked warily.

"Do you dare to take down Shangbaisha for me?" Magistrate Lu finally revealed his true intentions, asking each word slowly and deliberately.

Sure enough, now it was Commander Ma's turn to be constipated...

"I'm almost retired..." The expression on Magistrate Lu's face yesterday shifted to Commander Ma's face.

"Besides, I don't have enough people."

“Aren’t there still three hundred people from the Su family?” Magistrate Lu asked.

“They are military households, but not all of them are soldiers. I have to ask them.” Commander Ma finally found a way to back down. “If they do it, I will. If they don’t, I will return one thousand taels to you.”

"Okay, give me a reply as soon as possible." Magistrate Lu nodded in agreement.

(End of this chapter)