Three days after Du Zhongxiao reported to the state, Liu Ji arrived in Yongcheng.

With the officials in the inspection village to welcome Liu Ji into his official hall, Du Zhongxiao saluted: "The sentence is hard." How did it happen so suddenly? didn't inform me in advance, and the lower officials were not prepared at all. ”

Liu Ji smiled bitterly and shook his head: "Your letter was delivered to the state a few days ago, which scared both Zhizhou and me. With such a serious case, how dare you ignore it? The Mameng case involved a number of lawsuits involving human lives, and many public officials were involved, so it was destined to be a big case. The state has quickly reported to Luzhou, and the transfer envoy is in charge of the state's trial, and Suzhou next door has sent an official to help. ”

Huainan Road transfer envoy Si Ben is in Chuzhou, because the site is too large and inconvenient to inspect, another member is set up in Luzhou during the Ming Dao period. Bozhou is located in the west of Huainan Road and is under the jurisdiction of the Luzhou Transshipment Mission. At this time, the transfer envoy was Wang Su, who had just arrived and encountered this big case.

Hearing this, Du Zhongxiao let out a sigh of relief. To be honest, if this case is all handed over to me, the pressure will be really greater, and it will naturally be better for Liu Ji to handle it. Anyway, at this point, Du Zhongxiao's credit has been firmly grasped in his hands.

Sitting down and having tea, Liu Ji said: "In a few days, Zheng Shenjun of the Minister's Yuan will come here with people, and the trial mainly depends on them." The others are checking and filling in the gaps and coming up with some ideas. ”

Du Zhongxiao nodded yes. At this point, Ma Meng's case entered the formal trial procedure and was handed over to Zheng Peng, the manager. Because there were too many people involved in the case, Du Zhongxiao represented the embassy as a magistrate, and with the general sentence of Liu Ji, the small case was directly broken here.

After drinking tea for a while, Du Zhongxiao said: "General judgment, according to the confession asked now, a few years ago, it was Ma Meng who swallowed the medicinal materials of Tao Seventeen's family, and instructed Lu Yuhou to rob money and kill people, Tao Seventeen avenged his father. Nian Tao is seventeen years old, and I don't know—"

Liu Ji waved his hand: "I have discussed this matter with Zhizhou, Tao Seventeen's mother Tan Erniang is dead, and it is a bit unkind to behead Tao Seventeen again." It's just that the law of the country is ruthless, and the state has already decided the case, so it's not good to let him go. This case has been reported to the imperial court, and the imperial court will decide it. ”

In the final analysis, whether people should be killed or not is up to Dali Temple to decide, and there is no way in the state. Either the emperor will issue an edict and directly pardon Tao XVII's capital crime. Overturning the death sentence on the grounds of revenge for his father is regarded as a prison sentence in the Spring and Autumn Period, depending on the thoughts of the ministers of the DPRK and China.

Tan Erniang died at the gate of the state government, and the people talked about it, and the 17th Committee of Tao couldn't do it. However, because the case has been decided, unless it is retried, Tao 17 will still be unable to escape death. The Bozhou officials didn't want to bear the infamy, so they pushed the matter to the imperial court, and locked up Tao Seventeen just not to kill. If it weren't for Tao Qiqi's murder on the street, the human and material evidence was conclusive, and the nature was too bad, Han Yi would have ordered a retrial.

This matter is a piece of Du Zhongxiao's heart. Tan Erniang went to the state city from herself, and Tao Qiqi killed people in front of him, he always felt that the child should not end his life like this.

Du Zhongxiao Ma Meng committed an important case with Liu Ji, and said: "The most troublesome thing now is that there are many cases involving Yongcheng officials, and once the matter spreads, I don't know what will happen." Now I lock people up in the inspection village and strictly prohibit the leakage of information. But when someone comes to the state, I'm afraid it will be difficult to hide it. This is not a trivial matter, and the general judgment should be arranged as soon as possible. ”

Liu Ji sneered: "It's not so new for the cunning officials to control local affairs. As long as the evidence is conclusive and the yamen dares to make a heavy hand, will they still dare to rebel? Instructed the owner of the village to transfer all the soldiers in the village back and respond at any time. Also, I will inform the envoys who patrol the river to arrange some men and horses near Yongcheng to prevent the danger of bandits from the rivers and lakes. ”

Hearing that Liu had made arrangements earlier, Du Zhongxiao breathed a sigh of relief in his heart. He remembered the story of the Water Margin in his previous life, who knows if there is a group of people like Liangshan nearby, and if there is a Song Abbot in Yongcheng? I traveled through the millennium, who to reason with when I encountered such an unfortunate thing? These days, he not only asked He Kun, the owner of the village, to withdraw most of the patrol box army, but also the people who cultivated the fields were also strictly organized and responded to at any time.

The Bianhe River is busy, and there are envoys who patrol the river to maintain order in peacetime, and there are certain troops. Now that winter is about to begin, the number of boats has decreased, and the envoys patrolling the river in the nearby river section want to bring people to spend the winter near Yongcheng, which is just enough to use.

After chatting about business, Liu sighed: "Alas, when you entered the department at a young age, Chu Shi encountered this kind of big case. Until now, everything has been handled in an orderly and organized manner, which is extremely difficult. After this case is handled, you are the first to take credit. ”

Du Zhongxiao said in his heart, if it weren't for the coincidence that Tao Qiqi killed people on the street in front of him, he left a good impression on himself, and he would not have put so much effort into handling such a case. Ma Meng is hateful, but because of this case, he spent too much money, and even dragged down the progress of the most important land reclamation. Of course, if Tao XVII's life can be saved in the end, everything will be worth it.

After chatting with Du Zhongxiao for a while, Liu Ji said: "A few days ago, Chen Zhoutong sentenced Han Jiang to send a machine to Zhoucheng, saying that he wanted to give you a detailed reference. I came in a hurry and didn't bring it, so in a few days, you can send some people to the state city to transport them here. ”

Du Zhongxiao knew that Liu Ji was talking about Han Jiang's newly made steam engine, and he went to Chenzhou to make a general judgment, and he never let go of the improvement of this machine. On the contrary, because of the Mameng case, he almost forgot about it. Now that Ma Meng's case is over, Du Zhongxiao can take a break and really do what he likes. Reclaiming fields and developing machines is what Du Zhongxiao is good at.

Liu Ji went back to rest, and specially told Du Zhongxiao and others not to spread the news of his arrival in Yongcheng when the time came, and everything should be said when the manager joined the army, Zheng Peng and others. There are too many people involved in this case, and it is still necessary to prevent accidents at the county office.

After sending Liu Ji away, Du Zhongxiao immediately found He Kun and Jin Shuzhao and said to them: "Send some people these days to pay attention to the movements in Yongcheng County." Although there is not much contact with the county government in the inspection village, there are always people in the village who are familiar with the public officials over there, and even collude. We thought that we had done a perfect job here, and maybe the well-informed officials would have gotten the news. Also, Kong Mu went to the county government and told Gu Zhixian about our affairs here in detail. Be careful not to make a noise, just let out the news, no matter what is found in the Ma Meng case and which officials are involved, they will only do the first evil, and will never make a big splash. At the end of the day, be careful not to have any accidents. ”

Jin Shu summoned fork hands to answer the promise. He himself is a public official, and he knows that many of his peers have great powers and are well-informed. So many people in Ma Meng's family have been arrested here, and they have been locked up for many days, how can the officials in the county sit idly by? It's just that now except for a few people, I don't know what cases Ma Meng and these people have pulled out. Once there is a rumor that comes out, the public officials involved will always run away without saying that they will kill officials and rebel.

Most of the public officials are from large local families, and their relationships in the local area are complicated, and Du Zhongxiao has some bogeys. So here Chamamon, he doesn't care about the officials of the yamen, and if someone runs away, he runs away. It's better to catch them after running away than to push people into a desperate situation and something unpredictable happens.

Because of the capture of a Ma Meng and the stirring of the city, Yongcheng County at this time was already covered with dark clouds, and major events would happen at any time.