When Guo Pinchao wrote more than a dozen pages of confession, Song Zhen realized how naïve he was, and he thought that he had been able to catch fish with a broken net during the day, but he didn't expect that he was catching fish with a broken net, but he caught a few small shrimps, and all the real big fish ran away.

Su Jin flipped through the pages of the confession, pretended to carefully check the stack of false people's complaints, flicked the confession and asked, "Master Guo, are you sure that you have confessed everything?" ”

Guo Pinchao kowtowed and said: "One is also death, ten is also death, what is there to hide, I just ask the envoy and the lord of the mansion to read that I have also done some things for the people of Yangzhou, spare my family, what I have done, they don't know at all." ”

Su Jin said: "It's easy to say, you have affection, we have righteousness, your family really has nothing to do with this, and the disaster will not affect women and children, your business is naturally yours." It's just that the property and property of the family you took bribes will definitely be confiscated, and you don't want to keep the ill-gotten wealth for your children and grandchildren to enjoy. ”

Guo Pinchao said dejectedly: "That's natural, how can I have such a delusion, the wife and children in the family can live with a thin three-point life, it is the emperor's grace." ”

Su Jin said: "If you could have had this enlightenment earlier, why did you end up where you are today; This confession said that you gave two opposite orders that day, one time you ordered Lu Mang to take over the garrison, and the other time you ordered Lu Mang to lead troops to Nancheng to take over the defense, was it under the command of Feng Jingyao? You said that Feng Jingyao only said to you that he felt that the situation was not good, so he first transferred his family property and property out of the manor outside the city, did you not suspect it at that time? ”

Guo Pinchao said: "I do ...... There is speculation. However, it is only speculation, and there is no evidence, so it can no longer be stated in the confession. ”

Su Jindao: "What is your speculation? ”

Guo Pinchao said: "I think Feng Jingyao is not as simple as sending his family's small belongings out of the city, if so, why go out of the city in the middle of the night, the government does not prohibit people from going out, nor does it restrict his freedom, most likely he thinks that Lord Su will trouble him on one thing, and this matter is ...... Stockpiling grain. In order not to be caught with evidence, I privately guessed that I must have borrowed the road of Beicheng to transport the grain away and hide it. ”

Su Jin said: "Since you guessed this, why are you still willing to help him?" ”

Guo Pinchao said bitterly: "I was blinded by lard, and because of his narrow-mindedness, I naturally didn't dare to take care of his affairs." ”

Su Jin nodded and said, "It's that I'm asking too much, you are the pawn in his hands." Do you know where his grain goes? ”

Guo Pinchao shook his head again and again and said: "How do I know this, what the envoy said is right, as soon as he enters him, it is a doll controlled by him, and the longer it passes, the more he can't afford to resist; Moreover, this person's methods are vicious, not only controlling with beauty traps, but also constantly giving benefits, both grace and power, which is really difficult to resist; We don't have much contact on weekdays, but as long as he gives orders, if we don't do it, we will be ruined. ”

Su Jin snorted and said, "Can't get rid of it?" I'm afraid you don't want to get rid of it. ”

Guo Pinchao sighed: "It's not that no one has tried, two years ago, Song Miao, the secretary of the government cang, was also in his court, but Song Miao was unwilling to do this, and hired someone to steal his confession, but the confession was not stolen, and the person who went was arrested and confessed to Song Miao; So Feng Jingyao instructed the officials to impeach and dismiss Song Miao, Song Miao had told the whole thing, but everyone was unanimously regarded as a slander, and before he was escorted to the capital for review, he was strangled to death in prison, and finally committed suicide in fear of crime. After this incident, who would dare to move an idea? ”

Su Jin frowned and looked at Song Zhen and asked, "Two years ago?" Isn't the Lord already in office? ”

Song Zhen was surprised: "Song Miao didn't commit suicide in fear of sin? ”

Guo Pinchao said: "Lord Fuzun, how can there be such a thing? It was Lord Shen of the Criminal Division who let Feng Jingyao's minions go to prison and strangled him alive; At that time, you ordered Song Miao's case to be tried with full authority, and you naturally didn't know which part of the truth he said, and the file of the inquiry was subsequently destroyed. ”

Song Zhen said angrily: "You...... You are really lawless, at that time, when the government first came to Yangzhou to take up his post, he didn't know much about the situation, so he could only rely on you old subordinates, I didn't expect you to dare to deceive Shangguan Cao's life like this. ”

Guo Pinchao bowed his head and said silently, Su Jinxin said: I am confused and blame others, important officials under him committed crimes, and I actually ignored them, and I was embarrassed to say others, in the final analysis, I was stupid.

Su Jin flipped through his confession and said, "Then these murders and bloody cases were also suppressed by you?" Feng Jingyao's subordinates killed more than a dozen people in the city, and when they sued the government, you suppressed them due to lack of evidence and became a headless unsolved case, right? There were also several burglary robberies. The cases of robbery and intimidation were all settled by you for Feng Jingyao, right? ”

Feng Jingyao kowtowed and said, "Sinners deserve to die......"

Su Jin threw the confession in front of Song Zhen and said: "Lord Prefect, please verify and sort them out one by one, I don't want to take care of these things, except for this person, I suggest that you pass all the people through the court and retry them to ensure that you will have major discoveries." ”

Song Zhen said: "The government will definitely re-try the case, but won't the envoy Su come to help me?" ”

Su Jin said lightly: "The envoy is a special envoy for grain affairs, but now that the whereabouts of the grain are unknown, the envoy is anxious, how can I care about these things for you?" But the methods have already been handed over to you, and Lord Fuzun will not dislike these methods because they are not fair enough; However, the envoy reminded Lord Fuzun that there was such a big case, and the court would definitely have to review it, if it was so-so, you and I would not only have no merit but would also be dismissed as confused, so if the trial was not clear, it would be uncomfortable for yourself; I didn't sign the case file just now, because I didn't want to be scolded as a foolish official by the above, and the adults cherish their feathers more than the envoy, so they must be even more unwilling. ”

Song Zhen was speechless, looked at the croton bucket in the corner and the blank stack of empty complaints on the table, gritted his teeth and said: This time you must be ruthless, you don't have to worry about any reputation, these people are really difficult, and these poisonous methods seem to be extremely difficult to deal with without Su Zhuan.

……

Wang Dynasty Mahan followed Wang Wu and Li Hu on the dark country road and slowly walked north; In a year of great drought, even a heavy snowfall last month did not alleviate much; However, the wilderness field is quite conducive to walking, even if you guess between the ditches with one foot in the air, your shoes and socks will not be wet, but the frozen soil is hard, and the potholes are difficult to walk, which causes a lot of trouble for several people.

About half an hour later, the four of them went up to the official road, and walked another mile or two to the north, only to see a knee-high avenue of barren grass branching off from the official road, straight east to the dark unknown.

Li Hu stopped and said: "Poor master, this is the road to Lanruo Temple, no one has walked all year round, and it is already overgrown with wild grass. ”

Wang Chao said: "If the two of you commit a taboo, just wait here, and my brothers will go to check it out." ”

Li Hu said: "It's not taboo, I went with those carriages and horses last time, and there was nothing wrong, but it is said that it is really haunted there, it is better for me to lead the way, there are many people who are bold, and they can work together to resist any monster." ”

Wang Dynasty Mahan was furious by what they said, and couldn't help but take out the Pu knife in his hand, Li Hu and Wang Wu also took out their own firewood knives and held them in their hands, and after extinguishing the wind lantern, the four of them took advantage of the faint light of the sky to slowly touch forward along the barren and grassy avenue.

After walking for less than a stick of incense, a black building in the distance stood alone in the wilderness, surrounded by dozens of big trees standing bare, the wind whining, very weird.

The four of them sweated on their backs, and walked forward with a hard head, and when they touched the door of the courtyard of the broken temple, they saw that the courtyard door was ajar, the door was full of dead branches and yellow leaves, and the rustling sound of stepping on it penetrated people's hearts.

The four of them listened to the movement in the temple with bated breath, and there was silence in all directions, obviously the person who gathered to unload and drive the car that the crowd depicted by Li Hu was definitely gone.

Wang Dynasty made a gesture, stepped forward, stretched out his hand and gently pushed the temple door, and heard a piercing 'squeak' sound, where the door opened, suddenly there was a string of sounds from inside the door, and a black shadow suddenly rushed towards him.

The dynasty was cold and heartbroken, swung his knife and slashed up, pounced, and slashed right, and at the same time, the sky was scattered with black flocculents, falling straight towards the head and face of the dynasty; Wang Dynasty jumped behind him and shouted, "Evil Gate! Rewind. ”

Zhao Hu Wang Wu took the lead and ran wildly backwards, but Ma Han rushed forward to help, Wang Chao pulled Ma Han, and the two ran away.

After running for more than ten steps, he heard a fluttering sound behind him, which seemed to be the fluttering of the wings of chickens and ducks.

Wang Chao stopped and looked around, except for the heartbeat of himself and Ma Han, there was the whining of the treetops, and there was no terrifying ghost sound around, so he whispered to Ma Han: "It seems to be ...... hacked to death. ”

Mahan's head sweated and said, "What did you hack to death?" ”

Wang Chao said: "It doesn't seem to be a ghost, that thing can fly, and it can be cut by me in the air, if it is a ghost, how can it be easily cut by me." ”

Ma Han boldly said: "Let's go, let's see." ”

The two picked up the wind lantern dropped by Wang Wu and Li Hu, lit it tremblingly, and looked forward with fear, and when they arrived at the place where the black shadow was, they saw a monster lying in a pool of blood, with round eyes and an eagle-beaked vulture nose, which looked really scary.

"What the hell is this?" Mahan used his knife to flick at the dead unknown birds, and there was a large pool of steaming blood and black feathers on the ground.

Wang Wu and Li Hu cautiously stepped forward to take a look, and then they held their chests and breathed a long sigh of relief: "It turned out to be a night owl, but it scared us to death." ”

The night owl is the owl, the appearance is fierce and ugly, because it is all at night, ordinary people do not see it during the day, and the dynasty Mahan has never seen this thing, so naturally he does not know it.