Qingyuan Mountain was originally called Qiyun Mountain.

Legend has it that Lao Tzu once cultivated in this mountain, there was a boulder on the mountain and he had a fate, and over time, Lao Tzu's figure was gradually imprinted on it, and became the incarnation of Lao Tzu's body.

Later, Lao Tzu sent a letter to Guguan to become an immortal, and then turned back to Qiyun Mountain, and his soul turned into that boulder, which is the famous Laojun Rock.

Since then, Qiyun Mountain has been renamed Qingyuan Mountain, which means "the source of the three clears".

Regardless of whether the legend is true or not, because the people are convinced of this legend, the Taoist temple on the mountain is very powerful, and the momentum of the monk temple is far behind.

Naturally, the Lotus Temple does not occupy any good place, just halfway up the mountain.

Just after noon, Cui Geng and Liu Youqiu came to the Lotus Temple with a group of officials.

Sure enough, although the incense in this temple has improved in recent years, both the Daxiong Treasure Book and the various houses are dilapidated.

Liu Youqiu gave an order and summoned the monks to the Daxiong Treasure Hall. There are a total of twenty-seven adult monks and six small novices, including the little monk Huiming.

The official who took the lead introduced the identities of Liu Youqiu and Cui Geng to the monks of Lotus Temple.

"Okay, Cui Yushi, let's get to the point quickly!" Liu Youqiu urged.

"Well, this official asks you!"

Cui Geng coughed lightly, glanced at the monks, and asked, "Since a pilgrim gave this hundred taels of gold, who among you has kept it?" ”

Zhiyuan, the presiding officer of the Lotus Temple, pronounced a Buddha name and replied respectfully: "That good believer was donated twenty years ago, and the steward is replaced once a year. Therefore, excluding Zhigang, there are a total of nineteen people who have kept this ingot of gold. This gold brick is rare on weekdays, and the poor monk is particularly impressed, and he definitely can't fake it. ”

"Oh? Is it? Cui Geng stared at Zhiyuan's eyes and asked word by word: "According to this, the great monk, have you also seen this ingot of big gold bricks?" ”

Zhiyuan's eyes flickered slightly and returned to normal, and he replied, "Exactly, what Cui Yushi said is good." ”

Cui Geng observed his words and looks, and became more convinced of his previous judgment, and said meaningfully: "Has the great monk ever said this, people die for money, birds die for food?" This official emphasizes the last time, false accusation and reverse, you have time to regret it now! ”

This sentence is full of tendencies, and Monk Zhiyuan's heart tightened, and he replied without being soft or hard: "Cui Yushi's lesson is that he thinks that Zhigang made Zhizhi faint, stole the gold in the temple and squandered it, and he was about to be sentenced to death. ”

"You...... Good! Dare to play sloppy with this official! Cui Geng slapped a few cases and shouted, "What about the others? All stick to the original confession? ”

Zhiyuan was hard topped, and all the monks had the backbone, and they all said that their previous confessions were not wrong, and if they were falsely accused, they were willing to bear the crime of reversing.

Cui Geng's eyes swept over the faces of the monks, and he said angrily: "This official sees that you don't shed tears if you don't see the coffin, and you won't die until you don't see the Yellow River." Do you really think that this official can't do anything about you? ”

Seeing that Cui Geng was difficult to ride a tiger, Liu Youqiu reminded in a low voice: "Now the influence of the Lotus Temple is not small, if there is no evidence, it will be inappropriate to punish him in vain." ”

"Punishment?" Cui Geng smiled bitterly and said, "Who said that he was going to be punished?" This official has a way, without using any torture tools, the truth can be revealed. I'm worried about how to end up when the truth is revealed. Could it be that he really cut off the heads of nineteen monks at once? If this is the case, spreading to other counties, it will inevitably cause an uproar~ waves! ”

There is one thing that is very bad about feudal society, that is, it pays too much attention to litigation.

At the imperial court, it was proud that there were few prisoners executed in a certain year, and it was even proudly recorded in the history books. If there are no prisoners in the prison of the Criminal Department on a certain day, they can be reported as auspicious.

As for the evaluation of officials, it is also important to pay attention to the fact that there are few cases of litigation and few killings. Wurong County really cut off the heads of nineteen monks, and Liu Youqiu's official evaluation couldn't be better.

What people say is also reasonable, and the county order has the responsibility of educating the people. There are so many traitors under your Liu Youqiu's rule, can you say that you are not responsible?

Liu Youqiu had actually thought about this issue a long time ago, sighed, and said: "Heaven is especially evil, and people can't live if they do evil." If this is the case, then it is also a helpless thing, this official can't succumb to death for his own future, right? ”

This Lao Liu still has a sense of justice!

Cui Geng secretly nodded a thumbs up in his heart, and said with relief: "This imperial history must try his best to help Liu County Order complete this matter." ”

Then, the formal trial began.

He ordered the servants to be taken out by the monks' tents and quilts, and in the Daxiong Treasure Hall, they built a brief small shack with bamboo.

And he ordered all the monks who had seen the ingot of gold to sit in their huts, so that none of them could see anyone.

Liu Youqiu seemed to faintly grasp something, and said: "Cui Yushi means to interrogate them separately to see what flaws there are in their confessions?" ”

Cui Geng smiled slightly, shook his head and said, "Why bother interrogating? Soon these monks will stop recruiting themselves. ”

Don't admit yourself?

Liu Youqiu raised his eyebrows and asked with interest, "Sure enough?" Then the official will wait and see. ”

Cui Geng's next order is - and mud!

The officials found clean water, mixed a large pot of yellow mud, and then divided it into nineteen portions, and placed one in front of each monk.

Then, Cui Geng waved his hand and said, "Don't you all claim to have seen that ingot of gold weighing a hundred taels?" Well, everyone kneaded the yellow clay into the corresponding shape according to the way they remembered. You don't have to be exactly the same, you just have to pinch it almost. What do you think? This official's request is not too much, right? ”

If there really is such an ingot of gold, of course, it is not too much, but the question is...... Nope!

Nowadays, whether it is on the market or in the market, gold is mainly used as a luxury product, and its shape has no certain rules, there are round, square, flat, and more are all kinds of strange shapes.

I haven't discussed it beforehand, how can I pinch it almost the same? I'm afraid that the nineteen monks pinched it out, and it is a completely different nineteen shapes.

He said that he had seen the ingot of gold, who would believe it?

A thin monk saw the opportunity quickly, slammed out of the small shack, and shouted, "Boss! Cui Yushi, the little monk wants to take the lead, and the abbot instructed us to frame Zhigang. ”

Abbot Zhiyuan suddenly said angrily: "I commanded? Can you say that? It was clearly your idea, and the abbot had to agree to it. ”

With a bang, Zhiyuan knelt on the ground, kowtowed desperately, and said: "Cui Yushi Kaien, it's all the little monk who was confused for a while, and made this big mistake, you raise your noble hand and spare the little monk this experience, I won't dare to do it again." ”

At this point, the truth is revealed.

It turned out that these monks had money in their hands, not thinking about what to do, but planning to buy some wine and meat to eat, find a beautiful little lady to be happy and happy, and so on...... Splurge.

However, the ledger is there, and Zhigang is a dead brain, what if he doesn't agree?

So, the monks secretly discussed, framed him, and got rid of him.

I didn't expect Cui Gengqi to think of such a strange method as casting a model to solve the case and see through their tricks.

Of course, Cui Geng can't really insist on Liu Youqiu to act according to the law, after all, Zhigang didn't die, he was just beaten.

So, he muttered to Liu Youqiu, counting that these monks had changed their words and admitted to false accusations before being interrogated.

In this case, according to the law of the imperial court, the punishment can be reduced by two degrees, and there is no need to kill the head, and each person can be beaten with two hundred boards.

These two hundred boards are not so easy to boil, and the monks were beaten up crying and calling their mothers, and the skin was opened, and five or six of them were completely unconscious after a hundred boards.

Two hundred boards down, and there is no one who can even scream.

Of course, the officials are measured, and they won't really kill them, but they just can't get off the ground for half a year.

Then when Liu Youqiu returned to Putian, he released Monk Zhigang from prison and asked him to replace Monk Zhiyuan as the abbot of Lotus Temple, and the case was closed.

After this incident, Liu Youqiu was completely impressed by Cui Geng, and at first thought that this surnamed Cui was just a businessman and peddler who took shit luck, but now he understands that luck is only temporary, in the final analysis, there is a real chapter under his hands, and he has today's blessing.

Thinking of Cui Geng's method of judging the case in the Lotus Temple, he couldn't help but be curious: "If those monks had thought carefully and agreed on the shape of the gold in advance, how would Cui Yushi end today's matter?" ”

Cui Geng thought for a moment and said, "Then the whole thing is completely unproven, but it's not completely impossible." ”

"What's the solution?"

"Liu Xianzun, please come over, this method can be used when judging most cases, the less people know, the better the effect."

So mysterious?

Liu Youqiu listened carefully to Cui Geng's introduction, couldn't help but be convinced, and said: "Okay, Cui Yushi, this county really didn't know Mount Tai before, but I didn't expect Cui Yushi's method of judging the case to be perfected, no wonder it can be valued by Di Xiang!" However, your method can only be used in some irrelevant cases, or as an auxiliary in some serious cases, and it is difficult to convince the public to rely entirely on this method to judge cases. ”

Well? Liu Youqiu has something to say in this, is it possible......

Seeing that there was no one around, he asked in a low voice, "Liu County Order, could it be that you have encountered some suspicious case now?" ”

Liu Youqiu nodded and said: "There is indeed such a case, and I also ask Cui Yushi to help the county for details." ”