Chapter 108 Drawing Silk and Peeling the cocoon

"Your Highness is wise. It seems that this flood disaster is not only a natural disaster, but also a human disaster. Qin Mubai said, "Among these layers of fog and many end points, the most incomprehensible are three points. The first is the death of Zhu Chengwen, the second is the food problem, and the third is where the flood went."

"Not bad." Li Ke said, "Let's solve it one by one, but we can only do it secretly. Therefore, in the next few days, I will continue to fight floods and relief with Cheng Songnian, Ma Kun and others to appease the victims. You can secretly investigate these things. I suspect that there must be some shocking secrets in it!"

"Okay, I'll check!"

That night, Qin Mubai secretly ordered several elite pawns to find the body of the county magistrate Zhu Chengwen and check it carefully. Cheng Songnian and others said that Zhu Chengwen committed suicide in his home. He is from the south. He has just been appointed as the county magistrate of Jishan County for less than half a year. He is an official alone and lives alone in the county government office. After he committed suicide, he also left a suicide note of guilt.

Qin Mubai looked at the body. It was indeed a strangulation mark on the neck and a fracture of the bruised neck bone. On the surface, it seemed that the hanging beam committed suicide. However, the congestion on his face was not serious, and Qin Mubai found that there were dead blood spots between his lips and nose, and there was also blood stasis in his nose.

Qin Mubai's heart lit up - obviously, Zhu Chengwen had been covered and suffocated before hanging the beam! After his death, he hung his body on the beam and made a suspense.

Qin Mubai looked at the suicide note again, which was indeed very similar to the handwriting left by Zhu Chengwen. The words of the last letter were heartbroken, and he kissed the sinner who was extremely guilty of the emperor's kindness. However, this stroke is extremely neat, and it is obvious that the writer is not excited at all.

May I ask, a person who is about to commit suicide knows that his mentality may be so stable?

There is no doubt that the suicide note was forged, and Zhu Chengwen was killed by him!

Who is the most suspicious? Why did you kill Zhu Chengwen?

Qin Mubai thought about this problem repeatedly. Thinking of what the emperor said, he allocated 50 million yuan to build the Jishan embankment. Ma Kun and others threw grain into the flood to build the embankment, and then denied plundering people's food - in his heart, he couldn't help but raise such a hypothesis and inference.

Suppose that the previous court allocated funds to build a flood control embankment, but part of the money was embezzled by cutting corners, resulting in the flood control levee not strong enough, leading to this flood disaster in late summer and early autumn. Then, the court will definitely send someone to investigate.

The first object of this investigation is Zhu Chengwen, the magistrate of Jishan County. He must be an insider. So he was silenced.

Then, it can only be traced according to the whereof of this payment. Then, Jiangzhou can use grain to talk about things - the food put into the flood peak is all money! From this, they can infer that Jiangzhou is actually quite well prepared for flood control. The 5,000 stone grain invested in the flood is worth 10 million yuan!

In addition, the lake embankment has been broken, and the previous construction traces are nowhere to be checked. Zhu Chengwen, the county magistrate of Jishan County, who knows the inside story, has committed suicide... Well, even if the court suspects that someone is embezzled from it, it can completely pour this basin of dirty water on the dead Zhu Chengwen!

What's more, he has a corrupt "former criminal record", which means that the people and the assassin's bosses have sued him for forcibly driving away the people, intending to seize the opportunity to steal their property and food to make a fortune in the national disaster.

It's really a seamless death without proof!

Thinking of all this, Qin Mubai couldn't help laughing secretly: If people pass the sound and the geese leave traces, how can there be no clues left? There is no doubt that this sudden flood scared some corrupt officials and exposed their fox tails. So they panicked and hurriedly looked for a loan to cover it up. Whether Zhu Chengwen is a clean official or a corrupt official, there is no doubt that he was killed. Then, there must be a lot of articles in this "disappearing" flood. It is indispensable to wash up somewhere else, and then build a dam and then throw food. And the rations lost by the army were looted back from the people who were forced to move to fill the vacancy.

One after another, this small Hongfeng rushed to a place, and the less vacancy left by the corruption of the corrupt official group. This dam is built back and forth. Anyway, it is the money and food of the people who consume it, and it is only ordinary government soldiers and soldiers who suffer hardships and kill themselves. Then, they can also report the disaster losses to the court and request funds for disaster relief and reconstruction of their homes. Again and again, those greedy worms in the world are just like usurers, hiding in the dark and making inhuman national disaster. Finally, they may be rewarded by the imperial court for their disaster relief!

If there really is such a person in the world... then it's really a crime!

"It seems that no matter what era it is, there are always some ignorant bureaucrats with a conscience like animals, drinking human blood and eating human flesh, and enriching their own pockets to break the unscrupulous wealth of their children and grandchildren!" The more Qin Mubai thought about it, the more angry he became, and a fire in his heart ignited.

If my inference is correct, then this case is really a rare officialdom scandal and shocking case in the Zhenguan Dynasty!

In the reign of Zhenguan, Emperor Li Shimin paid the most attention to thrift and integrity, and took responsibility to practice economy. The overall atmosphere of the officialdom is also very good. Although things like "no greed in the world" are a little idealistic, the official atmosphere of the Zhenguan Dynasty and the sense of mission and responsibility of officials are commendable. From the prime minister to the nine-level officials, it is extremely common for people like Wei Zheng who are extremely popular but have a poor family. Moreover, this is by no means a simple show. thrift and integrity have almost become the prevailing atmosphere in the officialdom of the Zhenguan Dynasty. Just like many other times, the thought of someone being an official makes people think that there must be rich in this family.

The current situation is that when you see officials, especially senior officials, most of them are poor. If any official and eunuch has a lot of money, it is still a shameful thing. Therefore, the officials of the Tang Dynasty generally look down on merchants and think that they only know how to pursue profits and do not value their names.

But there is no absolute thing in the world. Although the overall atmosphere is so good, it is inevitable that there are some evil horses. The more Qin Mubai thought about it, the clearer it became. This flood disaster was not only the embankment, but also some huge greedy people rushed out of the water.

It's very simple to make your guess. However, Qin Mubai was not in a hurry to attack for the time being, because the top priority was still to fight against disasters and comfort the people, so he was not in a hurry to tell Li Ke about these inferences, because there is still no evidence at present. Don't mislead him.

In the next few days, Qin Mubai assisted Li Ke and led Cheng Songnian, Ma Kun and others to strengthen the embankment and settle the disaster victims. Countless money, grain tents, cattle, sheep, livestock, seeds and mulberry weaving and other things were continuously transported from all directions under the allocation of the imperial court. A group of disaster victims who ran away from Jishan County also came back and settled down for the time being. Then Li Ke and others will start to help them rebuild their homes and restore Nongsang.

At this time, Qin Mubai secretly inquired and found another clue. After the last flood washed the county seat of Jishan County, the flood peak was blocked, and a large number of floods washed into the mountains and rivers. The nearby Jiang County immediately warned of the flood. In an instant, the river embankment over there collapsed. Another five or six thousand stones of grain were thrown into the flood. If it is concocted, more than ten thousand stones of military grain have disappeared!

At the same time, Qin Mubai went to the dike to check the grain bags used to throw flooding, and found that most of them were filled with Chen Mi, which were even moldy, which was more than several times cheaper than the superior white rice used by the Tang army! The price difference of more than 10,000 stones of rice alone is enough for many officials to make a full profit.

It's really like this.

Corrupt officials first embezzled the flood control money allocated by the imperial court, and then used these many methods to fill the gap. In addition, Zhu Chengwen is dead, the flood dike has been broken, and there is no proof of death. Even if the court wants to track down corrupt officials, any dirty water can be spilled on Zhu Chengwen's body, making him a dead man.

What a poison!

In the next few days, Qin Mubai dressed up and walked to the disaster victims and secretly heard them say how Zhu Chengwen was doing. The victims generally reported that although Zhu Chengwen had been in office for less than a year and had nothing very prominent in his political achievements, he had never done any major bad deeds. It's not a very good official, but at least it's not a corrupt official. Because he has been in Jishan County for half a year, he didn't even take over his wife and children. Because he was afraid that his salary would not be supported, he asked them to be filial to his parents while farming at home. He is usually very thrifty. Occasionally, he only spends spare money to buy books, and never spends money on making friends.

And Qin Mubai also heard a government official of the former county government office talk about one thing. It was last year that Zhu Chengwen repeatedly wrote to the state government to allocate funds to build a flood control embankment. The state government has never responded. One day, Zhu Chengwen was anxious and ran to the state government office in person. As a result, he was furious when he came back. For the first time, he was drunk and locked himself in the room and scolded. Later, there were rumors that Zhu Chengwen openly contradicted the official, and I'm afraid this official will not last long.

Zhu Chengwen is a little bit of a book business, even if he is a book siciator. Qipin County Magistrate, the state government has the right to appoint and remove personnel, which can only be approved by the Ministry of Public Affairs after the event. However, the following article of the Assassin House refused his resignation, and the official personally persuaded him to be an official and not to be righteous. Regarding the construction of the flood control dam, because the huge amount of money is unable to allocate, it has already been reported to the court to wait for good news.

Soon after, the court really allocated funds, and the flood control dam did start construction. But in less than three months, the flood broke out. As soon as the flood broke out, Zhu Chengwen showed the county magistrate's list, claiming that there was a bigger flood peak, which forced the people of the whole city to flee immediately. Then he committed suicide by himself.

Combining all this he heard and seeing, Qin Mubai secretly knew in his heart that Zhu Chengwen must have a great connection with the corrupt official group. Either he is an insider of a strong struggle or one of the participants. The people of the whole city were ordered to migrate just to let the army take advantage of the chaos to seize their food and property to fill the huge vacancy left by corruption. It is doubtful whether this order is really given by him. If you can falsify his suicide note, can't you forge a county magistrate's public notice?

At the same time, Zhu Chengwen, the dead man, is also the best substitute sheep. In the end, the corrupt officials can't deny it. They will definitely say that money is this Zhu Chengwen's greed.

"How can this man be more vicious than the flood and beast?" Qin Mubai is now both cold and angry.