Shortly after dawn, almost all the civil and military officials from Jiangzhou, big and small, rushed to the government office and gathered in the hall of the magistrate's office. They all listened with different expressions as Sun Tu calmly and calmly told the "truth" about what happened last night. Tao Lai:
"I had fallen asleep last night, but in my dream I met a golden-armored god who warned me that there were thieves who were going to harm the army's grain warehouse and I suddenly woke up. Because I was uneasy, I called two brothers and went there with weapons. Granary to find out.
"We thought it was just a weird dream, but when we got near the granary, we actually saw three figures sneaking around in the warehouse and not knowing what they were doing. Just when a few of us wanted to go up and ask, they actually He set a fire and not only threw the fire sticks into the accounting room, he even wanted to set fire to the grain.
"I wouldn't sit back and watch them do such a thing, so I hurried forward to stop them. As a result, those few people felt guilty and turned around and ran away. After shouting to no avail, we shot them all with arrows, but we never thought of that. The leader is actually Qi Kun Qi Guan Gou..." At this point, Sun Tu even showed a trace of confusion on his face, truly showing his emotions.
In fact, all the officials present could guess that what he said was probably false. There is no golden-armored god in the world who can warn people. He must have expected that Qi Kun would set fire to the evidence when he was desperate. Only then would they ambush outside the granary and take advantage of the opportunity to strike. However, no one, including Cai Dezhang, could point this out, because then things would become more and more complicated.
In the past two days, the issue of military ration fraud has been widely known in Jiangzhou officialdom. Many people have vested interests and are all guilty. How dare they jump out at this time to fight for the death of someone who is already dead and destined to die? Do you want Qi Kun, who is taking the blame, to speak? So they rushed over immediately because the most important thing was to save their own home.
Cai Dezhang looked at Sun Tu with complicated eyes. Only then did he realize that he still underestimated the courage and means of this young man. This time, even he had fallen into the scheme of this subordinate military attache.
He still clearly remembered that a few days ago, when Sun Tu found out the inside story of the granary scandal, many state and city officials came to intercede with him. After putting pressure on him, Sun Tu said this: "The prefect forgives me, but in fact, I did not pursue this matter." I don’t want to offend all the officials in the city just because of this trivial matter."
"But now that the matter has come to this, you have offended everyone, can you still escape at this time?" Cai Dezhang said with a gloomy face. This time, he was also under great pressure. Those officials were all under his control. I have worked hard to win over and make friends with the people in charge of the state, and I don't want anything to happen to them.
Sun Tu was not panicked by this, and continued: "The official is doing all this just to make those rural soldiers believe that I am determined to get justice for them. As for whether they can get all the food back, they should not I would be too concerned about it. So I think there is still room for remediation in this matter."
"But what room is there?"
"The only things he is worried about now are those account books. If Qi Kun sets a fire and burns all these account books, there will be no evidence to conclude that someone embezzled military rations. At most, he will be convicted of negligence, or even just Once the charges are slapped on the heads of some of the people below, they will no longer have any worries."
Sun Tu's idea immediately awoke Cai Jiu, because officials in the Song Dynasty really did this kind of thing frequently. Relying on the fact that the Song Dynasty court always followed the ancestral precept not to kill scholar-bureaucrats,
There have been many greedy officials for hundreds of years, and when their greed became bigger and bigger and they could no longer hide it, these people would often set fire to the relevant evidence themselves before the imperial commissioners sent by the imperial court arrived to investigate the case. With such deaths without any evidence, even the court could only give them a lighter sentence, but could not really convict them of serious crimes.
It was precisely because he knew that such methods were artificial and saw that Sun Tu was sincere and trustworthy that Cai Jiufang accepted this proposal and secretly mentioned Qi Kun through the article "The Story of Yueyang Tower" and instigated him to set fire to destroy the account books and so on. Relevant evidence will never cause future troubles.
But who would have thought that this was actually a trap set by Sun Tu early in the morning. Qi Kun, who set the fire, died under his arrow. Moreover, the crime was even more serious. Not only was he caught on the spot and destroyed the evidence, but he also burned an extra piece of military rations. It was a serious crime, and now no one could exonerate him.
Cai Jiu was naturally very angry about Sun Tu's practice of keeping him in the dark and even pushing Qi Kun to death through his own words, but at this time he couldn't get angry and just looked at Sun Tu with an unkind expression. : "Sun Tuanlian, although what you said makes some sense, the truth cannot be determined by just relying on your family's words."
"I understand." Sun Tu did not panic at all because of these unkind words, and said with a solemn expression: "But I think people may lie, but the evidence will definitely not."
"What is your so-called evidence?"
"It has long been known why Qi Kun set the fire. As a granary manager, his actions of deducting and even embezzling military rations for personal gain have been found out by his subordinates through the accounts, so he thought of setting the fire once and for all. But although he could burn these account books, he It is impossible to hide one's property. So as long as the prefect sends someone to search his house, he will definitely be convicted!"
Before Prefect Cai could react, Yuan Wang on the side had already spoken: "Prefect, I think what Sun Tuanlian said is reasonable. As long as Qi Kun is found to be guilty of corruption, he will be at the end of his crime." It is understandable that he would take the risk and set fire to the account books when he was exposed. Because in this way, even if the court sends people to conduct a rigorous investigation, they may not be able to find out the fraud..." When he said the last sentence, he also deliberately said He glanced at the other officials present.
These Jiangzhou officials, who were already on tenterhooks, suddenly understood. They knew that Yuan Tuiguan meant to pin all the charges on a small ninth-grade official, Guan Guan. When someone agreed, they said, "Prefect, I am a low-ranking official." I also thought it was necessary to search Qi Kun’s house to distinguish right from wrong.”
Then everyone nodded and followed: "I second the proposal..."
Cai Jiu still didn't know what these people were up to. This made him look at Sun Tu again. This young man was really thoughtful. He actually thought of such a way to get the best of both worlds. He could not only find out the case, but also It can also ensure that other officials are not implicated. Naturally, he didn't care too much about sacrificing a ninth-grade official, so he immediately said: "In that case, let's send someone to Qi Kun's house to check it carefully. I want to take a look at him." How much money and food from the people, money and food from the army has the Ninth Grade Guan Gou embezzled in these years!"
Until Governor Cai issued this order, the last doubt in Sun Tu's heart was completely dissipated, and he took the opportunity to speak: "I have one more thing to report to the Governor. Since this year, the granary has owed the soldiers three months of food, so If his crime can really be found out, I hope the prefect can allocate the money and food he owes to the military camp as soon as possible to reassure the soldiers.
It is also a good way for the soldiers and people in the city to appreciate the prefect's strictness and kindness. "In fact, in the final analysis, this is the result that Sun Tu really wants to achieve after all his busy days.
Cai Jiu took another deep look at him, and then said: "As long as we can really get the money and food he embezzled from Qi Kun's house, I will make the decision for those rural soldiers."
"I have thanked the prefect on behalf of all the country soldiers." Sun Tu hurriedly thanked him again. He knew that the matter was done, and he could finally give a satisfactory explanation to the hundreds of country soldiers under his command.
The search of Qi's house was carried out quickly. If you didn't know this, it really shocked many people.
Although Qi Kun is just a small ninth-grade official who is only in charge of a few warehouses of military supplies and weapons, it seems that he does not have much power, but with the joint "efforts" of his three generations, he actually managed to get corrupted in this position. Hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent.
The Qi family seemed inconspicuous, but as soon as they entered the gate, they discovered that there was something special inside. He had actually bought all the surrounding houses, and then opened them up and turned them into a huge house no faster than Cai Jiu, the prefect's mansion. Among them, there are as many as ten wives and concubines, and as many as forty or fifty servants, and they are all domestic slaves who sold themselves to support the family.
When the officers and soldiers who were ordered to search the Qi family forcibly opened several separate warehouses, they found that there were thousands of cans of food alone. As for the gold, silver, money, house deeds, etc., they only made a rough estimate. It's no less than half a million yuan, which is almost as much as the amount of money and food in Jiangzhou's warehouse.
Seeing the officers and soldiers pulling out the grain and gold and silver one by one, the people in the city were stunned, and then they cursed Qi Kun for being greedy, and he really deserved to die.
Even Cai Jiu, after seeing the specific figures in the newspaper, was stunned for a long time, and then burst out a sentence from between his teeth: "Such a giant beetle in this country should really be killed. No wonder he found it in Sun Tu After being exposed, he will recklessly set fire to it. It is not an exaggeration to kill his whole family for such a crime!"
Subsequently, Cai Jiu, in a rage, ordered Qi Kun's body to be exposed for three days as a warning to others. At the same time, everyone in his family was convicted. The men were all sent to the army, and the women were sent directly to the local prison. Fang Si Zhong. As for the money confiscated from the Qi family, apart from part of it being sent to Sun Tu's military camp to offset the previous military food and salary owed, the rest was also put into the state government's treasury. As for where the money and food will be used, it is not something ordinary people can know.
When the final results of the Qi family reached Sun Tu's ears, he was really surprised. It was not that he felt sorry for the Qi family's end. Although they may be innocent, they gained far more than ordinary people because of Qi Kun. Once the enjoyment of wealth begins, innocence no longer matters. After all, everything has a price.
What really surprised him was that a mere ninth-grade miscellaneous official in Jiangzhou City had accumulated hundreds of thousands of property just by relying on the management of three generations of his ancestors. This shows how far the officialdom of the Song Dynasty now exists. It is a serious problem. It is not an exaggeration to say that one is terminally ill.
At a time when half of the people in the world were still suffering from hunger and cold, and when so many soldiers were struggling for the money and food they deserved, those officials who held power were already very fat. If a ninth-grade miscellaneous official is like this, what about the senior officials in the court
However, Sun Tu did not dwell too much on such matters after all, because now he had more important tasks to deal with!