There were no drums, no neat sounds of force, and not even a court hall symbolizing the majesty of the government. Sun Tu just found a fairly spacious hall in the Imperial City Department to start this important case. interrogation.
Qin Hui, as a person who had recently surrendered to Sun Tu, was involved in the whole process this time. What made him feel a little strange was that the person Sun Tu immediately interrogated was neither the Gu family and his son, the key criminals involved in the case, nor the high-status officials, but the businessman who called himself Li Dexian. At the same time, he was still in the corner of the hall. The screen seemed to be covering something inside.
When Li Dexian was brought into the hall, Sun Tu stared at him closely for a long time and asked in a low voice: "Who are you? At this point, you should know very well how serious your sins are. Those shouting There is no need to say anything about your grievances, and don’t try to deceive me with those false claims. If you don’t want to suffer more, I advise you to answer my questions truthfully.”
Although he was caught on the spot and imprisoned for another day after taking away the stolen goods, Li Dexian was still in good spirits. At this time, he could actually face Sun Tu with a smile: "Yue Hou, you have already said it." I understand, I have already predicted that I will die, do you think I will confess anything?"
"That's not up to you. I just checked. Although you don't have any family members in Tokyo, you do have an estate in Daming Mansion, as well as a wife and children. It doesn't matter whether you treat them as real relatives or just treat them as relatives. As a cover for your identity, that child is your flesh and blood after all. If you are really willing to die, I don’t mind letting two more people go down to accompany you."
"You..." This immediately grabbed Li Dexian's vitals, making his whole face distorted: "You are so vicious! They don't know my true identity or what I do outside. They are Innocent… "
"There may be innocent people in this world, but they are definitely not people who are closely related to you. Since they have covered up for you, whether intentional or not, they are unforgivable. If you want to save them, your only choice is to tell the truth about everything. Tell me who you are and how you got these prohibited items!" As Sun Tu said, he stood up and walked slowly to the criminal who was pushed to the ground, looking down at him. he.
Li Dexian was silent for a long time, and then he let out a long sigh: "Well, since everything has fallen into your hands, I can't make any other choice. Then let me tell you, I am a secret spy of the Xia Kingdom, and I am here..."
"It seems that you are really determined to see the Yellow River. At this time, you dare to deceive me with such lies!" Sun Tu immediately interrupted him and threw one of the letters to him with a wave of his hand. In front of him: "The words used here are clearly Khitan characters, and there are also related contents. How dare you say that you are a Xixia spy?"
Li Dexian's expression suddenly changed. He really didn't expect that Sun Tu would master such physical evidence so quickly, which made the rhetoric he had prepared completely useless. Sun Tu's voice sounded from his ears again: "I know what you are planning. You just planned to use these words to delay time, so as to buy some time for your accomplices to leave Tokyo. As long as they If you can escape safely, you will definitely get there before me
If you pick up the people from Daming Mansion first, you will have no worries. Am I right? "
Li Dexian's body was shaking violently, and his thoughts were completely under the control of the other party. This feeling of being seen through everything was really frightening and unsettling. And Sun Tu's words continued: "But what you don't know is that just after I found out your false identity yesterday, I sent people to Daming Mansion at night. Even if your people found out that something happened, Tokyo, I'm afraid it's too late. So there are only two choices before you now, either cooperate with me, or the whole family can bury you secretly together. But these two choices have one thing in common, that is, you are in My Bianjing conspiracy will definitely fail, and you can’t even think of anything!”
Qin Hui watched Sun Tu say so many words full of strong threats in a calm and peaceful tone, which made his heart feel cold, and a trace of cold sweat broke out on his back unconsciously.
If watching Sun Tu silence those censors before and finally capture them showed his strong side, what he showed at this moment was even more chilling and frightening. It's a conspiracy. In just a few words, he has completely grasped this enemy who seems to be determined to die and should not be afraid of any torture. For him, in fact, there is only the last option left, because this is the best for him. advantageous.
Sure enough, after another period of silence, Li Dexian finally spoke: "I... I am a Han citizen of the Liao Kingdom. I came to Bianjing to meet us on the orders of King Yelu of Nanyuan, and sent out the bows and crossbows they had obtained. From the Song Dynasty."
As soon as he opened his mouth, Sun Tu knew that his defense was broken, so he continued to ask: "So, it must be that you rely on your identity as a Han citizen to travel between the two countries smoothly, and take this opportunity to meet with the Gu family." Is there a relationship with the trading company?"
"Exactly."
"You have transported a lot of grain and rice northward through Gu's Trading Company before. Is this happening?"
Li Dexian glanced at Sun Tu in surprise, but nodded. Sun Tu smiled and said, "This is the right match. The Gu family firm has definitely not done this once or twice. It's just that the problems with the things transported in the past were not as serious as this time. "Then in the past few years, the things that have been transported by your hands to How much food is there in the north? How did you send it safely out of Song Dynasty?"
Even Di Yingyang and Wei Chengnian were very concerned about this, because even they couldn't figure out how they could avoid these checkpoints and send things to Liao State when there were huge passes between the two countries.
"A few years ago, we bribed Zheng Zhe, a local general in Yanmen Pass, and through him, we bribed one of the defenders. Every half month, they are the ones guarding the gate, and we can take advantage of it It was easy to transport the grain out of the customs in the dark. However, they only thought that we were seeking huge profits and did not know that we sent the grain and other things to the Liao army... As for the specific number of grain, it should be more than 100,000 shi Come on..."
As soon as these words came out, even Sun Tu took a breath. This large amount of food actually fell into the hands of the Liao people from the Song Dynasty, and they passed through Yanmen Pass! What made him even more chilling was that a large part of the food came from the withheld military pay of the Imperial Army.
In other words, those people used their own hands to sell the grain that should have been distributed to the Forbidden Army to the Liao people. This method was several times more serious than capitalizing on the enemy.
Di Yingyang even cursed something in a low voice. He, who was always cheerful, turned pale at this time. He wished he could catch those corrupt officials and execute them on the spot. Even Qin Hui was stunned. He couldn't recover for a long time. His hands hanging by his sides were tightly clenched into fists. At this time, he was still a young official with a sense of justice.
After calming down and suppressing the anger in his heart, Sun Tucai continued to ask: "You collected the grain with the help of Gu's Trading Company, right?"
"It's precisely because Gu's Trading Company is well-known in Tokyo. It will be a lot less troublesome for them to come forward. In addition, we pay more, so we can purchase these grains in just one or two years."
"What about other things? After all, the Gu family is just a businessman. The most they can do is help you transport things to the north, but they can't help you get prohibited items such as bows and crossbows."
"This..." This question is the most critical. Even though Li Dexian's guard has been broken, he can't help but show hesitation. But under the intense gaze of Sun Tu, he couldn't hide it after all, and said hesitantly: "Actually, I don't know how they got these things, because every time I meet them, they have already obtained them. Every time I We all meet them at the Fan's Inn in the south of the city. If it's a small item, you can get it directly. If it's a bulky item like this time, you can go to the designated place to pick it up, mix it into the goods I have prepared, and send it out through Gu's Trading Company. Bianjing.”
Sun Tu looked at him until he finished speaking, then nodded: "After so many contacts, have they ever mentioned how they obtained those important objects?"
Having said so much, Li Dexian also felt like breaking the pot at this time, and immediately answered: "They did mention that they had recently targeted Li Langzhong from the Ministry of Industry, and they could obtain some Song Dynasty bows and crossbows through him. and related things. Shortly afterwards, I received this batch of crossbows... "
"Then do you know where they are hiding?" This is the most critical question.
But this time, Li Dexian could only shake his head: "To be safe, we actually don't have much contact with each other, let alone lead people to his residence. Even when we go to Fan's store, we don't dare to stay for a long time. After what happened, They will be separated."
Sun Tu was not too disappointed with this answer and nodded: "Very good. Your cooperation in this way shows that you are repentant. Then you can rest assured that your wife and children in Daming Mansion will be safe."
After taking this important criminal down, Di Yingyang couldn't bear it any longer: "Three... General, I think that the top priority now is not to continue to interrogate these criminals, but to find a way to capture the Liao people who are still outside." , otherwise, if we let them run away, the consequences would be huge."
Wei Chengnian also nodded: "Yes, the others can be interrogated later, but if those spies run away, they will never be caught again. And after a day, they should already know about it. If they don't find them, It’s really too late.”
Sun Tu smiled: "Although what you said is reasonable, the problem is, how can we find their whereabouts based only on these confessions?"