Tang Dynasty: The seventh rank of official residence, and you will be given the Ten Thousand People

Cao Dian and Liao Yi came with a mission this time, so they worked extremely hard to loot the governor's mansion, not even sparing the brick walls and latrines, smashing them all and turning them over.

It's a pity that apart from Fan Xin's clothes and a few books, not even a penny was found.

"Brother Cao, something is wrong. The person named Fan is a fifth-grade official after all. Why is there not even a tael of silver in the bag?"

Liao Yi searched for a long time but didn't see anything valuable, so he sat on a chair with a depressed expression.

"Damn, this is really strange. This is the first time I have seen such a clean official in all these years. Could it be that he was transported to Wushui County?"

Cao Dian was also a little discouraged. He originally thought that he was sure of finding the stolen goods this time, but he didn't expect that there was not even a hair in the governor's office.

How could this make him go back to work?

Thinking of this, he rushed to the guard and said: "Go and call in Qin Sima who is left behind in the Governor's Mansion."

"Yes, Young Master."

Not long after the guard left, a thin man walked into the hall.

"I'm going to meet some of the imperial envoys!"

Cao Dian hummed with a straight face: "Qin Sima, you have helped the Shang Dynasty in many years during your tenure. According to the laws of the Tang Dynasty, the minimum penalty is three thousand miles."

"As long as you change your mind and confess Fan Xin's crime of corruption, I can spare your life, how about that?"

"This..." Qin Sima hesitated. He wanted to expose Fan Xin's corruption. After all, if the latter had not exposed the fake Zhao Wenhui, he would not have ended up like this.

But the key point is that Fan Xin is too clean. Apart from the clothes and books in the bag, there is not even a calligraphy and painting. How can he expose it?

As for the so-called gold, he didn't even dare to talk about it. Once the families of those fallen soldiers knew about it, they were not allowed to dig out their ancestral graves. How could the whole family live in the local area?

Seeing this, Cao Dian snorted heavily and stared.

"Say!"

Qin Sima trembled all over and said in a low voice: "Returning to the Holy Envoy, it's not that I don't want to say it, but Fan Xin is indeed as honest as water, and he has never been greedy for gold."

Hearing these words, Cao Dian almost lost his temper. He had already collected 20,000 taels of gold and still had the nerve to claim he was as honest as water. Did he really think they were easy to fool? "

Just when he was about to order someone to arrest Qin Sima, two subordinates rushed into the hall carrying a black box and said excitedly.

"Cao Shaoqing, I found it, I found it!"

"Haha, I just said that the gold can't escape!"

Cao Dian glanced at Qin Sima proudly and ordered someone to open the black box.

However, when they saw that there were only two sets of clothes in the box, they were all startled.

"Just a big iron box to hold two sets of clothes?"

Sensing the low morale, Liao Yi said with a smile: "Don't be discouraged. There is no gold in the governor's office. Maybe it was transported back to Wushui County by Fan Xin, or it was seized by the inner guards and Yushitai."

"With these two sets of clothes, we can also go back and do business."

"Oh, what do you mean, Brother Liao?" Cao Dian was surprised. He really couldn't figure out how the two sets of clothes had anything to do with the embezzlement case.

Under the gazes of Cao Dian and Lai Junchen, Liao Yi smiled slightly, walked to the box, picked up the clothes and said.

"You guys, you can see that the material of this dress is obviously from Jiangnan's finest silk. Whether it's the embroidery work or the pattern on it, only people of the royal family and prince level are qualified to wear it."

"The other two sets of clothes include shirts and underpants, but they are missing a cotton robe."

"How do you think Fan Xin, a small fifth-grade official, got these things?"

Looking at Liao Yi's meaningful smile, Cao Dian's eyes lit up and he said excitedly.

"Brother Liao, you mean these clothes were also bribes received by Fan Xin?"

"Not bad!" Liao Yi said confidently with his hands behind his back: "Based on my many years of experience in handling cases in the Ministry of Justice, Fan Xin's secret purchase of these royal costumes clearly means rebellion!"

Cao Dian was overjoyed when he heard this.

"Brother Liao still has a vicious vision. If we bring these two sets of clothes to Shangyang Palace, we may not even be convicted, and the Queen Mother will order Fan Xin to be executed!"

Looking at the two people who were stroking their beards and laughing, the monkey rushed towards Junchen and whispered.

"Come on, sir, are these two people sick? Aren't these sets of clothes given to Fan Xin by the Queen Mother? Should we remind them?"

Lai Junchen glanced at him and said coldly: "Our judicial council is only loyal to the Queen Mother. Others are enemies. Let them commit suicide."

After saying that, his expression changed and he walked forward with a smile.

"Congratulations to both of you, we finally got the handle on Fan Xin."

Unexpectedly, Cao Dian's expression turned serious.

"President Lai, what you said is wrong. The discovery of the evidence this time was the result of the joint cooperation between our Dali Temple and the Ministry of Punishment. What does it have to do with your Senate?"

Seeing the two people guarding the iron box with vigilant expressions, Lai Junchen laughed.

"Don't be nervous, you two. Lai has no intention of competing with you two for merit. Do we in the Judicial Council still need two sets of clothes if we want to make merit?"

"What I mean is that it's getting dark soon. Should we set off back to Luoyang as soon as possible to report the results of the case to the Queen Mother and the civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty?"

Seeing that Junchen was not here to grab credit, Cao Dian's expression softened a bit.

"That's all, the Queen Mother is still waiting in Luoyang, so we won't stay too long and will set off now!"

After ordering people to purchase some dry food and water, Lai Junchen and three others mounted their horses and led the guards to set off for Luoyang.

Before leaving, Cao Dian called a guard and handed him a letter covered with fire paint.

"You go back and tell Wu Shangshu and several ministers that our trip lived up to expectations and successfully found Fan Xin's death certificate."

"Let them wait in court for our good news."

"Yes, Cao Shaoqing!" The guard packed his fists, got on his horse and ran away.

At the same time, Wushui County.

"Master Censor, what are you talking about? Governor Fan embezzled 20,000 taels of gold?" Mr. Wu asked in disbelief.

Xiao Shude nodded expressionlessly: "The imperial court received a report that Fan Xin, the governor of Yingzhou, embezzled 20,000 taels of gold. It is very likely that it will be shipped back here."

"I hope you can open the way for the guards to go in and search, otherwise it will be treated as treason!"

Surprisingly, Mr. Wu was not angry, but led the people to get out of the way.

They believed that Fan Xin could not embezzle 20,000 taels of gold!

Xiao Shude didn't talk nonsense. He waved his hand and dozens of officers and soldiers rushed into the Fan family courtyard to search. During this period, there was the sound of smashing the walls and digging the floor.

I don’t know how long it took, but the officers and soldiers came out carrying tools and holding fists.

"Reporting to Xiao Yushi, Huang Ge Ling, after many rounds of searches by my subordinates, we only found twenty coins and a few pairs of straw sandals."

Xiao Shude raised his eyebrows and sat upright.

"What did you say? Two hundred thousand copper coins were found?"

The officer said awkwardly: "It's not 200,000 yuan, but 20 yuan. This is the only thing in the whole house that is still valuable."

Xiao Shude's eyes widened and he thought he heard wrongly.

A dignified fifth-rank official and a provincial official, only twenty coins were found. This is really shocking.

Even a Qingliu like him has a dozen concubines and tens of thousands of dollars in his family.

How could a governor be so cold?

"Huang Geling, what do you think we should do? We can't just take 20 cents and go back to do business, right?"

Huang Wenyan pondered for a moment and said, "Twenty cents is really outrageous."

Speaking of this, he pointed to the wooden monument in the courtyard and said: "This piece of nanmu is worth some money, so just take it back for business."

"That's all we can do." Xiao Shude smiled bitterly and ordered the officers and soldiers to dismantle the wooden monument and take it back to Luoyang.

Looking at the retreating figures of the team, several common people shouted angrily.

"It's too much. The imperial court actually took away the merit monument we erected for County Magistrate Fan. Is there any justice here?"

Mr. Wu's expression kept changing, and finally he paused and gritted his teeth.

"Call everyone, let's go to Luoyang to avenge Magistrate Fan."

"The old man has been living in Wushui County for twenty years, and it's time to meet my niece Wu Zhao, who is so powerful in the government!"