The Happy Life of Small Officials in Northern Song Dynasty

The crowd rushed into the courtyard and lit more than ten lanterns, illuminating the courtyard brightly; Chen Dong's house was carried into the courtyard by two soldiers with both arms.welcome to read

Su Jin ordered: "Lift out dozens of flat carts and remove the wheels."

The crowd hurriedly lifted more than 20 large trucks from the parking lot on the side of the compound, and put them on the open space.

Su Jin pointed to the clean and spotless car boards and said: "Chen Dong's family, you have to be careful, you just said that the envoy planted on you, look carefully, are there grains that the envoy deliberately spilled on these car boards? "

Chen Dongjia muttered, "So what?"

Su Jin said: "Look carefully." Turning his head to the crowd, he ordered: "Turn all the car boards over and buckle them on the ground, and hit them one by one with a wooden hammer. Don't break them. Chen Dadong from the province said that we destroy the people's property. But not too lightly."

Everyone complied one by one, flipped the car plank over and put it on the ground. Wang Chao Mahan held a wooden hammer, spat, and raised the hammer "framed" to hit the car plank. The sound made the nearby people noisy. They lit the lights and pushed the windows one after another, not knowing what happened.

Li Chong asked in a low voice: "Brother Su, what is this for?"

Su Jin smiled and said: "You can't use punishment on people, you can only use these big carts, maybe the big carts will confess something."

Li Chong rolled his eyes and thought, "I don't know what the hell is going on, torture the cart, can the cart speak?"

After more than a dozen hammers went down, Su Jin raised his hand to call for a stop, and ordered someone to lift the carriage aside, took a lantern in one hand, and grabbed Dong's sleeve with the other hand and said, "Dong's Chen, let's see what this is?"

Everyone looked in the direction of Su Jin's finger, and saw rice grains scattered here and there on the ground. Although the number was not many, they could be seen clearly.

Su Jin smiled and said: "What else do you have to say? I have to admit that you have covered it up very well, but there are still loopholes to follow. You said that your big car has been out of business for a long time, but there is a little dust on the car That's all, obviously it has been cleaned recently; of course, the fact that there is no dust on the car is not any evidence, but the purpose of your cleaning is not to remove dust, but to remove the grain grains scattered on the car when pulling grain, so as to avoid any flaws. Right?"

Chen Dong's face was pale and he didn't say a word.

"You know how to cover up traces, but you don't do it carefully enough, or you never thought that the frame of the cart is made of wooden boards. Naturally, such a bulky cart only seeks practicality and sturdiness, not refinement, so the mortise and tenon It's not like the tenon and tenon joints that are made of tables and chairs. As long as there are gaps, grains may fall into them. They can't be swept away by sweeping. Falling down, so, you have exposed your feet."

Chen Dongjia was indisputable and bowed his head in silence.

Su Jin laughed and said, "I might as well tell you that the food I showed you in the house just now was indeed brought by my envoy."

Everyone was shocked, so that the adults actually admitted that he brought the food and planted it, which is unbelievable.

"However, these grains were picked up on the ground of Lanruo Temple on my way to Tianchang. They come from the same source as the grains in your car. I brought them just to compare with the grains on the ground, lest you It is denied that it is old millet, but everyone has a look, no matter the grain and color are similar, it can basically be concluded that it is the same batch of grain.”

Li Chong took the lead in applauding. This is really amazing. If you don't accept it, you can't fly. Su Jin can turn decay into magic.

"Come here, take the owner of Chen Jihuitong's car dealership and take him back to the Yamen for trial. All the idlers in the car dealership will stay in the dealership. The dealership will be sealed, and those who act without permission will be accomplices." Li Chong shouted.

The yamen servants stepped forward like wolves and tigers to lock Chen Dong's house, and the rest of the people went to the house to announce the order of the county magistrate. All of a sudden, there was a commotion, and crying came from the inner hall after a while.

"If one person commits a crime, the whole family will be implicated. It can be seen that committing crimes is not a good thing." Li Chong sighed.

Su Jin said: "It's better to cry than a hundred families. You can be kind, but you can't be soft."

Li Jiao nodded in agreement, and suddenly asked: "Brother Su, why don't I understand, you can conclude that there is something wrong with Huitong car dealership in a few words based on Wang Chao Mahan's investigation report, don't you have a foretaste?"

Su Jin smiled and said: "Master Bao said that there must be a cause and effect in everything, as long as you know how to identify it, it is actually not difficult."

Li Chong cupped his hands and said, "Brother Su, please clear up your doubts."

Su Jindao: "Zhang Long came back and reported that the Huitong car could not move forward, and more than a dozen craftsmen repaired the frame overnight. Did you hear that?"

Li Chongdao: "Yes, I was there. Repairing the frame is a common thing. The carts in the dealership carry a lot of heavy loads, so they will naturally be damaged. Is this also suspicious? Didn't they say it when they reported back?" Are there any damaged cars in the other three courtyards?"

Su Jin said: "It's normal for the car to be damaged, but don't you think it's a little wrong when they repair it?"

Li Chongdao: "What's wrong? You need to choose a good day and auspicious day to repair a car?"

Su Jin said: "Of course there is no need for auspicious days, but you think, since there is no business for several months, why repair the car? Now that the New Year is coming, even the repairs will basically be carried out after the next year, and there is nothing left and right. Repairs during the day are fine. Why did you fix it all night?"

"Why?" Li Zhong scratched his head.

Su Jin ignored him and continued: "The above is just one of them, and the second is that you just asked them to ask questions in the afternoon, and after you came back, the Chen family's car dealership repaired the frame. It’s not impossible to use a car to do something, to transfer food or something.”

Li Chong was even more confused, and asked, "How do you say that?"

Su Jin suddenly looked serious, and thought: "Now I want to make a bet with you, the barn of Chen's car dealership must be fed with fine grains."

"How about fine materials? What about forage materials?" Li Chong was about to cry, and he was considered a smart person, so why did he act like an idiot in front of Su Jin, unable to follow his train of thought at all.

Su Jin said loudly, "Where is the barn?"

A car dealer tremblingly pointed to a shabby low house in the southwest corner and said, "It's...over there."

Su Jin said: "Go, go and have a look."

The crowd rushed to the barn, and dozens of mules and horses were startled, snorting and looking at the uninvited guests.

Su Jin took a lantern and took a look at the trough, and sure enough, the trough was filled with cooked bean cakes mixed with forage concentrate, stood up and lost in thought.

Everyone couldn't help admiring Su Jin when he saw that everything he did was like a god, but at the same time, they didn't understand what it meant and didn't dare to interrupt Su Jin's train of thought, so they stared blankly at the spot.

Su Jin suddenly breathed a sigh of relief and said, "The food should be available."

Li Chongdao: "It's supposed to be there. Mr. Chen's family must know where the grain is stored."

Su Jin shook his head and said: "That's not necessarily true. My original guess is that Feng Jingyao secretly appointed a mysterious person to hire carts and animals to transport grain, and this person and the cart dealer are only in an employment relationship, and they only use carts." , the staff is not even a car dealer; Chen Dong’s family can’t follow the car, how can they know where the food is stored? Then return the car after the incident, and pay the fare. Chen Dong’s family will not be so boring as to ask the customer to transport What, where did it come from?"

Li Chong opened his mouth and said, "This...if this happens, it would be troublesome."

Su Jindao: "But it's different now, the situation has changed. Now it seems that this Mr. Chen's family must know where the grain is stored."

Li Chong asked shamelessly: "Brother Su said clearly, I'm so anxious to death."

Su Jin said: "I was dissatisfied with your act of scaring the snake, but now it seems that it is wrong. Think about it, as soon as you ask about this, he will immediately come back to repair the frame and feed the livestock. What is this for? ?”

Li Chong seemed to have caught something, hesitantly said: "Brother Su is saying that he noticed that we were checking the food, so he planned to transfer the food?"

Su Jin clapped his hands and said: "That's right. Feeding the livestock concentrate is a sign of work. If there is no business on weekdays, who would let the livestock eat bean cake dregs that these people can't eat? This means that either this Mr. Chen It was the person appointed by Feng Jingyao, or it was the Chen Dong family who disclosed the news to that person, and the person immediately ordered him to prepare to transfer and hide the grain, that's why he was in such a hurry to repair the car and feed the livestock."

Li Chong nodded repeatedly, there was no one else, and if there was someone else, Chen Dong's family must be very familiar with this person, otherwise how could he trust him to hand over the carriages, animals and other things to that person.

Li Chong suddenly thought of something, and asked: "But Brother Su, I seem to have heard that Brother Zhao Hu also said in his report that the livestock of the Confucian family Yuan Tong Che in Nancheng is also the essence of food. How can I explain this?" Woolen cloth?"

Su Jin chuckled, pointed at the cars in the yard and said, "Count up how many cars there are here."

Everyone estimated it, and someone replied: "Even including the broken car, it's only a hundred and ten cars."

Su Jin said: "So, where did the Chen family get the two hundred cars they used that night?"

Li Chong was startled and said, "You mean... Kong's car dealership is also involved as an accomplice?"

Su Jinche pondered: "It's not necessarily an accomplice, but it's definitely inseparable. Maybe it's just a borrowed car. Needless to say, order someone to take that Kong Dong's family to the yamen. Let's let the two of them testify and understand everything."