Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 995 0990 [Farming can produce precious money]

In the private house, Bai Sheng and his men searched through all the drawers and cabinets, but did not find any stolen money or evidence.

On the floor of Qin Hui's study, where the bookcases were pressing down, there were traces of two newer floor tiles.

A middle-aged official said: "These two floor tiles must have been laid later, but they have not been moved for at least a year or so."

This man was called Li Jiuchen. He was originally the son of a bailiff in Nanzheng County. He was idle and careless, and spent his days as a hanger-on for the nobles in the city.

When Hanzhong City was breached, his father took refuge with the Zhu father and son, but Li Jiucheng was discovered by Shi Yuangong to obtain intelligence.

Today, Li Jiuchen is a doctor in the Military Intelligence Department of the Ministry of War, and this time he was temporarily seconded to help with the investigation of the case.

Bai Sheng pointed at two floor tiles and said, "Pry them open and dig three feet into the ground!"

Got nothing.

There were two servants in the house, both of whom were old men with poor hearing and poor eyesight, so Bai Sheng had no way of getting any information out of them.

However, more than a dozen neighbors were "invited" and all stood in the yard trembling with fear.

Li Jiucheng left the study and asked, "Who came in?"

All the neighbors shook their heads.

Li Jiucheng pointed at the two old servants and asked, "Who has dealt with them?"

Still all shook their heads.

In order to avoid exposing their tracks, the secret monitors sent by Zhu Ming only occasionally followed Qin Hui from a distance and never entered Qin Hui's secret residence.

Zhu Ming was not in a position to talk about such matters, and now the officials handling the case had to investigate it themselves.

A neighbor said cautiously: "They rarely go out except to buy charcoal, vegetables and salt. I can't hear them talking. I haven't seen them in the past few years. From the accent, they seem to be from Kaifeng."

Li Jiucheng continued to ask: "Are they the only two people in this house?"

Another neighbor said, "When the court first moved the capital, there was a young lady and an old woman. They didn't talk much, but they did talk to me. They said they moved from Kaifeng and came to Luoyang with their husbands to do business."

Someone else immediately took over the conversation: "It's definitely not a business! Her husband is a bit old. Although he always wears a hat when he comes home, and pulls the brim down to cover half of his face, you can tell from the way he walks that he is an official."

"They are officials who moved here with the imperial court when it moved the capital."

"Yes, yes, that young lady is the mistress of the official, and she even gave birth to a child!"

"Her eldest wife is probably a jealous woman who won't tolerate her husband taking a concubine."

"..."

The neighbors were no longer afraid and gradually started to talk, gossiping one after another.

Li Jiucheng asked: "Does the male owner of this house come here every few days?"

Someone said, "Not necessarily. But every time he came, he rode in a covered donkey cart. After getting off the cart, he opened the door and entered the courtyard. It was only a few steps away. I wanted to talk to him once, but he ignored me and closed the courtyard door as soon as he entered. He doesn't look like a good person at first glance. Why would a good person cover his face with a hat?"

Li Jiuchen asked many more questions, but was unable to obtain further information.

When Bai Sheng saw Li Jiucheng winking at him, he immediately ordered the release of the people and said to his neighbors, "You all go home now, don't walk around, don't talk nonsense. If you think of anything suspicious, come and report to me immediately."

When the people heard that they could leave, they completely relaxed.

Someone even took the initiative to ask: "Excuse me, sir, what crime did this family commit that required the imperial guards to come and arrest someone?"

"Don't ask questions that you shouldn't ask." Bai Sheng frowned.

Li Jiuchen walked around the house, carefully observing clues along the way.

He stood at the door of a utility room, first looking at the copper lock that was smashed open by the soldiers, and then looking at the hoe that was overturned during the search of the house.

"Is there a problem here?" Bai Sheng asked.

Li Jiucheng pointed to the corridor outside the door and said, "General, please look here. Doesn't it look like there is frequent movement? The stone pavement outside the corridor is covered with thick moss. Apart from the fresh footprints of the guards, there are no other signs of movement."

Bai Sheng nodded: "It seems that the two old servants don't come here very often."

Li Jiucheng pointed to the utility room and said, "There are tools in the room. There are hoes, shears, flower pots... and the door is locked with a copper lock. If this is really Qin Hui's secret house, and the two old servants don't come here often, are the things in there used by Qin Hui?"

Bai Sheng said: "The emperor likes to grow crops and flowers, and many ministers follow suit. Qin Hui is famous for learning to grow crops, and was praised by the emperor when he was in Kaifeng. There is a corner of the courtyard of this house that is set aside as a vegetable garden, and there are many potted peonies around it. I think Qin Hui often comes here to grow crops and flowers."

Li Jiucheng said: "Qin Hui farmed and raised flowers, so he naturally didn't let his servants touch them..."

"dig!"

Before Li Jiuchen could finish his words, Bai Sheng had already reacted and took the guards to dig the vegetable garden.

As they were digging, a guard shouted, "There's something!"

Bai Sheng was overjoyed. He grabbed the hoe and started digging himself. He soon dug out a corner of the wooden box.

Keep digging, keep digging.

A small wooden box was taken out.

All the old accounts, along with a lot of banknotes, were transferred by Qin Hui.

They were originally hidden under the floor tiles of the study, but last year Qin Hui buried them all in the vegetable garden on the pretext of growing vegetables.

This small box also had a lock, which was violently pried open by Bai Sheng.

Inside the box were two objects wrapped in layer upon layer of oil paper, and charcoal and lime were sprinkled on the bottom of the box to prevent moisture.

Bai Sheng opened the oil paper package and found a booklet inside.

It lists the year, month, and day, as well as some names of people, places, numbers, and many names of goods.

Li Jiucheng watched from the side for a while and said, "This is the account book. The word 'guan' should be omitted after the number. All the names are pseudonyms, and only Qin Hui knows who they are referring to. The time and place names should be real, but the goods are definitely fake. The names of those goods may refer to a certain official position, or they may refer to a certain project."

"You are trying to be mysterious and make it difficult for people to understand." Bai Sheng cursed.

Li Jiucheng reached out to turn the last page and said, "The most recent time was three years ago. This is the account book from three years ago. There should be some boxes that have not been dug out."

Bai Sheng ordered: "Keep digging, dig up the entire vegetable garden."

Li Jiuchen went to open another oil paper package in the box.

Baochao, all of them are Ming Dynasty Baochao!
Bai Sheng counted them and exclaimed, "A full 50,000 strings of cash. They are all old-version banknotes from previous years, without a denomination of 500 strings of cash. This bastard has taken a lot of it. Why doesn't he send it back to his hometown? If he stays in Luoyang, he can only honor the God of Land." It's very simple.

Qin Hui's parents had died long ago and moved to Jiangning, where there were no relatives at all, only Qin Hui's uncle's family.

Several of Qin Hui's brothers either passed the imperial examination and became officials, or were arranged by Qin Hui to be promoted from clerks to officials, and after being promoted to officials of a certain rank, they had to be transferred to other places.

Without any clansmen or brothers, would Qin Hui send the money to Jiangning and give it to his uncle for safekeeping?
It was in these two years that Qin Hui began to arrange his funeral affairs.

He sent his confidant back to expand the dilapidated house in his hometown of Jiangning, and asked his cousin to buy some land. He also asked one of his eldest brother's sons to return to Jiangning to look after the emerging family business, so that his descendants could develop there with peace of mind.

There are often relatives from their ancestral hometown who come to the capital to beg for money.

Qin Hui lost his father when he was young and lived a hard life. His mother took her sons back to their ancestral home, but they did not get any help from the clan members. Therefore, Qin Hui did not like those clan members and refused to meet them at the beginning.

Later, he gradually came to his senses and sent his confidants back to his hometown to renovate the ancestral tomb and ancestral hall.

He also invested money to set up schools and support the children in the family to go to school. To put it bluntly, he was making long-term investments to slowly build up his own family power.

Not much money was spent in his hometown or ancestral home, and most of the stolen money was left in the capital.

“Found it again!”

In total, twelve boxes were dug out.

Some boxes did not have account books, but they definitely contained money, totaling 650,000 strings of cash.

Bai Sheng took the evidence and reported back, leaving some people behind: "You stay here, and no one is allowed to come in or out. Keep digging and see if you can dig out anything else."

Bai Sheng entered the palace overnight.

Zhu Ming looked at the treasure banknotes and account books and said with a smile, "Several boxes were also dug out from the residence of the Minister of Revenue. There was another box that was not buried in time and is probably still in use. It is temporarily pressed by two piles of books, and there are account books and treasure banknotes in it. This Qin Hui really learned skills from the emperor. At least, he is very good at digging and turning the soil, and he is as good as an old farmer at work."

Bai Sheng came close to the emperor and said, "This man is really abominable. I only dug out 650,000 strings of cash!"

"Why, are you jealous?" Zhu Ming asked with a smile.

Bai Sheng quickly waved his hands to deny: "I have a title and an official position, both of which can bring me salary. The government also often rewards me, so why would I need to embezzle or accept bribes?"

Zhu Ming said: "Send it to the Dali Temple."

Bai Sheng brought the evidence and led a team of guards straight to the Dali Temple.

Qin Hui is currently on trial. He has refused to plead guilty and insisted that he had only accepted some calligraphy and painting gifts.

His trusted servants were also stubborn and did not think they could redeem themselves from their crimes, so they hoped that Qin Hui would be acquitted.

The concubines really knew nothing, and even the concubine who lived in the secret house had never entered Qin Hui's study. It was also said that Qin Hui occasionally lived in the secret house, and apart from reading books and growing flowers and vegetables, he did not do anything else.

"I, Qin Hui, am the Minister of the Ming Dynasty. I have behaved uprightly and sat upright. Why should I fear the false accusations of the scoundrels?"

Qin Hui sat upright in the secret room and spoke with great righteousness.

The officials of the Three Judicial Departments were not in a hurry. In addition to interrogating Qin Hui and his family, they also interrogated several of Qin Hui's current and former subordinates.

Sooner or later someone can't stand it!
In the middle of the night, Bai Sheng suddenly arrived and threw out a pile of account books and banknotes.

A total of more than 1.26 million strings of cash were found in the two houses.

Moreover, according to the records in the account books, the later the time, the faster Qin Hui's corruption became, which means that he became more and more greedy and less cautious.

The stolen money in the last three years is more than the total of the previous ten years!

If he had continued to let this go for a few more years, it is estimated that Qin Hui would have embezzled three to four million strings of cash.

"Minister Qin, you make me work so hard to dig. The emperor can only harvest grains from farming, but you can grow Ming Dynasty banknotes from farming!" Bai Sheng sneered.

Wei Liangchen, Pan Lianggui and others who were responsible for interrogating Qin Hui were frightened when they saw so many Ming Dynasty banknotes.

Looking at Qin Hui again, I found that he was slumped in the chair.

It's over, all over, the things buried in the ground have been dug out.

If only the box that had not been buried was found, Qin Hui could easily argue that the banknotes inside were his savings over the years, and the account books were his secret business (although this was also against regulations, at most he would be dismissed from office, and Qin Hui did register a business name as a cover).

But more than one million strings of cash had been dug out, how the hell could he possibly argue?

Everyone knows that Qin Hui was very poor when he was young. He did not come from a prominent family, so the origin of this money is unclear.

Pan Lianggui quickly flipped through an account book, then casually threw it to Qin Hui: "Tell me, what business is so profitable? Your account book records many names and goods. The local household departments, engineering departments, and banknote customs have commercial tax and goods files. Maybe we can find the files to help you clear your name."

Qin Hui decided to take another gamble: "These are all the money of the Wang family. When the Wang family was divided, many of their properties were lost. They were afraid that the Ming Dynasty would confiscate their property, so they entrusted their money to me for safekeeping. As for those account books, they are all fabricated at random. If the court investigates, there will be a reason."

"I'm entrusting more than one million strings of cash to you for safekeeping?" Wei Liangchen sneered.

Qin Hui said: "It was entrusted to me by my eldest brother. After he died of illness, I coveted the money and buried it underground to keep it for myself. None of the other brothers in the Wang family knew where the money went, only my wife knew."

Pan Lianggui was speechless: "Do you think we are all fools? These account books of yours have the time written on them, and they have never been broken for more than ten years. Your wife's eldest brother is dead. Does he come back to the world every month and entrust you with money in batches for safekeeping?"

Qin Hui felt dry-mouthed and didn't know how to explain.

Pan Lianggui said, "Bring Wang here and make this fellow give up completely."

Soon, Wang was brought to this room.

Pan Lianggui said, "More than one million strings of cash were dug out from Qin Hui's house. He said it was the Wang family's property that your elder brother entrusted to you for safekeeping. Did you know about this?"

Qin Hui had a pleading look on his face. He felt that husband and wife were in the same boat, and his wife would most likely help him cover up his lie as much as possible.

Wang looked at the banknotes on the table, and said in shock and anger: "You bastard, you actually embezzled more than one million strings of cash? I have been married to you for so many years, and I have never enjoyed all kinds of wealth and luxury. You embezzled so much money, you must have used it to feed a vixen!"

Qin Hui was dumbfounded, completely unable to understand his wife's reaction.

In the first half of his life, his wife Wang had always been his brain trust. A woman who was so smart and cunning, didn't she know that confessing her guilt meant death? Why was she still jealous at this time?

Wang said with a mocking look on her face: "Why are you staring at me? The imperial guards have been dispatched, can you still hide? From the moment the emperor ordered you to be arrested, you are already dead. What are you dreaming about? Even if you are not greedy, you still have to die. Otherwise, how can the emperor save his face?"

These words were like a bolt from the blue, making Qin Hui's head buzz.

With his intelligence, he should have been able to figure it out, but he still clung to his luck and was unwilling to give up the last glimmer of hope until his wife exposed him and he could no longer hold back.

Wang continued to distance herself from the matter, kneeling down before the three judicial officials and saying, "My Lords, I have long been separated from this man. He even refused to let me step into the Shangshu's residence, and he never spoke to me in the past few years. I knew nothing about his corrupt and law-breaking deeds..."

(End of this chapter)