After the whole family was swept away, I lay down flat

Chapter 403 Chapter Four Hundred and Two Physical Evidence
Ma Shi and Haijiao Haitang, brother and sister, gathered around Zhou Ma and tried to persuade her. After analyzing for a long time, they finally persuaded Zhou Ma to relent and tell what happened to the third room of the Zhou family.

However, she was just a housewife, and she only knew about the whole thing from her husband Zhou Shigong, so she didn't know much about it.

She only knew that a few days ago, Tu Rong, the newly appointed commander of the Shaanxi Dusi, suddenly visited the third room of the Zhou family and talked with Zhou Shigong in the living room. Not long after, the latter's face changed drastically and he was shocked and angry. The two were arguing so loudly that the servants guarding outside the house were frightened, and some immediately rushed to the inner house to report to Mr. Zhou Ma. By the time Zhou Ma hurried to the living room in the front yard, Zhou Shigong and Tu Rong had stopped arguing. The former was standing in the room with his face flushed, as if he was very angry, while the chair he was sitting on was lying on the ground, with the table The tea set on the table was also smashed to pieces, and the ground was a mess.

When Tu Rong saw Zhou Ma entering the door, he didn't say hello. He just said to Zhou Shigong calmly: "I wanted to have a good talk with Mr. Zhou, so I came here at night so as not to disturb others. Since Mr. Zhou refuses to believe me, my People are waiting outside the door, let them come in and search, Master Zhou can also see with his own eyes whether they will find anything?"

Zhou Shigong really looked like he didn't believe it and asked him to search.

Then he and his wife Zhou Ma watched with their own eyes as Tu Rong called a group of soldiers to come in, search the west courtyard, and then found a pamphlet from the house of one of Mrs. Ma's confidants.

The booklet recorded some names of people, places and money. The names on it were very suspicious. According to Tu Rong, they were all Hu spies identified by the imperial court and were arrested in the capital.

He and Zhou Shigong called Mrs. Ma's confidant for interrogation at that time. The latter could not bear the pressure and finally confessed that those were the names of businessmen whom the mistress had paid to help with the road navigation and customs documents. Feeling that it was inappropriate, but unable to resist the mistress, I quietly wrote down the names of the merchants and the places they had been. But because it had been so long, she had forgotten the existence of this booklet, and she never expected that it would be found.

When Madam Ma heard this, she became furious. She pointed at the old woman and scolded her for betraying her master. She also said that she had been treating her favorably for decades, but the other party had betrayed her trust. It was unforgivable, and she also cursed the old woman for being unkind. die.

Mrs. Ma jumped on her mother-in-law and almost strangled her to death, but was forcefully pulled away by the people Tu Rong brought. But even if she didn't admit that she had done those things later, Zhou Shigong could still draw the conclusion from her reaction: all this was true, Madam Ma had indeed collaborated with the enemy, and Tu Rong had not wronged her!
With the road guides and official defense documents obtained by Mrs. Ma through her personal connections, the merchants in the caravan can travel around the northwest smoothly without worrying about the inquiries of the border troops. They can even go to the capital or the south of the Yangtze River. Go straight into the hinterland of Dachu.

Although Tu Rong has not yet been able to thoroughly investigate all the people recorded in the booklet, just the fact that some of the names found include Hu spies can already prove Mrs. Ma's crime. Even if Mrs. Ma categorically denied that she had done these things, Zhou Shigong could not say that his stepmother was an innocent person who was framed.

Zhou Shigong didn't know why she did this. Looking at the amount of bribes recorded in the booklet, it was not big enough to make the mother of the third house owner of the Zhou family excited. You must know that Mrs. Ma collected this money more than 20 years ago. At that time, the old man was still there, the third bedroom of the Zhou family was still very prosperous, Zhou Shuyi was far from married, and there was no shortage of that little money! Mrs. Ma did this kind of thing just for that little money. What was she trying to do? !
Did she do it intentionally, or was she being taken advantage of unintentionally?
When Zhou Ma said this, he couldn't help crying again: "I really can't believe it, how can the family have such courage?! Even if the old man is no longer on the front line, he is still working in the army! What if we call outside People know, how should the old man behave? How should our masters behave? And how will Jin Lin and his children and grandchildren meet people in the future?!"

Ma's head hurt from her eldest sister's crying, and she quickly pulled her back: "Eldest sister, don't just cry, please explain clearly to me first, Du Boqin told Tu Tongzhi this? Then when he was interrogated before, why didn't he say a single word? Don’t tell me?!”

Zhou Ma cried: "I don't know! Du Boqin has been to our house before, and he didn't miss a word at that time! Our master treated him well. If he was a conscientious person, he would have warned him earlier. Come on, guys, guys, we destroyed the things earlier, if we stop it, we won’t let Ajia commit another crime again, and now we won’t be caught out by the people in the capital!”

Seeing the eldest sister crying again, Ma Shi had a headache and could only persuade her softly, hoping that the eldest sister would calm down and explain the matter more clearly. Hai Jiao saw that his grandmother could not take care of him for the time being, so he stood up and winked at his brother Hai Jiao, and the brother and sister quietly walked outside.

Haitang whispered: "There is something wrong with this matter. There is such a secret account book, and the woman herself has forgotten it. How did Du Boqin know about it?"

Hai Jiao nodded: "He didn't say anything in front of the Zhou family before... Now that he suddenly mentioned it to Tu Rong, I was afraid that he would be uneasy. But he has revealed so many secrets of the Sun family, and it is obviously impossible to be accepted by the Sun family again. Why bother to frame the Zhou family again? Does he think that by doing this, he can make the Sun family forgive his previous betrayal?!"

In his previous life, he had heard that Jin Yiwei had caught a Hu spy, but the credit seemed to go to Sun Yongbai. God knows if it was true, or maybe it was just made up by the Sun family to put money on Sun Yongbai's face. Besides, this matter did not involve the third room of the Zhou family at that time...

Haitang raised his eyebrows: "The most important thing now is, what is Tu Rong's attitude towards this matter? He said that he came here at night out of good intentions so as not to alarm outsiders. He was angered by his uncle's attitude and sent the troops. The soldiers searched the west courtyard. We believe that he really did not intend to frame the Zhou family. But if he really had good intentions towards the Zhou family, why would he go out like this to confiscate the family? But if he deliberately wanted to let the Zhou family Unfortunately, it has been so many days since the incident happened, and there are indeed witnesses and physical evidence. How come we didn’t hear any news outside? He doesn’t look like he wants to accuse the Zhou family of collaborating with the enemy..."

Hai Jiao frowned, took his sister back to the inner room, and told Zhou Ma and the Ma sisters what they thought.

Ma's spirit perked up and she felt that there was no room for change in this matter, but Zhou Ma choked up and said, "Even if General Tu didn't mean to harm our family, the things recorded in the pamphlet are true. ...The master has already sent people to check. The name of the spy is true, and the road documents are also recorded in the Yamen. The A family has indeed done those things, and there is no denying it..."

If Tu Rong had not found this pamphlet and Mrs. Ma had not reacted violently, Zhou Shigong could have completely denied that his stepmother had committed such a crime based on Du Boqin's few words of testimony. But with the pamphlet, Du Boqin and the woman, and complete witnesses and material evidence, Mrs. Ma couldn't be cleared at all. Zhou Shigong didn't even have the courage to ask the Duke of Zhen for help, because he was afraid that the Duke of Zhen would protect his third wife, and would instead be implicated and prosecuted by the court.

No matter what you say, Tu Rong is still a person sent by the imperial court and a confidant of the emperor. With the emperor's usual attitude towards the Zhou family, how could he let this matter go so easily? It was only a matter of time before the third member of the Zhou family was convicted.

Zhou Shigong was now disheartened. Ma was comforting the sad eldest sister and also felt a headache, but Hai Jiao and Hai Tang were still calm.

Hai Jiao asked a few key questions: "What did Mrs. Ma do? The woman beside her wrote down the pamphlet. How did Du Boqin know about it? When did he know about it? Why didn't he tell it after he knew it? ? He only told Tu Rong, did he have an ulterior motive?"

　I just came back from outside and missed the usual update time...

　　
　
(End of this chapter)