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

Chapter 436 Chance Encounter
Haitang frowned upon hearing this: "Although what they said makes sense, it would be too much of a coincidence if Mrs. Ma didn't instigate it."

Zhou Shuyi sent people to chase Mrs. Wang all the way to Chang'an, and Mrs. Ma sent people to chase Mrs. Wang all the way from Chang'an to Liangzhou. After such labor and effort, the news that merchants from the Western Regions had contacts with Zhou Shuyi, for their mother and daughter, Is it really just a small thing? If they really had nothing to do with it, then why didn't the Wang's Food Store catch fire earlier or later, but why did it start a fire just when they sent people to Liangzhou to shut up Mrs. Wang?
Hai Jiao said: "Not to mention Tu Rong, even the Duke of Zhenguo heard about their confessions and didn't really believe them at first. He just thought that either they knew that the matter was important, so they colluded with each other to confess to Ma. The old lady is covering up the truth; or maybe the old lady Ma has other helpers, and when she did such a big thing more than ten years ago, she did not let the people waiting in the inner house know about it, and no one is tortured to force them to tell the truth. , It’s just because the Sun family is more suspicious.”

Haitang was reminded by his words: "Where did the suspicion of the Sun family come from? It is said that the shadow of his family was behind the Wang family's fire, but from what I heard, it seemed that only the merchants from the Western Regions might have been caught by the Sun family. Didn't Tu Rong say that more than ten years ago, the Sun family accidentally caught a Hu spy and asked him about the route to Beijing that Madam Ma had helped him get? Did she prove her crime of colluding with a Hu spy? The two things coincided, and it seemed true. But even if the Sun family caught a Hu spy, there was no need to make a fuss about it and frame the Zhou family. Set fire to Wang’s grain store?”

Hai Jiao said: "The Dusi Yamen couldn't tell exactly what happened. My cousin got the news from the Duke of Zhenguo and told Grandpa Cao that the women had mentioned something. , it is said that the confidant Mrs. Ma sent to Liangzhou to find Mrs. Wang at that time was the son of one of them. He met the steward of the Sun family in Liangzhou City, and he was also a highly valued steward under Sun Guifei's cousin Sun Yongbai. "

It was a coincidence that after arriving in Liangzhou, the confidant learned that the Wang family's grain store was in a fire and the Wang family almost died, so he was anxious to ask around what was going on. At that time, there was a caravan in Liangzhou City. I had dealt with the shopkeeper of the old aunt Ma's family in the past, so the confidant went to ask them for help. I met several people coming out of the yard of the caravan. They looked very impressive. An ordinary person's behavior.

The confidant asked the people in the caravan and heard that he was a servant of a wealthy merchant who had just come from Beijing. He went to Liangzhou to buy wine for his family, but he left without buying anything. The people in the caravan felt that they didn't keep their word. They spent money and effort to send people from Beijing to Liangzhou. In a few days, they had to return to the capital by the same route. Along the way, they helped with customs and defense documents, remote route guidance, After eating, drinking, and traveling day and night, two horses were exhausted, but no business was done. They only received a few hundred taels of reward, which was just enough to pay for the horses, but it was really a loss to my grandma's family. It's just that the owner of the caravan is worried about the powerful family behind those people, so he doesn't dare to offend them, so he just complains behind his back.

This confidant was later sent to Beijing by Mrs. Ma to deliver things to her concubine Zhou Shuyi. One time, Sun Yongbai's wife sent someone to ask for money from Zhou Shuyi, and the two met head-on in the yard. The other party had an arrogant attitude and probably didn't remember him for a long time, but he was deeply impressed and remembered that he had met him in Liangzhou City.

He told his aunt Zhou Shuyi privately about the matter, and also reported it to Mrs. Ma after returning to Chang'an. But both Zhou Shuyi and Mrs. Ma ordered him to shut up and from now on just pretend that it didn't happen and were strictly forbidden to mention it to anyone. He himself only told his mother, but other than that, he was quite tight-lipped.

It was only after Tu Rong asked about this news that he felt that the Sun family might have something to do with the Wang family fire case.

More than ten years ago, the Zhou family and the Sun family were at their most serious conflict. Sun Ge Lao asked the Ministry of War to withhold the money and food that should have been allocated to the northwest frontier army. In order to maintain the daily food and material supplies of the frontier army, the Zhou family had to do business privately to earn money to supplement military expenses. When Queen Wu and the third prince died in the fire at Kunning Palace, and the Wu family suffered, the conflict between the two families became completely irreconcilable. When Marshal Zhou, the Duke of Zhen Guo, came to Beijing to meet the emperor, he would fight with Sun Ge in the court. In those few years, if the Sun family openly sent people to the northwest, they would definitely be targeted. However, the entire Zhenguogong government knew nothing about the Sun family steward's trip to Liangzhou. So why did Sun Yongbai's confidants go to Liangzhou?

Not to mention that there was no need for him to go to Liangzhou to buy wine. Even if he did, there were many merchants who could go to the capital to sell wine, so there was no need for the Sun family to send someone there. What's more, he specially hired a caravan who was familiar with the local situation in Liangzhou, and asked the caravan to help with the route guidance and chores along the way. He kept a secret all the way and traveled day and night. When he arrived in Liangzhou, he only stayed for a few days. He didn't buy anything, leaving only a few hundred taels of reward money and left. And during their stay in Liangzhou, a fire happened at Wangjia Liang Store...

If there were too many coincidences between Mrs. Ma and Zhou Shuyi before and after the Wang family fire, wouldn't it be even more coincidental that the Sun family encountered the Wang family fire when they secretly sent people to Liangzhou?
The mother-in-law's son made a minor mistake a few years ago and was sent to Sanfang to work as a steward of a property in other places. He is no longer in Chang'an City now. Tu Rong has already sent someone to inform Zhou Shigong, asking Zhou Shigong to order people to be recalled to Chang'an for questioning. By then, more details of that year will be known. Just in case, the Duke of Zhen Guo specially sent two more soldiers to follow the people from Sanfang to other places to find people. He made sure to bring back all the people. If there are people from Sanfang who went to Liangzhou with him at that time, they will also be called back in the near future to prepare for Tu Tongzhi's questioning when he returns.

Haitang noticed the hidden meaning of these orders: "Zhen Guogong and Tu Tongzhi seemed to attach great importance to this little steward, and even sent extra people to escort him... Is this because they are afraid that he will escape or that he will be silenced? ? Speaking of which, although the presence of Sun Yongbai's confidant in Liangzhou was indeed suspicious, why did the Sun family kill and set fire to the Wang family for no reason? When did Mrs. Wang provoke the Sun family after she came to Beijing? He didn't hesitate to send his confidants, find a caravan to cover up his whereabouts, and travel thousands of miles to Liangzhou to silence him? "

If it wasn't for something very important, there would be no need for the Sun family to go through such trouble, right? But if Mrs. Wang goes to Beijing to make friends with powerful people, what can she do to the Sun family? It couldn't be that the Sun family deliberately sent people to set fire to the large Wang family grain store because they wanted to cut off the supply of grain and grass to the northwest frontier army, right?

Hai Jiao was also at a loss: "Grandpa Cao can't figure it out either. The people under Dusi Yamen said everything. But Zhen Guogong attaches great importance to this matter, and his cousin also cares about it, but they haven't found out the truth. He refused to reveal a word to anyone. "Hai Jiao was a little hesitant, should he continue to find someone to inquire? It's a pity that Zhou Yijun has been staying at the Veteran's Village to consult the old military advisor recently, and is not in the city. He is not so familiar with the other brothers in the Zhenguo Palace and does not dare to ask for confidential information easily.

Haitang guessed: "When Mrs. Wang was in Beijing, she went to talk to the old shopkeepers who were married to Zhou Shuyi. She also saw a lot of goods in their trading houses, met merchants from the Western Regions, and made many friends who had dealings with Zhou Shuyi. The steward of a powerful family... Could it be that during this process, she discovered some secret of the Sun family, but she didn't react and just treated it as an ordinary thing? "

Hai Jiao raised his eyebrows: "Then what is it that makes such a shrewd person like Mrs. Wang not suspicious at all, but makes the Sun family send people all the way to Liangzhou to silence her?"

Haitang couldn't answer.

But Zhen Guogong and Tu Rong obviously had their own conjectures in their minds.

(End of this chapter)