Red Mansion: Fuyao River and Mountain

Chapter 145 Corpses Found in the Valley

There have been continuous heavy rains in Jinling in recent days, and the construction of Da Ci'en Temple has been stalled for a few days. Fortunately, before the rain, the construction progress was smooth, so now that it has been delayed for a few days, it is not a big problem.

Qin Keqing took a car to Ding'an Temple early in the morning to bring Qin Ye some clothes and food, but when she arrived, she did not see Jia Cong.
Ruizhu went to ask the old servant who was cleaning the official residence, and he said that someone came to deliver a message last night, and Master Cong returned to the city with his maid early this morning.

Qin Keqing couldn't help feeling disappointed when she heard this. She had heard from her father that Jia Cong had just been appointed by the emperor as the counselor of Prince Ning, and Prince Ning often sent his personal soldiers to summon him into the city to discuss matters.

He no longer stayed in the temple for long periods of time like before. Sometimes she would come to visit her father on some pretext or another, but she would often not see him.

It was a coincidence that even my father Qin Ye was not in the temple today.

I heard from the old servant who was cleaning the temple that the construction of the temple was suspended due to the rain in recent days. Early this morning, the construction officer brought a lot of people to Shicaowozi, 20 miles away, to dig purple mud.

Qin Keqing looked at the ancient temple in the mountains outside, which was moistened by the rain, and felt a little sad.

When she overheard Jia Rong's misdeeds on the official ship, she felt sorry for herself and was unwilling to do anything about it.

But she was a female official, and had been educated in etiquette and female precepts since childhood, with many rules and regulations to guard against. How could she escape?

Until I met that handsome young man on the official ship, who was famous for his poetry, literature, and gentle, leisurely and calm.

Before she knew that her marriage was not righteous, perhaps she would not have been easily tempted by the love. But when she suddenly heard that the man she had entrusted her love to was absurd and despicable, she was so sad and desperate that she could no longer keep her guard up.

But such bright happiness is ultimately illusory and easily dissipated. One day it will be gone and never come back. Even if you face it up close, we will be like strangers.

She is not as good as the two girls around him, who can always be by his side without any concealment.

……

In Shicaowozi, west of the outskirts of Jinling, a kind of solid and fine black-purple clay was discovered in the past two years. It is most suitable for firing top-grade tubular tiles.

Fortunately, it was discovered not long ago and only some people in the industry who are proficient in construction skills know about it, so no one has come to excavate this purple clay on a large scale.

The government did not send anyone to garrison and guard this place. This place is now just a wild mountain retreat and very few people come here normally.

Qin Ye is an expert in the construction industry, so he naturally knows the wonderful uses of the purple clay in the stone trough.

Because of the rain in recent days, the construction progress of Da Ci'en Temple was stalled. He took a break from his busy schedule and took people to dig purple mud when the sky cleared up slightly in the morning.

He has also calculated the construction period before digging out the purple clay, because the purple clay cannot be used immediately after being dug out. It needs to be sealed and fermented for dozens of days before it can enter the craftsmanship process of mold making, drying, firing, etc.

It took exactly two months before the purple clay tiles could be used on the roof, which happened to coincide with the laying of tiles in the main hall of the temple.

Because of the heavy rain in the previous few days, the stone trough was muddy everywhere. In many places, the surface yellow mud was even washed away, revealing the dark purple mud underneath, which saved the effort of digging out the purple mud.

The craftsmen and laborers brought by Qin Ye each found a place to dig out the black and purple clay under the loess.

After a few days of rain, digging out the cage blanks became very easy, and soon the purple clay filled half a truck.

Suddenly, two workers who were digging mud on a gentle slope stared at the ground and screamed in horror: "Come on, killing people, so many dead people!"

Qin Ye was shocked when he heard this and quickly took people to check it out.

The gentle slope was more than one person high and was located inside the stone trough.

These craftsmen first dug out the purple mud on the outside of the stone trough, and then dug to the gentle slope inside.

After several days of heavy rain, the soil was soaked and turned into mud, and half of this gentle slope has collapsed.

When Qin Ye arrived, he saw the scene in front of him and gasped in shock.

Two dead heads were seen on the half-collapsed slope, along with a few randomly mixed hands and legs. It looked like several people stacked on top of each other, and was extremely creepy.

Qin Ye was just a civil servant in the Ministry of Works. He had never seen such a scene before. He suppressed his fear and called a few brave craftsmen to dig up the soil some more.

He thought that it was the heavy rain that collapsed the old grave and exposed the dead body.

As the saying goes, the dead are the greatest. Since he had seen it and he was an official, he couldn't just ignore it. He wanted to dig the body out and bury it on the spot to avoid it being exposed in the wilderness. But he didn't expect that the body exposed in the mud had intact bones and flesh, and it had been dead for a short time.

As the craftsmen dug more soil, the scene that emerged scared everyone.

What appeared to be only two bodies emerged from the mud layer just now, but when the entire mud layer was dug up, a densely packed layer of bodies was seen.

A quick glance revealed that there were more than a dozen corpses, and it looked like there might be more dead bodies underground.

At this time, the mud covering the corpse was dug up, and a strong stench of decay spread out.

This terrifying and deathly scene frightened everyone present, and many of them couldn't help but vomit.

Even a fool could see it now, these people didn't just collapse the old graves to expose the corpses, but with so many dead bodies piled together, it was obvious that they had died an unnatural death.

So many people died, something big has happened, a terrible thing!
Qin Ye was an official after all, and he was calmer than the others present. He calmed himself down and said:
"Everyone, retreat outside the stone nest. Immediately send someone to Yingtian Prefecture to report the case. Also send someone to the construction site to ask General Liu to bring some people over. Do not let anyone know to prevent any accidents."

Shicaowozi is more than an hour's journey from Yingtianfu in Jinling, and it takes two hours to go there and back.

But it is only half an hour away from the Da Ci'en Temple construction site.

Qin Ye couldn't just leave immediately after seeing such a brutal incident, and he couldn't wait for the people from Yingtian Prefecture to come, so he thought of Liu Hai who brought more than a hundred soldiers with him.

Since he was sent to protect the construction site and I am the chief officer of the construction site, it is reasonable to ask him to bring troops to protect it so that I can give up my work earlier.

……

Jia Cong received a message from Ning Wang's personal guards at Anding Temple last night, asking him to go to Yingtian Prefecture with Yang Hongbin today to urge the government to arrest the suspects involved in the Longtan Port case.

Jia Yucun also once again saw the uniqueness of this young man from the Jia family.

After listening to the chief constable of the government office explain how to search for suspects in the Sixty-Three Wards of Jinling.

The young man raised doubts, believing that this method of searching for suspects not only wastes manpower but also has extremely low results.

Twenty districts, including Xinglongfang, Guangdefang, Yongningfang, and Fenglefang, were drawn on the map of Jinling city.

These places are the mansions of nobles, garrisons, government offices, and where officials and wealthy families live.

He believes that the probability of suspects hiding in these places is not high, so manpower can be reduced in these places and only general follow-up can be carried out.

A large number of manpower were concentrated in the complex areas of the east and west cities, as well as the areas in the north of the city where the poor gathered, and those places were used as the focus of the show.

He also talked about how to collect information through the headmen and night watchmen of each neighborhood in order to locate and capture criminals.

He even taught many ways to drive and exploit the city foxes, rats and bored idlers who were roaming around everywhere.

Originally, Yingtian Prefecture sent out almost all its runners and soldiers to capture the suspect, but Nanjing City was too large, and even with so many people, it was not enough to take care of everything.

In the end, even the yamen runners who guarded the forced labor prisoners in the Da Ci'en Temple had to be transferred from Liuhe County before they could be rotated.

After Jia Cong's arrangement and coordination, not only the pressure of insufficient manpower was suddenly reduced, but also the order of priorities was clear, and the efficiency of searching for suspects was much higher than before.

Jia Yucun and Yang Hongbin who were present saw that his coordination was meticulous, clear, experienced and thoughtful, which was something even experienced officials could not achieve.

How much experience can such a young man have? Where do these condensed and ingenious ideas come from? Are there really people in the world who are born with wisdom and knowledge?

Yang Hongbin had seen Jia Cong's many wonderful ideas before, and now seeing his careful planning, although he was impressed, he was not surprised at all.

Jia Yucun originally thought that this young man was somewhat extraordinary, but now seeing his meticulous planning, he was even more impressed by him. He thought that such a person would surely be a pillar of the Jia family in the future, and his desire to win him over became stronger.

At this time, a runner from the government office came to report that Qin Ye, the keeper of Da Ci'en Temple, had sent someone to report that dozens of bodies had been found in Shicaowowozi at the northern foot of Qixia Mountain. This was a serious matter, so the government office was requested to send someone to the scene to investigate.

(End of this chapter)