Qin Rushuang carefully thought about the two days when she came to Qu County. Since entering Qu County, all the plans have been implemented too easily, as if someone deliberately promoted it and contributed to today's situation.
So where is the key to breaking the situation?
Qin Rushuang looked around and suddenly whispered to Xie Xun in a low voice: "I'll take Ying Er to the Yamen to have a look."
Xie Xun nodded: "Be careful, let Ying Er do anything."
After saying a few words of instructions to Ying Er, the two of them used their Qing Kung skills and left.
The women and children surrounding the inn were very nervous when they saw someone leaving. However, they relaxed again when they saw that the people leaving were Qin Rushuang and a servant.
Qin Rushuang felt that these people seemed to be guarding the tied man and had no intention of stopping their other actions.
Especially when Ying Er reported the situation of the bandits just now, they were just a little nervous. But when they heard that the fake magic doctor was dead, they relaxed instead.
This seems to be different from Qin Rushuang's guess that all Qu County is full of bandits.
With doubts, Qin Rushuang went to Qu County Yamen.
When she was approaching the Yamen, Qin Rushuang suddenly remembered something that she had ignored for a long time: "Since we are coming to Qu County to suppress bandits, why didn't the prince inform the magistrate of Qu County in advance?"
Generally speaking, when there was a banditry situation, the imperial court would dispatch troops together with the local yamen, because the yamen had a better understanding of the surrounding environment and the situation of banditry.
Although the sudden appearance of the banditry in Qu County does not rule out the possibility that the county magistrate was unaware of it, it does not mean that the army to suppress the bandits completely failed to contact the local government and integrate information.
Ying Er scratched his head, "Actually, the emperor ordered the prince to contact the local magistrate after arriving in Qu County, but for some reason, the prince refused when the military advisor proposed it."
Qin Rushuang thought for a moment and asked, "Have you met anyone before we set off from Kyoto?"
"Is the princess talking about an insider? I remember that the prince read a lot of books related to Qu County in the past few days, and also read the various memorials submitted by the Qu County Magistrate every year. Oh, by the way, he went there again before leaving.
I visited the caravan steward who reported the report. But we don’t know exactly what was said.”
Qin Rushuang suppressed the doubts in her heart, and the two of them had already reached the door of the Yamen.
Just as Ying Er was about to go up and show his token, he was pulled back by Qin Rushuang.
"No need to go, let's go."
"Ah? Why?"
Qin Rushuang pointed to the two government officials who were guarding the door from a distance: "The common people are pretending."
"Can you see all this?" Ying Er Daqi said.
"Although the clothes fit well, look at their hands. The calluses on the hands are mostly in the palms of the yamen's swordsmanship. Look at the hands of those two people."
Qin Rushuang pointed: "That one has thick knuckles and black nails. He does heavy work in the fields. The other hand is full of wounds, especially the left index finger. He should be a cook or a butcher who kills pigs. And look at their...
His expression, although his body is upright, his expression is shrinking, in short, he cannot be a yamen servant."
"This...could it be that the common people held the county magistrate hostage? Then should we go in and rescue people?"
Qin Rushuang took a deep breath: "No need, the county magistrate is probably... dead long ago."
"But we have only been in Qu County for two days, how could it be?!" Ying Er still couldn't accept it. The county order was gone and it was gone, and it was done quietly and no one noticed.
"I'm afraid... the magistrate of Qu County died a long time ago. Otherwise, why do you think the prince would suddenly read the records of Qu County over the years?"
Qin Rushuang turned around: "Let's go and tell the prince the situation. I'm afraid the only breakthrough now is the Mr. Wu in the prince's hands."
Qin Rushuang and Ying Er returned to the inn. It was already late at night, and the people surrounding the inn still didn't leave.
"Your Majesty, I'm afraid the magistrate of Qu County has..." Qin Rushuang was halfway through speaking, but Xie Xun already understood what she meant.
"This king knows."
"Your Majesty, if you know something, you might as well tell me and we can find a way to break the situation."
Xie Xun was silent for a long time. The truth of some things might be too shocking, and he didn't want Qin Rushuang to know about it, but as of now, it was still important to break the situation.
"When banditry suddenly broke out in Qu County, and the number was so large, I felt something was strange."
"Later, I read books about Qu County. I originally wanted to understand the local situation, but I accidentally discovered something. In the 19th year of Tianhe, there was heavy rain in Qu County for a whole month. Logically speaking, that season was when the food was about to be ripe.
, with such a natural disaster, the harvest that year will not be much, and the grain tax collected at the end of the year will not be much."
"But I clearly remember that that year Qu County was the county with the highest grain tax among the surrounding counties. My father asked specifically about it at that time, and what I got was that the county magistrate took the lead in fighting the disaster, and the disaster stabilized quickly. The harvest that year was
It's quite good. The people were grateful for the emperor's great kindness and paid a few cents more in grain taxes. As a result, the magistrate of Qu County was promoted to an official position, and he was originally going to go to Beijing to take up his post."
"Coincidentally, three months later, the county magistrate wrote a letter saying that his parents were old and there were young children at home, so it was inconvenient to go to Beijing, so he declined."
The situation Xie Xun mentioned has precedent in Daqi.
Da Qi regards filial piety as his first virtue.
The emperor had to demote him, but if his parents were older, he could stay where he was on the grounds of filial piety.
Xie Xun continued: "I checked the records of Qu County in previous years. Everything was going smoothly, and the grain tax payment was getting higher and higher year by year. It was not until the magistrate of Qu County declined His Majesty's order to be transferred to Kyoto that the grain tax in Qu County gradually declined.
Several surrounding counties are at the same level.”
After listening to Xie Xun's words, Qin Rushuang probably understood.
I'm afraid that by the time the letter citing filial piety comes out, the original magistrate of Qu County will have long since passed away.
Then I felt very frightened. Who is the person who has been writing this book every month for more than a year?
Is it true that someone can quietly replace a local county magistrate without anyone discovering it? As long as a commoner becomes suspicious, this matter cannot be kept secret for that long.
Combined with all the unusual circumstances today, even though Qin Rushuang had seen a lot of strong winds and waves, a chill still rose up all over her body.
Could it be that it was not a certain person who killed the county magistrate, but...
