Jiang Mian understood that for a powerful leader like Yang Tinghe, it didn’t matter what procedures were followed. Even if Yang Tinghe secretly asked the local government to transfer the pig iron away, as long as the pig iron could still be used in the northwest armament, Yang Tinghe was not at fault.
, and will also gain higher reputation among the government and the public.
How courageous is it to dare to fight against the emperor's power for the sake of the country?
But many things cannot be as smooth sailing as Yang Tinghe imagined.
Yongping Fucheng.
That day was the day after the pig iron was transferred to Yongping Mansion. Yang Shen went to the magistrate's office to inquire about the case for a day. At night, he was planning to take a closer look at the case to see whether the case of the previous attack on the mine was truthfully reported, saying that the Jin Yiwei knew the law and violated the law, or whether it was true.
As Sun Jiao said, push it on Di Yi in the Northeast...
Just at this moment, there was a rapid knock on the door outside.
Yang Shen stood up and went to open the door, but when he saw Yang Ping coming in with a burly man, he immediately became wary.
Yang Ping introduced: "My eldest son, this is Li Boring, the commander of the Yongping Guards."
Yang Shen frowned: "Why are you here? Is the matter not done? Don't you know how to avoid it? If you have anything to do, you can just talk to someone in secret. What do you mean by coming here? Come in!"
Yang Shen was afraid of being seen.
Even though everyone knew that Yang Tinghe secretly appointed Huairou Bo Shi Zan to do this, Yang Shen still had to avoid any contact with the local garrison and not let the Yang family get involved in this "stealing" pig iron incident.
The two entered the room, and Yang Ping looked nervous: "Master, something happened. The pig iron that was originally transported to various parts of the guardhouse disappeared overnight..."
Yang Shen's body was shaken: "You...you say it again! How can a large amount of pig iron disappear out of thin air?"
"yes."
Yang Ping had no choice but to turn his gaze to Li Boring aside.
Li Bor knelt down with a bang and kowtowed: "My humble duty and incompetence have caused people everywhere to step up their guard, but overnight, the pig iron hidden everywhere was as empty as if it had never been there before."
The people in the warehouse don't know anything about this, and they have tortured the guards everywhere, but there are currently no clues."
Yang Shen was a little confused.
With his intelligence and wisdom, he never expected that things would develop to this point.
That's millions of kilograms of pig iron, not hundreds or thousands of kilograms. How can it evaporate out of thin air? Are you kidding me?
Yang Ping said: "Master, our people also went to see the scene. When the iron was transported into the warehouse, our people followed it secretly. Logically speaking, such problems should not occur. Some places where pig iron is stored are still in each thousand households.
I am stationed there, but I don’t know why…”
Yang Shen thought for a moment and shouted sternly: "There must be an insider! Zhang Bingyong has been the prefect of Yongping Prefecture for the past two years. He must have bribed your Yongping Guards Military Academy. Li Boring, why are you doing this job?"
of?"
Li Bor continued to kneel on the ground, with a look of annoyance on his face: "It has been less than three months since I took up my humble post..."
Yang Shen was very irritable.
Never thought that this would happen?
He suddenly recalled Zhu Hao's previous worries. Zhu Hao once mentioned that the development of the matter was a bit unbelievable, just like a trap carefully laid by Jin Yiwei. At that time, he had promised that he would not be afraid of even the trap.
But he didn't expect that the trap was dug so deep that he, Yang Shen, might never be able to climb out after falling in.
"You guys go and investigate again! I'm going to the prefect's Yamen now!"
At the critical moment, Yang Shen could only think of Zhu Hao.
After all, Zhu Hao is the local prefect, and he has important people, money, and connections. If the batch of pig iron is lost, the situation will probably be difficult to control, so he can only trouble Zhu Hao again.
Yang Ping asked: "Then...should I inform the master?"
Yang Shen said angrily: "Are you crazy? The top priority now is to get the pig iron back! Now it's not a matter of whose hands the pig iron is, but someone wants to take this opportunity to criticize my father for being a self-stealer! And you, Li Bor, if
If you can’t get your things back, I think you’re waiting to be punished by the court!”
…
…
Yang Shen stayed overnight
Go find Zhu Hao.
Zhu Hao was enjoying himself and was reading a book in the calligraphy room. When he learned that Yang Shen was visiting, he did not go out to greet him. Instead, he had someone welcome Yang Shen into his study.
"Brother Yongxiu, tonight's dinner was not enjoyable enough? How about we have some hot pot tomorrow?" Zhu Hao said with a smile.
Yang Shen said with a dark face: "Thank you for still laughing, that batch of pig iron was lost."
The smile on Zhu Hao's face suddenly froze, and he asked in surprise: "What?"
Yang Shen then told Zhu Hao exactly what Yang Ping and Li Boring had reported to him.'
Zhu Hao looked very upset after hearing this: "I just received a letter from Sun Laobutang. He asked me not to mess around. He said that this matter may involve serious matters and asked me not to do something irreversible to show my integrity. I
I also thought that with the help of your father-in-law and many civil servants in the court, everything should be fine. Why...have you checked it out? Is there any insider? If such a large batch of pig iron is to be transported away, there can't be no trace at all, right?
?』
At this time, Yang Shen, sitting there, felt a sense of sadness that he had no love left in his life.
Ever since he arrived at Yongping Mansion, he felt that he was always taking the initiative, but he didn't know that he had been taken advantage of long ago. He was led by the nose but still didn't know it.
Yang Shen said: "We are investigating now. I suspect that the Yongping Guards under Li Bor may have been bribed by the Jinyiwei in the past few years. Do you want the Jinyiwei to mine in the place and live in peace with the garrison? Over there at the guard station
...Alas! I didn’t think carefully.”
Zhu Hao smiled bitterly and said: "You want to say that the front legs of this batch of pig iron were transported to the local health office, and the back legs were transported away by the Jinyi Guards? Where is the iron now? If this batch of iron cannot be found, a black pot will be used.
It will be held on our heads! Especially on me. This batch of iron was taken from me and is worth tens of thousands of taels of silver. If Your Majesty pursues the case, can I afford to pay compensation?"
Yang Shen looked at Zhu Hao helplessly, with a strange look in his eyes.
You kid, are you still thinking about whether you can afford to pay compensation?
Shouldn't you be worried about how Jin Yiwei will punish you? They will take you directly to Beizhen Fusi Prison, torture you severely, and make you hand over the pig iron. You will have to shed a layer of your skin even if you don't die.
Zhu Hao said: "I'll have someone check it out right now."
"Wait a minute."
Yang Shen suddenly thought of something and called Zhu Hao.
Zhu Hao stood still and looked at Yang Shen.
Yang Shen said: "As you said before, if this matter is really a trap carefully designed by Jin Yiwei, then they have been sure of everything from the beginning. Since they are fully prepared, they will not let you find it easily..."
Zhu Hao frowned: "Brother Yang, what do you mean by this? You don't want me to go up alone to apologize and put all the responsibilities on me alone, right?"
"Um!?"
Yang Shen raised his head and looked at Zhu Hao, as if to say, how could you miss me so much?
Am I the kind of person who blames others?
But after a slight pause, another thought came to his mind, how do you understand me so well? It would be great if I could sacrifice you to save my father and me.
Yang Shen said: "I don't mean to sacrifice you, but we still have to sit down and discuss it in the long term."
Zhu Hao said coldly: "Brother Yongxiu, I told you about the seizure of pig iron because I believed you. If I had been a little more flexible and told Sun Butang about it earlier, his letter would have made it clear to me.
Maybe I won’t be involved in this matter! Now that the pig iron is gone, everyone will think that I am someone who united with the local police to embezzle this batch of iron. Am I not going to be able to defend myself?”
"You...oh!"
Yang Shen didn't expect Zhu Hao's reaction to be so violent, but he thought about it.
In the past, Zhu Hao did not like to get involved in the disputes of the court. He only wanted to be an official and live a stable life. Who would have thought that Zhu Hao's wish came true and he finally became the prefect, but he was still used as a pawn by several forces.
At the mercy of Zhu Hao, if such a large batch of pig iron is now missing after being seized by Zhu Hao, it is tantamount to putting it in a situation where it will never be recovered.
This is not a question of whether he can still be an official in the future. Whether his life can be saved is another question.
Zhu Haodao: "This matter must be related to Tang Yin's visit to Yongping Mansion. He came here to discuss things with me on the surface, but in fact he was setting up a conspiracy."
Count me! No, I have to go see him!"
With that said, Zhu Hao stood up and left.
Yang Shen quickly blocked the agitated Zhu Hao and said, "If you go like this, you may fall into their trap."
Zhu Hao sighed: "I'm in a trap now!"
"Then I'll go with you!"
Yang Shen said, "After meeting Tang Yin, don't say anything. Let me do it. They will definitely pretend to be confused in front of us! If there are conditions, it may be okay. If they don't make conditions, then it will be a dead end. You don't have to admit it.
There is such a thing."
Zhu Hao said, "Is it too late for me to deny it now?"
Yang Shen gave Zhu Hao a firm nod: "It's too late, remember, whenever my father is around, he will protect you!"
"Um."
Zhu Hao nodded, now he understood. Yang Shen had been arguing in front of him for a long time, but he still planned to sacrifice him and distance himself from Yang Tinghe's relationship with this matter.
…
…
The inn where Tang Yin stayed.
Because Yang Shen lived in the inn, after Tang Yin and Lu Song arrived in Fucheng, they directly stayed at an inn and had nothing to do every day. This was completely different from Yang Shen's attitude of being diligent in investigating cases. When he came to Yongping Mansion, it seemed that he was just
For fun and relaxation.
He suddenly heard that Zhu Hao and Yang Shen were visiting in the middle of the night. He didn't understand what was going on.
Because no one told him from beginning to end that the batch of pig iron was lost.
"you……"
Tang Yin doesn't like facing Zhu Hao and Yang Shen at the same time.
He is the kind of straight-laced person who is not good at acting in front of others, and even if he wants to act, he can't act well.
But now that Zhu Hao and Yang Shen are here together, he must abide by the rules and act like he is "not very familiar" with Zhu Hao in front of others.
Zhu Hao smiled and said: "Mr. Tang, I know you are good at fine wine, so I brought you a hundred-year-old wine... Can you please invite us in to sit down?"
Tang Yin said: "Wait a minute, I'll call someone first..."
"No need." Zhu Hao said, "When our master and disciple meet, why should outsiders be present? Besides, Lu Qianhu has other things to do."
Tang Yin thought to himself, what kind of fun are you doing?
You just came by yourself, but you actually brought Yang Yongxiu with you?
You might as well play me to death!
"come in."
Tang Yin made way for the two of them to enter.
After Zhu Hao and Yang Shen entered the room, they looked around, as if the batch of millions of kilograms of pig iron was hidden in this room, or there were some important clues in this room.