"Today's attack on the Haiyang Guild Hall was actually done by a villain. Hearing that someone was beaten to death, the villain felt uneasy and feared the king's law, so he came here to surrender."
"Why did you hire thugs to attack the Haiyang Guild Hall?"
"The rice merchants in Haiyang Guild Hall are sworn enemies!"
Mu Min knew that he was here to support him, so he didn't take it seriously and asked casually: "Oh? What's the matter?"
I saw that Qiu Kesheng's face suddenly turned red, and he gritted his teeth and said: "What kind of poison has ruined my family, I wish I could eat his flesh and sleep on his skin..."
Qiu Kesheng said that he was originally the owner of a rice shop in Guangzhou. He had been buying goods in batches from Chaoshan rice merchants. The year before last, his family had suffered heavy losses due to a rebate. In order to make a living, he borrowed money from He Gao, a rice merchant he had always dealt with.
He paid one hundred taels of silver and agreed on an annual profit of three cents. Qiu Kesheng's eight acres of fish pond outside the city was pledged with mulberry foundation.
"At the beginning of last year, because the business was not good and the turnover was very difficult, Xiao Xiao had to negotiate with him and asked him to postpone it for another year. At the end of the year, he would repay the principal with interest. So He Gao agreed, but the annual interest would be increased by one year.
The younger one had no choice but to agree."
However, in the past few years, the market has been bad and business has been difficult. At the end of the year, not to mention repaying debts, I lost dozens of taels of capital.
"...At the beginning of this year, He Gao asked Xiao to pay back the money. Xiao Xiao still didn't pay, so he negotiated with him to sell the mortgaged fish pond and sanji - each mu was worth more than forty taels of silver. He got the silver
Not only can the principal and interest be repaid, but the younger one can also make a living by leaving over a hundred taels of silver. Who knows, he not only refuses, but says that I already owe him more than six hundred taels for my principal and interest. The younger one fights with him, and he orders his men
After being injured, he hired bandits to forcibly take over the villain's eight-acre fish pond, Sanji, and injured the villain's son who was guarding the field. He lay in bed for several months and still died! The house leaked and it rained.
"The villain's grandson also fell ill not long after." When he said this, Ke Sheng's eyes turned red. "Seeing that her life was in trouble and she had no children, her daughter-in-law remarried and left. I used to have a good family.
My family was ruined by these Chaoshan people." As he spoke, his emotions were touched, and he couldn't help but burst into tears.
Mu Min originally thought that this old man was coming to support her, and her talk of "deep hatred" was all fabricated nonsense. However, judging from his words and expressions, it was definitely not a lie - she had received professional training in human body language and had been exposed to all kinds of human body language.
The prisoners know whether what they say is true or false.
At this point, it was a little confusing. Mu Min thought for a while and asked: "Since you ordered it, where did the money come from?"
This question immediately stopped Qiu Kesheng. He stammered: "Yes, yes, it's the income from selling the house..."
"Your house is so valuable, how can you hire so many people? I heard that hiring people from Guandi Temple is not cheap."
Qiu Kesheng showed an uneasy look on his face, but he still insisted: "It's just the proceeds from selling a small house."
Mu Min nodded, knowing that there was no need to continue the interrogation. There is no doubt that this small grain merchant does not have the channels nor the strength to hire Guandi Temple people to do such a big thing - besides, he is working with He Gao
If you have a grudge, even if you destroy your family in revenge, you should deal with He Gao instead of destroying the Haiyang Guild Hall to deal with all the Chaoshan rice merchants.
However, He Gao, who seems to be the victim, still has such a past. It gave Mu Min a deep understanding of this society and taught a solid lesson: This is what is called a Darwinian jungle. It is common for the weak to eat the strong. How can there be such a thing?
Is there any trace of the simplicity and kindness of traditional society?
Mu Min interrogated a few more top bosses and claimed that they were the ones who rushed into the guild hall and beat Chaoshan merchants to death. As for the reason, they all said they had grudges against Chaoshan merchants. As for the specific grudges, they were all the same, and they were not robbed.
His wife had raped his daughter. As for the man who insisted that he beat someone to death: he was in his early sixties, and his old body was rickety. Looking at his trembling appearance, Mu Min thought to herself that this bag was really not elegant:
Not even the least sincerity.
She didn't know that the judicial practice in this time and space was purely formalistic in many cases. If someone died, his life would be sacrificed. As for whether the person who died was the murderer, the government actually didn't care. All dynasties have not allowed scapegoating, but no one is allowed to take the blame.
The dynasty could put an end to it. In Guangdong during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, due to the prevalence of armed fighting, it has become an unspoken judicial rule for the government to allow scapegoating when dealing with large-scale riots.
The confessions are all prepared, and the person who makes the confession only needs to recite them in court, and no one will find fault with the unreasonableness in them.
There is no doubt about this routine confession. No wonder Lin Baiguang said to her, "No need to ask."
It seems that the confessions of the more than 40 beggars caught at the scene are more valuable.
Mu Min ordered: "Send the people from Team B of the Interrogation Section to the detention center for on-site interrogation."
Group A of the interrogation department were naturalized policemen brought from Lingao, and Group B were the government servants retained by Zaoban—they came here specifically to do the work of torture.
Interrogating the arrested beggars did not require too detailed interrogation, so she left the matter to Group B. The remaining slaves in Group B were all eager to "sell well" in front of their new masters, and they were all gearing up to do so.
With his chest and belly folded, he arrived at the detention center with the instruments of torture and took a stance in the main hall of the office.
"Young men, old men and young men," the leader of Group B said with a sneer, "Brothers are on official business today and can't help themselves. You all have to know yourselves - the prison food of these Australians is not delicious."
After giving the order, all the officials under his command shouted in unison and threw the instruments of torture into the courtyard. All they saw were boards, twist whips, sticks, slaps with palms, fingers... and finally a pair of clamping sticks. This thing is a
Just pull it, and even the most powerful gangsters can't defeat it.
As soon as this formation was laid out, all the beggars, who had been scared out of their wits by the bayonet attack, were brought to the hall to ask questions and answer questions.
Most of those arrested came to work according to the arrangements of their boss, and it is said that the price was just "rewards" before and after, and each person was given three hundred coins. The leader was treated slightly better, and received one or two silver coins.
However, there was no useful information from their mouths. These people were just sent by others. They only said that Dagu had asked them to come and attack the Haiyang Guild Hall. It would not be a problem to beat people to death, so naturally someone would take the blame.
The arrested people all claimed to be ordinary beggars who came here at the beggar's orders. Mu Min didn't believe it, so Guan Gong separated them for interrogation and quickly found out the ringleaders - there was also a big bone inside.
Da Gu is not only the leader of a group of beggars, but also has his own territory "Doukou", which is equivalent to the level of "prince" among the people of Guandi Temple, and he has much more information than ordinary beggars.
Mu Min ordered Da Gu to be tried first. He had gone to court several times for people in the past. It was said that he could withstand any kind of punishment and was said to be "not afraid of killing or beating". However, that was under the premise that the government officials used torture and released water to "take care of". Now there is no one
After releasing the water and receiving the second handful of sticks, he couldn't stand it any longer and confessed.
He confessed that the attack on Haiyang Guild Hall was the result of Shi Tidi, the steward of Wenlan Academy.
"Master Shi found Gao Ye, and Gao Ye asked me to send someone to handle the matter. I don't dare to lie to him." Da Gu, whose face turned pale from pain, lay on the ground and confessed intermittently.
"Who is Shi Tidi? He is the head of the academy. Why did he attack the Haiyang Guild Hall?"
"This, this, I don't know about the little one." Da Gu begged, "The little one is just following the instructions of the master."
Mu Min interrogated again and again, but still only asked these questions. But now that there was a suspect, there was an investigation direction. She immediately ordered the arrest.
Shi Tidi was still working in Wenlan Academy when he was caught by the police who suddenly appeared. How did he get caught? Wasn't he already prepared to "surrender"? Mu Min didn't talk nonsense and called people directly.
I put a stick on him, and before he finished the first question, he burst into tears and confessed that it was the historical question and the introduction that brought him business.
"Young one is just introducing me, this matter has nothing to do with me, ah ah ah..."
"Who is the historical title and why did they attack Haiyang Guild Hall?"
"He is my brother," Shi Tidi screamed because the clamp of the stick had not been released, "Please spare me the punishment... He... He is Mr. He's master..."
Further questioning revealed that Mr. He was the leader of the Yahang Guild. In this way, the entire chain of evidence for the attack on the Haiyang Guild Hall was complete.
After Mu Min reported to Lin Baiguang, he immediately asked Liu Xiang to issue an arrest warrant. The police and detective team mobilized to arrest the tooth merchant involved in the case.
Zhang Yu was already in bed. Business was good and he was exhausted from work. As soon as it got dark, the streets were under curfew and the street gates were closed. Ordinary people like him had no choice but to go to bed.
Before he could close his eyes, he suddenly heard a siren blaring in the distance, and then someone shouted for the watchman to open the street gate.
"It's already dark, why would anyone want to open the street gate?" Once the street gate is closed, even the wealthy gentry will not easily open the gate. Zhang Yu was not curious, so he quietly got up from the bed and looked through the crack in the window.
When I went out, I saw a group of policemen in black running over from the street gate with lanterns in hand. Their faces were tense, and they were obviously on errands.
As he watched, he almost screamed. It turned out that at the end of the team, the person holding the lantern was Li Ziyu! He was wearing a black police uniform, a copper basin hat, and a red and white short stick hanging from his waist.
.Although his clothes were a bit weird, he was very energetic. He also had a straight face and followed the team quickly without saying a word.
The police team passed by the entrance of the Walnut Cake Shop, and not far away, stopped at the entrance of Mr. He's house.
He knew about Mr. He. He was a businessman in a dental shop, and his family was very wealthy. His wives all loved Zhang Yu's walnut cakes and dried snacks. Zhang Yu often went to his house to deliver goods. He also met the family several times.
The master and his wife were very kind, and they were happy to pay the bills every month. Once when Zhang Yu went to deliver goods, Mrs. He was so happy that she rewarded him with a few green lychees - these things are very valuable. (.