xymnovel 080: The Lianhua Case in Qingzhou
080: The Lianhua Case in Qingzhou
Upon hearing this, a thought flashed through Su Wen's mind: back in Youzhou, Liu Yongqiang had said that he was forced to kill the overseer at the Lingnan mine, and was then falsely accused of treason. The authorities sent a thousand soldiers to kill everyone at the mine.
Suddenly, Su Wen felt a chill run down his spine. Could it be that what Liu Yongqiang experienced back then was the same wrongful case that Zhao Wanfeng's father suffered?
Zhao Wanfeng's eyes were filled with tears, but she didn't let them fall. Instead, she spoke in a slightly pleading tone, "Su Shaoqing, I know you are an upright person, so I want to ask you to seek justice for my father, my family, and the thousands of people who were killed in that unjust treasonous rebellion!"
Su Wen's mind was in complete chaos, his thoughts racing, but he managed to remain calm and asked softly, "Back then, that person was already a governor. So what is his position now? What's his name?"
Zhao Wanfeng looked at Su Wen and said softly, "The magistrate of Wuyuan County at that time was Pei Zhixing, and the governor of Yongzhou was Yuwen Rong. Now, Pei Zhixing is the prefect of Lingnan Circuit, and Yuwen Rong is the current Censor-in-Chief!"
Upon hearing the name, Su Wen couldn't help but take a deep breath. Goodness, this is quite difficult!
Zhao Wanfeng said, "That's why I told you before that I would only dare to tell you if you became an imperial envoy, or the military governor of Lingnan, or the prefect of Lingnan. Now that I've told you, do you dare to help me?"
Su Wen took a deep breath, picked up the wine glass on the table, poured himself a glass of wine, and drank it down in one gulp. He did not answer Zhao Wanfeng right away.
The two sat in the tavern for a long time, while Zhao Wanfeng drank wine from a wine jar.
Su Wenze fell asleep without realizing it!
In his dream, Su Wen saw a landscape painting. Two people were drinking tea in a pavilion. Amu was standing on one side, and Qingyun Daoist was standing on the other side. Su Wen seemed to be standing in the position where the painting was being painted.
The four of them had smiles on their faces, and the atmosphere was peaceful!
One of the men, who was drinking tea, stood up and bowed respectfully to Su Wen, saying, "We now entrust the task to the Chief Justice to clear our name!"
Then, suddenly everything behind them turned pitch black, and thousands of figures appeared in an instant. Among them was a general in armor who bowed to Su Wen and said, "Chief Commander Su, I beg you!"
Immediately afterward, the sky and earth changed color, and a strong wind came rushing towards us.
Su Wen shuddered and woke up from the nightmare, gasping for breath.
He found himself sitting in a tavern, but it was already dawn. It seemed he had unknowingly slept there all night.
Upon seeing Su Wen awake, the waiter hurried forward and handed him a letter, saying, "Sir, the lady who drank with you at the same table last night asked me to give you this letter!"
Su Wen took the letter, opened it, and read it.
Su Shaoqing, this case involves two high-ranking officials. With your current position and background, I'm afraid you can't compete with them. Therefore, I dare not trouble you. I will wander the world first. If one day, Su Shaoqing, you have enough strength and background to seek justice for your father and the innocent people, I will come to your door to thank you!
Please forgive me for leaving without saying goodbye. If there is a chance, we will meet again. I wish Mr. Su Wen a smooth and successful career and a peaceful and prosperous life. Written by Zhao Wanfeng!
After reading the letter, Su Wen gently rubbed his head and sighed.
Actually, he wanted to help, but...
Can he really do it?
One was the Prefect of Lingnan Circuit, not a Prefectural Prefect, but the Prefect of Lingnan Circuit; the other was the Vice Censor-in-Chief. This was simply not in the same league as him!
Thinking of this, Su Wen sighed again, took out some money from his pocket, and said, "Bartender, the bill!"
The waiter responded and hurried over, saying, "Sir, it's thirty coins in total. After you fell asleep yesterday, that woman drank quite a bit of wine!"
Su Wen responded, counted out thirty coins from his bag and handed them to the waiter, then got up and left the tavern!
......
The next day, at noon.
Today, the number of people at the entrance of Dongshi Market was many times greater than the day before, and everyone was talking and making a lot of noise.
After returning yesterday, Su Wen ordered people to post notices all over Qingzhou City and officially announced that the case had been solved. As for the matter concerning Yi Tian, as well as Tubo and the entire Tang Dynasty flower shop, Su Wen did not make any announcements, after all, this matter was of great importance.
Before the sage receives a complete case report, no information should be leaked, otherwise, who knows if Yi Tian, far away in Shazhou, will find out.
In ancient times, there were no telephones, and information was almost always out of sync. What Su Wen needed was this information gap, since the other party didn't have something like "urgent delivery over 800 li".
Actually, Su Wen didn't know how fast the 800-li urgent delivery was until Xu Ge explained it to him.
In the Tang Dynasty, there was a post station every twenty li. All the post stations were equipped with horses and servants. As long as it was an urgent 800-li dispatch, the mission was to change people and horses, and the urgent documents could not be stopped, so as to reach Chang'an as quickly as possible.
For example, according to Xu Ge, when Xue Ne of Youzhou fought a great battle with the Uyghurs, it was more than 2,000 li away from Chang'an, yet the emperor in Chang'an received the news in just four days.
This demonstrates just how incredibly fast the postal system of the Tang Dynasty was.
As Su Wen ordered the prisoner, the owner of the hairpin shop, to be taken to the execution site, many people in the surrounding area threw vegetable leaves, stones, cow dung, horse dung, and other such things at the shop owner.
Instead of getting angry, the shopkeeper burst into laughter. He even turned and glared at Su Wen, saying viciously, "Su Wen, Buddha will avenge me! I will be watching from heaven as Buddha tears you to pieces!"
Before the words were even finished, someone in the crowd threw a bag of dog feces.
It slapped him across the face, and some of the splatter even went into his mouth, making Su Wen feel nauseous.
At this moment, the middle-aged woman who had thrown the dog feces angrily shouted, "Bah! A murderer like you doesn't deserve to go to heaven! You only deserve to go to hell and be boiled in oil!"
He was about to get angry when the two constables beside him showed no mercy. They struck him in the mouth with a stick, knocking out several teeth and leaving his mouth full of blood. Then they struck him in the back of the knee, and he immediately knelt down.
One of the constables kicked him in the back, causing him to fall to the ground, and then began to put a rope around his neck.
At this moment, some officials were carrying out their duties, and the people who were throwing things stopped.
Su Wen picked up the token and threw it on the ground, saying, "Execute!"
With a gong, several men mounted horses and galloped up, pulling him up directly. Just like last time, because the power of the carriage was not enough to tear off a person's limbs in an instant, the tearing was prolonged. He fainted from the pain, then woke up from the pain, and then saw himself being dismembered.
Even before death, the face can still blink and the lips can still twitch. This is because the nerves do not die in an instant!
After the man died, someone in the crowd shouted, "Sir, this man was extremely vicious and killed more than ten people. I beg you not to collect his body. I am willing to donate 30,000 coins to the deceased's family. Let my hunting dogs eat his corpse. Is that alright?"
After these words were spoken, more and more people echoed them, and public sentiment was inflamed. Upon hearing this, Su Wen could not say much.
After all, the government doesn't offer any subsidies or anything else to the deceased. With 30,000 coins for more than ten deceased people, their families can still receive a considerable amount of money, enough to at least prepare for the rest of their lives.
Thinking of this, Su Wen turned around and stepped forward, saying, "This matter is none of my concern; I will not see it, know about it, hear about it, or ask about it. It is all up to you. At dusk, I will send someone to collect the bones. If they are not found, then I will know nothing more!"
After saying that, Su Wen walked away. In fact, Su Wen didn't know whether what he did was right or wrong.
However, seeing the heartbroken expressions on the faces of the deceased's family members, Su Wen thought, "That must be right!"
Of course, this is meaningless to Su Wen, since the murderer has been punished and died, but for the victim's family, it is far from enough!