Two days later, Li Xiu arrived in Qua County, Runzhou, where 3.5 million guan of taxes disappeared.

The disappearance of tax money was a major case that occurred at the end of last year. The Salt and Iron Supervision, the Ministry of Justice, and Dali Temple all sent people to investigate, and the governor and the county magistrate were all imprisoned for this.

But neither the ship nor the copper coins were found.

Li Xiu has read the files of the Ministry of Justice and has a rough understanding of the situation of the case.

"Brother, is this the case of missing tax money last year?"

Li Xiu stood at the bow of the boat and asked a vegetable-growing old farmer loudly.

The old farmer nodded, "It's here. Last year, many tolerances came to investigate this case."

"Young Master, why did the fleet disappear here?" Xiaomei asked.

“This question is a good question.”

Li Xiu explained to Xiaomei and Pei Min: "The Ministry of Justice, the files of Dali Temple and the memorials of Jiang Shidu all said that about a thousand bandits were ambushing here. They built a floating bridge on the Caohe River, quickly boarded the trough ship, controlled the entire fleet, and all the two hundred soldiers guarding the fleet were killed by them."

Xiaomei was still puzzled, "I think this is just a place to board the boat, so there should be no clue!"

Pei Min shook her head, "Not necessarily!"

"What do Lao Pei have any ideas?"

Pei Min looked around and looked at a village not far away. "If I handle this case, I will definitely start from the surrounding villages. They launch an attack here and must make a lot of preparations, including mobilizing ships, etc., to concentrate all kinds of useful information and find clues to solve the case."

"You make sense. The Ministry of Justice, Dali Temple and Salt and Iron Supervision have all investigated this way, but the results of the investigation are nothing."

Pei Min was stunned, "How could it be?"

"The investigation report of the Ministry of Justice is that the other party chased from the south and caught up with the fleet here. Several merchant ships happened to be parked by the river, and they connected them to form a floating bridge. The same is true for the report of Dali Temple, and even the memorial of Jiang Shidu is a conclusion."

Speaking of this, Li Xiu smiled faintly and said, "Did you find the problem?"

Xiaomei shook her head, and Pei Min also pondered and said nothing.

"The problem lies in their failure to exchange the case with each other. Whether it is Dali Temple, the Ministry of Justice, or the Salt and Iron Supervision, they all investigate their own investigations, but the investigation conclusions are amazing coincidence. If they exchange the case with each other, they will find clues."

Li Xiu glanced at Pei Min, "Did Pei Jiu think of it?"

Pei Min nodded, "I understand what the young master means. They came to the conclusion after investigation and visiting. They visited the same group of people, so the young master thinks they made the same mistake, but what if the truth is this?"

Li Xiu smiled and said, "They have finished the normal process, and it doesn't make sense for me to walk again. I have to send a surprise troops to achieve results."

………………

In the Qua County Government, the county magistrate Chen Feng, who received Li Xiu, was dismissed and escorted to Beijing for guilt after the tax money disappeared.

County lieutenant Chen Feng should also have the main responsibility, but he needed to cooperate with various departments to handle the case, so he was able to remain in office, which was also his luck. The case ended up in failure and he was not investigated.

I heard that it was the royal family doing the task, Chen Feng was particularly polite, and that was to handle the case on behalf of the emperor and the regent.

He took out a thick file and placed it in front of Li Xiu, "It is the record of the missing tax money case last year. Please check it out!"

"Tell me the specific case first!"

"The case happened on the night of December 2nd last year. Four hundred sand ships carried 3.5 million jin of tax money from Hangzhou, and disappeared from the territory of Liujia Village, Xiaomengzhuang, north of Qu'a County. They were robbed by a team of unknown origin and their whereabouts are still unknown."

"Dali Temple, what are they here to investigate?"

"There was a fierce battle that night, but it ended in a short time. The whole process happened to be witnessed by a local farmer who was caged to catch shrimps by the river, who provided the key testimony."

"I read the testimony of this farmer, but it did not help solve the case."

"The reason why the case was not solved was that the fleet continued to move north and disappeared completely after sailing into the Yangtze River. This had nothing to do with this farmer."

"Where is this witness? I want to meet him."

"I clean up a little and take Your Highness over."

"No need, his testimony is not very useful. I just want to hear what happened that night. Just tell me where he lives?"

………………

In the afternoon of the same day, Li Xiu found the only eyewitness in Liujia Village.

This person is named Liu Silang. He is a middle-aged man in his fifties. He has no wife or children and is single. He was a scoundrel when he was young. Now he is idle and does not do his job properly.

He heard that he was here to investigate what happened that night, so he asked Li Xiu for the benefits of two jin of money, and then waved his hand and started talking nonstop.

"That night, I was catching shrimps by the river. A huge fleet of ships came from the river. At this moment, a team of men in black rushed from a distance. More than a dozen ships were parked on the shore. They used them to build a floating bridge to intercept the fleet on the river..."

"How much time did the battle take?"

"I guess it's about one stick of incense! These men in black are very powerful, with thousands of people, and they kill the soldiers on the ship begging for mercy."

"where were you?"

"I was hiding in the water at that time, and scared me. I blocked me with a cluster of water plants."

………………

"Did you find out he has a problem?" After leaving Liujia Village, Li Xiu asked Pei Min.

"From his narrative, it feels reasonable. No loopholes have been found for the time being!"

"But I found out."

"What loophole did the young master find?"

Li Xiu said coldly: "He is still alive and is the biggest loophole!"

………………

At night, Liu Silang led a donkey out of the house, looked at both sides with a sneaky look, and rode on the donkey and ran out of the village.

After leaving the village entrance, Liu Silang followed the official road and headed straight to Qu'a County.

But less than half a mile away, Liu Silang suddenly felt himself flying in the air and landing heavily. Before he could get up, he stepped on his face with one foot...

Liu Silang was dizzy and was dragged into a forest. When he looked up, he saw that the prince who was asking about him during the day was looking at him with a sneer.

"Oh my! Your Highness, I'm going to the river to catch eels, and it's best to catch them at night."

Pei Min found an iron sign from him and handed it to Li Xiu. Li Xiu looked at it and said, "You actually have a sign of entering the city at night. If I guess correctly, it was given to you by the county magistrate Chen Feng! You are in a hurry to report to him about the daytime situation. Did I say anything wrong?"

Liu Silang was speechless and could not answer Li Xiu's question.

Li Xiu sneered, "I thought you should have been silenced for a long time, but you didn't expect you to be alive, but you won't live long. When we leave, someone will soon come to silence you!"

Liu Silang was not stupid at all. He immediately understood what Li Xiu meant. He was so scared that his face was pale and kowtowed desperately: "The villain actually didn't see anything. I was not by the river that night. They asked me to say it. They made up a set of rhetoric for me to memorize it."

"who are they?"

"It's the county magistrate Chen Feng whom Your Highness mentioned!"

………………

Chen Feng never dreamed that Li Xiu would appear at night.

At this time, Li Xiu was sitting on the wide soft couch in his study, fiddling with a jade knife on the table, and Gongsun Xiaomei stood behind Li Xiu.

"I encountered an interesting thing in Lianshui County. Their county magistrate was actually fake and he was wearing a mask. I was very curious, are you wearing a mask too?"

Chen Feng was held down by Pei Min and could not move. Sweat flowed down his forehead.

"I am the imperial court official. Even if your highness is a prince, you can't treat me like this!"

"I'm also serious. Don't act with me. Liu Silang has made all the tricks. He was not there at all that night. Everything was your arrangement!"

Li Xiu walked up to him, slashed his face with a jade knife, and a stream of blood gushed out.

"If you can't find 3.5 million jin of taxes, you can only take responsibility. It's light to destroy your nine clans."

Chen Feng gritted his teeth and said, "I tell you that it was Maitreya and Wang Dongdu who joined forces to rob the tax money. So what can you do? You can't find it back!"

"The robbery did not happen in Qua County at all, right?"

"That's right! As early as Hangzhou, all the boatmen and guards were poisoned to death by the ghost mother, and they were replaced by Wang Dongdu's subordinates..."

"What's the point of performing in Qua County?"

"Your Highness is so smart, wouldn't you think?"

"You have long been dissatisfied with the governor of Runzhou Yao Liang. Take this opportunity to get rid of him?"

A trace of horror flashed in Chen Feng's eyes. He just said casually, but he didn't expect to guess the convenience.

"Your Highness, this case is very deep. I advise you not to investigate it anymore."
Chapter completed!