The struggle of the eight blessings of rebirth

Chapter 242 Trial
The case was pending, and the three of them felt that it was not a problem to stay in the yamen like this, and they had to go out for a walk to feel the sentiment of the people in the market.It is this walk that makes the clouds open to see the moonlight.

In the streets and alleys, there are small stalls with calligraphy and paintings everywhere. The border of the south of the Yangtze River is full of cultural activities. Many businesses linked to culture are popular here. Sellers of pens, inks, paper and inkstones, calligraphy and paintings, and seal carvings are blooming everywhere.The three of them were walking, and they passed by a paint shop selling cinnabar. The boss was talking to a customer: "I said, where did you go? I haven't seen you for a few months, have you changed your career?" The customer was full of impatience: "Go, go, get your dirty hands away, my whole body is from the scissors of "Qiaoyun Pavilion"."

"Which employer did you come by from the cabinet? I don't know you yet? Let's talk. Since you're here, let's settle the previous extravagant bill." The guest curled his mouth: "When will I be short?" Passed your money? In the past, you bullied the poor and loved the rich! Look carefully! After speaking, he took out a silver ingot and threw it in his hand. The boss's eyes immediately narrowed into a line: "I said you The boy has developed, so bring it, it just pays off the debt. "

The guest slapped the silver heavily on the table: "Take it, take it, I don't care about these few dollars!" As soon as the shopkeeper took the silver in, the three of them approached, pretending to see more The goods on the treasure shelf, but Yinzhen's eyes glanced at the guest who spent a lot of money.

Not long after the customer walked out of the store, he was followed by Yinzhen's hidden guards. During the conversation with the boss, Yinhu learned that this person sells calligraphy for a living. He has some small skills and is good at imitating other people's handwriting. However, he is greedy for money and stingy. , hands and feet are not clean, and the reputation in their circle is not good.

Finally, Yinhu told the boss very politely that the money he just received was official money, and he was more interested in it, and was willing to give a little more money in exchange, but the boss didn't care, and he knew that the three of them were from rich families from the north just by listening to their accent. The younger brother didn't dare to ask for more money, so he exchanged the silver equivalent to Yinhu.

After getting the official bank, the three of them went back to Jiangsu Governor's Yamen, waiting for the guard who followed the guest to come back and report the situation.He also invited Mr. Zhang Boxing, and told him what he had seen and heard about the day. When it came to the scholar, Yinhu took out the money he had exchanged and handed it to Zhang Boxing: "My lord, do you think this money came from the officialdom? "

Zhang Boxing took a closer look: "This is indeed the official bank. Anyone who needs to pay the official bank in the name of the public will use the official bank." "Then, what does Master Zhang think is the possibility of ordinary people owning the official bank?" Mr. Zhang frowned. : "It's hard to say, silver is a circulating thing, official silver is better than ordinary silver on the market, and the weight is sufficient. Ordinary people may have the opportunity to collect one or two ingots, and most of them will exchange them for ordinary silver. After all, you can change some more.”

Yinhu squinted his eyes: "I think that person is quite generous, as if he has too much money to spend, just showing off." Yinzhen curled his lips: "There will be news soon, maybe this is a clue." Zhang Boxing said Hearing the spirit: "Clues?" Yinzhi coughed lightly: "According to the people around him, this person copies books for others and imitates paintings for teeth. His skills are quite superb, but his character is not so good. "

"Huh? So, he might have something to do with this fraud case?" Mr. Zhang was taken aback. The three of you have only been here for a few days, and you have caught such a big fish. The efficiency is really high.Taking a closer look at these three people, Yinzhen's aura is undoubtedly the most powerful one, showing an irresistible power in every gesture, while Yinhu is a breeze, making people feel naturally close.As for Yinzhi, he seems like a complete scholar with a bookish air.

When it was time to light the lamp, the dark guard came back, told the three of them what he had seen, and put a box that came along on the table. When he opened it, he found that there were more than ten ingots of five taels of official silver. , with 100 taels and 300 taels of silver bills pressed underneath, all stamped with Kangxi treasure banknotes.The three of them exchanged glances, there must be something wrong with this person.

Without further ado, that night, the guest was gagged and locked in the governor's office in Jiangsu, and his home was ransacked to the bottom.In addition to the money stolen by An Weishun, several copies of the exam papers were also found. Of course, they were not written by the examinee himself, but copied by this "Miaobi Guest".

After the things are in hand, the rest is to interrogate the prisoners. According to Yinzhen's intention, interrogate overnight, torture to extract confessions, and make a quick decision, but was stopped by Mr. Zhang.The old man firmly believes that there must be no torture to extract confessions in his classroom.The next day, the boss sat in court to interrogate the guest, and learned that his real name was Wang Xing, and he specialized in imitating calligraphy and paintings of famous people.

When asked about the official bank and examination papers found at home, this person did not rush: "Returning to the adults, these coins are all paid by the employer. The small ones just copy. Whoever pays the high wages, the small ones For whom to copy, there are rules in our business, one does not ask the source of goods, and the other does not ask the employer, if you want to know something, then I am sorry, I don’t know anything.”

The boss was dumbfounded, but this Wang Xing was honest and brought out all the rules of the industry.Immediately, the gavel patted: "Who is the one who told you to copy the test papers?" It’s getting to the point of copying, and it’s not popular here yet, in places like Jinling, Hangzhou, and Yangzhou, a copy of the paper can be sold for sky-high prices!”

Yinzhen and Yinhu behind the screen were enraged, but could not show up, so they could only listen patiently.The old man interrupted his eloquence: "You are in the market, don't you know the difference between official silver and ordinary silver? I just want to ask you, which employer gave these official silver and these bank notes? What did he do?"

"Returning to the master, the little one just said that in our business, you can't ask who the employer is, but if you talk about the money, the little one is not afraid to tell you that he is a very generous employer, and the villain lives in his house." For three days, he offered delicious food and drink every day. He only needed to do one thing, copy the names of hundreds of families, and he would provide the handwriting. There were more than 70 articles. Afterwards, he gave Xiao wages, which is strange to say, a stack of small-denomination banknotes and small ingots of silver.”

"What does this employer look like, and where does his accent sound?" Zhang Boxing frowned, and he was 100% sure that this employer was the direct suspect in this fraud case. More than 50 articles with hundreds of surnames were obviously taken. The handwriting of seventy examination papers was copied in order to pick out the words to form the name.

"Returning to the master, the younger one has never met the employer, and the money is all given by the servants. They all have big, three-faced faces and fierce faces. The money is placed in front of the younger one. As long as they copy it, they will let the younger one go." Wang Xingru said. Say.Zhang Boxing was helpless. If he continued to ask questions like this, he would not be able to find out anything. It was a waste of time.At this time, a note was handed out, with only two words: "Detained."

Wang Xing was imprisoned, and the note was written by Yinzhen. He was very dissatisfied with Zhang Boxing's interrogation method.So, in the middle of the night, Yinzhen's hidden guards lifted Wang Xing out of the prison, and Yinzhen interrogated himself, while Yinsi was on the sidelines for judging. After a whip, Wang Xing finally "remembered" some valuable clues: "The handwriting provided by the employer seems to have been rubbed from other places rather than written by himself. And that place doesn't look like a home, but an inn, with hands inside and outside, except for the tables, stools and beds in the room. , there is no other furniture, please forgive me, the little one only knows so much!"

Yinzhen and Yinhu exchanged glances, and then looked at the copied evidence. They also found that the perpetrator was very cunning, and those official banknotes were just flaws that he showed that were not flaws.It seems that to expose the truth, we have to start with the last case of the theft of the scholar's examination papers, and invite that Yayuan from Wuxi to the yamen for a walk.However, instead of being in Zhang Boxing's yamen, he had to go to the yamen of Liangjiang Governor's Mansion, and the imperial envoy had to sit in the court in person.

Two days later, the three imperial envoys parachuted into Jinling, regardless of Ge Li's attitude, they threw Wang Xing into the cell, made the poor scholar sue again, and charged him with selling imperial examination articles to collect ill-gotten gains. Yayuan and his father from Wuxi were "invited" to the court, and in this case, Yinhu came forward to advocate a public trial, and asked the yamen servants to go to the streets and alleys to beat gongs and drums first.

As a result, on the day of the trial, the alleys were empty, and some unqualified candidates mixed with the crowd, watching the movement in the lobby.As a result, the trial process was very simple. First, the neighbor of Yayuan in Wuxi was asked to testify, proving that the child was illiterate and could not even write a thousand-character essay. How could he be successful?The defendant's father was scared out of his wits. He originally thought that he was charged with selling a few extra exam papers and was going to fine some money to eliminate the disaster. He didn't expect that this bite would actually bite into his son's cheating.Immediately kowtowed like pounding garlic, and accused the poor scholar of making false accusations.

Yinzhen put on a straight face and handed out a blank sheet of paper, and the two of them rewrote it in class.The plaintiff has also worked hard these days and can memorize the article, but the handwriting is wrong at first glance. Compared with the scholar, it is like a sky and a ground, and it is suddenly exposed.The defendant's father admitted that he spent money to get away, and found someone to buy a quota for an Asian dollar. The total cost was nearly [-] yuan, and the family suddenly became poor. He heard that there were exam papers sold elsewhere, so this happened. The idea of ​​selling test papers to subsidize the family.

The presiding judge Yinzhen didn't say much, and directly ordered the local officials in Wuxi to ransack the house.The plaintiff and his father are out of jail and sent to the army.As for who he bought the quota from, he didn't need to ask to know, the academy was out of luck.Yinzhen ordered that from now on, anyone who has definite evidence that his papers have been plagiarized by others can sue!If it is verified that it is true, it must be innocent.

As for the poor scholar at the beginning, he got 500 taels of silver from the confiscated family property of the defendant, and asked him to go back and prepare well, waiting for the day when the imperial examination will be re-opened.

(End of this chapter)