Looking north towards the rivers and mountains

Chapter 153 Aftermath

As the first rays of sunlight rose in the east, Master Sun had already taken down the door panels of the grain shop and got busy.

Customers were already waiting at the door. Seeing that the shop was open for business, they immediately handed over their money and said, "Two catties of salted fish."

Someone squeezed through the crowd from behind and said, "I'll take four jin, hurry up."

Master Sun sighed inwardly. The salted fish in his shop was made with truly high-quality ingredients, and everyone who had bought it praised it. He himself had even bought dozens of kilograms for his relatives and friends. It was just a pity that he wasn't selling it today.

"Sold out yesterday," Master Sun waved his hand and said, "If you really want to buy, go straight to Liu's Grain Shop in Xiapu; they still have about a thousand catties left." "What? They're all gone? Does this mean I'm being misled?"

When will there be another one?

"Xiapu is a bit far."

"If you want to raise prices, just say so. What are you pretending to be sold out for? Hurry up and bring them out now."

The customers were making a ruckus, but Master Sun remained unmoved. Instead, he called over two other employees, pushed the crowd out, and then set up several sacks.

Each bag contained over ten kilograms of glutinous rice, japonica rice, wheat, buckwheat, millet, sorghum, as well as black beans, mung beans, red beans, broad beans, and other grains, making it a diverse and abundant collection.

After making a fuss for a while, the customers realized that there was really no salted fish left in the shop, so they asked when it would be available again, and left reluctantly.

Master Sun placed the last bag of Huihui beans in the corner, then clapped his hands and looked into the distance.

Actually, the 3,000 catties of salted fish and 1,000 catties of salt that were delivered earlier haven't all been sold. There are still about 200 catties left. However, this morning, the manager instructed us not to sell any fish or salt for the next ten days. If asked, just say they're sold out. He told someone to go to Xiapu to buy from that shop that has 1,000 catties of salted fish, which might also be sold out. Well, if they don't want to sell, they don't want to sell. The remaining 200 catties will easily be bought up by insiders, after all, it's winter.

As for the reason for not selling, Master Sun could guess a thing or two.

Never before has such a large number of officials gathered in the area of ​​the Confucian Temple and Confucian Academy.

Master Sun roughly counted, and there were probably seventy or eighty people already.

There certainly weren't that many people at the prefectural government office. They probably gathered a lot of able-bodied men on the spot, but they didn't even have any weapons. Each man was given a stick and stood at the street corner to block the road.

"What a grand scene!" Master Sun chuckled, turning his gaze away from the Dayanlou restaurant. He cleared his throat and began soliciting customers. On the third floor of the Dayanlou restaurant, veteran coroner Zhou Gui, accompanied by two apprentices, meticulously examined the corpse, leaving no suspicious detail unchecked.

"There are bleeding spots inside the eyelids." Zhou Gui squatted down next to Li Xiao's body and said in a low voice, "Remember this, strangulation and suffocation, this apprentice always nodded repeatedly."

Zhou Gui forcefully pried open Li Xiao's clenched hand and found blood under his fingernails, broken nails, and tiny scratches on his knuckles. He added, "He's scratched on the ground. There are calluses on his palms and fingers; he must frequently draw a bow."

The apprentices nodded and took notes.

Zhou Gui finally pointed to Li Xiao's neck and said, "See that? A flat ligature mark. If someone hanged themselves, the ligature mark would go upwards. Also, there's bleeding in the skin, so it must have been caused by being strangled while they were alive. The ligature mark wasn't made of hemp rope, but rather looks like a thin leather cord or a bowstring."

"And look at this scar on his forehead..."

"The lime on my face..."

"The wound on my neck..."

After a thorough examination, Zhou Gui straightened up and asked, "Can you tell how he died?"

"He was blinded by lime, struck on the forehead with a stick, fell to the ground, was pinned to the back, and strangled with a bowstring," one apprentice said. "It's possible he wasn't strangled; the knife wound on his neck was fatal," another apprentice said.

Zhou Gui looked at his two apprentices with satisfaction and was about to make his judgment when he heard footsteps approaching. Judge Ma Yuanchong, surrounded by a crowd, went up to the third floor.

His gaze swept over the four corpses before turning to Zhou Gui and asking, "How is it?"

Zhou Gui pointed to the corpse of Chen Gong, the Fourth Bodyguard, lying on the ground and said, "When he was alive, someone kicked his jaw and shattered it. There was a ring of bruises on his chin, and the flesh was swollen underneath. After being kicked, he fell backward and someone rushed up and slit his throat."

I examined the wounds on my neck; there were two. One cut started below my left ear and went down to my Adam's apple. The cut was deep at the beginning, shallow in the middle, and then reinforced at the end.

The other horizontal stroke, with consistent depth, must have been the second one. I wasn't in such a rush when I made it; my mind was calmer.

Ma Yuanchong was a refined scholar, but upon witnessing the gruesome murder scene, smelling the nauseating stench, and listening to the coroner's detailed description of the killing, he could hardly contain himself. His face appeared even paler than that of Li Xiao and Chen Gong, who had bled to death.

"What about this?" he asked, forcing himself to suppress his discomfort and pointing to Li Xiao's corpse.

The coroner repeated what he had just told his apprentices, and then recounted how the two hangers-on at the door had died.

Upon hearing this, Ma Yuanchong felt a chill run down his spine.

"What a ruthless thief!" he said. "Can you guess who the killer is?"

"We need to bring back the diners from last night for a thorough interrogation," the coroner replied.

Ma Yuanchong turned to his attendants, and soon someone took the order and left.

"Go and check the body at the entrance of the gambling den again," Ma Yuanchong instructed the coroner.

"Yes," the coroner replied, and led his two apprentices downstairs.

The prefect, Zhang Yang, was already sitting in the backyard of the gambling den, looking at Zhu Daocun, who was dressed in a silk robe, without saying a word.

To be honest, he held Zhu Daocun in some contempt.

His grandfather, Zhu Huan, was a subordinate of Li Tingzhi, the military commissioner of Lianghuai during the Song Dynasty. He betrayed his master for personal gain, surrendered Yangzhou, and then drove the families of Li Tingzhi and his soldiers to the walls of Taizhou, forcing some of the garrison to open the city gates and surrender.

That wasn't all. He then advised that Li Tingzhi, Jiang Cai, and others had resisted too fiercely, causing the Yuan army to suffer heavy losses; why wait to kill them? Thus, the Yuan commander-in-chief, Aju, executed Li Tingzhi, Jiang Cai, and others who had repeatedly killed envoys seeking surrender and even continued to resist after Empress Dowager Xie surrendered to the Yuan. Zhu Huan took credit for this, rising to the position of Grand General of Huaidong and Pacification Commissioner of Fujian (a second-rank official). Naturally, his descendants benefited from this; Zhu Daocun and his father, Zhu Dehui, did not begin their official careers through the imperial examinations or official positions, but rather through family connections.

Zhu Daocun was appointed as a seventh-rank county magistrate (lower county) as soon as he entered officialdom. Although he was not very capable and his political achievements were not outstanding, he still maintained a promotion rate of one rank every three or four years. Now he is a sixth-rank assistant prefect (upper prefecture).

Zhang Yang, who had studied diligently for many years to finally pass the imperial examination, was extremely dissatisfied with the fact that his ancestors were despicable, that he became an official so easily, and that he was promoted so quickly.

But alas, there was nothing he could do. After all, many members of the Zhu family held official positions in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Henan, Hubei, and Hunan.

Zhu Daocun's father-in-law, Fei Xiong, was also the deputy commander of the Grand Canal Bureau; he was truly someone you couldn't afford to offend.

After such a scandal, he still had to find a way to cover it up.

After everyone had left, Zhang Yang stood up, looked around the doorway, and turned to ask, "What exactly happened last night?"

Zhu Daocun looked annoyed and said, "Since you already know, why are you asking me?"

Upon hearing this, Zhang Yang was furious and retorted, "I'm helping you cover up your shameful deeds, and this is how you react?"

Zhu Daocun sat down directly, collected his thoughts, then stood up and bowed, saying, "I'm sorry to have troubled you, sir. I was wrong just now, please forgive me. As for last night..."

Zhu Daocun selectively recounted the events of the previous night. After listening, Zhang Yang knew that Zhu Daocun was hiding something, but he still understood the general outline.

"So, Zhu Ding was originally planning to frame you?" Zhang Yang asked.

Zhu Daocun tacitly agreed.

Nobody's a fool; by now they've figured it out. Zhu Ding is a complete idiot, thinking he can manipulate any official, just like how some wealthy families give "nose-piercing money" to newly arrived officials.

But not all officials are the same; some have powerful connections and are simply not people you can touch.

However, Zhu Daocun had to admit that if Zhu Ding had successfully set him up, he would have been in a very passive position.

The reason was simple: the woman was indeed the wife of a ninth-rank patrol inspector, a legitimate official's wife. If she insisted that he, Zhu Daocun, had colluded with bandits to abduct her for sexual purposes, it would be a devastating blow to his reputation and would also cause a subtle but persistent backlash from the entire officialdom. From now on, promotion would likely be very difficult, so he had to remedy the situation.

Zhang Yang had thought of this, so he asked, "What about Fei Gong's side?"

Zhu Daocun, who had been calm, couldn't help but shudder when he heard the name "Master Fei".

Although Fei Xiong also rose through the ranks through hereditary privilege, he served as a deputy commander of ten thousand households for many years and supervised grain shipments at sea dozens of times. Among the four deputy commanders, he was the most senior, the most capable, and the most powerful. In addition, he had a violent temper, and once his scandals were discovered, who knew what would happen.

Furthermore, even if we don't do anything to him, our plans to seize the Fei family's wealth in the future will likely fall through.

The Fei family was one of the most famous maritime merchant families in the Yuan Dynasty. When Fei Xiong served as a commander of a thousand households, he donated tens of acres of land to rebuild the Fahua Temple in Shanghai. Where did he get thousands of acres of land? Of course, it was from maritime trade.

Considering that Fei Xiong had spent many years at sea, sailing dozens of times throughout his life, and had difficulty conceiving, with his eldest son having passed away early and now only having three daughters, Zhu Daocun's mind became even more active.

This matter must not be known to my father-in-law.

He immediately raised his head, forced a smile, and said, "My lord, what do you think of this matter?"

Zhang Yang rubbed his temples, looking utterly helpless.

Just then, Judge Ma Yuanchong arrived.

Zhang Yang gestured to Zhu Daocun, then looked at Ma Yuanchong.

"My lord, the matter is somewhat troublesome," Ma Yuanchong said with a solemn expression.

"How exactly is it tricky?"

"The one who did this seems to be a skilled soldier," Ma Yuanchong said. "According to the coroner's examination and the officers' interrogation, the thieves must have planned to ambush Zhu Ding long ago, and their group was divided into three locations. The first was Dayanlou, where they attacked and killed four people in one fell swoop, using bows, knives, clubs, and other weapons. It was swift and efficient, something only a seasoned thief or a skilled soldier could do; the second was..."

Zhang Yang listened quietly until he finished speaking, and his expression changed drastically.

Putting everything else aside, the fact that they used bows and muskets shows they weren't ordinary bandits. Not to mention the ambush plan was so well-organized; it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say they had officers leading the team and dozens of soldiers.

Zhu Daocun was also somewhat shocked when he heard this.

If such a ruthless thief had stormed into the gambling den, would he have survived? At the same time, there was also some anger, an instinctive anger at the power that could threaten him.

"Why don't we start by investigating Zhu Ding's enemies?" he suggested.

There's always a reason for murder, so investigating from that angle is more reliable than making wild guesses.