Chapter 184 He was arrested

The study was deathly silent. Xie Yun and Xie Ning'an sat there, their faces grave, pondering a solution. Xie Ning'an didn't want to kill Jiang Yu, but he had to bring Jiang Yu down, and bring down the Duke of Chu's mansion, or the Xie family would be in trouble.

After a while, Xie Yun's voice rang out, "I heard that Jiang Yu did a lot of business before returning to the Duke of Chu's mansion. Her adoptive parents also run a general store in the capital."

“Yes,” Xie Ning’an said, “Those businesses are now being managed by Jiang Yu’s maid, Dong Shuang, who has a close relationship with Ge Da of the Grand Canal Gang.”

Given the relationship between the Duke of Chu's mansion and the Xie family, the Xie family would naturally investigate Jiang Yu thoroughly. Although Jiang Yu's business dealings were kept secret, they could still be uncovered with careful investigation.

Xie Yun thought for a moment and then said, "Then let's do it this way..."

...

The New Year hasn't arrived yet, but the capital city is already filled with the festive atmosphere, and Jiang Yu, Prince An, and the Earl of Jinyang and his son are all busy.

Jiang Yu investigated four transport commissioners and now knows that Kong Wenjie, the former transport commissioner of Jiangzhou who was executed, must have been involved in the tax embezzlement case. The metal used to privately mint official silver was likely lead, and this lead probably also came from Kong Wenjie.

The current transport commissioners of Jiangzhou (Shen Shunan), Linwu County (Shi Shunan), and Lingnan (Ma Kai), along with Jiang Yu, have already begun their investigation.

Marquis Jinyang has already discovered that the extra boats used to transport tax silver from Jiangzhou, Linwu County, and Lingnan in the past two years were old boats bought from the canal transport guild. Those four boats were sold immediately after they were used up, and Marquis Jinyang has already found the person who bought them.

There is still no news from Prince An.

"Lord Duke, a letter from the Marquis of Jinyang's residence." Xia He entered the study and handed the letter to Jiang Yu.

Jiang Yu took the letter and opened it. It was from Li Zhengze, inviting her to meet him at a secluded courtyard in the Jinyang Marquis's residence. Their investigation was currently in a secret phase, making it inconvenient to meet in crowded places.

Of course, they were unaware that the Xie family had already guessed what they were doing.

Jiang Yu picked up her pen and wrote back to him, promising to arrive on time, and that Prince An might also be there. She had someone send the letter away, then wrote another letter to Prince An before changing her clothes and leaving the house.

This time, she exited through the back door again, accompanied by Xia He and Dong Xue, with bodyguards lurking in the shadows. What she was about to do was meant to kill the perpetrators. If the news leaked, they might kill her themselves, so she had to be careful.

This villa of the Marquis of Jinyang is located in the most scenic spot in the capital, overlooking a lake, and is still pleasing to the eye even in winter.

Jiang Yu entered through the back door of the villa and followed the maid into a tea room, where she saw the Marquis of Jinyang and his son sitting. Upon seeing her, Li Zheng immediately stood up to offer her a seat, and Jiang Yu bowed to the Marquis of Jinyang, saying, "Uncle."

Jiang Yu is now the Duke of Chu, whose title is higher than that of the Marquis of Jinyang. The Marquis of Jinyang also quickly stood up and said, "Please sit down."

Jiang Yu sat down with a smile and said, "The Emperor has ordered the Embroidered Uniform Guard to participate in the investigation of the tax embezzlement case, so I also made an appointment with Prince An."

"Of course," said the Marquis of Jinyang.

Just then, a voice came from outside the door, "My lord, Prince An has arrived."

Marquis Jinyang rose to greet him, and Jiang Yu followed suit. Prince An entered, and after a few pleasantries, they got down to business. Marquis Jinyang said:

"Last year and the year before, the Xie family bought two boats from the Jiangzhou shipping guild. After arriving in the capital, they sold the boats. I found the buyers; they were the imperial merchants, the Yang family."

However, the one who bought the boat was Yang Tianyou, the second son of the Yang family. The struggle among the sons of the Yang family was fierce. Yang Tianyou was born to a second wife, and his mother's family was not very powerful, so he and his mother did not have much say in the Yang family.

Yang Tianyou wanted to buy boats and start a water transport business, hoping to achieve something to show his father. According to him, the Xie family originally intended to destroy those boats, but the officials in charge felt it was a waste to destroy them and sold them to him at a low price.

"Is there anything unusual about that ship?" Jiang Yu asked.

Marquis of Jinyang: "It's not clear yet. Those ships aren't in Shangjing right now; they won't be back for three days. We'll check on them once they're back."

"Could the Yang family or Yang Tianyou have also been involved?" Prince An asked.

Marquis Jinyang shook his head. "From my observation, no. If the Yang family had been involved, the ship wouldn't have fallen into their hands."

But Prince An still said, "To be on the safe side, investigate the Yang family."

“Alright,” said the Marquis of Jinyang.

Next, Jiang Yu shared the results of her investigation, of course without mentioning Lan Mudan and the other two in the dungeon. Then she added, "I will find out about the other three as soon as possible."

She looked at Prince An and said, "We also need to investigate the Prefect of Jiangzhou and his widowed sister. I don't have any manpower in Jiangzhou, so I'll have to trouble Your Highness."

“Alright.” Prince An said, taking out a purse, opening it, and pouring out two silver ingots. “This should be the silver they privately minted.”

Jiang Yu didn't dare to take it with her hands. She took out a handkerchief and carefully examined a gold ingot through it. Li Zhengze saw this and reached out to take it too, but was slapped away by the Marquis of Jinyang.

Marquis Jinyang also took out a handkerchief to cushion the ingot, and picked up another silver ingot to examine it. He noticed that this silver ingot had a darker luster than normal silver. He then looked at the serial number on the bottom of the ingot, which looked almost identical to the genuine one.

“I checked, and the serial numbers of these two silver ingots are among the tax silver deposited into the Jiangzhou treasury,” said Prince An. “I had someone check them, and they were found to be adulterated with lead.”

There was a moment of silence among the people in the room, then Jiang Yu said, "Continue the investigation..."

"Lord Duke." Li Zhong's urgent voice came from outside, and Jiang Yu quickly got up and went out. She hadn't brought Li Zhong with her when she came, so his appearance now must mean something important.

As they went outside, Li Zhong bowed to her and immediately whispered, "Lord Duke, something has happened."

Jiang Yu frowned slightly and walked to the side. Reaching a secluded spot, she asked, "What happened?"

Li Zhong: "Dong Shuang and Ge Da from the Cao Bang have been arrested."

"What?" Jiang Yu was somewhat shocked.

Li Zhong hurriedly said, "They said that the Ministry of Justice was chasing a criminal today and caught up with him at the canal. The criminal hid on a boat belonging to the grain transport gang, and that boat was carrying goods that Dong Shuang had transferred."

The Ministry of Justice officials boarded the ship and searched it, finding... a chest of silver. The silver's color was very off; the officials said it had been adulterated, claiming it was illegally minted official silver. They then arrested Dong Shuang and Ge Da from the grain transport gang; they are now in the Ministry of Justice's prison.

"Let's go to the Ministry of Justice." She strode off, afraid that if she arrived too late, Dongshuang and Ge Da would be executed. It wasn't that she was afraid they would say anything, but that she was afraid Dongshuang would suffer.

But after taking only two steps, she turned back and walked towards the tea room she had just been in. Once inside, she didn't hide anything from Prince An and Marquis Jinyang, and said, "I suspect the other side knows what we're investigating, so you two should be careful."

She then looked at Prince An, "Please go to the palace and inform the Emperor that I will go to the Ministry of Justice immediately."