Chapter 714 Wei Qing Investigation
Wei Qing was summoned into the palace by the emperor.
In the study, the emperor sat on a chair. He had a lot of white hair and fine wrinkles at the corners of his eyes. He looked old and had a majestic air.
Perhaps because his son, whom he had high hopes for, had come back to life, the emperor was in a good mood, and his old face looked a little more energetic.
"My dear Lord Wu, I feel that there is something fishy about Xuan'er being hunted by bandits. I want you to investigate this matter and find out who exactly wants to murder the royal heir." said the emperor.
Wei Qing lowered his head, listened carefully, and thought in his mind.
In fact, everyone can guess who was behind the incident with Zhao Jingxuan.
When Zhao Jingxuan got into trouble, who benefited the most?
Of course it was Zhao Shu.
This is something that everyone knows. If we don't investigate and there is no evidence, this matter will be left unresolved.
But it was obvious that the emperor did not want this matter to end.
Sending out one's trusted aides is to get to the bottom of the matter.
Once we find the evidence, we will definitely not let Zhao Shu go.
The emperor's action showed that he had reached the limit of his tolerance for his son and was ready to take action against him.
It can also be said that it was to clear the obstacles for Zhao Jingxuan to ascend the throne.
Wei Qing naturally agreed to take on this task of dealing with Zhao Shu. He would definitely get to the bottom of it and make sure Zhao Shu died a miserable death.
"I will obey your order and get to the bottom of this matter." Wei Qing said.
The emperor nodded, he was confident in Wu Yu's work.
Over the years, the person he trusted most was Duan Fuyu from the cabinet.
The cabinet was headed by Duan Fuyu, who was capable and his right-hand man. He was also loyal and never took sides in the struggle for the throne.
Unfortunately, Duan Fuyu was old and his health was getting worse. The weather was cold recently and he suddenly fell seriously ill. His illness was so severe that he took a leave of absence for more than half a month and did not attend the morning court.
Fortunately, there is Wu Yu, who is young and strong, upright but not pedantic. Although he looks rough, he is actually very careful, capable and reliable.
During the time he served as the Minister of Justice, he solved many difficult problems for himself.
And be loyal to him.
The emperor trusted him very much.
With Wu Yu, there is no gap between the old and the new.
The emperor was very relieved to hand this matter over to him.
He also remembered that Madam Wu saved Jingxuan.
After the case is solved, we will reward them according to their merits.
Wu Yu is now the Minister of Justice...
Two cabinet members are currently bedridden, and once this case is concluded, more positions will definitely become vacant.
When the time comes, let Wu Yu join the cabinet.
The emperor had a plan in mind.
Wei Qing left the palace and went to the Ministry of Justice.
The case of Zhao Jingxuan being chased by bandits and missing was previously determined to be due to the Liang family's poor security. The case was heard and decided by the Censorate, so the files are all in the Censorate.
Wei Qing sent someone to get the relevant case files from the Censorate.
After getting the file, he first read it carefully, then summoned the relevant people for questioning, and also went to the Hanlin Academy to question Zhao Jingxuan, the person involved.
After the questioning, Wei Qing returned to the Ministry of Justice and sat in his study to sort out his thoughts.
Based on those questions, we were able to roughly reconstruct what happened.
At that time, Liang Jia Erlang had just led his soldiers to wipe out the last bandit camp, and Zhao Jingxuan was resting in a small town.
Zhao Jingxuan received a letter from Liang Erlang, asking him to meet up in another small town.
Zhao Jingxuan took his men there and was assassinated by bandits on the way.
Those remaining bandits came in waves. Although they were wearing bandit clothes, they were obviously well prepared and well-trained, and the bows and arrows they used were not ordinary bows and arrows.
Unfortunately, the officers and soldiers did not capture anyone alive.
After Zhao Jingxuan disappeared, the Liang family also searched for him, but they could not find out which stronghold the bandits belonged to.
The final evidence was only a few arrows used by the assassin.
Wei Qing looked at the arrow in front of him, carefully.
It was confirmed by the Ministry of Works that this type of arrow was produced in Long County, Wangxian County. Because there were iron mines there, the imperial court built an arrow bureau nearby to manufacture arrows there.
The arrows produced in Long County are very hard and of good quality.
"These arrows are for the use of the imperial court. How could they have fallen into the hands of bandits?" The Ministry of Works raised such doubts.
Why?
Because they were not bandits at all, but people from the imperial court.
Wei Qing thought that if he wanted more evidence, he would have to go to Long County in person. Maybe he could find out more.
It would only take three or four days to go to Long County. When he came back after completing his investigation, his wife might have already returned home.
After making this decision, Wei Qing returned home from the Ministry of Justice.
After returning home, I went to see the two little guys, Tangbao and Mubao. The two little guys had grown a lot. Tangbao had become thinner and was lying lazily, while Mubao was chubby and seemed to have endless energy.
Wei Qing played with them for an hour, and only left reluctantly after being rejected by Tang Bao.
Early the next morning, he took several subordinates to Long County.
Three days later.
Long County, Jianju.
After Wei Qing arrived, he went to the Arrow Bureau without taking a rest and asked them to take out the account books. He wanted to see how many arrows the Arrow Bureau had produced in the past year and where they were sent.
Wei Qing looked at the account books and found that a total of 500,000 arrows were produced last year. Half of them were sent to the capital for use by the 16 guards guarding the capital and the imperial palace, and the other half were sent to the northwestern border city for use by the Liang family army.
On the surface, there is no problem.
After Wei Qing finished reading the account books, he was sent to the posthouse to rest by Lu Tiju, the head of the Arrow Bureau.
After three days of traveling, everyone was exhausted.
Wei Qing asked his subordinates to rest early and returned to his room.
Wei Qing simply washed up, had dinner, and then lay down on the bed.
The bed in the inn was very hard, but Wei Qing had slept on harder beds before, so he didn't feel anything and fell asleep quickly.
The next morning, Wei Qing woke up, washed up, had a meal, and then went to the Arrow Bureau to learn more information.
For example, how many people are there in the arrow bureau? How much iron is needed to produce an arrow? What is the production process like?
Wei Qing didn't seem to be here to investigate a case, but rather to find out how to make arrows.
Wei Qing stayed at the Arrow Bureau for most of the day and went to the mine in the afternoon.
The iron mine is located in the suburbs of Long County, and it takes a while to get there by walking along a mountain road.
There were many tents in the valley, filled with people of both sexes, young and old, all wearing ragged clothes, with pale faces and thin bodies, looking like they were short of food and clothing. They looked at Wei Qing curiously, but when he looked over, they looked away in fear.
Why are there so many elderly people, women and children in the mine?
Seeing Wei Qing was a little confused, Lu Tiju quickly explained:
"Lord Wu, our iron mine is different from other mines. Other mines only hire young and strong people to work here, but the people working here are all descendants of criminals or related to criminals, so they all come with their families."
Wei Qing looked at those children. They were all descendants of criminals. The descendants of criminals were criminals themselves. Their generations would spend their lives in this mine like slaves, living a miserable life, neither human nor ghost, and they would never be able to get out of this world.
As I was walking, I suddenly saw several children beating up another child. The children in the mine were more ferocious than those outside. They didn't stop even when the person was bleeding. The child who was being beaten could only cover his head and endure it silently.
Wei Qing frowned, feeling somewhat dissatisfied, and walked over.
"Stop!" Wei Qing said coldly.
"Why should you stop? He's a member of the Xiao family. My father said it was him who made us slaves!"
One of the kids said angrily.
When the child turned around and saw Wei Qing, he was tall and strong, with an expressionless face that looked majestic and ferocious. Looking at his clothes, it was obvious that he was not an ordinary person. Next to him was Lu Tiju, who had the power of life and death over them. He was so scared that he ran away and disappeared in an instant.
Only the child was left lying on the ground.
Wei Qing looked at the child lying on the ground with blood all over his face, and frowned slightly.
The descendant of a criminal... Xiao...
Is it such a coincidence?
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