Chapter 1190: Torture
Bai Shan went back and wrote a letter, and gave it to Daji to send someone to Yizhou and Luojiang County. As a result, the letter did not leave the house, and it went around the house before returning to Mrs. Liu.
Bai Shan and Man Bao were called over for questioning.
Madam Liu pondered for a moment and then said, "Trust me to deliver it for you, but you also need to inform Lord Wei. They can do this kind of thing faster than we can."
Madam Liu said, "Shanbao, you're going to school tomorrow, so don't go to the prison. Manbao, you too."
Manbao opened his mouth and whispered, "We want to ask them again, and ask them in more detail."
Madam Liu placed the letter on the table and said softly, "Lord Wei and the others will do this kind of thing. The Heavenly Prison is unlucky, so don't go there all the time."
Manbao asked, "Does this count as meritorious service? Can they be spared the death penalty?"
Old Madam Liu frowned and looked at Mr. Zhuang beside her.
Mr. Zhuang asked, "Who do you want to save from death?"
Manbao whispered, "Ba Pu deserves what he gets."
Mr. Zhuang understood and nodded slightly, saying, "We will raise this with Lord Wei when we see him, but whether it will succeed or not still depends on the Ministry of Justice's consideration."
Manbao became happy and nodded readily, saying, "Okay, then we won't go tomorrow."
Ba Pu, who was still waiting in the prison for them to bring him food, did not wait for Bai Shan and the other two, but instead waited for several high-ranking officials he had never seen before. He and the female prisoner sitting diagonally opposite, named Qiu Niang, were taken out for interrogation together.
Qiu Niang was forthcoming, as she had nothing to hide. Wei Zhi was pleased with her honesty and inquired in detail about her knowledge of Maozhou, including where her mother's family lived, where her aunt's family lived, how many people were in her family, what they did for a living, and whether they kept in touch with each other.
The questions were very detailed, and Qiu Niang was worried, but she still answered carefully.
Ba Pu, on the other hand, rolled his eyes and answered questions, but his answers were very general. He even tried to find out their purpose.
But with Lord Tang present in the hall, could he let Ba Pu succeed?
Seeing that he was so dishonest, Old Master Tang simply waved his hand and said, "This man is a thief and only came to Maozhou by chance. I'm afraid he doesn't know much. Just keep Qiu Niang and send him back to wait for Qiu's execution."
There are still three days until the day of Qiu's execution.
Ba Pu's eyes widened, and he immediately fell to the ground and shouted, "I know, I know a lot about Maozhou. I beg you to have mercy on me, sir. I beg you to have mercy on me."
Old Master Tang disliked him very much. He had four lives on his hands. In his opinion, no matter how great his achievements were, he should not be spared the death penalty. So he asked expressionlessly, "What do you know?"
"I, I..." Ba Pu looked at the faces of the three adults in the hall and said cautiously, "Whatever the adults want to know, I can tell them. I only ask that you show mercy and spare my life."
Old Master Tang snorted coldly and waved at the officers. They immediately stepped forward to drag Ba Pu away. Ji Xiang and Old Master Tang sighed in unison, "You're such a tactless prisoner! If you'd told the truth, perhaps you could have a comfortable life for the next two or three days, or even have your execution postponed until next autumn. You want to avoid death? You know this. Don't the other prisoners or people from Maozhou know this? We're only asking you, not others, simply because we don't want to bother you."
The officer was about to drag Ba Pu out of the house. Upon hearing this, Ba Pu burst into tears and said, "I'll tell you, I'll tell you. Please feel free to ask me anything you want."
Only then did Old Master Tang raise his hand, and the officers dragged him back.
Ji Xiang and Wei Zhi didn't say anything else. When it came to torture, the two of them combined were not as good as Old Lord Tang.
Old Master Tang drank a cup of tea, pondered for a moment, and then said, "I heard that you have very good hearing. What did you do in the army before?"
Ba Pu was stunned, not understanding why he brought up military matters. Ji Xiang and Wei Zhi did not object and sat down to drink tea.
Seeing Old Master Tang frown, Ba Pu immediately said, "I am a scout, serving in the scout camp."
Ji Xiang couldn't help but frown, "How could there be someone like you in the scout camp? You actually deserted!"
Ji Xiang had worked in the army as a scout, and the most important thing was loyalty, because they were always on the front lines and knew a lot of information. If they were captured, the consequences would be unimaginable.
Ba Pu said anxiously, "Not long after I joined the camp, I was transferred to the scout camp. I didn't mean to escape. It was during a battle with Tubo that I was injured and fell into the forest. When I woke up, I was alone. I had a sudden thought and ran away..."
He was a scout, and with four comrades, they had detected the Tibetan army's movements, but were accidentally discovered. As the five of them fled, his horse was shot, and he was also hit by an arrow, falling into the forest...
Being a soldier was too hard, always on the line between life and death. He thought, when they returned, they would definitely report that he had died in battle, so that his family wouldn't be implicated. He just had to leave, and he could fly freely in the sky...
As soon as this thought flashed through his mind, he ran away.
Old Master Tang nodded slightly and continued his question, "So, your scouting skills are quite impressive. You were always successful when stealing in Yizhou City, and the Huayang County Magistrate couldn't catch you several times. So how did you get caught the first time in Maozhou?"
Old Master Tang leaned forward slightly and asked, "Whose house did you steal from?"
Ba Pu was stunned for a moment before saying, "The ones who stole it were the Chu family. They are a well-known wealthy family in Maozhou. Their son even married the daughter of the governor of Maozhou. A family like that has a lot of money."
Old Master Tang asked calmly, "Then why don't you go and steal Governor Wang?"
Ba Pu: "...There are soldiers patrolling the governor's mansion. I'm not stupid, so I can just go and rob the Chu family."
Old Master Tang nodded slightly and asked, "Is it going well?"
Ba Pu hesitated and said, "It went well. As soon as I entered, I found a courtyard. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any gold or silver. I only found a makeup box with many jewels in it. I took them all."
Old Master Tang: "Did you steal it early in the night?"
Ba Pu nodded. "It's easy to be seen during the day, but there are more servants patrolling at night, so we broke in at dawn to steal."
But how did this gentleman know this?
Ba Pu looked up at Lord Tang. No official had ever asked him this question before.
Old Master Tang asked, "What did you see and hear after you went in?"
"I didn't see anything. At that time, most of the family members were enjoying their time together in the main courtyard. There were only a few servants in the courtyard I went to. I quietly avoided them and went in to steal."
Old Master Tang stared at him and asked, "Since no one noticed, how did you get caught?"
"I was found when I went to the pawn shop."
Old Master Tang raised his lip and said, "What do you think you are?"
"A silver hairpin."
"You can exchange the silver hairpin for silver directly at the Silver Shop. Why do you want to go to the pawnshop?"
"The silver shop in Maozhou is owned by the Chu family. Although there was no mark on the silver hairpin, I still didn't dare to go there, so I went directly to the pawnshop. Who knew the pawnshop was also owned by them?"
"Didn't you check before you went?"
"I checked, but at that time I really didn't know the pawnshop belonged to them."
I almost got into a fight. See you tomorrow.
See you at 4 pm
(End of this chapter)
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