Chapter 569 Complaint
Si Chen was brought in through the back door of the Duke of Zhenguo's Mansion by the guards.
He had been to the Duke of Zhenguo's Mansion twice, so he had an impression of it.
The guards took him to a yard and asked him to wait there. After about half an hour, a servant came over and said that the master wanted to see him.
Si Chen stood up as well, and his mood unconsciously became nervous.
The attendant took him to a small courtyard in the front yard and said, "The master is in the house, please go in."
The servant pushed open the door and motioned for him to come in.
Si Chen walked in without thinking much.
When he walked in, there was no one in the room. Just as Si Chen was curious, a slight noise suddenly came from behind an eight-fold screen in the room.
While he was puzzled, Si Chen heard a slightly low voice coming from behind the screen, "Why do you want to see me?"
The voice was very low and a little hoarse, which made Si Chen's eyes flash with doubt, "Did the Duke catch a cold?"
“Ahem.”
A slight cough was heard from behind the screen, which was considered a response to Si Chen's question.
Si Chen's eyes were filled with concern. "It's winter now, Duke, you must take care of your health."
"kindness."
Si Chen clenched his fists slightly in his sleeves, and after a moment of silence, he spoke again: "I boldly intercepted the Duke today because I wanted to report Ma Zhi, the county magistrate of Qingyang County in Kuncheng, to the Duke."
"What are you going to report him for?"
"I discovered that he had discovered a gold mine in Qingyang County but he concealed it from the court and mined the gold mine privately, and even murdered everyone who knew about it."
After Si Chen finished speaking, the room fell into an eerie silence, so quiet that Si Chen could only hear the sound of his own frantically beating heart.
After an unknown amount of time, the person behind the screen spoke solemnly, "How did you know about this?"
"My Lord, I am Si Chen, the county magistrate of Yangjiao County, which is adjacent to Kuncheng and Qingyang County. After the earthquake, I immediately launched disaster relief operations for the people. However, because of the distance, Yangjiao County was less affected. Soon, the people of Yangjiao County were properly resettled."
Si Chen paused before continuing, "After properly arranging things in Yangjiao County, I took people to Qingyang County to help. However, I accidentally overheard the conversation between Ma Zhi and his confidants. At that time, I was cautious and secretly followed them to the location of the gold mine. I found that they were indeed mining gold privately."
"After the earthquake in Kuncheng, the emperor immediately sent people to Kuncheng to carry out disaster relief operations. Why didn't you explain the situation to the officials sent by the emperor? And the city guard of Kuncheng, can you tell him about this?"
Si Chen didn't know what he was thinking about, and his eyes gradually turned red.
"My Lord, when I found out something was wrong, I immediately found the city guard of Kuncheng and asked him to take care of this matter. He apparently agreed and told me to go back and manage Yangjiao County well and not to worry about other things. But not long after I returned to Yangjiao County, a number of accidents happened one after another, and my sister also disappeared."
One day, Si Chen received a letter. The writer of the letter threatened him, telling him to keep the matter of the gold mine to himself. If he dared to mention it again, his sister and all his family members would be killed!
Si Chen was filled with resentment. Apart from telling the city guard of Kuncheng, he had never mentioned this matter to anyone else. Now that the matter had been leaked, he suspected that there was something wrong with the city guard of Kuncheng.
Almost all the people sent by the court to Kuncheng for disaster relief were with the city guards. He didn't dare to gamble anymore, not only because he was worried about the safety of his family, but he was also worried that he would be secretly killed by these people and no one would know about the gold mine anymore.
"On the surface, I pretended to agree with them and asked them to release my sister, but they were very cunning and never handed over my sister. My mother even almost had an accident on the street."
At this point, he also realized that even if he really wanted to keep this matter to himself, those people would never let him go.
So he took advantage of the time when those people let down their guard to settle his parents at home, and then went to the capital in disguise. However, he was still discovered by the other party, and they sent people to hunt him down. If he hadn't been lucky and hidden in a caravan heading to the capital, he would have confessed on the way.
After hearing Yao Tong's story about the former empress, he also wanted to go find the empress, but in the end he felt that the empress was the master of the central palace, and this was a matter of the previous dynasty, and she could not reach out so far. So he had to give up. He had no choice but to give up, after all, the empress was not someone he could see whenever he wanted.
"It is a great honor for me to meet with you, Lord. Please report this matter to the Emperor. We must not let those people covet the country's things!"
After Si Chen finished speaking, the room fell into a long silence again.
Si Chen felt that it was very likely that Duke Jingguo was doubting the truthfulness of his words.
He was about to say that he had evidence in his hands when he heard the Duke speak first: "I already know about this matter. It is difficult for you to come all the way to the capital to file a complaint. Don't worry, I will never tolerate those who are so reckless."
Hearing the Duke say this, Si Chen breathed a sigh of relief.
"Thank you, Duke. As long as those people receive the punishment they deserve, what I did is nothing."
"By the way, does anyone else know about this besides you?"
Si Chen wanted to let a trusted clerk under his command know about it, but the matter involved too many people and the clerk had already resigned. He didn't want to involve him anymore, so he said that no one knew about it except him.
"Well, it is inconvenient for you to stay in the Duke's Mansion. I will have someone send you to another courtyard first. When things progress, I will have someone inform you."
"Thank you, Duke."
The person behind the screen called someone in and took Si Chen out of the Jingguo Mansion through the back door.
After Si Chen left, the person sitting behind the screen slowly walked out. He was wearing a gray official robe and looked about 50% similar to Duke Jingguo, but was definitely not Duke Jingguo himself.
After a moment, a servant came in and whispered, "Master, the person has been sent out."
Chu Min's eyes were slightly heavy, "It's solved, clean it up."
"yes."
"Send a message to Kuncheng and tell Ma Zhi to be careful. If anyone knows about this, he won't be able to do this anymore."
"I understand."
The snow in the capital was getting heavier. When I opened the door in the morning, I looked around and saw snow everywhere.
Ever since Xiao Jin ordered to further cut down on the palace's expenses, their meals had changed from four dishes and one soup to three dishes and one soup, but the portions were still sufficient.
Zhou Qing pushed open the door and walked in. "My queen, everything is ready. We can leave at any time."
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com