The chaos in Old Crow Lane lasted for more than an hour, and Li Dewen was dragged out like a dead dog.
He was accompanied by hundreds of thousands of strings of cash looted from his home, a large amount of gold, silver, and jewelry, and several young girls around twelve or thirteen years old.
The most important reason why we chose to attack Li Dewen first was that he was not careful in his actions.
Bianliang officials actually had no shortage of women, whether it was marrying them or going out with prostitutes, there were plenty of ways to do it. There was no need to specifically imprison some women, which in itself could easily lead to big problems.
But since there was human trafficking in ancient times, there were naturally various demands.
For example, some officials have special fetishes. They don’t like to taste the girls from brothels in large numbers, but rather like young virgins. Those girls are not something that ordinary people can get.
Therefore, mobilizing underground evil forces has become one of the common methods used by these powerful people.
In the first year of Jingyou, Fan Zhongyan was transferred to Kaifeng Prefecture. At that time, many families of abducted girls came to report the case. Fan Zhongyan conducted a secret investigation and discovered the problem of Guifanlou, but he encountered many difficulties when he wanted to go deeper.
Later, he eliminated some of the cancer in Kaifeng Prefecture and had some capable people under his command. Only then did he slowly investigate and find out that the matter was related to Kaifeng Prefecture officials such as Han Yuan, Liu Yuanzhi, Ma Yi, and Gao Dingyi.
However, although he was the acting governor of Kaifeng Prefecture at that time, he was a temporary official and was not as good as the current county magistrate. Even if he had eliminated some bad tumors, there were still many people under him who pretended to obey his orders but actually disobeyed him. It was almost impossible to bring down the mastermind behind the scenes. Therefore, he could only conduct a secret investigation and could not give the people a bright future.
Now that Zhao Jun had activated the Imperial City Bureau, Fan Zhongyan gave Zhao Jun everything he had investigated. With these things as confidence, Zhao Jun, combined with the mutual verification of the investigations by the spies under the Imperial City Bureau, confirmed that many women were hidden in Li Dewen's home.
Catching a thief and seizing the stolen goods was nothing. The Song Dynasty had never had a history of crimes involving the unexplained origin of huge amounts of wealth, but these women were almost certain to kill Li Dewen. As long as they had confessions and their families filed a complaint, Li Dewen would be put to death.
At this moment, Zhao Jun was still sitting on the second floor of the restaurant, eating and drinking leisurely.
The dishes were cold, and Song Cai and the others had no appetite to eat. They all looked outside in shock. It was not until the people from the Imperial City Bureau escorted dozens of people from the Li Mansion away that they came to their senses and sat back in their seats.
"Why aren't you guys eating? I'm almost done."
Zhao Jun wiped his mouth and said with a smile.
One of them shook his head and said, "The Imperial City Bureau is too arrogant and domineering. They just arrested the judicial officer of Kaifeng Prefecture like that?"
"And they even dared to use the Imperial Guard's crossbows to kill people in the street. How terrifying! I'm afraid tomorrow's morning court will be in turmoil, and countless officials will submit memorials to impeach Zhao Jun."
"I've heard that Li Dewen has always oppressed the good. He charges money to handle complaints from the people. He doesn't have a good reputation among the people. It's not a bad thing for the Imperial City Bureau to arrest him. Why do the ministers in the court and the public have to stand up for him?"
"Haha, you don't know that. Li Dewen's ancestors were military governors, so he was able to enjoy family connections. He has a cousin who is now a prefect in another province. He was also a censor before and has many friends in the Censorate. If he calls, he will definitely have a throng of followers."
"Then this Zhao Jun will be in trouble, right?"
"I guess so."
Several people were discussing this. Seeing that Zhao Jun didn't say anything, Song Cai asked curiously, "Brother Hanlong, I see you have the Imperial Guards protecting you. Could it be that you are from some wealthy family? Do you know anything?"
Everyone looked over.
Zhao Jun smiled and said, "I do know a few things. This Li Dewen not only accepted bribes, but also hired thugs to commit crimes. Under Bianliang, there are places like Wuyou Cave and Guifan Tower. You should have heard of them."
"well."
Hearing this, one of them sighed and said, "I have a relative, a poor man who did small business on the street. One time, his young son went out with him, and when he wasn't paying attention, he disappeared. I heard from the people around him that a woman kidnapped him and took him to Wuyou Cave. He has not been seen since then, and his body has not been seen since then."
"Wuyou Cave and Guifan Tower pay an untold amount of money to Kaifeng Prefecture every year, and Li Dewen is one of those involved. He also has a penchant for girls as young as twelve or thirteen, often having people from Wuyou Cave and Guifan Tower kidnap them for his own pleasure."
After Zhao Jun finished speaking, he looked around at everyone and said, "What do you think? Should such a person be put to death?"
After hearing this, several scholars were deeply shocked. Although Song Cai was relatively incompetent, he still had a sense of justice. After hearing this, he said angrily, "I was saying that Wuyou Cave and Guifan Tower have been able to stand firm for many years. It turns out that they have the support of the government. Li Dewen deserves to die!"
"What a pity! Zhao Jun is still too reckless. It would be much better if he collected evidence and reported it. Instead of taking direct action now and killing people in the street, I'm afraid all the officials in the court will go crazy."
Some people sighed and shook their heads.
They are candidates from Bianliang. They can study and their family background is naturally decent. They are not rich second generation but they are from a well-off family. Naturally, they know some inside information.
The Imperial Guards sound impressive, but if they walk down the street they might be spat on and called thieves and bandits, so their status is actually very low.
Although Zhao Zhen gave the Imperial City Bureau the power of life and death, the Imperial City Bureau's imperial guards, which had once been of low status, suddenly rose to power and even killed people from Kaifeng Prefecture on the street. The officials in the court would definitely not let this go and would definitely take action.
This is not to protect Li Dewen, but to suppress the imperial guards. After all, he dared to kill people today, who knows if he would dare to rebel tomorrow?
"Then tell me, what should Zhao Jun do now?"
Zhao Jun asked with a smile.
"this"
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