Among all the officials in Shuntian Prefecture, Tui Guan ranked seventh and Zuo Er Guan ranked last.

Naturally, there was no special yamen, only an independent prosecutor's office behind the six rooms.

At this time, Ni Tuiguan was sitting behind his desk, looking up and down at Zhao Shouzheng, who was dressed as a juren, with a gloomy face.

"Tell me, what secrets do you have?"

"What are you talking about, sir?" Zhao Shouzheng spread his hands, confused and said, "I am the plaintiff."

"Humph, why didn't that thief steal from other people, but only targeted the candidates from Nanzhili?" Ni Tuiguan asked coldly, "Did you have a grudge against him? Or did you take something from them that you shouldn't have taken?"

He emphasized the last six words and stared at Zhao Shouzheng intently, trying to find some clues from his emotional fluctuations - this is a required skill for criminal officials.

Judge Ni believed that as long as that thing was really in the Zhao family, the head of the Zhao family would definitely know about it.

"You should ask that thief about this, sir. Why are you asking the students instead? I am also confused..."

However, Zhao Shouzheng's face showed only confusion, and he did not show the slightest panic.

"Of course I will ask the thief about that. Now I am asking you. Think carefully about it. What is it in your possession that makes them want to see it?"

"Ah, now that you mentioned it, sir, I suddenly remembered it." Zhao Shouzheng slapped his forehead, a look of sudden realization appeared on his face.

"Tell me quickly!" Tuiguan Ni leaned forward and stared at Zhao Shouzheng with shining eyes.

"Money." Zhao Shouzheng answered as a matter of course: "Maybe the student is generous and generous, and has helped many of his classmates, so people think that the student must have a lot of money."

"Nonsense..." Tui Guan Ni leaned back in his chair in frustration.

"Why is this nonsense?" Zhao Shouzheng asked in confusion: "Don't thieves steal money? Oh, yes, there are also flower thieves..."

"Um……"

Ni Tuiguan controlled his violent emotions, narrowed his eyes into a line, and stroked his neatly trimmed beard. He thought to himself that this guy was either a fool who knew nothing, or a treacherous criminal with excellent psychological quality.

But arresting Zhao Shouzheng was a gamble, and Magistrate Ni certainly would not let him go just because he might not know about it. Instead, he would try every possible means to see if he could find that thing from him.

It seems that this is a tough tug-of-war...

"Don't think that you can do whatever you want just because you are a juren. As long as we, the Mingfu, send a letter to the Ministry of Rites, we can immediately deprive you of your honor and make you a commoner."

Tui Guan Ni prepared himself mentally and decided to scare him first.

"Looking at your age, it's not easy to pass the imperial examination with great effort. Is it worth it to go to that length for something that has nothing to do with you?"

"Not worth it." Zhao Shouzheng shook his head. Suddenly thinking of his son's negotiation with Magistrate Zhang of Shangyuan County, he said with a bitter face, "Sir, please name a price. How much will it cost to let me go?"

"What?" Ni Tuiguan was stunned, and then he understood. It turned out that this guy thought he was blackmailing him. He couldn't help but slammed the table in anger and said:

"What nonsense! Who do you think I am?!"

Zhao Shouzheng shrank his neck and thought to himself that he was not a good person anyway.

Magistrate Ni tried every possible means, including coaxing and threatening, but he just couldn't get any information out of him.

It's not that Zhao Shouzheng is very tight-lipped. It's that he went to bed obediently the night before and had no idea what happened later.

There is nothing in the first place, so how can dust gather? If you ask someone who knows nothing, you will naturally get nothing out of him.

"Damn it! If you don't accept my toast, you'll have to drink the wine for punishment!" Ni Tuiguan gnashed his teeth and said, "Don't think that just because you are a juren, I can't deal with you!"

He ordered his men to lock Zhao Shouzheng up in the cell and treat him well.

The detention room was located in the yard where the third shift of yamen runners were on duty. It was used to temporarily detain suspects who had not yet been convicted and had committed minor crimes.

Just like there are prison bosses in a prison cell, there are also class bullies in a class cell. All suspects who go in have to follow the rules and be bullied by the class bullies.

In many cases, the class bullies were deliberately placed in the cells by police officers to monitor the prisoners and extract their confessions.

Ni Tuiguan decided to use the class bullies to deal with Zhao Shouzheng. These villains don't care whether you are a traitor or not. As long as there is a reward, they will definitely not show mercy...

~~

The police officer was about to take Zhao Shouzheng out of the magistrate's office when he ran into Zhao Hao following Wu Shilai in.

"Father!" Zhao Hao hurriedly ran to Zhao Shouzheng and said, "They didn't bully you, did they?"

"It's okay, it's okay." Zhao Shouzheng held his son's hand tightly and said, "My son, you must be worried, right?"

Seeing that Zhao Hao was brought here by the Grand Master, the officers did not stop the two of them.

"You wait here." Wu Shilai had met Zhao Shouzheng before. After greeting him, he ordered the officers not to embarrass Zhao Hao and his son, and then walked into the magistrate's office with a stern face.

~~

Ni Tuiguan hurried out from the inner hall to greet the Shaofu Lord.

"Brother Ni, that Zhao Xiaolian outside is my brother," Wu Shilai suppressed his anger and asked politely, "Excuse me, what crime did he commit?"

As the chancellor, he nominally had everything under his belt, but apart from the education system, he did not have much authority in matters related to money, grain, and criminal justice.

"Oh, isn't it possible that the flood has washed away the Dragon King Temple?" Ni Tuiguan thought to himself that he had made the right move. He said with a look of surprise, "That's great. Please help persuade him to hand over the things as soon as possible so that he can go home."

"What is that?" Wu Shilai was stunned and asked, "Is there some misunderstanding here?"

"Since the Minister of the Treasury has asked, I will tell the truth." Ni Tuiguan lowered his voice and said, "It is an account book of Lu Bing's family. Now we suspect that they have it..."

"Hiss..." Wu Shilai took a breath of cold air when he heard this.

Who is Lu Bing? He was the most trusted elder brother of the previous Emperor Jiajing, the only official in this dynasty who was also a Three Dukes and Three Orphans, and he served as the chief of the Jinyiwei for more than 20 years!

During the Jiajing period, he was truly a big shot whose presence could shake the capital just by stomping his feet.

Back then, Lu Bing was the most powerful and wealthy person in the world. It was said that his entire fortune added up to more than 10 million taels of silver, making him the richest man in the Ming Dynasty.

But he did too many bad things, acting as a minion of Emperor Jiajing, persecuting many loyal and honest people to death. He also monitored Prince Yu for a long time, causing a deep psychological shadow on the future emperor.

Although Lu Bing had died several years ago, Emperor Longqing still harbored deep resentment towards him. After ascending the throne, he immediately launched a major purge to investigate his past crimes.

As a result, not only were his son, Jinyiwei commander Lu Yi, his brother Taichangqing Lu Wei and others imprisoned and tortured severely, but all of the Lu family's property in the capital, Jiangsu and Zhejiang and other places was confiscated.

According to Wu Shilai, the case is still under investigation, and it is said that Lu Bing's ten crimes have been uncovered. However, the property seized was far less than the court expected...

Given that there was only enough silver in Taicang to last for three months, one can imagine the court's hunger for the Lu family's legendary tens of millions of assets.

Wu Shilai heard that His Majesty had specially sent people from the East Factory to Zhejiang to recover the stolen property and locked up more than 300 members of the Lu family in jail. They would not be released until they returned the transferred property!

How terrible would it be if the account books leaked out from the Lu family at this time?

ps. The fifth update, 5800 votes plus more, please give me monthly votes and recommendation votes~~~

ps2. There will only be five updates, no more for today.