Flourishing of the Ming Dynasty Novel - Chapter 161

Chapter 161 Departure And Pending Cases
Two days later, at Nantong State Pier.

Compared to Beitong Prefecture, Nantong Prefecture also had a complete system of relay stations and a well-developed transportation system. In addition, there was an open waterway terminal. This was the terminus of the Grand Canal that connected the north and south.

The Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal has been the most important transportation hub in the Central Plains since the Sui Dynasty. Water transportation lacked safety and comfort by land. In addition, the loading capacity of ships far exceeded that of land carriages and horses. Therefore, the canal played an extremely crucial role in the transportation of various goods between the north and south. As a result, a large number of water transportation industries and the world’s largest gang, Cao Gang, came into being.

Apart from large quantities of goods and tributes that could be shipped from the canal, many officials and traveling merchants would also choose this more convenient route to enter and exit the capital. This made Nantong Prefecture much busier than Beitong Prefecture. Especially the dock, it was packed with people everyday, with thousands of sails flying back and forth.

On that day, in the middle of the sky, Lu Zhen brought Chu Yunrong and Cuimei, together with two officials from the county government, to the pedal of a passenger ship that was about to set sail with a government decree flag. This ship was the seat of an official from the Ministry of Household Affairs who was heading to Jiangnan to collect taxes. Lu Zhen had sent the two women on this official ship through Hu Ying’s connections.

Although this was a peaceful and prosperous era, the situation outside the capital was still complicated. If Chu Yunrong and Lu Zhen were allowed to walk alone, Lu Zhen would not be at ease no matter what. Now that they could be entrusted to their colleagues who were also officials in the court, their safety was no longer a problem. No matter how courageous those bandits were, they would not dare to make any designs on the official ship.

Before sending the two girls onto the boat, Lu Zhen suddenly shouted, “Yun Rong …”

Chu Yunrong answered and looked at him, her eyes filled with reluctance. She and this man had just revealed their feelings to each other, but they were about to separate again. This made her heart not feel good. After the gazes of the two met for a while, Lu Zhen finally reached out and put a money bag in her hand. “Take this money with you all the way to Suzhou. If anything happens after you return, remember to send me a letter. Even if I am far away in the capital, I will definitely try to help you.”

Chu Yunrong’s eyes turned red with a sincere request, and the attachment in her heart grew deeper and deeper. But if her mother was ill, how could she, as a daughter, not rush back? “I remember, you have to take good care of yourself in the capital. Don’t be too tough when things happen. If you can make things happen, then let it go …” he nodded lightly. “I remember.” You have to take care of yourself in the capital as well. Don’t be too tough when things happen. Let it go if you can make things happen. ”

Lu Zhen nodded, “Have a good trip!” Right after he finished speaking, he suddenly stepped forward and hugged the woman in front of him into his embrace.

Not only did Chu Yunrong not expect this sudden change, the surrounding crowd was also greatly shocked. Especially Cuimei, who was standing at the side blankly, did not know what to do with his expression.

Suddenly, Chu Yunrong was hugged by Lu Zhen in front of everyone, and the Li Qing sadness on her face instantly turned into panic and shyness, and she subconsciously wanted to struggle. But then, after feeling the warmth and strength of her embrace, her movements slowed down again, and her originally stiff body also slowly softened. This feeling of peace and comfort made her forget her shyness and only wanted to stay in this embrace for a while longer.

Lu Zhen hugged her tightly in his arms. After a while, he let go of his arms and said softly, “Along the way, you must be safe. Remember that I will always be by your side.”

After leaving this embrace, Chu Yunrong’s face was already red to the point of almost bleeding. After a while, she responded like a mosquito, lowered her head, turned around, and left for the boat. Only then did Cuimei regain his senses. He looked at his young miss and uncle with surprise and delight. Then, he bowed to Lu Zhen Fu and said, “Master, we’re going. Please take care!” She hurriedly chased after her young miss and boarded the boat.

After a burst of noise, the ship finally withdrew its pedals, raised its sails, and left the dock slowly towards the south. At the stern of the ship, two beautiful figures stood there, waving goodbye to Lu Zhen. Lu Zhen stood there and waved his hand in response until the boat finally turned into a small black dot and disappeared.

After watching the ship leave and putting down his hand, Lu Zhen sighed deeply and his face gradually cooled down. He swept away the warmth and nostalgia from before and put on a resolute and resolute expression, “It’s good for you to leave the capital now, so that I don’t have to worry too much about the future. There are some things that I don’t need to tie my hands and feet!”

When he said those words in his heart, his right hand, which was shrunk in his sleeve, grabbed a piece of paper. On it was an astonishing line from the Ministry of Justice’s yamen …

@ @ @ @

Just yesterday, when Lu Zhen received the exact news from Hu Ying that an official ship was able to take the two women to Jiangnan, before he could be happy, a servant sent over a letter from the Ministry of Justice.

At that time, Lu Zhen did not care too much. As the capital’s yamen, although Daxing County’s status was not high, it could receive many yamen documents every day. However, after casually reading through the documents, his expression suddenly became grim. The contents were very simple, allowing him to re-examine a murder case that occurred in the county government in March this year, and attach some case files.

Actually, logically speaking, it wasn’t a big deal for the Ministry of Justice to send a case back to the county government for retrial. However, Lu Zhen, the county magistrate of Daxing County, only took office in July. The case in March had nothing to do with him.

Now that the Ministry of Justice had actually sent the case back for him to try, it was naturally worth it to be amazed. Referring to the fact that Li Gu was defeated in the county government and his son Li Huan was tortured and finally left the capital, people naturally had no choice but to suspect that there was something fishy about it.

When Lu Zhen saw Li Gu’s seal at the end of the document, he completely fulfilled his guess. Obviously, this was Lang Zhong Li’s revenge. In other words, this case that Daxing County retried must be unusual. There must be some terrible danger and trap hidden within.

After understanding this point, Lu Zhen immediately called Zeng Guang and Yue Liqiu over to inquire about the details. These two were both at the county government, so they naturally had some impressions of this case. Especially Yue Liqiu. At that time, he was still in charge of the history of the county government prison, and all kinds of cases had to be handled by Yue Liqiu.

After being called over by Lu Zhen and hearing about this, the two of them also appeared very solemn. After reading the documents related to the case, Yue Liqiu’s expression became even more solemn. “My lord, there is indeed something strange about this case.”

Lu Zhen had also scanned the case file, but the description was very simple. On the morning of the seventh day of the third month, an early vendor found the corpse of a man lying dead in a pool of blood at an alley entrance, and immediately reported it to the government.

Because this case occurred in Daxing County, the county government took the lead in sending people to investigate the scene and the corpse. Afterwards, it was discovered that the deceased was the owner of a brothel called the Spring Gathering Pavilion in the capital, whose name was Feng Changchun. Judging from the wounds on his body and the environment of his corpse, it seemed that it was just an ordinary robbery and murder case.

The only thing that surprised Lu Zhen was that this robbery and murder case hadn’t been solved for several months. Now, it was almost sealed by the Ministry of Justice and was finally used against him by Li Gu. Therefore, when Yue Li Qiu said that there was something strange about this case, although he frowned, he was not too surprised.

“What’s so strange about this case? Tell me about it.” Lu Zhen was stunned for a moment before he said.

Yue Liqiu nodded and said, “Actually, when we first took over this case, we all thought it was just an ordinary robbery and murder case. Although the identity of the deceased wasn’t low, he was still a businessman, so he hadn’t left anything behind to ask. However, upon closer inspection, he discovered that the Spring Gathering Pavilion was not simple. It seemed that there were important people behind them who were taking care of them. ”

Lu Zhen nodded gently. He understood this very well. Although he had never been to the Spring Gathering House, he had heard of it for a long time. It was a Gold Marketing Cave that could be ranked in the top five of the capital. Although it was not the property of the Department of Education, the girl among them was not inferior to that of the Department of Education.

It would be hard to believe that there was no backer behind such a good business.

Yue Liqiu continued, “This matter is strange. There was obviously someone behind them, but after Boss Feng was killed, our county government was not under any pressure from the higher ups. Even the Ministry of Justice or the Shuntian Prefecture did not send anyone to let us solve the case within a specified time limit. It was as if only an ordinary citizen had died.”

Hearing this, Lu Zhen frowned, “There must be a demon if something unusual happens. So it seems that his death is really extraordinary.”

“Exactly, but this case is about human lives. Neither Xiaoguan nor County Magistrate Li dared to underestimate it, so they made a few visits and even found some civilians and beggars living nearby …” “But just as Xiaguan found a beggar from the Guandi Temple who was sleeping at night, when he said he remembered seeing such a person, Shuntian Prefecture suddenly sent people over to take the case thoroughly.”

“This is actually happening?” Lu Zhen was stunned, “They just took over the case?”

“That’s right. Because it’s a case of human lives, County Magistrate Li and Lu Tu both feel that it’s very beneficial for us to get rid of our relationship. Therefore, they didn’t insist and sent all the relevant files and witnesses to Shuntian Prefecture. How to investigate the case afterwards is irrelevant to our Daxing County.” Yue Liqiu said softly.

Lu Zhen glanced at the file in his hand and became even more curious, “This matter is even stranger. The county government has already found clues, but why is it that it has become such an open case and almost sealed? What kind of secret is hidden in this case?”