The Three Spirit Stones

After listening to Wei Guan's words, Lu Wuchen also felt that this case was very difficult. This was a naked conspiracy.

Even a child can think of adding a horizontal line to the character "two" to make it "three". But everything requires evidence. How do you prove that the horizontal line was added later?

You don't have evidence that others have fabricated the facts, but they have evidence that you have fabricated the facts. This in itself means you have already lost, so it is very difficult to prove your innocence in this case.

Lu Wuchen frowned and asked,

"Master Wei, in your opinion, how should this case be handled to best protect the people in the firm?"

"These are children in their teens. I don't think they have the guts to break the law knowingly."

Wei Guan pondered for a moment and said, "If businessmen collude with officials to falsify accounts and enrich themselves, once discovered, they must turn over the stolen money in full and be fined three times the amount, be flogged forty times, and be imprisoned for more than three years."

"But considering that they are first-time offenders and are still young, I can write to the government to plead for leniency, replacing prison with fines. Only men need to serve the 40 lashes, while women can be exempted."

"That's all I can do,"

After listening to this, Lu Wuchen sighed and said, "This is the only way now."

"Fortunately, her master is rich, so let's just consider it as a way to avoid disaster."

"I hope I can learn from this experience."

At this time, Ah Cai suddenly said, "Sir, I want to review this account book again."

"I want to figure out, is this number something we calculated wrong or is someone trying to frame us?"

After hearing her words, Wei Guan and Lu Wuchen looked at each other.

I thought, is this important?

Even if the result is correct, so what?

You have to have evidence to prove that you are not wrong!

Wei Guan said, "Well, Madam Hou, in fact, the government can be as lenient in sentencing as possible if someone admits his fault and accepts the punishment immediately."

The subtext is, stop doing so many tricks, you are bound to lose this lawsuit, the best thing to do is to pay the fine quickly and get the man out of jail, anyway, your husband is famous for being rich.

Lu Wuchen also wanted to persuade Ah Cai, but she said firmly, "If it is our fault, I will definitely admit my guilt and accept the punishment, but if it is not our fault, I will definitely not admit it."

"Please allow us to review it, sir,"

After she finished speaking, she stood up and bowed solemnly to Wei Guan, who quickly stood up and supported her with both hands, saying, "Madam, you are too polite."

Although Wei Guan was an official appointed by the imperial court, A Cai was a lady of imperial decree, and according to etiquette he could not treat her like an ordinary woman.

He said, "Since Madam insists, I will make an exception and let you review it again."

"Thank you, sir,"

According to Ah Cai's request, Wei Guan brought out several female accountants from the women's prison, and then brought out the items that had been seized from the office from the evidence room.

These girls had been frightened since morning, and when they saw Ah Cai, they immediately burst into tears. Ah Cai comforted them and told them what had happened. The girls immediately calmed down and began to settle the accounts in an orderly manner.

This was the first time Wei Guan saw that accounts could be calculated so quickly.

I saw a woman opening the account books of the Ministry of Revenue and the office at the same time, reading out the numbers in order, and another woman wrote the numbers on a form, and then handed the full form to another woman, who took the form and started counting with the chips.

The counting sticks they used were not very similar to the ones we usually use. There were two grids, with small pillars on the upper and lower parts, and a few wooden beads on each pillar. The horizontal bar in the middle was engraved with numbers such as tens, hundreds, thousands, etc.

Soon, several people cooperated with each other and calculated an account book as thick as a pillow. Wei Guan looked at the time and found that it took only half an hour. He remembered that the people in the Ministry of Revenue said that it took two accountants two days to calculate this account book. He couldn't help but cherish the talent in his heart.

These guys are all talented!

If you can keep them, try to keep them. If the Ministry of Revenue can hire them to do the work, I don't know how much manpower and time can be saved. But unfortunately, they are all women.

"Teacher Cai, we calculated it twice, and both times it was 1.23 million taels,"

One of them said,

"That means we didn't make a mistake and the horizontal line was added later."

"It should be. There is no reason why the calculation of 100,000 taels could be wrong."

"it is good,"

Listening to their conversation, Wei Guan looked at Lu Wuchen helplessly, and Lu Wuchen was also speechless.

I sighed in my heart, I am still too young and I can’t figure out the crux of the problem.

After the women finished discussing, Ah Cai turned to Wei Guan and said, "Sir, the results are out. We did not make a mistake in our calculations."

"Now, we can open the cover of the account book and check the numbers written inside. The numbers inside cannot be changed."

What, there are numbers inside the cover of the account book?

The two were very surprised and asked at the same time, "Why are there numbers in the cover?"

"Of course, the numbers here are lowercase and can be changed at will. I will definitely be on guard against this."

"But you can't read our capital numbers, so we wrote them on the inside of the cover and covered them up."

She said it as a matter of course!

There is always light at the end of the tunnel!

Wei Guan and Lu Wuchen stared at each other in amazement. They couldn't believe that the silly-looking Ah Cai could actually have such a trick.

This made it easier to handle the case. Wei Guan immediately invited the judge, the judge, and the military officer of the Kaifeng Prefecture to testify.

With several people's testimony, Ah Cai asked Li Ji to open the cover of the account book. Inside, in the lower right corner, there was a line of thin words written: 1,230,000 taels, along with the time and a seal. To prove that this [贰] is [二], he opened the rest of the account books at the same time, and those account books also had this number written in the lower right corner.

Now that the evidence was conclusive, Wei Guan immediately ordered the arrest of all the people in the warehouse department and brought them back to Kaifeng Prefecture for interrogation, and all the people in the accounting office were released without charge.

……

From the ear room, bursts of inhumane screams were heard!

Ah Cai was beating the yamen runners who had just bullied her with a stick. Those runners who had been so ferocious just now were now like pitiful puppies, allowing her to beat and scold them. They all had painful expressions on their faces and were groaning.

Humph! What a bunch of drama queens!

Lu Wuchen rolled his eyes and watched these big, burly men performing hard.

He knew very well that Ah Cai had so little strength that hitting them with a stick was no different from tickling them, but each of them looked as if they were being tortured.

However, Lu Wuchen did not want to expose them. They just wanted to save their lives. They knew very well who they had offended.

This is the most beloved wife of Cheng Yu, the loyal and brave Marquis.

Who is Cheng Yu?

The emperor's favorite minister, the prince's tutor, Cao Wei's nephew, the head of Cheng's industry,

If Ah Cai was not allowed to vent her anger, someone would naturally come to take their lives, even without Cheng Yu having to take action himself.

After beating them up, Ah Cai calmed down, but was also very tired. She looked breathlessly at the group of yamen runners lying on the ground, covering their "wounds" and groaning in pain, and suddenly felt that she was a little cruel!

"Dongmei, give each of them ten taels of silver so they can see a doctor,"

When the yamen runners heard this, they immediately shook their heads and waved their hands, saying in panic, "No, no, it's fine, Madam, just don't get angry with us, how dare we accept your money?"

"Yeah,"

"I've taken it, and remember not to bully others by taking advantage of your power in the future."

"Otherwise I will beat you up even more severely,"

Seeing Ah Cai clenching her fists and looking fierce, Lu Wuchen tried hard to hold back his laughter. He thought to himself, she is actually very kind. If it were someone else, these yamen runners would be skinned alive if not dead.

In the ancient society where people were divided into different classes, the lives of the lower class were worthless. To the nobles, the yamen runners were also inferior people. If Ah Cai wanted them dead, she could just say a word.

But her logical thinking is very simple.

If you hit me, I will hit you back.

After leaving Kaifeng, Ah Cai invited everyone to a restaurant for a meal to celebrate the vindication of her wrongdoing.

At the banquet, she toasted Lu Wuchen and thanked him for saving her in time. She patted Lu Wuchen on the shoulder and said, "Lu Wuchen, you will be my best friend from now on."

“Ah?! Hahahaha,”

"Good, good girlfriend, good girlfriend,"

The old Taoist priest laughed and drank the cup!