Rebirth: From being expelled from the imperial court to becoming a high-ranking official

It was almost August when Qin Yunhe finally received additional details and written explanation of the murder case from the magistrate of Maohe County.

In the newly added files, Sun Maoxue confessed that he took the sickle from Yang Yanxi and threw it into the river after killing Yang Yanxi.

As for why they had an argument, Sun Maoxue only said that he saw Yang Yanxi there and cursed her a few times, Yang Yanxi got angry and said back, and he got so angry that he started fighting with her...

The petition filed by the magistrate of Maohe County stated that Sun Maoxue's father was a village bully who loved to stir up trouble and bring disaster to the village. He was once sentenced to three years in prison for injuring someone.

Sun Maoxue has been a vengeful person since he was young. According to neighbors in the same village, he had quarreled with Yang Yanxi for no reason many times, which was very disgusting.

The neighbors all felt that it was not surprising that he suddenly had a conflict with Yang Yanxi and killed someone.

Qin Yunhe frowned more and more as he looked at it.

It was recorded in the previous case file that Sun Maoxue met Yang Yanxi and saw him watching the growth of wheat. Obviously, the wheat was not going to be harvested that day, so why did he bring a sickle?

And why didn’t Sun Maoxue mention taking the sickle the first time?

In particular, looking back at what Sun Maoxue said when he confessed, he did not even say the murder weapon was a sickle the first time.

Moreover, even if the murder was committed by stealing the sickle, Yang Yanxi's family should be investigated to find out how many sickles there were in his house, how many were left at home, and whether Yang Yanxi took the sickle with him that day.

Why has there been no inquiry into Sun Maojia’s family in the case file?

As for what the magistrate of Maohe County said about how Sun Maoxue's father loved to stir up trouble and how Sun Maoxue had quarreled with Yang Yanxi for no reason many times, this would indeed increase his suspicion.

To prove whether a quarrel escalated into murder, more solid evidence is needed.

In fact, this obviously biased statement made Qin Yunhe more suspicious that the magistrate of Maohe County used this to determine that Sun Maoxue was a suspect, and he first made the suspicion and then found witnesses.

Qin Yunhe took out the case files from the previous trial again, wondering in his heart whether Sun Maoxue might have been forced to confess.

Qin Yunhe thought about it and decided not to ask the magistrate of Maohe County to re-examine the case or provide additional details.

The autumn trial was about to begin in late August. Qin Yunhe sorted out his doubts about the case, contacted the officer of the Henan Division of the Autumn Trial Office, asked someone to submit his doubts, and then continued to be busy.

In August, the tax and grain books from various places in the previous year arrived one after another. In addition to reviewing criminal cases in various places, the tax and grain accounts had to be checked at the same time. The censors in various regions were all busy and overwhelmed.

Just when Qin Yunhe was too busy to take care of anything else, he received an invitation from Feng Bao.

After Feng Baochu had approached him last time, he continued to be busy with his official duties and soon forgot about the matter. Now Feng Baochu has sent out invitations again, so I guess the matter has come to a conclusion.

Qin Yunhe hesitated for a moment, but finally accepted Feng Bao's invitation to have tea together during his day off.

When the day came, Qin Yunhe went to the teahouse he had been to last time. As soon as he got off the carriage, he saw Feng Bao waiting at the door.

"How can I help you? Please come in."

Feng Bao grabbed Qin Yunhe's arm with one hand and made a gesture of invitation with the other, looking very intimate.

Qin Yunhe guessed that it was probably a good result.

Qin Yunhe was invited to the private room again.

"Brother Feng, you invited me this time because your case has been concluded?"

Although he knew Qin Yunhe, Feng Baochu still laughed at his straightforwardness, and then bowed solemnly.

"Why? Thank you very much. My partner in the case was found not to be a pariah, and his reputation was saved. You have done a great deed this time."

"Brother Feng, why are you being so polite? Please take a seat."

Feng Baochu was obviously in a very good mood and was truly grateful to Qin Yunhe. He sat down and continued.

"He was almost stripped of his honor. Fortunately, he asked the county magistrate in time to get the opinions of the villagers, and the county magistrate temporarily postponed the stripping of his honor. Later, I visited many villagers, and they all said that the mother of my case was just a midwife.

Later, the magistrate asked the inspector for instructions, and the inspector agreed that I was not a pariah."

"This way, your ten years of hard work in studying for the same case will not be in vain. Congratulations."

The waiter brought the tea, and Feng Baochu personally poured a cup of tea for Qin Yunhe.

Today, Qin Yunhe finally saw some of Feng Bao's true character.

As they drank tea, Qin Yunhe couldn't help but speak.

"Just seeing that Brother Feng is so concerned about him, I think he must be a good person."

Feng Baochu said with some nostalgia: "Zongzhi is indeed an upright person, humble and motivated. To be honest, we actually guaranteed each other during the Tongsheng exam. But even if there was no guarantee, I would still help him."

Qin Yunhe nodded.

Feng Bao was willing to take the initiative to say that they had guaranteed each other, and Qin Yunhe felt that he was really willing to help his accomplice.

The two of them drank tea slowly and talked about their experiences in recent years, their lives and work. Originally, the relationship between the two was not very hot and cold, but because of this incident, they became closer.

After the day off, Qin Yunhe went to work as usual and reviewed case files.

He was good at checking various documents, but checking money and grain was really time-consuming and laborious, and he was exhausted after work every day.

Soon, the autumn trial will begin.

Qin Yunhe was concerned about the Sun Maoxue murder case, so he took some time out of his busy schedule to study the case file again. He also compiled some of his own opinions and sent them to the Autumn Trial Office and to the officer of the Henan Division.

It has been more than half a year since Tian Yushi went to the local inspection. During this period, he found many people who pretended to be good at taking the imperial examinations and paying taxes, which also implicated many students, local officials, and clerks with guarantees.

Although many of the students who had obtained guarantees were not innocent, many of them were certainly unaware of the situation. Even those who were found to be corrupt probably did not know that they would be classified as untouchables.

I don’t know how many people’s ten years of hard work have been wasted.

The clerks in the government office were not wronged. Since they were paid to dig and fill the land, they must have known what those people were going to do. But the situation of local officials was not certain.

Apart from those who actually collected money to settle the accounts and those who were lazy and did not verify the accounts, some were indeed verified, but they did not expect the other party to be regarded as untouchables.

It is really sad that they were fined or even demoted for this reason.

Some of them had made considerable political achievements in the local area and could have waited until the end of their term to be evaluated and promoted, but this has become impossible after this incident.

After this news came out in Henan Province, the only people who were probably happy about it were the Jinshi scholars who were learning to travel. This freed up a lot of vacancies, and in the past few months many people have already taken up the positions of magistrates of Henan Province.

Tian Yushi was full of vigor and vigor, and his colleagues praised him and envied him, saying that he had made great achievements and had a good chance of promotion.

However, at the end of August, colleagues in the Censorate received quite unexpected news.

The Censor-in-Chief of Huguang Province impeached Censor Tian.