Rebirth: The wedding night, my whole family was exiled, I raised 500,000 soldiers

Sun Qian's eyes flashed with panic. He was afraid that someone would notice something was wrong, so he quickly concentrated and shook his head, saying, "I don't know. We were separated after being convicted and demoted. Several people who were assigned to the same group as me died one after another for unknown reasons. After I realized something was wrong, I found an opportunity, faked a fall off a cliff, and then disguised myself, so I could survive until now!"

Afraid that Shen Lanxi wouldn't believe him, he pointed at his face with a wry smile and said, "I didn't even dare to wash my face when I went to bed at night. During the time I was hiding, I went to inquire about the whereabouts of the others, only to find out that they were also dead. I didn't dare to return to the capital, and I had nowhere to go, so I hid in the northwest."

Shen Lanxi found Sun Qian's file and pointed at it, asking him to read it himself.

"Four people in your family have died in the past three years. Now only your wife and children are left."

Sun Qian seemed to be forced into a desperate situation and cried heart-wrenchingly.

"Father, mother, younger brother..."

The dead were Sun Qian's father, mother and two younger brothers.

Shen Lanxi waited until Sun Qian's crying became quieter before asking, "What is your purpose in coming to me?"

Sun Qian was in a daze, as if he didn't hear what Shen Lanxi said.

"Are you here to kill me?"

Sun Qian shook his head in silence and explained in a hoarse voice: "I just heard that the general of the Zhenbei Army is from the Shen family, and the major general of the Wei Family Army has appeared. I want to investigate the case of the theft of Wei Family Army's food and wages."

Shen Lanxi's expression eased a little, and she said, "I have ordered people to protect your family, so you don't have to rush back to the capital!"

Sun Qian just wanted to go back to the capital to save his family. Even if he heard Shen Lanxi say this, he didn't believe it.

Shen Lanxi: "I know you don't trust anyone now. Before I came to the northwest, I asked His Majesty for permission to thoroughly investigate the theft by Wei Jiajun, and I will preside over this case!"

Sun Qian was in a daze, not knowing what he was thinking.

Shen Lanxi continued: "If you don't believe it, you can go check it out. This matter is not a secret in Beijing!"

"I think you must be very curious about why I, a member of the Shen family, would ask for an imperial decree to thoroughly investigate this case more than two years later?"

"Don't think you are the most wronged. Our Shen family is the most wronged. On my wedding night, our entire Shen family was imprisoned in the Tianlao Prison. There was not even a public trial. In less than half a month, our Shen family was exiled to Dongchuan. I also divorced because of this."

"You are from the capital, so you should know that our Shen family has always been blessed by the emperor. We are rich and powerful. As long as we don't rebel, even murder and arson can't hurt our Shen family. Is it possible for our family to risk exile or even execution for just a little bit of silver?"

Sun Qian naturally knew about the Shen family, especially Shen Lanxi. Every time she left the palace, she would bring a large amount of rewards with her. Everyone in the capital knew how much the empress dowager doted on her.

Compared with those rewards, a mere one million taels of military pay is really nothing.

Shen Lanxi put herself in his shoes and asked, "Do you think that our Shen family is the most wronged in this matter?"

Sun Qian couldn't say anything to refute.

Wei Dongzhu on the side had also thought about this question a long time ago. He had indeed asked someone to go to Beijing to inquire about it before.

And along the way to Dongchuan, everything the Shen family said and did proved what Shen Lanxi said.

Apart from her, no one in the Shen family had the ability to do so even if they wanted to. If Shen Lanxi was the one who stole the food and money, she would not overturn the case.

If it was for him to see, it was even more impossible. Wei Dongzhu didn't think he had the value and face to do it.

The groundwork was almost done, and Shen Lanxi began to inquire about the details of the escort.

"Tell me everything that happened before and after we received the rations and all the way to the northwest, including the changing of guards, who was on guard during the night shift, and who approached the boxes of rations. Tell me everything!"

Sun Qian's expression was more than twice as serious as before, and he concentrated carefully recalling everything that happened during the escort.

It is said to have taken more than two hours.

"When we took over the goods and opened the box, we found out that it was filled with stones!" When Sun Qian said this, he clenched his fists tightly and the veins on his face were tense, which showed how much anger and hatred he had in his heart.

Shen Lanxi didn't hear anything unusual along the way, except for one thing.

"When you went to the Ministry of Revenue to receive the silver, did you open the box and inspect the silver?"

Sun Qian suddenly raised his head, his eyes wide open, and looked at Shen Lanxi in disbelief.

"Are you saying that what we received was originally stone?"

Shen Lanxi looked at him coldly without saying a word.

Wei Dongzhu reminded: "Answer the general's question."

Sun Qian quickly came back to his senses and replied, "No, we didn't open the box to check the silver."

After he finished speaking, he immediately explained: "This has always been the rule. We are not allowed to see the silver. We are afraid that we will see so much silver and be tempted by the money, and embezzle it. So it has always been sealed and handed over to us. During the escort, the seal cannot be damaged in any way. The seal must be kept intact before being handed over to the recipient." They have escorted the silver many times, and they have always done so.

Shen Lanxi: "So you don't know whether you are connected to silver or stone?"

Sun Qian lost control and shouted, "The Ministry of Revenue can't possibly give us the stone, right?"

Shen Lanxi thought for a moment and said, "Do you remember who handed over the money to you? Do you remember what they looked like?"

More than three years have passed and Sun Qian has long forgotten about it.

"I didn't suspect those people from the beginning, so..." He didn't deliberately recall the appearance of those people.

So much time had passed that he had completely forgotten about those people.

Shen Lanxi took out a few more sheets of paper from the file, lined them up, and placed them in front of Sun Qian.

"When you took over the business, you must have signed your name, right?"

Sun Qian nodded, then frowned and said, "I signed and sealed it with another escort officer."

Shen Lanxi thought to herself that it was a good thing that Sun Qian was not a small pawn, otherwise there would be no clues at all.

"Look at these documents and see which one you signed and sealed."

These documents were copied word for word from the original, and even the handwriting is the same as that of the rubbings.

Sun Qian stepped forward, read it carefully, and then gave Shen Lanxi an answer that surprised her.

"neither."

Shen Lanxi raised her eyebrows: "Why not? Did you see it clearly?"

She thought Sun Qian was talking about the imitation of the signature and the fingerprint being pressed being different. Just as she was about to speak, she heard Sun Qian say, "The time is wrong. It says the ninth day of the first lunar month, the Chou hour, but we went there at the end of the Yin hour. I remember clearly that when we left the capital, people were already buying meat patties at the meat pie stall at the city gate. I even bought some for my brothers!"

Shen Lanxi immediately picked up a pen and wrote down the time. This was the only thing wrong so far.

Wei Dongzhu couldn't hold his temper any longer, he felt that there was a turning point in the case of stolen food and wages.

"Where did you hand it over to the Ministry of Revenue?"

The urgency in his question made Sun Qian realize that something was unusual.