Huaxi Chronicle

Lanxi Villa, study room.

Xun Feibai and Yan Cong'an searched the account books of the villa three times in a row for more than ten days, but what is strange is that except for the account book for building the dam and opening the canal, only two places with dozens of texts were found in the remaining account books. There are no more than a hundred mistakes at most.The income and expenditure account books of the villa have clear entries, all transactions have been checked, and the amount is correct.

Xun Feibai was very puzzled: "More than 600 guan is not a small amount. Could it be that he really only took that sum of money and then took it?"

Yan Cong'an frowned and thought, [-] guan is indeed a lot, but Yan Cong'an only felt that this matter should not be so simple.The income of Lanxi Villa mainly has two parts, one is the land rent, and the other is the profit of the silkworm house.The [-] mu of fertile land and the [-] mu of orchard were leased directly to the villagers of Taohua Village. The income from these two sums was fixed every year, so they couldn't manipulate it.Although the income of the silkworm house is not stable every year, the amount is not much different, and no problems have been found.

Is this ink-greedy person accepting as soon as he sees it, or is there another reason?

Boom, boom, boom.

The two looked up when they heard the sound, only to see the treasure box and the servants coming from the outside.

The treasure box walked up to the two of them, bowed and saluted: "Third lady, young master."

Seeing her hurry, Yan Cong'an asked, "But did you find any clues?"

The treasure box nodded and said: "Guanshi Qian's confidant in the villa has some clues. The accountant of the villa and Guanshi Zhang, who purchased it, have close contacts with Guanshi Qian. However, Guanshi Zhang, who purchased it, resigned at the beginning of this year. It's not in the villa now."

Yan Cong'an asked, "Apart from contacts, is there any other evidence?"

The treasure box continued: "The money manager is very cautious. There hasn't been much change in the family these years. There is a wife and a daughter in the family in Binzhou City, and the food and clothing expenses are the same as before. But the accountant and the purchasing manager , but not as shrewd as Guanshi Qian, over the past few years, one of the family has built three green brick houses at home, and the other has set up a shop in Huaxi County, these two expenses, I am afraid that it is impossible to do it without two hundred yuan."

Xun Feibai thought for a while and said: "I paid special attention to the wages of these two when I was checking the accounts that day. The annual wages are only ten guan, if there is no extra income, the two of them can buy these properties for 20 years without eating or drinking."

Yan Cong'an was not surprised that these people were involved, she took a sip of tea and asked, "Do the two of them have other jobs to earn money?"

The treasure box replied: "The two families have dozens of acres of land, and they have no other livelihood. If you want to remove the money for building dams and canals, there is no other reason to explain that the money for building houses and shops came from Where did you come from?"

Xun Feibai agreed: "Most of the accounts of the money needed to build the dam and open the canal were signed and deferred by these three people before they could be used from the warehouse. It is true that the corruption of money could not be completed without any of them. " She paused, frowned and said: "In this way, the three of them must have been friends for a long time, working together."

Yan Cong'an took a sip of tea and said, "We already know about this, but we don't have any evidence in hand. The two biggest expenses in that account book are the purchase of stones and labor." At this point, she turned to the treasure box and ordered : "On this day, you will send someone to find the owner of the quarry, and the foreman who hired the workers back then, and then confirm with them the amount of money that year. If we want to report to the government in the future, they can be witnesses."

Xun Feibai thought for a moment, and said: "This matter still needs to be done in secret. We don't know whether the foreman of the hired labor and the owner of the quarry have colluded with Guanshi Qian. We should be more cautious, so as not to let the wind leak."

Yan Cong'an nodded in agreement, and continued: "Up and down the villa, there are more than [-] servants and servants. Although we have found out that the corruption of ink was mainly done by Guanshi Qian and the three of them, it is not ruled out. There are other people involved. After we find out these, I will ask the treasure box to send all the guards who stayed in Yan's house. It should be more than enough to catch these people. Before that, we still have to be cautious, so as not to startle the snake and attract them Run away on hearing the news or jump over the wall in a hurry."

Xun Feibai agreed: "This approach is indeed more appropriate."

While the three of them were talking, Chunlai hurried in and said anxiously, "It's not good, young master, third lady. It's not good, the little lady is gone!"

Xun Feibai was shocked when he heard the words, and asked anxiously, "Why did you disappear?"

Chunlai hurriedly explained the reason for the incident. Today, after Yan Yuanjin's lunch break, Chunlai carried her to the village to find new friends to play with. The children played and played. Chunlai did not follow her closely, but sat on the Watching from the sidelines.But just as Chunlai was chatting with others, Yan Yuanjin disappeared. Chunlai searched the neighborhood several times, but couldn't find anyone, so he hurried back to the villa.

Yan Cong'an went out and summoned the treasure box, and ordered: "Send guards to guard the road at the entrance of the village, only entering and not exiting."

The two led a group of servants and guards to the place where Yan Yuanjin was lost. At this time, Lu Cunzheng had also brought people there.

Before the two of them entered, they saw a man dressed as a hunter running towards this direction in a hurry. When he saw Lu Cunzheng, he said anxiously: "Cunzheng, the path to our house is gone! I went out in the morning. I went hunting in the mountains and specifically asked her not to go out to play by herself, but I just searched around at home, but I couldn't find her!"

When Lu Cunzheng heard this, his heart sank: "Why did you lose another one?" Looking at Orion, he asked, "I've searched all around your house, are you sure I can't find it?"

The man nodded hurriedly: "I've looked for it all!"

At this time, a woman pulled a seven or eight-year-old boy up to the two of them and said, "Cunzheng, my boy said that he saw the little lady from the manor going up the mountain to the north with the black girl." As she spoke, the woman pushed the boy beside her forward, and said to him, "Tell Muramasa quickly, what have you seen!"

The three of them looked at the boy together. The boy scratched the hair on the back of his head, pointed to a big tree on the side of the mountain, and said, "I was sleeping on the tree just now, and I saw the black girl hurriedly pulling the little girl from the villa to the tree. My lady, I ran up the mountain. There is a big man behind me, and that big man is very fierce."

Taohua Village is surrounded by mountains on three sides. The entire village is in the shape of a gourd. There is only one road on the east side to enter and exit the village.The mountain on the east side is the steepest, and there is only one river passing through the mountain in the middle, and there is no mountain road to pass through.The hillside on the south side is relatively low, except for the orchard, there are mulberry trees on the hill. Looking up, it is clear that there is no one on the hill.

Only the mountain on the north side has always been a dense forest because the land is not fertile. When you go deeper and turn over the nearby mountain, you will find a deep mountain and old forest that no one cares about, and there are also fierce beasts.It would be very dangerous for the two children to go deep into the forest.

Lu Cunzheng hurriedly asked, "You saw them going up the mountain, but did you see them coming down?"

The boy shook his head: "I didn't come down, I didn't come down."

Orion heard the words and hurriedly asked: "Then have you seen our small road?"

The boy shook his head again: "Only the black girl and the little lady, and that big man. I didn't see Xiaolu, nor did I see anyone else."

While the few people were talking, Xun Fei led the crowd to the front.

When Lu Village saw Xun Feibai coming, he hurried forward to greet him: "This child said that he saw the little lady and the black girl go up Beishan, followed by a man."

Xun Feibai was shocked when he heard the words, turned around and told the treasure box beside him, "Hurry up and send someone up the mountain to look for it!"

"It's him, it's him, that person!" The little boy next to him suddenly pointed in the direction of Beishan and shouted.

The treasure box hurriedly ran to the side of Beishan, captured the big man in two or three strokes, and brought him back to the crowd.

The onlookers in the village were all dumbfounded.

Lu Village was looking at the big man, and asked aloud, "Who are you and why are you in Taohua Village?"

The big man didn't show dissatisfaction on his face, and shouted loudly: "Who are you, why are you arresting me!"

Lu Cunzheng asked sternly: "You just followed the two girls up the mountain, where did you hide them?"

Hearing the words, the big man quibbled: "Where are there any girls? I just got lost and went up the mountain. How can you people in Taohua Village be so unreasonable!"

Just as Lu Cun was about to reprimand, the treasure box stepped forward and kicked the big man's calf. The big man fell to his knees with a plop, and she asked in a low voice, "I'll ask you again, just now you followed the two girls. Up the mountain?"

The big man looked at the treasure box with a look of displeasure, and looked at the treasure box with some fear: "How can you wrong people and beat them with your hands? Is there any law in this world!"

As soon as the big man finished speaking, someone in the crowd shouted: "I recognize him, he and Gou Erlang are together, they are both thugs of Wanjin Casino!"

When Lu Cun heard Gou Erlang's name, he was startled. This Gou Erlang usually works in a gambling house, and in private, he also pulls some women to do flesh and blood business.

Seeing that someone recognized him, the big man had a look of panic on his face.The treasure box took another step forward, grabbed the big man's wrist, twisted it fiercely, and only heard the big man's "ah", and yelled.

The treasure box threatened with a voice: "If you don't want your wrist to be destroyed, tell the truth, where did you hide our little lady?"

The big man hurriedly backed away, his face pale with pain, grabbed his arm, and hurriedly said: "I say I say! Those two children went up the mountain, and they disappeared after a while. I don't know what happened now. Where are people!"

Hearing the words, the treasure box showed suspicion, and stepped forward to pick up the big man on the ground.

The big man flinched and said in horror: "Everything I said is true, otherwise I wouldn't have come down so soon!"

Yan Cong'an at the side glanced at the big man, and told the guards at the side: "You guys go to the mountain to find someone."

The treasure box threw the big man on the ground and shouted: "Why are you chasing these two children up the mountain?"

Hearing the words, the big man became even more panicked, and wanted to keep silent, but when he saw the expression on the treasure box, he stammered and said, "Gou Erlang, it's Gou Erlang, let me catch them."

Lu Cun said to everyone, "Let's go to Gou Erlang's house together!"

The crowd walked less than a hundred meters, and two guards of the Yan family walked towards them.These two people are holding a brocade robed man in their hands, this man is none other than Gou Erlang.Another was holding a little girl.

The Orion at the front recognized at a glance that the girl in the guard's arms was his own daughter, Xiaolu.He stepped forward a few steps, calling out as he walked, "Xiaolu, Xiaolu!"

The guard saw Yan Cong'an in the crowd, and knowing that the hunter was with the crowd, he handed over the girl in his hand to the hunter.The girl was in a coma, no matter how Orion called, she couldn't wake her up.The guard explained: "It should be drugged by someone, and he will wake up after a while."

Orion's complexion relaxed, he felt relieved a little, and thanked the guard repeatedly.

The guard threw Gou Erlang in front of the crowd, bowed to Yan Cong'an, and explained: "Third lady, this man just wanted to leave the village in a hurry. I saw his expression changed, so I stopped his carriage and searched. , found the girl in his carriage."

Everyone was shocked when they heard the words.They only knew that Gou Erlang was engaged in gambling and flesh business, but they never imagined that he also started the illegal business of abducting and trafficking children.

According to the law, children who were abducted and sold in Liang State were sentenced to death by hanging, or with a staff of one hundred rods, or exiled for three thousand miles.Gou Erlang was arrested on the spot, and he couldn't escape the guilt.He knelt on the ground with a pale complexion, and completely lost the arrogance he had at Liu Erlang's house that day.

Lu Cun stepped forward and asked in a deep voice, "Where are you hiding those two children?"

Gou Erlang raised his head and said, "Those two children ran away, and I don't know where they are." He glanced at the big man who was tied up beside him, and said, "I'll let Ah Si chase them. Where are they, you have to find them." Ask him to find out."

The man named Ah Si hurriedly said: "I didn't catch up. The black boy went into the mountain like a loach in a paddy field. He took the little lady with him and disappeared in a blink of an eye. I searched around. I didn’t find the two of them, so I came out of the mountain.”

Lu Cun was thinking for a while, and said to Yan Cong'an and the two of them: "It's useless for the two of them to hide the child in the current situation. I think the young lady and the others should still be in the mountains. I'll take the two of them to the ancestral hall for interrogation first. Send some villagers into the mountains to look for it, what do you think?"

Xun Feibai and Yan Cong'an looked at each other, Yan Cong'an nodded to her, Xun Feibai turned his head to look at Lu Cunzheng and said, "Then it's Lao Cunzheng."

Lu Cunzheng waved his hand: "It is thanks to you that we can take these two thieves down, otherwise Xiaolu would have been taken out of the village by the two of them."

Then he said to the person behind him: "Zhang Wu, then bring some people to call all the men in the village who are at home, and go up the mountain to look for them together."

Yan Cong'an didn't answer when she heard the words, she only nodded her head slightly as a response, she turned sideways and told the treasure box beside her, "If you bring more people up the mountain to search together, it might be dark in another hour, A child is probably not safe in the mountains."

At this time, the girl in Orion's arms has also woken up, and the girl doesn't remember what happened.Orion said to Lu Cunzheng: "I am familiar with the woods in Beishan, please trouble Cunzheng to take care of the path for me later, I will lead people into the mountain, and I will be able to find those two children."

Lu Cunzheng nodded in agreement, and the group of soldiers divided into three groups. Orion went into the mountain with the treasure box first, and Zhang Wu went to the village to find some helpers. Lu Cunzheng, Xun Feibai, Yan Cong'an and his party took Gou Erlang He and Ah Si returned to the ancestral hall for trial.