Paranormal Investigation Notes

Chapter 31
It is not easy to find all the families that have appeared in the vast and scattered historical materials.

At best, these families can only be regarded as local tyrants in the countryside at best, far from being able to leave a name in the official history, or have someone specialize in their biography.

To collect them, you can only collect them from the list of benevolent people who repaired bridges and repaired roads in XX, the list of temple donations, or if there is a famous person, mention XX country gentry by the way when introducing the person, for example, XX is among the characters. Jinshi, official to magistrate, when introducing him, said that his family was poor when he was a child, and he got help from XX good people, etc. Only in these places can he find bits and pieces of information, and then sort it out.

During this process, because he couldn't leave the area of ​​the field hospital and had nothing else to do, Lu Ming also participated in this matter, and stayed with Huang Weimin all day long, soaking in the sea of ​​books.

The investigation of the X organization must be kept secret after all, and there are many things that cannot be disclosed to Huang Weimin.Under such circumstances, it is proper to let Lu Ming, a person who knows the inside story, participate and take charge of the overall situation.

It's just that Lu Ming didn't provide any help during this process.

There are too many historical materials and ancient books.Just reading makes Lu Ming dizzy all day long, let alone collect any useful information.

In addition to Lu Ming, Lu Qingliang and He Wei returned to Woye County again and began to cooperate with Huang Weimin's data collection work with actual investigations.The two of them were on the road all day long, busy visiting old people and historical sites, such as a stone tablet in a certain place, a piece of stone inscription in a certain place, etc., and took photos of them and sent them to Huang Weimin.

In the past, Huang Weimin had no chance to see some books and materials collected by the government. Under the coordination of the two, all of them were opened to Huang Weimin.

Seeing the box after box of ancient books and the electronic documents one after another, Lu Ming's head grew dizzy a few times.On the other hand, Huang Weimin was full of excitement, his eyes almost glowed.

During this period of time, Huang Weimin's life can be described as extremely happy.

Without the noise of my wife, food, clothing and housing are all taken care of by a dedicated person, good wine and good food are available in unlimited quantities, I can immerse myself in ancient books every day without worrying about anything else, and at night I can listen to opera and drink a few taels of wine , shook his head and sang a few words, especially if there is still money to be paid for all this, and there is still a lot of money, it is simply a day like heaven.

Lu Ming, on the other hand, was not only dizzy from reading every day, but also had to be taken by Huang Weimin to accompany him for drinks at night. He wanted not to drink, but was afraid that it would affect Huang Weimin's work, so he had to bite the bullet and pour down glasses of wine. unspeakable.

Fortunately, the delicious fried duck brought by He Wei was frozen, and eating a little every day was a little comfort.But in the end, even the fried duck got tired of eating, and life was no fun at all.

But Lu Ming still gritted his teeth and persisted.

Time slipped away slowly in this state.About half a month after Huang Weimin started working, this task finally had a preliminary result
From the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty to modern times, a total of hundreds of years, with the full cooperation of the second action team, Huang Weimin used these numerous historical materials, combined with the memory in his head and decades of research, In the end, a list of hundreds of families that could be called squires in Woye County or not far away was sorted out.

After that, the task of data collection will continue, and it will be more arduous than before.Because Huang Weimin needed to find out further detailed information about every squire family on the list.

Only in this way can we finally judge whether they meet our own screening conditions and whether there is enough suspicion to make our own in-depth investigation.

"The Mazhuang Hong family lived around the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty. According to historical records, at the peak of the family, the number of fields in the family reached more than 600 mu. There are children in the family who serve as book offices in the county government. They are well-known local tyrants in ten miles and eight towns. "

Most of Woye County is mountainous.In such a place, there are more than 600 mu of land, which is not to say that it is not rich.

"How the family started and how it died cannot be verified. However, another historical material records that in the last years of Qianlong, a 'big epidemic' occurred in the Woye County area. The patients suffered from vomiting and diarrhea, high fever, and died within ten days. At that time Almost every family in this place wears sackcloth and filial piety. Originally, the Mazhuang Hong family was mentioned by other historical materials from time to time when describing other events before this, but after the epidemic, it was never mentioned again.

It is speculated that the family fell into decline during the epidemic, or the whole family died altogether. "

This obviously does not meet the filter criteria.After all, if the benefits could be obtained steadily from the mountain god, some infectious diseases would not have much impact on the family.

Before, there was an example of a poor boy who begged three doses of medicine from the mountain god and cured his son.

Ma Zhuanghong was excluded.

"The Zhang family of Sanliuzhuang. During the Tianqi period at the end of the Ming Dynasty. The family was in the timber business and served two county magistrates. The family has more than a thousand acres of land. Well, let me look for it, here.

According to the records of Woye County, in the last years of the apocalypse, a major corruption case broke out in the county. The county magistrate at that time was arrested. The Shangguan who came to handle the case also found out that several local families were involved, and all their homes were ransacked.Among them was a family engaged in the timber business—it did not mention which family it was, but it was said that about a thousand taels of silver was seized from the family. Based on the prevailing customs at the time, the total assets of the family were around ten thousand taels of silver. The assets of the Zhuangzhang family roughly match, and it is basically certain that it is the family. "

The family died because of the ransacking of the house.And this shows that the family's power is not strong, nor does it have any background, and it also does not meet the screening conditions.

After all, it can be clearly seen that Shangguan is using corruption to make money.If the Zhang family had sufficient background and heritage, they would not be used for surgery.

"Luo village, Luo family, the family has a talent to make a fortune, so it doesn't meet the conditions."

"The Tong family in Liuli Town has accumulated more than 200 mu of land over ten generations, which is not suitable."

It is not easy to screen enough families that meet the criteria.So far, among a total of 326 families, more than 200 have been excluded, and only more than 30 have been listed as suspected.

These are listed as suspected and further data collection is required to conclusively determine yes or no.

"The Tang family of Shanghe Village...huh?"

According to records, the Tang family in Shanghe Village probably appeared during the reign of Chongzhen in the Ming Dynasty.His family owns tens of thousands of acres of fertile land, and the family business involves timber, private salt, wine making, medicinal materials, etc., and the family is rich.

This family has been mentioned in several ancient books, and among them, the history of the ancestors of the Tang family is the most talked about by the writers.

The ancestor of the Tang family was originally a shabby householder, relying on the county town to make a living as a helper for official yamen servants.But then somehow I got money in my hands, and the money opened the way, and soon became the book office of the county government.He also recruited hooligans, intervened in the casino and brothel business, and soon became a tyrant in the fertile field.

According to common sense, even if you have money, you won't be able to hold on to a shabby household, let alone expand your business.But what amazed the writers the most was the luck of the ancestors of the Tang family.

His luck always seems to be particularly good.Chengxiang always dies at critical moments.

For example, once, he offended a certain big family in the county, and the big family sent word that he wanted his head.But within a few days, the big family's family seemed to be hit by plague, and the whole family died for no reason.As a result, he took the first step to make a fortune and won the establishment of a real government official.

After that, he once offended the county magistrate, who wanted to beat him to death with a big board.But within a few days, the county magistrate also died inexplicably, and he escaped unharmed.

Later, he cured a certain high official in the mansion with a dose of medicine, and was appreciated by the other party and had a backer.

Later, the business grew bigger and bigger, buying houses and land, and having tens of thousands of acres of fertile land, rampant in the fertile fields, no one dared to mess with them.

According to common sense, such a wealthy person should live in a big place, at least in the county town.But for some reason, the ancestors of the Tang family were very stubborn in wanting to stay in their hometown, that is, Shanghe Village.

There are rumors that Shanghe Village is the blessed land of the Tang family, and only by taking root here can they preserve their wealth and honor for generations.But in Lu Ming's eyes, he felt that the ancestors of the Tang family chose to stick to their hometown instead of developing in a bigger place closer to the center of power, but it might be to keep a certain secret and stick to a certain "root".

If the ancestors of the Tang family relied on the "mountain god" to start their family, then what is the root cause?
Only the mountain god is the root.In this way, the head of the family must of course be stationed in the place closest to the mountain god.

That wasn't the only thing that caught his special attention.Afterwards, the Tang family continued to prosper in Shanghe Village for a generation, and survived the turmoil in the late Ming Dynasty and the massacre by the Qing soldiers.

However, no matter how large the family develops, under the strict requirements of the Tang family's ancestors, every generation of Tang family's head must stick to the remote and backward Shanghe village.

"The Tang family is suspected."

Lu Ming quickly came to a conclusion in his mind.

but……

Huang Weimin soon found more historical materials about the Tang family.According to historical records, from the Chongzhen period in the late Ming Dynasty to the Daoguang period in the Qing Dynasty, after more than 200 years of inheritance and at least a dozen generations of population, this family finally ushered in its demise.

But the process of the family's demise seems to reveal a strange atmosphere.According to historical records, it was killed by bandits, but it is also recorded that this group of "bandits" were thin and ragged, and there were even women and children among them.

At the same time, it was also recorded that because of the strength of the Tang family, the surrounding bandits did not dare to invade for many years.This time, for some unknown reason, the mighty Tang family was wiped out in one fell swoop.

Historical materials also record that after this group of bandits broke through Tangjiazhuangzi, they actually "digged their ancestral graves", "no chickens and dogs were left in the house", and "divided their corpses and soaked them in the dung cellar", etc. It seems that they did not just plan to Money, but with a deep hatred.

This is rather strange.

(End of this chapter)