Since I met you, people are dying every day

"What's so difficult about it? I'll bring it to you, my lord." Cheng Ying responded quickly, then hurriedly turned to leave.Ye Sirui quickly followed him. "It's useless for me to stay here, it's better to go with you."

The yamen where Cheng Ying worked was not affected by the fire, so such a list was left behind.He stopped at the door, "My lord, wait a moment, I will come as soon as I go."

Ye Sirui waited patiently outside the door for a while, then Cheng Ying came out in a hurry, her face still flushed, and her forehead covered with beads of sweat.It's the end of autumn, and the people in central Beijing have already started to put on layered clothes. Why does he sweat so much at every turn?

Cheng Ying didn't know his confusion, and handed him the folded paper, "This was copied by a subordinate official, please take it away, my lord."

Ye Sirui thanked him repeatedly before turning and leaving.As he walked out, he unfolded the paper and looked at it one by one.Cheng Ying was very careful. In addition to the name of the person on the paper, there were also official positions, year Geng, and place of origin.The first one is Yao Yi, Minister of the Ministry of Rites and a scholar of the cabinet, 48 years old, from the capital.Behind him was Zhao Rong, the right servant of the Ministry of Rites, 45 years old, from Suzhou. There were more than a dozen officials behind him.After reading it, Ye Sirui put away the paper, went to the door to ask for his horse back, got on the horse and headed towards Shuntian Mansion.

Li Changrui was so busy that he didn't have time to see him, so the servant took him to a side room for tea.After three rounds of tea, Li Changrui sent an inspector to inform him of the situation. When Ye Sirui saw the person, it was Cui Tong who prevented him from breaking into the fire scene last night.

Cui Tong was tall and burly, and the tendons on his shoulders could be seen through the blue shirt.When he saw Ye Sirui, without further ado, he first bowed down and saluted, "The next official, Cui Tong, the procurator of Shuntian Mansion, has met Mr. Qian Shi."

"No." Cui Tong straightened up, even more imposing, Ye Sirui pressed the lid of the bowl with two fingers, turned against the guest, and said lightly: "Sit."

Cui Tong thanked him and sat next to him, his buttocks only occupied one-third of the seat, his waist was straight, and his eyes lowered respectfully.Sitting meticulously, he doesn't look like a reckless vulgar man, but a well-educated son of a family.As soon as he sat down, he took the initiative to say: "My lord, Mr. Fu Yin is about to send someone to inform your company that the person who set the fire has been found."

Ye Sirui's five fingers holding the teacup did not move at all, "Oh? Who is it?"

Cui Tong said: "I don't know if my lord is clear. Shuntian Mansion sends people to patrol the streets every night to check for suspicious people. As soon as the report of the accident was reported yesterday, my lord told our brothers who are patrolling and changing shifts to pay attention. Sure enough, I found a man who ran out of the street in a panic after entering the watch. When I asked him what he did, he couldn’t explain what he was doing, but when he mentioned the matter of punishing the procurator and passing the water, he knelt down and kowtowed repeatedly.” He paused for a moment to see Ye Sirui's reaction, but Ye Sirui was just drinking tea with a silent expression.Cui Tong had no choice but to continue according to what he said in advance. "The patrolling brothers thought he was suspicious, so they brought him back. This morning, my lord raised him up for interrogation, and before he had even given a few slaps, he was all recruited."

Ye Sirui finally put down the tea bowl, and smiled softly, "Shuntian Mansion is indeed amazingly efficient, I admire it very much." This ordinary compliment passed by, and he changed the subject, "I don't know where the confession is? Can I have a look? "

When Cui Tong came, he had a notebook in his sleeve, Ye Sirui had already noticed it.Hearing this, he quickly took out the book and presented it with both hands.Ye Sirui thanked him and turned to the notebook to read.The ink blot is brand new, and the place where the ink is drawn is bright red and a little smudged.This is the confession from the interrogation this morning. The suspicious person is Wang Ji, a butcher.His stall is in Nancheng, which is far away from the Procuratorate.There was a curfew in Beicheng at night, and he was drunk when he was caught by the yamen servants of Shuntian Mansion. He had nothing on him except pipe tinder and flint, so he couldn't explain how he got here.During the interrogation, Li Changrui only asked the yamen servants to hit twenty killing sticks first, and then questioned. Wang Ji immediately admitted that he was drunk and smoked a pipe while urinating against the wall. Burned.

The more Ye Sirui looked at it, the smile on the corner of his mouth became weaker. After finishing the confession, there was only a trace of irony left. "In this way, Wang Ji accidentally set fire to the yamen of the procuratorial department?"

"Exactly."

"Then how did he come to Beicheng?" Ye Sirui closed his notebook and asked.

"He went out to drink and gamble with people at night. He was afraid of being caught, so he shrank and refused to speak. Later, he got dizzy from too much wine and went astray." Cui Tong said.

Ye Sirui put the book aside and didn't read it, propped his head up and looked at Cui Tong with a half-smile.Cui Tong was uncomfortable seeing him, so he asked, "What's the matter, sir?"

Ye Sirui pushed the notebook in front of him. "I will pass this matter on to Mr. Inspectorate, how he decides is beyond his instincts to guess." After he finished speaking, he looked at Cui Tong again. "Wan Chengtiao's servants are still imprisoned in Shuntian Mansion. I wonder if there is any statement?"

Cui Tong was unprepared for this, so he could only say with a stiff face: "The two of them were detained here only for the release of Mr. Wan when someone came to claim the body. In fact, the two of them did not commit any crimes, and their confessions are not important. .”

Seeing his eyes wandering, Ye Sirui already showed some guilt. "Why hasn't Mr. Wan's family come to claim the body?"

"Pu County and the capital are also more than ten days away. It will take a long time to report the news. It will be winter soon, and the road will be difficult. His family

Maybe they plan to wait until the New Year's Day is over before entering Beijing. "

Ye Sirui lowered his head and sipped his tea again to hide his sarcasm.When the new year's day is over, the corpse will not know what kind of decay it is. Let alone Wan Chengtiao is the son of the main family, even if it is a collateral blood, there is no reason for such a dead body to be exposed on the street.Even if it's too late to hurry, doesn't Wan's family have any relatives and friends in Beijing who can collect the body on their behalf?

After taking a few sips of tea, Ye Sirui said: "Since the confession is nothing important, why don't you ask me to interrogate them. I'll just ask a few unimportant questions."

This was obviously a request that Cui Tong was unprepared for.He hesitated for a moment, then immediately replied: "I can't decide what to do with this matter, so please forgive me and report it to Mr. Fu Yin."

This is inevitable.Ye Sirui nodded indifferently, and Cui Tong bowed and retreated.When Cui Tong came to entertain him, he kicked out the servants in the room, and when he left, Ye Sirui was the only one left in the room.Ye Sirui looked at the decorations on the wall, several paintings of Dou Fang were handwritten by successive governors of Shuntian Prefecture.Ye Sirui read out the names of the inscriptions one by one with great interest. Most of these governors were those who rose to the top later, entered the cabinet or sealed off borders, and only a few names were relatively familiar.Moreover, almost all of these governors came from famous families, lords' families.

He looked at it for a while, and Cui Tong had already returned, "Your Majesty, I will lead you to interrogate the prisoner."

Li Changrui was easy to talk to, probably because he didn't see that he was looking for trouble for the accident, but it wasn't his turn to make trouble for that matter.Ye Sirui smoothed his robe and let him go.Cui Tong took him to an interrogation hall in the torture room, under which were various instruments of torture.Those two were servants who sold themselves to the Wan family, and the young master who served them died, even if they were beaten to death by the government, they were counted as martyrs, and the Wan family didn't say anything.

Cui Tong had already ordered that Ye Sirui flipped his robe and sat down on the main seat, and he stood beside him and said loudly: "Take the servants of the Wan family!"

The yamen servants escorted an old and a young father and son to the court.Both of them were in prison clothes, unkempt and smelly.Ye Sirui fanned his hands again and again, and asked Cui Tong with a frown: "Didn't you say that the two of them have no crimes? It's fine to wear prison clothes, why do you grind people like this?"

Cui Tong didn't look aside, "Your Excellency, I have never seen a prisoner in a torture room. Anyone who enters a prison will be changed into a prison uniform, and torture will be imposed upon interrogation. They are not bad."

When Ye Sirui himself was the county magistrate, he seldom entered the prison. Most of the prisoners he held were interrogated within three to five days, and then sentenced according to the law.As for what happened to those who lived, he never cared.It didn't seem worth his concern either.

The father and son were escorted to the court, and the yamen servant was about to execute the killing blow, Ye Sirui stopped them: "No need, help them get up and talk." Both of them knelt down to thank them.Ye Sirui saw that they were so angry and their voices were unrecognizable, so he ordered the servants to help them get closer.As he got closer, Ye Sirui saw bloodstains on the old prisoner's shabby clothes, and the young one couldn't even walk steadily.

Ye Sirui called the old family member to call back. "Are you Wan Chengtiao's servant?"

"The young one is originally a servant of Wanjiazhuang, and was ordered to accompany the young master to Beijing for the exam."

He could speak clearly, Ye Sirui looked at him with pity. "Get a stool for both of them, sit down and talk." People in Shuntian Mansion probably had never seen a master who let a prisoner sit for trial, and they looked at each other for a while.It was Cui Tong who told them: "What are you doing in a daze? Don't move the stool yet!"

The family member trembled and knelt down to thank him again.

After he sat down, Ye Sirui asked him: "What kind of person is Wan Chengtiao? How is his relationship with his parents?"

"The young master has been kind to others since he was a child. He is the eldest son of the master. Both the master and his wife love him like a treasure. The young master is also very filial to his parents. No one sees him but praises him."

The family praised Wan Chengtiao a lot.Ye Sirui asked again: "Did he and Li Xinghuan know each other before?"

"The young master and him were strangers before, but it was pity that he didn't have enough to eat, so we took the opportunity to rush for the exam with him to help him." The family didn't dare to look up, and bowed their heads respectfully and replied: "The board and lodging along the way was arranged by the young master. Li Xinghuan and Cheng Yu The young master should spend the same amount of food and clothing."

This is also in line with what Wan Chengyu said. Ye Sirui just wanted to confirm it, so he just nodded and took it. The following is the most important question of his trip: "Does your young master write letters to your family on weekdays? How often?"