Great Zhou Empress

At the government, Xue Zhijing didn't reveal her identity at first, she also wanted to see how the government handles such things.

It was better than she imagined. The officials accepted the pleadings and recorded them carefully, saying that they accepted the report. They would check it out, and if the magistrate wanted to interrogate, they would be called over.

After returning to the mansion shop, Xue Zhijing learned about Su Mingcha's situation.To her surprise, Su Mingcha was very familiar with the tea industry in the southeast region. She said, "I just want to help my father with things in the future, but it's a pity~"

Xue Zhijing didn't ask, but it was a pity, her father never let her mother in, so it is estimated that the Su family is not a simple family.

In the early morning of the next day, after the official office called, Xue Zhijing asked Li Jing to go to the magistrate's yamen to ask how the matter reported yesterday was going.

Here, Xue Zhijing continued drinking tea and chatting with Su Mingcha in the living room.

The buddy sent me a high-quality white porcelain tea set and last year's bud tea. The bud tea is the most tender, and it usually comes out before the rainy season. Now this season is still several months before this year's new tea comes out.

Su Mingcha quickly started making tea.

The way of making tea in this era is different from that of modern times. The popular way to order tea is to grind the tea leaves into pieces and then order the tea flower, which looks a bit like matcha.

Xue Zhijing is not a person who pursues appetite, so he can drink clear tea and taste tea.

The craftsmanship of Su Mingcha is good, and the taste is almost the same as that made by the best tea ordering skills in the palace.

So Su Mingcha's statement that her mother's family has grown tea for generations is true.

At this moment, a group of government servants in uniform came in and said that they had received a report that there were contraband hidden here.

The face of the storekeeper who came in changed, and he was about to reveal Xue Zhijing's identity to the yamen servants, but Xue Zhijing stopped him with his eyes. Xue Zhijing really wanted to know what kind of tricks these people were trying to play.

Soon, a government servant found a small pistol from Xue Zhijing's room, which could be hidden in his bosom depending on its size.

Xue Zhijing didn't bring such items with her when she went out this time, so she knew what was going on at a glance.

In this era, daggers and knives are not banned items by the people, but high-tech long-range offensive weapons such as guns and more complex repeating crossbows are banned by the people.Once contraband is found, it needs to be punished.

"Here, please come with us."

The yamen servants came over to tie Xue Zhijing's hands, but Xue Zhijing shook them off, "Let go, I will go by myself."

Passing by the shopkeeper, Xue Zhijing left a sentence, "When Li Jing comes back, let her go to the magistrate."

Seeing Xue Zhijing's overall demeanor, the yamen servants were not sure who she was. They simply followed orders in today's matter, and they only said that they wanted to ask for someone, so they had no choice but to let her not tie her up, and took her with her. She went all the way to the government office, entered through the side door, and turned into the cell area.

As soon as he stepped into the cell, the dark, damp, and stuffy smell almost made Xue Zhijing vomit.

The thick and dark house has a muddy floor covered with dirty thatch, and each compartment has only a small skylight. Inside each compartment are some prisoners whose hair is disheveled and whose appearance cannot be seen clearly.

Seeing her come in, only one or two inmates would cry out weakly, "You're wronged!"

Bringing Xue Zhijing to the innermost cell, the yamen servant still looked at her, and was swept away by Xue Zhijing's gaze, and the other party shivered, and said with a cold face, "You, stay here, wait Interrogation by the magistrate."

After speaking, he locked the door of the wooden fence.

Xue Zhijing looked around, the cell was about a dozen square meters in size, and there was a Chase shop against the wall, covered with hay and some colorless fabrics, and a colorless quilt next to the Datong shop It is a Gong barrel, and the smell can be smelled even standing at the door.

This environment is simply a hotbed of disease.

Xue Zhijing frowned, not thinking about her own affairs at all, she knew that Li Jing would definitely save her, she just wanted to see who was playing tricks.

It's just that I didn't expect it, but I accidentally experienced the disaster of a prison.

Even if

A sinful person should not live in such an environment. Not only will he get sick easily, but he will also suffer from hidden diseases.

It has to be said that Xue Zhijing's sense of responsibility is getting heavier and heavier, and sooner or later he will become a worrying old man.

While she was thinking about something, a prisoner who was still asleep in the cell got down from the Datong bunk at some point, touched Xue Zhijing's side, and grabbed Xue Zhijing's white wrist.

A smoky tone rushed towards his face with a lewd word, "Hey, what did you do to come in?"

With a twist of Xue Zhijing's wrist, he turned around and kicked the opponent's chest.

She can't compare to Xiao Liege in the north, and those 200-jin cooks, but she can still deal with a wretched prisoner in a cell with ease.

After staying in a damp place for too long and not eating well, the other party relied on his young and somewhat residual muscles to last until now, facing Xue Zhijing's kick, he still stumbled and fell to the ground, groaning shouted.

Xue Zhijing frowned, thinking to himself, is there no distinction between men and women in this cell?

Standing condescendingly, Xue Zhijing said to the people on the ground, "Stay well and don't move. What did you do to get in here?"

The other party rubbed his chest and said angrily, "It's none of your business~"

At this time, the prisoner in the opposite cell laughed and said, "He is a thief who crawled into the Xianggu's house. He stole things and climbed into Xianggu's bed. Hey, is Xianggu's ass fun? Haha~"

Xianggu means like a girl, referring to a brothel for men.

Xue Zhijing looked at the man on the ground with a look of disgust, burglary and doing other things, he is really not enough to be a jerk.

It seems that not all the people in this cell have been wronged.

Xue Zhijing walked back and forth in the cell, and the kicked man didn't dare to harass her anymore, he was just bored.

She suddenly felt that these people locked in cells were a waste of resources, and they should be taken out to work, such as repairing roads and planting trees, not only to keep them healthy, but also to use resources.

Finally, Xue Zhijing heard a group of hurried footsteps, it was Li Jing who came with the magistrate of Yangzhou City.

The prefect's surname is Liu, and his hair is a little gray, but his eyes are not very good, maybe a little short-sighted, he always squints his eyes to look at people, and when he sees Xue Zhijing, he cups his fists and apologizes, "I'm sorry for the misunderstanding, Aunt Xue is sorry."

Xue Zhijing sneered, "No problem!"

When they arrived at the living room of the yamen, Liu Zhifu waited on him cautiously, serving tea and snacks, and spoke in a very cautious tone.

"I'm so sorry, Aunt Xue, it's all a misunderstanding. I don't know which blind boy was instructed to misunderstand aunt. I've already asked someone to deal with it."

Xue Zhijing took a sip of tea, the taste was much worse than Su Mingcha.

"It doesn't matter, but who ordered the kid who slandered me, and please trouble Zhifu Liu to tell me."

"This is still under investigation."

Cold sweat started to break out on Liu Zhifu's face. First of all, he was at fault for this matter. Although the other party was a sixth-rank female official, he was a fifth-rank official, and his position was a little bit higher in terms of this matter. It's not like that, after all, he is a celebrity around the empress, so he can be regarded as an imperial envoy when he comes here this time.I don't know what job I got.

The imperial envoy was slandered by his subordinates, and he was thrown into a prison. The key point was that he was thrown into a prison where men and women were not separated.I don't know if I was insulted.

This……

It is simply that the rhythm of the future official career will be bleak.

It's a pity that he only passed the imperial examination at the age of 35. His reading eyesight has been weak for decades.

"Oh? By the way, I came to report the case yesterday. It's about selling an innocent girl to a brothel. I wonder if Liu Zhifu will try it?"

Prefect Liu was dumbfounded again.

Looking at his appearance, Xue Zhijing thought, how could the quality of officials in different places be so uneven, Yangzhou was an important town of the Dacheng Dynasty, how could he know that?

The government is so miserable.

Seeing that Xue Zhijing's face turned cold, Zhifu Liu hurriedly sent up the case materials from yesterday, and after looking through it for a while, his expression turned even worse.

Finally, he gritted his teeth and stomped his feet and said, "Aunt Xue, it's not that I don't know, it's that I dare not say that these things are all related to a royal family."

Liu Zhifu finally confessed to Xue Zhijing.

The clan's name is Liu Shuang, an old man in his 60s, with the title of Duke Wu, and his residence is in Yangzhou.

The Dacheng Dynasty treated the clans favorably, and those with titles had a lot of land, and many clans also owned a lot of assets relying on the royal relationship. Although they could not intervene in local affairs, they were often the local tyrants.

This Wu Guogong is the boss of the clan in the Yangzhou area. He has been in business for decades and owns a lot of assets. For example, Lichunyuan, the largest brothel in Yangzhou City, has his shares.He even got involved in all walks of life in Yangzhou City, and he was truly the invisible emperor of Yangzhou City.

Liu Shuang is not only rich, but also lustful, and he likes young girls the most. Every year, he has to enter several mansions, and his life and death are unknown, but the government basically doesn't care about such things, and can't control them.

The matter of Su Mingcha is not entirely the matter of their patriarch, but Liu Shuang has taken a fancy to Su Mingcha, but Su Mingcha's mother is unwilling.The head of the Su family wants to seize the property that Su Mingcha should inherit, and secondly, he wants to please Liu Shuang, so he locked up Su Mingcha's mother and sold Su Mingcha into Lichunyuan to let her mother teach her a lesson. .

This time, Liu Shuang also wanted to teach Xue Zhijing a lesson, so he arranged for someone to slander her.

The more Xue Zhijing and Li Jing listened, the colder their faces became.

It turns out that these things are not bad, only worse.

Before Xue Zhijing went to visit this Wu Guogong Liu Shuang, he first went to the Yuanjia cabinet shop.

Yuanjia Cabinet and Didian are not only doing business, they are also responsible for collecting some local information. I don’t know the scope of their information collection, but no matter from which point of view, people like Wu Guogong should be the focus of attention Well, the cabinet must have his corresponding economic information.

The cabinet shop had received a message from the Empress Empress, and knew the identity of Xue Zhijing and the shopkeeper, so naturally they had to cooperate with all their strength.

Tong shopkeeper means similar to the shopkeeper, Xue Zhijing has certain authority, but cannot fully intervene in the core management.

Soon Xue Zhijing got the economic information related to Wu Guogong and Liu Shuang, what industries he bought shares in, what usury loans and so on.Many parts of it are illegal. Xue Zhijing guessed that the empress should know all about it, but because of the other party's clan status, the seniority seems to be higher than that of the empress, and the empress just turned a blind eye.

Just to put it bluntly, the missions of this trip sometimes have nothing to do with the economy, and the things to be dealt with are always other aspects.

After handing over the greeting card to the Duke's Mansion, Xue Zhijing walked into the gate of the Duke's Mansion.

Wu Guogong Liu Shuang entertained her politely.

Liu Shuang was extremely thin and pale, with gray hair, only his eyes seemed to be shining brightly, occasionally flashing a hint of gloom.It seems that he is quite indulgent and selfish and cunning.

There was another round of greetings between the two sides, and Xue Zhijing guessed that the other party already knew about it, so he didn't want to go around in circles with the other party, "Wu Guogong, I think you also know about my visit today, one is because of a man named Su Ming. Tea girl, and second, I also want to ask Mr. Wu what happened to my prison disaster?"

Liu Shuang's old embarrassment is almost unbearable. If it's just about Su Mingcha, it's okay to talk about it, but it's hard to talk about it when he actually got the celebrity next to the queen's empress into the prison for a while.

He said dryly, "It's all a misunderstanding, it's all a misunderstanding, Aunt Xue. I was also deceived by the people below, and that little girl surnamed Su was sent to my house by the Su family." , want to climb up my relationship so as to expand their family's business, I can't shirk it."

"So it's all a misunderstanding?" Xue Zhijing looked at the other party with a half-smile.

"Yeah, it's all a misunderstanding."

As he said that, Liu Shuang dragged his butler to Xue Zhijing and beat him up, seeing Xue Zhijing frowned

Then he quickly said, "It's because of my laxity that I have wronged Aunt Xue. In this way, I have shares in Lichun Courtyard. I will give this part of the shares to Aunt Xue as an apology. How about Aunt Xue? "

gift?It's really a virtue both inside and outside the palace.

"Let's talk about that girl from the Su family."

Liu Shuang said with a righteous look, "Since I know about this, I am such an upright gentleman, I definitely can't do such a thing as robbing the women of the people, I will send someone to teach the Su family a lesson, and then let them hurry up Give back the family property of the girl."

"So good."

Xue Zhijing actually hated their Liu family's clan. There were so many people and it took up a lot of resources. They all became parasites attached to the dynasty and sucked blood. They had no positive effect other than increasing the burden on the court.

But she also felt the empress' embarrassment. These people can't move at this time. A group of people think that they are the masters of this dynasty, and they will affect the whole body.When she came here this time, at most, she could hit the other party a little bit, hoping that the other party would restrain herself, if there were too many, there was nothing she could do.

It's just that she didn't expect that Liu Shuang sent an invitation early the next morning, inviting her to have a banquet at Lichun Courtyard in the evening.

Li Jing took Su Mingcha to deal with the matter of Su Mingcha, so there shouldn't be any changes. Liu Shuang's invitation this time is probably to coax her, a court lady.

No matter how unscrupulously he used his status as the duke of the state to commit crimes, he was still worried that he would make trouble for him.

Then go to the banquet.