To The Land of Nevernight

It was pitch black at night, and only the rustling wind and the pattering rain could be heard in the posthouse.

Su Wenyun met Tang Shen at night. He was dressed in black and was visiting privately.Suddenly, there was a sound of porcelain breaking outside the house. Su Wenyun was startled. He quietly walked to the window, opened the window a crack, and saw an official in the opposite room accidentally knocking the dishes to the ground.

After closing the window, Su Wenyun walked back into the house and asked, "Master Tang really thinks this is a natural disaster?"

Tang Shen was very astonished, he thought for a moment, and said seriously: "To be honest, if it was really just a natural disaster, the Holy Majesty would not have specially sent another monitoring mission to Assassination Prefecture. The reason we came to Assassination Prefecture was to find out the natural disaster. Besides, is there a man-made disaster? But the lower officials don't understand, Master Su came here tonight... What is the purpose?"

"Liang is in charge of recording the emperor's daily life, and usually does not leave the palace."

Tang Shen was silent and didn't say anything.

Su Wenyun looked at him fixedly, and said with a smile: "So, why did Mr. Tang come to the city this time...?"

Tang Shen couldn't answer.

Not to mention that Zhao Fu didn't tell him clearly why he was asked to come to the assassination state.Besides, even if Zhao Fu told him in private, it was impossible for him to tell Su Wenyun.

Tang Shen's silent reaction, in Su Wenyun's eyes, already represented everything.

Su Wenyun sneered: "Could it be that the Holy One also doubts me?"

Tang Shen immediately said: "Your official doesn't understand what Mr. Su is talking about."

Su Wenyun stared at Tang Shen seriously, and suddenly walked away, leaving only one sentence, which was thrown on the floor tiles of the guest room of the inn: "Tang Shen, the collapse of the Jinghe Bridge this time was not a natural disaster, but a man-made disaster! Whether you believe it or not, Believe it or not, this matter has nothing to do with me, but I, like you, want to find out the truth."

"Master Su..."

Su Wenyun has gone away.

Tang Shen took out a silver token from his pocket, squinted his eyes, put the token into his pocket and put it away.

Four days later, Supervisor Ji Zhi brought the officials back to Cizhou.When he came to Yin Yamen of Cizhou Prefecture, other officials came to the scene one after another.Ji Zhi glanced at all the officials in the room, and said: "My lords, the lower official is only a sixth-rank supervisory censor. Among all the officials present, he can be regarded as the lowest rank of the upper official. But the lower official has to say something, come to assassinate me. In front of the state, the lower official was appointed by His Majesty to be the inspector of the state, if there are any of the following offenses, please take care of me and don't take it to heart."

The censors of Yushitai have their eyes above the top, and they never pay attention to the size of the official position, but the censors never specifically point out this matter.

When Ji Zhi said this suddenly, there was a rustle in the room, and Tang Shen also raised his head to look at him.

Just listening to Ji Zhi knew: "Then it is the acquiescence of the adults. Lift the things up." After Ji Zhi's voice fell, two officials carried up a bamboo basket.The bamboo basket was about the size of a water tank and looked ordinary, but there were a few large broken stones inside.

The officials didn't know why, so they whispered to Ji Zhi about the purpose of this move.

What Ji Zhi said was like a slap in the face, making the Cizhou Yamen dead silent: "This is the main culprit that caused the collapse of the Jinghe Bridge this time!"

The Jinghe River is the widest and most rapid river in the north of the Great Song Dynasty, but there are few rivers in the north, and the Jinghe River only became the first among the dwarfs.It is difficult to build a bridge over the Jing River, but it is not impossible.The craftsmen of Song Dynasty can do this.

Unseasonable weather this summer, with a lot of rain in the north, has made the river even more turbulent, and the heavy rain has washed away the bridges that have not yet been repaired.But Zhao Fu was doubting, wondering if everything was really just because of natural disasters.At the same time, the court officials far away in Shengjing also doubted that just one heavy rain could really ruin the lives of nearly a hundred people?

So Ji Zhi came, and he lived up to expectations, and found these big stones on the ruins of the almost completely destroyed bridge.

Ji Zhi walked to the bamboo basket, pointed to these stones and said, "Master Xie, as the right servant of the Ministry of Industry, should know what these are. Yes, these are the stones used to cast the foundation of the bridge. The Jinghe Bridge from the south To the north, it is more than two feet on 510. The Jing River was not particularly turbulent in previous years. When the bridge foundation was built, the Ministry of Industry gave a depth of ten feet underground. Am I right?"

Xie Cheng's face became increasingly ugly, he obviously understood what Ji Zhi wanted to say next.

Ji knew: "Master Xie, do you see that the foundation stones of these bridges are ten feet high?"

Xie Cheng turned around and said angrily: "Who is responsible for building the bridge foundation? Bring all the officials and craftsmen responsible for casting the bridge foundation!"

As soon as the words fell, the officials left the yamen one after another, and went to the prison in the assassination state to arrest people.After a quarter of an hour, two officials came back in a hurry, and one of them knelt on the ground with a plop and shouted palely, "My lord, forgive me, my lord, forgive me! Since the monitoring mission came to assassinate the state five days ago, those officials After the craftsmen and craftsmen were interrogated, several officials and craftsmen committed suicide in fear of crime!"

The crowd was in an uproar.

Su Wenyun took a step forward: "Suicide in fear of crime?"

The officer knelt down and said, "Yes. Because there were only three officials who committed suicide, and only a dozen craftsmen. The small... the small ones were not reported."

"boom--"

Su Wenyun raised his boots and kicked the official three meters away.

The officer spit blood out of his mouth, but he didn't dare to delay, and ran back like hell, kowtowing constantly: "The little one knew it was wrong, the little one knew it was wrong. The little one asked Mr. Fu Yin for instructions, and Mr. Fu Yin said it was nothing serious. Not reported."

Su Wenyun immediately turned his head to look at Governor Governor: "Master Zhang, is there such a thing?"

Su Wenyun is the fourth grade Shaoqing of Dali Temple, equal to Yin of the governor of the state, and he is in charge of the Baiguan Prison.When he was asked, the Governor of the Governor's back turned cold, and he quickly said: "There is such a thing, but Mr. Supervisor, Mr. Su, those people have been inspected by officials. They died of hunger strike, not murdered by others. After the Jinghe Bridge incident, there were too many officials and craftsmen in prison, and the lower officials couldn’t take care of them all for a while. I didn’t know about it until they died on a hunger strike.”

Ji knew: "Bring up the bodies of those people."

Half an hour later, the officials carried the bodies of three officials and twelve craftsmen from Yizhuang into the Yamen.

It is August and the weather is hot. Some of these people died for three days, some died for a day or two, but without exception, their bodies were all stench.Some pampered officials couldn't help but spit it out, and Tang Shen's throat was sore, but when he saw Ji Zhi, Xie Cheng and Su Wenyun all stepped forward to check the corpse, he gritted his teeth and moved closer.

After Ji Zhi and Su Wenyun checked, Ji knew: "It is true that they all died of a hunger strike. Who are responsible for the construction of the bridge foundation?"

Xie Cheng said: "This, and these few."

He refers to an official and four artisans.

Of course, there could not be only five officials and craftsmen responsible for the construction of the bridge foundation, but by coincidence, when the bridge collapsed, the rest of the craftsmen and officials were building the bridge foundation.They were washed away by the flood, and there were no whole bodies.

Ji Zhi encountered a difficult situation and didn't know what to do.

After carrying these corpses away, Ji Zhi led the officials of the monitoring mission to hold a secret meeting.

Ji knew: "My colleagues, the only thing we can trust in this city of Cizhou is each other. The only people who dare to say that the last sentence has nothing to do with the collapse of the Jinghe Bridge are all of you here. Originally, the officials thought this was just an accident. The combination of natural disasters and subtle man-made disasters, now it seems that the water in Jingzhou City is deeper than I imagined. Everyone, we are going to hell alone."

An official said: "Where is such a coincidence, starving to death, committing suicide in fear of crime, and all of them died!"

"There must be fraud in it."

"But what can we do if we know there is fraud, now there is no proof."

Ji Zhi: "There are two ways now. First, I will report what happened in Cizhou City back to Shengjing, and ask Your Majesty to make a decision. At the same time, we will continue to investigate privately. What do you think?"

"Everything is up to Mr. Ji."

That night, Ji Zhi wrote a note and sent someone to Shengjing overnight.

On the second day, Ji Zhi called out all the censors from the censor platform in the monitoring mission.When they were about to leave, Ji Zhi stopped and looked at Tang Shen: "Master Tang, come too."

Tang Shen was stunned for a moment, then he stepped up and followed these censors into the room.

As soon as Tang Shen entered the room, he heard Ji Zhi say in a heavy tone: "My lords, the officials and craftsmen who had direct contact with the construction of the bridge foundation have died, and there is no proof of their death. There are also eight adults who purchased and built the stone materials for the bridge foundation."

"Which eight are they?"

Ji Zhi didn't open his mouth, another inspector censor said for him: "These eight people, one is older than the other, and the youngest among them is a fifth-rank official. They are Zeng Fei, a doctor of the Ministry of Finance, and Secretary of the Ministry of Officials. The doctor Yue Ziguang... Gao Wei, the doctor of the Ministry of Industry who went to Shengjing to report the letter half a month ago, Zhang Feng, the prefect of the governor, Mr. Zhang Feng, the Shaoqing of Dali Temple, Mr. Su Wenyunsu, the right servant of the Ministry of Industry, Mr. Xie Chengxie, and the Ministry of Household Affairs Left servant, Xu Linghou, Master Xu!"