Chapter 530: Clearing Up Misunderstandings
Gloomy, cramped, lonely, and smelly...
The water prison of the Northern Pacification Office is undoubtedly a place that possesses many negative attributes.
However, on the morning of the second day of September, the gloomy atmosphere in the dungeon was diluted by the constant snoring.
The dozen or so White Lotus sect members who were captured alive, whether they had broken legs or arms, or had their skin burned or peeled, or were frostbitten, or were hanging on the wall or tied to the bed, were all snoring soundly in their sleep.
There was no way. The so-called 'God-inviting Pill' was actually a stimulant with extremely serious side effects. In order to suppress the excessive excitement, the antidote hastily prepared by the Imperial Hospital naturally included anesthetic ingredients.
According to the Imperial Medical Bureau, the White Lotus thieves would need to sleep for about five to six hours before gradually waking up.
Of course, even if the thieves are sleeping like dead pigs, there are still some things that can be done.
Tianzi Yihao room.
Crunch~
As soon as the heavy iron door opened a crack, a tiger-head crutch squeezed in impatiently and pried the door shut with great force.
Looking at the prisoner who was tightly tied to the bed, the owner of the crutch had a ferocious and excited expression. He waved his hand to break free from the support of the people around him, staggered to the bed, stared at the prisoner for a long while, and suddenly laughed out loud.
"You old thief, you old thief, now you have finally met your fate! Ha...haha..."
After only a few laughs, the man started coughing violently again. He coughed so hard that he couldn't even straighten his back. His tall and thin body was hunched over like a shrimp.
"Dad, are you okay?!"
The man he had shaken off earlier hurried forward and began to pat his chest and back. It took him a while to recover. His head was red and he was panting like an ox, but he still waved his hands with a smile on his face and said, "It's okay. I'm fine, fine!"
At this time, Lu Hui, who followed in, asked, "From what General Zhou said, is this person really Ge Zhan, the deputy leader of the White Lotus Sect?"
“It’s absolutely correct!”
General Zhou said, picking up his cane and hitting his left leg, gritting his teeth and saying, "Thanks to this old thief's poisonous caltrop, I have been neither human nor ghost these years. Even in my dreams, I can recognize his face!"
Hearing General Zhou's confident words, Lu Hui didn't know whether to be happy or worried. He ordered Yang Licai to send General Zhou and his son away, and then led Sun Shaozong to patrol the water prison in silence.
Seeing that he was about to be transferred back to the No. 1 cell, Lu Hui suddenly stopped and asked casually, "I heard that when you caught the thief last night, you did it in the name of Shuntian Prefecture?"
It's not really a question.
But a bad answer may very likely lead to being accused of being a traitor.
Sun Shaozong smiled coldly, but did not answer. Instead, he asked, "Sir, do you still remember what you said to me when we first met?"
"Which one?"
"You asked me to pay more attention to our Northern Pacification Division, and you also said that I was born a military man after all, so it would be difficult for me to get the position of prefect or governor."
These words did come from Lu Hui's mouth, but times have changed. When Lu Hui heard Sun Shaozong mention these words again, his face turned a little ugly. He thought that Sun Shaozong was demonstrating to him, and even wanted to take the opportunity to challenge his authority.
"Today, I might as well tell you something."
Sun Shaozong walked around from the back to the front, looked directly into Lu Hui's eyes and said, "With my ambition and vision, I won't be trapped in these two government offices!"
Lu Hui's expression changed again, his eyes flickered, and he seemed to be hesitant to speak.
Sun Shaozong also knew that such empty words might not convince him, so he immediately added: "In fact, I have heard some rumors recently that the court seems to intend to appoint me to Huguang to quell the rebellion..."
Lu Hui's expression was uncertain for a while, and suddenly he sighed: "It is true that heroes emerge young."
As he spoke, he bowed deeply to Sun Shaozong and said, "I was greedy for power and position, and I had some mean thoughts. I am really ashamed."
Sun Shaozong quickly dodged and reached out to help Lu Hui up. The two smiled at each other. Regardless of what they felt in their hearts, at least on the surface they had reconciled.
So Lu Hui ordered Sun Shaozong to write down the details of capturing the thief last night and have him take it to report to Commander Dai.
Originally, Sun Shaozong should have reported the matter in detail personally, but after the case of the crown prince, the access control to the imperial palace became increasingly strict, and an outsider official like Sun Shaozong could not even enter the palace without being summoned.
As for Lu Hui, he also held the honorary title of Imperial Guard, so he was qualified to enter the palace to meet Dai Quan.
However, such a big thing has spread throughout the capital, and Dai Quan will definitely find Sun Shaozong to get to the bottom of it in the end, so he is not afraid that Lu Hui will dare to take credit for his work.
Let’s not talk about how Lu Hui would explain himself to Dai Quan.
However, Sun Shaozong was not idle while staying in the water dungeon. He ordered people to bring writing brushes, ink, paper and inkstone, and then he openly occupied the guard room.
Zhao Jiayi, a trial commander of the Northern Pacification Division, was the commander-in-chief of the operation. The suspicious time was: Chenshi [7 to 9 a.m.].
Song Xiong, a captain of the Northern Pacification Division, commander of the surveillance team, was suspected during the following times: Mao time [5am to 7am], Wu time [11am to 1pm].
Zang Liang, a centurion of the Northern Pacification Division, and deputy commander of the surveillance team, was suspected during the following time: Sishi (9am to 11am).
Xu Kun: Chief of the Northern Pacification Division, member of the surveillance team, suspicious times: 9:00 pm and 5:00 pm.
Zhao Wei: General of the Northern Pacification Division, member of the surveillance team, suspected in the following situations: morning hours [7am to 9am], and the hour of Si.
The above five people were the unlucky ones who were thrown into the water prison of Beizhenfusi because they were unable to prove their innocence during the bandit suppression campaign at the inn.
Although for secret agencies, "it is better to kill someone by mistake than to let him go" is a basic principle, Sun Shaozong, who has many years of experience in criminal investigation, still feels resentful about this.
Therefore, taking advantage of his free time, he sorted out the timeline of the five people, hoping to find out the real murderer as soon as possible and give justice to the others.
In addition, given that their timelines overlap a lot, it may be necessary to divide them into time segments and mark out a specific action roadmap.
"First is Zhao Jiayi."
Sun Shaozong muttered to himself as he searched through a thick stack of copies of the investigation files, found Zhao Jiayi's confession, and then looked up the details related to Chenshi line by line.
I picked up the pen and dipped it in some ink. Just as I was about to make an annotation on the left side of the timeline and draw a simple diagram, a timid voice suddenly came from behind me: "Sir... Sir."
Sun Shaozong looked back and saw the shopkeeper Wu and his wife, under the 'escort' of four lieutenants, trembling with fear as they walked into the guard room.
The reason why they were called "guards" instead of escorts was because the shopkeeper Wu and his wife were both wearing Mo Jiao Swallowing Cloud robes, and they also had small flag armbands of the eighth rank.
Sun Shaozong looked the couple up and down, then helped Shopkeeper Wu straighten out the wrinkles on his lapel.
Seeing that he subconsciously shrank back, she took the opportunity to put her hand on his shoulder and said with a smile: "The clothes fit you well, why are you frowning? Come on, smile for me first."
Manager Wu's stiff face twisted, and he finally managed to force out a smile that was uglier than crying - after everything that happened last night, his fear of Sun Shaozong had almost been rooted deep in his bones.
"Tsk, if they see you like this, they will think that our Northern Pacification Office has abused you." Sun Shaozong raised his chin and ordered, "Go, get a bronze mirror so that our Lord Wu can practice how to smile more happily."
Before he finished speaking, a lieutenant immediately took the order and rushed out.
Sun Shaozong left Shopkeeper Wu and returned to the table. He was about to continue to perfect the timeline of the five suspects when he suddenly heard Xu's disdainful sneer: "Is this the respect you get in exchange for betraying the Holy Church?!"
"What nonsense are you talking about!"
Shopkeeper Wu was shocked and quickly covered her mouth with his hand. He then smiled at Sun Shaozong who turned around and said, "Please calm down, my lord. I am just... I am not used to it yet."
"This time the smile is quite interesting."
Sun Shaozong commented casually, waved his hand like he was shooing away flies, and ordered: "Take Mr. Xu to the Dizi C room to take a look at what those who are not decent look like."
"grown ups!"
Shopkeeper Wu was shocked. Without thinking, he knelt on the ground and begged, "Please have mercy, sir..."
"Don't worry, I'm just taking a walk. I'm counting on you two to make contributions. How could I possibly harm her?"
Hearing Sun Shaozong say this, Manager Wu had no choice but to watch Xu being escorted out of the guard room by two officers.
Soon, the leading officer brought the bronze mirror. However, Shopkeeper Wu could no longer smile. He made many anxious expressions, almost all of which could stop the child from crying.
I don't know how long it took before Xu came back safe and sound. However, her expression of indifference and disdain turned pale and panic-stricken. As soon as she entered the door, she went to the side of Manager Wu, lowered her head and dared not say a word.
"how."
Sun Shaozong stopped writing for a moment, turned around and asked, "Compared to those people, is your husband still respectable?"
Xu hesitated for a moment, then nodded like a chick pecking at rice. As she nodded, she suddenly began to dry heave and quickly covered her mouth with her hands.
It turned out that the person imprisoned in the room with the number Di was none other than the thief who was chased yesterday and was so panicked that he jumped into the river to escape.
At that time, there were about seven or eight people who jumped into the river. Most of them were either burned to charcoal or disappeared completely. Only two of them barely survived.
Although he survived, he might as well have died.
Not only did he suffer extensive burns on his body, but his eyes, ears, mouth and nose were all covered with burnt tung oil. Now he was blind, deaf, and unable to speak, and was just hanging on to death.
Originally, Sun Shaozong had no plan to bring them back to the Northern Pacification Division, but the two men were captured by the common people on the other side of the river. The common people had sent them here eagerly to ask for a reward, so it would be bad to just throw them away as "waste", right?
Just make use of it as a waste and use it as a deterrent.
Judging from Xu's reaction, this 'killing stick' seems to be quite effective.
So Sun Shaozong immediately made a decision and said, "If any of the thieves wake up later, send them to the Dizi Binghao room to give them a rest, and then ask Lord Wu and his wife to preach to them the benefits of abandoning evil and joining the light."
