Chapter 728 Evidence Collection and Pacification Division
Three pacification envoys were replaced in three years, which obviously had a considerable impact on the Northern Pacification Office - although the power in their hands did not shrink much, the situation was much worse than before.
Recently, there have even been rumors that the emperor wants to set up another secret agency to replace and check the North and South Pacification Offices, which always have problems.
Therefore, during this quick tour, although the morale in the Northern Pacification Office was not low, it was already filled with a sense of decadence.
If the Northern Pacification Office was a place of "solemnity" in the past, it can only be described as "desolate" now.
"Lord Sun."
Just as he was secretly sighing at the changes in the world, the flag bearer leading the way suddenly stopped, turned around and said cautiously: "Please wait here for a moment, I will go in and report..."
"No need."
Before he could finish his words, a short and strong man came out from the courtyard in front of him, hurried over a few steps, and bowed to Sun Shaozong: "Your humble servant greets you, sir!"
"Captain Zhao, there's no need to be so polite."
Sun Shaozong returned the greeting and said with a smile, "Sun is not allowed to come to the Sanbao Hall today without a business matter. If I have been rude, I am afraid I have to ask Captain Zhao to forgive me."
"That's not true. If you hadn't helped me, I, Zhao Jiayi, would still be in prison. If you have any instructions, just ask!"
Zhao Jiayi, the trial captain who patted his chest with confidence, was the front-line commander during the Qingxu Temple's suppression of bandits.
At that time, because one of his centurions, Zang Liang, was colluding with the enemy, not only did many White Lotus bandits escape, but even Zhao Jiayi himself was implicated and held prisoner for more than ten days.
Later, it was not until Sun Shaozong found out the real spy that Zhao Jiayi was released and ordered to take over the subsequent investigation.
Sun Shaozong came here precisely to take advantage of their past friendship and review the surveillance records.
The book does not elaborate.
Zhao Jiayi welcomed Sun Shaozong into the hall. After the two of them sat down as host and guest, Zhao Jiayi asked Sun Shaozong about his purpose. His eyes sparkled and he couldn't help but ask, "So, you have already found the fish that slipped through the net?!"
"It's hard to say at this moment."
Sun Shaozong shook his head and said seriously, "Captain Zhao, I have just arrived at the Dali Temple as an official and have not yet established my foothold. I am afraid that it is not easy to delegate the cases I am handling to others."
"If Captain Zhao can help me, I will be grateful. But if it is a matter of rules, I will not complain at all."
When he stated his purpose, he only said that he wanted to check the records of the time and did not mention the specific case because he was afraid that the Northern Pacification Office would interfere.
This case was clearly a provocation to him. If the investigation ultimately revealed that the Northern Pacification Office had reaped the benefits, how would Sun Shaozong convince the public in the Dali Temple in the future?
But Zhao Jiayi heard this and immediately waved his hand: "You are joking, sir. The rule is for outsiders, but this case was originally discovered by you, so how can you be considered an outsider?"
After a pause, he patted his chest and said generously: "Besides, I, Zhao Jiayi, am not the kind of person who would be ungrateful - come here, quickly borrow all the records of the White Lotus bandit case two years ago for Lord Sun to review!"
Sun Shaozong couldn't tell for a moment how much truth there was in his enthusiasm.
But it doesn't matter even if it's fake. As long as the case is investigated thoroughly, Sun Shaozong doesn't care who will get Su Xingfang afterwards.
So when Zhao Jiayi finished speaking, he smiled and bowed again, saying, "Sun would like to thank Captain Zhao first. If it is finally found out that the White Lotus Sect is responsible, I will definitely ask the court for permission to transfer the case to the Northern Pacification Office for investigation."
Zhao Jiayi was overjoyed when he heard this and nodded, "If that's the case, it would be the best!"
After that, the two chatted for about a quarter of an hour before two junior officers came in carrying four book boxes. They took out the books one by one and piled them on the coffee tables on both sides. It seemed that the piled up small mountain had finally stopped.
A rough glance shows that there are at least a hundred books.
Fortunately, Sun Shaozong already had a clear goal, otherwise it would take at least ten days or half a month to find clues from it.
"Please make yourself at your own convenience, Lord Sun."
After the books were piled up, Zhao Jiayi immediately stood up and left the living room with his men, leaving Sun Shaozong to read them alone.
After making sure that they had all left, Sun Shaozong immediately moved two chairs over as space for the books, and then began to look through them one by one.
Excluding the records from the initial investigation, the remaining hundreds of booklets are basically surveillance records of the suspects.
Moreover, the first record was not from someone else, but from his own younger brother Sun Shaozu.
It seems that although Lu Hui said that he would not suspect the Sun family, he showed no mercy in secret.
Sun Shaozong flipped it open and found that most of the records were about his eldest brother's romantic affairs, occasionally mixed with the trivial matters of the life of Jia Yingchun and his many concubines.
After taking a few glances, Sun Shaozong couldn't help but feel scared.
Fortunately, he went south to quell the rebellion, otherwise, he might have been caught by these barbarians and his weaknesses were discovered!
After looking through it carefully, Sun Shaozong found that there was nothing prohibited. He finally breathed a sigh of relief, placed the booklet in the most conspicuous place, and continued to look through it.
Half a minute later, he finally found the surveillance records of the Su family from the pile of old papers.
When you open the book, the first thing that catches your eye is the composition of the Su family, as well as the hometown and life of Su Xingfang's parents for three generations.
There would naturally be no problem with these, otherwise Su Xingfang should have been arrested long ago - after all, the false charges were enough for the Northern Pacification Office to handle the case.
Turning further back, there are surveillance records marked with dates.
Su Xingfang's every move is naturally of paramount importance, but Su's mother can be said to have stolen the spotlight with her strength.
This old lady has a strange personality. She is lenient with herself but strict with others. She is always critical of her daughter-in-law, but spoils her grandson in everything.
It is common for him to take his anger out on others.
So much so that the records related to her occupied the largest amount of space.
And Xiaoqi, who was in charge of surveillance and recording, took only a few days to be convinced that Su Xingfang's mother was indeed his biological mother - not his biological mother, because he absolutely could not stand her strange temper!
Then the surveillance was gradually relaxed, and on the eve of Su Xingfang's wife's delivery, the surveillance was completely lifted.
This was probably because the monitor at the time felt that such a filial son would never place his mother in the enemy camp.
However, if Sun Shaozong's inference was correct, Su's mother and her brother were the real hardcore bandits - on the contrary, Su Xingfang, the son, might not care much about the White Lotus Sect.
When reading the second half, Su Xingfang's uncle Cao Quji also became a frequent visitor to this record - because his wife died and he was alone with no one to take care of him, he also moved into the Su family to live temporarily.
Compared with her sister who has a weird temper, this uncle is a very kind person, but he has a "quirk": he can't stand others wasting water resources.
On weekdays, I can only fill a shallow basin with water for washing. If he sees me using more water, even my sister will nag me.
No tea was allowed to be left over; water used to wash rice had to be reused; it was said that even the amount of water the dog at home drank every day was set by him.
And no matter where he went, he always carried a big water bag with him.
Naturally, this quirk caused quite a bit of resentment in the Su family at first.
But with Su's mother's full support, even Su Xingfang had no choice but to submit. Naturally, others were powerless to object. Fortunately, over time, they gradually got used to it.
Seeing this, Sun Shaozong quickly turned back to the first page to read his background and native place.
Like the Su family, the Cao family also came from a land of fish and rice. Logically speaking, having grown up by the water, they should not be so sensitive about water use issues.
in addition……
I always feel like there is something strange about the name Cao Quji.
Sun Shaozong closed his eyes and pondered for a while, then suddenly closed the book and mixed several unrelated surveillance records in with it in a random order.
Then he walked out of the living room, bowed and said, "Captain Zhao, please fetch the records of the suppression of the rebellion in Shaanxi and Gansu in the 31st year of Jianping."
