Chapter 729 Confession
On September 24, the 31st year of Jianping, the army that was responsible for suppressing the rebellion surrounded Qingshui County of Qinzhou Prefecture. The righteous man Liu Sanlang secretly sent people to pollute the water source in the city. For five days, the city was cut off from drinking water, and thousands of White Lotus bandits had to drown themselves to quench their thirst.
On September 28, the rebels could no longer bear to sit and wait for death, so they abandoned the city and broke out at night. At that time, the government troops killed them from all sides and won a great victory in the wild.
In this battle, 823 people including the bandit leader Tang Er and Li Sheng were killed in battle, 2,491 people including the bandit leader Dong Chong were captured, and countless supplies were seized.
The bandit leader Wei Bi led hundreds of his remnants into the mountains and forests, and has been missing since then.
When Sun Shaozong saw the three words "Wei Bi Xiong", he suddenly felt enlightened - no wonder he felt that the three words "Cao Qu Ji" seemed strange!
It’s obvious that this Wei Bixiong is a fake name!
Wei refers to Cao Wei.
The four words "seek good fortune and avoid misfortune" are actually two sides of the same coin.
This is clearly putting one's real name into a pseudonym.
In addition, after being without water for five days, people could only drink urine to quench their thirst. It was natural for them to develop the habit of saving water after escaping.
Sun Shaozong took another rough look to make sure there were no omissions, then reorganized all the files, making sure that it would be difficult for others to tell what he had actually read.
Since the bandit leader "Wei Bixiong" had fled, the imperial court would have issued a wanted order for him, and even his appearance, experience, martial arts, literary talent, etc. would have been recorded to some extent.
There is no need to continue searching in the Northern Pacification Office. The Dali Temple, as the head of the world's criminal law department, already keeps the stubs of all national wanted warrants.
Moreover, after returning to the Dali Temple, he could compare the details described on the wanted warrant with Cao Quji's body.
Stop talking nonsense.
However, Sun Shaozong hurriedly bid farewell to Zhao Jiayi and hurried back to the Dali Temple.
He had just captured two able-bodied clerks and asked them to look for the wanted poster for Wei Bixiong. When he turned around, a pale face came into view.
"Su Magistrate? Why are you here?"
Sun Shaozong's eyes fixed. This Su Xingfang was really bold. He actually came to him on his own initiative!
"Lord Sun."
Su Xingfang bowed calmly and said, "Although he was involved in the case, my uncle died in the line of duty. I brought his body here to protect it from being damaged or humiliated by the messengers ."
This reason is quite plausible.
Sun Shaozong was already 80% sure at this point, so he wouldn't bother with him anymore. He just smiled and rushed to the morgue first.
The two of them entered the morgue one after another. Chen Jingde, who had been searching in vain in the mansion, had also been waiting inside early.
Seeing two people coming in from outside, he glanced at Su Xingfang hesitantly, and then came forward to report: "Sir, in addition to the new wounds, this Captain Cao has more than ten old wounds on his body, six of which are suspected to be caused by bows and crossbows."
Ordinary knife wounds are fine, but these days, it is not uncommon for villagers to use knives when fighting - Sun Shaozong was recently preparing to use this as an excuse to fire the first shot in the Dali Temple.
But wounds caused by arrows were not common.
What’s more, there are as many as six places!
Normally, only generals who had fought to the death on the battlefield would have so many arrow wounds on their bodies - a soldier without good armor to protect himself would most likely die after just a few hits.
And this should be the reason why Su Xingfang was in a hurry to bring the corpse home.
Sun Shaozong did not comment and just turned his gaze to Su Xingfang.
As expected, Magistrate Su still had a calm face: "When my uncle was young, he led the villagers to resist mountain bandits. He was always the first to fight in every battle, so he has so many old wounds on his body."
He answered very fluently and didn't seem guilty at all - it was a pity that Sun Shaozong had already made up his mind and would not be misled by his words.
He still nodded without comment, and then, accompanied by Chen Jingde, walked towards Cao Quji's body.
When he was wearing his official uniform before, I felt that Cao Quji had a burly figure. Now he was lying naked on the chopping board, and I could see that his muscles were bulging. Although he was not as strong as Sun Shaozong, he could still be called a "hero".
It really makes people sigh that such a man, who was both civil and military, and had fought in thousands of troops, finally died at the hands of his own nephew.
"Master Shaoqing, I have what you requested!"
Just as he was examining the wounds on the body, two clerks rushed in breathlessly. One of them was holding a scroll, which was probably the stub of the wanted warrant for Wei Bixiong.
Stubs are different from posted notices. They are painted on canvas and have been framed to a certain extent, so they are preserved in the form of scrolls.
Sun Shaozong did not rush to look through it. He just glanced back and said calmly, "Put it aside for now."
The two clerks agreed and placed the wanted order on a low table nearby. Seeing that Sun Shaozong had no other instructions, they bowed and left.
Chen Jingde was just curious about what was in the scroll, when Su Xingfang suddenly stepped forward, untied the rope of the scroll, lowered his head and glanced at it, then turned around and bowed, saying, "Sir Sun, I have a few words from the bottom of my heart, and I hope to confide them to you alone!"
Finally I couldn't bear it anymore!
He probably didn't expect that Sun Shaozong could find such "ironclad evidence" in such a short time.
This time, not only Chen Jingde, but even the two coroners noticed something fishy, so they all looked at Sun Shaozong hesitantly - one of them even picked up a knife unconsciously, and it was unclear whether he wanted to protect the emperor or to defend himself.
"Everyone please step back first."
Sun Shaozong stared straight at Su Xingfang, then waved his hand back, signaling everyone to step aside for the time being.
At a distance of two steps, even if Su Xingfang had something like "Rain of Pear Blossom Needles" or "I Love a Piece of Firewood" in his arms, he would have no chance of launching it.
However, Su Xingfang obviously had no intention of resisting any further.
When Chen Jingde led the two coroners out of the door, he gritted his teeth, turned over and knelt down, banging his head against the ground until his head was bleeding - if it weren't for the wrong posture, Sun Shaozong almost thought he was going to commit suicide by banging his head against the wall.
Then he fell to the ground and said in a trembling voice: "Xing Fang knows that his crime is unforgivable, and he dare not ask for forgiveness from you, sir - but my wife and children are innocent!"
"I beg you to have mercy on me, sir, and not..."
"hehe."
Sun Shaozong sneered and said, "At this point, you still want to save your wife and children? Let's not talk about your wife and children, your mother is probably not a good person, right?"
Su Xingfang looked up in shock, exchanged glances with Sun Shaozong, and knelt on the ground again, wanting to argue a few words, but Sun Shaozong said, "Tell me, how did you sneak into the court, how many contributions have you made to the White Lotus Sect, and what kind of coercion have you suffered now that you have done such a provocative act!"
