Chapter 737: A Loophole
"Let's take a detour and go to Zhang An's house first."
Not long after the carriage left the corner gate of the Sun Mansion, Sun Shaozong lifted the curtain and gave another order.
He had just mistaken Xing Xiuyan for Zhao Zhongji, which made him a little worried about Zhang An's family's funeral.
There were so many disputes in the past two days that he had no time to spare, but counting on his fingers, it was not far from the seventh day of burial, so he should go over and show up.
Nowadays, the length of time a body is kept for a funeral is divided into different levels. Many poor families bury the body within three days, while those with a little extra money usually keep the body for seven days.
As for the rich and powerful, it would take 49 days to give them a grand funeral.
"Oh~"
Just as he was thinking about the local customs and folkways, the carriage suddenly stopped again. Sun Shaozong lifted the curtain and took a look, only to see that there were about a hundred people gathered in front of him, blocking the back street which was not very wide to begin with.
What happened again?
Sun Shaozong gave a wink and Zhang Cheng immediately jumped off the carriage and went forward to inquire.
Soon they came back with a report that it was an old house of an individual that had collapsed due to heavy snow late last night.
Although the elderly couple living in the house were not seriously injured, their children and grandchildren who rushed over after hearing the news started quarreling because they were blaming each other. Now the uncle and nephew even started fighting without regard for their status, which attracted onlookers from the surrounding neighbors.
Tsk~
No matter how much we emphasize that filial piety is the most important virtue, there are still many unfilial descendants.
Take the early years of this dynasty as an example. The newly enthroned Emperor Guangde was still under the shadow of the retired emperor. In order to show his respect for the elderly, he specially allocated funds from the Ministry of Internal Affairs to distribute winter clothes and firewood to the elderly over 70 years old in the capital.
He also instructed Shuntian Prefecture to provide coffins and clothing for the old man who died of starvation and freezing that year.
Although this was mainly to please the emperor, it was still a good policy. Unfortunately, it underestimated the bottom line of some people.
That year, the number of elderly people who died of hunger and cold in the capital was nearly half a percent higher than the previous year.
Emperor Guangde was furious about this and ordered Shuntian Prefecture to conduct a thorough investigation. It turned out that many of the firewood and charcoal taken away by elderly people had been embezzled by their children and grandchildren.
Some people even coveted the coffins and other items distributed by the court and deliberately let their elders in the family freeze to death or starve to death.
Uh~
It seems a bit off topic.
After Zhang Cheng reported back, he said, "Second Master, this place is not far from the Zhang family. If we take a detour, it will delay our journey. Do you think we should disperse them, or..."
"Let's take a detour."
Sun Shaozong made the decision without waiting for him to finish and then lowered the curtain.
If this had happened in the past, when he was the governor of Shuntian Prefecture, he would definitely have stopped to find out the truth and then made a clear judgment on the spot.
But as the saying goes, one should not meddle in matters that are not within one's jurisdiction. Although he is still in charge of criminal law, he has already left the sequence of local officials. According to the rules, he is not allowed to directly interfere in local affairs without reason.
What's more, the newly appointed Ge Zhizhong is now in a desperate situation. If he really bites you, it will hurt or not, but it will inevitably make you feel disgusted.
However, judging by the recent climate, Ge Zhizhong's tenure as an official is likely to end soon - it is only mid-October and there have already been two snowfalls. I'm afraid the scale of this year's snowstorm will not be small, and disasters are often accompanied by chaos and turmoil.
If he fails to handle the matter properly, Ge Zhizhong will have to resign - judging from the current situation, he will almost certainly handle the matter improperly.
Stop talking nonsense.
However, Sun Shaozong took a detour to Zhang An's home, humbled himself and asked about his well-being.
There was no time to report for duty, so Sun Shaozong simply calmed down and comforted Zhang An's wife and children.
Speaking of which...
It would be a good idea to place Su Xingfang's wife and children together with Zhang An's wife and children so that they can take care of each other.
"Second Master, Second Master!"
Just as he was thinking, Zhang Cheng, who was waiting outside, suddenly rushed in. He was a little excited at first, but then he saw the coffin lying across the hall and quickly changed his expression. He said embarrassedly: "An angel came to deliver a decree, and it seems to have arrived at the gate of the courtyard!"
Upon hearing that the "angel" had arrived, Zhang An's wife, Mrs. Wu, panicked and even forgot to get up from the straw mat. She looked at Sun Shaozong eagerly.
"Don't worry, sister-in-law. If it goes as expected, the emperor will probably give you some compensation and rewards."
Sun Shaozong pointed to the inner room and said, "I'll leave for now. If there's anything wrong, sister-in-law can call me out."
When Zhang Wu heard that it was a pension and reward, she immediately remembered that Sun Shaozong had promised to help her son find a proper birthright. She didn't care that she was in the mourning hall, she jumped up from the straw mat and went out to greet him with joy.
Firstly, this was an imperial decree for the Zhang family and had nothing to do with Sun Shaozong; secondly, Sun Shaozong did not want to kneel in front of several eunuchs for no reason.
Therefore, after Zhang Wu went out to greet him, he quickly retreated to the inner room to take shelter temporarily.
Because Sun Shaozong had someone buy a house in advance, Zhang Wu and his mother were waiting to move into the new house after the funeral. Also, according to the rules, they had to eat and sleep on straw mats outside for the past few days, so this room was idle anyway.
So when Sun Shaozong lifted the curtain and went in, he saw that the kang was piled with bundles of various sizes.
Seeing that the needle couldn't be inserted, he originally wanted to stand in the corner and wait for a while.
Who would have thought that there was chaos outside at first, and there was a lot of commotion. Later, the eunuch who delivered the imperial edict started to talk endlessly in a shrill voice with ups and downs.
Sun Shaozong became impatient and simply piled the bags at the bedside higher, planning to sit down and continue waiting.
Crash~
The first two large bags contained clothes. Although they looked big, they were not actually that heavy.
But the small bag at the bottom was quite heavy, and it made a crisp sound when it was lifted, as if it contained a lot of metal objects.
Could it be gold and silver jewelry?
Sun Shaozong didn't pay attention to it at first and just put the small bag aside, but when he thought about it, he felt something was wrong.
Zhang An was an upright person. Although he was a good fighter, he had no idea how to manage his household.
If he said that he had saved some small change and coins, that would be understandable, but the noise just now was probably more "precious" than that.
Could it be that these were the smuggled goods that Zhang An smuggled back from Huguang?
But at that time, I had never heard that he had embezzled the money.
Feeling suspicious, Sun Shaozong listened attentively. Seeing that the long and boring imperial edict was far from the end, he simply opened the bundle and took a closer look.
This glance made him frown.
However, in the bundle, there were a lot of gold and silver jewelry, which were obviously popular styles in the capital, and definitely not made by the Wuxi barbarians or Huguang craftsmen.
But what is even more suspicious is that in addition to the outer wrappings, the gold and silver valuables were also several pieces of underwear "invented" by Prince Yoshitada.
Moreover, it is a sexy style that is popular in brothels nowadays.
This can't possibly be Zhang An's thing!
On the contrary, it is very likely that it was given by Zhang Biao...
Could it be...
Wasn't it that this woman was not forced to be with Zhang Biao in the first place, but rather she was half-hearted, or maybe they just hit it off and did that shameful thing?
Sun Shaozong's expression changed several times, with some anger between his brows. If this was true, Zhang Wu was probably quite scheming and even concealed it from him.
This is really a case of one mistake being too careful!
At that moment, Sun Shaozong felt an urge to throw the thing in front of Zhang Wu to see how she would defend herself.
But this is just a thought. Now Zhang An and Zhang Biao have both died. If Zhang Wu is captured, who will Zhang An's young son , rely on?
Whatever~
Just take it as a lesson to remind myself not to be too complacent in the future.
