Chapter 1383: He Lingchuan's Remedial Measures

"This tribute land of Shuangxi is managed by Xue Zongwu, and Qian Yu is his own person; to put it bluntly, the produce and income of Shuangxi must pass through Xue Zongwu's hands before being sent to the Kingdom of Yao. He has used Qian Yu to audit accounts for so many years; only he and Qian Yu know exactly what is going on with that money and those accounts." "So, the big holes hidden in the accounts are also what he is worried about being known by others; Qian Yu being kidnapped shows that it is very likely that someone else has also set their sights on these accounts." He Lingchuan said solemnly, "Once a person starts to worry and starts to feel anxious, their judgment will decline. We just need to add some evidence, and he will focus on associating it."

"This..." Dong Rui was speechless for a moment, "Are you cleaning up for those few men in black?"

"You could say that." He Lingchuan sighed; he was really very depressed, "Not only for their sake, but even more for our own sake."

Dong Rui gave him a thumbs up. Qian Yu had been in trouble for less than a quarter of an hour, yet He Lingchuan had thought through all the pros and cons, and could even take action to add a knife, stirring the water even muddier.

He Lingchuan's ability to adapt, Dong Rui admitted he didn't have.

He Lingchuan continued: "I happened to learn from Qian Yu last night that the accounts he audited were all stored in the document warehouse in the west wing of the government office, and he worked there every day."

"Got it." This alley led directly to the back door of the government office. Seeing no one around, Dong Rui released the bat demon puppet to scout the path for He Lingchuan first.

Half an incense stick later, the bat flew back gracefully and landed on Dong Rui's shoulder.

"It's a mess inside; the bailiffs have all been sent out to find people, and the officials are gathered together to discuss matters, only the west wing is completely empty; that's likely where the document warehouse you want to go is." At this time, the government office was in a panic, and the local officials were scared to death and anxious to death after receiving the urging from the Xue Mansion; who had the time to care about the document warehouse? He Lingchuan nodded, took out the skin of Lord Boshan and draped it over himself, then climbed over the wall and entered the Shuangxi government office.

Dong Rui pointed inside the wall, and the bat flew in again.

Then Dong Rui turned his heels and left.

He specifically went around to the front of the government office and bought three coarse grain buns and a bowl of sour powder paste soup at a stall. The buns were a bit rough, and the soup was too sour, but it didn't affect him eating it with a slurping sound.

Before the third bun was finished, he saw the west wing of the government office catch fire, accompanied by bursts of shouting.

"Fire, the west wing is on fire!"

Oh, could it be the document warehouse? "Hurry and put out the fire! Hurry, hurry, hurry! Oh no, there's a thief!"

"He climbed over the wall and left, chase!"

Dong Rui was stunned. He Lingchuan could be discovered stealing things?

On purpose, right?

He was busy watching the show and slowed down his eating speed.

By the time his bowl of powder paste soup hit the bottom, he saw four or five bailiffs rushing back to the government office, also looking anxious.

The government office was really lively today.

"Five more buns." He paid and walked out, and the bat flew over quietly and drilled into his backpack.

This little eye-spy said that the west wing of the government office suddenly caught fire, and the officials sent people to check, only to see a man in black rushing out of the document warehouse in the west wing, climbing over the wall and leaving, holding a stack of materials in his hand.

The bailiffs went to chase, and the man in black accidentally dropped one while running; the former picked it up and saw it was an account book.

This naturally wasn't caught in the end, and the fire in the document warehouse was finally controlled, not spreading to other places.

But!

An entire cabinet shelf in the document warehouse, along with the materials inside, was basically burned out.

The account books of the Shuangxi tribute land for these past few years were all kept there! How could a blind thief rush in here to burn and rob account books?

The local official was already overwhelmed by Qian Yu's kidnapping, and now he had to gather people to investigate what was lost in the west wing.

A quarter of an hour later, Shuangxi sealed the city.

More than a quarter of an hour later, He Lingchuan and Dong Rui were already on a small hill outside the city, overlooking the closed city gate.

"Shuangxi actually sealed the city for Xue Zongwu's account manager?" Dong Rui clicked his tongue twice, "The action is faster than I imagined."

He Lingchuan was gnawing on a coarse grain bun while shaking several documents he had taken from the document warehouse at him: "The most important reason might be this—the materials I took from the document warehouse."

Dong Rui didn't even have the thought of opening it to take a look: "What's in here?"

"The account books of the Shuangxi tribute land for these past few years—both the catalog and the details are there." He Lingchuan explained, "I learned their location from Qian Yu, and today I just took—ahem, took them out."

Fortunately, he had let the Nightmare ask a few more questions in his dream last night; Qian Yu confessed to more than a dozen accounts, all of which were shifts and swaps under General Xue's request, involving an amount of over 200,000 taels.

Qian Yu could be reused by Xue Zongwu, so naturally, he was a master of accounting.

Of course, this was only an inconspicuous small part. Over so many years, Xue Zongwu's harvest in the two tribute lands was far more than 200,000 taels.

Xue Zongwu also had harvests in more than these two places.

Dong Rui asked: "Are these account books you specifically took out problematic?"

"No problem."

"..." Then what did you take them out of the document warehouse for! "If problems could be found so easily, Qian Yu wouldn't have lived until now," He Lingchuan patted the materials, "The account books in the document warehouse were basically all balanced, and looking at the account books alone basically couldn't find any problems, which is why I burned them with a fire."

"In terms of auditing and making accounts, Qian Yu is really a master." He sighed, "If Kang Lang had such talent under his command, the sharing accounts of the Qingye Agreement wouldn't be a problem at all."

"Then this..."

"What I took were the catalog and details." He Lingchuan smiled slightly, "It has great use; you will know later."

Since he said so, Dong Rui didn't pursue it. "The local official of Shuangxi has a good body; he didn't faint after receiving these two pieces of bad news."

"These accounts are closely related to Xue Zongwu; the local official dare not hide them and will definitely report the theft of the document warehouse and the theft of important account books." He Lingchuan took a bite of the bun, speaking unclearly, "I hope this can confuse Xue Zongwu's vision and make him think that Qian Yu was kidnapped because someone wanted to collect evidence of his corruption."

"How likely is it?"

"Not small." He Lingchuan laughed, "Did you forget that someone in the Yao Wang Ting is currently rectifying the government?"

Dong Rui's reaction was also fast: "Qingyang?"

"Over the past half year, Qingyang has used various pretexts to wrestle with the King of Yao, and several ministers have been 'impartially' killed by her." What is impartial? It means they were indeed guilty.

In the world where He Lingchuan originally lived, there was a famous saying known to everyone: some things don't weigh two taels if they aren't put on the scale, but once they are on the scale, a thousand catties can't suppress them.

Attacking with "justice" is the only way to make opponents angry and hateful, yet helpless.

He Lingchuan had already used this move in Lingxu City, and it was very effective. And Qingyang had been in the officialdom for over 150 years, so she used it even more skillfully.

"Xue Zongwu is a firm supporter of the King, and he has also had conflicts with Qingyang. If Qingyang wants to find a good reason to clean him up, thereby hitting the power and prestige of the King of Yao, if you think from Xue Zongwu's perspective, this is not impossible."

"Another case of bringing disaster upon oneself!" Dong Rui couldn't help laughing, feeling that Qingyang was really unlucky to be targeted by He Lingchuan. "But since you can calculate, why not calculate what those few men in black are going to do?"

"Qian Yu is not their real target; if they were sent by Qingyang, they wouldn't act so crudely." He Lingchuan didn't need to think much, "Their way of acting doesn't look like the work of an organization. Then, it's still a personal vendetta."

"Didn't you just say...?"

"I mean, they might have a personal vendetta against the Xue family, so they kidnapped Qian Yu to extract information, but the methods were trying to cover up, without careful consideration." He Lingchuan sighed, "These people are easy to spoil things; I hope their target isn't Xue Zongwu."

The next day, Qian Yu's corpse floated on the river outside Shuangxi City and was discovered by a shepherd boy.

Just as He Lingchuan expected, the men in black didn't leave him alive.

The cause of death was a knife to the throat, clean and neat.

After learning of Qian Yu's death, He Lingchuan specifically sent someone to inquire about the news.

Soon, the intelligence was fed back: all the property on Qian Yu's body was gone, even the rings on his hands and the jade pendant at his waist were stripped away.

He Lingchuan frowned: "Sure enough, it's not the work of an organization."

Qian Yu had quite a bit of money on him; he had just received pearls, jade bi, and 200 taels of silver the night before he was killed, and in the end, it was cheap for those few men in black.

Killing and robbing, tsk.

Dong Rui laughed: "Maybe it's an organization short of money."

Qian Yu's death and the disappearance of the account books were like stones thrown into a pond. The stones sank and disappeared, but the ripples on the water surface expanded wider and wider.

He Lingchuan also wanted to know the background of the men in black, but the clues they left were too few, making it hard to track.

There was more than one group of people hiding their heads and showing their tails in the Flash Gold Plain.

"Is there anything useful in the information Qian Yu gave?"

"Quite a bit." He Lingchuan gave an example casually, "For example, Xue Zongwu has close contact with his mentor Qi Yunsheng; whenever he encounters major events or is indecisive, he goes to Mangzhou to discuss with Qi Yunsheng. Oh, Qi Yunsheng is also his father-in-law; Xue Zongwu married his mentor's daughter."

"For another example, Xue Zongwu is brutal by nature and acts arrogantly; he is often sued by other powerful people and has to be arbitrated by the King of Yao to smooth things over."

Dong Rui wondered: "Didn't you say before that it's what the superior likes to see when a general in command of troops has a bad relationship with other high officials?"

Otherwise, having troops, power, and connections, isn't that...

He Lingchuan had already said this when he was in Lingxu City, and he remembered it well.

"A few years ago, he even killed a Lang official sent by the capital to the border and was severely punished by the King of Yao." He Lingchuan laughed, "The King of Yao is raising a tiger; a fierce tiger is naturally not as obedient as a dog, and this scale is not easy to grasp. Qian Yu revealed in his dream that the Wang Ting had specifically audited the accounts of the tribute lands managed by Xue Zongwu several times, until Qingyang came to the Kingdom of Yao to serve as the Grand Supervisor."

"Xue Zongwu was a Lang official of the King of Yao when he was young, and he was promoted all the way by the King of Yao despite all objections. I think he is loyal to this master, and with such a great general as his backing, the King of Yao has more confidence in confronting Qingyang."

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 1384 =====