pjbooks Chapter 430
Chapter 430
Her voice was calm. "Don't use the business relationship as an excuse. I'm sure you don't even believe it yourself."Hearing Yue Fuguang mention the Yu family, the young scholar unconsciously leaned back a little. Although it was just a small movement, everyone present could tell that this question had hit the nail on the head.
"Your Excellency also said that the Yu family is a prominent local family. How could we, a bunch of bandits, have anything to do with such a family?"
There were already faint beads of cold sweat on the scholar's forehead. "As I said before, we don't know the identities of the buyers who purchased the ore. As long as they pay in silver, anyone is our customer. Maybe there are people from the Yu family among them?"
Yue Fuguang didn't comment on his nonsense. She slowly took a sip of fragrant tea and then continued, "Since you sell to anyone who pays in silver, you must have earned a lot of silver.
Where did all that silver go? My people only found some loose silver in your lair!"
Saying it was loose silver was an exaggeration, but to be honest, there wasn't much profit.
"This..." The young scholar was at a loss for words. He never expected that his confident words just now would become the biggest flaw in his lie.
"Your Excellency, please see clearly." The woman behind the scholar crawled forward on her knees for two steps. "I'm in charge of the accounts and silver transactions in the stronghold.
That day, when your Excellencies raided the mine, I saw that the situation was wrong, so I burned all the account books!"
She knocked her head heavily on the ground, with tears all over her face. She looked so pitiful.
Unfortunately, Yue Fuguang was not the kind of person who would show pity for a beautiful woman, especially since this woman's identity was not simple.
She tapped the table lightly and said, "The account books are gone, but what about the silver? Don't tell me you burned it too. Silver isn't like paper money. If you want to lie, come up with something more believable to fool this junior grand preceptor."
There was a clear look of mockery in her eyes, as if she was watching them perform. The woman felt a momentary panic of being seen through.
She gathered her courage and said, "Part of the silver was squandered by a few of us."
She glanced at the other four people. But then she thought that some of the miners who were captured first were still alive, and it was possible to calculate approximately how much ore had been mined in the past year.
It was simply impossible that a few people had squandered so much silver. She gritted her teeth, and a faint blush appeared on her face. "Most of it was secretly taken by me and given to... my lover!"
"Your lover? Hao Fangting, the son of Hao Ren?"
"How do you know about A Ting, Your Excellency?" The woman suddenly looked up, with panic and suspicion in her beautiful eyes. An exclamation blurted out. By the time she realized what she had said and tried to cover her mouth, it was too late.
"You don't need to worry about how I know. All you need to know is that I already know all your details.
I should also thank the person who told me the truth."
Her eyes swept over the five people, and some things were self - evident.
"Is it you, Zhou Wu, who informed on us?" The woman turned to question the wretched man kneeling behind her. He looked so sneaky and unreliable.
"You ugly thing, trying to take advantage of me but failing, and now you want to ruin me and A Ting!"
Her voice was full of anger and resentment, and her eyes looking at the man were filled with venom. "You useless thing, that's all you're capable of!"
"I didn't. It wasn't me! Snow Lady, I don't care about your dirty business with that Hao Fangting!"
The wretched man was being scolded by the woman called Snow Lady, and in a fit of anger, he shrank back and defended himself. Unfortunately, the angry woman didn't believe a word of it.
"Stop arguing!" The young scholar saw that these two idiots were starting to fight among themselves because of a vague remark from the other side, and he couldn't help but speak up to stop them.
"Master Yu, what a great air you're putting on!" Yue Fuguang looked at him, with a sneer on her lips. "I'm not sure whether I should call you the second in - command, Xu Shangu, or Master Yu Qi, Yu Wei?"
As soon as the name Yu Wei was mentioned, the young scholar's body trembled. Most of his energy seemed to be sucked away by this address, and he slumped to the ground, silent, no longer having the stubborn attitude of refusing to confess.
"Yin Hongxue, no, I should call you Li Qingxue. You're from a side branch of the Li family in Xinzhou, one of the eight great families. You were engaged to Hao Fangting of the third branch of the Hao family in Xinzhou since childhood.
The Li family was raided by the imperial court. You happened to be staying at your maternal grandfather's house, so you managed to escape.
Later, in order to avoid the imperial court's investigation, your grandfather sent you to Yingchuan Prefecture where your fiancé's family worked. After a conspiracy between the Hao father and son, they sent you to manage the accounts in the black mine.
The reason you were able to manage the accounts is that your grandfather is a side branch of the Yu family in Xinzhou and has always had a close relationship with the first branch of the Yu Mansion.
There has always been a lot of strife between the first branch and the third branch where Yu Wei is from. You're not just the accountant, but also sent by the first branch to keep an eye on Yu Wei. Am I right?"
Yue Fuguang shook her head. She had seen too many struggles between the legitimate and illegitimate children in the great families of Dayan.
Even siblings born of the same parents could fight like enemies for the sake of interests, let alone half - siblings with the difference between legitimate and illegitimate status. Those so - called brothers were just rivals in the fight for family property.
Yue Fuguang couldn't help but wonder if the idea of having more children bringing more blessings was really right.
Even with Emperor Mingxi suppressing things, there were always old men in every family who liked young women. It was quite funny that the Yu family was already on guard against each other before even starting to fight for the family fortune.
When Yu Wei learned that this cousin was also tasked with monitoring him, a cold light shot out from his small eyes.
But now he was like a fish on the chopping block, in no position to take revenge on Li Qingxue!
Humph! So after learning the truth, Yu Wei just got angry for a moment.
"Yu Wei, Li Qingxue, who of you will tell me where the Yu family transported all the iron ore and what they used so much iron for?"
Although the actions of the Yu family were dangerous, it didn't really matter to Dayan at present, so this matter was not within her mission scope.
The information provided by the system was also limited. It could be said that Yue Fuguang was just bored during her journey and wanted to have some fun in handling this case.
She also wanted to expose this matter to remind the emperor and his officials of Dayan. Even if the great and small families fell, there were still many prominent local families in Dayan. They shouldn't let their guard down and allow these guys to grow stronger and become hard nuts to crack.
Yu Wei and Li Qingxue glanced at each other and then turned their heads away. It seemed that neither of them was going to speak first.
Yue Fuguang looked outside and saw that it was almost lunchtime. She didn't want to waste any more time with them and directly said, "I'll only give you one chance. Otherwise, go to the prison and reunite with your families.
If you don't say anything, there are others who will."
As soon as her words fell, Shen Jian walked into the yard in military uniform. He handed his sword to the guard and walked straight into the hall. Without looking at the people kneeling on the ground, he bowed to Yue Fuguang and said, "Your Excellency, Junior General Shen Jian is here to report."