Episode 38
In order to find out the details of the Duke, Cui Xingzhou cleverly set up a trap and asked his cronies to pretend to be members of King Sui's tribe, intending to kidnap the Duke to test his reaction.His master, the Duke, could handle it calmly without showing any signs of panic, even if a sharp knife was inserted into his neck.Cui Xingzhou watched from afar and gave a slight signal. His men quickly changed their tactics and instead wanted to kidnap the Duke's son and demand a sky-high ransom of five thousand gold.When the Duke heard about this huge sum of money, he couldn't help but sigh, feeling sorry for himself for his incorruptible life and lack of money.This move undoubtedly showed that the Duke was not a party to King Sui.Cui Xingzhou then ordered his men to stop at the right time.
In the Duke's mansion, Liu Miantang first saw the preparations for the feast, and noticed that although Sister Cui was the mistress of the mansion, she did not seem to be fully favored by her husband Guo Yi.Guo Yi preferred his concubine Gai Yurao, who was dressed in rich clothes and wore a priceless jade bracelet that was rare even in the palace.Gai Yurao was so arrogant that he took the position of mistress and was arrogant.Liu Miantang was very attentive and told Cui Xingzhou what he saw, and the two of them turned the focus of their investigation to Guo Yi.Sure enough, Guo Yi was extravagant and recently spent huge sums of money to purchase rare items, all of which were paid in cash. It seemed like he had a windfall in his account.
In order to lure Guo Yi into revealing his secret, Cui Xingzhou and Liu Miantang made careful arrangements.At the banquet, Liu Miantang gave his eldest sister Ye Ming a pearl hairpin, but Guo Yi only gave him a gold pearl hairpin, which aroused his dissatisfaction.In order to seek balance, Guo Yi bought the same model at a high price. Gai Yurao also agreed and spent 500 gold.Cui Xingzhou had transferred his eldest sister's dowry to the Huaiyang Prince's Mansion in advance. Guo Yi had no money to repay the debt, so he used the land deed as a mortgage.Cui Xingzhou's shadow guard took the opportunity to record the land deed information in detail. After comparison, he found that none of the land deeds belonged to the eldest sister, and there were a large number of them.
After Cui Xingzhou's skillful search, he found Guo Yi's account book in the secret compartment of the scroll. All the witnesses and physical evidence confirmed that Guo Yi was actually Mr. Da, who had been involved in corruption for a long time, and his network even touched important departments of the three departments.Cui Xingzhou reported to the emperor quickly. Both of them lamented that the three divisions were also polluted. If the king's case was handed over to him for trial, it would be difficult to achieve justice.Cui Xingzhou advocated holding back his troops temporarily to avoid disturbing the situation and affecting the overall situation.The original plan to quickly eliminate King Sui and return to Qingzhou with Liu Miantang seems to have to be postponed.Liu Miantang comforted Cui Xingzhou with gentle words and suggested going out to relax and plan for the future together.
