The old things I repaired have become fine

Chapter 753 Where is your evidence? Making baseless accusations only compounds the crime!
Well?
Is there a mole?
No, it's the opposite. There's a traitor, a pirate who's jumped out and plans to sell the people on shore to buy his life.

Shen Le gave a gesture, and two fellow villagers beside him understood. They stepped forward, grabbed the pirate who was shouting that he wanted to point out the wrong person, and dragged him into the tiled house.

Despite the stench of blood, foul smells, dampness, mold, and some other unidentified odor, Shen Le braced himself and squeezed into the room, intending to find a place to sit down and interrogate the suspect.

Upon entering, a glance to the left and right revealed a young girl in the bedroom on the left, dressed in tattered clothes, clutching what appeared to be a strip of cloth that offered little coverage, struggling to shrink onto the bed.

He sighed, directed his subordinates to pick up the broken wooden door that had been flattened on the ground, and leaned it against the door frame between the main room and the east room before finally sitting down at the table.

"What did you just want to say?"

"I...I know who directed us to come ashore and rob us..."

"Who?"

"The Wang family! It's the Wang family! The one that sold the ship!" Seeing Shen Le's question, the pirate, who was bound hand and foot, grew bolder and raised his head, saying:
“Last month, the boss took some men ashore to buy grain, and when they came back they said they had some news. That day he took us up there, and he knew exactly which warehouse we went into and where we could move things. What else could this be but an inside man?”

"How did you know it was the Wang family?" Shen Le frowned. The pirate straightened up slightly, his voice rising a little louder:

"Everyone knows them! Who else could it be but them? Sometimes when our boats break down, we take them to their shipyard for repairs, and we even bought a new boat from them!"

As soon as he uttered those words, a silent commotion immediately arose around Shen Le. Most of those present were soldiers and tenant farmers; in other words, they were not high-ranking figures.

Nobody wants to be peacefully farming when suddenly someone bursts in, steals their grain, burns down their house, and takes away their wife, sister, and daughter...

Are there people funding pirates? Are there people giving pirates directions and acting as their inside agents?
That man deserves to die! No, not just him, his whole family should be beheaded, have their heads shaved and be forced into hard labor, and be exiled to some far, far away place!

"How dare you!" Shen Le's face darkened.
"In order to save your life, you falsely accuse officials. Do you know that this will make your crime even more serious? When they were repairing your ship, how did they know you were pirates?"
How can you prove that you bought the boat from them, and that you didn't steal it, or that it was blown away by the wind and you found it? Huh?!

With each word he spoke, the young pirate's face grew paler, and he gradually slumped down, trembling.

Shen Le stared intently at him, hoping to see some confidence or signs of assurance in him, but gradually became disappointed:
No evidence?

There is no concrete evidence?
Verbal testimony is insufficient; a pirate's testimony can easily be judged as fabricated evidence.

As long as the county magistrate wants to protect the Wang family, or wants to downplay the matter, or is afraid of the Wang family's power...

At that time, not only will these pirates be beheaded without explanation, but he and his Shen family will also be involved in a huge trouble.

The room fell silent. The soldiers around them exchanged glances; some were disappointed, some were confused, and some were indignant.

Only one of Shen Le's cousins ​​stepped forward and struck the young pirate with his scabbard, sending him tumbling to the ground.

"Words are meaningless! Without a letter or seal, don't spout nonsense!"

The young pirate cowered on the ground, too terrified to even scream. However, outside the tiled house, a shout suddenly rang out:
"I have evidence! I have evidence!"

Shen Le beckoned, and immediately someone dragged the man in and slammed him to the ground. This pirate was older and looked more robust than the previous one, perhaps holding a higher position.

As Shen Le was making this judgment, he heard the newly arrived pirate look up and say:
"I followed the gang leader—oops, I mean, the thief—ashore and met the Wang family's steward. They even drew a map for the thief!"

Shen Le was slightly moved. He glanced at them, and two soldiers immediately separated from him to search the tiled house. The newly arrived pirate turned his head and pointed out:

"The thief wouldn't leave the good stuff here. His most valuable possessions are in his treasure vault. I can take you there..."

His request was granted. A string of torches was lit, and he was led, winding his way through several circles, to the so-called "treasure trove":
It was a small cave with a rather cramped entrance, requiring one to bend over to enter.

The soldiers entered the cave, then got down on all fours and pushed out several boxes. They then dug and knocked around the cave, finally pulling out a small box from a crevice in the rocks above.

Shen Le only glanced at the "treasure" once before he couldn't help but sigh:

It's too awful.

That was really terrible. The most valuable things inside were just some brocade and porcelain—the brocade was from his own workshop, and the porcelain wasn't even the best quality.

Half a gold ingot, two or three crooked silver ingots of questionable quality, and even a considerable amount of copper coins were placed in the box.

So what's the point of becoming a pirate? What's the point? With that kind of boat-handling skill, you could earn more by honestly running a maritime trade business!

Inside that carefully preserved little box, there really was a silk painting. If Shen Le weren't familiar with maps of this era, she would have easily overlooked it, mistaking it for a child's doodle.

It takes him a lot of effort to distinguish from those crooked lines whether it's a coastline, an inland river, a port, or a warehouse...

Block by block, roughly representing individual warehouses. Shen Le moved her finger across the silk painting, searching her memory and comparing it to the damaged warehouses she had seen before:

The first, second, third, fifth... all were looted... The fourth room's door was broken open, but they just looked inside... Some of the later rooms had things smashed, while others weren't even touched...

The general layout and the colors and lines painted on those blocks roughly match.

Then, Shen Le's gaze fell on a slightly blurry seal in the corner of the silk painting.

"That's it?"

He picked up the silk painting and waved it in front of the thief. The new pirate's eyes followed the painting, and he quickly nodded.
"This is it! This is it! Sir, look, that seal—that's the Wang family's mark!"
The boats they built, the deeds they signed—all had this mark on them. Otherwise, how could the gang leader—I mean, the bandit leader—have trusted him, and how could he have led us ashore to rob us?

Shen Le's expression finally turned serious. He folded the silk painting twice, rolled it into a small roll, put it in his sleeve, and looked at the pirate with a solemn expression:

"The Wang family has been in business for many years and has signed more than one contract. It is impossible for them to keep their family's mark a secret."

How do I know that this was signed by the head of the Wang family, and not by the butler behind his back, or that you forged it privately?

"The silver ingots in that box—" "Weren't they stolen by you?"

The silk and porcelain in the box are from our Shen family! You can take the silk and porcelain, but you can't take the silver ingots?

"Ah this——"

The older pirates were speechless. He wanted to say that he had also attended the negotiations, accompanying his boss to the scene, and that he could identify the Wang family's steward.

But as the saying goes, words are meaningless. You're a pirate, what you say doesn't mean it's true. You're a thief, and they're law-abiding citizens and officials. You're inherently inferior to them!
"Oh, right, they also sent the old, ugh, bandit leader a young lady! Although she was just a maid, but—"

Shen Le finally perked up. He immediately stood up and said hurriedly:

"Pass down the order: keep a close watch on all the women and children found on the island, and prevent them from committing suicide!"

His original order was for the soldiers to work in groups of three, supervise each other, and not to mistreat women and children.

As for suicide, alas, those women who were abducted also have an uncertain future.

If, after returning home, one is to be disliked by one's family, ridiculed and mocked by one's neighbors, or even insulted, beaten, and divorced by one's husband's family, perhaps, perhaps, it would be better to seek death now than to struggle to survive.

But it was too late to say anything now. As Shen Le gave the order, he quickly walked to the east room and hurriedly moved the broken wooden door that was blocking the door frame.

The woman he had seen earlier was now dressed, her face streaked with tears. Upon seeing him approach, she gracefully bowed.

“I am a maidservant of the Wang family. They forcibly bought me, and when the bandit leader demanded me, they gave me to that villain. I beg you, sir, to do me justice and allow me to return to my parents…”

Shen Le let out a long sigh.

With several pieces of evidence piled up, the case would be much easier to win. The next morning, the fleet returned from Shepan Island, and Shen Le specifically ordered that the fleet be divided into two groups.

They led most of the prisoners, as well as the women and children rescued from the pirates, to a remote village by the sea to hide them and rest for the night before slowly continuing their journey.

Another team, personally led by Shen Le, timed their advance perfectly, advancing with the tide and taking advantage of the darkness to storm the county government office. They opened the city gates at midnight, presenting witnesses and evidence before the magistrate.
"The Wang family has colluded with pirates, a heinous crime! Your Excellency, I request that you issue an order to interrogate the Wang family's shipyard workers, restaurant owners and waiters, and the parents and neighbors of the Wang family's maids tonight!"

"...You are a thief arrest officer. It is your duty to apprehend thieves and maintain public order. You don't need to ask me who to arrest."

The magistrate's face was ashen, filled with both shock and anger. He was shocked that such a major case had occurred in his jurisdiction; if his superiors investigated, he would likely face a severe reprimand.
What angered him was that the Wang family were also long-serving officials with even deeper roots in the county than he was. If they were to rebel, his own life would be in danger!

Now, with Shen Le presenting the evidence to him and seeing his aggressive demeanor, the magistrate could only wave his hand dismissively. Shen Le bowed, turned, and strode out the door, issuing a series of orders.

The clan soldiers, yamen runners, tenant farmers who had been urgently transferred from his family and had fought alongside him in battle, and even some of the stronger men from the mountain villages, rushed out from all sides:

They rushed to the Wang family estate, brought the maid's parents, family members, and neighbors to meet the girl.

After being separated for a long time, their sudden reunion greatly surprised their parents, brothers, and sisters-in-law.

"Er Ya! What happened to you... what trouble did you cause? Did you break the master's things? Don't be afraid, don't be afraid, your father and mother will work themselves to the bone to earn money to compensate you!"

"Is she a maid from the Wang family?"

Shen Le observed coldly for a while, then spoke up to ask. Her parents nodded repeatedly, and even several familiar neighbors testified:
“That’s right! Erni was taken away by the master three years ago and chosen to be a maid in the mansion! She’s been smart and quick-witted since she was little, we’ve all seen it! Could it be…”

Shen Le had someone take their statements and watched the neighbors sign and affix their fingerprints before sending them away.

No sooner had they sent the person away than the maid burst into tears:

"Father! Mother! That Wang family is utterly despicable—your daughter, your daughter almost didn't see you again..."

She wept uncontrollably, recounting in detail how the butler led her to receive guests, how she was "given" to the pirates, and how she was sent to the ship.

Parents, elder brother, and sister-in-law were greatly alarmed and repeatedly said:

“No wonder Er Ya hasn’t come out to meet us or sent any money back these past two months… They won’t let the children out to meet us; we just assumed they were busy at home…”

The evidence now matches up. The Wang family's valuables could be stolen, but the Wang family's maids wouldn't have gone to the pirates for no reason.

What? You're saying the person was robbed, or got lost and abducted? Have you reported it to the police? Have you asked the authorities to look for them?
Meanwhile, another team rushed to the Wang family's shipyard and, under the pretext of assisting with the investigation, took control of all the accountants and master craftsmen.

Under the overnight investigation by the clansmen brought by Shen Le who were good at accounting, they quickly found clues in several private accounts—several repair records only recorded income, but did not include the specific names and sources of the ships.
There are also two records of "new ships sold" at prices far below market value, and the recipient is vaguely recorded as "sea passengers";
When questioned separately, some of the experienced boat mechanics at the shipyard admitted that they had carried out emergency repairs and modifications on some boats that "didn't seem like good vessels," as instructed by the manager...

The third group, carrying the silk painting, secretly questioned several senior clerks and merchants in the county.

Everyone agreed that the seal and ink color on the drawing were indeed the Wang family's mark, and it was definitely not a forgery!
"Smell this inkpad; doesn't it have a fragrance? This is their own unique inkpad, definitely not something an outsider could imitate!"
The fourth group of people brought the restaurant owner and waiters. Based on the time recounted by the pirates and the maid who was taken away, they confirmed that there really was such a group of people meeting at the restaurant at that time, and a young woman was taken away.
The fifth group of men kept watch over the Wang family residence, ensuring that no one could escape, and that no one could turn against them and harm Shen Le and the magistrate...

The work of detaining and interrogating witnesses lasted a day and a night. Early on the third day, the pirates, the robbed women and children, the stolen goods, and various witnesses were neatly arranged before the magistrate:

With the suspect caught red-handed and the evidence complete, the magistrate did not hesitate any longer and immediately issued the order:

"Arrest them! Immediately arrest the head of the Wang family, all the stewards, and all those involved! Seize all their assets!"

The fierce yamen runners and local militia immediately sprang into action. The Wang family, who had been living in fear for a day and a night, collapsed in an instant, like a great building crumbling.

The interrogation, trial, and sentencing lasted a full half-month, and all of the Wang family's assets were confiscated and sold by the government.

Naturally, thanks to his merit in suppressing the bandits, Shen Le acquired the core assets he wanted for a very low price: all of the Wang family's shipyards and a high-quality cedar forest.

The shipbuilding business, and the family's maritime trade business, are finally about to begin.

(End of this chapter)