Jinyi Town Mountains and Rivers

Chapter 763 The Crappy Thief

He Liu stared into Zhang Kangchen's eyes.Zhang Kangchen's eyes flickered, obviously there was a ghost in his heart.

He Liudao: "Zaiyang Gambling House will be afraid of you, a small official of the sixth rank? Heh, who are you coaxing? Zaiyang Gambling Shop is opened by Ningyang Hou Shizi. If you drop a flowerpot in the sky, you can smash it The capital where there are no officials is just a small official! There are probably more bastards in the Yongding River than there are official sixth-rank officials in the capital! Will Zaiyang Gambling House be afraid of you?"

Zhang Kangchen was at a loss for words.

He Liu pointed to the bronze seal again: "It's common for literati to cast bronze seals and engrave them for self-entertainment. But can you see what this seal casts? If I remember correctly, this is Elf elephant, right? Director Zhang works in the Ministry of Rites, let me ask you, whose seal is it to cast an elf elephant?"

There were beads of sweat on Zhang Kangchen's head, and he didn't answer.

He Liu said with a smile: "If you don't tell me, I'll tell you! The seal of the false prince of Yuan Dynasty is the one who made the elephant as a seal! You claim that you made this seal for fun? Just based on this, I can cure you. You are a serious crime of plotting evil and intending to rebel!"

Hearing the words, Zhang Kangchen's eyes were full of gold stars, his legs went limp and he "thumped" and fell to the ground.

Hong Lang heard the clue from the side: "Liu Ye, when Bobai rebelled, he claimed to be the hereditary pseudo-Yuanliang king! Could it be that the seal melted in the pot is the one lost by the cabinet? It's not right. Isn’t Bobai’s seal a gold seal? Could it be that Bobai’s rebellion, the army’s salary was limited, and they didn’t want to cast it in gold? Instead, it was cast in bronze and painted yellow paint on the outside?”

He Liu shook his head: "No! Bo Bai's golden seal is made of real gold. Although Li Rusong looks like a rough man, he is rough on the outside and fine on the inside. After he captured Bo Bai's seal, he was afraid that the civil officials would yell at him for hiding it, so he took the initiative to take it away. The seal was sent to the capital. Wang Xijue, the chief assistant of the cabinet at that time, and the third official of the Ministry of Rites were invited to testify. Wang Xijue's old chief assistant is a collector. If the seal is copper, how can he not see it? He will definitely tell the emperor .”

Zhang Kangchen, who was half lying on the ground, was already sweating profusely!
He Liu said to Zhang Kangchen: "You are also a Beijing official after all. You should have heard of this sentence, right? It is better to enter the Palace of the King of Hell than to enter the Governor's Department. There are hundreds of punishments, large and small, at the Governor's Department in Beizhen. I know if you want to taste it all over again? I advise you, you should honestly confess the origin of this bronze seal, so as not to suffer flesh and blood!"

Zhang Kangchen closed his eyes, gritted his teeth and said, "I've said it before, I cast the bronze seal for fun! As for casting the handle of the seal into an elephant, it's because I'm ignorant and I forgot that the elephant represents a pseudo-yuan Prince."

He Liu roared loudly, calling out to Zhang Kangchen: "Don't think I don't know!"

When it comes to bluffing a prisoner to induce a confession, the seven words "don't think I don't know" can be described as panacea.Back then, Jin Wanguan, a master interrogator of Jinyiwei during the Jiajing period, loved to use these seven words when interrogating criminals.

Zhang Kangchen said: "You, what do you know? I would like to hear the details."

He Liu continued to shout: "Do you think I don't know what happened two years ago?"

In fact, He Liu mentioned the time "two years ago" only because he suspected that someone had secretly used the Bobai Gold Seal in the cabinet office two years ago.As for whether this matter was related to Zhang Kangchen, he was not at all sure.

This is called jujube but no jujube, first hit three poles.

Zhang Kangchen was completely dumbfounded: "You know what happened two years ago?"

He Liu nodded: "I already know it well! Jin Yiwei knows half of the things in the sky, but he knows everything on the ground! Let Jin Yiwei focus on the case and the person... Heh, do you think you can escape? Have you survived a catastrophe? I’m giving you a chance to tell yourself now, just to keep you alive. Confessions are lenient, sophistry strict, this is the rule of Jin Yiwei’s investigation.”

Zhang Kangchen was always a petty official of the six ministries, and he still didn't understand Jin Yiwei.Jin Yiwei is actually "strict sophistry, stricter confession!"

Zhang Kangchen asked tentatively: "If I do it all. I don't know if Jin Yiwei's job can punish me for the usual crime of theft."

He Liu secretly rejoiced: Alright, this fellow is going to speak now.

He Liu smiled and said, "Success. Let's talk about it."

Zhang Kangchen began to confess.

Two years ago, he was frustrated in officialdom and disheartened.Although he was transferred to the cabinet for walking because of his strong physique, he knew in his heart that it was not because the cabinet elders valued him.It's just because he was born strong and fit to go to Shangbaosi in the morning to carry burdens!And so it is.He had been in the cabinet for four months, and the Chief Assistant Wang Xijue didn't even know his last name.

Zhang Kangchen thought to himself, if I am frustrated in the officialdom, I should be proud of the casino, right?He got into the bad habit of playing with money.He learned how to make a gambling house.In the first five days, he won more than 200 taels of silver.But on the night of the sixth day, he not only lost the money he had won, but also lost the savings he had saved from being an official for 15 years.And owed the casino 1000 taels of silver!

Zhang Kangchen had no choice but to sell the land passed down from his ancestors for money.I also tried my best to sell 450 taels, but still owed 550 taels.

What He Liu said just now was good.The owner of Zaiyang Casino is Ningyang Hou Shizi.They were not afraid of Zhang Kangchen, a low-rank official.Zaiyang Gambling House collects officials who owe debts, and neither beats you nor scolds you.They have a method ten thousand times more vicious than beating and scolding.

For example, Zhang Kangchen is an official of the Ministry of Rites.If he doesn't return the money, the gambling house will send more than a dozen people to the gate of the ritual department.Seeing Zhang Kangchen's colleagues, he went up and said to others: "Zhang Kangchen of your Ministry of Rites owes Zaiyang Gambling House more than 500 taels of silver. Please tell him and pay back the money as soon as possible!"

Once that happens, Zhang Kangchen's reputation will be ruined!How many officials don't care about their reputation?

History is always strikingly similar.Hundreds of years later, Huaxia's online usury collection methods are actually exactly the same as those of Zaiyang Casino hundreds of years ago!It's called "Explosive Address Book"!
Zhang Kangchen had no choice but to rack his brains to get money to pay off the debt.But there is no money in the sky, so how can he get such a big bet in a short while?
At this moment, he thought of one thing.Isn't there a piece of gold lump on the bookshelf of the cabinet?How could the golden seal of the traitor Bobai weigh ten catties?If it is stolen, it will be melted into gold nuggets without anyone noticing, and it can be exchanged for 600 taels of silver!
There is a problem here.

The little eunuch in the palace who served the tea for the cabinet had to wipe the gold seal box of the traitor general every now and then.If there is nothing inside, it will be exposed when rubbed.

Zhang Kangchen thought of the "civet cat for the prince" in the Song Dynasty!
During that time, he pretended to be diligent in his job.The last one leaves the cabinet every day.In fact, he took advantage of the fact that everyone else was gone, opened the traitor seal box, and carefully looked at the gold seal.Then he drew the blueprint, found a master coppersmith in the south of the city, and cast a fake gold seal made of bronze according to the blueprint!

Although the master coppersmith had extraordinary craftsmanship, he had limited knowledge and didn't know what he was casting.

After casting the fake gold seal, Zhang Kangchen engraved the seven characters "Seal of Northwest Wang Bobai" on the bottom of the seal.

At this time, Zhang Kangchen made a fatal mistake!In order to see if the words he carved looked like real gold seals, he stamped a piece of paper with red clay.On the fake gold seal, traces of Zhu Ni were left!

This clue let He Liu know that someone might have touched the Bobai Gold Seal two years ago.

The civet cat has been built, the next step is to change the prince!
This is not a problem for Zhang Kangchen.He sandwiched a layer of wooden boards on the lower layer of the wooden box, put the fake gold seal in it, and brought it into the cabinet for value.In the evening, the colleagues had almost left.He pretended to sort out the paperwork and was the last one to leave.When there was no one around, he replaced the real gold seal on the bookshelf with a fake gold seal, and brought the real gold seal out of the palace gate!
After leaving the palace, he immediately melted the gold seal into gold nuggets secretly at home.It was exchanged for silver, and the debt of the gambling house was paid off!
For the next two years, everything was uneventful.Because Bobai Jinyin is just a decoration object.Unlike the Shoufu Guanfang seal in the value room, it is used every day.The little eunuchs cleaned the dust on the bookshelves, and they didn't open the printing box, they just wiped the outside of the printing box.

Until half a month ago, the emperor decreed that the melting and rebellion would fill the inner storage with gold seals.Zhang Kangchen panicked!It's also a coincidence.After two years, he happened to be transferred to the cabinet again to be on duty!

The crappy thief Zhang Kangchen made a second fatal mistake!He was afraid that the fake bronze and silver would fall into the hands of the court, and the court would use the fake bronze seal as a clue to track down the theft of the gold seal.So he used the fake seal to steal it out of the cabinet's house!

The print box is empty!Everyone thought that the real gold seal was stolen half a month ago.All factions in the court used evil forces and deceptions for this matter, which almost caused a huge political tide.

In fact, the root of everything is just because a crappy thief did a crappy robbery!

(End of this chapter)