The Prodigal Son

Fifteen minutes later, Gan Dacheng finally succumbed to the torture and confessed.

Historian – Shi Wang!

Upon receiving this answer, Lü Si was overjoyed. "I knew it! It must be the Shi family! No one else would dare to do this! We must immediately write a report to His Majesty, requesting the confiscation of the Shi family's property!"

"What's your hurry!"

Qin Yu glared at Lü Si, then looked suspiciously at Gan Dacheng, whose face was contorted in pain. "Are you really from the Shi family? If you dare to bite people indiscriminately, I have many cruel tortures that can make you wish you were dead!"

Gan Dacheng gritted his teeth until they bled, wailing, "It's Third Master Shi! I...I didn't lie to you! Please...give me...a quick death!"

"Do you think I'm stupid?"

Qin Yu sneered, "With the Shi family's wealth, would they send you worthless cowards to assassinate me?"

While it's possible that the historians might have sent someone to assassinate him, it's highly unlikely that Shi Wang was the person behind Gan Dacheng.

Historians are incredibly wealthy; they could certainly gather a group of true experts around them.

Sending these worthless scoundrels to assassinate us is just asking for trouble.

Unless Shi Wang has a grudge against the Shi family and wants to drag the entire Shi family down with him, he wouldn't do something so stupid.

He strongly suspected that Gan Dacheng was making baseless accusations in an attempt to drag the Shi family into this mess.

Or perhaps he has a grudge against the Shi family and wants to use the imperial court to eliminate them.

"I...I'm not lying to you! It really is Master Shi!"

Gan Dacheng wailed in pain, insisting that Shi Wang had ordered him to do it.

After thinking for a moment, Qin Yu instructed Qin Xiong, "Take him away and find a doctor to give him some basic treatment."

"yes!"

Qin Xiong obeyed the order, grabbed Gan Dacheng, and took him away.

"This bastard has already confessed, what else do you have to doubt?"

Lu Si grabbed Qin Yu, "You bastard, you're not still trying to protect the Shi family, are you?"

"I'll protect your grandpa!"

Qin Yu glared at Lü Si, both amused and annoyed. "Didn't you hear what I just said? Do you think the Shi family would only send these worthless fry to assassinate me? This Gan Dacheng is definitely lying!"

Lu Si sniffed and snorted, "Shi Wang probably guessed you'd think that way, so he deliberately sent these scoundrels to assassinate you! If the assassination succeeds, he'll be laughing behind your back; if it fails, you'll help him get away with it, and he'll be even more laughing behind your back!"

Got it!

It's that same old theory again: the enemy predicted our prediction.

Qin Yu was too lazy to continue arguing with Lü Si, so he ordered someone to inquire about the interrogation of the others.

Soon, the preliminary interrogation results from all parties were compiled and sent to Qin Yu.

Everyone points to Gan Dacheng as the mastermind behind the assassination.

Gan Dacheng's reason for assassinating Qin Yu was only one: he was unwilling to watch his hard-earned family fortune be destroyed by Qin Yu.

Qi Tong, the magistrate of Jiankou County, also confessed that Gan Dacheng had been a local tyrant for too long and was no longer aware of his own limitations. He had advised Gan Dacheng to flee to the island before Qin Yu and his men arrived, but Gan Dacheng refused.

Because he was so focused on escaping, Gan Dacheng cut off his arm.

As for whether Gan Dacheng had any connection with the Shi family, no one knows.

In addition, the magistrate of Jiankou County gave a detailed account of Gan Dacheng's situation.

Gan Dacheng used to be very down on his luck; he was just a pirate who led about ten men to plunder fishing villages along the coast.

If you're lucky, you might manage to snatch some money or food; if you're unlucky, you might not even be able to get enough to eat.

Nearly seven years ago, Gan Dacheng suddenly became wealthy. He spent three thousand taels of silver to smooth things over, and with his own martial arts skills being quite good, he secured a position as a county lieutenant in Jiankou County.

At first, Gan Dacheng honestly served as a county magistrate. After gradually gaining power and winning over a group of desperados, he set his sights on the coastal salt flats and began to enclose them and build salt fields privately.

After years of development, the salt fields occupied by Gan Dacheng produced more than 80,000 shi of private salt annually, mainly medium and high grade salt.

All the salt produced by Gan Dacheng illegally entered Haizhou.

As for who it was sold to, they didn't know.

"have no idea?"

Qin Yu frowned deeply. "How could they not even know the buyer?"

"Qi Tong probably really didn't know."

Di Rong replied, "According to Qi Tong's confession, this buyer is very mysterious! Gan Dacheng always personally leads his men to transport the salt to the location designated by the buyer and then leaves! They mainly transport the salt along the coastline to the territory of Xiaguang County in Haizhou, and occasionally they transport it by land..."

Previously, some of Gan Dacheng's subordinates were also curious about who this buyer was.

But the curious person disappeared without a trace the next day.

Since then, no one has dared to ask any more questions.

"Xiaguang County probably doesn't produce much salt, right?"

Qin Yu glanced at Yang Jichun.

He felt that the person behind Gan Dacheng must be a big fish!

The more mysterious a person is, the more worthwhile it is to delve into their story!

Once this fish is caught, many lines from the Haizhou area will probably be exposed.

"It also produces salt, but not much."

Yang Jichun replied, "Xiaguang County is most famous for its grains, and Xiaguang fragrant rice is renowned throughout Daning."

Qin Yu stroked his chin thoughtfully for a moment, then asked, "Shouldn't Qi Tong and his group have some kind of collusion with the prefect and salt commissioner of Lang County?"

Lang County is a typical example of a region divided into separate administrative units.

Local government affairs and salt administration were almost entirely separate systems.

"Um."

Di Rong nodded slightly. "They pay the Lang County Prefect 20,000 taels of silver every year. As for how the Lang County Prefect divides it with the officials below him, they don't know."

Got it!

Another den of corrupt officials!

However, he has no interest in dealing with the corrupt officials in Lang County now.

He is now most curious about this mysterious buyer.

Just as Qin Yu was pondering this, Qin Xiong rushed in to report: "Thirteenth Young Master, Gan Dacheng bit his tongue and committed suicide!"

"What are you good for? How could you let him bite his tongue and commit suicide?"

Before Qin Yu could even react, Lü Si was the one who exploded, angrily questioning Qin Xiong.

Gan Dacheng is an important witness!

With Gan Dacheng dead, there will be no witnesses left.

"I……"

Qin Xiong hesitated, then lowered his head in shame.

"Alright! If he's dead, he's dead!"

Qin Yu seemed indifferent. "If he wants to bite his tongue and commit suicide, can you stop him? Even if you gag him, you can't let him starve to death, can you? If he wants to die, he can bite his tongue and commit suicide while eating."

Gan Dacheng's suicide further proves that he had been randomly biting people before.

It's likely that Gan Dacheng's indiscriminate attacks and assassinations were all aimed at protecting the mysterious buyer.

That one is the real deal!

Investigate!

Anyway, we're going to Haizhou!

That mysterious buyer must have a huge appetite.

No matter how mysterious this person is, with such a huge appetite, it's impossible that they wouldn't leave any clues.

Unless the other party has a spatial ring, they can directly store those private salts into their spatial ring!

Gan Dacheng is very smart, but also very stupid!

He thought that if he didn't tell, he wouldn't be able to find out who it was?

If all else fails, we can use the old method and start the investigation directly from the officialdom in Haizhou!

With such a large volume of goods being sold, no one would believe it if you said there was no collusion with the government!

It's nothing more than him being impeached by the Haizhou officials again!

Go for it! Go for it!

Having lots of lice doesn't make you itchy!