Tang Dynasty Hidden Guards

When Dou Changxing saw the gold medal in Xue Wei's hand, he was so frightened that he stood up abruptly. This gold medal was actually the "As If the Emperor Were Here" medal.

"Brother Xue... how did you get this gold medal?"

"As I said, I'm here to investigate the case on the Emperor's secret orders. The Emperor was afraid we were outnumbered and couldn't defeat the local bullies, so he gave me this token. Can I mobilize troops?"

"Of course, this gold medal can mobilize two thousand troops. Our Zhechong Prefecture only has eight hundred men, so Commandant Xue can call them all up."

"Very well, the entire Zhechong Prefecture shall be mobilized to surround the Mo Family Manor and the Mo Family Residence, and arrest all members of the Mo family!"

........

That afternoon, eight hundred soldiers split into two groups, surrounding the Mo family mansion in the county town and the Mo family estate outside the east city, and began to carry out the arrests.

Xue Wei personally led twenty of his men into the Mo family manor and headed straight for the study of the family head, Mo Shengyu.

In the courtyard, the head of the family, Mo Shengyu, was about to throw a tinder into the stove full of letters with trembling hands when Xue Wei, quick as lightning, shot out a flying knife that struck Mo Shengyu's hand. Mo Shengyu screamed and the tinder fell to the ground.

Xue Wei rushed forward and kicked him over, protecting the furnace full of letters. Several questioners then pinned Mo Shengyu down and tied him up.

"Who are you?"

Mo Shengyu glared at Xue Wei and roared hysterically, "How dare you arrest me? Do you know what kind of backing I have in the capital?"

Xue Wei sneered, "I am Xue Wei, the Vice Minister of the Court of Judicial Review whom you want to kill."

Mo Shengyu's face turned deathly pale, as if he had seen a ghost. "You...you weren't dead?"

"Hmph! You've killed the wrong person."

Xue Wei found the letter from Wu Jizhi among a pile of letters, in which Wu asked Mo Shengyu to assassinate him.

Other letters are also important; they are all correspondence between him and the Wu family, from Wu Chengsi to Wu Sansi, spanning seven years and numbering about twenty or thirty.

Upon seeing the letter snatched away, Mo Shengyu's face turned ashen, and he collapsed to the ground, unable to utter a single word.

News also came from the Mo family residence within the city that the soldiers had captured a group of assassins who had tried to kill Yuan Mao. The Mo family warriors confessed without hesitation.

The assassination case was solved and transferred to the county government for trial, while the soldiers returned to their military headquarters.

But things didn't go as planned; Mo Shengan was not in Chen County, but was in Zixing County on business, thus escaping capture.

Xue Wei immediately dispatched five officials from the Dali Temple to Zixing County to arrest the man.

........

In the afternoon, Xue Wei and Yuan Renjing were organizing the letters between Mo Shengyu and the Wu family in their room.

At this moment, a messenger ran in to report, "Captain, a young woman is requesting an audience. She says she is the wife of Jiang, the mining supervisor, and wants to accuse her husband of illegal activities."

Xue Wei and Yuan Renjing looked at each other in bewilderment and quickly ordered someone to bring in the woman who had filed the complaint.

Shortly after, a woman in her early twenties was brought in. She knelt down and cried out, "I beg you, Your Honor, to do me justice!"

Xue Wei had never tried a case before, so he instructed Yuan Renjing to handle it.

Yuan Renjing asked, "Madam, what is your name, and why are you suing Mine Supervisor Jiang?"

"My surname is Han. My father is Han Wenyi, the former mine supervisor. My husband, Jiang Yuan, was originally the deputy mine supervisor. In order to seize the position of mine supervisor, he pushed my father into the river and drowned him while he was drunk."

"Did you see this with your own eyes, or is this just your guess?"

"I didn't see it with my own eyes, but my father said that if he died unexpectedly, it must have been my husband who did it. My father has evidence of my husband's illegal activities and told me that if he died unexpectedly, I should be patient and wait until the court comes to investigate the case of the missing silver before I can file a complaint."

Xue Wei was both surprised and delighted. It turned out that Han Wenyi, who died unexpectedly three years ago, had a trick up his sleeve!

He quickly asked, "Did your father leave behind any evidence?"

"Yes! My father left behind a large box of documents, claiming they were originals used to deceive the imperial court, and hid them in my father's old house."

Yuan Renjing also asked, "How did you know we were here to investigate the missing silver?"

Han said, "My father said that the Mo family is also involved in this case. If the Mo family is arrested by government officials one day, we can file a complaint."

Xue Wei hurriedly ordered his men to follow Han to retrieve the evidence. Yuan Renjing laughed and said, "We arrested the Mo family but unexpectedly uncovered the truth. It really is fate."

Xue Wei smiled slightly and said, "Actually, it's not entirely fate. The reason why Han Wenyi didn't dare to expose them was because he was afraid of the Wu family. Today, we took down the Mo family to show that we are not afraid of the Wu family, and that's why Han Wenyi's daughter believed us. It's all interconnected. There's a cause for every effect. By taking the initiative to break the deadlock, the hidden evidence came out."

Before long, the Dali Temple official returned carrying a large wooden box containing genuine original inventory and shipping documents, all of which had been hidden by Han Wenyi.

The invoice clearly states that 20,000 catties of crude lead blocks were shipped out of the warehouse six years ago, but when it came time to be loaded onto the ship, they turned into 20,000 catties of crude silver.

Han Wenyi had also secretly prepared testimonies from all the involved parties and minor officials. In the end, he wrote a very long letter of denunciation.

The letter revealed that Wu Chengsi instructed the Mo family to imply that the mining supervisors were falsifying documents. Then, the deputy mining supervisors Sun An and Liu Bao, as well as Jiang Yuan, who was then serving as the supervisor, and finally the chief clerk Mo Shengan, all four of them colluded to falsify documents, sending crude lead blocks as crude silver to the capital.

Xue Wei reassured Han Shi, promising that the perpetrators would be punished as they deserved.

Soon, Xue Wei found a letter that Wu Chengsi had written to Mo Shengyu six years ago among a pile of letters. Sure enough, it contained a message that hinted that Mo Shengyu was contacting the mining supervisor.

As for the instruction to use coarse lead to impersonate coarse silver, it was not mentioned in the letter. It is estimated that it was given orally by someone and would not have been written down.

Yuan Renjing immediately led fifteen interrogators and three hundred soldiers to Yinkeng to arrest Jiang Yuan and more than a dozen other officials involved in the case. These officials included those involved in various aspects of the process, such as warehousing, storage, and shipping. Xue Wei needed their confessions.

Just then, Gao Yuanli hurriedly found Xue Wei and said, "County Commandant Li just sent someone to inform me that Mo Shengyu wants to see the Commandant because he has something important to discuss."

"Is it at the county government office?"

"Yes! In the county jail."

Fifteen minutes later, Xue Wei met Mo Shengyu in the county jail.

Mo Shengyu was also over fifty years old. Unlike Zhao Gan, who was tall, strong, and had a square face, Mo Shengyu was thin and spoke in a soft voice.

"Are you really Commandant Xue?"

Xue Wei nodded. "Yes, that's me. What do you want to say to me?"

"I have never met you before, nor have we ever had any grudges against you. I am only forced to do things against my conscience because of the oppression of those in power, and I'm sure you know that."

"I want to know, is it Wu Jizhi's letter or Wu Chongxun's letter?"

"Actually, I also felt something was off. The letter was written in Wu Jizhi's name, but the handwriting was different from Wu Jizhi's previous handwriting. I just assumed it was written by his staff, and I only recognize the seal."

Xue Wei looked at him again. "What did you want to say to me?"

Mo Shengyu squinted and smiled, "If I'm not mistaken, it's Zhao Gan who found you! Our two families have been fighting since our fathers' generation, for over thirty years. We know each other very well. If I send someone to assassinate you, he will definitely report me to you, expose my weaknesses, and try to kill me. Please tell me, Commandant, am I right?"

Xue Wei smiled faintly, "So what if I'm right? So what if I'm wrong?"

"If the captain tells me the truth, I will also tell the captain something even bigger, I guarantee you'll like it."

"The Dongting Lake robbery?"

"right!"

Xue Wei nodded. "Zhao Gan did contact me, otherwise I wouldn't have known it was you who assassinated him."