Xie Ji couldn't help but exclaim, "It's gold!"
"But where did the gold come from?!"
The entire chest of gold contains at least tens of thousands of taels.
At the same time, a voice came from the hillside: "Who is gathering here?"
A note from the author:
Thank you to all the little angels who voted for me or watered my plants with nutrient solution between 18:48:21 on January 2, 2022 and 11:28:35 on January 3, 2022!
Thank you to the little angel who threw the landmines: 52179848 (2 landmines);
Thank you so much for your support! I will continue to work hard!
Chapter 116 The Wealth of Yu Palace is Exposed
"My lord, what do they seem to be doing by the river?!"
Upon hearing the sound from the hillside, Xie Ji's expression immediately changed. He then thought about it again. The gold of unknown origin on the shore, and the fact that he had brought a thousand men to the southern water source area—all these coincidences seemed to point to him smuggling gold.
The rumors that circulated earlier have already eroded the trust of the Hu people in Xie Shi, and now it's unlikely that anyone among this group will trust him. Furthermore, the Crown Prince wouldn't be as patient with him as the Marshal was, so could the arrival of the Crown Prince's men be a setup?
Wasn't he set up?!
"General, those people are coming this way," Xie Fei and Xie Chong said.
Xie Ji stared at Xie Fei, then Xie Chong, and finally closed his eyes, struggled for a moment, gritted his teeth and said, "I'm sorry, brothers, you'll have to bear with it for now!"
Before Xie Fei and Xie Chong could react, Xie Ji kicked them into the water.
Xie Ji drew his sword and shouted, "It was you! How dare you hide your private goods here behind my back!"
Xie Fei and Xie Chong stared at the general in utter shock from the river. Then, Liu Jie, the county magistrate, arrived with his men and saw a whole chest of gold, and Xie Ji holding his sword up to the two men in the water.
Liu Jie's eyes lit up. He took a gold brick from the box, brought it close to his nose, and smelled it. He found that it smelled like longevity cake.
"General, we received a report from Mito that your Xie clan is trying to change their lineage without authorization, which has caused disputes. So I have personally led a team to investigate."
"I didn't expect the General to have already made a gain."
Xie Ji sheathed his sword. He first ordered his men to arrest Xie Fei and Xie Chong, then clasped his hands in greeting to the county officials and said, "My coming here to investigate the water was just a pretense; what I'm really investigating is the traitor within!"
"So, General, you mean these two are the moles who smuggled the gold?" Liu Jie said, walking past Xie Ji towards the Xie brothers, Xie Fei and Xie Chong. He asked them, "Why did you smuggle the gold?"
Xie Fei and Xie Chong then looked at Xie Ji. Xie Ji met their eyes, and they immediately said, "We were only smuggling apples. We didn't want to give them away for free to the northern barbarians; we only wanted to sell them to the southern barbarians. But who would have thought that what we brought down was gold! We're innocent too. How could we have had so many opportunities to make money?!"
Liu Jie said, "I will find out your names myself."
"Xie Fei, Xie Chong," the two said.
Before Liu Jie could arrest the two, Xie Ji ordered, "Immediately bring the two into the military camp for interrogation overnight."
He then pointed specifically to the box of gold and said to Liu Jie, "Ill-gotten gains, of unknown origin. I am really worried about it. Please take it away for investigation, sir."
Liu Jie did not detain Xie Fei and Xie Chong, considering that the two had worked together and would likely encounter each other again in the future. Liu Jie specifically reminded him: "General Xie, regardless of whether this matter has anything to do with you or not, the rumors we tried to suppress this time will probably start spreading again."
This is telling him that his reasons for tonight are far-fetched and cannot clear his name of suspicion. If he chooses to continue to endure, it may not be so easy.
But Xie Ji could only endure it.
He had no other choice.
For the first time in his life, Xie Ji rejected Xie Lanzhi. He clasped his hands and bowed deeply to Liu Jie: "Lord Liu, I am a rough old man and not good at handling cases. If one day I really do something to wrong the people, I will not deny it. At that time, you can judge me personally."
Liu Jie was quite surprised. It was the first time he had looked Xie Ji up and down, and he saw that Xie Ji's face was full of seriousness.
Without saying a word, he turned around and ordered his men to take the gold away.
Xie Ji brought Xie Fei and Xie Chong back to the military camp, but the rest of the people continued to change the water flow back to its original location at the South Water Source, and handed over the water contract that day to continue cooperating with the water users.
Most of the water users hesitated at this moment, and only one person signed.
When Liu Jie heard about the water users' situation, he helped them by ordering everyone to pay their water taxes. The water users had no choice but to renew their contracts in order to make money.
The news of the Mito people renewing their contracts spread throughout the south the next day, followed by rumors that Xie Ji had smuggled gold and made his subordinates take the blame. Xie Ji remained silent again, and the Hu people were unsure whether to believe him. It wasn't until the county magistrate testified that the gold seized from Xie Ji's army the previous night was indeed Suha's property, but only a small fraction of it.
This news came from the county officials, and the Hu people immediately turned their guns on Xie Jun, thinking that Xie Jun was indeed no good, and that the previous rumors might be true. So this time, unlike last time, the Hu people did not cut water or sell vegetables, but instead began to sneak into Xie's headquarters to search for gold.
Xie Bing arrested one person, and another batch came; he arrested one batch, and another group came, making Xie's stronghold seem like a loophole that could be easily infiltrated.
Xie Bing got fed up with the arrests and stopped. As long as military supplies and official documents weren't lost, they had no choice but to endure it.
As a result, the Hu people became even bolder and acted recklessly in Xie's main camp. Some Hu scoundrels even set up tents there. Xie's soldiers dared not speak out against them. Xie's main camp was under surveillance from morning till night. Xie Ji never issued any orders or took any measures from beginning to end.
The Hu people concluded that Xieji was guilty. But when Xieji made his usual rounds, they avoided pointing and whispering about him in front of others.
There was initially one tent outside Xie's main camp, then seven or eight more, until many people moved to the vicinity of the military camp, and even Xie's soldiers were watching their training.
At this time, the Mito people heard that General Xie had no intention of driving away the Hu people, so they gradually stopped sending people to test the waters.
By nightfall, hundreds of tents at Xie's main camp were ablaze. Xie's soldiers were banging drums and gongs, some even shouting without pulling up their pants, "Fire!!"
"Fire!"
"Everyone, get up and take shelter!"
Tens of thousands of soldiers rushed out of the camp and saw that the tents in the camp were burning halfway up the sky, turning into a sea of fire.
Xie Ji fell into a deep coma and was rescued by the brothers Xie Fei and Xie Chong.
The incident shocked the entire region. That night, all the Hu people in the region watched from across the water as the Xie clan's main camp burned down. The fire seemed to engulf the north, while the Hu people in the north saw the south shrouded in flames. Everyone was shocked.
"How did it suddenly catch fire out of nowhere?"
"I heard that Xie Jun's side ran out of water while fighting the fire, which is why it burned like this!"
"Didn't the Mito gentlemen open up?"
"Come on, what kind of people are the Mito men? I heard that even the scoundrels around here dare to cause trouble at the Xie family's military camp, and General Xie didn't say anything."
"Why is General Xie tolerating those scoundrels so much? Could it be that he's feeling guilty?"
"Whether they feel guilty or not, I don't know, but this fire was probably... started by one of our own people!"
"My God! We were just criticizing the Xie family, how come someone actually attacked them? Isn't this driving the Xie family all the way to Tianjing?!"
At this point, the Hu people finally realized that it was no longer just a matter of rumors.
The fault for the Xie family's failure to save themselves after their headquarters were burned down lies entirely with the Mito people.
The fire at Xie's main camp burned until dawn before water could extinguish it; Xie's general Xie Ji fell into a coma; and other such news bombarded the media.
Liu Jie personally led his men to arrest the water users, accusing them of breaching the water contract and leaving the Xie family's stronghold without water for self-sufficiency. They were bound hand and foot and taken to the county government. The Hu people along the street had never seen such a display of force before, and they were surprised to see that the county magistrate was arresting water users.
The Hu people were thrown into chaos, their minds clouded by rumors. One moment, it was said that a Hu leper had set the fire; the next, it was rumored that the Shui people had plotted to drive the Xie family out, as they opposed the construction of the Shang capital. They claimed that the Crown Prince wanted to seize their land, which was why they had set the fire and stirred up conflict between the Xie family and the Crown Prince.
The Hu people had finally built a good life in the capital, but now they heard that Shuihu, for his own selfish reasons, had ruined the future of the capital. The Hu people immediately found an outlet for their anger and began to hurl insults at Shuihu.
The villagers were speechless. They had no idea who had cut off their water supply, so why was the county magistrate blaming them? They had cut off the water supply before, but this time it really wasn't them!
Now they have nowhere to appeal even if they are wronged, after all, they have a criminal record, and no one will believe them.
Xie Ji was officially transferred to the best doctor, Hu Yi, for treatment, and the military camp was temporarily moved to a place separated from the first batch of soldiers by an enclave.
Because many Xie soldiers were trampled while escaping, a large number of Xie soldiers were busy rescuing people. They also had to tidy up the remaining military camps and prepare the new camp. As a result, the barbarian soldiers and Xie soldiers at the port began to rotate shifts and conduct inspections for seven consecutive days. Since it was the same group of people, many of them were exhausted, resulting in vacancies. They had to outsource and hire some Hu warriors to guard the port.
Finally, on the tenth day, even the Hu warriors were starting to feel the strain of standing guard day and night.
Several people couldn't resist slacking off, and when someone brought them wine, saying it would make them more energetic, they ended up sleeping even more soundly after drinking it.
So much so that while lying on a wooden frame by the embankment, he almost fell into the water and drowned. One samurai fell into the water, was choked awake, and just as he was about to climb ashore, he suddenly heard a "plop" sound as flesh was pierced, the sound of a knife being plunged into it. As a samurai, he was most sensitive to this kind of sound.
The samurai was so frightened that he dared not show his face under the wooden frame. After a while, he saw with his own eyes that people above were pushing his companions into the water one by one. In the moonlight, blood kept spilling out and staining a small patch of river red. The samurai's eyes widened. Then, one after another, the samurai's corpses were pushed into the river. Finally, the footsteps above began to move busily.
First, a small boat was launched, but there was no one on board; it was just carrying a box covered with a black cloth. The boat floated downstream. Then, one boat after another, three boxes in total, until someone jumped into the river and skillfully used a reed to dive and swim.
Wait until it seems everyone upstairs has left.
The samurai then climbed ashore from the water. He looked at the shore and saw that the traces had been cleaned up, something no ordinary person could have done.
So he quickly reported it to Liu Jie.
Upon receiving the order, Liu Jie immediately led his men to intercept the boxes, only to find three empty boxes. They failed to capture the person who had been swimming there, and there were indeed the corpses of Hu warriors in the river. However, the knives were their own, raising the possibility that they had killed each other.
He rejected the samurai's report and arrested him as the prime suspect.
The samurai never expected that he would be imprisoned instead.
At the same time, Yelü Lili heard that the situation outside was already very tense.
He said calmly, "You're really willing to spend a lot of money."
"How can we recoup our losses without taking big risks?" Xie Lanzhi said. "But the enemy is really cunning; they even sent a few empty boxes to test us."
Yelü Lili said, "After doing so much, we still don't know where Suha's property is?"
"The Xie family's headquarters was burned to the ground. These past few days, countless people have been secretly digging in the Xie family's headquarters at night, like moles digging holes, but they still haven't found anything." Xie Lanzhi couldn't help but laugh and said, "This time, your people have personally proven that Xie Ji is innocent."
“Yes, a fire is a disaster, but it can also be a way to prove one’s innocence.” Yelü Lili asked directly this time, “Was it Xie Ji’s own idea?”
Xie Lanzhi noticed that he suspected she had secretly given some instructions.
She found it amusing: "I'm right under your nose every day, do you think I could somehow slip away and send a message to Xie Ji?"
“That’s true. So, which place is left that we haven’t investigated yet?” Yelü Lili was quite frustrated. There was no Suha’s property in Xie’s main camp, nor in any other place. They had investigated everything they could.
Xie Lanzhi suddenly stared into his eyes, slowly raised her hand and pointed at him: "There's another place."
"where?"
"Yu Palace".
Yelü Lili: "..."
"The warriors we hired this time are dead. Although it was supposed to be a test, it's also a weakness." Xie Lanzhi wondered why the other side would deliberately come out and alert them. Was it unnecessary? Perhaps they were running out of time and had to take a risk.
Is Yu Palace going to do something big recently?
"My birthday is in two days."
Xie Lanzhi gave him an apple, saying, "Happy birthday in advance."
Yelü Lili had no mood to argue with her. He took the apple and couldn't believe it: "You mean Suha's family property is in my Yu Palace?"