Hearing Song Qiming accuse him of smuggling salt, Jia Demao, pinned to the ground, instantly lost the color in his face.
He tilted his chin up in disbelief, desperately trying to suppress the anxiety surging within him.
"Without any proof, why would Your Excellency make such a claim?"
Expressionless, Song Qiming hoisted him up by the rope and handed him over to Lanxi.
"The hundred thousand taels of illicit silver in the Jia estate is the physical evidence, and the Fang family along with your newly taken concubine are the witnesses."
Jia Demao's mouth fell open, his face as pale as a sheet of paper. From Song Qiming's sudden arrival to his own capture, everything suddenly made sense.
"You lured me out of the city on purpose!"
He was so young, yet his scheming was so deep. Had he known, he would have killed him right when he arrived.
No matter how much regret filled his heart, it was too late now.
In the county yamen, which was as deathly quiet as a deserted wasteland, officials and clerks hid in their rooms, watching Jia Demao being dragged into the dungeon.
That night, not a single official in Qingxia County could sleep. They tossed and turned in their beds with their eyes closed, their hearts brimming with anxiety for what tomorrow might bring.
The hundred and twenty thousand taels of silver and two thousand catties of smuggled salt confiscated from the Fang estate, combined with the hundred thousand taels embezzled by Jia Demao, amounted to more than what the mountain bandits had robbed.
Seeing that his cause was lost, Jia Demao confessed to all his crimes.
The Fang family had approached him half a year ago, gradually bribing him with thirty thousand taels of silver just so he would turn a blind eye when they smuggled salt.
It was not until the batch of smuggled salt was robbed by bandits two months ago that the Fang family set their sights on the official salt licenses, murdering the eldest young master of the Ding family to achieve this.
To get Jia Demao to recommend the Fang family, Fang Mo married his daughter off to him as a concubine and gave him an additional fifty thousand taels of silver.
He also guaranteed that once they obtained the salt licenses, he would give Jia Demao a fifty percent cut of the profits from the smuggled salt they sold.
Not only that, but the entire history of Fang Mo's collusion with the Yang clan of Panzhou was written down and signed with a thumbprint.
The confession detailed the specific times and locations, as well as the names and identities of the middlemen, revealing that the Wumeng tribe served as their transit hub.
Having stayed up all night, Song Qiming had dark circles under his eyes the next day.
Holding his breath with a heavy expression, he sat on the long bench in the main hall and wrote a memorial to Gu Zhongxun.
He had no authority to decide whether to prosecute the Yang clan of Panzhou for their involvement behind the smuggled salt transported from Binzhou.
Not only could he not make the call, but even Gu Zhongxun could not. This matter had to be reported to the imperial court.
"Seal the smuggled salt. No one is allowed to move it, and it must be strictly guarded."
Song Qiming ordered, staring at the deputy magistrate with a stern expression and a forceful tone.
"Yes, this subordinate obeys." The deputy magistrate nervously kept his head down and gulped, not even daring to steal a glance at him.
Having quietly put on an act for several days, this prefect was clearly not someone to be trifled with. The deputy was truly terrified of being implicated by Jia Demao's crimes.
When Song Qiming departed, he took Jia Demao and several key witnesses from the Fang family with him. The two hundred thousand taels of silver were deposited into the Jufeng Bank and exchanged for banknotes.
This money would definitely have to be handed over to the imperial court. At most, Qingxia County might be allowed to keep a portion of the confiscated salt once the imperial decree was issued.
He just hoped that the candidate for the new county magistrate would be someone reliable.
When Gu Zhongxun received the memorial, he sighed three times in a row.
"So many troublesome matters. Why can't they just behave themselves?"
Gu Gaoyuan picked up the memorial and skimmed it rapidly, teasing, "Does 'they' refer to Song Qiming or Panzhou?"
Gu Zhongxun rolled his eyes at him with a dark expression, letting out a heavy snort from his nostrils.
"What do you think?"
Gu Gaoyuan pursed his lips into a smile. "I think it's both."
Gu Zhongxun took a deep breath and let out a long sigh, sitting down to grind some ink.
"The Emperor is going to be furious again."
Gu Gaoyuan shrugged, not particularly concerned.
"It will eventually just fade away into nothing anyway, so there's no need to worry too much."
"The imperial court won't initiate a war. Panzhou just fought with Ningzhou last year. Until they finish annexing the other foreign tribes in the southwest, they won't deploy troops against the court."
Gu Zhongxun's wrist grew weak as he ground the ink, his already depressed spirit sinking into an even deeper silence.
