Zhuo Qiaoniang took the nine-eye stone and looked at it over and over for a long time, then said: "My lord, the Tubo man is already dead, how can you return this thing to his relatives?"

Leng Yi said: "You have to go back and see if the Yamen has found his relatives. If you find them, return them to them together."

On the way back from the mountain, Leng Yi tried his best to visit villages and homes. At the same time, he took off his mask and inspected with his true face. Many villagers went to pay him New Year greetings. They all knew each other and were very moved when they saw him coming to visit privately incognito. Expression

They expressed their gratitude to Leng Yi.

At this time, the whole county had fully entered into spring plowing. Because of the cattle, the big problem of the villagers had been solved. Almost all the land had been plowed and rice transplanted.

Everywhere he went, Leng Yi would convene villagers for discussions, and the village chiefs and big households were not required to participate, so as to understand the people's sentiments and the situation of the poor people in the village. When the villagers saw that the village chiefs and big households were not present, they all spoke freely. Leng Yi understood

There were many situations that he could not even imagine.

The overall feeling is that because the Song Dynasty was just founded, most of the people were suffering due to long-term wars, and not many were truly rich. Therefore, what he faced was how to improve the living standards of the people, rather than how to balance the gap between the rich and the poor.

Problem. And this is not his expertise.

During the visit, Leng Yi also paid great attention to asking questions about the people. However, these poor people had little education. From childhood to adulthood, they faced the loess and turned their backs to the sky. They knew nothing but farming. As for doing business,

, is a natural conflict, but Bazhou Yinling is a poor mountainous area with high mountains and deep waters. There is very little cultivated land. It is simply too difficult to comprehensively solve the people's food and clothing problem by relying on cultivated land alone. For this reason, Leng Yi

I have always been feeling heavy.

A few days later, he finally returned to the county government office with his wife Zhuo Qiao Niang.

Returning to the inner house, Leng Yi immediately noticed that someone had come in and had stirred things up. He hurried to the back garden and looked at the buried corpses. After inspection, he found no signs of stirring. Apparently, an intruder entered the Yamen to look for him. But there was no sign of them.

Found the bodies he had buried in the back garden.

He then checked the traces that proved that someone had entered, and found that there was a light layer of dust, which proved that it had been a long time. [*You] After that, he never came again, and he felt a little calmer.

The chief secretary, Master Dong, and Wu Captou all came to report on their work this month. Wu Captou and the others could not find any relatives of the Tibetan man. Because Tubo in the Song Dynasty had been torn apart and had no unified political power, and that man was a

It was unknown where the traveling merchants came from. There were also a few Tibetan merchants and immigrants in Yinling County. Wu Capt. Wu organized them to identify him, but no one recognized him.

The matter could only be left unresolved. Leng Yi ordered the jewels to be placed in the government bank and would be returned to the relatives of the deceased if they were found in the future.

As for the nine-eye stone, which was not discovered at the time and Zhuo Qiaoniang liked it very much, Leng Yi did not take it out and put it in the warehouse, but let Zhuo Qiaoniang enjoy it by herself until the relatives of the deceased were found.

return.

After this visit to the countryside, Leng Yi discovered that some particularly poor villagers had already run out of food. The work at Changpingcang, which he had originally expected to start in the summer and autumn, seemed to have started ahead of schedule.

Leng Yi immediately asked the Ministry of Household Affairs to post notices in every village in the county, announcing that the magistrate would sell grain at a fair price. Only the poor people who had received relief from the Yamen during the Spring Festival could buy it. By that time, he had already registered all the large households in the county.

These people cannot buy, lest they buy it and hoard it.

At this time, there were not many people who were without food, but those who were without food at this time were precisely the families who were most in need and in need of help. Leng Yi was selling on credit now, and he would return the food during the autumn harvest and charge a profit at the same time.

It cost much more land than the five-cent profit of those big households, and was warmly welcomed by the people. Those who had run out of food or were about to run out of food came to the county government office to find Leng Yi to buy directly.

Leng Yi put Mr. Dong in charge of this matter. He often went to the site to inspect and checked the accounts every day. The reason why he took the trouble to handle this matter himself was because he was worried that like Wang Anshi Qingmiao Fa, he would be secretly manipulated by the officials below.

, which was originally a good thing, turned out to be a bad thing that harmed the people.

More than a month later, the grain he originally purchased has almost been sold out. After all, there are too many poor people in the county, and it has not yet entered summer, that is to say, it has not yet reached the most difficult period of drought. Now the grain is

It has been exhausted. When that time comes, what will be available to help the people?

Leng Yi decided to go to Bazhou and find a solution to the prefect.

After more than two months of recuperation, maid Caosui was able to get out of bed and work. However, due to her recovery from a long illness, her body was too weak and she was still unable to do some heavy work.

After more than a month of calm, Leng Yi was sure that the assassin would no longer cause trouble for him. However, just in case, when he went to Bazhou this time, in addition to taking Master Dong with him, he also brought Zhuo Qiaoniang and

The maid Cao Sui was brought along. At the same time, Wu Baotou and two detectives were also brought along.

When they arrived in Bazhou, Leng Yi and the others still stayed at the Yinling Inn.

After settling in, Leng Yi immediately booked a banquet in the best restaurant in Bazhou. Then he took Mr. Dong and some local products to visit the magistrate Liao's mansion. The main purpose of his visit this time was

In order to solve the problem of relief food. Although this kind of thing is a official matter, as we all know, in many cases, official matters must be handled by personal relationships. Of course, eating and drinking are also required.

Leng Yi also knew this, so he not only brought souvenirs, but also prepared invitations, inviting the magistrate Liao and the magistrates in charge of Qiangu and the housekeepers of the granary. In other words, he invited the main leaders of the magistrate's Yamen in charge of Qiangu.

All invited.

Magistrate Liao still showed great respect to Leng Yi. He not only participated in person, but also instructed all the invited staff to participate. Even if these staff did not give face to Leng Yi, they did not dare to give face to the prefect, so they all sat in sedan chairs.

Arrive at the restaurant.

At the banquet, Leng Yi toasted one by one and invited singers to perform songs and dances. Then, he timely explained the situation they were facing in Yinling County. Magistrate Liao and others made a very generous decision to allocate additional money to Yinling County.

A sum of relief grain is used to help those people who are in dire straits.

Leng Yi explained what he was doing by charging an extra penny of profit, and he wanted to use the grain to do the same, instead of directly giving it away for free.

Magistrate Liao and others were all drunk, and they all said yes to Leng Yi's statement.

Leng Yi was still uneasy after getting the verbal consent from Magistrate Liao, so he repeatedly asked Magistrate Liao to formulate a formal document and act in accordance with the official document.

Magistrate Liao was also an old man. He knew that issuing written documents like this would make it difficult to deal with problems in the future. After thinking about it for a long time, he agreed with Leng Yi that the official document could be issued, but the name of the relief grain would be changed to subsidy grain. At the same time,

, write in the official document that the Yinling County Government can "act cheaply" on this batch of "support grains" according to specific circumstances. This way, you can avoid someone pulling the strings and turning a good thing into a bad thing.

Leng Yi kept saying yes, sincerely feeling that Magistrate Liao was worthy of having been in the officialdom for many years and was very capable.

Magistrate Liao said to Leng Yi: "I have handled the matter you asked me to do for you. Can I also entrust you with something?"

Leng Yi quickly bowed and agreed: "Whatever your Majesty's orders are, I will definitely obey them."

"There's nothing else, it's just about the case. Last time you helped our office solve the case of a boat gang taking hostages and robbing a merchant ship, and the murder of the butcher's wife. They were all solved very beautifully. Our office is very happy.

Appreciate it. Alas! Unfortunately, we in Bazhou have strong folk customs and vicious homicide cases occur frequently. No, another murder case occurred last night, which is really a headache. Since you are here, please help me come up with ideas. "

Leng Yi hurriedly said: "You must be dedicated to your humble position. What kind of case is it?"

"That's it." Magistrate Liao Qingyue cleared his throat, "Last night, a murder occurred in Bazhou City. A woman was killed, but her face was chopped to pieces and could not be identified at all. According to the clothes worn on the deceased's body,

Someone recognized the wife of a naughty woman wearing clothes. Moreover, someone heard the two of them quarreling and fighting at home that night. The naughty girl was arrested and interrogated. The naughty girl refused to plead guilty.

, saying that the corpse is not his wife. Although his wife also wore that kind of dress, many women also have that dress. We cannot say that it is his wife just by relying on a piece of clothing. I feel that his defense has some truth.

.So, there are some difficulties, what should be done in this case. Please give me some advice, Mr. Leng!"

Leng Yi touched the short beard on his chin, pondered for a moment, and said: "The difficulty in this case lies in the source of the body. If there is not sufficient evidence to prove that the deceased is the wife of the naughty girl, even if the naughty girl pleads guilty, there are still major doubts in this case and it will not be finalized.

.”

Magistrate Liao slapped his thigh: "That's it. Lord Leng really saw it accurately. This is also what gives me a headache. However, the face of the deceased has been chopped up, so there is no way to identify whether she is his wife. This is terrible

what to do?"

Other prefecture officials also looked at him, wanting to hear what he had to say.

Leng Yi thought for a moment and said, "When was the body discovered?"

"Just when it got dark."

"That means you just had dinner?"

"yes."

"Did the neighbor hear them arguing and fighting during dinner?"

"yes!"

"Have they had dinner?"

"After eating, the neighbor even tried to persuade me. His wife was washing the dishes."

"Are there any leftovers?"

"Leftovers?" Magistrate Liao did not pay attention to this question and looked at Lu Tongpan and others.

Lu Tongpan is the official in charge of criminal cases in the prefecture, and he is mainly responsible for the on-site investigation. He said hurriedly: "Yes! We caught the rogue and took him home for inspection. They returned all the leftovers after dinner.

on the table."

"What did you eat? Do you have any impressions?"

"This..., there are vegetables, tofu and so on, and yes, there are also snails."

"Well, since he was killed just after dinner, the food in the stomach of the deceased should not be digested yet. The types of food eaten by each family are different. This can be used as an important reference for identification. As long as the corpse is dissected,

Take out the food from the stomach, clean it, and compare it with the leftovers on the table. If they are the same, you can prove whether this female corpse is a naughty woman!"
Chapter completed!