By a twist of fate, the illegitimate son of the Marquis's family marries the county princess.

Chapter 244 The Contradictory Point

Liu Chengyun's identity has been confirmed.

Wen Zongji continued, "Lord Xie of the Ministry of Works purchased a large amount of high-quality stone for the dam construction. To make the dam sturdy, more mortar than usual was needed for grouting. How much mortar did you use when you built the dam?"

"I don't know anything about these things. I just do whatever the officials in the government give me."

One of the thin, dark-skinned men said, "Hearing you say that, I suddenly remembered that we did use less mud when we built the dam."

Wen Zongji looked at him: "Why didn't you realize it at the time?"

"My father was a bricklayer, but I was dull-witted and didn't learn his skills. At that time, I was just trying to make a living by building the dam and didn't dare to think too much about it."

That's what they say, but really it's about not getting involved and keeping to yourself.

Although building a dam is a good thing for the people, the people don't think that much about it. They come to build the dam mainly because the government gives them money and provides them with food.

This treatment was actually secured for them by Xie Zixing.

The government has the right to conscript people to perform corvée labor for free. Xie Zixing was sympathetic to the people's hardships, but unfortunately his good intentions did not yield good results.

Then someone else said, "I also remembered something. It seems that someone suggested to Lord Liu that we should pour more mud, otherwise the dam might become unstable. But Lord Liu didn't listen and instead scolded that person for meddling in other people's business."

The mud doesn't come out of thin air; the amount of mud needed for such a large section of the dam is only a small fraction.

Whether Liu Chengyun thought it was too expensive or too troublesome, as long as it is determined that the Tongzhou Dam breach was due to insufficient mud, it would be enough to convict Liu Chengyun.

Upon hearing this, Wen Zongji immediately asked, "Do you know who that person is?"

"This..." The man thought carefully for a moment, then said uncertainly, "It seems to be Wu Laoliu from Mei Village next door? I can't quite remember."

Wen Zongji turned to look at Yu Jiacheng.

Yu Jiacheng understood: "This humble official will immediately send someone to find Wu Laoliu."

"Sir, Wu Laoliu disappeared after the dam broke and hasn't shown up since. He's probably gone."

Because some people who went missing have returned alive, no one can be sure that Wu Laoliu is really dead, but since he hasn't shown up yet, it's highly likely that he is dead.

Wen Zongji frowned.

If the potential witnesses are gone, this matter becomes difficult to handle.

Investigating a case requires evidence; you can't just rely on his guesses to make a judgment.

Yu Jiacheng leaned close to Wen Zongji's ear and whispered, "Sir, we can actually check the case files. As long as we find out how much mud was used when the dam was built, we can see whether Liu Chengyun increased the amount of mud used."

Wen Zongji looked at him: "You make it sound so easy. The files are all in the government office. How do you plan to investigate them?"

Yu Jiacheng chuckled and said, "Who are we? We're the Beijing Gazette Bureau!"

They naturally possessed the right to peruse the government office's files.

Most importantly, Wen Zongji was also there.

If it were only Yu Jiacheng, the prefectural government might have given him a runaround, but Wen Zongji was the official head of the Beijing Gazette Office, and the Tongzhou prefectural government would always give him face.

Wen Zongji pondered for a moment, then waved his hand: "Take them away first, I'll think about it."

After Jia Cheng and the others left, Wen Zongji recalled the clues he had obtained and tried to reconstruct the entire case.

Based on the known clues, Xie Zixing was ordered to repair the dam in Tongzhou and specifically used high-quality stone.

However, due to Liu Chengyun's shortsightedness, not enough cement was used, which led to the dam breaking during last year's torrential rain, causing suffering and displacement of the people.

So here's the question: the imperial court sent an imperial envoy to Tongzhou to investigate the case, and all the case files must have been reviewed by the envoy. How did Liu Chengyun manage to evade the investigation?

Or perhaps the imperial envoy was not knowledgeable about water conservancy and could only see from past data that the thickness of the dam repaired by Xie Zixing was not as good as before, but could not see that the amount of mud used was wrong.

But among the large investigation team, not a single person noticed?

Liu Chengyun was merely an official in the prefectural government. Even though he was Huang Yecai's brother-in-law, he could only act arrogantly in Tongzhou and could not possibly influence the imperial envoy's judgment.

Could it be that Huang Yecai has some connections in Beijing?

Furthermore, the successive deaths of Xie Zixing's family members—if it were simply a matter of framing and shifting blame, Xie Zixing's suicide out of fear of punishment would have been enough. Why must his family also be implicated?

After Xie Zixing committed suicide out of fear of punishment, the Ministry of Justice investigated, and the Crown Prince also conducted a secret investigation, but they found nothing suspicious. Xie Zixing must have truly committed suicide.

Wen Zongji could probably guess what Xie Zixing was thinking.

He took the funds allocated by the imperial court without embezzling a single penny. He abandoned the need to increase the thickness of the dam and chose to improve the quality of the stone materials, all for the sake of making the dam more solid. He had no selfish motives whatsoever.

However, the final result was that the dam was not thick enough, which led to the dam breaking.

It's understandable that Xie Zixing couldn't forgive himself and committed suicide out of guilt.

Logically, the matter should have ended here, so why go to the trouble of taking action against his family?

Isn't this just blatantly trying to hide something?

Most importantly, Liu Chengyun, who was far away in Tongzhou, could not do these things, nor could Huang Yecai, and the Crown Prince could not find any clues.

This is the most incongruous part of the whole case.

The successive deaths of Xie Zixing's family members, which the Crown Prince was unable to find any clues about, could only mean that the person behind the scenes had considerable influence in the capital.

However, based on the existing clues, Huang Yecai and Liu Chengyun are the most suspicious.

They clearly don't fit the image of those behind the scenes.

This contradiction gave Wen Zongji a headache.

At that moment, Yu Jiacheng walked in.

Wen Zongji asked, "Jiacheng, does Huang Yecai have any connections in the capital?"

Yu Jiacheng thought for a moment and said, "Huang Yecai's legal wife, Wu, is the eldest daughter of the Wu family of Zhengyang Money Exchange, which has branches all over the Great Chu."

Wen Zongji retorted, "Does this count as having connections in the capital?"

He thought it was related to some high-ranking official.

Yu Jiacheng said, "The current owner of Zhengyang Money Shop is Wu's elder brother. Tongzhou is a prosperous place, and Huang Ye is the prefect of Tongzhou, which is a high-ranking official for a merchant. It's normal for the Wu family to do some things for Huang Ye in the capital to maintain this relationship. How can that not be considered a relationship?"

Wen Zongji pondered, "That seems to make some sense."

After losing Xie Zixing, the Xie family members were just ordinary people.

Given Zhengyang Money House's capabilities, it wouldn't be difficult for them to find local bullies and cause their deaths through some kind of accident.

The Crown Prince didn't keep a close eye on them all the time. He only sent people to investigate after he realized something was wrong. It's normal that they couldn't find any clues, since there's really no need to use any special methods against an orphan and a widow.

But as I said before, why go to the trouble of dealing with the Xie family?

Absolutely unnecessary!

Yu Jiacheng: "However, Huang Yecai's relationship with the Wu family was probably not very good. Huang Yecai was a womanizer, and he took on one concubine after another, neglecting his wife. Wu, on the other hand, only had one married daughter and no sons to rely on."

"Having no son means that Huang Yecai's connection with the Wu family is not close, and it's possible that it might be severed at any time."

Upon hearing this, Wen Zongji's eyes lit up.

That's it!