The dead general was kidnapped by his husband and taken to farm.

Chapter 161 The Man Behind the Scenes 2

Before dawn the next day, the shadow guard escorted Xiao He and her mother out of the city.

The person who was able to notice Xiao He's disappearance in such a short time and send people to wait for her must be no simple character.

Jiang Shian originally wanted to send it to Yuan'an Town, where the business was and he could be taken care of there.

But Ji Yinghuai denied it, saying that if they followed his clues, it would harm Xiao He and the others. It would be better to send them to a place that had nothing to do with them. Anyway, as long as they had money, they could survive anywhere.

Jiang Shian thought about it and realized that this was indeed the truth, so he agreed.

Now that clues have just begun to emerge, they cannot return to the countryside in a short time, and staying in an inn is not a good idea.

The two of them simply bought a house.

The old housekeeper Qian Shu and his son Sijing also asked Jiang Shian to be taken back to the house to help deal with trivial matters in the house.

As for the shopkeepers who used to follow Master Jiang, they are not useless now. It just so happened that Jiang Shian asked the shadow guard to help him look for a few shops and buy them all.

Tooth powder and toothbrushes are also sold in some ordinary shops, and the price is more than six times higher than in the town, but soap and perfumed soap are sold in lower quantities.

Jiang Shian specifically inquired about it and heard that it was inconvenient to purchase goods, and their only source of supply now was Liu Chengqi.

Jiang Shian doesn't need to worry about this, as Shopkeeper Liu still gets the goods from him.

Fengnian and Fangzi had all met Yingmo, so Jiang Shian asked one of the shopkeepers to go to Yuan'an Town with Yingmo to transport some goods from there, including soap, water, and facial ointment.

By the way, let’s go and see if Dr. Wang’s tea bran for shampooing has been developed.

There are also some trivial matters. They have been in Qingping County for a month and have not returned yet, which may cause their families to worry.

It's a good opportunity to pay them their wages and calculate their income over the past few days.

In short, all these matters were handed over to the shopkeeper who followed Yingmo.

The shopkeeper's surname was Song. The money he had saved over the years was enough for him to live a worry-free life for the rest of his life. However, when the shopkeeper heard that Jiang Shian was going to open a shop to do business and had several shops in other places, and that the goods he sold were things he had never heard of, he immediately offered to help Jiang Shian.

Jiang Shi felt relaxed and happy. With a shopkeeper with decades of experience helping him look after the business, he could also focus more on investigating Master Jiang's affairs.

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Within half a month, the shadow guards had figured out the whole story.

Jiang Boyuan is just a chess piece. He used to live under the care of his brother and mother, who gave him whatever he wanted. His wealth and status today are all thanks to his eldest brother Jiang Chengli.

I don't know how to do anything and I'm not willing to do anything. I just want to live a stable life and enjoy wealth.

The Jiang family's business is really huge, and there are more than just the Jiang family in Qingping County. But since Jiang Chengli came to Qingping County, he has monopolized more than half of the big and small businesses, which makes it difficult for other merchants to do business.

Merchants would usually have gatherings of varying sizes, but Jiang Chengli had never liked these and never participated.

But he didn't want to lose face in front of everyone, so Jiang Boyuan took the initiative to say that he would go.

As a result, other merchants got to know this stupid Mr. Erye.

Jiang Boyuan is a person who is easily influenced. Every time people invite him to talk, they always talk about Jiang Chengli, and they keep praising Jiang Chengli for how capable he is.

On the surface, he was polite and courteous to Jiang Boyuan, but behind his back he said that Jiang Boyuan was inferior to Jiang Chengli in every way and was a cowardly waste.

Every time this group of people talked behind his back, Jiang Boyuan happened to hear it.

And the prefect Chen happened to appear at this time. He introduced a gentleman to Jiang Boyuan, saying that the gentleman was very good at doing business and Jiang Boyuan didn't need to worry about anything, as he could manage all the businesses, big or small, in an orderly manner.

The instigation of a group of people, coupled with Jiang Boyuan's unwillingness and the dark thoughts hidden in his heart for many years, finally made him want to kill.

All the merchants were delighted to hear this and wished Jiang Chengli would die sooner. Then, with the help of this idiot, they could get a piece of the pie, redivide the size of the business and expand their own power.

Prefect Chen is not a simple small character. He has been in collusion with the bandits for a long time. His achievements in suppressing the bandits in his early years were nothing more than black eating black. He eliminated the bandits entrenched in the mountains so that Prefect Chen and his gang could occupy their place and subsequently develop and expand their own power.

Speaking of the place occupied by the bandits, Ji Yinghuai understood.

That place was not far from where he discovered the salt mine.

The former county magistrate was convicted of treason and privately buying and selling official salt. The source was here, where rock mines were secretly mined.

No wonder they haven't found out the truth yet. I didn't expect that bandits were involved. It seems that the other party must have more than the silver that was confiscated from the house. Most of it must be hidden in the thieves' den.

Having colluded with the enemy and earned so much money, it is obvious what he wanted to do.

Ji Yinghuai sighed in his heart. He didn't expect that even though he was so far away, he still had to do things for that person!

The Jiang family has a big business, and they have a network of people who travel all over the country to transport goods. If they can win them over, then it will be much more convenient for them to transport goods or do private transactions, and their identity will also be legitimate.

The Jiang family has long been sidelined. The person introduced by the prefect is in charge of the Jiang family's business. It has been half a year and it is estimated that they have replaced him with their own people. The business they do privately is probably not as simple as just moving goods.

If they don't find evidence quickly and deal with these people, not only will all their property be taken away, but if something happens in the future, the other party can easily throw the blame on the Jiang family.

It's just that these people usually act very cautiously, and the group of merchants instigated Jiang Boyuan to set up a trap behind his back and did not leave any evidence.

The only witnesses are the close people around them. Even if there is evidence that this group of people did not do it personally, at most they will be fined some money, which is not a big deal for them, so they have to think of other ways.

Prefect Chen is now under house arrest and is being guarded by people from the Liang County Magistrate's side.

It was already established that he was in collusion with the bandits, and all we needed was evidence to close the case.

The investigation came to a standstill, and at the end of the film they thought they might as well put the other party in jail and interrogate him to see if they could find any evidence.

At this time, the wife of Prefect Chen went to the county magistrate's office with evidence.

She and Prefect Chen had been married for almost thirty years, but their feelings had long since faded as Prefect Chen had beaten and scolded her over the years. Any concubine in the mansion could bully her, and now all that was left was hatred.

The evidence she brought were some correspondence, and the words on them were indeed the handwriting of Prefect Chen and the signature.

Human trafficking, colluding with bandits to rob other caravans of their silver, and privately mining salt.

After verification by the Shadow Guards, all the evidence has been confirmed to be true.

Now Magistrate Chen no longer has to be under house arrest in his mansion, but can go straight to jail.

Although all the physical evidence was available, Prefect Chen just said that he was framed and refused to sign his name.

Following the clues, the next evidence to be investigated is the matter of Liang County Magistrate.

Ji Yinghuai was too lazy to interfere too much and just waited for the capital to send someone over to quickly settle the case.

At the same time, the news that Master Jiang was not killed by ordinary bandits but was murdered by the prefect and Master Jiang II in collusion also spread in the city.

When this incident happened, the whole city was in an uproar.

Think about it, Mr. Jiang was a kind man in the past, and I don't know how many people have benefited from his kindness. Every winter, when nearby towns suffered from floods, Mr. Jiang would open a porridge shop in the city and give out free porridge.

The items sold in Mr. Jiang's shop are reasonably priced. He never sells inferior goods as good ones, and he never oppresses ordinary people.

Now most people could no longer sit still, and every day someone would go to the yamen to inquire about the results of the investigation.

Some other merchants finally reacted.

The young master beside the prince is the fool from before, and now he has come back to take revenge.

Some people feel that they did nothing wrong, that they only said a few words and did not actually do anything, and that they cannot be blamed, so they continue to open their shops and do business with peace of mind.

But some of them were afraid that they would be implicated, so they packed their bags overnight and prepared to move their families to other places. As the saying goes, "As long as the green mountains remain, there will be no shortage of firewood."

They have plenty of money in their hands. Mr. Jiang is dead anyway, and this little kid might squander all the family fortune in a few years.

Unfortunately, as soon as the group of people ran to the city gate, they were stopped by the guards who were checking their identities. They were only told that the city was currently investigating the collusion between merchants and bandits, and they could not leave as they were suspected.

A few merchants were cursing and the servants following them were about to rush out with their master.

The guards remained calm and pointed their weapons at them. They were not ordinary local yamen runners. The rules were set here and if they didn't obey, they would be killed.

The merchants were intimidated by this scene. Looking at the armored guards, they realized that they could not just shout at them, so they walked back with grim expressions.

The rest of the people who were leaving the city whispered to each other when they saw this scene.

"How come we can leave the city without any problems? We can just leave after the inspection. Could it be that these rich people have done something shameful?"