Chapter 390
With Cheng Haiping as the witness, and the long table with a corner chipped off brought from the general store, Lord Yao coldly eyed the terrified and uneasy shopkeeper Hong. "Guards, drag Hong Xing out and beat him twenty more times!"
Moments later, before the twenty planks were even finished, the shopkeeper Hong, dragged up by the constables, had confessed.
Investigator Chu's gaze was sinister as he looked at shopkeeper Hong, who was kneeling and signing his confession.
Lord Yao quickly read through the confession and passed it to the scribe beside him. "Send this for Lord Zheng and the others to review."
"It is sufficient if Your Excellency has seen it; there is no need to send it to me," Commander Xie said coldly. Chu's fate was sealed.
Lord Yao did not insist. After Lord Zheng had reviewed it, he placed shopkeeper Hong's confession on the public desk. Once the one hundred taels of silver, serving as physical evidence, was retrieved from the bank, all evidence would be sealed together.
Vice-Prefect Zhao returned quickly, accompanied by the head shopkeeper of Dingyuan Bank.
"Your Excellency, this is the one-hundred-tael silver note that Hong Xing deposited at the bank that day, and this is the bank's ledger." Vice-Prefect Zhao personally delivered the physical evidence to Lord Yao's desk.
The one-hundred-tael silver note was from Zhengtong Bank, the largest bank in Longzhou. As a shopkeeper of a general store in Suzhou Prefecture, shopkeeper Hong should not have possessed a silver note from Zhengtong Bank. This silver note had been brought from Longzhou by Investigator Chu, given to Cheng Haiping, and then ended up in shopkeeper Hong's possession.
"Cheng Haiping, was this the silver note you produced that day?" Lord Yao picked up the silver note. Everyone in the courtroom could clearly see the dried bloodstain in the lower left corner of the note.
"Replying to Your Excellency, it is indeed the silver note I used to purchase tung oil," Cheng Haiping replied.
The head shopkeeper of Dingyuan Bank also confirmed that this silver note was indeed deposited by shopkeeper Hong. With this, all the human and physical evidence matched.
Although Investigator Chu's fate was already decided, Commander Xie suddenly spoke, "I have one matter I do not understand. Investigator Chu plotted to burn down the prefectural yamen. I presume Zhan Feiyu, you had already seen through this, but you did not report it in advance, instead secretly gathering evidence. Zhan Feiyu, did you not consider that because of your personal vendetta, had Lord Yao and Lord Zheng not arrived in time that day, and Investigator Chu had truly set fire to the yamen, how many innocent lives would have been lost?"
Hearing this, Vice-Prefect Zhao's expression remained unchanged. He was a man of integrity, and the one who plotted to burn down the yamen was Investigator Chu; he would certainly not blame Zhan Feiyu.
But with Commander Xie's divisive words...