Chapter 1383 An Miaoyi’s approach!

While Ye Mingsheng was carefully processing the memorial in the imperial study, Qiqige walked quickly to An Miaoyi at the other end of the palace and whispered:
"My queen, Zhao Yuan has found out the real culprit behind Ziyun's murder!"

As soon as these words came out, An Miaoyi's eyes flashed with coldness and said:

"Who is he?"

Qiqige immediately whispered in An Miaoyi's ear. When An Miaoyi heard Qiqige mention the man's name, a hint of suspicion flashed across her face and she asked:
"Is it really him? Is it possible that we are mistaken?"

"Zhao Yuan said that he took 30,000 taels of silver from Hu Ming and got Ziyun pregnant. Ziyun wanted to become his wife because of her son, but he was so cruel that he ordered his men to abort Ziyun's child and only gave Ziyun 500 taels of silver as compensation!"

"After Hu Ming was caught, Ziyun took the evidence of his bribery and demanded that he pay more compensation, or else she would report him. However, this man pretended to appease Ziyun while having his men kill her and disguised it as Ziyun's suicide!"

"Zhao Yuan said that he has already identified the man who did the dirty work for him. This man is Sun He, the doctor of the Ministry of Justice. As long as we arrest this man, everything will be revealed!"

Hearing what Qiqige said, An Miaoyi nodded slightly. Seeing this, Qiqige also said tentatively:

"Madam! Do you want to tell Mr. Cui?"

After pondering for a moment, An Miaoyi asked back:
"Why should I tell Mr. Cui?"

Qiqige was very surprised by her master's question. She hesitated for a moment before saying:
“Your Majesty has such a close relationship with Mr. Cui. If you don’t inform Mr. Cui before touching him, Mr. Cui might have some misunderstandings…”

Listening to Qiqige's words, An Miaoyi smiled and shook her head and said:

"When did I say I was going to touch him?"

Qiqige was also very shocked when these words came out. Although she didn't say anything, the look in her master's eyes seemed to be saying, since you are not going to touch him, then why go to so much trouble to dig this person out?
An Miaoyi also understood what Qiqige was thinking and said:
"This Ziyun is a damn bitch. If I wasn't worried about Tian Yu being upset, I would have let Zhang Xinjian kill her without him doing anything. Now that he has done it, I can just sit back and enjoy the results. Why not?"

Although Qiqige was still a little unconvinced, she nodded on the surface. Seeing her saying one thing and thinking another, An Miaoyi smiled and shook her head and said:

"Okay! I was originally planning to touch him. After all, I took the blame for Tian Yu. But you also said that this person has a close relationship with Master Cui. If I want to touch him, Master Cui will definitely protect me!"

"Besides, this man is already in a high position at the age of thirty. He has great potential in the future. And given his relationship with Mr. Cui, he is also from my faction. So now that Tian Yu has realized it, it was not me who killed Ziyun."

"So why should I destroy the Great Wall?"

"Madam, is this matter over?"

An Miaoyi smiled and said:

“Of course not! Although I am going to pursue this matter further, I want him to know who let him go, who he should be grateful to for being able to continue to sit in his current position, and understand what he should do and say in the future…”

After saying this, An Miaoyi did not continue talking about this topic, but instructed Qiqige:

"Zhao Yuan did a great job on this matter and never let me down! Reward him with five hundred taels of silver!"

Qiqige hesitated for a moment and said:
"Zhao Yuan doesn't really care about money. He's always thinking about the new department in the Ministry of Justice!"

"Madam! I didn't tell him anything. He found out all by himself!"

An Miaoyi frowned when she heard Qiqige mention this matter. She didn't expect Zhao Yuan to be well-informed and actually heard from other places that the Ministry of Justice was going to set up a new department.
This is not good. After all, the Ministry of Justice is still in the process of setting up a new department!
Your Majesty currently only has this idea but has not made a decision yet, and once this department is established, some people's sensitive nerves may be touched.

Thinking of this, An Miaoyi said directly:
"Just tell Zhao Yuan that this matter has not yet been resolved. Let him stay in the Ministry of Justice for a while. The last disturbance has not completely dissipated, so he needs to lie low!"

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Five days later, in a brick factory in the southern suburbs of Yijing, more than a dozen police officers were busy searching.

Yang Tao, the chief constable under the Yijing government office, stood aside and watched the crime scene silently.

Although he was an experienced and battle-hardened veteran, Yang Tao's scalp still tingled when he saw the bloody scene in front of him.

But looking at the five huge bloody words "You Have Nowhere to Escape" on the wall, Yang Tao felt even more angry. This murderer was too arrogant. This is under the feet of Emperor Yijing. Not only did you commit such a bloody crime, but you also left these words to provoke him. This is really audacious. How can you tolerate this!
At this time Ye Feiyang came over and reported to Yang Tao:

"Brother Yang, the situation at the scene has been investigated clearly. The deceased is named Yang Zecheng, the owner of this brick factory. At 1:00 pm today, several workers came to the factory to work and found the deceased!"

Upon hearing this, Yang Tao continued to ask:

"Who was the last person to see him?"

"Last night at 11:00 pm, 19 workers from the brick factory went to Yang Zecheng to discuss overtime pay. They discussed the matter for about half an incense stick, but the discussion was not very pleasant, so the workers all left!"

"Were these workers the last people to see him last night?"

“Yes! At that time, they had agreed to go to Yang Zecheng together to discuss a wage increase. They were also the ones who discovered that Yang Zecheng had been killed half an hour ago and reported it to the police…”

Hearing this, Yang Tao also looked at the dozen or so workers standing beside him. Perhaps out of fear of Yang Tao's constable uniform and the sword on his waist, the dozen or so workers all lowered their heads when Yang Tao's gaze swept over them.

Seeing this, Yang Tao also asked:
"Who is the leader among you?"

As soon as these words came out, the nineteen workers all looked at a skinny man with dark skin. Seeing this, the skinny man also stood up and said respectfully:
"Sir, I'm the foreman here and my name is Cao Kui!"

Yang Tao looked Cao Kui up and down, then asked:

"You were the one who took the lead in discussing overtime pay with Yang Zecheng yesterday?"

"Yes!"

After saying this, Cao Kui was also somewhat indignant and said:
"After Yijing implemented the work method, several wood factories, dyeing factories, and grain factories in the surrounding area all provided free lunch, lunch breaks, overtime pay, and this guy surnamed Yang didn't give us anything. We brothers are very upset, so we want to talk to him and ask him to increase some benefits for us!"

"Why did you choose to talk together last night?"

"Because when we were getting ready to get off work at Yinshi last night, the factory came in with an urgent job for 3,000 red bricks, and they had to be delivered in three days. The guy named Yang wanted us to work overtime to finish it, so we wanted to take this opportunity to ask him for overtime pay..."

"Did Yang Zecheng agree to your request?" Upon hearing Yang Tao's question, Cao Kui said angrily:

"Yang Zecheng, that bastard, not only didn't pay us overtime, he also told us to work if we wanted to, and get out if we didn't. The last thing Daqian needs is people, and there are plenty of people who will do it if we don't want to!"

"When we said we were going to the government office to sue him, he threatened us that we could go wherever we wanted to sue him, and that he had people in the government office who would make sure we got away with it!"

After these words were spoken, Yang Tao and Ye Feiyang looked at each other, and after exchanging glances, Yang Tao continued to ask:
"So you guys are going home?"

Cao Kui's expression of hatred flashed across his face when he heard this, but he sighed helplessly and said:

"Anyone can bully us ordinary people. We can't beat Yang Zecheng, so we will go back after finishing the work!"

Although the hatred in Cao Kui's eyes only flashed by, it was still keenly caught by Ye Feiyang who was standing beside him. He immediately interrupted and asked:

"Are you all home yet?"

Facing Ye Feiyang's question, Cao Kui showed a hint of hesitation, and at this time a worker beside him interrupted and said:

"Wang Sheng and Liu Qi went to Cao Kui's house..."

Ye Feiyang then asked with a sharp look in his eyes:

"Why did these two people go to your house? What did they do at your house?"

Facing Ye Feiyang's question, Cao Kui still looked embarrassed. Seeing this, Ye Feiyang said coldly:

"Someone, arrest Cao Kui! Since you don't want to talk here, I'll take you back to the government office!"

Hearing the word "Yamen", Cao Kui's eyes showed a trace of fear, so he whispered:
"I called them to my house to discuss something!"

"What are you discussing? I told Cao Kui to behave himself, or else you'll have to come with us to the government office!"

Cao Kui, who was threatened once again, could only continue to speak helplessly:

"Liu Qi found some human bones in the brick factory before. He was very scared and told me about it. I wanted to report it to the police at that time!"

"But once this matter is reported to the authorities, the brick factory's business will inevitably be affected, and we workers will most likely lose our jobs. We all have families to support, and if we lose our jobs, our families won't have enough to eat!"

"So we didn't report it to the police. Last night I asked Liu Qi and Wang Sheng to come to my house, hoping to use this incident to get Yang Zecheng to pay us overtime!"

At this time, Yang Tao took over the conversation and continued to ask:
"When you first discovered the human bones, did you tell Yang Zecheng?"

Cao Kui shook his head upon hearing this, and Yang Tao continued to ask:

"So why do you think Yang Zecheng will give you overtime pay for this matter?"

Cao Kui was silent after hearing this, while Yang Tao analyzed in a deep voice:
“The reason why you think Yang Zecheng will give you overtime pay for this matter is because you think these human bones are related to Yang Zecheng…”

Seeing that Yang Tao had already guessed it, Cao Kui nodded helplessly and said:

"Yang Zecheng is very close to a man named Zhang Xinjian. Zhang Xinjian is a ruthless character who kills without blinking an eye. He often brings people to burn Yang Zecheng to ashes!"

"So we plan to use this incident to threaten Yang Zecheng to pay us overtime. Sir, I have explained everything!"

“Are those human bones still there?”

"Yang Zecheng and his team burned it into ashes, made it into bricks and sold it to others."

Yang Tao looked at Cao Kui deeply and said:
"Take them all back to the government office and make statements one by one!"

As soon as these words came out, more than a dozen workers including Cao Kui panicked and said:
"Sir, we are all honest workers. We just want overtime pay!"

"Sir, we are innocent. We don't know who killed Mr. Yang!"

"Sir, we really weren't the ones who killed Mr. Yang. We have a family and children. Please spare us!"

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In response to the workers' chatter, Yang Tao said loudly:

"Shut up! I didn't say you killed anyone. I just asked you to go to the government office for questioning. Just tell me what you are asked. You can go home after you tell the truth. Do you understand?"

Only when the workers heard Yang Tao say that they could go home did they calm down and walk towards the yamen under the guidance of the officers.

Seeing this, Ye Feiyang came to Yang Tao with excitement and said excitedly:

"Brother Yang, from what they said, this is a big case!"

"In my opinion, these workers are the most likely suspects, especially Cao Kui. He has a strong motive for committing the crime, and I just noticed that he looked full of hatred when he mentioned Yang Zecheng. I think he is most likely the murderer!"

Yang Tao shook his head and said:

"Fei Yang, I have a different opinion from you. It is highly likely that Yang Zecheng was not killed by these workers!"

Ye Feiyang was also very surprised when he heard this and said:
"Brother Yang, why do you think so? Is it because of the bloody words on the wall? In my opinion, these words are a trick Cao Kui used to confuse us in solving the case!"

Seeing Ye Feiyang's confident look, Yang Tao did not give a direct answer but asked:
"Why did Cao Kui and his group clash with Yang Zecheng?"

Ye Feiyang preached without hesitation:
“Because Yang Zecheng didn’t pay overtime! So Cao Kui developed a grudge against him and killed Yang Zecheng in anger. Yang Zecheng was in such a miserable state that eight of his ten fingers were chopped off and one of his legs was also chopped off. This is enough to show how deep his hatred for Yang Zecheng was…”

(Can you give me some advice? I wrote this chapter because I want to tell the changes that Ye Mingsheng's actions have brought to the world through the perspective of some small people, but no one has given any comments, so I don't know if you like my writing style!)