After unlocking the material space, I raised my younger siblings in a farmhouse.

Chapter 106 Xiaoge: Righteous Passerby

After the study door was completely closed, Liu Changhe's attention shifted to the pile of things on the desk.

After a long silence, he reached out and opened the two books on top, picked up Zhao Yongxin's confession and read it carefully word by word.

The confession was three pages long and filled with Zhao Yongxin's criminal history.

The time and location of the crime, the motive for the crime, and the final result were all clearly written. Even the list of people involved was clearly written. There was a fingerprint in the lower right corner that was suspected to be that of Zhao Yongxin himself.

Liu Changhe knew that Zhao Yongxin was not a good person. He knew it since he took office.

On the surface, Zhao Yongxin was very respectful to his immediate superior. However, whenever he wanted to exercise his rights as the prefect of Lanzhou and check the tax situation, case records and other information of Lanzhou City over the years, he was always obstructed by various parties.

Later, through extensive investigation by our own people, we found out that more than half of the officials, both big and small, in Lanzhou City had joined Zhao Yongxin's camp and obeyed his orders.

As a new governor, he had no foundation to begin with, and now he was directly sidelined.

Liu Changhe did not choose to confront Zhao Yongxin directly. Judging from the current situation, if he chose to confront him head-on, it would undoubtedly be like hitting a rock with an egg, and he would be the only one who would suffer.

So he chose to lie low, pretending to be a deaf and blind governor in public, while secretly sending his confidants to collect evidence of Zhao Yongxin's crimes.

When the evidence in hand is sufficient, they will deal a fatal blow to Zhao Yongxin, completely defeat him and regain the management rights of Lanzhou City.

Zhao Yongxin is now powerful, and he is not as cautious as before, but he is still vigilant and will never do anything himself if he can delegate it to others.

This gave Liu Changhe an opportunity to take advantage of, because as Zhao Yongxin's power expanded, more and more people worked under him, and there would always be a few who would reveal their true colors and be caught by him.

However, the evidence he had collected so far could not cause any substantial harm to Zhao Yongxin, so he did not choose to act rashly.

But who could tell him what was going on? Who on earth could have secretly delivered so much evidence to his desk without anyone noticing, without even a word of explanation, and without fear of any accidents?

Yes, he could now be sure that what was written here was true.

Because the evidence he collected also showed the same incidents, and in more detail than he knew.

After reading the contents of the confession, Liu Changhe roughly flipped through a few account books, and his anger grew stronger and stronger.

The court's taxation has not changed since the founding of the country. Good farmland has been taxed at 30%, while wasteland has been tax-free for three years.

However, in Zhao Yongxin's case, good farmland was taxed at 40%, while wasteland was exempt from tax for one year, and all the extra tax went into Zhao Yongxin's pocket.

Not only that, Zhao Yongxin would withhold one-third of the tax grain and tax silver collected in Lanzhou and send them to the capital along with the fake accounts.

As a result, Lanzhou City has declined from a medium-sized provincial capital to a lower-middle-class provincial capital. According to his approach, Lanzhou will be downgraded to a lower-class provincial capital in a few years.

Perhaps this is also Zhao Yongxin's purpose. The more dignitaries in the capital city look down on this land, and they will not arrange their own people to come here to gild themselves. Naturally, they will not discover the tricks here, and he can stay in Lanzhou City safely and safely as a local emperor.

The more Liu Changhe thought about it, the angrier he got. He clenched his right hand into a fist and slammed it on the desk with a dull sound. How dare he deceive his superiors and subordinates like this?

How ironic is it that such a person who doesn't care about the lives of ordinary people and only cares about enjoying himself has been the local official for so many years?

When Liu Changhe finally turned to the last book after suppressing his anger, he saw an exquisite card that Lin Chuyi had placed on it.

The card was only the size of a palm, and there was a nine-story building drawn on it. The painting was so skillful that it seemed as if there was really a high-rise building standing in it, which made Liu Changhe very curious.

Liu Changhe picked up the card and looked at it carefully for a while. He seemed to have thought of something. He turned the page of the card and saw a passage written on it.

"The contents of the confession were stated by Zhao Yongxin himself. The other evidence was found in the underground secret room of Zhao Yongxin's study. There are also a lot of gold and silver treasures in it. It is not certain when Zhao Yongxin will go to the underground secret room to check. If Lord Liu wants to punish Zhao Yongxin, remember to hurry up. - Bai Xiao Pavilion·Justice Passerby"

When Liu Changhe saw this, his heart sank and his hand holding the card tightened.

He didn't know what Bai Xiao Pavilion was. The other party said that he was a righteous passerby and was obviously unwilling to reveal his real name, but these were not the focus he should pay attention to at the moment.

If what is said above is true, then he doesn't have much time left. The longer he delays, the greater the chance that he will be discovered.

There was no time left for him to verify it slowly. He had a hunch that this was his best chance to bring down Zhao Yongxin, and he must not miss it.

Having been an official for many years, his premonitions have never been wrong, and this time Liu Changhe also chose to believe his premonition.

The bold ones will die of overeating, while the timid ones will die of starvation. In order to regain the governance of Lanzhou, he has to take a gamble.

Liu Changhe made up his mind, sorted out the things on the table, divided them into two parts, hid one part and put the other part in his arms, and told the servant to prepare the carriage and cakes, as he wanted to go out of the city to play and relax.

Then he returned to his room, took off his official uniform, put on casual clothes, packed his official uniform in a bundle, which also contained his official seal and private seal, and then placed the evidence close to his body.

After leaving the government office, the servant was already waiting at the door. Liu Changhe handed the package to the servant and got on the carriage. The servant followed closely behind him. After getting on the carriage, the coachman whipped the horse and slowly drove away from the government office and headed towards the east gate.

Although the guards at the government gate were puzzled as to why the prefect was leaving the city on such a hot day, they did not think much about it.

Since taking office, the new governor has been going out for a stroll from time to time. They have become accustomed to it and don't take it to heart.

After the carriage swayed a mile out of the city gate, Liu Changhe lifted the curtain, took the package from the servant, and told the driver to turn to the garrison camp twenty miles away.

The driver received the order, turned the horse and started to speed up. Liu Changhe changed into his official uniform again in the carriage, sat on the cushions, closed his eyes and rehearsed the scene that might happen next.

He didn't have many confidants in Lanzhou City, and he only had a dozen men of his own. If he went there rashly, not only would he fail to subdue Zhao Yongxin, he might even be outmaneuvered. So his top priority was to borrow troops from the military camp twenty miles away.