Poor Family

  Chapter 453 Teahouse News

Lin Lingsu is not an ordinary Taoist priest, he is an important master of the Shenxiao Sect of Taoism, and is very favored by the emperor Zhao Ji. After retiring, why is there still a case against him, and it is still being tried by the three divisions.

  An intuition told Li Yanqing that the case had been delayed for a year, and there must be something difficult in it.

  He opened the file, which was basically filled with various transcripts. Li Yanqing found the case record, which only had a few thousand words. After a closer look, the case was very simple.

Probably last summer, the river around Bianjing swelled, which seriously affected the lives of residents in the suburbs. Lin Lingsu tried to retreat the water at the top of the city, but was attacked by more than a dozen soldiers guarding the city, causing the three guards who guarded Lin Lingsu to die. Two soldiers were killed, and Lin Lingsu himself was injured, but he escaped by luck.

  The emperor was furious and imprisoned all the attacking soldiers and generals on duty, and decreed that the case should be heard by the three divisions.

   It was such a simple case that went through a one-year trial without any results. Li Yanqing thought about it and then shouted: "Master Tao!"

  Tao Ye quickly walked into the room, "What orders does the censor have?"

   "You should know about this case!" Li Yanqing pointed to the file on the table.

  Tao Ye showed a wry smile on his face, Li Yanqing really looked at the case first, he nodded, "This case has been participated in the whole process, and I know the ins and outs."

   "What's the reason, you have to investigate for a year?"

   "This case is actually very simple. The key is that it was too early to determine the nature of the case. As a result, Yushitai, the Criminal Ministry, and Dali Temple had serious disagreements. It was difficult to reach a consensus, so it was dragged down."

   "What qualitative?"

"On the day the case came to Yushitai, Wang Zhongcheng at that time, who is now Wang Xiangguo, defined it as a premeditated assassination case, but both the Ministry of Criminal Justice and Dali Temple objected, thinking that this was just an ordinary attack, just a soldier's personal behavior, and Premeditation has nothing to do with it, let alone an assassination, and several negotiations between the two sides ended in discord."

   "If you interrogate the soldiers, don't you understand?" Li Yanqing still asked in puzzlement.

"Here is the problem. If the case is delayed, the soldier will not die. If the case is closed, the soldier will be sentenced to death. Therefore, several hands-on soldiers insisted that the commander above ordered them to do what they did, and pushed the blame to Commander, with the confessions of several soldiers, Wang Zhongcheng is even more convinced that his previous characterization was correct, that it was a premeditated assassination, and the two sides have come to a stalemate."

   "What about Liu Lin's attitude?"

   After a moment of silence, Tao Ye whispered, "Liu Yushi is Wang Zhongcheng's fellow villager."

  Li Yanqing understands, he also knows where the problem lies? At that time, the censor Zhongcheng Wang Fu characterized the case as a premeditated assassination case, how dare Liu Lin overturn his boss's determination.

  Li Yanqing pondered for a long time, and then asked: "Who was the commander in charge of the city wall defense at that time?"

   "Two people were arrested because of this case, one is Commander Pan Yue, and the other is Yuhou Zhang Xiaowen."

   "What is the background of the two of them?"

  Wang Fu became Prime Minister, and the Ministry of Punishment and Dali Temple still had to fight hard, which just shows that the background of these two people is not simple.

  Zhang Xiaowen has no background, but Pan Yue heard that he is the nephew of Pan Xu, Duke of Runan County.

It turned out to be a descendant of the Pan family. Li Yanqing immediately thought of Pan Xu whom he met yesterday. The meritorious family was prosperous and all were damaged. strong.

   Li Yanqing probably understood the subtleties, but he was still a little puzzled as to why Wang Fu identified it as a premeditated assassination in the first place. Was it because Wang Fu was flattering Lin Lingsu, or was there some other reason?

   It really is a very difficult case, Li Yanqing nodded, "I understand, you go first!"

Tao Ye saluted and retreated. Li Yanqing put the documents back into the file bag and picked up the other two file bags. These two cases were much simpler. They both happened on the eve of Liu Lin's resignation, so he didn't deal with them. Leave it to your successor.

  At noon, Li Yanqing invited several of his subordinates to drink tea together at the Qingfeng Teahouse next to Yushitai. Logically, the subordinates should contribute money to invite the new boss, but Li Yanqing knew that their salaries were meager, so he refused to let them pay.

Qingfeng Tea House ranks third among the major teahouses in Bianjing. There are several branches in Bianjing. The business of this Qingfeng Teahouse near the imperial city is extremely hot. Every day at noon, it is full of customers. Both Qingfeng Restaurant and Qingfeng Teahouse belong to the Cao family industries all over the world.

  They came a little later, and the private room was gone, so they could only sit in the lobby on the second floor. Fortunately, there was a screen separating them, so it was still a private room.

   "Do you rarely come here?"

  Li Yanqing couldn't help being a little strange seeing that they were not familiar with this teahouse located next to Yushitai.

  Wang Jiao smiled bitterly and said, "Every person in this teahouse costs at least one tael of silver, how can we afford it?"

   "So that's it, it doesn't matter, I'm treating guests today and let everyone drink a cup of tea for three taels of silver."

  Everyone laughed, "We are all going to be honored by the censor."

No matter the noble or the humble, people in the capital love to drink tea. There is a reason for this, that is, the water quality in the capital is too poor, with extremely high salinity and alkali, and it is difficult to drink boiled water, so people use tea to cover up the bitterness. There are teahouses and tea shops all over the city, and there are tea sheds and tea shops for the lower class, which sell all kinds of food, of course there are herbal teas, and a big bowl costs a penny.

But when it comes to high-end teahouses, there are more details inside. For example, teahouses will hire ox carts to go to other places to pull mountain spring water to make tea. Ordering tea and serving tea, the emphasis and cultural needs are reflected in currency, and high-end teahouses have become a good place for the rich to sell money.

Fanlou is distinguished by its unique brand. Regardless of tea and wine, it ranks first in Bianjing, with a minimum consumption of ten taels of silver. The second teahouse is Zhukukulou Teahouse, with a minimum consumption of five taels of silver. If it ranks third, there are many versions. Xuejia Fencha, Qingfeng Teahouse, Changqing Teahouse, and Panjia Teahouse all claim to be the third, and the prices are similar, with a minimum consumption of one tael of silver.

The so-called minimum consumption is generally to drink tea in the lobby. There are no tea prostitutes performing tea distribution, but there are beautiful prostitutes serving tea. You have to pay another five taels of silver.

  Li Yanqing was not stingy either. Although there was no private seat, he still asked his staff to surround the corner with a screen and invited a beautiful tea prostitute to perform tea distribution for them.

The tea courtesan was very beautiful, and she smiled before saying a word, with a small dimple showing on her porcelain-like cheeks, which was very moving, "Dear officials, the water in Qingfeng Teahouse is the same as that in Fanlou, and it comes from the inner mountain of Chicang Mountain. The spring water is clear and sweet, and the boiled water is also the best water for tea."

Li Yanqing smiled and said nothing, the water source of the fan tower has always been a secret, but Sisi told him that the spring water used by the fan tower is the imperial spring water from Meishan in the Yulu Garden outside the southern city, that is the spring water specially used for the imperial palace, because it It was originally the property of the Chai family, so the fanlou can also use this kind of spring water, but other teahouses cannot use it.

  Although the spring water in Chicang Mountain is also good, it is eighty miles away. If you can’t come back that day, it must be overnight, and the water quality will be worse, not as good as the tea in Fanlou.

  Zhu Kukulou Tea House also uses the spring water from Mount Chicang, but there is Xiao Jingniang, the number one tea prostitute in the capital, who is unparalleled in the tea art world.

  Li Yanqing's family has a beautiful concubine, and he doesn't care about the tea prostitute's beauty, but a few subordinates are a little bit fascinated, completely intoxicated by the tea prostitute's frowns and smiles, and don't care what she is saying at all.

   Right at this moment, an extremely unpleasant voice came from next door, "The latest news is that the imperial court has decided to recruit the Liangshan Army."

   There was a sudden buzz in the lobby, and the quiet atmosphere just now disappeared without a trace. The surrounding area was too noisy, and the tea prostitutes could no longer continue to distribute tea.

  Li Yanqing smiled and took out five taels of silver to reward the tea prostitute. The tea prostitute got up and gave Li Yanqing a good look, then walked away slowly.

  At this time, the clerk removed the screen and restored the normal seats. Li Yanqing smiled to the three subordinates: "The lobby is too noisy, it's not suitable for appreciating the tea distribution. Next time, I will invite you to enjoy the real tea distribution at Zhukukulou Teahouse."

  Although they only stayed with the tea prostitute for a quarter of an hour, the three of them enjoyed a lot and expressed their thanks to Li Yanqing.

  Li Yanqing picked up the teacup and asked the official next door, "Who is going to Liangshan to ask for peace?"

  The official also knew that he was rude just now, so he quickly saluted Li Yanqing apologetically and said, "I heard that it is Zhang Bangchang, the deputy prime minister."

  (end of this chapter)