Farming in the Mountains: Max Level Jiaojiao Is Three Years Old

Chapter 1589: Third Key

Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

There were many documents on the bookshelves, and there seemed to be thick and thin books on every shelf.

In the two inner corners, beside the two innermost bookshelves, there were many large wooden boxes.

Xue Yan opened the large wooden boxes first and found that there were rare treasures inside. There was gold and silver, and there were also many antiques and calligraphy paintings. It was obvious that Fan Jianxi was not an honest person. An honest person would not hide so many assets. These were the people’s wealth he was keeping!

Then, Jiang Yue and Xue Yan flipped through the things on the bookshelves.

There was a record of how much tax each county in Lizhou had collected from the common people over the past two years. Dianhe County was part of this list. This record was a general record. It was detailed to each village, which was equivalent to a unit. It was not detailed to every household and every person.

The details must be with the county magistrates of those places.

However, just this alone could prove that the tax that was reported to the imperial capital and paid to the national treasury was much lower than this.

This could be considered solid evidence.

Although it wasn’t concrete proof of the mastermind behind it, it was something.

There were also records on the bookshelves of how Lizhou had falsely reported that there was a famine in the area and that the national treasury had to allocate silver to the people below.

There were also quite a few real account books, all of which were evidence that many officials in Lizhou had pocketed.

There was also evidence of bribery of officials in Lizhou.

Many letters could be used as evidence.

Some of the letters even stated that some county magistrates who were disobedient and unwilling to join in the filth had been convicted by a party of people in Lizhou. After they were exterminated, they had their people take their place. Then, all the officials in Lizhou were from the same filthy group.

It was all thanks to Fan Jianxi’s lack of sense of security that they found this. Otherwise, there would not have been such solid evidence here. It would have completely wiped out all the officials in Lizhou.

However…

“It’s a little strange, isn’t it?” Jiang Yue frowned. “They can always prove the evidence of the officials in Lizhou. What about the others? What about the mastermind… He’s so paranoid, yet he left behind so much evidence. He’s too smart for his good. It can’t be that he doesn’t have a protective mastermind. However, among so many things, I didn’t see anyone mention the name of a suspicious high-ranking person…”

“It is strange.” Xue Yan nodded. After a pause, he said, “Shouldn’t there be another key? This is a much smaller key. There should be another lock that needs to be opened. I reckon that behind the lock that corresponds to this key, there’s irrefutable evidence that directly points to the mastermind.”

“It’s very possible.” Jiang Yue nodded in agreement. “With so much evidence here and the three keys together, it’s unlikely that the evidence pointing to the mastermind is elsewhere. It should be in this secret chamber. Let’s look around and see if there’s anything that needs to be unlocked.”

“Yes.”

Then, they began to search the secret room.

He moved the bookshelves and the large wooden box away. He also moved the table and stool in the middle to look at anything out of place. He also looked at the ground and knocked on every tile. He also looked at the four walls bit by bit. He did not find anything unusual.

If there was nothing unusual, then there was only one place left, and that was the top of this secret chamber.

Xue Yan stood on the table and started to inspect the top of the secret chamber one by one.

Later, he moved the table to its original position, which was in the middle of the secret chamber. When he stood up and carefully examined the top, he found that there was a stone slab at the top that could be lifted.