Chapter 2869
Seeing that the fighting in the town had slowly subsided, Suksaha slowly walked into the town on horseback, protected by his own soldiers.
When they got closer, everyone saw clearly that this so-called town was actually composed of many tents and shacks, and each courtyard was only surrounded by fences as high as one person. There seemed to be very few houses in the whole town that were actually made of bricks and stones. And judging from the appearance of the houses, it was obvious that they were not newly built. They were mostly properties left by the Han people who lived here before.
The officer commanding the operation took Suksaha and his party to one of the houses. Being able to live in such a brick house, which is rare in the local area, it goes without saying that the head of the household must be this Niu Lu, a reputable person.
There were people kneeling on the ground in the yard, except for a few crying women and children, the most eye-catching one was a man with his hands tied behind his back. This man was naked from the waist up, with a black-feathered arrow stuck in his shoulder socket. Blood was still flowing down the arrow shaft. It looked like he had been injured in the previous fight. The man watched Suk Saha walk in, his body was shaking, and he was obviously very frightened.
The officer whispered a few words beside Suk Saha. Suk Saha nodded and introduced the situation to Zhu Ziwu and others in unskilled Chinese.
The man in the arrow is said to be the leader here, his name is A Lin. His official official position is "Niulu Zhangjing". In the Manchu Qing Dynasty, he was a real "court official", in charge of the local household registration, land and residence, military registration, military registration, etc. Litigation and other matters.
Although Alin argued that his resistance was just a misunderstanding that an enemy was attacking, the stolen goods subsequently recovered from his home by the Qing army proved that this person's statement was not credible.
The soldiers of the Qing army found two boxes of wine from under his bed and presented them to Suk Saha and others. After several Haihan officers saw it, they nodded repeatedly, saying that they must have caught the real owner this time.
This "Sanya Special Brew" filled in glass bottles is originally produced in Hainan Island. Due to the inconvenience of long-distance transportation and high freight costs, only four or five batches of goods are shipped to Liaodong every year, adding up to only three to four thousand bottles. Most are digested internally. The number of bottles resold to the Manchu and Qing Dynasties was only about a thousand bottles a year. The price in the Manchu and Qing Dynasty markets was more than ten times higher than that of the place of origin. It can be said that it was a genuine luxury product.
As the saying goes, things are rare and valuable, so it is naturally difficult for ordinary people to have access to this stuff. Most of the people who have the strength and channels to buy this kind of wine are the rich and powerful in the Qing Dynasty. And A-Lin is just a little Niulu Zhangjing. The price of these two boxes of wine is more than his normal salary for a year. It is obviously unreasonable to show up at his home.
Of course, the most conclusive evidence is the conspicuous "Xianghongji" seal on the box. After snatching the things back, this guy didn't even think about removing the marks on them. He just left them intact at home, which provided irrefutable evidence for the investigators.
Next, other stolen goods were found from Alin's house, including salt, tea, cigarettes, sugar... almost everything. It was obvious that he planned to keep some for his own use.
At this point in the investigation, Suksaha didn't waste any time and immediately asked Alin about the hiding places of other goods and the people involved in the robbery.
Seeing that the matter was exposed, Alin wanted to bargain with Suksaha for a chance of survival. However, Suksaha was merciless and immediately ordered one person to be dragged out from his family, and without any explanation, he executed him in the yard and beheaded him. Suddenly, there were cries and screams in the yard.
The process was so fast that several Haihan officers who were watching were defenseless, and Zhu Ziwu was even more shocked. It was not like he had never seen dead people before, but this was the first time he saw beheading and execution at such a close distance. The visual impact and the smell of blood that hit his nostrils made him almost want to vomit, but he finally managed to endure it. Suk Saha, who witnessed the whole process, remained expressionless, which shows that he has long been accustomed to such scenes and has a cold heart that is difficult for ordinary people to match. It is no wonder that Shunzhi sent him to handle the case.
Suksaha just told Arin coldly that if he did not confess truthfully, his family members would be killed one by one in front of him.
Seeing that Alin was still hesitating, Suksaha waved his hand, and his soldiers immediately dragged out another child from Alin's family. This time A Lin did not dare to wait and see, and immediately shouted that he was willing to cooperate.
Suk Saha immediately asked Alin to confess the participants one by one. If there was one less person, one of his family members would be killed. A-Lin had collapsed at this time and did not dare to resist at all. Every time he said a name, someone would follow the order and capture him from other places in the town.
This town has been surrounded by people from Suksaha. Even a bird cannot fly out. As long as the people Alin confessed are still in the town, they will not be able to escape. However, it was still quite time-consuming to catch these people one by one. It was not until noon that all the people Alin confessed were captured.
More than two hundred people who were directly involved in the robbery had their hands tied behind their backs and were kneeling on the side of the road outside the town. These people accounted for more than half of the local men, ranging from old men with gray beards to young men of fifteen or sixteen years old. It seemed that they came out in full force at that time, using all the combat power of this awesome man.
At that time, during the battle with the caravan guards, more than 20 of the people Alin led were killed. Suksaha did not even spare these dead people. He ordered their family members to lead the way and dug out all the bones of these people to verify the injuries on their bodies to ensure that no one faked their death and escaped.
At the same time, the Qing army's search of the entire town finally came to an end. According to the confessions of these arrested persons, the Qing army found most of the robbed goods that had not yet had time to process. Except for a few that were kept by Alin and other key personnel for their own use, most of the goods were hidden in an abandoned brick kiln outside the town. According to the final statistics, almost 80% of the stolen goods were recovered.
Haihan originally thought that the robbers would sell the goods on the underground black market and wanted to find investigation clues in this regard. Alin confessed that he actually had such an idea, but the limelight after the incident was too tight. He also knew that the officials of the two countries would definitely investigate the case, so he hid the goods first and planned to find a way to sell the goods after the limelight passed.
At this point in the investigation, the only remaining questions are why Alin organized this operation, where did the information come from, and whether there was someone else behind it. Especially the last point is the issue that investigators from both countries are most concerned about.
Suksaha camped in the town that day, conducted overnight surprise interrogations on all the suspects, cross-verified their confessions, and allowed Haihan officers to observe the interrogation process.
This night's interrogation was no joke. More than a dozen key members led by Alin were tortured all night, and two of them were beaten to death on the spot. If it hadn't been for Suksahat's instructions, Alin probably wouldn't have survived the night.
(End of chapter)