NOVEL NEXT Chapter 14: The Art of War and Acting as Heaven's Punishment
Li Fei sneered, "At this point, still trying to deny?"
Zhang Anwu blushed with embarrassment, "Everything must be backed by evidence. You can't just blame everything found in the warehouse without proper records on me, right?"
He still refused to admit defeat, still wanting to struggle for a while, gambling that Li Fei didn't have concrete evidence in his hands.
"Tang Congxue, Gong Chen, Fu Yangshu...."
Li Fei called out a string of names.
Upon hearing these names, Zhang Anwu's face turned increasingly grim.
These people were his trusted aides at the Military Supply Headquarters!
All these officials were present, Zhao Hongcai immediately spoke:
"Those who have been called, come here."
As a result, a total of eight officials walked out anxiously from the crowd and headed over.
Among these eight officials, five are level 12 military officers, and three are level 13 military officers, equivalent to five Imperial Officials and three Court Officials.
"You people, if you confess now, I can consider leniency."
Li Fei looked at the eight officials before him and said calmly.
The eight exchanged glances and all firmly denied:
"We don't know what the Marquis wants us to confess to? We also don't know why these Replenishing Essence Elixirs are in the warehouse."
Beside them, Zhang Anwu secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
These eight are deeply tied to him, almost sharing the same fate.
If he has issues, these eight would surely lose their heads as well, so no one would stand out at this time to identify him.
"Tang Congxue, on June 16th at 9 PM, you were responsible for storing a batch of hand grenades into Warehouse No. 2 of Warehouse A. During this period, you secretly added seven boxes, all of which contained Replenishing Essence Elixirs.
On June 17th at 10 AM, you took advantage of internal cargo transshipment to transfer a batch of bullets along with those seven boxes of Replenishing Essence Elixirs from Warehouse No. 2 of Warehouse A to Warehouse No. 3 of Warehouse A. Afterwards, you arranged for someone to organize Warehouse No. 3, moving the seven boxes of Replenishing Essence Elixirs onto Shelf No. 7, placing them together with a batch of elixirs used for cultivation.
If there are no surprises, these seven boxes of Replenishing Essence Elixirs, along with the remaining elixirs on the shelf, would be shipped out of the military supply department three days later, and by then you would naturally have a way to quietly retrieve these seven boxes of Replenishing Essence Elixirs."
Li Fei spoke in a calm tone, detailing a complete crime process.
His voice clearly entered the ears of the thousands present, causing them to gasp!
Even Zhao Hongcai, the Transportation Commissioner, showed a look of astonishment.
He was not astonished by Zhang Anwu's methods, but rather how Li Fei could know all the details so thoroughly?
This batch of Replenishing Essence Elixirs went from being quietly stored to quietly being shipped out, having undergone several transfers in between, and each transfer certainly looked flawless on the records. Even the staff responsible for loading and transporting, as well as the officials who inspected and signed at each process, likely didn't know that other things were mixed into the cargo.
This is why Zhang Anwu was confident that even if he gave all the books to Li Fei for checking, it wouldn't be possible to figure out where this batch of Replenishing Essence Elixirs was hidden even after a year.
Yet Li Fei had actually found all the hidden elixirs first, and then revealed the detailed method of committing the crime.
This was truly terrifying!
Like a ghost witnessing everything from the side.
"Minister Zhao, the things I just mentioned, I believe there should be detailed records."
Li Fei suddenly looked at Zhao Hongcai and spoke.
Zhao Hongcai immediately ordered, "Go and get all the entrance and exit records for the warehouses from the past week!"
During the time while someone went to retrieve the entrance and exit records, Li Fei looked at the official named Tang Congxue:
"Tang Congxue, do you need me to say anything more specific?"
Tang Congxue suddenly collapsed to his knees, directly kneeling before Li Fei.
His body shook like a sieve, and with a crying voice he shouted:
"Marquis, this official confesses guilt! It was indeed under Zhang Anwu's directive that I hid that batch of Replenishing Essence Elixirs!"
Zhang Anwu's face changed dramatically.
Li Fei looked at the remaining ones:
"And you? Do you still plan not to confess?!"
His voice was like thunder, his formidable aura was like a sharp sword, deeply piercing the hearts of the remaining ones!
The remaining seven officials' faces changed, scrambling to kneel:
"This official confesses guilt!"
"Spare our lives, Marquis, we are willing to confess!"
"..."
Thus, all eight of Zhang Anwu's trusted aides confessed!
It's not that they were too foolish to understand the connection of lips and teeth, but Li Fei's methods were too shocking!
Even such details were mastered by Li Fei, who knows how much more inside information and evidence he holds?
The crucial point was what Li Fei said to Tang Congxue — do you need me to be more specific?
These eight individuals were smart, understanding the implication in Li Fei's words:
If you come clean now, the matter stops at the Replenishing Essence Elixir affair.
If you keep being stubborn, then I'll divulge more things that can cost you your heads!
The choice was between staying tied to Zhang Anwu to await death or abandoning darkness for light, standing with Li Fei, hoping Marquis Jing'an would spare them for one last chance at survival?
All eight officials made the wise choice.
With a thud, Zhang Anwu knelt as well.
His face was ashen.
Li Fei looked down at the supervisor of the Military Supply Headquarters.
Actually, he held no more evidence; even the information he currently had could at best make Zhang Anwu a suspect and couldn't directly pin him down.
What truly brought Zhang Anwu to his doom was his few trusted aides' suspicions and fears.