There Are Laws in the World

In the middle of the Northern Song Dynasty, three floating corpses appeared in Linhuai County at night on the Jianghuai Road Canal. None of the deceased died by drowning, but were made to look like they had fallen into the water. Shen Yanzhi, a subordinate officer of the Criminal and Prison Department, was ordered to investigate the case and found that it was just the tip of the iceberg of a huge network. The true identities of the three corpses: one is Zhao Guanming, an official of the Transport Department, who is actually the secret envoy of the Yushitai; one is Zhao's follower; and the other is the supervising Yushi who made an unannounced visit to the capital. All three were silenced for investigating salt smuggling. The method used by the murderer - blowing in the drug through a reed pipe and faking it into an accident - was exactly the same as the "suicide" of Shen Yanzhi's father fifteen years ago, the "framed execution" of Detective Inspector Pei Xingyuan ten years ago, and the murder of the Lu family thirty years ago. Shen Yanzhi, Pei Xingzhou, and Lu Guanlan, three men with very different backgrounds, came together in Jianghuai because of this murder case. Shen Yanzhi believes in evidence but not confessions, which represents the rationality of "law"; Pei Xingzhou, who has traveled all over the world and is familiar with the dark side, represents the edge of "action"; Lu Guanlan has insight into people's hearts and is good at rhetoric, representing the wisdom of "heart". From testing each other to fighting side by side, the three of them uncovered a secret alliance called "Qingyi Division" - it was not on any official roster, but was entangled in the fabric of the imperial court. It used legal procedures to do illegal things, and killed countless people with impunity in the past thirty years. From corpses in the Jianghuai River to the turmoil in Beijing, from salt smuggling to grain tax corruption, from single case investigation to systemic confrontation. The truth will eventually be revealed, but the real culprit can be caught, but the system cannot be overthrown overnight. On the day the case is concluded, one person enters Beijing, one person leaves, and one person stays behind - there is law in the world, but there are people outside the law.