The cold wind was like a knife, and the sky was overcast, as if it was about to collapse in an instant.
Standing at the head of the village, you can see that the village is not big, and most of them are adobe houses with thatched roofs, and there are only ten or twenty households. It was already evening, and there was no smoke from the kitchen. It was eerily quiet.
Luo Zhixian climbed down from the carriage and came to King Wei's horse. He said in a sympathetic tone: "There are not many families in this village. Because of this incident, all the males have been arrested. I'm afraid life will be difficult." .”
Is this explaining why the village is so quiet
King Wei didn't say much, he raised his hand, and the group went to the village.
Most likely the village had just experienced a turmoil. There were almost no people walking on the village road, and every house was closed tightly. However, if you observe carefully, you can still find people peeping behind the windows. They probably want to see what these people are doing.
He chose the only brick house in the village to stop, which was the house of Li Zheng's family. Seeing that it was getting late and it seemed that it was going to snow, it was better to find a place to settle down first.
Luozhi County sent the yamen servants in to call for someone, and after a while of shouting, a middle-aged peasant woman came out of the house.
After asking, I found out that Lizheng had also been taken away. The old man in the family was bedridden in shock because of the arrest of his son, and the children below were all young, so they had to come out to help.
The peasant woman called out a boy, who was not very old, only eight or nine years old.
The boy seemed unwilling, seeing the stubbornness in the eyes of Luo Zhixian and the government servants, the middle-aged peasant woman pulled him over and pushed him into the kitchen. He turned his face and said to cook, and then entered the kitchen.
Luo Zhixian had a dry smile on his face, and his eyes flickered: "Country women are ignorant, and have never seen any big scenes. I hope you will understand."
As he said that, he kicked the yamen servant next to him and asked him to help settle down. Don't neglect the imperial envoy.
There are three halls in total, one of which was originally occupied by an old man, and several yamen servants joined hands to move the old man out. The old man was so skinny that he was forcibly dragged off the kang.
Everyone frowned.
Wang Cheng hesitated to speak, Wei Wang coldly reprimanded: "What are you doing?!"
Luo Zhixian ran over and shouted again and again what he was doing.
A few yamen servants felt aggrieved, they looked at King Wei and Luozhi County.
Luo Zhixian froze with a smile on his face, and said impatiently: "Is this how you are told to do things? Hurry up and move people back!"
Huo Wu came over and said: "Okay, move the old man in quickly, it's just a temporary stay for one night, just tidy up a place for His Highness to rest, and the others will make do with it."
As he said that, he ordered his men to go down to fix the horses, and this time was over.
Ever since he entered the house, Wang Cheng felt that everything was weird, and felt that the villagers were pitiful, but also thought that the weather would make people like this, and he was afraid that the imperial envoy would dislike the house and bury it.
Isn't it Mai Tai
But this is the case in the countryside. There is a kang in the main room, and there is a stove for burning the kang, and there is black and yellow smoke everywhere. There is only one oil lamp in the room, and there is still a shallow layer of lamp oil. After being lit, the wick glows yellowish green, and people who don't know it think the house is haunted.
Fortunately, most of Wei Wang's entourage are guards and soldiers who have seen blood. The men are full of yang, so they are not afraid of such ghosts and monsters.
Luozhi County was busy and asked the yamen servants to go out again, saying that he was asking the villagers to borrow oil lamps and rice noodles.
With so many people, there must be stuttering at night.
King Wei didn't dislike the mess in the house, so he went into the house and sat down on the kang, while the others stood in the house or at the door, looking more and more cramped and breathless.
Wang Cheng withdrew, thought for a while and entered the kitchen.
When he entered, the peasant woman was beating her son. She said it was beating but it didn't look like it. Anyone who beat someone would cry while beating, and there was no strength in the slap.
"This... aunt, the child is still young, even if he makes a mistake, he can't beat him."
Wang Cheng wanted to persuade him, but when the peasant woman saw him coming in, she hugged her son in her arms, and the mother and son looked at him warily.
Well, he's not a bad guy.
Unable to stay any longer, Wang Cheng had no choice but to go outside to the yard again.
The guards were busy feeding the horses and looking for a place to put the horses, and the people in and out of the yard were very busy. On the contrary, Huo Wu was quite leisurely, still holding the grass in his mouth, standing under the eaves with his hands folded and watching.
"I think the people in this village are weird. It may not be easy for the imperial envoy to try the case." Wang Cheng approached and spoke.
Huo Wu glanced at him, with a faint smile: "It's really not easy, so be more vigilant at night."
Wang Cheng scratched the back of his head, what does trial have to do with being vigilant at night
After a while, the yamen servants who went out to look for things came back, and they didn't know where they got the food, but they carried a bag of noodles, a chicken, and two jars of pickles, saying that they only found these things.
Luozhi County was so angry that he had to put on a smile and ask if he had given money to the villagers. People in their yamen were not allowed to take things from the people. He waved his hands again and again and asked them to take care of it, so that everyone could fill their stomachs.
Wang Cheng felt like he was choking when he saw Luo Zhixian like that, but he was just a small book office, and he was not the leader here, so it was hard to say anything, but he made up his mind to go back and report to the master of Mingfu Taiwan.
This Luo Zhi County is not a good official at first sight!
The rice was ready soon, and the steamed buns made of sorghum noodles were yellowish and black.
The chicken was also cooked, and it was specially made for Wei Wang, and the others were steamed buns with pickled vegetables. A group of people ate something casually to fill their stomachs, and then found a place to settle down.
Wang Cheng was arranged to live in a room with several guards.
They are all big men, and they are not very clean. After driving for a day, their feet will definitely sweat, so when the boots are taken off, the whole room will smell of feet.
The key point is that he can't say it yet, so he can only hold back.
The kang was too hard, and he couldn't sleep, especially when several guards were snoring, and the snoring sound could turn corners, which made him gain insight.
Thinking of what Huo Wu said to him, Wang Cheng tossed and turned and couldn't sleep anymore, his bladder was swollen uncomfortably, he endured it and decided to go to the latrine.
As soon as the door was opened, the cold wind rolled in, bringing a refreshing coolness inside, and fine raindrops came over.
Instead of snow, it rained.
Wang Cheng didn't know where the latrine was, and planned to find a place outside to solve it. Before he had walked a few steps, someone asked him what he was doing in the dark.
He hurriedly explained his identity, and said that he wanted to go to the toilet.
The person in the darkness stopped making a sound, he trembled out of the earth wall under the dim moonlight, just untied his belt, thought for a while and walked a little to the side.
There was a sound of water, and I felt much more comfortable after solving it.
Wang Cheng put on his belt and was about to enter the yard when he suddenly saw a fire flickering not far away, and there seemed to be many footsteps faintly.
He couldn't help but tremble, and hurried back to the yard, wanting to call someone. But before the words came out, someone suddenly stopped him from behind and gagged his mouth.
The man who restrained him snorted and patted him on the shoulder.
Wang Cheng looked back and saw that it was Huo Wu.
In the courtyard, there was still silence.
At this time, the door of the main room was suddenly opened, and King Wei stood there wearing a black cloak.
Wang Cheng's eyes were wide open, Huo Wu gestured to him to keep him quiet, and then he stepped forward and reported in a low voice: "Your Highness, our people have arrived long ago, and we will give them a catch later!" .”
Everything that followed was chaotic, and Wang Cheng was very chaotic anyway.
Until Luozhi County was tied up and thrown to the ground of the main house by Wuhuada, Wang Cheng saw the flames outside, and it seemed that the sleeping village woke up all at once. There were shouts of beating and killing, horses neighing, the sound of weapons colliding and piercing screams.
Under the hazy yellow light, King Wei sat on the kang, with his legs supported by one hand, his face was as sinking as water, but as stable as Mount Tai.
Seeing this, Wang Cheng gradually calmed down.
I don't know how long it has passed, those movements finally disappeared, only the sound of footsteps coming and going, against the swaying firelight, it looks like a lot of people.
A tall and strong man wearing armor and holding a large knife rolled in. The knife was still dripping with blood, which was invisible under the dim light, but he felt a bloody smell rushing towards him.
"My lord, I am lucky that my subordinates are not disgraceful."
It turns out that King Wei was not defenseless after he realized that something else was wrong.
Although he didn't know what else was going on in this, but he knew he had to be careful not to jump over the wall in a hurry, so he deliberately tried it out, and sure enough someone came after him.
Afterwards, Luozhi County deliberately took them around a long way, which made King Wei realize that there might be something waiting for him in Yangxingzhai Village.
Maybe there was something else wrong with the case, so Luo Zhixian dragged them under the pretext of actually ordering someone to make up for it, or maybe it was something else. In any case, the son of a thousand gold can't sit still, and the king of Wei never does anything he is not sure about.
And this time he seemed to only bring twenty guards with him, but in fact there was a team behind him to protect him, because he knew that in Shanxi, there were many people who wanted his life.
This team was led by He Longcheng, commander of the Shanxi capital, led by a thousand households under him.
This time King Wei went to Shanxi for disaster relief. Before leaving, Emperor Jianping privately gave him an imperial edict to mobilize the garrison of the local guards. He Longcheng is a member of Emperor Jianping, which is why He Longcheng has been reclusive since the king of Wei came to Shanxi, and he is not willing to get involved in the affairs of those people in the Zhouhui.
Luozhi County's intentional delay hit Wei Wang's arms, and when he was halfway there, he ordered a guard to leave the team privately and went to find backup.
Sure enough, when we arrived at Yangxingzhai Village, everything was strange, but Luozhi County deliberately put on a show, and Wei Wang watched him act until someone attacked at night, and it happened that the inside and outside worked together to make dumplings for this group of people.
Luo Zhixian's face was pale.
He was tied up and thrown on the ground. No one paid attention to him for so long. It was the twelfth lunar month, and the weather was frighteningly cold. He had already been frozen stiff.
At this time, the strong man came in, and the big knife dripping with blood was right in front of him. He was so shocked that his eyes were tearing apart, and he flinched and wanted to retreat, but he couldn't move.
Under such circumstances, it is natural to ask what to say.
The king of Wei sent someone to arrest Meng Xinyang overnight, and the whole matter finally came to light.
It turned out that the so-called grain robbery case was actually a trap. Meng Xinyang responded to the imperial court's recruitment to transport grain to the border, but turned around and found Luozhi County to collude with a fake case.
His excuse was that he had already prepared the food, but when he went out to do errands, his money-hungry younger brother was greedy for the high price of food in the market and sold all the food in the store. He got the document to transport the army food, but the food he turned back home to collect was sold out, but the imperial court had to deal with errands, otherwise it would be a crime of deceiving the emperor.
Luozhi County was greedy for money, and after taking advantage of Meng Xinyang, he colluded with him in the fraud case.
In order to make the false case look flawless, many people in Yangxingzhai Village were arrested in the name of grabbing food. This is also the reason why the family members of Li Zheng's family are so abnormal, but the woman, child and boy knew that the dog official harmed people, but they dared not sue for grievances, just thinking that these adults were all the same.
The loopholes in the grain robbery case were actually deliberately left by Meng Xinyang in order to attract imperial envoys to investigate the case. When the imperial envoy left, he turned around and threatened Luo Zhi County to submit. Even if Luo Zhi County did not submit, he still had other options, so I won't go into details.
The reason why Luozhi County deliberately delays time on the road is to wait for Meng Xinyang to arrange people to ambush in the village. This place is located in a remote place, so it is convenient to do anything at night, when the fire goes down, there will be no traces.
In fact, if Meng Xinyang hadn't planned so well, he wouldn't have waited until the middle of the night to strike in the dead of night. With the manpower around King Wei, the reinforcements would arrive in no hurry, so it wasn't impossible to succeed.
But in broad daylight, the assassination of the imperial envoy was really shocking, and there were so many villagers in the village, it would be inconvenient to silence them afterwards, so Meng Xinyang thought it best to do it at night.
This is probably the so-called guilt of being a thief, and the so-called organ is too clever to calculate, and it has missed Qingqing's life.
There must be other people behind Meng Xinyang. How could he, a businessman, attack the imperial envoy because of the delay in military rations
It is possible to use such a person and lay such a net, which is not what ordinary people do. However, Meng Xinyang is also a hard-headed person, no matter how severe the torture is, he will not be recruited, but Wei Wang used those who assassinated him to follow the clues and found out the Xinzhou Guard and the Inspection Department.
Meng Xinyang has no one on hand, and he wants to kill the imperial envoy just by relying on some idle generals, which is undoubtedly a dream. Xinzhou is close to Datong, which is one of the nine borders. Under military and political control, Meng Xinyang can only borrow people from the local guards or the border garrison.
After King Wei returned to Taiyuan, He Longcheng went out to screen the local guards in person, even with Lei Ting's means, but after finding out the troops stationed at the border, the clues were cut off, but Zhou Hui was thrown out by the other party who abandoned his car to protect the commander. It was also a surprise.
The Zhouhui was recruited by Meng Xinyang.
According to what he said, Zhou Hui took revenge because of his personal grievances with King Wei.
He was jealous that King Wei took his power as soon as he arrived there, and embarrassed him again and again. Zhou Hui probably also knew that King Wei would not let him go after returning to the court, so he simply acted preemptively and used Meng Xinyang Layout to assassinate King Wei.
As for why Meng Xinyang got involved with Zhou Hui
It turned out that Meng Xinyang was originally from Shanxi. The Emperor Taizu of the previous dynasty encouraged the development of China and France, and the Shanxi people made a lot of money by relying on this development of China and France.
Escorting the military rations to the border crossing, firstly, the mountains were high and the water was far away, and the vehicles and horses were exhausted. Second, the road wasted too much. Therefore, many merchants simply bought land nearby, hired tenants to come to cultivate, and exchanged for salt after harvesting the grain.
This Meng family is one of them.
Zhou Hui is the chief grain officer of Shanxi Governor's Grain Road, and he deals with grain. The Meng family also made a fortune from grain and is one of the largest grain merchants in Shanxi. The two communicated with each other, colluded secretly to lower the market price, collected low prices and sold them at high prices, reselling official grains with old grains as new grains, and the partnership made an unknown amount of money.
There are other dirty things, so I won't go into details, all in all, the two of them are the same.
According to this, it is not impossible for Zhou Hui to assassinate the imperial envoy due to personal grievances.
But everyone knows that this is a perfunctory statement, but the reason behind it couldn't be simpler, that is, someone wants Wei Wang's life.
As for who? The left is just those few.
But the case could no longer be investigated, so it had to be closed.
Now that the border is fighting, civil strife will only delay the military plane, and no one can afford it. Besides, Shanxi is still fighting against disasters, and its own priority is to maintain stability, and it can't cause too many troubles, otherwise it will put the cart before the horse.
So Wei Wang can only suffer from this boring loss.
However, there are two unexpected surprises, which can be regarded as fringe benefits.
One is that Meng Xinyang committed such a serious crime, the Meng family naturally wanted to ransack the house. This time, King Wei ordered his confidants to supervise the house raid this time, and a large amount of grain was copied from the granary of the Meng family.
As for the other joy - because of the thunderous tactics of the imperial envoys, even the Meng family was raided, no matter what the inside story is, many local businessmen will not be able to avoid it.
There are many businessmen who like to make money when the country is in distress, so some people hold a lot of food in their hands, intending to take the opportunity to earn a high price. Who knows that after the imperial envoys arrived in Shanxi, they first distributed relief food widely, and then used high-pressure measures to order food distribution everywhere. Stores, without the permission of the government, are not allowed to sell grain privately.
These grains suddenly turned into hot potatoes, and they dared not put them outside.
Now that something happened to the Meng family, I dare not let it out, for fear of being convicted. So when some local officials came to persuade them to donate again, thinking about the favorable conditions offered by the court, and thinking that the food would be worthless if it was out of date, some people reluctantly took out some.
With these two batches of grain, it can be regarded as a temporary solution to the crisis of food shortage in Shanxi.
This case kept King Wei busy until February. On the other side, Taoist Master Qingfeng left Beijing in the twelfth lunar month and walked on the road for nearly two months. He didn't arrive in Fuzhou until the day when the dragon raised his head.