Station
The post station is not small, with a main hall, a back hall, wing rooms, warehouses, gallery rooms, stables, and some even have post boats. No matter the weather, there are postmen carrying important urgent messages running along the post road every day carrying briefcases.
Officials traveling on official business can enjoy free food and accommodation provided by the station according to their official rank. The counselor is a fourth-grade official, and the treatment is certainly good. However, at this time, he only drinks a few simple food and drinks. He is in his forties with an old look on his face and eyebrows. The wrinkles are deep.
At this time, a person came forward: "Sir, a Taoist priest just handed over a file."
This man was a middle-aged man. He was a little nervous and sweaty when handing over the files. He unconsciously touched the ten taels of silver in his sleeve. For ten taels of silver, it was worth getting scolded.
"What Taoist file?" The counselor smiled hoarsely, looked at the servant and said, "How much money did you receive to deliver the file to me?"
The servant trembled and knelt down quickly: "My lord, I, I."
The servant touched the silver in his hand, stammering and speechless. Seeing this, the counselor waved his hand: "That's all, they say the seventh-rank official in front of the prime minister, but sir, I was promoted to counselor and took charge of water conservancy. It is said that I have been promoted, but the money is not under my control, and the people are not under my control. It is just in the name of a name, which makes you suffer. How long do you think the front door has been deserted since I took office?"
The Daxu Manufacturing Industry Department set up the Capital Water Department, with one doctor, the fifth rank, and one to two Yuanwailang, the fifth rank. However, the fourth rank, the chief minister, was only in charge of water conservancy in one province, which shows the embarrassment.
Hearing what the counselor said, the servant almost burst into tears and whispered, "Sir, it's been one year and six months."
"Hey, after a year and six months, there were some people at the beginning, but now they think I am an idle official, so they refuse to come to the door and ring the bell. It's really disgusting." The counselor drank wine, his face turned red and he cursed.
After cursing for a while, his anger calmed down a bit, and then he smiled and said, "Look, what is this thing brought up? Could it be that the Taoist temple in the city is trying to find some connections? But I am a sinecure, what can I do?"
The kneeling servant wanted to say something to comfort the master, but he couldn't.
The counselor didn't take it seriously. He put down the wine glass casually, picked up the file and started flipping through it. He just glanced at it and was shocked. He flipped through the file repeatedly, with some surprise in his eyes and ecstasy in his hands. Some trembled.
"Master, what bad thing are you remembering? Master atones, master atones, I shouldn't be greedy for money." The servant kowtowed quickly.
The counselor did not listen to the servant's begging for mercy. He stood up and walked around for a few steps before he came to his senses and looked at the file in his hand carefully.
As he watched, the counselor suddenly slapped his palm on the table, causing the wine bottles on the table to jump. He poured a lot of wine and laughed: "Stop kowtowing. Come on, follow me to Yucheng Mansion."
"Yucheng Mansion?" This person was a little confused. This mansion was far away in the corner of Yingzhou.
"Yes, don't notify the local government. We will go incognito."
Yucheng Mansion·Yufeng Pavilion
This mountain is not far from Fucheng, about a hundred meters away. At this time of spring, the grass and trees are growing green leaves. At this time, it is raining lightly, and it is dark. The counselor is wearing a raincoat and climbing up the stairs. He looks like an ordinary middle-aged man, and it turns out that There was no one watching the pavilion at this time, not a single person. The counselor was not in a hurry to dig, pointing to the Yufeng Pavilion and said: "This palace was hit by floods in the past. The prefect wrote a letter begging for rent reduction and suspension of money and food. The imperial court approved the memorial. Please, issue a decree to exempt me from food for a year."
"The next year the prefect built a pavilion, named Yufeng Pavilion, to commemorate the emperor's grace."
As he spoke, he looked around and saw raindrops falling. The counselor looked at the rain scene from a bird's eye, and his eyes were full of melancholy. He didn't know how long it took before he sighed: "According to the records in the information, it is in front of the pavilion. You can dig it up and see if it is true or false. It became apparent immediately.”
"Yes!" The men had prepared tools and started digging. They were very lucky. After digging three feet, they suddenly reached the point.
"Slow down, slow down!" When the counselor took a look, his calmness and calmness suddenly disappeared. He came closer to look at it and saw a wooden box. The wooden box was ordinary and half rotten.
The counselor was overjoyed and said, "Hurry, open it quickly."
The servant confessed and opened the wooden box. There was no rotten smell inside, only a skeleton was inside. Looking at the skeleton, the Senate President let out a long breath: "You didn't lie to me."
"Sir, is there a bronze medal inside?" The servant took it out and handed it to the counselor carefully. The counselor saw that it was covered with copper embroidery, but the handwriting was still legible. It said "guerrilla"
"Haha, this case is big." The Senate President laughed: "Come back with me. I will report it to the Governor and ask the king to find other corpses and capture this prisoner in one fell swoop."
When he said this, the muscles on his face were twitching, showing he was extremely hateful.
Anji Mansion Prison
The foundation is made of big bluestone, and the walls are stone walls. The prisons on both sides are divided into cells of different sizes with wooden fences. There is a passage in the middle. A cold and damp atmosphere permeates the prison, making people feel sick for a while.
At this time, the smell of blood was added to the stench, which made people sick. Bai Zeng looked at the few people in front of him. These women were originally all colored, but now they have been tortured for who knows how many times. They must have been handled by the jailer again. Their clothes were blue. Their bodies were covered with sweat and blood, and they all had pale faces. One of them had a leg that was so swollen it was so swollen that it was as big as the mouth of a bowl, and several of his toes were peeled off.
Seeing this, Bai Zeng asked, "Have you confessed?"
A prison officer said flatteringly: "Even though these are women, they have been tortured several times and refused to confess. Now they are all fainting."
Bai Zeng was silent for a moment, and then he sighed and said, "Master, I'm still waiting to be impatient. What do you think you should do about this matter?"
The prison officer sneered and said: "The officer's heart is as strong as a furnace. It is not easy to get a confession. I wrote the document yesterday, and then I grabbed my hand and pressed my fingerprints."
With a wave of his hand, a jailer stepped forward and handed the confession to the table. The jailer then said: "Don't look at these women now, but they are actually very colorful and have practiced martial arts. They will wash them off later." Wash them and give them to the brothers to use. This taste is rare. When they are used up, they cut out the tongues of these women, pick out their hand tendons and hamstrings, and say that they want to escape from prison or commit suicide out of fear of crime."
"What if he died?" Bai Zeng asked.
The prison officer laughed when he heard this: "How can there be immortal people in prison? If you report a serious illness, you will be dead. As long as you are not a big shot, you will die."
After hearing this, Deputy Steward Bai Zeng suddenly remembered the interrogation in the Heshen Temple. Looking at the confession, he couldn't help but break into a cold sweat: "Some things have to be done. Unless we flee immediately, where will our family be placed? "
With this thought in mind, he took the confession and turned around to go out.
Prefect's Yamen·Study
The prefect is giving instructions: "River beach reclamation is a matter instructed by the imperial court. I have inspected this Luo river beach. The water diverted from it will be fertile farmland. Thousands of acres can be cultivated. I will come to inspect it next year."
After finishing writing, Deputy Steward Bai Zeng reported outside the door: "Sir, the matter has been settled."
The prefect took the confession, glanced at it, and sneered: "Okay, okay, go and order people, and come with me to loot those Taoist temples!"
"yes!"
The government office has dozens of acres and a very large size. As soon as the order was given, the second class of government officials followed. The prefect was about to lead people out, when suddenly he saw an ox cart arriving and a person got out. The prefect looked like this was a person he did not want to see. He was wearing a Neat and tidy, it is a fourth-grade reference.
This man was fighting with him at first, but he relied on King Lu to get the position of magistrate, and demoted this man openly and secretly. He was very resentful. When he saw the counselor appear, the magistrate was not afraid. He was startled and smirked: "Sir, you will not inform me when your water conservancy inspection comes to my house."
This is actually a metaphor for the irregularity of the council. If you want to inspect water conservancy, you have to notify the prefecture and county according to the system. How can there be any reason to launch a surprise attack
After hearing this, the counselor was not angry, his eyes were blazing, and he suddenly shouted, "Come here, take off the black gauze hat of the prefect Yue Bai and take it off!"
"Yes!" Several people jumped out from behind.
"How dare you." The prefect was furious: "I am a dignified fifth-grade prefect. Why do you take off my official title and take care of me if I don't obey the order?"
This is of course very particular.
If you take off your hat, you will retain your official status, but if you take off your position and take off your official robe, you will become white. This is already a very serious matter.
"Of course I dare. I obeyed the governor's order and asked for the king's order flag!" The counselor laughed ferociously, and saw someone behind him holding up the blue king's order flag. At this time, the person who rushed forward did not hesitate and held it in one fell swoop. Wu Sha Mao was taken away and he was pushed to the ground.
The officials who followed the prefect quickly took a step back. Bai Zeng, the deputy steward, was even more frightened and sat down on the ground, stirring up dust.
The counselor walked around the prefect for a few steps, then came to the prefect and looked at the prefect who was kneeling down. At this moment, he felt very happy and said coldly: "Your incident has happened. The governor has already been ordered. Let's revolutionize you first." Wu Sha Mao, report it to the court for processing."
After saying that, he threw down another note: "Let him see it."
The follower Jia soldiers let go of their hands. The magistrate's body was covered with dust and mud, and his mouth was broken and there was some blood. At this time, his hands were shaking a little. When he picked them up and took a look, his face turned pale and cold sweat suddenly oozed out. This was more than ten years ago. I don’t want to expose my worries from before to now!
It took a long time to come to his senses, and he struggled and said: "This is a slander. There is no real evidence. Even the governor has no right to punish me. I will give you a copy of the excerpt."
The counselor gritted his teeth tightly: "Did you know that we have gone to Yufeng Pavilion and dug up heads and waist tags, as well as your old house? I invited the governor's soldiers and the king's flag to directly seal the courtyard and dig out After more than a dozen corpses, armors, and high-ranking military officials were found, you are finished."
After hearing these words, the prefect went limp for a moment and murmured: "Impossible, impossible."
The counselor sneered: "The corpse has not been touched for these years. You must think that no one has discovered it, so you can sit back and relax?"
The prefect collapsed on the ground as if his muscles, bones and cartilage had been pulled away. At this time, Pei Ziyun led the girl in. The prefect looked at the person and suddenly understood: "It's you, it's you, you..."
"It's me!" Pei Ziyun said coldly. Listening to this hoarse voice, even the unrelated counselors around him couldn't help but shudder.
At this time, Pei Ziyun stepped forward and approached the magistrate, whispering in his ear: "Do you really think that we Taoists are weak persimmons? There are gods three feet above our heads. Who has offended us? Unless he is a morally perfect person, who can escape unscathed?"
The prefect's face suddenly turned pale.
Pei Ziyun turned around: "Let's go to the prison to pick him up!"
(End of chapter)