After releasing the prisoners, the story of Zhu Ping'an's miraculous solution to unsolved cases quickly spread throughout Jingnan County and continued to spread to surrounding counties and prefectures. Zhu Ping'an's name was mentioned more and more frequently by the people.
However, in the process of being passed down by word of mouth, it somehow took on a mythical color. Some people said that the new county magistrate could communicate with the Yin and Yang, judge the human world during the day and the underworld at night; some people said that the new county magistrate was the top scholar, the Wenquxing who had descended to earth, and had the help of the gods in heaven, etc.
"What a bunch of idiots! Zhu Ping'an got a case by sheer luck, but this bunch of ignorant fools actually gave him the title of someone who knows yin and yang, the god of literature, and has brothers from heaven! If Zhu Ping'an gets lucky again, these idiots will definitely praise him to the sky!"
After hearing the legend about Zhu Ping'an's ability to solve unsolved cases, County Magistrate Zhang angrily smashed the teacup in his hand.
"The county magistrate was just lucky. He ran into a thief who was even more timid than a mouse. He was frightened out of his wits... He arrested twelve suspects at once. How could he know how to investigate a case? It's simply ridiculous. And he even made up his mind about yin and yang. These nosy people are really a bunch of idiots."
"People fantasize about what they lack. Jingnan has been lacking a decent county magistrate for a long time. Believe it or not, even if it was a dog wearing a black hat and sitting in the main hall, these ignorant people would still exaggerate the dog into the reincarnation of Justice Bao, who knows everything about yin and yang... They might even say it's the reincarnation of Roaring Sky Dog, with Erlang Shen from heaven helping him."
"That's right, that's right..."
As the bootlickers of County Magistrate Zhang, the six clerks were all emotional and spoke sharply, trashing Zhu Ping'an.
Damn luck?!
not necessarily!
Yao Zhubu didn't think so. Although he also echoed Zhang Xiancheng and scolded the people for being ignorant and Zhu Ping'an for being unlucky, he was secretly afraid of Zhu Ping'an. The impression Zhu Ping'an left on him during the trial that day was too deep to be explained by simple unlucky explanation.
Anyway, after the serial theft case was solved quickly, Zhu Ping'an's name was mentioned more and more often by the people of Jingnan County. People felt that this time, the county magistrate seemed to be really different from the previous ones. People's hope for the future was rekindled.
Just when the people of Jingnan rekindled their hope, the sea surface dozens of miles away from Jingnan was covered with a sea of black sails. Large ships, small boats, smuggling ships, merchant ships, armed ships and other ships were mixed together, with mixed flags, stretching for miles, as if endless, carrying the sunshine, holding up the dark clouds, breaking through the waves, cutting through the ocean waves, and rushing towards the shore with momentum and murderous intent.
"Into the れる, into the れる, もうじきだよ..."
"Ahhh... I finally see the coast. My sword is thirsty and my black bird is thirsty too! Today I want to kill, rob and have sex to my heart's content. I've been suffocating for the past few months."
"Haha, I can have fun robbing again..."
"Kill, kill..."
"Faster, faster..."
As the ill-intentioned fleet sped forward, all kinds of dialects, bird calls, and obscenities from the boats resounded across the sea.
The closer we are, the clearer it is. There are hundreds of people on the big ships, dozens of people on the medium ships, and more than ten people on the small ships. With so many ships in a black mass, roughly speaking, there must be at least seven or eight thousand people.
Everyone on the boat carried a weapon. The weapons were not uniform, some were new, some were old. There were Japanese swords, spears, broadswords, harpoons, butcher knives, bows and arrows, shields... ...a wide variety of weapons, and there were even quite a few bird guns.
Although these people spoke a mixture of dialects, some spoke the coastal dialect of the Ming Dynasty, and some spoke Japanese, but their clothing and appearance were generally the same, almost all of them had shaved heads and wore Japanese clothes. However, some of them had standard shaved heads, bare feet, crotch pants, spoke Japanese language, carried three-foot Japanese swords on their waists, and looked very fierce. This type of people accounted for about half of them; some simply cut their hair on the top of their heads, painted it, pushed their topknots back, spoke the coastal dialect of the Ming Dynasty, and looked very strange. This type of people accounted for more than half of them.
It was obvious that these people were Japanese pirates. There were real Japanese and fake Japanese on the fleet. Those Japanese pirates with shaved heads and bird-speaking tongues were the real ones, while those who looked like Japanese but spoke the coastal dialect of the Ming Dynasty were the fake ones.
The reason why the fake Japanese imitated the Japanese by "shaved heads and bare feet", wearing Japanese clothes, and imitating the Japanese in all aspects, in addition to the reason of using a big banner to pretend to be something important, there is a more important reason, which is to conceal their identity.
The Ming Code issued by Emperor Hongwu had strict restrictions on overseas trade. It was strictly forbidden to carry iron goods, copper coins, satin, silk and other contraband items to sea. Anyone who traded with foreigners would be beheaded if caught. It was also forbidden for private citizens to build large seagoing ships with more than two masts, which was also a capital crime. For those who colluded with the Japanese to burn, kill and loot the Ming Dynasty, such as the fake Japanese, they were considered to be guilty of "treason and rebellion", and their punishment was even more severe. All those who "treason and rebellion" were executed by slow slicing, and the grandfather, father, son, grandson, uncle, brother, nephew, cousin of the same clan, grandfather, father-in-law, son-in-law, and domestic servants who lived with the same clan, all of whom were over 16 years old, were beheaded.
Therefore, in order to avoid being implicated in the crimes, these fake Japanese tried every possible means to conceal their identities. Not only did they hide their real names, but they also imitated the Japanese, shaved their heads, wore Japanese clothes, and pretended to be Japanese.
In the center of the fleet, there were three armed smuggling ships, all flying Japanese flags. On the largest armed merchant ship in the middle, three Japanese pirate leaders were sitting together around a table.
"That fake monk Xu Hai intended to assassinate Wang Zhi, but was discovered by Wang Zhi. Now they are on the verge of a fight and have no time to care about us. Tie Jin Gang, Heihachiro, we can take this opportunity to plunder and expand our forces."
The big pirate leader in the middle reached out and picked up the wine bowl, and toasted the other two pirate leaders with a big bowl.
"Master Shen is right. Over the past year, Wang Zhi has been suppressing us to the point where we are almost unable to breathe. We finally have this opportunity and we cannot let it go. Wang Zhi and his men are eating meat and drinking wine with big mouthfuls, so it's not too much for us to just drink some soup." The Japanese pirate leader on the right had a full beard. He finished the wine in one gulp and reached out to wipe the wine off his beard.
"Hey, Master Shen, Iron King Kong, you are right. We must have a good time this time. Your Ming Dynasty is so rich and your women are so beautiful. My men have been thirsty for a long time."
The Japanese pirate on the left is a real Japanese, with a shaved head and bare feet, wearing a large armor, and speaking Chinese fluently. On the left side of his waist is a three-foot Japanese sword, and on the right side of his waist is a shovel-shaped hat with a front-standing star hat.