The movement in the house stopped only when I heard the people outside walking away.
Several people looked at each other for a while, Zhao'er was a little embarrassed, Xue Tingxiang was no better than her, let alone Xiaohong and Hu San.
Hu San coughed and whispered: "The adults rest first, and the little ones step back."
Xue Tingxiang nodded, and Hu San and Xiaohong withdrew.
Zhao'er glanced at Xue Tingyan, then turned to go to the medicinal wine in the cabinet, which she always kept. When she was in the capital, she often brought it to Xue Tingyan to rub her wrist and calf.
She squatted down to take off Xue Tingxiang's shoes and socks, and sure enough, her ankle was quite swollen. At this time, Xiaohong had already brought a basin of hot water, and after Zhao'er took it, she let her go down to rest.
First soaked the feet in hot water, and then rubbed the ankles with medicinal wine.
Zhao'er rubbed him and said, "I'm afraid it will take a few days for your foot to heal. You have to think about how to perfunctory Fan Xiancheng tomorrow."
The trick under the light, the blushing blush, is the afterglow left after the excitement.
Now she is in the double decade, and it is the best time in a woman's life. The big almond eyes, the high nose bridge, and the slender and dark crescent eyebrows show her stubbornness and strength. Although the skin is not as white as suet and white jade, it is not black, but a very healthy light honey color.
Zhao'er can't stand the sun. Originally, she had already whitened her complexion in Beijing, but she left Beijing for Zhejiang on a hot summer day. Although she didn't bask in the sun on the way, she still got a little tan.
"There is a Hedong lion at home, and my husband is not able to recover." Xue Tingxiang said with a grin.
Zhao'er was stunned for a moment, and then he realized that he was talking about himself, and he made a heavy movement in his hand, which almost didn't make Xue Tingxiang cry out in pain. Fortunately, she let go of her hand soon, and he was about to hold back the shouting.
"You murdered your husband!"
Zhao'er glared at him, then packed up and washed his hands, and when he came back, Xue Tingxiang was already on the couch, coaxing Honger to sleep.
Silent all night.
The next day, all the yamen in the yamen found that their adults were lame.
Inevitably someone asked, and the adult said that he accidentally slapped his foot. But it was obvious that no one could be deceived by these words, and soon someone knew that the adult made a mistake last night and was taught a lesson by his wife.
Only then did the people in the yamen know that the usual very kind and amiable lady was actually a Hedong lion.
"Only villains and women are difficult to support." Xue Tingxiang heard the following talking about him, so angry that he stood in the second hall, jumping and scolding.
Hearing his angry scolding below, they all shook their heads and snickered.
As the limelight became increasingly tight outside, Xue Tingxiang was very concerned about catching Japanese pirates and asked several times a day. If it weren't for his inconvenience now, he would even plan to go out to fight bandits in person.
Fan Dazhu had a headache when he asked him, but he didn't expect this bookish magistrate to be so emotional.
It was also Xue Tingxiang who was very long-winded. Every time he asked, he would ask very detailed questions, from where the Japanese pirates were haunted, to how many people were sent by the guards, and even guessing with Fan Dazhu about the hiding places of the Japanese pirates.
Fan Dazhu had a guilty conscience, and being questioned by him like this, he had to keep his nerves tense all the time, for fear that he had said something wrong.
On this day, someone came again and said that the adults were invited, and Fan Dazhu felt a little irritable in his heart. He couldn't even wish to tell the whole story. In the end, it was a critical moment, and he didn't dare to add to it. He just wanted to wait for the past few days to talk about it.
After I went there, things seemed a little out of place.
What was wrong was Xue Tingyan's face.
Xue Tingxiang is much better now, but he is still a little lame when walking. He sneered at Fan Dazhu, his eyes were like a snake staring at its prey.
Fan Dazhu panicked in his heart, and pretended to be okay to ask anything.
Xue Tingxiang sneered exaggeratedly before saying, "Bring people in."
Hu San walked in from the outside, followed by two of Xue Tingxiang's entourage, who were carrying a man with disheveled hair in their hands, but they couldn't see his face clearly, but just looking at his clothes, Fan Dazhu's heart couldn't stop falling. .
He was still pretending to be stupid: "Sir, is this?"
"Fan Xiancheng looks familiar to this person?"
Fan Dazhu was even more flustered in his heart, just as he was about to make a quibble, he heard Xue Tingwan scolding: "It's not that I said that you have a wine bag and a rice bag, so you can't catch it with just a few Japanese pirates. Look at you, this is not caught!"
Hu San's flattering flattery, of course, if there is no scar on his face, it would be more like it. He changed his usual taciturnity and said eloquently: "Master, it's not a small thing, those soldiers in the guardhouse are really useless. It's only by your strategizing and calculating that you can catch this pirate leader, you I don't know, when Xiao caught this person, he was still sleeping in a residential house, and was held upright by Xiao Xiao, but unfortunately he was the only one, and no one else saw it..."
After listening to Hu San's words, Fan Dazhu was dumbfounded to find out, is this a blind cat meets a dead mouse
He really didn't expect that Xue Tingxiang pulled him every day to analyze all kinds of thoughts, but he actually moved his mind in private and let his entourage catch people without telling others, and he really let him catch them.
What to do now? Do you really want to tell the whole story, what if this Xue Tingxiang is a confessor? Fan Dazhu, Fan Xiancheng, was really not ready.
Just when he was at a loss, Xue Tingxiang also spoke.
With a smug look on his face, he looked at Fan Dazhu and said with a smile: "I really can't tolerate Master Ben not admiring him, but just a casual calculation, he caught this leader, and he didn't know if he would report it to the court, the court would reward Ben What do you want, sir?"
Fan Dazhu was dumbfounded by his thunder. After discovering that Mr. Xue was a young man with a young head and a bookishness, he also discovered that this man was arrogant and ignorant.
No wonder there is such a saying that human nature will gradually reveal itself with the passage of time. When Master Xue first took office, this was not the case at all.
Over there, after Xue Tingxiang fantasized about how the imperial court would reward him, it might be because he was in a good mood, and he made fun of the Japanese pirate leader who was lying on the ground like a dead dog.
"It's not that my master said, what are you doing wrong, what kind of pirates are you doing?"
Hu San interjected indifferently: "Master, this Japanese pirate was not chosen by himself. He was born of that kind. He was raised by his father and mother, and it cannot be changed."
Xue Tingxiang suffocated for a moment, and murmured: "It seems like this is true, my father raised me." Immediately, he changed his tone and continued to scold: "You are a Japanese pirate, but also a good Japanese pirate, you can come out and grab something when you have nothing to do. The common people, fall into my hands, Lord."
Hu San said again: "Master, this Japanese pirate is just a business, just like some people are officials and some people are pirates. He is not a Japanese pirate because he is a Japanese pirate, but he is a Japanese pirate..."
Xue Tingxiang stretched out his lame leg and kicked him, and Hu San fell to the ground.
"Can you speak? Are you the master, or am I the master? What kind of Japanese pirates are not Japanese pirates, I can't explain a word. You, you speak!" He pointed at Fan Dazhu and said.
Fan Dazhu subconsciously replied: "This Japanese pirate is not a Japanese pirate, but a person from the Japanese country. The Japanese country is too poor, and many people can't get enough to eat, so many people go out to sea and become ronin. This ronin is their local term. Let's use our Dachang. In other words, he came out to be a thief, a thief, and made a living by robbery.”
"Look, look!" Xue Tingxiang pointed at Fan Dazhu with his finger, and then went to Hu San: "Learn from others, Fan Xiancheng, see how easy they are to say."
Hu San glanced at Xue Tingxiang aggrievedly, and then at Fan Dazhu, before saying, "Young man knows."
Xue Tingxiang snorted, he heard it, and suddenly asked again, "Where did I just say?"
Fan Dazhu hung up on the spot and didn't pick it up, but Hu San seemed to know his master's character very well, and replied: "Master, you just said that even if you are a Japanese pirate, you must be a good Japanese pirate. It's in my hands, sir."
Xue Tingxiang nodded and continued to scold: "Do you know that when the Japanese pirates are caught by the government, they are going to be beheaded? Not only are they going to be beheaded, they may be Lingchi. Do you have the criminal law of Lingchi in Japanese? The so-called Lingchi means tying people up. On the pillar, the clothes are stripped off, and the body is wrapped tightly in the fishing net, and the executioner will cut it along the flesh exposed from the fishing net. The executioner with good craftsmanship can cut three thousand knives before death. When I was there, I saw one in Caishikou, and that person was called a miserable…”
Following Xue Tingxiang's bloody remarks, the Japanese pirate who was lying on the ground struggled, and he heard him shout in a strange tone: "Don't kill me, don't kill me..."
Xue Tingxiang said with a pity on his face: "It's not that the lord wants to kill you, but the law is as big as the sky. Don't you know that the imperial court attaches great importance to the troubles caused by the Japanese pirates in the coastal areas, and the reason why I came here to become an official, sir, is because the imperial court wants to seriously Punish people like you severely. You are the leader, and the crimes you have committed are certainly not trivial. The master will not kill you here, but will escort you to Beijing. The common people in Beijing have not seen any pirates. It's an eye-opener for them..."
Kojiro Tahara did not expect that this gentle Dachang official would be so vicious and vicious. Even if in their Japanese country, the enemy is caught, and the big deal is to commit suicide by caesarean section.
He was already flustered when he was caught, knowing that he was not a hero in the Japanese country, let alone a ronin. Those who can be called ronin are all warriors of their Japanese kingdom.
A samurai is not afraid of death. And he was just a refugee at the bottom of the Japanese country. Because he was dying of starvation, he followed the boat to Dachang.
Dachang is rich in land and products, and an ordinary commoner can live better than a middle-class warrior in the Japanese country. And the people here are so weak that they are afraid of Japanese pirates. So he became a Japanese pirate, looting and looting with the same group of Japanese who were also refugees.
It's a pity that he was arrested after a few days of peace. I thought I was going to die, but who knew that the other party actually approached him to negotiate a deal.
Tahara Kojiro doesn't want to die yet, and he has not had enough of what he wants. The flower girls in Dachang are so beautiful, much more beautiful than those noble girls in Japan who have white faces on their faces and are arrogant. If possible, Tahara Kojiro would like to stay in Dachang for the rest of his life, become a citizen of Dachang, marry a flower girl from Dachang, and live the days of sunrise and sunset.
But now that dream is shattered, he has to be caught and tied with a fishing net, cut off all the flesh on his body and die. This Dachang official is too vicious, he has never seen such a vicious person!
"Fan Xiancheng, Fan Xiancheng, please save me. That person said that even if we are caught, your government will protect us!" Kojiro Tahara said in his unfluent Chinese. His face was already distorted with fright. At this time, everyone could see his true face. It was a middle-aged man with pale face and small eyes with only a slit.
When many locals mentioned 'Japanese pirates', they were horrified, including Xue Tingxiang, who couldn't react. Is this a Japanese pirate who eats human flesh and drinks human blood
Fan Dazhu was a little panicked when he heard that the Japanese pirate was actually clinging to him.
"What did you say? This official doesn't understand, come here, quickly escort this Japanese pirate, and escort him to Beijing on another day..."
"Fan Xiancheng! Can you explain, what does he mean?" Xue Tingyan asked, squinting.
Fan Dazhu was stunned for a while when he was asked, but he could no longer pretend to be stupid. He sighed dejectedly, and said, "Sir, can you take this person down first, and then show off your official appearance?"
Xue Tingxiang winked, and Hu San asked people to drag Tahara Kojiro down.
"Okay, let's talk."
Fan Dazhu wiped his face and said in a low voice, "Actually, I didn't want to hide this from your lord, and you can't hide it, but it's just that the timing of your appointment is not a coincidence, just in time for the last trip of the year, I'm afraid that something will happen to your lord, It takes so much trouble.”
After that, Xue Tingxiang heard the so-called truth from Fan Dazhu's mouth.
In fact, the truth is exactly as he guessed, and this matter is not a secret in the local area.
As Fan Dazhu, he actually doesn't know much. He only knows that there are people who ship things out through the long-abandoned port in Dingyuan County, and the number is extremely large. And since he became the county magistrate, this phenomenon has already existed.
These people not only bribed the local county government, but also bribed the local guardhouse to escort them. There are even their people in the city, and they are extremely powerful.
A long time ago, these people were extremely arrogant, but in recent years, they have become more and more cautious in their actions because they are afraid of attracting the attention of the imperial court. Including Tahara Kojiro and these people, it was ordered from above. As for who did it, Fan Dazhu didn't know. He only knew that the county government should not arrest these people.
But Fan Dazhu didn't know, which didn't mean Xue Tingxiang didn't know.
This was just a little trick. In that dream, he plundered with pirates and obstructed the imperial court from opening the sea ban. And there are these Japanese pirates who point to where to fight, which has the effect of concealing people's eyes and ears. Not only can they deceive the court, but they can also make those ordinary people who don't know the inside information go out less often, so as to give these people a chance to do shady deeds.
These Xue Tingxiang had long guessed that he would play such a scene today, one is to get the truth from Fan Dazhu's mouth, and the other is to have other plans.
"Fan Xiancheng, since you are an official of the imperial court, you should know what an official of the imperial court does!" Xue Tingxiang was very distressed.
Fan Dazhu also seemed to have broken the jar and said, "Master Xue, follow the customs when you enter the country, you must have heard this. You are a Jinshi from the two ranks, and you have only been here for three years, and I am a so-called imperial court official. , I will probably stay here for the rest of my life. They are all seniors and juniors. I can't afford to offend these people, and I don't want to. Don't take it."
"Are you worthy of the common people who were looted by Japanese pirates under your rule?"
"These Japanese pirates don't kill people, they just rob some things. Besides, Master Xue, do you know how these common people lived a long time ago?"
Xue Tingxiang was taken aback.
Fan Dazhu looked at Xue Tingyan sarcastically, and sneered: "Dinghai County is already close to the sea, the land is not fertile enough, relying on the production of the land to make a living, and paying so many taxes to the court every year, the common people should have starved to death long ago. Fortunately, I can still rely on fishing for a living. There are also several salt fields in the local area. Although it is a little harder, I can eat a bowl of rice in the end...
"...The court said that the sea was forbidden, and the sea was forbidden, and the court said that they would move inland, and they would all move inland. The salt field was stopped twice, and fishing was no longer possible. You let the common people live on the soil? When the grain chief urged to pay the tax, You probably haven’t seen it before, and there are not a few people who sell their sons and daughters. This activity is really shameful, at least it can give people a way to live.”
"But if one day the court finds out?"
"If you don't tell me, I won't tell you. The emperor is far away from the mountains, and the court can't know. Even if we can know, there are so many people above, and the sky is falling and there are still tall people." Fan Dazhu sneered.
After speaking, he turned around and walked towards the door.
After taking two steps, he suddenly paused: "By the way, Mr. Xue, I forgot to tell you, I am a local, a native born and raised."
Xue Tingxiang was stunned. Local people, meaning that what he said before is true
"Then what if I played the court?" Xue Tingxiang said softly.
Fan Dazhu didn't even turn his head back and said as he walked out: "Go ahead, but there is a word to remind Sir Xue that your memorial may not be able to leave Ningbo Mansion, maybe your family of three will be gone in two days. ."
Fan Dazhu had already left, but Xue Tingxiang's face darkened.
"Sir." Hu San hesitated.
Xue Tingxiang waved his hand, and Hu San stopped.