Yang Qinglan's prediction was right, after the events of the day of the festival were conveyed from Sheng Jing to Qi Yuanzhi's hands, he did not hesitate for a moment, and directly left Jinyang with two deputies on fast horses, and before leaving, he just hastily arranged the work of Qingtianwei who stayed in Jinyang, and did not say a word.

After four days of driving, Qi Yuanzhi and the three arrived at Liuzhou City.

When he could see the gate of Liuzhou City, a deputy said loudly: "My lord, there is a subordinate of Qingtian Mansion in Liuzhou City, and the three of us can rest there for a while, change the horses and then go on the road." ”

After silently calculating the time in his heart, Qi Yuanzhi frowned.

Jinyang is too far away from Shengjing, even if they run fast, it is impossible for them to arrive overnight, although he really wants not to waste a little time, but the horse he is riding is indeed unable to support it, and changing horses is necessary.

"When you enter the city, you don't need to rest, and after changing your horse, you can bring dry food and go on the road immediately!"

“…… Yes, my lord! ”

Qi Yuanzhi thought very well, but to the surprise of the three of them, when they showed the Qingtian Mansion token and entered the city gate unimpeded, they were stopped by a group of people outside the gate of the Qingtian Mansion.

It's not quite right, because those people didn't come specifically for the three of them, but for some reason they formed a circle and blocked the gate tightly, and not only them, but even if someone else came, they couldn't get in.

Seeing this scene, Qi Yuanzhi was a little annoyed.

"Go find someone and ask what's going on."

A deputy dismounted, pulled a random passer-by to ask, and soon got an answer.

"My lord, according to what the people said, the deacon of Qingtianfu here abused his power and arrested dozens of young people, and these people gathered at the gate are those young family members."

When Qi Yuanzhi heard this, his already bad face became even worse, and he turned over and dismounted, glanced at the people who were not far away who were trying to make trouble, and asked, "It is said that he abused his power?" Is that abuse or not? What are the charges used to arrest those young people? Why did these people gather at the gate of Qingtian Mansion instead of going to the Yamen to redress their grievances? ”

The deputy replied in a low voice: "The person in charge of the arrest was the person from Qingtian Mansion in Liuzhou, and when he was arrested, he didn't say why, he only said that he was suspected of committing a crime, and after he was arrested in the mansion, there was no news, and his family was not allowed to visit...... They can't intervene, so these people have to find this. ”

Qingtianfu is nominally an investigation agency, but in fact, it is a special agency directly under the royal family, and even the expenses are reimbursed by the royal treasury, where does the local yamen dare to meddle in their affairs? Naturally, he has been pretending to be deaf and dumb.

Qi Yuan snorted coldly: "Who is the deacon of Liuzhou?" I'm going to ask him face to face how he does it! ”

"Lord Hui, the deacon of Liuzhou is the Chi family Chi Division, who only took office in March last year, and is a deacon appointed by the Holy Lord."

"Saintly hand-picked? Could it be Concubine Chi's mother's family? ”

"Exactly."

Qi Yuanzhi moved the corners of his mouth, revealing a slightly mocking smile.

Although he is the secretary of Qingtian Mansion, he does not have a complete grasp of Qingtian Mansion, there are three systems in Qingtian Mansion, all of which are nominally under his jurisdiction, but one of them has never only listened to the emperor himself, even the appointment and dismissal of personnel.

He was in a hurry before, he forgot that Liuzhou's Qingtianwei belonged to that special one, no wonder he couldn't remember the name of the deacon.

"We went in through the back door, changed horses and left, they caused their own trouble, I, the secretary of the government, will not be blindly involved, it is important to hurry."

"Yes, sir."

However, they had barely taken two steps with their horses when an old woman fell to the ground in tears not far away.

"Evil, evil, what kind of evil did my third son do to be dragged by Qingtian to repair the mausoleum, he is obviously not hard labor, and he has not committed a crime-"

Xiuling?

Qi Yuanzhi paused, looked at the woman, and found that it was just an ordinary peasant woman, and there was a middle-aged woman standing next to her, I don't know if it was a daughter or a daughter-in-law.

"Mother, I don't know if the third brother went to repair the mausoleum, don't listen to the wind and rain, if you annoy Qingtian......"

"How not! Zhang Huazi at the gate of the city personally told me that the three sons of our family were sent out of the city in hard labor, not to repair the tomb but to do something! My third son—"

"Mother......

Hearing this, Qi Yuanzhi couldn't help but step forward and ask, "Auntie, can you tell me what's going on with Xiuling?"

Seeing that someone took care of herself, the old woman pulled the hem of his clothes like she had caught a life-saving straw, and cried: "A few days ago, the Qingtian lord here didn't know why he was arresting men everywhere, and my third son was also arrested, originally I thought that as long as San'er didn't break the law, he would come back after a day or two, who knew that he would not return, yesterday Zhang Huazi at the city gate told me that he saw my third son in the hard labor out of the city in the early morning, he is a person who has received my favor, and he will not lie to me, The third son of my family must have been dragged by the Qingtian master to do hard labor and repair the tomb! ”

After hearing this, the deputy on the side immediately retorted: "The matter of hard labor has always been in charge of the household department, what is the matter of Qingtianfu?"

He didn't say that it was okay, but as soon as he said it, the old woman cried even more: "Because the Qingtian Lord and the household official here are two brothers!" The people of Liuzhou have always abided by the rules and the law, and there are very few people who commit adultery and criminals, and there is not enough hard labor, so the household officials actually made such a decision...... My third son—"

Outrageous!

Although there is a quota for the hard labor in Xiuling, it must not be filled by ordinary people, let alone using such a bad method, he must ask clearly!

Qi Yuanzhi immediately turned around and pulled the horse towards the back door of the Qingtian Mansion.

The two deputies looked at each other and reluctantly followed.

After the three of them left, the old woman who was crying so much just now stood up from the ground, and before she even had time to wipe her tears, she pulled her "daughter" into the crowd and disappeared.

If it was an ordinary Qi Yuanzhi, it would be impossible not to find out that there was something abnormal about this "mother and daughter".

An ordinary peasant woman, even if her own son was really made to do hard labor by the people of Qingtian Mansion, it is possible to run to the gate of Qingtian Mansion to cry, but it is impossible to complain about "Master Qingtian" at the gate of Qingtian Mansion when the facts are not clear, and the object is still a stranger.

and Zhang Huazi in her mouth.

As a rule, the hard laborers who went out of the city to repair the tomb were to cover their heads with a black cloth and could not take them off until they arrived at the imperial tomb, so that they could not know the specific address of the imperial tomb and prevent them from evading and transmitting information to the outside world. Even if Zhang Huazi has a pair of eagle eyes, it is impossible to see through a layer of black cloth that there are "three children" in the middle of the crowd.

However, because of the long time and the anxiety of wanting to change horses quickly, the true Qingtian Grand Master, who was originally "discerning", did not notice that something was wrong, and directly rushed into the back door of the Qingtian Mansion with two deputies.

"Stop!! Who are you, this is the Qingtian Mansion, and idle people are forbidden to enter...... Well, Xia Guan has seen adults. ”

Looking at these three men with unkind faces, and then looking at the Qingtian Order in their hands, which obviously belonged to the Shengjing General Ya, the Qingtianwei who was in charge of guarding the door was bitter.

In the past two days, they Liuzhou Qingtian Mansion didn't know what evil they had bumped into, not only did the big man indiscriminately arrest Qingzhuang to fill the vacancies of hard labor leaked out, but those civilians outside really ate the courage of the ambitious leopard, and they dared to openly block the door, and now even the chief yaqingtian is here!

Could it be that the chief yastry heard something?

No, no, no, no, they Liuzhou Qingtian is not under the control of the general government, otherwise the eldest master would not be so blatant......

So what are they here for?

Finding that this Qingtianwei's face changed three times in a second, Qi Yuanzhi knew that there must be something wrong with Liuzhou's subordinate ya, and immediately snorted coldly.

"I'm waiting to return to Beijing from Jinyang, I want to exchange three horses in Liuzhou, bring some dry food, go and help prepare."

That's it!

Qing Tianwei, who was guarding the door, immediately smiled and rubbed his hands: "Change horses? Okay, okay, please take a break in the side hall, and a cup of tea will be ready for the three adults! ”

"By the way......" Qi Yuanzhi narrowed his eyes and stopped Qing Tianwei, who was about to turn around, "Call Chi Si over to meet me, I am very interested in those people outside the gate, and I want to ask him for advice." ”

As soon as he was about to use "Lord Deacon is busy with official business" to excuse himself, Qing Tianwei saw the bright yellow seal on Qi Yuanzhi's waist, intentionally or unintentionally, and his face immediately turned white to wall ash.

In the entire Qingtian Mansion, only the Qingtian Mansion Secretary is qualified to use the bright yellow seal!

The big man is in trouble now, so I have to report the news quickly!

"Lord Fuqing, please wait a moment, I'll go and call the deacon over!"

After pointing them out the direction of the hall, Qing Tianwei trotted all the way and disappeared, and a deputy stared at his back for a long time, took two steps forward and whispered: "My lord, this person is not the real Qing Tianwei."

"Huh?"

"The official Qingtianwei has been uniformly trained, and there are rules to follow in their steps and actions, but this person is not among them but wears the robe of Qingtianwei...... It's about the impostor Chi family guard. ”

Qi Yuanzhi's hands clenched into fists, his face was like frost.

"Very good, I'm going to see what kind of explanation Ikeji can give!"

A quarter of an hour later, Chi Si, who had a smile like a flower on his face, stepped into the side hall, and as soon as he entered the door, he burst into laughter: "I don't know if Lord Fuqing is coming, the lower officials have missed the distance, and I ask your lord to forgive me!"

If it was normal, Qi Yuanzhi might still have a fight with Chi Sixu, but he has neither time nor mood now, so he is naturally too lazy to act, and when he saw him enter the door, he immediately slammed the teacup in his hand on the table, making a crisp sound of "dangchang".

Chiji didn't speak, squinting at him for a few seconds, and after confirming that this secretary was really a bad person, the smile on his face gradually faded.

"You all go down, and let me talk to the adults alone."

Everyone in the side hall immediately dispersed, and when they left, they didn't forget to bring the door, leaving only Qi Yuanzhi, his deputy and Chi Si in the room.

After the irrelevant people dispersed, Qi Yuanzhi took the lead in speaking: "Lord Chi is so bold, not only use the family guard to occupy the quota of Qingtianwei, let the royal inner library give you the Chi family to raise people, but also do the thing of indiscriminately arresting ordinary people to fill in hard labor, do you remember that you are the deacon of Qingtianfu?!"

"Don't be so angry." Chi Si hooked the corners of his mouth, his tone was yin and yang, and he sat on the chair and played with his fingers as if he didn't take him seriously, "You also know that our Liuzhou government is not under the control of the chief government, I dare to do this, of course, it is also authorized by the command, and please don't cross the line." ”

"Order?"

"Don't say that you don't know, how much importance our saint attaches to the matter of the imperial tomb, although I have no clear purpose in doing this, but it is also a nod from the saint, if you don't believe it, you can go and confront the saint face to face now!"