At this time, the Deng family was also in chaos, and in the ancestral hall of the Deng family, Deng Shilun, the patriarch of the Deng family, convened a meeting of the clansmen of a large family.

The clansmen had already heard the news of Deng Changhao's arrest and the crimes convicted by the government.

One of them, a middle-aged man named Deng Jialiang, said eagerly: "Second uncle, it is impossible for Changhao's nephew to commit this heinous crime, I have watched this child grow up since he was a child, he is a square and virtuous person, it must be the government who made a mistake, right?!" Can we get the government to re-examine it? ”

As soon as he finished speaking, he saw a short and thin young man with an obscene face standing up, this man was Deng Changhao's cousin, named Deng Changliu.

I heard him say in a weird manner: "Fifth uncle, I know that your family is good friends with Deng Changhao's family, of course you are willing to say good things for him; There is a saying that "it is difficult to draw a dragon and a tiger, and it is difficult to draw bones, and you know people and faces, but you don't know your heart." "I didn't expect Deng Changhao to be such a well-dressed beast. And don't forget, he has already been convicted, or a heinous crime of injustice, he died when Deng Changhao died, why is he still implicated in the clan? ”

(Explain the "crime of injustice": it is one of the ten evil sins in ancient times, which refers to the extermination of humanity, such as killing a family of three, and the person who is killed should not be sentenced to death; or killing by means of dismemberment; or using poison in an attempt to poison people to death. ）

At this time, Deng Jialiang was angry when he heard it, and reprimanded forward: "Deng Changliu, you have no conscience, it wasn't for your brother Changhao who saved your life, you would have died a long time ago, and you are noisy here; Later, your brother Changhao raised money to tell you about his daughter-in-law, but he didn't expect you to be a white-eyed wolf. Others can say that Chang Hao is not, but you are not qualified. ”

That Deng Changliu was also annoyed when he heard it, so he retorted: "Fifth Uncle fallacy, I didn't die in a catastrophe back then, and at that time, God had the virtue of a good life, and it should be a fate that should not be extinguished, and it is a fixed number of fate; If he Deng Changhao doesn't save me, someone will save me; Then he Deng Changhao gave me money and let me marry a daughter-in-law, but over the years, I have made a lot of efforts for his family to make cattle and horses, and I have already leveled with him. ”

Everyone in the hall looked at Deng Changliu with some mockery, and everyone at the bottom was talking about it, as if they had some disdain for his behavior.

At this time, some people laughed at him and said: "Deng Changliu, look at your little arms and legs, are you still a cow and a horse?" On weekdays, you are idle, you don't work locally, and you often can't untie the pot at home, if it weren't for Brother Deng Changhao's frequent help to you, your family would have starved to death. is still here to say unashamedly that you don't owe Brother Deng Changhao, you still have to be shameless. ”

Deng Changliu saw that he had caused the anger of the public, so he retreated to his seat in disgrace.

Seeing the clansmen in the ancestral hall talking to each other, and the scene was scattered, Deng Jialiang was a little angry.

He hurriedly coughed heavily, and then shouted loudly: "Everyone be quiet, we are here to discuss, not to quarrel; The fire is about to burn to the eyebrows, so everyone concentrates on thinking of a way to get through this difficulty. ”

At this time, when everyone heard the words of the patriarch, they suddenly woke up and understood the current situation, especially the clansmen who did not have five suits with Deng Changhao's family, all of them were like mourners, and they would be convicted according to Song Law.

Everyone has nothing to do for a while, which can be lamented again and again, and it seems that they have accepted their fate.

At this time, there was a noisy sound of footsteps outside, Deng Jialiang looked out, and a group of people came outside, and a young man walked straight here under the crowd of people like stars holding the moon.

He hurriedly stepped forward to greet him, but when he saw who it was, he was taken aback and was stunned on the spot.

It turned out that it was Fang Liuyi, the eldest young master of the Fang family, Deng Jialiang knew that he was a well-known gentleman in Sizhou City, arrogant and domineering, and did all kinds of evil, and had a bad reputation for making Sizhou children stop crying.

He didn't know what this Fang Liuyi meant, he saw that Fang Liuyi actually smiled and nodded to him, he felt a little bad, and he drew a soul in his heart, and actually gave birth to the idea of "Weasel gives New Year's greetings to chickens, nothing good".

I saw Fang Liuyi walk up to him and said with a smile: "Patriarch Deng, it's been good lately, I came here today to discuss something with you, I don't know what Patriarch Deng wants?" ”

Deng Jialiang didn't dare to slack off when he heard this, so he hurriedly invited Fang Liuyi into the side room by the ancestral hall, and then asked people to serve tea and entertain guests.

He asked, "I don't know what happened to Young Master Fang's visit to the Humble House?" ”

Fang Liuyi said: "Patriarch Deng, Deng Changhao's crime is heinous, what he committed is a heinous crime of "unrighteousness", or a giant bandit leader, the crime is added to the first degree, and it is difficult to live; His crimes

It also made your family receive Zhulian, which can be said to be guilty of everyone. ”

After he finished speaking, he thought for a moment, and then asked, "I don't know how Patriarch Deng will deal with this matter." ”

Deng Jialiang sighed, and he said with some sadness: "There is a catastrophe, what can I do." ”

Fang Liuyi saw that the time had come, and said, "Patriarch Deng, I have another idea, I don't know if to talk about it or not?" ”

Deng Jialiang asked him to say it, and he said again: "Patriarch Deng, I am also a warm-hearted person, and I don't want to see the Deng family, a big family, suffer a catastrophe and fall into an unjustified prison; I can help your family get out of trouble, the relationship between my family is heavenly, you know, I can help you up and down, dredge up the relationship between the government, only hold Deng Changhao accountable, and exempt others from responsibility, do you think? ”

When Deng Jialiang heard this, he looked incredulous, he looked at Fang Liuyi again, and felt that he didn't seem to be lying, but he had some doubts in his heart.

Deng Jialiang thinks that with Fang Gongzi's temperament, it is impossible to act like this, there must be something to ask for, and he has to find out clearly before making a decision.

Fang Liuyi saw Deng Jialiang's doubts, and immediately laughed and said: "Patriarch Deng, don't worry, I don't have any bad intentions, my family has a big business, and I won't want your Deng family or anything." There will be good news this afternoon, so wait for the good news. ”

After Fang Liuyi finished speaking, he turned around and left, leaving Deng Jialiang, who was confused, sitting at the table in a daze.

It is said that Fang Liuyi made an appointment with Jia Zhenyi in Sizhou and gave him 300,000 yuan (ten thousand yuan), and he convicted Deng Changhao, and promised to only investigate Deng Changhao's responsibility, and the rest were exempted;

Then he immediately wrote the paperwork, stamped the official seal, and immediately sent someone to send the document to the prison department and the torture room.

The Department of Prisons is the institution of the prefect's yamen in charge of supervising the affairs of prisoners, with 1 person in charge of prisons, and the rank is from the seventh rank.

Torture room: Handle the investigation of the case, record the affairs of the court, write the case, manage all matters of the criminal prison, and rank from the seven grades.

Jia Zhenyi said at this time: "Fang Gongzi is really an infatuated lover, in order to get Shen Niangzi, he took a lot of trouble and spent a lot of money, and he also made this plan to make the official admire." ”

Fang Gongzi said with a smile: "Master Jia is too famous, I do things to lead the crowd, those who want to get it, will definitely try their best to get it, even if it is unscrupulous, even if Deng Changhao is unlucky this time, who told me to take a fancy to his wife." ”

After the two laughed, Fang Liuyi got up and said goodbye, and then went to Deng's house again.

At this time, the officials and arresters of the Deng family were all withdrawn, and the people of the Deng family suddenly felt relieved.

Deng Jialiang knew that this was Fang Liuyi's help, so he told the clansmen about it, and these clansmen immediately thanked Fang Liuyi.

At this time, Fang Liuyi saw Deng Jialiang back and forth, only to see him look at the door and say: "Patriarch Deng, you may think that I must have an attempt to act like this; I do have a reluctant request, and my only request is to marry Shen Xiguang as a concubine; Anyway, Deng Changhao has to be widowed for a while. ”

The picture turned to Deng Changhao's house again.

Deng Changhao's home is not very far from Ni Xiucai's (Ni Wenhai)'s home, about a mile away.

His home is a medium-sized courtyard house with three courtyards, and at first glance it is a wealthy family of the middle class.

The first courtyard is the narrow courtyard where the inverted seat room dwells before the hanging flower gate, and the second courtyard is composed of a wing room, a main room, and a verandah.

The first courtyard is the narrow courtyard where the inverted seat room dwells before the hanging flower door, the second courtyard is composed of the wing room, the main room, the verandah, the main room and the wing room can also add the ear room, the third courtyard is the back cover room after the main house, in the positive

The landlord opened a door in the side room to connect the second and third entrances.

There are five main rooms, with a floor cover as a partition in the house, and a porch in the main room and the side room.

The five rooms are three main rooms and two ear rooms, and the ear rooms are single-door, the so-called "three positive and two ears".

There are three rooms in the east and west wings, and there is a corridor between the wings and the ear rooms, which can lead to the backyard.

On the south side of the east and west wings, there is a courtyard wall, which separates the courtyard into an inner and outer courtyard, which is all brick floors, and the courtyard is sunny after the rain, and there is no water.

There is a hanging flower door in the middle of the courtyard wall, which plays the role of isolating the sight of the inner courtyard. The entrance to the inner courtyard is through the space between the inner eaves columns and the middle pillars on both sides of the hanging flower gate, which is usually connected with the verandah.

Just behind the hanging flower gate, there is a brick shadow wall.

In the outer courtyard, there are two deer tops in the east and west. The house with the roof of the deer was slightly smaller than the side house and was used as a kitchen or for servants.

The layout of the seven rooms in the south room, the one at the east end is the gate hole, and the one at the west side of the gate is the gate room, and the door is open on the west gable of the gate hole.

One at the west end is used as a garage or as a side door.

However, at this time, his home was already a decayed appearance, full of dead branches and leaves, withered flowers, and full of autumn gloom.

The maids, mothers-in-law and servants in the courtyard have all dispersed, and now the guards have also dispersed, and it seems that the government will no longer pursue the crimes of Deng Changhao's family.

There was a beautiful young woman in the main house, and I saw her full of sadness, and two old women standing next to her chattered endlessly, as if they were advising her or something.

I only heard her say aggressively: "Mrs. Deng, your husband is actually the leader of the bandits, according to the crime of gangsterism and the crime of injustice, not only your family will be affected, but also the whole family." You have to think about your situation, too. Now that Young Master Fang is helping to exonerate the Deng family, there was a premise at that time that he would marry you as a concubine. ”

Another mother-in-law said: "Nephew and daughter-in-law, Chang Hao is already unforgivable for capital crimes, Young Master Fang said that only he will die, and the whole clan can live." ”

She didn't agree, she didn't refuse, she just said that she would think about it and give a reply