Chen Congzhi finally descended because he was afraid of death.

Qin Chuan called He Changbao and the previous county officials, the lord Bo, the warden, and the chief and deputy of the sixth room, and asked them to hand over the documents with Chen Congzhi overnight.

In fact, there is no need to hand it over, because Chen Congzhi is basically in charge of the six rooms, and Chen Congzhi has also handled many things of the two adjutants of the county and the main bo.

Moreover, not every official in the county government is a traitor, Qin Chuan plans to keep some officials, and only needs to draw up a strict management system to manage them.

When He Changbao heard that Chen Congzhi was going to replace him as the magistrate, he pointed at Chen Congzhi with one hand and didn't say anything for a while.

After a long time, he suddenly knelt in front of Qin Chuan, kowtowed vigorously, and said that he had no eyes before, and he should not follow others to impeach Lord Qin, and begged Lord Qin to spare his life.

In fact, He Changbao can't say how evil he is, he is greedy, of course, he also helped many gentry and big families to oppress the people, Guan Dijun found a full 8,000 taels of silver in the inner house of the county government, gold and silver jewelry, jade, porcelain, glass mirrors and the like.

According to Chen Congzhi, most of these things were paid tribute to He Changbao by the gentry of Jingle, among which Lou Fu Meng Guiming and Jingyou Du Yingtang sent the most, and they had to send a few hundred taels every year, because these two occupied the most arable land in the entire county.

The second is the Wu family, because the Wu family's cloth trade is very large, every year a large number of native cloth from the surrounding villages into the county, and from the county north to Xuanda.

The other is the toll, the merchants in the south of Yongning Prefecture and Xizhou want to go north to Xuanda and the two places, there are only three roads to go, one is to cross the Huqi Mountain, along the official road of Fenzhou, Taiyuan, Xinzhou to the north, the road along the way is easier to walk, the disadvantage is that the road is far away, and there are too many states and counties, and the tax collection of the road and bridge checkpoints is accumulated layer by layer, and it is extremely high.

The second is along the north of Linxian Shangxing County, into Lanzhou, through the mouth of the Shenchi into Shuozhou, although this road passes through the state and county is not much, but along the way is mountainous, extremely difficult to walk, and there are countless bandits and horse bandits in this area, especially the horse bandits, hidden in countless criss-crossing ditches and valleys, which is difficult to prevent.

On the third day, the road is to enter the hinterland of Luliang Mountain along Fangshan Fort, go north to Lan County, turn from the East Village area to Jingle County, and then go out of Ningwu Pass, and then go to Shuozhou, Datong Town.

The reason why you don't go through Lou Fu is because there are several big mountains on this road through Lou Fu, which is not easy to walk, and the road in Lan County is relatively flat, and the reason why you turn from Dongcun to Jingle is because the north of Lan County is Luya Mountain, and the road over the mountain is very difficult to walk.

The Jingle area only needs to go north along the avenue by the Fen River, the road is flat and straight, and there are only two checkpoints of Jingle and Ningwu Pass.

Therefore, there are many businessmen who pass through Jingle City, and He Changbao, like his predecessor in the county, set up a checkpoint by the Fen River, and the wealth is rolling in every day.

After listening to Chen Congzhi's account, Qin Chuan asked him: "How many people did Lord He kill for those gentry families?" ”

Chen Congzhi's face changed, and then he lowered his head, and he didn't dare to come out.

He Changbao's face changed even more, he kowtowed on the ground, and shouted for mercy in his mouth.

Qin Chuan saw that he was too noisy, so he simply asked Emperor Guan to drag him down.

He Changbao must be killed, and he must be killed in front of the people of Jingle, so that he can have enough deterrence.

……

The next morning, when Qin Chuan woke up from his sleep, he heard the sound of dripping and ticking outside the window, as well as bursts of noisy cheers.

At first he thought it was a juggler early in the morning, and when he sat up and yawned, he suddenly thought of something, so he quickly rolled over and got out of bed, and strode out without putting on any clothes.

When he ran outside the house and saw the scene outside, he couldn't help but smile, and gradually laughed out loud again.

It's raining.

This thief has not rained for half a year, and when it should have rained during the Qingming Festival, there was not a drop of urine.

Now, seven days after Qingming, it finally rains.

Although the rain is not heavy, it should be able to rain all day, and it may rain for the next few days.

Coupled with the melting snow and ice, the hinterland of Luliang Mountain will be full of vitality, and the winter wheat in the field will have enough moisture to have a good growth.

The reservoirs can also be filled with water soon.

Wang Jizong has already led people to reclaim more than 1,000 acres of abandoned cultivated land along the Xiaojian River, and when the weather is completely warm, it can be sown in spring.

There is irrigation with reservoirs, and there is no fear that those cultivated fields will have no water source.

This rain can also stop the pace of the imperial army, at least for a few days, so that he has enough time to sort out and tidy up Jingle City, and the roads are muddy, and it will also greatly reduce the marching speed of the Ming army.

In short, this rain is just too timely.

Qin Chuan was in a good mood, went back to his room and got dressed, and then went out to the lobby to deal with some things that he needed to deal with personally.

Emperor Guan's army was still wearing robes and raiding homes everywhere to arrest people, and the money, grain, and finances of several large families such as the Wu family had basically been copied.

Because of the narrow terrain near Jingle City, the land of several large households is not as much as that of Lou Fumeng's family and Jingyou Du's family, but the grain of the three large households and the two middle households combined is also more than 13,000 stones, which is enough for 4,000 people to eat for a year.

The amount of money made Qin Chuan smack, including He Changbao's, several of them added up to a total of more than 75,000 taels of silver, more than 2,000 taels of gold, and more than a dozen boxes of gold, silver, jewelry, jade, and antiques.

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Among these money, the Wu family accounted for nearly half.

When Luo Daniu led the Guan Emperor Army to raid the Wu family, a group of old men and old ladies of the Wu family rushed over with several women to cry and bite, saying that the money was the family wealth saved by their ancestors for several generations.

After Luo Daniu saw that those old men and old ladies who wanted money and didn't want to die, they bit several Guan Emperor soldiers in a row, so he simply killed seven in one go, so that these people stopped.

Seeing the money piled up like a few mountains in the second hall of the county government, Qin Chuan swallowed his saliva and said: "Continue to investigate, but anyone who does a lot of evil will be robbed and killed." ”

Luo Da Niu went excitedly, and continued to search the house in his robe.

After Qin Chuan took care of another official business, he also went out with an oil-paper umbrella and went to the south gate accompanied by the red-clothed attendant.

Even if the spring rain continues, the inspection still has to be inspected, I am afraid that the Guan Emperor army defending the city drank high when celebrating last night, and it is not good if the city gate is stolen.

When I arrived at the south gate, I saw that Li Dingliang, who was tall and thin, was wearing a robe, inspecting the city wall at the head of the city.

Seeing that Qin Chuan had gone up to the city wall, Li Dingliang hurriedly ran over with a few Guan Emperor troops.

"Big boss, why did you come here after this rainy season?"

"I'm coming over to see the brothers, was it okay last night?"

"No, I asked those brothers in the lead to drink a few more drinks, and there were three hundred brothers on duty in shifts, but some of them wanted to escape from the city at night, and they were all caught."

"That's good."

Qin Chuan patted his wet robe, and then walked into the city tower.

Dozens of Guan Emperor soldiers were bragging and farting in the building, and when they saw Qin Chuan coming in, they stood up hula.

Qin Chuan smiled and asked them to sit down, and asked them if they were full of wine and meat last night, and if they were cold when they slept.

After a while, he walked out of the city tower and looked at the Fen River in the southwest direction.

The Fen River has thawed, but due to the continuous drought, and because of the sparse trees in Luya Mountain and Yunzhong Mountain on the east and west sides, and the soil erosion is serious, the river is now less than a zhang wide, and you can walk through it with your trouser legs.

The widest part of the entire Fen River is the section of the Loufu Valley, but now it is less than three zhang wide, and there are even several sections of the river in the upper reaches of the north that have been cut off.

The dock outside the city has been abandoned for an unknown amount of time, and there are more than a dozen ships of various sizes lying in the snow under the pier.

Seeing the boat, Qin Chuan's eyes couldn't help but light up, when the water level of the Fen River rose, would he be able to take a boat south to Lou Fu soon?

"Your Excellency."

At this time, a Guan Emperor army suddenly came under the city wall and shouted upward.

"What?"

Qin Chuan looked back.

"My lord, there is a self-proclaimed leader of the Eastern Tiger Gang who wants to see you, saying that he is willing to lead a hundred heroes to serve your lordship."

"The Eastern Tiger Gang? What's that? ”

"I heard the shopkeeper Luo say that he is a scoundrel in Jingle City, who calls himself the East Tiger Gang, often does some unsightly things for several big families in the city, and fights with the Xihe Gang all day long, anyway, he didn't do anything good, he was served by us last night, and then he yelled and said that he wanted to see the adult."

"The West River Gang is a stuff again?"

"It's the Wood Gang."

"What's the Wood Gang?"

"This ...... It is the people who cut wood in the mountains, then float down the river to the lower states and counties, and then pull ashore to sawn wood and sell it. ”

"Oh......"

Qin Chuan suddenly realized, and then he was stunned again, and couldn't help scolding: "There is so little wood in Lu Liangshan, all of them are cut for this group of people?" ”

"My lord, it's not just a wooden gang in Jingle, there are also some people who are annoying in the past, my lord, you ran away as soon as you came, and now there are many wooden gangs in the Lanhe area of Lanxian County, and there are also in the area of Luyukou, so they cut wood along the Fenhe Lanhe area, and then drift south, and they can be sold at a good price when they drift to Luoyang, I heard that this industry has been passed down for hundreds of years."

Qin Chuan scolded again: "Raised by a son of a bitch, if you cut it down like this for these people, Luliang Mountain will really become a loess high slope." ”

As he spoke, Qin Chuan strode down in annoyance.

"Where's the Wood Gang?"

The Guan Emperor Jun didn't know why he was angry, and said a little stubbornly: "The gang leader is a middle-class household, and he doesn't do anything harmful to heaven and reason on weekdays, so we didn't take him, and he is still at his house." ”

"Go and take him and bring him to the county office."

"Yes."

"By the way, did you catch those people who took advantage of the chaos to rob and kill people yesterday?"

"Not yet, but Shopkeeper Luo suspects that the Donghu Gang did it, and they are being tortured."

"So hard-mouthed?"

"It's not that it's hard-mouthed, there are hundreds of people in the East Tiger Gang, and I guess I haven't asked the right person yet."

"Then keep beating and beat harder."

"Yes."

"By the way, the leader of the Mu Gang, don't raid his house yet, I'll talk about it later."

"Yes."

The Guan Emperor Army took the order.