December 11 of the fifth year of Chongzhen, Jiaxu Day, big cold.

There is a folk proverb that sings: "The big cold is cold, and there is no wind to be cold." ”

The air is extremely cold, but there is still no snow in Shanxi, just because the air is drought, and the water vapor is not enough to make snow.

As soon as Xu Dingchen took office, he rushed to Taiyuan to arrange defense affairs, and urgently transferred Zhang Yingchang, Po Ximu, and Ai Wannian to lead 7,000 troops to garrison Fenzhou, responsible for Fenzhou, Qinzhou, Liaozhou and other 38 prefectures and counties.

He also announced that the governor Zhang Zongheng transferred Hu Dawei, He Renlong, and Zuo Liangyu to command 8,000 troops, stationed in Pingyang Prefecture, and was responsible for 41 prefectures and counties such as Pingyang, Zezhou, and Luzhou.

When Xu Dingchen was dispatching troops and preparing to go down to Fenzhou, he commanded Du Yingtang to come back, bringing back eighty-five real slave heads and one hundred and sixty Tartar heads.

There is also a white flag of Maile Ezhen, and a yellow flag armor Lae Zhen.

When he saw the head of the big cart and the two strong men with bare heads and only a money rat tail, Xu Dingchen and the big officials in Shanxi were stunned.

It wasn't until Du Yingtang whispered a few words in his ear that Xu Dingchen came back to his senses, and ran to Ah Shan and Turushh ecstatically, carefully looking at the two bald heads up and down, left and right.

A group of big officials surrounded Du Yingtang, and all kinds of compliments and hints were endless.

Not long after, these officials surrounded Xu Dingchen again.

After some bargaining, Xu Dingchen waved his pen and wrote a good report, which probably reads: Xu Dingchen led the officials of Shanxi to the area of Lan County to investigate the evidence of the crime of Qinchuan in the township of Ninghua Institute, and learned that Qinchuan was out of the blockade to block the enemy, Xu Dingchen expected that Qinchuan was more auspicious in this battle, and urgently ordered Du Yingtang to lead more than ten officials and 1,000 troops to aid Qinchuan.

Du Yingtang used soldiers like a god, took the lead, broke the slave thief in the snake's belly, beheaded 245 levels, and captured alive a member of the slave thief Meler Ezhen and a member of Jiala Ezhen.

As soon as the good news was written, Xu Dingchen immediately sent 500 horsemen to escort the captives and the head, and the fast horse rushed to the Beijing Division, and the captive and the head were transported by fast horses and camels to speed up the foot.

As for the results of the survey...... This is naturally to be suppressed, and when the emperor has seen the good news and inspected the head, the results of this investigation will naturally not be important.

Xu Dingchen, Du Yingtang and other officials were in a very good mood, and when they saw that it was almost dusk, they shouted to go to Lord Du's mansion to set up a few tables of banquets to celebrate.

Before he could go out, there was a chaotic sound of footsteps outside the door, and then a group of figures broke straight in.

The first middle-aged fat man with a sparse goatee, dressed in an indigo dragon robe with four claws and four regiments, with an unkind face, strode into the yamen of the political envoy.

Although Xu Dingchen had never seen this person, he knew at a glance that the person who came was a prince.

"Where is the governor of Shanxi? Who is the new governor? Come out to this king. ”

The person who came was Zhu Minji, the king of Ninghua, and shouted angrily as soon as he entered the door.

"See the prince."

The big officials who knew this lord hurriedly bowed to this lord one after another.

When Du Yingtang bowed, he quietly said to Xu Dingchen.

When Xu Dingchen heard this, he hurriedly went through it to the end and said, "Your Majesty Xu Dingchen, see the prince." ”

"You are Xu Dingchen?" Zhu Minji walked over with a sideways face.

"It's the lower official, I don't know what the prince commands."

"Okay, you Xu Dingchen, do you know that there is a thief under your rule?"

Xu Dingchen was taken aback: "Why did the prince say this? ”

"Humph! When the king's palace guards went to Lou Fu to handle the affairs of the grange, the thief named Qin Chuan in Lou Fu Mengjiazhuang actually threatened Wangfu Zongyi to rob thousands of acres of Wangfu Zhuang land in Lou Fu Valley. ”

"Xu Dingchen, this king orders you to immediately mobilize a large army, surround Lou Fu Mengjiazhuang, and eradicate the traitors in one fell swoop!"

"Huh?"

Xu Dingchen opened his mouth and looked at Zhu Minji blankly, without saying a word.

Du Yingtang and other officials were also stunned and looked incredulous.

Zhu Minji said angrily: "What are you doing in a daze? Why don't you send troops quickly to exterminate the traitors? ”

Xu Dingchen came back to his senses, his mind thought quickly, and he asked, "May I ask the prince, can what you did just now be true?" ”

"How is it not true? Do you think this is the king falsely accusing the court officials? ”

"Don't dare, Xia Guan just thinks that this matter is very important, and wants to find out carefully, if the evidence is conclusive, Xia Guan will be a famous traitor."

"Humph! What else is there to check? This king is a thief, he is a thief! ”

"This ...... May I ask the prince, at the time of the incident, could anyone see Qin Chuan present? ”

"Those thieves have covered their faces, even if Qin Chuan's dog thief is present, who can see it?"

"May I ask the prince again, how many troops did the thieves have at the time of the incident?"

"About five hundred, maybe more."

"That'...... How were the royal guards killed or wounded? What about the death or injury of thieves? ”

"Humph!" Zhu Minji's face became more and more angry, "The three hundred guards of this king were almost wiped out, so I had to flee back to Taiyuan with dozens of horses, as for the thieves who were killed or wounded...... Tao steward killed 200 enemies, but the thief army was strong, so he had to lead the guards to break through and go back to Taiyuan for help. ”

"Hmmm......"

Xu Dingchen didn't ask any further questions, only lowered his eyes and muttered.

"What are you still doing? Why don't you send troops soon? Zhu Minji had a fierce look.

Xu Dingchen hesitated for a moment, and said apologetically: "Lord Wang, please calm your anger, the matter is serious, please allow the officials to find out the real culprit and then make a decision, so as not to wronged the innocent and get away with the real culprit." ”

"What else to check, the real culprit is Lou Annoying Mengjiazhuang Qin Chuan, who else dares to touch the king's guards besides him?"

"The prince is angry, at the time of the incident, the thieves were all masked and committed crimes, and they could not prove the identity of the thieves, let alone Qin Chuan, and there was a group of anti-thieves in the East Huluchuan seventy miles west of the mouth of the furnace, and there was also a group of anti-thieves in the three cliffs who had just set up camp there, and these two groups of thieves often went out to loot and attack the passing caravans, maybe this matter is what those thieves called."

"You!"

Zhu Minji's face turned blue with anger, he pointed at Xu Dingchen with one hand, and said with a straight beard: "Xu Dingchen, you excuse the anti-thieves, could it be that you have an inseparable relationship with that group of thieves?" ”

"Lord, you can eat indiscriminately, but you can't mess with words."

"Humph! This king asks you, do you send troops or not? ”

"When the real culprit is identified, the official will be famous immediately."

"You...... Good for you, Xu Dingchen! You wait for this king! Hum! ”

Zhu Minji's face turned blue with anger, pointed at Xu Dingchen several times, and then brushed his sleeves away.

Xu Dingchen wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and breathed a long sigh of relief.

"Futai-sama ......"

Du Yingtang, who was on the side, leaned over and asked in an inquiring tone.

Xu Dingchen waved his hand: "Send someone to go around the three cliffs immediately, and then wait, wait for the emperor's reward for Qin Chuan." ”

"Yes."

Du Yingtang hurriedly went to make arrangements.

Xu Dingchen walked back to the back of the bookcase, picked up the brush, and began to think about how this piece should be written.

The attack on the guards of the Ninghua Royal Mansion must be reported to the emperor, and it must be reported in a timely manner.

However, this piece of music has to be written by heart

If the emperor sees the captives and heads of the slaves, and wants to reuse Qin Chuan, the thieves who attack the palace guards cannot be Qin Chuan.

Xu Dingchen decided to simplify the complexity and write that the palace guards were attacked, but he did not mention who the thief was, and he did not even suspect it, but he had already sent someone to investigate.

……

Qin Chuan was in a very good mood, not only because Luo Da Niu fought a beautiful ambush battle, and at the cost of six rao casualties, he annihilated a three-hundred-rao palace guard.

is also because the Fan family sent food.

There are three thousand stones of grain, and there is not a lot of one stone.

Qin Chuan wants to tell all the gentry that he is a trustworthy person.

Therefore, according to the agreement, he released Fan San.

Of course, Fan Dagongzi has been beaten to death, and Liu Youzhu and Li Dingliang will beat him when they are idle.

Fan Yongdou didn't come, he only sent a steward, who seemed to be kind and respectful to Qin Chuan.

When he was sparing, Qin Chuan asked him to bring a sentence to Fan Yongdou: If he still dares to be a traitor, within three years, the Fan family will disappear.

The steward nodded violently, promising to bring it.

Then, Qin Chuan let them go.

There was so much grain in Mengjiazhuang that he couldn't put it down, so Qin Chuan had to let people empty the two inner courtyards that were originally used to live in Rao Cave to store grain.

The caves in the Luliang Mountains are very dry, which is very suitable for storing grain, and now it is cold and frozen, so there is no need to worry about the grain spoiling.

Now, there are two families who owe Qin Chuan money and grain, one is the Li family in Fenzhou, Qin Chuan asked them to take two hundred stones of grain to ransom Li Anru, but they didn't even give a grain of grain.

The other family, the Xue family, owed 4,000 taels of silver.

Xue Dongting should be almost there.

Luo Wen had better be alive, otherwise Xue Dongting would have to come to collect the bodies of his sons and wives.