Zhang Tongming stumbled upon an inconspicuous clue in a farmer's house, where he found some sawdust that seemed to have been cut by a knife in the woodcutter. It makes sense if the sawdust has been cut with an axe, but it is somewhat suspicious that it has been cut with a knife. But Zhang Tongming did not startle the snake, but secretly conducted an investigation on the farmer.

The water source around Mucheng is poor, and there are only a few underground rivers, so most of the plants grown are high-rooted and drought-tolerant agriculture, but the harvest is not high, and it is difficult to make a living by farming. Therefore, the peasants in Mucheng almost had other livelihoods, and the most cobblers in the city were leather craftsmen who made leather goods and boots, and there were also many peasants who relied on working for large families or the army to support their families.

Zhang Tongming found through investigation that the family of the farmer surnamed Jin opened a leather shop that was not profitable, but the business has always been very busy. Zhang Tongming also heard from other shops that this old gold was in his thirties, and he learned the craft of a leathersmith secretly, so he was not proficient in learning, so that the business was very poor. In the past, I could only fool some Tatar herders who didn't understand the market, but recently the herdsmen who are a little knowledgeable will not come to their families to do business.

"Lao Jin's wife is quite good-looking." The neighbor laughed narrowly.

"As a farmer, they can't support a family of three, and they have no business to do as a cobbler, so what do they live on for three years?" Zhang Tongming was puzzled.

As Li Chuncheng's temper became more and more tyrannical because he couldn't find clues, the lieutenants under him all suffered hardships, and the lieutenants suffered hardships, and the commanders and commanders below were inevitably scolded and driven.

Zhang Tongming was forced to have no choice, so he reported his discovery to Lieutenant Liang Rui, but Liang Rui scolded him instead. This Liang Rui was originally one of the earliest guards of the epidemic village, and he was almost killed when the prisoners of war rioted and escaped. He himself didn't have much ability, but with the qualifications of following Zhang Xiaowu at the earliest, he became a captain, a chief, and a lieutenant in the context of the repeated expansion of the dead soldiers' battalion. It can be said that this Liang Rui is the descendant of Zhang Xiaowu's lineage, and the reuse of the old subordinates of the dead soldier battalion is also one of Zhang Xiaowu's ways to control the army, so Liang Rui took advantage of this shareholder style to become a captain.

Liang Rui thought that Zhang Tongming was mocking him with his original qualifications, so he warned Zhang Tongming that if he talked nonsense, he would be punished to take care of the prisoners in the dungeon. Zhang Tongming said in his heart that now the dungeon in Mucheng is empty, how can there be any prisoners, it is better for me to go to see the prisoners and go to prison.

Zhang Tongming endured for another three days, he used these three days to continue to monitor Lao Jin's family, and he discovered a new clue - Lao Jin's family stayed at home for six consecutive days. But any normal person will definitely communicate with people, but the people of the old Jin family rarely communicate with people, such a big thing happened in the city, the old Jin family didn't go to chat with the neighbors to inquire about the news, is this still a small person in the market?

Zhang Tongming didn't dare to pack the ticket There was a problem with the old Jin family, but he saw that Li Chuncheng's eyes were red, and decided to give it a try, he crossed Liang Rui and went directly to Li Chuncheng to report his findings.

Li Chuncheng was only a killer before, he was good at assassinating others, but he was not good at finding assassins. Everyone thought that a person who was born as an assassin would be able to find other assassins smoothly, but Li Chuncheng was extremely anxious.

After hearing Zhang Tongming's report, Li Chuncheng was ready to immediately send troops to surround him, Zhang Tongming suggested: "Lord Captain must not act rashly, as the saying goes, there are three holes of cunning rabbits, if Lao Jin is an assassin, they should have a tunnel to escape." Therefore, I suggested that all the brothers should be sent to surround the area within 100 zhang of Lao Jin's house, and then surround it from all directions. The arrest of Lao Jin must be steady and fast, and he must not be allowed to react. ”

"Grandma's, the four lieutenants are not as good as you, and they all look at me helplessly all day long, they are all a bunch of idiots. You will command this operation, just don't embarrass me. Li Chuncheng said very simply.

Zhang Tongming was embarrassed and said: "Lord Captain, if Lao Jin is wronged, if my judgment is wrong......

Li Chuncheng said: "Even if he is wronged, let's treat it as a workout, and I will transfer you to my side afterwards." ”

The first half of the arrest went extremely smoothly, but after breaking down the door, Lao Jin and his wife took out long knives to fight, and their weapons were knocked out by the soldiers. Lao Jin and his wife were quickly arrested, and just when Li Chuncheng was thinking about how to torture them, the husband and wife actually vomited blood and died. After he checked, he found out that the couple had already swallowed the poison, and they chose to resist just to make the poison work faster.

Li Chuncheng regretted it, this is the death of no evidence, he asked the old Jin family to search, but the old Jin family seems to have nothing valuable, even the rice in the rice jar has fallen to ashes.

"If you eat rice every day, how can the rice jar fall into ashes?" Zhang Tongming ordered everyone to rise three feet to find clues, and said: "They have a son, who looks like he is in his teens, and he must be hiding underground." ”

Everyone searched for three hours, but it was dark and they still couldn't find the tunnel. Zhang Tongming whispered a plan in Li Chuncheng's ear, and then Li Chuncheng ordered everyone to evacuate here.

Subsequently, Li Chuncheng and Zhang Tongming quietly lurked on the roof, waiting for the golden boy to appear impatiently. As expected, in the middle of the night, a man came out of a dry well, looking left and right, wanting to enter the house to take a look. Li Chuncheng learned to be smart this time, stepped forward to restrain the young man, and knocked him unconscious. He shook the poison in the young man's mouth, but shook the young man awake, and when he was about to knock the young man unconscious, Zhang Tongming stopped him: "He didn't carry the poison with him." ”

To deal with an eleven-year-old boy, Li Chuncheng had many ways, he first asked the boy to tie up his trouser legs, and then found a snake, saying that if you don't tell the truth, I will throw the snake into your pants, and the snake will eat your chicks and burrow into your stomach.

The boy cried in fright, and said his life experience without a word.

According to the young man's description, it turned out that they were from Beiyi, and he didn't know the purpose of his parents' visit, and he heard about the reward of 10,000 taels of silver a few days ago, but he didn't know specifically. The place where the boy was hiding was a dry well, and there was a secret room in the dry well, and some food and other things were stored in the secret room, but the mouth of the well was only the size of a can, and no one except the boy really could get into it.

Zhang Tongming said that this secret room must have been built by Lao Jin, and it was impossible for him not to drill into it, so it was better to dig the wellhead. After everyone dug the well, they saw that the wall of the well was actually very wide, and even a strong man like Zhang Tongming could go down. Everyone found some Beiyi documents in the secret room, a portrait of Zhang Xiaowu, and another portrait of a bearded man with a square head and big ears, which were written all over Beiyi script.

In the end, they also found direct evidence, another hand crossbow and twenty crossbow arrows.

Li Chuncheng and Zhang Tongming looked at each other and smiled, and finally solved the assassination case.