Xu Lequn's two Hai'an's statements are a bit interesting, but what kind of place is Hai'an, Han Xiufeng doesn't need him to remind him.

The people who keep to themselves work at sunrise and return at sunset, are busy with their livelihood all day long, and will not watch the excitement by the river every day, let alone get on strangers' boats, and naturally will not know what is going on on the Salt River and the Kushiba River. Most people go farthest away from home in the town, Hai'an almost never goes to white rice, let alone Jiangyan, Jiangyan and white rice people will not come to Hai'an, so they don't know what is going on outside.

Even the ruffians who were imprisoned in the front yard were usually only tyrannical in the towns and even a few villages they were familiar with, and they generally did not go far away, let alone provoke those people on the fishing boats who were homeless and had their homes from all over the world.

In fact, Haian is not so peaceful on the surface, in fact, it can be described as an undercurrent surging. Because it is not only a waterway to transport Huai salt, but also located at the junction of three counties.

Zoumagang is also located at the junction of three counties, but it is only "three regardless", but here it is not three regardless but "six regardless" or even "seven regardless"!

The four salt farms of Anfeng, Fu'an, Jiaoxie and Zhangcha, which are next to Hai'an, are under the rule of Dongtai County and Rugao County, but the salt field has a salt division yamen, and the large salt division yamen is even divided into inspection divisions.

But no matter how the salt field is under the rule of the two counties after all, once there is a life thief, they will pass the buck to each other, and the ambassador of the salt department will say that the thief should be under the control of the county lord according to the rules, and the county lord can also turn over the precedent that as long as the cases involving salt households, stoves and salt affairs should be under the jurisdiction of the transport department, and even the emperor's edict.

In short, it is easy to be a peace officer, just turn a blind eye to what is happening on the Yunyan River and the Kushiba River. Whether it is a private or private person, they all know very well that if they want to transport salt out, they will have to go through Hai'an, and if they harass the local area and arouse the people's anger, the imperial court will send heavy troops to Hai'an to patrol and investigate, and no one will have a good time at that time.

But it's easy to be a justice of the peace, but it's hard to make money.

Thousands of miles of being an official is only for money, how can you earn back the capital!

Han Xiufeng didn't want to be a mediocre official, to be precise, he didn't want to lose money, so he asked quietly: "Mr. Xu, how did you know about Li Xiucai's collusion with private tyrants?" ”

"Master Han, seeing that the Chinese New Year is coming, Xu Mou is not here to accompany his family in Fu'an to do anything, not to do what you commanded, Master Han! As far as Xu knew, there was a group of smugglers from the canal who were collecting salt in Fu'an and Anfeng, and they would set off when their twelve boats were full. At this juncture, Xu doesn't want to fall short, and he must not let people leak the news. ”

"Are you worried that the two people who came to Li Xiucai in the afternoon will leak the news, and you are worried that they will ruin our affairs, so you will help me take them down?"

"Xu has no power to restrain the chicken, how can he have this ability. It's just that I was lucky, and I met two acquaintances by the river, and asked them to catch up and ask. ”

"And then?" Han Xiufeng asked.

Xu Lequn spread his hands and said lightly: "Those two acquaintances rushed back overnight to tell me what they asked and left again, today is the twenty-eighth day of the lunar month, who doesn't want to go home early for the New Year." ”

Han Xiufeng thought to himself that he could meet acquaintances anywhere, is there such a coincidence in the world, and is the private lord so easy to talk, even if the private lord's head is caught by the door, it is very easy to talk, don't you worry about leaking the news?

Thinking of the two private villains who came to Li Xiucai in the afternoon, Han Xiufeng suddenly frowned: "Mr. Xu, you are Jueming's friend, so this official treats you politely, but don't forget that this is Hai'an under the jurisdiction of this official!" ”

Xu Lequn secretly thought that his kindness was not rewarded, and he said unhappily: "Master Han, you have missed something in your busy official business, and Xu can only help you pick up the missing and fill in the gaps." You must know that we are dealing with ruthless private tyrants, not those ruffians who bully the weak and fear the hard. ”

"Pick up the gaps...... It's easy to say! ”

"Master Han, you think things too simply!" Xu Lequn stared at Han Xiufeng's eyes, and said slowly: "Xu has lived in a simple house all these years and hasn't gone out much. Earlier, I traveled to many places, and even went to Hubei not far from your hometown with the salt boat. ”

"So what?"

"Master Han, you are in your twenties this year, and I don't think I have heard of the name Huang Yulin, but the elderly official master knows it to everyone. Xu Mouxu is a few years older, not only has he heard of this name, but he has also seen this person! That year, Xu was eight years old, and watched him and his thieves kill dozens of boatmen, steal more than 2 million catties of salt, and burn dozens of boats. ”

The name Huang Yulin, Han Xiufeng has really heard of it.

The big salt lord in the Daoguang period, it is said that he had many subordinates, and his ships were full of knives and guns, not only to protect himself, but also to rob the official salt on the official ships. In the words of the official documents in the early years, it is "a forest of instruments, a wheel of transport, thousands of miles of the Yangtze River, and breathing communication", which is unimpeded in the upper and lower reaches of the Lianghuai and the Yangtze River. In order to exterminate Huang Yulin, the private tyrant, the imperial court took a lot of effort, and it seemed that even the then governor of Liangjiang and the envoy of Lianghuai Salt lost his official position because of him.

Han Xiufeng didn't expect that the Huang Yulin in front of him, who had already seen his head cut off, didn't know what to say, Xu Lequn gritted his teeth and said: "It's not a secret, Xu Mou's ancestor is also a salt merchant, not only has a big mansion in Yangzhou, but his grandfather and father have also donated it." When Xu was eight years old, my father encountered Huang Yulin and other private tyrants on the river, and died tragically in the hands of Huang Yulin, and my Xu family also fell from this. ”

"Mr. Xu, Xiufeng ......"

"It's nothing, it's been all that year." Xu Lequn waved his hand, and the conversation changed: "Xu is worried that the gang of private lords who are collecting salt will send someone to find out about the movement of the yamen, so he has been staying on the flower boat by the river at the mouth of the middle dam for the past two days. Unexpectedly, the current private tyrant is even more courageous than Huang Yulin, and he didn't send anyone to find out the truth of the Yamen of the Inspection Division, and he was not afraid of officials at all. ”

"It's not a bad thing to look down on me for this nine-grade inspection." Han Xiufeng touched the corners of his mouth and asked in a low voice: "Mr. Xu, to be honest with Xiufeng, what about the two people who came to Li Xiucai in the afternoon?" ”

"Dead."

"How did you die, where did you die?"

"The boat capsized and drowned. Master Han can rest assured that their ship capsized in Fu'an, and there is no need for you to find someone to restrain you. ”

Li Xiucai's intention to harm the innocent for his own selfish interests is vicious enough, and the person in front of him is not a fuel-efficient lamp. Anyway, it was two lives, but in his mouth, it was as light as two dead chickens.

Everyone is dead, what else can Han Xiufeng say, he can only smile bitterly: "There is no proof of death in this way." ”

"Master Han, are you worried that you won't be able to clean up Li Xiucai without a certificate?"

"Even if those two short-lived ghosts who died unexplained are alive, it is not so easy to count on their one-sided words to clean up Li Xiucai." Han Xiufeng didn't want to be underestimated by him, so he thought about it and said: "But I, Han Xiufeng, am not so easy to mess with, God is still forgivable, people can't live if they do evil, since he dares to collude with private tyrants to hurt the innocent, then don't blame me Han Xiufeng for not giving him a way to live!" ”

Xu Lequn thought to himself that this is the person who does great things.

What he didn't expect was that Han Xiufeng picked up the teacup and muttered again: "The surname Li has bad intentions because this official blocked his financial route, which shows how many hurtful things he has done before." What's more, as an official of the imperial court, I can't know the law and break the law. He has to live, give me a good life, I want him to live like a lost dog, and I can't live in fear! ”

Xu Lequn realized that Han Xiufeng was planning to make the life of the surnamed Li worse than death, and couldn't help laughing: "Since Master Han has an idea, Xu doesn't have to pick up the missing anymore." ”

"Mr. Xu, let's get down to business, where did those private scoundrels come from, and how many of them are there?"

"The group that was collecting salt came from the canal, and there were more than 50 people in total. For fear of being discovered by the yamen, they were broken into pieces when they came, and the same was true when they collected salt, apparently planning to find a place to meet after the ship was filled with salt, and then leave together. ”

"From the canal!"

"Originally, we didn't know, but later a few of them were recognized by a boy who had been a sailor on a boat, and after a little tricking with them, we learned that they had a total of sixteen boats, intending to collect salt and pass through Hai'an, along the wild river at the junction of Rugao and Taizhou into the Yangtze River."

Han Xiufeng asked puzzledly: "Why don't they go directly to the east and enter the sea?" ”

Xu Lequn couldn't help laughing and said: "Master Han, you haven't seen the sea, the sea is no better than the inland river, it's really a storm." Their boat is okay on the inland river, but if they sail in the sea, a big wave hits and a few are estimated to capsize. Besides, in their opinion, there is nothing to worry about going to the inland river, whether it is Fu'an or Hai'an, no matter how many green battalion soldiers and servants there are in Taizhou. And for the New Year, those green battalion soldiers and government servants went home for the New Year early. ”

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