In the past, there were all white servants who helped idle, at least three or five, and more than a dozen. In addition, some white servants let his fox friends and dog friends help him, so when Zhang Zhigao was the governor, there were thousands of errands in Taizhou.

Xu Ying felt that the white servants would only be pretending to be mighty, rampant in the township, extortion, and doing all kinds of evil, as soon as he arrived, he dismissed all the white servants, and even dismissed more than a dozen officials who were unwilling to dismiss the white servants, and the previous head of the capture squad was even beaten fifty boards because of this matter.

Now that the white service is gone, there is only one battalion left in the Taizhou battalion, and even the new garrison and the general and general generals have not arrived, so he can only personally lead more than 50 officials such as Chu Chenggui, who was summoned by a dozen townsmen and Huzi from the fairy temple, and went out of the city to take people with water and fire sticks, machetes, spears and chains.

As Pan Er expected, which of them were the opponents of Xu Lequn's gang, not only did they fail to win them all, but they were injured by more than a dozen of them by those ruthless smugglers. If it weren't for the fact that those smuggler salt dealers were thieves and didn't dare to fight, let alone rushing into the city and snatching Xu Lequn and Jiang Yougui away, it would be possible to occupy Taizhou!

The teacher was unfavorable, Xu Ying was discouraged, and the city was panicked.

Just when a group of gentry who couldn't sit still were going to the state government to plead Xu Ying to go to the Jiangbei camp to move rescue soldiers, or to re-recruit young and strong people to train the villagers, Guo Peilin, the two Huai salt transportation envoys in Huaizhong and Huainan and other fields, came back, and saw Guo Peilin's honor guard, especially the officers and soldiers of the second-class salt capture camp in Ji Daji, and the gentry and people in the city breathed a sigh of relief.

When such a big event happened, Pan Er naturally wanted to report it.

To his surprise, Guo Peilin not only didn't take this seriously, but also asked him to pack his luggage and go to Hai'an to find Han Xiufeng with the shopkeeper of the Taizhou branch of "Rishengchang" early tomorrow morning, and then go to Shanghai with Han Xiufeng on an errand. It wasn't until Xu Ying came over to report what happened at noon that Guo Peilin called Jing Hua to reprimand him, and ordered Jing Hua to pack up his things and go to Jiangyan to assist the new ambassador of the Approval Institute to train Yan Yong, and he was not allowed to return to Taizhou or go to other places without his permission.

In short, in Guo Peilin's eyes, this is not a big deal, but Pan Er feels a little "anticlimactic", thinking that when Han Si was in the capital, he went to visit the "Copper Heavenly King" in the prison of the Criminal Department more than once, as soon as he packed his luggage, he went out to buy some wine and food, asked Chu Chenggui to say hello to the jailer, walked into the prison cell of the state government with the food box, and visited Xu Lequn, who was shouting grievances.

"Mr. Xu, stop shouting, you've come to this step, it's useless to shout and cut your throat."

"I was wronged, Lord Yang will definitely send someone to save me!"

"Lord Yang will come to save you, haha, Mr. Xu, it's not me gloating, it's really not wrong that you are like this."

"What do you want to do, did you poison the wine and food, do you want to harm me?" Seeing Pan Er open the food box and take out the wine and food, Xu Lequn subconsciously let go of his hands and retreated several steps in a row.

"Where do you want to go, you don't have a few days to live, why should I do this?" Pan Er took the stool sent by the jailer, sat down and crossed Erlang's legs and said with a smile: "Mr. Xu, don't be upset when you say this, you really disappointed me like this." You weren't like this before, remember being in Hai'an in the first month, that's really a person who would rather die than give in. If you want to kill or chop, listen to you, this is what you said, I remember it clearly, you forgot I haven't forgotten! ”

Xu Lequn suddenly froze, just sat on the straw and even looked a little dull.

"It seems that I expected it, it must be that I have become an official but my courage has become smaller," Pan Er leaned over and took out the wine jug, poured a glass of wine, brought it to his lips and took a small sip, and said slowly: "You killed Li Xiucai, saying that you were collecting some interest, do you know what my fourth brother said, he said that you not only showed it to us, but also showed it to your subordinates." It is not easy to lead troops, not to mention that they are all smuggling salt dealers, you want them to listen to you, you want them to work together, and it is the best excuse to help Jiang Youyu take revenge. ”

"Han Xiufeng?" Xu Lequn asked through gritted teeth.

"Well," Pan Er nodded, and then said: "You think you are a character, in fact, my fourth brother didn't take you Xu Lequn seriously at all, and even asked us to ignore you, saying that if you continue to do this, you will die sooner or later, but I didn't expect this to be fulfilled in less than a month, you say it's not funny." ”

"The surname Pan, don't be too happy, Xu Ying doesn't dare to kill me, Lord Yang will definitely come to save me!"

"Master Xu doesn't dare to kill you? Will Lord Yang come to your rescue? ”

"No matter what I Xu Lequn says, I am also a dignified five-grade civil official, why did Xu Ying kill me?"

"If you put aside the peaceful years, Master Xu will not be able to kill you, but now it is not peaceful today, you have been stationed in Shao Bo for many days, you should know that the officers and soldiers are going around to intercept and kill the spies of the bandits, some Qiu Ba in order to make a reward and even kill the good and take the merit, as long as it is involved with the bandits, kill it, and the emperor will not blame."

Pan Er smiled and said, "If you change to a serious official, especially those who have entered the imperial examination, Master Xu will not kill him." If you want to talk about crimes, the crimes of the former two Huai salt envoys Dan Minglun, Liu Liangju and the former Yangzhou prefect Zhang Tingrui were so big that even the emperor wanted to kill their heads, but in the end they didn't kill them, do you know why? ”

"They're having people in the middle."

This is to the point, but it is only half right, the reason why they can keep their heads is not only because there are people in the court, but also because they understand the rules of officialdom. You are different from them, not only is there no one in the court, but you are also unruly, this is not what death is, Master Xu said at noon that you are self-inflicted and cannot live. ”

"What do you mean by not knowing the rules?" Xu Lequn asked subconsciously.

"If you don't understand the rules, you don't understand the rules, what else can you mean." Looking at Xu Lequn's thoughtful appearance, Pan Er simply explained: "Forget it, you are dying, I will let you die to understand." Let's just talk about today's incident, the grudge between you and us, Master Xu knows it, and he doesn't deal with it like my fourth brother, so not only did he not think about your life at first, but he even planned to help you make peace with Jinghua to see if he could let you pay some silver to Jinghua and settle the matter. ”

"Why should I give him the money?"

"You ran into him, offended him, and he didn't have to pay for your life! Anyway, you Xu Lequn is also half a Han official, not to mention Master Xu, as far as I see you being bullied like that by Jinghua and Enahai, I don't feel good in my heart. ”

"Don't pretend to be a good person."

"Okay, okay, I'll be a good person." Pan Er drank the wine in the cup and returned to the original topic: "You later said that you came to Taizhou to do private business, and even brought dozens of subordinates, this is not a big deal. But you are not here to do private affairs, but to kill officials, killing officials is rebellion, who can protect you! ”

"What kind of official is Zhang Guangcheng?" Xu Lequn asked through gritted teeth.

"Second Young Master Zhang has not only donated to officials, but also the son of Master Zhang Zhigao! Master Xu didn't deal with their father and son, but it was all because of official business, even if he wanted to clean up Zhang Guangcheng, he would only participate in the impeachment. It's good that you, as an official of the imperial court, dared to disguise yourself and lead someone to sneak into Taizhou with a murder weapon to assassinate you, which not only violated the royal law, but also broke the rules of officialdom. ”

"What rules?"

"I don't understand this, since you have to abide by the rules of officialdom when you are an official, you can quarrel and make trouble if you have political discord, and you can even make a stumbling block, you can borrow a knife to kill people, just like the last time you killed my fourth brother and asked Master Xu to force my fourth brother to fight with the bandits, but you must not buy the murderer or even assassinate it yourself. Besides, the misfortune is not as good as the parents, and the sin is not as good as the wife and children, but you are good, not only want to kill Zhang Guangcheng, but also want to kill the Zhang family. If everyone is like you, who would dare to be an official? ”

Looking at Xu Lequn's repentant appearance, Pan Er said again: "I have never had such a thing happen in the Qing Dynasty, whether it is the princes and ministers in Beijing or the governors outside Beijing, I dare to conclude that none of them want to see such a thing." It's good that you want to set this precedent, and you say you deserve to die? ”

"I ...... I ......" Xu Lequn realized that Pan Er was not scaring him, and he trembled with fright.

"Therefore your sin is too great, even greater than rebellion. Speaking of rebellion, there are many rebels, as long as they know the times and understand the rules, they will have a chance to turn over. There are many generals in the Jiangnan camp who have rebelled, such as Zhang Guoliang and Feng Zicai, who not only rebelled but also killed officials, but people knew the current affairs and surrendered when they found that the signs were wrong, so they were recruited by the imperial court, and when they became officials and soldiers, they listened to Xiang Shuai's orders and obeyed the rules of the imperial court. But what about you, you have already defected to Lord Yang, and you have served under Lord Yang but have not obeyed the rules, will Lord Yang believe in you again, and dare to believe in you again? ”

Pan Er paused, got up and said, "You may think that this time it was bad luck to meet Jinghua in a daze." But in my opinion, even if you are lucky enough not to meet Jinghua today, you will die sooner or later because of something else. People like you shouldn't mix with officialdom, from the day you became obsessed with donating officials, you were doomed that you would not end well, and sooner or later you would die without a body. ”

"No, Lord Yang will not die without help, Lord Yang will definitely come to save me......"

"To be a man, you not only have to abide by the rules, but also have to accept your fate, don't coax yourself."

Pan Er pointed to the food box and said: "Actually, I'm here to say goodbye to you, because I have to go on an errand early tomorrow morning, and I won't be able to come back for a while, so naturally I can't watch you being punished by the Ming Dynasty." But don't worry, for the sake of you helping my fourth brother investigate smuggled salt, I will arrange for someone to help you collect the body at that time.

In short, you can't blame others when you come to this point, you can only blame yourself. After you die, don't shout grievances when you see Lord Yama, you have done so many sins in the mortal world, even if you shout grievances, it is useless. Don't pester me and my fourth brother, even if you pester us, we're not afraid. It's a big deal to ask monks and Taoists to do a few rituals, and when the time comes, don't blame us for not being able to reincarnate, because you brought it on yourself. ”