Sanwang and Xue Congjia stood at the corner of the street, it was already evening, the streets and alleys were still very lively, the vendors were like a competition, you sang and I appeared, and the shouting came and went. The sunset shone warmly on the bluestone slabs, a babbling stream meandered along the corner, the white chrysanthemums on the roadside had bloomed, and the yellow leaves on the street were blown everywhere by the wind. The three kings clasped their hands to their chests and said to Xue Congjia: "I have seen the Jiang family chick, can I go back to Zhaojia Village with me now?" ”

"Yes, we'll leave tomorrow. However, please don't publicize it, especially don't let the people from the Criminal Department and Dali Temple know. ”

The three kings raised their eyebrows: "I was sent by my father and the emperor to investigate the case, and the people from the Criminal Department and Dali Temple will more or less help you and me, and if you avoid the Criminal Department and Dali Temple, my father will also be suspicious." I said, when will this case be over, and I will marry a concubine when the case is closed. ”

Xue Congjia smiled: "Zhao Tieniu said that there is a big man behind this case, since it is the foundation of digging up the big man, of course, we must minimize the scope of the matter, so as not to involve more innocent people." If you want to close the case quickly, it's very simple, just push Zhao Tieniu out to take the blame, and I'll check the rest myself. ”

"You kid is really ruthless, since this king promised to protect Zhao Tieniu's life, he will never break his word." The three kings said indignantly.

Xue Congjia nodded, approved the three kings' approach, and said, "The three princes should know a lot of cronies in the household department, right?" ”

The three kings nodded, the former Hubu Shangshu is his own maternal grandfather, although his maternal grandfather has returned to his hometown after becoming famous, but the current household servant is also his maternal grandfather who pulled it up, and there are all the eyeliners he left in Jinling City. Now that I think about it, my mother is not favored, and she relies on her grandfather as a backer to stand tall in the harem, but she was born not to please her father, otherwise she would not have been guarding the border.

The three kings admired Xue Congjia very much, but they were also very tired of his habit of only saying half of what he said every time, so that he had to guess Xue Congjia's intentions every day, and often couldn't guess correctly, so he was very hurt, so he said: "Okay, okay, you just say it, who do you want me to find for you, what to do, and how to check." I really don't understand you halfway through your words every time. ”

Xue Congjia was stunned and said, "I'm sorry, I didn't know you couldn't understand what I meant." Then let me make it clear, Zhao Tieniu said before that the manipulator of the private iron matter is to take the silver ticket to the patriarch of the village, and then the patriarch will send people out to exchange it for silver taels and copper coins to distribute to each family, and now there are no silver tickets found in the village, only a small amount of broken silver and copper plates. If we follow these checks, we may know more clues. ”

Xue Congjia thought that the perpetrator did not take all the silver taels away, in fact, it was a clever way to do it, and it was really unreasonable for the villagers in a village to not have a little silver taels at home, but the little silver taels left behind to cover people's ears and ears gave clues to the people investigating the case.

The three kings said: "This is simple, I will ask the criminal department and Dali Temple for them to ask for silver." ”

As a result, the people of the Criminal Department and Dali Temple told the three kings, because these silver were also unlucky and the quantity was very small, and the people of the Criminal Department and Dali Temple donated these silver taels and the copper coins they found to the temple, which could be regarded as accumulating a little virtue for these dead people, and they did not know how the temple would deal with the money. When the three kings continued to ask, they found that all the money had been bought in bits and pieces, such as tofu, vegetables, and some paper and pencils. Because the places where the money is used are too scattered, and the stalls are very mobile, there is no place to go for the money.

The three kings were extremely angry: "These straw bales in the Criminal Department and Dali Temple, I can't find out the case, but I donate money more diligently than anyone else, either I like to raise bitches or stick monks upside down, I don't know which tendon is wrong, I must take a good look at them, grandma's, a group of rice buckets." He glared at Zhao Tieniu as he spoke, Zhao Tieniu was afraid that the enemy would take his dog's life, so he had been hiding in the Three Kings' Mansion, and the Three Kings temporarily arranged a job in the back kitchen for him, so he didn't have to show his face, Zhao Tieniu felt very satisfied.

At this time, he felt the murderous gaze of the three kings, and hurriedly excused himself, and said in a trembling voice: "The silver and copper coins look the same, and if they are found, there may not be any new discoveries. ”

Xue Congjia said: "That's not necessarily. Since the pig iron has been made, there must be a buyer, and the buyer will definitely spend a lot of money to buy the pig iron, and the reward you get must be only a small part of it, but it is also strange, why not just give you cash, but give you a silver ticket and let you change it, which shows that the silver is very problematic. ”

"What can be the problem, can't you buy the official money paid for pig iron?" Zhao Tieniu said. This official silver is the money of the official family, and it is to be filled with the treasury, and the people are not allowed to use it, and if they are caught, they are to be beheaded.

The three kings smiled: "How is it possible, wouldn't using official silver leave a handle for others?" The buyer is not a fool. In my opinion, the reason for this is the portability of the silver ticket. ”

"The silver ticket is indeed easy to carry, but the silver ticket needs to be exchanged at the money bank, and your coming and going will naturally arouse people's suspicions, where did a farmer with his back to the loess come from so many silver tickets, so the use of silver tickets must be a last resort. At present, there are three groups of people whose identities have not yet been clarified, the first is the pig iron buyer, the second is the pig iron seller, and the third is the murderer of Zhaojia Village. The identity of the seller is great, then the identity of the buyer will not be simple, as long as we figure out the identity of the seller, the buyer will definitely surface, now we go to Pinshizhai to have a look. ”

Pinshizhai is an inconspicuous house in Xinyang City, hidden at the end of Zhengyu Lane in the south of Xinyang City, there are many antique shops hidden in it, selling porcelain and jade, cigarette bottles and pearls, seals, calligraphy and paintings, all in this alley, because this alley is adjacent to many government yamen, many officials will come here in their leisure time, the security here is good, people who know how to do in Jinling City will come here to practice their eyesight or discover some new collections.

Zhao Tieniu doesn't like antiques and prefers strange stones, and he also groped for a long time to find the shop of Pinshizhai, which is almost all the stones that he dreams of, he Zhao Tieniu, in addition to loving Sun Sanniang, he loves these strange stones the most!

Xue Congjia and the three of them walked into Pinshi Zhai, smelling a faint smell of sandalwood, the whole store is very simple and elegant, there are a few strange stones in it that are worth a lot of money at a glance, Xue Congjia thought, although the name of this store is vulgar, there is a different world in it.

The shopkeeper was a man in his sixties, dressed neatly and generously, with a strong body and a calm expression, and he was not very enthusiastic about the visitors, but just let them look at them at will, and then he lowered his head and went to keep the accounts. Presumably, this shopkeeper has seen a lot of big people, so he will behave so calmly. The other apprentices were just busy, some pouring tea, some wiping things.

The three kings were in an impatience, walked to the shopkeeper, and lightly tapped the desktop with the jade wrench in his hand, and when the shopkeeper looked up, he happened to see the autumn fragrance lining and bright yellow belt deliberately exposed by the three kings, and he almost immediately reacted to the identity of the three kings. Just as he was about to salute, he was stopped by the gestures of the three kings.

The shopkeeper coughed lightly, made a gesture, and the apprentices withdrew. Because there are also many dignitaries and dignitaries who come to admire the stones on weekdays, and they don't want inconsequential people to serve on the sidelines, so these apprentices are commonplace, just when someone with spare money comes to buy stones.

The three kings said to the shopkeeper, "What is the name of the shopkeeper?" ”

The shopkeeper said: "The contemptible surname is Fang, this master is here, but I want to ask about that Zhao Gongzi?" As he spoke, the shopkeeper looked at Zhao Tieniu, who was cowering, with a slight smile.

Zhao Tieniu has come here a lot of times, and Shopkeeper Fang took the initiative to mention himself, so he was embarrassed. Xue Congjia said: "The shopkeeper Fang has a good memory. ”

Shopkeeper Fang touched his beard and said proudly: "Although the contemptible person is old, his memory is no worse than that of a young man, and I can never forget anyone who comes to my store." This Zhao Gongzi has come to my shop a total of seventeen times and bought seven stones, you say? ”

Zhao Tieniu didn't quite remember how many times he had invited himself to come, and he smiled stupidly at the shopkeeper. Shopkeeper Fang knew that the identity of the three kings was not simple, so he straightened up and said, "I don't know what this master is doing when he comes to the cold house?" ”

The Three Kings said, "It's not a big deal, Ben ...... I just want to know where Zhao Tieniu's grandson got so much money to buy stones from you. ”

Shopkeeper Fang had already seen Zhao Tieniu's identity, and he also knew that Zhao Tieniu was being wanted by the Criminal Department and Dali Temple, so he estimated the seriousness of the matter in his heart, so he didn't dare to lie in front of the three kings, so he smiled and said: "This master, please." As he spoke, he led the three of them to the back, only to see that the medicine cabinet placed against the wall contained countless small drawers, like a medicine store for medicinal herbs.

Xue Congjia sniffed, there was no smell of medicinal herbs in the air, Fang Shopkeeper pulled out a drawer at random, only to see a piece of women's gold hairpin and gold lock in it, he quickly pulled out another drawer, which contained an IOU and a few ingots.

He explained: "Masters like you naturally can't think of the use of these jewelry, there are many people who have taken a fancy to the stones I have here, and they don't have enough money to buy them home, so they take some things in exchange, to put it bluntly, the despicable shop is half a pawn." I used all the money to subsidize my family, and I stored all the IOUs or the vouchers for taking objects as money. ”

"Shopkeeper Fang is really a genius, he can come up with such a way to make money." Xue Congjia said unceremoniously, a person's spending ability and his family conditions are obviously linked, and by doing so, the shopkeeper Fang made it clear that he wanted people to buy things that he couldn't afford at all and provided convenience for them. And this IOU is a dozen, and it is indispensable to charge interest, and the shopkeeper Fang is also a profiteer.