"Smack! Syllable! Syllable! The sound of the whip colliding with flesh echoed in the cell, and on the floor there was a whip that had been broken and two basins of cold water mixed with a large amount of salt, and whenever the whipped sweat was knocked out, the torturer would pour the thick salt water on him to wake him up in agony, so that he could suffer more pain. But no matter how severely the torturer beat and tortured, the bearded man didn't even say a word, let alone begging for mercy, but as soon as he had some strength, he scolded more than once, "Dog officer! Dog traitor! None of the officials under Wu Sangui are not dogs! The dog's legs are the dog's dogs! ”

"Shouting, still hard-mouthed?" The head of the Licheng County team, who was overlegging his feet on the side, sneered, and beckoned to the official who was already sweating profusely: "Work hard, pump hard!" Draw until he's honest! ”

"Yes." The official agreed, and pumped harder, and when he was tired, he changed to another official to continue the punishment, and soon broke a leather whip, but the bearded man, although he was covered with bruises and his breath was dying, he still scolded endlessly. At this time, the door of the torture room was suddenly pushed open, and several officials came in carrying a sedan chair. The team leader even said repeatedly: "Master, you have been in a coma all night, and you have just woken up, why did you come to this place?" It turned out that it was none other than Wang Fen, the county magistrate of Licheng County, who was injured by the assassination.

"Don't worry." Wang Fen ** said: "Heaven and Earth will have a huge anti-thief force, and this anti-thief is an important figure for them, you work hard, watch carefully, don't let other anti-thieves save them." When the confession is made, the county will ask the king of Pingxi to give you a reward, please reward you. ”

"Don't worry, sir, this place is safe." The head of the team smiled and said: "It's also thanks to the county master's clever calculation, it is expected that the heaven and earth will be anti-thieves who will come to rob the prison, and released the news in advance that this anti-thief is locked in the prison, but in fact it is hidden in the back garden of our county office, so that those anti-thieves pounced." But I didn't expect those thieves to be so bold, they actually robbed the prison and assassinated the master at the same time, our brothers only cared about guarding this thief, but they mistakenly protected the master. ”

"This plan can only be concealed for a while, but not for a long time, and the thieves will find this place sooner or later." Wang Fen shook his head with difficulty, ** said: "A few of you who know where he is being held are not allowed to go out, be careful not to be caught by the thief, hurry up and ask for a confession...... You've been interrogating for almost a day and a night, and you've asked for anything? ”

The head of the squad was full of embarrassment, shook his head and said: "This thief is very stubborn, the villain has already broken two leather whips, but he still can't speak." Speaking of this, the head of the team suggested to Wang Fen again: "Master, this anti-thief is very stubborn, I'm afraid that I won't be able to ask anything for a while, if the time is delayed, our Licheng County Ya will only be thirty or forty people, and his strength is weak, in case he is rescued by other anti-thieves, it will be troublesome." Why didn't the lord ask the provincial capital for help and ask them to send green battalion soldiers to help guard this thief? No matter how bad it is, I invite Mr. Hu who is stationed outside the county to come in, he has a battalion of men and horses, and he helps take care of it, so you don't have to worry about it, sir. ”

"Can't call for help." Wang Fen shook his head and said: "This thief has a high status in the Heaven and Earth Society, once the provincial capital is notified, the prefect and even the governor will not let go of this opportunity to grab credit-and Hu Jiang is not a person from the prince of Pingxi, and he is not reliable." It's not that I'm greedy for merit, it's just that the Heaven and Earth Society and the Prince of Pingxi don't share the sky, and I want to ask from him about the contact code of the Heaven and Earth Society and the situation of the Yungui Branch Hall to report to the King of Pingxi, so as to be worthy of the kindness of the King of Pingxi. ”

"Dog thief, don't daydream, your head has a scar the size of a bowl, you just cut off Fang Dahong's head, and Fang Dahong will not betray the brothers of the Heaven and Earth Society." The bearded man, that is, Fang Dahong, the master of the Heaven and Earth Society Lotus Hall, struggled and roared: "Dog thief, shameless! actually used the means of the upper and lower rivers and lakes to put sweat medicine in the tea of the master, shameless villain! ”

"Shut up!" The official next to him whipped Fang Dahong fiercely, but Wang Fen, who was on the sedan chair, was startled, and asked the head of the team in surprise: "Meng's sweat medicine?" When you arrested him yesterday, you put sweat medicine in his tea? ”

"Nope." The leader of the team cried out: "When the villain took the brother to arrest this thief, he was already asleep on the table, and the villain successfully caught him." As for whether there is a villain or not, I don't know, even if there is really any sweat pill, it is not under the villain - the villain has never even seen what the sweat pill looks like. ”

"Nonsense! Isn't it the medicine given by you Wu Sangui's dogs, could it be that the sweat medicine ran into the master's teacup by itself? Fang Dahong struggled and shouted. The leader of the team was furious, and when he was about to order the torture to continue, Wang Fen waved his hand to stop them, muttering: "This thief was easily caught by you, it seems that there is really a sweat medicine, but you have not been drugged, so who is the person who drugged it?" Could it be that the person who drugged him was the one who secretly reported the anti-thief movement to the official? The government's reward for the various thieves of the Heaven and Earth Society is so high, why didn't he show up to receive the reward? ”

When Wang Fen was puzzled by the mystery of the whistleblower Fang Dahong and the strangeness of the arrest operation, a servant suddenly came in outside the room and whispered in Wang Fen's ear: "Master, five people came outside to ask to see, and the villain said that you were injured and couldn't see guests, but they said that there was something important, as long as you showed you something, you would definitely see them." As he spoke, the official handed a small cloth bag to Wang Fen, Wang Fen trembled and untied it and glanced at it, then said excitedly: "Quick, quickly invite them into the back hall, a few of you, carry the official to the back hall to meet the guests." ”

……

Let's not talk about Wang Fen going to meet those distinguished guests, just say that after Wang Fen left, the torture and beating of Fang Dahong became more and more intense, and Fang Dahong was beaten to faint several times, until ten in the evening, Wang Fen led five strangers in, pointed to one of the young men with a scorched face and introduced to the officials with a difficult smile: "Come and see Lord Wu, this Lord Wu is the special envoy of Wang Shirong Wang, the military advisor of the King of Pingxi, and the officials of the Western Election who patrol various places on behalf of the King of Pingxi, and are the top boss of this official. ”

"I've seen Lord Wu." The young man with a scorched face laughed, "Everyone, please excuse me, don't be called an adult, the younger brother's surname is Wu, his name is Yuanming, in the future, you will call me Brother Wu or Brother Wu according to your age." As a precaution, before coming to Licheng County, Wu Yuanming not only used pigment to dye the skin of his face, but also used flour mixed with herbs to raise his cheekbones, completely changing his appearance.

"Don't dare, don't dare." The officials hurriedly gave in, Wu Yuanming took out two silver tickets from the shoe tube and handed them over, and said with a smile: "You have caught the big leader of the Heaven and Earth Society and the thieves, and you have made great contributions to the King of Pingxi, and you have worked hard." This has two hundred taels of silver to divide it, although it is less, it is also a little bit of brother's heart, and the king of Pingxi will definitely have a heavy reward in the future. ”

"Thank you, Brother Wu." The leaders of those servant classes all smiled, they only had one tael of silver a month, and two hundred taels of silver was already a lot of money for them, and they were busy thanking Wu Yuanming. Wang Fen pointed to the four Wu Sangui guards behind Wu Yuanming and said: "These are the masters of the Pingxi Royal Mansion brought by Lord Wu, from now on, a few of them will guard and interrogate prisoners with you, everything is at the disposal of Lord Wu, do you understand?" ”

"Understood." The officials and the squad leader replied in unison. At this time, Wang Fen, who was still injured on his body, couldn't support it anymore, so he confessed his crime and went back to the room to recuperate from his injuries - by the way, he went to celebrate Wu Yuanming's personal promotion to his prefect, and only Wu Yuanming, four Wu Sangui guards and more than a dozen squad leaders were left in the cell. This room is quite large, more than a dozen or twenty people sit in it without crowding at all, Wu Yuanming took out the silver and called two tables of good noodles and a few jars of good wine, and the officials happily arranged it, and more than a dozen people interrogated Fang Dahong in the room, while eating and drinking, and asked people to feed Fang Dahong some wine and food, Fang Dahong had been hungry for a day and a night, but he did not postpone it, and drank wine and ate meat without changing his face.

Compared with the Qing Dynasty officials who loved to put on a show, Wu Yuanming's personality was obviously much more easy-going, and he mingled with the gang of officials who called him brother and brother in a moment, Wu Yuanming took the opportunity to ask the leader of the team who captured Fang Dahong: "Brother Ma, I heard that you personally led people to arrest this thief?" I heard that there was a sweat medicine in his tea beforehand, and the details of what happened. Please tell me about it. ”

"Brother Wu, this matter is also strange." The team leader surnamed Ma poured a few sips of wine into his mouth, burped and said: "Yesterday afternoon, when the time of Shen was just over, brother, I took a group of brothers to patrol the street, and I didn't find anything abnormal after a few turns. Brother, I have been handling cases for many years, and I am wary of some methods on the rivers and lakes, so I immediately touched my own purse, and I knew that my purse containing copper not only did not fall off, but also found that there was an extra purse, which was hung on my belt with a crochet needle. ”

"How could there be such a thing? What's in that extra purse? Wu Yuanming asked with a suspicious face. The horse bantou took out an ordinary blue cloth purse from his bosom and put it on the table, and said: "This is the purse, in addition to a few small ingots of broken silver, there is also a note - now the note is still in the purse, brother I can't read, so I found a fortune teller on the street to read it to me, and then I realized that there was only one sentence written on it: 'There is heaven and earth will be hidden in the third room of Tianzi in Yuelai Inn'." Because the matter was too strange, I didn't dare to slack off, so I immediately led the brothers to the Yuelai Inn to check, who knew that this thief was really found in the third room of Tianzi. At that time, he was already asleep on the table, no matter how he screamed, he couldn't wake up, brother, we still found a few letters written to him by other anti-thieves on him, and then we knew that he was really a thief of heaven and earth, or a big thief. ”

"How can there be such a strange thing in the world?" If Wang Fen hadn't told Wu Yuanming like this, Wu Yuanming really didn't believe what Ma Bantou said. In order to follow up the clues, Wu Yuanming hurriedly opened the purse and took out the note to take a closer look, and saw that the font on the paper was uglier than the words he wrote, and it was obvious that he wrote with his left hand to hide the real handwriting, and he couldn't find any usable clues from it. Wu Yuanming asked the team leader again: "Brother Ma, have you seen the appearance and dress of the Taoist priest?" ”

"He seems to be wearing a cyan robe and carrying a seven-star sword on his back, but his face is not clear to see, he walks very fast, and he may have some kung fu." The head of the Ma Ban recalled the scene at that time, and asked several other officials, "You guys, have you seen what that Taoist priest's face looks like?" ”

"I walked too fast to see clearly." Several officials replied in unison. Only one of the officials said, "When he passed me, I seemed to smell a scent from him." Speaking of this, the official laughed lewdly, "Probably I smelled it wrong, the fragrance on his body is almost like the smell of those girls in the Emerald Red Mansion." The other officials laughed loudly and scolded one after another, "Dog nose! Can you even smell a woman? Only Wu Yuanming attached great importance to this information, and only thought in his heart: "Could it be that woman?" Woman...... Could it be such a coincidence? She...... What is the purpose of doing this......? It seems that this matter is not so simple. ”

"Brother Wu, drink." Wu Yuanming was thinking about it, and the horse squad raised his glass in front of Wu Yuanming again, and said respectfully: "Brother Bucai, I salute Brother Wu, please drink this glass of wine." Wu Yuanming didn't have any ill feelings towards these friends who drank and meat, and immediately raised his glass to drink. When he put down the cup, Wu Yuanming squinted and saw that it was already dark outside the window, so Wu Yuanming picked up a jar of wine that had already drunk most of it, first filled the bowl in front of him, walked to the front of Fang Dahong and said with a smile: "Anti-thief, do you want to drink?" ”

"Phew! Traitor lackey! Fang Dahong spit out a mouthful of thick phlegm. Wu Yuanming flashed sideways, holding the wine jar with one hand, dragging the braid to the noodles with the other, and said with a smile: "If you want to drink, as long as you tell the master about the incision of your Heaven and Earth Society, the master will give you a drink." As he spoke, Wu Yuanming tore open the original decoration and the red cloth pendant tied to his braid, revealing the white powder hidden in the braid, and poured the white powder into the wine in front of Fang Dahong. Wu Yuanming smiled again: "Say, I'll give you a sip if I say a word." ”

Fang Dahong was also quite fine, and when he saw Wu Yuanming's movements, he immediately guessed that there must be something strange in it, and hurriedly scolded: "Dog traitor, don't daydream, Lao Tzu will never betray his brother." Wu Yuanming laughed, "If you don't eat and drink, that is, you have no blessings, let's drink it ourselves." As he spoke, Wu Yuanming turned around and poured a bowl of medicinal wine for each of the leading officials, and those people hurriedly stood up and bowed down and said, "Then dare Brother Wu pour wine himself?" ”

"Brothers, please." Wu Yuanming lifted the bowl of unmedicated wine that he had poured before, and said with a smile: "After drinking this bowl of wine, we should continue to torture, brothers work harder, and strive to ask for all the confessions tonight." The head of the official team hurriedly raised the bowl and drank with Wu Yuanming, and according to Wu Yuanming's instructions, Zhang Luo tortured the instrument, ready to continue to interrogate Fang Dahong, but they didn't work a few times, the horse team leader who drank the most was the first to plant himself on the ground, and the other officials also fell to the ground one after another and fell asleep. And Wu Yuanming waved his hand majestically and shouted in a low voice: "Quickly untie the hero for Fang." The four Wu Sangui guards next to him hurriedly went up to cut the hemp rope and tendons on Fang Dahong's body and untied them from the torture pillar.

As soon as the rope on Fang Dahong's body was untied, Wu Yuanming hurriedly stepped forward and saluted politely: "Wu Yuanming, a subordinate of the little grandfather of Mu Wangfu Mu Shenbao, has seen Fang Yingying. Fang Dahong was able to get out of trouble, he couldn't help but be overjoyed, and said happily: "It turned out to be the hero of Mu Wangfu, I don't know how Brother Wu learned that Fang was in trouble and rushed to the rescue?" And just now the dog officer said that Brother Wu is the envoy of the big traitor Wu Sangui's dog-headed military advisor Wang Shirong, what's going on? ”

"Here's the thing, Wang Shirong's dog thief did have an envoy, and when Fang Yingying was arrested by the dog officer, the envoy was indeed in Jinan City." Wu Yuanming had already prepared a set of rhetoric, and explained in a rhetorical manner: "Because we want to investigate the intelligence network of the big traitor Wu Sangui in the people, brother, I have been tracking and monitoring Wang Shirong's lackey for a long time, this time in Jinan Mansion, Wang Shirong's lackey sent someone to contact Wang Fen of Licheng County, and when he returned, he was overheard by his brother, and his brother only knew the news that Fang Yingying was arrested by mistake. Heaven and Earth will be with me Mu Wangfu is the backbone of the anti-Qing Dynasty and the restoration of the Ming Dynasty, brother, I dare not slack off, so I killed that Wang Shirong's lackey, took away the gold medal on his body to contact the Western Election Officials in various places, and pretended to be him to rescue Fang Hero. ”

Saying that, Wu Yuanming took out the gold medal of Pingxi Wangfu and handed it to Fang Dahong for inspection, although Fang Dahong was skeptical of Wu Yuanming's words, but for now he had to believe it for the time being, and nodded: "Thank you so much Brother Wu, Fang Dahong can get rid of this difficulty, and he will definitely repay Brother Wu's great kindness." At this time, the four Wu Sangui guards brought by Wu Yuanming had already taken out the Yunnan Baiyao they brought and bandaged Fang Dahong to stop the bleeding, Wu Yuanming took the opportunity to ask: "Brother Fang, you also heard it just now, this time it was secretly reported to the Tartar Government that it was a Taoist priest in Tsing Yi, have you ever known such a person?" Also, you were knocked unconscious with sweat pills, what is going on? ”

"Taoist priest in Tsing Yi, I don't know such a person?" Fang Dahong was also confused about this mysterious Taoist priest. Wu Yuanming asked again: "Then these days, who is there anyone who strangers have become acquainted with Brother Fang?" Know the identity of Big Brother Fang? ”

"There are two strangers I have befriended, but I don't use my real name...... Wrong! They might know who I am! Fang Dahong exclaimed after a little recollection. Wu Yuanming hurriedly asked, "Then who are they?" Is it male or female? What is your name? ”

"They are ......" As soon as Fang Dahong said these three words, a feather arrow suddenly shot out of the window with a 'whoosh', which accurately shot into Fang Dahong's throat and passed through his throat! Wu Yuanming brought the four Wu Sangui guards who were all frightened, screaming "Young Master be careful" and pressed Wu Yuanming to the ground, used his body to block the possible ensuing attack for Wu Yuanming, and crawled and dragged Wu Yuanming to the dead corner of the window. Fortunately, the killer outside only shot an arrow and stopped, and then Wu Yuanming and the others heard the sound of tree branches shaking, as if the assassin had fled. But the four Wu Sangui guards were not at ease, two stayed in the room to protect Wu Yuanming, and the two went out to check through the perspective of the window.

After a while, he went out to check on the two Wu Sangui guards who came back with a horned bow and reported: "Yu Shizi, the assassin has fled, this is the weapon he left." Wu Yuanming got up and took the horn bow, but he only glanced at Wu Yuanming and froze on the spot, it turned out that there were four characters carved on the horn bow - it turned out to be the four words 'Pingxi Palace'!

"Could it be that someone wants to frame our Wu family?!" A thought flashed through Wu Yuanming's heart like lightning, and when he hurriedly turned around to go to the feather arrow that was still inserted in Fang Dahong's throat, he saw that the feather arrow was also engraved with four characters - Pingxi Palace!

For more information on what happened next, see the next chapter, "Self-defeating".