Li Xianzhi sent Zhang Fengyi away, and then went to the Futai Yamen to say goodbye. Governor Hao's mansion is all there, Tong and Tong. Seeing Li Xianzhi's arrival, they all got up to greet each other. Li Xianzhi knew that he was just fake Zhang Fengyi's might, and he didn't take it seriously, so he was perfunctory and gossiping. Before long, Governor Hao yawned and was about to sleep, so Tong, Tong and Li Xianzhi all got up to say goodbye.

Outside the door, Li Xianzhi said goodbye to the two bosses and returned to the flood land. As soon as they returned to the county, Qian County Cheng and Miao Zhushu rushed out to greet them first, kowtowing again, and making troubles, and when they arrived at the second hall, they couldn't stop slapping their beards and horses, and their words of concern for themselves leaned straight out. Li Xianzhi listened to the rice all over his body, blindly perfunctory. It wasn't until He Tai'an came in to pay tribute to him, and the two complimented him for a long time before they said goodbye.

Seeing them go out and walk away, He Tai'an smiled and said, "When did these two adults become so well-behaved and polite. ”

Li Xianzhi shook his head and said: "It's just that I am a fox and a fake tiger, and I have made the wolves, roe deer, deer, and rabbits all over the mountain afraid." ”

He Tai'an said: "It's okay like this, so that he won't be embarrassed by you everywhere, and it will save a lot of idle things." ”

Li Xianzhi nodded, changed his mind and asked, "What is the matter with Mr. coming?" ”

He Tai'an poured out the bitter water and said, "I have never been so busy in the Golden Governor's Scene. The account office, money valley, and criminal name of a county are all in my hands, and the county magistrate is idle every day. ”

Li Xianzhi said with a smile: "I don't want to get the money and food in the county, how can I have extra money to invite the guests?" Please also ask Mr. He to bother more. ”

He Tai'an put a thick stack of account books and files on the case and said, "Please also bother to take a look." After saying that, he hurriedly went back to work.

Although Li Xianzhi entrusted He Tai'an with all affairs, he was the county governor of the palm print, and the county affairs could not be known. So he wholeheartedly read the account books and files for his superiors to inquire.

Besides, this He Tai'an does have a lot of kung fu, the files are concise, the accounts are clear, and the performance of the two divisions of the domain and the second division is evaluated, and Li Xianzhi is quite praised. In the chaotic officialdom of Zhejiang and Zhejiang, he actually gained the reputation of a cadre.

The so-called "unforeseen circumstances in the sky", just when everything was going well, it didn't take long for An Birthday to be disturbed by a shocking event.

At this time, it was midsummer, and late one night, Li Xianzhi had not long been resting, when he heard someone slamming the door. hurriedly got up and opened the door, but it was Zhao Wenhui.

Li Xianzhi asked, "Why did Guangshen knock on the door late at night?" ”

Zhao Wenhui bowed slightly and said, "My lord, Dong's house in the south of the city was looted by pirates. ”

Li Xianzhi was shocked and hurriedly said: "Gather the soldiers immediately, and I will be there immediately." ”

Zhao Wenhui took the order. Li Xianzhi hurriedly changed into an official uniform and went out, only to see that the torches outside the courtyard were bright, and Zhao Wenhui had already gathered more than 100 people from the three classes of officials and the local soldiers in the county to prepare thieves and wait.

After a while, Li Xianzhi came out in an official uniform. The messenger had already brought a green horse. Li Xianzhi turned over and got on the horse, beat the horse out of the county office, Zhao Wenhui also got on the horse to follow, a group of horses, foot archers, fast hands, and Minzhuang followed closely behind, and came to Dong's house, which arrived in less than half an hour.

By this time, the bandits had long since fled. Li Xianzhi went inside to check and found that the inside was looted, and the place he saw was in a mess. The people fled in all directions and were nowhere to be seen. Li Xianzhi then ordered the horses and foot archers to be on guard everywhere, and ordered the fast horses to follow around to see if they could find traces of the thieves; Kuaishou and errand officers went inside to carefully check if there were any survivors.

Checking for half a night, when the day was bright, the servants carried out more than twenty corpses of old and young from the ruins.

Looking at the tragic scene in front of him, Zhao Wenhui sighed and said: "In the past, there were often villages in the county that were robbed, but it was just a robbery of some property, so I am afraid that the killer would be ......."

Zhao Wenhui wanted to speak and stopped, but Li Xianzhi had already guessed what he was going to say - the exterminated would-be would-be Kou appeared again.

At this time, the sky was already bright, Li Xian got off the horse to check, all the dead were killed by sharp blades, most of them were killed with a knife, and the wounds were all on the neck and chest.

Li Xianzhi was carefully inspecting, and there was a bustle outside, and Zhao Wenhui asked what was going on. An archer ran over, knelt down on one knee and said, "Lord Qiqi County, the brother on patrol has arrested a suspicious person. ”

As soon as he finished speaking, four or five soldiers pushed a middle-aged man with a big tie and knelt at Li Xianzhi's feet.

The leader of the Wu Chang said: "My lord, the little one led people to patrol the sentry, and when he saw this sneaky guy hiding outside the village and looking inside, he wanted to interrogate him, but he turned his sex upside down, and overthrew the two brothers to escape, and the small one lost a lot of people, and he tripped over with hemp rope before he was caught. ”

Li Xian stepped forward and ordered him to get up and reply. The chief of Wu gasped and said: "I don't know, this guy has a lot of strength, let him up, I'm afraid of the master, and the little one can't afford to eat it." ”

Li Xianzhi said with a smile: "Before I became an official, I also traveled around the border, and I also experienced the battle formation of nine deaths, what can a man with his bare hands do?" Let him go. ”

Seeing Li Xianzhi say this, a few soldiers who pressed the man let go of their hands and let him go, but the hands that were tied with the reverse scissors did not let go. Wu Chang also leaned closer to Li Xianzhi's side, ready to pounce on the rescue as soon as there was any change.

The man stood still, but he didn't make a fuss, only stared at two big eyes like copper bells, his mouth was open and panting, and his cheeks full of stubble were bruised.

Li Xianzhi looked up and down, and saw that he was wearing a linen towel wrapped in a bun, wearing a coarse cloth shirt and trousers, the trousers and cuffs were pulled up high, revealing dark muscles, and a pair of shabby straw sandals on his feet - a peasant's dress. He knew a rough idea in his heart and asked, "Are you from this village?" ”

The man opened his mouth and said a lot, but Li Xianzhi didn't understand a word. Zhao Wenhui on the side translated it in official dialect: "This person's name is Cheng Jiugong, he lives here, and he has an old father at home, and he depends on each other for his life." Previously, he took advantage of his free time to go to a neighboring village to work for a large family, and last night a person from the same village fled there, saying that he had been robbed, and he was worried about the safety of his father, so he ventured back to investigate, but was caught by the sergeant. ”

Li Xianzhi listened, waved his hand and loosened the binding for Cheng Jiugong. When the soldiers who were gathered around saw that it was not the thieves who had been caught, they dispersed.

At this time, Cheng Jiugong looked at the corpses lying in a row, and after a while, he screamed and pounced on the corpse of one of the old men.

Li Xianzhi asked people to drag him away for first aid, and everyone pinched him for a long time, and poured some cold water on him before he woke him up, although he didn't cry anymore, he choked up and didn't say a word.

At this time, some of the bold people came back, and when they saw this miserable scene, they wept up and down. Li Xianzhi wanted to ask anything more, but no one answered.

Zhao Wenhui said: "It's better to go back to the county first, here I will take the sergeant to deal with the aftermath, and after the people are appeased, I will do the district." ”

Li Xianzhi looked chaotic here, and knew that he couldn't ask why, so he listened to Zhao Wenhui's persuasion and brought more than a dozen officials back to the county government first. Qian Ruoju and Miao Quan greeted them, invited An, and asked about Dong's family. Li Xianzhi's heart was in turmoil, and he said a few words in a perfunctory manner. Qian and Miao sighed with a sad look, and said, "There is such a big case, do you write a document and submit it to your boss Yamen?" ”

Li Xianzhi said: "At this time, the situation is still unclear, and when Zhao Dianshi comes back after asking about the situation, it is not too late to care." Qian and Miao glanced at each other, thoughtfully, and retired.

Li Xianzhi was thinking about the affairs of the Dong family at this time, and he didn't care about anything else, so he returned to the study with all his thoughts, and stayed until noon, and he didn't have the heart to eat lunch, just waiting for Zhao Wenhui to reply.

After Li Xianzhi left, Zhao Wenhui sent people to invite all the fleeing people back, counting the number of people, in addition to the more than 20 people killed in the village, a few were injured and died on the way to escape, and more than a dozen women were taken captive. Zhao Wenhui asked about the situation last night, and a middle-aged man said: "After the people settled last night, I suddenly heard the dogs barking all over the village, and the men came out to see, and saw that there were thieves breaking into the village. At first, we resisted with hoes and sticks, but the enemy had a quick knife and a sharp blade, and he couldn't even get close, so many people died, and the rest had to protect the family and flee for their lives. ”

Zhao Wenhui asked again: "Can you see how many thieves there are?" ”

The man said, "I can't see clearly when it's dark, there are about twenty people." ”

Zhao Wenhui asked again: "Then can you see the thief's outfit clearly?" ”

The man said: "It's too dark to see clearly, and those who see clearly have probably become ghosts." When I asked others, they all shook their heads.

Zhao Wenhui knew that this group of thieves was not good, and he became more and more sure that his previous guess was good. At this time, the fast horses that were chasing around came back one after another, and one of them chased eastward: "The little one chased out more than twenty miles, and saw the guests on the road inquiring, and said that at dawn thirty or forty men and women hurried to the sea. ”

Zhao Wenhui immediately left thirty or fifty errand soldiers and native soldiers to help the people bury the corpses and tidy up the houses. He rushed back to the county with the rest of the people. As soon as he returned to the Yamen, he immediately came to see Li Xianzhi and said, "There is a trace of the thief." ”

Li Xianzhi hurriedly asked, "Where did you flee?" ”

Zhao Wenhui said: "Tanma reported that I asked the passers-by about it, and there was a team of men and women who went to the sea, so there must be no doubt that they were them. ”

Li Xianzhi said: "The coast of Pinghu County is the three cities of Zhapu, Liangzhuang and Dushan Inspection Division, and there are hundreds of soldiers stationed in the garrison, how can you allow thieves to come and go freely?" ”

Zhao Wenhui said: "My lord doesn't know, during the Jiajing period, the Japanese invaders were vertical and horizontal, Qi Shaobao wrote to the imperial court, built an earthen city in each of the three places, and prepared a general of Japanese generals, not only garrisoned, but also built forts. Later, the plague gradually decreased, and the three castles gradually fell into defeat, the officials were corrupted, the soldiers were reduced, and the cannons were rusted, and they were almost useless. ”

When Li Xianzhi heard this, he was furious, and said to himself with hatred: "Military preparation, the important matter of the country, how can the world not die if it is so corrupted?" ”

Zhao Wenhui seemed to be clear when he heard it, and asked, "What did the adults say?" ”

Li Xianzhi knew that he was speechless, and said, "It's nothing." Which of the three castles has a boat to the open sea? ”

Zhao Wenhui said: "There are seven or eight warships in Zhapu, which can go to sea. ”

Li Xianzhi said: "In this way, Lao Zhaodian Shi moved to Zhapu Fort, and said that the county would visit immediately and go to sea to watch the thieves." I went to write another document and reported the matter to the Futai Yamen and the Governor's Yamen. ”

Zhao Wenhui made a deep gesture and withdrew.

Li Xianzhi had a lot of important things to do, so he couldn't think about it too much, so he was busy drafting documents. After a short time, the writing was completed, and people were sent to the Futai Yamen and the Governor's Yamen respectively. Then Qian Ruoju, Miao Quan, and He Tai'an were invited together, and proposed to send some grain, rice, and silver from the treasury to Dong's house, and distribute them from house to house, and the right to be used as a pension.

He Tai'an said: "The county's community warehouse is newly full, and there are about five or six hundred stone grain and rice, and some can be allocated to it, and the right is urgent." ”

Qian County Cheng said: "The grain and rice in the Shecang are kept for the famine year, how can you move it without permission?" I'm afraid to blame the boss. ”

Li Xianzhi said: "The difficulty of the war is even worse than the famine year, you can't put grain at this time, and when will you wait?" If the above blames, I will bear it myself. ”

Qian Xiancheng and Master Miao hurriedly said: "The adults are reasonable, and everything is decided by the adults." ”

Li Xianzhi then instructed He Tai'an: "When Zhao Dianshi returns, Mr. Lao He will discuss with him to clarify the registered population of the Dong family, calculate the amount of grain and report it to me." ”

He Tai'an took the order to go, and Qian County Cheng and Miao also got up and said goodbye. Li Xian didn't sleep all night, and he was a little sleepy at this time, so he lay down on the table to rest for a while.